Read Novel Full Chapter 554
Chapter 554: Victory Conditions (2)
“Song’s dad! Come on!”
Song Taewon looked at Park Yerim’s brightly shining face with his own dull one.
“There isn’t even a boat here right now~”
Of all things, it was another island. Song Taewon walked to the water–lapped edge of the island. Yerim, who was about to lift him up as usual, went “Ah,” and tilted her head.
“It’d be boring if we kept doing it the same way, so let’s try something different this time!”
“…I think going the normal way would be fine.”
“Chief Song, the viewers get bored fast! Don’t be like that, Song’s dad! Cheer up!”
└ They say Song is watching TV too lololololol
└ Chief Song, at this point you should be starting to enjoy it.. lol YeSong fighting!!
└ lololololol what if Chief Song leaves behind sarira after this run’s over?????? What do we do lolol
Floating lightly, Yerim approached Song Taewon and whispered something. The worried look clouding his face brightened slightly.
“Understood.”
“Yes! Okay, Ye!”
“…Song.”
Song Taewon answered in a very, very small voice. It was the result of being tormented all through the waiting time.
└ Ye!! Song!! Cross!!!!!!!!!
└ Our Yerim… since there’s nothing left to smash, she’s smashing Chief Song’s mentality lol but that’s okay too, Chief fighting
└ Let our Yerim do everything she wants!!!! As for that Chief Song.. yeah.. I’m sorry
Yerim flew out over the surface of the water. Then she made a heart with her fingers, like always. A mist–like chill rose faintly between her overlapped fingers. At the same time, Song Taewon kicked off the ground.
“Go!”
Frost shot from Yerim’s fingertips in short bursts like bullets. Crack, crack, part of the water instantly froze and Song Taewon’s body, leaping up, stepped on the ice shard and sprang into the air again. With a snap, the trampled ice shattered and vanished, and Yerim spun in the air, firing frost in rapid succession. Stepping on the tiny, thin, unstable footholds, Song Taewon dashed across the river as if running on flat ground.
└ Civil servant of the Republic of Korea! Smashes valleys and runs over rivers!
└ I could do at least that much too
└ Even a water strider is watching the stream
└ Casuals, look at the ice thickness. I’ll admit it if you can cross with sheets of paper floating on the water like that
└ Yerim, feels like the whole world is yours, huh?? Soon the universe will be yours too!!
└ Yerimmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hearts!!!!!
“Yessir! Request received! Hearts! Diamonds! Flowers!”
Crack, snap – palm–sized pieces of ice formed one after another in heart, diamond, and flower shapes. They barely had time to glint under the sunlight before shattering sharply under Song Taewon’s feet. Even at a terrifying speed, he stepped precisely on each icy foothold without a hair’s breadth of deviation.
“Perfect! Chief Song, full five stars!”
Thunk, thunk, thunk! The five stars that appeared in a row shattered and before they knew it, land came into view. Yerim threw both arms high into the air. Following that motion, the water in front of Song Taewon surged up.
“Let it go! Ah, that’s just an English word. An idiom? Chief Song!”
Song Taewon jumped up and landed on the stream of water, its tip frozen. Kwagwagwa– the water column carrying him shot high into the air and the droplets bursting around it froze at the same time. Ice fragments scattered like fireworks and, with Song Taewon at the center, water pillars to either side rose and fell rhythmically. His hand came up to shade his eyes.
“…You only said I had to step on ice to cross…”
“I’m sorry, everyone! My proficiency is still too low, I can’t make you an ice dress yet!”
“…”
“Someday I’ll definitely show you a dress too! Outlaws finally entering Manhattan!”
Shwaaa– the water that had been surging toward land froze in its dynamic shape and the ice platform carrying Song Taewon set down gently on top of it. With another series of icy fireworks – sploosh! – the wave soaring high behind him solidified into a jagged, crown–like shape.
On the brilliantly shining ice stage, Song Taewon stepped down quietly, silently.
└ As expected, the Ruler of Water is the best lololololololol?
└ Look at him sighing k haha k my mom sighs like that every time she looks at me too lololol
└ Oh dear, Chief
└ Yerim.. this unni was inconsiderate enough to be born too early… is it okay if I call you unni?
[The outlaw has arrived in Manhattan. Manhattan begins to be destroyed!]
A message window popped up. Yerim cleared her throat and looked straight ahead as she spoke.
