Chapter 187: Accident (2)

Episode 187

It was then that,

**Buzz!**

His smartphone vibrated again.

The PD hurriedly swapped the smartphone he was holding with the one in his pocket.

He glanced around, making sure Sergio and the others hadn’t noticed, and answered the call for the first time since entering the dungeon.

“Yes.”

– It’s time. Begin.

“…Yes, sir. Understood.”

He quietly replied and hung up the phone. At that moment,

“Who was that?”

Sergio’s sudden voice startled the PD.

He turned around and saw Sergio looking at him with a curious expression.

His face clearly said, ‘Who keeps calling you?’.

“Ah… It was the Team 1 leader.”

The PD gave a truthful, yet deceptive answer.

“The Team 1 leader?”

Sergio raised an eyebrow. According to protocol, Francisco, the Team 1 leader, should have contacted him, the person in charge, if there was an issue.

“Yes. He said the broadcast signal was unstable and asked me to check the cables. He said it keeps cutting out, and it’s bothering the Master, who’s watching with him…”

“…Is that so?”

“I’ll go check the cables. It’ll be quick.”

The PD hurriedly ran towards the entrance portal.

Sergio frowned, watching him leave.

‘Suspicious. Is he going to disconnect only specific monitors?’

The atmosphere in the right stage was already strange.

And now, the Team 1 leader had called the PD directly instead of him, and the PD was suddenly going to check the cables connected to the monitors…

Something smelled fishy.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Go see what the PD is doing. Stop him if he’s doing something suspicious.”

He decided to send a subordinate to keep an eye on the PD.

The evaluation team member immediately followed the PD.

“…Huh?”

He exclaimed in surprise.

“What? Why is there a barrier? Mr. PD! Hey!”

“…!”

Sergio’s head snapped towards the sound.

His subordinate was standing in front of a transparent barrier, unable to pass through, looking confused.

The PD, seemingly oblivious, was squatting down, fiddling with something, his back turned towards them.

It was a suspicious sight.

‘I knew it!’

He had been suspicious from the start, and his intuition was right.

“Move!”

Sergio ran towards the PD and punched the barrier with all his might, his fist charged with Mana.

**Crash!** The barrier shattered.

“Did you really think such a flimsy barrier would work…?”

He sneered and approached the PD, but his eyes suddenly widened.

He saw an Abyss Mana stone activated right in front of the PD.

“That bastard!”

He felt a surge of danger, although he didn’t know what it was, and drew his sword with lightning speed.

Just as his sword was about to strike the PD’s neck,

**Clang! Thud!**

“Ugh…!”

His sword was blocked, and his body bent at an unnatural angle.

He stumbled back, blood trickling from his mouth, a sign of internal injuries.

He looked up, and

“……!!”

His eyes widened in shock.

“Hey, Sergio. Long time no see.”

A muscular man in his thirties was grinning at him, waving his hand.

He was holding a severed head in his left hand. It was the subordinate who had been standing near the PD.

But that wasn’t what shocked Sergio the most.

“Henrique…!”

The First Capital Command, also known as the ‘FCC’, a Major Clan representing Brazil.

The leader of Team 1 of the FCC, their arch-nemesis, had suddenly appeared.

“You just got promoted to team leader, right? Congratulations! But guess what? You’re destined to die by my hand before you even complete a year!”

Henrique continued speaking, his grin widening, as more FCC hunters poured out from behind him.

They were coming through the ‘dimensional rift’ that the PD had opened using the Mana stone.

“You crazy bastards!!”

Sergio roared at the ever-increasing number of FCC members.

“You’re launching an attack in front of over 20,000 viewers? Are you so addicted to drugs that you’ve forgotten the basic rules of the New Continent?!”

It was forbidden to engage in clan battles in plain sight. Violating this rule meant that the clan would be considered an enemy by all Paladins and clans in the New Continent.

This was the rule that had brought some semblance of order to the ‘lawless zone’ known as the New Continent.

And now, Henrique, a high-ranking executive of the FCC, had blatantly violated this rule by beheading Sergio’s subordinate.

“You should be more worried about your own lives than the rules.”

Henrique ignored Sergio’s outburst and pointed his sword at him and the other Triunfo hunters behind him.

“They say the fist is closer than the law, right?”

“You madman…!”

Sergio gritted his teeth, but his eyes were trembling.

‘What should I do?’

If a fight broke out, the Triunfo Clan would lose without a doubt. They were completely outmatched in both quality and quantity.

