Chapter 578: Murder Request

Not long ago.

[Emperor Bolond of the Parion Empire issues a murder request.]

A single-line message appeared before the dark gamers living in Ares.

They were people who earned money through the game and scraped out a living from it.

Of course, the notification did not appear for everyone.

Condition 1. The target must perform murder requests.

Condition 2. The target must have successfully completed most murder requests.

Condition 3. The target must be a hidden powerhouse.

It was a notification that had come only to those who could be called strong even among dark gamers.

They wondered.

Who’s the murder request for?

Bolond of the Parion Empire is issuing a request? This isn’t ordinary.

The details that appeared before the waiting players were shocking.

Ding!

[Hidden Quest: Request Against Master Blacksmith Hyun.]

Grade: SS

Restriction: Those who meet Bolond’s conditions.

Reward: 10,000,000 gold.

Penalty upon failure: None.

Description: Emperor Bolond of the Parion Empire recently lost one arm because of the nation of Hyun and is in a state of great rage. If you complete the murder request against him, you will receive an initial payment of 10 million gold, and from the next attempt onward, you will repeatedly receive 3 million gold.

“......!”

“......!”

“......!”

All around the world.

The users who were dark gamers and carried out murder requests were shocked.

One reason was that the requested target was Hyunsoo, the king of an entire nation.

“A request against Master Blacksmith Hyun? Interesting. But even so, accepting a request against Master Blacksmith Hyun is far too risky.”

“Master Blacksmith Hyun is definitely strong. There’s a chance of success, but even if we do succeed, that’s a problem. We’d have to turn the entire nation of Hyun into our enemy.”

Those who felt the burden tore up or burned the quest that had appeared in paper form, the “murder request list.”

But they were only a small minority.

“I’ve never seen this kind of money before.”

“Ten billion? And on top of that, he’ll keep paying three billion every time we kill him?”

“There’s no reason not to do it. That’s enough money to play around and eat well for the rest of my life.”

“Make the entire nation of Hyun my enemy? So what? I can just retire.”

They were drawn in by the enormous sum.

One user was living disguised as a fisherman user, while another was living as the youngest member of an ordinary assassin group with his identity hidden.

Some were users already active in the nation of Hyun, and others were people running restaurants in Ares.

Also, a murder request could only begin once the time designated in the order from above arrived.

Those waiting all around the world heard the notification.

[The request begins.]

It was the moment when the world’s greatest dark gamers began to move.

*****

Irma.

He was the leader of “Silence,” the greatest organization of request killers in Korea.

Silence was covert and fast, like unofficial rankers, and had never surfaced in public.

In the same way, its leader Irma was usually more than capable of appearing to be one ordinary assassin active in the Assassin Tower.

But in truth, Irma’s strength transcended common sense, and the person he served was Carter, the King of Monarchs.

Carter, the King of Monarchs, was increasing his forces exponentially as time went on.

It was because he possessed an attractive power capable of uniting Monarchs.

What kind of beings were Monarchs?

They could be called a general term for those who led some kind of group.

In that sense, Irma was also, in a way, one Monarch.

[You have accepted the request.]

I won’t be caught.

He approved it without informing Monarch Carter of the fact.

Because he judged that Monarch Carter would never tolerate this quest.

Three times should be enough.

Of course, that did not mean Irma intended to move “Silence,” but...

Even if I tell them not to move, they’ll be full of bastards who move anyway.

The amount of the bounty hanging on obedience to that order was far too large.

Of course, even so, Irma did not think it would be easy.

Master Blacksmith Hyun himself is a fairly useful existence.

Of course, that was all he was—fairly useful.

Irma was strong.

He was one of the strongest users under Monarch Carter’s command, strong enough for Carter to acknowledge him.

So strong that the fools who had participated in something like the World Championship and exposed every detail of their strength felt like brats to him.

I’d like to fight Valhalla too. Tsk.

Of course, he would not fight Hyun for long.

He would kill him quickly and secretly, then tear a scroll and disappear.

Irma had also disguised himself perfectly.

