WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈
Chapter 65
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Koreans like ranking games.
Not everyone, perhaps, but generally, they do. They rank things and decide what is superior or inferior.
University rankings.
Regional development rankings.
They even rank things that are hard to express in exact figures, like singers’ vocal ability.
It was similar here.
At some point, users called Named players began to appear, and their rankings were revised every few days.
Arguments broke out, and as a result, some people vanished from the list while new names were added.
Juggernaut was a regular on those lists.
The only permanent resident of Northern Forest.
He had somehow gained more subordinates, along with far more pets than anyone else. He had tamed Sangun, once a boss, and later increased the number of Tigers to three.
But even he could not escape the arguments.
How strong was he in actual individual combat?
Was it really just that his subordinates and pets were strong?
Would he be more mediocre than expected if he fought alone?
Still, there was something most people were even more curious about.
-Just how strong would Juggernaut be if he seriously unleashed all of his forces?
And now, the answer lay before their eyes.
* * *
The Clan stronghold had been more than half destroyed.
The once tall, thick palisade had snapped or collapsed in several places, and not one of the Watchtowers built along the inside remained intact.
One had completely crumpled, while another leaned precariously as flames consumed it.
The buildings were much the same.
Inside a warehouse with a collapsed roof, a boulder larger than a person’s torso had embedded itself in the ground. Similar stones lay scattered across the broad clearing.
They had fallen from the sky.
Some places had even been gouged into deep craters by the impact.
There was an especially large hole in one side of the outer wall.
A huge Wild Boar had rammed straight through the thickest section of palisade instead of the gate.
The first charge made the posts shake, the second split part of the wall, and the third brought the entire connected section down inward.
It was a battering ram in its own right.
No, unlike a battering ram, it kept running around and smashing things even after it had broken the wall.
And once the wall fell, hundreds of Wolves poured through the gap.
Wolf Riders carrying Mana Rifles commanded several groups, while the three-digit number of Wolves split the inside of the stronghold apart like a living tide.
Those using bows and throwing spears from atop the walls did not last long.
Eagles dropped boulders from the sky, while Wolf Riders fired Mana Rifles from below.
The Mana Rifles were not especially powerful.
At long range, they could not even properly pierce Wolf Pelts. Still, they were enough to make anyone hit lose their balance.
Some of those who fell from the walls survived by luck, but they could not avoid the Wolves waiting below.
Had they let their guard down?
No. They had been serious.
Quite a few had believed the saying that defenders could hold against three times as many attackers.
But that only applied when there were high walls, narrow entrances, and the attackers were forced to funnel in through a fixed route.
Boulders falling from the sky, a Wild Boar breaking down the walls themselves, and Wolves charging in from every direction were unlike any siege battle they knew.
Then Juggernaut and five Avatars entered through the gaps left by the collapse.
They alone would have been enough.
But there were also two Bears.
When had he tamed those?
There had been news that Bears had begun to respawn little by little in Northern Forest after it was added through the Area integration. But no one had ever heard that he had tamed them.
There were only two.
Yet each one possessed combat power nearly comparable to Sangun, the Tiger Juggernaut commanded.
The enemies who had barely managed to fend off the Wolves could not stop the Bears as well.
And the Bears had definitely torn people apart. Evidence of that remained everywhere.
“...”
On a hill outside the stronghold, the users who had followed Juggernaut filmed the scene from far away.
Some recorded from the air while riding Eagles, while others captured video from relatively safe spots in trees or behind rocks.
Yet even now that the battle had somewhat settled down, no one tried to approach.
“There were Bears too?”
“What’s with that Wild Boar? It looks like a boss.”
“He must have tamed and evolved it.”
“No, he’d been hiding something like that this whole time?”
“I don’t think he was hiding it.”
“Maybe we just didn’t know.”
Someone muttered it, then let out a hollow laugh.
“Remember those posts asking how strong Juggernaut would be if he fought alone? They came up pretty often.”
