Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
48. First practice (6)
Like common games, PMH had numerous choices and its development changed depending on the choices.
‘But even when I replayed a few times and chose different choices, the main plot[1] didn’t change.’
When a choice appeared in PMH, the Player could have only two types of responses.
Choose one among the limited options.
Not choose anything within the limited time given.
Worthy of a game wreck, PMH presented the cruel choices that would shake the Player’s mentality whether they made them or not and force them to make a choice.
Thanks to that, Players in the choosing screen, who made choice three and forcibly quit the PMH game application and deleted the game increased one after another.
There were some choices of low importance, like choosing which sauce to add to food, but the choices that come out in the usual situations would lead to key characters’ injuries or death.
Even now someone might be hurt because of my choice.
‘… Even so, I had to choose!’
First, the ‘Don’t choose anything’ option was eliminated.
In actuality, it would be refusing Sillentium’s condition and knocking his hand away.
‘Demon World’s guide, Sawol Seeum and Kwon Lena. I have to choose one among the two.’
Among Demons, there were a few more Demon Kings equal in rank to Sillentium, the Demon Gods’ high priests.
When considering the priests of Demon Gods under them, there were even more Demons with the ability to find a guide.
However, among the Demons, who appeared in PMH, the only Demon worthy of making a deal with and respecting a human they made deal with, was Sillentium.
The head of the Ho tribe Hwang Jiho also didn’t have exchanges with Demons, so he had no information, and I couldn’t gamble.
The Demon World’s guide was strictly necessary.
Without a guide, the Demon World scenario would fail or result in an enormous sacrifice.
This choice was discarded.
‘Enemies are approaching the two. Four… No, there are more on the route. There is ‘mid-boss’ heading towards the two, you know…!?’
I didn’t know if it was Sillentium’s intention, or a coincidence, but a floor master Enemy, commonly called ‘mid-boss’, was moving towards the two.
Because of the particularities of the maze-intertwined roads, it might ignore them and move to the next floor, but the two, who found themselves at a dead-end, wouldn’t be able to ignore the mid-boss.
The two’s abilities, possessed weapons and consumable items.
Even when I considered everything, there was no chance of winning.
‘Mid-boss aside, there are too many small mobs. They won’t be able to win.’
Considering the two as Players, if they solely devoted themselves to defending and fleeing with their only goal being escape, it seemed they would be able to survive, though they would be greatly injured.
That would be if they absolutely didn’t react when their arms were cut off, or their bodies pierced and only ran.
But it didn’t seem like those two would be able to act so calmly.
‘If the otherworld’s core boss Enemy is eliminated, the otherworld will be conquered and lose its material form. If I clear it right now according to Sillentium’s words…’
The corners of Sillentium’s mouth raised so high, it was unnatural.
It was a very short time I fell into thoughts, but it was enough for him to figure out that my head was spinning in a complicated manner.
His appearance was a reminiscence of a chess player, who used a secret move and was awaiting his opponent’s brilliant move.
As I compared this situation to a game match, I felt my fingertips turn cold, but at the same time, my head cooled down.
‘My vision became narrow. I can’t only think about capturing the pieces in front of my eyes.’
In my head, I substituted Sillentium in front of me with a chess player, this Maze-type Otherworld with a chess board, and the Players and Enemies moving inside of it with chess pieces.
When I added the Players’ tendencies, thoughts, abilities and weapons and hypnotized the sort of chess pieces’ way of usage.
As I organized my thoughts one move after move, I saw the answer.
“I’ll accept your condition.”
I, who finished those words, ran towards the next floor where the boss Enemy was, instead of the route where Sawol Seeum and Kwon Lena were.
Just after I started running, I saw through the eyes embracing Heaven and Earth that Kwon Lena and Sawol Seeum entered a battle and put more strength into the hand holding the Nine Iron Teeth Rake.
* * *
Kwon Lena and Sawol Seeum were putting up a good fight.
They succeed in the surprise attack on the first Enemy and injuring it.
