Chapter 75: The Offering Box

"What kinda shit are you trying to pull on your own?! Why're you taking action without any orders, you little shit!!!"

He was being an embarrassment.

That was exactly how I saw it—what Kim Taechun was doing right now wasn't 'leading'. He was simply embarrassing himself. The situation was favorable for Taechun, so he was showing off his power by whacking the stationary pillars with his slow but destructive weapon, making large, flashy movements that looked impressive but wouldn't be at all effective in a real battle.

'Actually, Yoohyun's dealt more damage.'

It was just that Yoohyun was using his fists and had slightly more efficient and simple movements that weren't obvious to the eye.

Taechun was merely a grandstander reveling in the attention right now. What kind of insight did he have to give the orders around here?

"Shut up, friend."

Having gotten in range, Yoohyun swung his fists without any notice.

'Whoa.' Honestly, I was surprised. 'They did say there were times when Yoohyun was a real hardass, but it's my first time seeing it.'

People said that he was normally an extremely mild-tempered and kind guy, but in certain special situations, he'd show unmatched decisiveness and swiftness of action. I guessed now was one of those moments.

Pow! Pow! Pow!

Before Yoohyun's merciless fists, Taechun wasn't able to show a single ounce of his courage.

"Y-Y-You son of a bitch!"

Taechun swung his axe wide.

Whoompf!

His axe did have a great deal of destructive force, but it was simply too slow.

"What're you doing?"

Simply by taking one very, very casual step backwards, Yoohyun rendered Taechun's axe attack ineffective.

'I can… see it again.'

I saw strength gathering on Yoohyun's heels. What I saw with Observer's Eye was rather different from seeing with my physical eyes.

'He'll definitely step in now.'

I could see how he would go in, how he would attack.

'Aiming for the abdomen.'

Yoohyun extended his right fist, exactly as I'd seen with my Observer's Eye. Then, he attacked the place I'd eyed, the spot right underneath the solar plexus.

'Afterwards, he'll immediately grab the back of the neck…'

I read Yoohyun's movements.

'And strike with his knee.'

Yoohyun was going to use one of his skills, 'Beginner Knee Kick'. I could see the flow of mana, like Observer's Eye was showing me how the mana moved when Beginner Knee Kick was used.

Crack!

As his knee connected, the loud crack of breaking bone rang out. After taking a Beginner Knee Kick to the jaw, Taechun blacked out on the spot. No matter how great he thought he was, the extremely spirited Kim Taechun was helpless in front of So Yoohyun.

The Players breaking the pillars halted for a moment.

"Wh-What the—?"

"What's going on all of a sudden?"

But no one was able to stop Yoohyun. They simply watched the one-sided beating from afar.

"Wh-Why's he getting hit?"

"He's… getting beaten up pretty badly…?"

"C-Could it be a quest?"

Unless it was a quest, why would Kim Taechun get beaten so mercilessly? The guy was even knocked unconscious, as if a simple beating wasn't enough. Yoohyun scratched his head, returning to his usual kind, gentle herbivore look.

"Didn't think he'd pass out, but oh well." With a good-natured smile, Yoohyun returned to the pillars. "Well then, let's leave that guy be and do what we have to do, fellows."

Even I was a little dumbfounded. Yoohyun was the real 'two-faced' person here, not Yeonseo. The faces of the Players hardened over. Not a single one of them dared to protest.

From this, I learned one thing.

'Rational persuasion based on logic and reasoning…'

What would have happened if Yoohyun had tried to do that, instead?

'It would have wasted a ton of time, and someone would've definitely tried to interfere with Sunghyun in that time.'

Kim Taechun's influence had been extremely strong. If he tried to pull down Sunghyun for whatever reason, a few Players would have been influenced by him. What Yoohyun did was very efficient.

'Beating first and asking later…'

It wasn't exactly what I had envisioned, but I found my lips quirking into a smile.

'Is sometimes a pretty good choice, huh?'

