◈ Episode 350. Upon a Shaking Board [Quest: Election for the Next Tower Master]
In accordance with the Tower Master’s will, the next Tower Master would be decided through an election.
The gentle giant, the greatest discoverer in the history of the Magic Tower, and the Black Dark Dragon.
Which of these shall become the Tower Master of the new era?
The future of the Magic Tower rests in your hands.─Secure the right to vote in the election for the next Tower Master. (In progress)●Prove your qualifications to the Magic Tower. (In progress)
Players staying in the Magic Tower.
A message appeared before them all.
Everyone must have had it in the back of their minds.
“I had been thinking about it ever since the cat Tower Master collapsed……”
After all, Tower Master was far too great a position to leave vacant.
But for a new Tower Master to be chosen in this way.
No one had imagined it.
Above all.
“Lord Hoyeol really became a candidate for Tower Master?!”
Just as it was written plainly in the quest description.
Hoyeol, the Black Dark Dragon player.
To think his name would be listed as one of the candidates for the next Tower Master.
At Park Hwigang’s words, the chat window went wild.
-For real???
-Guys wait, I’ll go to the Magic Tower myself and check
-Hwigang, you’d better not be lying ㅡㅡ
-Can’t collect money on the continent, so now you’re squeezing us like this~
Park Hwigang protested his innocence.
“No, I’m telling you, just look at the reactions around me!”
Tap─
When Park Hwigang touched the screen, the camera angle switched.
The faces of the players appeared.
They, too, were unable to hide their shock for the same reason as Park Hwigang.
“That high-and-mighty Magic Tower put a player up as a candidate for Tower Master?”
“No, leaving the Magic Tower aside, isn’t this the first time? A player taking such a key position on the Arcana Continent? If you exclude things like territories, since those were taken through siege warfare.”
“……
Right. As far as I know, there hasn’t been one.”
Nod, nod.
Park Hwigang nodded his head vigorously.
Then he switched back to selfie mode.
“As far as I know, this is the first time too!”
He continued in an excited voice.
“I’m telling you, this isn’t an ordinary matter. The boundary really has collapsed! The wall between Arcana and our reality, which still remained in ways we couldn’t see, has begun to crumble completely!”
Water and oil.
Because they were utterly different.
It was proof that reality and the Arcana Continent, which had been thought impossible to fully mix, were blending together.
“And I’m someone with vivid firsthand experience, aren’t I?”
A member of the Explorers’ League.
Park Hwigang was an Explorer-class player.
Thanks to that, he had naturally come into contact with many Arcanians and had felt something.
“It’s not that we rejected each other, exactly. There was just an unavoidable distance between us. To put it bluntly, even people from different countries can feel unfamiliar to each other, but Arcana and we lived in different worlds altogether.”
And yet.
“To think Lord Hoyeol’s name has been listed as a candidate for the next Tower Master of the Magic Tower, which is still notorious for being closed-off despite opening its doors……! This is seriously a huge incident.”
-Even Cheonhatongil would acknowledge that, right?
-But why is Hwigang getting emotional already?
-For real lol, the election hasn’t even started yet
-The election itself has meaning, okay ㅡㅡ
-But can he actually be elected?
Park Hwigang said,
“Of course Lord Hoyeol has to be elected!”
The Black Dark Dragon deserved to be chosen as Tower Master.
It was not only Park Hwigang who thought so.
Everyone who heard the news thought the same.
Unlike the other two, Hoyeol’s achievements were truly overwhelming. Setting aside everything he had accomplished so far, even if one looked only at his most recent achievement……
“He defeated Yunaxus in accordance with the cat Tower Master’s will.”
It was more than enough.
But was Tower Master a position decided solely by achievements?
The players did not know the exact criteria.
-Actually, isn’t seniority valued more than achievements?
-Then by hierarchy, should an elder mage be the next Tower Master?
-But I heard Chief Marcelo’s achievements are insane too???
Speculations passed through the chat window.