‘Can we even escape?’

The FCC members were blocking the entrance portal, their only escape route.

‘But I have to try.’

They were already cornered. If they stayed here, all the Triunfo Clan members present would die in battle.

If they scattered and ran, there was a chance, however slim, that at least one of them would survive.

“Everyone scatter and run!!”

He gave the order and activated his unique ability.

The space around him instantly turned opaque gray.

“Subspace! Stop him before he completes it!”

Henrique shouted urgently.

He knew that Sergio’s unique ability was ‘Subspace Creation’.

One of his subordinates immediately threw a small glass bottle filled with liquid towards the forming gray subspace.

The bottle shattered, and its contents spread, instantly erasing the subspace.

It was the effect of the ‘Nullification Potion’, an item that most Major Clan members carried.

With the subspace skill canceled, the FCC members saw the Triunfo Clan members scattering and running in all directions.

“Kill them all!”

Henrique shouted, and his subordinates spread out, chasing after them.

Even as they were giving chase, Henrique kept looking around.

“Where’s Sergio?!”

He had noticed that Sergio wasn’t among the fleeing hunters.

He searched frantically, but he never imagined that

Sergio was running towards the entrance portal, right past him.

‘Please don’t notice me, please!’

Sergio prayed silently as he ran, his body transparent.

And his prayers were answered.

Henrique didn’t notice him until he reached the entrance portal.

‘Phew! Thank goodness. Even Henrique doesn’t know about this ability.’

Subspace Tunnel.

It was one of Sergio’s abilities, or rather, a technique he had developed by applying his ‘Subspace’ ability in a new way.

It created a narrow tunnel made of subspace between his current location and a designated location, allowing only him to pass through for a certain amount of time.

Since it was made of subspace, it was undetectable by normal detection skills or abilities, which was its greatest advantage.

‘I survived!’

He cheered inwardly as he reappeared right in front of the entrance portal.

Henrique would probably notice him now, but he was already too close to the portal.

‘I need to contact the executives…’

**Thud!**

‘…!!’

His pupils constricted.

A thick green thorn had pierced through his neck.

It was connected to the right arm of a muscular middle-aged man standing right in front of him.

“…D-Dumont…?”

Sergio stared at the man, Dumont, in disbelief.

Dumont, the Master of the FCC Clan, was here in person…?

‘These bastards are serious…!’

That was his last thought.

Dumont moved the green thorn, easily severing Sergio’s neck.

“Henrique.”

He gave instructions to Henrique, who was looking at him.

“Station a large number of troops at the entrance portal and be ready to block it at any time. And open another dimensional rift to the stage where the newbie showdown participants are.”

“Yes, Master.”

As Henrique moved to block the entrance portal, Dumont walked towards the main PD.

He patted the PD’s shoulder, who was standing respectfully.

“You followed my instructions well.”

“Thank you, Master!”

The main PD shouted, standing at attention.

He had betrayed Francisco to save his own life, and now he had betrayed him again for the same reason.

* * *

“Why are you all so hesitant?”

Kim Jinsung’s voice broke the strange tension that had settled over the right stage.

“Attack me if you’re going to attack. Before the team in the left cave finishes the puzzles.”

“…!”

“Didn’t you plan this?”

Juan’s eyes wavered as Kim Jinsung looked at him directly.

How did he know?

“You’re asking how I knew? You blatantly formed a team with only Blue Team members except for me. Only an idiot wouldn’t notice.”

Kim Jinsung continued, as if reading Juan’s mind.

“Make a decision. Attack me, or drop your weapons and cower in a corner.”

“…!”

“I’m warning you, I’m much stronger than you think. You’ll need to use every ounce of your strength to even have a chance of winning.”

“Y-you bastard…!”

Juan gritted his teeth at Kim Jinsung’s arrogant attitude.

But he couldn’t refute him. Annoyingly, everything he said was true.

‘Damn it, what should I do?’

His desire to seize this opportunity, knowing it might never come again, was battling his rationality, which told him they had little chance of winning.

Kim Jinsung suddenly threw his sword at Juan.

‘What?!’

Juan instinctively jumped to the side, startled.

He narrowly dodged the sword.

Or rather, the sword had been aimed just above his head.

**Clang!**

The sound of swords clashing echoed from where Juan had been standing.

“Oh?”

A middle-aged man chuckled, his eyes gleaming with interest.

It was Dumont, the Master of the FCC Clan, who had just arrived through the dimensional rift.