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Chapter 109 – Caravan Selection
◀ ROUND 8 ▶ <Main Quest>
└Escort the caravan to the destination <Sub Quest>
└Eliminate the traitor
└Upon success ▶ ???? 지급
[All Zones]
└Participants: 3,047,910
└Achievers: 0/1,523,955
[This Zone C2-ESKA003]
└Participants: 2,166
└Achievers: 0/1,083
The Players who saw the quest tilted their heads.
“Escort a caravan to the destination?”
“What caravan, all of a sudden?”
“Where is the caravan?”
A group of merchants was called a caravan, but for that, there had to be merchants in the first place, didn’t there?
“Are we doing roleplay or something?”
“Like someone plays the merchant and others escort them?”
Maybe she heard the murmurs—laughter burst from the angel’s mouth.
[Roleplay? Kyahaha, what, did you come here to act? Of course we wouldn’t make you do that.]
“Then what does it mean…….”
[Exactly what it says. Escort the caravan.]
“So you’re saying, where is that caravan…….”
[I’d heard humans were inferior, but I didn’t know you were this stupid.]
Even at the angel’s sneer, people stayed silent.
Players talked trash about angels behind their backs all the time, but they clearly understood the power imbalance.
[Do you think you’re the only ones in this world? After already experiencing the existence of other races—goblins, angels, gnolls, orcs, and so on?]
“Ah……”
“No way…….”
[That’s right. The caravan is a caravan from another world. There are three races’ caravans. You will choose one and escort it: the human caravan, the elf caravan, or the dwarf caravan.]
“We can choose which race to escort?”
“Elves and dwarves had caravans too?”
“No, more importantly—elves I only saw in fantasy novels actually exist?”
At the thought of seeing Otherworld races with their own eyes—races they’d only seen in fantasy—some Players’ hearts started pounding.
[The escort time is five hours. If you safely escort the caravan to the destination, you pass the quest. Of course, there will be monster attacks during the escort, but don’t worry too much. You’re not alone.]
“Not alone?”
“Like Round 6—do we form parties?”
[Correct. Today, you’ll form a large-scale party, for once. The 2,166 of you here will split across the three caravans I mentioned.]
“Split across them?”
That meant they’d have to move together—from as few as several hundred to as many as over a thousand.
[You must choose only one of the three caravans. If you choose the same caravan, you will automatically form a party with those people. Of course, you won’t know what other people chose.]
“A large-scale party……”
“So we move with a shared goal—escorting together……?”
“Feels like running a raid in a game.”
[For reference, there is a difficulty difference—high, mid, and low—depending on the caravan, so decide carefully. I will not tell you which one is harder.]
“So we just pick one at random?”
“Then if you get unlucky and pick the high-difficulty caravan, you’re f*cked?”
In other words, they had to choose based only on the race.
“You can’t see the difficulty, so I guess we have to just gamble.”
They couldn’t infer difficulty from the race alone.
In the end, they had to rely on luck—
Hoping to get an easy difficulty.
This time, Ariel explained the sub quest.
[As you can see, the sub quest is to eliminate the traitor. There is a traitor in the caravan you choose. I won’t tell you whether it’s one person or several.]
“A traitor?”
“During the escort? There’s a traitor?”
“Like a mafia game?”
[The traitor’s goal is to obstruct the caravan so it can’t reach the destination. And obviously, the traitor is not in your party. If you attack with skills or anything else, you can kill them.]
“Ooh. We can kill them?”
[If you succeed in finding and killing the hidden traitor, you will receive a sub-quest reward. Of course, only one person—the single individual with the highest contribution in killing the traitor—will receive the reward.]
People nodded.
With the explanation, they understood things to a certain extent.
[That concludes the explanation. Then in ten minutes, after you select a caravan, we’ll start the game. I wish you all good fortune. Kyahyat!]
Only after the angel disappeared did the crowd start buzzing.
“Hah… we have to choose one of the three.”