“They did. Some people even said they were better than him in a one-on-one fight.”
“Can they keep saying that after seeing this?”
“I heard some people are already deleting their old posts.”
“Already?”
“They’re late.”
Of course, last night’s battle had not been fought by Juggernaut alone.
But it had still given them a proper look at the level of Juggernaut’s individual combat strength.
“They’re gathering.”
Someone spoke.
Inside the ruined boundary of the stronghold, the survivors were gathering in one place.
Those who had thrown down their weapons and surrendered.
Those who had hidden in buildings or warehouses after the battle began and were caught.
Even users with production classes who had never participated in the battle from the beginning.
When the Wolves surrounding them growled, the Wolf Riders stationed among them kept the area under control with their rifle barrels slightly lowered.
Juggernaut stood before the collapsed central building.
Sitting on the highest step and quietly looking down at the gathering people, he spoke once it seemed that nearly everyone had assembled.
“Who’s in charge?”
A small stir ran through the people below. They seemed to be watching each other’s reactions, but no answer came right away.
“I’m asking where the Master is.”
“They’re not here.”
Someone spoke cautiously.
“Where did they go?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about the Deputy Master?”
“They’re not here either.”
It did not seem like they were simply being uncooperative.
Similar answers came from all over, and when he looked over them, the survivors’ expressions were poor as well.
He called out several more names he had heard from others, but none of them were present either.
The Master, Deputy Master, and even the major officers were all gone.
‘Did they die?’
If they had died heroically while resisting at the front, that would have been understandable.
But thinking back on last night, he had not seen anyone who appeared to be an officer.
“...”
Seo Hajin focused on the Avatar currently inspecting the inside of the central building.
The spaces used by the Master and officers were already empty. The beds and furniture remained, but most of their personal gear and valuables that could not be placed in an Inventory were gone.
The drawers were open.
There were empty spots on the shelves with less dust on them.
It did not look like they had rushed to flee right after the battle began.
The dust was older than that, even at a glance.
It seemed they had been clearing out their belongings before they had even learned he was coming here.
‘They might have left with their bodies later, but it looks like they moved their belongings out first.’
After making that guess, he focused on Juggernaut again and spoke.
“Does anyone know how long the Master has been gone?”
“They weren’t around before the battle started.”
“Then why did you people fight?”
No one answered.
Not everyone would have known that the Master and officers had fled. It seemed someone had still been issuing orders inside the stronghold until just before the battle.
But it was unclear who had given those orders.
It might not have been a major officer.
“We...”
They said their instructions had been to hold the walls and endure for now. The Clan was supposedly negotiating with other Clans, and they would soon gather reinforcements to strike all at once.
They said it had not come directly from the Master.
Not from the Deputy Master or any major officer either. It had merely been posted as an announcement in the Clan’s SNS community.
“Hold them off and endure?”
“Yes. They said that if we held them off just once, public opinion would change too.”
At the answer, he looked into the distance.
The walls that had collapsed from the very beginning.
If they had defended well, would things afterward have changed? Would the other Clans really have joined forces to respond?
‘Who knows.’
From what he had heard, the Clan wars around this side of Giant Lake had become quite intense, so the remaining Clans were not exactly close.
Rather than going out of their way to oppose an uncertain variable like him, would it not be better to stand by with their arms folded and watch one Clan get stripped clean?
‘That’s what I’d think if I were the Master of a neighboring Clan.’
Of course, they might help.
But they would step in only if they could receive adequate compensation. A Clan did not belong to one person alone, and every battle came with losses.
“Then who do I get my compensation from?”
He stopped thinking and asked.
As everyone fell silent, a voice that seemed to crawl away came from somewhere.
“Even what you’ve already taken...”
It was a cautious remark.
The speaker did not even finish it properly. When the surroundings went quiet, they hurriedly shut their mouth.
Juggernaut looked toward the source of the voice.