Park Hwigang shifted his gaze from the chat for a moment and looked at the quest window.
He read it again.
Then suddenly, he realized.
Wait a second……?
“……
This doesn’t need achievements at all!”
That was right.
The quest was, after all, [Election for the Next Tower Master].
The basics of an election.
“The principle of majority rule!”
He did not know how the qualifications for electing the Tower Master were determined.
But it meant that the person who received more votes through the election would become Tower Master.
Park Hwigang clenched his fist tightly and said,
“Lord Hoyeol urgently needs your vote, everyone!”
*
The Chief’s office.
A green tea bag dangled.
Marcelo tilted his teacup. By now, perhaps the world would be in an uproar. Then he let out a faint laugh. It truly was an idea like you.
“It must have been quite uncomfortable for you, Tower Master.”
The Tower Master’s will.
Marcelo recalled Jesse’s words as she had delivered the will.
Adjusting the conical hat slipping down her head, Jesse had said,
-“At first, he said he asked Chief Lee Hoyeol to take over as the next Tower Master……. No, he said he had asked!”
It seemed he had tried to force the position of Tower Master onto him in the end.
But what kind of person was Sir Hoyeol?
Once he had said no to something, unless there was a proper reason, he would never bend his will.
-“He said he was thoroughly scolded for it, too!”
Even if it was a dying wish, he must have thought he could not accept it.
Marcelo could guess.
Why Hoyeol was refusing the position of Tower Master so stubbornly.
It must have been because of the Magic Tower’s rules.
──────The Tower Master shall be the mage who has achieved the greatest accomplishment in the Magic Tower. That accomplishment shall not be evaluated by the standards of the world. It shall be an accomplishment evaluated solely by the standards of the Magic Tower…….──────
The standards of the Magic Tower.
The one that had left such a rule behind was the Magic Tower of the past.
A Magic Tower from the distant past, at that.
The Magic Tower that had been so arrogant it seemed to pierce the heavens.
Naturally, the Magic Tower’s evaluation of achievements was based solely on one’s activities within the Magic Tower.
Considering that rule.
‘You must have judged that it was not your place.’
『Reversal Magic』.
Hoyeol had created a great magic, but the absolute amount of time he had spent within the Magic Tower was short. Moreover, the burdens he carried both inside and outside the Magic Tower were immense. Thus, he had also lacked the time to accumulate achievements that fit the Magic Tower’s standards.
Of course, since the Tower Master had likely guessed that fact as well.
He must have left a new will.
-“Since you like rules so much, I shall change the rules with my will. From now on, the Tower Master shall be elected through an election. Adventurers are fine as well. As long as they are qualified, you may give anyone the right to vote. The more votes there are, the more justification will be created that even Chief Lee cannot refuse. As for candidacy, use your judgment…….”
In accordance with the Tower Master’s will.
Marcelo proclaimed it to the Magic Tower.
That the election to choose the next Tower Master had begun.
After doing it, he belatedly began to worry.
“To think I would set something like this in motion when Sir Hoyeol has departed for the Arcana Continent of all times. Even if you are disappointed in me and become angry, I will have nothing to say.”
But Marcelo’s own will was no different from the Tower Master’s, and that was why he had gone through with it. No matter how much he thought about it, only Hoyeol could lead the new Magic Tower.
There was only one thing that bothered him.
‘Oh dear, I failed to ask what Lady Yugwid’s wishes were.’
Judged by the standards of the old Magic Tower.
The next Tower Master should have been the elder mage, Yugwid Lüfeng.
Even among the elder mages.
She was the one who had spent the longest years in the Magic Tower.
“Compared to Lady Yugwid.”
Not only Hoyeol, but Marcelo’s career in the Magic Tower as well was nothing more than a drop in the bucket. Therefore, if Yugwid raised an objection to the process of electing the Tower Master, which had been changed by the Tower Master’s will……
Marcelo placed a hand on his head.
