lpffa Chapter 62 : Chapter 62
Chapter 62 : Chapter 62
Chapter 62
Park So-yul took a deep breath as if cramming air into her body.
Like a racing car before a sprint filling its tire pressure to the limit to dash forward, her lungs were filled with air.
Her chest rose and her body swelled slightly.
Like an animal encountering a natural enemy bloating its body to threaten the opponent.
“Phew, let's try this.”
She soothed herself with a monologue to instill courage.
Even though she was careful to speak softly, it seemed to have reached my ears.
I, Lee Ju-seong, stretched my arm out long and put it around her shoulder.
It was a preliminary movement to convey deep encouragement.
“It’s true that you only fought two minor battles during Round 1. I understand if you feel anxious about whether you can keep up the pace among the experienced ones who have gone through Round 4.”
“I've never been anxious.”
“Really?”
“To be precise, I’m feeling the pressure to prove my competence.”
Whether he took it as a joke, I laughed without pretense.
“Heh, So-yul's ability is a 2nd-rank ability. You can act more confidently.”
Coincidentally, it was not a joke.
She chose to return to the Money Game to catch two rabbits: revenge and money.
She knew it was an impossible goal to achieve alone.
Maintaining a smooth relationship with a competent comrade, especially me, was her major task.
A relationship is much harder to maintain than to start.
During Round 1, Park So-yul was the Gap because the only ability I had copied was hers, but now it was different.
Even without Park So-yul’s ability, I had other abilities capable of reigning as a top-tier player.
I was the Gap, and Park So-yul was the Eul.
That was the current relationship between the two of us.
To achieve her purpose, she had to keep me by her side, and to keep me by her side, she had to prove a worthy value.
The reason she started taking a friendly attitude in front of me after returning was for this same reason.
At the base of it was the psychology that I was the only reliable person in her life.
Parents, friends, social relationships... there was not a single person she could rely on in her life.
Every move I showed during Round 1 was an event that made her realize that if she provided 1 of convenience to me, I would return 2, which was double.
It could only be described as truly ironic.
She always had to be driven into a corner in a safe society, yet a safety zone called Lee Ju-seong existed in this dangerous, deep sea.
I must never be abandoned. I must prove my competence.
Park So-yul spoke in an extremely calm tone, as if talking to herself.
“It seems it’s about to start. Please step back. I’ll show you the sight of winning the 50 million won team prize soon.”
I let go of her shoulder and took out a handkerchief.
And covering Park So-yul’s nose with the handkerchief, I spoke as if I was treating a child.
“Blow!”
She couldn't help but know that it meant to blow her nose.
She was momentarily confused by the sudden treatment as a child, but since the person was me, she did as she was told.
Because there was no way I would do a meaningless action at a time like this.
“Honk!”
I tucked the handkerchief away with satisfaction, folded it neatly in half, and pressed it into Park So-yul’s hand.
Then, moving slowly away from Park So-yul, I gave advice.
“Use it when needed. And about the blood bags, I asked the Doctor to divide yours into smaller doses than mine. The Hwando you used before seemed too large for So-yul.”
I added that she should move in a way that maximizes concise movements by summoning a shorter Hwando than before.
Before long, the south door of area A5 opened.
The Bronzes, who finished the cleanup of area A1, only now brought new test subjects into area A5.
The three 4th-rank ability users they brought, their identities were...
Grrrr!
Woof woof!
Grrrrr! Bark! Bark!
Precisely three hunting dogs of different breeds.
A Greyhound, a Labrador Retriever, and a Spaniel.
All three were barking fiercely, perhaps because they had starved quite a bit.
Park So-yul took out a small blood bag and squeezed it hard until it popped.
Ability to turn one's own bodily fluids into blades.
The blood turned into a Hwando slightly shorter than her arm length, and soon established itself in her hand as a cold weapon to cut the enemy.
As if in inverse proportion to the cold touch, heat was added to Park So-yul’s gaze.
“Maybe because it’s a comeback match after a long time, my body is itching. Let’s start quickly.”
Responding to Park So-yul’s request, the Bronzes injected drugs into the hunting dogs.
When they let go of the leashes made of iron chains, the hunting dogs charged toward Park So-yul all at once.
It was the start of the second match with 50 million won at stake.
***
At the same time, the top floor of the Game Tower.
The elevator door opened and August entered the control room at a busy pace.
There was strength in her gait, and her stride was unnaturally wide as if a thoroughly angry stork was walking.
Before long, when she arrived behind the back of January who was monitoring, August protested in a somewhat agitated voice.
“January, what is the meaning of this?”
January still did not take his eyes off the monitor.
Live images of the battlefield flowing in blue light were formed like thin ice on his irises.
“What is not to your liking, August.”
His voice was like glass without a single crack.
August gritted her teeth and protested while swinging her arm strongly horizontally.
“Didn't you say you would wait until I approached Lee Ju-seong and confirmed the existence of a traitor? To deploy April as Lee Ju-seong’s enemy in Round 5! The story is different!”
“I'm sure I told you before? Regardless of your activities, the existing plan to reduce Lee Ju-seong’s balance will proceed.”
“That may be so, but...”
January answered while letting out a very small sigh.
“April requested it personally. He said he would volunteer to go down.”
August glared at January with eyes full of sharpness.
“You know what kind of person April is. He loathes players.”
“To be precise, he loathes players with a lot of money. Because having a lot of money in this game means that a lot of blood was smeared on their hands.”
“He is in a position granted the status of a dealer as a bomb disposal squad. His duty is to handle players who interfere with the game progress within the game. However, Lee Ju-seong is a player who has not yet been classified as a bomb.”
January moved his gaze to August for the first time.
As the monitor light hit his mask, a reflection was formed.
