Chapter 234. Round 14 Begins
The moment it turned midnight on February 1, a grassland spread out before Ryu Min’s eyes.
“It’s been a while since the grassland.”
Maybe because he’d often been starting in monochrome spaces lately, it felt especially long.
“First, should I check the special reward I chose last time?”
When he looked at the skill window, there was a reward he’d received for this Round only.
[Temporary Skill – Invincibility]
-Effect: The moment it is used, you become immune to all damage. Duration is 60 seconds, and it is a one-time skill.
Invincibility lasts one minute.
For a temporary skill, that’s quite long.
“The problem is that it’s a one-time skill.”
Since he could only use it once, he had to use it carefully.
Of course, Ryu Min already knew exactly when to use it and against whom.
“I’ll use this to clear the sub quest and obtain the Rune of Devouring. If a variable shows up, it can’t be helped.”
The “variable” here was an “angel.”
Up to now, Ryu Min had killed four of the seven archangels.
If nothing else, angels in the heavens were surely grinding their teeth at him.
They would definitely send an archangel to assassinate him in this Round too.
“Who will they send? Only ranks 1, 2, and 3 are left now, so 2 and 3? Or all three?”
He might face a crisis in this Round.
No matter how much stronger he’d become, he couldn’t guarantee victory against all three archangels.
“If it comes down to it, I’ll have to abandon the sub quest and use Invincibility.”
Of course, he’d only use it after facing them a few times and feeling that it was dangerous.
“If they want to come, let them try.”
As he waited with his arms crossed, more Players appeared across the grassland.
The number was roughly four thousand.
It looked like a lot at a glance, but this was all the Players left in the entire world.
“Once this Round ends, only half of these will survive. Then in the next Round, it’ll shrink again to a quarter.”
It was bleak, but even Ryu Min couldn’t stop the number from decreasing.
Not unless he became the creator of the game.
[Hello, humans. Welcome to Round 14!]
Once everyone had gathered, an angel appeared with a bright expression.
[There were 4,997 survivors last time, right? But now there are 4,608—so 389 fewer, huh?]
The angel seemed amazed, but people didn’t show much reaction.
Because they already knew why the number had dropped, through the news.
“They all know. That I killed them.”
Now, practically everyone knew that Black Scythe had wiped out criminal Players to the last.
The only one who didn’t know was the angel.
[Why did it decrease? Did you idiots kill each other trying to steal items? Stupidly?]
When the number of people decreases, only the survivor TO decreases as well.
That was why the angel mocked them as stupid, but Ryu Min didn’t regret killing the criminals.
“If I hadn’t killed them, they would’ve caused even greater harm.”
If Ryu Min hadn’t saved the countries in crisis—
Dystopia would have accelerated, and the world would never have escaped an atmosphere of misery and ruin.
Criminal Players would have grown even more arrogant and committed every kind of atrocity.
And the number of civilians sacrificed in the process would have been countless.
“It’s a good thing I cleaned up that trash even now. If I kept leaving them alone, the stench of rot would’ve filled everything.”
Of course, after learning their nicknames, he could have killed them in the other world instead.
Then the achiever TO wouldn’t decrease.
“But then I wouldn’t be treated like a hero the way I am now.”
Issuing a public warning to criminals and executing them wasn’t because he was some attention-starved lunatic.
It was to make the existence called Black Scythe known—and raise the weight of the name.
And also to show Players worldwide what happens if they commit crimes.
“That way, in Round 15, they’ll obediently follow my control. With eyes like these.”
When he looked around, the Players’ gazes toward him were different.
Eyes where respect and fear were mixed together.
It couldn’t be helped.
Even civilians saw Black Scythe as a hero—so how much more would Players?
“Of course they’re afraid of me. They should be.”
Just being looked at made them freeze or turn their heads away.
Some, perhaps pricked by guilt, even fled their spots in fear.
[Fine, whatever. If there are fewer of you, only you lose. Why would I care? I’ll tell you the Round 14 quest.]
With a sneer, the angel flapped its wings, and a message appeared.
