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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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Karuna’s body blazed with moonlight. Kang Seol clenched his fists.
‘Somehow… I’ve made it this far.’
There were many ways to conquer the Five Brothers. The one he had chosen was the most difficult. The method of turning the five brothers against each other. The overall plan was clear, but the conditions were quite demanding.
1. Sow chaos within the tribe using the exiles or other means.
2. Tamper with the tribe’s sacred object, the Rock Fist, to sow suspicion among the five brothers.
3. Confirm that the strongest of the leaders has taken the Rock Fist.
4. When the blame falls on the eldest, the chieftain, kill one of the brothers. (The target must be chosen carefully, considering the curse that will be received. The second brother is excluded.)
5. If you wait, the second brother will persuade the other brothers to rebel against the first. (The rivalry between the first and second brothers is fixed, regardless of their personalities. Therefore, this is a fixed event. However, if the first brother doesn’t have the Rock Fist at this time, he will be defeated.)
6. Watch the first brother win. (The reason the first brother, not the other three, has to win is that he will then bear the brunt of the other three brothers’ ‘grudge’ curses, making him easier to deal with.)
7. When the first brother is burdened with the curses, defeat him.
All of this was what Kang Seol had orchestrated since midnight.
‘This is more trouble than I’ve ever been in…’
The unexpected annihilation of his party. But since this was an adventure with a top-tier reward, he had to see it through. And now, the ordeal was almost over.
The strategy he had devised for the Five Brothers had seven steps. He was now on the seventh.
‘But there’s still one mountain to climb.’
Defeating Jamad. The important thing was that the first brother, with the Rock Fist, was incredibly strong. So much so that a party was mandatory.
And Jamad was powerful enough for Mael to warn him about. The personalities of the five brothers changed with each playthrough, and the difficulty of this strategy depended on the first brother’s strength.
Jamad would likely be exceptionally powerful. Kang Seol clenched his fists.
‘I have to try and counter him with the curse. Anyway, I hope it goes according to plan.’
His thoughts ended there. It was time to focus on the battle. Jamad and Karuna had just clashed.
Kabooooooom!
“Aaaaaargh!”
“…”
Karuna, in his half-moon state, directly countered Jamad’s attack.
Crash!
Screech…
Karuna was pushed back a few steps, but he seemed otherwise unharmed.
‘At this rate…’
It was proof that Karuna could handle Jamad. Then he could leave him to it.
Kabooom!
The noise from their clash was enough to shake the entire area, but the tribe members, consumed by madness, couldn’t reach the assembly hall.
‘They couldn’t approach when the brothers were fighting either, so I can fight without worry.’
This was why he had targeted Jamad in the assembly hall, right after he had killed his other brothers, and not at any other time. Jamad was now isolated with him at the top floor.
“How dare you target the Rock Tusk! Your corpse will be food for the wild dogs!”
Kagagak!
Jamad mostly used primitive and direct attacks. He was exhausted from the grudge curse, and he was clearly trying to buy time to recover his shamanistic power, but even so, he was on par with Karuna.
Clang!
Clang!
‘Damn it… the shadow summon penalty is a pain.’
It wasn’t that Karuna was weaker than Jamad. Without the Rock Fist, Jamad and a penalty-free Karuna would probably be evenly matched.
The problem was that Karuna’s abilities were limited to 20% due to the low-level shadow summon, so he was barely able to handle the exhausted Jamad.
‘But it’s not like there’s no way. But… the timing…’
Jamad, thinking he had figured out Karuna’s abilities, attacked even more furiously.
Rumble, rumble!
Fortunately, the shamanism succeeded, and a huge aura erupted from Jamad’s body.
“Did you dare to covet the mountain with such meager power!”
Jamad’s Earthquake Stance. An ability that continuously consumed shamanistic power to create vibrations. It was an ability Jamad used when his stamina was depleted to a certain level.
Hooooong—!
Kagagagagagak!
Karuna barely defended against Jamad’s fist. Jamad unleashed a barrage of attacks, as if to break the Moonlight Sword.
Clang!
Rumble, rumble!
Karuna seemed to be struggling to deal with the vibrations spreading from the point of impact.
