WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈

Chapter 42: 042

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When they were together, they had been full of confidence.

Alone, it might be difficult, but if they all faced them together, even Juggernaut’s group would have its limits.

Some had even discussed how they would reclaim the field after taking Juggernaut down.

They said they needed to teach those bastards, who had gotten cocky after escaping once, a proper lesson and make sure they could never raise their heads again.

But every hopeful scenario for the future broke apart and vanished, one by one.

The numbers that had given them courage and hope dwindled, and they scattered along with them.

It had been baseless from the start.

They had merely been gathered in one place. They were not united. There was no camaraderie to expect from them.

That much was obvious from the people who fled early the moment they sensed something was wrong.

Even those who did not run despite being killed had decided they would be better off dying once and starting somewhere far away at random.

Some had hidden emergency supplies in secret locations throughout the forest.

They had concealed Item Storage Boxes in the ground or inside trees, filling them with a few supplies beforehand.

The question was where Random Restart would place them, but if luck was on their side, they believed they could return quickly.

Some had even emptied their current Inventories as much as possible for that very purpose.

That was one reason the Villains had been wiped out so absurdly easily.

Of course, there were still some who had no particular reason. They simply believed Juggernaut would eventually tire out and waited for their chance.

But as time passed, confusion gradually filled their once-sharp eyes.

By the time they admitted their judgment had been wrong, even their chance to flee was gone.

“...”

No one charged at him anymore.

Juggernaut took out another shake from his Inventory and drank it.

He had considered switching out if necessary, but it seemed manageable. So he endured, replenishing his stamina with shakes.

‘Still, that last curse was pretty dangerous.’

The curse the Necromancer had spread by consuming all the remaining corpses at once.

But rather than concentrating it on Juggernaut, the Necromancer had scattered it some distance away.

The intention was clear.

It had not targeted Juggernaut or his party. It had been closer to blocking the path so they could not pursue the Necromancer.

There had been plenty of people who could be considered the Necromancer’s allies over there, and what followed had been a truly horrific massacre.

‘Thanks to that, it was weakened a little.’

It was a little stronger than when he had been hit outside the walls, but not enough to be fatal.

It would have been better if the curse had focused on him instead.

Still, he probably would have escaped into Subspace then, so it would not have made much difference.

‘Everyone’s working hard, too.’

The Sanguns he had released in advance were each moving around the outer edge of the walls, dealing with those trying to escape.

Black had earned its keep by beheading the Villain Clan Master despite only being released casually. Companion No. 1 and Companion No. 2 were busy sorting and handling everything pouring into Subspace.

The rabbits that had dug the tunnels, Shovel No. 1 through No. 3, had also been brought back out and released during the battle.

But their assigned task was no longer digging. They were to find and secure anything the Villains might have buried underground or hidden in the corners.

They had already found quite a lot. Seo Hajin kept their Inventories open beside him and transferred everything to Subspace immediately.

‘It’s fortunate I can do this without arms or legs.’

It seemed possible because he was not physically picking things up and moving them. He was simply transferring items from an Inventory into Subspace.

Of course, nothing was sorted. It piled up wherever it landed in one corner of Subspace, so Companion No. 1 and Companion No. 2 still had to organize it afterward.

‘A ton of Personal Effects Bags are coming in too.’

The bags had entered Subspace.

Seeing Companion No. 1 and Companion No. 2 empty their contents, it looked like most of them did not contain much.

Still, the Personal Effects Bags themselves were valuable, and the things the rabbits found while roaming around were fairly worthwhile.

‘Should I start cleaning up?’

The battle was already over.

He put the half-broken club into his Inventory, took out an intact one, and began dismantling the artificial structures there, starting with a nearby wooden pillar.

Not just wooden structures, but ones made from stone and dirt as well. He seemed intent on erasing every trace that a Villain camp had ever occupied this land.

‘Wood is Firewood, and stones are useful whether they’re big or small. Dirt is a little questionable, but I can throw it away separately if I run out of space.’

Vulcan and Stone joined the demolition work, and the pace quickly picked up.

Then Seo Hajin turned his aerial viewpoint to one side.

‘They’re already trying to jump in.’

Some of the people watching from outside had apparently realized the situation was over and were quietly approaching.

He would not particularly care if they broke apart and took some of the wooden walls, but trying to take the spoils was another matter.

He sent Typhoon over. After cutting down a few people who protested too strongly as examples, everyone hurriedly backed off.

There seemed to be posts on the board saying he was going too far, but he had no intention of becoming an easy mark.

‘If they wanted to jump in, they should have lent a hand during the fight.’

