Episode 83. Survival Reward
The time when the broadcast announced that the second round of the preliminary round had ended.
Even then, Kim Jin-seong was still hunting Quagmire in a secret room on the third basement floor.
‘It’s over now.’
Kim Jin-seong, who heard the announcement, lightly stretched out one hand toward the many Quagmires still remaining.
Puff puff puff!
Then the Quagmires’ bodies exploded and shattered into pieces.
The pieces of slime that formed in the process immediately began to melt at a rapid rate in the flames on the floor of the secret room.
Kim Jin-seong, who had killed all the remaining Quagmires in an instant, looked around with a new expression.
‘This ability is definitely a scam.’
Seoldown’s ability was truly overwhelming.
Previously, to remove it, you had to attack using magic energy, convert it to fire mana, and spread it across the floor.
But now, if I wanted to, the surrounding mana would take care of it for me. This is a truly convenient ability.
‘Thanks to you, I accumulated more points than before.’
As work efficiency has increased, the points earned in the same amount of time have also increased to the point where there is a noticeable difference.
As a result, Kim Jin-seong earned more than twice as many points in the same amount of time as before catching Seoldown.
‘I thought about killing the taggers and reducing the competition in advance… . It would be better to earn points in advance.’
In fact, even if he caught all of the remaining taggers, it was doubtful whether he would come up with anything better than the Seoldown trait he had now acquired.
He decided that it would be better to hunt down familiar Quagmires and collect points rather than engage in battles with taggers that might put his life at risk.
It was impossible to predict what rules would be followed in the third round of the preliminary round.
In fact, there have been cases before where the game was played in an environment without any monsters.
‘And the correct answer was to collect points.’
Jinseong Kim checked again the notification window that had appeared before his eyes a moment ago.
▶ Viscrima points have exceeded 10,000.
▶ You can use Vis Crimea points to further enhance one skill or characteristic.
▶ When using ‘Skill Enhancement’, 10,000 Vis Crimea points are consumed. Would you like to add it?
A new feature that appears when you collect 10,000 points, ‘Skill Enhancement.’
Actually, I didn’t like Kim Jin-seong very much at first.
‘Skill fusion’, which uses only half the points, more than doubles the abilities of existing skills, so it was questionable whether there was a need to invest twice as many points.
‘however… It wasn’t just a little strengthening of skills.’
Jinseong Kim chose ‘Skill Enhancement’ and then ‘Animal Transformation’.
Then a new notification window appeared.
▶ Strengthens ‘Animal Transformation’. When strengthened, it changes as follows:
– The skill name is Animal Transformation -> Creature Transformation.
– Transformable beings expand from animals to all living beings.
– The number of identical creatures that must be caught to transform into that creature is reduced from 10 to 1.
– When transforming into a living creature, from now on only stat buffs will be obtained, and debuffs will disappear.
– The existing stat buff effect increases much more significantly.
▶ Would you like to strengthen your ‘Animal Transformation’ skill?
At a glance, it was at the level of gaining a completely different skill when strengthening a skill.
Even among the abilities he possessed, this ‘animal transformation’ had the least skill strengthening effect. Some skills were at a level that Jinseong Kim could not believe his eyes.
‘For now, let’s save this for the third round of the preliminary round. Because the skills that need to be strengthened may vary depending on the situation.’
Jinseong Kim decided to save up the points and closed the notification window.
Like ‘Skill Fusion’, which was used at the right time in the second round of the preliminaries, ‘Skill Enhancement’ was also scheduled to be useful depending on the situation in the third round of the preliminaries.
‘… huh?’
At that time, Kim Jin-seong raised his head at the sudden feeling of an unfamiliar energy.
From the ground, he felt a large number of people radiating powerful energy approaching him at high speed.
At the same time, an announcement sounded in his ears.
[From now on, agents from the Republic of Korea Hunter Department will guide all surviving participants to the airfield.
Participants, please do not rebel and faithfully follow the instructions of the agents.]
‘… Hunter Department agents? ‘Not an employee?’
When Kim Jin-seong was puzzled after listening to the broadcast,
bang! And the door to the secret room opened roughly, revealing Hunter Department agents fully armed from head to toe.
“Don’t move! “Put your hands above your head!”
The sight of Hunter Department agents slowly approaching, ready to attack at any moment.
Jinseong Kim obediently raised both hands without any intention of resisting.
‘… The Hunter Department agents are definitely different.’
Kim Jin-seong sticks his tongue out at the momentum emitted by the Hunter Department agents.
The momentum emitted by each person was not something to be taken lightly. The energy was so strong that it felt a shame to compare it to the Colosseum employees I had seen before.
‘this… This is the state of Korea’s elite hunters.’
Moreover, the equipment they were all equipped with was unusual.
It was clear that it would make the combat power of the Hunter Department agents equipped with it much stronger.
Kang Myeong-gu, who had sparred with Kim Jin-seong in the training room, also remembered that there was a huge difference between when he was wearing the equipment and when he was not.
Jinseong Kim looked at the scenes and smiled bitterly.
‘If I had run away, I might have been in big trouble.’
If there had been any movement to escape, a difficult fight would have occurred with the agents in front of us.
