< Chapter 160: Infiltration Operation >
The epic monster targeting him was the Demon King. It was a bit of a shock, but there was no need to cower. After all, he didn't expect the operator to face an epic monster he could clearly target and defeat. At the very least, he'd expected an epic monster equivalent to a Celestial Being's clone to appear.
"These items I obtained from defeating Nepilim... These can't be coincidences. If someone's targeting me, there's definitely someone trying to help me." They wouldn't have targeted him openly and left no way out. If they were, they wouldn't have targeted him so blatantly in the first place. Realizing there was more than one operator, Seo-woon decided this was worth the effort and placed the Holy Spirit's empowerment scroll and the Holy Spirit's shield on his sub-area.
"I'd better start gauging the situation."
A powerful monster that was attracting threats. And over a hundred players to defeat. As Seo-woon racked his brain for how to handle these two situations, he watched the sun slowly set and put on his invisibility cloak.
#
"I've been playing all these games and stumbled upon this. I thought it would be an easy win with so many guild members."
"That's exactly what I said. There are only high-ranking guild members here; we're practically the minority. I wish I hadn't joined this guild…"
The two players stood guard and poured out their hearts, away from the guild members who were busy preparing the camp. "We don't know anyone in this guild, we can't rely on anyone. Besides, no matter how hard we try, the item distribution is incredibly unfair. If it's going to continue like this, I wish we hadn't marked ourselves and just continued, just the two of us."
"You're right. If we had stayed on the sidelines, we wouldn't have gotten into a huge fight. Besides, Crown would have taken care of the survivors and left us alive. This is pointless."
As they stood guard, complaining without rest, they heard someone calling them from afar.
"Billy! I'm assigning you a scout. Go, scout the area, and come back!"
"Yes!" He shouted loudly back, then lowered his voice and muttered. "They ate all our food and made us work without food. Lian, let's not get involved in guild business anymore so we can be more cautious."
"That makes sense. Never again..." Before Lian could say anything more, he saw the scout walking toward them with light steps and fell silent. A pointy-eared elf with a bow on his back, daggers on either side, and a rapier. He was a typical archer scout.
"Keep your distance and follow me."
The two nodded at the deep voice that didn't quite match his delicate appearance and set off after him. He leaped from trees and glided lightly through them, his expression grim. In the pitch-black darkness of the night, it was difficult to keep up with the rapid movement of this figure in a black leather jacket with a hood pulled over his head, moving through trees.
Lian, who was agile, was keeping up, but Billy, who had never learned to walk lightly, was slowly falling behind.
"Follow me, Billy." Billy nodded at Lian's words, his gaze fixed on Lian's back as he moved forward. The frustration that had been building up inside him began to explode, his vision blurring. With a look of shock on his face, he saw his own body fall to the ground, headless.
Seo-woon's hands moved quickly to gather his belongings. "The armor didn't come off. But that should be enough." Seo-woon's face and body began to change, mimicking Billy's appearance, and soon he looked exactly like Billy. After taking the box's contents, Seo-woon covered himself with grass and branches and continued onward.
"What are you like? You look so tired. Have you not eaten?" At Lian's words, Billy rubbed his stomach and smiled shyly. "I didn't eat, but I got the signal."
"Eat dried meat here sparingly. Sometimes, bad things can come out of it... Oh? Where did you get that armor?"
At first, Lian thought it was just a similar-looking silver armor. But it looked so different compared to the other armors that he immediately noticed Billy's armor had changed.
"He even noticed it in the middle of the night." Lian hadn't left Billy's side in the short time he'd been playing the game, so it was impossible not to notice the change in his armor.
"You... When did you get this? We weren't supposed to have any secrets between us..." Lian's words trailed off there. Billy approached with a sheepish smile and extended his hand naturally. The gesture instantly pierced Lian's cautious heart.
***Bang!***
Lian slumped forward, blood streaming from his mouth. Billy carefully picked him up and laid him down on the ground, trying not to make a sound. His body vanished, and a box appeared in its place.
