The Player Hides His Past - Chapter 276: Those who are not merciful (2)

Somewhere in the vast Zero Mountain.

What was happening was not a battle.

It was a one-sided slaughter.

PVP(Player versus Player).

Before and after the Cataclysm.

The outcome of PVP did not depend on the absolute level.

The most important thing in a match was experience.

The biggest difference.

Players were different from monsters.

Although psychology existed, there was no pattern.

To gain the upper hand, you must read your opponent’s psychology.

The members of Union Guild had considerable experience in interpersonal combat. From the moment they set foot until now. That was what it meant to survive as a member of Union Guild.

But.

“It’s clumsy!”

In the end, it was according to the reality and the player’s standard.

The opponent was the Shadow Mercenary Corps.

Even if a player was a supernova and known for their evil deeds, they were no more than a grain of sand in the desert compared to the Shadow Mercenary Corp’s notoriety and experience in interpersonal combat.

Third seat, Henderson, laughed furiously.

“When you kill people on the battlefield. You need to go beyond being certain and be thorough. If you clumsily stab a person’s chest, is it going to end their life? You have to completely turn everything around like this!”

Swoosh!

The hammer was swung.

Whack!

“Ugh!”

Her head turned with a single scream.

Her neck was broken and turned 180 degrees.

The difference in power was so great that the number of people more than ten times that much didn’t matter.

‘…Dangerous.’

Instinctively, her arms and legs trembled.

Nevertheless, Yoo Jioh didn’t back down.

A thought echoed in her head.

‘If I back down…!’

Master was in danger.

Wolf spoke to Yoo Jioh.

“It’s fascinating. At this point, I’ve come to my senses.”

…What was he talking about all of a sudden?

Unlike Yoo Jioh who was on edge, Wolf moved leisurely.

It was a good thing he took care of his crossbow beforehand.

He didn’t expect that he would end up covered in blood like this right away.

After muttering, he looked at Yoo Jioh again.

“Even if it’s an adventurer, a monarch is a monarch.”

The level of requests for the Shadow Mercenary Corp was beyond the imagination of criminals. Although it had been rare in recent years, in the past there was a constant stream of assassination requests for people who had a monarch authority.

“I’m quite an expert on those requests.”

Each time, Wolf voluntarily carried out the request.

The reason was simple.

Because the monarch’s physical ability was not exceptional.

They would drop dead if you shot them from a distance.

However.

“Their monarch is quite tricky.”

Liu Jinchun, was it?

There was something different about the one-of-a-kind adventurers’ monarch.

Perhaps because he’d been moving around behind the Arcana Continent.

The reason seemed clear to Wolf.

“The monarch must have made full use of his adventurer status. Before the Cataclysm, adventurers had the Blessing of Resurrection that allowed them to come back to life even if they died. As a monarch, he was never trampled on in the bud.”

“…!”

Yoo Jioh widened her eyes.

She was furious at the moment, but Wolf wasn’t wrong.

In fact, when Arcana was just a game, Master did not stand out, unlike other rankers. But that was only in the past.

Now…

“Of course, he’s still taking advantage of his adventurer status even after the Cataclysm. I never thought he’d actively use the weapons of this world. Efficient, cool-headed. Other adventurers should learn this, right?”

Wolf said that and looked at his shoulders.

There was a lot of bleeding in the gunshot wound and forearm.

He had expected it to be as fast as a magic arrow at most.

The bullets were much faster than that.

Fortunately, he learned it the easy way.

“It stings like hell!”

Lakid’s body was filled with gunshot wounds.

Yoo Jioh was stunned.

Even after becoming a bullet point like that, he was still alive…?

“But the greatest thing about him is that he’s thorough.”

“…?”

“He even fools his own subordinates.”

Clunk!

Yoo Jioh held her sword.

She could endure the level of provocation that scratched at her pride.

However, she couldn’t accept them speaking ill of the Master.

Even if it meant losing her own life…

As her body flinched in anger, his voice continued.

“Is loyalty really what you feel right now?”

“What are you…!”

“How many do you think this is?”

“…?”

“How many Five Stars do you think we defeated?”

Pig and wolf.

Wasn’t that two out of five?

As Yoo Jioh thought like that.

“Except for the rabbit mask, it’s ten.”

“…What did you say?”

“I don’t know how many more there are, but we’ve already reached more than five.”

For a moment, Yoo Jioh thought of the impersonators.