At this moment, Jinseong Kim was feeling it instinctively.
That it is not time yet.
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
* * *
Kim Jin-seong, wearing a hunter bracelet and anklet, moved to the airfield under close surveillance by hunter department agents.
‘… ‘A transport plane?’
Jinseong Kim realized that the type of plane he would board on his return had changed.
The passenger plane that had previously brought the participants, including him, was nowhere to be found, and many military transport planes were waiting for them.
“We will board in groups of 30!”
“Move quickly!”
Following the guidance of the agents, the survivors divided into small groups and began boarding the transport plane.
Among them, Kim Jin-seong was the last to board.
As soon as he entered the transport plane, all the taggers on board focused their attention on him, but Jinseong Kim didn’t pay any attention.
Rather, he was concentrating on the sight of magic stones filled with the interior of the transport plane.
‘The energy emitted from each magic stone is enormous.’
Even if I were to guess roughly, it was incomparable to the energy I felt in the magic circle inside the helicopter I boarded during the first round of the preliminary round.
As soon as Kim Jin-seong boarded his seat, the transport plane began to rise vertically into the sky.
After a while, military transport planes began flying toward Korea.
The flight speed was faster than expected, and the island seen out the window began to get smaller at a rapid rate.
“Come on, everyone. Please pay attention.”
At that time, one person sitting in the front row stood up and spoke to the participants.
Looking at the CSS written on his armor, he seemed to be a Colosseum employee, not a Hunter Department agent.
“Baek Jun, CEO of the Colosseum Survival Program, will soon make an important announcement. “It contains content that you all must hear, so please pay attention and watch from now on.”
After finishing the explanation, I pressed the power button on the large screen installed right next to me.
As soon as the screen turned on, Baekjun, dressed in a suit, was seen standing in the center of the studio like a news desk.
[Hello, viewers who love the Colosseum survival program. This is Baek Jun, the representative.]
Baekjun’s live broadcast presentation began with a bow and a polite bow.
[The reason I am standing in front of you as soon as the second round of the preliminaries is over is to tell you about the rules and schedule for the third round.]
‘now?’
Everyone in the transport plane, including Kim Jin-seong, began to focus even more on the TV screen.
[The name of our program is none other than ‘Colosseum.’ In ancient Rome, it was the name of the largest stadium where gladiator games were held where gladiators had to kill their opponents to survive.
For reference, there is one stadium in Korea named Colosseum.]
‘Jamsil Colosseum Arena?’
[That’s right. This is the ‘Jamsil Colosseum Arena’ that everyone knows.]
The ‘Jamsil Colosseum Arena’, which was rebuilt on the site where Jamsil Main Stadium once stood, is owned by Colosseum Production, headed by Baek Jun.
After it was devastated by monster attacks, numerous companies made frequent requests and bribes to the government to build their buildings there.
However, the government, which had stubbornly rejected all requests, unusually allowed Colosseum Productions to establish an arena.
In the process, there was some kind of deal between Hunter Department Minister Tak Nam-gyu and Baek Jun, but there are only a few people on earth who know the secret.
[For the third round of this preliminary round, we would like to return to the original rules of ‘Colosseum’, the title of our survival program.]
‘… no way?’
Kim Jin-seong’s expected answer was exactly what Baek Jun said on TV.
[The third round of the preliminary round will be held as a 1-on-1 match at the Jamsil Colosseum arena.]
“oh!”
“ah… !”
“ruined… .”
Soon, the participants inside the transport plane showed various reactions.
Those skilled in combat who were confident in 1-on-1 combat responded that it was fortunate, while the other skilled people turned into serious expressions.
Baekjun’s words on TV continued.
[In the third round of the preliminary round, each participant will compete in a total of three one-on-one matches.]
‘third time?’
[The third round of the preliminary round will be held in a tournament format, with the winners of each group playing one-on-one matches again.
The participant who wins all three times will be eligible to participate in the long-awaited final match.]
After hearing the explanation, Jinseong Kim was lost in thought.
‘If we fight three times, there may be variables.’
Of course, it is true that there is currently no contestant who can be confident that they can beat him one-on-one.
However, the inability to receive points during three fights could have been a sufficient variable.
If you are unlucky enough to encounter a crisis in the first or second match and use skill fusion or reinforcement, you may encounter an unexpectedly strong player in the third match and lose due to lack of points.
Of course, the odds are really low, but you always have to keep in mind the worst of the worst.
That way, you won’t panic when a similar situation arises.
‘I’ll have to hope that the stronger one doesn’t get caught during the showdown.’
As Jinseong Kim was thinking like that, Baekjun’s voice on TV kept coming into Jinseong Kim’s ears.
[And as mentioned in advance, those who played the role of a thief who overcame much more unfavorable conditions than the tag team and survived to the end will be given a huge benefit in the third round of the preliminary round.]
‘oh.’
Only then did Kim Jin-seong recall the memory of Kim Bong-man talking about compensation in the waiting room before the start of the second round of the preliminaries.
[I will tell you the reward now. The benefits given to the thief survivors in the third round of the preliminary round are… .]
fantasy,
