Chapter 345
[Hahahahahaha!]
[Hehehehehehe. Wow, Yoonho hyung is seriously legendary.]
[Ah, so that was Ha Yoonho. It was my first time seeing him in person, and I was so surprised that I didn’t realize it…… Hehe.]
Shut Up and Game trailed off awkwardly at the end of his sentence.
His voice had also grown quieter.
- LOLLLLLL
- Absolutely legendary LOLLLLL
- Pretending not to recognize him even after seeing him
-Yoonho, this is embarrassing
-Wow, if he’d caught that, how many resources would he have gotten? LOL
People tended to think alike.
Taewoo asked the exact same question Seojun’s viewers had asked.
[Wow, how many resources were there at that point?]
[There were three slots full of low-grade metal ore, so 300.]
Seojun corrected him.
“Precisely, it was 297. You mined exactly three slots’ worth.”
Ninety-nine per slot.
Seojun even kept track of how many resources they currently had at home.
Whenever their resources decreased each time they went back and forth, he would say things like, “We’ve been robbed,” as an extra.
[Seojun, let’s just let that one go.]
There had also seemed to be about one slot’s worth of scrap metal and junk combined.
Anyway.
“Yeah.”
It was time for the morning meeting.
They laughed together as they watched the video of what had happened to Shut Up and Game.
They had not logged in yet.
“Then let’s set today’s objective.”
Joam had taken the last watch, so the seven people excluding him began deciding what they needed to do that day.
“Today, we have to make a choice. The Survivor Camp is about to open, but we can also go to a Tier 3 farming area.”
All Tier 3 farming areas consisted of raids.
The original meaning of raid was to form a raiding party or special forces unit and launch an assault.
The raids in the Tier 3 farming areas were the same thing, except the targets were NPCs rather than the opposing teams’ bases.
They were the bosses commonly found in games.
“We’re almost fully prepared, so we should be able to make one or two attempts today.”
[Right.]
[If we raid, we can finally get things like rocket launchers, right? Then we should immediately go siege another team.]
“Yes.”
They were currently the only team capable of accessing Tier 3.
And if they succeeded in Tier 3 farming today, the gap between them and the other teams would widen to an extent that could never be overcome in this game.
In other words, this was the optimal timing. If they succeeded, the opposing teams would not be able to sleep properly tonight.
They would never know when they might be attacked.
“Of course, that also means—”
[They’ll immediately try to check us. They’ll attempt to stop us in advance. While we’re raiding. No matter what.]
[That would be fatal. As Lord Doyul said, they’ll definitely come.]
[How about this? Tactical Jin Seojun Drop! We have him raid alone while we deal with the teams coming to interfere.]
[Mr. Taewoo……]
[Yes?]
[That’s actually a good idea.]
[Right, Rich Guy? Then send me a donation!]
[I approve!]
For the record, at some point the two of them had started fooling around like that.
They did not actually make any donations.
It was unfortunate for Taewoo.
“Yes, they’ll definitely come to stop us. If we’re the only ones with Tier 3 weapons and use them to widen the gap even further, it’ll be hell for them.”
Even Seojun thought that situation would be truly horrifying.
From the opposing teams’ perspective, that was.
Most of the teams might be dragged around by Seojun and Baek Doyul for the rest of the game.
It would be like Lastra, with the two of them going around collecting protection money every morning and evening.
‘That wouldn’t be very fun.’
Wouldn’t it be too one-sided?
“So there’s a second option. Instead of forcing a Tier 3 attempt right now, we go to the Survivor Camp.”
The Survivor Camp was, simply put, an unarmed event zone.
There, they could complete quests or exchange resources for coins.
Those coins could then be used to obtain various items necessary for survival, and players could not attack one another.
The camp had various events, including a gambling system. Though it had no weapons, it could become a game changer for teams that had gathered a large amount of resources.
[Do we really need to go to the camp?]
“Yes. Our victory condition isn’t simply to kill a lot of enemies.”
Their goal was to earn as many of the achievements prepared by the production team as possible.
There were an enormous variety of achievements.
And there was no way the achievements used to determine the winner of the survival game would be limited to combat achievements alone.
[When it comes to combat, thanks to Mr. Seojun, we’re probably first in every category……]
Baek Doyul had just acknowledged it himself.
Number of kills.
Kills per life.
Cumulative damage.
Number of resources looted.
And so on.
It was obvious that Seojun—or their team—would be leading countless combat statistics.
All thanks to Seojun.
But the others were unknown.
And among the things they could do at the Survivor Camp, there were naturally achievements to be earned as well.
What Seojun was suggesting was that, rather than force a Tier 3 raid while being harassed by the other teams, they should secure those achievements here instead.
There had been plenty of debate over whether going straight to Tier 3 was truly too reckless, but in the end, they reached a consensus.
The snowball could keep rolling even after they went to the Survivor Camp.
If they did not want to spend the rest of the game making boring patrol rounds every day as though policing their future play, they should simply go to the Survivor Camp and roll their snowball there.
That was their conclusion.
“Sounds good.”
The Survivor Camp would open once certain conditions were met.
It was the third day.
They had fulfilled almost all the conditions, so it would open sometime today—or immediately, if they wanted it to.
* * *
Lastra was a survival game.
It was also much like life.
To enjoy one entertaining raid, you had to endure several boring hours of backbreaking labor.
But that boring labor—
“How is it!”
The team members had already taken care of it all over the past few days, day and night.
Especially Rich Guy and Shut Up and Game.
‘Are they machines?’
In fact, without any of them knowing it yet, the two had both survived several times because they had pretended not to recognize people.