“We need to pick the low difficulty.”
“Wouldn’t the elf caravan be easiest?”
“I’m choosing the human caravan. Other races are kind of scary……”
“Same. Human caravan looks the safest.”
“If too many people pile into one, isn’t that bad?”
“Yeah. Feels like the human caravan will have the most.”
“Then I should go somewhere else.”
“Dwarf caravan probably won’t be popular—should I try that?”
“By the way, how do they rank us?”
“Yeah? If we all escort together, what’s the ranking based on?”
“I forgot to ask that.”
“What even is a traitor? F*ck.”
Everyone talked about the quest, and Min Juri was no exception.
“Black Scythe-nim. They said we have to choose one of the three races.”
“So they did.”
“Which one are you going to?”
“Well.”
There were three types of caravans.
Ryu Min knew which would be most popular.
‘Human, then elf, then dwarf—people will flock in that order.’
People would flock to humans because it was familiar—same species.
Elves would draw those who wanted to see one in real life at least once.
And dwarves would be unpopular, since people pictured a short old man.
‘If I have to choose one, dwarf is best.’
Because he’d repeated these regressions, Ryu Min also knew each difficulty.
‘Dwarf is the easiest difficulty. Then elf. Then human.’
In other words—unfortunately—the place most people would flock to was the highest difficulty.
High difficulty meant monsters whose appropriate level was around 50 would appear.
Trolls, gargoyles, skeletons, minotaurs—those kinds of things.
In the mid difficulty, the elf caravan, harpies, lizardmen, and werewolves would appear.
And in the low difficulty, only orc-level monsters would appear.
‘If you want to clear the Round as easily as possible, you choose dwarf—the low difficulty.’
The main quest was to escort the caravan, but simply escorting didn’t mean everyone cleared.
‘Escort is only the basic condition to clear the Round. Rankings are determined by the order of highest contribution.’
It looked like a party quest where everyone escorted together, but in truth, survivors were decided by individual performance.
Meaning competition was necessary.
‘If monsters are weaker, it’s easier to rack up contribution—so you’d likely take a higher rank by clearing with the lower-difficulty dwarf caravan.’
Heo Tae-seok didn’t know that, but Min Juri did.
‘Because I told her everything as “prophecy.”’
In other words, she knew that choosing the dwarf caravan meant an easier clear.
Even so, Min Juri looked conflicted.
The reason was simple.
‘The dwarf caravan has low difficulty, but less EXP comes in.’
Clearing would be easier, but since the monsters were weaker, the EXP would be lower.
High difficulty was the opposite—harder, but much more EXP.
‘In other words, it’s a choice: low risk, low return—or high risk, high return.’
That was why Min Juri was hesitating.
-Dwarf is low difficulty, I know that. But if I clear somewhere too easy, my level won’t go up much. Then the gap between me and Black Scythe-nim will widen. What do I do? When that happens, maybe he won’t need my help anymore……
Reading her thoughts, Ryu Min saw she was afraid he would abandon her if the gap widened.
‘A pointless worry.’
Even if Min Juri’s level was low, Bless was an absurdly powerful buff by default.
Ryu Min wanted her to live as long as possible.
“Min Juri.”
“Yes?”
“What are you worrying about so much?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but remember this: greed invites disaster. Survive as long as you can. That’s the path that benefits you, me, and everyone around us.”
“…….”
Min Juri was startled.
It sounded as if he’d said it while keeping her exact situation in mind.
-Can he really see right through people’s hearts?
Her thought reached him, but Ryu Min turned his head as if he hadn’t noticed.
‘If I do this, she’ll choose the easy path.’
Sure enough, reading her thoughts, it seemed Min Juri had made up her mind to go with the dwarf caravan.
That was a relief.
‘If this was how it was going to be, I should’ve just told her outright to pick dwarf.’
He’d deliberately not specified because the choice was supposed to be free, but it had only made Ryu Min more uneasy.
Worried Min Juri might end up in danger.