◀ ROUND 14 ▶ <Main Quest>
└Survive a total of 10 monster waves
[Integrated Zone CA-EA001]
└Participants: 4,608
└Achievers: 0/2,304
“Monster waves?”
The Players’ faces, as they read the quest, were mostly calm.
They’d already experienced similar missions.
“Is it an endurance mission like Round 3?”
“So we just have to survive, right?”
Round 3 had been a mission to protect a relic while five waves proceeded.
This Round was a simple mission: survive ten waves.
“Still, it’s not something to let your guard down about.”
There was one more rule, but angels who loved deceiving Players would never reveal it.
They’d rather tease them about how easy it was.
Like now.
[This Round is just blocking a total of ten monster waves. That’s it. Isn’t it really easy?]
The angel beamed, but no Player was fooled by the smile.
“It’d have to be the first time in my life to take ‘easy’ at face value from an angel and not get stabbed in the back.”
[Monsters appear every 30 minutes, in proportion to the number of Players. At first, weak monsters appear, but as it goes on, stronger monsters gradually appear.]
“Angel! What if we can’t clear the monsters within 30 minutes?”
At someone’s question, the angel smiled thinly.
[Simple. When 30 minutes are up, the next monsters appear immediately. It doesn’t matter whether monsters from the previous wave are still left or not. When time comes, the next wave proceeds no matter what.]
“Ah… then we have to clear the wave as much as possible within 30 minutes.”
“If not, the monsters will just keep stacking…”
[Correct. If you can’t clear the monsters quickly, you’ll suffer because of the next monsters. That vast grassland might even end up completely filled with monsters.]
It was a mission where clearing monsters as fast as possible was the key.
[Some foolish humans might occasionally think “I’ll just survive” and try to run away from the monsters. So we prepared something for those humans. Shall you take a look around?]
When they looked around the grassland, they saw that it was surrounded by a translucent dome-like barrier.
[We blocked it off with a barrier on all sides so you can’t run anywhere. Think of it as an arena—it’ll be easier.]
The angel looked like it was mocking them, as if to say they shouldn’t even dream of escaping.
“So we have to stop all ten waves together……”
“Then are we all one party?”
At someone’s mutter, the angel snapped its fingers as if it had been waiting for that.
[Good question. Yes. This Round applies as if you’re all one party, and experience and gold will be split according to the number of people. However, based on contribution, there will be a final settlement after all waves are finished, so keep that in mind.]
“And the ranking system?”
[Ranking is also based on contribution. We convert contribution into points and enter you into the survivor list.]
Ranking based on contribution?
That meant you had to kill as many monsters as possible—or contribute greatly to killing them.
“It’s a Round that favors the strong. Like me.”
For Ryu Min, who could kill dozens of monsters with just a few swings of his scythe, building contribution wasn’t difficult at all.
Meaning, once again, Rank 1 was practically guaranteed.
“But I can’t hog all the contribution by myself. I have to leave shares for others.”
If he put his mind to it, he was confident he could sweep away a hundred, a thousand, all on his own.
But then the contribution that would go to others would shrink, and in the end, his allies might not survive.
“I can’t let that happen. At the very least, I have to leave enough for the Reaper Church’s share.”
Ryu Min had already informed the believers about the nature of the Round and how to攻略 each wave.
He didn’t stop there—he even distributed equipment he wasn’t using, so building contribution wouldn’t be hard.
[Then we’ll start the quest shortly, so prepare yourselves!]
“Why prepare? Just start.”
Ryu Min tilted his head, but didn’t think much of it.
Not knowing the angel had other schemes.
And not knowing someone behind him was sending him a dangerous gaze.
When does life feel unfair?
When you see rich people spending money like water and feel the gap between rich and poor?
When someone gets promoted faster than you just because they’re close with the boss?
When you’re forced to submit helplessly to greater power and violence?
There are many situations, but in the end, it could be compressed into one.
It’s when you have no power.
“It’s because you have no power that you get trampled. Whether it’s money, authority, or violence.”
[Simple Mukbang] had already experienced being trampled.
