Chapter 299
Seojun looked at the quest window again and again as he left the workshop building.
He had expected this, but the order was trickier than he thought.
*‘So they’re placing a restriction on reducing the number of participants.’*
It was because Seojun had become powerful, right then and there.
Before, the most important thing had been to not get caught. Now, regardless of getting caught or not, he had the option to kill any visible targets and reduce their numbers as much as possible.
*‘If I really wanted to clear the game that way, I would have done it ages ago.’*
The reason he hadn’t was simple.
Clearing the game too easily wasn’t necessarily a good thing either.
Anyway, that was the AI’s intention. And now they wanted him to catch three people.
*‘They’ve already scattered.’*
Only one person was waiting for Seojun outside the building.
Yon.
The others must have moved quickly the moment Seojun went inside. Even if they asked Seojun for information, the chance of him answering was slim, and any information worth staying for would probably be information they could obtain elsewhere eventually.
Seojun hadn’t given them any particular hint, either.
Then why had Yon, waiting for Seojun at the bottom of those stairs, stayed behind?
“Hyung-nim! Congratulations! Wow! Hyung-nim! As expected, you didn’t get first place in material collection for nothing! You grasped the shop and came out so quickly!”
For this.
Yon approached Seojun with a hearty laugh.
Of course, he knew too.
The chance of something falling into his lap was low.
The reason he had funneled materials to Seojun was, first of all, because they were cooperating, and cooperating with the most outstanding person, Seojun, was the most beneficial overall.
It wasn’t to share the first-place reward.
The two were cooperating with this explicitly stated beforehand.
Even so!
“Hyung-nim, did you get anything good? Surely, something good came out as first place in such a large-scale cooperation quest, right? Heh heh.”
Maybe he could get something?
Yon thought as he approached Seojun.
Seojun’s impression of this was.
*‘I feel a bit sorry.’*
If Yon had approached rubbing his hands together, it might have felt incredibly servile and amplified the guilt significantly.
Of course, it wouldn’t have changed anything.
“I did,” Seojun said.
“What is it, Hyung-nim?”
“An item. Costs 300 points.”
“Ohh! Woah…….”
Yon, who had been raising his tension while responding to Seojun’s words, seemed to lose all his energy upon hearing the item’s price of 300 points, as if a sudden wave of exhaustion hit him.
“Anything else……?”
“No. Four items, all costing 300 points.”
“Ah-ha……. So, can we see that shop tomorrow too?”
“It seems like Cresheet’s shop opened only for me, and proper consumables will likely open tomorrow.”
“Really? Hyung-nim, you didn’t see anything else besides those?”
“Yeah.”
“Let me see the item options. You’ll show me, right?”
“Here.”
Seojun took out the item and handed it to Yon.
Yon repeatedly exclaimed how jealous he was before returning the item to Seojun. What a good kid.
“Wow, I really can’t mess with you now, Hyung-nim. One hit and they’re gone, huh? This is an OP item.”
“Right.”
Since Seojun didn’t say much, Yon assumed he had just bought one item and that was it.
After receiving the item back, Seojun spoke.
“Yon, what are you going to do now?”
“Hmm……. I should go get some points, right? For me, points are more urgent than other quests or ruins. Could you perhaps give me some points?”
“If you need something from the shop tomorrow, I’ll buy it for you.”
“Ah, as expected of Hyung-nim. Your loyalty is the best.”
“I can hear all the curses you’re thinking. Yon.”
His eyes looked suspicious.
“Keu-heum. Anyway, I think I’ll go earn some points.”
“Yeah? Then let’s disband for now. See you here again tomorrow.”
“Got it. What will you be doing, Hyung-nim?”
“Points for me too.”
“Oh, shall we go together?”
The spots for earning points were fixed. So, Yon smiled and asked Seojun if they were going together.
If Seojun went, things would become a bit easier no matter what. Especially now that he had a cheat weapon.
“No,” Seojun replied.
“Why not? Don’t want to carry me on the bus?”
“It’s not that.”
“Don’t tell me…….”
“Maybe.”
“It’s not hunting, is it?”
Both Seojun and Yon knew well that a word was missing from the ‘hunting’ Yon mentioned.
Human hunting.
It wasn’t taboo, but no participant had ever gone that far to create anti-fans.
That was why it was a point-earning method that had never appeared unless someone was the mastermind.
“How did you know? There seems to be a suspicious group,” Seojun said.
“Haah……. Hyung-nim……. Fine, do as you please.”
So, Seojun felt slightly nervous.
He worried Yon might suspect, even a little, that he was the mastermind.
But Yon only worried about something else.
Worried that the number of participants would decrease.
Seojun smiled and said,
“Don’t worry. I can control the mastermind.”
Yon!
Gert!
They were so reliable.
***
A moment ago, Seojun had suggested just going to Singeom’s side and killing them all, but the quest couldn’t be that easy.
First, he was confident he could win the fight.
But he had a limit of 3 kills. If he exceeded 3 kills, he would lose his power. The quest would fail too.
*‘If there are more than six, I’ll have to avoid them.’*
Losing all the rewards was too much of a risk. Seojun didn’t like uncertainty.
Why take the risk when he was confident he could win by playing it straight?
*‘And I have to consider the people left on the train.’*
If he fought Singeom’s group on the train, the chance of witnesses appearing was high.
