Episode 346
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Nobody made it to Tier 3, but the Arbiter appearedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
==
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
What a complete mess!
==
-Is this about that server?
└Yeah. Man vs. Gamer (OP)
└A boring serverㅋ
└It’s about to get really funㅋㅋㅋㅋ The Arbiter appeared (OP)
└Who summoned the Arbiter?
└Take a guess (OP)
└Obviously. That bastard, right? The streamer who loves showing off. His personality’s awful.
└As expected of a Last stanㅋㅋㅋ But will it really be him? What if that streamer you mentioned kept provoking everyone else? (OP)
└That’s possible 엌ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It is possible, right? (OP)
└Ah, damn it, why are you making me curious? And now that the Arbiter’s appeared, that server’s finishedㅋ
* * *
One hour before the Arbiter appeared in this land because of someone’s trolling.
Last’s former team had been keeping an eye on Seojun’s team’s movements.
And just as they had said during the morning meeting, the moment the others opened the Survivor Camp, they logged into the game.
To head to the camp.
Aside from the teams that had played during the night, when the competition was low, most of the teams entered virtual reality at this time.
The most important thing to be careful of when entering the camp was dying just before reaching the safe zone.
Of course, the safe zone extended to a considerable distance around the camp and was fairly large, so lying in wait and picking people off was difficult.
But this was right after the camp had opened.
It was the time when every team was most likely to come in carrying as many resources as they could, and there were bound to be raiders looking to make a quick haul.
Above all, Seojun, who had created the camp, might have been waiting for this exact moment. So the users began carefully planning their routes into the camp.
Once they were inside, things would be different.
“Phew.”
“So it opened right away after all.”
“They must’ve had a lot of resources.”
“Considering where those resources came from, wouldn’t it be obvious that they had a lot?”
They came from them.
Every team except the three whose routes had never crossed with Seojun’s had been robbed by him at least once.
The team that had suffered the most was Ha Yunho’s.
Of course, they—
“Let’s go to the camp a little later, shall we? Something might happen.”
“That’s right, Yunho! In the end, we might be the winners because we haven’t died even once!”
“That’s right!”
Still hadn’t died even once.
Everyone knew they had lost a great deal, so from the second day onward, they had been able to farm without dying—in a different sense from Seojun’s team being rich.
They were willing to exploit even people’s sympathy, but they still had one problem left to solve: sympathy did not work on Seojun.
In any case, the teams began approaching the safe zone one by one.
Last’s veteran team.
The survival experts.
The two Hunter teams.
Two ordinary teams.
While seven of the eleven teams gathered, Seojun’s team quickly began preparing to sweep up the Survivor Camp’s content.
The content here was not first come, first served.
But achievements could be.
“I’m going gambling!”
Taeu naturally accepted the reward coins for creating the camp from the NPC in the center and announced to his teammates.
Baek Doyul, the Riches, and I Mua, who were receiving their coins alongside him, sighed. Meanwhile, Tasting Corner kept clenching and unclenching his hands, as if his body was itching to type in the chat.
“Good grief. Taeu.”
“What?”
Seojun was the de facto leader.
They had said from the beginning that it would be a co-leader system with Baek Doyul, but as Baek Doyul gradually lost his enthusiasm, Seojun became the sole leader.
So all of them gazed at Seojun with one shared hope: that he would scold Taeu, take away his coins, and make him do something more valuable and more befitting a victor.
Seojun noticed this. After clearing his throat a few times, he continued.
“Listen carefully.”
“Yeah……”
“I’m the one gambling.”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“Everyone, get moving.”
Seojun gave them a bright smile.
There weren’t many events in the camp that required much physical ability.
Baek Doyul and I Mua were more than enough.
“I knew it.”
“You’re the host, after all.”
“Wow, I thought he was unbelievable when I was just a viewer……. But now that I’m on his team, he’s even worse……”
Though criticism began pouring in, Seojun did not so much as blink.
“Donation confiscated.”
“Hmm. Should I not gamble?”
Seojun seriously reconsidered.
“No, just do it. I’ll donate.”
“Okay.”
-Hostㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That’s so pathetic
-Seriously, this is the pinnacle of pathetic
-Ah, damn, I want to punch the host through the chatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-They say they’ll gladly take a punch if it comes with a donation
-Anyway, let’s gamble!