Several people stood together there, but he could roughly tell who had spoken.
“...”
When Juggernaut’s gaze settled on him, the man moved his lips a few times before speaking again.
“You took all the equipment and Personal Effects from the dead. Even if you sold those cheaply, it would be worth more than the compensation you demanded.”
“That’s loot.”
Juggernaut spoke.
“Compensation is separate.”
The man opened and closed his mouth a few times, but could not continue.
“If you had paid compensation instead of resisting when I came, this might have ended there.”
Juggernaut continued.
But they had chosen to fight.
As a result, a considerable number had died, and most of them had lost their equipment and Personal Effects.
And Juggernaut drew a line.
What he had gained in battle was only loot. Compensation was separate from that matter.
“Who’s the highest-ranking person there right now?”
The new question followed.
People’s gazes darted around.
Some looked at the nearest person, but those receiving the looks hurriedly shook their heads and looked elsewhere.
Others avoided everyone’s attention by staring only at the ground, as if they had something suspicious to hide.
As time passed, their gazes gradually gathered in one direction.
They settled on a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, based on his Avatar’s appearance.
“...”
His armor was half torn apart, and a bloodstained bandage was wrapped around one arm. He seemed to have been injured during the battle, though it was not serious.
After noticing the surrounding gazes directed at him, the man let out a short sigh.
“...Me?”
“What’s your position?”
“Combat Commander. More precisely, I was the Third Combat Commander. Everyone above me has either disappeared or died.”
“Then you’re the highest-ranking one.”
The man smiled tiredly.
“Are you going to kill me as an example?”
“...?”
“Putting me on a skewer would work too.”
It was self-mocking.
But it was not an exaggeration.
Something similar had actually happened in several wars around Giant Lake.
They would kill users from an opposing Clan, then impale their corpses on long spears or sharpened trees and display them before the stronghold.
‘Even if they restart after dying, the original corpse remains.’
It was mockery that took advantage of that.
Sometimes, they dressed corpses in ridiculous clothes or scribbled on them, then attached all kinds of insulting messages.
It was cruel.
But rather than competing over who was more brutal, it was closer to a contest over who could humiliate the other side more.
And the man seemed to think the same would happen to him.
But Juggernaut’s words differed from what he expected.
“You people deal with the ones who ran away yourselves.”
“Pardon?”
“At least here, you’re the Master.”
The self-mocking smile vanished from the man’s face.
“Me, a Master?”
“You said you’re the highest-ranking.”
“Only among the people whose positions remain. I don’t have the authority of a Clan Master.”
“Then get it.”
“...”
Juggernaut looked at the man.
“Will you apologize and compensate me as the Master, then end this? Or will you keep this going?”
“It’s not that simple...”
“I have no intention of ending this until I’m compensated.”
The Wolves around them growled low.
The smell of fire and blood still hanging throughout the area seemed to have kept them from calming down.
It appeared to be more than enough of a threat to the people.
“Just do it.”
Someone spoke.
Everyone looked over.
“Do what?”
“Become the Master. Now that it’s come to this, it’s better if the Combat Commander does it.”
“Say something that makes sense. There are Clan qualifications first...”
“We can hold a reconfirmation vote.”
Someone else cut in.
The man looked at them.
“A reconfirmation vote?”
“The function exists.”
“Was there something like that?”
“My old Clan did it once. You need over 70 percent of the votes, so it isn’t easy.”
“There’s a function like that...”
Seo Hajin quietly listened to their conversation.
He had never joined a Clan and had no intention of making one. He did not know what functions the Clan system had.
But from what he heard, it seemed there was even a function for removing a Master or officer.
“Let’s try it first.”
People seemed to open their system windows.
A moment later, the man’s gaze remained fixed in the air as though something had appeared before him as well.
“It works, but... we don’t have enough for a quorum.”
“How many?”
“Thirty-five.”
People looked around.
It seemed the surviving members alone were not enough.
