==============================
Chapter 138 – Round 9 Ends
★ Round 9 Results ★
[All Zones]
└1st. Black Scythe (Lv89 Reaper) 1,024 kills
└2nd. Cheonma (Lv43 Dark Knight) 631 kills
└3rd. Shit Dumbasses (Lv42 Shaman) 574 kills
[This Zone C3-ESKA001]
└1st. Black Scythe (Lv89 Reaper) 1,024 kills
└2nd. Cheonma (Lv43 Dark Knight) 631 kills
└3rd. Shit Dumbasses (Lv42 Shaman) 574 kills
Once again, Black Scythe took first place, but the players weren’t interested in what felt like the obvious.
Their attention was focused solely on how the rankings were being measured.
“It says ‘kills,’ so don’t tell me….”
[Yes, what you’re thinking is correct. This Round’s ranking method was how many monsters you killed!]
“Ah… so that means option one was the biggest honey pot?”
“Haa… I shouldn’t have picked option three.”
“I’m screwed. I barely killed any….”
As the players lamented, ranking messages appeared.
Players who checked their own ranks clutched their heads.
Those who made it into the top 3,004 cheered like it was a huge relief.
Among them was Min Juri, wearing a relieved expression as well.
‘Looks like she made it into the rankings. Good.’
Ryu Min grinned and looked at his own messages.
[Congratulations! You have completed the quest as the 1st place in this zone!]
[Congratulations! You have completed the quest as the 1st place across all zones!]
[‘Black Scythe’-nim’s current rank is 1st across all zones, 1st in this zone.]
[As the zone ranking 1st reward, a ‘Material Item Selection Ticket’ will be granted!]
[As the all-zones ranking 1st reward, a ‘Special Reward Selection Box’ will be granted!]
After reading the messages, Ryu Min used the Material Item Selection Ticket.
[Choose one of the following materials.]
└ 1. Hardened Mana Shell
………………
…………
└ 7. Top-Grade Tough Leather
└ 8. Bubbling Liquid
└ 9. Non-Clumping Crystal
└ 10. Rhino Horn
Glancing through the options, most of them were Unique.
Of course, to Ryu Min’s eyes, it was obvious which one was best.
‘Only No. 7 is Legendary.’
After obtaining one Legendary material, Ryu Min used the Special Reward Selection Box next.
[You may select one of the following special rewards.]
[Please touch the reward you want.]
└ 1. Double EXP Buff (Round 10 only)
└ 2. +50% Stats Buff (Round 10 only)
└ 3. Information about Round 10
He didn’t need “information about Round 10.”
So between No. 1 and No. 2, which did he need?
As if there was nothing to think about, Ryu Min chose No. 2.
‘In the next Round, stats matter more than EXP.’
If someone asked whether he really needed to raise his already-high stats even more—the answer was yes.
‘Because Round 10 has a section where having high stats gives you an advantage.’
That was why Round 10 was also a Round where Min Juri’s buff was needed.
Not that he absolutely had to keep Min Juri with him.
[For reference, this Round’s sub-quest was finding a hidden portal!]
“A hidden portal?”
“There was something like that?”
[There was one player who succeeded, but you probably don’t care, right? It’s going to disappear soon anyway. You’ve checked your ranks, right? Then everyone below 3,005, goodbye!]
“Ah, no!!”
“Save meeeee!”
Despite their desperate screams, about two thousand players turned to dust and vanished.
Even before, when comrades disappeared, it felt like someone else’s problem, so there wasn’t much emotion.
But now—
“……”
“……”
This time, the surviving players couldn’t help feeling unsettled.
Because, quite literally, they were Korea’s last remaining players.
‘So just three thousand people are all the players our country had.’
He let out a sigh, but didn’t show it.
More important than lamenting his fate was the fact that he could finally breathe for the moment.
◀ ROUND 9 ENDS ▶
[All Zones]
└Survivors: 647,681
[This Zone C3-ESKA001]
└Survivors: 3,004
[Shortly, your soul will be transferred into your body in the original dimension.]
[Round 10 begins at midnight on October 1st, 2022. We’ll see you in the next Round. Congratulations on surviving.]
The moment he got home, the first thing Ryu Min did was text Min Juri.
