Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
I laughed to myself at the part where Wai Chung brought up ‘noble sacrifice.’ I could clearly see what his true intentions were, and his attempt to hide them was laughable.
“Don’t we know someone who has already received quite the reward before coming in here?” Wai Chung said. Everyone else turned to look at me. “What do you think, Jiwon?”
“Hmm? I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I said to Wai Chung with a straight face.
“Hahaha. You just received 2,774 Stat points; don’t you think it’s only fair for you to be the sacrifice instead? You’re the only one here who could stand to lose 700 Stat points.”
“Oh, you’re talking about me? I had no idea. But I don’t know why that has to be me.”
“Obviously, it’s because we need someone to step up to be the sacrifice here. We can’t possibly just sit here twiddling our thumbs and leave the treasure in front of us alone.”
I made a frown at Wai Chung’s obvious intent to make me the sacrifice for all to see. “I don’t see that as a good enough reason for me to be the sacrifice,” I said, even though I was secretly happy that things were going smoothly.
“Then do you suggest we all give up on the six random chests over there? There’s a chance one of us could get a Rank 10 item.” I did expect Wai Chung to be a conniving little shit, but the way he was trying to shift all of the responsibility to me was getting annoying.
“Had I been the one to receive the 2,774 stat points, I would have immediately offered myself up as the sacrifice,” Weiban said to me.
“The same goes for me!” added Xia Fang.
“I’m not asking you to do this out of the goodness of your heart. I will make sure you are well-compensated.”
“I still don’t want to.”
“Come now, at least hear me out.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say; I won’t do it. I don’t want to take on seventy irreversible death penalties, and I want my random chest.” It was still too early to say yes.
“Then what does the Sunbin Guild say? Will you all give up on your random chests?”
“…” The three Sunbin Guild members had been quiet all this time. I completely understood their dilemma. They couldn’t just give up on the treasure that was right in front of them, nor could they ask someone else to be the sacrifice instead.
“Or… will you offer yourselves up?”
“That is impossible, I’m afraid.”
“You can’t give up on the treasure and nor can you offer up a sacrifice… how duplicitous.”
—
Song Myungsoo was frustrated, as well. The treasure was right in front of them, but he just couldn’t bring himself to force his daughter or Oh Dogun to be the sacrifice. For devas of their power, 70 irreversible death penalties was a huge blow. Of course, a Rank 8 item could be enough to make up for the loss, but seeing the occasional light from the chests didn’t make Song Myungsoo that confident. There was a chance a Rank 7 could come out; in other words, a dud. If they were unlucky, only one of the items could be Rank 8 and the other five might all be Rank 7. Still, they couldn’t just give up here.
—
[Time left: 05:11]
They only had five minutes left now. The tension in the room continued to rise.
“Ha…fine. We only have five minutes now. All of you start coming up with ideas.”
Song Myungsoo and Wai Chung were the leaders of their respective guilds; the other four would have to follow their orders regardless.
-Just five minutes left.-
I needed to stall as long as possible. There was a chance I could squeeze out a favor from both guilds if I played this right. I carefully watched Song Myungsoo and Wai Chung.
“We can’t give up on the random chests here. Do all of you agree?”
“We do.”
“In the end, they are the reason we’re here in the first place.”
“Good. Then all we need to do is figure out who will stand on the pedestal.” In the end, we came back to square one.
“That’s right.”
“Then think about it; think about what happened before we came into this room. Only one out of the 25 people obtained 2,774 Stat points.”
Once again, they turned to look at me. Their stares were saying that I should obviously be the one to take the loss for them; everyone, except for Haein.
“That has nothing to do with why I have to be the sacrifice. That just means that none of you here want to be the sacrifice either, doesn’t it?”
“You’re still the better choice out of all of us. You already benefited from the 2,774 Stat points earlier.”
“You keep saying that, but there’s a big difference between benefits and sacrifice. I have no intention of taking on 70 irreversible deaths or giving up on a Random Chest.”
“Your greed will prevent all of us from tasting the fruit of our labors.”
“Why is that my fault? There are six others in this room, including someone who keeps crying about noble sacrifice or whatever. If you’re that much in a hurry, why don’t you have that person step up?”
Wai Chung’s eyes flashed in anger, and I held his glare. Just then, I heard the words that I didn’t wish to hear.
“I’ll offer myself.” It was Haein.
Her sudden decision took me off guard. It had to be me!
“No!”
“Father, no. Vice-master, please!”‘
“I’ll never allow it.”
I sighed in relief as Song Myungsoo quickly stepped in to stop her.
“Wait! She’s offering herself willingly, so why are you stopping her?”
“It’s a misunderstanding.”
“How would you know it’s a misunderstanding?”
“I’m her father and her vice-master. How can I not know?” Song Myungoo almost roared.
[Time left: 02:45]
I looked over at the timer. I’ve waited long enough. I should step in, now that Haein had really made things tenser.
“Fine,” I loudly cut in. “I’ll be the sacrifice. But, I won’t do it out of the kindness of my heart. I thought about it and well, there’s a chance I can’t get much out of the chests. There are three of the Sunbin Guild and three of the Cheng Long Guild. You all stand to get more out of the chests than I do even if I get to open one. So, in return for being the sacrifice, I expect some compensation.”
