◈ Episode 439. The Hypocrite (1)
The reward was sweet.
“Seizing opportunity is a skill too.”
“See? There’s a path we can take this easily, isn’t there?”
“Yeah, like everyone’s been living like a fucking saint until now.”
Countless World Quests came to mind.
They were quests that required absolute hostility toward the Empire. At first, it had piqued his interest. After all, wasn’t this a situation where not only had the Empire’s emperor died, but even Ihoyeol, who had been touted as the next emperor, had given up on ascending the throne?
“But, seriously, imagine if we’d moved then.”
However, the forces gathering in Antonium in rapid succession were no joke. Not to mention the Ryan Hart Knight Order that had returned from reality, there were more than one or two formidable forces whose origins were a mystery.
“To top it off, they say a dragon is guarding the north of Antonium……”
“Didn’t they say the Apocalypto Guild got thoroughly wiped out too?”
“Tsk tsk. That’s why you’ve gotta read the room like us.”
In that sense, what mattered was timing.
“All you had to do was watch Ihoyeol’s moves, you morons.”
Roughly thirty.
Gambas looked at the guild members—players—who were on the same boat, sharing the same thoughts.
The ship’s name was, namely, the [Gwangpokhoe].
He reflected on the knowledge from the days when Arcana was merely a game.
“It was a titan that divided the underworld with the Shadow Mercenary Corps. For us, the Arcana continent—or rather, if even just the Empire had been intact, this is a departure we couldn’t have dreamed of. Just the fact that we joined the Gwangpokhoe would have put a massive bounty on our heads, don’t you think?”
The Notoriety System.
In the imperial territories, if you committed evil deeds, imperial soldiers came after you.
But if it was the Arcana continent, which had become a wasteland, the story was different.
“They don’t have the luxury to care about us!”
The Empire couldn’t even maintain public order in its territories,
let alone protect its capital, Antonium; it was in a dire situation just trying to hold onto it.
Of course, Gambas intended to keep things within reason.
“None of us plan to live cooped up on the Arcana continent for life, right? So let’s take everything in moderation, moderation. Avoiding conflict with other players as much as possible……”
The reason to avoid it was simple.
PK—players hunting players.
Not to mention the annihilated Cheonha Tong-il, and even rising stars who vanished without a trace.
Gambas had learned his lesson from the fates of players who indulged in PK.
Apart from such reasons, there was simply no point in fellow players clashing with each other.
“In short, we’re only targeting Arcanans we can dispose of without repercussions! Seriously, who would recognize us? There are no cameras, no smartphones, no SNS on the Arcana continent!”
Gambas checked the quest objective. [World Quest: For the Resurrection of Madness]
Are you prepared to dye the continent in madness?
What the Gwangpokhoe desires from you is proof.
You, let the madness of chaos engulf the continent.
-Commit slaughter in the name of the Gwangpokhoe. (In Progress)
Gambas’s eyes gleamed like oil.
“You know the Shadow Mercenary Corps’ reputation, right? How much money those guys raked in. The Gwangpokhoe was a rival to those very Shadow Mercenary Corps. If we can steadily build up connections and influence here!”
“You mean we can catch up to Ihoyeol?”
“……No, no matter what, Ihoyeol is a bit much.”
No matter how much he liked madness, he had to regain his senses.
“……Well, even if we can’t rule the sunlit world where Ihoyeol exists, we can at least dominate the underworld. Isn’t that a good deal? More than anything, you know it, right? That the Arcana continent isn’t whole.”
In chaos, the shadows of the underworld grow darker than the sunlit world.
He didn’t know what other players might think.
But Gambas considered his choice to be supremely rational.
The corners of his lips rose slyly.
‘Yes, even if things go south……’
There was no way this neck of his would get chopped off.
Ihoyeol, he was a merciful man.
To those who were not demons, he showed mercy time and time again.
Furthermore, the Gwangpokhoe’s nemesis.
It was an established fact that the Shadow Mercenary Corps also followed Ihoyeol’s commands.
Even if the Gwangpokhoe were to lose the power struggle against the Shadow Mercenary Corps, there was no way the Shadow Mercenary Corps could do anything to them, who were players.
‘If only for Ihoyeol’s sake.’
Gambas muttered.
“In the end, it’s a deal with nothing to lose.”
There was no reason to hesitate.
Commit slaughter in the name of the Gwangpokhoe.
The players, including Gambas, immediately fulfilled their quest objective.
They had already thought up an excuse for it.
“We simply killed demons possessing humans.”
Why, it was a common ghost story among players.
A tale of players who’d stab their party members in the back to monopolize the spoils from a Rift, then shed fake tears claiming they couldn’t help being possessed by a demon. Rumor had it there were more than one or two such players.
Gambas quietly opened his mouth.
“Who’s to say Ihoyeol wouldn’t do the same? No, wait, Ihoyeol hunts demons mercilessly. He might even mistake innocent players for demons and hunt them down……”
It was then.
[※Warning: Your HP is too low.]
Srrk.
Gambas’s vision flooded with black and white.
“……Huh?”
Thud, roll.
Together with his dying gasp.
