Chapter 159: Solo. Contracts must be made carefully.
***Cirrr- Bam!***
The chainsword, which had stretched to about 20 meters, spread out like a writhing dragon and lashed down on players' heads like a whip, raising a cloud of dust in the surrounding area.
***Kakakak!***
A knight, barely dodging the chainsword, parried the writhing sword with his shield; lightning flashed as his shield practically split in two.
"Stay together! No matter what!"
"What are mages doing?"
There are many strategies that can be used against a small number of enemies. However, the most effective is to surround and encircle a small number of enemies. Since everyone knew this, the players did their best to surround Seo-woon.
"Did you think you could just surround me without taking a position?" Seo-woon grinned inwardly and, breathing his inner strength into the chainsword that had fallen among the players, swung it.
The chainsword swung even faster and harder around him, screams rising from all directions. Seeing the players approaching him as if playing a game, he swung his chainsword, knocking them back; when the spells landed on him, he dodged them, making it difficult for his enemies to surround him.
Consequently, they began circling Seo-woon from afar.
"Fools." As the grouped enemies began to spread out to the sides, Seo-woon lunged at the mages trying to block him from the front. Of course, there were knights and warriors, but most of the enemies were relatively slow mages.
"Come back!"
A knight saw Seo-woon lunge at him and shouted, the veins in his neck and forehead bulging. The price of giving in to emotion and rushing into reckless combat was too high for players who weren't even in the same guild and had never fought together before.
Despite being hit by dozens of spells, Seo-woon never slowed down, and the mages were slaughtered in the blink of an eye. His arms and back were frozen, and his legs were burned black from lightning strikes; but these were wounds that could be healed with a single healing scroll.
Before the two groups of players could fully turn back, Seo-woon calmly tore a healing scroll from the boxes of the mages he'd destroyed, and the players froze in place, as if struck by lightning.
Only then did they calmly assess the difference between their own abilities and their opponents'. Furthermore, as they fought, they began to see the force field's approaching speed increase in the distance. One of the players who had stopped to look at Seo-woon was the first to run toward the center of the force field. One player started to run with his tail between his legs, and the others followed, turning their backs to Seo-woon and charging forward.
"Their levels are different!"
"They're not our opponents anyway!"
"Will running away speed them up?"
Seo-woon had decided to stop and hunt them down here for only one reason. "They didn't have any teleportation scrolls." If they had, they would have used them long ago. Enemies running with their backs turned were incredibly easy to deal with. Furthermore, none of the enemies had any better agility than him.
***Crack!***
The fleeing players, feeling the pleasure of the chainsword slicing through their enemies, felt a surge of fear. Despite knowing that someone even more terrifying than a train was approaching from behind and slaughtering the players, they didn't have time to look back. Instead of pausing to look back for a moment, they had to rush forward a little further.
***Cha!***
"Kühhhhhh!"
The occasional screams and the sounds of the players' corpses being cut up filled everyone's minds with a buzz as they drew closer. Finally, less than 10 players managed to successfully enter the inner circle. Barely escaping the stationmaster's threat, they tried to move forward, but before they could even take a few steps, they were beheaded by Seo-woon's chainsword.
***Chuck-Chuck!***
The chainsword, having completed its task, returned to its original length and made a loud noise. Looking at the boxes outside the stationmaster's office, Seo-woon looted only nine boxes without a second thought.
***This is dangerous!***
Hamit shouted as he looted the fourth box. At the same moment, a massive creature with an overwhelming presence, resembling the stationmaster, flew towards them. When he activated the map, it was truly an epic beast.
"Ugh. Why won't this bad feeling go away?" It was definitely the same creature that had given him the illusion of flying towards him a few days ago, and now it was flying towards him again. He could dismiss the first one as a coincidence, but he couldn't dismiss the second one.
"He definitely prepared a lot." The moment Seo-woon thought about this, the creature approached him with a manic smile, and he tore up the scroll.
***Kvaaaang!***
When Seo-woon disappeared, the place where the creature had landed split open in an X-shape, and cracks spread out. The creature, which had caused X-shaped cracks for about 100 meters, rose from the dusty smoke and emerged with a disgruntled expression.
"You brought all this trouble with you."
Living up to its name, the reddish swamp was surrounded by dense forest. Landing in the middle of the forest, Seo-woon first checked the map. "The distance is quite far. How lucky. But how did he know where I was and how did he follow me here? Did he use his powers to track me?"