“As you know, our outlaw team’s victory condition is to destroy more than half of Manhattan! We have to do it before any other participant fulfills their victory condition, and we just need to smash the designated zones in order. We get five minutes of destruction time per zone~ five minutes is plenty~”
Aside from penalties for exceeding the time limit, there were no restrictions. They could attack and kill other participants as much as they wished. You could say they were playing a role similar to a timer for the other participants’ missions. If they missed their chance, all roles would come to an end.
With the Whitehall Terminal and ferry boarding area as the center, the first zone was designated.
Srrrk–
The people who had been murmuring at the sight of the giant ice wave vanished like smoke.
└ Yerim, wipe them all out!!!!!
“Yes! Let’s make the first round nice and refreshing!”
Rumble rumble rumble–
As if everything before had just been splashing around, a massive wall of water rose over the river. Its shadow stretched long over the pier and then–
KWA–BOOM!!
Everything nearby was swept away in an instant.
Before the auction began, the investors gathered in a spacious banquet hall. Evelyn lightly raised her wine glass and gazed at the people. There was no way everyone here was a participant, a Hunter, so it seemed that over half of them belonged to this dungeon. But even with her fairly sharp senses, she couldn’t distinguish Hunters from the unawakened.
“As expected, you can’t tell at all from the outside.”
“You’re a completely different person yourself right now, Ms. Miller.”
Vanessa said, looking at Evelyn in her pantsuit. She had said that only the outward appearance was a pure–white suit; in reality it was still a dress.
“A few who keep checking the chat windows are obvious, though.”
No matter how careful they were, reacting while staring at empty air inevitably stood out. With a smile drawn neatly over her lips, Evelyn fixed her gaze on a man glancing around.
“A thief.”
“Think he’s here to team up with the investors?”
“I don’t know the other roles’ conditions, but thieves will be chased by the police. Given the ratios, there should be more police, so it’s safest for thieves to cooperate with investors.”
Thieves were also likely to be A–rank or support–type. If they clashed with the police, who would mostly be S–rank combat–types, the outcome was clear.
“Investors, thieves, police. Those three are straightforward. The police catch thieves, thieves steal slaves, and investors must protect their slaves and assets.”
Evelyn idly touched the belt at her waist with her fingertips. Every investor had been given ten gold coins that could not be stored in their inventory. If they lost all of their coins, the investor would be eliminated.
“The outlaw and the slaves are still hard to predict. Since the slaves are the lowest rank, they might be more of a penalty role. The outlaw… might just go around breaking things.”
She continued calmly.
“The police chief is probably there for balance. Since there are more police and they’re advantaged, they added one position to restrict them. From the current conditions, it’s even possible for everyone to share the win.”
An investor’s victory conditions.
[Reach personal wealth of 100 gold coins
Own a slave for one hour without losing them (shared victory if you have hired or cooperating participants)
Fulfill one of the above conditions]
They could also hire thieves or police and win by stealing or taking other investors’ coins. The coins used for hiring would remain with their owner even after the game ended, so it was effectively buying a win with gold.
And in a way, the second victory condition was very simple. All investors, thieves, and police had to do was form hiring and cooperation relationships and then protect the slave. However–
“There’s no way betrayers won’t appear.”
A solo victory, the investors’ gold. With such a delicious bait dangling in front of them, could everyone really stay quiet for an entire hour? If you hired thieves, wouldn’t they try to steal the coins? If you hired police, wouldn’t they try to seize the coins? If you hired both thieves and police, wouldn’t the police try to arrest the thieves?
“If I were police, I’d attack investors and take their coins. All the more, given the reward coins we’ve received so far.”
Coins stolen or taken would also remain yours permanently. Vanessa scratched the back of her head.
“There really aren’t many people you can trust in this world.”
“No. Not none at all, but few.”
Evelyn’s gaze shifted slightly to the side as she looked out the window.
“There will be at least one police officer I can trust. That officer won’t trust me, though.”
“What about the auction? Since it’s sealed bids, it’ll just be mind games.”
“Do you think the thieves will just leave the slaves alone?”
Her eyes under her glasses curved slowly.
“Soon they’ll start taking and being robbed of slaves–”
“They say there’s a police officer.”
Someone hurried into the hall and spoke quietly. It was a small voice, but loud enough for high–rank Hunters to hear.
“Police?”
“Police can’t come in here, right?”
“They say it’s some special ability.”
