chapter 7

「Next Duel in 23:59:55」

Upon teleporting to his designated accommodation, Yoon Seok remained still for a while.

He was thinking about Kang Hyung-woo who suddenly appeared before him during the duel.

To be exact, he was assessing over what Kang Hyung-woo said.

—I was the one who set the factory on fire.

But he was sure that the culprit couldn’t be Hyung-woo.

Yoon Seok was worried, he was getting conflicted, perhaps he did set it on fire. Trying to calm down he came to a conclusion; ‘Kang Hyung-woo’ might have done so to provoke him.

‘B-But if it’s real… What I’m supposed to do?’

After asking himself, he realised there was nothing.

While Kang Hyung-woo was the blood and flesh of the JC family, Yoon Seok was a nobody with his father being an affiliated sub-contractor with the corporation.

Perhaps that’s why.

Even though he was suspicious, he chose to overlook.

Knowing that if he knew the truth, he wouldn’t be able to bear it…

At that time for him, some things were better left unknown.

If it weren’t for such a life-changing event, he got dragged into some world to fight for his life, he was sure to leave this incident buried deep at the back of his mind.

‘If I go back… I’ll surely find the truth.’

In addition, not only his combat skills but as a person Yoon Seok had grown a lot.

At least, now he has the courage to face the truth rather than ignoring it.

‘But for that to happen, now I’ll have to survive.’

Because only those who survive, have the right to seek revenge or forgive them.

And so, Yoon Seok again was filled with resolve. Then he opened his window, to check what rewards he received from the duel.

[Challenger Information:

Name: Choi Yoon Seok (Floor: 2)

Achievement: 2 wins, 0 losses, 0 draws.

*[Ability]

Strength: F-

Agility: F-

Stamina: F-

Endurance: F-

Mana: F-

Massive F-

*[Unique Skills]

— Taken from the opponent.</predation>

<weapon>— Enhance the weapon with mana.</weapon>

<multiply>— Increases the strength of the original slash by multiple times.</multiply>

*[Retaining Skills]

—None

*[Total Score]: 4000AP

*[Coins owned]: 4

[Back]◀

His profile, when updated, didn’t change much.

The only notable changes were; a unique skill <multiply>he obtained from Cheonho, and that he went up from the first floor to the second.</multiply>

Also, now his total score was doubled with 1 additional coin as a reward for his win.

Seeing the pattern, Yoon Seok realised something.

‘…seems that the points are doubling by itself, right?’

When he defeated the first monster his score was 1000AP, but the hologram above Cheonho’s head showed to be 2000AP. Perhaps, if he got the pattern right, his next opponent will be 4000AP.

So, Yoon Seok started to calculate the scores.

If the next time he meets someone with 8000AP, then the next might be 16000AP, 32000AP and will continue to double even further.

‘If I can get 10 wins then…’

His unit system would be completely different.

That would be whooping 2.4 million AP.

And after that, if he could get 10 more wins, then his total score would be 1.2 billion.

That was a number which Yoon Seok didn’t dare to phantom, he was a challenger who had been struggling just for a few thousand AP while debating how to use them efficiently.

But, he couldn’t forget that if as he speculated, the total score is the basic measure for one’s strength. Then, if he could get 20 wins, he would be 308000 times stronger than he is as of now.

‘What kind of monstrous strength I would have…?’

Three hundred thousand times stronger than he is now, he couldn’t comprehend. The unit itself was on another level that was not letting him think.

‘…but let’s not get carried away and focus on what’s in front of me.’

Snapping back to his reality, Yoon Seok opened the chat-room.

[Entering the chat room (2) on the 2nd floor.]

[Current number of participants 1187/10000]

The total number of challengers were the same.

But the number of online chat rooms had changed. Before, it was three on the first floor, but now it has been reduced to two.

‘Would the capacity of the chatrooms increase once it reaches 10000?’

Even though the total numbers of challengers were the same, the participants promoted to this floor had decreased. From about 2,000 to 1,000 people.

Although it was still a large number of people, the frequency of the challengers is overwhelmingly lower than that of the first floor. So much so, that the real-time conversation in the chatrooms can be followed with their eyes.

-James Dean: What’s wrong with this ridiculous pricing of a coin on the second floor? Is it true that from 250AP it has increased to 1000AP? Wow, if I knew this would happen, I would have saved it from the first floor.

-Champion A: If you did, you wouldn’t have been standing on the second floor. Don’t rely on the coins: it’s a loss in the long run.

-Ebon Warrior: John Berman is the answer.[1]

-Ark_knight: Does anyone know about weapon mastery? I want some reviews before I buy it.

.

.

.

The chatroom was quite different from the first floor; which was chaotic itself.

This place was well organized without any aimless chats. Unlike that chat room was filled with unusual stories here, information was being exchanged efficiently and smoothly.

Yoon Seok, who was only looking for information that might help him in the future. So while scrolling he used the filter ‘Earth’ function which enables him to see the chats from his place.

‘Hmm, there’s less than a hundred.’

The number might be several times higher if he counted those who were offline. But if he compared the other filter functions, the challengers were at least double from this chatroom.

But to his surprise, conspiracy rumours were spreading.

-Devil 666: Someone said that you’re not going to die even if you use all the coins. They’re just going to return back after losing their challenger’s authority.