“Jamad is a mountain! I am the one who will put everything under my feet!”
Kagagagagak!
Karuna was pushed back again while trying to protect Kang Seol. In his half-moon state, he couldn’t defeat Jamad.
‘Strange, he should be in tatters from the backlash of using the Rock Fist by now…’
He had confirmed this through numerous solo plays. The fact that Karuna in his half-moon state was being pushed back by Jamad didn’t make sense, based on his calculations and experience.
‘Did something go wrong? Did I miss something…’
Kang Seol quickly reviewed the past process, but there was nothing that could have been a problem. That meant that the problem was likely in the present, not the past.
Hooooooong!
Then and now, there was only one difference. Jamad’s existence itself. Kang Seol had faced countless first brothers, but this was his first time facing Jamad. Jamad’s Rock Fist let out a roar. Then, his fist struck the ground.
Kabooooooom!
“Ugh… Karuna!”
Clang!
Clang!
Karuna parried all the rock fragments that were flying towards Kang Seol. The Moonlight Sword screamed each time, and he could feel that each rock fragment contained immense power.
‘Wait, that Rock Fist…’
Kang Seol noticed that something was strange about the Rock Fist. The Rock Fist, which should have exhausted all its power and entered a charging state by now. But for some reason, it was still emitting shamanistic power.
“Power! My whole body is overflowing with power!”
That was probably it. The current Rock Fist was not tormenting Jamad with backlash, but rather continuously giving him power.
‘This… how could this happen…’
There was always a probability in everything. And the Eternal World was a world where that probability worked in a very sensitive way.
Just as he had been able to obtain the Moon Seed when he was playing the Eternal World himself, something he had never seen in his 17 years of playing. The fickle fate of probability makes the player stumble.
‘The Rock Fist… has bloomed into the Mountain Fist.’
A phrase that was only briefly recorded in the setting book.
An easter egg where the Rock Fist absorbed the energy of the earth and exerted more power. Of course, in his 17 years, that had never happened. For Kang Seol, it was damn unlucky.
“This is why the successful succeed and the unsuccessful fail…”
“Be crushed! Invader!”
Crash!
Crash!
That was the Mountain Fist, the bloomed Rock Fist. The moment Kang Seol felt something strange, the situation had already unfolded.
‘Should I run? No, do I have any choices left?’
Kang Seol’s most powerful weapon, experience. Now that experience was useless.
Kagagak!
Kagak!
“I’ll crush you, and grind you!”
Jamad, as if he didn’t care about the grudge curse or the backlash of forcibly using the sacred object’s power, was fiercely driving Kang Seol to his death. Kang Seol, in the face of death, muttered with empty pupils.
“Karuna! It’s dangerous…”
Kagagagagagagak!
Crash!
Jamad’s attack sent Kang Seol and Karuna flying.
“Keoheok……”
Kang Seol’s vision went black for a moment from the intense impact of being thrown against the wall.
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The five players watching the game board, including Kang Seol. But looking at the game board, the situation was not good.
“Snowman, let’s run.”
“Yes… let’s just run. We can’t win this. Let’s just throw a few pieces and save the ones we can.”
“……”
Kang Seol remembered this time. He didn’t remember his exact age, but he was very young. A memory from when the legend of Snowman had not yet matured.
His party members were in danger due to their mistake, and as a leader, he had to decide what to do.
‘What was I thinking then? Ah! I remember…’
The pieces were pitiful. They were too pitiful to die like this. They had been trying so hard. The tender child probably thought something like that.
“Snowman…”
“I’m not running away.”
“Why? I told you we can’t win this. If a few pieces die, it’s just…”
“No, it’s not just a few pieces. We all worked hard to get here…”
“We’re fine…”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about the players.”
“…Then?”
“The pieces. How did the pieces get this far? They can’t die a futile death like this.”
“……Haa. Just for the pieces?”
“…Reckless.”
Snowman was reckless. But every player who had played with him once wanted to play with him again. His judgment was always accurate, and he never treated the lives of the pieces lightly. He really played as if he were a person living in that world.
“…Can you do it?”
“There’s still a way.”
