Chapter 158: Solo. The Game Picks Up Speed
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 158: Solo. The Game Picks Up Speed
After defeating the boss monster Nephilim, Seo-un decided against heading toward the Holy City. Instead, he struck out through the pathless forest, being extremely frugal with his Internal Power and Immortal Demonic Energy.
Because he moved while constantly replenishing his Immortal Demonic Energy, his pace was intentionally slow.
'The royal capital must have been picked clean by now... If I'm looking for the next largest village or city...'
Seo-un’s eyes sparkled as he calculated his next move, his gaze fixed on the map. Having plotted a route that passed as close to settlements as possible, he stood up, his expression shifting instantly.
His face hardened into the mask of a scout—tense, alert, and scanning the perimeter. As he began to move, his clones followed suit, maintaining a cautious watch over their surroundings.
Hidden among the branches of the lush forest, an Eye of Distortion watched them intently.
"There are four of them. A scout archer, one knight, one martial artist, and one mage. A standard balanced party. Looking at how tense they are, they seem like stragglers whose guild was either wiped out or fell apart."
A knight, who had been busy looting, shoved a scroll he had just scavenged into his subspace and responded to the mage's report.
"Stop farming and gather the guild members. Player farming takes priority."
A moment later, about twenty players came rushing out of the houses they had been ransacking, gathering in the center of the village.
-I feel it. Since the sensation is constant, it must be an Eye of Distortion.-
At Hamit’s warning, Seo-un slowed his pace even further, acting as if he were focusing all his attention on guarding the area.
-There is a Swarm Siege Trap Magic set thirty meters ahead. The range is about fifteen meters. There are also Mana Explosion traps and other annoying devices nearby.-
Seo-un smiled inwardly at the intel and continued walking as if he were oblivious. However, he made sure to keep his left eye tightly shut. He intended to refrain from revealing his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils to the world to hide any identifying characteristics.
As the vision of the Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils spread out, he saw the figures of those rushing toward him.
'Twenty-three people. Not bad.'
The moment the clanking of a knight’s armor grew exceptionally loud among the approaching enemies, Seo-un stopped in his tracks as if startled and raised a fist. Simultaneously, his clones drew their weapons and halted.
The enemies, watching through the Eye of Distortion, also slowed down, attempting a more stealthy approach. After a brief moment of heightened tension, Seo-un pulled out his bow and shouted.
"Everyone, run!"
At his cry, the clones began to bolt in the opposite direction of the approaching enemies.
"Damn it! After them!"
About twenty enemies instantly revealed themselves, charging recklessly toward Seo-un without even bothering to set their formation.
Just as the enemies thought they saw the corner of Seo-un’s mouth twist into a strange smirk—despite his face still appearing frozen in panic—a single pyeonjeon shot from his hand like a bolt of lightning toward the leading knight.
The knight, who had been hunkered behind a large shield since Seo-un first aimed the bow, smiled contemptuously.
Whish—BOOM!
The pyeonjeon slammed into the center of the shield and detonated, sending the knight flying backward. Watching the knight—who had been charging with immense momentum—roll violently back about ten meters in defiance of the laws of inertia, Seo-un notched a new pyeonjeon.
'You should have used a defensive skill.'
With that thought, Seo-un began firing explosive pyeonjeon at the panicked enemies.
Boom! Crash! Bam!
"K-Knights! To the front!"
By the time they tried to fix their formation, three mages had already been caught in the blasts and killed. Whenever their vision was blurred by the intense explosions, a pyeonjeon would inevitably fly in to snuff out another mage's life.
"Damn it! He’s skilled enough to stay behind and buy time. You two, revive the mages! The rest of you, deal with that guy quickly—"
The player giving the orders suddenly choked on his words as he saw Seo-un charging toward them instead of firing arrows.
"W-What are you just standing there for? Kill him! He’s trying to finish off the dead mages before he dies!"
