Ch.3838. Even in Cyberpunk, Truth Prevails.

The party began to reveal its true nature as soon as they entered the dungeon and finished their first battle.

Their first opponents were a group of skeletons.

The size was similar to what previous parties had faced.

But the battle was more difficult than for the previous party.

It wasn’t an equipment issue.

As Amon had assessed at the entrance, the party’s equipment was quite high-level for beginners.

It was inferior compared to Paul’s party, but still overpowered for fighting skeletons.

However, despite their impressive gear, the users themselves were trash-tier.

“I’m going in!”

The orc tanker charged in without specifying where he was going.

In Paul’s party, Tori, who played the tank role, focused on dealing with shield bearers and breaking enemy formations so the machine gunner could be effective.

But this party’s orc tanker was different.

“Hahaha! That one’s head is mine!”

He ignored the shield bearers and jumped right into the middle of the skeleton group.

Then he started smashing skeletons like a movie protagonist.

As a result, the party was left without a tank to face the skeleton’s main force.

If he had instantly taken down the commander, it might have made sense.

But despite his charge, he was just farming regular troops in the middle of enemy lines while the commander safely attacked the main party from a secure position.

“Ugh! Come back here!”

Amon shouted while protecting the rear in place of the tank.

He deflected bone spears and kicked shield bearers while barely protecting the rear line.

While forcibly blocking the skeletons, Amon’s eyes quickly scanned the battlefield.

It was full of vulnerabilities.

The mage was casting with her eyes closed, completely ignoring evasion,

and the tanker was in the middle of enemy lines, taking hits he didn’t need to take.

In this situation, the only ones he could rely on were the machine gunner and the rifleman.

Since the tanker was in the middle of enemy lines, machine gun fire was obviously out of the question.

So Amon called out to the party leader, who was the rifleman.

“Humps! Can you snipe the commander?”

He shouted while beheading an approaching skeleton and stomping on its spine and skull.

Fortunately, Humps’ response was affirmative.

“I can!”

“Then please snipe when I give the signal!”

Amon ran toward the enemy lines.

Swinging his dual blades, Amon recklessly charged into the middle of the enemy formation and cut down all the shield bearers between Humps and the commander.

They tried to rise again immediately since he had skipped crushing their heads and spines, but Amon reached the commander faster.

Amon leaped high above the commander’s head and shouted.

“Now!”

Bang!

A single bullet pierced the skeleton commander’s head.

As the skull shattered into pieces, the commander’s body staggered.

Amon landed on the headless commander and crushed its spine under his foot.

Crack!

With both spine and head destroyed, the skeleton commander couldn’t rise again.

Of course, the rest of the skeletons didn’t turn to ashes just because the commander was gone.

But the tricky part about skeletons wasn’t their individual strength, but that they formed battle formations despite being monsters.

Immediately after the commander was taken down, the unit began to fall apart as Amon had intended.

But even amid the weakened offensive, Amon didn’t forget his duty as a frontliner.

He returned to the party to protect the rear line.

But before he could get back to them, he heard an ominous sound.

“Dodge on your own!”

With the commander gone and the shield bearers’ formation broken, the machine gunner who had been quiet until now started firing indiscriminately.

‘Shit!’

After cursing internally, Amon immediately dropped to the ground.

Rat-tat-tat!

The machine gun spewed fire with an ear-splitting noise.

Amon heard the sound of numerous bones shattering above his head.

After enduring for several seconds as bone fragments rained down on his head,

the machine gun finally stopped.

In the corridor filled with bone fragments, the beastkin holding the machine gun whistled and said,

“Whew~ That felt good.”

Paul wiped sweat from his forehead.

Amon and the orc tanker rose from under the pile of bone fragments and protested to Paul.

“What do you think you’re doing!”

“Hey, are you crazy!”

But the beastkin paid no attention to their protests.

“You’re frontliners, so your skin must be tough, right? Stop whining over something this minor.”

Veins bulged on the frontliners’ foreheads.

But before they could express their anger, the skeletons began to revive.

Seeing this, Amon recalled how the previous party handled it.

‘Right. Paul always finished them off.’

Skeletons keep reviving unless their spines and heads are destroyed.

Since it was impossible to individually destroy the spines and heads of dozens of skeletons, the finishing blow was always Paul’s responsibility.

Amon looked at this party’s mage.

Just then, the elf girl finished her incantation and activated her magic.

