Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Tarkan's Betrayal
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Tarkan.
A Black Orc and the great warrior of the Warthog Tusk tribe.
He recalled his past.
From a young age, he had been an exceptional warrior.
The sturdy physique unique to Black Orcs and their reckless fighting spirit.
Added to that, his single-minded drive to grow even stronger—his progress was so ferocious that "terrifying" didn't even begin to cover it.
But there was one thing he utterly lacked.
"For a non-green orc, you're awfully full of yourself."
"Get lost. If you're a Black Orc, just play meat shield on the battlefield like you're supposed to."
"Ah, I got a scouting offer from the Orc Empire this time."
"Oh! You do fit right in with the true green orcs."
Skin color.
Orc society divided the world into exactly two groups.
Those with green skin... and those without.
No matter how exceptional the talent, if your skin wasn't green, you were a second-class orc.
A third-class one, at best.
The discrimination never let up.
Then, amid all that, one opportunity came his way.
"The Colosseum champion spot's open. I think I can trust you with it. Who knows—if you handle the champion role well... you might even become an honorary true green orc."
"......I'll do it."
It was an offer from a prominent player in the Orc Empire—one of the higher dimensions, the holy land of true green orcs.
The Colosseum champion position.
His job here in this lower dimension?
Spot and sift promising talents from dimensions that hadn't even qualified for the United League.
And so, he became the Colosseum champion.
"S-Spare me! I can't die in a dump like this!"
"If I die, my dimension's hope dies with me!"
"Please! Please! Please!"
Once you joined the United League, death was no longer off-limits in the Dimension Arena.
There, Tarkan had butchered countless prospects from the lowest dimensions. Again and again.
"Hm, so you're telling us to ditch our dimension and head to a higher one?"
"Sounds good! I'm in!"
"What about our dimension? Eh, they'll manage."
Occasionally, if a player was strong enough to catch his eye, he'd recruit them and ship them off to a higher dimension.
Years passed like that.
Tarkan started thinking it was finally time to break free. So he reached out to the true green orc he was contracted with.
"......Why isn't he answering?"
But the orc ignored him.
Tarkan didn't give up.
He faithfully played his role as Colosseum champion while persistently trying to get through whenever he had a spare moment.
Were his efforts finally recognized?
The true green orc finally picked up.
"About time you figured it out, huh? Just keep playing guard dog for the Colosseum."
"B-But the promise...!"
"Promise? Hm... Was there a promise written in the contract?"
"......"
"You're doing great. Keep it up. At least you won't end up boiled alive."
And Tarkan was betrayed.
No—truth be told, he had known.
The suspicion started the moment the true green orc dodged his calls.
Afterward, Tarkan had just two paths.
Charge headlong at the true green orc he was bound to.
"......Yes."
Or knuckle under and scrape by on borrowed time.
Tarkan chose the latter.
Thus, he became the Colosseum champion.
Not as an orc great warrior. Not as a Warthog Tusk tribesman.
Just the Colosseum's champion.
'What a stupid, idiotic life. At least I ended up as fertilizer for the future. Small mercies.'
Bitterly reflecting on his past as the life-flashes played out, Tarkan suddenly wondered.
'......But why isn't the life-flash ending?'
He had closed his eyes and accepted death. The montage had begun.
Now it should fade to pitch-black oblivion... but Tarkan's mind stayed sharp.
When he cracked open his eyes at that realization—
Tarkan saw it.
"......What?"
"Tarkan. You can't die here. You need to take revenge on the bastard who turned you into this—face to face."
"What the hell is...?"
The Predation maw gnashing at the empty air above his head.
Tarkan couldn't hide his bafflement at Shin-hyeok's calm words spilling from the maw as it devoured... something.
Shin-hyeok explained patiently.
"Tarkan. I'm eating the contract thread linking you. And...... done."
Contract.
The unfair deal that had chained him to the Colosseum champion role—it was gone. Completely.
Feeling the thread snap for good, Tarkan stared blankly at Shin-hyeok.
"Why go this far? I was your enemy. Saving me wasn't enough—you broke the contract by force. Why?"
It made no sense.
In all his years, nothing like this had ever happened.
Utter scorn and disdain.
Chances even his fellow non-green orcs denied him.
No—because they were fellow non-green orcs, their cruelty cut deeper. Tarkan couldn't comprehend the human before him.
"Sense of kinship."
"Kinship? Between us?"
