Chapter 521: Where the Thunder Sleeps (2)

On an artificial island in the Pacific...

"..."

The security guards made their way over toward a man who was slowly walking out of a Dimensional Elevator.

"We'll take you through the inspection over here."

"Please show me your Player license."

He quietly took out his license, and the security guards blinked.

"Huh? Baek Geon-Woo... Baek Geon-Woo? I know I've heard that name somewhere..."

"H-Hey." Another Player approached their co-worker and whispered into their ear.

'What? He's the Thunder God's...?'

'Hush! Lower your voice, you idiot.'

Baek Geon-Woo swiftly lifted his head. "Is the inspection complete?"

"Oh, yes!" The security guard handed back his Player license and shivered.

'His eyes...'

All people had life in their eyes.

However, this man's eyes were lifeless.

His eyes looked as dark as fresh charcoal, devoid of anything.

"Thank you. Good day."

He made his way over to a bench and tapped on his Vita.

'Okay. It seems like it has been around eight months here.'

He didn't think it was that long.

After all, he had spent 60 whole years on the 4th Floor.

'The Seo Jun-Ho difficulty allows three attempts in total.'

And each attempt would give you a diary with 365 pages.

In other words, one could die up to 1,095 times.

And he had died 1,094 times...

Was it because he wasn't strong enough to kill Erebo? No.

'...Master.'

It was to finish the assignment that the once-great Player had given to him.

"It seems that he has gone up to the 7th Floor," Baek Geon-Woo muttered as he skimmed through the news. Things weren't looking too good for the advance party. "And he told me to stay by his side..."

At first, Geon-Woo didn't think that he could do it. He wasn't confident in himself. After all, he was a hero that countless people admired, while he was just a normal person.

No, he was even worse—He was just a fool.

"...But."

Not anymore.

Baek Geon-Woo closed his eyes.

"I am a fool of a disciple. And I'm late, yes, but I will follow your words."

Crackle.

Lightning briefly crackled, and the bench became empty once more, waiting for a new visitor.

***

"I'm telling you, I thought I was gonna die. I was teleported to a swamp."

"Pffft! I wish I were there to watch."

"I fell into a volcano. I would have died if it were active."

The Players around the campfire seemed relaxed.

They felt safe knowing that their fellow team members were with them.

"...Is it true?"

"So what if it is? Huh?" Skaya said, pouting. "I already told you. That little bitch of a prince was really strong."

"You said he distorted space?"

"He twisted the literal axis of space, so I couldn't make the spell more specific. And I was in a rush."

If it weren't for Rahmadat's sacrifice, they would have failed to escape.

Skaya stared down at her mug of coffee. "...Hey. He'll be okay, right?"

"Yeah," Seo Jun-Ho said firmly. "He's Rahmadat. That bastard will hold out until we get there. I know it."

Skaya's face softened as if his words were a spell. She looked around at their temporary camp. "You know, people aren't coming as fast as I thought. Perhaps a bunch of them got caught."

"No." Seo Jun-Ho shook his head. Before he infiltrated the Radio Tower, he had gathered information in Jaxen. During that time, he hadn't heard a single word about another Player being captured. "I'm guessing that they were either teleported to the other side of the empire, or they're too close and can't afford to move that much."

Including him, there were a total of 42 Players here right now. There were 103 surviving members of the advance party, so not even half of them were here.

"If they don't come by the fifth day, what are you gonna do?"

"...We'll leave. We have no other choice."

Not even he knew what had and would happen after leaving Jaxen.

They had to move as soon as possible to mitigate the risk of a Player revealing their location after being caught.

"We'll have to leave before they can catch us," he said.

"But Mio and Gilberto aren't here yet..."

And it wasn't just the two of them...

Kim Woo-Joong, Gong Ju-Ha, Shin Sung-Hyun, Wei Chun-Hak, Milphage, Mr. Shoot, Yuri Alekseyev, and many others still hadn't arrived here. Of course, there was also the possibility that they had already arrived but were simply hiding.

"Don't worry too much. There's still more than enough time left."

Yes, there was more than enough time. They had plenty of time.

He repeated it to himself over and over again, trying to convince himself.

"Well, then. Let's see how far along they are," Skaya said.

"Huh? How?"

Skaya created a map out of magic. "Ehehe. You got me! I set a sensing spell on my way up!"

"What's the range?"

"From here..." Skaya pointed down at her feet and then pointed all the way to the distance. "...to there."

"...Of course." He wasn't exactly sure where there was, but he could make a rough estimate based on the map. 'From here to the bottom of the mountain, I think...'

If a Player stepped into the Wailing Mountains, Skaya's radar would detect them.

She cheered as she looked at the map. "Ooh! Jun-Ho, look! There should be twelve people coming up the mountain right now!"

