◈ Episode 477. Inquiry into the Bizarre
- Presentation (1)
Inside the Prototype Rift.
“Shit. What is this pattern now?”
“Oh dear, this one’s a bit troublesome.”
“……
Great Beasts! Where did those bastards go?”
Each of them was isolated.
At first, it was no different from a cauldron of chaos. There were players who calmly assessed the situation, while others plunged headlong into danger.
“E-Euaagh! You scared me……!”
However, fortunately amid misfortune, the confusion did not last long.
“……
Eyaaaaak?”
Ding.
News delivered by ringtone or vibration.
It was emergency disaster information sent by AAU.
A question mark appeared on Leonie’s face.
“A signal works in here?”
I was on the Arcana Continent just a moment ago, though?
It was unbelievable, but it was reality.
And it was the only solution that could break through this situation.
Shifting the viewpoint to AAU in reality.
“The players are connecting through the link!”
“Hisagi, Shreig, Rox, and even Leonie……. The rankers are sharing their screens one after another. I think it’s about time to begin, Branch Manager!”
“Ahem.”
The branch manager of South Korea, Park Minjae, cleared his throat.
Then he stood at the podium.
This is also my first time facing the players like this……. ‘Being nervous doesn’t suit me.’ Even back in the past, when he knew nothing.
Park Minjae had been the one to face Raymond Sean and negotiate with him directly.
Of course, that face had been fake.
“I’m Branch Manager Park Minjae. I’ll get straight to the point.”
Park Minjae’s words and actions were as unrestrained as ever.
Just like the players, he connected to the link.
AAU branches around the world, now facing Park Minjae’s face, hesitated.
“As expected, the only person who could volunteer for a role like this would be our Mr. Park, wouldn’t it? No matter how much the players have changed, most people wouldn’t be able to withstand the pressure.” The AAU London branch manager.
Baker revealed his honest thoughts.
Of course, it wasn’t that Baker was weak.
It was just that Park Minjae was exceptionally brave, or, in a good way, insane.
He was simply special.
“Senior, do you think this can proceed safely……?”
Seong Hyeonjun carefully asked Yun Sugyeom.
Swoosh.
Yun Sugyeom adjusted his glasses and answered.
“We have to hope it does. Very earnestly.”
The current operation had begun with a single contact.
The analyst and brain of the Great Alliance, Nam Cheolmin.
A single phone call from him.
“……
You’re inside a rift on the Arcana Continent?”
At first listen, it sounded absurd.
However, Park Minjae knew how to judge people, and he did not dismiss Nam Cheolmin’s words. He immediately grasped the situation and, following Nam Cheolmin’s opinion, quickly built the infrastructure.
Seong Hyeonjun clicked his tongue in admiration.
“Honestly, I thought he might have gotten a position in the Great Alliance because of blood ties……. But to devise a plan like this in that kind of situation, he’s no ordinary person either. Mr. Nam Cheolmin, I mean.”
Labyrinths, dungeons, wonders, and so on…….
For an ordinary player who was not an [Explorer],
clearing trial after trial was impossible.
However, if they had AAU, if they had themselves.
“That’s right. He found the only possible move.”
Things changed if they utilized collective intelligence.
Why had AAU been treated as something neither useful nor disposable? Because they knew what they knew, and knew absolutely nothing about what they didn’t. The Prototype Rift that the players had entered, for that AAU?
“We will provide support suited to the screens you send us!”
Fortunately amid misfortune, it was something AAU knew.
-So in this labyrinth, we have to keep our hand on the left wall, right?
-……
It’s true? If I crawl, the trap doesn’t activate!
-That’s insane. You people are actually useful for once?
Reality and the Arcana Continent.
The players and AAU.
The first and largest joint operation in history.
Naturally, unprecedented attention poured in.
For a moment, the focus shifted to the SNS posts being updated every second.
Seong Hyeonjun swallowed dryly.
“……
Senior, from when I worked at Cosmo until now, all I ever got online was being cursed as a salary thief. I think this might be the first time in my life I’ve ever been praised.”
Yun Sugyeom also briefly took his eyes away to check the reactions.
