episode_0028

Even in the midst of sparring with Penelope, Yoo Dahee stretched and yawned first, turning her head.

Fighting with someone like this would yield nothing, especially since the start alarm for the arena had rung.

“From now on, the 1st Earth-Demon King’s Cup Arena Tournament begins!”

“The theme for this tournament: Vanilla.”

Vanilla mode.

Adikia clenched his fists tightly beside Yoo Dahee and exclaimed, “Naisseu…!”

Yoo Dahee was capable of handling this mode well.

It was a mode where participants fought purely with the equipment they had prepared, their combat sense, and the abilities that each deity had contracted them with, without any special modifications to the rules. It was a simple yet tense series of battles.

However, because of this, the initial clashes between the contracted individuals in this mode, whether it be one-on-one or group battles, had a rawness to them and were preferred.

As soon as the alarm sounded, all the equipment they were wearing was stripped away, transforming into simple white activewear.

Parashu was also gone from Yoo Dahee’s waist.

When Yoo Dahee looked at Adikia questioningly, he explained, “All the equipment got sucked into random boxes scattered throughout the map. There are only two types: weapon boxes and armor boxes. You only get one chance to open each box, and there’s no guarantee that your existing equipment will drop even if you do open it. If you’re unlucky, you might end up with nothing…”

“If luck isn’t on your side, you’ll end up with nothing.”

He said it was better to remain unequipped and be out if one felt they were likely to die early on, rather than risk picking up equipment and then getting killed, which would result in a loss.

He argued that participating in the next arena tournament with all the equipment intact would increase the win rate.

It was a device designed to introduce some variables into the matches, but Yoo Dahee paid no attention to such things.

She had fought in U.R.F. mode without any equipment before.

In any case, equipment is a thing that can be there and not be there. Therefore, in order to efficiently manage it, one must acquire and wear something new rather than always using what they have, muttering such verbose nonsense, Yoo Dahee was looking at Adikia with a bewildered expression.

“No, how are you going to obtain that new equipment..?”

“It’s simple. If it’s not there, kill to take it.”

Why, are there people like that?

This is the extreme maximization of human farming, which involves pillaging the crops harvested without effort, burning down houses, and even stripping off their underwear, rather than working hard and sweating to cultivate the land. The embodiment of this was none other than Yoo Dahee.

Just by watching the previous match, didn’t she completely strip the three cowards bare? She even has a personality that ruins equipment so it can’t be worn again.

“Come to think of it, that guy was there.”

The jerk who cast detection magic on herself in the previous match. She looked around to see if he participated in this match… but due to the crowd, he wasn’t visible. Moreover, they were all wearing the same white clothes, making it even more difficult. Their faces were slightly blurry in her memory, but… there was a way to find them.

“Adikia, what about the previous equipment?”

“Huh? The ones not in use are just stored in the void space.”

“Then, the shoulder armor I used before, no, the one with the spell on it… that one.”

“You want to change your equipment? But it’s impossible if it’s already in the random box.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I won’t use it during the match.”

It was the shoulder armor she had asked if she could return later. Holding up the armor high, she shouted for everyone to hear.

“I came to return the enchanted shoulder armor I borrowed last time-!”

Ordinary people wouldn’t turn back at such a sudden shout right before the match… but if it was the fellow whose cherished armor was taken, it was natural to show a momentary gap.

As the armor shook, the gazes of the participants moved here and there, and among them, there was one guy with particularly trembling eyes.

Unconsciously, she raised her hand halfway and then put it down.

It was certain.

Yoo Dahee lowered the arm she had raised and slowly walked toward him. As she got closer, his trembling eyes clearly indicated that he was the culprit.

Between him and Yudahee, words were not necessary. He simply placed the shoulder guard he had been holding into her hand and smiled broadly.

“Yeeeee…!”

As Yudahee’s smile deepened, his face turned a shade paler.

The important thing wasn’t these items… it was the message.

You die.

He pointed with his index finger and then lightly drew his thumb across his throat, implying that he would kill her if they ever met, anywhere.

The vengeance of a military man is never late, even after ten years.

With Yudahee’s bright laughter, the match began.

You’ve lost.

[00:00]

[The match begins now.]

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In an instant, the scenery changed. What used to be a forest was now the backdrop of a ruined city center. Crow perched on lampposts seemed to signal locations as they flew up, along with scattered debris making a thudding sound as they fell.

