Chapter 89 – Irregular (1)

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“The casualties are starting to pour out, aren’t they.”

“When your body and mind are exhausted, you can’t move as you wish at the most crucial moment.”

The large-scale defense battle passed the 2nd and 3rd day.

There hasn’t been any report of a breach anywhere yet, but the momentum from the first day has definitely waned.

Since the time to recover stamina is shorter than the time the enemies swarm in, more and more people are getting hurt and dying.

The faces of the top-level personnel who can see the reports compiled and shared by the alliance are inevitably stiff.

“Duke.”

“Yes, Commander.”

Daik, the leader of the Lacno Mercenaries which has over 1,000 affiliated challengers throughout the Tower, finished calculating how many more days were left in the defense war and secretly called his confidant.

“Sacrifices will inevitably increase. But if even one of the eight floors we’re in charge of is breached, what will happen to our status and honor?”

Lacno Mercenaries is a large guild, but the fact that they are defending as many as eight floors alone in this defense battle is entirely due to the slight greed of the leadership, including Daik.

The more merits you accumulate, the more rewards you receive.

This obvious law in the Tower certainly encourages combat and increases participation, but on the contrary, it also invites greed due to excessive enthusiasm.

“We can’t afford to respond half-heartedly to reduce losses. But we also have to prevent further damage to our allies. So, what should we do?”

“…I will instruct them to preserve the core forces well.”

At Daik’s gaze, his confidant, Duke’s eyes sparkled as he understood the hidden meaning.

The core forces they are talking about are rankers in the rankings, promising individuals who can maintain the power and scale of the force, including quasi-rankers.

After all, most of the rank-and-file members can just be replaced. There are plenty of people who want to join the Lacno Mercenaries, a huge force in this vast Tower.

Moreover, large-scale defense battles were always major events that heralded the emergence of new promising individuals.

Just replace those who died with new recruits.

It wasn’t just Daik of the Lacno Mercenaries.

Most of the leaders of the forces had this thought.

‘It will be a tough road. If the floors get higher, stronger enemies will attack…’

Daik, now alone, stared blankly out the window. Thanks to his superhuman senses, if he listened carefully, he could still hear the groans of the injured.

Of course, Daik was also a man who initially held burning passion and anger in his heart.

He had often wept and lamented, watching his subordinates die beside him.

‘What if I didn’t climb the Tower and was satisfied here? Of course, those bastards would never accept it.’

However, quite a bit of time had passed since Daik entered the Tower.

Even though he was a challenger who lived by overcoming the walls of limitations, it was hard to deny that he was gradually getting tired in front of the wall of time.

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[What do you guys think? Does the defense battle on Tower 3445 seem doable?]

ㄴ“It’s pretty easy, isn’t it?”

ㄴ“How many died? Not many died, right?”

ㄴ“If it stays like this, it seems like it’ll be nothing?”

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While Daik and the other personnel inside the Tower were gradually getting tired and harboring uneasy feelings.

The users of Fate Road, who watched the defense battle with them, were showing slightly different opinions from the personnel inside the Tower.

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ㄴ“Not even one high-ranking executive has come out. It’s been so easy so far, right?”

ㄴ“Right, originally there should be irregulars and stuff after floor 150 ㅋㅋ”

ㄴ“Some bets have already failed”

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Even the lowest-ranking Constellations have already experienced everything in the Tower and seen the end of it.

From their perspective, who know more and have experienced more, the current defense battle was in a smooth state without major ups and downs.

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ㄴ“Smooth my ass, we almost had a big problem just today!”

ㄴ“ㅋㅋㅋ Are you a fanboy or fangirl? As long as you don’t get too invested, it’s boring, what are you talking about”

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Of course, the fighting also didn’t stop.

Those who were active in the fan gallery and supported the challengers fought with those who were saying that it was too easy and boring, that it wasn’t fun to bet on, and that it should be more difficult to make it more entertaining.

“These idiots…”

Serpina frowned, looking at the bulletin boards in an uproar everywhere.

From her point of view, they were all people she wanted to kill.

Whether it was the fans who were too immersed and unconditionally defended the challengers, or the crazy psychos who said it was boring because their juniors, who would have to fight alongside them when they became Constellations in the future, weren’t dying enough.

‘If you look at it coldly, it’s definitely not that difficult. But in the end, what’s important is to preserve your strength and gradually take steps. That’s up to them.’

Serpina couldn’t deny that it was still smooth sailing.

