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CHAPTER 189 — MA KYUNG-ROK’S RAGE
When Players return, they all wake from sleep at the same time, simultaneously.
Because of that, their families have no choice but to wait in longing.
Without knowing any information at all—why their child won’t open their eyes, why they are sleeping for twenty-four hours straight.
“Mm.”
“Y-you’re awake!”
Christine, who slowly opened her eyes, turned her head—and then gasped.
Her father, looking haggard, was sitting beside her bed as if he had been nursing her.
“Father?”
“Thank goodness you’re safe.”
“W-what happened? Have you been waiting without sleeping this whole time?”
“Could you sleep if it were you? When my daughter hasn’t woken up for twenty-four hours.”
Her father Nathan’s worry was only natural.
Especially since he had heard she would suffer misfortune in Round 11, he couldn’t help being anxious.
When Nathan wiped away tears that had leaked out just a little, Christine was startled.
Because it was the first time in her life she had seen her father cry.
“Are you… crying?”
“Don’t misunderstand. It’s tears from being sleepy. More importantly, why did it take so long?”
“The time limit in this round was unusually long—twenty-four hours.”
Just then, the door opened and Jeffrey walked in.
“Ah! You were alive! Christine.”
“I guess I was.”
Christine’s response was cold.
She didn’t even look at him—she seemed thoroughly angry about what happened before.
Even though after being dominated by Yamtti, his bad feelings toward the Prophet had already disappeared.
“My daughter. What happened? As the prophecy said, were you truly attacked?”
“…Yes.”
With a heavy heart, Christine told them what she had gone through.
Despair Church’s ambush, the betrayal of the Paladin she trusted, and even the appearance of the Necromancer leader.
When she said that the Paladin had tried to force himself on her, Jeffrey couldn’t hide his rage.
“To think there’s a beast like that! Christine! That bastard is definitely dead, right?”
“He’s dead. I saw it clearly with my own eyes.”
“To have kept such a satanic human at your side… Then you can’t trust those followers who trail after you either.”
“There’s nothing to trust or not trust. My companions—about a hundred of them—were all killed without a single one left, in Despair Church’s ambush.”
“……”
“…….”
The two of them fell silent at the words, reading the room.
Because Christine’s expression looked as depressed as it could possibly be.
“You don’t need to worry about me. I’ve decided to shake off the grief and stand up again.”
“Have you?”
“No matter what, I have to make it to Round 20. If I don’t, my companions’ deaths will be meaningless. There’s no other way, is there?”
“The wish, you mean.”
Christine originally had no wish.
Wish or no wish—she had only survived this far just so she wouldn’t die.
But now her mindset had changed.
‘Black Scythe-nim said it wasn’t my fault, but still, it’s not like I bear absolutely no responsibility. So… I’m going to save them. Even if it’s for my dead companions.’
This gave her a powerful motivation.
She found a reason she had to reach Round 20.
Was Nathan reading the changed look in his daughter’s eyes?
He wore a more satisfied smile than ever.
“As expected, my daughter is strong.”
“I got some advice.”
“Hm? Advice?”
“You don’t need to worry about it. More importantly, have you ever heard of Despair Church?”
Nathan and Jeffrey shook their heads at the same time.
“What kind of cult is that?”
“I think it’s a religion made up only of Players. It seems like they have a base in America, but I can’t find a way to locate them.”
“Leave finding them to us. Don’t get involved again and put yourself in danger.”
“More importantly, Christine. Who is the person who saved you?”
At Jeffrey’s question, Nathan chimed in, asking with the same curiosity.
“Yes, tell me. Who helped you get out of that situation? Was it your fiancé who saved you?”
Christine shook her head.
“No. I didn’t even get to meet him.”
“Then who?”
“The nickname of the person who saved me is Black Scythe.”
“Black Scythe?”
Nathan tilted his head as if it were his first time hearing it, but Jeffrey’s reaction was different.
“B-Bl… Black Scythe?”
“What is it, Jeffrey? Have you heard of him?”