Some participants quickly grasped the gimmick and quietly hid inside buildings, but Yudahee paid no attention to such things and just ran forward.

At this point, there was no need for concealment unless one intended to beat their opponent to death with their fists even after understanding the situation. It was better to quickly arm oneself even if the location was discovered.

It was easier than expected to locate the random box. Despite not knowing what had happened, in this ruined world, an incongruous melody and a faint light emerged.

In the middle of the third-floor shopping mall, there was a box. Yudahee swiftly ascended the escalator backwards and grabbed the box.

A random weapon given with a simple light.

While Yudahee was staring blankly at what was in his hand, three late-arriving contractors revealed themselves.

However, within that short time, each of them had picked up a box and now held various weapons: two with daggers and one with a baseball bat.

It seems unlikely that anyone would have prepared a baseball bat as their weapon for the arena, so it’s probably an item from the random box. Still, compared to getting a real dud, it’s not bad in that it can be fairly useful as a weapon… The contractors had silently judged that it was right to quickly kill the winner of the previous round here and were gradually closing in on a net while maintaining distance from each other… Yoo Dahee was staring blankly at the ‘dud’ in her hand. “Damn it… why is this happening to me since the last fumble with the dice…” A pencil lay in Yoo Dahee’s hand as she let out a deep sigh.

The image of Yoo Dahee, the previous game winner, grabbing the box appeared on the big screen, and shortly after, laughter filled the waiting room. All Yoo Dahee got from the box was just a pencil. The worst luck. In contrast, the three contractors who had closed in from behind were each armed. It was an obvious disadvantage. They hadn’t received any support yet and their equipment was extremely poor. Running away without looking back would be the right thing to do, but the only exit, the escalator, was blocked. Adikia’s eyes trembled slightly. What an unlucky situation from the start. The caution towards the winner was severe, but this time, it was particularly intense. Normally, if you missed the box, it would be right to quickly move to another location to continue farming… But no one was avoiding and instead closing in on Yoo Dahee. The impact Yoo Dahee showed in the last game was so great. Overwhelming disaster that arises when given time and space… The shocking record of the previous round where everything was annihilated had caught their ankles. So, all three simultaneously made the same judgment that it was the right choice to defeat Yoo Dahee, the previous winner, even if they suffered some losses. Adikia bit her lip and rolled her foot back and forth when, in a corner of the waiting room, another game within the game was in full swing.

Real-time betting system targeting the emerging contractors on the screen…!

Shin-Gyeok Toto.

Yoo Da-hee and the three others came to mind with this subject.

Yoo Da-hee wins VS the three others win.

Those who sided with Yoo Da-hee were certainly rare.

Unless it was during U.R.F when basic body adjustments were made or when a contracted Shin-Gyeok was able to display formidable strength related to physical abilities from the beginning, unfortunately, Yoo Da-hee was neither of those.

Due to being in vanilla mode, even her basic physical abilities had been leveled out.

1 for Yoo Da-hee

9 for the three others

– overwhelming odds leaned further in favor.

Those who bet on 1 were saying there must be some way since they were the winners of the previous round, but on the contrary, most of the contracted individuals at 9 were estimating that they would be weak in close combat as they were likely summoners based on the spellcraft of cause and effect they displayed in the last match.

They countered by saying, “Haven’t you seen the battle in the forest? It was all just a coincidence, and everything has changed fairly, including those Shin-Gyeoks who look down on us.”

However, it didn’t take long for them to realize that their choice was wrong.

No matter how unadjusted she may be, Yoo Da-hee is still Yoo Da-hee.

With such a significant difference in the density of time spent up to now, how could the results be the same?

Even if it’s a broken pencil, once it’s in Yoo Da-hee’s hand, it becomes something more fearsome than a knife of the same size.

Especially if it’s Yoo Da-hee, who has lost half her sanity over consecutive billions.

The skirmish that began with a pencil jammed into one person’s ear for an instant…

“Wha… what… what’s this. This can’t be happening. It can’t-”

“W-wait! No, this is absurd.”

“No, why is this possible? How can this happen?”

…It took barely 10 seconds until it ended.

From the silence to the denials of the contractors who couldn’t accept this reality, to the screams that erupted at the end, everything was mixed and spat out in an instant.

“Aaargh!”

“Aaargh! My points!”

“Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies!”

Becoming a mere fragment of his former self, Han Shinguk stared blankly at his betting slip, muttering towards the billboard, “How… can one pencil take three lives…” Just a damn pencil…!