The enemy teams they had killed without realizing they were Seojun’s team were now trembling in fear as the third day began.
That was an untold story that would be revealed later.
Still, Ha Yoonho was the first person they had let go even after making eye contact.
In that sense, Ha Yoonho truly was remarkable.
“Good. Then let’s go donate resources to the camp.”
Ha Yoonho’s team, Bear and Lion’s teams, the Raiders, and both Hunter teams were all streaming.
So it was inevitable that they would have a rough grasp of the overall situation.
Everyone streamed so that information would naturally be shared, and they made good use of that information.
“Let’s go.”
The location of the Survivor Camp differed in every game.
The farming areas were usually the same.
So the first thing they had to do was find the Survivor Camp’s location.
But since even that had already been revealed, they armed themselves and headed toward the camp’s spot.
“Maybe it’s because it’s morning, but there aren’t any subcontractors.”
After the first day, encountering other people had become quite difficult.
That was the power of a twenty-four-hour server.
Of course, with so many people, never encountering anyone at all was difficult, but still.
The camp was explained as something constructed within the game.
Naturally, building something required resources.
Those resources came from the users, and once a certain amount had been gathered, the camp was created.
The resources poured in during construction were naturally converted into coins afterward, and the exchange rate gave them an additional fifteen percent compared to the normal camp exchange rate.
“All right, let’s pour them in.”
After arriving at the camp site, they began pouring in a tremendous amount of resources.
They approached the relevant NPC and repeatedly summoned the exchange window, literally feeding it items by the armful.
-Whew
-A wealthy nation! A strong army!
-Rich Guy really is great
-How dare you say Rich Guy is “great”?
-They’re going to get a ridiculous number of coins with that fifteen-percent bonus
-But they’re going to use those coins to go to Tier 4 now, right……?
-It’d be hilarious if they gambled LOLLLLLL
And as they continued feeding resources into the system, at a certain point—
“Hey. Looks like we’re about ready. That should be enough.”
The NPC spoke, then disappeared into the camp.
A server-wide message appeared.
[The Survivor Camp has opened.]
At the same time, their vision flickered.
A little more slowly than the speed at which their eyelids closed and reopened to reveal the world.
It flickered slowly enough for them to perceive it.
Flash!
The entrance to the camp had appeared before their eyes.
[Attacking other players inside the Survivor Camp may cause you to become the Arbitrator’s target. Be careful.]
The Arbitrator.
This AI, considered one of the ultimate bosses, appeared when someone committed murder in a safe zone.
Once it appeared, it was an extremely troublesome NPC that would pursue and kill the offending user until the server ended, unless it was captured first.
As an individual, it enjoyed considerable freedom, and it possessed every elite weapon known as a Tier 4 weapon.
Rocket launchers included. Furthermore, if a player who had become the Arbitrator’s target moved beyond a certain distance, the Arbitrator would begin eliminating the player’s sleeping bags one by one.
Eventually, the Arbitrator would come to their home as well.
One mistake could result in forty consecutive rockets being fired at their house, so a player who awakened the Arbitrator had to do one of two things:
Kill the Arbitrator, or keep playing tag and run away.
“Let’s be careful, Seojun.”
“Me?”
“Seriously, let’s be careful.”
“Me?”
“If the Arbitrator appears in this situation, we’re screwed. Even if we kill it, it won’t really be dead. We don’t have a weapon capable of dealing proper damage, and it’ll turn into a complete disaster. We didn’t set up any sleeping bags.”
When raiding the Arbitrator, players would install sleeping bags all over the map like lunatics to prevent their homes from being destroyed. This was called sleeping-bag farming.
“Hahaha. Lord Seojun will surely take care of himself this time. Lord Seojun doesn’t go out of his way to kill people.”
“Exactly, Lord Imua. Seojun doesn’t go out of his way to kill people. But if there’s a reason, that crazy psychopath will kill them anyway, you know?”
That was the problem.
Taewoo glared at Seojun, while Seojun proudly puffed out his chest, pulled a gun from his inventory, and slung it over his shoulder.
“Don’t worry. I won’t kill anyone.”
“Put the gun away first!”
- LOLLLLLL
-Arbitrator’s specialty: turning every camp into the Stone Age in the name of arbitration LOL
-The Arbitrator kind of resembles the host, doesn’t he?
-The Arbitrator is just a crazy gear abuser
-But even if the host says that, he really doesn’t kill people
-The current kill leader is Jin Seojun. What kind of nonsense are you talking about? LOLLLLLL The host really is a psychopath LOL
-Still, surely he won’t kill anyone. If the Arbitrator appears at this point, we’re genuinely screwed. We can’t deal any damage
-System-wise, you basically need a Tier 3 weapon just to meet the minimum requirements for the Arbitrator LOL
-Ah LOL This time we might actually get to see the host control his temper!
Their team entered the camp first and began enjoying its various contents.
The teams that had been watching from outside, as well as the teams that had seen the server-wide message inside the game, began gathering at the Survivor Camp one by one.
A safe zone.
A place where they could calmly converse, form temporary alliances, and even barter with one another.
All of that was possible because fighting was suppressed there.
However.
It was said that in primitive societies, people observed etiquette because everyone could respond to violence with violence.
In civilized societies, on the other hand, laws and public order existed, which sometimes allowed rude people to appear.
One hour after the Survivor Camp had been established in Lastra, a world resembling the wilderness—
That theory was proven.
A server-wide message warning the users to prepare appeared.
[The Arbitrator is appearing.]
Someone unknown had caused trouble.