Ch.306306 – The Veteran Player Draws the Big Picture

<306 – Old Players Draw the Big Picture>

He chose the wrong opponent.

From the moment he used his power against Jona instead of me, the Apostle of Anlage’s defeat was already determined.

As he uses the crew members filled with latent mana poison as fuel, the poison stacks continue to rise.

Moreover, having absorbed large amounts of fuel twice, reaching full stacks was already guaranteed.

<Latency Terminated>

<Mana Paralysis Poison Fully Released>

At the most critical moment, his mana eruption was blocked.

Unable to stop Jona’s attack, Low was instantly impaled through the chest by steel thorns.

The steel thorns that penetrated his body absorbed all the iron from his blood, even changing the color of his blood.

“Gack.”

The end of the Apostle of Anlage, who had been rampaging while driving a thousand crew members to their deaths, came with surprising anticlimactic ease.

“How… could you predict all of this…?”

“The hidden boss Apostle of Anlage appearing on the deserted island auction cruise ship was a fixed element!”

“Fixed element… an unchanging fate… you read my desires…?”

“If I have information and know the solution, why wouldn’t I use it? Especially with such great rewards!”

“Cough… you deliberately created openings to provoke my desires…”

If he hadn’t incited the shipboard rebellion, he wouldn’t have been granted the authority to expand his <activity range> within the cruise ship.

Due to the restrictions engraved by the Chairman, he would have forever followed orders, wasting time confined to a limited area while being suppressed by other personas.

However, thanks to many students crossing the line, the stronger personas gradually surfaced.

“Controlling the dropouts at the deserted island auction to send them back to the ship… making my other personas exhaust their power to loosen the constraints around me… even inducing their situations to inevitably lead to my liberation…”

I’ve been had.

From the beginning, he was merely being played by a small child whose head barely reached his waist.

Reading and provoking human desires.

This child’s talent is truly innate.

The most dangerous monster of the Wiheomhae Foundation.

Comparable even to that <Chairman>.

“Miss. There’s no need to indulge this creature in its final moments. Please give the order to execute.”

“No! We finally caught a hidden boss, so we can at least have a conversation before he goes. Do you have anything else to say before your last breath?”

There was one thing he wanted to ask the kindly prompting Oknodie.

“There was a fatal flaw in your plan…”

“A flaw?”

“That it relied on the deaths of the crew members…”

“Ah!”

“Aren’t you afraid? That so many people died because of your single decision.”

The maids and the assassin Zhang who had rescued the sacrifices during the battle.

The shadows of students who had been freed with the help of these three could be seen peeking beyond the destroyed lobby, flinching as they eavesdropped.

Their poorly concealed shadows fell at his feet, visible in his peripheral vision.

Yet Oknodie smiled brightly.

Without pretense or evasion, she answered honestly.

“The crew members on the cruise ship are all criminals anyway! Even if they weren’t, they’re just extra NPCs, so whether they live or die doesn’t change the main scenario!”

“Kuk. Kuhehe. The Foundation was raising yet another absurd monster… Main scenario. I don’t know what terribly future that points to, but I can tell it must be horrific enough that the deaths of a thousand people don’t even make you blink.”

“Hmm~ How was it again? If they’re extras, quite a lot of them do die, right?”

“You are worse than a demon contractor. It wouldn’t be surprising if someday you reveal your true colors as the Dark Princess, as your nickname suggests, and aim for the position of the next Demon King.”

But this arrogance was your mistake.

Low’s eyes shone brightly as he used his soul as collateral to cast a massive contract magic circle.

A posthumous magic circle that activates when conditions are met.

Death was already at hand.

It was time for the contract that would offer his soul to the demon who had granted him power to be fulfilled.

He had no intention of doing anything beneficial for the demon who would torment him for eons.

But he had no reason to refuse revenge against his mortal enemy.

He embedded in his soul the information about Oknodie’s true nature that he had seen and heard at the end.

“With this, a demon who knows your true nature has been born in this world. The other demon contractors under his command won’t be fooled as easily as I was.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“So you’ll tremble in fear.”

“Wow. So scary!”

“Ha. It’s ridiculous how not even a trace of fear can be detected. Then how about this.”

With his arm trembling as life and soul began to leave him, he painfully raised it to point behind Oknodie.

“Your ‘friends’ heard the story about your true nature. You revealed your true self because you trusted them, but can they trust you?”

The eavesdropping group flinched noticeably.

Low confirmed that at least one thing had hit home on his final journey.

Oknodie’s friends felt fear.

About the story he had exposed.

About Oknodie’s true nature that they didn’t know.

About the true danger of the Dark Princess disguised as a small, cute child.

About the consequences of the so-called ‘main scenario’ as viewed by the Foundation’s top scholarship student.

“It’s okay!”

Oknodie simply affirmed.

“As long as I build enough affection, they won’t betray me!”

“We’ll see. Whether your conviction or mine will win. My breath ends here today… but our convictions will be settled in the distant future. This is… the power of the Apostle of the God of Corruption to reveal human nature, Anlage. Oknodie, this is my curse upon you.”

