Backstabbing (Part 2)
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“…”
“Battle King, we would appreciate it if you could please look the other way this time when the Order of Virtue makes the move.”
“You are insane.”
The look on Bellon’s face was beyond the point of simply being displeased. Infuriated, Bellon said to Lee Jung-Yup,
“This is not even worth having a conversation on. Get out of my sight. I’ll go and see Ho-Gyeong myself to express my complaint about your ridiculous proposal.”
Although Vulcan and Dokgo Hoo have not become true brethrens of the Denomination, still, officially, they were members of the Denomination to the full extent.
Saying he should sit and watch when the Order kills Vulcan and Dokgo Hoo was equal to patronizing Bellon the archbishop and the Denomination itself.
It was a ridiculous proposal to the point that it made Bellon wonder if Ho-Gyeong finally lost it from his rage.
Bellon had no reason to attentively listen to such proposal from the Order.
Bellon raised his fist with intent to forcibly toss Lee Jung-Yup out of the temple.
At that moment, calmly, Lee Jung-Yup opened his mouth.
“Vulcan had no intention of leaving Beloong City.”
“…!”
Bellon was shocked to the point that even his fierce intensity dissipated. Bellon asked,
“What did you just say?”
“The Order of Virtue is thinking that Vulcan has no intention of leaving Act 1.”
“… Bullc.r.a.p!”
Bellon was denying Lee Jung-Yup’s words, but the fact that he was now listening meant a new seed of doubt had been planted and had sprouted in Bellon. Lee Jung-Yup made a sigh of relief inside and belittled Bellon.
‘What a bunch of spineless cowards.’
“This is not a baseless theory. We have seen many others who cleared Act 1 and left for Act 2 or the realm of G.o.ds. However, there is a big difference between those people and Vulcan. Unlike Vulcan, they have not attempted to raise their influence in the Beloong City.”
“You sure know how to bark out such blatant lies with a straight face. When are you saying Vulcan tried to do such things?”
“As soon as he completed his training under Filder, he brought the Players Alliance to their knees, and he obtained full support from Jake. Also, he had been making acquaintances and deepening his friends.h.i.+p with Zenith-Rate warriors like Horuine and Ser-Whee who do not belong to any factions.”
Lee Jung-Yup quickly poured out more explanations. Listening to his words, Bellon cast his doubts.
“What? Wait. What do you mean Vulcan brought Players Alliance to their knees?”
“It is as I said. The members of the Players Alliance are already forces under his command.”
“What a ridiculous idea! From what I learned about the incident, it was Uruo that picked a fight against Vulcan.”
“That is true. However, in the end, he went under Vulcan’s wings as his subordinate. This is also the reason why Vulcan still didn’t kill anyone that attacked him during that incident.”
Lee Jung-Yup paused for a moment and continued,
“Vulcan plans to create a third faction based on Players.”
“…!”
The expression on Bellon’s face hardened.
Lee Jung-Yup continued his explanation.
“It is unknown why exactly Vulcan wants to remain in this place. It could be because he has an ambition about having power over strong warriors gathered here from the lower dimensions, or it could be for the sake of other Players like himself. The important thing is the fact that Vulcan&r
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squo;s actions are definitely not something that those who intend to go to Act 2 or go back to his own world would do.”
“… Let me think about this for a moment.”
With his hand gestures, Bellon told Lee Jung-Yup and Miluwall to take a step back. Bellon tightly closed his eyes.
He wasn’t thinking hard about why Vulcan would want to remain in this place. It was because the reason was obvious to Bellon.
‘He has no confidence about going over to Act 2, and it is probably hurting his pride to think about going back to his lower dimension.’
Bellon thought about how things went from the moment he arrived in the Beloong City and how he got to where he was now.
Before he came to Asgard, he felt invincible and unmatched under the sky, but when he arrived at Asgard, so many top-notch warriors appeared in front of him. Even Bellon was in despair just like others.
Fortunately, because he was born with brilliant talent, enough to be called a prodigy among all prodigy, he was able to become stronger at an incredible rate, and he was able to eventually reach the second place in the Golden Ranking.
Through out the span of several hundred years, Bellon have witnessed many prodigies being blocked by and giving up from despair after seeing other geniuses who were far superior. Countless times, Bellon have seen them becoming ordinary and pathetic.
It was a mistake to think Asgard would be different from lower dimensions because only the strongest of the lower dimensions are gathered here.
