A Dangerous Invitation (4)
Paht!
The first hunter to return among those who went to a different dimension to receive the reward was Klaus of the U.S.
As soon as he showed himself, he spat out profanity.
“Damn it. As expected, the Koreans stole all the contribution rate! Because of the low rate, the items were…!”His complaint didn’t see its end.
[Poison King’s Breath (Rank: SSS)]!
“K-argh!”
A pang of agony suddenly attacked him from within.
Amid the pain that made his entire body feel like it was covered in flames while being torn to shreds, Klaus collapsed.
“This…What the, argh–”
Trembling, he tried to shake his arms and legs. Within his fists that desperately clawed against the dirty ground, sounds of a bone breaking escaped out of his skin.“Cough!”
The metallic taste of blood came up in his mouth. He vomited so much red fluid that ordinary people would have lost their lives at that point. His face, which had turned pale for a brief moment, became distorted and reddened again by the pain that returned.
“What the…!”
Ray Chen was looking at him in that state with a blank look.
He had an indescribably dreadful atmosphere unlike before.
The gaze that looked down at the crumpling Awakened emitted nothing but coldness.
As his consciousness slowly faded, Klaus realized that the Chinese men before him had done something to his body.
A word came up in his mind.
‘Trap–!’
Paht! Paht-paht!
Following him, Dmitri of Russia, and Chakrabati of India, also returned after receiving the compensation.
Right after their feet touched the ground, they both suffered from the same fate as U.S. hunter Klaus.
“Keup!”
“K-aaargh!”
They all collapsed due to unbearable agony, which felt like it was trying to grind their whole bodies. It was the extreme effect of the toxin that Ray Chen poisoned them with.
Ray Chen spoke while he looked down upon those struggling in pain.
He used a voice with minimal fluctuations.
“I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now. From this moment onwards, you all will be properties of the People’s Republic of China. Remain in that state for a little while longer. I don’t want to repeat myself over and over again as the others arrive. I’ll just explain it to you all after everyone has returned and has gathered together. I will be commanding you of what you should be doing from now on.”
Ray Chen had a faint smile worn on his lips.
The plan was on the verge of success. However, it was almost time for the Koreans to come back…
“…?”
Amid the minds of the Chinese soldiers, including the General himself, a question came up.
In most cases, it took less than a minute for a hunter, who went to receive compensation, to return. It’s random anyway. It would’ve only been a waste of time if one dragged on inside the compensation realm.
But a minute had passed, then three minutes… Soon, nine whole minutes had elapsed.
Nonetheless, the three people from Korea hadn’t returned yet.
Ray Chen muttered lowly as if he couldn’t believe what was happening.
“Could they have noticed it?”
*
Immediately after the dungeon clear, a system message came up in front of me.
– The user’s contribution to the dungeon Clear is ranked 1st (Contribution rate: 32%)!
I had deliberately adjusted my hunting pace when we roamed the dungeon so that Hibiki and Nate’s contributions exceeded 20% each. If my calculations and observations were correct, both would have succeeded.
Paht!
System messages came up one after another in quick succession.
– QUESTION COMPLETE!
– Quest Name: Verification of Qualification (1)
– Description: To climb the Tower of Choice, you must prove your qualification as a worthy Awakened. Successfully Clear an SS-Class dungeon in your world and secure more than 20% of the contribution rate.
– Rewards: 2.5 million Achievement Points are awarded to the user!
‘That’s quite a catch.’
The minimum compensation was 1 million, and I received a compensation 2.5 times that amount. It was the highest amount of points I had ever received from a single quest.
“I would like to receive the dungeon-Clear compensation.”
It was time to get my other reward.
Paht!
As the surrounding landscape changed, I moved to a place to choose additional rewards.
The darkness surrounded me.
‘This should be the perfect timing.’
I recited the spell right away.
[Complete cure (Rank: SSS)]!
The magic that I gave myself essentially restored my state to normal properties.
Thanks to Hibiki having gained the SSS-Rank Enchant mastery, I copied her acquired spells.
When magic was activated, I could feel the blood-colored Mana poison in my body vanishing neatly.
If the poison that could be seen in Ray Chen’s eyes disappeared out of nowhere, he would have noticed it. I had no choice but to leave it unattended, but there was no need for it anymore.
After invalidating the expedition leader’s unique skill, I looked at the fragments of light everywhere.
‘The given time is 10 minutes… That is enough time.’
I had deliberately ordered Hibiki and Nate to stay in the selection space for 10 minutes before returning.
‘Although this is an SS-Rank dungeon, the best reward would be SSS-Rank items or skills.’
The reward that could be obtained was within the next two levels from the difficulty of the dungeon, so it wouldn’t have been wrong to expect EX-Rated items. That was what was theoretically known.
However, in the other encounter, the ministry spirit clearly stated that it was prohibited to give items of that grade in the tutorial dimension due to their rules.
‘They’re not idiots, so if the system had built the dungeon, they’d have considered that. They would have extracted the EX-Class from the dungeon reward connected to the tutorial world.’
It was an obvious countermeasure, so I didn’t doubt it.
I looked carefully to see if there was an SSS-Class among the rewards. I didn’t expect an EX-class at all.
But…
“… Huh?”
I mumbled to myself without realizing it.
It’s been a long time since I had been so shocked.
‘No way!’
I rubbed my eyes and stared at the object of surprise again.
‘For real? Are they really stupid? If they can think… There would’ve been no way that they could do their job this messily!’
The thing that made me doubt [The Successor’s Eyes], which I had never doubted before, was right in front of me.
It had a clear Mana pattern that was distinct from other items.
And… The important thing was the vivid light.
The brilliance of the light was different from any SSS-Class rewards that I had seen so far. It went further beyond that.
Gulp.
I swallow hard.
‘It’s certain.’
I shouted internally.
‘It’s an EX-Class!’
I felt like my heart was going to pop out of my ribs because of the excitement and intoxication.
On the other hand, I couldn’t understand why the system, the dungeon architect, kept leaving such tremendous loopholes.
‘… One of the reasonings I can come up with is that the possibility of choosing such is very low anyway, so it was left unattended.’
But it wasn’t convincing.
‘Or is there a separation of dungeon compensation officers in the same way the ministry spirit isn’t in charge of unique skills? Alternatively, the algorithmic control that generates the reward list may not be under the group that manages the ‘rule.”
In most minds of the Awakened, systems were nothing more than that- a mysterious system that controlled all the events that had occurred since the tutorial began.
But it occurred to me that maybe the system was something much more diversified than we thought.
‘Anyway, that’s not the important thing right now!’
What should I have chosen in that situation?
There was nothing to contemplate about!
“I choose that as my reward!”
The crystal of light I chose approached me.
In the next order, it had to sprinkle light powder while exploding like firecrackers as usual. And the identity of the item should’ve been revealed in front of me, but…
– (