“Oh dear, my head is beginning to ache.”
His position could only become extremely awkward.
Even while thinking that Lady Yugwid was not the sort of person to do that, Marcelo also knew very well that the title of gentle giant had not been given to her for nothing.
And so Marcelo had prepared in advance.
“If there is no other choice……”
An excuse that was not quite an excuse.
“I will have to say that all of this was brought upon us by the Tower Master himself.”
*
Yusra Kingdom.
In front of the Golden Palace.
The Golden Calf Tavern.
The resident fixture. No, the resident nuisance customer had returned.
“Wahahaha, it feels good to drink after so long. Doesn’t it?”
Gulp, gulp─
To think he had really returned in perfect health.
The Magic Tower should never have saved a guy like that……!
When they patched him up, did they not sew the hole in his stomach?
Just what kind of alcohol is he……!
“Burp.”
Rockid paid no heed to the pouring gazes and ate and drank. And got drunk. After dying and coming back to life, joyous news was pouring in so much that he could not endure it without getting drunk.
Bang!
Rockid set down the keg and opened his mouth.
“Hic. Thanks to the Dragon Heart, the path to the Arcana Continent has opened……. What do you think that means? It means the path has opened for us to go catch that love-hate existence, our leader, Kichi!”
In accordance with the rules of the Shadow Mercenaries.
They could legally engage the deserter Kichi in a life-or-death duel.
That fact alone had been enough to make him satisfyingly happy.
“And on top of that, the election for the next Tower Masterrrr?! I can’t be left out of an event like this! So, where did everyone bet? You’ve heard of my fame, haven’t you? Hic! Lord Rockid is the man who has never lost a hundred bets in the coliseum!”
It was far too interesting a gambling board to pass by.
A man undefeated in a hundred coliseum bets.
“……
Is that true? It’s bullshit, right?”
“No, it’s true.”
Rockid’s words were not a bluff. With a hit rate like that, no matter how much of a scene Rockid made, one could not help being tempted. Yet no one asked Rockid for his opinion. Naturally.
“But don’t think about betting after him.”
“Why?”
The whispering man clicked his tongue.
“Because all one hundred wins came from betting on himself.”
Rockid was not a divinely inspired gambler.
He was merely a divinely inspired gladiator.
That Rockid pondered deeply and repeated the names flowing across the news.
“Yugwid, Marcelo, Lee Hoyeol……. Hm, let’s see…….”
For once, he used his head.
“Here, anyone would pick Commander-in-Chief Lee Hoyeol, right? Hic! But if you fall for that, you’re a novice. Would guys as thorough as the Magic Tower give the grand name of ‘election’ to such an obvious result? The Magic Tower under heaven itself? The instincts of this gambler Rockid say no!”
He boldly made his bet.
“Good, I’ll go with Marcelo! But my reason is a secret.”
Even if only to protect my precious odds.
It was Rockid’s judgment, and it had a reason in its own way. During his stay in the Magic Tower, Rockid had heard Marcelo being evaluated highly in plain detail. A laugh once again slipped through his lips.
“This’ll add one more win to my hundred, hahahat.”
……
So much for wetting my throat.
“That monstrous bastard.”
At the entrance of the Golden Calf Tavern.
Tak─
Kinber opened the door and stepped inside, only to turn around the moment he saw Rockid.
He had already been displeased that the gathering place just had to be Yusra. His mouth felt bitter for no reason, so he had at least intended to rinse it with wine.
“Talk about rotten luck.”
Rockid was draining every decent bottle of alcohol.
Fine.
Kinber shook off his lingering regret and hurried his steps.
‘Still, this is unusual.’
The Conference of Stars, a gathering where supernovas came together.
Someone would surely ask.
What could supernovas who were neither rankers nor anything else, who could do nothing but PK, possibly do by gathering together? However, precisely because PK was all they could do, they were seasoned in that field.
‘So who are they trying to tear apart today?’