"Well, Tarkan—you wouldn't know. But yeah."
Shin-hyeok, betrayed and killed by higher-dimensional players like those from the New Humanity Empire, couldn't see Tarkan—who'd been duped into guard-dog duty by the same sort—as just another foe.
Of course, he had no plans to spill his full pre-regression tale. He glossed it over and ramped up Predation's aura.
"First, let's chow down the rest."
"The rest?"
"Yeah. Felt it ever since I snagged the Colosseum champion title... but these guys are reaching for me too."
"N-No. I won't watch you become their puppet too."
Tarkan bolted upright, wounds forgotten in his fear that Shin-hyeok might end up the same way.
But Shin-hyeok chucked him a potion—the same kind he'd downed himself—from his inventory and waved him off.
"Drink that and rest. I'm not planning to roll over."
"......?"
Shin-hyeok smirked at Tarkan clutching the tiny vial to his massive chest like treasure, eyes wide. He scanned the area with his Observation Eye and scowled.
'Threads spawning from the Colosseum, linking to me. The thicker they get, the more I'm bound to it. Filthy trick.'
A nasty setup: get hooked on the "champion" bait, flounder around... and wake up collared like a dog.
Shin-hyeok intended to shatter the whole game.
"Devour it all."
Kwaaaaaaaar!
The Predation maws exploded in number, swarming the entire Colosseum like mad.
Soon, as they started chewing through it, Shin-hyeok felt his threads vanishing one by one.
Kwaduk! Kwaduk! Kwaduk! Kwaduk! Kwaduk!
'Nice. At this rate, the Colosseum's done for.'
Smooth sailing.
Maws devoured Colosseum chunks for massive mana, which spun up more maws.
Once the feedback loop kicked in, their growth went berserk.
Soon, maws blanketed the Colosseum—and then some. The hosts finally clocked it and moved to shut it down.
"......Kuh!"
A flood of messages, gazes pinning him from every direction.
Constellation gazes.
Players craved constellation attention—but there were limits.
Too much? It turned toxic. Deadly.
'Constellation growling fest, huh. Pathetic. Blocked by Dimension Arena rules, so they pull this?'
Constellations knew it too—minimum cost for maximum pain.
Dozens of them roared warnings, urging him to back off.
Their gaze-pressure crushed him.
Like being slammed into abyssal depths.
Throat throttled. Skull hammered. Heavy, relentless.
Black out now, and that's exactly what they wanted.
Grit!
"If I'm folding to bottom-tier racial constellations, I never should've started!!!"
They were constellations, sure—but the lowest rung: racial ones.
Shin-hyeok clenched his teeth, bit his tongue, shook off the haze.
Racial constellations.
Impressive in their own right, but fame and turf? Limited to their race.
Nothing like Heavenly Demon, War God, Apex of All Evil, Disciple of the Sage.
Untethered heavyweights who played across all races and dimensions.
Plus—
'Manageable. Thanks to facing down higher constellations before—their gazes toughened me up.'
Shin-hyeok was adapting.
To the growling blockade trying to halt his Colosseum feast.
'But stalling forever? I'll just get bounced out.'
No fix there.
Just toughing it out would eject him eventually.
He needed to push further.
'How? What breaks this?'
Shin-hyeok pondered.
Defy dozens of racial constellation gazes. Devour their precious Colosseum.
'Ah, that works.'
The answer wasn't far. He realized it quick.
Predation.
Legendary trait.
Even factoring in constellation ties, its power was insane.
It devoured his Dimension Arena contract thread.
The Colosseum—hidden stage, dungeon extraordinaire—too.
Literally anything.
One thought followed.
'Can it eat their gazes too?'
Gazes raining down.
Casual growling attempt.
That's where the thought stopped.
"Predation."
He recalled the Colosseum-munching maws and sicced them on the floating message windows symbolizing the constellations' gazes.
Kwaaaaaaaar!
"It works."
The casual gaze-senders' messages shattered, warped... and vanished into the maw.
Shin-hyeok flashed a feral grin.
"Wonder what your blood tastes like. And what it'll give me."
Predation always paid dividends matching the meal.
So, devouring a racial constellation's gaze? He was genuinely curious.
Sudden heavyweight entry.
Trapped with no escape, the racial constellations flailed. Shin-hyeok savored it, pressed his palms together.
"Bon appétit."
Kwaaaaaaaar!