Ch.56[Episode 56] The Congressional Hearing Raid

Tick. A small, insignificant sound reached Sir Dominic’s ears.

Trom’s powerful black energy was still surging and flashy effects were appearing, but unlike the tremendous force from earlier, this was truly a feeble sound.

“What is this…?”

At this pathetic strike, Sir Dominic rubbed his ear wondering if he had misheard, then raised the back of his hand to rub his single eye, wondering if he had misperceived.

Such a bewildering strike.

However, Sir Dominic wasn’t the only one confused.

Trom was also surprised by this absurd impact sensation, his eyes darting around frantically as he tried to understand why this was happening.

A bug? Trom first thought it must be a bug.

Until just now, Trom had been consistently overwhelming the senators, but for some reason, he was now completely unable to inflict any damage.

But this was only natural.

Though Trom hadn’t noticed, he was gradually transforming from human to data.

The central system of Gacharland had observed his absurdly inflated data from using Mountain Bridge Marsh’s power and determined that his value had disappeared and he was making his final struggle.

Mountain Bridge Marsh’s customers were all people at the end of their rope, and they all eventually perished at Mountain Bridge Marsh’s hands. There were no exceptions.

The central system had judged through big data that Trom would be no different.

Those at the end of their lives can no longer prove their worth.

Those whose value has disappeared now only await complete death, but the central system occasionally gave such people one last chance.

The opportunity to become a stage boss.

The system could create monsters at will, but those monsters, composed of 0s and 1s, were capable of only monotonous actions.

To maintain Gacharland, monsters with diverse patterns were necessary.

The central system would often give those at the end of their lives one more chance by converting them into data and turning them into boss monsters.

Their opinions didn’t matter. The central system wasn’t human. One shouldn’t expect human-like sensibilities from it.

Above all, this information was specified in 0.3-point bold Gungsuh font in the contract they signed when coming to Gacharland, so there would be no legal issues.

Contracts should always be read carefully.

Anyway, the current situation—effects and attack judgments occurring but no damage being dealt—was a coincidence that happened while Trom was in the process of being converted to data and becoming a boss monster.

His stats and skills recorded in the central system were beginning to be erased.

And as he was becoming a boss monster, a situation arose where his stats were temporarily empty.

Since some human aspects remained, attack judgments still occurred, but with no attack power stat, damage judgments didn’t happen.

That brief moment of coincidence when his stats disappeared and boss monster stats were being overlaid.

“This can’t be happening.”

Trom, unable to believe something had gone wrong, swung his sword wildly.

“This power should be overwhelming! It should be absolute power, the strongest on the server!”

But the swung sword, though flashy with effects, strangely felt like it was being wielded by a wooden puppet.

Trom swung his sword at Sir Dominic’s shield with all his might.

Tick. Tick. Tock. Thong. Ting.

But unlike the flashy effects, the sound remained pathetic and insignificant.

“I have no idea what you’re trying to do.”

Sir Dominic lowered his shield with a bewildered expression at this attack that was all flash and no substance.

Tok. Tick. Tok.

The sword touched Sir Dominic’s body, but he felt nothing more than an annoying tapping sensation, suffering no damage at all.

“That’s the end for someone intoxicated by Mountain Bridge Marsh’s power.”

Senator Muscleman remarked bitterly.

“It’s no wonder Mountain Bridge Marsh is known as a criminal organization. Their power destroys people.”

That’s why they don’t think about coming out from the back alleys into the light, he added, watching Trom who was beginning to be fully incorporated into the stage.

“Wh.at iz hap.pening!”

Grammatically incorrect language spewed from Trom’s mouth.

Trom covered his mouth in shock.

“Why iz my speech like thiz?”

His tongue was beginning to twist.

Trom started to utter increasingly strange language.

“The side effects are starting to appear.”

Senator Muscleman looked at Trom as if this were expected.

“Mountain Bridge Marsh’s system always… causes language problems. Grammar becomes a mess, spelling rules are ignored, and you end up speaking as if reading from a language textbook.”

How pitiful.

