622 Episode 14 Hunting (1)

Yoo Joonghyuk strode ahead without hesitation. He didn't say where he was going.

Lee Hyunsung, Kim Namwoon, and Lee Jihye followed close behind, a step or two behind him.

We kept a certain distance and pursued Yoo Joonghyuk and his party.

How much time did we spend like that?

Kyung Sein, who was walking beside me, quietly raised a worried voice.

"Can we keep following him?"

"He didn't tell us to follow him. Instead of belonging to 'Chungmuro Station', we chose to become 'Wanderers'."

It was a risky decision, so before making this choice, I sought the opinions of Kyung Sein, Dansoo ahjussi, and Jung Heewon in advance.

—Chungmuro should be safe right now, but I think Inho-ssi will be the one who will save me when I am really in danger.

Kyung Sein.

—Can I go and look for Jiyoon?

Dansoo ahjussi.

—I think you'll die somewhere if left alone.

Lastly, Jung Heewon.

At this point, I thought that we might have been together in our previous lives.

"Thank you for the new sword, Inho-ssi. I'm sorry for the late thanks."

"Do you like it?"

Jung Heewon swung Mikazuki Munechika into the air.

"Very."

Even so, she did not take her eyes off the back of Yoo Joonghyuk’s head.

Only Jung Heewon could still burn with fighting spirit even after witnessing Yoo Joonghyuk's power.

Excluding special cases like regressors or reincarnated people, the strongest among the ordinary people is probably Jung Heewon.

Right after leaving Chungmuro Station and coming completely to the surface, Yoo Joonghyuk stopped his steps.

He looked around the ruined city with cold eyes and brought his party to a halt.

"Wait."

Yoo Joonghyuk, who stuck his great spear into the ground, looked back and forth between the western and northern streets in contemplation.

West and north from this point.

Something vaguely came to mind, but there was not enough information to confirm it.

I wish I could find 'Ways of Survival'.

All I have now are comments from readers and memos that come to mind from time to time.

As we settled down at a distance, Kim Namwoon noticed us.

The moment the grinning guy was about to come this way, Lee Jihye let out a chilling voice.

"Don't pick a fight for no reason. Unless you want to get hurt by me."

"Huh? Yes."

The person who approached us instead of the hesitantly muttering Kim Namwoon was the most moderate and kind man in Yoo Joonghyuk's party.

"Hello, are you hurt?"

"Ah, no. Thanks."

"Sorry. Our captain tends to be quiet."

"No. We're following on our own."

Lee Hyunsung, with his honest eyes, smiled, showing off his strong chest muscles.

Looking at his naive expression, I realized once again that I had really entered Omniscient Reader.

The real 'Steel Sword Emperor' Lee Hyunsung.

I didn't have time to appreciate it because I was in the middle of the battle earlier, but seeing it this way made me thrilled.

Suddenly something came to my mind and I looked back at Jung Heewon.

However, Jung Heewon, who met Lee Hyunsung, did not seem to be particularly impressed.

What seemed strange was the other side.

"Sein, do you work out?"

"Yes? How did you know?"

"Your posture is clean. You seem to use a wide squat for the hold and a hammer curl for the upper block, is that correct?"

"Wow, you noticed!"

Is this okay?

I looked back at Jung Heewon.

"Why?"

"It's nothing."

Well, if you think about it, there is no law saying that Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung must be connected.

Because the 41st turn and the 3rd turn are different.

But, anyway, this...

I decided to just ignore it.

Now, the first step is to check the newly shown scenario.

As expected, the fourth scenario was a 'flag battle' like the main story. When I clicked the clear conditions, a window with a long description appeared.

A new rule has also been added.

You don't have to take the flag, just kill the representative, and it even gives bonus points.

I felt it during the 'theater dungeon' scenario as well, but there was a strange sense of incongruity in the scenarios of the 41st turn.

It felt as if someone had read the entire story and modified the scenario to suit their taste.

...But that was probably just overthinking.

Second new condition.

A white flag is also hidden outside the station.

It is probably the hidden piece of this scenario.

