Chapter 8 Darker than the Devil (1)

「Next Duel in 23:59:55」

After getting teleported to the second-floor waiting room, Yoon-seok remained still for a while. He was thinking about Kang Hyung-woo, who suddenly appeared before him during the duel, pondering over what he had said.

—I was the one who set the factory on fire.

But he was sure that the culprit couldn’t be Hyung-woo. The illusion he spoke to might have done so only to provoke him.

‘B-But if it’s real..what I’m supposed to do?’

After asking himself, he realized he couldn’t do anything, regardless of if it was the truth. Kang Hyung-woo was the blood and flesh of the JC family, while Yoon-seok was a nobody. Perhaps that was why even if he suspected Hyung-woo, he chose to overlook it: even if he learned the truth, he wouldn’t be able to bear it..some things were better left unknown.

If he didn’t get dragged into another dimension to fight for his life, he was sure to leave this incident buried deep in the back of his mind.

‘When I go back..I’ll surely find out the truth.’

More than improving his combat skills, Yoon-seok grew a lot during the battle with the Old Priest. Now, he possessed the courage to face the truth rather than ignoring it.

‘But for that to happen, now I’ll have to survive.’

Only those who survive have the right to seek revenge or to forgive. Yoon-seok was now filled with resolve. Then, he opened his window to check what rewards he received from the duel.

[Challenger Information:

Name: Choi Yoon-seok (Floor: 2)

Achievement: 2 wins, 0 losses, 0 draws.

*[Ability]

Strength: F-

Agility: F-

Stamina: F-

Endurance: F-

Mana: F-

*[Unique Skills]

— Take skills from the opponent.

— Enhance a weapon with mana.

— Increases the strength of an attack by multiple times.

*[Total Score]: 4000AP

*[Coins owned]: 4

[Back]

His profile didn’t change much. The only notable changes were that he obtained a unique skill from the Old Priest and went up from the first floor to the second. Also, his total AP had been doubled, and he now had an additional coin as a reward for his win. Seeing the pattern, Yoon-seok realized something.

‘..Seems like the rewards are doubled every rank?‘

When he defeated the first monster, he received 2000AP. Perhaps, if he understood the pattern right, his next opponent would be 4000AP. So, Yoon-seok started to calculate the scores. If the next time he met someone was 8000AP, then the next might be 16000AP, then 32000AP, which would continue to double even further.

‘If I can get ten wins, then..’

That would be a whopping 2.4 million AP. And after that, if he could get ten more wins, then his total score would be 1.2 billion. That was a number that Yoon-seok didn’t dare dream of. He was a challenger who had been struggling just for a few thousand AP while debating how to use them efficiently.

But, he couldn’t forget that the total score was the basic measure for one’s strength. Then, if he could get twenty wins, he would be 308000 times stronger than he was now.historical

‘What kind of monstrous strength would I have..?’

Three hundred thousand times stronger than he was now. It was a level that he couldn’t dare comprehend.

‘But let’s not get carried away and focus on what’s in front of me.’

Yoon-seok snapped back to reality and opened the chat room.

[Entering the chat room (2) on the 2nd floor.]

[Current number of participants 1187/10000]

The total number of challengers was the same, but the number of online chat rooms had changed. Before, it was three on the first floor, but now it has been reduced to two.

‘Will the capacity of the chatrooms increase once it reaches 10000?’

Even though the total number of challengers was the same, the number of participants promoted to this floor decreased. Although it was still a large number of people, the frequency of the challengers was overwhelmingly lower than that of the first floor. Thus, the chat room wasn’t as chaotic as before. Now, he could follow the real-time conversations.

-James Dean: What’s wrong with this ridiculous pricing of a coin on the second floor? Is it true that from 250AP, it has increased to 1000AP? Wow, if I knew this would happen, I would have saved it from the first floor.

-Champion A: If you did, you wouldn’t be standing on the second floor. Don’t rely on the coins: it’s a loss in the long run.

-Ark_knight: Does anyone know about weapon mastery? I want some reviews before I buy it.

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.

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This place was without any aimless chatting. Unlike the first-floor chat room filled with meaningless messages, information was being exchanged efficiently and smoothly in the second-floor chat room. Yoon-seok filtered the messages to the challengers from Earth.

‘Hmm, there’s less than a hundred of us now.’

The number might be several times higher if he counted those who were offline, but if he compared the other filter functions, the challengers were at least double from this chatroom. However, to his surprise, even conspiracy rumors were spreading.

