6th Floor Plaza (3)
A silence like a boulder crashed down over the arena.
Choi Yun-seok halted the circulation of his Blood Demon Qi. There were no more souls left to judge here.
About seventy survivors remained. Among them was the woman who had guided him to this place. She stared blankly ahead, as if lost in a dream she couldn't believe was real.
Yun-seok addressed a man still sprawled on the ground, oblivious even now that the storm had passed.
"Are you a Duel Trial challenger?"
"Y-yes! That's right!"
"And you know the layout of this place well?"
The man froze for a moment, wondering what Yun-seok meant by that, but quickly regained his wits and nodded frantically.
"...Yes! I've been here the longest. I know more about the Union than anyone!"
He seemed sharp enough to grasp Yun-seok's intent from a single question. A guy like this probably hadn't exaggerated his abilities with obvious lies.
"Then this woman isn't needed anymore."
Stab.
Without hesitation, Yun-seok drove his sword into the dazed woman's throat.
She had survived the judgment only because she bore no mark. Yun-seok had never intended to spare her from the start.
"If there are any Union members among the rest, could you point them out?"
Did he think Yun-seok had come to save them, judging by his polite tone and actions? The man's fear lasted only a moment before his face lit up, tears streaming down his cheeks.
At the same time, long-buried resentment and rage erupted, directed at some of the other survivors.
Those who met his gaze paled and turned away.
Yun-seok ignored their rambling excuses. He simply thrust his sword into each marked throat equally.
Then, turning impassively to the man, he asked,
"I heard from my administrator that the plaza is a place where challengers on the same floor can meet and exchange information directly. My administrator wouldn't have lied, would she?"
The man was still buzzing with euphoria, but he suppressed it for Yun-seok's sake.
"...I wouldn't call it a lie. The plaza was originally that kind of place. Even here, it was like that until just three months ago."
A haven for stragglers, a rest stop for the ambitious. That's what the plaza had been.
But how had it devolved into this?
The man introduced himself as Jang-il, from Murim, and explained the sequence of events at the 6th Floor Plaza in simple terms.
It all started when a single Duel Trial challenger appeared.
"We don't know much about him. Whether he was human, beastkin, or why he did what he did."
But that mysterious challenger had turned the peaceful 6th Floor Plaza into a slaughterhouse. He killed every challenger in sight, and when the survivors fled through dimensional gates, emptying the plaza entirely, he simply ascended to the next floor.
It was like a natural disaster.
The lucky survivors formed the Union to prevent it from happening again. And from then on, they forced contracts on every Duel Trial challenger.
"The Union leader had that kind of authority. The clauses were absurd, but they passed anyway."
The first reason was that the slaughterer had been a Duel Trial challenger. The second was that Duel Trial challengers were generally far stronger than those from other trials—even if not quite on that madman's level.
Even in the peaceful days, Duel Trial folk had quietly drawn envy.
"They didn't spare us locals either. They combined various authorities to corner us in groups and coerce the contracts."
The contract terms hadn't changed since then. Treatment hadn't been this brutal at first. Jang-il had thought the hatred would fade with time.
It hadn't.
The Union leadership stoked the flames, painting Duel Trial challengers as absolute evil. They were masters of crowd psychology—righteousness, human rights. At first, some resisted, but their voices dwindled.
Union members began to relish treating those they'd once looked up to as slaves.
"But after getting wiped out by just one guy, their plaza security was surprisingly lax."
Yun-seok pointed out what had struck him as odd, and Jang-il gave a wry smile.
"It was much tighter at first. But once they realized their entrenched strategy worked even better than expected, they got complacent. Plus, real powerhouses rarely visit the plaza anyway—they just head straight up."
Real powerhouses skip the plaza?
Come to think of it, Cheonma and the Steel King probably hadn't stopped by. If they had, this mess would have been cleaned up before Yun-seok even arrived.
The Steel King made the mana restrictions meaningless, and Cheonma wasn't someone to be judged by mere mana stats.
Why hadn't they come? Only one reason came to mind.
Elle just said it was a place for socializing and nothing important...
No appeal. No need for socializing when chat rooms sufficed. Yun-seok himself wouldn't have bothered if not for intel on other trials via LP.
Jang-il offered cautiously,
"With this much commotion, the Union must know by now. They'll send elites soon. Maybe we should fall back for now...?"
"Elites?"
"Yes. Don't underestimate them. They're a group of actual skilled challengers. And though I never told anyone because I didn't want to die, the Union leader is a Duel Trial challenger too. I faced him in the arena. He wore a helmet back then, so he didn't recognize me."
Yun-seok gaped in disbelief.
The one inciting hatred against Duel Trial challengers, enslaving them... was one himself?
"Smart bastard. 'Even a non-Duel Trial challenger this strong?' The Union revered him for it, and he climbed to the top on that respect."
Devious, no doubt. But Jang-il's caution—harboring that grudge silently all this time—was impressive too.
"Stay inside. Head to the waiting room if it gets dangerous."
