Chapter 44 6th Floor Plaza b 3}
“…”
There was a stony silence that dominated the hall. Yoon-seok stopped circulating the Bloodseeker’s Energy. There was no more evil here anymore, and there were only about seventy survivors.
Among them, there was the woman who guided Yoon-seok here. Maybe she thought this was all a dream, but she looked like she had fully left her mind. Yoon-seok spoke to a man who was still lying on the floor, not knowing that the storm just ended.
“Are you a duel challenger?”
“Yes, yes! That’s right!”
“Are you familiar with this building?”
The man, who seemed lost for a while wondering what the question meant, quickly regained his senses and nodded his head crazily.
“…Yeah! I’m probably the oldest here. I think I know the union better than anyone else!”
Given that he understood Yoon-seok’s intention just by asking that question, he was quick-witted. He didn’t look like a man who would lie and exaggerate about his powers.
“Then I won’t be needing her anymore.”
Plorkk!
Yoon-seok stuck his sword promptly into the woman’s neck, who still seemed transfixed. The only reason she could survive until now was that she didn’t have a mark. Yoon-seok had no intention of forgiving her, however.
“If there’s still anyone in the union, could you please point them out?”
Did they think Yoon-seok came to save them just from his actions and politeness? For a second, he was afraid. The man brightened up and began to shed tears. Anger and sorrow flashed in his eyes as he pointed.
The survivors who were looking at the man paled as white as paper and avoided his gaze. Yoon-seok didn’t listen to their pathetic excuses. He just sliced through their necks all the same.
Then, looking at Jang-Il, he asked in an aloof manner.
“I heard from the admin that the plaza was a place where challengers of the same floor can meet and interact in person. Did she lie to me?”
The man was still very emotional, but he suppressed them as much as he could for Yoon-seok.
“…I don’t think so. That’s the purpose of the plaza. It was still the same just three months ago.”
It was a shelter for the underdogs and a rest stop for the ambitious where they could relax for a while. It was said that the original plaza was such a place. So how did it end up like this?
Later, the man who introduced himself as Jang-Il from Moorim offered an easy history lesson about the six-story plaza. It all started when a duel challenger appeared.
“We don’t know him. Whether he’s human, a beastman, or why he did such a thing in the first place.”
However, the unidentified challenger staged a massacre in the peaceful plaza. He killed all challengers on sight and escaped from the dimension, moving onto the next floor as soon as the entire plaza was empty. He was akin to a natural disaster. The challengers who managed to survive created a union so that history wouldn’t repeat itself. From then on, all duel challengers were required to sign that contract.
“The head of the union had that kind of power. All the clauses in the contract were ridiculous, but the schedule was accepted.”
The first reason was that the man who staged the massacre was from the duel track. The second reason was that although duel challenges might not be as powerful as that unidentified challenger, their powers were way ahead of those from other trials. Furthermore, even back in those peaceful days, the duelers were still being bullied.
“They made no exception for those who were already here. They put us in a tight spot and forced us to sign the contract.”
The contract contents were the same as they were then, but the treatment wasn’t this bad. He thought their hatred would subside as time went by.
That wasn’t the case. The union leaders instigated the idea that duel challengers were pure evil, and the majority conformity tactic worked. Neither moral treatment nor human rights succeeded. At first, there were quite a few who protested, but their voices gradually relented.
The Allies slowly began to rejoice in the enslavement of duelers who wanted to move on to the next floor.
“But the security of this place became sloppy after that incident.”
Jang-Il laughed bitterly when Yoon-seok pointed out that it was a little strange.
“At first, it was much stricter than it is now. Everyone was relieved when their one fixed strategy worked far better than they expected, so they let loose. And the capable ones just went up without coming here.”
Do the capable ones just ascend? In that sense, he could assume that the Heavenly Devil or King of Steel hadn’t entered the plaza. If they did, this place would have fallen before Yoon-seok’s arrival. Nothing was left to be said for King of Steel, whose magic limitations were meaningless, and the Heavenly Devil wasn’t someone to be judged based on her magic stat.
Why didn’t they come here? There was one reason, he guessed.
‘Elle said it was just a place to interact, and it wasn’t that important to them…’
He didn’t find the square appealing. He didn’t want to interact; even if he did, he could do it in the chat room. Yoon-seok would’ve participated in other trials by spending LP if he weren’t here to ask for information.
Jang-Il advised him with caution.
“With all this fuss, I’m sure the union has heard about it. The elites will arrive sooner or later, so why don’t you leave first….”
“Elites?”
“Yes, you mustn’t look down on them. They are a group made up of really talented challengers. And I didn’t tell anyone this because I didn’t want to die, but the head of the coalition is also a dueler. I’m sure because I’ve met him in person at the arena. He didn’t remember me back then because I was wearing a helmet.”
Yoon-seok was struck speechless. This was the same person who excluded duelers, induced hate against them, and became slaves.
“He’s smart. The allies admired him for being such a strong challenger even though he wasn’t a dueler, and he took advantage of that respect and easily became their leader.”
He could tell that he was a cunning guy just from listening. Despite feeling deep resentment for the man, Jang-Il’s discretion of not telling anyone about this was admirable.
“Stay here. If you’re in danger, move to the waiting room.”
Yoon-seok said so, but Jang-Il replied that he couldn’t move dimensions because he was tied to the contract. In the end, there was nothing he could do, so Yoon-seok left the survivors in the building.
If the Jang-Il’s words weren’t wrong, they would arrive soon. The main culprits behind all of this.
Whoosh!
As he was guarding the front of the building like a gatekeeper, a spear-like long arrow flew toward Yoon-seok. The target point was the most important part of the body, the head. As Yoon-seok slightly turned his head and escaped from its path, the arrow sunk deep into the huge front gate.
He turned his gaze toward where the arrow came from: a group of men was coming this way. There were about two hundred people in terms of numbers. It was safe to say that it was an army, not a simple group.
Yoon-seok and the army stopped less than twenty meters away from each other.
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