“I’ve heard about translation issues in illegal systems, but this is the first time I’ve seen side effects this severe. It seems he paid a heavy price to gain more power. I should investigate this later. We might be able to catch Mountain Bridge Marsh’s tail.”

“What is train switch? This is unknowable!”

There’s a saying that the way to distinguish between humans and beasts is whether communication is possible.

Sir Dominic contemplated this old Feralant adage as he looked at Trom, now fully incorporated into the stage.

The being before him had a human appearance, but could the current version of him truly be called human?

“This can.not be! Some.thing is wrong.that is certain! Yes, my lord. This is tank.er’s conspiracy! What is this before eyes? Advertisement? Cannot know! Skip! Skip!”

Trom still maintained a human appearance with flashy but tacky equipment and seemingly powerful attachments.

His armor, engraved with silver phoenixes and dragons, had a name tag glowing golden, and a fully grown dragon was behind him.

But his vision was filled with advertisements, a box marked “200 pulls” appeared below, and though he tried to move on his own, his body wouldn’t listen and acted on its own.

He was no longer Senator Trom.

He had become the Phantom of the Insane Hearing, Mass-Produced Boss Trom.

Sir Dominic and the hearing’s senators looked at Trom.

Sir Dominic was reconsidering the value of Gacharland as he watched Trom.

When he first experienced Gacharland, he thought it would be full of pleasant and enjoyable things, but unexpectedly, Gacharland was merciless to those without value.

If my value disappears later, will I become an ugly sight like Trom?

Sir Dominic fell into philosophical contemplation as he watched Trom.

However, the other senators were looking at Trom in a literally different sense.

“When will the reward table connect?”

“Wait. First kill is mine. If it’s a raid, the rewards should be sweet.”

“But it’s a raid with hundreds of participants. Does landing the final blow even give anything these days? We should aim for MVP.”

That’s right.

While raids and stages created by System Industries employees were Gacharland’s basics, occasionally, rare spontaneous events, wild stages, and instant raids would appear due to the central system’s whims.

These random contents offered quite juicy rewards compared to regular content.

There were even adventurers who specifically sought out these random events because they dropped rarer rewards than usual.

The senators had lived in Gacharland for at least several decades and were all at least 4-star, enjoying life in Gacharland.

Such people wouldn’t miss an event like this.

Then why had they acted so passively until now?

“The reward table has connected. Now defeating him will drop rewards.”

The operations team leader, who had sent a report and received a reply, shouted to everyone.

That’s right. The senators had been waiting for the reward table to connect.

“If I had known this would happen, perhaps we wouldn’t have needed another plan.”

The chairperson looked down at Trom, who had been incorporated into the stage, from a high position.

Like a judge looking down at a criminal in court before delivering a verdict, the chairperson tapped the gavel and pronounced:

“From now on, Senator Trom has lost his qualification and unfortunately cannot maintain his position as a senator. Does anyone oppose Senator Trom’s dismissal or have any other opinions?”

But the senators said nothing.

Trom felt a chill.

“Shouldn’t fellow attackers stick together, my lord. Please don’t abandon me, my lord. Senator Trom begs you like this.”

Trom made one last appeal to people’s emotions.

At the very least, the Melee DPS Alliance shouldn’t have ignored him like this. How much had he devoted to the party!

In front of him, now fully converted to data and become a boss, options appeared saying [Spare] and [Eliminate], with [Spare] flashing.

Trom frantically flailed toward “Spare,” but having no choice in the matter, his hands merely sliced through empty air.

Trom gave the people a pitiful look.

But the senators had no intention of leaving Trom alone.

The raid preparations were already complete.

Morgana Black, the president, had already coordinated with System Industries’ operations team leader and sold all kinds of potions and repair tools to all the senators.

The eyes of the fully prepared senators were not those of intellectual humans but of beasts eyeing their prey.

Watching all this, Sir Dominic sighed, thinking he still had a long way to go to understand Gacharland.

Instead, he smiled happily.

Because if he wasn’t happy, the complexity would drive him insane.