Chapter 82 - Turning Point (1)

「Woah...」

TarrTarr's mouth was agape.

Hyun had the same reaction.

A fantasy war atmosphere as vivid as that was something you could only feel in Asrian.

「It's too bad that this video can't be uploaded...」

「You can't. Hell difficulty recreates real history, so there is a lot of hidden information.」

At first glance, the number of dolls falling from the sky easily surpassed the thousands.

The moment the dolls descended, the war began.

Hyun participated in the war as a member of the Abyss.

[5000 combo! Because the skill level is low, the number of combos won't increase anymore!]

Because the dolls of Heaven, like the golems and undead, didn't have a conscience, they were great for stacking combos.

In a war of an overwhelming scale, there were enemies everywhere, so he didn't have to worry about maintaining his combo.

Hyun stood in the forefront of the battle and showed a splendid performance.

Lots of dolls became light and scattered away after the dagger cut them.

He could only use normal attacks, but the truth was that he didn't need anything else other than a normal attack.

That was how a combo Thief fought.

'Ugh... Danger!'

A magic circle suddenly appeared under Hyun's feet, and he quickly moved to the side.

As soon as he moved, bolts of lightning began falling one after the other as if it were raining.

Slam-

As strong energy hit, the surface melted into magma.

Although the lightning had barely touched him, he received almost 10 thousand damage.

'Is it an angel...?'

The moment he lifted his head and looked up…

Hyun and TarrTarr felt chills spreading through their body.

It was the first time they saw and felt the energy of a Transcendent. It not only filled the entire world but also spread a brutal power.

Angel…

The entities with wings made of crystal just quietly looked down at the army of the Abyss, which included them.

「Oof... We won't even be a match.」

Although there was only one enemy, its presence was equal to more than tens of thousands.

The moment an angel appeared, the balance of the fight tipped toward the Heavens.

Tens of Baloks shot flames toward the angel.

Even while covered by green flames, the angel kept calmly walking toward them while stepping in the air.

Slash-!

A huge blue sword was drawn horizontally.

It looked as if the world was divided into two.

Hyun knew the name of the skill it had just used.

«Space Divider».

Although it looked like a simple hand gesture, it was a technique that annihilated thousands of opponents by hitting the air.

All monsters around them were cut in half and returned to being black energy.

TarrTarr, who was in the middle of the Abyss's army, shared the same fate as the others.

[You've died!]

Without feeling pain, TarrTarr's body, which was cut in half, started to fall until it became light and scattered away.

Then he received a message that said that the quest had ended.

[Calculating the results.]

- Total Number of Monsters Killed: 1362 (x13.6)

- Elite Monsters Killed: 11 (x12)

- Amount Bet: 5000 points

<Result: 5000p x 163.2>

[Congratulations! You've obtained 816000 points!]

[You've established a new record in Satellite Iluna Invasion (Hell)!]

'Tsk, only this much?'

Hyun was let down by the points gained.

Although the mission had taken him more than an hour, the number of points gained was less than expected.

Compared to the previous two missions, it lacked in terms of effectiveness.

[You have 2171385p in total!]

[ <Time left until point settlement begins: 10 minutes 20 seconds> ]

The time limit for the tournament was almost at its end.

It was also about time Hyun made a decision.

The price of the elixir was 2.5 million.

He needed 400K more points to buy that, but obtaining those in just 10 minutes was almost impossible.

「Well, don't worry... Next time, if you come with Ain, you'll probably succeed. So don't get discouraged.」

TarrTarr quietly mumbled.

TarrTarr said that just in case Hyun was discouraged, but Hyun answered him with another question as if he were asking him what he was talking about.

「What?」

「That strange item you wanted to buy.」

「Who said I won't be able to buy it? I have enough time.」

「But you need tp get 400 thousand points in 10 minutes... Do we have time to do another mission?」

「Another mission? In 10 minutes? What are you talking about?」

「That's my point!」

Hyun ignored TarrTarr and walked toward the Darkness's Rest Area.

The bartender smiled after seeing the only VVIP client.

The item Hyun wanted to buy was the closest one to gambling.

<Order List>-

[Point Bag (Small) x 5000 (Price: 10 points)]

[Point Bag (XL) x 1000 (Price: 50 points)]

Each one had between 1 ~ 500 and 10 ~ 5000 points. Hyun bought them all.

The bartender looked at Hyun with worrying eyes.

"As a seller, I shouldn't be saying this... But you shouldn't expect to receive lots of points from the bags."

Just like he said, the chance of getting lots of points from the bags was low.

If you looked at it in terms of profit and loss, you would be at a loss.

But even after hearing the bartender's warning, Hyun just smiled.

[ <Time left until the point settlement begins: 8 minutes 21 seconds> ]

While everyone was desperate to increase as many points as possible in the time that was left, Hyun was preparing the next plan while taking it easy.

As previously mentioned, in the tournament, there were lots of different ways to overcome the difference between users in terms of specs.

There were other places like the Darkness's Rest Area; among them were some shops, places where you could gamble, and even an auction house!

If you used those things correctly, anyone could rank higher than they normally could.

'So it's here.'

The place Hyun reached was an auction house that was inside the casino.

Hyun placed all the point bags he'd bought at the VVIP auction house for 10 times their original price.

「Huh?」

TarrTarr didn't understand Hyun's auctions.

