Why are you there? (2)

“Okay! The atmosphere of the 64-player ranking match is gradually heating up! Well! Let’s continue this atmosphere and introduce the names of the players for the 3rd match! The person I’m introducing first is!! At the age of 23, he reached level 3 in Seomajutsu, and his martial arts level is also level 4! He is known to be peerless in unarmed combat! A 3rd year student from Amira Kingdom Academy… !!”

The center of the stadium filled with a large crowd of spectators.

At the introduction of the man in charge of the event, a skilled male magician enters the arena wearing a unique uniform.

And those who were watching greeted him with cheers, and he, too, waved his hands and responded with cheers, as if he had no doubts about his victory.

“The next person to be introduced is! A black magician who transferred to our Imperial Academy this year! Wow! Despite being a second year student, he is an incredibly talented black magician who has reached level 4! And if you all watched the ranking match broadcast, you will know him!! His name is! Lu… !!”

When a man with black hair and black eyes appears, introduced to the other side and starting to come out to the arena, the cheers become smaller than before.

It was also because he was a black magician. His face was hollow and had deep dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept for a few days, and he gave off an atmosphere that made it difficult to cheer him on.

-Clap clap clap clap!

But even amidst such small cheers, there were voices cheering him on.

It was cheering coming from the VIP seats where influential figures were seated, not from the crowded audience seats like other audiences.

“Cheer up! Rudis! Bury it!!”

His teacher, Fianna Stone, the dark magician of the kingdom who had created a chilling atmosphere during the draw broadcast.

Her cheering, which does not care at all about what others think, resonates to the end of the stadium, and the host listens to her words and changes the subject to further liven up the atmosphere.

“Then!! Let’s start after a 5-second countdown! Who will be the winner of this 3rd round!! Please count together!! Oh! “

“””Oh my gosh!!”””

The audience was responding to the host’s count. The third-year academy blue magician standing on the arena was frowning and talking so that only Rudis could hear.

“… The game is about to start, what are you doing instead of focusing on me?”

“… … “

Now 2 seconds left.

The blue magician became irritated by Rudis’s reaction of not responding to his words and just looking around absentmindedly.

Even so, during the broadcast of the main draw, I couldn’t look upon him favorably because the person known as the owner of the Black Tower made remarks that greatly supported his disciple.

To put it bluntly, I felt like he was trying to get into seed through connections.

Furthermore, the man in front of me was not even able to properly control his magical power, which is the most basic of basics.

Because I was sending out magical power to the surroundings that was visible to the eye.

Even that is not that great. It is said that the visible magical power is usually reflected in that way because of the enormous amount of magical power, but on the other hand, if you cannot control the magical power properly, it can flow out like that.

In other words, the man in front of you right now doesn’t have much horsepower and he can’t control it properly, so he’s just scattering fuel all over the floor.

“””Work!!”””

“Game! Let’s start~!! Let’s do it!!”

“I’ll finish it in an instant… !”

The man skillfully applied his body strengthening magic and martial arts and started running, kicking off the ground.

If you just look at the speed, it’s faster than Yuria, who has a martial arts level 5.

But he was not arrogant and did not look down on his opponents.

Even if I tried to cowardly enter the seed by using my teacher, my opponent was a skilled player who survived the survival and advanced to the main event.

Furthermore, I don’t know much about this man, but I have heard rumors about his teacher, the warlock Fianna Stone.

Even in the Kingdom of Frisia, where there were many colored magic towers, the Black Empress, a genius who could not be suppressed, and who had conquered the world of the underworld with her fists. The rumors of her, known as the Witch of Disaster, were also spread to other countries.

And this is the disciple raised by such a woman. Even if he doesn’t have the basics and uses dirty and mean tricks, he definitely has some kind of skill.

-Tatatat!!

That’s why, instead of hiding his power and testing his opponent, the blue magician decided to go all out from the start.

If the wizard is as great as rumored, his disciple will definitely not be weak.

