Chapter 57: Beef is Always the Best

'The tactical field is breaking!'?Oren thought in shock. He was in charge of eight members of the Bacallo Guild. All of them were members of two-team squads in reality. The tactical field could only be maintained if each squad were on standby at certain intervals. If a soldier died, another one from the troop would hurry to fill in the gap. If that soldier also died, the gap would again be filled by another. This was so the tactical field could be maintained, and as long as it was maintained, it would remain to be an impregnable barrier. However, right now, the tactical field was starting to crumble. This could only mean one thing…

'We're?being killed at such an incredibly fast rate that the guild members cannot fill the gaps.'

Oren opened his eyes wide to observe their opponent. The man was swift for a player at Level 80. According to what one soldier reported before he died, a single attack from the man could reduce as much as 50% of their HP.

'That guy's HP will definitely bottom out too.'

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

There were still 13 members of the Bacallo Guild, hence Oren believed that the enemy’s HP would be depleted soon enough. Although the strength of this enemy had been unexpected, he would still die sooner or later. Oren could see that the man’s body was already covered with wounds of varying degrees.

'As expected…!'

With how battered he looked, Oren could tell that the man’s HP was below 50%. He quickly made eye contact with the other members, signaling for an ambush. Even if they died, Oren was sure that they would be able to kill the man with just a few strikes.

Just then, they saw the man take out a chocolate bar. The man peeled the wrapper and ate it.

'He's eating right now?!'

Oren signaled with his eyes. The Bacallo members immediately moved to ambush the man. However, they suddenly stopped in their tracks. That was because the small wounds all over the man’s body were regenerating right in front of their eyes!

"W, wait… His body…!" Oren said. Before he could even finish his words, the man had already narrowed the distance and started to take them out one by one after recovering his HP. Then…

Bang!

One of their guild members smashed into the tree right next to where Oren was.

Sliiiide—

The guild member slowly slid down from the tree and was forced to log out.

"H, how did his HP…" Oren stuttered. No matter what he thought, he could not deny the insane recovery that he had just witnessed.

‘Is there any skill in existence that had a recovery rate like that?!’

No, Oren had never heard of any skill like that at all. Right at that moment, the man narrowed the distance between them, forcing Oren to log out.

"Damn it!" Oren cursed as he came out of the capsule. Oren, or Lee Sungdong, spat out curses one after the other.

'D, don't tell me…!'

Lee Sungdong recalled an article about the recovery ability in the past. He quickly searched?Athenae’s?official website and was able to confirm what he remembered.

'I heard that it hasn't been released in the country yet though…'?Oren thought. He suspected that the player had the blood of the Twin-Headed Troll. Once combined with other expensive materials, it would allow the player to gain an outstanding recovery ability. However, this cost a fortune. Besides, from what he heard, only five players in the entire world had the blood of the Twin-Headed Troll in their hands. And this item was worth around 400 million won.

‘...What in the world did that bastard do?’ Lee Sungdong wondered, not knowing that he was completely and utterly mistaken. After all, Minhyuk’s recovery ability was something related to eating.

***

[The Tactical Field has been broken.]

[As a penalty, all Brave Warriors will have a 30% drop in all of their stats.]

"...!"

Vlan was completely shocked. No matter how he looked at the notifications, he could not believe that the tactical field had been broken. After all, it had never been broken before! As if trying to prove to him that this was the reality, the red dots on his map continuously decreased. This meant that the Bacallo members were being forced to log out one after the other. The worst part of it all was the fact that the blue dot continuously flickered. It seemed like the enemy moved from one place to another at a ridiculously high speed.

'This is crazy...! Does he not get tired at all?!'?Vlan thought. Even though his enemy had killed a lot by himself, he still did not get tired at all. He wondered how high his HP was for him to be able to do that. Then…

[Guild Chat | Oren: Company Commander Vlan, that punk ate the blood of the Twin-headed Troll!]

"...?!"

Vlan's eyes widened in disbelief. He thought,?'The blood of the Twin-headed Troll...?'

As far as Vlan could remember, it was an extremely expensive, consumable artifact. Furthermore, consumable artifacts like that were usually eaten by players at Level 250. The reason was simple. It was because players tend to delete and raise new characters before reaching Level 250. Yet, Oren was telling him that the punk consumed an item like that at Level 80?

'I-is he swimming in money?!'

This item had a limited number released in the entire world. In other words, he would be the only person in the country that had consumed the blood of the Twin-Headed Troll, an item estimated to be worth around 500 million won in cold hard cash.

[Guild Chat | Vlan: Is this true?]

[Guild Chat | Oren: Yes, that punk… I saw him recover his HP just by eating a choco bar. But, I'm pretty sure that it was no damn choco bar.]

[Guild Chat | Yamuyamu: I saw it too. To be honest, his recovery rate is much higher compared to the currently released unique recovery skills in the store. So, I believe Oren is right.]

[Guild Chat | Blue: I saw it too. That bastard is a complete monster.]

Vlan grabbed his hair in despair. He thought,?'Damn it, this person connected to Lucia is not some average nobody. I can't believe that I did not take any precaution against him.'

He bit his lips in frustration as the number of red dots on the map continued to decrease. At some point, the only one left was him. He quickly tried to escape but the man appeared, with a choco bar in his mouth, and started to chase him down relentlessly.

"Are…are you kidding me?!"

Chew, chew?—

The man's eyebrows creased in annoyance.

