115. Celebration★Finally Officially Entering the Maze Forest★Congratulations
[Your connection with ‘Hayangi’ has strengthened, unlocking ‘Alignment’ and ‘Contribution’!]
[Alignment and Contribution are values related to how NPCs treat you, Adventurer! Your current Alignment is ‘Chaotic Neutral’!]
[Your current Contribution values are: Empire Contribution ‘1024’, Aipot Contribution ‘452’, and Karantlia Contribution ‘Unable to Measure’!]
[The Empire you are currently in prefers Adventurers with a Good Alignment. However, because you have made significant contributions, people may feel uncomfortable around you, but you will not be rejected!]
[Contribution can be spent to purchase certain special items or receive benefits such as having criminal acts nullified!]
“Ugh, this is giving me a headache. Until now, all you ever did was ask if I wanted to give up. Why are you suddenly acting so much like an actual game?”
It was early morning.
While wiping the cold sweat from my face, I was cleaning up the traces of last night's intense battle with everyone else when those messages suddenly appeared.
I sat on top of the limp corpse of a giant and calmly read through them.
And the more I read, the more annoyed I became.
So all the other players had always been able to see useful numbers like these?
Numbers that told them exactly what kind of situation they were in?
If I'd known this information beforehand, I would've devoted myself to Karantlia from the beginning instead of pointlessly going to the Empire.
Unable to Measure?
What, are all the Fishmen secretly tsunderes?
If you think I've contributed that much, then show it more clearly!
If I declared that I wanted to defect right now, would they accept me?
“What are you doing?”
Pie came over with Levi, carrying breakfast and telling me to eat before working.
Well, I said breakfast, but she was carrying just enough for exactly one person.
She stepped over the monster corpses and sat beside me.
The gazes of the users who had stayed up all night stabbed into me.
Some people had spent the entire night playing around with monsters in a festival of blood and madness, only to be left alone afterward, rummaging through corpses...
While someone else had a person bringing him food, and they even looked close.
At least one person over there probably thought I'd gotten caught by some netkama who was now squeezing me dry.
Honestly, maybe thinking that would make them feel a little better.
“Should we move our base to Karantlia?”
“Not yet. Karantlia itself is still weak, and the moment you abandon the Empire, you'll become everyone's common enemy.”
“Yeah, probably.”
Thanks to Modak, my reputation as a Hero had skyrocketed during this event.
If I tried changing bases now, people would probably curse me for having no honor.
Well, fine.
Thanks to everything that had happened, I'd demonstrated enough ability and had clearly shown both people and NPCs what kind of Hero I was.
The excuses they had for stopping me from entering the Maze Forest were becoming weaker and weaker.
“What happened with the Void Beasts?”
“Well... let's just say we had a rough time.”
There was a reason we were cleaning up corpses this early in the morning.
Those things...
Until sunrise, no matter how many we killed, they just kept appearing from somewhere.
The abandoned area wasn't the real problem.
As long as there was no sunlight wherever those creatures were, they could multiply endlessly.
And they did it at a terrifying speed.
In terrifying numbers.
I'd repeatedly told everyone to rip out their hearts.
And thankfully, this place wasn't like the abandoned zone where not even moonlight could enter.
Otherwise, the Void Beasts might have swallowed this entire region by now.
“And these things barely leave anything useful behind when you kill them. Slime, squishy bones, and their hearts. Other than that, they hardly drop anything worthwhile.”
There were a few guys happily celebrating because they'd managed to get rare items.
But the drop rate was so horrible that it was healthier to simply assume such drops didn't exist.
...
Wait.
What if I replaced the baby rats' hearts with Void Beast hearts?
Wouldn't that create Jayeon ver. 2?!
And one that could keep dividing by itself?!
Of course, I'd probably need an absurd amount of life force like I did when making Jayeon.
The Maze Forest...
All those monsters are dead.
Just you wait!
“Still, we learned that Corrupted Items can actually be used normally.”
“Yeah. They're much weaker than they were originally, but they still seem to deal pretty serious damage to Void Beasts. See that guy making a scene over there?”
“The one with the dark circles? He looks insane.”
“At least he hasn't been completely consumed like Mr. Kim Ingwang was before. That's already something.”
If I refined them just a little more, I could probably distribute them as equipment to the rats.
Or maybe I could turn them into some kind of time bomb and sell them.
That could produce some pretty entertaining reactions too.
Even now, if I poured just a little mental force into a Corrupted Item, it would go berserk as its corruption power returned.
If I circulated things like that...
And then walked around leaking just a little Madness into them...
I could probably create an incurable infectious disease.
Maybe my actions would even become research material for some psychology paper.
What Happens When an Irresponsible, Socially Inept Human Gains Power.
Something like that.
“Let's finish cleaning this up and start today's schedule.”
“What's today's schedule? When did you tell us?”
“I didn't. I'm about to tell you now. Today, we finally march into the Maze Forest!”
“...Now that I think about it, this is ridiculous. The Maze Forest has been right in front of us all this time. What the hell have we been wasting our time doing?”
If you put it like that, doesn't that mean every single day I've spent until now has been pointless...?
Let's not think too deeply about it.
Even now, just looking at the Maze Forest gave me a little thrill.
I was still genuinely excited to enter that place.
There was no reason to nitpick every little thing and ruin my own mood.
If it's good, then it's good.
Yeah.
Let's just go with that.
“Alright~ my friends! Everyone, attention!”
After sending off the wagons carrying the monster corpses, the members of my team slowly gathered in front of me.
Apparently, they already knew what I was about to say.
Everyone was mentally preparing themselves.
Aien rubbed her sleepy eyes.
The Village Chief poured warm tea from something that looked like a thermos.
Mallangi gave everyone buffs.
And Levi...
Was dozing off.
Well, we'd fought all night.
Of course everyone was exhausted.
I hadn't pulled an all-nighter in ages either, so even my body wasn't cooperating.
“But! Even so! Today! Today, we are absolutely going to the Maze Forest! No unnecessary talk! Preparations are finished! Let's go! Right now!”
I wrapped chains around the massive corpse I'd been sitting on.
My Indomitable Heart must have already reached its maximum.
The blazing flames surged upward and burned the corpse to ashes in an instant.
Honestly, I thought it was an excellent visual representation of my current burning passion.
“No one should feel physically tired anymore.”
“Yeah, but physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion are two different things. I think we should rest a little...”
“As expected, Heroes truly are different. Amazing, Sir Ingwang.”
“Aien, do you want to rest?”
“...I never said I wasn't going.”
The way Aien looked at me seemed even more sparkling than usual.
Did my actions during the attack and the situation with her parents leave a good impression on her?
As for the Void Beast incident...
I should keep that as secret as possible.
People call it late-night emotions, right?
The thing where you suddenly become overly emotional at dawn and post things on social media that you'd never write normally.
Yesterday, I was the same.
It was already past the time I'd normally be asleep.
Then I got hit with unexpected confusion.
And almost like I was drunk, I did something impulsive.
Of course, I didn't regret it at all.
