Translator: Seven

  Editor: Ana_Banana

  The Blackened Forest.

  Everything in this vast, vast forest was dyed black, be it the trees, rocks, and even the ground.

  Whoosh.

  A fierce gale blew through this forest.

  And then, in the places where this wind blew, the true face of the blackened forest, which was originally an ordinary forest, was revealed.

  It turned out that this forest was actually made black, instead, everything in the forest was covered in black powder.

  And it wasn’t ordinary powder either.

  [Black powder flutters.]

  [A terrible poison scatters.] (TL: I feel like a poet)

  Instead, this black powder was actually a terrible poison that could destroy a person’s lungs just by being breathed in.

  “Hooo!”


  And in this black powder, Kim Woo-jin took a deep breath, sucking this black powder directly into his lungs.

  He immediately heard a notification.

  [You have been afflicted with a terrible poison.]

  The notification emphasized the terribleness of this poison.

  Upon realising that fact, a player’s face would have become white with fear in an instant.

  Of course, Kim Woo-jin didn’t do that.

  [Apophis’ power activates.]

  [The effect of the poison is negated.]

  No poison could work in front of the power of Apophis.

  [The black powder poison accumulates in your body and strengthens Blood Poison.]

  Instead, the poison integrated with Kim Woo-jin’s body and made his Blood Poison even more horrific.

  It was a very terrifying scene.

  Maned Orangutans, monsters whose manes put lion’s manes to shame, were known for their power and ferocity.

  They always moved in groups of around one hundred, but it was possible for that to increase if a boss monster spawned among them.

  In that case, the groups could even reach ten thousand members.

  That was the reason.

  [Maned Orangutans have been afflicted by Blood Poison.]

  [Maned Orangutans’ stats have been greatly reduced.]

  [Maned Orangutans’ have lost their senses because of Blood Poison.]

  The reason why hundreds of Maned Orangutans, giant 2 meter tall monkeys, had their eyes roll up and their mouths foam as they collapsed to the ground basically waiting to die.

  Moreover, these Maned Orangutans’ had poison resistances strong enough to resist the forest’s black powder.

  How could one possibly fight these creatures when even breathing was a risk?

  This was the level of difficulty one expected from a sixth floor.

  ‘It’s easier than I expected.’


  But now, this place had become a walk in the park for Kim Woo-jin.

  ‘I thought it would be harder than this.’


  This was neither a bluff nor arrogance.

  It was simply a fact that the sixth floor of the dungeon was much easier than Kim Woo-jin initially expected.

  ‘The Blood Poison will be a great help.’


  Thanks to its strengthening by the black powder, Kim Woo-jin’s blood poison had reached a stage where it could easily destroy the Maned Orangutans despite their strong poison resistance.

  That was why Kim Woo-jin found the situation to be unexpected.

  And there was one more unexpected situation.

  Guaah!

  [Dullahan has taken another life.]

  [Dullahan’s energy becomes stronger.]

  ‘Dullahan’s abilities are much stronger than I expected.’


  Dullahan!

  This new skill that Kim Woo-jin had acquired turned out to be much stronger than he initially expected.

  This was the reason he found the sixth floor to be a walk in the park, and why he stopped paying attention to the 6 Floor dungeon.

  “Lee Jin-ah.”


  “Yeah.”


  “We’re leaving.”


  He just looked at the dungeon gate with a mysterious gaze.

  …


  “Good to see you.”


  It was Shakira’s voice that greeted Kim Woo-jin as he stepped out of the dungeon gate.

  That was it.

  Only her voice and nothing else could be heard.

  The sounds of automatic rifles being loaded, the sounds of guns being fired nor the sound of people crying for them to ‘put their hands up’ could be heard!

  “What about Isaac?”


  As soon as she asked that question, two more people left the dungeon gate.

  They were Kim Woo-jin’s alter ego wearing the mask of Isaac Ivanov and Lee Jin-ah in his mask.

  After seeing it was them, Shakira nodded.

  Then, curious, Kim Woo-jin couldn’t help but say.

  “You’re acting much more hospitable than I expected.”


  Why didn’t they attack?

  When she heard this, Shakira gave a big smile, showing off her pearly white teeth.

  “It’s natural to treat a valuable force who can clear a 6 Floor dungeon in this way.”


  Kim Woo-jin narrowed his eyes at that answer.