Fortunately, quite a few people on the board said the same thing.

And it seemed there had been more than mere spectators. Some Clan members who had fled first had slipped back in afterward, hoping to retrieve what they had hidden.

‘Looks like these will multiply too.’

Item Storage Boxes hidden all over the place.

He began stacking them in one corner of Subspace, and the number had already reached double digits.

‘It doesn’t look like many people even filled their boxes. Why were they all so greedy?’

Seo Hajin clicked his tongue internally, then looked at everything crammed into Subspace and realized he was not one to talk.

‘Somehow, I think I’ve become the one who looted the most.’

In the end, all of this had been earned by exploiting other users.

Nothing especially impressive had turned up, but it still left him a little uneasy.

‘That doesn’t mean I can hand it out either.’

He did not know who had lost what or how much, and if he started distributing things because he felt sorry for people, everyone would come rushing over.

It would probably remain troublesome until he returned to the Northern Forest.

‘I chased them off for trying to jump in. I can’t give things away for free. Unless they give me useful information, like those people last time.’

If someone wanted to buy something, he could sell it.

But he had no intention of letting it go cheaply.

‘There seemed to be a price range for them.’

He remembered seeing it on the board before.

It had been around two thousand Points back then. What would it be now?

‘People are already saying they want to buy them.’

Posts were appearing on the board.

Everyone knew he had collected a huge number of Personal Effects Bags, so anyone wanting to buy one would not want to miss this opportunity.

The problem was that it was the middle of a brutally cold winter. Unlike in seasons when people could travel comfortably, going outside now was genuinely life-threatening.

‘These can’t be traded through the marketplace, so we’d have to meet in person.’

There could be traps.

Meeting directly came with risks.

‘Later. If I sell them, I’ll do it when the weather gets warmer.’

He wondered anew who could even stop him, but right now, the hassle weighed more heavily than the thought of not letting his guard down.

‘The rabbits are really useful.’

If three alone could do this much, he was already looking forward to the synergy they would create once their numbers properly increased.

‘I should buy out all the listings on the marketplace.’

Feeding them would not be a problem either.

They definitely looked like rabbits, but the creatures here were omnivores.

‘Grass is still their staple, but it’s not like they can’t eat meat.’

They could not simply tear into raw meat, though. It had to be finely chopped or ground up and mixed with grass.

‘They also eat things they find underground.’

Fresh grass was harder to find in winter, but they readily ate sweet potatoes and kudzu-like roots they dug up from the ground.

Depending on the type, they even gnawed on tree roots and bark. When he checked, the sap had a faint sweetness to it.

‘It’s not quite maple sap, but if I collect it and boil it down, it should become something similar.’

There was no need to collect it drop by drop.

After logging the entire tree, he could process it in Subspace and extract only the sap.

Trees respawned like animals, so he did not even need to worry about maintaining their numbers.

‘I don’t have time for that yet, but I should try things one by one when I return north.’

The cleanup was more or less finishing up.

At first, he had intended to dismantle everything in the Villain base, but his thoughts had changed somewhat.

‘Firewood can be gathered elsewhere. I don’t need to tear out every last piece of this fence.’

He decided it would be enough to destroy it enough that the Villains could not rebuild it, then leave the rest for the ordinary users in the Area, those who had suffered here, to deal with themselves.

‘It looks like we’ve dug up most of what was underground.’

They seemed to have found nearly everything the Villains had hidden. There might be more somewhere, but unless he intended to turn the place upside down for days, it was better to stop at a reasonable point.

‘It sounds like they hid things in the forest too.’

It seemed some people had hidden boxes not inside the base, but somewhere in the isolated forest outside.

He had not seen it himself, but there had been posts about it on the board. Since Villains never knew when or how they would die, they sometimes concealed Item Storage Boxes throughout the forest.

Even now, quite a few people were engrossed in treasure hunting. Some had uploaded proof posts claiming they had found something.

‘No need to get involved.’

Judging by the quality of what had been inside the base, the things hidden outside probably would not be all that impressive either.

‘Hmm. The Necromancer was troublesome.’

He would have to keep that in mind in the future.

If he was in an environment littered with corpses, he would need to be careful.

Boom! Bang!

After dismantling another log wall, he decided it was time to leave. As the Sanguns circling repeatedly outside the walls drew near one at a time, he called them back and retrieved them.

‘It would be nice to have a way to communicate from far away.’

Using Inventories like he had with Black was possible, but it was difficult to use unless they had agreed on it beforehand.

