Chapter 368: New World (3)

“This guy is seriously insane, really.”

Kang Min-Gu, head of Pegasus Korea Branch, nodded along at the sound of his subordinate clicking his tongue. “Yeah, he really is.”

Such a reaction was only natural in an office where overtime had just been confirmed.

Kai and Yoo Ha-Rin. The two had pulled off an incredible feat by breaking through the central part of the Dark Zone in just eight hours. Considering that was something expected to happen at least two years later, it was already giving the game developers a headache.

“How’s the content development team doing?”

“

Oh

, I actually contacted someone from the U.S. headquarters, and even though they say it's the land of freedom, they’ve all been locked in for overtime too.”

“

Ugh

...”

Once again, the jinx activated without fail. The jinx where every time Kai did something, Pegasus had to clean up the mess. Because of that, the company always entered high-alert mode whenever Kai seemed to be up to something. But today was different.

“What’s Sting doing?”

“That crazy bastard. He’s actually trying to open the hellgate.”

There were two people even crazier than Kai who were pretending to be mad and causing chaos. The hellgate was something scheduled to appear when the players' main quest progression reached its final stage.

Muldine versus humans versus demons.

It was meant to be a grand three-way war like the classic Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu. However, that plan had been derailed.

It’s technically Kai’s fault too.

After changing classes to Solaris Cleric, Kai kept interfering with the Church of Muldine’s operations and prevented them from regaining power. That led to the absurd outcome of the Church of Muldine’s Cardinal Atroc joining hands with the Demon King followers.

“Just rewriting all the future main quests and dialogue is already giving me a headache...”

And now it was the hellgate. It wouldn’t be a matter of tweaking quests or fixing dialogue anymore if that thing opened.

“I don’t know about anything else, but I think HQ really made a mistake this time. Why did they have to lower the requirements for Mythic classes?”

“Exactly my point.”

When enormous power was handed to those unprepared, they wielded it and caused chaos

I can’t believe they would commit mass murder just to boost their Evil Deed and Malice stats.

They were nothing but trash even from the perspective of the game company and from the eyes of an ordinary player. But fortunately enough, one of those trash players met his end today.

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“At least Goliath is finished now, right?”

Goliath had been wiped out by Kai in a single second and removed from the stage.

“Goliath is definitely done,” Kang Min-Gu nodded in agreement with his subordinate’s words.

Goliath would have been able to start over with a new class and play normally even after being reset to novice if he were a regular player.

But you pushed it too far, Goliath.

The real issue was that he had seriously screwed Pegasus over, and with the worst kind of crime—an NPC massacre.

“He’ll probably spend the rest of his game life on the run, won’t he?”

“Most likely.”

His notoriety had grown so high that he was wanted across all empires and kingdoms. That intense pursuit was something no unpromoted beginner could ever hope to withstand.

He won’t even be able to convert the gold and expensive gear in his inventory into real money, and he’ll rot in prison forever.

Naturally, Pegasus planned to monitor him thoroughly to make sure he couldn’t cash out even a single cent into the real world. A fitting end for a failed villain.

“Kai doesn’t seem so hateful, at least for today. No wait, maybe I should still hate him since I’m working overtime.”

That was why the Pegasus employees were rooting for Kai today, even though he had often thrown them off. In truth, all three of them were threats to the game’s foundation from Pegasus’s perspective, but at least Kai wasn’t a villain who did things that made people frown.

“Sir, why don’t you eat something while you monitor?”

“I’m fine.”

At Kang Min-Gu’s polite refusal, his subordinate nodded and unwrapped his hamburger. Just as he was about to take a big bite, something big happened.

“

H-hey!

Codename Hell Door! The hellgate has opened!”

“What?” Kang Min-Gu stared at the monitor with a grave expression.

But fortunately, the magic circle for summoning an archdemon didn’t activate.

“The sacrifices... seem to be a little short.”

“

Phew

. Thank goodness.”

“

Wow,

I thought the game was over.”

“

Sigh

...”

It was truly a relief. If an archdemon had been summoned, it would have been a living nightmare for regular players.

And it would have been a disaster from the company’s perspective too.

The power of an archdemon was something ordinary players or NPCs could never withstand. If that thing decided to start a guerrilla war, the damage would be catastrophic.

If that happened, we’d have no argument even if players quit the game out of rage.

In fact, Pegasus might have had to pay massive compensation.

The employees monitoring the situation stood up, hugged each other, and high-fived in celebration. That was when something happened again.

“

Huh?

Kai just entered the temple!”

“What? Already?”

“This guy really is a monster. He plowed through all of the Church of Muldine’s troops.”

As his subordinates chatted, Kang Min-Gu crossed his arms and asked, “How long will it take for Kai and Yoo Ha-Rin to encounter Sting?”

“Well, it’ll likely take some time even for those two. The Dark Zone temple is modeled like a giant dungeon, after all...”

“

Hm

. All the Church of Muldine forces inside the temple were offered as sacrifices by Sting, but even with that considered, getting through forty-two types of traps would be impossible unless those two had trap-disarming skills...”

Unfortunately, Kai was not the type to play by the rules. The employees stared blankly as Kai smashed straight through the floor with his bold and irrational move.

At the same time, Kang Min-Gu ordered, “Analyze the variables. If Sting or Kai wins, which outcome benefits us more?”

“

Uh

... Sorry to say this, but the chances of Sting winning are basically zero.”