“Heard of him? Of course. He’s already famous in this field. He’s the strongest among all existing Players—the one who has never lost Rank 1.”
“Is that so? An American?”
“He’s Korean. Among ordinary people, he’s known as the CPF unit commander who rooted out IS remnants in Nigeria.”
“Oh? Then he’s a Player who does good deeds.”
Nathan’s eyes flashed.
Even though he had never met him, the moment Black Scythe had saved Christine, his first impression was already a pass.
“I should go to Korea soon and repay the favor for saving my daughter.”
“But it won’t be easy to meet him. He never contacts anyone at all, and he even wears a mask to thoroughly hide his identity.”
“Still, there must be a way to meet him. In a small country like Korea, how hard could it be to find one person?”
He spoke confidently, but Jeffrey wore a negative expression.
If it were possible, Black Scythe’s face would have been known through the media already.
Then Christine cut in.
“I’ll go to Korea.”
“To Korea?”
“I’ll go and meet Prophet-nim. If it’s him, he might know Black Scythe-nim’s location.”
“You exchanged numbers this time—so you won’t ask over the phone?”
“It’s rude to talk about that kind of thing over the line. I should at least show sincerity by visiting in person.”
“And you know his home address?”
“Did you forget? The person closest to Prophet-nim is my fiancé. If I ask him, he’ll know.”
Ma Kyung-rok woke up and immediately threw the lamp beside him.
“Uwaaaaaaah! FuuuuuuuuX!!!”
He wanted to grab and throw anything he could get his hands on, but unfortunately, because of his neat personality, there weren’t many things within reach.
“Hoo… huff.”
Ma Kyung-rok snorted like an enraged bull.
He was furious.
Because in Round 11, his points were zero.
He couldn’t escape the Labyrinth Forest for the entire twenty-four hours.
‘Manager Ahn is probably screaming his head off around now too. His desire to get stronger was even higher than mine.’
Thankfully, thanks to Black Scythe, the Korea team took first place and avoided annihilation, but that was all.
With no points, even if the Special Shop opened, he would be unable to use it.
It was a feast in a picture—something he could only stare at.
‘Me, born with a silver spoon, reduced to only watching because I don’t have a single measly point.’
For a moment, it felt like he had become a penniless beggar.
Even with tens of billions in the bank, all he felt was emptiness.
The more he had expected the Special Shop, the greater the sense of loss.
‘What an irony. I ended up like this chasing Black Scythe, yet I survived because of Black Scythe.’
Even now, it was impressive.
How had that guy collected twenty million points all by himself?
‘No—more importantly, how did he get out of that damned forest?’
After being struck by Hwang Yong-min and losing consciousness, Ma Kyung-rok woke up late.
There were three hours left.
For one hour, he struggled, cutting at a tree trunk and trying with An Sang-cheol to escape the maze.
But escaping in a mere two hours was impossible.
Since he had spent the whole day in a forest like a labyrinth, his points could only be zero.
‘Absurd. Just absurd. Zero points. Me, always ranking… zero points…’
He was feeling emptiness beyond rage when—
Bzzzt— the sound of the door opening, and An Sang-cheol walked in.
Seeing the room in disarray, he looked briefly surprised, but soon his face settled into calm as if he understood.
“CEO. I’m here.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you done letting it out?”
“To some extent. What about Manager Ahn?”
“Hoo… I couldn’t hold it in either, so I threw a few things and came.”
“Does this even make sense? That we have zero points.”
“Exactly.”
“Who do you think is at fault, Manager Ahn?”
“Mm…”
The reason An Sang-cheol hesitated wasn’t complicated.
To be honest, the cause was Ma Kyung-rok, who insisted they follow Black Scythe.
But if you have your head screwed on straight, you don’t drag your boss through the mud to his face.
“The primary cause is Black Scythe entering that strange forest, and secondarily, Hwang Yong-min, who did this to us.”
“It isn’t Hwang Yong-min, is it? That guy.”