They moved to their respective positions and began doing what they had come to do.
“So we increase our coins together, then obtain the special materials needed to advance to Tier 4 here.”
They would complete the camp-development quests to earn coins and contribution points.
They would use those to upgrade the rewards they received and climb higher themselves.
[Wow, the other teams are already coming in. They’re seriously fast.]
[Mr. Seojun, don’t lose too much.]
[No, please don’t start fighting.]
Thinking that this sort of gambling should really be done by Joseon’s Assassin, who was still standing guard at home, Seojun began spinning the roulette wheel.
The number of coins he bet was one.
‘I didn’t come here to gamble.’
To earn the Gambling King achievement, he needed to wager a large number of coins.
To earn the Gambling Addict achievement, he simply needed to gamble a lot.
The important thing was that both of those things were pointless.
They were in no way necessary for survival.
Even so, Seojun had come here to gamble because this was a place where it was easy to draw people’s attention.
“Ah, everyone, let me tell you my real goal now.”
[What?]
[Ah, what is it? Don’t tell me…….]
[Am I the only one feeling uneasy?]
* * *
Atrax of the Slayer team sighed and stepped out of the capsule.
He had been the last one standing guard—for a full five hours.
It was almost time to sleep. Because of the time difference with Korea, it was an ordinary bedtime, which was also why he had been assigned the final watch.
“I should check my email and the streams before I go to bed.”
It was an email containing the Slayer team’s next strategy.
He had heard that they were heading to the camp, so he came out while reading through the email and turned on the streams.
The streams of every team.
He wanted to organize the situation as much as possible before going to sleep.
“They’re all at the camp.”
But something was strange about the community.
There were discussions about the Arbiter and all sorts of arguments breaking out.
[Why the Arbiter Can Never Be Summoned]
[That Streamer Has an Absurd Goal!]
[That’s Delusion]
[Why the Arbiter Must Never Appear Right Now]
They were negative and skeptical.
But they did not explain what had caused it.
“What is this?”
Judging from the email, it was clear that the streamer had not done anything particularly strange.
At worst, he seemed distracted by the Survivor Camp and needed to be wary of the others secretly heading to Tier 3.
But—
“C-crazy.”
Once he understood the whole story, the words escaped him automatically.
“I have to log in and stop them right now……”
There was a two-hour entry restriction.
There was no way to communicate with them either.
“No! Please, just don’t go near him!”
Seojun’s stated goal was simple.
Incredibly simple, yet equivalent to dropping a nuclear bomb.
Despite Atrax’s prayers, the people who had come to the Survivor Camp and finished their tasks there naturally began gathering at the gambling house where Seojun was.
The gambling house.
It was impossible to resist.
Jin Seojun was there?
Absolutely impossible to resist.
[Hahaha. We finally meet.]
People began gathering.
[It’s nice to meet you, Bear. You’ve been so far away that I haven’t seen you for the past two days.]
[Indeed. I hope your gambling goes well. I’ll be off, then. We’ll meet again soon.]
Some wanted to speak to him at least once while passing by.
[Hello, I’m a fan.]
[Thank you. But have we met before?]
[Fortunately, not yet.]
Others seemed to know why he was being so friendly.
At last, the Slayer team also arrived where Seojun was.
There were many spectators watching the gambling around Seojun.
They chatted, watched for a while, then went off to do their own tasks.
‘Please don’t provoke him. Please.’
To Atrax, the person who looked especially furious compared to the others was their leader.
It was understandable. He had witnessed all the humiliation they had suffered on the first day.
[Hahahaha! I hope that fails. Did it fail?]
“It failed.”
What kind of greeting was that, right from the start?
Seojun calmly turned around, confirmed his identity, and then lit up.
[Ah, hello. You’re the leader of the Slayer team, right? Your name is Ray?]
[Yes.]
[I’m Jin Seojun. Nice to meet you.]
[This isn’t our first meeting, though. Haha.]
[Even so, isn’t this our first time having a conversation in a safe place?]
Putting particular emphasis on “safe,” Seojun smiled and continued gambling.
[How many coins did you bet?]
[One.]
[You’re not very daring, are you?]
[Indeed.]
[Then you didn’t come here to gamble, did you? What did you come here for?]
