Chapter 132 (1/2)

Chapter 132. The Whole Story

When the duo met the youth's bleak eyes under the shades of his hair, they froze stiff.

Kiiiik–!

A screeching sound of metal rang out. Seol Jihu let his spear drag on the ground as he walked one step at a time.

The duo's faces turned pale. They started stepping backwards as if they had seen a grim reaper, but their backs soon struck the wall.

They turned around in fright, but they couldn't see a place to escape to.

“W-Why….”

Their eyes had moistened up with tears as they asked why he was staring at them like that. However, not only did Seol Jihu's complexion not change….

“You sons of b.i.t.c.hes….”

But his growling voice trembled with rage. His glaring eyes were bloodshot, and his veins were bulging out of his forearms.

That was how enraged Seol Jihu was.

Because he had seen it.

Because when he saw them through his Nine Eyes, another vision had spread out before his eyes.

He saw the duo murdering Lara Wolff in the gra.s.s field, stealing her Dissonant Wish, and escaping.

Of course, he couldn't believe the sudden vision unquestioningly, but Audrey Basler had testified and had even led them into confessing. After all, if they really were innocent, they wouldn't have refused the body search.

In other words, they must have done something once the Alliance team left. After all, it wasn't as if there weren't any people remaining on the gra.s.s field until then.

Seol Jihu had done his best to turn the Banquet into a real banquet, yet not only did these two ruin everything, but they also killed Lara Wolff, who was begging for her life.

This was the biggest reason Seol Jihu was angry.

“Why did you kill her?”

A slightly hoa.r.s.e voice rang out.

“H-Huh?”

The trembling woman asked in a stutter.

“Lara Wolff… the bob cut Archer.”

“Bob cut Archer… a woman?”

Seol Jihu took in a deep breath.

“Why did you kill them?”

“We didn't!”

“It's a misunderstanding!”

The man also shouted desperately. Regardless, when the youth raised his spear, the man and the woman jumped in surprise.

“Please! We really didn't kill her!”

“Bob cut Archer? We never even saw her!”

Seol Jihu's arm paused, and seeing him hesitate, the man calmly tried to deny it.

“I think you're seriously mistaken about something….”

But when he saw Seol Jihu swing his spear again, he hurriedly shouted.

“Wait, wait! The person we killed wasn't a woman, but a manpp..!!”

The woman quickly blocked the man's mouth. However, it was too late.

Seol Jihu furrowed his brows.

“Not a woman, but a man?”

Realizing his slip of the tongue, the man's expression devolved into despair.

'But the one I saw in my vision was Lara Wolff….'

“You idiot!”

The woman shouted in anger before pursing her lips and “Ptui!” unexpectedly spitting out a small thorn.

Although she was extremely close to Seol Jihu, she failed to achieve what she wanted. It was because of the small, white disks floating around Seol Jihu.

'So they did kill someone.'

Glaring at them fixedly, Seol Jihu swung his arm without hesitation.

Chwak!

The woman's frail neck was easily sliced off, and her head flew up into the air.

The headless body shook before collapsing helplessly. The man screamed and plopped down on his b.u.t.t.

After seeing the woman's convulsing body, he looked up with teary eyes.

“Spa….”

“Spare me….”

Seol Jihu looked down with cold eyes and calmly asked.

“Why did you kill him?”

“Spare….”

“WHY DID YOU KILL HIM!?”

“U, UAAAAAAH!”

When Seol Jihu shouted, a scream erupted. The man ran forward with his dagger in hand, but Seol Jihu's spear instantly stabbed his chest and skewered him onto the wall.

His body wriggled like chopped-off octopus legs, then sagged down.

That was his first murder.

He didn't feel like he killed game characters.

The sensation of slicing soft flesh, the sensation of cutting hard bones, the beating heart and organs… he felt everything clearly.

But that was it. His eyes didn't shake, and neither did his hands. He calmly pulled out his spear and gathered his roughened breath.

There were now five people remaining.

Half had died, but the room was silent. Not a single change could be spotted. It meant that the game had yet to end.

After looking up at the ceiling for a moment, Seol Jihu slowly turned back. Oh Rahee was watching him silently, but her throat drew a small up-and-down movement.

'Is this… really him…?'

She couldn't help but think this. Because, while carefully scanning the remaining members, Seol Jihu's eyes were gleaming with a crimson light akin to the pupils of a beast.

Just like when 'Future Vision' activated.

A chilling gaze reached her.

'How scary.'

Oh Rahee was convinced that she made the right choice.

Turning her blade on Slick Hair and his comrades had been the correct answer. If Seol Jihu aimed for her too, although she had no intention of being killed so easily… she had a strong, unfounded hunch that she would lose if she fought now.

Oh Rahee returned her rapier to her scabbard and raised both of her hands.

“It's not me.”

She muttered quietly.

“I'm on your team. You know that, right?”

She smiled with her eyes. After staring at her for a moment, Seol Jihu moved his gaze.

“Why look at me?”

A blunt voice shot out.

“I shut up and remained silent just like you wanted. I even entered the Plaza of the Dissonant Wish before you. You should know that I am innocent better than anyone else.”

Audrey Basler murmured with narrowed eyes.

Seol Jihu moved his gaze to the next person. When his eyes landed on the burly man, his brows wriggled.

Paat!

Vision. It was another vision.

The scene didn't take place in Stage 2, but in Stage 1. The burly man ran wildly inside a room and murdered seven people mercilessly. He seemed to be enjoying cutting their flesh into pieces very much, almost as if he felt ecstasy from murder.

Seeing Seol Jihu's expression, Oh Rahee crossed her arms.