Third-Rate, Second-Rate, First-Rate, Zenith-Rate, and the one at the top of the pyramid, the Ultra-Zenith-Rate…
Even though this place had only the super humans gathered here, just like in lower dimensions, status and cla.s.s based on abilities were created naturally. The super humans from the lower dimensions, who use to be full of confidence and pride, eventually found their places in the Beloong City befitting of their abilities and acted accordingly.
Having watched the whole thing at work for so long, Bellon had never even thought about going over to the Act 2.
In the Beloong City, he was a man possessing brilliant talent.
‘However, in Act 2, or in the realm of G.o.ds… In Act 2, I would be treated like the Third-Rate here.’
Having witnessed several tens of thousands of prodigies falling into despair and giving up, there was a distinct fear that overcame Bellon as he thought about the possibilities should he go over to upper dimensions.
The fear, that even his brilliant talent could become less than ordinary in the upper dimensions, was chaining him down.
Even so, he was not liking the idea of going back to his lower dimension. It was because that would be like completely acknowledging that he was a coward s.h.i.+vering in fear.
Of course, there was also the fact that he will have to give up his eternal life if he leaves this world. That became a huge part of the reasons why he was hesitant to leave this world.
Because of his fear toward the upper dimensions, and because of his sense of defeat about going back to his lower dimension, Bellon was an existence that became a resident ghost of the Beloong city.
This was the Battle King Bellon’s true self.
Like that, from a safe place called the top of the Beloong City, he spent his days enjoying watching newly arrived geniuses getting destroyed and falling into despair.
Although Ho-Gyeong, who created the Order of Virtue around the same time Bellon created his Denomination, worried Bellon a little, because he was certain that Ho-Gyeong was also just another coward like himself, the two factions were able to co-exist without serious collisions.
‘However, in this delicate balance of power, what if a new figure named Vulcan entered the scene? Currently, he is definitely not as powerful as me, but what if he uses his devilish talent and climb up above me? What if he turns me into just another one of top-notch warriors in this place, which isn’t even Act 2, but Act 1?’
“Um…”
Bellon growled.
Figuring out the probability of Vulcan choosing to establish himself in the Beloong City was no longer important. The important thing was the fact that there was a possibility, even if it was a small one.
Bellon had to be the top in this world, and anyone that threatened his position could not be forgiven.
Also, the only opportunity to eliminate that threat was when an incredible prodigy called Vulcan was not yet fully matured, which was right now.
Bellon brought in Lee Jung-Yup again and asked,
“You probably didn’t come here with just your conjectures. Do you have any proof or witness?”
Although that’s how he put it, Bellon was going to accept Lee Jung-Yup’s proposal even if he brought forth the silliest excuse.
To Bellon, logic or definite evidence was no longer important.
There was a seed of anxiety that was planted deep in his heart, and now it had sprouted. As long as he could be given an excuse to eliminate Vulcan, it didn’t matter to him how shabby the excuse was.
Lee Jung-Yup, as he smiled for the first time since he entered the temple, introduced Milwall to Bellon.
“This man is one of the commanders in the Players Alliance and also a witness.”
Bellon listened to testimonial that Milwall gave as Milwall shook uncontrollably from fear. Having finished with listening to what Milwall had to say, Bellon said to Lee Jung-Yup,
“The Denomination will not interfere with the Order’s actions.”
BOOM!
A h.e.l.lgoat, a monster with a human body with a goat’s head, stroke down its halberd in a big swing. It created a crack on the ground over 100 feet in length. Watching it gave Vulcan gooseb.u.mps.
‘This is like a walking natural disaster.’
It was on brink of death, yet it was still demonstrating such power. Vulcan’s face was saying he could not believe what he was seeing. With that expression in his face, Vulcan aimed for the gap in the h.e.l.lgoat’s defense.
Because the h.e.l.lgoat was already severely injured from magic attacks, it was not able to respond properly to Vulcan’s attacks. Its head that flew off from its body was rolling on the ground, and its death turned in to Vulcan’s experience points.
[Your Experience Points Went Up.]
[Level Up!]
“Wow, it’s difficult to have just two of them coming at me at once.”
Vulcan wiped off the sweat as he gathered the items and looked toward Dokgo Hoo.
“Your little brother was in danger, so why were you just watching?”
“What are you talking about? What were you going to do if I left Jake’s side to come over there and another monster came to Jake?”
Dokgo Hoo, who was standing next to Jake, objected.
Vulcan was at a loss for words. He made a click noise with his mouth and turned his head.
‘This place definitely has more monsters than other places in the north gate field. Looks like I’ll have to be careful.’
Because h.e.l.lgoats were powerful, they usually roamed around alone. However, in this place that the Denomination introduced to Vulcan, there were sometimes in groups of two or even three. The area had that high of concentration of monsters.