-AAU is finally earning its keep lololol
-At times like this, they’re actually reliable lolol
-I guess that old GM experience didn’t go anywhere lolol
It was no exaggeration. Based on the information AAU provided, the players pushed through the labyrinth at a fierce speed. Differences in level did not matter much.
-We did it……!
On the first screen, Nam Cheolmin’s field of vision shook. It seemed that analyst Nam Cheolmin, who was only around level 100, had also cleared the labyrinth safely.
“If they’re in there, they’re all hardened veterans, right?”
They were players who had advanced to stop the Great Beasts, no less.
The resolve to stake their lives.
And the skill to match that resolve.
“It means they can use our support for even more than that.”
That was indeed the case.
Some players seemed to have gained enough leeway
that they even began relaying news from the Arcana Continent.
And one of those pieces of news was none other than—
“But Senior, is this really credible?”
—“Dragon Lord, Black Dark Dragon I Hoyeol.”
Hoyeol’s class, which no one had been able to confirm until now. Seeing him handle the Akshan Wolf, some had concluded that he was a demon hunter, but others had not believed it.
Wasn’t this Dragon Lord several steps beyond that?
“It certainly was strange.”
At Yun Sugyeom’s words, Seong Hyeonjun continued.
“Right? You think so too, Senior? No matter how many hidden classes we don’t know about in Arcana Continent Chronicles, a Dragon Lord? A class that sounds insanely broken just from the name…….”
“No. It’s not that side that was strange. It was the idea that the General Manager was a demon hunter that was so hard to accept.”
“……
Pardon?”
Yun Sugyeom’s eyes looked as though he had finally understood.
“But if he’s a Dragon Lord, it makes sense. From that tremendous amount of mana to his skill usage, and finally, even the sudden appearance of the Akshan Wolf that had remained a mystery!”
“The Akshan Wolf? What does that have to do with a Dragon Lord…….”
“It’s possible if it’s Dragon Tongue.”
“……
Dragon Tongue?”
“Dragons are the kings of all things, able to make everything submit.”
“Ah!”
Now that he heard it.
“Then the fact that that Elder Dragon bowed its head too……!”
All this time, Hoyeol had continuously shown actions that could only be understood if his class was at least something like Dragon Lord. Just as Seong Hyeonjun unconsciously nodded—
-Oh no, this is bad.
Nam Cheolmin’s voice cut through the chatter.
-It’s a dungeon. One with living monsters appearing.
A dungeon.
No sooner had he spoken
than Nam Cheolmin on the screen raised his shield.
“If it’s a d-dungeon, then all we can do is……!”
The dungeon’s structure.
Or information about terrain where traps were likely to be installed.
That was all they could convey. In that case, from now on, the players had no choice but to overcome the monsters swarming them with their own abilities.
Boom.
Nam Cheolmin blocked a surprise attack with his shield.
From that scene, everyone in AAU could sense it.
Damn it, should they call even this fortunate amid misfortune?
“At least it seems to be an instance dungeon, Senior?”
A dungeon where monsters with variable levels, not fixed levels, appeared.
In that case, they did not need to worry about Nam Cheolmin dying a sudden death right away.
Monsters around level 100, matching his own level, would appear.
However.
“……
No, then the problem is with the rankers, isn’t it?”
Their gazes shifted to the screen of Nam Cheolmin’s younger brother, Nam Taemin.
Sure enough, Yun Sugyeom’s guess was correct.
The monster Nam Taemin faced was not easy.
“A pack of level 650 Red Dracos……!”
Level 650 monsters had formed ranks
and were pressing in as though hunting Nam Taemin.
Nam Taemin’s voice came through.
-This won’t be easy.
……
Gulp.
At Nam Taemin’s words, people swallowed dryly.
They had no choice.
If one excluded the immovable pinnacle, Hoyeol,
and Oxidine, who had appeared in the rankings out of nowhere,
those words had come from the mouth of Nam Taemin, the number one ranked player.
Seong Hyeonjun was seized by an ominous thought. ‘Mr. Taemin might be able to break through. But…….’ The dungeon was only the second stage.
Even among the stages mentioned in the Prototype Rift information, there were dozens. Moreover, among them was even [Wonder],
which was regarded as impregnable content, wasn’t there?
Nam Taemin seemed to know that fact as well.