Because I knew that arrogance and carelessness would lead directly to defeat.

So the man started running across the stadium, kicking off the ground at a speed that was now beyond level 4 and reaching level 5.

-Ppaang! Ppaang!!

Fast enough to make the air burst. Faster and faster.

The blue magician, who had already started to gain speed so that only the color of his uniform was visible to the host and the general audience, looked at the black magician Rudis, who was full of loopholes, from all sides and thought.

First, fake the first attack from the front. If they react there and flinch in surprise or try to distance themselves, turn around behind them without reducing your speed and attack from behind.

If you go straight in there, you’ll be chased and thrown out of the ring, or if you defend even by a single chance, you’ll be finished off with a series of attacks without even giving them a chance to counterattack.

The blue magician, who had finished calculating up to that point, concentrated the magical power used to strengthen his body on his legs and fists, and at the moment he finally reached the end of level 6, his speed limit.

-Cheolpuduk!!

“?!”

You thought you had landed a straight punch to your opponent’s face, but suddenly your fist ‘sunk’ into the ground.

Just a moment ago, he was running around without any problems and completely dominating the arena without leaving a single square, but the blue magician was flustered by what suddenly happened and moved his legs to try to pull out his dislodged fist.

-Thud!

“Hah?! What, what?!”

My legs, which had been dominating the entire stadium at incredible speed just moments ago, are sinking below the stadium.

No, to be exact, the fist that had been extended, the leg that had been trying to run, and even the other hand that had been trying to touch the ground were all being sucked in as if they had fallen into a ‘swamp’.

“Thirty-two… That’s too many.”

A low, sigh-like voice was heard from the black magician Rudis, who paid no attention to the blue magician struggling to escape from the swamp, but it was not directed at him.

He was just looking around absentmindedly, just like when the game started, and was also draining his magic power like an idiot.

The blue magician, who had no idea what the hell that guy had done to him, quickly began to think and figure out the current situation. And.

‘…wasn’t the magic power flowing out but rather ‘stretching’?!’

The swamp you are in. This is the magic that creates a swamp in black magic.

If it had been a normal swamp, he would have been able to escape already with his brute strength or enhanced body, but now, the harder he tried to escape, the deeper he fell.

Furthermore, it is said to be a swamp created by magic, and I feel embarrassed that I only just realized it now. This swamp was filled with the guy’s ‘raw magic power’.

There are no magicians who use magical power to activate magic, and who add magical power to activated magic.

Because it was common sense that even if you did that, it wouldn’t be strengthened and only a magical error would occur.

However, rather than causing a misfire, the man was adding his magic power to the swamp he had created with magic, and was externally scattering the ‘magic power’ of the beings who had fallen into it.

That’s why my body strengthening magic doesn’t even have half of its original power.

Now that the blue magician understood that it was meaningless to know that his entire body below his shoulders was stuck in the swamp and he could neither move nor use magic, he could only scream while biting his lip hard enough to draw blood.

“Surrender!!”

The blue magician could not help but admit that his opponent’s extraordinary magical power control ability had him in a trap even before the match began.

*

‘I got it.’

This isn’t about the atmosphere in the stadium being blown away by knocking down a 64-year-old opponent in just 20 seconds without him even moving.

Above all, the teacher liked it, so that wasn’t a problem.

As I returned to the waiting room, I looked at the status screen and thought about the demons I had just seen in the audience.

[If more than 30,000 citizens die, the demon will be summoned immediately. If we fail to stop it, the end of the world may begin…? Fighting! (62/30000)]

’62 people. If this number represents the number of people who have already suffered, or if it’s a number disguised by the Demons… then we’re really screwed.’

The demons invaded the capital of the empire. Well, that’s… possible.

The problem is that they were mixed in with the crowd watching the ranking matches.

Of course, spectators who wanted to watch the ranking matches in person had to buy tickets, and an ID was required to buy tickets.