The conditions for the last task were almost identical to those I remembered.

I checked the 'Hidden Scenario' window that followed.

Wanderer Scenario.

It was a scenario that could be called a kind of wild card round for the defeated.

I called Dansoo ahjussi, Kyung Sein, and Jung Heewon and started talking.

"Did you all read the scenario?"

"Yes."

"For now, there are three possible options. The first is to go to another station and ask the representative to accept us."

In any case, it was not difficult to clear the scenario itself, since you can get away from the Wanderer's penalty by just finding a 'group'.

Kyung Sein shook her head.

"If that was the case, I would have just joined the Chungmuro group. What about the second one?"

"The second is to raid another station and capture the flag. And the third is…"

"Finding the hidden white flag. Right?"

"Yes. You're right."

"Then it must be the third, right? Usually the third is the correct answer."

It was. In the Omniscient Reader for 'Kim Dokja'. Kyung Sein, who had been watching quietly, asked in a whisper.

"Do you know the location of the hidden white flag? Just like Kim Dokja knew the location of the hidden 'Green Zone'."

It would be nice if things went smoothly like that.

"No, I don't know."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"We have to take the flag of another station."

In the end, no matter what, the 'flag fight' was a fight to hold each other's flag.

Confrontation is unavoidable, and we must take over other stations. Only then will the hidden scenario 'King's Road' be opened, and we will be able to gain the right to challenge the 'Absolute Throne' in the future.

Dansoo ahjussi spoke in a solemn voice.

"Looks like it's going to be a tough fight. I wish we could just capture a flag, but it won't be that easy."

The station whose flag is captured loses control to the station that captured it.

Even at Chungmuro Station, a fight broke out because of this, but in other stations, I wonder.

Jung Heewon also added:

"If I had to kill them anyway, I'd feel less guilty if they were people I didn't know well."

Dansoo ahjussi and Kyung Sein were surprised at the murderous intent contained in her cold tone.

I said to comfort the two of them:

"It would be nice not to kill them if possible, but there will inevitably be situations where we can’t help it. Everyone, prepare your hearts."

Thinking of future fights, the battle we went through at Chungmuro Station was nothing more than child's play.

Our enemies will be more clever than Ye Hyunwoo, more inconsiderate than Han Sooyoung, and more brutal than Gong Pildu.

Just looking at the Misreading Association, whom I met a while ago, that is the case.

They were tenacious, immeasurable in number, and a group of criminals who did not abide by social common sense.

An indirect message that was chilling to contemplate.

They were the Constellations of the Misreading Association.

I remembered that little mouse that Asmodeus used last time, and it seemed that bastard had crawled back in again.

It was an unfair fight from the start.

The members of the Misreading Association could spy on us anytime during the channel broadcast and leak information to their incarnations.

After thinking for a while, I called Bihyung through 'Dokkaebi Communication'.

—Why. What is it.

"I have a favor to ask of you."

I enumerated the list of constellations from the Misreading Association that I had discovered so far, and asked Bihyung if he could track their position on the channel.

—Are you out of your mind? To constellations of our caliber! How dare an incarnation...!

"Listen. I understand that the channel's finances have weakened a lot recently. Is that correct?"

At the sudden financial talk, Bihyung swallowed his words for a moment.

—It’s none of your business.

"It's all because of sponsorship. The support amount must be much lower than before, right?"

—It was reduced, but... I'm also looking for the cause.

The channel's finances weakened because the apostles were all talking about filtered conversations.

It was because the constellations had escaped.

The stupid Bihyung didn't seem to know that fact yet.

"Have you looked at the list of constellations I mentioned? They probably don't have a record of sponsorship."

—Certainly they are the ones with no record of sponsorship.

Just as I thought.

"Shouldn't we start managing the quality of the channel soon?"

—Hmm. Well, it's not wrong, but it's a bit…

"Of course. You can't punish them for that reason. The only thing I'm worried about is... There are rumors that the Bureau's channel was recently breached."

—Where did you hear that again?

There were facts you could gather no matter where you listened.

"I don't think those guys entered through normal means."