Return To Player - Chapter 15

The Virtue of Concession (2)

Human psychology is tricky.

They look up rather than down, and they try to avoid difficult paths.

The second main quest is a crude trap that digs into this psychology.

“Even if there is a boss monster on the 5th basement floor, getting there is a problem. There are many monsters on every floor.”

“Is the elevator working?”

“The electricity is cut off, so it seems unreasonable.”

About a few hours have passed since the meeting started.

Hyun-Kyun told them to hand over the monsters at the top of the tower to the others fraction and attack the basement in the meantime, but a few people did not accept it easily.

The pros and the opposers are roughly half and half, and what is surprising is that the pros have Park Dong-Kwon.

“I didn’t think you’d still be alive….”

The guy who saw me frowned and uttered those words.
w
“Do you believe me this time?”

“I don’t like it, but I do.”

It seemed that he had no intention of acting as a quiet vice president anymore.

Dong-Kwon said in a languid tone with his arms crossed.

“Even if the real boss is at the top of the tower, we won’t be able to defeat the other fraction by fighting them, and it would be even more impossible to catch the boss monster at the same time.”

“Hooo.”

“If it’s underground in the tower, we can go through the connecting passage in the subway station. They’ll only be guarding the passage from the basement on the first floor, so we won’t be caught going down.”

After all, Park Dong-Kwon’s moral is garbage, but he’s not stupid.

He clearly understands quickly and knows what’s important.

‘But.’

Even more so, I can’t believe what this guy is saying.

‘I can roughly guess what he’s thinking.’

I didn’t know it in my previous round, but if you look closely, he’s very easy to understand.

“….What?”

‘I was thinking about what to do with you.’

This guy isn’t the kind of guy who can be reborn by just letting it go.

For some reason, he is a corrupt person, and if left alone, he will surely commit the same things as he did in his previous round over and over again.

‘I have to deal with him properly.’

Killing him is easy, but that’s too merciful.

He’s got a lot of talent, so if I can use him, that would be better.

“Whoa, I’m going to die.”

As the meeting just ended, Hyunkyun approached me, while wiping the sweat from his forehead.

“Sehan-ah, how did it seem?”

Hyunkyun spoke to me in a more friendly tone.

Because I said it’s okay to let go. It was a measure to narrow the strangely awkward sense of distance.

‘Now it doesn’t feel so awkward.’

Perhaps because of the work of the first main quest, Hyunkyun was very difficult for me.

It didn’t matter if we met briefly, but I wanted to establish a long-term cooperative relationship with Hyun-Kyun.

‘It’s hard to find such a talented person.’

Of course, even when asked to speak comfortably, Hyun-Kyun did not accept it easily.

On the contrary, he staunchly opposed it, and in the end, I had no choice but to let go of my persuasion.

“There was opposition, but I decided to go down the basement.”

“Then all that remains is to declare our intentions to those occupying the Rome Tower.”

“About that. Don’t worry, I’ll let them know.”

HyunKyun’s face turned sullen.

Well, when he thinks of the guys he’ll meet, he can’t help but be like that.

“If it’s okay, can I go with you?”

“Ah really?! oh…Hmmm.”

Hyun-Kyun, who was smiling broadly, coughed a little, thinking that he had reacted too blatantly.

“If you come with me, things should go smoothly, thank you.”

“Well I have nothing to do, so I’ll go with you.”

After saying that, I glanced at Dong-Kwon. The boy was still looking elsewhere with a look of no interest.

‘I’m not interested, you bastard.’

I just looked at him, but I could feel that he was concentrating all his attention on this side.

How’s that different from just plain eavesdropping? I chuckled and shook my head.

‘I’ll have to meet Minah soon.’

I’ve felt it in my previous round, but again, people don’t change easily.

In the last round, there was a guild in Korea.

The worst guild created by a group of criminals.

A group that kills people like bugs and does anything for their benefit.

The Sin.

They referred to themselves that way.

“So, what is it do you want this time?”

Asked the man with half-white hair and sharp eyes.

“What? Did you come here to fight??”

“Kaak! Go ahead, I’ll deal with you anytime.”

The surroundings were noisy with criminals.

Most of them looked like they were laughing at us.

“I don’t think they are ordinary people.”

Jisoo said with a soft frown on her face.

We were currently standing at the entrance of the Rome Tower.

This is to talk with the leader who leads the opposing faction.

Our group consists of ten people including Hyunkyun, me, and Jisoo.

The opposing party has more than thirty people.

All of them had ugly impressions.

“That’s because these people are prisoners who were incarcerated in a detention center.”

“….Detention?”

“uh. Now that the situation has come to be this way, he must have been released.”

If the vicinity of the detention center became a stage, it would be natural.

Most of them are only these guys, so only the fiercest and cruel ones in that area would have survived.

It wasn’t for nothing that Hyun-Kyun and his group were hiding in the subway station.

“No. Today we are here to give our opinions.”

Unlike other people who showed signs of nervousness, Hyunkyun spoke to the man who looked like the leader with a fairly determined face.

‘Kim Joo-won’

A strong, muscular body with sharp eyes. A man who later formed the guild ‘The Sin’.

“Hey, it’s an opinion.”

Joo Won smirked.

“Isn’t cooperation already over the water?”

“We have no intention of offering cooperation.”

“Then?”

“I’m here to convey your opinion that we’re giving up the boss at the top of Rome Tower.”

“Well?”

Perhaps this was unexpected, but Joo-Won’s lips twisted.

“Then you just want to die?”

“No. I’m thinking of finding another way. We can’t beat you anyway.”

“And so?”

“If you kill the boss monster first, a new boss monster may appear after a certain period of time. We are going to try it.”

HyunKyun was making a face like a model of an honest person and then casually spit out lies.