[Ryu Min: Juri, did you survive?]
[Min Juri: Yeah! Thanks to you I picked option one, so I cleared it easily. Min, looks like you held on too!]
[Ryu Min: ㅇㅇ. I was thinking we could meet at lunch—I’ll give you info about the next Round too. You free?]
[Min Juri: ㅇㅋㅇㅋ of course.]
[Ryu Min: Then get some good sleep and see you at lunch!]
Leaving only that, Ryu Min collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep like he’d passed out.
Even if his mental stamina and physical stamina had been restored, he’d gone 28 hours without sleep, so it made sense he’d be starving for it.
After sleeping like that, morning came.
At lunchtime, Ryu Min met Min Juri at the place they’d agreed on.
“Juri.”
“Oh, Min!”
“You hungry? Let’s go.”
As usual, the two headed to a Korean set-meal restaurant.
In the quiet atmosphere, they talked about Round 9.
“Min, did you get that message too? After the subjugation ended, it said my mercenary grade went up or something.”
“Ah, the one that said it went up from Trainee to Expert?”
“Yeah, that! My grade went up, but I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”
“It’s good. If your grade is higher, you can take on higher requests later.”
“Ahh, so I can get better rewards?”
“Yeah. Being a mercenary will probably give special advantages in that sense. It’ll be one grade higher than us, too.”
“Really? But Min, how do you know stuff like that? Did you find out through prophecy?”
“Of course. It’s not like my job is ‘Prophet’ for no reason. If I didn’t even know this, I couldn’t go around calling myself a Prophet.”
“Haha, you say the funniest things.”
What he said about mercenary grades wasn’t a lie.
Later, there were times when you could experience the fantasy world like an open world, and if you took missions from the mercenary corps and carried them out—
You could raise your grade, hunt better monsters, and build up rewards and fame.
‘And then you end up participating in territory wars, and you even get called into actual wars sometimes.’
But more than anything, the best thing about raising your grade in the mercenary corps was dragon hunting.
‘You can’t hunt dragons just because you feel like it. You have to be a top-rank Master Mercenary to even join the subjugation.’
Calling dragon hunting the reason to raise mercenary rank wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Since it was the strongest monster, the rewards went without saying.
“Min, did you reach Level 40?”
“I’m not there yet. Looks like you did?”
“Yeah. I even went up to Level 41, and it gave me a protection buff. Just in case things are dangerous, I’ll put it on you before you go. The world’s dangerous now.”
“Dangerous my ass. There are only three thousand people left.”
“Still.”
She said that, but that protection buff was exactly what Ryu Min wanted.
‘Well, she always put buffs on me anyway, even without me asking.’
Whenever he gave her a prophecy for the next Round, Min Juri would always apologize and say she should at least do this, and she’d buff him.
So when Ryu Min gave her the Round 10 prophecy and parted ways, he got the three-buff set he’d wanted.
“Thanks for the buff!”
“No, thank you for the prophecy! Round 10 might be the tough part.”
“That won’t happen. I saw in my prophecy that you make it through.”
“Hearing that makes me feel relieved. Do you need gold, by any chance? The trading function is there now, so I can give you some.”
“No. I’ve got a lot of gold.”
“If you ever need it, tell me anytime. I can give you as much as you want!”
“I will. If something like that happens.”
Grinning, Ryu Min waved at Min Juri in front of the convenience store.
“I’ll contact you again.”
“Yeah. Get home safe!”
After receiving the buffs and returning home, Ryu Min went to the bathroom, killed 100 mealworms, and took the Rune of Slaughter buff.
‘Preparations are complete.’
Back in his room, Ryu Min equipped his gear.
He also switched his weapon to Death’s Side, the one with stat options, to raise his Luck stat as much as possible.
‘My Luck stat alone is 1,638 right now. Insane.’
Was it because Min Juri’s Bless had been enhanced to 70%?
It felt like it had skyrocketed.
‘Then shall we start?’
Ryu Min took an item out of his inventory.
It was the Infinite Material Pouch he’d received as an Akashic Records reward.
‘With Luck like this, five material items are guaranteed. The question is how many God-grade ones I’ll get….’
With Bless on him, he’d get more than before.