Kwon Lena wrapped a whip around an Enemy and restrained it, and Sawol Seeum was lucky to pierce the weak point with a Wind Art and deal critical damage, succeeding in subjugation.
But when facing against the second Enemy, Kwon Lena lost her whip, and when she avoided an attack, she grazed her skin against otherworldly ore and got a scratch.
Covered in dust Kwon Lena, who rolled to the side, reflexively stood up, but felt her vision turn dark.
‘I lost my weapon! In the class, they warned us several times not to lose our weapon!’
Currently, her consumable items were only recovery items.
In the vision of Kwon Lena, who grabbed the holster containing item cards, entered a SSR rank item card.
It was a card drawn with a platinum supernatural violin.
‘Right, there is still the supernatural violin.’
If one combines the skill to use supernatural instruments with the ability to control superpower wave, one could deal damage even with a performance.
But it was impossible to deal damage with performance with an ordinary mental power.
Even if not at Kwon Jane’s level, to hold a proper performance in the otherworld, where the situation changes in real time and Enemies are flooding, one had to have a performance ability and mental power at least on the level of the Eternal Lake team member, who can play ensemble at Kwon Jane’s side.
‘Can’t… I won’t be able to!’
Kwon Lena recalled playing an ensemble with Kwon Jane in front of the sea wall and her Gwangrim ‘Illusion Banquet’, which activated on its own on the Ju-Oh Island.
If she calmed her mind like in front of the sea wall, she might be able to activate that Gwangrim, which caught close to 150 Players, even if only briefly.
However, there was no Kwon Jane here right now unlike those two cases.
“Lena! Grab the weapon!”
Kwaaaa!
Sawol Seeum raised Wind Art’s output to the maximum to restrain Enemy’s whole body.
Wind blades cut the dry scales of the Maze category Fishman species Enemy, and between the scales, green body fluids began to drip.
But as if the damage wasn’t fatal, the Fishman Enemy was slowly moving towards Kwon Lena like before.
It seemed to be prioritizing eliminating Kwon Lena, who was located closer to it than Sawol Seeum.
“Keuk…!”
Sawol Seeum tried to raise Wind Art’s output, but as if his superpower wave was insufficient, he only staggered and only manged to keep the Wind Art’s output as it was.
Kwon Lena let go of the hand that was about to grab the superpower violin card and threw her body towards the whip, which fell to the ground.
When her hand touched the whip, she swung it straight away.
Trash!
Keuu, grrrr!
The whip cut through the air and hit Fishman Enemy’s eyeball.
The blow’s strength dropped compared to the time they caught the first Enemy, but thanks to Sawol Seeum overtaxing himself to deal damage, the eyelid which protected the weak point eyeball, was in tatters.
But the Enemy still didn’t collapse.
“Lena, faster!”
The arm, which swung the whip, was heavy.
It seemed she sustained damage when rolling.
Traash!
Kwon Lena forced her arm holding a whip to move one more time.
Because her accuracy dropped, she hit around the eyeball, but as if the accumulated damage exceeded total HP, the Enemy started to disappear with an ear-piercing scream.
‘There are two ahead of us left now! Seeum can use all restrain consumable items I handed to him to tie their feet, and I can just tie the remaining one with my Gwangrim without a performance.’
Kwon Lena observed hopefully, but that thought didn’t last long.
Paat!
Light flashed in Kwon Lena’s head.
It was an effect informing her of ‘Enemy Detection skill’ activation.
“Uh, what to do? Seeum-ah, there is an extremely powerful Enemy coming this way!”
“… Yes? There are not two remaining Enemies, but more?”
“It’s approaching much faster than those Enemies!”
Boom-boom!
Sawol Seeum and Kwon Lena reflexively threw their bodies in the opposite direction they heard an explosion sound.
Debris and smoke poured from the broken wall of the maze.
“Th-the maze’s wall is made from highly durable otherworldly ore, but…”
Kwon Lena stuttered.
