Final Battle (1)

Three days passed in relative silence after Otto finished off the remaining Throskarts with a combination of poison and treacherous spells.

The final group of Throskarts Otto faced was actually the strongest among them, as they belonged to the mastermind's party.

Still, they weren't particularly difficult to kill.

At least, not after they were inevitably extremely weakened by the poison.

A hunch began to form in Otto's mind.

Individual puzzle pieces put themselves together to form a much larger picture.

Otto had a feeling that the entire fight for the 100,000 point coin had been staged, with unwitting, and unwilling participants.

Where the goal of the show was entirely for him.

Otto lowered his eyes so his expression couldn't be seen.

At this point, his title to 'toggle off' his watchers was still in effect.

Yet he had a sneaking feeling that not all of them had disappeared.

He cast his eyes on his surroundings over and over again, looking for even the smallest disturbances of the air, suggesting the presence of mana.

But no matter how he tried, he was able to detect nothing of the sort.

Otto's eyes glittered as he once again glanced down at his token.

It was now a vivid, royal purple.

He himself didn't know if this was the last color available.

He checked his game screen.

[Current Rank: 2]

[Points: 714,683]

While he couldn't see their points, Otto could tell that he was far and away ahead of the number three contestant.

Otto also didn't know who the number one was, but whoever it was had either obtained the million point coin, or been sponsored with incredible numbers of gifts to boost them.

But he remained unconcerned.

In fact, Otto hadn't even bothered to hunt for the past few days, instead focusing entirely on training inside his mental space.

Incidentally, for Otto, it had been almost a month since the 'battle' for the 100,000 point coin.

But a gnawing sense of danger left Otto unable to fully relax.

His intuition seemed to be screaming warnings at him.

Otto left his mental space to eat without bothering to wait for Jackal.

Over the past three days, Jackal was also absent increasingly often, and came back looking exhausted yet having found fewer and fewer coins.

Fortunately, for these three days, no one bothered to try to ambush him again at the stone house.

All was deceptively quiet.

Otto couldn't help but compare it to the calm before a storm.

It wasn't until the final day of the game show that something unusual occurred.

Otto's surroundings turned gray.

He also received a surprising notification.

[You have encountered a hidden mission.]

[Hidden Mission difficulty detected to be above your selected difficulty.]

Otto was overjoyed by this.

His grip on the stone table before him tightened.

Fists clenched and unclenched strongly enough to directly shatter the stone.

Hidden missions were not particularly rare.

But they were impossible to trigger just by knowing some information about a floor or its surroundings.

Otto didn't know if they were encountered due to luck, or if there were hidden conditions to trigger them that were impossible to find out.

Otherwise, Otto would definitely have triggered quite a few in the <Tutorial> too.

Because they were always incredibly lucrative.

In his past life, Otto had encountered and successfully completed quite a few of these hidden missions.

His familiarity with them was high.

The options that appeared in text weren't confusing in the slightest.

[Hidden Mission: Obtain the 1,000,000 point coin.]

[Details: Successfully obtain and use the 1,000,000 point coin, and stay alive for the following 90 minutes.]

[You have four options.]

[1. Give up the hidden mission. This process is not reversible, and you will not receive any rewards, even if you complete the hidden mission after giving it up.]

[2. Lower the difficulty of the hidden mission significantly to <Extreme> and challenge the hidden mission. Reward for a successful challenge will be decreased by 80%.]

[3. Lower the difficulty of the hidden mission slightly to <Titled I> and challenge the hidden mission. Reward for a successful challenge will be the typical reward for this hidden mission.]

[4. Do not lower the difficulty of the hidden mission and challenge the hidden mission. Reward for a successful challenge will be increased by 50%.]

[In case of failure, penalties are halved.]

[You have ten minutes to decide.]

Otto lowered his head and contemplated for a second.

The fact that the hidden mission was considered 'above his difficulty level' spoke volumes of the perilous danger hidden in the mission itself.

It wasn't that gathering the 1,000,000 point coin itself would be hard.

At least, Otto didn't think this was the challenging part.

No, he had to gather the coin, use it, and then stay alive for 90 minutes.

Meaning he almost certainly would have to face the attacks of everyone else who wanted it.

Moreover, he currently had no idea how many Throskarts were already surrounding it.

To speak frankly, with this difficulty, it was possible that there were dozens of thousands of Throskarts that would be fighting with him for the coin.

Of course, Otto was absolutely not contemplating whether or not to take the mission.

To him, this was a no-brainer.

And hidden difficulty missions were always very lucrative.

He was currently weighing his options as to the difficulty of the challenge.

Otto actually knew he'd receive a fantastic reward even if he were to lower the difficulty level.

Moreover, he was sure he could complete the mission on <Titled I> difficulty.

After all, he had basically already passed the floor, since he was currently training while waiting for the preliminaries to end.

But the thought of an even better reward just wouldn't leave Otto's mind.

Or maybe it was in his bones to wish for a thrilling challenge.

In the end, before even two minutes had passed, Otto decisively selected the final option.

Colors bled back into the scenery and the world around regained its colors.

And it was at precisely this moment that Jackal burst in once more.

His eyes gleamed brightly in the afternoon sun.

"Otto, there's more news!"

Otto raised his head and glanced at the boy. His eyes were unreadable; it was impossible to discern his thoughts.

For some reason, Jackal felt slightly nervous at his gaze.

But a moment later, Otto revealed a blinding smile that showed off his pearly white teeth.

"The million point coin has been found?"

His eyebrow was raised slightly, and his expression gave off a hint of good humor.

But Jackal somehow found this expression of Otto's even scarier.

He shivered subconsciously.

What was wrong with him today? Why did he feel like Otto was becoming increasingly dangerous?

Nevertheless, he still dutifully answered,

"Y-yes! My helper told me he got some inside news, but there hasn't been word on the location yet…"

Jackal leaned in to whisper,

"I think it probably hasn't been found yet, or else maybe it would have already been stolen…"

Otto smirked at the boy and nodded.

"What are we waiting for?"

"Let's set off."

************************************************

This time, because he didn't know the coin's exact location, Otto decided to use the title's effect.

Jackal was once again slung over his shoulder as he blitzed through the forest.

As Otto's body got stronger in proportion to the number of points he obtained, his speed likewise increased.

He was now closer to the speed of a supercar from back on Earth.

Well, fortunately he was more agile by a long shot than a traditional supercar, so he had no trouble weaving both his body and Jackal's through the trees.

However, the closer he got to the coin's location, the slower he began to run, until he was jogging at the speed of a normal human as he approached.

It wasn't out of fear of missing the coin.

No.

Alarm bells began to ring louder and louder through his mind.

His intuition was warning him of a powerful sense of danger just ahead.

And the feeling continued to heighten as he approached the coin.

Otto really didn't dare to continue running at his previous speed, even with his agility.

The warning bells in his mind were ringing so loudly that he briefly contemplated giving up.

It wasn't as if there was a major punishment for failing to clear a hidden mission, after all.

Generally, it would weaken a contestant by a few attribute points for a few days, or perhaps take away some money.

There were no permanent effects.

But Otto still gritted his teeth and soldiered onward.

Anyway, he still felt it was something he could overcome.

Didn't he have a few trump cards up his sleeves?

Plus, neither his senses nor his <Sense Life> had, as of yet, detected even a hint of an ambush.

So where could the threat be coming from?

Otto shook his head and harrumphed to himself.

He'd see what they could throw at him, then.

Bring it on!