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Chapter 110 – The Traitor Group
In Round 8, there are two groups.
The normal group that escorts the caravan, and the traitor group hidden inside it.
Naturally, the objectives of the two groups are different.
‘The normal group must escort the caravan and move safely to the destination.’
That’s the main quest of Round 8 as everyone knows it.
And while doing that, exposing and executing the traitor is the sub quest.
‘But if you become the traitor group, the quest changes completely.’
Sure enough, a new objective appeared in front of Ryu Min.
[Player ‘Black Scythe’ belongs to the traitor group.]
[The main quest and sub quest are combined into one.]
[Round 8 quest has been changed.]
◀ ROUND 8 ▶ <Traitor Group Quest>
└Obstruct the caravan so it cannot reach the destination
└Upon success ▶ ???? 지급
└Upon failure ▶ Retry with a 20% stat reduction debuff
└Three failures ▶ Erasure
The normal group’s goal is to safely escort the caravan to the destination.
But the traitor group is the exact opposite.
‘The traitor group’s goal is to obstruct the caravan so it can’t reach the destination.’
In other words, it’s a quest carried out in secret while blending into the crowd.
In a way, you could call it a fight of the few against the many.
To anyone watching, it might look like an insane difficulty…
‘But I don’t have to face the entire normal group alone. As long as the caravan doesn’t reach the destination, the quest succeeds.’
There was no need to make every Player his enemy just to “obstruct” things.
‘All I have to do is kill the caravaners—the Otherworlders.’
If he quickly eliminated the Otherworld merchants through assassination, that was that.
Whether he could survive the Players’ retaliation afterward was a separate matter.
‘No, they won’t move on emotions like “retaliation.” If they find a traitor, they’ll desperately try to kill them to claim the sub quest.’
To the normal group, a traitor was something to purge.
In other words, the Players would turn Ryu Min into their enemy.
‘No… did I turn them into my enemy?’
This was exactly why Ryu Min hadn’t mentioned the sub quest in his “prophecy.”
Even if they knew, there was no way they could achieve it anyway.
‘They think they’ll kill me, Black Scythe, and take the sub-quest reward? Yeah, right.’
If people found out the traitor was Black Scythe, how would they react?
Most likely, people would give up on the sub quest without even trying.
‘That aside… are those people in the same traitor group as me?’
Where Ryu Min was now wasn’t the starting point, but a gray space.
Along with the message that he’d entered the traitor group, he’d been moved here—and he could see other people nearby.
‘People like me who failed to pick a caravan before the time ran out.’
They were probably staring at their messages right now, panicking.
Because they’d suddenly become traitors.
Because they’d suddenly have to make enemies out of hundreds, thousands of Players.
‘Doesn’t look like even thirty people.’
Now, whether they liked it or not, they were in the traitor group together and had to carry out the mission.
‘No—there’s no need to be “together,” strictly speaking. Not if I don’t intend to clear the quest.’
He felt a bit sorry for them, but Ryu Min had no intention of ending this quest early.
‘If we fail, we get a stat reduction debuff and a retry as a penalty, but…’
The point worth noticing was that you only got erased after three failures.
Even if you failed once or twice, you only took a stat debuff—there wasn’t much to lose.
‘That’s what matters. The fact that there are three chances.’
The traitor group is deployed sequentially: dwarf caravan, elf caravan, then human caravan.
Which meant if you failed the mission, you could experience all caravans.
‘A chance to raise my level like crazy.’
If he intentionally failed and went on a “tour” through each caravan, hunting monsters in all three…
He could gain not only superior EXP compared to everyone else, but also items from all three routes.
‘Especially the Rune they give you if your reputation is high in each caravan. I can monopolize all of them.’
Ryu Min planned to obtain two Runes in this Round.
The Rune of Durability, and the Rune of Foresight.
‘Durability comes from the dwarf caravan, and Foresight can be obtained from the human caravan.’
The elf caravan would yield potions—there was one potion even Ryu Min couldn’t help wanting.
‘Either way, monopolizing EXP and items by rotating through each caravan is the key strategy of Round 8.’
For that, the traitor group was the best possible choice.
Of course, for the other traitors, it couldn’t be anything but bad luck.
‘Because I’m going to do whatever it takes to make the quest fail.’
Belonging to the traitor group while hoping the traitors fail.
He was practically a double spy.
[Kyahaha, so all the indecisive humans who couldn’t pick a caravan are gathered here?]
Ariel—the angel who’d explained Round 8—appeared with a laugh that didn’t suit her at all.
[Gather over here, everyone. If not now, you won’t get to see each other. You should at least know each other’s faces, right?]
When the angel flapped her wings, the Players who’d been scattered gathered into one place.