“Ah, right. He’s undead, after all. If we’re being precise, then the cause should be the one who was controlling Hwang Yong-min.”
“No matter how I think about it, it’s strange. How could a mere undead have that kind of skill…”
Hwang Yong-min toyed with the two of them completely.
His ability was impossible for a mere summon.
Even outwardly, he looked far too like a normal human to be called undead.
If the Prophet hadn’t said he was dead, Ma Kyung-rok would have believed he was a Player.
“The Prophet said it clearly, didn’t he? That Hwang Yong-min was dead.”
“Yes. I heard it clearly. He also said there was a Necromancer controlling him.”
“Then the Prophet will know. Who’s behind it.”
They hadn’t been beaten by Hwang Yong-min.
They had been beaten by someone controlling Hwang Yong-min.
“Are you going to take revenge?”
“Of course. I’ll find that son of a bitch, tear his limbs apart, and throw him to dogs as feed.”
“Then shall we call the Prophet?”
“Yes. I’ll do it myself, to check if he survived—”
Just then, Ma Kyung-rok’s phone rang.
When he looked at the caller, it was Christine.
“Christine?”
-Hello, Ma Kyung-rok.
“You’re safe! Thank goodness. Do you know how worried I was?”
Maybe his bright voice was unexpected—there was a brief silence on the other end.
-Thank you for worrying about me.
“How could I not worry? We’re people who promised a future. And this round was the one with a bad prophecy, wasn’t it?”
-It was.
“What was it like? Did something really happen, just like the prophecy?”
To satisfy Ma Kyung-rok’s curiosity, Christine calmly explained what had happened then.
The problem was that the listener couldn’t stay calm.
“You almost died to Despair Church’s leader?”
-Yes. He was American, and he had an ability to command the dead. I heard he’s called a Necromancer.
‘A Necromancer?’
The moment he heard “commands the dead,” a sharp intuition struck.
This was the one he had to take revenge on—the mastermind behind everything.
“What did you say his name was?”
-It’s John Delgado of Despair Church. Do you know him, by any chance?
“No. I don’t know him well, but I’ll look into him too. He dared to lay a hand on my fiancée—shouldn’t he pay the price?”
-You don’t have to go this far…
“No. I couldn’t help you at all in the other world, so I should at least help you like this.”
Ma Kyung-rok spoke as if he were doing it for her, but in truth it was personal vengeance.
‘I’m sure of it. This guy is the Necromancer who used Hwang Yong-min.’
Judging by the timeline, after he screwed Ma Kyung-rok over in the Labyrinth Forest, he must have gone to kill Christine.
‘What I can’t understand is why he didn’t kill us.’
If he tried to kill Christine outright, he was someone who wouldn’t hesitate to murder to achieve his goal.
So why would someone like that spare Ma Kyung-rok and An Sang-cheol, tying them to a tree?
No matter how he thought about it, there was no reason.
Because there was no reason to do that.
‘If there’s a reason, I’ll ask him directly when I meet him.’
He would definitely find Despair Church’s John Delgado.
As Ma Kyung-rok made that vow, he suddenly remembered a question he had forgotten.
“Ah, by the way—who is the person who saved you?”
-You know him too, Ma Kyung-rok.
“I do?”
-He’s a Korean Player called Black Scythe. He saved me.
‘Black Scythe?’
Ma Kyung-rok’s expression turned unpleasant.
To think the savior of his fiancée was none other than Black Scythe.
‘Because of that guy, I ended up like this.’
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t his fault, but without blaming someone else, there was no way to control this rage.
-Anyway, Ma Kyung-rok, I have a favor to ask.
“A favor?”
-My father wants to meet Black Scythe-nim. So…
Christine hesitated, then spoke.
-Can you arrange a meeting with Prophet-nim? I thought Prophet-nim might know Black Scythe-nim’s location.
“That’s not difficult.”
-Thank you. I’ll contact you again when I arrive in Korea.
“Yes.”
The call ended, but Ma Kyung-rok’s face looked uncomfortable for some reason.