After that…… well, let’s just say it was easy.
Dojin might have only just entered D-Grade, been outnumbered, and even had a top-tier D-Grade Player among his opponents.
But there was a fundamental difference in the combat experience he had accumulated and the speed at which he could build strategies from it.
“Damn it! !”
Hong Jingu’s voice rang out from where he was still hiding behind the other thugs and doing nothing but firing off attack Skills.
Apparently, he intended to stubbornly cling to the stereotypical tactic of having the Mage hide in the rear and spam Skills until the very end.
“Well, I can’t exactly blame him.”
Players during the Tutorial Season were extremely simple.
As they repeatedly went through the same kinds of Arenas over and over, they discovered strategies and gradually adapted to them.
And that process repeated endlessly.
Until it stripped away the Players’ individuality.
Until they became incapable of surviving the enormous upheaval known as the Main Scenario.
“…….”
Dojin looked down at the Assassin thug, who had completely lost consciousness after being forced to take one attack after another in his place, and gave a bitter smile.
“In the end, even you’ll be grateful to me. Before my regression, the Players who survived were the sharp ones who knew how to adapt quickly even when something unexpected happened.”
That was why so many Players who had spent every day clearing the same Arena Quests and focusing solely on making money died during the early stages of the Main Scenario.
And among the surviving Low- and Mid-Grade Players, there had unexpectedly been quite a few Players with criminal backgrounds like Hong Jingu.
Because they had tried to use Arenas in all sorts of ways rather than merely completing the Quests they were given.
When the enormous upheaval known as the Main Scenario arrived, they had actually been far more flexible in how they thought and responded.
Of course, some ordinary Players had also adapted and survived through either luck or quick thinking.
Dojin had been one of them.
‘Hong Jingu was probably imagining something like this.’
Hong Jingu himself would draw Dojin’s attention with flashy Earth-Attribute Skills.
The Tank would focus solely on defense while the Hunter occasionally drew aggro.
And in the meantime, the Assassin would slip in and take Dojin down in spectacular fashion……
Something along those lines.
“Everyone has a perfect plan.”
Until they get beaten to hell.
“Ghk!”
The Assassin Player could no longer use because Dojin had him by the collar.
His current purpose was to serve as a shield.
……Specifically, to block the Hong Jingu had just fired and the falling rock that had dropped from above at the same time.
After being battered by rocks flying in from above and the side, the Assassin was starting to look downright pitiful.
‘Honestly, <Minion Armament (C)> alone is more than enough to defend against the falling rocks.’
Even so, Dojin did not want to openly reveal too much of his new Skill in front of other Players.
Those thugs still had no idea that the Player before them was Necromancer Lee Dojin.
“You cowardly bastard!”
“What the hell kind of organization are you from that you dare mess with us……?!”
Seeing Dojin’s unscrupulous behavior, the thugs seemed convinced he was one of their own kind.
And understandably so.
Unlike ordinary Players who were accustomed only to Quests—
Dojin, who had been through countless life-or-death battles, was far too calm while fighting other Players.
GRIND!
Hong Jingu ground his teeth and shouted at his fellow thugs.
Though by now, only two of them were still standing.
For reference, the thug Tank and thug Hunter were not in much better shape than the human shield currently trapped in Dojin’s grasp.
“Let’s rush him together! I don’t care if the rocks hit us or not. All-out attack, got it?!”
At last, it seemed they were going to launch something resembling a proper attack.
Using the Assassin in his grip to block the falling rocks pouring endlessly from above, Dojin thought indifferently.
‘I’ve already figured out their level.’
At the same time, Dojin’s lips moved.
“I’m bored. Let’s finish this.”
“……Huh?”
“……?”
“What……?!”
Before Dojin even finished speaking—his hands and feet moved first.
WHOOSH-!
THUD! THUMP! CRACK!
First, Dojin hurled the Assassin Player in his grasp through the air.
The body he had thrown violently forward was struck head-on by the falling rocks still pouring down, landing directly between Dojin and the thugs.
And in the instant their vision was blocked—
Dojin moved right in front of them.
BOOM!!!
“-Ghk……?!”
Dojin slipped between the falling rocks as deftly as though passing through gaps in a rainstorm, then drove a fist into the Tank’s face.
“……?!”
And before the Hunter beside him could even recover from the shock—
WHOOSH- CRACK!!!
“-G-Grr……”
Dojin swung his leg wide behind him.