-Foreman Elysee: Is it true?

-Black-Cow: How could you be fooled by that? It’s obviously a lie.

-Devil 666: But it’s real. My friend who was dragged along with me died first, but when I went there, he was still alive.[2]

-Black-Cow: Really?

-Devil 666: Yes, but he couldn’t remember.

-Black-Cow: Aww, yes! I was really scared because I have only one coin left, but now I’ll just relax and die in the next duel.

But of course, the credibility of the words of Devil 666’s words could not be verified.

However, the people sharing the same chat room began to sympathise with him. And soon, as with the crowd psychology, it did not take much longer for the hoax to turn into a truth.

A man was a creature who would abandon all his despair just to cling on the hope, no matter how small it might be.

‘Something’s wrong.….’

And before he could grasp it, the whole chat room was filled with the topics related or brought by Devil 666. They were talking how they would rather have a hopeful suicide and die quickly, just so to return to their original world.

Though some expressed their doubts, Devil 666 was quick to dismiss such suspicions with a few good words.

-Devil 666: What good would it do if I lied?

Usually, crooks lie for their own benefit. At first glance, it might seem that Devil 666 has nothing to gain from lying.

But…

Devil 666: Let’s convey this message to all the participants on different levels. If we all insist together, they’ll believe us.

Yoon Seok carefully noticed what Devil 666 did, and soon the whole atmosphere was fired up.

‘Is he trying to eliminate the competitors…?’

If any challengers believed such a lie that death was the way back to the original world, they will give up on their next duel.

Well, challengers were chosen at random, so it was highly unlikely to meet such an opponent. But as the numbers of believers increased and so the probability.

Maybe that’s what Devil 666 wanted.

-Black-Cow: We’ll have to let everyone know, this is…

-Foreman Elysee: You are right! There’s someone I got close to on the first floor, so I’ll go and tell them.

Soon, the well-intended challengers came forward and began to engage in the whole conversation. They started to preach Devil 666’s words in unison.

Seeing such messages were passed with good intention, and soon beings of different dimensions began to tilt their heads with pure interest.

And some naive fools were completely taken over

Hence, those persuaded beings spread the message raising their voices much more enthusiastically than those of the beings on earth.

Yoon Seok thought that there might be some who wouldn’t believe such claims and do such things.

A smart man knows in this chaos it’s better to accept Devil 666’s claims rather than refuting them.

“I can’t look too suspicious…’

Not many participated in the mission(?) work, but Yoon Seok remained silent with his doubts limited to himself.

It’s too late to stop, the spread was now out of control.

Even those newly entered in the chat room were being persuaded just by looking at those messages.

Not being able to bear Yoon Seok quietly left the room.

In the midst of chaos, there was no way he was getting any useful information. And if he kept looking at those chats, he would surely lose his mind.

“Let’s keep doing my job, that’s the answer.”

Yoon Suk rummaged through the list of stores to find how he could utilise the 2000AP he currently possessed.

‘Except for the convenience…’

The [Convenience] section sold various furniture (one can sleep if they buy a bed), food, and various tickets.

But those things have nothing to do with fighting.

Yoon Seok turned off the spotlight without further ado.

‘Let’s pass the miscellaneous section, too.’

In that section, healing potions and various miscellaneous combat supplies were sold.

Looking at the elaborate explanations, they might seem to be effective, but it had one glaring flaw and that was the pricing even for one item was too high.

‘I might like the item now, but the more I buy, the more disadvantageous it will get.’

Duel is held between the challengers with the same aggregate score (total amount of AP acquired).

In other words, the more AP he saved now, the more advantageous he will get in the long run.

However, scrolling further, the [Miscellaneous] section did not have only short-term items.

There existed items where he could accelerate his level permanently, whether it is to raise his abilities or his skills.

Someday, when the time comes, Yoon Seok thought he would buy it, too. But right now, the price was too high to even think about buying one right away.

And in the first place, he didn’t have any skill that could raise the rank. And even if he had, it’d cost 1500AP just to raise one of his abilities from F- to F.

Presently, he can’t tell the difference but…

He knew he can’t afford to spend his AP on such an item.

‘Let’s buy either a skill or equipment.’

When he was on the first floor, he bought quite a few pieces of equipment so he thought this time he’d focus on the skills.

And there were three options that he wanted to choose from.

*[Backstep] (Rank F-) – Retract up to 1m. When backstep is activated, it unconditionally counterattacks for 0.5 seconds and if it’s successful the power would double.

*[Sword Mastery] (Rank F-) – Speed of any dagger-like weapon when used in the attack, speed is increased by 1.5 times.

*[Counter Weapon Shield] (Rank F-) – Strengthen shields using mana. In defence, the drop rate of the opponent’s durability increases significantly. Five seconds cooldown before the next reuse.

And they were all at the same price, 1500AP.

Whatever he chooses, but with the remaining 500AP, he had a plan on what he’d choose. And that was a pair of shoes.

‘I can’t remain barefoot forever, even with these clothes.’

‘Hmm…’

Which skill would help him the most?

Soon after, Yoon Seok made his decision.

[1] John Berman (?) the anchor, didn’t understand the pun. His show is called ‘New Day’.

[2] I think he was referring to the ‘Return Ticket’, that could return a person for a limited amount of time.