[Well…….]
[May I take a guess?]
[Go ahead.]
Ray began explaining in a calm and courteous manner.
His gaze was rude, but Seojun accepted that as well.
[Your superficial goal is the frying pan. You’ve been going around saying that you can win everything if you have it. I believe that. You’re arrogant, after all.]
[Am I?]
[Yes. You have the right to be arrogant, of course. Though you have been rather lucky since two days ago.]
[Thank you. I think I have been lucky too.]
[What?]
[I encountered you as an enemy. Haha.]
[…….]
“Wow.”
[Please continue.]
[……Yes. Anyway, you’ve been rolling your snowball along diligently. But today, you suddenly opened the Survivor Camp right away.]
[That’s right.]
[I wondered why you opened it instead of going straight to Tier 3. The Seojun I know would start the Tier 3 raid, saying it didn’t matter who tried to interfere.]
[…….]
[But when I thought about it, Mr. Seojun, you don’t actually act recklessly.]
[So?]
[You got scared, didn’t you?]
“Please stop! You weren’t even this talkative before! I’m telling you, the server’s going to blow up!”
* * *
“You got scared, didn’t you?”
Ray had noticed that ever since Seojun had died once in the three-on-one raid, he had been more cautious about fighting.
As their level of equipment rose, the gap would narrow. More precisely, Seojun would become a threat as well.
It was simple logic.
That was why he described opening the Survivor Camp as being scared.
“We decided to stop you from successfully farming Tier 3 today. That’s all it would take. And it’s a fairly simple matter, especially considering that you got scared and opened the Survivor Camp.”
Seojun nodded as if encouraging him to continue.
“Most likely, Mr. Seojun was aiming to launch a surprise raid the moment everyone’s attention turned toward the Survivor Camp. And that would happen within the two hours after the camp opened, when each team’s sentry had gone out and couldn’t return. There’s about an hour left. So from now on, I’ll watch you for exactly one hour.”
“Oh. Then I’ll have to scrap that plan.”
“Hahaha. In the end, Mr. Seojun, you chose to head to the Tier 3 farming grounds when even your enemies could farm Tier 3. But there’s no other way to describe that except as being scared, is there?”
If Seojun really wanted to reach Tier 4, the road ahead would be the most critical point.
So he absolutely needed to widen the gap now, yet he had chosen to play it safe instead of widening the gap?
The snowball would continue rolling, but this would not create a foothold strong enough to endure until they advanced to Tier 4.
If this wasn’t being scared, then what was?
The only move left was a surprise raid.
And Ray would stop it.
“I’ll follow you for the next hour. If you leave the safe zone, I’ll assume you’re launching a raid and team up with the others. So, what will you do? I recommend giving up on Tier 4. It’s already impossible. Or you could choose to raid the farming grounds somehow. But if you do, I’ll do everything I can to stop you. Even if it means sacrificing an entire day.”
Since Seojun giving up on Tier 4 would be no different from a victory for him, Ray smiled happily.
And at last, Seojun opened his mouth.
“Do you have quite a lot of coins?”
“Yes, plenty. I’m holding all the coins belonging to the team right now. So what can you do? The safe zone you opened……”
“Wow, I was wondering who I should kill and summon it with, but the golden goblin walked right to me.”
Seojun cut Ray off and slowly pulled a gun from his item window.
Bang!
Bang!
“Huh……?”
Bang!
“You are rather talkative, but thank you. I really am lucky.”
[You have killed a user inside the safe zone.]
[The Arbiter has appeared.]
[The Arbiter will now come looking for you.]
That was right. There was no twist.
Seojun was the one who summoned the Arbiter.
[Huh? A server message? Did the host cause trouble after all? You are the host, right?]
[Wow, they say the Arbiter is Last’s worst boss, but the host really did it.]
[The server’s blown up. That’s all there is to it. Hahaha.]
[Jin Seojun was aiming for this from the start! He should’ve just gone to farm Tier 3. Ah, damn it.]
[Haha, should we be emptying out everything in our houses even now?]
“Now, let’s go catch it. Just like we planned! Doesn’t this count as a Tier 3 raid too?”
Seojun leisurely looted Ray’s corpse.
It was very sweet.
[No, I’m telling you, you can’t catch it!]