It wasn’t that there were no crises, but challengers wouldn’t gain anything if there weren’t any crises in the first place.

For someone outside the Tower like her, it might just be meaningful to survive in the battlefield.

But isn’t that the inside of the Tower?

A world where you can get rewards and opportunities that you can never get outside the Tower.

It was a place where there were mountains of things to gain by facing and clashing with each other, rather than simply surviving.

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ㄴ“Reina is so kissable”

ㄴ“The all-survivor achievement, she must have been tipped off, right?”

ㄴ“Isn’t she basically winning the ranking competition?!”

ㄴ“Ah ㅋㅋ Please refrain from being so excited”

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In that sense, the public opinion about Reina in the Reina fan gallery was at its peak.

Because Reina’s current actions contained everything the watching Constellations wanted.

She was not backing down, pushing herself hard and fighting fiercely, and choosing only the best options for everyone around her, including herself.

Reina’s ‘ability to climb the Tower’, which Serpina also acknowledged, was being fully displayed.

***

“How is everyone’s condition?”

“I’m fine except for being really tired. It’s all thanks to the Guild Master.”

Late at night. Reina, who had taken off her armor, came to the room where the guild members were gathered, with her hands in her pockets in her usual tracksuit.

The guild members, who had to soothe their minds and bodies as much as possible during the limited time, except for those monitoring the gate outbreaks, were also relaxing in comfortable clothes, playing games or lounging around.

“If you hadn’t come then, my head would have flown off instead of my arm.”

“Fight as safely as possible. We can’t deny that we’ve taken on a somewhat challenging mission.”

Reina smiled bitterly at a guild member who was waving his arm, which had been cut off and barely reattached.

Clearly, the Over Moon Guild had taken on a slightly more difficult mission than their level at Jung Chan-soo’s request.

Even though Reina herself, who could now fight all the guild members alone and win, didn’t mind, the others had to walk on thin ice every day, where they would die if they were broken.

‘You’ll get much higher rewards just for surviving, right.’

Rewards are always relative.

Even rewards that are inefficient for her can be precious honey for guild members who haven’t even reached the quasi-ranker level yet.

She has already decided to save everyone in front of her anyway.

They need to get stronger as quickly and as much as possible to reduce her burden, so it was the best choice for Reina to suffer as much as possible now.

“Should we call the Valhalla people too?”

“No, I actually sent all those people to Jung Chan-soo. Since they can come right away anyway, I also wanted to share the situation directly and check on them.”

Reina shook her head at Kim Ji-eun’s words.

She had just sent all the Valhalla guild members, including Diana and Sylvia, who would be with them during the defense war, to Jung Chan-soo.

The reason was not particularly flawed.

They’re like family, so if they can be together in their free time, it will have a good psychological effect.

Just like the Over Moon Guild, which is tightly gathered together now.

‘Tonight, the Irregular Doom Knight appears.’

But no one could know Reina’s true intentions right now.

The fact that Reina was very nervous and on high alert, unlike her relaxed appearance, was also unknown.

‘Compared to the original, it’s a luxurious composition. So, we can solve it without any problems, right? Right?’

Reina’s eyes, who had come out to the terrace alone for a while, were shaking violently compared to the boisterous guild members.

The Irregular Doom Knight, who appeared in the dead of night on the 4th day of the defense war.

The guy who was a great trial for Jung Chan-soo was a powerful enemy that Jung Chan-soo had to face alone in the original work, and at the same time, he was one of the disasters that were subdued with difficulty after defeating him and going to other floors to rampage.

At the same time, Jung Chan-soo does not know of its existence. It is literally an irregular that did not appear before he regressed.

‘If I can put a hand in there, I can get a reward, but.’

Reina, who knew how big the Doom Knight’s subjugation reward was, swallowed hard.

Knowing it in advance, she couldn’t help but be tempted.

But… she glanced behind her and bit her lip.

She had to stop the invasion that started suddenly with the appearance of the Doom Knight.

Now that she had sent Diana and Sylvia up, those who remained here would inevitably suffer greatly if she left.

So she made her own best choice.

Sending Jung Chan-soo the strong allies he didn’t have in the original work.

And staying here to protect her people.

It was a perfect operation with a well-balanced plan.

If it goes according to plan.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Thank you for reading.

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Plot wise, it won’t go well at all, but with the power of mc, she gets everything right and gets more rewards. The end.

Nah, she trips over a rock and dies. Much better!