As the knights rushed out to meet the charging Seo-un, the commander tried to order the martial artists to pursue the rest of the "party" that had fled.
Squelch! Shink!
Slice! Rip!
...If only it weren't for the sound of his knights being butchered.
His eyes bulged as he saw the eight knights who had rushed out to handle the lone scout get carved up in an instant. By then, Seo-un was already in front of him. Even as he watched Seo-un leap past him to strike at the mages who were barely beginning to reposition in the backline, the commander couldn't move.
"R-Run..."
His order was far too late. They didn't have the skill to outrun or escape Seo-un once he had closed the distance.
With his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils active, Seo-un had no blind spots even while jumping into the middle of a crowd. It wasn't just a lack of blind spots; every single movement of the players was perceived as if he were watching them from inches away. He could even vividly feel the martial artist behind him pulling a scroll out of subspace with a terrified expression.
Slash!
The martial artist, who was about to tear the scroll to escape, was severed at the waist, collapsing before he could even rip the parchment.
It was as if the space itself was under Seo-un's perfect control. The feeling that he wouldn't lose to anyone within this domain began to grow even sharper. The sensation that had been severed after fighting a hundred players was now reconnecting and coming back to life, causing Seo-un’s lips to curl upward.
"J-Jin Seo-un...!!"
Thud.
With those final words, the commander's head fell, and his body crumbled.
"Whew."
Watching the corpses disappear and the boxes left behind, Seo-un took a breath as if he had just finished a light workout. As he began farming the loot, his clones returned to assist him.
"Is it because the bait was good? They sure bite well."
*
[Ding! Do you really wish to break the seal of the Demon King Krosino?]
At the notification, the man moved his finger toward the 'O' button without hesitation.
Rumble! Clang! Clank! Clank!
The moment the seal broke, the sound of heavy chains dragging across the floor and falling away filled the dark underground space.
[Ding! Player Delporter has awakened the Epic Monster Krosino from his seal.]
[The game moves to Chapter 2.]
As Delporter and his companions looked on with uneasy expressions, a soul-chilling sound began to echo through the underground chamber.
"Khahaha! Hahahaha! Kehehehe!"
The sound, a mix of a laugh and a beastly roar, rang out. The moment a man stepped out through the thick circular wall, Delporter tore a scroll without a single moment of hesitation, abandoning his comrades.
"Delpor—"
Crunch!
Before a startled knight could even finish calling his name, his head was crushed. The man who had done it looked at the red blood and brain matter on his hand with a nostalgic expression.
"I didn't know the day would come when I would taste human blood again."
As he spoke, he licked the blood off his hand and shuddered. Delporter’s remaining companions were overwhelmed by the alien aura radiating from him, collapsing where they stood.
The Demon King, Krosino.
It was an immense shock to come face-to-face with the Demon King who, long ago before the empires existed, was said to have split the continent of Anterapia into three pieces and pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. According to legend, he was sealed by a hero chosen by the heavens—the hero who became king and founded the Kurena Empire.
It was a story everyone knew was not just a founding myth, but a historical fact. The sight of that legendary Demon King reaching out toward them would remain a trauma etched into their minds forever.
Crunch. Munch.
"Since you were brave enough to release me from my seal, I have personally sent you on your way without pain. Consider it an honor."
The moment the man said this and looked up at the dark ceiling, black wings tore through the skin of his back and stretched wide.
BOOM!
He smashed through the ceiling with a thunderous roar and soared into the air. The moment he hit the sunlight, his skin turned black and glossy.
"Jin Seo-un, is it... If they're going to give me a job, they should make him easier to find. I really don't like that guy... Hm?"
[Remaining survivors: 254]
.
.
.
[Jin Seo-un - Daker (Kill by Internal Power)]
The man’s lips twisted as he saw the list and the notification that appeared before his eyes. Simultaneously, he cut through the sky and vanished in a blur of speed.
