Agatram (2)
In the darkness before dawn, I moved quietly through the shadows.
My destination was naturally the quarantine area where the civilians were gathered.
This specially designed district was approximately 10 kilometers away from the Player quarantine area we occupied.
An artificial city created for quests.
Under the influence of the system, no matter how much destruction it faced, the stage would rapidly rebuild itself, and its general structure was no different from an ordinary city.
However, food and water were centrally distributed.
“Cough!”
After knocking out a patrolling Player near the quarantine zone, I expertly made my way inside.
It wasn’t particularly hard since I had done this a few times before.
‘If only I had a scouting skill, it would’ve been easier.’
Regrettably, my past self did not possess any scouting skills.
I entered the city through the sewers, softly lifting manhole covers to ascertain my position and moving as quietly as possible.
‘Just need to deal with the civilian area now, right?’
A little further on was the district where Players lived.
All part of the stage created just for this quest.
‘Good.’
I attached the items I had prepared all over the city.
I dealt with any Players I occasionally ran into as quietly as possible, being careful especially not to encounter any members of the Agatram guild.
If an executive of the Agatram started to move before I was ready, a battle would break out before I could finish my preparations.
“Phew.”
Over the past two days, I had been moving in and out of the city, preparing for the final battle.
I couldn’t hope to win if I barged in recklessly.
Perhaps because of that, the security around the quarantine area had begun to tighten.
They must have noticed that there was an intruder.
“What are you planning to do now?”
Idra spoke to me as I took a breather in an unlit alleyway.
I wondered when she had appeared, looking at me with interest.
“What do you think? We fight.”
“Do you really think you can do this alone? I didn’t know you were so recklessly inclined.”
“It’s definitely not something I would have done before.”
I had always chosen to move only when I was sure I could win.
Never had I ever considered fighting all the Players on my own.
“Why change your mind?”
“I haven’t changed. I just realized I could do more than I thought.”
Being cautious is fine.
But there’s no need to be overly so.
As a weakling, I only knew how to fight as the underdog.
But the truth was different.
I wasn’t weak.
Certainly, my talents weren’t remarkable, and neither was I particularly clever.
But I was humanity’s last Player.
In other words, I am quite significant.
“Besides, I didn’t take you into account.”
“Oh?”
“As you know, I was extremely reluctant to borrow the power of a god. Using power that isn’t your own is like choking yourself.”
“So the truth is different?”
“No, it’s literally choking.”
Idra looked puzzled at my wry smile.
She seemed to wonder how it was any different than what I had just said.
“It doesn’t matter if it chokes you, as long as you don’t die, right?”
To become a sovereign being, one must not be a subordinate to another.
Whether a contractee of a devil or an avatar of a god.
But neither of those are weaker than a sovereign being.
If you push it to the limit, you can reach that point.
Although not quite achieving the status of a sovereign being, one can still possess power comparable to it.
An agent of a god.
In my previous life, I never even attempted it.
Even though I could have if I willed it, because Idra wanted it.
Because I was suspicious of Idra and feared what other beings might follow.
It would have been terrifying to even imagine the outer-universe gods taking an interest in us if they became aware through Idra.
Idra herself had told me this.
That’s why she stepped back when I refused.
‘But now it doesn’t matter.’
Because this is nothing more than a dreamlike world.
“Idra.”
“Hm. What is it?”
I told her something I had been considering, while she looked at me blankly.
“Do you know how to edit videos?”
***
Players on constant watch were suffering casualties, so Agatram and others took various precautions.
But the attacker seemed to know exactly what they would do, always ingeniously avoiding just the right spots.
“How many have been confirmed?”
“I can’t be sure. Given the stealthiness of their movements, we can be certain there’s not many of them.”
Cheon Sanghwan looked down at the ground from atop a building.
From his aerial vantage point, no particular Player seemed out of place.
Cheon Sanghwan’s god was one of the highest-ranking among the supreme gods, and that had an effect on its avatar.
He could surely perceive things beyond the range of an ordinary Player.
The fact that he hadn’t noticed anything implied that either they had already left the city or they possessed skills that could elude even his watchful gaze.
“This is aggravating. Should we just attack them?”
“If we do, whoever is sneaking around might take the opportunity to do something.”
“Our invisible adversary clearly indicates there are just a few. How much damage could a small number do? Better for us to strike first.”
The woman with the black hair, filled with irritation in her voice, was Lee Suryeon, one of Agatram’s executives.
“Who knows what the enemy will do. Hang on.”
“Minsuho. You talk like you’re all laid back and cool usually. Why are you so timid now? Scared?”