Gambas’s head rolled and fell to the ground.
Gambas, who had been conversing just moments ago, had died instantly.
“G-Gambas?”
It was more surreal than a scene from a movie. A red line appeared on his nape before his head simply fell off. He had toppled over like a mannequin.
“U-Uwaaahk!”
They couldn’t even muster the will to fight back.
Gambas was among the players who had joined the Gwangpokhoe—
—possessed strength that could be counted on one hand.
Thud, thud.
“P-Please……! J-Just my life!!”
And so, Gambas’s group could do nothing but throw away their weapons, kneel, and bow their heads.
With their heads bowed, all they could do was wonder why.
‘……Could the one we killed have been a high-ranking NPC?’
‘No, that can’t be. He looked like a common mob!’
‘Even so, there’s no reason to just up and kill us……!’
Then, a gruff voice rang out.
“What, they were adventurers?”
……Did he recognize that they were adventurers?
Hope was felt in that gruff voice.
It was the moment the players stealthily raised their heads. A face that one could never forget after seeing it once was visible.
The lowest seat of the Shadow Mercenary Corps, Rakid.
Rakid’s notoriety was unusually high.
First of all, anyone who had visited the Golden Calf Tavern in the Yusra Kingdom even once couldn’t not know of Rakid, a customer notorious as a spectacle.
‘We’re saved.’
The players were relieved.
For the same reason as Gambas.
The Shadow Mercenary Corps, including Rakid, were still fearsome beings, but weren’t they closely tied to Ihoyeol anyway?
‘……Yes, if only for Ihoyeol’s sake.’
The Shadow Mercenary Corps had no choice but to show them mercy.
Hadn’t Gambas said as much?
They had believed Gambas’s words and…….
“……!”
In an instant, the reality they realized.
That’s right.
Gambas, who had been so certain, had already been severed by Rakid’s hand.
‘……He did that simply because he didn’t realize they were adventurers.’
Alright, this was when they needed to appeal.
“Y-Yes! We are players, adventurers! We joined the Gwangpokhoe because we were chasing a quest and had no choice……. Of course, we didn’t mean it! We’re part of the Holy War Alliance too; how could we do something so dishonorable?”
“Hmph.”
“You’re Sir Rakid of the Shadow Mercenary Corps, right? We’ll consider what just happened an unavoidable accident. We too bear some small responsibility. We won’t mention this incident to anyone, including Commander Ihoyeol, and will take it to our graves……”
Rakid replied.
“No, there’s no need for that.”
“……What?”
“Because you’re all gonna die here.”
Sshhk.
Rakid’s dual hatchets surged toward the defenseless player.
Ruler of the Colosseum.
Rakid’s face was dyed with blood, just like back then.
Puhwak.
But unlike back then, he didn’t taste the hot blood with his tongue.
He didn’t burst into laughter.
He didn’t get excited.
Rakid simply looked down at the sprawled corpse with a cold gaze.
“They were talking out of their asses.”
Despicable bastards.
Rakid immediately began to move.
The Gwangpokhoe had been using an abandoned castle as their hideout.
It was no wonder they had lost to the Shadow Mercenary Corps of the past, who had been mere has-beens.
“If you’re in the underworld, live curled up like you belong in the underworld.”
Didn’t you break that basic rule and end up dying by my hand?
“Ooh, savage. Rakid.”
“Shut it, old geezer.”
“Blood stinks like hell.”
“Shut it, mage.”
“How many did you kill, Rakid? I win this time too, right?”
“Shut it, dwarf.”
Excluding the fallen 8th Seat, Nadibo.
The scattered members of the Shadow Mercenary Corps gathered before the castle gate.
Rakid looked around.
Kichi was nowhere to be seen.
As expected, he seemed to have entered the interior first.
Click.
Instead, Wolf was visible.
Wolf’s crossbow was aimed at the head of an adventurer who was blubbering tears and snot.
The adventurer pleaded desperately with Wolf.
“Please……! I’m begging you like this. I’ll never breathe a word about what happened today! Y-You guys are worried about that too, aren’t you? This kind of evil act isn’t good to spread, in reality or on the Arcana continent, right?!”
He wasn’t wrong.
Rakid recalled his life in the Yusra Kingdom.
It had been boring, but not bad.
To the point where he could sometimes forget this terrible stench of blood.
Yet at the same time, he always thought.
That his place was not such a peaceful one.
Rakid gripped the haft of his axe tightly.
If that bastard Wolf hesitated, he would chop off that adventurer’s head himself.
However.
“So that’s it. You stepped onto the Arcana continent with that calculation in mind. That’s why you joined the Gwangpokhoe, and that’s why you’re begging for your lives from me, the commander of the Shadow Mercenary Corps.”
Wolf added icily.
“It is a fitting end for hypocrites like you.”
“……!”
Had the adventurer realized there was no hope in those words?
Or was it a final struggle before death?
The adventurer clung desperately to Wolf’s words.
“Hypocrites? You said it, you pieces of trash! You think the Shadow Mercenary Corps fits the Holy War Alliance? You guys who killed men and women, young and old, without discrimination as long as there was money. And now you’re trying to run yourselves through the washing machine?!”
