Episode 116 [Auction House, African Civil War – 2]
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Lee Hyun-wook follows the HPA gang members into the alley of the black market. was walking fast.
– …There is nothing wrong with the alley on the right.
In Sophie Green’s Mana Messenger, the voice of her colleague David came out.
He was now far ahead, acting as a sort of scout.
“…No matter how bad this neighborhood is, if something like that happens, there will be an uproar. Stray cats that control the trash cans in the alleys also have their own rules and use their claws.”
Sophie Green said in a whisper.
The general image is that the black market is a lawless place where violent crimes are rampant, so even if murders occur, they are overlooked.
However, the black market here in Chennai was a little different.
Hyunwook Lee remembered the armed players who were deployed like guards throughout the black market.
‘They are members of the [Indra’s Spear] guild that rules this place. So-called market managers and market keepers….’
As only one guild held hegemony, order was maintained by force.
However, Lee Hyun-wook just killed every single one of the assailants, including William Peel.
In other words, since a brutal massacre had occurred within the market, the ‘market keepers’ would soon move.
“Even… there is a high possibility that the ‘Ndoz Alliance’ members have collusion with the guild.”
It had no choice but to do so. CAR’s military branch, the ‘Ndoz League’, was currently under economic sanctions from the international community, so it was unable to import and export weapons through normal channels. Therefore, it would supply the necessary materials through the black market, which is an illegal route, and of course there was a conflict with the black market side
. They must have maintained a close relationship.
But then, unfamiliar voices came into Lee Hyun-wook’s ears.
– …Are you saying that the kids who died there were those arms dealers from Africa?
– So what? They bought a lot of living armor and put it on a ship. They said there was one, so why did they all suddenly lose it?
– If they’re going to fight, they’re going to fight on their own land, are they even making us tired?… With
Hugin floating in the sky, Lee Hyun-wook was ‘eavesdropping’ on all the mana messengers around him, and
one of them was the mana messenger. A conversation like this was coming out:
‘The content of this conversation is clearly about Market Keeper.’
He slowed his pace and grabbed Sophie by the shoulder.
“Sophie, you have to go left at the next intersection.”
Lee Hyeon-wook had been polite to them ever since he made a statement.
However, Sophie showed a puzzled expression at his words.
“yes? What does that mean all of a sudden? The direction of our accommodation is—”
“—Market Keepers will soon enter on the right.”
And after a while, David, who was ahead and watching the surroundings, also said the same thing.
– Market Keeper appears in the alley on the right. Go left.
Sophie couldn’t help but put on a surprised expression.
I noticed it before David, who was ahead of me from a long distance away…
“Huh? What is it? How did you know about it first?”
“That’s it… it’s a skill.”
It was probably an obvious answer, but Sophie looked puzzled.
“Ah, then, by any chance, what skill was it that allowed you to find out the authenticity of the latent item?”
The potential item she was talking about was ‘White Lotus Painting Piece No. 8’, and Lee Hyun-wook seemed to think that it was thanks to some skill that he realized that the key to the hidden stage was a part. Lee Hyun-wook did not answer, but made a shrug gesture
. I was drunk. It was an unspoken affirmation.
“Wow… It looks like you have a wide range of skills. But how is that?”
Player skill acquisition is usually limited depending on one ‘lineage.’ For example,
among warrior classes, those with divine power characteristics are often called ‘paladins,’ and most of the skills they can acquire are related to close combat defense divinity. They grow according to the ‘tree tree’, also known as the ‘Tech Tree.’
In that sense, it is unlikely that a Paladin will acquire skills related to ‘information acquisition’, and the same goes for traits that are focused on ‘firepower’ like Lee Hyun-wook. ‘
This woman feels puzzled at that point.’
In fact, most of Lee Hyun-wook’s skills did not conform to such common sense
because he absorbed metal items and received their effects ‘transferred.’
‘In that respect, my ability to absorb metal is truly deceptive.’