“I’ve just got a bad feeling, that’s all.”
In response to Minsuho’s calm words, Lee Suryeon’s eyebrows twitched.
“A bad feeling, my ass. It’s been days! If we keep doing nothing, we’ll be the ones getting played here. They’re only doing this because we haven’t made a move!”
“…”
“That’s it. I’m going to do something about it, even if I’m on my own.”
As she hastily left, Minsuho scratched his head.
Perhaps acting now, as she said, might have been better.
They were combing the stage for invaders anyway, and anyone sneaking in would soon be caught.
It was unlikely someone could escape the eyes of Players armed with all manner of skills if they were just an ordinary human.
‘Cowardly fools!’
Lee Suryeon was increasingly frustrated with Agatram’s indecision.
They shouldn’t have been looking for invaders; they should have attacked first.
The quest would have been over by now.
“She must undoubtedly be a small fry skulking around, given how she sneaks in like this.”
Lee Suryeon was confident in her power.
She always insisted on facing challenges head-on and despised these sneaky tactics.
Her disposition differed from that of her god, but her god favored her for that reason.
Because the hero her god adored acted in the same way.
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, a chill ran down Lee Suryeon’s spine.
She quickly looked around, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary was visible.
‘A false alarm?’
She had clearly felt an unknown threat.
Just then, she sensed something unnervingly cold from the direction of an alley.
“There must be something there.”
The intruder was likely nearby.
Lee Suryeon had sharp instincts, which she deeply trusted.
Step, step.
The alley was dark.
Although there was no immediate sense of someone’s presence, she stayed vigilant.
There were countless skills that could suddenly emerge from the darkness.
“What’s this…”
In the shadowy alley, a flickering light caught her eye.
Something cylindrical installed on the ground.
Upon closer inspection, it was an odd device with a high-grade magic stone attached.
Certainly not something that belonged in an alley.
“What is this?”
Below the high-grade magic stone was a glass tube filled with a suspicious liquid, and within it floated round beads.
It didn’t match any stage gimmick she had ever seen.
A bomb?
If using a high-grade magic stone, one could indeed craft an item imbued with significant magical effects.
A trap capable of obliterating this entire area in one fell swoop using high-grade magic stone was entirely feasible.
“I’ve got a good instinct for this.”
Lee Suryeon smirked to herself.
Even if the exact nature of the magic was unknown, its discovery by her meant its end.
Her god was a powerful deity and a formidable wizard.
Naturally, as that god’s avatar, she was a powerful sorceress herself.
“Dispel.”
A powerful magic dispelling incantation. Using it would nullify the magical effects applied to any item or gear, reducing them to ordinary trinkets.
But she was unaware.
The magic flowing from the high-grade magic stone wasn’t for activation but the opposite.
It was merely blocking something from functioning.
So, what would happen if you stopped it?
The answer was simple.
The blockade would be lifted.
Boom!!
As the magic light blinked out, the alley erupted in an explosion.
And this explosion simultaneously spread across the entire city.
“What, what’s this!”
“People are collapsing due to some strange smog… Cough! Gag!”
A haze had enveloped the city, and civilians who inhaled it fell one by one.
Players urgently covered their mouths and noses or activated detoxification magic.
“Don’t breathe the smoke! You’ll die if you do!”
A Player who had checked a fallen civilian yelled out.
The civilians who had inhaled the smoke had stopped breathing.
Although Players could respond quickly, civilians could not.
With this single explosion, nearly half the civilians had collapsed.
“Cough, cough.”
Lee Suryeon, who bore the brunt of the explosion, coughed softly as she got up.
She had reflexively shielded herself from the blast, but she couldn’t avoid inhaling the smoke.
‘This much is tolerable at least.’
She didn’t know the nature of the poison, but it momentarily felt like her consciousness would slip away.
It definitely induced some kind of status ailment.
Staggering, Lee Suryeon rose to her feet.
The alley was still clouded with acrid smoke.
“I knew you’d be the first to find it.”
A strange voice came from within the fog.
From what he said, it seemed like he was the one behind the bombs.
“Yeah, I found it first. But what are you going to do about it? I am unharmed.”
“You may be unharmed, but the civilians aren’t.”
“What?”
“Thanks to the spell you just canceled, the whole city is now shrouded in this smoke. It’s deadlier than I expected. I only anticipated half this level of effectiveness.”
The man’s tranquil voice caused Lee Suryeon’s head to spin.
If the entire city was covered in this smoke, the civilian casualties were indisputable.