“Contact the people who restarted.”
“You think they’ll come if we call them now?”
“They can vote from anywhere. We should tell them what’s happening and have them vote.”
“Some people probably won’t vote in favor.”
“That can’t be helped. Let’s contact everyone first.”
They began talking among themselves and moving about.
Then, a little later, people began arriving at the stronghold.
Those who had not returned after dying and instead hidden somewhere suitable had finally come back after learning what had happened.
Their armor and weapons were gone.
Having just restarted, some could not even find proper clothes. They had wrapped themselves in thin cloth or borrowed old leather clothing.
“...Ah.”
The collapsed walls and burning buildings.
The corpses scattered everywhere.
The teeth and claws of wild beasts, still wet with blood.
“...”
No one made much noise.
Some glared at Juggernaut with furious faces, but more gazes turned toward the empty officers’ quarters and central building.
“The Master really ran away?”
“They say they were gone even before the battle started.”
“They told us to hold out.”
“They say that didn’t even come directly from the Master.”
“Damn it, then when did they run?”
“Who knows.”
That settled the mood.
The quorum was quickly met.
The reconfirmation vote began.
Would they retain the current Master?
The result was an overwhelming rejection.
Then, the Deputy Master and officers were stripped of their positions one after another. Some did not merely lose their positions, they were expelled from the Clan.
“Now we need to choose a new Master.”
Everyone’s gaze turned to the Combat Commander again.
The man laughed as though it were absurd.
“I don’t have the qualities for it.”
“At least you didn’t run away.”
“I only couldn’t run away.”
“You still stayed.”
He shook his head.
“You need courage to run away too. I’m a coward, so I just couldn’t do either. How can a coward be the Clan Master?”
“Right now, it’ll be the same no matter who does it.”
“That doesn’t mean you plan to accept the people who ran away back into the Clan.”
People persuaded the man.
Yet no one raised their hand to say they would do it instead.
Watching from afar, Seo Hajin shook his head to himself.
‘It’s like getting saddled with being the group project leader.’
Passing the responsibility along went quite smoothly.
“For now, we need someone to handle the stronghold. The Combat Commander has led everyone so far, so he’s much better than anyone else.”
The man did not answer.
He merely looked around.
The people who remained.
The people who had restarted and returned.
The collapsed stronghold.
And Juggernaut, who said he had no intention of ending things until he received compensation.
“...We should survive first.”
The man nodded.
Then the vote began again.
There were not zero votes against him, but not enough to change the outcome.
A little later, the same notification appeared before the Clan members.
[The Clan Master has changed.]
The man who had become the new Master stared at the words for a while, but he showed no sign of happiness.
Instead, looking even more exhausted than before, he slowly approached Juggernaut.
“Is that enough now?”
“Apologize first.”
“...Understood.”
The new Master straightened his posture.
With torn armor and a bloodstained bandage wrapped around him, he did not look especially formal.
Still, it was clear he was neither sneering nor joking.
“I apologize for our Clan attacking Juggernaut’s hunting team and taking its loot, as well as spreading false information to avoid responsibility for it.”
The surroundings were quiet.
“I also apologize for attacking users associated with Juggernaut and trying to take them hostage afterward. Those involved have already been expelled from the Clan, but we will continue taking additional measures to ensure that no separate problems arise later.”
Juggernaut listened quietly.
“We will also pay the 25,200 Points in compensation for the damages you demanded.”
“Now.”
“Yes.”
The problem was the Points.
From the Clan’s perspective, 20,000 or 30,000 was not a particularly large sum. But it seemed the Master and officers who had run away had withdrawn the shared funds somewhere in advance.
“There aren’t many Points left in the Clan Account.”
“I already had a bad feeling because only the Master could see it...”
“I’ll change it so every Clan member can view it for now.”
“...Oh, this is driving me crazy.”
“What is this?”
There was a brief commotion.
They would need to collect additional Points from the Clan members to pay the compensation, but the people here had not actually harmed Juggernaut.
