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Chapter 112 – Exposing the Traitors
Unlike the traitor group, the normal group receives EXP and gold distributed through party hunting.
‘If you exclude the traitors, it’s 201 people, so it’ll be split into 1/201.’
Even without doing the math, you could tell they’d be getting experience that was less than a mouse’s tail.
‘Well, if a player dies along the way, the remaining share will increase, sure.’
They were easy orcs, so unless something went wrong, there wouldn’t really be danger.
Anyway, if you divide 4,600 orcs from the assault by 201?
‘It works out to the same EXP as killing 20 orcs alone.’
Which means the amount of EXP gained isn’t that big.
If you run through thirty waves until the destination, you’ll end up killing about 600 at most before it’s over.
‘But once we arrive at the destination, everyone gets an EXP reward. And it’s a lot.’
The core of the Escort quest is the EXP reward you get at the end.
‘They add an extra amount equal to twice the EXP you earned from hunting during the escort.’
So you’d receive additional EXP equivalent to 1,200 orcs.
That was why Ryu Min had said before that there would be players who hit even level 40.
‘Of course, that’d only be possible if you shine in the Human Merchant Caravan.’
Was that why An Sang-cheol went to the Human Merchant Caravan—because he was greedy for level 40?
If he was currently level 34, it was definitely possible if he cleared the Human Merchant Caravan.
‘But at this pace, I’ll easily pass level 60.’
Even though only one wave had happened so far, Ryu Min had become level 55.
That meant he’d gained one level from a single wave.
‘If I block the remaining 29 assaults, I’ll have more than enough to go past 60.’
That was inevitable because Ryu Min had EXP buffs.
A Round 8 limited x3 buff and a x1.5 buff from his title.
A total of x4.5, so he couldn’t help but pull ahead of everyone else.
‘And I’m not even in a party.’
Because he was in the traitor group that could solo, all the EXP and gold from the 463 kills came in fully.
‘The other traitors are the same, but they probably didn’t kill as many as I did.’
Even if they killed a lot alone, maybe they’d reach 50?
No matter how easy orcs were to deal with, they weren’t getting one-shot, so they wouldn’t be able to kill more than that.
‘Still, they’ve got brains, so the traitors will weigh profit and loss.’
Unless they were idiots, they would’ve already realized that the EXP from soloing was pretty sweet.
‘They’ll think it’s a waste to finish the quest early.’
If they stop the caravan and end the quest, there won’t be any more EXP coming in, so it’ll feel like a loss.
‘Especially since it’s easy orcs—they’ll want to level up a bit.’
While he was thinking that, the dwarf shouted.
“Let’s set off again!”
The wagons started moving.
Clop-clop-clop—
But only for a moment.
As if ten minutes had passed, the second wave began.
“You crazy pig bastards! You’re already showing up?”
“We barely got any rest.”
Even while complaining, the players killed orcs for the EXP.
But some players couldn’t help losing motivation, and the reason was—
Slice-slice— slice-sliiice—!
Ryu Min’s overwhelming skill.
Seeing him cut down four at a time with each swing of his scythe, anyone would feel discouraged.
He was already high level, and with Min Juri’s buff on top of that, it was even worse.
“Whoa… I barely kill one, and Black Scythe kills how many?”
“Hoo… this is seriously making me feel empty.”
“At that level, do we even need to hunt?”
“Yeah, right? Even if we just stand still, EXP still comes in.”
“Should we ride the Black Scythe bus while we’re at it?”
With those thoughts, a few people subtly stepped back.
Even though they could kill more, they let go, saying it was tiring.
Since EXP was coming in even if they did nothing, lazy thoughts were inevitable.
Hunting, Ryu Min saw them and lifted one corner of his mouth.
‘To other people, I’ll look like a party member. So they think they’re taking a free ride.’
People were constantly seeing EXP messages and mistakenly thought that even if Ryu Min killed, their EXP would still go up.
‘But you can’t just slack off. Rankings are determined by contribution.’
The ranking measurement method in this Round is the total amount of contribution.
Just escorting isn’t enough to land in the upper half.
‘Escort success is only the basic condition. The real thing is lining people up by how much they contributed to monster hunting.’
So if you sit there lazily like that, this might become your last Round.
Seo Arin and Min Juri knew that too, so they were hunting hard.
‘Ah, Min Juri is an exception. Even if she doesn’t fight hard, she’ll get enough contribution to pass.’
Before hunting, Min Juri had gone around to each player one by one.
The reason was simple.
To raise her contribution by giving buffs.
“Hello, I have the Buffer job—would you like to receive a buff?”
“Huh? A buff?”
Like a preacher going door to door, Min Juri gave people buffs for free.
To others, she looked like someone selling shady medicine, but the reactions from people who actually received it were explosive.
“Ohhh, my stats went up by 60%?”
“What? Really?”
“I’m telling you. You should try it too.”
“Where is it? That buff thing. Give it to me too!”
“Ooooh! My total stats really went up!”
“Me too! Please! Buff me!”
“Here! Is there anyone here who hasn’t gotten the buff!”
“Y-yes, I-I’m coming!”
It had only been twenty minutes since Min Juri—looking somewhat flustered—had run off to go around buffing people.
‘If you look at them shouting for buffs, Bless really is busted, huh?’
Min Juri was overwhelmed, having to buff about 230 people.
And she had also been putting Swift on them, but since the duration was only thirty minutes, she’d have to go around several more times afterward.
“Uh, I’m surprisingly busy. Haha.”
Min Juri hadn’t expected she’d be this popular.