Oknodie answered by stabbing him in the chest with her dagger.

“Too long! Dying words should be short and simple, under 300 characters. You have to follow the game rules!”

Kuk-kuk. Crazy girl.

It’s a shame I won’t live to see the day your arrogance meets its end.

Beginning with Apostle Low’s soul disappearing into the distance, the personas that couldn’t find new vessels screamed in agony as they scattered into the void.

* *

[You have defeated the hidden boss Apostle of Anlage.]

[Contribution bonus increases experience efficiency by 5x.]

[Last hit bonus increases experience efficiency by 3x.]

[Hidden boss bonus increases experience efficiency by 2x.]

[Psychological Prediction experience +300]

[Behavior Prediction experience +300]

[…]

[Fear Induction experience +150]

[Strategy Development experience +150]

[…]

[Manipulation Technique experience +90]

[Mana Control Technique experience +90]

[…]

[Perfection experience +30]

[Scary Child experience +30]

[Challenge task <Defeat Hidden Boss Apostle of Anlage> has been accomplished.]

[You have acquired the title <Hidden Slayer>.]

[Title effect: All function correction values against hidden bosses increase by 10%.]

[Title achievement bonus: You acquire 1,000,000 points.]

Ooh. As expected from an event overcome in reality rather than a dream, the rewards are no joke.

Now I’m rich too!

Excited, I grab April’s hand and spin around, when a window of a different color than usual appears.

[The God of Corruption Anlage has noticed your existence.]

[“You small, insignificant creature. As payment for taking my apostle… Oh? Ohoho? What is that impossible talent! You, become my apostle right now. Then I will forgive all your sins!”]

[Anlage offers you an apostle contract.]

Huh?

An apostle contract? No way!

No matter how much power they offer, being an apostle just means “don’t do this, don’t do that, do this because I ordered it, bring me that because I want it.”

Who would want a job as a god’s errand runner, doing their bidding all day long?

[You reject the apostle contract.]

[“Insolent one. No matter how great your talent, how dare a mere mortal, how dare…?”]

[Anlage detects the gaze of another god and is startled.]

[Anlage flees in fear.]

“?”

Once you catch a god’s eye, whether you accept or reject their offer, they’ll be equally annoying.

I was prepared for the harassment that would come despite the great rewards, but surprisingly, the opponent retreated cleanly.

Did the One God Sophemia help by saving the hero?

If Anlage, one of the 24 major deities, retreated so readily, it must indeed be the One God Sophemia.

Fortunately, everyone was saved in the process!

“Ugh.”

“Are you alright, Miss!?”

“I’m fine. I just got dizzy for a moment from using magic with too large a capacity.”

Blood magic actually has some limitations.

To control mosquitoes, they first need to suck my blood infused with dark mana to grow.

The amount of my blood that was sucked to make the mosquitoes diligently poison two thousand crew members was not insignificant.

‘Thankfully the Apostle of Anlage was stupid just like in the original game!’

The Apostle of Anlage is incredibly strong in direct combat, but because multiple personalities share one body, he doesn’t take different attributes of heterogeneous mana seriously.

Low’s personality, which doesn’t sense anything unusual about small, weak powers because he’s too strong, was the perfect idiot for triggering latent mana poison.

“To defeat such a monster so easily…”

The hero muttered with an unbelieving face.

Well, that’s because the hero is a muscle-obsessed idiot too, right?

Actually, the strategy isn’t usually this easy.

To inject paralysis poison into all crew members, you need to make them drink alcohol infused with dark mana.

To make everyone drink, you need to trigger the jackpot event at the cruise ship’s auction house, but is it easy to hit the jackpot with luck?

You have to trick the casino guards and dealers who glare at you as if saying, “I know you’re going to cheat.”

Not to mention preparing the alcohol and paralysis poison.

To spike the drinks, you additionally need to bribe or threaten the relevant people.

After all that, if you don’t have comrades to incite a shipboard rebellion, you have to recruit crew NPCs or other NPCs who participated in the deserted island auction to start the rebellion, doubling the effort.

In the end, even if you know the strategy, the hidden boss is a troublesome existence requiring a very long and annoying chain quest.

Still, it’s fortunate the kid was stupid; if he had been smart too, even an experienced player like me would have given up!

‘Then I would have had to inject more blood to account for the dilution in drinks, and the mana consumption when activating the latent poison would have been much greater.’

Originally, this event is meant for second or third-year vacations, so it’s tough clearing it as a first-year, but by then you can easily clear it without feeling dizzy like this.

Still, the rewards are worth the effort of straining my body to clear it as a first-year.

Lots of function experience gained, many points given, and even a hidden boss effectiveness bonus.

Plus, I saved allies from mortal danger, so their affection should increase significantly!

[Scary Child debuff activated]

[Many students are frightened by your ruthless plan that used the deaths of a thousand crew members as collateral to defeat the Apostle of Anlage.]

[Many students’ affection has significantly decreased.]

[Organization members’ obedience has significantly increased.]

“Ah.”

I didn’t know about this.

Everyone’s eyes on me have become awkward.