Like Lee Hyun-wook, this method of growth, which involves absorbing the abilities of item monster players and forming skills,
was later called the ‘predatory growth perk.’
It was the best characteristic with an unrivaled growth range among growth methods other than level.
‘And the most terrible of them all. The thing… was definitely a necromancer.’
That guy… gains new skills by ‘cannibalizing’ players.
You have to be above level 80 or eat the Heart of Play, which is an extra-level growth trait.
‘…Numerous S-rank players become its prey. ‘It’s over.’
That was one of the reasons why the Necromancer was extremely strong.
After thinking for a moment, Lee Hyun-wook opened his mouth.
“Well… there are only a few skills based on my characteristics, and most of them are item skills.”
Since this is an era where the predatory growth perk is not known, Lee Hyun-wook made a plausible explanation.
“Ah… it looks like you have a lot of really great items.”
That was quite a feat as the majority of items with skills were of the ‘Hero’ level.
“Well, that’s why I’m aiming for the hidden stage to get those high-quality items.”
“Well… that’s the easiest way to increase power. But you are very diligent, aren’t you? “You made up your mind so quickly to go to Africa and ‘farm’ for items…”
With that, you could understand why Lee Hyun-wook wanted to conquer the hidden stage so much.
After a while, they entered an old hotel.
Room 311 on the 3rd floor Sophie knocked on the old door twice, three times at a time. “
Hmm
, Sophie… I’m sure there isn’t a rat behind you, right?”
A black man asked through the slightly open door.
I heard earlier that this man was a liaison agent for HPA’s Western India branch.
“Okay, I confirmed it, so don’t worry.”
“And this is Lee Hyun-wook… That’s right, I can tell just by looking at his face.”
He recognized Hyunwook Lee as if he had been contacted in advance, and with a grin he offered to shake his hand.
“It is truly an honor. “The Steel Fleet that you showed off recently is really cool.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“I want to ask you where you got that amazing thing, but I’ll hold back for now.”
Even after entering the dormitory, they held their breath and watched their surroundings for a while.
And only after concluding that there was no need to worry about an attack right now did Sophie open her mouth.
“Mr. Lee Hyun-wook… I have the authority to attack [Vishnu’s Labyrinth].”
She paused for a moment and then continued as if she had made up her mind:
“…I can give you 100%, not just 10%.”
Lee Hyun-wook was waiting for this offer.
And he had already guessed what the conditions would be.
“Well, it’s a transfer of full power… It’s quite unconventional, but of course it won’t be free, right?” “
That’s right. Instead of providing it, I’d like you to help us a little more. .”
Perhaps because she thought that was a bit of an unreasonable request, Sophie avoided Lee Hyun-wook’s gaze.
“So… I want you to fight on the side of the resistance in the Central African Republic civil war? Are you saying that?”
Lee Hyun-wook asked directly, and Sophie looked at Lee Hyun-wook with a hard face.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I said. Please destroy those bastards of the ‘Ndoz League’, the tyrants of CAR.”
Before we knew it, everyone in the room was looking at Lee Hyun-wook with a nervous expression.
The firepower he had shown so far was enough to rival the player military in Africa.
In that respect, to them, it must have seemed like a strong rope that suddenly fell from the sky.
Next . Sophie continued her words with a somewhat appealing tone:
“…We can’t defeat the Ndoz Alliance with just the Resistance and HPA. That’s why we tried to get help from the [Old Peace] guild by selling the Hidden Stage access rights. .”
“Hmm… But why do you want to hire me instead of such a large guild?”
“Well, that’s because their movements are very suspicious. At first, they said they would push out the Ndoz Alliance, but then they suddenly said something different about maintaining peace… That’s when you appeared.”
Words are ‘ah’ different and ‘uh’ different. And ‘reinforcement forces’ and ‘peacekeeping forces’ are completely different.
