Chapter 183 – An Expensive Lesson (3)
Translator: Seven
Editor: Ana_Banana
[Isaac Ivanov’s Party disbands!]
The situation caused by the typhoon known as Isaac Ivanov was dizzying.
However, even in such a sensitive situation, there were some who were making it worse for their own benefit.
[Have Isaac Ivanov and his teammate entered the freelance market?]
[Isaac Ivanov’s teammate is already communicating with multiple guilds!]
[Isaac Ivanov’s teammate’s value has risen sharply!]
Articles encouraging the disbandment of Isaac Ivanov’s party began appearing all over the world.
Particularly, the articles about the steep rise in Lee Jin-ah’s value were especially prominent.
It was a standard media tactic that exaggerated the value before the person in question officially entered the market.
Of course, even when excluding that, Lee Jin-ah’s value was bound to rise.
Unlike Isaac Ivanov, who had announced a temporary suspension of any activities, Lee Jin-ah had simply declared the disbandment of the team without saying that he would halt his activities.
[He’s just as talented as Isaac Ivanov!]
[He’s a tank that crushes everything!]
Moreover, the challenge against the Is.h.i.+kawa siblings in the dungeon showed that he had become Isaac Ivanov’s teammate not just because of his abilities as a tank.
“They finally understood the value of the man called Lee Jin-ah.”
And of course, Lee Jin-ah was happy to be in the spotlight for the first time.
“My annual salary would be 100 million? How much sus.h.i.+ can I buy with that?”
Moreover, Lee Jin-ah’s value had risen so dramatically that the term ‘astronomical’ fit it perfectly.
Then Lee Jin-ah turned to Kim Woo-jin who was fiddling with something.
“Should I leave?”
Kim Woo-jin didn’t even look at him as he said.
“If you want to go, I wouldn’t stop you.”
“Huh?”
Lee Jin-ah was surprised that Kim Woo-jin had given him permission so easily, and couldn’t help but ask.
“Can I really go?”
“There’s nothing more meaningless than forcing someone to stay when they want to go. If you really want to go, then you can go.”
“Re-, really?”
Lee Jin-ah was so surprised that his mouth fell open.
Since he had the opportunity, should he really take the chance to get out of there?
However, Kim Woo-jin threw a few more words at him.
“However, if you really do leave, then you and I would be enemies from then on, so it would be better for us to not meet in any dungeons, or something bad might happen to you,”
It was the most terrifying threat in the world.
“Hahahaha!”
In front of that threat, Lee Jin-ah could only laugh nervously.
“Hey, it was a joke okay? A joke. The man before you is one who would not leave his precious teammates even if he had to die.”
Kim Woo-jin didn’t react to his words.
He simply waited.
Woowoong!
This was exactly what he was waiting for.
– We got a call from the Sword Saints. They say they’d done it in good faith, and that they were sorry for ruining the relations.h.i.+p between you and Lee Jin-ah, so they would try to improve the relations.h.i.+p between you two.
“What were their conditions.”
– If the two of you work together to clear the A+ rank dungeon, they will reward you the Nemean Lion’s skin.
The Sword Saint had come to a conclusion.
The first priority was to fix the relations.h.i.+p with Lee Jin-ah and Kim Woo-jin,
“Improving our relations.h.i.+p while also getting us to clear the dungeon, are they combining these two objectives?”
At the same time, they were getting them to clear the dungeon.
– In the drama, the remarried couple would need to get a child so that viewers would be convinced that their relations.h.i.+p really improved. Who knew when they would get divorced again if they simply remarried?
The public would demand the most convincing conclusion.
“So what do you think?”
– It’s our business to have the baby, they still have to pay the price for trying to have an affair. As for the condition to improve the relations.h.i.+p, I told them that the Nemean Lion’s skin and the reward for clearing the A+ rank dungeon need to be separated.
When he heard this, Kim Woo-jin asked.
“And their answer?”
– They said okay.
As he got that answer, Kim Woo-jin was convinced.
“The Sword Saint has made a decision.”
– Yeah, just as we expected.
At that time, Lee Jin-ah who was listening to their conversation, finally spoke up.
“Hey, can’t you two tell me what the h.e.l.l’s going on?”
Kim Woo-jin answered the question while setting the timer on the camera that he had been fiddling with.
“The Sword Saint will give us an item in hopes that we’ll continue being a party in the future.”
Soon after Kim Woo-jin finished setting the timer, he walked up to Lee Jin-ah and stretched out his hand.
“What are you doing?”
“We have to show them some evidence that our relations.h.i.+p has improved. A handshake is enough.”
It was only then that Lee Jin-ah realised what was happening and grabbed Kim Woo-jin’s hand.
“I’m one of the parties involved, so I don’t have anything to say, but if the Sword Saint learned the truth, he would definitely hunt us to the ends of the Earth.”
Kim Woo-jin laughed at those words.
“It doesn’t matter. The Sword Saint intends to kill us anyway.”
“Huh?”
“They will attempt it during the attack on the A+ rank dungeon.”
Click!
Then the picture was taken.
…
[Will Isaac Ivanov really retire?]
It didn’t take long before many rumors about Isaac Ivanov’s possible retirement began to spread around the world.
However, it didn’t take long before those rumors were ruthlessly shut down.
“The rumors about Isaac Ivanov retiring are all false, and as promised, he will attack the A+ rank dungeon.”
The moment the Sword Saint said these words during a press conference, announcing the plans they’d made with Isaac Ivanov, those rumors evaporated like snow in the sun.