He could try to pass it off as Singeom’s doing, but that wasn’t a surefire method.
Someone might witness the fight.
That was why this was a tricky order.
“First, to the Guild branch.”
The biggest reason Seojun hadn’t bought the two Destroyer items earlier was the Guild.
Peon’s Mask—an item Seojun had used very well.
But there was another item in the Guild shop that could be just as useful, which was…
“Give me some Peon’s Gloves.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
“Three of them? Oh my. Why does the Arbiter need so many gloves?”
Noisy.
Peon’s Gloves had the effect of making the opponent drop their belongings upon a kill. Belongings included achievement points.
The gloves were consumable. Price: 30 points.
Hardly anyone bought them, but they were a good item nonetheless.
Besides, he was the mastermind. A mastermind who could use achievement points.
So far, no mastermind other than Seojun had been able to use achievement points.
*‘Though the rewards I get from stats will probably be lower. The person of unknown identity, maybe the real raider, progressed the quest for two days. I’ll probably be about that much short, right?’*
The AI would adjust it that way.
Precisely because of that, Seojun had to make the most of using these achievement points.
Even if he did the hunting openly, he was the mastermind, so there wouldn’t be a problem.
Anti-fans?
Anti-fans are fans too.
“Preparations are done. Now I’ll begin.”
Seojun left the Guild branch building and put on his mask. Then he loosened his neck from side to side and clasped his hands behind his back.
He headed to the square.
There was a high probability they would be there, but even if not, as long as he asked around all day, he’d likely meet them within the day.
“Maybe you’d rather I came looking for you. Isn’t that right, everyone?”
***
Singeom looked around with satisfaction.
He had faced a completely unexpected situation where the majority didn’t believe his words at all, but Seojun was still Seojun.
After all, three people who simply disliked Seojun, and one person who showed interest in his words.
A total of four had shown interest and stayed in the basement.
Although he truly couldn’t understand why no one believed him, talking with them helped him figure out the situation.
*‘To extort points like that, and even do favorability work…’*
Vicious.
So utterly vicious that a weak thought briefly flashed through Singeom’s mind—what if he had just never gotten involved with that bastard from the beginning, and if he hadn’t appeared in the history books.
How could a person come up with such an idea?
But, just as he was that evil, it was also clear they had to overthrow him.
Above all, simply because he was the mastermind.
“That guy must have monopolized the top rewards by now, right?”
“It’s not too late yet. Let’s just catch him.”
“With four or five people, we have more than enough to catch him. Why didn’t we think to properly band together sooner?”
Of course, three of them didn’t seem to really believe he was the mastermind, but that was fine.
Whatever other intentions they had, they just needed to catch that bastard.
The one person who had shown interest in Singeom’s words had gone out a little while ago to look around the train, saying they’d join if they launched an attack.
“So, brothers, when shall we go catch him?”
Simgeom, who had been listening to the conversation, asked his group.
It didn’t seem like Seojun would come out of the workshop yet, but it was about time they started preparing the ambush.
“Why don’t we just call him here openly? Through our private quest? And when he comes, let’s catch him, regardless of the quest.”
“Let’s finish him in 5 minutes.”
“The ones who did 3 on 1 earlier were half-assing it, but we have no intention of going easy.”
“By the way, is there anyone here who went to the Guild shop? Considering the rewards, we should probably buy some Peon items.”
“The one making the kill has to buy those.”
While they were chatting like that,
someone began descending into the basement.
An hour ago, Singeom had come down frantically shouting, but now the footsteps of the person descending were very relaxed.
“Who is it? That guy who went to look around earlier…….”
Singeom knew.
“No, it’s that bastard. Everyone prepare for an ambush.”
His senses were telling him. In such a moment, only one bastard would be that relaxed and deliberately exude pressure.
“What? Already?”
That bastard was coming to fight right now.
“That’s right, Singeom. Correct answer.”
Following that, Seojun appeared from the staircase corridor with a smiling face, hands clasped behind his back.
“So it was you.”
“No, not that. Something else is the correct answer.”
“What?”
“Let’s see. One, two, three, four. When I saw you earlier, it seemed like about five people. Where did one go? It just had to be four, too. How lucky.”
“Why? Going to kill us all? You think you can?”
“…….”
Seojun just gave a wide, silent smile as his answer.
Currently, Seojun was blocking the basement corridor.
Other passageways would open in an evacuation situation; normally, only that one spot behind Seojun was used.
As Seojun stood still, Singeom grew anxious and spoke to a ranged dealer among his group.
“Shoot him. Let’s check his HP first.”
“But is he really the mastermind?”
“Would he be acting like that if he weren’t!”
“Hold on,” Seojun said.
“Why, what.”
“Mr. Singeom. What will you do if I kill all your followers?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Where on earth did you go after leaving the train to fall into temptation? Did you want revenge against me that badly? Even if it meant joining hands with the mastermind? Even sacrificing the people beside you?”
The group turned their eyes toward Singeom, wondering what that was about.
“Ah, that crazy bastard. He’s starting again.”
But Singeom knew.
He had simply gone crazy. Completely crazy.
Seojun eventually clasped his hands together, knelt down, and closed his eyes.
“Ahhh…….”
“…….”
“I have seen the future. I see you, Singeom, all alone.”
At those words, Singeom prayed as hard as he could for the remaining one to return.
A foreboding energy seemed to envelop his body.