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Chapter 185 – TOP 10
The Prophet said it.
That in Round 11, she absolutely had to grab onto the person who saved her life.
That if she let him go, she wouldn’t even make it past Round 15 before she died.
‘N-no. I can’t. After everything I did to survive.’
Christine hurriedly tried to sell herself.
“Y-you don’t know how useful I am, right? Haha. If you get hurt, I can heal you, and I can also put buffs on you that defend against status ailments and debuffs, and also—”
“Everything you listed is something I don’t need.”
“Excuse me?”
“I won’t be getting hurt, so I don’t need Heal, and my resistance to status ailments is already high. There’s no reason at all for me to travel with a Priest.”
“……”
A Priest was certainly an outstanding support when it came to survival.
Heal was in a completely different league from First Aid, and as Rounds progressed, nothing was as frightening as status ailments and debuffs.
Even Ryu Min acknowledged that the need for a healer was essential.
‘But that’s only in the later stages.’
Once you hit level 60, a Priest learned a resurrection skill.
Only then was it worth bringing a healer along as insurance.
‘But right now, she’s useless. She’s basically baggage.’
Christine seemed to acknowledge that too, because she couldn’t say anything and only lowered her head.
No—reading her thoughts, she wasn’t discouraged so much as desperately searching for another angle.
Because of Ryu Min’s prophecy that she had to be with Black Scythe.
‘Don’t worry, Christine. I have no reason to reject you.’
As long as he didn’t know how strong a boss battle would be, a Priest who could give him one more resurrection was absolutely necessary.
However, for now, he needed to create some distance with an appropriate excuse.
“This Round is a team match where you earn points by killing the opposing team. You and I are competitors from different zones and different races. In a situation like that, do you really think we can cooperate? What about me do you trust?”
“……You saved me.”
“If I save you twice, you’ll probably tell me to marry you.”
“…….”
“You trust me that much? Even though you just met me?”
What Christine trusted was actually the prophecy.
Because she’d been told that she had to grab this lifeline to survive, she was clinging to Black Scythe.
But after hearing Black Scythe’s advice, her thinking changed.
‘If it’s this person… I can trust him.’
He’d seen her only briefly, yet he understood her situation and hardships and gave her advice.
A man who possessed not only strength, but insight as well.
And since he looked like a sturdy lifeline, how could she not cling to him?
“Yes… I trust you. I trust you.”
‘Haa… this is driving me insane.’
Watching Christine try to stick to him no matter what, Ryu Min sighed inwardly.
‘It’s good that I got the Priest on my side. It is, but…’
Right now, she wasn’t someone he needed.
He could clear most Rounds on his own.
And traveling alone was more comfortable, too.
‘To think the distrustful Christine would believe a prophecy this completely.’
Saving her life played a part, but it seemed the bigger factor was that he’d won her favor with advice at first impression.
The problem was that he wouldn’t be able to truly use her until Round 15.
“I’ve said it repeatedly, but we’re from different zones, so cooperation is impossible. There’s no way for us to help each other build points. If you want help, survive this Round first and then think about it.”
“Then from the next Round onward, I can follow you?”
‘Persistent. So persistent.’
He felt fed up inside, but he couldn’t say he didn’t understand—this was clinging to survive.
“Yeah. So first, survive this Round. Instead of following me around, shouldn’t you be earning points to cover the share of the dead, if you want to enter the ranking range?”
At the reasonable point, Christine nodded.
“Thank you for the advice. And for saving my life.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
As if to say thanks were enough, Ryu Min turned his back first and left.
Leaving behind Christine’s eyes, filled with lingering regret.
‘Finally, I shook her off.’
Ryu Min exhaled in relief, like he’d just ditched an ex-girlfriend who was obsessively clinging to him.
To check his points and remaining time, he opened the quest progress window.
[Points acquired by the Korean Team: 733,270]
[Points acquired by Black Scythe-nim: 13,240]
[Time remaining until Round ends: 22:21:59]
Looking at the team points, they’d piled up 700,000.