Instead, new rumors appeared.
-There are rumors that the Sword Saint prevented Isaac Ivanov’s retirement and brought his team back together by giving them a legendary item.
?No, it was rumored that they’ll get the item ‘after’ they clear the A+ rank dungeon.
? I heard rumors that the Sword Saint intends to make him his successor.
They were rumors that the Sword Saint had paid an unimaginable price to fix the situation.
Of course, they weren’t rumors.
To call it a rumor was to say that it wasn’t true.
“What price did you pay?”
“I used the Nemean Lion’s skin to reunite them.”
Because the Sword Saint had genuinely paid an astronomical price to reconnect the two players.
“So expensive.”
The Arabic man, Khalid Bin Alsaud, clicked his tongue when he heard this.
“When I hear someone like you say it’s expensive, it makes the loss feel all the more painful.”
Khalid Bin Alsaud.
Otherwise known as Prince Khalid, was, as his name suggested, a prince of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family.
Of course, although there were thousands of princes(1) in the royal family, the fact that he could meet with the Sword Saint in person was proof of his status.
The Sword Saint had only been able to reach his current state after the world changed in 2020, but the Saudi Arabian Royal Family was a group that had a lot of power and wealth since long before then.
Even the top figures on the Forbes’ List might not have as much wealth as this great family.
When normal people saw a light car and thought ‘this is nice and cheap’, a rich man would look at a yacht that could carry about 200 people and think the same thing.
This was why the Sword Saint said he hadn’t expected the prince to use the word ‘expensive’.
“Nemean Lion skin is expensive.”
Of course, Nemean Lion’s skin was an expensive item.
“But it doesn’t feel that expensive when compared to the price of Isaac Ivanov’s life.”
However, it couldn’t be compared to the price of the world’s hero’s life.
After hearing those words, Prince Khalid stood up.
“Here’s the plan.”
He then handed a bunch of doc.u.ments over to the Sword Saint.
“It’s really simple. After Isaac Ivanov and his teammate enter the dungeon gate, we will cause an accident. This will cause the dungeon entry to end at that moment.”
After explaining the plan, he gave a smile.
“If you had used this method before, you wouldn’t have lost the Nemean Lion’s skin.”
When he heard those words mixed with a mocking undertone, the Sword Saint shot a cold look at Prince Khalid who had turned around.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, Prince Khalid, who was about to leave, turned around and asked something he’d just thought of.
“By the way, what was the reward you promised if they cleared the dungeon?”
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“I’m still curious. I wonder how much Mr. Sword Saint was willing to risk.”
The Sword Saint gave him a simple answer.
“I told them I’d give them the Aegis s.h.i.+eld.”
Prince Khalid was surprised by that response.
“Isn’t that the item that Mr. Sword Saint uses when you attack dungeons? A secret item that not even the Messiah Guild knows about, you’re willing to risk that?”
Faced with that surprise, the Sword Saint simply responded in his normal, cold tone.
“I have nothing to lose anyway.”
…
It was normally very difficult to clear a dungeon.
Therefore, it was even more difficult to prepare for a dungeon attack.
This was because it was necessary to prepare as much as possible, especially because attacking dungeons came with the risk of death.
Moreover, convincing others to also take part in such dangerous dungeon attacks was also difficult.
All of these reasons were why it was harder to prepare to attack 4 Floor dungeons.
It would be strange if it was easy to persuade players above level 100, who were considered national a.s.sets and high ranking members of their respective guilds, to risk their lives as well as their political and economical influence.
“Prepare to enter the dungeon.”
However, all of these difficulties became nothing when faced with the Sword Saint’s influence.
“I will repeat it one more time. In a while, we will enter the A+ rank 4 Floor dungeon, h.e.l.lhound’s Hunting Grounds! The 249 partic.i.p.ating players, please get ready for your turns!”
After Isaac Ivanov’s party got back together, the Sword Saint immediately began preparations to attack the A+ rank dungeon.
And it only took two days to complete the preparations.
‘I can’t believe they set up this play in such a short time.’
Over 200 players over level 100 were gathered for this ‘attack’.
‘Their control over these players is absolute.’
During the process, none of the gathered made any unnecessary sounds.
It was quite amazing.
Most players tended to be reluctant to attempt dungeons that had been failed before.
And this dungeon had an especially ominous aura.
Nevertheless, these j.a.panese players over level 100 had gathered in front of the dungeon gate without a word of complaint.
‘Their control over the media is also perfect.’
In addition, the entire process was given full media coverage.
The political and business sectors also didn’t hold back in their support.
‘j.a.pan is completely in the Sword Saint’s hands.’
This was evidence that the Sword Saint’s influence had already grown to the point where he dominated j.a.pan.
‘Then it won’t take very long.’
This was why Kim Woo-jin was convinced.
‘The war will start much sooner than it did in the past.’
Now the Sword Saint’s next target would be outside of j.a.pan.
And the world would once again fall into a war after 1945(2).
“Then Isaac Ivanov’s party will enter first.”
Listening to the official in charge, Kim Woo-jin and Lee Jin-ah entered the dungeon gate first.
Kaboom!
And the very next moment an enormous explosion happened at the Dungeon Gate.
(Note:
1. The Saudi Arabian Royal family in total is estimated to comprise some 15,000 members, however, the majority of power, influence and wealth is possessed by a group of about 2,000 of them.
2. For those who were unaware, World War II ended on September 2, 1945.)