“And based on how things are going, it’s better if Kai wins. If Sting pretends to go mad and brings in more sacrifices, an archdemon might really get summoned.”

“In that case... I suppose that’s a relief.” Kang Min-Gu let out a breath of relief, but he underestimated the Kai Jinx.

“W-what the hell?!”

“Sting became the sacrifice... The hellgate is opening!”

“N-no, it’s only half open precisely speaking.”

“There still aren’t enough sacrifices! The archdemon can’t come out!”

The monitors were now filled with flashing red lights and numbers. It meant that codes that should never have been triggered were activating all at once.

After the brief storm passed, none of the employees said a word.

Only Kang Min-Gu, still trying to grasp the situation, said, “What just happened right now...? Where are Kai and Yoo Ha-Rin?”

“Th-they got pulled in.”

“What?”

“They got dragged into the Demon Realm.”

“The hellgate did close because of that...”

The employees looked at Kang Min-Gu and began to tear up.

“Sir, what if... what if Kai and Yoo Ha-Rin end up taking over all the Demon Realm content?”

“D-don’t jinx it!” Kang Min-Gu snapped, but his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

If it’s those two, they just might pull it off for real...

Now panicking, Kang Min-Gu demanded information. “Gather everything on the Demon Realm. What happens if a player enters the Demon Realm right now?”

“

Uh

... first, they’ll get the special title Discoverer of the Demon Realm.”

“And their level will go up too. Kai will probably gain five levels.”

“

Oh!

And some of their abilities will be sealed.”

“They likely won’t be able to return to the human world right away.”

“And demons who smell humans will start to come find them.”

After listening to the series of reports from his subordinates, Kang Min-Gu turned his head and asked, “Wait, what do you mean they can’t return right away? He has Shadow Shift.”

Shadow Shift was the worst skill Helik had created and given without permission for her beloved envoy. It was a skill that allowed the user to revisit any location they had previously been to.

"

Oh,

that’s true. Well, the concepts of holy power and mana don’t exist at all in the Demon Realm."

"Also, players weren’t supposed to visit the Demon Realm continent for at least three more years in the planned content schedule."

"Various skills and abilities get sealed and players receive penalties when entering the Demon Realm."

"Which means... even Shadow Shift would be affected by penalties, so Kai and Yoo Ha-Rin won’t be able to return for a while?"

"Yes. They could even die there."

Listening to the reports from his staff, Kang Min-Gu slowly nodded. "Well, it’s out of our hands now. And send an email to all HQ staff."

"What should the message say?"

"Tell them that no matter what the media, reporters, or players ask about the whereabouts of the two, they are absolutely not to say a single word."

***

『Shocking News! Kai and Yoo Ha-Rin vanish from the rankings!』

『Pegasus issues statement: All we can say is it’s not just a glitch.』

『An unprecedented incident! Where did the two go?』

The community was in chaos. Two of the top-tier rankers ranked first and third disappeared from the charts on the same day at the same time without a trace. Naturally, the players had all kinds of theories.

-I’m telling you, I heard from my buddy that the two of them did a deletion duel and both lost, so their characters got deleted at the same time. └ Next up on fake news radio. -Come on, that’s ridiculous. My friend’s friend works at Pegasus and says the two fell in love and ran away together. Deleted their characters too. -What even is this comment section? Feels like a fiction contest. -Hm. Lots of rumors but most say the same thing. Did the two really delete their characters? └ Otherwise, there’s no way they’d just vanish from the rankings. └ And it makes sense since the overall ranking can’t be hidden. If a name is gone, the character’s gone. -There’s no way our Unknown would delete his character :(

This situation was the best entertainment possible for gossip lovers. While people put their heads together trying to deduce what had happened, the one who gained the most from all this was none other than Chris.

“

Huh

... I woke up and now I’m ranked first.”

Chris took dozens of screenshots of the rankings with a dazed expression because he would be knocked back down to second place if it was just a glitch.

“

Hm.

”

Jackal, no Ghost, who had been watching the overly excited Chris, swallowed a sigh.

Kai deleted his character?

After thinking for a moment, he shook his head. He had only observed Kai for about a month in the arena, but he didn’t seem like someone who would act so irresponsibly.

If Kai deletes his character now, the eastern region of Rashion under his rule, and countless demi-humans, would be left unattended.

He just abandoned them all and deleted his character? Ghost once again leaned toward believing that couldn’t be true. At the same time, his thoughts deepened.

In that case, we need to start preparing too.

The players ranked first and third had disappeared. Among them, Kai was someone who had immense influence within the game. Naturally, those who aimed for his vacant position would start to appear one by one.

There are more than a few who want the power and land that Kai had.

Once his thoughts reached that point, Ghost stood up and threw on his cloak. "Effective immediately, put all members on standby."

Startled by the unprecedented situation, the vice guild leader asked, "Pardon? What do you mean by that...?”

Ghost replied calmly, "If my intuition is right, things are going to get busy soon."

At that moment, a message arrived.

[Minerva: I’d like to have a word with you, would you spare some time?]

It was a message from the master of the Pray guild, one of the world’s top eight guilds.

There’s no need to bother responding.

Just as Ghost waved his hand to close the message window, another message came in.

[Minerva: I came to deliver a message from Kai. He said to keep your promise.]

Ghost immediately stopped moving and smiled. Just as he had expected, it seemed like busy days were ahead.