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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Angel Slayer
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[You have slain an angel.]
[You have been confirmed as the first player to slay an angel.]
[You have acquired the title 'First Angel Slayer'.]
[You have obtained 'Angel's Blood' as a reward for the first angel kill.]
[You have received the 'Rune of Slaughter' as a reward for the first angel kill.]
[The acquired rune is automatically engraved onto the player's body!]
A flood of messages appeared, enough to overwhelm any ordinary person.
'But I've been through this dozens of times, received these rewards dozens of times.'
Ryu Min calmly checked his rewards.
[Angel's Blood]
-Category: Consumable
-Grade: Unique
-Effect: Enables class change to 'Reaper'.
-Usage Requirement: Level 10 or higher
-Description: An item given to the first player to slay an angel. Only one who has killed an angel, the natural enemy of a Reaper, is qualified to become a Reaper.
Players could choose a class starting at level 10.
There were about thirty different classes, and the method to change classes was simple.
Obtain a class-change item.
'Just like the one I just got.'
An icon of a golden liquid appeared in Ryu Min's inventory.
It was Angel's Blood, an item given only to the first person to kill an angel.
It was also the item that allowed one to change to the unique class, Reaper.
'As expected, I'm the first one to kill an angel.'
Perhaps later, but at this point, no one would even think of confronting an angel.
Not unless they had a death wish.
Of course, I had to be the first.
'I got a title, too.'
Ryu Min tapped the title he had acquired to check it.
[Title – First Angel Slayer]
-Acquisition Condition: Acquired by being the first to slay an angel.
-Effect: All stats are doubled when facing holy-type opponents.
A quick check confirmed it was the same title he had obtained before.
It was an exceptionally good title for fighting angels or holy-type monsters.
Ryu Min's gaze shifted to the final reward.
[Rune of Slaughter]
-Effect: Each time a target is killed, all stats increase by 1% (max 100%). Lasts until the end of the current round.
The rune was now engraved on Ryu Min's body.
It was a reward for being the first to kill an angel.
'The angels would be shocked if they knew I'd already obtained a rune.'
That's how difficult runes were to acquire.
It was hard enough to get even one rune per round.
The difficulty was comparable to obtaining a unique item.
'Though that's only by the standards of an ordinary player, unskilled in clearing the game.'
It didn't apply to Ryu Min, who had cleared it so many times he was sick of it.
'I have to get more runes than in my previous life and become even stronger.'
This was his last chance; there was no room for retreat.
He had to become stronger by any means necessary.
'It's a shame, but I won't get any more rewards for killing angels now.'
The rewards he had just received were only for the first person to kill an angel.
Others would gain nothing from killing angels.
That was why only one person could ever have the Reaper class.
'The angels would never dream that such rewards were hidden within their bodies.'
Even Ryu Min hadn't known this fact until his 12th regression.
Like everyone else, he had been terrified of the angels' power and saw them as beings one must not oppose.
But starting from his 13th regression, he began taking revenge on the angels and learned about the first-kill rewards.
'To think that killing an angel would yield the materials for a hidden class…'
Ever since then, he had killed an angel in every regression.
They had tried to betray him and even gave hidden rewards. There was no reason not to kill them.
'That's when I started to seriously delve into the Reaper class.'
Until then, Ryu Min had survived as a Hunter.
But the moment he changed his class to Reaper, he knew.
The Reaper was a far superior class to the Hunter.
'Bonus stats, class-change runes, skill composition... It was a flawless class in every aspect.'
It wasn't called a unique class for nothing.
It was a class so strong and good that other players would be green with envy.
'Still, I failed to clear the final round and had to come back.'
Even so, there was no class better than Reaper, so Ryu Min had targeted the angel this time as well.
He had deliberately provoked the angel, luring it to a different location.
Before he could be backstabbed, he struck first.
He killed the angel and reaped enormous rewards right from Round 1.
'From that point on, I abandoned the Hunter class and switched to Reaper.'
In every regression, Ryu Min killed the angel in the same way.
He had shown no mercy, as it was a being that had tried to betray him.
In the process, Ryu Min learned something.
Just how weak the angels were.
That their head-exploding ability was a one-time use power.
'I learned other things besides that, too.'
He hadn't just gotten rewards; he had tortured the angel for information.
About the race of angels, their nature, their role, the purpose of the game, their access rights to the system, and so on.
