Chapter 3 – Greenskin Wildlands (3)

Everyone’s eyes focused on Sungjin. With his eyes narrowed to a slit, Sungjin continued to speak.

“You should all follow closely behind me. I will clear this raid quickly for you.”

Sungjin’s plan was simple. Finish the raid as fast as possible and then search for the hidden boss.

After all, his objective wasn’t to simply clear the raid. Without waiting for anyone to reply, Sungjin continued to explain.

“And just in case, please go ahead and purchase Salamander’s ash. You don’t need potions so don’t get them.”

The team continued to stare at Sungjin in shock. He added one more line.

“And as the last bit of advice, if you have any remaining unallocated Stat points, please invest them into Endurance. Then, you will be able to survive at least a bit longer.”

Once Sungjin finished, the other four men looked amongst each other. Finally, the white man spoke out first.

“I mean, we don’t know what’s going to happen soon...”

The Arab man joined in,

“He’s right. We should carefully consider our options, don’t you think?”

Sungjin bit his lips in frustration. But he didn’t have the time nor reason to explain everything to them. And the operator decided this was the best timing to ask Sungjin a question.

[You currently have 19 Black Coins left. Will you...]

“I’m not buying.”

Sungjin answered nonchalantly, but the other four men opened their eyes wide in surprise. The Black man repeated the number to verify.

“19?”

The White man also asked in response.

“You didn’t use a single coin until now?”

The two men looked upon Sungjin with a sense of admiration, but the other two looked horrified. The Asian man narrowed his eyes, full of distrust, and asked Sungjin,

“19? You’ve got so many, and you are making us spend our own coins instead?”

The Arab man piped in as well.

“19... If you have several more times the coins than anyone of us do, doesn’t it make more sense for you to spend your coins?”

Sungjin massaged his forehead. He was starting to give up on the idea of trying to explain himself.

“...I am unable to spend my coins.”

The other four men doubted his words. Especially the Asian man.

“Liar! You’re just trying to save up coins to buy yourself lots of potions! So you can survive alone!”

The Arab man also butted in.

“Right, to save yourself!”

Sungjin shook his head.

“You don’t need to help me. Just... stick together as a group and carefully hunt Goblins on the outskirts of the wildlands.”

However, the Asian man pointed his finger towards Sungjin and continued to accuse him of trickery.

“What is your problem? Who do you think you are? Who are you to try and teach the rest of us? You’re just a teenager!”

Sungjin now started frowning. He expected it to be difficult to explain himself, but it still felt annoying to be openly antagonized. The Operator interrupted the situation.

[30 seconds until raid begins.]

“Ok, let’s stop fighting here. Let’s all cooperate. We still have 30 seconds. I shall buy one Salamander’s ash to start.”

The Black man tried to recover the mood, but it was already beyond salvaging. The Arab man spoke to the cube.

“Operator, use 6 coins and buy me two recovery potions.”

The Asian man immediately followed suit.

“Operator, give me two recovery potions as well.”

Both men spent all of their remaining coins to buy potions. The white man began to get angry watching the two men.

“What are you doing? What are you trying to do?”

The Asian man pointed his fingers at Sungjin.

“You don’t need to spend coins for items. He can just buy it for us if we need it.”

The Arab man and Asian man continued to work together to blame Sungjin.

“Yeah, who is he to be giving us orders?”

The Black police officer who had been trying to rally the group also started massaging his forehead. Sungjin stared at the four men with narrowed eyes.

‘If this were under normal circumstances, this group would face elimination.’

The first group Sungjin got into had worked together to overcome the raid together. It was difficult, but as a result of cooperation, Sungjin was able to survive to the end becoming the last remaining survivor. Groups like this, where members all argued and sought personal gain over the best interest of the group were almost guaranteed to be eliminated.

[10 Seconds until raid begins.]

Sungjin stood up from the rock he sat on and strolled to the entrance of the raid.

“Hey, wait a minute...”

The Black Police officer tried to stop Sungjin, but Sungjin ignored him and waited at the entrance. Soon the Operator began a countdown.

[5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Raid Commencing.]

The moment the raid began, Sungjin dashed out towards the Wildlands.

*

After Sungjin had left, the four men didn’t take a single step forward.

“Who’s going to stand vanguard?”

“The weapon I picked is a spear... so I will be in the back.”

“What? What are you talking about? You can stand at the front and use the range to keep enemies at bay!”

“Are you mad? It’s obviously better to support from the back!”

The two who were arguing turn their sights on the Black Police officer.

“You... You’re a police officer. You should stand vanguard.”

‘Protection of civilians’ was now a meaningless phrase. But the other men still looked up to him and trusted him to protect them. The Black police officer had no choice but to tighten his grip on the club (the most similar weapon to police baton that he was used to) and stood at the front.

“Let’s...uh, try to lure one or two in at a time and avoid being outnumbered.”

He carefully stepped into the wildlands. But once he was there, he couldn’t help but be shocked.

“What’s all this?”

In front of his eyes were a mountain of green-skinned corpses. The others also expressed their surprise.

“How is this possible?”

