Chapter 259
Other than my skeletal dragon, the following list was my main item set for this stage.
[Item - Ra’s Sun Cape (S)
Adonis’ Sacred Pitch (S)
The Victory Sword of the Baclan Arena (S)
Hariti’s Armor (A)
Deva King’s Protective Gloves (A)
Attis’ Ring (A)
Minerva's Ring (A)
Frigg’s Feather (A)
Eos’ Reflector (A)
Loki's Treasure (A)]
I summoned them one by one, and they appeared on me. I saw the reflection of Seong-Il’s face on the thick and huge blade.
“One of my friends told me this once. It was before I was served divorce papers. Anyway, he said that I should put all my property in banks that are in remote rural areas. He emphasized that it was the only way to protect my assets from my ex-wife.”
Seong-Il was comparing the inventory system to a rural bank, and it was an interesting idea.
I swung around the sword that I had acquired from a Moong Awakened and asked, “So, did you hide everything?”
He shook his head. “Nah, there was nothing to put in there. I was poor as fuck. I’m going to tell my ex-wife that I want to get back together. I think she is living her life with that rich old punk, but nobody knows what’s actually going on between them. The more I think about it, the more I feel sorry for Ki-Cheol. I’m going to try my best. Really.”
I commented, “As far as we are concerned… Act Three will be the very last one. Two more steps away.”
Seong-Il sighed. “Ah, but they are two incredibly long steps.”
We were ready.
[Your party has been disbanded.]
Seong-Il raised his eyebrows in curiosity after checking the message.
I explained, “Your training ended a long time ago. Your future growth will depend on yourself.”
“That’s right. But have I told you? I’ll pay you back until I die. Saying thank you isn’t enough.” Seong-Il smiled faintly and rubbed his nose.
I continued, “I disbanded the party, but we will go through this together.”
He nodded. “Of course. You are saying that there will be no free giveaways, but I’m confident I can do this.”
“Let’s go.”
There was a gigantic monument on the way to the boundary that was in the rear of the city. As I walked closer to the monument, the information window popped up naturally.
[City: No Entry
Defense Level: 1
Jurisdiction: Revolucion (12)
Residents: 2 people
Mayor: Kwon Seong-Il]
「In the name of Odin, no one may enter. 」
Even when we went a little further and reached the beginning of the boundary section in this city, another monument of a similar size was waiting for us.
「Starting Point of A Boundary Section (First Floor of District 8) 」
I instructed, “We should finish this before sunset. There will be no stopping in the middle, so make sure to follow me.”
“Anything else I should know?” Seong-Il asked.
I responded, “Sweep everything you see.”
He grinned. “That’s my specialty.”
***
At the same time, Tae-Han was returning to the city after completing only two quests. He had heard the sound of other squads having battles from all sides through the bushes, but he couldn’t afford to continue fighting.
The new monsters, the Baclan Corps, closely resembled the Minotaur, a mythical creature that was portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a human. Even the lowest-class ones had outstanding power and regenerative abilities, so it was obvious that Act Two would be difficult. In Greek mythology, there was only one Minotaur, but thousands of them were swarming here. The Awakened had just reached the outermost layer of the whole boundary, so there would be many more inside as there were seven layers total.
“Hurry up.”
He had gotten a rough idea of the new stage, so he needed to return to the city as soon as possible. This was because he could only prepare for night raids that happened after sunset by building defense facilities with the points he earned by completing the quests during the fights.
[Guild: The one without a squad is challenging for the Boundary Section (First Floor of District 8).]
Ah, he must have started.
Odin must be fighting now. Tae-Han had received messages that the name of City (8) had changed from Beijing to Revolucion, to Lee Joo-Shin, then to No Entry. He also had gotten a message saying that Odin’s henchman had been designated as mayor of the city.
It was obvious what was happening there as Odin had occupied a city alone with his henchman, Kwon Seong-Il. Someone who didn’t know much about Odin would have pointed an accusatory finger at him, but from the entire guild’s perspective, they needed to thank him multiple times for doing this. After all, since Odin and Kwon Seong-Il were now in charge of one city alone, the guild could deploy more troops to other cities.
Tae-Han had figured all of this out from the information he had gotten from the Spirits. All eight cities needed to collaborate in order to destroy a single layer of the boundary. The entire first layer of the boundary would only completely collapse when the first section (First Floor of District 1) to the last section (First Floor of District 8) were eliminated. The question was whether Odin could prevent the night attacks alone with his henchman and break the boundary on District 8. If they failed and the city collapsed…
The Spirit explained, [For every city that is destroyed, the pillar of light will level up, increasing its potential.]
“What happens if the level of the light pillar increases?” he asked.
[It will incapacitate you, the Awakened, in four stages.]
Tae-Han asked again, “How?”
[You will find out in due time. Hehehe.] The Spirit giggled at the end.
However, they had no choice but to go along with it. Odin was the boss giving instructions to everyone, not the subordinate who followed others’ orders. Tae-Han had freaked out about that when he first entered Revolucion’s camp. He had originally thought that Odin was just a strategic arm that the Jeonil Club had developed, but he was definitely not in the lower position than Joshua von Karjan, the head of the Karjan Group and the leader of the World Awakened Association. When Tae-Han thought about the conversation he had with Angela, his hunches had been solidified.