‘My best result so far was three, so maybe I can even hope for four this time.’
Even if only three out of five came out as God-grade materials, it would be an enormous haul.
‘Use.’
The pouch in Ryu Min’s hand vanished in a bright light.
[You have used the Infinite Material Pouch.]
[Congratulations! 5 material items have appeared!]
[The items will be delivered to your inventory!]
He’d expected five.
The issue was what they were.
Ryu Min checked the items delivered into his inventory.
“Huh?”
He couldn’t help being shocked.
Because all five were God-grade.
‘Five God-grade materials only? Hah….’
And there weren’t even any duplicates among them.
Every single one was different.
Of course, the core God-grade material, Condensed Aether, didn’t appear.
Even in the previous run, that one had never shown up.
‘Doesn’t matter. I already have Condensed Aether.’
It was the Condensed Aether he’d received before as the first God-grade crafting reward.
He hadn’t expected he’d use it this early.
‘Since I’ve got the materials anyway, I should craft it right now. A God-grade.’
He’d decided to use a Legendary for his weapon, and fill other slots with God-grade.
‘Looking at what dropped, the God-grade item I can make is….’
Ryu Min bought one normal item from the shop.
Then he placed all the materials into the crafting window.
[Main Material]
-High-Class Iron Helmet
[Sub Materials]
-Condensed Aether
-Black Iron Powder
-Angel’s Golden Powder
-Bubbling Mana Liquid
-Adamantium Iron Plate
With the materials he had, the equipment Ryu Min could craft was a helmet.
‘Just like armor, a helmet is the most important too.’
Armor protected the heart, helmets protected the head—there was no saying which was more important.
Ryu Min’s finger pressed the craft button without hesitation.
Golden light blazed in front of his eyes.
[Crafting a God-grade item.]
[It will be converted into an item that suits your current job.]
[Crafting Successful!]
[You have created ‘Helmet of Thanatos.’]
[Helmet of Thanatos]
-Category: Helmet
-Grade: God
-Defense: 1,600
-Effect: All Stats +50, You can use the skill ‘Sasin-hwa.’
-Durability: 20,000/20,000
-Use Restriction: Master grade or higher
-Description: A helmet made using the divinity of Thanatos, the God of Death. When equipping the set item, you will receive additional effects.
The helmet’s options weren’t bad.
All stats increased by 50.
But there was one thing he couldn’t immediately make sense of.
That it let him use the skill Sasin-hwa.
‘Someone seeing this for the first time wouldn’t know what kind of skill it is. There’s no explanation—it just says I can use it.’
To see the skill description, you had to equip the helmet.
Of course, Ryu Min knew even without equipping it.
‘Because I crafted God-grade items in the previous run too.’
That was why he also knew exactly how broken Sasin-hwa was.
Even if it had no other options and only had Sasin-hwa, he’d still be satisfied.
‘There’s no skill quite like it.’
Satisfied, Ryu Min equipped the gear.
The moment he equipped a God-grade armor and a helmet, the set effect activated.
-Thanatos’ Garment Set Effect (2/5)
-2-piece Effect: Resistance +20%
-3-piece Effect: ?????
-4-piece Effect: ?????
-5-piece Effect: ?????
Resistance—something notoriously hard to raise—had increased.
Ryu Min was satisfied with that too.
‘Once I equip the full set, my Resistance will get pretty high.’
Even in the Tower of Ordeals, the rewards for Floors 97 and 98—floors that tested your mind—were Resistance +10%.
‘If I take Rainbow Effect 50%, and the Resistance gained in the tower is multiplicative, so 20%, the common skill Resistance 15%, the 2-piece effect Resistance 20%, and when needed I equip Java’s Necklace 35% and the Ring of Resistance 35%?’
0.5×0.8×0.85×0.8×0.65×0.65=0.115. That calculation meant 88.5% Resistance against status effects.
‘In other words, the chance I get hit by a 5-second stun is 11.5%? And even if I do get hit, I’d break free in about 0.57 seconds.’
You could say his Resistance was high enough.
‘Now I don’t need to worry about status effects.’
Looking at his skill window, a temporary skill called “Sasin-hwa” had been added.
Ryu Min immediately checked the skill information.