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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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“Stand back!”
Party leader, Kim Cheol-ho, ran forward and swung his sword.
Swish!
With a clean cut, the D-rank gate monster, the orc, fell down, instantly dead.
“Kill them all!”
At the party leader’s shout, the other party members also ran toward the orc horde.
Swish! Thud! Thwack!
There wasn’t any tension to speak of.
The party members were definitely pros when it came to hunting monsters, and the horde of over ten orcs quickly became corpses, lying on the ground.
“How was that!”
“You’re really something, brother. Still….”
The leader of the sculpturing party, Ahn Min-hong, said in a small voice.
“Please give us a chance to step up too. It’s not like I don’t know your skills, brother….”
Rumor had it that Kim Cheol-ho had joined Ahn Min-hong’s party as a mercenary, showed off his exceptional skills, and became close to them.
“You said you’d help us gain some practical experience this time. I even followed you without telling my dad because of that.”
“Of course! That’s how it should be. Don’t worry!”
Ahn Min-hong’s sculpturing party members were all scions of considerably wealthy families.
Of course, they weren’t from families with high reputations, but rather nouveau riche families.
Since a player was born into such a family, the parents naturally invested generously for their children’s growth.
That method wasn’t right though.
What’s known as a “bus,” so to speak.
‘It’s about inserting their children among strong players and having them receive experience points.’
The experience points needed for a player’s level-up weren’t simply obtained by hunting monsters.
It was determined by how much they participated in the battle and what achievements they accomplished in the gate.
But even so.
‘You could obtain some experience points just by being present where a monster was hunted, or even by participating in a gate raid.’
That was what a “bus” was.
It was nouveau riche people grinding their money as a resource to safely level up their children.
However, the children were bound to feel tired of such a process.
They became players and gained superhuman powers, so how frustrating must it be to not even be able to properly use that power?
So, those who were sometimes called passengers enjoyed the deviance of joining the parties of players they had become acquainted with and gaining practical experience.
“Oh, right on cue, there are three orcs over there. How about you guys try to take them down?”
“Yes, we will!”
It was a foolish act.
Even though a “bus” wasn’t the right method, it was definitely a safe one.
This world wasn’t such a clean and safe place.
“Haaap!”
Those fools were about to realize that this time.
While the sculpturing party was hunting the orcs, Kim Cheol-ho approached Lee Rowoon and said…
“The gate will be completely closed in just one more day.”
Once a gate had accepted entrants, it closed completely after a certain period of time.
It would no longer accept entrants, nor would it open until the boss was defeated.
And so.
“Well, I’ll at least let you see the area in front of the boss room. If they are subdued there, there won’t be any big problems.”
They were carrying out a kidnapping, but they had no tasks to do.
In the first place, they hadn’t hired someone from the Black Market because they needed fighting strength.
They were trying to find a fall guy.
In case things went wrong, they needed someone to take the blame.
Lee Rowoon had introduced himself to them as a ronin, and ronin sometimes did things that were no different from the demons of Gehenna.
“And show them what you look like while hunting too. If you keep being so serious, they might notice something.”
Lee Rowoon simply nodded silently.
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The first night in the gate.
“Wow! A tent!”
“Hehe. We’re real players now, too.”
Even if it was a lower-ranked gate, the raid would take a few days, so camping in the gate was practically essential.
However, the sculpturing party seemed like they had never even camped properly before, and were excited and thrilled about their first camping experience.
“Let’s set up a watch and sleep now. You guys shouldn’t stay up too late either! That way, you can get a feel for hunting monsters tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir! Understood!”
Even with Kim Cheol-ho’s words, Ahn Min-hong’s party seemed like their blood was boiling but they fell asleep after quite a while.
Before long, it was Lee Rowoon’s turn for watch duty.
Since it was a two-person watch, Lee Rowoon’s partner was…
“Can I sit down?”
It was the woman who had caught his eye from the moment they had entered the gate.
“Suit yourself.”
They had to stay like this for two hours.
“You know my name, right?”
“Kang Eun-ha.”
“Then, now tell me your name.”
Lee Rowoon glanced at her.
Among Ahn Min-hong’s party, who were judged to have flower-garden heads, Kang Eun-ha was an incongruous presence.
