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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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"...What the...?"
"That guy, he stood up...?"
Everyone in the audience gaped as the man, who had just moments ago been sitting motionless in a wheelchair, suddenly stood up.
The fact that he broke a sword with his bare hands was surprising enough, but his physique was much more imposing than they had anticipated.
Especially...
"Y-Yeongwoo?"Ottavio, a conservative from Sicily, looked more shocked than anyone else.
He knew better than anyone that this man had been genuinely paralyzed.
"Why is he suddenly...?"
If he was going to stand up now, why did he pretend to be weak earlier?
As Ottavio wore a confused expression, Yeongwoo grabbed the participant who had attacked him and effortlessly slammed him into the wall with one hand.
Thud!
"No matter how desperate you are, isn't it a bit cowardly to attack someone in a wheelchair first?"
He then attempted to break his opponent's neck with a knee strike.
"Uh, ugh...!"
But seeing his opponent, who had already lost the will to fight, made him reconsider.
Although he now had the upper hand, there was another reason.
'Damn, now that I think about it.'
He realized that he wasn't exactly in a position to demand fairness from his opponent either.
[Moral Points: 5]
The moral points glaring in the corner of his vision were proof of that.
'Yeah, there's no one more unfair in this dungeon than me.'
Wasn't he receiving excessively biased treatment because he was associated with Dogo, the organization that designed this dungeon?
Sure, his confinement to a wheelchair was due to Dogo's schemes, but the fact that he was now able to move around so freely was also thanks to Dogo's absurd quest rewards.
In other words, this wasn't a power Yeongwoo had earned fairly.
The fact that he was tormenting other participants with it right away made him feel like he was playing right into Dogo's hands, which annoyed him.
'I need to line up those bastards and give them a good beating someday.'
With that thought, Yeongwoo loosened his grip on his opponent's head.
'Besides, this is a dungeon. It's not like I can't stab a few people.'
However, letting his opponent go without any consequences didn't make sense.
Shook.
Yeongwoo took a step back and sized up his opponent.
"Do you want to die here?"
"...?"
The opponent, who had been dazed for a moment, slowly extracted himself from the wall and looked at Yeongwoo nervously.
"I-I'd rather live, if possible."
"Right? Then let's make a deal and walk out of here alive."
"What kind of...?"
Of course, the opponent responded positively, so Yeongwoo held up three fingers.
"Thirty million. Next time we meet, you give me thirty million Karma."
Hearing this, not only the opponent but also Ottavio and the other two participants who were facing off with swords were left speechless.
"...What are you doing?"
Ottavio now looked genuinely terrified.
"What do you mean? There's no one here who can kill me now. So instead of shedding pointless blood, I figured I might as well make some money."
"...?"
As Yeongwoo spoke seriously, the four participants were momentarily confused.
But Ottavio, of all people, dared to speak frankly to him.
"Y-You're insane."
"Choosing to die instead of accepting my offer is what's truly insane."
Without a moment's hesitation, Yeongwoo refuted and then turned back to his "business target."
"Thirty million. Then you're free."
"H-How do you plan to collect the money...?"
"Just tell me your name and where you live. I'll find a way to collect it at an appropriate time."
At Yeongwoo's words, his opponent blinked in confusion, speechless.
Because...
"I'm... in India."
The opponent whose life Yeongwoo was planning to collect later was an Indian.
While the world had been unified due to the Pangaea event, India was a huge country.
And while the land was connected, the borders between nations hadn't been opened yet.
So the opponent was questioning whether Yeongwoo could really come and find him.
But Yeongwoo didn't mind.
"Yeah? Where in India?"
"India... Assam State."
"And your name?"
"...Anubhav."
"So, your name is Anubhav, and you live in Assam, India?"
When Yeongwoo confirmed, Anubhav nodded.
"That's right."
"Good. Now you're thirty million in debt to me. I'm Jeong Yeongwoo from South Korea, your savior."
"..."
With a single stroke of the sword, a debt of thirty million was created.
Anubhav, the man from India, was left in a daze.
Then, he finally nodded.
"...I understand."
He had no choice but to agree.
After all, it was far better than dying a meaningless death in this dungeon.
He was also betting on the fact that this Korean wouldn't be able to track him down to collect the money.
In the meantime...
"Oh no!"
With a startled cry from Ottavio, the two participants who had been facing off against him suddenly bolted.
Tat tat!
They ran in the opposite direction down the corridor.
"Yeongwoo! They're getting away!"
Ottavio quickly reported the escape attempt, and just as Yeongwoo was about to chase after them...
Thud!
The two fleeing participants were struck by something and fell flat on the ground.
"Huh?"
"Wha...?"
Yeongwoo, Ottavio, and even the stunned Anubhav all widened their eyes at the unexpected situation.
Then, suddenly...
Clang!
A knight clad in full armor appeared from the side of the corridor where the escapees had just entered.
"Chair...!"
The knight's armor bore a resemblance to that of the Dogo Chairman, causing Yeongwoo to instinctively begin to shout "Chairman!" before quickly closing his mouth.
The knight had a different name displayed above his head.
「Vesedel Royal Guard」
"...Royal Guard?"
Then, the knight swung his massive sword and beheaded the two escapees in one swift motion.
Shhhk!
At that moment, Yeongwoo realized something.
