Chapter 77: The Genius is a Sleepyhead

Episode 77

At the moment when Kim Jin-sung was hunting Quagmires and gathering points, Lee Deokgu, who had escaped to the surface, showed a troubled expression as soon as he joined the other Seekers.

“Ah, damn… what should I do?”

He realized an important fact he had forgotten.

‘Come to think of it, I’m not guaranteed to pass the preliminaries yet, am I?’

This was the frustration felt by all Seekers with detection skills in this round. Even if they helped diligently in finding the Thieves, the management did not consider them as having passed the preliminaries once the Thieves were defeated. Only the Seekers who directly participated in the battle were guaranteed to pass.

‘What should I do? So many Seekers have already secured their spots in the preliminaries…’

Lee Deokgu looked around at the other Seekers. There were about 40 participants leisurely chatting with each other, having taken a breather. These were the Seekers who had secured their spots in the preliminaries.

‘The problem is that the ones who passed are among the strongest remaining Seekers.’

In this situation, it was difficult to lead the Seekers back out to find more Thieves. The Seekers who had already secured their spots had no reason to follow Lee Deok-gu’s orders anymore. They wouldn’t want to risk helping only to encounter Kim Jin-sung, which would be a disaster. From their perspective, there was no reason to take further risks.

‘What should I do… Ah!’

While thinking, a face flashed through Lee Deok-gu’s mind.

‘Right, Seol Daun is still here!’

Seol Daun, who was known to have the most overwhelming innate ability among the Colosseum participants, was still in the Seeker team.

‘I need to persuade him!’

Lee Deokgu, who made up his mind, was about to instruct everyone to move to the base when a Seeker’s voice called out to him.

“Hey, Deokgu.”

He turned his head to see one of the two people he had shared cigarettes with earlier in the afternoon.

“What is it?”

“Pung Bitgaram is missing.”

“…Huh?”

Only then did Lee Deokgu hastily look around. Confirming that Pung Bitgaram was nowhere to be seen, he made an annoyed expression.

‘Right, Pung Bitgaram! I completely forgot about him!’

Lee Deokgu regretted not taking note of Pung Bitgaram’s absence.

‘If he were here, I could kill him now and secure my spot in the preliminaries right away!’

Thinking this, he looked around once more, but no matter how much he looked, Pung Bit-garam couldn’t be found.

* * *

At that moment, Pung Bitgaram had already moved near the southern airfield. Hiding in an abandoned house, he was focused on the voices coming through the earphones in his ears.

– What? Leader Yang Junggeun is dead?!

– It’s not just Yang Junggeun! Jang Hyung-tae, Wang Mandu, Hwang Bo-Gyeong, Im Sang-hoon… All the ace reinforcements selected by Leader Yang Junggeun were killed by Kim Jin-sung.

– Oh no… what do we do now?

– Who knows? Deokgu will figure something out, I guess? I’ve already passed.

– Sigh…

Judging by the voices, they were Seekers from the hunting and defense teams. Hearing the conversation, Pung Bitgaram sighed in relief.

“Phew, good. My judgment was correct after all.”

From the moment Yang Junggeun disappeared due to Kim Jinsung, Pung Bitgaram had a bad feeling. During the chaotic battle underground, he transformed into smoke and escaped, which proved to be the right decision.

‘If I had stayed with the Seeker team without Yang Junggeun, it wouldn’t have been strange to get stabbed in the back anytime.’

Pung Bitgaram had made an alliance with Yang Junggeun, not with the entire Seeker team. Many Seekers had looked at him with murderous intent as if he were prey when he entered the base.

‘Anyway, this situation works out better for me. Without Yang Junggeun as their focal point and with many of their key forces lost, the Seekers’ chances of survival have decreased significantly.’

Now the Thieves’ chances of survival were higher than ever. Most importantly, the presence of Kim Jinsung would put immense pressure on the Seekers. They wouldn’t risk moving recklessly, fearing they might be captured and killed like Yang Junggeun.

‘There are no cards left to counter Kim Jin-sung on the Seeker side… Oh!’

Soon, Pung Bitgaram remembered one person and his expression hardened.

‘Seol Daun is still there…’

Seol Daun was too unpredictable a card to claim the fight was over. With the abilities he showed in the first preliminary round, Seol Daun could easily defeat any Thief other than Kim Jinsung. This included Pung Bitgaram himself.

* * *

While everyone was wary or expectant of Seol Daun’s presence, the official Colosseum Survival channel was replaying the highlight scenes of Kim Jin-sung defeating Yang Junggeun and his team of five in the subspace.

– Wow

– Look at him playing with five people alone lol

– As expected, God King Jin-sung… He is a legend…

– But how can they film inside the subspace? Aren’t the cameras outside unable to see?

– They say there are state-of-the-art wireless cameras installed in all the participants’ clothes.

– Oh, I see

As the viewers’ chat continued, the TV screen showed the gruesomely dead Yang Junggeun. That was the final highlight scene.

[You’ve just seen the fight between Kim Jin-sung and Yang Junggeun’s team again. Kim Jin-sung has finally succeeded in his revenge!]

[It was a foreseen situation. Kim Jin-sung’s growth rate was extremely fast. But he won even more overwhelmingly than I thought.]

[Now that Yang Junggeun is dead, doesn’t the Seeker team have no cards left to counter Kim Jin-sung?]

[No, there’s still one left.]

– Seol Daun

– Seol Daun!

– Seol Daun is still there

[That name is coming up in the chat.]