Snowman had an unofficial rule. Crisis comes to everyone, anytime, anywhere, without reason. Which pieces die first in such a crisis?
‘The pieces that don’t fight. The pieces that run away…’
Since they don’t fight, they can’t win. And since they run away, they can’t win. The reason Snowman’s pieces always created miracles was because they faced the crisis.
“Damn it, fine! Will you please save us?”
“Snowman, please!”
“This shit… I’ll fight too, Snowman!”
The woman wearing the spear and shield mask said to Snowman.
“Then choose your option, Snowman.”
“3. Swing your sword and aim for the giant Jur’s ankle.”
“Indeed… Will Snowman’s sword strike be able to save his comrades? The probability seems very low…”
Rattle, rattle.
The dice roll. As always, wearing the mask of probability, bringing fate.
“The dice are rolling. May a miracle happen to you.”
Before checking the dice roll, he was thrown out of the flashback.
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Clang!
“Ugh…. Ka-Karuna…”
“…”
Karuna was brilliantly protecting the unconscious Kang Seol. But Karuna’s shadow had holes in it. It seemed he had faced several crises.
“Now, I’ll end this…”
Jamad’s momentum was actually getting stronger. The situation, which he thought he could finish, was getting more and more serious.
Rumble!
‘Landslide!’
A technique that Jamad used by scraping together his shamanistic power. It was clear that he would die if he was swept away by it.
Halt.
Kang Seol forcibly stopped his body from running away. And he calmly focused his mind.
‘The total damage of the landslide in earthquake stance… Karuna has been fighting in half-moon state for about… 5 minutes…’
If he stopped thinking, he would die.
‘Damn it, how long was I out? I need to know that time…’
At that moment, as if it had been waiting for Kang Seol to find it, a welcome news was delivered.
Crackle!
Hwaaaaaaang!
Karuna’s armor shone with a brilliant moonlight. It was the same as in the Forgotten Moon Ruin.
“Yes!”
Kagagagagak!
Jamad’s landslide was almost complete. The jagged mountain shook violently.
“Behold! This is the mountain!”
“Karuna!”
Karuna raised his sword to the sky and gathered the moonlight. His armor violently emitted a blue light.
‘It’s not enough, he’ll be swept away by the landslide!’
He had to make up for the lack. Jamad sneered at his efforts.
“Hahahaha! Be crushed by the power of Lord Tancreed!”
Kang Seol quickly pulled out the technique he had saved for an unexpected crisis.
“…I’m not… beaten yet!”
Hooooooong—!
A cool energy began to emanate from Kang Seol’s body.
Swooooosh…
A huge moonlight from the sky shone down on the highest peak of the jagged mountain, as if to burn it all at once. And the one who shone brightest in that light was Karuna.
Flash!
A small amount of power drained from the supporting actor Kang Seol’s body. And another supporting actor, Jamad, was surprised by the sudden drain of power, but he hurriedly completed his shamanism.
“What!”
‘This way… he can surpass the landslide!’
Kang Seol, who had finished his calculations, grinned with relief.
“Don’t lose, Karuna!”
Karuna quietly chanted and swung his sword down.
“The moon has risen… be humble…”
An immense light emanated from his Moonlight Sword. Karuna’s low voice echoed through the peak with a roar.
“Now, I will see my will through.”
Hwaaaaaaaang!
Kaboooooooooom!
Countless rock fragments and a light so intense that it could be seen from anywhere on the jagged mountain collided.
Kagagagagak!
Kagagak!
What if his calculations were wrong? Landslide, earthquake stance, and Mountain Fist. Were all his calculations correct? But he had already chosen his option, and the dice had been cast.
‘Please… please…’
“Uwaaaaaaaah!”
Kagagagak!
Crack!
A tremendous clash. Karuna’s momentum was great, but Jamad, who was confronting him, was also enormous. A great tremor was transmitted throughout the mountain.
The ground Kang Seol was standing on also swayed. The roar and dust continued for nearly 30 seconds. It was the aftershock, a side effect of the landslide.
Kagagak!
What was the result? Kang Seol waited for the dust to settle.
Swooooosh.
And soon, the dust-cleared battlefield unfolded before his eyes.
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