‘Roughly 700 people, so I’d have to say they earned about 1,000 points per person.’
Only 1,000 points after nearly two hours.
‘If you assume even one normal one-hour quest earns about 1,000 points…’
The team’s performance was worse than expected.
‘Well, there are still 22 hours left.’
As far as Ryu Min knew, the survival cutline for Round 11 was 13,000,000.
If everyone earned 20,000 points each over 24 hours, they could survive.
Of course, Ryu Min had no intention of being satisfied with mere survival.
‘Getting past 13 million is nothing.’
Making the team’s result, and his personal result, both rank 1.
That was the goal for this Round.
He had confidence.
Because when the time limit was down to one hour, the final reversal would begin.
‘Until then, I need to focus and farm as many points as possible.’
He couldn’t let nuisances like Ma Kyung-rok or the Black Society come looking for him.
To do that, Ryu Min put on the Doppelganger’s Ring.
[Please state the nickname you wish to change to.]
[You cannot use an existing nickname.]
[However, you may use the nickname of a dead person.]
Ryu Min chose a nickname his acquaintances wouldn’t recognize.
‘Lostyak.’
[Nickname will be changed from ‘Black Scythe’ -> ‘Lostyak’.]
Not just his nickname—he also put on the Assassin’s Mask and altered his face.
‘Someone might recognize me in passing.’
His nickname, and even his appearance.
He became Lostyak completely.
Now no one would be able to track him.
They would have to picture Lostyak’s appearance and nickname.
‘If they use Tracking while thinking of Black Scythe, it’ll say I don’t exist.’
He’d be treated like a dead person, but he didn’t care.
He could just handwave it and say he had a rune that disrupted tracking.
‘No one’s chasing me now, so should I start farming points for real?’
He had already planned in his head which quests to clear and what route would be most efficient.
‘Amplification.’
Crackle-crackle—
He loaded current into his body and doubled his movement speed.
Paaang—!
In an instant, Ryu Min vanished in a burst of light.
“Haah… this is f**king exhausting.”
Until now, even the longest Rounds had been about ten hours.
A span where it wasn’t hard to endure basic physical needs like sleepiness or hunger.
But the 24 hours of Round 11 was agony just to endure.
“How many hours left?”
“Four.”
“Wow… there are still four hours left?”
“I’m starving to death, seriously.”
“I’m so sleepy I’m going insane.”
Jo Yong-ho’s mercenaries felt like they were dying.
They’d been running all over the place for about twenty hours trying to earn points, so it was only natural they were exhausted.
“We’re past level 45—so why are we still running out of stamina?”
“Right? We’re supposed to be superhumans who’ve transcended humans.”
“How would I know?”
Even superhumans who could break walls and dodge bullets were helpless in the face of hunger and sleepiness.
It was a natural phenomenon as long as they were flesh-and-blood created beings, but it was also true they’d forgotten it after being intoxicated by Players’ power.
“Boss! Can’t we rest just a little? We’re going to die at this rate.”
“Yeah, come on. Humanely speaking, just thirty minutes—let us close our eyes.”
At the mercenaries’ whining, Jo Yong-ho shouted as if telling them to stop talking nonsense.
“Survival is on the line—how can you think about sleeping? Your real body is probably already asleep. And you want to sleep again in the other world? If you do that, you might never wake up.”
“Still, people have to sleep, don’t they?”
“Hold on for four more hours. There isn’t much left. We have to do our best until the very end for us to live and the team to live.”
“Isn’t this enough effort already?”
“On average, didn’t we each earn 20,000 points?”
Because they’d been doing quests nonstop, Jo Yong-ho’s group had earned 20,000 points per person in twenty hours.
It was certainly a lot, but they still couldn’t relax yet.
“We don’t have any benchmark to compare against. We don’t know if we earned a lot or a little.”