Sangun was one thing, but the rabbits were much less intelligent. Giving them instructions that way was almost impossible.

‘Is there anything on the marketplace?’

A Skill, a function.

At the very least, there should be some kind of tool.

‘Should I try a whistle or a horn? It probably wouldn’t be heard underground, though.’

He would have to look slowly and take his time.

Nodding, he called in the remaining pets and Avatars. Then he summoned one of the Sanguns that had been resting in Subspace and climbed onto its back.

‘It would be convenient to have a few more Sanguns too.’

Having numbers similar to his Avatars seemed like it would be efficient, but he could not increase them because no taming items dropped. That was the only disappointment.

“Let’s go.”

They had moved slowly on the way there, but not on the way out.

Holding Sangun’s reins, he vanished like the wind through the snowflakes, which had already grown thicker.

The users quietly watching from far away in every direction, along with the few disguised Villains who had been waiting for an opportunity, could not react in time.

[Breaking: Juggernaut left]

- For real?

└ Yeah. Rode off on a Tiger.

└ That’s fucking awesome.

[I knew this would happen]

The ones left behind are fighting over the cleanup.

- Is there anything left?

└ More than half the fence is still there.

└ They’re fighting over just that?

└ They call it a fence, but it’s practically a wall made by driving logs in one by one and joining them together.

└ Oh, Firewood?

└ Yeah, and they seem to be searching to see if the Villains hid anything inside.

└ Juggernaut probably took everything.

└ You never know.

└ Oh, that’s why you called it cleanup.

[What’s the situation in the eastern forest?]

Can the Villain Clans rebuild?

- Probably not anytime soon. Their stockpiled supplies were all looted, so surviving winter itself will be rough.

└ Yeah. The Logger Clan is the only one still intact, but I hear the refugees flooding in there are no joke.

└ I’m there right now lol.

└ How is it?

└ It really feels like a refugee camp.

└ They still take everyone in?

└ They filter out former Villains.

└ How do they know?

└ Victims are standing by. Even if they somehow sneak in, they get caught inside and mobbed to death.

└ Oh.

While those left behind dealt with the aftermath from their own positions, Seo Hajin headed south, switching between Juggernaut, his other Avatars, and the Sanguns again.

Someone traveling in the same direction happened to photograph the sight and upload it to the community.

Juggernaut looked different in the photos and videos.

Instead of his signature Wolf Pelt hood and cloak, he wore a hood and long cloak made from fiery reddish-brown fur.

- What kind of pelt is that?

└ Probably Bear Pelt.

└ Ah.

Their guess was correct.

The Bear Pelts he had finished processing in the meantime.

Those were what Juggernaut was now wearing.

‘Normal Bears are fine, but the boss Bear’s head was too big.’

With Wolves, he could apply the head section directly to the hood, but that was difficult with Bears.

A normal Bear’s head could be trimmed and folded to make it work, but the boss Bear was too large even for that.

So he stored the boss Bear’s pelt separately and made his current clothes from ordinary Bear Pelts.

‘It’s much warmer.’

The pelt itself was thicker, and its fur felt denser. He did not know about durability yet, but it seemed better than Wolf Pelt.

The downside was that it was heavier.

But that much was fine.

‘I have Tiger Pelts too, but I think this is better.’

Tiger Pelts felt more suited for rugs than clothes or cloaks. It was not that they lacked durability, but they simply did not drop often enough.

‘If I wear them around, they’ll need repairs often. It would be a problem if there isn’t enough supply.’

Bear Pelts had a similar issue, but ordinary Bears besides the boss Bear had dropped them often enough that he had some stock.

‘I’ll make it through this winter easily.’

The board was still noisy.

The Villain Clans had collapsed, but the Villains themselves had not vanished. There were plenty of posts about whether they would regroup, betray one another, and so on.

‘Would they really develop camaraderie when surviving even a single day is difficult?’

Would they have had a chance to rebuild without these harsh conditions?

Even that was uncertain.

Perhaps if their identities had remained secret. But everything had already been exposed, so their actions would inevitably be constrained.

‘They’re the ones being hunted now.’

By the time winter ended, perhaps the situation would be reversed.

Just as they had killed users until their Inventories disappeared altogether, perhaps the Villains’ Inventories would disappear now.

[Thank you, Juggernaut.]

Seo Hajin noticed the title of a post amid the countless others, but he passed it by without clicking.

‘It could be a shit pic.’

Even if it was a genuine expression of gratitude, the title alone conveyed the sentiment well enough.

That was enough.

‘What will the Wasteland field be like?’

He switched out the exhausted Sangun and continued running.

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