In other words, I would rather trust one person, Lee Hyun-wook, than the suspicious Old Peace Guild.
After hearing that, Lee Hyun-wook slowly lowered his head . I nodded.
“Yes, it’s good. “I will help the resistance.”
Such a happy acceptance was unexpected, so the HPA members couldn’t hide their surprised expressions.
“Are you sure?”
“Ha—Steelrain is on our side…”
“Oh my god, thank God.”
Each of them burst into different admiration.
“But I’ll make this clear. I won’t be on the battlefield for long.”
“yes? Uh… the war can’t end quickly, right?”
“I will intercept the enemy’s core forces for a short period of time and render them incapable of war.”
In other words, it means that the Ndoz Alliance will lose its power and fall out, so the Resistance will take care of the rest. In
fact, that was a welcome condition for the Resistance,
because the biggest concern when bringing in external forces was interference in internal affairs after victory.
“That’s right . . “No matter what, we just need to turn the tide so the resistance can win.”
Lee Hyun-wook had no intention of dragging it out for a long time.
‘Just two days after arriving at CAR.’
The CAR civil war was just a passing stage, but the real event was [Vishnu’s Labyrinth].
***
Lee Hyun-wook called Go Jin-hwa and told him that something had come up and that he should return to Korea first.
She couldn’t hide her embarrassment, but since it was Lee Hyun-wook’s decision, she followed it without saying anything.
And 30 minutes later, Hyunwook Lee and HPA members left the hotel and exited the black market.
“But you still have to be careful. Indra’s Spear Guild has a presence all over Chennai.”
They boarded a van prepared in advance and moved to the dockside where the ‘safe house’ was located.
Along the way, Sophie began explaining the current situation in CAR—Central African Republic.
CAR is a landlocked African country that has been experiencing repeated civil wars even before the world turned into a game,
and it was the ‘Ndoz League’, the player military, that now holds hegemony in that country.
“…Those bastards are demons.”
Sophie defined the Ndoz Alliance as follows:
They rounded up all of their own players and forced them to work as player miners in the ‘Dungeon Steel Mining Site’, and those who opposed this had their hands and feet cut off and then sent to the ‘Mana Extraction Plant’.
How cruel that is….
‘Mana extraction plant ties the player so that they cannot move and then extracts mana from their body.’
And whenever mana naturally recovers, it continues to be extracted…until death.
To put it in an analogy, it is turning a living human into a mana generator.
This inhumane practice became known around the world, leading to condemnation from countries around the world.
However , That was all. In the end, the world was someone else’s business. After being angry for a moment, I quickly forgot about it.
“Ha… “A real hell, where all kinds of evil deeds are committed, is being neglected.”
Still, the Player Humanitarian Alliance did not sit still and watch the situation.
However, because they were ultimately a ‘human rights group’, they did not have enough force to turn the tide of the war, and the
best thing to do was to simply support the resistance forces from the outside like they do now.
“Ah, but if possible, I don’t want my identity revealed until the crucial moment.”
The moment the van stopped in front of a warehouse on the dock, Lee Hyeon-wook put on a mask and said,
“Uh… does that mean you shouldn’t tell us, too?”
“Yes, isn’t there a risk of information being leaked?”
“Ah…”
“Sophie, if that happens, the enemies will prepare a way to catch me.”
In many ways, it was not good for Lee Hyun-wook to reveal that he was here now.
‘Because it would also let the villains know that I had vacated Laputa…’
Of course, if something happened in Seoul, Friedwen’s ’emergency return’ ‘.
But even so, moving secretly was the safest way.
“But we… had to report it to the higher-ups.”
Their original mission was to win the bid for ‘White Lotus Painting Piece No. 8’ at the auction house.
Once that is secured, the contract with the [Old Peace] guild will be fulfilled.
In other words, in order to select Lee Hyun-wook over Old Peace Guild, consultation with higher-ups was necessary.