*
Seo-un frowned as he watched the Force Field begin to reset rapidly. What bothered him most was that the awakened Epic Monster was moving in his direction.
'A coincidence?'
It was suspicious that as soon as the Epic Monster Krosino appeared, it started flying toward him, even though he was on the exact opposite side of the newly forming Force Field. Seo-un immediately dispelled his clones and threw himself toward the new zone.
The new Force Field was centered on the Red Swamp, which had been at the very edge of the map. The current situation, where nearly 70% of the map was being restricted even though it was still the early stage of the game, wasn't necessarily bad for Seo-un. It was a progression that aligned with his desire to end the game as quickly as possible.
'If I just pick off the players flocking there, I won't even have to run into the Epic Monster.'
After checking the Red Swamp and the surrounding wasteland on the map, Seo-un closed the interface and focused on his Lightness Skill. Bursting through the forest, he sprinted in a straight line toward the new Force Field.
It was the fourth day since he had started moving without proper rest. As they fled the rapidly shrinking Force Field, players running toward the same destination began to appear one by one. Seo-un didn't bother attacking them, maintaining his distance as he ran.
Due to the accelerating Force Field, a consensus had formed among the players: get inside the zone first, fight later. The number of players running while maintaining enough distance to look like tiny ants to one another began to grow, eventually reaching at least a hundred, kicking up dust in all directions.
As the crowd grew, psychological warfare broke out. Those in the lead, who had a bit more breathing room from the pressure of the Force Field, began to keep each other in check.
Watching the players exchange long-range magic or fire arrows, Seo-un twisted his lips into a smirk and put on a burst of speed to pull ahead. Magic flew at him from all sides as he surged forward, but Seo-un didn't care. Seeing him endure even high-circle fire magic with his bare body, the players trailing closely behind him slowed down and began to distance themselves.
It seemed they had realized exactly who this solo traveler was.
'It doesn't matter. You'll all have to come inside anyway.'
With that thought, Seo-un stopped holding back his Internal Power and sprinted, widening the gap between him and the players behind him even further. After running for a long time, the boundary of the newly set Force Field finally appeared in the distance.
Seo-un came to a halt about 500 meters away from it and spun around.
"Hamit!"
-I'm on it.-
Seo-un notched a pyeonjeon into Hamit, who had transformed into a tonga, and pulled the bowstring taut.
'The easiest kind of hunting is herding.'
Seo-un began firing pyeonjeon at the speck-sized players running toward him. As he fired the arrows at a 45-degree angle, the pyeonjeon fell in an arc, exploding or emitting lightning to obstruct the approaching players.
Whish—BOOM!
"That damn bastard!"
"Avoid it! Get away from his line of fire!"
They shouted, but in reality, the pyeonjeon Seo-un fired were too fast and too small to track with the naked eye once they soared into the sunlit sky. Only the truly skilled martial artists or knights could predict the trajectory and take a wide detour to avoid them.
"Son of a bitch! Just wait until I get close!"
There wasn't just one or two players gnashing their teeth. Naturally, the infighting among the players vanished due to Seo-un’s bombardment. In this situation, they didn't have the luxury to keep each other in check. A common hostility toward Seo-un sprouted among them, forming a grim sense of camaraderie.
"Killing that guy comes first!"
"Let's just steamroll him!"
"Arrogant bastard! Does he think being a Crown is everything?"
"If we kill him, imagine the items that'll drop!"
There is a saying that human greed is endless, and that people repeat the same mistakes. Facing the player Jin Seo-un, whom they had tried so hard to avoid, they were beginning to forget the terror of a Crown Ranker as they looked at his gear and the massive number of allies filling the area.
Watching the players approach with murderous intent despite the pyeonjeon bombardment, Seo-un transformed Hamit into a Chainsword.
Smiling at the solid grip in his hands, Seo-un charged toward the players, who were now close enough for him to see the greed in their eyes.