She acted as if she was no different from Ahn Min-hong and the others, but she never let her guard down.
Her behavior, which seemed inexperienced, but the way she hunted monsters quite well, that was the indication.
“Lee Rowoon.”
“Lee Rowoon…? It’s a name I’ve heard somewhere before.”
“……”
“It doesn’t sound like a silver name.”
Lee Rowoon closed his mouth.
Crackling, crackling.
The sound of firewood burning could be heard.
Was it that she hated the silence?
“If you’re a martial artist, what level are you?”
Kang Eun-ha opened her mouth again.
“You didn’t step up properly when we were hunting orcs earlier, are you second-rate? First-rate…?”
Crack.
“Or are you at the peak? Haha, a martial artist at the peak wouldn’t come to a D-rank gate, right?”
Lee Rowoon finally looked at Kang Eun-ha again.
“Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a martial artist about their level?”
“Ah, is that so? If it was rude, I’m sorry. Still, we’re a party raiding this together, so I’m curious what your skill level is.”
There was no sign of embarrassment in her eyes as she said that.
She was asking even though she knew it was rude.
“Don’t you use weapons? Did you learn fist techniques…?”
Kang Eun-ha asked further, as if she was trying to dig something out.
“I use weapons. I can confidently say that I use them better than anyone.”
“Then why…?”
“If I were to use weapons right now.”
Snicker.
Lee Rowoon playfully curled up the corner of his mouth.
“Something uncontrollable would happen.”
“……Ugh, that’s a bit cringey, isn’t it? Is it something like a black dragon?”
“Don’t believe it if you don’t want to. Anyway, I’m not using a weapon because my current body condition won’t allow me to handle them properly.”
“Ah, I see, you must have suffered some internal injury. That’s why you can’t use weapons….”
Kang Eun-ha, who said that, mumbled softly.
“He doesn’t seem like a bad person….”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t misunderstand me.”
Kang Eun-ha gave a small laugh.
“It’s just because I heard there are a lot of scary people among ronin!”
After how much pointless conversation, their watch time was already over.
“It’s time to change.”
One of Kim Cheol-ho’s party members.
“Oh! The watch!”
One of Ahn Min-hong’s party members came to change the watch with him.
On the way to the tent.
Nod.
Kang Eun-ha greeted Lee Rowoon with a mysterious smile.
Lee Rowoon simply ignored her greeting and entered his tent.
Lee Rowoon lay down in the tent.
He couldn’t sleep anyway.
Snicker.
‘It’s way too obvious how transparent they are.’
He was just thinking about the conversation he had with Kang Eun-ha, thinking about what would happen tomorrow.
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“Alright, everyone, just in case, I’ll tell you that the gate closes today. If you want to leave, you have to leave now.”
“Oh come on! The boss is just around the corner, we should at least experience the boss fight properly!”
Ahn Min-hong replied to Kim Cheol-ho’s subtly delivered words, without even asking the other party members.
Luckily, the other party members’ thoughts didn’t seem that different.
“Yeah! That’s what makes a real player!”
Kim Cheol-ho said with a hearty laugh.
A little while later.
[The gate will be sealed.]
The promised time had arrived.
“Alright! Alright! Let’s quickly head to where the boss is!”
Kim Cheol-ho hadn’t revealed his true colors yet.
What he was thinking was obvious.
‘This isn’t his first time.’
It was clear that Kim Cheol-ho made a living doing this sort of thing.
Not only that, but from all of his actions seen up to now, he was very experienced, never letting his guard down.
“How about you guys try hunting now? If it gets dangerous, we’ll step in.”
“Alright!”
Ahn Min-hong’s party, the children of considerably wealthy families.
And the reason why players could be special compared to people of other worlds.
‘Items.’
He was trying to make Ahn Min-hong’s party use any items they had hidden.
As expected, due to Kim Cheol-ho party’s subtle herding, a much larger horde of orcs than before attacked.
“Haaap!”
The orc horde was increasing little by little. Kim Cheol-ho intentionally only drove in as many orcs as Ahn Min-hong could handle, and Ahn Min-hong didn’t seem too suspicious of it.
“Huk! Huk!”