The reason why when Players conquer Maze-type otherworlds they didn’t use ‘break through the walls and head to the destination point tactic’, was because the walls were extremely durable, so the efficiency of breaking all of them dropped.
Unless one has a skill or Gwangrim from the Penetration category, or perhaps were a human ignoring laws of nature like strong homeroom teacher Im Yeonhwa, one usually had to conquer Mazes following the road according to the rules.
“It seems to be Floor Master Enemy…!”
The two felt their minds go blank.
The Floor Master Enemy was much bigger and heavier than the Enemies they faced just now, and it was holding a trident, which seemed to be of high rarity.
Perhaps it broke through the maze walls with that trident finished with otherworld metal, because the trident’s blades were covered in shining moss.
Moreover, behind the Floor Master Enemy they saw two remaining Enemies from the four originally detected by Kwon Lena.
“Uh, what to do, how do we fight? Tie its feet and… If no, defend location…”
“Ru-ru- run! No, I’ll block…”
The Floor Master Enemy raised the trident towards the two people, who fell into panic.
At the tip of the trident, superpower wave started to creep up.
Even though they knew it was a sign of using a skill, the two stiffened people couldn’t react straight away.
When the light was about to shoot out of the trident.
Kwakwang!
Paaaaaaa!
The sound of explosions and shock-wave filled the maze’s corridor.
The two instinctively confirmed the safety of the other.
The two, who confirmed the safety of each other through heat and smoke, turned their eyes.
Something was blocking the way between Enemies and the two people.
“This…!”
In front of them, flame tongues were swaying.
A flame dragon wrapped around the two.
As if its weakness was fire, the Floor Master Enemy was just wary without signs of approaching.
“No way, that Person is here….”
The two personally witnessed that dragon on the Fantasy Auction.
One was an auction item, and the other was the auction’s participant, but both of them saw Hongryong.
Kwon Lena covered her mouth and exclaimed:
“Red dragon of Red Wall Phantom Thief…!”
Sawol Seeum, who was so happy and relieved he couldn’t speak at all after seeing Hongryong, looked at Kwon Lena.
‘Uh? Why Lena think of about Red Wall Phantom Thief-nim… of Jo Uisin straight away, and not senior Yeom Junyeol-nim?’
Sawol Seeum felt a sense of incongruity, but he couldn’t think any further.
“The red dragon is gradually turning transparent…!”
The sense of presence of Hongryong wrapped in flames was weakening.
* * *
Cheon Dongha’s Gwangrim.
Yeom Junyeol’s Gwangrim.
And Nine Iron Teeth Rake previously used by the 12 Zodiac’s head.
While using the three at the same time, my concentration was gradually dropping.
I had to observe the previous floor, the floor I currently wasn’t on, with Cheon Dongha’s Gwangrim, handle Hongryong and knock down opponents with the Nine Iron Teeth Rake.
In addition, it was even worse because I had to read the lips of the quiet chatterbox, which didn’t match the modifier ‘silence’.
— It was said that Little Hongryong’s Gwangrim can be operated remotely, but it becomes more difficult to maintain its material form the further that Hongryong gets from its power source.
— In the otherworld, and even in a different place on the floor it should be difficult for you to protect those weak people.
Instead of answering those words, I used the Nine Iron Teeth Rake’s Forking.
Kwakwakwa!
As my vision was momentarily blocked because the superpower wave as a result of the Forking usage effect, Sillentium also stopped moving his mouth.
Though I didn’t hear anything before, I felt like it became quiet.
However, after completely vanquishing Enemies guarding in front of the boss room with Forking, Sillentium started to move his mouth again.
— When you enter the boss room, you won’t be able to maintain Hongryong’s material form. Shouldn’t you go back to protect the two?
In fact I wanted to return to protect my Playable Characters and our class children.
But even so, it wasn’t necessary.
— You’re making a suspicious expression, eh?
I smiled suspiciously towards the crow mask as if saying ‘watch me’ and opened the boss room’s door.
*~*~*
[1] main plot — literally ‘big stem/branch’.
Translator’s note: Our kids are fighting so bravely…
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