But no matter how great the Demons were, there was no way that each country would have made an ID card and come in as an audience.

That is, they found the people who bought the tickets, killed them, and took away their status and seats.

Moreover, if you are a lower-level demon, it is difficult to mix in with people.

Because when they see a person, they are overcome by a murderous impulse to kill them unconditionally, and they act according to their instincts.

Sometimes special individuals are excised, but it doesn’t make sense to think that all 32 of the demons we just found were special individuals.

In other words, they are all lower-level or higher… at least intermediate-level demons.

And if those guys were to run wild in the audience right now, what level of disaster would occur?

According to my research, today, in the early stages of the ranking match, the number of people filling the seats is about 10,000. This means that if they go wild, at least a thousand people, and if they really hit something, ten thousand people could go to the goal at once.

This is a really dangerous situation.

‘It’s ruined. But, is there a reason why it’s not moving right now? No way…’

Kill 30,000 people as shown in the quest window.

If the demons gathered here now are aiming for this, the timing they are aiming for would be the finals or semi-finals, when the largest number of people will gather.

And when that happens, the 60 casualties that the status window shows. It means that the demons who are hiding among the people, disguising their identities, will run wild…

‘I can’t stop it alone…’

If you abandon the quest and use [Pay], things will be a little different, but the fact that there will be a huge number of casualties will not change much.

I’m not a cool-headed, rational person, to the point where I would say that I prevented the deaths of 20,000 people when 30,000 were to die.

‘If only I knew what their plans were…’

In the original story, the princess used the synergy of her pain from being dumped by Raoul and her PTSD from being absorbed by the slime to release the demons during the Imperial Ranking Battle.

But there’s no way the current Koti would have called them in, and even if he had, the princess would already be dead.

The guy I just met here. The demon Baphomet who uses the name of the devil, whom I met in front of the waiting room.

Because he’s the kind of guy who sees humans as bugs, consumables, or worse.

If the princess had come into contact with that guy, she would never have survived.

So she is absolutely innocent.

So, were they just naturally drawn to the Empire because there were so many people there? No, does that make sense?

‘No matter what, 60 people is too many…’

So, could it be someone other than the princess who summoned them? Who on earth?

In a situation where I couldn’t get a handle on it, I racked my brain and eventually gave up on thinking about it.

First of all, since it wasn’t something that Princess Koti did, no matter how this story goes… even if it goes to the worst, she won’t be held responsible.

That part is safe for now.

So, the next thing I want to focus on is.

‘I need to know what their plan is.’

At the very least, we need to determine if we are going to do it in the semifinals, or the finals… or even sooner.

But if I act rashly and kidnap one of them because I want to know the plan, there’s a chance that they’ll realize that someone is spying on them and bring the plan forward.

Is there really no way?

‘I wish I had a companion (consumable) who could hide among them, not die, or who didn’t mind dying… and who could kill about 10 of them by himself.’

I think it’s a ridiculous condition, but if you just want it, then it doesn’t matter.

As I continued to escape reality with fantasies that would never come true, I eventually began to come to the conclusion that I could not do this on my own.

‘… Should I talk to the teacher and ask for help?’

I have no idea how to explain the fact that I recognized the demons that even the Master couldn’t recognize, but if you ask if that’s something that’s worth putting on the scales compared to the lives of 30,000 people, then it’s not that bad.

Anyway, the Black Tower brothers are here in the empire right now, and there is also the Master and the Imperial Tower Lord, so if I ask for help from both of them, I will definitely be able to minimize the damage.

‘There’s nothing I can do. If it really doesn’t work… I’ll talk to the teacher about the status window later.’

It’s something that I can’t possibly explain, but it’s not more precious than human life, so I guess I have to make this sacrifice.

After finishing my thoughts like that, I lifted my butt to leave the players’ dressing room.

-Tiring ringing.

“…? Ah.”

I received a call from someone who could be used as a consumable.