If the smoke was this harmful to her, civilians would not have survived inhalation.
“You devilish bastard!”
“Ah, it brings back some nostalgia.”
The man chuckled at Lee Suryeon, who was seething with killing intent.
“Sorry, but this is where you’ll have to end. You’ve been more of a nuisance than I thought.”
“What did you say?”
“You know your god.”
Lee Suryeon extended her hands, and an eight-layered purple magic circle unfolded before her.
Runes engraved on the magic circle sparkled, and Lee Suryeon spat blood the moment they gleamed.
“You…!”
“It’s an illusion.”
The man stated.
“From the start, I was behind you.”
Had she been unaffected, she might have noticed sooner, but the explosion had clouded her judgment. The man in front of Lee Suryeon was merely an illusion; the real one had been behind her all along.
“Ugh!”
As she pulled the dagger from her chest, Lee Suryeon slowly crumpled to the ground.
Her eyes, filled with resentment, turned towards the man but quickly dimmed.
“It’s not a particularly pleasant feeling.”
The man, Sehan, reached into the air, pulled out an elixir, dabbed it with his finger, and carefully applied it to Lee Suryeon’s wound.
Her bleeding wound, which had seemed fatal, stopped almost miraculously.
“Supporters should be dealt with first.”
Lee Suryeon was an excellent sorceress.
Moreover, her god being Morian meant she was also adept at strategizing.
That significantly increased the chances she’d become a variable, which is why she needed to be taken care of first.
The magic field from the device wasn’t particularly strong, so someone with her magical prowess was the most likely to notice it first. It was expected that she would be the first to find it, and that assumption turned out to be correct.
If Lee Suryeon hadn’t shown up, the plan was to detonate the device manually and then ambush her separately.
That would have been far more cumbersome and tiresome.
‘Now it should be about time for them to show up.’
With Lee Suryeon dealt with, a reaction should be imminent.
I’ve already marked the nearby guys, so there’s no worry in that regard.
“Kim Sehan──!!”
“I found you, you bastard!”
‘They’re here.’
At the same time as the furious shouts, I leapt upward.
It wouldn’t do to turn this place into a battleground and risk further damage to Lee Suryeon’s ‘body.’
Two pursuing Players appeared in my view.
The whirlwind and fire.
A stage befitting these two was necessary for the upcoming battle.
Agatram (2)
In the darkness before dawn, I moved quietly through the shadows.
My destination was naturally the quarantine area where the civilians were gathered.
This specially designed district was approximately 10 kilometers away from the Player quarantine area we occupied.
An artificial city created for quests.
Under the influence of the system, no matter how much destruction it faced, the stage would rapidly rebuild itself, and its general structure was no different from an ordinary city.
However, food and water were centrally distributed.
“Cough!”
After knocking out a patrolling Player near the quarantine zone, I expertly made my way inside.
It wasn’t particularly hard since I had done this a few times before.
‘If only I had a scouting skill, it would’ve been easier.’
Regrettably, my past self did not possess any scouting skills.
I entered the city through the sewers, softly lifting manhole covers to ascertain my position and moving as quietly as possible.
‘Just need to deal with the civilian area now, right?’
A little further on was the district where Players lived.
All part of the stage created just for this quest.
‘Good.’
I attached the items I had prepared all over the city.
I dealt with any Players I occasionally ran into as quietly as possible, being careful especially not to encounter any members of the Agatram guild.
If an executive of the Agatram started to move before I was ready, a battle would break out before I could finish my preparations.
“Phew.”
Over the past two days, I had been moving in and out of the city, preparing for the final battle.
I couldn’t hope to win if I barged in recklessly.
Perhaps because of that, the security around the quarantine area had begun to tighten.
They must have noticed that there was an intruder.
“What are you planning to do now?”
Idra spoke to me as I took a breather in an unlit alleyway.
I wondered when she had appeared, looking at me with interest.
“What do you think? We fight.”
“Do you really think you can do this alone? I didn’t know you were so recklessly inclined.”
“It’s definitely not something I would have done before.”
I had always chosen to move only when I was sure I could win.
Never had I ever considered fighting all the Players on my own.
“Why change your mind?”
“I haven’t changed. I just realized I could do more than I thought.”
Being cautious is fine.
But there’s no need to be overly so.
As a weakling, I only knew how to fight as the underdog.
But the truth was different.
I wasn’t weak.
Certainly, my talents weren’t remarkable, and neither was I particularly clever.
But I was humanity’s last Player.
In other words, I am quite significant.
“Besides, I didn’t take you into account.”
“Oh?”