“Enchant!”

“??”

While Amon was doubting his ears, her magical power infused the weapons of Amon and the other party members.

Surprisingly, this was reality.

The mage, who had been chanting since the battle began, had cast Enchant at the final stage of the battle.

‘Fuck, this pointy-eared bastard!’

Amon looked at the mage in shock.

The mage seemed unaware of her mistake.

When she put a finger to her lips and looked at Amon with a “hmm~?” expression, he felt murderous.

But soon he understood the whole situation from what unfolded before his eyes.

“What are you doing, Amon? Move already.”

The men who received her enchantment began finishing off the skeletons one by one.

Amon couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Bang! Bang!

The shooters were finishing off the skeletons with their magically empowered guns.

“???”

He would have understood if the orc tanker had finished them off one by one with his mace, or if the rear line had stomped on them.

Under the premise of not considering time and efficiency, there was nothing wrong with conserving the mage’s magic power.

But why use bullets to finish them off?

‘Don’t these idiots understand that bullets are consumables?’

Inside a dungeon, bullets should be conserved as much as possible.

There’s no one to resupply them, and a shooter without bullets becomes dead weight.

But they didn’t seem to realize this fact.

‘Crazy…’

At that point, Amon defined this party as trash-tier.

Grumbling internally, Amon joined the task.

While working, the mage didn’t lift a finger and just kept running her mouth.

“Fighting! Keep it up!”

The pretty elf’s cheering didn’t give him strength… not at all.

Instead of strength, it only raised his blood pressure.

But unlike Amon, the other men seemed different.

The machine gunner, the orc tanker, and the rifleman party leader.

They all worked hard to earn her attention.

They even used bullets to complete the task just to look good to her.

And when the task was finished…

“The one who defeated the most skeletons this time was… Paul!”

The elf was selecting the best player.

Seeing this, Amon could understand why this party was such a mess.

‘Fuck. She’s a queen bee?’

Unaware of Amon’s thoughts, the elf tried to flirt with him.

She was trying to hook him too, but it only had the opposite effect on Amon.

Amon distanced himself from her with disgust.

The other men somehow misunderstood this and began showing competitive spirit toward Amon.

“Fuck…”

Amon sighed and rubbed his face.

Meanwhile, the leader, who was searching for loot among the skeleton group, pulled something out and put it in his bag.

After repeating this several times, the party leader shook his head and returned to the party.

Amon’s eyes narrowed.

But before he could question this, the party leader said something Amon couldn’t ignore.

“If we’re done resting, let’s move on!”

“???”

Numerous question marks appeared above Amon’s head at his instruction.

Leave right away?

What about weapon checks? Ammunition checks? Injury checks? Shouldn’t the mage check her remaining magic power?

Above all, what about feedback?

Amon asked if the party leader had forgotten, thinking it might be an oversight.

But the entire party looked at Amon as if he were strange.

The party leader spoke.

“Do you check your sword after every battle?”

“Of course?”

Swords don’t have infinite durability like in games.

They needed to be checked after battle when there was time.

But that answer seemed to irritate the party leader.

“Wow, I’ve never seen someone so frustrating.”

“??”

“Then when will you meet your daily quota? If you fight once, check once, when will you improve your specs? At this rate, you won’t even meet your daily quota, you idiot.”

Amon’s mouth clamped shut.

He wanted to argue.

Even Paul’s party, who were much better than these people, would provide feedback and check their weapons after each battle.

But they were an established party with savings.

Compared to them, this party was a beginner party living day to day.

The value of time would naturally differ between Paul’s party and this one.

So he could understand their position.

Only if this party wasn’t trash-tier.

‘If I go with this idiot, I’m 100% going to die.’

They already had three trash-tier members, and now the party leader wouldn’t even check weapons or provide feedback to party members.

And to top it off, he was secretly embezzling loot.

He was certain.

Four confirmed trash-tier members.

Amon’s decision was quick.

“This is as far as I go.”

Whether the previous frontliner of this party had his legs digested by a slime,

or had his head cracked open by a monster,

or broke his back in the queen bee competition.

If he stayed with this party, the future looked bleak.

He hadn’t grown attached to the party anyway.

He didn’t care where they died.

But the party leader wasn’t willing to let him go so easily.

“Then pay the penalty fee.”

“What penalty fee? We didn’t even sign a contract.”