The other armored Seo-woon, quickly looting his box, began to transform into a figure resembling Lian. Having changed his clothes and hidden the box, the scout returned from the front and landed in front of the two.
"Why are you stalling here? Quickly finish the reconnaissance so we can rest, so we don't disrupt tomorrow's game. If you're going to stand around idly…" As the scout said these words, he noticed the two staring at him expressionlessly, and his words were cut short.
Billy spoke up. "They've already come this far." The moment Billy finished looking at the map, the scout's head separated from his body. Taking a deep breath, Billy and Lian quickly ran towards the formation.
"Enemy! Enemy is coming!"
"We need to get away from here quickly!"
The twenty or so players who had been sitting there eating quickly put down their food, stood up, and drew their weapons.
"How many enemies are there?"
Seo-woon's eyes flashed as he looked at the warrior who had rushed over to question him. The warrior leading the guild in this game truly had an imposing presence.
"One person. I took out the scout with a single arrow."
The warrior's expression hardened at Billy's words. Not only his, the same expression appeared on the faces of all the guild members who had gathered around and taken up positions. All the players knew that encountering a single enemy in this game was practically a death sentence.
"Jinseon!" When someone shouted that name, a mage stepped forward and spoke. "Let's use it." A look of indecision appeared on the warrior's face at his words.
"We don't have time to hesitate. The enemy is Jinseon."
Having made his decision, the warrior turned to his guild members and spoke. "Everyone, stay close!"
"Hey, you there! Come closer!"
"Stay close!"
About twenty players gathered tightly around the warrior who had taken out a scroll.
"Let's go!" As soon as the warrior finished his words and tore the scroll, twenty players gathered there instantly disappeared. Quickly surveying their new surroundings, the warrior spoke up.
"Billy, Lian! Look around! Those behind you, take your positions!"
The guild members, who were in a dense forest, suddenly fell into a stubble-deep swamp, and began to move quickly. Pretending to obey the warrior's orders, Billy quickly scanned the map. The fast-moving epic beast was still flying around the area where it had killed three players.
Seo-woon had spent the night searching for a guild where he could hide. The conditions he sought were a guild with over 20 members, some of whom were relatively unknown.
He needed a place where he could easily disguise himself, hide without looking out of place, and infiltrate easily. He had discovered this place while searching for such a guild. Hearing Billy and Lian's disgruntled conversation, he thought it would be difficult to find a better location.
After infiltrating, he planned to use two groups of teleportation scrolls to evacuate the guild members, but luck was against him. So, disappointed at not being able to hide the scrolls, Seo-woon pursed his lips and pretended to continue exploring.
After confirming there were no enemies around for a while, the warrior finally checked the map and began searching for a place to escape to the nearby swamp with the "stationmaster."
By the time they finally broke free of the swamp and onto solid ground, the sun was rising. There were spots deep enough to swallow a person, and they'd lost a lot of time due to various monsters bothering them.
All the guild members who entered the dense forest were visibly tired. Their eyes were clouded with weariness, having been wasted on pointless fighting and activity instead of rest.
"We've only gotten this far with one night of sleeplessness. Our stamina is ruined."
Seo-woon couldn't help but sigh inwardly as he assessed the skills of the twenty or so players. Except for the man named Weirong who led them, everyone else was below Seo-woon's expectations.
The guild members entered the deep forest, where sunlight barely filtered through, and took turns standing guard and resting. As expected, Billy and Lian took the first watch.
Seo-woon jumped onto a strangely twisted tree and quickly sat in the lotus position, filling his empty "senma." Now that he had mastered the art of Yoseon-sul, the speed at which he filled his "senma" had increased considerably.
Just below Seo-woon, his alter ego, Lian, was carefully observing the surroundings. More precisely, he was watching for any guild members who might approach Seo-woon, who was filling his "senma."
"The first target was more or less successful. Now, what should I do about the second target?"
