The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 118 (Part 2)
Chapter 118: Human Guild (Part 2)
Then, as if on cue, a message appeared before everyone.
[Protect the Human Guild]
└Safely escort the human merchants to their destination.
└Upon successful escort, all participants will receive experience rewards.
└The person who contributes most to defeating the traitor will receive a sub-quest reward.
└If the traitor group is completely eliminated, all participants will receive an additional reward.
[Current Participant Status]
└Participants: 1,202
└Traitors: 1
Hearing the player count, players began to grumble.
“Only one traitor?”
“I thought there were several.”
“How are we supposed to find one among 1,202?”
The mission felt like finding a needle in a haystack, and players lost their motivation.
“Still, we better start looking by attacking each other, right?”
“Let’s do that!”
As usual, the players started attacking each other to weed out the traitor.
However, none dared to approach the Black Scythe.
Except for An Sang-cheol, who had some connection.
“Black Scythe-nim. My apologies in advance.”
“Are you going to stab me?”
“If you’re not the traitor, you won’t get hurt, right? Unless…?”
An Sang-cheol was quick to notice.
Ryu Min had intentionally made it obvious.
“Uh-hum, seems like we’ll have to forget about the sub-quest. Given the difficulty of this guild.”
“That’ll be the better choice.”
Realizing he was dealing with Black Scythe, An Sang-cheol quickly gave up.
‘He’s not betraying like in the illusion.’
An Sang-cheol, not being foolish, couldn’t publicly claim that Black Scythe was the traitor.
With the gratitude he owed, he couldn’t do it.
Also making the top ranker an enemy would do him no good.
“I’ll keep your secret. Rest assured.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ryu Min played dumb, but An Sang-cheol just smiled, indicating he knew everything.
Then, the carriage carrying the archbishop began to approach.
“Is that the carriage we need to escort?”
“Wow, look at that carriage? There must be someone important inside?”
The carriage was too luxurious for a regular convoy, especially the one presumed to carry the archbishop, standing out significantly.
‘Does the archbishop’s carriage always have to stand out like this?’
Monsters wouldn’t specifically target a carriage based on its design, but such conspicuousness made it an easy target.
‘Good for the traitor group, which is me.’
The convoy stopped, and a man who seemed to be in charge of the human guild cleared his throat and approached.
“Hmm, hello, warriors of the otherworld. I am Karlos, the captain of the Hormos Merchant Alliance’s escort.”
He greeted formally, looking strong as befits the captain of the escort.
“We are transporting goods at the request of the Holy Empire and are also in charge of escorting Archbishop Laver. However, the journey from the Lavteran Mountains to the Kingdom of Braham is perilous, so we had no choice but to seek help from the temple.”
The captain explained at length, but the players were not interested.
“The archbishop?”
“So someone high-ranking was inside?”
“Is it that carriage?”
They only needed to know who to escort and protect.
“Before we depart, the archbishop has a few words.”
The most lavish and luxurious carriage door opened.
A white-haired old man with a solemn expression spoke.
“Warriors of the otherworld, thank you for undertaking this escort. The journey to our destination may be perilous but do not worry. I wish light upon your path and will bestow a blessing upon you.”
No player asked what the blessing was.
A message soon appeared.
[Archbishop Laver grants the blessing ‘Holy Shield.’]
[A shield that blocks one basic attack from an enemy is created.]
[Archbishop Laver grants the blessing ‘Divine Touch.’]
[All stats increase by 5.]
With the buffs applied, the players’ faces lit up.
“Wow, even NPCs give buffs?”
“Did you get the buff too? I got it.”
“Me too!”
“Did everyone here get it?”
“That archbishop guy, quite useful, huh?”
The players were ecstatic at receiving buffs for the first time, but it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
The presence of the archbishop’s buffs meant that challenging monsters were expected to appear.
‘Trolls, gargoyles, those aren’t the real danger. The real danger is the boss-level monsters.’
Exactly at wave 25, a boss monster will appear.
By then, the players would be exhausted, making it difficult to defeat the boss.
‘What if I step in with overwhelming power at that time?’
He would catch the archbishop’s eye, and given his emphasis on ability, he could gain favor.
‘And favor leads to items.’
Specifically, the opportunity to obtain the rune of the future.
‘After obtaining that, I’ll have to kill the archbishop and the other merchants.’
Killing the non-players to prevent the traders from reaching their destination is necessary.
That way, Ryu Min being considered a member of the traitor group can survive.
Conversely, the escort group of 1,201 would fail their quest.
‘But they won’t be annihilated.’
There’s a way.
A way for neither the 1,201 nor Ryu Min to be annihilated.