‘No—she’ll be fine. She cleared this kind of Round even without my intervention, didn’t she?’
Heo Tae-seok was also thinking, but it seemed he’d decided to try the elf caravan in the end.
‘Ma Kyung-rok, An Sang-cheol, Seo Arin, Russell, Christine… the others will decide on their own too.’
Some would choose the easy route.
Some, out of greed, would try to pick the human caravan.
‘Either way, my “prophecy” helped. I told them everything—the pros and cons of each caravan choice, and how to deal with the monsters.’
But there was one thing he hadn’t told them.
The sub quest.
When asked about it, he’d brushed it off, claiming he didn’t know.
Of course, there was a reason he didn’t say it.
‘Even if they know, they won’t be able to complete the sub quest anyway.’
A little later, when ten minutes passed, the same message appeared in everyone’s vision.
[Caravan selection will now begin.]
[Touch the caravan you will escort.]
└ 1. Human Caravan
└ 2. Elf Caravan
└ 3. Dwarf Caravan
They were, in order, high-mid-low difficulty—but people who couldn’t possibly know that chose with extreme caution.
“Whatever, isn’t it all luck anyway?”
“Let it be what it’ll be!”
“I’m choosing 1 because I want to!”
“I want to see what elves look like, 2!”
The moment they chose a caravan, Players vanished one by one.
They’d been moved somewhere.
“Black Scythe-nim. Where are you going?”
“Well.”
“I’m going dwarf caravan—want to come with me?”
At Min Juri’s suggestion, Ryu Min shook his head.
“No. You go first.”
“Hm, okay.”
Even though she knew the difficulty, Min Juri held back.
If she revealed the “prophecy,” it might put Ryu Min in danger.
-Black Scythe-nim will choose properly on his own.
Before making her selection, Min Juri said goodbye.
“Black Scythe-nim. I don’t know what you’ll pick, but I hope you get a good result. We might not meet again, so I’ll cast a buff before I go!”
Min Juri’s buff wrapped around Ryu Min’s body.
The corner of Ryu Min’s mouth lifted.
“Good instincts, as expected.”
“Then I’m really going!”
After Min Juri chose and disappeared, Heo Tae-seok greeted him as well.
“Uh… Black Scythe-nim. I’ll go ahead too.”
“Yeah. Go.”
When Heo Tae-seok chose 2, he vanished.
The Players around them also moved away one after another, to somewhere beyond.
“Hmm.”
Most people were gone, but Ryu Min still hadn’t selected.
He looked like he was thinking, but he’d already made his decision.
‘My choice is—’
Ryu Min crossed his arms, showing firm resolve.
‘I’m choosing nothing.’
At a glance, it looked like there were three options, but in truth there was one more.
Choosing nothing at all.
Even Ryu Min hadn’t known at first.
‘Back then, I assumed you had to pick one, so I chose 1 without a thought.’
In the past, after clearing in many ways—1, 2, 3—Ryu Min had once become suspicious about the sub quest.
Because even after switching caravans, the “traitor” used the same ability.
‘What is this? Isn’t the traitor supposed to be randomly chosen from within the caravans?’
While spending time with that question, Ryu Min once missed the caravan selection by accident.
That was also when he learned for the first time that there was a time limit on the selection.
‘Now I know. Not choosing is the best option—for me.’
It didn’t look like there was a limit, but there was.
Exactly nine minutes after he held off, an additional message appeared.
[1 minute remaining until the selection ends.]
[If you do not choose, you may suffer a disadvantage!]
A message urging him to choose appeared, but Ryu Min knew.
Only by not choosing could he secure the greatest benefit.
[10 seconds remaining until selection. Please hurry!]
[9 seconds remaining. There is no time!]
………………
…………
[1 second remaining. This is truly the end!]
[You ultimately failed to choose a caravan.]
The message that appeared next made Ryu Min’s lips curl with satisfaction.
[Player ‘Black Scythe’ belongs to the traitor group.]