“I’ve never seen someone like you before. Didn’t you read the rules when looking for a party? This exists because of people like you who try to run away.”

Amon tilted his head.

There shouldn’t be such a clause?

Amon, who was careful about agreeing to terms, had thoroughly familiarized himself with the rules, even looking up case studies.

And there was no penalty fee clause.

While he was wondering if he had forgotten something, the party leader mistook Amon’s silence for acceptance and held out his palm, demanding money.

“4000 dollars.”

“What?”

“1000 dollars per person, four people.”

Amon was speechless at his brazen attitude.

Did he seriously think his daily wage was worth 1000 dollars?

Looking at his shameless face, Amon could be certain.

‘He’s just an idiot.’

He had just made it up, thinking Amon hadn’t read the rules.

In that case, Amon had something to say too.

“You must have misread the clause. If there’s discord among party members and one leaves first, the clause states that only the profits earned until then are distributed.”

“What do you know—”

Amon operated his phone and showed him a PDF file filled with dense clauses.

The item Amon pointed to was actually there.

“That kind of tactic doesn’t work in modern society, sir.”

With evidence presented, the party leader had nothing to say.

So Amon decided to part ways with the party.

However, there was one thing he needed to clarify before leaving.

“I believe I have a share in what’s in your pocket.”

“W-what are you…”

Did he think no one would notice?

Thanks to the party members’ attention being focused on the queen bee elf, embezzlement had been easy until now.

But Amon had zero interest in the elf.

So when the party leader rejoined the group, shaking his head as if he had found nothing, it was absurd.

Amon was a person who knew how to exercise his rightful claims.

Just like the party leader had done, he held out his palm, demanding his share.

The party leader looked nervously at the other party members, sweating.

The party members who now knew about his embezzlement didn’t take his side.

The party leader looked back at Amon.

Amon’s other hand was resting on the sword at his waist.

Realizing there was no escape, the party leader pleaded pathetically.

Suddenly switching to formal speech from the casual speech he had been using until now.

“You already have plenty of money. Can’t you just let us have this?”

“Us?”

“…”

“What do you mean ‘us’? It’s just you.”

Amon slightly drew his sword, looking incredulous.

Faced with the visibly cold blade, the party leader couldn’t decide what to do and finally shouted his story.

“I have a sick sibling. The previous frontliner who had his legs digested by a slime. For that child’s sake…”

But Amon had no interest in his heartfelt story.

“Shut up and give me my share.”

“You can call D4C for a party you just met, but you’re greedy for a 10-dollar magic stone?”

“I spent too much money then, so my balance is a bit tight.”

Of course, that wasn’t really the case.

Amon was kind enough to spend 100 million for someone he just met, but that was a reward for rare kindness in this cyberpunk world.

He wasn’t enough of a pushover to show kindness after being treated like trash.

Rather, he would respond appropriately to such treatment.

Even though this argument would only get him about 10 dollars, he had to take it out of spite.

The party leader ground his teeth and threw the magic stone at Amon.

“Take this and die, you Scrooge bastard.”

Amon caught the magic stone and turned around.

But due to a shred of faith, he asked about their intentions before parting.

“Would you like to return with me, or continue deeper by yourselves?”

At least they knew their limits and chose to return with Amon.

“Coward.”

Amon responded to the party leader’s sharp voice from behind with a shrug.

While Amon walked ahead, an argument broke out behind him.

“Give back the money you’ve been taking.”

“This was the first time! Really, believe me.”

“How can I believe that?”

“I told you it was for my sibling.”

Amon’s lips twisted as he overheard the conversation.

How could anyone believe that?

Meanwhile, the queen bee elf tried to gain control by pretending to mediate between them.

Amon led the bickering trash-tier party out of the dungeon.

Before parting, Amon greeted the party.

“It was nice meeting you.”

“Get lost, you hypocrite. *spits*”

Even his last goodwill was trampled.

Amon wasn’t in a particularly good mood either, but he decided to forget about it, thinking of it as stepping in dog poop.

And the next day.

“Mr. Amon. This is the police. Could you please open the door?”

“What’s the matter?”

“Is the name of the party leader from yesterday’s party Humps?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“He died yesterday. We’re investigating the possibility of homicide. Would you be willing to cooperate?”

Hearing the police officer’s voice through the intercom, Amon sighed deeply.

Muttering that he never seemed to have a peaceful day.