Ch.149For Everyone, One

# 149. One for All

“Is everyone ready?”

“Yeah.”

The two-week period of rest and reorganization in Edenguard had come to an end. We had rested enough, sightseeing enough, enjoyed enough, and prepared enough.

There was no specific time limit on our stay, but we judged that now was the right time to return, and the raid members had no objections. We shared the common thought that staying idle for too long would make our bodies stiff and our senses dull.

‘Even playing a game after a few weeks feels awkward, let alone actual combat.’

In truth, two weeks was already a long break, but considering how physically and mentally exhausted we had been, it was necessary.

“Our Arang, now that you have a boyfriend, are you abandoning your big sister?”

“N-no, that’s not…”

“Sob, sob. Raid leader, you bad man. You’ve taken even my Arang away from me.”

“Unnie, that’s not it…”

I gave an awkward smile and gently pushed Arang’s shoulder as she stood in front of me. She scurried over to Yehyun noona, who embraced her with a bright smile. The other raid members chuckled softly.

‘I understand how Yehyun noona feels.’

I could understand how she might feel a sense of exclusion when everyone except her was “my woman.”

According to Yuri, Yehyun noona would soon confess to me too, but I wasn’t so sure. Even if that happened, I wouldn’t presume to treat her as my girlfriend, and I had no intention of showing any discrimination because of it.

“Veritas, a.k.a. Ban Sunghyun’s women, let’s go! Ack!”

“Want to say something weird before we depart? Leader, please continue.”

Seyeon automatically punished Yuri for her strange comment. The raid members, including Yehyun noona, burst into laughter at their impromptu comedy routine that had become an essential part of our group dynamic.

“It might be premature, but now that we’ve encountered fragments of Edenic and defeated a demon, we’ll likely continue to be entangled with demons. As you all know, some demons will probably be easier than Iseratio in terms of difficulty, while others will be stronger or more annoying.”

The first demon to appear in the story, Iseratio, the Demon of Infernal Fire.

While his appearance had a strong impact and his perceived difficulty relative to gamers’ specs at the time was considered above average, objectively speaking, Iseratio wasn’t a particularly important or high-ranking demon.

Defeat one and climb, defeat another and climb higher. By taking down major demons including Mensima, we would eventually reach the top.

‘Who sent me here, why I was sent here, why it’s in the form of a tower—none of that matters now. I’m curious, of course, but knowing those things wouldn’t change what we need to do right now.’

For now, we just need to focus on the fifth floor.

“Come to think of it, what was it again? Ah! What happened to the Wandering Troupe?”

“You’re asking that now, just before we leave, after two weeks? We really are something, aren’t we?”

“What was his name again? Was it Lakan?”

“Are you pretending to forget, or did you really forget?”

“At this point, wouldn’t even the likable character Lahan be crying?”

“Ah! It was Lahan!”

Likable character Lahan! Sorry!

As soon as we arrived here, we had our energy drained for two consecutive days, and after that, we were so busy enjoying various small but happy moments that I completely forgot about the Wandering Troupe. Thinking about it now, while I might not miss the troupe itself, I did feel a bit regretful about parting ways with Lahan so suddenly without saying goodbye.

‘Maybe we’ll meet again someday?’

That would depend on exactly where and when the tower sends us back, but if it’s the same Lahan we met then, nothing bad would have happened to him, so we might literally have a chance to meet him again someday.

“Quiet. The raid leader is speaking.”

“Yes.”

“Sorry.”

Subin lightly scolded the raid members who had interrupted my speech with their chatter. Some of them were older than her, but everyone accepted her authority naturally.

This is just my personal theory, but…

The fact that she was the deputy raid leader, the first to be recruited into Veritas, the first to form a relationship with me, her extensive game knowledge on par with mine, her handling of almost everything except orders for a while, and her wealth and connections in the real world…

All these factors seemed to have made Subin the unofficial number one in our hierarchy.

‘Of course, I love you all equally! Really, everyone!’

Anyway, thanks to her maintaining the atmosphere without being overbearing, I was able to recover the flow of the conversation.

“The reason I’m being so formal and giving such a long introduction before we depart is… because of the reward I chose after defeating Iseratio. Somehow, everyone was only interested in my memories, and no one asked about the reward?”