Rational persuasion was, of course, the best, but there were certainly situations where it wasn't possible. In such cases, subduing the opposition with violence and strength wasn't too bad an option. I learned something new again. In front of Yoohyun's overwhelming force, all the Players were as meek and calm as lambs.

'Gu Sungmin's as busy as ever.'

The man was busily stealing Coins. I was surprised he was still going at it in a situation like this.

'Well, he's just Playing in his own way.'

Just like how combat Players focused on killing monsters in combat, Gu Sungmin was also simply Playing in his own way. That was how I decided to look at it.

'Then I need to Play my way, too.'

Thanks to Gu Sungmin's contribution, the completion of my scenario became much more likely, since I would need a lot of Coins today. I glanced at Darongi.

[!]

He didn't move. It wasn't hard for me to figure out why.

"Ah, does he not have that many Coins?"

From Darongi's lack of enthusiasm, Gu Sungmin apparently didn't have that many Coins in his Inventory. The cunning squirrel was probably planning on stealing them later, once they'd been gathered into a tidy pile. Looking at Darongi's expression, I said, "What? Is he too amateur hour for you?"

Darongi nodded. In the eyes of a theft genius, a promising thief's movements were far too pathetic.

"But you'll still go for me later, right?"

I needed Coins—I would need a lot of Coins in the next part. The enhancement took too many Coins, but thankfully, I had Darongi.

The 11th pillar was destroyed.

[ ]

A powerful gust of wind rushed in again. Laying flat on the ground, I craned my head up, wondering if Sunghyun was doing well.

'He is.'

He was moving up the weak mana current. When I focused my gaze on him, I was able to see his movements with far greater clarity.

'Now. Right now.'

The timing I saw was the same as the timing Sunghyun saw. He jumped high into the air, using the special ability of the Wind Shoes, 'Imaginary Running Start'. Down here, an incredibly strong wind was blowing, but the mana of the Central Pillar was protecting Sunghyun from its influence.

He was so high that clouds were obscuring him and I could no longer see his path.

'He'll get to the top soon.'

The wind abated a little. There were no victims from the 11th pillar's destruction. Everyone got flat on the ground to avoid the wind, and it looked like most of the Players had gotten used to the Ghosts and Wraiths. The Players now were a lot different from the Players that first came in. Even if someone was hit by a Ghost's projectile, the others would push them to the ground while someone would go out to fight the Ghost.

'Things… are progressing pretty well.'

My initial disappointment faded a little. Time passed, and I eventually saw Sunghyun climbing back down from high above. He had something on his back, like he was shouldering a backpack.

'The Offering Box.'

The crux of the clear, the end-all and be-all of the key items, the Offering Box, was coming down.

'We're now on the 12th pillar.'

It would soon break. This was the perfect time to clear. If we broke too many pillars, the field's difficulty would get too high, and if we broke too few, it would be too difficult to get up the Central Pillar.

"Sung-gu."

"Yeah, what?"

"What does your long-ranged attack look like?"

"About 50 meters, at most? It's pretty accurate, too. But it does lack a bit of power."

That was enough.

"There's a high chance that monsters will spawn near the Central Pillar."

"Monsters?"

Sung-gu scowled. His expression said something like, "The Wraiths and Ghosts are already enough to handle, but there are gonna be more?"

"What kind of monsters?"

"Not sure. If this is a gate artificially made for someone's amusement…"

There was a high chance it was. However, I didn't outright say that it was made by the Guardians.

"If it were me, I would throw in some flying monsters about now."

Sung-gu's mouth opened in a big O. He pointed upwards.

"Just what… are you? You're a fuckin' boss."

There were two flying monsters in the sky. They had the bodies of a bird, but their faces were rather human-like. They were birds with the approximate resemblance of a human face, one that looked like it was clumsily sculpted out of mud.

'Inmyeonjo.'

Of these mythological creatures, these two were low-grade Inmyeonjo. The higher in rank an Inmyeonjo became, the more human-like its face became.

"If I had designed this gate, there's a very high chance I would have interfered with Sunghyun."

"Then I just have to cover him, right?"

"Right."

"Dayum. Your insight's hot shit, that's for sure."

