Chapter 220

[Translator – Night]

[Proofreader – Gun]

Chapter 220: Unexpectedness (5)

‘Settle the hierarchy?’

Yeongwoo reflexively looked up at the ceiling as he confirmed the quest details, imagining the Chairman or the shareholders of Dogo who probably approved this quest.

‘Win the duel and obtain over 11 votes as the strongest… It means to win overwhelmingly.’

To achieve this, he could make his opponent draw their sword again and then cut both the person and the sword in half with a single blow.

However…

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize a true master.”

Tuende Musa realized many things in a short moment.

He acknowledged that the Asian man before him possessed something beyond the ordinary, a monster with unparalleled strength and reflexes.

“I apologize for my great disrespect. Africa does not want to become your enemy.”

Tuende cautiously stepped back, echoing the words the Asian man had uttered when he blocked his sword earlier.

-Let’s stop here. I don’t want to become Africa’s enemy.

So, he decided to heed the warning.

But Yeongwoo’s stance had changed completely in that short time.

“…Sorry, but draw your sword, Tuende Musa.”

“What…?”

“If you don’t want to die, draw your sword…!”

With a fierce warning, Yeongwoo’s massive body tensed.

He was aiming to land a left body blow to his opponent’s abdomen.

‘Is this guy completely insane?’

Tuende Musa widened his eyes and hastily drew the sword from his belt, realizing that his opponent was truly throwing a punch with murderous intent.

‘No matter how strong he is, his skin can’t be harder than a blade.’

Tuende intended to cut off his opponent’s arm, swinging his sword diagonally.

Swish!

“Oh!”

“Aah…!”

The spectators, having witnessed the trajectory of Tuende’s sword, let out a sound that was a mix of groans and cheers.

Twenty experts from the East and West, who were unfamiliar with each other, were gathered here.

What would happen if the arm of the Eastern expert flew off in such a situation?

‘This… this is dangerous.’

‘Is there any need to provoke the Easterners?’

‘If this goes wrong…’

Most of the audience watched the clash between the two experts with bated breath.

Tuende’s sword indeed slashed Yeongwoo’s forearm.

Slash!

The skill, befitting someone with the identification number ‘01’.

“Ugh!”

“Oh my God.”

“These maniacs!”

The spectators reacted differently as they saw the Asian man’s right arm spin twice in the air.

Fellow Easterners instinctively put their hands on their sword hilts in tension, while the Africans looked around triumphantly.

The Westerners had ambiguous reactions, as a hostile atmosphere at this early stage would not benefit anyone.

But the truly gruesome event followed.

“Musa!”

With a roar, the Asian man with a severed right arm attempted a left hook.

His movement was so fast that no one in the hall could tell whether it was a hook or a straight punch.

Instead…

Thud!

The punch landed squarely.

“Ugh…?”

Tuende Musa, who had been standing confidently, suddenly crumpled to the ground.

The noisy hall fell silent in an instant as the tide of the battle shifted.

“…?”

“What just happened?”

“…Huh?”

Then someone pointed at the stump of Yeongwoo’s severed right arm.

“Do you see that? It’s not just me, right?”

Everyone looked at the spot where Yeongwoo’s arm used to be.

Blood was dripping from the exposed red flesh of his right shoulder, but the problem was…

Sizzle…!

Smoke was rising from where his blood hit the floor, corroding the marble.

【Corrosive Blood】

| His blood had transformed to become corrosive.

This was one of the effects of the ‘Heart of the Poison Dragon’ that Yeongwoo had recently equipped.

Unaware of this fact, the onlookers could only feel an instinctive fear.

“What… what is with this guy?”

“It looks like his blood is dissolving the floor…?”

Meanwhile, Yeongwoo, dripping corrosive blood onto the floor, picked up his severed forearm.

Shh.

Then he reattached it to his right shoulder.

Thud!

Thanks to the regeneration from the core of the slime,

「Unfair Trade」 – The only one-handed sword

【Injuring an enemy increases the wearer’s recovery.】

The effect of Unfair Trade quickly healed the severed arm.

Shhhh!

“Huh.”

“…Huh?”

Dozens of mouths in the hall gaped open simultaneously.

None of them had ever encountered an expert of this type before.

Then,

Beep!

A signal sounded, and a notification from the dungeon system appeared.

「Time left until the end of voting: 1 minute.」

With his right hand, which had just been on the ground, Yeongwoo pointed to the ceiling and spoke.

“What are you doing? Quickly vote for your Strongest.”

* * *

Votes: 17.

After waking the unconscious Tuende and encouraging him to vote, Yeongwoo succeeded in securing the majority of votes in the hall.

“Why… why did you hit me? I surrendered at the beginning.”

Tuende lodged a legitimate complaint, but Yeongwoo couldn’t explain it to him.

How could he make him understand that it was a task given by the high officials above in the universe?

So Yeongwoo chose to act insane.

“…I’m sorry. I couldn’t control my anger in the moment.”

“……”

Anyway, everything went smoothly for Yeongwoo.

Ping!

[Quest Completed – “Hierarchy Establishment”]

[Reward Granted]

|5 million Karma

Not only did he earn 5 million Karma with a single punch, but he also didn’t earn much resentment from the Black Corps as he had feared.

Swoosh!

Soon, a card containing 5 million Karma descended from the ceiling of the waiting room, but just in time, the dungeon moved to the next stage, preventing anyone from demanding an explanation from Yeongwoo.

「Voting is complete.」

|Strongest: [19] Jeong Yeongwoo07

|Weakest: [20] Dragos Korban24

Numbers 19 and 20 were elected.

It was a remarkably coincidental result.

But because the process was so shocking, everyone focused on what would happen next instead of feeling strange.