“Well, we were kind of out of our minds then, weren’t we?”

Yes, Yuri. Your eyes were quite frightening on the first night and second morning in Edenguard.

“That’s true. It feels like we just vaguely forgot about it because of the shock at the time.”

“I think we didn’t even think about it because until now, the rewards from someone’s memories haven’t included anything tangible.”

“But if Sunghyun is bringing this up now, it means there is a reward…”

“I’m not complaining, but why only now?”

I showed them the reward selection message I had received.

[Reward for Someone’s Memory (V) will be granted.]

[You can choose one of the following:]

[1. One for All]

[2. Third Perspective]

“It’s not like I didn’t think about it. But if I need to make an excuse, I just wanted to focus on resting during our break. And I’m bringing this up now so we can choose together.”

If those two options had been skills or items that existed in the game, I wouldn’t have postponed this decision.

One for All? Third Perspective?

They were completely unknown to me.

“It seemed too important to just pick one casually, since it’s a reward from an S-rank exclusive ‘Someone’s Memory.’ Since it’s bound to me, I should be the one to choose, but looking at the option names, I get the feeling they might affect the entire raid group.”

“So you kept quiet during the vacation because you didn’t want to bring up anything related to raiding, and you’re telling us now before we depart because it might have a significant impact on the entire raid group?”

“As expected of the Etiquette Wiki—”

*Bonk*

“Ow!”

“How much mental energy and time would it have taken to discuss this that you postponed it for two weeks?”

“I didn’t want to bother everyone during our rest…”

Subin sighed with an expression that said she had much to say but was holding back. The other raid members had similar reactions.

“Raid Leader oppa seems so meticulous, but sometimes he’s really careless. We could have talked about this during meals.”

“What a dummy. His energy got drained so much that he became stupid.”

“Who drained it?”

“Quiet.”

Subin raised her hand to stop them.

“It’s not good to waste time right before departure, and since we don’t have any information anyway, let’s decide quickly by majority vote. If we don’t like it, we can choose differently next time.”

“Right, right. I vote for number 1.”

“I vote for number 1 too.”

As I cleared my throat and kept quiet under Subin’s stern gaze, she quickly gathered everyone’s opinions.

“Four votes for number 1, ‘One for All,’ and three votes for number 2, ‘Third Perspective.’ Now only your choice remains. Which one were you leaning toward originally?”

“If I had to choose, probably ‘Third Perspective’? It feels like it might provide information or perspective that I don’t know.”

“Then it’s a tie.”

“In that case, let’s go with ‘One for All.'”

“What?”

“Out of respect for the raid members’ opinions.”

[You have selected [1. One for All].]

[You have acquired the skill ‘One for All’.]

[One for All]

– Sacrifices the caster’s stats to increase the stats of party members.

– Continuously consumes HP and MP while the effect is active.

– As skill level increases, the range of sacrificeable stats expands, and stat conversion efficiency improves.

“Oh.”

“What do you mean ‘oh’? If you were going to decide so easily, you should have done it much earlier.”

“Look at this.”

I showed them the newly acquired skill. While there were many buff skills and stimulants in the original game, this type of buff skill was completely new, so everyone was pleasantly surprised.

“Want to test it out?”

“Yeah, let’s try it. Since it’s a completely new skill, it would be good to know how it works beforehand.”

Unlike the skills I had acquired through effort or realization based on game knowledge, this was a skill with no prior information. I was worried about whether I could use it properly, but that concern was unfounded.

The system wasn’t so terrible that it would give me something I couldn’t use… I intuitively understood how to sacrifice my stats to distribute them among the raid members.

‘Now I could be called a Totem Commander instead of a Battle Commander.’

I decided to sacrifice my strength stat. It would be the easiest to feel the immediate increase.

So, since we were testing in a safe place, I immediately pushed the sacrifice level to its limit…

“Uh…?”

“Sunghyun? Sunghyun!”

An overwhelming dizziness and lethargy hit me like I had been riding intense roller coasters or drop towers for hours straight, and then blood gushed from my nose.

“Soyu unnie!”

“Serva nos! serva nos! serva nos!”

Ah.

Even with a new skill, this game is still as crappy as ever.

I lost consciousness before I could maintain the effect for long.