Chapter 176 - Just in Case (1)

"Okay. Then… could you share the quest with me?" Hyun said in the most natural way he could.

Mayday almost went along without even giving it a thought.

'Quest? Is he talking about the Black Town’s Quest?'

As if showing she wasn't a top ranker for nothing, Mayday was more serious than the other people Hyun had met before.

Hyun's plan to sneakily receive the quest failed.

"Which quest do you mean…?" Mayday carefully asked.

"That's obviously… The quest to block the Heavens’ invasion. The one you obtain by being friendly with a Duke."

Hyun used the words Salon told him because he couldn't remember the exact name of the quest.

Mayday gulped after listening to Hyun's explanation.

'As expected, he didn't receive this quest!'

She'd expected it from the moment she checked she was ranked 1st. It seemed like Hyun and Ain hadn't received the quest.

Mayday thought Ain was clearly of the Abyss after remembering how she tore down Heaven's users.

Mayday took a glimpse at the quest window.

[Reward List]

1st place: Demon's Token X10, high-ranking devil's horn x2…
2nd place: 100000 gold, high-ranking devil's horn x1…
3rd place: 50000 gold, mid-ranking devil's skin X…

A devil's horn was a very important ingredient with Demonic Energy, and it was fundamental to creating equipment!

Mayday was about to do the 2nd Awakening, so a high-ranking devil's horn was something that had more value than 10 unique items.

'If I share the quest, I'll probably be pushed back to 2nd place. No, if he shares it with Ain, maybe I'll become… 3rd?!'

Mayday began to feel anxious.

She'd decided to participate in the quest while risking her life because of that… If it became like that, she wasn't sure she'd be able to surpass their contribution rates.

Mayday couldn't get the ingredient she was after if she was 3rd place, and it would be hard to get it for a long time afterward.

'N-no… If it goes like this, my plan…!'

Even if the guild had said that they would try to have a good relationship with Hyun. thinking that she'd have to let the ingredients go made her heart waver.

They wanted to have a good relationship with him while thinking toward the future when the Darkness Guild reached the top.

'What if I refuse?'

After Mayday had observed them from a distance, she’d seen that they were better than she thought.

Even if Darkness was growing at a fast pace, they still weren't a match for Hyun and Ain, so they had to lower their heads.

The question was how much they had to cower. Was resisting a bit okay?

'No. I can't refuse right now…!'

Keiji, a user from the previous game, always warned her about Hyun's personality.

He didn't care what he had to do to obtain what he wanted—he got rid of everything that bothered him.

‘If I refuse, things will probably get serious. He might try to kill me… What do I have to do in this situation…?’

Mayday opened her mouth with her eyes closed.

"2nd place…"

"What?"

"Can you give me 2nd place?!"

Hyun couldn't understand what Mayday was trying to say, so he naturally thought she'd made a mistake.

“You meant to say something else, right?”

Mayday's eyebrows started to tremble.

Was he trying to say that he'd give her another opportunity, so she should take time to think about it carefully? Was he telling her to be prepared for the consequences of her decision?!

"That… I mean…"

In that short moment, numerous thoughts crossed through Mayday's head.

She wanted to ignore him and log out, but that could end up harming the Darkness Guild in the future.

…So Mayday decided to be honest.

"I’m asking you to guarantee me 2nd place in exchange for me sharing the quest with you…!”

"Huh? What's your current rank?

“I’m… 1st…”

But Mayday's words confused Hyun even more.

'Just what could the 2nd place reward be for her to want to give up on 1st place?!’

It was weird for a lower-ranking reward to be better than the higher one.

There was a saying that one person’s trash was another person’s treasure. Was it a case like that?

"Well, if you want it so bad… I'll give you 2nd place."

Mayday was silent. Hyun kept talking.

"I can't understand it. If it were me, I wouldn't have asked for something like that."

A situation where the ranking changed when sharing the quest…

If it were him, he wouldn't have done that, or he would've asked something in exchange.

Hyun said that without any other intention, but Mayday misunderstood.

"W-wait! You can't understand…? Then…! I'll give you another thing, too! How about information? Have you heard about the Returner's Guild?"

To be honest, Mayday wasn't planning to reveal that information.

The Returner's Guild was Darkness's Rival, after all, but they were also a card they were going to use to keep Hyun in check.

But Mayday really wanted to remain 2nd, so she even told him that information.

Hyun frowned after hearing the name Mayday blurted out of nowhere.

"Returner? What kind of name is…"

"They’re a guild full of Asra users. Aren't you curious?"

"Wait, Asra users…?"

The moment he heard the words ‘Asra users’, Hyun became interested.

At the same time, he was surprised.

Besides encountering Berard, he hadn't heard any news on other Asra users.

"How do you have information on them…?"

"Because we're the Darkness Guild. How about that? I'll give you this information, so let me have 2nd…"

"Just what is the 2nd place prize? Share the quest first."

Ting!

[You've obtained Quest: Duke's Support Request!]

'Why is she acting like this?'

Was a legendary-rank item a reward? From what he'd seen, that didn't seem to be the case.

The best item was the high-ranking devil's horn, but the 1st-place reward had two of those items.

All of the other rewards were of lower quality than the 1st-ranking ones, but there was exactly one thing that the 1st-place prize didn't have…

'Does she need money?'