“Did that teenager do this all by himself?”

Just a glance was enough to see that there were more than a dozen monsters slain in front of them. The others had been going from Phase to Phase, barely winning one on one, barely holding onto their lives. The Arab man asked.

“What should we do now?”

The Black policeman in the front recalled Sungjin’s words.

‘You should all follow closely behind me. I will clear this raid quickly for you.’

The officer turned around to face the other men.

“Let’s follow the corpses. If we keep going, eventually we should catch up to him.”

Following the corpses, the men slowly inched their way in cautiously. Suddenly, the cube lets out a warning.

[Caution: Boss monster]

[Orc Chief ‘Cunning Kamul’ has appeared!]

Simultaneously, a powerful roar could be heard from straight ahead.

“Kurruagh!”

The Black man pointed forward.

“Let’s go quickly!”

But the other three were wary.

“Do we... even have to go?”

“Yeah, let’s just let them be.”

The Black Police officer shook his head in disappointment and ran towards the direction from where the roar was heard. Ahead, he saw numerous green skinned enemies, from Orcs to Trolls. But standing at the center was an Orc 1.5 times taller than all the other Orcs.

One could see in a single glance that it was none other than the Boss mob. The Boss held a massive, fearsome club embedded from tip to tip with skulls.

“What... in the world?”

Beholding the boss mob for the first time, even the brave police officer stopped in his tracks. But the teenager charged forward fearlessly.

Goblins, HobGoblins, and Orcs attempted to obstruct him, but they were cut down mercilessly. Each swing of his sword sent heads flying.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Two Trolls attacked him simultaneously, but the teenager dodged lightly, and took off an arm of one and removed the legs from both Trolls.

The Trolls who lost their legs struggled on the ground. Ignoring the Trolls who lost their mobility, the teenager rushed towards the Orc Chief.

“Kragh!”

The Orc Chief let out a fearsome roar and swung his club. The speed of his attack was unbelievable considering the Orc Chief’s size. But the teenager was faster. He dodged the club as if he predicted the path and timing.

Then, he counter-attacked and attacked the chief’s hands. Few fingers holding the club flew off.

“Wagh!”

The Chief cried out in pain. But no ounce of mercy could be seen in the Teenager’s attack. With lightening speed tempo, he cut the Chief’s shin, chest, and shoulders in quick succession.

The chief bit back his pain and tried to swing his club once more, but it was nowhere near as fast. The teenager easily dodged the attack and cut the chief’s throat. Blood spilled from the neck like a waterfall.

“Kack...ack...ack..”

The Chief couldn’t even scream out properly anymore, and after coughing up blood a few more times, he kneeled over and stopped moving. The Operator announced happily,

[Objective complete. You will be summoned back to the Hunter’s Hall in 11 minutes and 32 seconds.]

The Black police officer couldn’t help but exclaim

“Incredible...!”

The teenager, however, had no time to rest. The Trolls had regenerated by now and began attacking the teen again. They were no match for the teen before; they were no match for the teen now. The teenager rapidly ripped apart the Trolls. It was evident that given time, the teenager would reduce them to pieces of meat and kill them. But they were interrupted.

“Help! Save us!”

The police officer heard screams of terror from behind. Two Trolls were chasing the three men he had left behind.

“What the...”

There was no time for the officer to say anything. He saw the white turban of the Arab gripped by one of the Troll’s hands. The Black man had no choice but to run as well.

The three men ran into the hall where Sungjin was already fighting two Trolls. Sungjin turned and saw the three men run in, and the additional two Trolls that followed. The trio raced to the other side of the hall as if to hide behind Sungjin. The two new Trolls swung their clubs at Sungjin.

“Woosh”

The club split the air, and the Black man closed his eye on instinct. And when he opened his eyes, each of the Trolls had lost an arm each.

“Grrrrrr”

The problem was the original two Trolls. Because of the new Trolls, the first two Trolls had an opportunity to regenerate. Sungjin, who kept an indifferent expression until now, let out his first words of frustration.

“Damn it, I don’t have time for this...”

The Black police officer realized something from his utterance. Judging from his skill, Sungjin would win against all four Trolls hands down. But it would take considerable time since the four Trolls would take turn regenerating.

The Black man reached into his pocket and retrieved a package. It was the Salamander’s ash he was forced to purchase. He scattered the ash on his club and spread it evenly on the club with his hands.

‘Foof’

His club lit up in flames. He got up close to Sungjin and said to him.

“Please immobilize them. I will finish them off.”

Sungjin rapidly cut the Trolls. One moment, their arms would be cut off at the elbows, and the next, the tendon below their knees. The Trolls who lost their arms and legs fell to the floor and flailed.

The Black police officer took his flaming club and struck the Trolls in their knees. The fire burnt the wound Black and prevented further regeneration. Within moments, the Trolls were killed off.

Once killing all the Trolls, Sungjin wasted no time asking the cube,

“...Operator, time remaining on the clock?”

[You will return to the Hunter’s Hall in 10 minutes 7 seconds.]

He had already wasted more than 1 minute. He had to find and kill the hidden boss in that time.