WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 65: Zero-Sum Game (3)

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Everyone scrambling to claim the leader spot, it was a mess and a half. A chaos of a chaos, if there was such a thing.

"Kkkk, hahaha! Aria Guild actually thought they could bring this ragtag bunch into a dungeon?"

"That bastard... phew."

Ju Seohye caught her breath and dragged me and Han Seongcheol off to a corner.

She clearly understood what mattered more than fighting the blatant condescension coming from Jeong Hoil.

The mood had tilted heavily toward Raon Guild.

"Are you two out of your minds? What's the point of pushing yourselves forward as leader in this situation? You trying to split us apart from the inside?"

"Split, my ass. When have we ever been one to begin with?"

The one who'd recommended me was none other than Park Siyu.

Ju Seohye had made her dislike of Park Siyu blatantly obvious during the meeting, so I had no particular reason to like her either.

"A man should naturally be the leader. Sorry to you two, but step back this time."

"Screw that, I'm not giving up either."

"Fine. Then let's settle this."

"Settle it how?"

I laid out my idea to Ju Seohye and Han Seongcheol.

The dungeon we were about to enter had already failed three times, and its monster count had ballooned as a result.

Among them, the Hopji were monsters with a particularly strong breeding rate.

In a normal Cockatrice Farm, the Hopji were a minor sub-monster, nothing that carried much weight.

But if they weren't dealt with early, or if the dungeon failed outright, the Hopji bred at an explosive rate.

Calling it a full-on role reversal wasn't an exaggeration.

"What? A bet?"

Jeong Hoil looked genuinely startled at Ju Seohye's words.

The current Hopji count in the dungeon was estimated conservatively at five or six hundred, possibly as high as a thousand.

I get why Park Siyu called them worthless worms now.

The Hopji had to be dealt with regardless.

The proposal was to bet on how many of them each side could clear.

"Right. We've already agreed on our end."

"Oh, betting on the worms, this could get interesting."

"Whatever happens, doesn't feel like we're gonna lose."

Most of the Aria Guild hunters seemed to take it as a decent idea.

Guess they wanted to see our side split apart.

Too bad that wasn't going to happen.

If it was a team match instead of an individual one, there was no reason for a split at all.

"We beat the Raon bastards first, then count up the Hopji kills between ourselves after, right?"

"That's right."

"I don't care either way."

"Hah, really? Then let's do that."

At Ju Seohye's words, Jeong Hoil of Raon Guild hesitated.

Accept or refuse, it made no difference to us.

There was no loss on our side to begin with. We didn't even need a leader in the first place.

Raon Guild's situation was different.

Raon Guild ran on a strict hierarchy, and morale hinged heavily on establishing dominance early.

Backing down here would've cost them face, plain and simple.

Pride doesn't put food on the table, but people made stupid choices over it all the time anyway.

The decision moved from Jeong Hoil to the team leader, Han Jongho.

"Fine. We accept. But doing it plain isn't any fun, so how about we put something on the line?"

"You want to play a Zero-sum game?"

Ju Seohye shot the question back the instant she heard "bet."

Wait.

"What's a Zero-sum game?"

I asked, low, and Ju Seohye shot me a look like she couldn't believe I didn't know.

Han Seongcheol, standing beside her, explained on her behalf.

"It's a kind of divine banquet event. A wager game staked on merit points. You need a god's permission to even start one... that guy over there seems pretty tight with his god."

"Huh, is that right."

"Well, doesn't matter to me."

"Doesn't matter to me either."

If it was a game staked on merit points, that only worked in my favor.

Had I known a game like this existed, I'd have proposed it myself before he ever got the chance.

"Been feeling this since the meeting earlier, but you're pretty confident."

"Because I've got the skills to back it up."

No other reason needed.

Once Han Seongcheol and I cast our votes in favor, Ju Seohye reluctantly went along with it.

['Zero-sum game' is starting.]

[Presiding god: Lux]

- Objective: Whoever eliminates the most Hopji in the 'Cockatrice Farm' dungeon.

- Time limit: 24 hours after dungeon entry

- Reward: All accumulated merit points

- Participant list

[A 'Zero-sum game' is currently in progress. Would you like to participate?]

[Entry fee: 10,000P]

['Kang Hangyeol (Soter)' has joined the game.]

['Ju Seohye (Senne)' has joined the game.]

['Han Jongho (Lux)' and 28 others have joined the game.]

A handful of Aria Guild hunters short on points dropped out.

Unlike Raon Guild, where the hunters had no choice but to obey their team leader's orders, our side had no authority to force hunters with insufficient merit points into anything.

"Damn it. Are we at a disadvantage here?"

Ju Seohye, realizing the crucial problem a beat too late, bit her nails and let out a frustrated hiss.

[Participation in the 'Zero-sum game' closes in 10 seconds.]

[The 'Zero-sum game' begins.]

Winner-takes-all, a true zero-sum game.

Whoever came up with the name nailed it perfectly.

And I had no intention of handing over a single merit point to anyone.

That's just how a zero-sum game works, isn't it?

Early the next morning.

Hunters started gathering one by one near the dungeon in Donghaksa Valley.

Min Seongtaek and Kang Hyeonseung spotted me and waved.