Standing some distance away, Yoohyun had also spotted the Inmyeonjo. I saw him stealing a glance at me. It seemed that he guessed something was happening from me talking to Sung-gu. In very commendable fashion, he took initiative to yell, "Those of you who can support the Player coming down over there with the Offering Box, cover him!"

However, I knew it was pointless. There wouldn't be many Players who would do as Yoohyun said.

'They'll be too afraid of pulling the aggro.'

Inmyeonjo LVL 29

It was absolutely not a low-level monster. The top Rankers like Yoohyun were currently level 32. For the majority of the Players here, the level of the Inmyeonjo would appear as a red '?' It was only natural that they would be scared.

Sung-gu rushed towards the Central Pillar. Of course, I did so as well.

'To prepare for any unexpected circumstances.'

It was right for me to keep my distance as an observer as much as possible, and I did intend on doing that for the time being, but it was always possible a situation might arise where I would need to act.

Sung-gu used a skill.

'It's probably… Fire Arrow.'

He didn't seem all that concerned by the possibility of drawing the monster's aggro. Sunhwa had joined us, sticking close to Sung-gu's side. She was taking action on her own, without needing me to explain the details.

An arrow made of fire landed directly on the wing of one of the two Inmyeonjo that had appeared.

Sung-gu said to me, "The goal isn't to kill them anyway, right?"

"Right."

The goal right now was to protect Sunghyun, not hunt the monsters.

"The cooltime on this skill is short, so I'll keep giving cover fire. If I pull the aggro, Sunhwa, help me out a bit."

Sung-gu used another Fire Arrow. Jo Sunghyun continued to clamber down along the Central Pillar's mana, not very bothered by the Inmyeonjo that had spawned right in front of him.

'He'll be down s—'

At that moment, I saw something. Something was crawling up the pillar from the ground, a monster about 2 meters large with the shape of a lizard.

Bigmouth Lizard LVL 22

It was a lizard that could open its mouth incredibly wide. The monster was crawling rapidly up the Central Pillar, opening its mouth wide as if to swallow Sunghyun alive.

'That thing itself won't be a problem.'

But if Sunghyun were to slip out of the mana current because of it?

'He'd die.'

And I couldn't let that happen.

[Using the special skill Flash Step.]

I approached the Central Pillar quickly, then began to climb it. Even though I couldn't go all that high, I could certainly catch up to the lizard. I launched myself at it, tightly grasping its slender body with my legs. Then, I raised my dagger and stabbed it in the crown of its head.

[Using the skill Excellent Strike.]

Thankfully, this lizard monster's skin was extremely thin, and it wasn't a monster with very high defense.

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

My hand went down multiple times, green blood pouring out the entire time.

Szzzzzz–!

The acidic monster blood landed on my body, but I didn't flinch. Right now, I was wearing 'Great Orc Warrior' armor, which was used all throughout the mid-game.

While I was doing that, Sunghyun passed me and continued down. Sunghyun seemed to know exactly what he needed to do, too. In the end, his two feet touched the ground.

[Bigmouth Lizard has been hunted.]

[EXP is decreased.]

[Items will not be dropped.]

That was fine. A reduction in EXP was an acceptable loss right now. It stung a little, but it was a loss I could swallow.

But just then, I got notices.

[The 'Lady of the Scales' is impressed.]

[The 'Lady of the Scales' gives you a sponsorship of 300 Coins.]

[The 'Nameless Observer' continues to observe.]

There was even another kind of notice.

[The 'Barrier of Blue Light' wants to help you.]

[The 'Barrier of Blue Light' states their strong will to sponsor you.]

'What?'

Helping was helping, and sponsoring was sponsoring, so what was 'stating their strong will to sponsor' all about? Were they just expressing aloud their desire to help me?

[The 'Barrier of Blue Light' promises a big sponsorship.]

I didn't know what they would give me. For now, I decided to focus on what was more important and clear this place.

'So now… the Offering Box's influence will kick in.'

A notice confirmed my thoughts.

[The 'Offering Box' holy relic is beginning to assert its influence.]

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