He had thought that Hyun bought the point bags because he was lacking some and because he had nothing to lose.

Without answering TarrTarr's doubts, Hyun walked toward the Darkness's Rest Area and ordered a beverage.

The taste of that beverage that costed 50 points was quite good.

「Watching people just before the tournament is about to end is also very fun.」

While leaning on a chair, Hyun looked at one of the tournament's most popular events—the death match.

It wasn't suitable for combo Thieves like TarrTarr, but because you could always find a match, the Death Match was good as a last resort—that's why there were lots of users.

「Will it sell?」

「What?」

「What you've put in the auction house. It clearly says that the possibility of earning points is low. I was wondering how many people were willing to buy the point bag.」

「You're worrying too much.」

Hyun laughed at TarrTarr's worries and opened the window with the list of rewards.

1 ~ 10th place: Duke's Affection. (The rate depends on your ranking.)

11 ~ 100th place: Medal of Darkness x500, Demon's Token 1

101st place ~ 0.5%: Medal of Darkness x200

0.5% ~ 3%: Medal of Darkness x80

3% ~ 10%: Medal of Darkness x30

10% ~ 20%: Medal of Darkness x12

20% ~ 30%: 100 gold

…

The list went under 30%.

If you didn't make it to the 50%, you wouldn't even receive 50 gold, which was the fee to enter the tournament.

「Do you get it now?」

Showing the rewards was Hyun's way of answering TarrTarr's question.

If he understood the tournament's reward system, he would understand the reason behind his actions.

[The tournament has ended!]

[Point calculations will begin in 10 minutes! Please finish all the preparations before then!]

As the alarm that announced the ending spread, and the tournament arena became noisy.

Because all the magic circles had lost their light, there were no longer ways to increase points.

The users had just finished inspecting what they'd earned and were quietly waiting for the tournament to come to an end.

While checking out his ranking, Hyun smiled while drinking the beverage.

* * *

"Ugh...! Just for 91 points...!"

Restine, one of the participants of the 4th tournament, sighed.

He opened the ranking window. His current position was 105.

He’d tried his best until the tournament ended, but in the end, he couldn't enter the top 100.

"If I had been quicker at the end, I would've been able to get at least 100 more points!"

But there was nothing he could do about it.

Because he wasn't able to enter the top 100, he would receive the same reward as the person who placed 750.

Since the reward system was built in an escalated system, from the 100th ranking up to 0.5%, players were treated equally.

Even if the person who was placed 750 only had half the points he had, they would receive the same reward.

If he hadn't tried his best, he wouldn't even be bothered by that.

"Hmm?"

As he swallowed the bitter taste, he noticed that the atmosphere was weird.

Tens of users were gathered in a corner and were heated up.

"What... Is there something left?"

Restine wondered why there was so much noise when the tournament had already ended, so he decided to approach the crowd.

It was in front of the auction house.

Many users were sighing, and others were shouting in excitement.

"Huh? If it's already over, why is everyone here?"

From what he knew, in the tournament's auction house, you could only exchange points with items you could use only while the tournament was going on.

Basically, from the moment it officially ended, there was no point in using it at all.

You couldn't sell all the buff items for even one point, even though they were selling for more than 300 during the tournament.

But Restine subconsciously approached the desk and saw the list of items for sale through the interface. His eyes shook.

[Point Bag (XL)] (Fixed Price: 500 points)

- There's a random amount of points between 10 ~ and 5000.

- They'll get destroyed 10 minutes after the 4th tournament ends.

- The probability of getting a high number of points is low! Maybe the more you buy, the more you'll lose?

<Left: 648>

"Huh, what's this?!"

Thanks to the AI, the interface showed each user what they needed the most.

He was confused for a while but soon came back to his senses.

It wasn't important why it was in the auction house.

Suddenly, a certain thought crossed his mind.

'Wait... It doesn't matter how much I lose. There's almost no chance I'll drop below 750! What if I hit the jackpot even once...?'

There were two types of point pockets.

Restine first used 100 points to buy a [Point Bag (Small)] and opened it immediately.

Inside, there was a ridiculously small number of points, but that didn't discourage him. He bought another one.

[You've obtained 3 points!]

[You've obtained 2 points!]

[You've obtained 32 points!]

"Ugh...!"

He had spent 400 points, yet could only recover about 10% of what he had spent.

Restine took a deep breath and spent 500 points to buy a [Points Bag (XL)].

As if he were praying, he closed his eyes and opened it.

A miracle happened.

[You've won! You've obtained 1593 points!]

"Nice!"

The moment he got the points, Restine passed the 100th place cut line, and his ranking went up to 92.

Under the celebrating system message, Restine shouted excitedly.

After a while, he finally calmed down and looked around.

Only a few users were able to win something like him, most of them were clicking their tongues or shaking their heads.

He felt bad for being excited while so many people were saddened by the results, so he quickly walked away from the auction house.

Then, suddenly, he began wondering about something.

'Why was this on the auction house?'

From what he'd seen, there were hundreds of those.

Sometimes, some of the point bags you received as compensation were put in the auction house, but it should’ve be impossible for a user to put hundreds of them up.

Was it an event from an NPC related to the tournament?

He thought about it for a while but couldn't come up with an answer.

The situation Restine was experiencing was happening simultaneously throughout the entire tournament area.

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