“I think we’re probably first place. We really did our best.”
“Yeah. If we earned nonstop and still aren’t first, wouldn’t that be weird?”
“You don’t know that. That’s why we have no choice but to keep moving.”
The others sighed at that, but Jo Yong-ho honestly believed that, at this rate, they’d at least be mid-ranking.
Because they’d worked hard.
Because thirty mercenaries, including himself, had earned points without rest.
“If only we could at least see interim results…”
It was then.
The moment the time limit hit exactly four hours, a message appeared.
[There are 4 hours remaining until the current Round ends.]
[At this point, we will 공개 the ranking for the 해당 zone and the TOP 10.] <Zone-by-Zone Point Calculation Results>
1st. C3-ECHNA003 China (28,031,020 points)
2nd. C3-EBRA004 Brazil (27,712,410 points)
3rd. C3-EMXA003 Mexico (27,444,030 points)
4th. C3-EINDA001 India (26,991,150 points)
5th. C3-ECHNA005 China (26,896,020 points)
………………
…………
10th. C3-EJPNA002 Japan (25,558,180 points)
It was absurd that China had two teams in the TOP 10, but something even more shocking came next.
[Your team (C3-ESKA001 Korea) has 11,219,170 points, ranking 92nd out of 190 total zones.]
“What?”
“We’re only 92nd?”
To survive, they had to be within the top 95.
If they messed up, their ranking could slip and they might not even make the cutline.
“How is this possible? We worked this hard!”
As if someone had been slacking off, the team points were far lower than expected.
“Why are our neighboring countries, China and Japan, ranked so high?”
“Each team should have around 700 people, similar to us, right?”
“F**k, obviously they’ve been going around killing other teams. That earns way more points.”
“Yeah. Even looking at China in first place—28 million points already means 40,000 points per person, and that makes no sense.”
“They probably killed everyone they ran into, quests be damned.”
Killing a few people earned more than grinding quests.
The mercenaries felt hollow, like all their effort had been for nothing.
“Guys. Even so, we can still survive—so what’s the problem? Let’s just try a bit harder. If we mess up, we could get pushed out of the cutline.”
Jo Yong-ho soothed the heated team and said they had no choice but to keep pushing.
‘If we can’t earn points, not only these comrades, but even Black Scythe-nim dies.’
With that in mind, Jo Yong-ho and the mercenaries moved their bodies, determined to earn even a little more.
There was no time to waste if they wanted a final spurt in the remaining hours.
“Barely making it, huh.”
After seeing the Korean team’s ranking a moment ago, Ryu Min muttered with dissatisfaction.
“Even at best, it’s just scraping by. What would they have done without me, seriously.”
Even though Korea’s team had top-tier rankers, their points were too low—far too low.
‘At first, it wasn’t this low. They were at least middle-ranked.’
But once Ryu Min stopped Ma Kyung-rok and Joo Sung-tak from killing, the team points got chopped down in huge chunks.
‘I knew it, but I can’t help feeling bitter. The fact that if you don’t kill, your ranking drops off a cliff.’
Even if you do quests properly, you only earn pocket change.
That was exactly why the angels would want to see humans killing each other and carving away at their own flesh.
But killing wasn’t the only way to earn points.
Because the final reversal still remained.
‘With one reversal, I’ll pull us straight into first place. Both personal score and team score.’
There was a reason Ryu Min could be this confident.
Because the final chance for the lower ranks—the final reversal—was “gambling.”
‘And the only way to win that gamble is Clairvoyance.’
When the time limit reached one hour, a message would appear.
Until then, he’d collect bullets by doing quests.
As Ryu Min silently gathered points with that plan—
A message appeared before him.
The time had come.
[There is 1 hour remaining until the current Round ends.]
[A ‘Gambling Hall’ will open as a special event.]
[In the Gambling Hall, you can increase your points up to 200 times.]
[For reference, the location of the Gambling Hall will not be disclosed.]
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