But even the angels didn't know the core information.
'They're just pawns, acting as guides because someone higher up ordered them to.'
He suspected someone on par with a god was behind it all, but...
'I suppose I'll only find out the details once I defeat the final boss and reach the stage where I can make a wish.'
Having finished checking his rewards, Ryu Min reached for his inventory.
It was time to use the Special Reward Selection Box he had received for being first place in all zones.
'Use.'
[You may select one of the following special rewards.]
[Please touch the desired reward.]
└ 1. 3x Experience Buff (Round 2 only)
└ 2. 2,000 Gold
└ 3. Information about Round 2
There were three options, but Ryu Min didn't hesitate.
'The most important thing right now is to hit level 10 quickly and change my class.'
Ryu Min immediately selected the first reward.
[You have selected the 3x Experience Buff.]
[The buff will be applied automatically at the start of Round 2.]
There was still a month until Round 2, but he chose his reward in advance.
There was nothing worth choosing besides the triple experience.
'Getting 2,000 gold isn't bad, but it's better to change classes as quickly as possible right now.'
Changing classes granted skills.
And in this game, the value of skills was beyond imagination.
'A skill is worth almost as much as three runes.'
Naturally, a player's power multiplied depending on whether they had skills or not.
Moreover, you even got a rune as a reward for changing classes, so the sooner you did it, the more you gained.
'The third reward isn't even worth considering.'
The third reward, information about Round 2, was meaningless to Ryu Min.
He already knew everything up to Round 20.
Ryu Min stared down at the angel's corpse with indifferent eyes.
The shimmering golden blood began to evaporate along with the body.
Ssssss-
Soon, the angel's corpse scattered like dust and vanished completely.
Being spiritual entities by nature, their physical forms would dissipate like this after a certain amount of time.
'It's nice not having to deal with the body. Leaves no evidence, either.'
Just in case, Ryu Min scanned his surroundings.
He scanned everything meticulously, even the sky, but there were no witnesses.
'I killed it at the same spot, at the same time. There shouldn't be any problems.'
He had killed it the same way he always had.
Not only were there no witnesses, but the other angels wouldn't know either.
'They're a selfish, narcissistic bunch, so they don't care about anyone but themselves...'
They might wonder why it's missing, but that's it.
'From Round 2, it'll be replaced by another angel. Just like I've experienced before.'
No witnesses, no evidence. He didn't need to worry about the consequences.
He could return without any issues, even without an angel.
Though he wouldn't receive the detailed instructions for returning.
◀ ROUND 1 END ▶
[All Zones]
└Survivors: 900,514,645
[Current Zone ESKS45-5]
└Survivors: 5,143
[In a moment, your soul will be transferred back to your body in your original dimension.]
[Round 2 will begin at midnight on February 1, 2022. We will see you in the next round. Congratulations on your survival.]
With that final message, Ryu Min and the others trapped in the pillars vanished.
***
"Gasp!"
Hwang Yong-min shot up, gasping for air as if he had just come back from the dead.
The first thing he saw was a massive crowd of people.
'Wh-Where am I? This is the bell-ringing ceremony!'
People who had been lying on the ground, asleep, were now sitting up.
They looked around in confusion, just as he had moments ago.
Hwang Yong-min immediately grabbed his phone to check the time.
'5:20 AM...?'
The date was January 1, 2022.
It had been five hours and twenty minutes since the bell-ringing ceremony.
The time roughly matched how long he had spent in the dream.
"Agh, my head..."
"My whole body aches."
His friends, who had been sleeping on the nearby pavement, also began to wake up one by one.
"Oh? Yong-min!"
"You're awake?"
"Was I sleeping?"
"Yeah. Not just you, everyone here was."
"What the..."
"What happened? We all fell asleep at the same time?"
"Wait, then does that mean it was all a dream?"
"I just had a fucking weird dream, actually..."
"Oh, me too!"
"Yong-min, you had a dream too, right?"
"Yeah, but..."
Hwang Yong-min looked around with a serious expression.
"I don't think it was a dream."
"What?"
"Listen to what people are saying."
At Hwang Yong-min's words, his friends listened closely.
"Are we back? Did we really make it back from that hell...!"
"What? I'm sure I was fighting a goblin..."
"I survived... I survived!"
Hearing the murmurs of the crowd, the friends' faces gradually turned pale.