Gold.

But to think that the 2nd place in the rankings, Mayday, lacked gold… It didn't make sense.

Hyun couldn't understand it, but it wasn't something that affected him.

"You'll give me that information if I give you 2nd place, right…?"

"Of course!"

"Okay. I'll make sure you have 2nd place no matter what."

After hearing Hyun's answer, Mayday's face brightened up. Finally, she told him what she'd promised.

Mayday knew more than Hyun expected.

They knew so much that he couldn't help but wonder if they hadn't put a spy on the other guild.

"The Returner's Guild is composed of 30 Heavens and 20 Abyss users, but there's something particularly important…"

At that moment, unexpected information came out of her mouth.

"Among them, about 10 people have participated in the 'Black Town's Quest.'"

"They came here?"

"Yes, they've obtained a monopoly in the rankings, so they've become quite strong, but I think that they've probably all died by now."

"Ah… because of that?"

"Yes. The explosion in the town swept everything away. I saw with my own eyes that nobody else survived," Mayday mumbled while thinking about the ruined town.

"Thanks for the information. If it weren't for that warning, I would've probably died too, right?"

"Considering how powerful it was… everyone should be dead."

Still, Hyun couldn't help but feel anxious.

What if they'd survived? Wouldn't that mean they were somewhere around there?

The chances of a user surviving «Incineration» were extremely low, but it wasn’t impossible.

"About 10 people participated?"

"Yes, probably."

"Do you know how good they are?"

"Hmm… They probably grew fast at the beginning with information from Asra, so they're probably above the average ranker. Maybe a few are at a similar level to me…? Well, I'm sure I will grow faster from now on!"

That was how far Mayday's explanation went.

Adding Heavens and Abyss users, there were about 50. Hyun remembered the faces of those he used to see in the rankings of Asra.

In the later part of the game, users like Lattice or members of Darkness could become more menacing, but at the moment, it’d only been half a year since Asrian opened, so they were the ones who could become the biggest variable.

"Don't you have any other information?"

"We barely managed to get this…"

"If you manage to find out more…"

Hyun realized something and changed what he was saying.

"If you get more information, let's exchange. Is that okay with you?"

"Th-that… Of course…!"

Hyun realized what he was missing from their conversation.

He was sure he knew more about the game's world and lore than anyone else…

But outside of that, especially when it came to the personal information of other users, he couldn't compete with the data big guilds had.

That wasn't an ability that a small guild could have.

Hyun felt that, to reach his goal, he had to find another way to do things.

* * *

If he separated all users into allies or enemies, Mayday and the Darkness Guild members were enemies.

Hyun knew the Darkness Guild's goals. As long as they were both trying to reach the top, they would eventually end up becoming enemies.

Even if they were to become enemies in the future, that didn't mean they couldn’t be allies at the moment.

'The Magician's firepower will increase if it can ride on top of a flying monster.'

Hyun lent a giant bat to Mayday to increase the effectiveness of the Psychokinesis Sorcerer.

The giant bat didn't seem to want to let a human ride on top of it, but it couldn't go against the lich's orders.

'How can you give an order to something like this…?'

Mayday was surprised.

After they went on their own, they talked via whisper, so she wasn't able to see Hyun «Assimilated» into the lich.

She just looked at the bat, surprised.

「You can change directions by pulling the wing's joint. Check out for movements around the altar as you fly around.」

「To check if ‘they’ are somewhere nearby, right?」

「Yes. Also, if possible, try to stop the advance of the Holy Kingdom's soldiers, too.」

Thankfully, Mayday followed Hyun's instructions without any objections.

Hyun took that opportunity and used the lich's abilities to look through the devil's eyes.

"You… what… are you… looking… for…?"

「It's a group of guys that could be a threat to Darkness.」

"Then we'll… have to find them… no matter what! I'm not sure… where to look…"

「It doesn't matter. I can look for them.」

The lich's underlings were scattered around, so Hyun could see the area around the altar like they were security cameras.

The canyons, under the mountain… Hyun watched every area that a user could approach from.

He even looked below the pyramid and saw Ain looking around with her round eyes wide open, but he wasn't able to see any other users.

'There isn't anyone here. If they managed to survive this long, are they somewhere far away?'

Goudou-!

The ground shook again.

Even then, the area around the altar was still going up. Except for a few places, the entire area had risen to become a cliff face.

The steeper the hill became, the more the fog poured down like a waterfall.

Hundreds of devils were being swept away by the fog.

'Good, most of the roads are blocked, so they won't be able to infiltrate!'

In a way, their forces were being reduced, yet Hyun was exclaiming in excitement.

The more the fog and cliffs blocked off potential approaches, the less he had to look around.

'The other passage also doesn't seem dangerous.'

Thanks to the devil's eyes, Hyun could see how Mayday's fight was going.

A Magician riding a bat resembled a witch like the ones that appeared in fairy tales.

Every time she used her psychokinesis to lift the rocks, fog accompanied by a part of the surface fell. Sometimes, the flow of the fog itself changed.

Both the Heavens’ and Abyss’s forces were being wiped out by the fog.

'Aren't they coming?'

Hyun narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance.

He still couldn't see anyone that looked like a user.

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