Cold sweat ran down Christin Lewis’ back.
“Hehe, hehehe.”
A creepy voice echoed from somewhere in the village. The Players stiffened after hearing the sound, and they slowly turned toward where it had come from.
“Hehehe!”
The pallid and bloodied head of a woman was peeking out of the well in the middle of the village. The woman’s demeanor resembled that of a ghost, which was an eerie sight to behold.
Christin Lewis immediately reached a conclusion at the sight.
‘T-there is no way we can win against that thing…’
“Hehe.”
The woman looked at the Players one by one before hiding in the well.
Christin used the communication channel to speak.
[Everyone. Retreat… right now…!]
Bzzz!
The Players were close to each other, but the communication channel was malfunctioning.
‘This is ridiculous. Is it not working because of that woman’s Force?’
Christin bit his lips. Nothing good would come out if he created a commotion here, but he had no other choice but to shout, “Retreat! We have to retreat—right now…!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
The Players nodded like crazy. However, they hadn’t even taken a single step yet, but the residents of the village started to emerge from the nearby buildings.
“W-what is going on?!”
“T-those people are…”
The Players’ faces distorted upon seeing the residents trudging out of the buildings.
“Weren’t they dead?”
“How are they even moving?”
The failures were calmly walking toward the Players, even though they were supposed to be deceased.
Christin’s eyes shone in gold, and he looked at the failures with his Holy Eye.
“Surprisingly, they aren’t undead creatures,” said Christine.
“Pardon? Then, how are they moving…”
“It’s probably the ability of the woman we saw earlier,” Shim Tae-Soo chimed in. He was the Vice Master of Silver Constellation. He approached Christin and retrieved both his sword and shield from his Inventory.
“Master, we’ll take care of them, so you should stay out of this.”
“I can’t do that.” Christin shook his head. “I’m the one who gave the suggestion about going to this village, so I have an obligation to fight.”
The divine power flowing out of Christin swirled around the nearby Players.
“...My body feels as light as a feather.”
“I feel really energetic as well.”
‘Sun’s Blessing is this strong when it’s used by the Master of Silver Constellation?’
Christin Lewis smiled. “Let’s fight together.”
Christin didn’t waste more words. He rushed toward the enemies before anyone else.
The Players’ morale increased when they saw Christin running ahead of them.
Of course, they quickly chased after him.
“Impure beings shall…” The pulses of light coming from Christin were so strong that every failure struck by them had exploded into bloody mists. “Return to earth…!”
The Players were awestruck at the sight.
‘...Has Christin Lewis always been that strong?’
‘It’s my first time seeing his skills, but he is basically as strong as the Heavens.’
It was often said that the Silver Constellation only managed to become one of the Big 5 because of their connection to the nobles of Frontier through their devotion as devotees of the Church of Sun.
‘But if their Master is this strong…’
‘We’ll survive! We can survive!’
The Players started seeing hope. The Players became fiercer than ever, and they managed to defeat the failures in just twenty minutes.
“Haaa…. haaa…”
“Not bad...”
The Players were relieved, but they did not let their guard down.
The woman in the well was still around, so the battle hadn’t ended just yet.
“...”
Christin glared at the well for a while and quietly opened his mouth.
“She hasn’t done anything in the last twenty minutes, so I think she won’t emerge from the well.”
“In that case, we should take this opportunity to retreat.”
“I agree.”
There was no need to provoke the enemy and risk casualties. After making their decision, the Player warily retreated. However, they had to stop moving because the woman’s laughter echoed throughout the village once again.
“He, yehehe! W-where are you going? Hehe!”
The woman’s upper body had already crawled out of the well without anyone realizing it.
At the sight, Christin Lewis shouted, “Run!”
The Players immediately ran toward the wooden fence.
Fortunately, they weren’t that far from the wooden fence.
‘It must be thirty meters away at most…’
‘We can definitely jump over it.’
‘This is nothing.’
The distance of thirty meters couldn’t be compared to the hardships that they had endured so far.