  It wasn’t wrong.

  It was truly a historical event for Isaac Ivanov’s party of three to clear a 6 Floor dungeon as it showed that they had the power of a large guild’s elite team.

  Therefore this amount of hospitality was natural.

  ‘This isn’t like the Lightning King.’


  However, the Lightning King that Kim Woo-jin knew was never a person who paid attention to things like that.

  ‘If at least one limb isn’t missing…’


  In this situation, Kim Woo-jin expected the Lightning King to only want to talk to them after making them bleed a little.

  Naturally, he noticed this immediately.

  ‘Something must’ve happened.’


  Something must have happened while he was inside the dungeon.

  ‘Oh Se-chan must’ve done something.’


  He was sure that Oh Se-chan had done something from the background.

  ‘Something concerning the Messiah Guild.’


  And it had to be something to do with the Messiah Guild.

  Otherwise, there was no reason why the Lightning King would behave in this way.

  After realising this, Kim Woo-jin relaxed a bit, then he turned to ‘Isaac Ivanov’ and said.

  “I’ll talk to the boss.”


  ‘Isaac Ivanov’ nodded.

  Then, as if she was waiting, Shakira handed a satellite phone to Kim Woo-jin-

  First I need you to answer a question.

  Then the Lightning King asked his question immediately-

  Could you win in a fight against Johann Georg?

  Kim Woo-jin answered that without hesitation.

  “Isaac Ivanov isn’t the type to back down from a fight,”
-

  Give Shakira the phone.

  Kim Woo-jin threw the phone back to Shakira who caught it, put it to her ear and immediately started talking.

  Soon after, she turned to Kim Woo-jin and said.

  “Congratulations, you’ll be able to escape the Amazon in perfect condition.”


  Afterwards, she beckoned with her hands and the troops that had been waiting behind her immediately began to move.

  It was a shocking number.

  From what they could see, there were hundreds of people there, and when they all moved, the sound was shocking.

  Tututututu!

  At some point, even the sound of a helicopter could be heard.

  It was a force large enough to wage war.

  “Now, withdraw!”


  As Shakira shouted, the seemingly messy army began moving in an orderly manner.

  It was at this moment that Thunder proved just why they were able to dominate a place like the Amazon Rainforest.

  Then Shakira beckoned for them to get on the helicopter.

  ‘How fortunate.’


  Looking at this scene, Kim Woo-jin couldn’t help but feel that they were a bit lucky.

  ‘It wouldn’t have been possible to quietly escape from this number.’


  If there was a fight, it would’ve been impossible for them to escape safely like they did last time, and in the end, a bloody war would have ensued.

  ‘I’m glad we didn’t have to kill all of these people and start a war with the Lightning King.’


  As Kim Woo-jin boarded the helicopter, he once again thought it was fortunate everything was able to end peacefully.

  Shakira handed a pair of headphones and a newspaper to Kim Woo-jin as he entered the helicopter.

  “Let me explain to you what happened.”


  …


  When a new hero appears, people will naturally cheer a lot at first.

  But this usually didn’t last very long.

  At some point, the cheers would twist into suspicion and envy, which would eventually lead to hardships.

  This was why those heroes in heroic stories always faced countless hardships.

  The same was true for Johann Georg and the ten.

  [Johann Georg and the Ten successfully clear three consecutive dungeons!]

  When Johann Georg came out of the third dungeon, he appeared before the public for the first time.

  [Three 5 Floor dungeons finished in 72 days!]

  [The Dungeon Destroyer has appeared!]

  [A new Savior is born!]

  Cheers and praises came as usual.

  But not long after, the spear of envy and doubt was pointed towards Johann Georg.

  Among them, there was one suspicion that stood out.

  [Is it true that Johann Georg attacked three dungeons?]

  [Did Johann Georg and the Ten really attack those dungeons by themselves?]

  [Johann Georg refused to share any information about the dungeon, could this all be a scam?]

  Doubts began to surface about whether Johann Georg and the Ten truly cleared three 5 Floor dungeons in 72 days as they claimed.

  In fact, it was natural to doubt.

  In a world where one could obtain tremendous wealth and fame simply from clearing a dungeon, there were naturally numerous cases of fraudulent dungeon attack reports-

  Honestly, it’s hard to believe. Does something like that even make sense?

