The World after the Fall

Chapter 61: Last Hope (10)

 

Everyone was shocked at the results.

[YOU LOST!]

Jagel Meng was dumbfounded at the unexpected turn of events. He couldn’t understand what he was seeing. The game consisted of three races: Humans, Dead Mans, and Horned Monsters to fight against each other with different strategies. Meng chose the Dead Man race as soon as he started. It grew powerful as time went on and was also very strong mid-game. Jaehwan chose the Human race. It was considered to be the weakest of all three races.

Meng thought Jaehwan picked it because he was a beginner. However, he didn’t know Jaehwan chose it for a reason.

‘This game really is…’

If Jaehwan did not read the manual, or use his [Suspicion] to get to the system of the game, the fight would not have even started as Jaehwan was annoyed. Also, he didn’t need to compete in such a foolish game. But as soon as he realized the original game that inspired this copied version, he wanted to play. Through playing this game, he felt like he was taken back to the time when he was back home. Back to the time when he lived a normal life.

‘Maybe there’s a [Nightmare] who knows Earth.’

The game only differed in the name of races and small story details, while the remainder of the game was the same as the original on Earth which was called ‘Starcraft’. Jaehwan had to reconsider those [Nightmares] who blatantly copied the game from his homeworld.

While Meng was busy gathering resources to create a huge army to attack with later on, Jaehwan quickly rushed in as soon as he got his basic attack units ready, along with his resource gatherers to end the game. It seemed that the people in this world who played this game were not used to such rush tactics, leaving an unprepared Meng unable to fight back.

As the game quickly ended with Jaehwan’s victory, the crowd roared. Meng became infuriated.

“This is not fair! You must wait for 10 minutes before attacking! That’s the rule!”

“Rule?”

“W-we wait 10 minutes to give time to collect resources and…!”

“Is there a rule that requires you to wait?”

Meng couldn’t answer. There was no such rule.

“I thought so.”

Meng couldn’t believe it, but he had to accept the loss. This man was out of his imagination in every way.

“I lost.”

As the first game of the round of 8 finished, there was an intermission. Chunghuh and Mukeuk walked over to Jaehwan.

“You’re not even sweating!”

“Why would I sweat over a simple game?”

“Since when did you learn to play the game? I thought you only knew how to stab.”

“I know that game from my homeworld.”

Jaehwan then turned to Mukeuk.

“You, old man. You look strong.”

Chunghuh cackled at the way Jaehwan spoke to Mukeuk, one of the most powerful ones in <Chaos>.

“Who do you think is stronger?”

“Can’t say.”

Chunghuh was the strongest other than the Catastrophe that Jaehwan had met until now. But this old man also seemed just as strong.

“Should we fight?”

“That’s a violent introduction,” Mukeuk answered unpleasantly and Chunghuh cackled again.

“Hehe. I told you, he’s not the type to respect the elderly.”

Chunghuh was mocking Jaehwan, but in more a friendly way, which Mukeuk could feel. He had never seen Chunghuh this lively after the [Depth Expedition Team] had disbanded.

[Depth Expedition Team].

The word also had great meaning to Mukeuk. He was also a former member of the team.

‘He reminds me of that [Nightmare].’

The [Nightmare], Mulack, the captain of the former [Depth Expedition Team].

‘Can he be the next Mulack?’

It was due to Mulack that the team had managed to get their hands on the [Fruits], even if they had to give them up to the Lords. As Mukeuk watched Jaehwan’s fight, he was able to measure how strong Jaehwan was.

‘As Meng said… he might be as strong as the Generals… Lesser General to be precise.’

Commanders, High Generals, and Lesser Generals. Those worked directly under the twelve Lords of the <Great Lands>. But the High Generals and above were as powerful as most Lords already. Even the Lesser Generals were powerful enough to destroy the fortress alone. And this man was as powerful as one of them.

‘He has the intelligence too… but what about his character?’

Mukeuk couldn’t feel any righteousness about him. The way he talked, how he treated people and everything else was the opposite of the generous and merciful Mulack.

‘And this hate.’

The hate that could be felt from within this man was enough to chill Mukeuk without doing anything. Mukeuk then felt the space around Jaehwan distorting weirdly and quickly sent a whisper to Chunghuh, who surely knew the reason why.

[Is he an Awakener?]

[You only found that out now?]

Mukeuk gasped.

[…I can’t believe there was another Awakener in <Chaos> other than you.]

[To be frank, I don’t even come close.]

Mukeuk was shocked. He had never seen the proud Chunghuh speak like that of someone else.

[He is a true Awakener, unlike me.]

[You mean he overcame the third awakening?]

[Yeah.]

Mukeuk couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t because of Jaehwan’s great achievement. Awakeners who had overcome the third awakening would be missing a vital part. It was the reason why Chunghuh stayed in the 2nd awakening.

[But then… he should have lost his humanity…]

Just then, the announcement sounded again, informing people of the second fight. Jaehwan then moved onto the stage and Chunghuh asked, “Where are you going? It’s not your turn yet.”

“I’m going to fight.”

“Fight?”

“It just came to my mind that it’s a waste of time to wait for all the fights to end. These remaining guys will take half a day to finish.”

Other than Jaehwan, all of the remaining fighters were at a similar level. Six fighters remained, including Cayman and Yong. Jaehwan checked them using [Suspicion].

‘The only ones powerful enough is her, her, and her.’

Other than Cayman and Yong, the only ones interesting enough was the Leader of Divine Lady, the woman who beat Kanghwang, and another woman who had tied her hair into a ponytail.

Among those 3, the ponytail woman was the one Jaehwan had the most interest in. She joined in as a wildcard and was hiding something that Jaehwan could not see through even using his [Suspicion].

Jaehwan then turned to Mukeuk.

‘But he’s the one I want most.’

Jaehwan wanted to have a duel with that old man most of all, but he didn’t join the tournament so it was no use.

‘I’ll finish this tournament first.’

Jaehwan walked up to Jahir and took his microphone and spoke.

-Everyone, listen.

The crowd became silent.

-I have seen enough.

The crowd began to take videos and pictures, while some began to record what Jaehwan was trying to say. After all, he was the Master of Gorgon, who had created huge sensations with everything he said.

“Wait, what is the meaning of this?”

It was the leader of Divine Lady, waiting to compete in the 2nd round. The 2nd round fight was between her and the woman who joined as a wildcard. Jaehwan glanced at her and continued.

-I’m bored watching these fights, so I will change things up a bit.

“WAIT! Who said you can do such a thing!”

-I did.

“This is unfair.”

-I know.

“And how, exactly, are you trying to change things up?”

Jaehwan said something unexpected.

-I will remove the one-on-one battle rule.

“…Are you saying you want to fight in a group battle?”

It was outrageous. There were seven remaining attendees. Was he playing tricks to ensure his victory?

-Well… you can say that.

“No, that can’t be done. It’s impossible.”

-And why is that?

“How are you going to divide up groups? And…”

Her voice grew cold.

“Who will be the ultimate winner?”

Meaning, who would be the master of Gorgon? The only way to find a winner was to do a one-on-one battle. But Jaehwan smiled.

-You misunderstood. I am not talking about some little groups to fight.

“What are you talking about?”

-There’s only one team. All you six people are one team.

She couldn’t understand what he was saying. Then who would be on Jaehwan’s team?

-I will fight alone. Against all of you.