But Jang-il said dimensional travel was blocked by the contract. With no other options, Yun-seok left the survivors in the building and stepped out.
If Jang-il was right, they'd come soon.
The root of all this.
Whoooosh!
As he stood guard like a gatekeeper, a spear-length arrow shot toward him like lightning.
Aimed at the human vital spot: his head.
Yun-seok tilted his head slightly, dodging the trajectory. The arrow buried deep into the massive gate.
He turned toward the arrow's origin.
A group approached, led by a man. About two hundred strong—not a mob, but an army.
They halted twenty meters away, forming up in opposition.
"I am Eld Carta! Third son of the brave Carta Tribe! Who are you?!"
Eld Carta. The Union leader Jang-il mentioned, the name the dying had screamed.
He looked ordinary enough. But appearances deceived—otherwise, this wouldn't have appeared.
Upon completing the judgment, you will acquire additional traits.
A Great Evil, no less. No one inside that den of corruption had triggered such a message.
Yun-seok defined 'evil' as those who took pleasure in harming others.
Was this guy some historic psychopath?
Carta threw another question as Yun-seok stared silently.
"What happened to those inside the building?"
"The ones who deserved death died. The ones who deserved to live survived."
Carta bit his lip at Yun-seok's reply.
He'd known someday someone would shatter this system.
But not this soon.
At least ten days...!
Union? Ruler of the 6th Floor Plaza? Carta cared nothing for such empty titles. He wore the crown only to achieve his goals, planning to discard it without regret and ascend higher when the time came.
But now that plan was ruined. Hundreds dead already—recovery would take at least a couple months.
"This is our paradise! Leave without defiling it, and we won't stop you!"
But he had to prevent greater losses. Killing Yun-seok here would halve their forces, dragging recovery out longer. So Carta made a final offer, hoping he'd just leave.
Of course, Yun-seok ignored it.
"We tried so hard to protect it... and now the devil returns!"
Yun-seok burst out laughing at Carta's lament.
And why not? Calling him a devil—the system's 'Great Evil'?
"Demon!"
"How can you commit such atrocities and laugh?!"
His followers joined in, branding Yun-seok a madness-tainted devil.
Whatever. Yun-seok quietly drew his sword.
If they wanted a devil, he'd oblige. His art was even called Blood Demon Divine Art.
"Steel Executor."
He first placed the totem boosting physical resistance, then activated Shaman's Law again.
The absolute premise remained the same.
Shaman's Law: All beings within the domain are unable to perform dimensional movement.
He hadn't noticed inside the building, but with mana converted to Blood Demon Qi, the intangible barrier from Shaman's Law gleamed blood-red.
"What? Why can't we dimensional travel...?"
"Carta-nim! We need a plan...!"
Panic spread at the message.
No time to let it settle. Yun-seok channeled Blood Demon Qi into his legs and leaped, landing in their midst in an instant.
Boom!
Two hundred challengers massed together. Had they never dreamed he'd plunge right into the heart?
Yun-seok scanned their flustered faces with a blank expression, then swung his sword.
"Formation! Don't just stand there—move by formation!"
"Block him!"
Elites, indeed—better than the building rabble. Hard to tell, but some Duel Trial challengers might be mixed in, swords forced by contracts.
No time to pick them out one by one. No reason to, either.
Yun-seok had set his rule: Today, marked ones die; unmarked survive.
If any Union lingered among survivors, Jang-il could sort them, then handle punishment. Just as Union members saw enslaving Duel folk as their right, survivors had the right to retribution.
"Hold! Hold, and victory comes!"
Trained against overwhelming odds? They encircled Yun-seok systematically, blocking sword qi in groups since singles couldn't manage.
Meanwhile, rear lines hurled poison, curses, spells—everything at him.
Too many to dodge or block one by one.
But...
Poison Immunity (Rank C+) neutralizes Caribe venom.
Overwhelming mana disparity. Magic resistance fully blocks status ailment 'Slow'.
Steel Executor effect: Physical resistance +50%.
Yun-seok tanked it all barehanded.
In trade, he prioritized offense. A drop of his blood cost them dozens.
And unlike them, his Blood Demon Qi healed minor wounds automatically. A one-sided exchange.
But Blood Demon Qi wasn't infinite.
Breathing replenished it naturally, but consumption outpaced it wildly.
"The monster's tiring!"
"Push harder!"
Greater the absolute premise's scope, exponential the mana drain. Especially against elites.
Yun-seok gauged remaining time: barely a minute left before depletion.
No more sword qi, no healing after.
Yet he smiled faintly.
"Just a bit more! Hold on!"
They believed endurance would bring opportunity. Laughable.
Rank C — Extracts Blood Demon Qi by absorbing mana from others' blood.
From countless corpses around him. From fighters clinging to weapons despite severed limbs. From the cooling bodies in the building.
Fresh blood rose in droplets.
Swirling like the eye of a typhoon, it surged toward Yun-seok.