Seo-woon fell into deep thought. After thinking for a while, Seo-woon unconsciously let out a cry. "Ah!" He remembered the similarity between that moment and now, when he felt an epic monster approaching him.
"If I kill a player, it reveals my whereabouts."
It was a disgusting trick. He was supposed to be in the top 10, but due to the penalty rule, he also had to be in the top 3 in the kill rankings. And the epic monster was targeting him. Every time this epic monster killed a player, it could pinpoint its own location.
"They're serious. Those damn bastards." Even though they were targeting him within the rules of the game, it felt like they had made significant preparations. The map environment hadn't changed, but the sudden restriction of the map as soon as the epic monster appeared was a plan designed to completely eliminate him.
"Luckily, I got some kills early on. I must have killed at least 250 people. I'm at the top of the kill rankings. The problem is, this damn epic monster is too strong to handle."
Seo-woon frowned deeply as he thought about how to avoid encountering the monster and kill other players to finish the game quickly.
"Survivor." Remaining survivors: 118/500 . . . . There were still over 100 players left. On top of that, the map had shrunk significantly, so the faster players killed, the faster the monster would close in. The longer the game went on, the more restricted the map would become, and the narrower the map, the greater the chance of encountering the monster. Also, the remaining players would be inclined to play more defensively because of his presence.
"If the game dragged on and the players realized my situation…" Even if he were in their shoes, he would definitely try to take advantage of such a penalty against a strong opponent. This was how to survive in a survival game.
"I'm in big trouble." He felt trapped in a checkmate position in chess. However, Seo-woon's mindset wasn't so weak that he could only blame the operator. He thought long and hard, considering all the items at his disposal and everything he could use, and devised a strategy.
As the sun set, the moon rose, and the sun rose again, after considering countless strategies, Seo-woon finally opened the subspace with a sigh. "Is this all I have? I never thought I'd have to use this. But it's not bad."
Joo-shin's contract and a pen he had prepared emerged from subspace. Seo-woon opened the faintly glowing contract. Then, he began carefully writing it letter by letter.
-This contract regulates the rights and obligations of both parties, as well as all other necessary matters, so that Jin Seo-woon (hereinafter referred to as Party A) and Jeon Dae-sung (hereinafter referred to as Party B) can use the arrogance and deception that are part of Jeon Dae-sung's spirit to achieve their respective goals.
1. Jeon Dae-sung's Integrity. Party A shall assist Party B in achieving integrity.
2. Physical Assistance. If Party A encounters difficulties in fulfilling the contract stipulated in Article 1, Party B shall make every effort to provide physical assistance to Party A.
3. Mutual Prohibition of Threats. Party A and Party B shall not take any direct or indirect actions that could harm each other.
4. Final Execution of Jechondaeseong's Last Soul Fragment. The shares that constitute Jechondaeseong will be divided equally into 33.3, and Shin-geum and Shin-yo, using their remaining 66.6, will act as trustees for the remaining legendary contract and will sign this contract, which will be considered a contract with the full Jechondaeseong.
5. Power Transfer. Any power or body organ transferred to Party B cannot be withdrawn unless Party A wishes otherwise.
6. Party B, Shin-geum, and Shin-hwa, He must pay Shin-yo an amount equal to the value of what Shin-yo gave to Party A.
7. If either party violates or attempts to terminate this contract, the other party will become their eternal slave.
Party A. Name: Jin Seo-woon. (Signature)
Party B. Name: (Signature)
Name: (Signature)
After completing the contract, Seo-woon wrote clauses 1, 2, and 3 in capital letters, filling most of the contract; he filled in clauses 5, 6, and 7 in lowercase letters in the blanks. He intentionally wrote clause 4 in lowercase on the back of the contract. After carefully reviewing the contract once more, Seo-woon wondered if he had anything else to add, then took out the two soul stones.
Once the soul stones were removed, the deceitful Shin-yo and the arrogant Shin-geum were revealed.
"Now what?" Shin-geum openly voiced his displeasure, while Shin-yo looked around and then at Seo-woon. Seeing the monkeys so similar to each other, Seo-woon wondered if they were truly descended from the same being and opened his mouth with a serious expression.
"The situation isn't good…" When he finished explaining the situation to them with a somber expression he'd never shown before, the two monkeys' faces contorted bitterly.
"Damn kids!"
"I knew this would happen! They wouldn't have just stood there and done nothing!"