"You're right."

Twelve dots were blinking on the map like stars, and each one of them seemed to represent a Player.

"...Huh?"

However, their smiles quickly vanished as they furrowed their brows.

"Skaya... What's the scale of the map?" Seo Jun-Ho asked. The lights were blinking in the same position.

"It's only 1:500. Why would they just stand in one place?" she asked.

Something was wrong.

He could feel it. Seo Jun-Ho's face fell.

"Skaya. Can your spell detect Overminds?"

"...I don't know."

Magic and Force were completely different energies.

In addition, Overminds had a technique that could completely hide their presence.

"Wake everyone up."

"I'll use the alarm spell."

Riiiing~ Riiiiiiiiiing~

A loud siren inundated the camp. The Players woke up and dashed out of their tents.

"W-What's happening?"

"Is it an ambush? Are we being ambushed?"

"But how would those guys know where we are?"

Seo Jun-Ho explained the situation to the confused Players.

"Of course, we can't exclude the possibility that one of them is injured or that they're tired and taking a break," he finished.

"..."

The Players' expressions turned grim.

Everyone knew that the possibility that Seo Jun-Ho had said was highly unlikely.

"Now that we know they're alive, we should go down and save—" Seo Jun-Ho abruptly closed his mouth. Two lights had gone out.

"Shit. We've been had..."

"Which bastard snitched on us?"

"You don't think it's Rahmadat, do you?"

"He would never."

The Players were agitated.

They picked up their weapons and armor without hesitation.

Seo Jun-Ho looked down the Wailing Mountains despite the darkness of the night.

"They don't know that we know they're here, so we'll take them out with a blitzkrieg."

***

"M-Monster..." Alba Mils' voice trembled.

The monster tilted his head and said, "You see me as a monster, but I was once human."

"You speak English?! How do you—"

"I learned it. If I have to kill someone, I can at least listen to their last words."

He was not a human by any Earthly standards.

He was built like a giant and was four meters tall.

He had seven eyes, but he only had three fingers on his hands.

"Cough! Cough!" Halgi Goodrickson used his broken ax like a cane to pull himself up. "How... How did you know that we're here?"

He would most likely die today, but he wanted to hear the name of the traitor before dying, at the very least. Halgi stared at the monster with determined eyes.

The monster spoke, "I am merely following His Majesty's orders. I have no interest in such trifling matters."

He looked around at the humans he had cut down and called for the knights waiting in the back. "Take them. We will offer them as prisoners to His Majesty."

"Yes, General."

He was Ceylonso Bestard. He was a general of the imperial army, and he was also known as the greatest swordsman of the empire.

"And..." He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. "This is Kodone's ball. He made something quite useful."

The Archmage had made him a magic detector, and it had been immensely helpful.

"Normally, you cannot sense us. And in turn, we cannot sense you either."

However, the device in his hand revealed Players who were using magic in the vicinity.

Beep. Beep.

"We have another guest." Ceylonso looked down the mountain. When his pair of eyes met the eyes of another Player, he couldn't help but mutter, "My, how remarkable."

How had the man reached such a level of skill with the flimsy human body?

While Ceylonso was processing his surprise, the opponent closed the distance between them and swung his sword toward the latter's neck.

"Hahaha..." Ceylonso chuckled and unsheathed his sword in a flash.

Clang!

"...!"

The human was flung back. He was ignorant of the Three Fingers' strength.

The human struck a boulder, breaking his fall.

However, he jumped back up as if he wasn't injured.

"Woo-Joong!" Son Chae-Won finally caught up.

She saw Ceylonso and the hundreds of Overminds with him.

Son Chae-Won's voice grew quiet. "You dumb, stupid idiot. There are so many of them here, so why did you engage them?"

"...Reinforcements will be here soon, so I just need to protect them until then."

The other Players in the mountain—who were normal and weren't dumb—should have already known by now that he was here. He was purposely emanating waves of magic to catch their attention.

"How strong is he? Can you beat him?" she asked.

"..."

Kim Woo-Joong went silent. He glared at the other swordsman.

'His physique is enormous, but he only has three fingers...'

His appearance was bizarre, but Kim Woo-Joong could tell from just one blow.

'He's strong.'

And that wasn't all. He was several levels above him as a swordsman.

"...I can't do it alone. I can only buy time."

"Then, we'll have to wait for Specter."

Ceylonso waited for their conversation to finish.

"Are you done?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Good." Ceylonso chuckled and gripped his sword with one hand. "I wish to see it. Show me how great your swordplay—no, the swordplay of humans is...!"

Kim Woo-Joong's eyes flickered sharply.

A near-perfect sword stroke—the sword stroke that he had been trying to master—descended on him.