‘Later on, it even became a saying that there might be people who never got the Buffer’s buff, but there was no one who only got it once—so that says it all.’
Once players learned about the Buffer, they called for her every time their buff ended.
It didn’t look great, getting summoned everywhere, but for Min Juri it was a business with no downside.
‘No, it’s actually an enormous profit. If a player she buffed kills monsters, contribution will go to Min Juri too.’
Think about it.
If she takes just 1% contribution from 230 people—
She can fill her contribution requirements even if she does nothing.
That was why Ryu Min wasn’t worried about Min Juri being eliminated in this Round.
He wasn’t worried about Seo Arin either.
She was using summons to give allies shield buffs and even taking on tanking, helping out in her own way.
“Huff… huff.”
After blocking the seventh assault, when the players were exhausted, the dwarf Heimer thumped his chest and shouted.
“Did you catch them all? Hurry and let’s depart, warriors of the Otherworld!”
“Hey, you old dwarf! You have to give us some time to rest!”
“What rest is there? If we don’t move right now, monsters will assault us. If you want to rest, rest while walking.”
At the sight of the dwarf driving the wagon as he spoke, the players got irritated and stood up.
They hardly had any time to sit.
‘Even normal players will feel like they want to kill the dwarves quickly—so what about the traitors?’
The difficulty itself wasn’t hard, but because there was no time to rest, it was tiring in its own way.
Like marching day and night without stopping.
For Ryu Min, who was still full of energy, he actually wished they would keep hunting.
‘My level is already 59.’
If he gains just one more level, he’ll finally become Master rank.
Then Master-rank normal equipment will appear in the Shop, and he’ll be able to combine the unique materials he bought in advance and enhance everything.
‘And I’ll get new skills and functions too.’
Both were efficient skills and functions, so he couldn’t help hoping his level would rise quickly.
‘By the way… when are they going to make a move?’
The person Ryu Min meant wasn’t the traitor group.
Someone in the normal group would make a move.
If they had even a little sense, that is.
Sure enough—
“Everyone! Instead of just hunting like this, shouldn’t we find the traitors first? At this rate, we’ll all collapse before we even find them!”
At someone’s shout, people nodded and agreed.
“Right. We can’t just keep killing monsters.”
“Yeah. We have to find those traitor bastards too.”
“But how do we find them?”
“I have a way!”
The one who first proposed it continued.
“The traitors aren’t in a party, right? Then if we stab them, damage will register, yeah? So we attack each other to check. What do you say?”
“Ohhh, that’s solid.”
“Then we can find them easily.”
“Let’s do that!”
At the simple method of exposing traitors, the players agreed and stepped forward.
Meanwhile, the traitors—without exception—kept their mouths tightly shut.
They were probably thinking, This was bound to happen, and their heads were a mess.
“Aren’t the people not saying anything right now traitors?”
“Heh heh, seems like it.”
“They’re probably scared. Their identities are about to get exposed.”
The normal group laughed, and the traitor group was cornered.
-F*ck, what do we do? We’re going to get found out like this.
-At this point, we have to kill those dwarf bastards quickly.
Ryu Min—reading their thoughts—met their eyes at just that moment.
-Black Scythe-nim. Please begin the operation first.
-Let’s hit the dwarves together. If not now, there won’t be a chance.
They were sending thoughts through their eyes, but Ryu Min turned away and deliberately ignored them.
‘Selfish bastards. Why don’t you just announce to everyone that I’m a traitor?’
He had expected things to turn out like this.
It felt a bit late, but still.
“Those of you with AoE skills—use them freely on the players right now.”
“Understood!”
“Then let’s begin! Attack the person next to you!”
The players suddenly began stabbing each other.
Ting— ting—!
Clear metallic ringing sounds came from everywhere.
“Ohhh, it really doesn’t register damage.”
“It’s like hitting a chunk of metal.”
“You’re definitely in our party!”
But it wasn’t only clear ringing sounds.
Thud—
“Aaagh!”
“W-what? That guy’s blade went in!”
“A traitor! That bastard is a traitor!”
Some traitors mixed into the crowd got attacked without even being able to react.
“Kill them! Kill those traitor bastards!”
Thud-thud-thud— thud— thud—!
“Guh—huk!”
One traitor became like a skewer, getting stabbed from all directions.
There was no way a single person could avoid attacks coming from every side.
On top of that, these were players who had already committed murder back in Round 4.
They had no hesitation about stabbing a person.
“Good! We’ve captured one traitor here!”
“Over here too!”
“There was a traitor here as well!”
Traitors were filtered out everywhere, and the remaining traitors panicked.
“Fuuuck! You sons of bitches!”
Some traitors attacked the players first before they could be exposed.
“Ghk! Th-that bastard—he suddenly stabbed me.”
“That’s a dead giveaway traitor! Get him!”
The traitors dodged the players’ hands and ran somewhere.
In this situation, they only had one way to survive.
Kill the dwarves and complete the quest.
If they did that, the escort quest would be forcibly ended, and they could escape this urgent situation and save their lives.
‘Heimer. Kill Heimer.’
With murderous eyes, the traitors’ blades shot toward the dwarf Heimer who was driving the wagon.
Heimer, unaware, shouted toward the players.
“H-hey… warriors of the Otherworld! What is this, all of a sudden?”
He was only bewildered by the warriors of the Otherworld pointing blades.
He never imagined a stray spark would fly into him.
Then, belatedly, he turned his head and saw.
“You short bastard, die!”
“A-ah!”
At the moment the blade was about to reach the dwarf—
Clang—!
Ryu Min stepped in and blocked the traitors.
In none other than the form of a Lost Yak.