  ?Plus it was way too fast. There were no press conferences and no dungeon briefings. The process was too opaque

  ? Maybe they weren’t 5 Floor dungeons, maybe they were 4 Floor dungeons that they lied and said were 5 Floor.

  ? It makes no sense that they’d be able to challenge three 5 Floor dungeons in two months.

  Furthermore, even if the process had been transparent, it would still be questioned as it was simply too unbelievable.

  Of course, ordinary people were just suspicious.

  The players were different.

  “Isaac Ivanov alone is a headache. We can’t let another guy like that run around.”


  “Nothing good would come of it for us if the public opinion of this Johann Georg guy increases.”


  It was impossible for the players to accept the appearance of a third savior after they already suffered losses from the Messiah Guild and Isaac Ivanov.

  “The public’s opinion is already bad.”


  More importantly, the appearance of a new savior was certain to cause problems in the path of the new Special Player Protection Act’s passing.

  The problem was how.

  It was impossible to hinder Johann Georg, who was already rolling on numerous successes, with just a few doubts-

  In the end, he’s still below Isaac Ivanov.

  Instead, what they decided to do was compare him to Isaac Ivanov-

  He can’t do anything on his own can he?-

  In the end, Isaac Ivanov is still the best-

  Not just below, Johann Georg is just copying Isaac Ivanov-

  Right, Johann Georg is just a copycat.

  They did whatever they could to make him fall into a ditch.

  This was the situation that greeted Kim Woo-jin after he cleared the 6 Floor dungeon.

  In this situation, the Lightning King gave him an order.

  “Isaac Ivanov and Johann Georg, make them fight.”


  It was literally an order.

  An order that couldn’t be refused.

  That’s why Kim Woo-jin simply asked.

  “What happens after Isaac Ivanov fights against Johann Georg?”


  As if satisfied with his attitude, the Lightning King shared some information with him.

  “Johann Georg is backed by the Messiah Guild.”


  After hearing that, Kim Woo-jin’s eyes narrowed.

  “Is that true?”


  After Kim Woo-jin asked that question, the Lightning King smiled like he had been expecting it.

  Of course, he didn’t explain how or why he knew that information.

  This was not something a king needed to do when he gave his official an order.

  “In this situation, if the relationship between Isaac Ivanov and Johann Georg turns sour, it will naturally cause the Messiah Guild to go against Isaac Ivanov.”


  Instead, it would just be a one sided discussion.

  “Then…”


  So even when Kim Woo-jin tried to speak, the Lightning King ignored him and continued talking.

  “So if Isaac Ivanov kills Johann Georg in the fight, he would have long crossed the Rubicon.”


  After the Lightning King said these thunderous words, silence fell upon the room for a moment.

  Kim Woo-jin carefully opened his mouth in that silence.

  “Isaac Ivanov will not try to kill him unless Johann Georg tries to kill him first. There’s nothing I can do about that.”


  It was an understandable statement.

  However, despite this cold water-esque statement, the look in the Lightning King’s eyes didn’t change.

  It seemed he really wouldn’t let him refuse his order.

  In fact, the Lightning King then spoke in a clear voice.

  “Then you kill him. In any case, there wouldn’t be a difference from the Messiah Guild’s perspective.”


  There was a fierce light shining in the Lightning King’s eyes that seemed to tell Kim Woo-jin one thing.

  ‘If you want to live, kill Johann Georg!’


  When he saw that, Kim Woo-jin grit his teeth.

  He thought for a long time, but the Lightning King didn’t hurry him.

  “Understood.”


  Finally, Kim Woo-jin nodded.

  “I will kill Johann Georg.”


  When he heard the expected answer, the Lightning King nodded.

  Then Kim Woo-jin continued.

  “If I kill him, you have to give me something.”


  The Lightning King gave a murderous smile when he heard this.

  “Do you think you’re in a position to ask a price?”


  “The moment I kill Johann Georg, Park Yong-wan would definitely become suspicious of me. Moreover, there’s a high probability that I would be expelled from the Phoenix Guild.”


  However, Kim Woo-jin didn’t back down.

  “So please give me a key position in Thunderbird.”


  After saying that, Kim Woo-jin displayed a look of determination, and upon seeing this, the murderous smile dropped from the Lightning King’s lips.

  “Fine, if you succeed this time, I will give you the position as my number two.”


  u