From the sounds of it, they had all had the same dream.
"This many people fell asleep at once and had the exact same dream? That doesn't make any sense."
"You're right..."
Too many people had experienced the same thing for it to be dismissed as a dream.
"Then it was all real? The goblins, Round 1, all of it...?"
"S-So, does that mean we'll be summoned for Round 2 on the first of next month?"
"Ha... fuck."
His friends hung their heads at the grim reality, but that was far from the worst of it.
"Hey, why isn't this guy waking up?"
"Tae-seok, wake up. Tae-seok!"
One of their friends was still asleep.
He was completely still, as if dead.
"Fuck! I put my hand to his nose, I don't think he's breathing!"
"Put your ear to his chest! See if you can hear a heartbeat!"
The friends frantically checked if Tae-seok was alive.
But the result was devastating.
"His heart isn't beating."
"What?"
"Then... he's dead?"
"Tae-seok... is dead?"
His friend's death was hard to believe, but it wasn't impossible to understand.
"You don't think... he didn't kill all 100, did he?"
"Or maybe he didn't make it into the top half...?"
According to the game's rules, their friend's death made sense.
Besides, Tae-seok wasn't the only one who hadn't woken up.
Roughly half the people were still lying on the cold asphalt.
"Don't tell me everyone here who isn't waking up is..."
"A... corpse?"
"Urp...!"
The thought of them being corpses brought a wave of nausea.
Goblin corpses were one thing, but the bodies of fellow humans made him want to vomit.
"So only half of us really survived?"
"Fuck, what are we going to do in the next round?"
"Can I survive?"
His friends were already worried, but Hwang Yong-min remained calm.
No, he was pretending to be calm while actually holding back a smile.
If he laughed now, not just his friends but everyone else would look at him like he was a madman.
'If this isn't a dream but reality, then it's not just me who's screwed, the whole world is, right?'
To be precise, it was everyone from ages 15 to 29, but what did that matter?
He had gained so many comrades whose lives were on the line.
'This is awesome, isn't it? It means everyone, rich or not, has to survive on equal footing, right?'
He had always been envious of those born with a silver spoon, living lavishly.
At the same time, he felt it was unfair how his own life had turned out.
'I don't need to complain about how unfair my life is anymore. Hehehe.'
His parents had already given up on him; his life was a dead end anyway.
He had planned to become a gangster right after graduating from school.
He'd heard that gangsters these days made good money through illegal activities.
"Don't worry, you bastards. We just have to survive. What's there to worry about?"
"But it's so unfair... What if we die before we've even had a chance to live...?"
"It's not just us; everyone else is caught up in this too. What's so unfair about it?"
His friends were speechless at Hwang Yong-min's words.
They could only curse him inwardly.
'Fuck... You've got a dead-end life, so you probably wouldn't feel bad about dying right now.'
'But I still have so much I want to do...'
Oblivious to his friends' thoughts, Hwang Yong-min was looking around, searching for someone.
"What's up?"
"Oh, I just remembered someone and looked for him, but I can't see that bastard anywhere."
"Who? Your personal errand boy?"
Hwang Yong-min nodded.
No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see Ryu Min.
'Where did that bastard go? I think I saw him over there before we fell asleep...? Don't tell me he died without even clearing Round 1?'
Hwang Yong-min soon accepted this possibility and gave up looking.
'Well, a loser like him would have died right away.'
There was no way a weakling like that could survive the competition.
He clicked his tongue inwardly and turned his head.
'Huh?'
Hwang Yong-min's eyes fell on a person wearing strange armor.
'What's with that guy? Where did he get such tacky clothes...'
In that moment, a thought struck Hwang Yong-min like lightning.
'No way.'
Immediately testing his hypothesis, Hwang Yong-min shouted to his friends.
"Hey! Everyone, open your status window! It works!"
"Huh? Status window?"
"There's no way that would work..."
"Oh? It really works!"
When they thought the words 'status window,' a translucent screen visible only to them appeared.
The system they thought only worked in the other world could be used in reality as well.
"What's going on?"
"Were we always able to use it in the real world?"
"Whoa... Then do our stats and items work too?"
In other words, it meant they could wield superhuman power even in the real world.
'This is insane.'
The corners of Hwang Yong-min's and his friends' mouths curled into pleased smiles.
It was a ray of hope seen amidst despair.