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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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“Almost at the finish line.”
Peschino, the mid-rank demon who had bought Wongbak’s organs from Lee Seok-hyun in the black market.
Standing at a pivotal moment in his life, he was thoroughly satisfied with what he’d accomplished.
“All the portal coordinates have been scrambled?”
“Yes, we’ve scrambled the coordinates for every premium portal connected to anyone from Mirinae Academy.”
“Good, good.”
As a mid-rank demon, directly assassinating or kidnapping noble students or professors would be impossible.
But just following orders might get him killed before he could prove his worth.
So Peschino had devised his own way to survive—scrambling premium portal coordinates.
‘Using premium portals means you have either authority or money.’
Since premium portals were too expensive for common rabble to use…
Scrambling their coordinates effectively eliminated the strongest players from the game.
While he couldn’t set coordinates to bury people alive underground, this was achievement enough.
What if key players were missing when their main plan began?
The damage would be catastrophic.
Moreover, since this operation targeted budding talents rather than established powers…
Peschino could consider this a major success.
“With the premium portal users diverted outside, only the weak ones will remain at the academy.”
Kill those with potential, terrorize those already grown to limit their growth.
And finally, their master’s descent.
“A new era shall dawn!”
Peschino jumped up, dreaming of his promotion to executive while continuing to draw magic circles throughout the city.
He couldn’t wait for that day to arrive.
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There are two ways for a human to become an orc: by birth or by disguise.
The former meant being born with truly hideous features to rule this land, while the latter involved obvious disguises to approximate an orc’s appearance.
In some ways, I embodied both approaches.
While my face might not resemble an orc’s, my hands could never be mistaken for a human’s.
My hands, mangled from missing treatment, with spider leg tattoos…
The darkened, dead skin and scars from brutal labor could easily pass for a monster’s hands.
Since I couldn’t immediately disguise my face, I covered it roughly with cloth and mud.
With my voice, I only needed to mimic their speech patterns—my body was perfect for impersonating an orc.
‘Not sure if this is good or bad.’
Who would have thought my harsh childhood would come in handy like this?
Life really was unpredictable.
Anyway, I quickly disguised myself, covering my face completely while leaving my hands visible to seem like one of them.
This amateur act might fail with more intelligent beings, but early-game monsters wouldn’t have such high intelligence.
‘This is what experience gets you.’
A few minutes later, I deeply regretted that thought.
– Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Cheep! Cheep! This one! Human! Human!
I’d overlooked one crucial fact—this wasn’t a game anymore but reality.
Now that game conveniences were gone and everything was brutally real…
Monsters wouldn’t just grunt “Woah? Kuoh?” and pass by disguised players like before.
“Human here! There’s a human!”
My naive assumption that covering my face and showing my hands would work had spectacularly backfired.
When I casually asked “I’m an orc returning from patrol, may I enter?” the guard immediately rang the alarm bell in panic.
“Human escaped! A human is wandering near the fortress! Strengthen security! The general orders to keep them alive until we discover their intentions!”
As the orc’s shouts made clear, my careless action had caused irreversible consequences.
The only silver lining was that being alone made movement and stealth easier.
Plus, they really were stupid—it never occurred to them to look up in the trees.
The naive assumption that others couldn’t do what they couldn’t.
‘Though that stupidity is keeping me alive right now.’
I couldn’t really criticize them since I’d been the stupidest of all.
The one benefit was that most low-level mobs had rushed out of the fortress, revealing their armaments.
No threatening artifacts in sight—just cheap bows and crude stone spears showed their combat potential.
‘Thankfully, the arrowheads aren’t even poisoned.’
While poisoned weapons were dangerous, they required too much maintenance to be practical.
‘Now, what to do about this situation.’
Once in a dungeon, you couldn’t leave without either clearing it or dying.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
‘Got to thin them out one by one.’
Having decided to tackle things step by step, I moved immediately.
“The human must be nearby! – Sniff sniff! – Sniff sniff! Smells like dirty mud!”
The mud was another mistake.
I’d thought orcs would enjoy mud baths since they looked like pigs…
But they must be cleaner than expected—they’d thrown a fit at seeing mud on my face.
I’d tried explaining it was a mud pack for skincare, but well…
‘Creatures who don’t understand the art of skin care.’
They deserved death.
– Whoosh.
Since I was already discovered, I put on the Arachne’s Gloves again and shot out some spider silk.
These idiots who only looked at ground level while ignoring the trees were perfect prey for a spider.
How could they defend against attacks from their most vulnerable spot, even if they watched all directions?
– Swish swish swish swish.
I targeted isolated ones first, moving between trees with spider silk.
It was a perfect day for killing lazy goblins who were slacking off far from their posts.
– Swoosh.
With spider silk sharpened by my title’s effect, increased stats when fighting multiple enemies alone…
And the benefits from solo running the dungeon…
With my enhanced physical abilities, cutting through goblins in their wooden armor wasn’t difficult.
– Thunk.
Goblin heads fell like apples from trees.
If they could scream while dying, they might leave traces, but with severed necks they could only make metallic sounds.
It felt strange hunting like a primitive man, shooting spider silk in the jungle, but I had no choice.
‘First reduce the monster numbers, then infiltrate the fortress to take out the officers.’
Of course, I needed to gather certain things first.
A 5% damage boost against boss monsters wouldn’t be enough to win easily.
Extensively using the environment was the only way to defeat them.
‘Can’t reduce their numbers too quickly—got to take it slow.’
As I dropped monster heads from the treetops, I moved toward the armory.
Just because the monsters outside were poorly armed didn’t mean the fortress itself was weak.
A fortress naturally had things like cannons, and this one had gun ports on both sides of the main gate.
‘Go to the armory, gather some explosives… huh?’
As I was carefully planning…
My nose suddenly started tingling, and my face turned involuntarily toward the cliffs.
Just as this inexplicable force was filling me with confusion…
[Too Fond of Honey activated! Time’s up! You must consume honey immediately! Warning! RIGHT NOW! MUST! CONSUME! HONEY!]
[Enhanced physical senses have detected honey nearby. You must go to the cliffs immediately.]
[Too Fond of Honey! Too Fond of Honey! Too Fond of Honey!]
Manic messages blocked my vision while forcing my body to move on its own.
“The! Human! The human’s suddenly running! The human’s here!”
“No! The human’s trying to die! Heading for the cliffs! Running like mad!”
“Don’t catch them! They’re trying to commit suicide after seeing us!”
My body moved without regard for the monsters.
Realizing I couldn’t control it, all I could do was watch with wide eyes as things went wrong.
‘It’s been a month already, huh.’
Feeling bitter about how quickly time had passed, I leaped off the cliff.
‘I really need to find a way to remove this penalty.’
Suddenly I had a new top priority.
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I do not remember this penalty, but man is it freaking weird
Is there a reason he didn’t just buy honey
…Yeeeaaah, not really feeling this plot point. Like, realistically, a penalty of needing to eat honey once a month or whatever should be extremely easy to resolve well in advance, as long as you don’t need to consume a comically large amount of honey or special magic honey or something.
mm TBH i get the honey thing. Like yeah its kinda dumb, but MC over estimated himself. Didnt bother keeping track of WHEN he got the penalty and how long it has been. Then also ONLY wanted to go get the super expensive stuff when regular would have been fine.
Hell tea is most likely common and honey is a common sweetener for tea.