Chapter 247. Ain (2)

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Rummble.

Einchel, who was looking at Kamiyou who had been turned into a mess and was unconscious, turned around and looked behind her.

Towards Hansoo who was cooling the heat off from his body.

Chiiiiiiiik.

The players had long turned into golden lights.

Only the adventurers were left in the area.

Einchel carefully asked Hansoo who was cooling his body, which had been heated up from the energy of the mana node.

“What are you going to do now? Didn’t you say the seal would break soon?”

They knew that Hansoo was powerful.

But didn’t Hansoo say before that the monster of the kingdom above, Arthus Francheska, might come down?

The curse of the Ains that these guys were afraid of also worked from the energy of the seal.

The seal breaking meant that the curse which worked from that energy would also disappear.

Arthus Krancheska might charge down right away.

‘Well. He probably broke the seal because he had a plan…’

Hansoo shook his head at Einchel.

“The seal that had been sustained for hundreds of years cannot break in such a short amount of time.”

The energy from the mana node got converted by the Flail and the souls and flowed into the magic formation.

And because of that magic formation, the seal would be conversed.

Though the flail, which connected the mana node and the magic formation, had disappeared, there was still a large amount of energy which had been flowing into the magic formation up until now.

Which meant that the curse of the Ains, which used up that energy, was still in effect.

‘Which means that there’s a bit more time until Arthus Krancheska would come down.’

He’s probably going crazy outside.

Since the entire Great Seal had been broken.

He would’ve long wanted to charge into this place.

But he couldn’t.

Since he knew that the flail wouldn’t get pulled out by itself.

Going into the maze in a situation where the curse was still in effect and the person who pulled the flail was still inside was an act of suicide.

Any person with a brain would know.

“I’ll finish it before then.”

“… Finish? You aren’t going down?”

Hansoo laughed.

“Yeah. I’m going to do it thoroughly. It’ll be wasteful to leave them behind.”

‘… How.’

Einchel knew what he was talking about when it said it would be a waste.

But in a situation where they didn’t know when Krancheska will come down, how will they kill off the people inside the maze?

Einchel made a confused expression.

***

Rummble.

Tremble.

The players who were guarding the 4th floor were getting more and more uneasy as they felt the vibrations that were getting more and more powerful.

“Yo. How long are you going to stay here anyway? This doesn’t seem that simple.”

The players who were guarding the portal replied.

“Well. The exit on the 1st floor is blocked anyway. And that crazy Oldbeer bastard went to create a ruckus on the 5th floor.”

“… Well.”

The player, <Alphagoo>, sighed and talked to his friends who had annoyed expressions.

“15 minutes. Let’s wait just 15 minutes more. If he doesn’t come out then let’s just go.”

“… 10.”

“Fine.”

Alphagoo received his friend’s blunt reply and nodded.

It had already been 20 minutes since they started guarding the portal on the fourth floor.

And not just them, there were hundreds of people guarding the portal from the 3rd to the 4th floor.

In order to catch the blacklisted bug players whose rumors spread throughout the entire maze.

And there was more.

According to the stories from the players who had been assassinated throughout the maze, there was something else.

The bug player’s nest that they had only heard rumors about.

Apparently hundreds of bug players came out from the nest and were roaming around somewhere in the 4th floor.

Though nobody who had seen them had lived, they could see traces which had remained behind so it being true was clear.

Alphagoo mumbled to himself.

‘… The probability is half and half. Either 3rd or 5th floor.’

The chances were fifty percent.

Nobody could guess what the bug players were thinking.

But they had gambled on them going to the 3rd floor.

And he was feeling good for some reason today.

‘If we catch them then… Jackpot. Heheheheh.’

Though hundreds of players were guarding the portal with him, he was confident in himself.

Confident enough to get one to two people by himself at least.

Since he was a high level player at level 240.

And from what he knew, the average level of the bug players was around 215 to 220.

Because of the Ant Eater clan chasing them down and killing them, he had heard that their levels weren’t that high on average.

No matter how good the control of the bug players were, a difference of 10 levels was huge.

‘Yeah. This is better than hunting for months in terms of rewards.’

As Alphagoo had his hopes raised thinking about the experience and artifacts the bug players would have.

“Heuk… Haa! Heuk!”

A mysterious person ran towards them while bleeding.

‘Huh? Is it them?’

As Alphagoo was preparing to attack.

The person who had run out from the maze freaked out and yelled.”Don’t attack! Stop! I’m not a bug player! I’m a normal player!”

“… Player?”

Alphagoo made a depressed expression.

‘Well. the bug players aren’t crazy, why would they travel around by themselves.’

If they were going to go solo, they wouldn’t have moved around in a group of hundreds of people from the start.

‘What the. I know this person.’

But as Alphagoo made a dejected expression.

Kiiiiiiiiingg.

The sound of mana being collected could be heard.

The sound of a skill being activated.

And as Alphagoo turned around, he could see his friend preparing a skill.

“Hey! What are the hell are you doing!”

His friend replied with an embarrassed expression.

“Well. Just in case…”

Alphagoo quickly held his friend’s hand and put it down.

“Don’t, I know that person.”

“Huh? You know her?”

As his friend asked him with a shocked expression, Alphagoo nodded.

“Yeah. We were in a party together in the past. The Id was… Einchel or something.”

He remembered because this player was quite memorable.

‘How did she get hurt like that.’

Maybe it was because he had set the settings to 19+ mode but the blood flowing out from her body was scarlet red and not golden.

As Alphagoo frowned while watching the woman, Einchel, who had injuries all over her body.