Seo-woon had two reasons for deliberately infiltrating the guild members. First, if he had gone alone, players who saw him would certainly have fled. However, he couldn't continue transforming his clones to attract enemies endlessly.
With each battle over, he would be pursued by epic monsters. It was clear that there would eventually be a limit to the number of people he could escape with teleportation scrolls on a slowly shrinking map.
The second reason was to attract more enemies. A guild this size would likely face enemies of similar or larger size. Ultimately, only the ones who would survive to the end would likely be guilds of similar size. When there were many opponents, it was the best way to take them all out at once.
Three days had passed since Seo-woon transformed into Billy and infiltrated the guild. Lian had also taken on the role of the deceased scout during this time. Seo-woon had been able to hunt down quite a few players while using "Hwagangjin" to determine which direction the guild should take.
The advantage of infiltrating a guild was that he could hunt down players without being chased by epic monsters. All he had to do was fight them half-heartedly and lead them to other guild members who could finish them off.
"We've been encountering a lot of enemies lately." Seo-woon, who was leading the way, flinched at a guild member's words.
"That means the map is shrinking."
"Still, it's still quite large compared to the number of remaining survivors."
"Anyway, it's not that bad. We need to quickly take out the remaining enemies so we can finish this damn game as soon as possible. I was nervous because there was still a chance we'd encounter an epic monster or Jin Seo-woon."
All the guild members nodded in agreement with the mage's words. After this game, Jin Seo-woon's assessment as a player would definitely be reconsidered.
"To be honest, I thought rank in the game was determined by luck, but I guess that crown isn't just for show."
"What are you talking about? There's a huge difference in tokens between us. That means quality and quantity of your items are different."
Seo-woon, walking ahead, nodded slightly at the knight's words. Luck. Of course, it was an important factor, but it wasn't the only thing that determined rank or game performance. The number of tokens earned… Of course, this had a big impact on the next game, but it wasn't the only thing that determined game performance.
If it were, it would be impossible for a player lagging behind to catch up to the leader. What really mattered wasn't luck, tokens, or even strength. All three were crucial factors, but more importantly, how you played the game. Considering the game as a whole, making sound decisions and developing strategies in constantly changing situations. This was the absolute measure of survival and advancement in the Cloyd Survival Game.
"You can't do this. Because you're only focused on tokens and items, you're always struggling to survive."
The biggest reason Seo-woon had managed to get from nothing to this point was his distinct gaming skills.
Five days had passed since he'd adapted to the guilds and started hunting down players who were biding their time or gathering in small groups.
Finally, Seo-woon's "Hwagangjin" was spotted by a large guild. Around a silver-haired man, eighteen knights and mages were arrayed like a sword. At first glance, they were clearly very powerful compared to his own guild's makeshift group.
"Survivors." Remaining Survivors: 52/500... Bites-Molly. (Killed by arrow.)
There were 52 survivors left. Excluding himself and his clone, his guild had 22 members. Combined with the enemies, that made a total of 40.
"Are there any more?" As he began scanning the "Hwagangjin" area, he noticed about seven players hiding not far away. As Seo-woon looked at the map, trying to decide where to start, he spotted a suitable spot. He spotted a suitable spot among the trees. Seo-woon's clone, Lian, slowly made his way to Seo-woon's chosen location and began directing the guild members.
Seo-woon's eyes lit up as he scanned the 18 enemies again with his golden eyes. It was a man he'd met briefly before in LA. He had a friendly face and expression, but now he commanded his team members with a completely different aura. Dressed in thick, ornate armor instead of simple defensive gear, he looked like a king being escorted. This was a complete departure from his previous appearance.
"He said he was the general's half-brother, right?" The technique of instantly drawing the 'Beam Piercer' and creating a large hole in the chest was definitely not something someone under 'Gwanggun' could do.
"Yesterday's ally became today's enemy?"
Completing his thoughts, Seo-woon smiled and started the operation.