Seo-woon, looking down at the two monkeys, opened his mouth. "There's a way." The two monkeys looked at Seo-woon. "
Operator. Perhaps you could call them the Supreme Power or God. They're the ones who separated you. For some reason, they tried to exclude me, but they didn't use their omnipotent power. They could have separated even the great gods of heaven, but they treated me, a mere human, like this."
"Well…" Before Shin-geum could say anything, Shin-yo touched his side, and he fell silent. Seo-woon pretended not to notice and continued speaking. "Whether it's a matter of pride or something else, it doesn't matter. They want to deal with me according to the rules of this game. Then, according to the rules of the game, all we have to do is escape this crisis. That's why I'm asking… lend some of your power."
Shin-geum nodded in response to Seo-woon's words. "With your tiny power, you can't unlock my true power." Seo-woon handed Shin-geum the contract and fan.
"What if you sign this and lend your power directly to me?"
Shin-geum looked at the contract and frowned. "Even Hwaganggeumjeong alone is too much power for a human!" Seo-woon calmed him down and said, "If I stay behind until you become complete, you'll rot in my subspace for the rest of your life. I have to continue the game to find the mythos. This is only a temporary loan, so it won't be a big loss."
Shin-geum's expression softened a bit as he listened to Seo-woon's words. With a thoughtful expression in his eyes, Shin-geum was holding a poorly written contract, but Shin-yo snatched it from his hand.
"What a fun plan." Hearing Shin-yo's words, the hunched Seo-woon slowly raised his head and looked at him.
"Did you really think I'd fall for such a trick?"
"No way." Shinyo, a master at deceiving others, didn't even think for a second that Seo-woon would fall for something so simple. At that moment, Seo-woon looked in one direction, and his expression changed. He'd known for a long time that another player was hiding nearby. His reaction caused the tall grass to sway slightly, and Shin-geum jumped up at the same time. In an instant, he lunged at the hiding player.
"No!!" Seo-woon shouted at the last moment, but Shin-geum had already transformed the hiding player into a box. Shin-geum looked at Seo-woon in surprise at his delayed reaction.
"Survivor!" Seo-woon shouted and sat down after checking his final kill list. "Done."
Only then did Shin-geum remember what Seo-woon had said. "Ah. You said that epic monster was coming."
"It took days to cross the map, but it only caught up in a few minutes. There's no escape now."
As soon as Seo-woon finished speaking, an overwhelming presence was felt approaching from afar. At the sudden urgency of the situation, Shin-geum winced and signed the contract. Gold dust from her body entered Seo-woon's nose.
"Half of my bones. With this much power, no matter what comes, you won't lose any limbs."
"You won't die even if your neck is cut off, but it's already over. There's no way to escape that creature."
Finishing his words, Seo-woon looked at Shin-yo as he watched the creature, which appeared like a speck in the distance, flying towards them. Shinyo clicked his tongue as he began to feel the overwhelming presence of the epic beast. It didn't seem like Seo-woon was lying to them. Seeing Shinyo deep in thought, Seo-woon also began to worry.
"Decide quickly. You monkey..."
Just as she thought this, Shin-yo clenched her teeth and signed the contract. At the same time, the contract flashed intensely and flew toward Shin-yo, Shin-geum, and Seo-woon.
Accompanied by a flash of light, the contract flew toward the three of them and etched itself onto their chests. Seo-woon looked at his chest and saw a white tattoo. The two monkeys weren't visible because of their fur, but it was certain that the same tattoo was probably still on them.
"We'll buy some time, you run."
"I heard about you. What did you call yourself, the king of the demon world? If your demon energy was sufficient, it would be worth fighting you..."
As he watched the two monkeys talk, Seo-woon threw his spirit stones into the void.
"No need." As soon as they entered the void, the two monkeys disappeared. Seeing the epic beast rapidly approaching, Seo-woon smiled and tore the scroll. He already had plenty of teleportation scrolls. Having already looted the palace quite well, Seo-woon tore the scroll without hesitation and disappeared, only to be attacked by another epic beast.
"You rat. Let's see how long you can run."
Seo-woon appeared on a barren land filled with large rocks and landed smiling. He felt an indescribable power radiate from his body.
"Geumganggol." For a warrior, bones were a very important part of the body. Especially, the bones were closely related to a warrior's strength. After observing the power he felt within his body for a moment, Seo-woon pursed his lips and opened his mouth.
"You were the Demon King, weren't you? Now I understand why that item appeared."
Seo-woon picked up the item he had received from Nephrim and took it out, his smile widening even further.