The S-rank gate that became Yoon Gyeom’s hunter retirement stage was the raid Dohae first participated in. At the time, elite units were dispatched from each guild for a large-scale subjugation, and Yoon Gyeom was an A-rank hunter affiliated with White Guild.
The reason that promising young man lost one leg at a young age was to protect Dohae, who was only fifteen at the time. Even though he’d said several times that he was stronger so there was no need to protect him, Yoon Gyeom insisted that children should be protected.
Yoon Gyeom was foolishly kind, a person who didn’t suit being a hunter.
“Well, Yoon Gyeom must have a lot built up against Pax too.”
“Built up?”
“Mmhm, before Pax left hate comments on him, he was a kid who sent gamers to hell in gaming communities. Yoon Gyeom became a target back then and retired because of it.”
“Fuck, what?”
So that’s why Yoon Gyeom is on the opposing team? To get revenge on Pax? Dohae glared at Pax with coldly cooled eyes. As expected, trash he couldn’t associate with.
[The match begins!]
One wall of the waiting room opened wide. The elementary schoolers ran out excitedly upon seeing the colorful amusement rides.
Left alone, Pax did stretches, extending his limbs this way and that.
—Unmute sound.
Question marks poured into the chat window at the words that popped out of Pax’s mouth. The viewers had their eardrums terrorized by the elementary schoolers’ squealing screams, but he had been using the mute function by himself the whole time.
—Why are you cursing? Can’t you guys just turn off the sound too?
Pax tilted his head while reading the chat. The way he muttered “Ah, you can’t think that far?” sounded like he was genuinely curious.
What kind of guy is this? Dohae’s face mercilessly contorted.
Pax walked out slowly. The NPCs in the game seemed like real people, but they didn’t stop Pax from freely taking cotton candy that was being sold.
—Why did I pick elementary schoolers? When you play with kids, you can choose the map. ‘Happy Amusement Park’ is perfect because there are lots of NPCs.
Pax, who was about to take a bite of cotton candy, soon realized he was wearing a gas mask and handed the cotton candy to a child next to him. Then he leisurely bantered with viewers before discovering a carousel and climbing onto it.
“…Didn’t they say it’s a combat game? Why isn’t he fighting?”
“Ah, in the early stages they move focused on item farming.”
Byun Taehui kindly continued explaining for Dohae, who didn’t understand the game even while driving.
“Special items that can only be used in that field are scattered in random locations. They also give first acquisition points.”
“Special items?”
“Mmhm. The amusement park map looks ordinary but actually….”
—Oh, found a flamethrower!
Just then, Pax, who was spinning round and round on the carousel, discovered a flamethrower wedged between ceiling structures.
Pax jumped up lightly using the horse as a foothold. He grabbed onto the ceiling structure, hung there, and gradually moved sideways.
Pax, who grabbed the gas tank and igniter in one hand, tried to rest his foot on the horse’s head part but slipped and fell with a crash.
He’s going to fight Yoon Gyeom when he falls from that height? Dohae looked down at the screen as if pathetic.
—Fuck, it’s heavy as hell.
Pax slung the gas tank with straps like a bag over his shoulder and held the igniter in his hand.
“Oh my~ A flamethrower? He got a good one.”
“A good one?”
“It’s good for dealing with many at once.”
“Dealing with what.”
“Zombies~.”
“Zombies?”
—Kyaaaaaaah!
A scream filled with terror came from somewhere. The scream gradually spread and began echoing here and there.
What’s happening? I don’t know! Someone help! The NPCs turned pale like real people and were busy running away.
Even in the midst of this, the theme park’s characteristic bright background music echoed, and the rides kept turning.
“The rules are slightly different for each map. In the amusement park, you have to get points by killing zombies, rescuing survivors, and killing the opposing team.”
The virtual reality PVP game <Last On>, as could be understood from its catchphrase ‘Hope for Humanity!’, unfolds all battlefields against an apocalypse setting.
The ‘Happy Amusement Park’ that Pax chose was a map where players performed given missions to earn points in an amusement park where a zombie virus was spreading, and the team with the higher final total score wins.
Dohae wanted to know how the pathetically weak Pax planned to face Yoon Gyeom, an A-rank hunter and former pro gamer. All the viewers watched him with one heart and mind.