-From now on, please understand even if communication is not smooth.
Everyone listening could sense it.
[Berserk].
At this moment, Nam Taemin had entered in earnest.
And it was not only Nam Taemin.
The infamy of dungeons in Arcana Continent Chronicles, which they had forgotten for a while.
Someone muttered without realizing it.
“Damn it, how many of them will be able to survive and clear the dungeon……!”
No, what am I saying, jinxing us like that?
“Hup, I’m sorry!”
He belatedly covered his mouth.
But not a single person rebuked that rash remark.
Even if they were nothing but a burden,
they could at least feel, together with them,
the weight of the threat the players were facing.
-Keugh!!
Amid the taut tension.
At last, the players’ battles.
No, their life-and-death struggles began.
*
Nam Taemin recalled. ‘I wonder if Hyung is doing well.’
If he had known something like this would happen, he wouldn’t have simply tried to stop him.
When he had time, he should have at least gone around rifts with him
and checked his combat posture.
[The stat, ‘Savagery,’ is constricting your body.]
The Barbarian’s unique skill, [Berserk].
Its recoil was gradually coming.
His reason was growing clouded.
“……
Damn it.”
It was an unavoidable limit.
Because handling sword aura and Berserk at the same time was not easy. If it were, would the Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Hoyeol, have told him there was no need to rush?
Even so.
Crack-crack.
Nam Taemin pushed himself even further to the limit. He did not even spare a glance for the warning messages. He struck away the pouring attacks, received them, ignored them, and moved forward.
Someone.
No, even Cheolmin hyung,
who knew him better than anyone,
would surely say this.
Have you gone crazy wanting to die?
“……
That’s right.”
Yes.
“I’ve gone crazy wanting to die.”
The reason Nam Taemin was forcing himself was, literally, to cross the line between life and death.
Because only in a life-and-death struggle, while crossing that line, could he hold on to sword aura that grew ever denser.
Slice.
“……!”
A chilling sensation below his shoulder blade.
At that moment, Nam Taemin recalled
the teachings of his master, Harkon.
-“Sword aura grows denser in battles between life and death. There are no exceptions under any circumstances. Even if it is Sir Hoyeol. No, even if it is the Commander-in-Chief, that is no exception.”
When he had heard those words, he had been doubtful.
Because Hoyeol and a crisis of life and death felt like words that did not belong together.
In any moment.
He had seen Hoyeol’s figure, never once losing its uprightness. ‘……
No one is an exception.’
However, that thought had changed somewhat recently.
Because he had witnessed it.
To be precise, because he had smelled it.
The unknown scent emanating from Hoyeol. Of course, he did not know whether the owner of that scent had posed a direct threat to Hoyeol. To begin with, he did not even know what that scent was.
But one thing was certain.
In order to confirm what its identity was.
In order to help Hoyeol, who could be endangered by it.
Grit.
He had to break down the wall blocking his own limits.
Nam Taemin clenched his teeth and swung his greatsword.
The focus in Nam Taemin’s pupils gradually began to blur.
His vision flickered.
[※Warning: Your body is being encroached upon by Savagery.]
The side effect of Berserk was simple.
Literally, savagery.
Returning to the beginning, without relying on weapons or equipment,
he would enter battle with a body engulfed in savagery.
Even when Arcana had been nothing but a game,
and even after that, Nam Taemin had experienced the side effects several times.
But this moment was different.
Even if he had been encroached upon by savagery.
Grip.
Nam Taemin’s hand still held the greatsword,
and sword aura was blooming from that greatsword’s blade.
The form of that sword aura was like…….
Crackle.
Before an enemy,
the fur of a wild beast standing on end to its limit.
Nam Taemin, holding that greatsword, looked like a single wild beast.
What that sight meant was simple.
Nam Taemin had become one with the greatsword.
He had finally knocked on the door of Body-Sword Unity....
The Social Hall of Time and Space.
In that place where several Transcendents dwelled,
parchment fell from the air.
“Transcendent Qualification Review. Name, Nam Taemin. An adventurer?”
But it was not just one sheet.
One sheet from the air.
Then another.
Even with that, the astonishment did not end.
“……
Hm? There are two names, aren’t there? W-wait! T-this long name is?!”