It was perfect for hunting large number of monsters, but if there were three or more h.e.l.lgoats, even Vulcan could be in danger of getting injured, so he was not letting his guard down.
‘Mr. Jake came along to a place like this. Does he not have any sense of fear…’
Sometimes, Vulcan felt Jake was gutsy as if he did not have any attachment toward the value of his own life. Even now, Jake didn’t care whether or not battles were happening nearby. He only observed a tree.
‘Is it because he lived too long or is it just his personality?’
To Vulcan, who was not even in his thirties, it was difficult to understand or figure out how Jake thought of his own life. Vulcan extended his arms wide and did a big stretch. It was just about when he was going to walk toward where Jake and Dokgo Hoo were.
“…!”
“This is!”
Vulcan quickly joined Dokgo Hoo and Jake and looked toward somewhere.
“There are people approaching us.”
“I know. s.h.i.+t. It doesn’t look like they are from the Denomination.”
Having spewed out curse word, Dokgo Hoo drew his sword. Vulcan also made all sorts of preparations to be ready for the dangerous situation that could ensue soon, and then he carefully examined the men approaching this way from the distance.
The first thing that he noticed was their getup, which was Murim style clothing.
As for their number, there were eight of them.
Vulcan used the SYSTEM and scanned them. He wondered if it would be possible because of the long distance, but fortunately, there were things floating in front of him.
[Zenith-Rate Swordsman Jang-Ho]
[481Lv]
[Zenith-Rate Swordsman Hw.a.n.g Bo-Huk]
[479Lv]
…
[Zenith-Rate Swordsman Lee Jung-Yup]
[493Lv]
‘Lee Jung-Yup! They are from the Order of Virtue!’
Vulcan ground his teeth.
The first thing that came to his mind was, ‘why.’
Unless the Order intended to have a full out war against the Denomination, they would not be coming to attack him.
However, as Vulcan thought about it some more, it was also implausible that the men from the Order managed to infiltrate this deep in to the hunting site controlled by the Denomination. That was not all.
The men approaching had no sign of struggle along the way here. They all had completely clean clothes and faces.
‘That means… Bellon, that son of b.i.t.c.h…!’
An uncontrollable rage surrounded Vulcan’s entire body.
It was not anger toward Bellon. It was anger toward himself.
‘I put too much faith in thinking Bellon and Ho-Gyeong were not getting along. I’ve been acting with my guard down!’
Since the beginning of all these troubles, all this time, Vulcan had been dealing with things with the idea of going along with the flow, but in the end, to see that this was the result, feeling of regrets were refusing to leave Vulcan’s mind. He kept thinking he should have been more proactive.
Unlike Vulcan, who’s head was in a state of complete disarray, Dokgo Hoo had no thoughts in his head.
There were eight opponents who were around his level in combat potentials.
The difference in number was tough. Even if he focused in the combat, it was going to be difficult just to survive.
WOOOONG
From Dokgo Hoo’s gigantic buster sword, energy blade over 60 feet in length came out. Not satisfied with it, Dokgo Hoo focused his mind further.
As he focused his energy, the energy blade that extended out gradually compressed and became about seven feet long.
It was beyond comparison to ordinary energy blades. It now possessed incredible amount of energy compression and destructive power.
‘I’m going to strike them down the moment they get here!’
Facing eight Murim warriors that approached up to right in front of him, Dokgo Hoo finished getting ready to charge forward.
However, there were people that started attacking even before Dokgo Hoo.
Lee Jung-Yup and Jang-Ho, the two warriors who were on the rear end of the group, ambushed and killed two of the men who were approaching Vulcan and Dokgo Hoo.
“What…!? Are you insane?! Senior officer Lee!!”
“Just what are you doing?”
There were two corpses, one with the head chopped off, and the other with the head exploded. The men from the Order of Virtue shouted in shock.
Vulcan and Dokgo Hoo were not able to get a grip on their minds either. Not just Vulcan, but also Dokgo Hoo, who were just about to charge in and unleash his Tiger King blade technique, were both standing still with vacant looks on their faces.
Lee Jung-Yup shouted,
“Now it is four against four! We need to end this quickly and get out of this place!”
Dokgo Hoo instinctively charged in.
Watching the scene turning into a chaos, Vulcan crumpled the gap between his eyebrows.
‘Right. It is not going to be too late to think hard about this later.’
Surrounding his body with flames and lightning, Vulcan charged forward into the battlefield.
Inside the chaos, a battle of b.l.o.o.d.y carnage started.