Lee Hyun-wook summarized this in one word.
“Sophie, please report that you did not secure the item.”
She looked at Lee Hyun-wook with an expression that asked what he was saying.
“If you do that, won’t the contract with Old Peace be automatically terminated?”
“No, that’s true, but…”
“After that, I will arrive and reveal it directly to the resistance leadership.”
She looked troubled, but in the end, she had no choice but to do as Lee Hyun-wook wanted.
It wasn’t difficult to enlist the help of such a big man and at least do something that would be criticized by the higher-ups.
After a while, Sophie reported the failure of the operation to her superiors, as Lee Hyun-wook wanted.
But… right after that, an unexpected problem occurred.
“Hey, things are a little complicated. A new order came right away. They said they couldn’t secure the item, so there was no need to return… so they told me to support the operation in this area.”
It was an operation to attack the ‘container ship’ of the Ndoz Alliance at sea, which was about to leave Chennai Port. Lee Hyun-wook
also knew that such a thing existed, having heard it at first glance when William Tell appeared.
“Damn, what kind of support could the three of us have for that mission? Are you sending them there because they can do it?”
“Hey, what does this mean? “You’re giving me water because I failed an important mission!”
When the superiors gave them demotion or punitive missions, they mumbled with the sound of bolmen.
Even though this was a noble human rights organization, its internal situation seemed to be no different from that of an ordinary guild.
“Oh, is this… Mr. Lee Hyun-wook, are you okay? It just so happens that I have a place I need to go through.”
They looked at Lee Hyun-wook. But Lee Hyun-wook looked like he didn’t care.
“I told you at the beginning anyway, right?”
“yes? “What do you mean?”
“I will take care of that troublesome ship.”
That’s what Lee Hyun-wook said right after dealing with William Tell in the black market alley.
But they had no idea that the situation would really turn out like this.
Sophie looked relieved and began to explain the situation.
“Now, that ship . “What’s packed inside are ‘doll weapons’ to be supplied to the so-called ‘puppet masters.’”
“The puppeteer… is the famous war mercenary involved in the CAR civil war?”
“Yes, the Ndoz Alliance hired him four months ago, and since then the resistance has been on a losing streak.”
There were two reasons for the overwhelming advantage of the Ndoz Federation in the current CAR civil war.
‘As far as I know, the Enchantress Twins and the Puppet Master are the two powers.’
Among them, the ‘Puppet Master’ was an unidentified mercenary player who never revealed his identity, and
was famous for sending his alter ego, a ‘wind-up doll’, whenever he appeared on the battlefield. And, with monsters like ‘Living Armor’ and ‘Wax Dolls in Battle’ as his followers, he manages a kind of doll army.
“He’s a really troublesome player. Even though his main body is not on the battlefield, he controls the army to attack them.”
During the last battle, 65 battle wax figures and 40 living armors were mobilized to forcibly break through the resistance’s firepower – it is said that seven villages occupied by the resistance were captured in just one day
. As such, they advance without fear and engage in proper ‘tanking.’ After shaking things up like that, the Ndoz Alliance player unit’s follow-up infiltration
… “It lacks firepower.”
The three HPA people who had seen that scene shook their heads at the same time.
“Ha… It’s already such a headache, but if the container ship loaded with Living Armor that leaves Chennai today arrives at CAR, it’s really… I can’t turn it around. “You will be outnumbered.”
Even in Lee Hyun-wook’s memory, the power of ‘Puppet Master’ was quite remarkable.
Of course, it was nothing compared to a necromancer, and it was worse than Kang Xi-seol’s ‘magic machine corps’.
Still, it was certain that it was a force worthy of being called a one-man corps.
The most ideal way to deal with a player who behaves like that kind of ‘subordinate’ is…
‘…it’s so simple. It’s blocking the increase in the number of people.’
A puppeteer has a limit on the number of dolls he can make.
That’s why I had to find a monster that could ‘secure master authority’ like Living Armor.