That kind of thing.

They couldn’t distinguish between real and fake……!

“Let’s see. Who is real and who is fake?”

“…?”

“No, does it even exist in the first place?”

Wolf shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, only your Master will know that.”

Thud.

Masks were thrown out of Wolf’s hand.

At first glance, there were more than five of them.

‘…No way.’

Doubts grew in Yoo Jioh’s mind.

She wanted to refute it, but she couldn’t.

The information that Yoo Jioh knew about the Five Stars…

It was that she was one of the Five Stars.

That was all.

‘Everything he said…?’

Yoo Jioh looked back on Master’s actions.

Then her doubts grew even bigger.

The moment a slight crack occurred in her loyalty.

Bzz–

A violent migraine coursed through her brain.

[Resists status abnormality, ‘brainwashing’.]

“…!”

At the same time as the unique skill effect of the class [Monarch] disappeared.

Yoo Jioh’s loyalty to Master.

No, her loyalty to Liu Junchun disappeared like a bubble.

‘When was it?’

Yoo Jioh’s mind was confused.

Since when had her voluntary loyalty been replaced by a status abnormality? No, did she ever have any loyalty to Liu Jinchun in the first place…?

Clink!

At that moment, she heard the sound of the crossbow being loaded again.

Except now that the status abnormality had disappeared.

Every sense in her body was on full alert.

She would die at this rate.

Whack!

Yoo Jioh threw down the damn rabbit mask and knelt down.

“S-Spare me!”

Even if she was groveling, saving her life came first.

But Yoo Jioh was deeply mistaken about who her opponent was.

The respond to her desperate plea.

A pleasant voice.

“Haha. That’s a line I haven’t heard in a while.”

Henderson, whose face was covered in blood, laughed happily.

Tuktuk–

Lakid grunted as he twisted his muscles to pull out the bullet lodged in his body.

“It’s a sick and tired of the begging, damn it.”

“…”

There was not even a hint of agitation in his dry tone.

The Black Curtain of the Arcana Continent, Shadow Mercenary Corps.

To be swayed by the common desperate plea.

The mess they went through was too dirty and ugly for that.

Wolf hadn’t forgotten that.

‘I don’t know what Leader was thinking.’

What was Kitch thinking?

Wolf didn’t know.

When she carried a request and when she didn’t. The gap between the Kitch when holding a dagger and the Kitch when getting drunk at the Golden Calf Tavern was… Even for him who had been watching her for a long time, it felt unfamiliar.

What was certain, however, was that Kitch didn’t want this.

Even if it meant getting her hands dirty.

She didn’t want to get blood on the members’ hands.

‘That’s probably why she did this.’

She said she would bear all the mistakes of the Shadow Mercenary Corps alone.

Leaving behind such nonsense.

She disappeared.

Of course, Wolf had no intention of following that order from Leader.

If she didn’t like his disobedience.

She shouldn’t have handed over the position of leader, 『Shadow God’s Stigma』.

In addition.

‘Just like Leader, I don’t think we deserve it.’

Wolf chuckled.

‘That’s why I refused his help.’

The world of adventurers.

In a way, they were strangers.

Nevertheless, he could see, hear, sense, and feel it.

That man’s–Lee Hoyeol’s–influence in this world.

So in order to find Kitch.

Even though he knew that Hoyeol’s help was desperately needed, he refused.

‘It would do him no good getting involved with us.’

It was strange if you thought about it.

Why did Hoyeol welcome the Shadow Mercenary Corp?

Someone would ask.

Hoyeol and the Shadow Mercenary Corps had a simple employment relationship.

Wasn’t it just a give-and-take?

Well, you only knew one thing and didn’t know the others.

‘Even if we say we help him.’

He didn’t need help from others.

This was true even when viewed as a force rather than an individual.

Putting aside the Empire’s Knights of Lionheart, he even moved the Mage Tower behind the scenes. In addition to the absolute support of adventurers, the legendary dragons had recently cried out Hoyeol’s moniker.

Wolf was certain.

‘It was just his way of being considerate.’

Consideration.

It was a treat he had forgotten for a while.

Therefore, Wolf decided.

As much as the Shadow Mercenary Corps had been indebted to him.

From now on, more thoroughly.

He would draw a line between them.

Yoo Jioh shouted urgently to Wolf, who had made up his mind.

“Tell me what you want! Are you looking for inside information about Union? Then use me! I am no longer Liu Jinchun’s puppet…!”