-Devil 666: Someone said that you’re not going to die even if you use all the coins. They’re just going to return after losing their challenger’s authority.

-Foreman Elysee: Is it true?

-Black-Cow: How could that fool you? It’s a lie.

-Devil 666: But it’s real. My friend who was dragged along with me died first, but when I went back to Earth, I found him there, still alive.

-Black-Cow: Really?

-Devil 666: Yes, but he couldn’t remember what happened.

-Black-Cow: Aww, yes! I was really scared because I have only one coin left, but now I’ll just relax and die in the next duel.

But of course, they couldn’t verify the credibility of the words of Devil 666’s words. However, the people sharing the same chat room began to sympathize with him. And soon, as was often the case with group psychology, it didn’t take much longer for the hoax to turn into a truth. Soon, the whole chat room was filled with the topics related to or actively brought up by Devil 666. They talked about how they would rather have a hopeful suicide and die quickly, just to return to their original world.

Though some expressed their doubts, Devil 666 quickly dismissed such suspicions with a few good words.

-Devil 666: What good would it do if I lied?

Usually, crooks lie for their benefit. At first glance, it might seem that Devil 666 had nothing to gain from lying. But..

Devil 666: Let’s convey this message to all the participants on different levels. If we all insist together, they’ll believe us.

‘Is he trying to eliminate the competitors..?’

If any challengers believed such a lie that death was the way back to the original world, they would give up on their next duel. Well, challengers were chosen at random, so it was highly unlikely to meet such an opponent. But as the numbers of believers increased, so did the probability. Maybe that’s what Devil 666 wanted.

-Black-Cow: We’ll have to let everyone know, this is..

-Foreman Elysee: You’re right! There’s someone I got close to on the first floor, so I’ll go and tell them.

Soon, the well-intended challengers came forward and began to engage in the conversation. They started to preach Devil 666’s words in unison. Seeing such messages were passed with good intention, beings of different dimensions soon began to tilt their heads with pure interest.

Hence, those persuaded beings spread the message with their voices raised much more enthusiastically than Earth. Yoon-seok thought that there might be some like him who wouldn’t believe such claims, but it was hard to refute those words in this atmosphere.

He remained silent with his doubts limited to himself. It was too late to stop; the spread was now out of control. Even those who just entered the chat room were being persuaded. Yoon-seok quietly left the room, unable to find any useful information amidst the chaos. Also, he felt if he kept looking at those chats, he would surely lose his mind.

‘Let’s keep doing my job; that’s the answer.’

Yoon Suk rummaged through the list of stores to find how he could utilize the 2000AP he currently possessed.

‘Search through everything, except the Convenience section...’

pieces of furniture (one could even sleep if they bought a bed), food, and various tickets. But those things had nothing to do with fighting.

‘Let’s pass the Miscellaneous section, too.’

In that section, healing potions and various miscellaneous combat supplies were sold. Looking at the elaborate explanations, they might seem to be effective, but they had one glaring flaw: the prices were too high.

‘I might like the item now, but the more I buy, the more disadvantageous it will get.’

Duels were held between challengers with the same aggregate score (total amount of AP acquired). In other words, the more AP he saved now, the more of an advantage he would have in the long run. However, scrolling further, the [Miscellaneous] section didn’t have only short-term items.

There were items he could use for a permanent level increase for ranks and abilities. Someday, when the time came, Yoon-seok thought he would buy one. But right now, he couldn’t afford them. And in the first place, he didn’t have any skill worth leveling up. It’d cost 1500AP to raise one of his abilities from F- to F.

‘Let’s buy either a skill or piece of equipment instead.’

When he was on the first floor, he bought quite a few pieces of equipment, so he thought this time he’d focus on the skills. There were three options that he wanted to choose from.

*[Backstep] (Rank F-) – Retract up to 1m. When activated, it unconditionally counterattacks for 0.5 seconds. If the counterattack is successful, the power will be doubled.

*[Sword Mastery] (Rank F-) – Speed of any sword-like weapon increases by 1.5 times.

*[Counter Weapon Shield] (Rank F-) – Strengthen shields using mana. Five seconds cooldown before the next reuse.

And they were all at the same price, 1500AP. With the remaining 500AP, he planned on buying a pair of shoes.

‘I can’t remain barefoot forever, even with these clothes.’

Which skill would help him the most? Soon after, Yoon-seok made his decision.