In other words, the correct answer was to attack the container ship and block the power increase.
“Um… But if you don’t want your identity to be revealed as Lee Hyun-wook wants, it would be a bit difficult to ask for help with this operation. Your identity will inevitably be revealed when you attack that ship.”
Sophie made a bitter expression as she said that.
She went on to say that the container ship was on strict alert. In other words, even if it was raided from the sea, there would be great resistance, and in the meantime, there was a strong possibility that Lee Hyun-wook’s existence would be discovered. But Lee Hyun-wook turned his head
. “ Oh,
that’s okay. “I may be able to attack more secretly than I thought.”
“…No matter what, you will recognize Lee Hyun-wook’s distinctive metal boxes when you see them, right?”
From a third party’s perspective, Lee Hyun-wook’s firepower was great, but he was by no means stealthy.
“I will not attack from the outside.”
“…yes?”
“So we’re going to shake them up from the inside.”
“Are you saying you’re going to infiltrate that ship?”
“No, not that either.”
As Lee Hyun-wook continued to deny, the expressions of the three people were filled with puzzlement.
“Are you sure that there is a lot of Living Armor on board that ship?”
“Huh? Ah, well, it’s the most suitable item for a ‘doll’ that a puppeteer can obtain.”
Lee Hyun-wook’s last words were even more meaningful:
“If I capture that container ship… give me some of the goods on that ship.”
***
A few hours ago, there was an accident in which William Tell and his group were massacred at the black market, but the
Ndoz Federation’s container ship ‘Black Factory’, which was anchored in Chennai, departed normally. Arrived
at CAR as soon as possible to reinforce the puppet master’s power. Because it had to be done.
And as the ship entered the open sea, five rubber boats were blocking the route.
“Huh… I can see the Black Factory over there. But can’t they really spot us?”
“It’s okay. We have stealth magic applied, so you won’t be seen.”
They were also members of the HPA and were tasked with attacking and taking over the Black Factory.
They looked through binoculars to see a huge container ship approaching at the edge of the horizon.
“Hmm… I have a bad feeling, team leader. Our defenses are much better than I thought.”
At those words, a middle-aged man raised his binoculars.
At first glance, they were indeed much more heavily armed than they expected.
The number of guards on deck alone was about twenty…
and even items in the form of support firearms. There were a lot of things installed.
If you approached that ship incorrectly, you wouldn’t even be able to recover its bones and it would be reduced to ashes.
“Damn, I heard there was a commotion in Chennai? I think it’s because of that…”
“Yes, I think that’s the cause. “Wouldn’t this be difficult?”
Armed beyond imagination. It seemed like the 26 people here… couldn’t break through.
At that time, someone’s voice flowed through their Mana Messenger.
-Chic— Ah, this is Sophie Green.
“Hey, I heard you’re supporting our operation. Where are you?”
– He’s nearby now.
He looked around but saw nothing.
“No, but what happened in Chennai? “The target’s defenses have been greatly strengthened!”
– Um… let’s talk about the operation first, shall we? We’re about to hit first—
Hey! What are you talking about? Hey Green, you know we’re in charge of this operation, right?”
– …We’ll give the signal, so get ready to board the ship.
“What the hell does that mean? Are you planning to ruin the operation?”
– I’m sorry, but it’s too long to explain… I thought it would be quicker to just show you.
“What?”
– Now… would you like to take a look at the deck?
The operations team leader did as she said and raised the binoculars… .
“…Huh?”
An incomprehensible scene was unfolding on deck.
The containers mounted on the container ship contained dolls that were passed on to the puppeteer.
But then the door is opened, the chain is cut, and something walks out.
“Isn’t that Living Armor…?”
“But why is it moving now?”
The magic circuits carved on the bodies of the iron armored giants emit a blue light.
And then he started killing the unsuspecting deck crew.
A mutiny on board that no one expected began.