“That’s good thinking. We’ll each pay you 25,000,000 golden rings…”
“I want 200,000,000. Each.” I cut in. I didn’t mean each guild. I meant from each of the six devas.
“…” Everyone stared at me, dumbfounded.
“You all can’t possibly think that 1.2 billion is enough to compensate for 70 irreversible deaths?” I said, looking at each person.
“That’s pretty greedy of you.”
“You call me greedy for not being willing to be the sacrifice and you still call me greedy when I ask for compensation if I do become the sacrifice. How far backwards to I have to bend over for you?”
An actual Rank 8 item cost more than a Random Chest that had the possibility to hold an item of Rank 8 or higher. There was no way I could ask for another Rank 8 item or higher in return. Hell, even I would think that was dumb.
That was why I asked for 200 million each in return. If it were that much, they wouldn’t think that I had some sort of ulterior motive.
“That’s my offer to you all. It’s up to you if you want to take it or not. I just wish you won’t take long to decide before I change my mind. Oh, and if you don’t have enough golden rings, I will take an item instead,” I said before heading for the stairs. I stood myself at the first step and turned around.
-Haein’s not thinking about jumping in again, is she?-
“Do you seriously think that amount is reasonable?”
“You said so yourself before, didn’t you? You said that there was a chance a Rank 10 item is in one of these chests. I think 200 million is more than fair,” I replied bluntly.
[Time left: 02:01]
“The price is now 200 million one thousand golden rings.”
“What are you talking about now?”
“Why did you raise it by a thousand?”
“Because we have less than two minutes left now. I’m sacrificing myself so that the rest of you don’t and frankly, it’s insulting that you all don’t seem to care. I want some compensation for that now.” This threat wouldn’t have worked on normal devas, but no one in this room was normal. They were powerful devas who were afraid of becoming weaker. I was in control right now.
“I don’t know when I’ll raise it again. We’re already here; I’ve got nothing to lose now. I’ll take you all down with me if I have to.”
“The Sunbin Guild will pay you 600 million three thousand!” Song Myungsoo shouted.
Just what I wanted to hear.
“Fine. We’ll pay the same.” Wai Chung quickly said, while gritting his teeth.
“Nope, too late. I want 200 million two thousand now.”
“Do you think this is a game?”
“200 million three thousand.”
“…”
“Four thousand because I don’t like your silence,” I said to Wai Chung, looking straight in his eyes.
I hadn’t wanted to go this far at first. The Cheng Long Guild was powerful and it wasn’t really wise to make an enemy out of them, but I really didn’t like how Wai Chung was treating me this whole time. I wanted to knock him off his high horse real good.
We stared at each other for some time.
[Time left: 00:59]
“We have less than a minute now. Five thousand.”
Wai Chung opened his mouth to say something but I quickly cut in. “If you’re not going to say what I want to hear, don’t bother. I’m going to raise the price again if you do.”
“Fine…okay.” Wai Chung gave in. His face was red in anger.
“Thank you very much.”
I received six hundred million three thousand from Song Myungsoo and seven hundred million five thousand from Wai Chung with twenty seconds left on the clock. I walked up the stairs.
=[You have been selected to be the sacrifice for the Fallen King-Emperor’s Room of Conflict. Do you willingly accept?
Yes/no]=
“I accept.”
=[The wall protecting the six random chests will now be lifted.]=
I looked back and met Haein’s eyes. I waved at her with a small smile and she gave a small wave back. She seemed a bit relieved now.
Haein was the only person here who was sincerely worried for me. I wanted to leave her something in thanks.
-It was the fifth one, right?-
In the past, a Rank 9 item was in the fifth random chest, although I wasn’t completely sure.
I couldn’t tell Haein that directly. If I was wrong, I would have just been butting in needlessly. That was why I waved at her with my fingers completely spread out. But I wasn’t sure if she got the message when she waved back at me. That had to be enough.
Soon, my body was engulfed in a red haze. I kept waving at her until it completely covered my body.
-I hope it really is the fifth one.-
I wished I knew for sure.
—
After Lee Jiwon disappeared into a fog of red smoke, the remaining six devas walked over to the chests.
Song Haein still had her fingers spread out and Wai Chung had noticed.
“I see someone already laid claim to the fifth chest.”
“Excuse me?” Haein asked, surprised.
“You’re choosing the fifth chest, aren’t you?”
“Ah…” Song Haein finally noticed her hand. “Yes, that’s right. I pick number five.”
No one thought it strange. It was a lottery anyway. All of the chests looked exactly the same.
And so, Wai Chung chose number 1, Weiban chose number 2, Song Myungoo chose number 3, Oh Dogun chose number 4, Song Haein chose number 5, and Xia Fang chose number 6.
They all opened their chests at the same time. Only two chests were shining red when they were opened; number 4 and number 5.
Oh Dogun’s chest had a Rank 8 item, and Song Haein’s chest had a Rank 9 item. No one had gotten a Rank 10, but the Sunbin Guild had gotten the highest ranked items.
“Fuck…fuck all of this…” Wai Chung swore as he looked inside his chest.