*
“S-save me! Uwaaah!”
“Huaaang! Mommyyy!”
“Please save us! I have a child!”
The amusement park became pandemonium in an instant. With screams coming from all directions, the NPCs didn’t know which way to run and wandered in confusion.
In the process, there were young children who lost their parents’ hands, and elderly people who fell and got trampled by people. NPCs who grasped the situation quickly went into restaurants or souvenir shops and closed the doors.
[Just recommend abandoning people ㄱㄱ]
[For real lol in this game humans are always more fucked]
[Pax-ya, you get way more points for eliminating the enemy team than killing zombies or saving humans]
Ten minutes after the zombie virus spreads, the match begins in earnest. It proceeds in a total of 3 phases, and players must escort survivors to safe zones while dealing with increasingly strong zombies.
In Phase 1, there are over ten safe zones, but in Phase 2 it reduces to three, and in the final Phase 3, only one remains.
Both teams can’t enter one safe zone simultaneously, so they have to battle when they meet the enemy team. The winning team can even steal the survivor points the opponent brought.
“No, how can they tell me to abandon them?”
When advice poured in from the chat window not to save people, Pyeonghwa immediately refuted it. The rules were slightly different for each map, but <Last On> was fundamentally a scoring game where the team that acquired more points won.
The way to get the biggest points was to eliminate the opposing team, but unconditionally killing opponents wasn’t the only solution. This was because devices that could earn additional points were hidden everywhere.
Those devices connected to the game’s theme ‘Hope for Humanity!’ Pyeonghwa thought it was a game where the team that gave humanity greater hope won, regardless of the players’ life or death.
“Of course I have to save them. Look at those points. Hehe……”
Now zombies were close enough to be visible in the distance. Survivors were pleading to be let into the souvenir shop.
Even though it was obvious that dozens of people had taken shelter inside, the firmly closed door wouldn’t open. A middle-aged man kicked the door with bangs and spat curses.
Pyeonghwa, who approached the middle-aged man, checked if anyone was listening around them, then quickly whispered in his ear.
“Ahjussi, aren’t you resentful that only we’re dying? If the people inside the store had just opened the door, everyone here could have held out until the rescue team came.”
“Uh, uh……? ……Yeah, these fucking bastards! I’ll curse you even after death!”
“You hate them that much? Enough to want to do something drastic?”
“Ha, yeah. If it were up to me, I’d want to take them all to the underworld with me!”
“I happen to have a flamethrower……”
“What? A flamethrower? Give that here!”
“Uwah!”
The middle-aged man snatched the flamethrower from Pyeonghwa’s hands. His bloodshot eyes were strangely unfocused.
He aimed the igniter at the door and pressed the power button. The flames that burst out transferred to the wooden building in an instant.
[Huh why is ahjussi suddenly going berserk??;;]
[You lose tons of points if you kill survivors]
[Isn’t that okay since an NPC is killing them?]
Crackle, crack! As the flames spread, black smoke rose. Murmuring sounds could be heard from inside the shop as they noticed the fire.
Eventually someone couldn’t endure it and flung the door wide open. Then the middle-aged man immediately shot the flamethrower at his face.
“Kwaaaaah!”
“A-appa!”
The survivor whose face caught fire rolled on the ground with agonized screams. Though nearby people poured dirt from flowerpots to put out the fire, his face was already horribly mangled.
“Whoa, scary. Must be a psychopath.”
Pyeonghwa muttered nonchalantly while watching the scene of fratricide unfold. Then question marks appeared in succession in the chat window.
[Are you serious? fuck]
[??? Was there an NPC like that in the amusement park;;]
[Looking at it, it’s clearly a mental-type skill]
Pyeonghwa shrugged his shoulders. Even without saying it with his own mouth, everyone would know what skill it was once the match ended.
<Active Skill「Demagogue Lv.1」
Artificially heightens the emotions of targets who empathize with the caster’s words.
Does not work if the target’s mental strength is higher than the caster’s.
Duration 5 minutes / Cooldown 30 minutes
Required AP for Lv.2: 10>
There was nothing the general store didn’t have. Naturally, it also sold skill books that could teach new skills.
It was a situation where every penny was precious, so expensive skill books were a luxury, but they were worth investing in for the future.