“Y-yehehe! Ahahaha! Kehehehe!”
Scratch! Scratch!
An unpleasant voice loudly echoed like thunder, and the sound of huge nails scratching the ground and buildings could be heard from right behind the Players’ backs.
“Damn it!”
The Players scrambled toward the wooden fence. Some of them stumbled, but they recovered by rolling on the ground and jumping up to stand.
“Juuump!”
The Players jumped over the wooden fence with all their might.
“Huff, huff.”
“Are we safe now?”
The Players who managed to safely jump over the wooden fence looked around with nervous eyes.
“Wait. I-it’s just the two of us?”
Unfortunately, only two Players managed to jump over the wooden fence.
“Then, the rest of us are…” a Player stared beyond the wooden fence and gulped.
‘Should we go back? Can we kill that woman if we join forces?’
The other Player grabbed the man’s shoulder.
“R-reinforcements…! We need to call for reinforcements. That’s our role.”
The two Players rationalized their decision to escape on their own. It couldn’t be helped; they subconsciously didn’t want to go back to the village.
“...Let’s head to the Gate.”
“W-we should be able to catch up to them…”
They quickly fled the scene.
***
Seo Jun-Ho was running down a path filled with thick bushes and tree branches.
Skaya was running next to him, and she started complaining.
“What’s up with that space there?”
Skaya had tried to use Teleport, but she had failed because the space over the village was distorted for some reason.
“Hey, nerd. Can’t you just Teleport us somewhere close to that village”
“What if we get caught up in a distortion in space? Our upper bodies might arrive there while our lower bodies will remain here if that were to happen.”
The risk was too great that they had no choice but to run along the forest path toward the village.
“...!’ Seo Jun-Ho sensed something, and he raised his fist slightly in response. The entire procession running through the forest path came to a stop, and each player hid behind the nearby trees and bushes.
“Huff, huff.”
“That way… it was that way…!”
Two Players were running in their direction.
Seo Jun-Ho quickly stepped out in front of them.
“What happened?”
“S-Specter-nim!”
“Thank goodness…! We’re safe now…”
The Players were relieved, but Seo Jun-Ho grabbed one of them by the collar and shook them before asking, “Let me ask you again—what happened?”
“I-it was a trap. We barely escaped...”
“T-there was a ghost! There was a ghost living in a well; she wouldn’t let us go and…”
Seo Jun-Ho’s expression turned ugly. “Thirty-two Players, including Christin Lewis, couldn’t escape, but the two of you managed to do so?”
“Yes, yes. That’s it…!”
“Does that make sense?”
“...?”
“How pathetic.” Skaya sighed and emerged from behind a tree. “You still don’t get it? She purposely let you go...”
“T-that’s just—why?”
“Goodness…! Jun-Ho, do I have to explain?”
“...!” Seo Jun-Ho suddenly shoved the two Players aside and glared up ahead.
“Do not come any closer,” he warned fiercely.
“Kehehe, yehehe.”
A woman’s laughter echoed from behind the tree branches, and her laughter grew louder and louder with every passing second.
“Ahehehe! E-everyone. Was. Here. All of you…!”
“...” Seo Jun-Ho wordlessly glared.
The pitch-black ghost pounced at great speed, but Seo Jun-Ho’s Freedom Blade was faster.
“Didn’t I warn you?”
The pitch-black ghost was instantly cut into dozens of pieces.
It wriggled for a while, but it soon stopped moving.
Skaya carefully approached the pieces and said, “It’s a soul.”
“A soul?”
“Yes. She took a part of her soul and sent it to us. It’s usually done to deliver messages.”
“Can they get any weirder than this?” Rahmadat said and snorted.
Seo Jun-Ho contemplated for a while before looking at the two Players.
“You two. Listen carefully.”
“W-we really didn’t know!”
“He’s right! We really had no idea that the ghost was following—”
“Silence. I don’t like to talk twice on the battlefield, so listen closely to what I’m about to say.” Seo Jun-Ho unfolded a hologram map. “There will be Players if you head here. They’re kind of like the main force, and upon grouping up, tell them this.”
