Chapter 132 - Ludon's Arena (2)
Chapter 132 – Ludon’s Arena (2)
At that moment, among the people who seemed to number about 1,000 here, some began to get busy.
Not only Daeyu’s Chairman Suh but also my father moved around busily.
Of course I just remained silent, but I was soon interrupted when the Chinese Yanghwa Group’s Chairman Jian Chiangrin approached me.
“It’s nice to meet you here. I have seen you in the video, but it’s good to have a chance to see you like this.”
Although he spoke in Chinese, I could clearly understand what he was saying.
So, I answered in Korean instead of Chinese.
“Oh, it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Chairman!”
“Well, I’m envious of the Korean team that has you, Asirante. To be honest, I’m also scared of you.”
“Oh, don’t mention it.”
So, I chatted with him amicably for about a minute, then parted with him, promising to see him later.
As soon as one minute passed, I felt myself moving somewhere again.
“It’s like we’re running on a 100-meter race track.”
“You bet.”
I also agreed with the man who mentioned the 100-meter race track. The place that came into my eyes was wider than I thought, but it was still a long straight road blocked on both sides .
And behind us there was a not so large tower called the Tower of Glory.
“Oh, it’s simple and nice. In the end, all we have to do is protect the tower from the monsters popping up from the front.”
“Let’s have a good fight. Anyway, all the 60 men here are one team from now on.”
I was determined to do my best because I might be able to obtain ancient cooldown removal spell charms.
As long as I could obtain cooldown removal charms, I was confident that I would be several times as strong as I was now.
So, as soon as Monte’s quest was over, I asked my father and Director Sok about the ancient cooldown removal spell charms because it was obviously possible to trade other items for them. But no one knew about them.
Of course, if they had known about it, they would have given it to me right away because not only my father, but also Director Sok already knew about my ‘God of Enhancement’ trait.
Anyway, hoping for the ancient cooldown removal spell charms, I refreshed my determination to fight well while ignoring Mirae, Myongjin, Daesung, and Kusan who were watching my movement closely.
Of course, Myongjin pretended to watch me on purpose.
Anyway, a message rang while I was fully preparing for the fight.
[Round 1 has begun.]
“Quo-o-oooooooooo
“Cheeeeeeeeeeek. Cheeeeeeeeeeeek.”
Round 1 served as the yardstick that showed the level of difficulty.
And when the people here confirmed that the monster that appeared in Round 1 was an Orc, several of them started chatting with each other.
“Maybe it will take us quite a long time.”
“I guess so.”
It was predicted that the number of rounds would be quite large since round 1 started with the appearance of ordinary Orcs which are synonymous with weak monsters.
“Ice Storm.”
“Fire Lane!”
“Biting Wind!”
“Anger of Earth!.”
“Crying Echo!”
The people here are the best players of the five largest guilds representing Korea.
As if to show off their overwhelming power, they killed around 300 orcs before they could even approach. Watching it, I was so anxious to move forward to kill them alone because I was given an additional reward for my exceptional contribution in the level 400 regular quest ‘Stop the Scorpion King’. But I didn’t do it, because I was afraid they might notice my intentions and they might be thinking of the reward like me.
In the meantime, I heard Daesung Group’s Chairman Jonghan Kim talking to somebody on the side.
“Hmm. It doesn’t seem like a good choice for us to spend our energy competitively hunting the monsters from the beginning. Currently, there are three teams here. So, how about we three teams take turns in hunting the monsters? Then, when one team finds it hard to deal with the monsters after a while, another team comes in to take over. I’m proposing this because this fight won’t end so quickly.”
Chairman Kim proposed to stop the monsters with the three teams working on a rotation basis.
And I loved his proposal deep down because I currently belonged to Daeyu that had only ten members. It also meant I could hunt more monsters than anybody else.
However, someone showed displeasure at Kim’s proposal. It was none other than Chairman Suh because Kim’s remarks strongly suggested that the Daeyu team led by Suh would face an overwhelming situation even though he didn’t single out Daeyu.