He couldn’t believe there was a Korean who was on par with Joshua von Karjan because Joshua was believed to be the core of the Jeonil Club. The Jeonil Club had changed their name, but they were the successor of the Bilderberg Club. They were certainly the shadow government that controlled the global economy behind the scenes.
That was why it didn’t make sense. Odin only became more mysterious as time passed by. It was not a coincidence that the name of Odin’s father, the Jeonil Group, and the Jeonil Club were one and the same. Whenever Tae-Han thought of Odin, he felt like he was trapped in a complicated maze.
However, he came back to his senses when he heard the sound of fighting from every direction. Tae-Han and his attackers returned to the city, and there were many things to do. Amid reports stating that his group had taken over the cities without an issue, the squads, which had been sent to the border near the origin of the night raids, also returned from reconnaissance.
A member reported, “It’s blocked. There was no way to physically open or destroy it to get in.”
“Things are different compared to Act One, Stage One.”
“Yes.”
Tae-Han asked, “Any other signs of an event?”
“I couldn’t see anything as everything was covered by darkness.”
The layer that surrounded the light was in the rear of the city, and the front was blocked by the boundary that differentiated the boundary and safe zone. If he figured out in advance how many monsters and what sort of firepower would attack them at night, he would have been able to reduce the damage.
However, the reality was that he had no choice but to guess based on the quest. In addition, Tae-Han couldn’t stop worrying about the Queen, My Queen quest because he knew that the last quest was bound to be the most difficult.
Exterminate 200 followers of the queen…
Given that all the residents had received the same quest, two hundred would be the minimum.
That means that there could be thousands or tens of thousands… It will depend on the levels of the monsters and our defense facilities. We need to make sure that the exterior walls are strong.
[Outer Wall (Structure)
The outer walls surrounding the city will be created.
* Front and back gates will be built.
Required points: 100]
[City: The Red Attack Team has completed the quest ‘Simple and Honest Warriors’ and scored 1 point.]
[Cumulative points: 68]
Tae-Han ordered, “Tell those guys around the boundary sections to wrap up the hunting quest first.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tae-Han began to wait, and it had been a while since he could appreciate the sight of the setting sun. When the message stating that outer walls were constructed in the cities where Angela and Gunnarson were mayors popped up, Tae-Han’s city also got points.
[City: Woo Chan-Seong Attack Team in Ilsung Corps has completed the quest ‘Simple and Honest Warriors’ and scored 1 point.]
[Cumulative points: 100]
Then, Tae-Han formed a detached force. He had already talked to the other city mayors, and they had come to an agreement that they would send more troops to the cities that hadn’t completed the outer walls by sunset. The sun that gradually disappeared beyond the horizon looked like an hourglass to him, denoting the time ticking down. The walls were constructed one by one, and when they were completed in all seven cities, darkness had already covered the sky. The only place where the walls weren’t built was in Odin’s city.
“Sir… Should we send troops to No Entry..?” one of his men asked hesitantly.
The moment Tae-Han was about to order that there was nothing to report about Odin’s city…
[Guild: The one without a squad destroyed Boundary Section (First Floor of District 8).]
Tae-Han and his henchman exchanged glances in surprise.
“He actually… finished it. This is amazing. Tell everyone again that Odin’s city is off-limits. Those who go there without permission…”
Tae-Han pretended to cut his throat with his hand.
***
[You have completed the quest ‘The Power of the Corps.’]
[You have leveled up.]
[Level: 484]
[Please distribute stats (5).]
[Birth of Doom Man (1): Level 484 / Level 561]
Every time I leveled up, a message about the Birth of Doom Man appeared. I just hoped there wouldn’t be a day when I would have to seriously consider completing this quest as it would be the worst-case scenario.
I swept away the monsters even after finishing the quest. The only slightly risky aspect of doing this was that there were still a significant number of monsters as I was still on the first floor, but even that didn’t threaten me. When I calculated my XP after killing the last one, I realized I had gained approximately 1.37 million XP, and Seong-Il had earned about thirty thousand.
[Level: 484, XP: 1072450 / 4242555]
[Level: 353, XP: 23200 / 60312]
This was the result based on individual achievement as the XP wasn’t being shared between them as they weren’t in the same party anymore. The 1.4 million XP that could be obtained within the Boundary Section (First Floor of District 8) was designed to be shared with other Awakened, but it didn’t matter. This city, No Entry, was my territory. All the XP derived from here should have been for me.
Anyway, there was no reason to enter the Boundary again because I had earned the maximum amount of XP I could get from the first floor. All I needed to do was eat and rest well, and collect all the XP when night came. It was like having a party every night, just like Seong-Il mentioned. The longer it took the other cities to destroy the boundary, the longer we could enjoy the party. They would suffer, but they were not supposed to complain as this was a paradise compared to what had happened in the past. Back then, on the first day of Act Two, there were many cities that couldn’t even complete the outer wall. The number of survivors and the growth rate of the Awakened were significantly different, although the occupation forces’ firepower was the same.
Who had they to thank for this? Me.