Chapter 279
Seo Jun returned to Atura via teleport and was told by the commander there that he would soon be deployed into battle.
They just asked him to wait a moment.
If he was going to proceed with the quest, he had to follow this kind of rule.
He could go right away, but then even if the front line was pushed all the way to the enemy capital, the quest wouldn’t succeed.
After a short wait, another participant arrived.
Since there were two participants, they must be allies.
“Hello.”
She greeted him first.
It was someone he had seen before.
Christina from the United States.
A participant for Leon, a jungler and an Ashias hero who used a sacred relic whose blade could freely extend, retract, and bend.
Leon was a male hero, but that wasn’t important. Everything adjusted accordingly.
“Hello.”
Seo Jun remembered her. From their very first meeting, Christina had looked at him as if sizing up prey.
More precisely, like a veteran hunter eyeing a large game that required risking one’s life to challenge.
Her self-assurance and wariness toward a recognized opponent were so deeply etched in her gaze that it left a strong impression.
Should he be cautious?
“Since there are only two participants, does that mean you and I, Seo Jun, will be fighting two Daran heroes alone?”
“That’s probably right. There won’t be many who’d refuse a quest from Atura’s side.”
Few, but not none.
Daran occasionally offered good quests from their family as well.
Seo Jun and Christina immediately discussed their mission.
“What will you do, Seo Jun? Will you go separately?”
Pushing the front line in Atura was simple.
You just had to go to the various scattered battlefields and kill many enemy soldiers.
Then the front line would naturally be pushed back slowly.
The battle zone was so vast that it was possible not to encounter the enemy.
Though in a 2v2, they’d eventually meet.
“Wouldn’t going separately be better?”
Seo Jun replied.
“Is the plan to avoid combat as much as possible, Seo Jun?”
It would allow them to push the front line more efficiently and more quickly.
The downside was that if they did meet the enemy, they wouldn’t have numerical advantage, so they’d have to avoid combat.
Seo Jun had one more advantage.
He wouldn’t get betrayed.
Though honestly, he could just look into their eyes and tell, so it was fine.
“Is that necessary?”
“Ah, right. There’s no reason to avoid combat. No matter how many enemies there are.”
At least we’re on the same page.
Seo Jun nodded and then said to her,
“Let’s go buy communicators.”
Communicators were devices that could be purchased for 1 achievement point.
Participants could use them like a system, and they were essentially phones you could use to connect and communicate with each other if you wanted.
“Okay. But where’s Dennis? I thought his name was Rian or something.”
Christina looked around.
They couldn’t check systemically who had died.
Seo Jun smiled.
“That person repented and passed on.”
They had gone together from the start because of a bad feeling. Then he was a heretic, so he killed him.
That was all.
“What?”
“That’s right.”
Seo Jun stared at Christina.
With a calm smile.
“…….”
From the look in her eyes, she didn’t seem particularly inclined to betray him.
He’d have to watch a little longer, but if there was any sign, he could just purge her.
Above all, due to his character’s personality, Kael did not tell lies.
Seo Jun, he was Kael.
Thus, what Seo Jun said was no lie.
With this perfect logic established, he could wield justification in one hand and the Judgment Sword in the other.
Seo Jun and Christina went to the Atura faction’s supply depot.
They bought communicators and a map.
Both cost 1 point. They hadn’t been able to buy them the previous day because they’d had no points.
The map was a magic item that only showed the front line.
Incidentally, in games, the word ‘magic’ could be substituted for ‘all-purpose.’
After buying the items, Christina said to Seo Jun,
“You know about the consumables that will be added next season, right?”
“Yes.”
The game director or well-known developers often left preview posts about the next season.
And it was possible to check the details more precisely in the History Book.
Consumables.
That was why Seo Jun had saved 200 points.
“Seo Jun. Have you found any clues about where to get them?”
“No. What about you, Christina?”
“I found one.”
“Oh? Are you going to tell me?”
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have brought it up.”
Seo Jun looked at the smiling Christina.
Why was she freely giving away information?
Could she be one of those perverts from past lives who, after telling you a secret, decides to kill you to silence you because you know it?
Harboring such doubts, Seo Jun waited for Christina to open her mouth.
“I went to Train on the first day because of a mission. Right away.”
Train, the city of magic and science.
Located in a mountain range with a quasi-state-level magnitude, this mega-city possessed enormous wealth thanks to its underground tunnels and the magical-engineering trains that transported massive amounts of goods through them.
Numerous factions still coveted the city even now, but the wealth and power built up by its technology, and the heroes born as a result, were sufficient to protect and operate the quasi-state-level city.
Since Train was a neutral city and located at the center of Pangaea, you could meet participants from various affiliations there.
From the first day, those who thought like Christina must have all gathered there.
“And I saw the Train-affiliated participants all pooling their achievement points together for something definitely related to the new items.”
Since it was a consumable and not a sacred relic or something, that it came from Train was quite a reasonable statement.
“Why are you telling me that?”
Because they’re both from Ashias?
“Just because. I saw that outside participants, even unaffiliated ones, could do the mission, and I realized something.”
“What?”
“Ah. This time, the History Book’s theme is going to be cooperation.”
Seo Jun had been thinking the same.
“But here we are fighting? Against Daran?”
Christina chuckled.
“It’s Atura, after all.”
That was true.
“Alright, then, Seo Jun? Let’s go.”
It wasn’t long before the commander announced that clashes had resumed.