“You. What's your cla.s.s?”

Chareureuk! Rather than an answer, the sound of chains rang out. The burly man must have smelled something fishy as he raised his scythe.

“Why are you trying to kill me?”

Hearing him ask as if he couldn't understand, Seol Jihu opened his mouth.

“In Stage 1….”

He remembered how the burly man walked up the staircase alone, plastered in blood.

“Why did you climb up alone?”

It wasn't until considerable time pa.s.sed that the burly man standing alert answered.

“I had a reason to kill them.”

“A reason to kill them?”

“That's it.”

“So you killed all seven of them?”

The burly man's expression changed for the first time.

“What do you mean? I only killed six of them.”

'What?'

Seol Jihu's eyes narrowed.

“Six of them joined hands and tried to scheme against me first. I only responded to their threat.”

“But when you climbed up to the mountaintop….”

“If you're talking about the staircase part of Stage 1, I climbed it from the second floor. The one who came out with me died in the middle to a monster attack. He died because he lacked skill. What am I supposed to do about that?”

What was going on? If he was telling the truth, it meant the vision was wrong again.

It didn't look like he was lying.

Seol Jihu pressed his forehead.

[Wait, wait! The person we killed wasn't a woman, but a manpp..!!]

He was reminded of the words the man shouted before he became a cold corpse.

[Hurry up and take him!]

He was reminded of how the burly man saved him twice during the fight against the Orc Champion.

[Oppa got hurt trying to save me….]

And he was reminded of the sobbing white headband girl.

Seol Jihu slowly closed his eyes.

“Are you going to kill me?”

As the atmosphere began to turn for the worse, Seol Jihu tightened his grasp on his spear. Then….

“…d.a.m.n it.”

He muttered shortly before opening the hand that was clutching tight enough to make his fingernails dig into the skin.

Tang!

The Ice Spear made a small ringing noise.

“I will stop here.”

Seol Jihu tilted his head up and spoke into the empty darkness.

“I'll stop here, G.o.d dammit! I'm ending it here!”

Seol Jihu raised his voice and looked around with a complicated expression. Soon, his eyes widened.

The four people who were standing upright all fell over one by one.

Oh Rahee and Audrey Basler fell, the burly man dropped his scythe and collapsed, and even the Priest Kazuki invited lost her consciousness.

Then–

[What a lame ending!]

A somewhat angry voice resounded in his ears.

Seol Jihu, who was looking around hastily, froze stiff.

[You were doing so well, yet you give up with just one decision left to make?]

A groan escaped his mouth due to the overwhelming pressure pressing down on his body. It wasn't an unfamiliar sensation. To be precise, he had felt it once before – back in the Neutral Zone's Chamber of Awakening.

[Come on, we gave you so much support so you could do well. So why did you make that decision at the end?]

This thunderous, dominating voice had to be Ira, the G.o.d of Wrath.

'The Seven G.o.ds!'

The Seven G.o.ds of Paradise had appeared in this place.

Right, looking back, there were more than one or two suspicious points.

Everyone else was separated from their team during Stage 1, but only Seol Jihu entered with Maria; almost as if she was the minimal safety measure.

It was the same in Stage 2. Seol Jihu was thinking that it was suspicious that the robed Priest focused on protecting just him.

The result of the exchange felt like an outside force had interfered, and Seol Jihu periodically thought that the Banquet was similar to the Neutral Zone.

Until now, he was only suspicious.

But with the appearance of the Seven G.o.ds, he felt as if he got backstabbed.

[Backstabbed?]

An 'envious' voice…

[Come on~ You're really going to be like that?]

And a 'prideful' voice rang out.

[During Stage 1, we gave you the special treatment of having a comrade accompany you, and just to be safe, we even allowed the Daughter of Luxuria to guard you. We will be disappointed if you really think that way.]

Seol Jihu clenched his teeth. Even opening his mouth became difficult, and he could only glare at the air with mixed feelings.

[What was that? Why do we host the Banquet and make people kill each other?]

Ira snorted, seemingly having read his mind.

[Are you asking because you really don't know the answer? You. What do you think is the reason we summoned Earthlings to this world?]

Seol Jihu's expression stiffened.

The reason was simple — to save this world which was on the crossroads of ruin.

And Earthlings received rewards in exchange.

[It was fine at first, but it became more and more ridiculous as time went by.]

[Focusing on dealing with the Parasites would have been difficult enough, but they were blinded by the profits in front of them, fighting and killing each other.]

[They even rose in revolt because they didn't like what they were summoned to do, attacking and enslaving Paradisians.]

[Evil…. Evil….]

Several voices rang out at once.

[It's the same with the Banquet.]

Ira growled.

[At first, its purpose was to help Earthlings who couldn't become High Rankers, and also to give the courageous, talented ones a chance to grow.]

'But!'

[Ridiculous! Was the trial we gave impossibly difficult? Do you really think so even though you cleared Stage 2 with 110 people?]

Having read Seol Jihu's thoughts, Ira seized the initiative. Seol Jihu became speechless and stopped thinking.

[Well, I admit that the conditions of the Stage were s.h.i.+tty. Because we made them that way on purpose.]

Ira snickered.

[We had no other choice. Don't tell me you actually thought we would stay put and let the Earthlings' behavior continue?]

Seol Jihu bit his lips.

1. First Banquet

Stage 3 Survivors: 8 / Escapees: 2 / Deaths: 0

Special Note: One of the survivors, Phil Kanoo (Cameroon), announces receiving '+4 Rampaging Fierce Longsword' as Stage 3 reward.

2. Second Banquet