“Is it betting time now?”

“By the way, how is the ranking determined?”

Ranking.

This was also important to Yeongwoo.

He didn’t come here just to get equipment.

‘To get the catalog, I need a score exceeding the maximum contribution of 100 points.’

But wasn’t this dungeon a progression where you clear stages together?

‘They said we would be betting… Does this mean the person who continues betting and doesn’t get eliminated until the end is judged to be in first place?’

It was unclear.

This was something he could only guess once the rules were revealed.

And before long,

「Since voting is complete, gambling will now begin.」

With the phrase announcing the start of the dungeon in earnest, one wall of the waiting room slid aside, revealing a massive glass window.

“Huh?”

“Whoa, what’s that?”

“An arena?”

“What? An arena?”

[Translator – Night]

[Proofreader – Gun]

At the word “arena,” everyone rushed to the glass wall.

Indeed, below, there were two circular arenas set up.

From the waiting room, they could look down at the arenas.

“Why… why are there two arenas?”

“It looks like one strong and one weak person will enter.”

“Huh? Then who are they facing?”

Everyone had assumed they would be betting on the strong and weak fighting each other, so they couldn’t hide their confusion.

Having two arenas meant the strong and the weak would each face different opponents.

“Are monsters coming out?”

“Seems like it. Maybe the stages are divided, and increasingly stronger monsters appear.”

Since the ratio of dungeon experience was quite high, everyone made plausible guesses.

「Now, we will explain how the gambling will proceed.」

Bang!

The arena that everyone was looking at now had the numbers 1 and 2 assigned to it.

The left arena was number 1, and the right arena was number 2.

「In a moment, the ‘Strongest’ will move to Arena 1, and ‘Weakest’ will move to Arena 2.」

“They really are being separated.”

“So, do we bet on the Strongest and the underdog separately?”

So far, everything was as expected.

「Once the arena transfer is complete, betting on the following items will proceed for 5 minutes.」

“……!”

The betting details were finally revealed.

Everyone widened their eyes and focused on the glass wall.

Soon, a large holographic text appeared beyond the glass.

[1] Strongest survives, underdog survives.

[2] Strongest dies, underdog survives.

[3] Strongest survives, underdog dies.

[4] Strongest dies, underdog dies.

“Just as I thought.”

“Is survival or death the only option?”

As the betting items were revealed, all eyes turned to Yeongwoo and Dragos, who had been elected through the vote.

This was because it was highly likely that one of them would die today.

「This gambling will proceed through five stages, and based on the end of the last stage, the betting points of each participant will be tallied to determine the rankings.」

Here it was, the problem of ranking.

As explained, the person who successfully bets the most in the five consecutive gambling rounds would receive the first-place reward.

In other words, you had to keep making correct predictions to win.

“So, what do we base our predictions on?”

“Right. We need to know what the Strongest and the underdog will be fighting.”

As the participants, who had somewhat grasped the rules, asked for further explanation, new text appeared above the arenas.

「In each stage, the two representatives will fight against replicants of mutants.」

“Replicants of mutants?”

“What is that…?”

「Replicants of the mutants that participants have previously defeated will be placed in the arena. The number of replicants will increase significantly with each stage.」

“What?”

“This is crazy.”

“So, we have to fight several mutants?”

The hall quickly became noisy.

Moreover, the mutants would be randomly selected from those the 20 participants had defeated.

Since a mutant they had personally killed could appear in the arena, everyone quickly became engrossed in the betting.

“This won’t be easy…”

“If you’re unlucky, you could die in the first stage.”

They were all recalling the mutants that had given them the most trouble.

And in Yeongwoo’s case,

‘Could Kim Il-sung appear again…?’

As he thought of the “legendary evil,” the dungeon system revealed the difficulty of the first stage.

「The first stage will begin shortly. Each representative will face two mutants, and there are no special rules.」

A 2-on-1 battle with random mutants.

For Yeongwoo, it was a piece of cake, but for Dragos, who was scheduled to enter Arena 2, it seemed to be different.

“Damn it…”

He was already sweating profusely, his fingers trembling slightly.

Yeongwoo approached him and asked in a low voice.

“How many mutants have you fought at most?”

Dragos, with a pale face, looked up at Yeongwoo.

“I’ve fought up to two.”

“…I see.”

Dragos’s estimated capability was crucial to Yeongwoo.

He had to place bets as well.

‘He should be able to pass the first stage. I’ll bet on both surviving for now.’

But the real problem would start from the second stage.

—The number of replicants will increase significantly with each stage.

Considering the nuance of the earlier explanation, this “significant increase” likely meant,

‘Doubling.’

Logically, the sequence would be 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, but in Yeongwoo’s experience, the logic of the universe differed greatly from that of Earth.

‘Could it be 2, 4, 8, 16, 32…? No, they wouldn’t want the representatives to die for sure, would they?’

If it were the latter, not only Dragos but even Yeongwoo’s survival couldn’t be guaranteed.

‘This is a freaking crazy dungeon. Only the regular participants must be excited.’

Yeongwoo looked at the Arena 1 he would soon enter.

Then,

“……!”

An idea flashed through his mind.

He took out his coordinate tracker from his pocket.

Shh.

「Coordinate Locator」 – Artifact tool

【It shows the coordinates of visible points.】

Would this coordinate tracker work outside Earth?

「In 10 seconds, the representatives will move to the arenas.」

As the notification for moving to the arenas appeared, Yeongwoo immediately gripped the tracker tightly and looked at a point in Arena 1.

Then,

“Ah…!”

With a crosshair, the coordinates indeed appeared.

*〔II|l||-Lupo-917-005-3102-89〕*

[Translator – Night]

[Proofreader – Gun]