They decided that Seo Jun would take the left side and Christina the right.
Just before departing.
“By the way, Seo Jun. How many achievement points have you saved? If you get first place in contributions there, it looks like you’ll be the first to enter the shop. Of course, there might be a Kael-exclusive story. Maybe through a prophecy or something?”
She’s perceptive.
Seo Jun answered honestly and left.
“200.”
In that moment, Christina’s expression soured.
***
Killing the soldiers was no different from dealing with minions that just looked different.
The mechanics were the same as fighting a regular hero, not minions, but it wasn’t difficult.
The hard part was dispatching them faster than the enemy.
Christina continued to dispatch the soldiers while mulling over Seo Jun’s words.
‘It’s ridiculous, though. *Cough.*’
She had spoken honestly.
She hadn’t told him everything, but since she predicted the main theme would be cooperation, she’d given the information to Kael without hesitation, expecting him to be a major force.
Surely Kael wouldn’t become a public enemy or something.
By his very nature as a hero, he simply couldn’t.
‘Unless he decided to go crazy and troll, telling everyone to come at him.’
Systemically, Kael was just a good-aligned role.
He couldn’t turn evil.
Corruption?
It was possible, in theory.
If the developers and the AI programmed it that way.
But if the theme of this History Book was Kael’s corruption, the participants would never have been chosen like this.
‘They would have chosen massively from Ashias and Daran, and from heroes related to them.’
Even if the participants were evil, that wouldn’t make them a public enemy within the History Book.
It would make them an enemy of the world.
Would a streamer, for whom public opinion mattered, do that?
They’d generate a huge anti-fanbase even among Koreans.
‘If he really saved 200, then probably….’
Whether through a prophecy or a special artifact that started showing strange reactions, wasn’t 200 an achievable amount for something like that?
Of course, if that artifact was something decisive, the required achievement points would probably have exceeded 400 or even 500.
‘But there’s no way he actually saved 200.’
There was no way they’d give out that kind of mission.
‘Even if he got the first kill… wait. Dennis? First kill?’
Feeling a slight chill, Christina shook her head.
‘Right, it was before anyone said Day 1 was about cooperation.’
That was the second reason she’d shared the information with Seo Jun.
It was to ask him not to kill the enemy if possible.
The more heroes survived, the better they could prepare against whatever was coming.
She’d wanted him to at least not force a retire, even if he met a Daran hero, an unaffiliated hero, or a traitor.
‘He understood that well enough, right?’
Having to hold back from a fight was very regrettable for her, too, but she had to act for the sake of successful content rather than for personal desire.
That was the weight they carried as representatives of their respective heroes.
Thinking that, the moment she swiftly dispatched a group of soldiers.
Up in the sky where Seo Jun had headed, a fissure was forming.
‘*Sigh.*’
Christina’s expression soured again.
This was a tactical weapon that just had a way of not working out as planned.
***
Contrary to what Christina thought, Seo Jun wasn’t fighting a Daran hero.
The cooldown of Judgment Sword was about 30 seconds.
Since their current specs were based on the max level in the game.
The front line in Atura was pushed back naturally the faster you killed the soldiers.
So, did that mean Seo Jun had used Judgment Sword right from the start?
“Ha.”
Surprisingly, it wasn’t even that.
Clearly, Judgment Sword hadn’t targeted any other hero.
It had simply struck the nearest Daran ordinary soldier on the right side from the starting point.
But the reason he said Seo Jun hadn’t used Judgment Sword to kill enemies quickly was.
“Wow, really. What does he take me for? This is seriously crossing the line.”
Because of the Daran noble hero speaking right now.
Sin.
His full name was long, but since it wasn’t displayed in the game, no one bothered to memorize this Daran hero.
And he was also.
[It seems the opponents really are two. Indeed.]
[Huh, this is kind of insulting.]
[Did the AI malfunction or something? Should I show him?]
[No… Still, let’s hold back. We just have to win the mission, and we have the advantage.]
[But what was that Judgment Sword just now? Should we fight?]
He was the third participant in the mission, silently listening to the conversation of the two who had been eyeing Atura since Day 1.
He remained quiet.
He wasn’t surprised that the opponents were two.
“He used Judgment Sword on an ordinary soldier? When he clearly saw me?”
The distance was such that voices could barely be heard.
But the sound of Seo Jun’s laughter, coming right after he’d used Judgment Sword, reached Sin with absolute clarity.
Then Seo Jun spoke.
“I thought an ultimate would be too excessive a welcome.”
“Ha. You know me? The Korean streamer?”
The participant of the hero Sin wasn’t top-tier, but he was a pro.
A second-year rookie.
That was why he had been ready to follow the advice of his two seniors in Daran to be careful.
But if they were looking down on him because he was a rookie.
If that was why they’d just thrown away Judgment Sword.
“Yeah.”
“You know my name?”
“Heretic. You’re just a heretic.”
The distance closed gradually.
“…….”
“An ultimate is too excessive a welcome for a heretic. I don’t need it to deal with you.”
At Kael’s bullshit, Sin eventually let out a hollow laugh.
Wasn’t this way too disrespectful, even if meant as an insult?
[Descent]
“Fine, let’s fight!”
Shouting at Seo Jun, he used his self-buffing ultimate and charged, and Seo Jun chuckled.
“Now it’s 2v2, heretic. Thanks to you, we win.”
Hearing those words, Sin’s eyes grew as wide as saucers.