[Ah, that’s right! The ‘Born Genius’ Seol Daun is still in the Seeker team!]

As the commentators continued their discussion, the main PD, watching from the monitor room, asked the iTube representative next to him.

“How’s the reaction to the video of Kim Jin-sung versus Yang Junggeun’s team?”

“It’s explosive. It looks like it’ll easily surpass 5 million views today.”

“As expected. Then, cut the good parts of the battle scenes and upload them separately as shorts. Especially the part where Kim Jin-sung suddenly got stronger.”

“Got it.”

“Good. From now on, let’s focus Group A on Kim Jin-sung versus Seol Daun.”

At the main PD’s words, numerous monitors began to show either Kim Jin-sung or Seol Daun.

“…But when is Seol Daun going to wake up?”

The PD, seeing Seol Daun still sleeping on a sofa in the waiting room, murmured with a troubled look. Judging by the situation, it seemed like it would still be a long time before he woke up.

“He needs to wake up soon, or the viewership will drop…”

As the main PD murmured worriedly, Jang Seungwook, sitting in the back, put a piece of freshly delivered sushi in his mouth and spoke.

“Thanks to Seol Daun sleeping, Group A’s situation continues to be interesting. If he hadn’t slept, the results would have already come out dull.”

“It would probably have ended with the Seekers’ victory.”

Baek Jun replied in agreement to Jang Seungwook’s question.

“Probably Kim Jin-sung would have died too? If Seol Daun had joined Yang Junggeun’s team and fought together.”

After a moment of thought, Baek Jun replied.

“Highly likely.”

Just as he was about to put a piece of sushi into his mouth.

[Oh, and at this moment, it seems several of the hunters, including Lee Deokgu, have entered the villa!]

[It looks like they’re trying to wake up Seol Daun?]

The commentary from the TV caught Baek Jun and Jang Seungwook’s attention, and they immediately turned their heads toward the screen. The monitor showed Lee Deokgu and others entering the villa.

* * *

‘…Sleeping soundly, isn’t he.’

This was Lee Deokgu’s first thought upon seeing Seol Daun after entering the villa. He felt a bit sorry to wake him up, as he seemed to be sleeping so well, but he had no choice.

If he explained the current situation, Seol Daun would surely snap out of it and focus on hunting down the thieves. Lee Deokgu was confident about this.

“Excuse me, Seol Daun?”

Lee Deokgu called out to Seol Daun cautiously. When there was no sign of waking up, he placed a hand on Seol Daun’s body and started shaking him gently. Finally, Seol Daun opened his eyes.

“…What is it?.”

With half-closed eyes and wiping drool from his mouth, Seol Daun asked.

“It’s time to wake up. If you don’t, you might be eliminated from the preliminaries.”

“…What time is it…?”

“It’s just past 3 PM.”

“Damn, it’s still too early!”

Upon hearing the current time, Seol Daun immediately closed his eyes and leaned back on the sofa.

“I’m going to sleep more, so leave. I need at least 10 hours of sleep a day…”

As he tried to fall back asleep, Lee Deokgu was dumbfounded. It seemed like this person had no sense of urgency at all.

“No, you can sleep when we get back to the dorm! Can’t you skip one day of sleep?”

“Ah, shut up!”

“…!”

Lee Deokgu’s face stiffened for a moment.

Ignoring him, Seol Daun kept his eyes closed and issued a command.

“I won’t say it again. Don’t disturb me and get out.”

As Seol Daun went silent, Lee Deokgu’s face turned red with anger. Unable to hold back his fury, he shouted loudly.

“Are you really going to do this?! Do you know how many hunters are waiting for you?! If you keep acting like this while everyone is waiting…”

It was at that moment.

*Thud!*

Lee Deokgu’s head exploded like a watermelon.

“Ahh!!”

The other hunters recoiled in shock, retreating as blood and flesh splattered everywhere. The only one who remained calm was Seol Daun, who had killed Lee Deokgu.

“Annoying weakling…”

Seol Daun muttered with half-open eyes. To the hunters, something astonishing happened next.

The scattered pieces of flesh started moving towards Lee Deokgu’s headless body. The flesh clumped together like a lump of meat, and the body slowly floated into the air. It then flew towards the entrance at high speed, as if thrown by an invisible force.

“Whoa?!”

“Ugh!”

The hunters hurriedly moved aside to avoid the flying body and flesh lump. The body and pieces landed outside the villa’s yard.

Seol Daun, now closing his eyes again, spoke.

“Everyone just rest up. When I wake up, I’ll hunt down all the thieves… Yawn~.”

He yawned and started to sleep again. None of the hunters dared to think about waking him up.

‘He’s crazy…!’

‘How did he kill Lee Deokgu? He didn’t even touch him!’

‘He’s as much a monster as Kim Jin-sung…!’

The hunters slowly moved towards the front door, not wanting to make any noise that might wake Seol Daun.

* * *

Time passed, and it became a dark night, a much more advantageous environment for the thieves who needed to avoid detection.

“Oh, my back.”

Just past 9 PM, a sound was heard from inside the villa. Seol Daun stretched leisurely as he woke up.

He scratched his belly with a refreshed look and muttered.

“That was a good sleep… Time to have some fun now?”

In an instant, his figure disappeared from the villa, only to reappear a second later at the front door with a growling stomach.

“…I’ll eat first.”

Rubbing his rumbling stomach, he walked towards the main base where the lunchboxes were distributed.