“Huh—Black Scythe?”
“Why is Black Scythe here?”
“No, more importantly—why am I in the traitor group?”
[Looks like a few humans still don’t even understand what’s happening. That’s why I showed up, isn’t it?]
Ariel, kindly enough, explained to the Players how they became traitors.
“Ah… so it’s because we didn’t choose?”
“What the hell was I thinking….”
“So everyone here failed to select a caravan?”
Ryu Min quickly counted heads.
There were 29 Players gathered, including himself.
While everyone else was distracted listening to the angel’s explanation—
‘Now, I need to memorize their faces. It’ll make it easier to deal with them later when I betray them.’
Ryu Min began quickly memorizing each traitor’s face, one by one.
Why memorize faces if they were on the same side?
Even if it were a party, he could recognize them through the wrist ring.
‘Because we’re only a “group” in name. We’re not party members.’
Right on time, the angel was explaining exactly that.
[As the traitor group, you must obstruct the caravan so it cannot reach the destination. Since you share the same quest, you could call it a party… but in reality, it’s not a party.]
“It’s not a party?”
“Then we’re solo?”
[Yes. The normal group is a party, but you’re traitors, so you don’t share EXP. The setting is that you can’t trust each other. Kyahaha!]
“Then how are we supposed to hunt…?”
“I thought I was in a party with Black Scythe and got excited….”
The Players who’d secretly wanted to get carried looked openly disappointed.
[The “can’t trust each other” setting was a joke, but there’s a valid reason I’m preventing you from partying. If one person betrays the team, the rest also suffer for it.]
“What do you mean?”
[Let’s say one of you in the traitor group goes crazy and exposes the identities of the other traitors. What do you do then?]
“We’d have to shut that bastard up.”
“Even if we have to kill him!”
[Right? But as you know, if you’re in a party, you can’t attack each other and damage doesn’t go through. In short, if one person betrays the team, it becomes a system where the rest are vulnerable and take the hit.]
“Ah. So that’s why….”
“So there was a reason we couldn’t party.”
If they were in a party, they couldn’t even shut the loud traitor’s mouth.
And they’d have to endure suspicion from everyone around them.
The moment they were suspected, the traitor team’s chance of success would plummet—so it was inevitable they couldn’t be a party.
‘Good for me. I don’t have to split hunting EXP.’
After memorizing all the traitor faces, Ryu Min grinned.
Now, even if he ran into them in the field, he could tell who the traitors were.
‘Once I know who they are, handling them is easy. Especially since I’ve got the Rune of Inner Thoughts.’
And there was another reason he memorized faces instead of nicknames.
That reason came from the angel’s mouth.
[For reference, we will also conceal all Players’ nicknames. If nicknames are visible, it becomes too easy for traitors to identify each other.]
“You’re hiding nicknames because of us?”
In other words, it was a measure to keep traitors from knowing each other’s identities.
“But our faces are exposed right now.”
[Faces are harder to memorize than nicknames. Especially in a short time like this—who’s going to memorize faces?]
There was.
Right here. Ryu Min did.
[And if you wear a helmet, your face can be covered well enough. I think that’s reasonable, don’t you?]
When the angel glared as if demanding an answer, the Players had no choice but to nod.
“Yes, yes.”
“Totally, completely reasonable.”
[Good. Then shall we get moving? If the caravan reaches the destination, all of you will have to retry with weakened stats, so keep that in mind.]
They weren’t a party, but they still weren’t anything less than a community of shared fate, tied together by the same quest.
“Huh? But… another caravan?”
“Wasn’t it a retry with the same caravan?”
[Ah, I didn’t mention that. You’ll attempt them in order: dwarf, elf, human. And the difficulty is low, medium, high in that order.]
“Huh? Then if we fail the dwarf caravan quest…?”
The angel smiled.
[You’ll challenge the harder medium difficulty while your stats are reduced by 20%.]
“Ah….”
Meaning the more they failed, the more the difficulty spiked.
Hearing that, only one thought rose in the traitors’ minds.
‘No matter what, we have to succeed in the dwarf caravan!’
‘We should assume there’s no next chance!’
The traitor group burned with fighting spirit, but they didn’t know.
As long as Ryu Min was here, the chance of success was slim.
‘If I find the traitor group members from the start and kill them, it’ll be clean, right? I memorized their faces.’
While Ryu Min smiled, Ariel spread her wings.
[All right, it’s time for you to go. Traitor group!]
‘May you succeed in betrayal and entertain the higher-ups!’
Swallowing the words she didn’t say out loud, Ariel gestured.
In a burst of bright light, the 29 traitors—including Ryu Min—vanished.
Escorting the dwarf caravan began.