Not only were the assassins who had infiltrated the Vesedel fortress, but also the knights defending it, all dungeon monsters.
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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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"You might want to step back a bit."
Ottavio took a few steps back, glancing at the heads rolling on the ground, but Yeongwoo instead took a step towards the knight.
"No, that's how you gain points in this dungeon."
「You can gain moral points in this dungeon by killing other participants, defeating elite monsters, or concealing exits from the fortress.」
According to the dungeon rules, defeating elite monsters also earned moral points.
In other words...
'If this knight can kill participants in one strike, he must be an elite monster.'
If Yeongwoo could defeat this knight, he wouldn't have to kill innocent people to gain moral points.
Step!
With his mind made up, Yeongwoo took two more steps forward.
The Royal Guard pulled his massive sword closer to his body and stared at Yeongwoo.
- ….
The weight of the atmosphere emanating from the knight was no joke.
It made Yeongwoo wonder if this was what the Chairman might have looked like in his prime, and his excitement grew even more.
'Could the Chairman have been a Royal Guard of the Vesedel royal family?'
It wasn't an impossible idea.
The strong resemblance between the knight's armor and the Chairman's, as well as the fact that the mythical weapon "Bastard" given to Yeongwoo by the Chairman was Vesedel's ultimate weapon, supported this theory.
'It wouldn't make sense for an ordinary guard to possess the royal family's ultimate weapon... Maybe he was the captain of the guards.'
Whatever the case, it was clear that this dungeon was designed based on the Chairman's memories or nightmares.
Clang!
Finally, the Vesedel Royal Guard assumed a full battle stance.
As Yeongwoo clenched his fist and prepared to charge, Ottavio, from behind, tossed him his weapon.
"Do you have a death wish?"
"Oh, thanks."
Tat!
Catching Ottavio's sword, Yeongwoo charged straight at the Royal Guard.
Tat tat!
The Royal Guard then executed a wide swing, similar to the one that had just decapitated the two participants.
Whooosh!
The power behind the swing was enough to make anyone question if it could even be blocked.
But Yeongwoo had no intention of foolishly trying to counter the attack directly.
After all, his reach was much longer than his opponent's.
「Dullahan's Sword」- Mutant One-Handed Sword
【The length of the sword is proportional to the user's height.】
When Yeongwoo swung his sword, its length extended to six meters, allowing him to strike at the Royal Guard's side from a distance.
Bang!
- …!
Though the knight's face was hidden beneath his helmet, his startled reaction was evident.
Meanwhile, Yeongwoo was already launching his second attack.
Bang!
Yeongwoo's strike hit the knight's left shoulder, causing the armor to dent significantly.
For the first time, the knight took a step back.
"It seems you're not invincible. Your durability is decreasing, right?"
Yeongwoo taunted the knight with an excited voice.
Anubhav, who had been contemplating leaving, cautiously offered,
"Should I lend you a broken sword or something? It might be better to have two weapons..."
Anubhav had finally realized the safest way to survive in this dungeon.
He instinctively knew that following this strange man might be his best chance of making it out alive.
"No, I'm good now!"
As Yeongwoo shouted this, the knight, now on the defensive, hastily swung his sword.
Whoosh!
Almost simultaneously,
Crack!
Yeongwoo's lightning-fast thrust pierced through the front of the knight's helmet.
Since this was still a dungeon, it wasn't designed to be unbeatable.
Thud!
The knight, with a hole in his helmet, fell backward, emitting a white smoke.
Ssssss!
「The problem has been resolved.」
「As the fastest participant to solve the problem, you are awarded 1 additional moral point.」
With this, Yeongwoo's moral points increased by 2.
Defeating an elite monster alone was worth 1 point.
"Wait!"
Yeongwoo quickly moved closer to the fallen knight to check his face, but it was too late.
The armor and everything inside it had already disintegrated.
Instead,
"Huh?"
A small blue orb was left where the knight had fallen.
Whoosh.
When Yeongwoo picked up the orb, something completely unexpected happened.
Fwoosh!
A wide holographic map projected itself above the orb.
"...This is..."
"Isn't this the fortress map?"
Ottavio and Anubhav, who had approached from behind, pointed excitedly at the hologram.
The map detailed their current location and the entire structure of the Vesedel fortress, complete with small notes.
"It looks like we're on the west side of the fortress, next to the moat,"
Said Ottavio, pointing to the west side of the hologram.
A blinking blue dot indicated the orb's current location, which Yeongwoo was holding.
"And this might be... the exit?"
Ottavio's finger moved to the eastern edge of the map, where an icon of a door was marked on a section of the fortress wall.
According to the map, they would have to cross the moat and garden to reach the eastern exit.
"It seems quite far, even on the map. We should hurry."
This fortress was patrolled by knights capable of killing participants with a single strike.
Regardless of the points, Ottavio and Anubhav were eager to escape as quickly as possible.
But Yeongwoo, the one in control, wasn't looking at the exit.
"......"
Instead, he was fixated on a completely different part of the map.
"Y-Yeongwoo? What are you looking at?"
Ottavio shook his head and followed Yeongwoo's gaze.
Soon, he noticed an icon with a wedge symbol, located in a large room further west from their current position.
Small text was written next to it:
―Commander of the Royal Guard, First Prince Dogo Vesedel.
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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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