“I conveyed a strategy to him that could reduce Lee Ju-seong’s balance. Then I heard an answer that he would perform according to the strategy.”
August’s jaw trembled.
“Do you think April will move according to the strategy obediently? Sincerely?”
“August, do you know the circumstances through which April fell into player hatred?”
“There's no way I would know. Because digging into the personal history between dealers is an unwritten rule.”
As if he felt no hesitation in breaking the unwritten rule, January casually tossed out April’s trauma.
“During his time as a player, he participated with a lover who was pregnant with a child.”
August stuttered, feeling her breath hitch.
“That... is exactly the same situation as the student couple now...”
“It brings back old memories after a long time. A player who possessed billions betrayed April because they needed more money. In the process, his wife was sacrificed.”
“So you're saying he is overlapping the current rich players with the betrayer of the past?”
“There's no way to know that. He might have overcome it by now.”
Then, pretending as if he intended nothing, he spoke calmly while exuding an atmosphere so cold it chilled the skin.
“Even if April kills Lee Ju-seong, it is merely his personal blunder. Because I informed him of a scheme to properly reduce the balance.”
August kept her mouth shut.
It was effectively a setup without even a hint of a gap.
If April moved as instructed and the operation succeeded, it would be his own merit for designing the strategy.
If April’s trauma flared up and he killed Lee Ju-seong, it would be April’s personal responsibility.
In the latter case, a side income of no longer needing to worry about Lee Ju-seong follows.
January was a person who was cleverly using his subordinates while ensuring safety only for himself.
August narrowed her eyes and spoke.
“January, do you know? There is a fatal flaw in your strategy.”
January turned his body completely.
As if he had heard a very unpleasant sound that he couldn't just let slide.
The intimidation was no joke, but August spoke up boldly, thinking she should say what needed to be said.
“It’s that the opponent is Lee Ju-seong. If you treat him like you handle other players, you’ll get badly burned.”
It was honest advice based on her experience of personally contacting him.
However, January took August’s words as a mere tantrum.
As proof, he used a tone like an adult scolding a child toward August.
“For the organization to do its best to achieve its purpose. That is the raison d'être of us dealers. I expect August to feel the same as I do.”
August sensed that she was not receiving January’s trust and turned her body.
And turning her back in January, she headed toward the elevator.
“Tsk, you mean a traitor suspect's words aren't even worth listening to. Don't regret it later, saying you should have listened to me.”
While the crack between the dealers was widening more clearly, the monitor reflecting Lee Ju-seong’s group became exceptionally red.
On the screen, three messily cut hunting dogs and Park So-yul, who was striking a victory pose while thrusting her fist high covered in wounds, were being shown.
January muttered indifferently while watching me, Lee Ju-seong, wiping the blood off Park So-yul on the screen.
“Even so, just one person among many test subjects. No matter how outstanding, it’s only a matter of comparison between dolls in a model garden.”
***
Current location: Area E5.
The third turn, Sim Yong-hun, was hanging from a large light on the ceiling.
Beneath Sim Yong-hun’s feet, a swarm of ants numbering in the hundreds was staying.
The swarm of ants was the opponent Sim Yong-hun faced in area E5.
Prize money: 15 million won.
Multiplier: 1x.
5th-rank ability user, number: five hundred.
At first, I wondered what it meant, but it turned out to be a swarm of ants injected with nanomachines.
When I asked the Bronzes as a joke, “Did you give them sugar water mixed with nanomachines?” they stiffened up.
It was a joke, but I was surprised that I got the correct answer.
The ability of the swarm of ants was the ‘ability to self-destruct if they bite’.
Since they were merely ants, it seemed like he could just stomp them to death, but while he stomped a handful, other ants crawled up his shoes without him knowing, so it was harder to clear than expected.
When about 10 minutes had passed since the offense and defense unfolded, Sim Yong-hun came up with a trick.
That was hanging from the lights installed on the ceiling.
Sim Yong-hun’s ability was the ‘ability to turn the light of lighting tools into heat.’
His ability was to shine light on the opponent using a lighting tool held in his hand to cause burns.
The characteristic was that the heat became stronger as the intensity of the light became stronger.
Originally, he possessed a small flashlight as his main weapon, but the range and power were not sufficient to burn the swarm of ants to death.
So he noticed the lights on the ceiling installed by the organization, which were emitting a much more powerful light.
After a leap, Sim Yong-hun grabbed a large piece of equipment like a broadcasting station ceiling light and exercised his ability while hanging dangling.
Ability to turn the light of lighting tools into heat. Activate.
As the intense light turned into scorching heat, it blasted the swarm of ants that were gathered in a huddle beneath Sim Yong-hun’s feet.
It was effectively like becoming meat placed under a Zaigle.
As the swarm of ants sizzled and cooked, they curled up round in an instant.
It was a sight reminiscent of innocent children playing with a magnifying glass.
Ants and a magnifying glass... a relationship like fate.
Thus, the third battle ended with Sim Yong-hun’s victory and the prize money was updated.
[Current Accumulated Prize Money: 100 million won]
We welcomed Sim Yong-hun, who returned after sounding the victory report, with two-handed high-fives as if treating a home run runner entering the bench.
And considering that the time limit was tight, we immediately moved on to the next turn.
The last fourth was Seo So-hui.
To check the only corner we hadn't checked, we moved from area E5 to area E1.
E4, E3, E2... and arrival at E1.
Area E1, where we arrived hoping for the flow of success to continue.
What was waiting for us there was the most dangerous enemy in this game.
[This E1 Area South Gate is the maze exit.]
[Upon winning the battle, you can escape from the maze through the exit.]
[Prize Multiplier: x100.]
[Prize Money: 1 billion won.]
[Battle Opponent: Dealer April.]