Seo Jun-Ho had dealt with a tiny fragment of an entire soul that was probably even less than 1 part out of the 10,111 total fragments that would make up an entire soul.
However, Seo Jun-Ho had already figured out that the opponent wasn’t any weaker than him.
“If we don’t return in an hour, run as far as you can from this forest.”
***
At 11:27 a.m., Seo Jun-Ho and the Players arrived in front of the village of failures.
The village was surrounded by a wooden fence and a pitch-black curved curtain.
“There’s definitely something wrong with this place.”
The curtain wasn’t made with ordinary magic.
“This is…” Seo Jun-Ho frowned and approached the curtain.
- Heugh, heughhh…!
A groaning human face briefly appeared on the surface of the curtain.
“The entire village is in a disgusting space; this curtain is the amalgamation of negative emotions.”
A few Players flinched at Seo Jun-Ho’s words.
“T-There’s really a ghost here?” said Gong Ju-Han.
“Ghosts… c-can ghosts be frozen…?” asked the Frost Queen.
The two were greatly taken aback, but it wasn’t strange because they had always been afraid of ghosts. However, Seo Jun-Ho fell into deep thought rather than answering.
‘Who could it be?’
The woman was strong, so she couldn’t be a failure. However, it didn’t make sense for someone as strong as her to be in the village of failures.
‘In other words, she’s an agent of the Babella Empire...’ The main issue was that they had no idea of her exact strength. ‘The giant’s memory didn’t really contain that much information about the strong figures of Babella…’
In fact, the giant barely had any information about the empire because all the failures had been kicked out to the periphery long before the empire was founded.
“Rahmadat, Skaya, Kim Woo-Joong, and Team Leader Gong.” Seo Jun-Ho called out and said, “Only you guys will go inside with me. Of course, you don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to do so.”
“I can’t accept that!” Mio exclaimed and blocked Seo Jun-Ho’s way.
Her slightly raised brows showed that she was a bit angry.
“I am coming with you. I want to.”
“No,” Seo Jun-Ho said firmly, “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to take care of you once we’re inside.”
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me!”
“Since you’ve said so much…” Seo Jun-Ho’s stern and cold gaze landed on Mio as he said, “You better be strong enough to back those words up.”
“...” Mio bit her lips. ‘So he knew that my swordsmanship is still incomplete.’
Above all, Mio still hadn’t reached the first star of the Purple Dawn Style.[1]
‘He knew it all along…’
Mio thought that Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t pay any attention to her because he was too busy, but it was clear that he had been keeping an eye on everything. Mio felt grateful but bitter at the same time.
“...Okay.” Mio stepped backward in dismay.
Skaya and Rahmadat looked at her with sympathy, while Kim Woo-Joong’s gaze turned indescribably complicated.
“We’ll stand guard here,” Gilberto said as he lowered his cowboy hat. He knew better than anyone that he wasn’t strong enough to go with Seo Jun-Ho and the others.
“...”
Others would think that Seo Jun-Ho was cruel, but Seo Jun-Ho simply had no choice.
In the end, the decision he had made wasn’t for himself but for Mio and Gilberto.
‘You two have to get strong enough that I can entrust you with any task.’
Seo Jun-Ho felt uneasy about leaving behind his old colleagues.
However, he steeled his heart and turned around to look at those he had called out.
“Does any of you want to stay out and stand guard?” asked Seo Jun-Ho.
However, not a single person raised their hands in response.
After a moment of silence, Seo Jun-Ho got ready as the four blades of the Freedom Blade orbited Seo Jun-Ho, acting as his bodyguards.
“Let’s go.”
Seo Jun-Ho took the lead and walked toward the gate of the village.
The gate was wide open, and it seemed to be inviting them to hurry up and go inside.
- Yehehehe, hehehehe!
A peal of hideous laughter greeted them.
1. This is also known as the Bright Sky Purple Style. ☜
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