“As you know, I was extremely reluctant to borrow the power of a god. Using power that isn’t your own is like choking yourself.”
“So the truth is different?”
“No, it’s literally choking.”
Idra looked puzzled at my wry smile.
She seemed to wonder how it was any different than what I had just said.
“It doesn’t matter if it chokes you, as long as you don’t die, right?”
To become a sovereign being, one must not be a subordinate to another.
Whether a contractee of a devil or an avatar of a god.
But neither of those are weaker than a sovereign being.
If you push it to the limit, you can reach that point.
Although not quite achieving the status of a sovereign being, one can still possess power comparable to it.
An agent of a god.
In my previous life, I never even attempted it.
Even though I could have if I willed it, because Idra wanted it.
Because I was suspicious of Idra and feared what other beings might follow.
It would have been terrifying to even imagine the outer-universe gods taking an interest in us if they became aware through Idra.
Idra herself had told me this.
That’s why she stepped back when I refused.
‘But now it doesn’t matter.’
Because this is nothing more than a dreamlike world.
“Idra.”
“Hm. What is it?”
I told her something I had been considering, while she looked at me blankly.
“Do you know how to edit videos?”
***
Players on constant watch were suffering casualties, so Agatram and others took various precautions.
But the attacker seemed to know exactly what they would do, always ingeniously avoiding just the right spots.
“How many have been confirmed?”
“I can’t be sure. Given the stealthiness of their movements, we can be certain there’s not many of them.”
Cheon Sanghwan looked down at the ground from atop a building.
From his aerial vantage point, no particular Player seemed out of place.
Cheon Sanghwan’s god was one of the highest-ranking among the supreme gods, and that had an effect on its avatar.
He could surely perceive things beyond the range of an ordinary Player.
The fact that he hadn’t noticed anything implied that either they had already left the city or they possessed skills that could elude even his watchful gaze.
“This is aggravating. Should we just attack them?”
“If we do, whoever is sneaking around might take the opportunity to do something.”
“Our invisible adversary clearly indicates there are just a few. How much damage could a small number do? Better for us to strike first.”
The woman with the black hair, filled with irritation in her voice, was Lee Suryeon, one of Agatram’s executives.
“Who knows what the enemy will do. Hang on.”
“Minsuho. You talk like you’re all laid back and cool usually. Why are you so timid now? Scared?”
“I’ve just got a bad feeling, that’s all.”
In response to Minsuho’s calm words, Lee Suryeon’s eyebrows twitched.
“A bad feeling, my ass. It’s been days! If we keep doing nothing, we’ll be the ones getting played here. They’re only doing this because we haven’t made a move!”
“…”
“That’s it. I’m going to do something about it, even if I’m on my own.”
As she hastily left, Minsuho scratched his head.
Perhaps acting now, as she said, might have been better.
They were combing the stage for invaders anyway, and anyone sneaking in would soon be caught.
It was unlikely someone could escape the eyes of Players armed with all manner of skills if they were just an ordinary human.
‘Cowardly fools!’
Lee Suryeon was increasingly frustrated with Agatram’s indecision.
They shouldn’t have been looking for invaders; they should have attacked first.
The quest would have been over by now.
“She must undoubtedly be a small fry skulking around, given how she sneaks in like this.”
Lee Suryeon was confident in her power.
She always insisted on facing challenges head-on and despised these sneaky tactics.
Her disposition differed from that of her god, but her god favored her for that reason.
Because the hero her god adored acted in the same way.
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, a chill ran down Lee Suryeon’s spine.
She quickly looked around, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary was visible.
‘A false alarm?’
She had clearly felt an unknown threat.
Just then, she sensed something unnervingly cold from the direction of an alley.
“There must be something there.”
The intruder was likely nearby.
Lee Suryeon had sharp instincts, which she deeply trusted.
Step, step.
The alley was dark.
Although there was no immediate sense of someone’s presence, she stayed vigilant.
There were countless skills that could suddenly emerge from the darkness.
“What’s this…”
In the shadowy alley, a flickering light caught her eye.
Something cylindrical installed on the ground.
Upon closer inspection, it was an odd device with a high-grade magic stone attached.
Certainly not something that belonged in an alley.
“What is this?”
Below the high-grade magic stone was a glass tube filled with a suspicious liquid, and within it floated round beads.
It didn’t match any stage gimmick she had ever seen.
A bomb?
If using a high-grade magic stone, one could indeed craft an item imbued with significant magical effects.
A trap capable of obliterating this entire area in one fell swoop using high-grade magic stone was entirely feasible.
“I’ve got a good instinct for this.”