At the Conference of Stars, such supernovas would gather in one place and choose a new target. There was no compulsion forcing anyone to attend. However, because supernovas could not obtain experience or spoils through legitimate means.
They simply saw one another’s light and gathered of their own accord.
Midnight.
The gold mine of the Yusra Kingdom.
Deep underground in the mine shaft, it was already crowded with supernovas.
“Why are there so many?”
There had to be at least three hundred.
In truth, Kinber had expected it.
For some reason, all of the “Five Stars” were scheduled to attend this conference.
The Five Stars of the supernovas.
They were named players who had made a habit of PK ever since Arcana was nothing more than a game. Even after the Cataclysm, their aggression had not gone anywhere. That cruelty had naturally led them to become guides for the supernovas.
‘Isn’t this the first time all five have gathered in one place?’
Kinber could sense it instinctively.
‘At a glance, they’re aiming for a big shot.’
He could not be certain who that big shot was, but…….
No matter who it was, once they were brought before the Conference of the Stars, no one would survive. Unlike monster hunting, PK—where any and all means were fair game—was an entirely different realm.
Soon, the mine tunnel began to stir.
Five shadows flickered.
Kinber’s eyes narrowed. ‘……
Is it them?’ The smell of blood wafting from them was almost overpowering.
They appeared with their faces covered.
From them poured a murderous intent so fierce it was almost triumphant.
So much so that even goosebumps rose on Kinber’s skin.
“Yeah, that’s the kind of blood stench you ought to be giving off!”
A fervent cheer erupted for them.
Everyone gathered here was rotten to the core.
In the underworld, the more trash you were, the better you were treated. It was only natural.
At the end of the fervent cheers, one of the five stars opened his mouth.
“As you’ve likely guessed, our target is a big fish.”
Then he spoke the name.
At that moment.
“?!”
Kinber had no choice but to react more violently than anyone else. ‘Wh-what did he say?’ This was on a level that couldn’t even be compared to mere goosebumps.
It felt as though the sensations from Yusra, which he had desperately tried to forget, were coming back to life.
Yes, the sensation of his lower half growing damp……!
A conversation rose in his memory.
—“Sir Hoyeol. What do you think of the rat in the tree?”
—“Sir Harkon. What are your thoughts?”
—“It would be troublesome, but I believe it would be best to deal with him.”
—“I shall respect your decision.”
And at the same time, the messages that had appeared before his eyes. [Harkon Kingsguard is watching you.] [Your body and mind are paralyzed by murderous intent.] [Status Abnormality: Fear has occurred.]
Kinber was dumbfounded. ‘They’re going to target that knight just because he lost his legs? They’ve gone completely insane! They are beings that must not be touched. No, not even dared to be looked at……!’ He wanted nothing more to do with them.
As if he had heard something he never should have.
Kinber was just about to hurry out of the meeting hall.
One of the five stars spoke toward him.
“It seems an impure element has slipped into the conference.”
“……!”
In that fleeting instant, every gaze focused on Kinber.
Kinber felt the presences around him change in an instant.
“Fuck.”
Right. He had figured there had to be a reason those damned five star bastards had gathered. The opinions of the attendees had never mattered in the first place. Anyone who objected wouldn’t be leaving here alive.
Shhk—Kinber rolled his eyes.
Needless to say, he saw no odds of surviving.
But he wasn’t afraid.
“But you know.”
Kinber turned around, grinning broadly.
“No matter how hard you try to look cool, you’re not scary enough to make me piss myself.”
Shring!
Kinber equipped claws on both hands and shouted.
“Fine, it’s die or be damned! Go on, try and stop me with everything you’ve got. I’ll say this in advance. If I make it out of here alive, I’m going to spill every dirty little scheme discussed here today to ‘that man.’”
“That man? Who are you referring to?”
“Who? Watch your mouth, you son of a bitch.”
Slaaash!
When Kinber swung his claw, the man charging at him toppled over.
“Does Lord Lee Hoyeol look like a pushover to you?”