I made my way over to them naturally.

"Whoa, no way. Those guys are the real deal."

Every one of the Raon Guild hunters wore blue capes.

Aria Guild didn't have any designated uniform, given the guild's nature.

I'd known some guilds had special uniforms of their own.

I'd seen Raon Guild's capes before, but seeing them worn as a whole group gave off a strange vibe.

"Damn, that's actually pretty cool."

"What... are you out of your mind?"

At Kang Hyeonseung's words, I coughed, half choking on the Choco Emong I'd grabbed from the convenience store in the pension lobby.

Almost spat it out right there.

"Raon isn't the only guild with a uniform, you know. But Raon's is kind of special."

"Special my foot, all I'm seeing is a group case of chuunibyo."

"See the white rose on their chest? That's the symbol of the god Lux. Comes in different colors, and the highest tier is obviously the Blue Rose."

This walking Wikipedia article!

He's not even listening to me!

I looked over the Raon Guild hunters' capes.

Even after the explanation, barely any of them actually had a rose pinned on.

Forget Blue Rose, only the guy they called Team Leader Han and three or four people around him even had one.

"What about the ones without a rose?"

"Hopefuls, basically. Follow a different god but want in on Lux."

"You actually know a lot about this stuff."

Min Seongtaek didn't seem to care much about Raon Guild one way or the other.

He gave a small shrug.

"Aria Guild's got all kinds of hunters in it."

Among them, quite a few Black Holdings hunters who'd split off from Raon Guild.

He'd probably picked up stories about Raon Guild from hunters like that.

I finished off the Choco Emong and tossed it in a nearby trash can.

Once everyone had gathered, the assault on Cockatrice Farm finally began.

[Cockatrice Farm]

Rank: A+

Terrain: Mountain

Recommended party size: 80

Objective: Unknown

1) Clear reward, all participants [Merit points 1,000]

2) Monster Raid (tiered payout for top 10)

1st place. 45,000P / 2nd place...

3) Minesweeper [Merit points 7,000]

4) Savings Account [Merit points ???]

16) The die is cast. [Merit points 10,000]

Notes

- Clearing this dungeon grants a 'Raid Ticket (6).'

- A 'Zero-sum game' hosted by the god Lux is currently in progress.

I'd already seen the file from the pre-briefing calculating the possible mission counts, but the reward count was still more than I'd expected.

The starting point was deep in the mountains.

Mountain, sure, but the problem was more than half of it had been leveled flat.

Trees stood uprooted and scattered everywhere, like something had shaken the whole mountain by force.

Hunters showed up one after another.

Sure enough, the Raon Guild and Aria Guild hunters clumped up separately, each sticking to their own.

Predictable, honestly, from the moment all that leader nonsense started.

The mood was tense, no surprise for a dungeon that had already failed three times.

Every fallen tree had one or two Hopji coiled tightly around it.

Someone struck at a Hopji.

A Raon Guild hunter.

"Battle formation!"

At Jeong Hoil's call, the Raon Guild hunters moved in perfect unison.

Shield-bearing hunters formed a wall around their team leader, Han Jongho.

It looked less like hunters and more like a military unit.

While the others bought time, Han Jongho calmly raised his weapon.

A good number of mages served among Lux's followers.

Han Jongho was the only A-Rank hunter on this expedition.

A massive magic circle bloomed behind him.

Kwaaaang.

A straight beam of light tore outward from the center of the magic circle.

The blast evaporated the nearby Hopji on contact.

Hm.

Not bad in terms of power, but a little excessive, if I was being honest.

Just showing off, that's what this is.

Flexing was his own business, not mine to comment on.

The explosion drew in even more Hopji from the surrounding area.

The Aria Guild hunters frowned at the speed of the hunt.

The most on edge among them was, of course, Ju Seohye.

"What are you gonna do?"

"Handle it yourself. We're not soldiers like them."

That's just how people work.

Left alone, they'd do fine, but with someone breathing down their neck about how to do it, doubt crept in, made them wonder if their own approach was somehow flawed.

When in reality, nothing was wrong with it at all.

That was Raon Guild's way of doing things. We had our own.

"So, on that note, I'm heading out."

"Wait, what?"

"Handle it however you want."

Ju Seohye seemed dead set on teaming up first to knock Raon Guild's nose down a peg, but that was the wrong call.

The moment the Zero-sum game started, I had no intention of siding with either group.

I waved and peeled off first, ahead of everyone else.

"Hey!! Hey, you crazy bastard!!"

Sure enough, Ju Seohye's furious voice carried from a distance.

What's her deal?

A short walk brought Raon Guild hunters into view, already cutting down Hopji.

More than I expected.

Nearly every tree, one or two at a time, had a Hopji wrapped around it.

"So... why are you two following me?"

"I'm just following because Seongtaek moved."

Judging I'd put enough distance between myself and both guild groups, I killed off a nearby Hopji and dropped down to the ground.

This whole thing was purely my own call.

The fact that they'd followed anyway meant they wanted something.

Unexpectedly, the one who bowed his head first was Min Seongtaek.

"Let me tag along and I'll do anything!"

Come on, man.

Why are you being so intense about this?

Footnotes:

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