“I had nothing to do with that attack.”
“Who here did?”
“Those bastards aren’t here now.”
Still, they had unquestionably fought Juggernaut.
Getting beaten did not change that fact.
“There are enough of us, so let’s all contribute a little.”
The Points were quickly gathered.
That was how Seo Hajin received the compensation he had demanded.
‘I considered adding the hunting I missed because of last night’s battle, but I got the loot separately, so I should let that go.’
Then the new Master asked cautiously.
“Is it over now?”
“Yes.”
“...Really?”
“I got my compensation.”
Juggernaut turned around.
The Wolves surrounding the area opened a path all at once. The Wolf Riders lowered their rifles and withdrew one after another.
The Bears, Wild Boar, and Eagles entered Subspace as well.
Only the burning stronghold and its surviving people remained.
The new Master watched Juggernaut’s departing figure until he disappeared beyond the collapsed wall.
Only after Juggernaut was completely out of sight did he turn around.
“First, let’s put out the fires!”
People began moving.
“Just tear down any building that looks like it might collapse. Salvage the intact materials first, then patch the holes in the outer wall.”
“What about the injured?”
“Those who can move should work, and those who can’t should gather separately and rest. Let’s see what natural recovery can do for now.”
“The warehouse roof has completely caved in.”
“Tear that down too. This isn’t the time to save buildings.”
The stronghold had become half ruins.
But the real problem began now.
The palisade had collapsed, and their fighting force had been greatly reduced. At this rate, they would struggle to defend themselves even when Monsters respawned.
They also had no idea what the other Clans nearby would do.
News that they had become weak was already spreading in real time.
The former Master and officers who had fled might return. They might even borrow another Clan’s strength to reclaim the stronghold.
But before worrying about any of that, they needed to deal with the immediate situation.
The people completely tore down the half-collapsed buildings to secure lumber and stone. They cut away the burned portions and carried usable posts and planks toward the outer wall.
They also reduced the living area.
If they could not defend the whole stronghold, it was better to reduce the area they needed to protect.
“We need to drive stakes into the spots where the buildings were too! Otherwise, respawn zones will form!”
Even as the temperature gradually fell, everyone worked so busily that their sweat washed away the bloodstains.
Thanks to that, they somehow managed to repair the outer wall before nightfall.
“Shouldn’t we change the Clan name?”
“I don’t know. The former Master didn’t make the name, so I think we can leave it.”
“It just feels kind of unlucky.”
“Let’s gather some ideas for good names. If nothing works, we’ll keep the current one.”
The Clan had become much smaller.
But it had grown since morning.
Quite a few of those who had died and restarted were returning one by one.
“From now on, it really depends on us.”
“If it comes to it, we can run. We don’t have many assets left besides the buildings anyway.”
“If we run, where do we go?”
“Who knows. ...North?”
“Are you insane?”
“No. After going through it once, he doesn’t seem like a bad person.”
“I died twice yesterday.”
“Once for me.”
“A Wolf bit my throat, an Eagle’s boulder hit me dead-on, and a Bear tore me in half.”
“Legendary.”
“Mm. Still, he didn’t seem like someone who holds a grudge.”
“He did seem a little simple.”
Was it because their resentment and ill will had focused on those who abandoned them?
The remaining people did not seem to bear such great hostility toward Juggernaut.
Of course, those who had died repeatedly and dropped that many Personal Effects were still fuming.
Even so, their anger was not directed solely at Juggernaut.
He was like a natural disaster.
It was only natural to die if someone was swept up while facing a typhoon. Surviving it was simply good luck.
“...”
That was when it happened.
The new Master had gone somewhere and returned.
He wore a dazed expression.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“If you don’t want to be Master, just say so.”
“Then will you replace me?”
“As if.”
“I’ll cheer you on, though.”
After arriving before the others, the new Master lightly held out something he had been clutching in one hand.
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