By the Pleseva chairman.
“That bastard. I could blend him up and it still wouldn’t be satisfying. I just misspoke once and he throws me away like this?”
He had once been an executive in charge of major matters at Pleseva, but that was only once.
Now he was blocked on the blacklist, unable to even access the site.
All because of a single thing he’d said nine months ago.
-Why did Black Scythe apply to join, but he’s been lying low this whole time?
-Wasn’t it Black Scythe to begin with?
-An impostor… yeah, that makes sense.
-I mean, someone like Black Scythe, a big shot like that, wouldn’t try to join “a cafe like this”…
-Mukbang-nim? Did you just say “a cafe like this”? What’s wrong with our cafe?
-[Simple Mukbang-nim will, from this moment, be removed from the executive position. We will place you on the blacklist, so when the new era comes, adapt on your own.]
After being discarded without mercy in a video chat meeting by the Pleseva chairman,
Simple Mukbang had endured alone ever since.
Grinding his teeth with revenge toward the chairman.
“If it were up to me, I’d find that bastard chairman and kill him… but I don’t know his nickname or face, so—damn it…”
There was no way to find him.
Because the Pleseva chairman wasn’t a Player, but a civilian.
Though Simple Mukbang didn’t know that fact.
“I know his real-life face, so if I just learn his real name, I can find him with Tracking.”
With that thought, he asked for help from all sorts of private investigators, but in the end he only wasted the fees.
And now, he had almost given up on finding the chairman.
If there’s no way to find him, what can you do?
But his chest was still full of the humiliation and resentment from back then.
“This is all because of Black Scythe, that bastard. I got kicked out because I was talking about that bastard!”
Strictly speaking, it was his own fault, but Simple Mukbang needed a target to blame.
A target to vent his condensed rage onto.
That target was Black Scythe.
“You son of a bitch, die. Fucking ‘hero’ my ass, you trash bastard!”
Every month, in the other world, he hurled curses at the back of Black Scythe’s head—but he could only do it in his mind.
As much as he hated to admit it, there was an immense gap in power between him and Black Scythe.
He was aware that Black Scythe was a 존재 he couldn’t dare approach.
“It’s an unreasonable, unfair world. Damn it, just collapse. This shitty world.”
Even as he blamed the chairman, blamed Black Scythe, and blamed the world, Simple Mukbang never blamed himself.
Even as he spewed curses at the world to die, he still wanted to save his own life at any cost.
Because revenge and blaming others were only possible if you stayed alive.
“I’m going to survive. I’ll survive to Round 20 and wish for power that nobody can ignore. And then I’ll make the chairman and Black Scythe—you fucking bastards—kneel before me, and I’ll make you beg with both hands and both feet, crying that you were wrong.”
Wearing a greasy smile as he stared at the back of Black Scythe’s head, Simple Mukbang hurriedly turned his head away.
For a second he panicked, thinking Black Scythe might have looked this way.
“Ah, shit, that startled me. Why does that bastard move so fast? I almost had a heart attack. Anyway… looking at the mission, this Round Black Scythe’s going to take first place again, huh? Dirty world.”
The moment he heard that rankings would be decided by monster contribution, the result was basically already set.
“I just have to work hard and at least make the cutoff.”
As he resolved to kill as many monsters as possible—
-Simple Mukbang?
A clear, high voice sounded in his head.
“Huh? What is this? I’ve heard this voice somewhere before.”
-Look this way for a second. Simple Mukbang. No, not there—this way. The sky!
When he raised his head, the guiding angel was staring at him.
-Yes. Here!
“Angel-nim just spoke to me—”
-Ah, damn it! Don’t act like you know me. Shut your mouth and listen!
At the angel’s words, Simple Mukbang clamped his lips shut.
He had no idea what her problem was.
-I have business with you.
“Me?”
-We have something to talk about, so follow me quietly. Don’t let anyone notice.
As if telling him to follow, the angel jerked her chin and slowly moved through the sky.
At the sight, Simple Mukbang had no choice but to follow with a bewildered expression.