“Phew… Thank god. I almost died.”.

Alphagoo made a confused expression.

His friend, Betagoo, asked Einchel.

“What, did you get PKed or something? Why are you so hurt? Where’s your party…”

Einchel cursed out and yelled.

“Fuck. I got PKed. Really badly too.”

“Huh. Some crazy bastard…”

The people started to murmur at Einchel’s words.

Though there wasn’t a system which suppressed PKing, the players were still reluctant to PK.

Since PKing didn’t give many benefits and being targetted was very bad.

In a world where party play was the way to go, PKing would destroy the relations one had with others necessary for party play.

Like the Blacklist which managed bug players, the Redlist which managed PKers existed.

In a world where looking up one’s username told everyone if they were a PKer or not, not many people were daring enough to PK for fun.

Alphagoo clicked his tongue and asked Einchel.

“Miss Einchel. It must’ve been hard. We’ve met before right?”

“Ah… You’re the person I met before. Hello.”

Alphagoo was delighted as he saw Einchel sighing in relief.

‘Yes. I knew my luck was good today.’

Einchel was quite attractive.

He wanted to use the party play last time as a means to get closer but he failed.

But for such a chance to come rolling by.

‘Did they say to create a rapport first? Or help her? I forgot…’

He could barely remember but Alphagoo found a chance to continue the talk so he kept on going.

“Who is that bastard? Hurry and put him on the Redlist. It’ll become much more convenient that way.”

Einchel chuckled.

“No need. He’s already on another list.”

“… Another list?”

The players’ expressions changed at Einchel’s words.

There was only one more list they could think of other than the Redlist.

The friend next to Alphagoo asked with twinkling eyes.

“Did this happen from those bug players?”

Einchel nodded.

“… I got attacked by surprise. Our party got demolished as well. My friends probably all ran away. Since there’s about 50 of them… There was no way to beat them. They were seriously strong like the rumors.”

The expression of the people brightened up at Einchel’s words.

‘Finally a clue!”

Fifty.

Though there were hundreds of people here, it was a good enough number to share.

Well, if there was more of them it might’ve been a bit hard.

But fifty.

It wasn’t too much to deal with and it was a good number to share.

Alphagoo asked with a bright expression.

The question which everyone wanted to ask.

“Is it far from here? Their nest?”

“Huh? You’re going to kill them?”

Alphagoo nodded at Einchel who was looking at him in doubt.

“Of course. They deserve to get killed.”

“… How thankful. Then I’ll guide you there.”

Einchel, who had frowned from Alphagoo’s sudden words, smiled as she replied.

***

Boooom!

“Uaaaak! Ibanoph you bastard!”

“Fucking hell! You dare scam us?”

Ibanoph, who had convinced the players and dragged them along, scoffed as he cut their necks off.

Crunch!

“Heheh. Why are you so depressed. It’s not like you die for real..”

‘Heheh. Jesus my level rises quickly.’

The level which had stayed the same for a while was rising quite fast.

It wasn’t hard either.

50 to 500.

The moment the players entered in groups of different sizes, he just needed to smash them apart.

To almost 800 bug players and Hansoo who stood in the front and swung his God’s Flail and Forked Lightning, this amount of players weren’t even snacks to them.

They got erased instantly and once they were gone the Watchmen would bring more.

They had already killed over 5000 players this way.

Since they didn’t know when Arthus Krancheska would charge in, the couldn’t set it up perfectly.

So if one looked at this system closely they might become suspicious but the players were still charging in like moths towards a flame.

They had nothing to worry about, they didn’t die.

So they didn’t weigh the risks that much and just followed the Watchmen here.

Even the ones who made suspicious expressions followed quickly because they didn’t want anybody to get a headstart on them.

‘At this pace… We should easily be able to get rid of everyone in the maze and hit the max level.’

Because of their levels rising steadily, the work was getting quicker and quickler.

Ibanoph made a joyful expression as he made a sound that only the Watchmen could hear throughout the maze.

Towards Einchel who would be guiding the players this way.

Then.

Tatatatatatak.

Ibanoph and the others started to hide their bodies behind the hundreds of crosses as they heard the footsteps in the distance.

With excited expressions.

Ibanoph finished his preparations and asked Hansoo in leisure.

“Are we going to contact the Ains after we hit max level like this?”

Logically, if they released the Ains then meeting them should be next.

‘And if those guys are really that strong… They should protect us from Arthus Krancheska or the other players.’

They had broken the seal for them, this was a natural conclusion to make.

And that meant that going down was the only way for them to survive.

But Hansoo destroyed Ibanoph’s hopes.

“No.”

“Then…?”

Hansoo pointed up at Ibanoph’s question.

“We’re going up.”

“Huh?”

Ibanoph made a confused expression at the unexpected answer.

“Why upwards…”

Before Ibanoph could even reply.

Booooom!

“Hahaha! Is it here? Kill th… Uaaak!”

Einchel brought in another group of players and another collision occurred.

And Ibanoph made an annoyed expression while fighting the players.

Not because of these players but because of Hansoo’s words from before.

‘Go up? Why… He knows what’s up there…’

***

“…Hey, let’s back up a bit. It’s hot.”

“Ugh.”

The players who were surrounding the Great Maze slowly backed off.

Because it was getting hard to withstand the heat.

The heat that was radiating from Arthus Krancheska’s body.

The heat that radiated out from a level 330’s rage was not something they could handle.

Rumble.

“… I’m not just going to kill them… No I won’t…”

Arthus Krancheska, whose body was surrounded by an intense amount of heat and red energy, grinded his teeth as he glared downwards in rage.