Of course, when Kim said that, he had the number of the Daeyu team in mind which was the smallest out of the three teams.
In any case, no one objected to Kim’s proposal, so they decided to fight the monsters starting from Round 2 with the Myongjin & Mirae Alliance, the Daesung & Kusan Alliance, and Daeyu working on a rotation basis.
So I stepped back, along with the Daesung & Kusan Alliance.
After that, the three teams completely blocked the monsters until Round 31.
Of course, I did my best too, until strange things appeared in Round 32.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Kheeeeek!”
“Kuuuuuuuuuh!”
As the 20-member Daesung & Kusan Alliance intensified the attacks, the screams of the monsters dying in Ludon’s arena resonated loudly.
Perhaps except for me, all the other 59 people who were selected as part of the 60-member squad were in a much stronger condition than usual.
For example, Myongjin spent a huge amount of money arming my father, brother, sister and 12 other players with the best possible equipment. They even borrowed some equipment from guild members who had better equipment. Of course, other participating groups would have done the same because they would highly likely engage in a battle of pride to show off who was stronger given that all of the 60 members knew clearly who belonged to which team.
Moreover, if they couldn’t reach a higher ranking than they thought, they would have to identify which member of which team underperformed the most.
As if to prove they were prepared perfectly, team No. 1 of the Myongjin & Mirae Alliance consisting of 30 people, team No. 2 of the Daesung & Kusan Alliance consisting of 20 members, and team No. 3 of Daeyu composed of 10 members blocked the monsters perfectly until Round 30.
In particular, Chairman Suh asked me to hunt more actively after he felt he was being looked down on by Daesung Chairman Kim who first proposed the three teams’ fighting on a rotation basis, so I really did my best because that was what I wanted as well.
So, after we were done quickly right after the Daesung and Kusan Alliance, we stepped back to let team No. 1, the Myongjin & Mirae Alliance, take over.
In the meantime, 59 members, including the other nine of the Daeyu team, paid a lot of attention to me throughout the fight, but I ignored them because I knew why.
It was mainly because of a 30% increase in my combat power.
So, I asked my father, my brother, my sister, and Director Sok if anybody received a message about an increase in combat power like me. However, no one said they received it.
If all 15 Myongjin members did not receive it, there was a high likelihood that none of Mirae, Daesung, Kusan, and Daeyu members received it either.
In other words, only I received a buff of a 30% increase in combat power.
I was strong from the beginning, but the monsters disappeared instantly when I launched an attack, which naturally drew their intense attention because I was in a far more advantageous situation than anybody else.
Anyway, Round 32, assigned to the Daeyu team finished easily, and Round 32 was taken over by the Myongjin & Mirae Alliance.
Thud!
Since only monsters appeared until Round 31, they expected they would confront monsters in Round 32, too. I also expected so.
However, everybody could not help but be embarrassed by the appearance of a not-so-large podium that looked like an altar rather than a monster.
“What the heck is that? Does it mean that a monster is going to jump out of that podium?”
“It’s too small for that.”
“Then, should we destroy it?”
“It looks like it is made of stone or marble. Can we destroy it?”
“Well…”
Everybody shook their head in confusion at the unexpected appearance of the podium.
At that moment there was a voice loud enough to be heard by everyone including me.
[An offering is required for you to proceed with Round 32.
-The required sacrifice is one member’s life out of the 60 people present. Theone selected as a sacrifice will receive the following disadvantages:
: The will be excluded from the recipient list of 2,000 coins given to everyone as a reward for participation.
: As a penalty for being selected as a sacrifice, their level will randomly decrease between a minimum of 10 levels and a maximum of 100 levels.
: As a penalty for being selected as a sacrifice, you will have the title of “Useless Man” for 300 days.
: Even if your team can receive a special reward for being included in the top ten rankings, the person selected as a sacrifice will not receive it.
– If no one is sacrificed on the altar within 30 seconds, Region 53 (Korea)’s 4th anniversary event will end at Round 32 in failure.
: Remaining time: 30 seconds, 29 seconds, 28 seconds…]
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