“What. Have you come to your senses? Annoying.”

“H-Hiik!”

When she turned to the side where the voice came from.

The ninth seat, Deschev, was there, yawning continuously.

Inserted between each of his fingers was an iron needle.

“Vice leader, what should we do?”

The iron needle sparkled as if waiting for a command.

“Let’s see.”

Their purpose was a magic tool called the『connector』 that connected this world with the Arcana Continent. The reason they infiltrated Union was simply because the news spread around the world that they had discovered up to three generations of connectors.

“You won’t find out if you just kill a few people.”

Unless they annihilated Union.

It would be difficult to find the whereabouts of the connector.

“Because their monarch is no ordinary person.”

“Hmm, seeing him stab his own subordinates from behind, it seems he has no blood or tears.”

“Lakid, our leader is the same.”

“Ha! If the leader of the Shadow Mercenary Corps still had blood and tears, that would be creepy in its own way! How could such a crazy person exist?”

“I’ll have to tell that to Leader.”

“…Ahem, that was a slip of the tongue just now.”

Yoo Jioh flinched at the conversation between Wolf and Lakid.

‘…I might be able to live.’

She felt like they still had a use for her.

That damn Liu Jinchun.

It was thanks to that guy being no ordinary person.

In a split second, Yoo Jioh quickly spun her mind.

‘Where should I cling to?’

She realized this after seeing the status abnormality message.

Liu Jinchun was and would always be someone whom she shouldn’t trust.

Yoo Jioh looked at the Shadow Mercenary Corps.

‘…I was right to cooperate.’

Even if they called her an enemy who betrayed her own subordinate.

For now, she had no other way.

As Yoo Jioh swallowed dry saliva, Wolf continued.

“It can’t be helped. Let’s stick to the plan.”

As soon as he said those words.

Hit!

Deschev’s iron needle pierced Yoo Jioh’s blood.

Dechev’s method was perfect for planning.

It killed the target instantly but left no trauma.

After a while.

Thrud.

The sixth seat, Isabel Marl, who was watching the situation, moved.

As she unleashed her magic, Yoo Jioh, who had collapsed, rose up again.

Sk–

Wolf then took off his crow mask and spoke.

“It won’t be easy to hide your true feelings in front of a monarch at Liu Jinchun’s level. There is a good chance that the monarch’s power will encroach on you again before you can relay the inside information to us.”

But that wasn’t the case for dead bodies.

Necromancer.

The undead revived with Isabel Marl’s abilities would be much more useful. However, if there was one problem… It would be the empty focus that was a characteristic of the undead.

Seventh seat, Alkali, chuckled.

“But as you can see, the monarch’s nefarious intentions made his subordinates wear masks themselves! He never thought that this masquerade would come back as an arrow to him!”

That was the reason why he was evaluated as a petty monarch.

Liu Jinchun.

He had forgotten the most important fact as a monarch.

“How can he not know that the eye of the typhoon is the safest?”

On the contrary.

“It’s the complete opposite of Sir Hoyeol.”

Hoyeol went beyond the eye of the typhoon.

He was pushing himself to the absolute limit.

In addition to his vast talent, could it be said that he possessed the qualities of a monarch?

It was a move that made you wonder.

Not only he was protecting his own well-being.

He was also safeguarding the two worlds, the Arcana Continent and reality.

Alkali nodded gently.

“So, the title Dragon Lord is not an exaggeration.”

*

I always said that he went beyond people’s imagination, didn’t I?

You’re truly amazing, Grandfel.

How can you praise yourself without changing your face even once…?

I watched my press conference playing on the screen.

– “The Dark Dragon. He’s only a ‘part’ of me, too.”

Why was it that sometimes, just by listening to their own recorded voice, humans got goosebumps…?

Silver hair fluttering in the screen.

Jacket draped over shoulders.

And the most brazen face.

It was painful to watch.

‘…This is not the time.’

In order to forget this shame.

I had to move my body as quickly as possible.

It was better to be physically tired than mentally tired.

I was about to open a portal to Zero Mountain, but stopped.

Regardless of my will.

My gaze didn’t leave the interview screen.

“No matter how urgent it is.”

A teacup was tilted leisurely.

“The exploration of oddity cannot be neglected either.”

So.

You’re really going to watch this horrible interview?!

You really don’t have an ounce of mercy toward me, Grandfel…!