His appearance was more than enough to make him look like a farmer riding on an ox.

With his straw hat pulled low, he even had a generous impression, and to put it badly, he was fat.

“Inspection.”

He lifted his straw hat and easily passed through the inspection by the guards of the nation of Hyun.

With his plump, easygoing face, the guards did not suspect him much.

In addition, the migration of users into the nation of Hyun was free, so the inspections were not that difficult either. They were on the permissive side.

Like that.

The cart he was riding smoothly headed toward the castle of the nation of Hyun, pulled by the ox.

Would he be at the forge?

It was as he had that thought.

Mooooo—

The ox suddenly stopped.

Irma, wearing a puzzled expression, slowly lifted his straw hat and was startled.

Because a man was standing there.

A kukri?

Irma knew kukris well.

The Gurkhas, Nepalese mercenaries who mainly used kukris.

They were legendary mercenaries in reality.

They say one fought against forty too.

The story of a former Gurkha mercenary fighting and defeating around forty thugs on a train alone was true.

That’s cool.

The kukri had an appropriate harmony of white and black. It was unbelievably cool.

Then, as he slowly raised his head from the feet of the man holding it and standing there, he was startled.

Is that...?

Once.

There had been an artifact Irma had wanted and chased after.

The name of that artifact was the Murderer’s Compass.

What was the effect of the Murderer’s Compass?

Anyone.

If someone who had killed more than twenty people so far entered within a 10-kilometer radius, the compass pointed to that person and identified him.

Who is it?

Irma pushed his straw hat fully back and checked the other person’s face.

Lorander?

His pupils went wide.

He had also watched the broadcast not long ago.

Because Lorander was a fellow American, Irma had been ashamed of him.

In addition, by participating in the World Championship, Lorander had fully exposed his true face.

Now that most of his powers had been revealed, Lorander was not much of a danger.

Of course, since he had been called Fighting God Lorander, he was a strong person, and it was known that he had not really been defeated before.

But Irma was a powerhouse who surpassed him.

Why am I even thinking that?

Irma, who had thought that, gave a hollow laugh.

“Looks like you came because of the request too. I don’t know which one of us will eliminate him first, but I understand.”

Was there anyone who would welcome this request as much as Lorander?

Although he had been one-killed, Lorander was a strong person who could look for another opportunity, and he seemed to have come to vent his resentment over being one-killed.

But then.

“Seven.”

“???”

Lorander said something nonsensical.

Seven?

Did that mean he had seen seven competitors like himself?

Well...

Those caught by the Murderer’s Compass were PK criminals who had committed unjustified murder.

Even if they had lowered their karma value, they could not avoid the Murderer’s Compass, and competitors must have been caught on Lorander’s radar.

He was telling him the number of competitors? Irma was thinking that it was rather kind of him, when—

“That’s the number of Silence I killed.”

“...What?”

Irma, who had thought that, was flustered.

He was not talking about request killers, but “Silence.”

Silence was an assassination organization made up only of elites who had each reached Level 530.

Some were heads of assassination groups, some were users who had inherited request-killing families passed down through generations, and some had Legendary classes.

More importantly.

Something’s wrong?

Even while thinking it was a bluff, he realized Lorander was not a competitor.

However.

Mooooo—

Irma moved the ox to one side and stepped down with his fat body, smiling.

“...Then the competitors have decreased?”

Silence was an organization he led, but it was not a group he could control.

If Lorander had dealt with them, that was fortunate.

But there was something he wondered.

Why did he kill Silence?

That was the reason he had killed Silence.

Irma could not grasp his intention at all.

But because Irma was confident, he was not afraid of Lorander.

“A cripple thrown away by his own country...”

Not long ago, Lorander had requested personal protection.

It was the aftermath of the World Championship.

Smoke soon surged from the body of Irma’s fat form.

Hssssssssss—!!!

His true form began to reveal itself.

[Digestion.]

In an instant, his obese body began to transform into a slim, muscular one.

The clothes that had looked as if they might burst because they were too tight regained their original fit.

[You digest everything and produce explosive power!]

[All stats increase by 46%.]