But eventually the end always came.
Ahn Min-hong’s party, tired from the continuous hunting, were breathing heavily and continuously falling back.
“B-brother! I think you need to help us!”
About twenty orcs surrounded them.
“Min-hong! I’m sorry, but hold on a bit longer! There are a lot of orcs here too! I think the herding went wrong!”
“That’s…”
Just as Kim Cheol-ho had said, Kim Cheol-ho’s party was also surrounded by almost twenty orcs.
There was no place for Ahn Min-hong and the others to escape anymore.
In the end, there was only one choice they could make.
“Fire Strike!”
Taking out hidden items.
They were probably expensive items that their parents had bought them to save their lives in truly critical situations.
Smirk.
The corner of Kim Cheol-ho’s mouth curled up as he was dealing with the orcs.
Boom! Boom!
When Ahn Min-hong had party managed to clear out the orcs with firepower they had never shown before, Kim Cheol-ho’s party also managed to clear out the orcs.
“Are you okay? Sorry.”
“Bro! We almost died! How can you do this when you were supposed to take good care of us!”
Ahn Min-hong, not liking the situation just now, raised his voice towards Kim Cheol-ho for the first time.
And that was the signal.
“Hey.”
“……?”
“Did we do that on purpose?”
“B-bro.”
“We almost died too. Didn’t you see us fighting twenty orcs?”
Kim Cheol-ho’s eyes changed fiercely. Ahn Min-hong, who hadn’t seen those eyes much before, was flustered and had no choice but to back down.
“Shit. Do you think we’re your dogs just because you threw some money at us?”
“B-bro, that’s not it…”
“You little shit. Do we look easy?”
Before they knew it…
Swish.
Kim Cheol-ho’s party had surrounded Ahn Min-hong and the others.
They were trembling, unable to hide their bewilderment at the situation that had unfolded in an instant.
“B-bro. What’s going on….”
“Little one.”
Kim Cheol-ho smiled and snapped his fingers.
“Didn’t your mother and father tell you not to follow strangers?”
“Web!”
“Bind!”
Kim Cheol-ho’s party members successfully used pre-prepared items to restrain Ahn Min-hong and the others.
“Ha, it’s hard to figure out these little kids.”
“You did a good job, party leader.”
“Bro, what is this…”
“Min-hong.”
Ahn Min-hong, still hadn’t properly grasped the situation.
Kim Cheol-ho leaned his face close to him and said.
“It’s because you can’t grasp the situation that you end up like this. Don’t worry. As long as your parents give us the promised money, you can go out of here alive.”
“……!”
It seemed like Ahn Min-hong wasn’t a complete idiot and had grasped the situation then.
His face had turned completely pale.
He tried to use the item he was holding, but he had already exceeded the number of uses for today.
“So, until your parents give us the money nicely, let’s stay quiet? Hehe.”
“R-red players….”
Ahn Min-hong couldn’t speak foolishly any longer after seeing Kim Cheol-ho’s 180-degree change.
‘He says they’ll let them live if they give him money?’
Lee Rowoon scoffed as he watched that scene.
‘There’s no way.’
He had already seen their faces, and he knew their names.
If these guys went back alive, they would definitely be wanted.
These kinds of things happened often.
Crimes against rookie players who didn’t know anything and lacked experience.
And the end was always the same.
‘Death.’
If they killed them inside the gate, then defeated the boss and closed the gate, there wouldn’t even be any evidence left.
From the start, they had chosen their destination while keeping it strictly secret, so it would take time for the parents to even find out which gate their children entered.
An inescapable trap.
Guys like Kim Cheol-ho were called red players.
Another name they were called.
‘Spiders.’
Guys who laid traps, hunted, and exploited rookie players.
“You just stand here and make sure those guys don’t do anything stupid. They’re still useful.”
Kim Cheol-ho said, patting Lee Rowoon’s shoulder.
Even amidst all of that, Lee Rowoon was only looking at one person, Kang Eun-ha.
‘What will you do.’
Kang Eun-ha.
Swish!
She didn’t disappoint Lee Rowoon’s expectations.
“Kkyaaaaaaaah-!”
The scream of one of the spiders echoed all around.
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