Lee Suryeon smirked to herself.
Even if the exact nature of the magic was unknown, its discovery by her meant its end.
Her god was a powerful deity and a formidable wizard.
Naturally, as that god’s avatar, she was a powerful sorceress herself.
“Dispel.”
A powerful magic dispelling incantation. Using it would nullify the magical effects applied to any item or gear, reducing them to ordinary trinkets.
But she was unaware.
The magic flowing from the high-grade magic stone wasn’t for activation but the opposite.
It was merely blocking something from functioning.
So, what would happen if you stopped it?
The answer was simple.
The blockade would be lifted.
Boom!!
As the magic light blinked out, the alley erupted in an explosion.
And this explosion simultaneously spread across the entire city.
“What, what’s this!”
“People are collapsing due to some strange smog… Cough! Gag!”
A haze had enveloped the city, and civilians who inhaled it fell one by one.
Players urgently covered their mouths and noses or activated detoxification magic.
“Don’t breathe the smoke! You’ll die if you do!”
A Player who had checked a fallen civilian yelled out.
The civilians who had inhaled the smoke had stopped breathing.
Although Players could respond quickly, civilians could not.
With this single explosion, nearly half the civilians had collapsed.
“Cough, cough.”
Lee Suryeon, who bore the brunt of the explosion, coughed softly as she got up.
She had reflexively shielded herself from the blast, but she couldn’t avoid inhaling the smoke.
‘This much is tolerable at least.’
She didn’t know the nature of the poison, but it momentarily felt like her consciousness would slip away.
It definitely induced some kind of status ailment.
Staggering, Lee Suryeon rose to her feet.
The alley was still clouded with acrid smoke.
“I knew you’d be the first to find it.”
A strange voice came from within the fog.
From what he said, it seemed like he was the one behind the bombs.
“Yeah, I found it first. But what are you going to do about it? I am unharmed.”
“You may be unharmed, but the civilians aren’t.”
“What?”
“Thanks to the spell you just canceled, the whole city is now shrouded in this smoke. It’s deadlier than I expected. I only anticipated half this level of effectiveness.”
The man’s tranquil voice caused Lee Suryeon’s head to spin.
If the entire city was covered in this smoke, the civilian casualties were indisputable.
If the smoke was this harmful to her, civilians would not have survived inhalation.
“You devilish bastard!”
“Ah, it brings back some nostalgia.”
The man chuckled at Lee Suryeon, who was seething with killing intent.
“Sorry, but this is where you’ll have to end. You’ve been more of a nuisance than I thought.”
“What did you say?”
“You know your god.”
Lee Suryeon extended her hands, and an eight-layered purple magic circle unfolded before her.
Runes engraved on the magic circle sparkled, and Lee Suryeon spat blood the moment they gleamed.
“You…!”
“It’s an illusion.”
The man stated.
“From the start, I was behind you.”
Had she been unaffected, she might have noticed sooner, but the explosion had clouded her judgment. The man in front of Lee Suryeon was merely an illusion; the real one had been behind her all along.
“Ugh!”
As she pulled the dagger from her chest, Lee Suryeon slowly crumpled to the ground.
Her eyes, filled with resentment, turned towards the man but quickly dimmed.
“It’s not a particularly pleasant feeling.”
The man, Sehan, reached into the air, pulled out an elixir, dabbed it with his finger, and carefully applied it to Lee Suryeon’s wound.
Her bleeding wound, which had seemed fatal, stopped almost miraculously.
“Supporters should be dealt with first.”
Lee Suryeon was an excellent sorceress.
Moreover, her god being Morian meant she was also adept at strategizing.
That significantly increased the chances she’d become a variable, which is why she needed to be taken care of first.
The magic field from the device wasn’t particularly strong, so someone with her magical prowess was the most likely to notice it first. It was expected that she would be the first to find it, and that assumption turned out to be correct.
If Lee Suryeon hadn’t shown up, the plan was to detonate the device manually and then ambush her separately.
That would have been far more cumbersome and tiresome.
‘Now it should be about time for them to show up.’
With Lee Suryeon dealt with, a reaction should be imminent.
I’ve already marked the nearby guys, so there’s no worry in that regard.
“Kim Sehan──!!”
“I found you, you bastard!”
‘They’re here.’
At the same time as the furious shouts, I leapt upward.
It wouldn’t do to turn this place into a battleground and risk further damage to Lee Suryeon’s ‘body.’
Two pursuing Players appeared in my view.
The whirlwind and fire.
A stage befitting these two was necessary for the upcoming battle.