[Agility increases by 46%.]

Hssssssssss—!

Smoke gathered around his boiling body, and at the same time—

Baaaaang—!!!!!

Lorander was already slammed into the ground with his face driven down, and the earth caved in.

Irma was certain that multiple status ailment skills had pierced Lorander, whose face had become a wreck.

Then he froze.

The blade surface.

Lorander had blocked in that state with the kukri engraved with the Chinese characters for Fighting God.

“What!?”

Had Lorander always been this fast, and had his movement always been this excellent?

On top of that, the speed of the kukri’s movement was astonishing.

At the same time.

Thuuung—!

“Urgh!”

Lorander kicked his shin, struck the ground hard with his hand, and rose.

Then.

Whirrrl—!

He gripped the kukri in reverse.

“New weapons aren’t supposed to fit one’s hand easily.”

Clearly, his main weapon had not been a kukri.

That meant his weapon proficiency should be low, and naturally, Irma had expected him to display sluggish movements.

However.

[God’s Kukri Mastery Lv. 9 is currently applied.]

Slaaaash—!

Like a Gurkha mercenary.

Thud, th-th-th-thud, crunch-crunch—! Craaack—!

Puh, puh-puh-puhk—!!!

The reverse-gripped kukri swung, striking, cutting, stabbing, and passing across every part of his body.

They were movements one might only see from the strongest operatives, such as Navy SEALs, Gurkha mercenaries, or Korea’s UDT.

However.

The moment Irma’s class used Digestion, his defense tripled.

His class was broken.

It completely compensated for the weakness of assassins having low defense and low total HP.

Sure enough.

[You have taken 15,901 damage.]

[You have taken 13,190 damage.]

[You have taken 16,018 damage.]

The damage values appeared.

They were low.

Then.

[Fighting God’s Obsession is sharp and solid.]

Irma sensed something strange.

There was no unpleasant sensation from when the blade cut past him.

He did not feel actual pain, but he also did not feel the sensation of being cut.

As if I’ve been cut by something so sharp that I only realize the pain belatedly...?

Just like that.

[Damage accumulated over 5 seconds reveals itself all at once!!]

“Huh!!?”

A flustered Irma faced the fact that the kukri was no ordinary weapon.

In 5 seconds, he had been cut exactly 32 times, and while he had been cut, the damage had not felt as high as expected, but it was different when it came all at once.

I need to brace for the shockwave...!

But it was already too late.

Pshhhhhhhhh—!!!!

Crack, craaack, cra-cra-cra-crack—!!!

[You have taken 596,310 damage!]

Blood surged from his body all at once, and the sound of some of the bones where the thick, sharp kukri blade had grazed past being severed or broken rang out.

[You have been afflicted with the status ailment Fracture.]

[You have been afflicted with the status ailment Bleeding.]

Because the damage had struck all at once, Irma had been complacent, thinking, So about 13% of my HP got shaved off, and now he was shaken.

[HP falls below 74%.]

“Don’t tell me. That kukri always deals the damage one more time!”

Irma, realizing the chilling truth, could not hide his astonishment.

In other words.

When it attacked once, one more attack would always strike 5 seconds later.

If he successfully landed 100 attacks within 5 seconds, then 5 seconds later, 100 instances of damage would strike all at once.

It’s only because it’s me that I endured this much damage...

The astonishing part lay in the kukri’s base attack power.

Because he had three times the defense and 2.5 times the total HP of ordinary assassins, he had endured the second wave of consecutive damage.

But if it had been an ordinary assassin?

After being cut indiscriminately for 5 seconds.

He would have died with the bones throughout his body broken and severed, spraying blood simultaneously from every part of him.

And Lorander did not answer his question about whether it dealt damage one more time. He merely looked down at the kukri.

“Is this the forty-sixth?”

“Don’t tell me the forty-six means...?”

At first, he had mentioned seven members of Silence.

But he had only been talking about “Silence,” and there were others who carried out murder requests.

“It’s the number of request killers who have died here.”

“...!!!”

Lorander.

He was creating a new legend.