"I mean, are you going to deal with me while you're eating?!" Vlan asked. Vlan's abilities were down by 30%, however, he was still confident. Vlan smirked as he continued to say, "You damn bastard. Who are you?! Are you a mercenary raised by Hanhwa Corporation? Or are you a member of the Legend Guild? Oho, that's right! You're definitely someone from Legend Guild."

Vlan made conjectures and came to the wrong conclusion all by himself. There were rumors that the Legend Guild gathered almost all of the unofficial rankers in the country. However, they were still keeping a low profile.

"You're definitely taking this opportunity to promote the name of Legend Guild. And the blood of the Twin-headed Troll! That's what you ate, right?! That's how you're recovering your HP!"

However, the man remained silent. He just approached Vlan quickly. Vlan quickly took out his short sword and clashed against the man’s sword. Unfortunately, Vlan’s stats had dropped by 30%. He was definitely no match for Minhyuk.

Slash!

"Cough!?Damn you, your goal was our Bacallo guild, right?! You deliberately baited us and made us spill our blood!"

"Do you want to know the reason?"

"That's right, you're finally revealing your true colors!"

"You guys messed around and wasted food."

Vlan believed that this man was lying until the very end. His reason did not make sense at all! Vlan shouted, "I won't believe such a lie...!"

Stab!

Vlan was forced to log out.

***

Minhyuk checked his kill count after he forced Vlan to log out. He had accumulated a total of 25 kills.

'What was he talking about earlier? Blood of the Twin-headed Troll? Legend Guild?'

Minhyuk’s HP had recovered because he ate some choco bar. This was all thanks to the effect of the skill, Absorption Conversion. Minhyuk thought,?'I really like this Absorption Conversion skill.'

His HP would immediately begin to recover the moment he ate. It was obvious how enormous the effect of a 30-40% recovery rate was. The best thing about it was that Minhyuk could also eat while recovering. This was truly the perfect skill for Minhyuk.

"Ah, I'm hungry. I should go back to the convenience store~" Minhyuk hummed as he moved towards the convenience store.

***

Nine hours have already passed since the tournament has begun. Jan looked at the players on the monitor. Every one of them looked tired and exhausted from the prolonged tension and lengthy battles. However, Lucia still managed to get 60 kills all by herself. Jan thought,?'What's the relationship between those two? Do they know each other? That man is really strong.'

Once the game began, the voices of both the host and the spectators could not be heard by any of the contestants. They could not verify their current scores and could only base them on their kill counts and their current situation. Furthermore, the range of their movements on Cork Island started to get limited since the circle was slowly getting smaller. Eventually, they would be gathered at a distance of 300 meters around the convenience store. Everyone would not be able to enter the convenience store and those inside would be thrown out in the field. This meant that all the players would be gathered together and fight each other near the convenience store.

[The Brackan has been summoned to Cork Island.]

[The player fighting the Brackan cannot be attacked.]

"This is the charm of the competition this time. The named monster, Brackan is being summoned right now! The Velto that appeared before this was easily beaten by the players. Will the contestants work together to hunt the Brackan?"

"Waaaaaaaaaah!"

Loud cheers broke out of the stands. It was a common occurrence for players to team up and fight together to kill named monsters with a much higher level than them. That was not all.

'If they successfully kill the monster, then they will be able to get the best items that it can give.'

Each monster had a different item drop, for example, non-ogre monsters would definitely not drop Ogre Gauntlets. However, out in the field, the successful hunting of a monster would not guarantee that they would drop good items. In this tournament, on the other hand, all the monsters would give a 100% drop rate. This meant that they would be able to get the best artifact from each monster. That was the reason why the audience was looking at the players with envy.

'That player…'

Jan tilted her head as she looked at the constantly flickering scenes on the monitor. She was looking at a player who was wearing a black robe. This player continuously ran all over the island and focused only on hiding himself. Jan saw the operators gathered around. She was one of the few people who could see them in their transparent mode. Taking advantage of this, she quietly eavesdropped on their conversation.

"That Black Wizard’s Descendant. Why doesn't that guy brainwash the other players?"

As far as Jan knew, this was Park Minggyu. He was the leader of the Special Players Management Team. He was talking to a woman beside him.

"I, is he really trying to use that skill? That's the only reason that I can think of as to why he's saving his MP and mental power."

"No, it won't make sense at all. If he used that skill, he would drop back to Level 1, and he won't be able to level up for three months, you know? So why will he use that?"

The development team leader in front of them was the one who answered. He said, "In fact, if you disregard that skill, then the Black Wizard’s Descendant is not a threat at all..."

The operators nodded their heads in sympathy.

"When will the Minotaurus appear?"

"It will appear twenty minutes before the game ends."

"At that time, the players will only be limited to a 300-meter range, right?"

"Yes…"

The 300-meter range was small. If the players went outside of that range, their HP would decrease by itself. That was why the operators were sure that everyone would be there.

"If the Black Wizard’s Descendant really used his skill 'Absolute Domination' to control the Minotaurus, then it would really turn into a massacre..."

'What...?!'

Jan was caught by surprise when she heard their words. That player would be able to control a Minotaurus? A Level 140 monster? Does that even make sense? Can a Level 80 player really do something like that? Was that even possible?

Jan thought,?'I heard that the Minotaurus does not come out as a field mob. But if it gets mind-controlled, and is together with all of the remaining players in a 300-meter range then…'

Once that happened, it would only be natural that the Minotaurus would no longer be under the operators’ control. That very same Minotaurus would also become that player’s weapon. If that really happened then…

'Then… all of the players will die, right?'