Rakid stared intently at Wolf.
The reason Rakid had disliked Wolf as commander was simple.
He didn’t suit the Shadow Mercenary Corps. To be precise, his sins were too light.
—“I sold my comrade to the enemy.”
The story Wolf had confessed himself was nothing more than self-defense to Rakid.
Therefore, Rakid had always doubted Wolf’s sincerity.
He had once asked bluntly.
—“Wolf, are you a hypocrite?”
The Wolf of the past had not answered.
“Yes, I was a hypocrite.”
But the Wolf of now was different.
Wolf’s finger moved.
Toward the adventurer who had pointed out the contradiction of the Shadow Mercenary Corps, calling them hypocrites.
Click.
He pulled the trigger of the crossbow.
“Not anymore.”
Puk.
Wolf looked at the adventurer who had died instantly.
Thus, the Shadow Mercenary Corps had crossed a river they could never return from.
Wasn’t it inevitable?
“One hundred and five.”
“How many of them were adventurers?”
“Around thirty? Anyhow, I killed them all, Commander.”
The taboo of the adventurer world.
Regardless of the reason, the killing of adventurers is strictly forbidden.
They had killed as many as thirty adventurers who were treated with such precious regard.
In just over ten minutes.
It was an atrocity that even the merciful Commander could never forgive.
‘Perhaps we have betrayed his expectations.’
But it couldn’t be helped.
The Shadow Mercenary Corps are villains.
Merely being associated with them was more than enough to blemish his reputation.
They were the worst villains of the Arcana continent.
And so, Wolf, in the way of the Shadow Mercenary Corps,
intended to settle the grace he had received from Hoyeol.
“We are villains.”
Whenever that may be.
“Nevertheless, we must become even more vicious false villains.”
So that we may die gladly by your hand.
Because in thick darkness, the light shines ever more sublimely.
At Wolf’s words, the strength left Rakid’s hand that had been gripping his axe haft.
That’s a good look in your eyes, Wolf.
Now you finally look like the trash of the Shadow Mercenary Corps.
Even so, there was still something he could not acknowledge.
Rakid shrugged his shoulders.
“Even so, I think I’m better-looking than you.”*Now, it was time to struggle again.
Thanks to Gamigin’s spoils…….
No, that wasn’t its name anymore.‘Thanks to that damn Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step……!’ I had ended up facing a high-ranking Demon King.
Thanks to that, I realized their threat was anything but ordinary.
“An inferior race, yet you bustle about far beyond your station.”
To think they would reach their demonic hands directly from the Demon Realm into reality through the rifts.
It went without saying, but I couldn’t control every rift by myself.
I had run into a realistic problem.
“Indeed, facing the Heavenly Demon must be burdensome.”……
Damn it.
Grandfel’s tongue was still as shameless as ever.
Desperately ignoring it, I thought hard.‘It’s not as if I have multiple bodies. It’s physically impossible.’Then there really was only one method.
I had to leap straight into the tiger’s den, the Demon Realm.
If I entered the Demon Realm myself.
Those high-ranking Demon Kings wouldn’t be able to leisurely command their spiritual bodies, either.‘Because they couldn’t overlook me aiming for their main bodies.’The problem was whether I had the confidence to leap into the Demon Realm…….
It went without saying, but not right now.
I just said it, didn’t I?
Facing a high-ranking Demon King had made me feel that absurd strength all over again. Even the Demon Eye that had turned reality into a wasteland was close to a feat of creation I couldn’t even dream of.‘As expected, I have no choice but to try.’In short, I needed dramatic growth.
There was only one way to do that, too.
I looked at the message that appeared.[Understanding of Darkness (Curse): Greatly increases affinity with suitable magic power. However, you must confront the past that is the source of that suitable magic power.
- Current affinity with suitable magic power: 30%]
Entering Understanding of Darkness.[Throughout Heaven and Earth, I Alone Am Supreme (30%): An unparalleled genius of the age, one whose talent blasphemes even a goddess. Displays the talent of Grandfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo.]
Raising the mastery of Throughout Heaven and Earth, I Alone Am Supreme.
Especially this time, there was also a class quest connected to Grandfel’s past. Perhaps during this entry, I might learn about Grandfel’s past related to the Akshan civil war.
But there was one biggest obstacle. I had no way of knowing how long I would spend inside [Understanding of Darkness]. So I racked my brain. I brought out Lee Hoyeol’s way of thinking from the days when I struggled desperately, using anything and everything I had.
Thanks to that, I found one option.[Space-Time Socializing: Ritual. Enter the space-time salon.]
I intended to make use of the fact that time did not pass in the space-time salon.
I was thinking of activating Understanding of Darkness inside the salon.
“It’s never to my liking.”
Grandfel, an existence like an oasis in the desert of high society.
True to that setting.
I dragged my heavy feet forward and straightened my clothes....
Clack.……
Somehow, ever since I acquired the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step, the sound of my shoes seemed to have grown even more pronounced. Fortunately, no attention was focused on me. My eyes sank coldly.
The space-time salon.
“……!”
Because there was something there that should not have been.