Rather than Park Dong-Kwon, he may have more of a con artist temperament.

“Are you serious?”

“Then do we have any other way?”

“If you have any other intentions, you’ll all die.”

“Yes, I sincerely promise you that we will never disturb you when you fight the monsters at the top of Rome Tower.”

Joo Won’s eyes turned bright red and glistened.

Although he still has a relaxed complexion, he is fundamentally a murderer.

“Huck!”

“Hi, Hiik.”

As sharp blades spread around him, the people around him began to tremble.

‘Haaa….No matter how many times I’ve felt this, this aura is still really unpleasant.’

Joo Won is also an avatar of God.

The God who chose Joo Won is Hades. one of the supreme gods.

Therefore, he was able to become the king of these lot of garbages, and later became the ruler of one of the leading guilds in Korea.

“Good.”

Seeing Hyun-Kyun’s pale complexion, Joo-won smiled softly and turned his head.

“What do you guys think?”

When he asked the people standing behind him, the crowd roared.

“It doesn’t really matter, does it? If they didn’t yield, they would’ve died anyway.”

“That’s right! We can just kill them if they’re scheming something!”

“Still….”

“What, are you scared?”

“Wow, what are you talking about? I was just telling you!”

After all, they knew very well that Hyun-Kyun and his group were no match for them, so the atmosphere naturally moved toward acceptance.

“Alright. We’ll do it.”

Joo Won nodded as he decided to accept HyunKyun’s opinion.

“But you know that we can’t just listen to you, right?”

“Yeah, then I will stay here while you guys attack the boss-”

“Hyung.”

At that moment, Dong-Gwon intervened and said.

“HyunKyun Hyung is our leader, so he can’t leave his position. So I’ll stay instead.”

‘Oh?.’

From the outside, it looks like he’s making sacrifices on behalf of Hyun-Kyun, but that’s never going to happen.

Maybe if it’s anyone else, but Park Dong-Kwon?

“Dong-Gwon, you….”

HyunKyun shut his mouth right when he was about to say something.

“I get it. If you change your mind, please let me know.”

“Yes.”

After a rough decision was made, Hyun-Kyun turned to Joo-won.

And the moment he was about to open his mouth, Joo Won muttered and said.

“Only one person? At least everyone here remains.”

“What?”

“Especially you….”

Joo-won’s narrowly curved eyes moved slowly and turned towards me.

To be precise, Jisoo standing behind me.

“The guy next to you is annoying.”

Kaang!!

As soon as Joo Won finished speaking, sparks flew and the noise of metal rubbing resounded.

Silver chains swayed in the air and fell to the floor.

“Hmm?”

Joo-won’s lips twitched as if he didn’t know he was going to be blocked.

In front of me was Joo Won’s chain scythe that had just flown to us, embedded in the ground.

This guy just tried to kill me. For no reason.

I was just looking at Jisoo, and I was standing in front of her, so I was just trying to get rid of it.

“What are you doing now?!”

Hyun-Kyun, who could not understand the situation for a moment, came to his senses and shouted at him.

Of course, Hyun-Kyun’s words did not reach Joo-won’s ears.

“It seems… You’re quite capable.”

“Yeah, so?”

At least enough to make you into a corpse.

I could have killed this guy here if I wanted to, but the people around me were concerned.

There was no need to kill him.

Since he’s going to die soon anyway.

“What? Did he just speak informally in front of our captain?!”

“Enough.”

Joo Won calmed down his subordinates, who seemed to be ready to run here at any moment, and looked at me.

Red eyes that are crimson red. It was redder than before.

Ordinary people might have been afraid.

But, to me, who’ve seen this thousands of times, it’s nothing special.

“…He’s not your ordinary guy.”

After saying that, Joo Won gently stroked his chin.

“Let’s compromise, it’s not a good idea for you to fight us right now.”

Saying so, I took a step to the side.

For him to properly see Jisoo’s face.

“…!”

“What do you think? Do you still want us to stay?”

“….”

“Hyung?”

Seeing Joo-Won’s strangely stiffened appearance, his subordinates asked with puzzled faces.

As I roughly understood the reason, I turned my attention away from him and tapped Jisoo on the shoulder.

“Stop.”

“Ah…I’m sorry, I was angry for a moment.”

Jisoo blushed in surprise. At first glance, she was just cute, but in Joo Won’s eyes, she must have looked like a thorny flower.

‘Though the aura is quite a subtle one for Thousand Deaths.’

Joo Won is clearly a brutal killer and a psycho.

But that’s all he is. To him, that aura wasn’t ‘quite subtle’.

“Haah, haah.”

Joo-won barely breathed after a while.

“Yeah, yes. Good. I accept your suggestion. Just that one guy should stay.”

His gaze strayed from us. It was clearly to avoid eye contact with Jisoo.

“And with that, we’ll go now.”

“Okay, go. Now!”

As if he was terrified, Joo Won gestured and shouted.

Hyun-Kyun frowned at such a sight, but quietly bowed his head and backed away.

“Ha, I wondered what would happen near the end, but it ended safely.

I’m worried about Dong-Gwon who will be left alone.”

“He… is not someone to worry about.”

He wanted to stay in the first place, so what are you worried about?

“More than that, we should prepare right away.”

“Everyone went to buy weapons with points, so let’s go as soon as we’re ready.”

When I told them that they could buy things in the safe zone, people went to the safe zone.

It will take two days for them to return and be ready to go down underground.

“But do you think they’ll just quietly kill that monster?”

“No.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, but you don’t have to worry.”

Hyunkyun tilted his head at my light reply.

“..why?”

“You’ll find out later.”

In the first place, this is the last time Hyun-Kyun will meet them.

Because there is no next time for them.