“He’s waiting in the room where the slave is locked up.”
“What, that’s cheating.”
“Should we run? Anyway, don’t go to the basement.”
Vanessa looked back at Evelyn.
“That’s different from your prediction.”
“This is–”
Evelyn’s eyes rounded, then the corners of her mouth lifted.
“Candybox.”
Right after–
Bang! KWA–BOOM!
“What the?!”
“A skill?”
Explosions rang out in succession. Vanessa raised her arm and knocked away part of the collapsing ceiling. Some of the people who were milling about got hit by debris and vanished like smoke. Rumble, the walls, ceiling, and even the floor began to cave in, and Evelyn lightly gathered her skirt and leaped upward. Using the falling debris like steps, she made it out, and not a single drop spilled from the half–filled wine glass in her hand.
Vanessa soon landed beside her, just in front of the collapsed rubble.
Kugugung, KWA–RNG!
Dust clouds billowed up and a third of the auction building caved in. The participants stared at the auction house with bewildered expressions.
“What happens now?”
“The slave?”
“Who blew up the building? Is this part of the scenario too?”
Amid the buzz of voices, Evelyn slightly furrowed her brow and brushed the dust from her clothes.
“This is not my kind of party.”
“If it’s Candybox, then SF?”
Vanessa said quietly.
“Yes. The slave has probably disappeared as well. There are some smart people here, but very few who will actually use their brains.”
Since they were all high–rank Hunters, mostly S–ranks.
“There’s a saying, ‘If your head is bad, your body suffers,’ but the reverse is just as true. We don’t need to worry about a safe’s combination. We can just break it.”
Pretend to be the police to fool the thieves, blow up the auction house, and buy time. It was a method any participant could use, but also one they had no need to use. At that moment, a message window popped up before the participants’ eyes.
[The auction has ended.]
For a moment, they panicked, wondering what they were supposed to do now that the auction was over.
[The outlaw has arrived in Manhattan. Manhattan begins to be destroyed!]
A new message appeared. Evelyn tapped her chin lightly with her fingertip.
“The countdown has begun.”
└ This wasn’t the image I had of the Sesung guildmaster, what am I even watching
└ Her acting is crazy good, as expected of the Sesung guildmaster, she’s so faithful to her role, very reliable!!!
└ I still can’t get used to this version of Seong Hyunjae lol??
└ It’s really true no one knows the Sesung guildmaster’s true nature lololol
└ How were we supposed to guess that’s the Sesung guildmaster lolololol no one could’ve predicted it lolololol
└ Sesung guildmaster–nim is the strongest in the world so she’s the slave!!
— Dad! This is Seong Hyunjae!!!
Hangyeol shouted with all his might. But Han Yujin did not notice at all. The chain hanging from the fairy dragon’s tail clinked. The other end of the chain was attached to Seong Hyunjae’s wrist. Fortunately, it was almost weightless, so it didn’t inconvenience Hangyeol when he moved.
— I’m not small! I’m not cute!!
“You’re not cold, are you?”
Han Yujin looked at the two of them worriedly. Seong Hyunjae smiled gently.
“You really are kind, Mr. Han Yujin.”
— Dad! Dad! Daaad!!!!!!!
└ (Breaking news) Sesung guildmaster has finally found her true calling… delicate acting on a world–class level
└ Yujin–ahh lol? Yujin, they’re slaves…!! Not a princess lololololol
└ No matter what we try in Chief Han’s personal stream, it doesn’t work… everything gets blocked T_T T_T T_T
└ At this point we need to investigate Chatterbox’s house, there are definitely Koreans in his basement crying while they filter chat
Han Yujin’s gaze swept the back alley. Finding nowhere suitable to rest, he showed an apologetic expression.
“I’ll go blow up the auction house and be right back, so you have to wait here.”
“Of course. I’ll wait here quietly.”
— Gyeol is going to wait for Dad too, but this is the Sesung guildmaster! Dad! They’re not twins!!
Not hearing the fairy dragon’s plaintive cry, Han Yujin once again cautioned them to wait carefully, then climbed up the building. Staring up at Han Yujin’s receding figure, Hangyeol smacked Seong Hyunjae’s arm with all his strength. Seong Hyunjae’s clothes crumpled slightly.
— Dad has to win! He absolutely has to. Cooperate!
At Hangyeol’s words, Seong Hyunjae’s lips curved in a faint smile.