His heel smashed into the back of the Hunter’s head, knocking him unconscious on the spot.
Only one remained.
“N-No way……”
The Mage Hong Jingu.
The effective leader of the thugs.
Before he could even finish denying what had just happened—
THUD!!
“Hrk……”
A tremendous impact struck his abdomen.
Hong Jingu lost consciousness.
Foam trickled down from the corner of his mouth.
***
“So…… Arenas like this around here are basically your territory?”
Naturally, Dojin had been the only one to clear the Quest in the Arena <Falling Rock Valley (D)>.
In an ordinary Arena, a Player who lost consciousness was automatically considered eliminated.
More importantly, the fact that using the falling rocks as weapons also counted toward destroying them had been useful.
Thanks to that, Dojin had simultaneously completed the Quest and subdued the thugs before the time limit expired……and now he had dragged all four thugs outside the Arena and was thoroughly squeezing information out of them.
“Yes, Boss! That’s right!”
All four thugs were kneeling on the ground, their faces and bodies covered in bruises of every size.
The reason was simple.
Like the thugs they were, they had refused to accept the outcome of the fight and had attacked Dojin as a group again after logging out of the Arena.
- You bastard, you’re dead!
- Let’s see if you’re still fine when a real blade goes into you!
And Dojin, who had extensive real combat experience, beat every last one of them down.
- D-Damn it…… You’re pretty good……
- Outside the Arena, that bastard’s the same as us! We can crush him with numbers!
They repeated that process no fewer than five times.
- B-Boss, we were wrong…… GHK!
- Please spare us! We’ll never…… AGH!
For the record, Dojin deliberately dragged the fighting out for five more rounds.
He knew that if men like these were not thoroughly crushed the first time, they would keep crawling back up later.
They were drunk on the superhuman strength that came with being Players.
That also meant that if he completely suppressed them with the very strength they worshipped, they would eventually submit from the bottom of their hearts.
Dojin understood that perfectly well.
“Boss!”
By now, the word ‘Boss’ came automatically from the thugs’ mouths.
With both their bodies and spirits thoroughly battered, Hong Jingu and the others seemed to imagine Dojin was some executive from a secret criminal organization.
‘There’s no way a man who fights like this is some nobody.’
‘Is some overseas organization trying to expand into Korea?’
Even among criminals, whether someone had Awakened as a Player was an important distinction.
Of course, there was still the restriction that they could only display their true abilities inside Arenas.
But considering that Arenas were already being treated as territories among criminals, the strength and number of Players had become major factors determining the power and influence of criminal organizations.
“Only Players can log into an Arena in the first place, right? And it’s not like you’re required to clear the Quest after logging in.”
“So Arenas with crappy rewards basically get abandoned.”
“But from our point of view, it’d be a waste to leave all that abandoned Arena space unused, wouldn’t it? As long as something isn’t machinery, you can usually bring it in when you log into an Arena.”
“…….”
Listening to the thugs ramble, Dojin sank into thought.
‘What was Hong Jingu like before my regression?’
During the Main Scenario Season, he had gathered only criminal Players and formed a sizable faction.
But before Awakening as a Player, he had merely been an ordinary thug.
‘Even during the Tutorial Season before my regression, Hong Jingu’s name wasn’t particularly well known.’
Perhaps he had been known within criminal circles.
But among Players, Hong Jingu had not been anyone particularly noteworthy.
‘That was probably because criminal Players avoided streaming altogether and focused on illegally acquiring Mana Stones and Gold.’
Old habits died hard.
There was no way people who had already committed crimes would suddenly stop simply because they Awakened.
If anything, they would have used the Skills and Arena login privileges gained through Awakening for crime as well.
‘I still don’t know exactly how they committed crimes using abilities that can only be used inside Arenas…….’
Hong Jingu must have steadily leveled up and strengthened his connections that way until the Main Scenario Season began, at which point he emerged into the spotlight as the Guild Master of a major Guild.
‘Still, Hong Jingu was relatively moderate among them.’
Dojin knew perfectly well how absurd it sounded to describe a man who casually kidnapped Players as moderate.
But the reality of the Main Scenario Season before his regression had been that horrific.
By those standards, someone like Hong Jingu really had been relatively moderate.
‘Then what about now?’
Hong Jingu had not been particularly infamous during the Tutorial Season.
He only expanded his influence during the Main Scenario Season.
In other words, the current Hong Jingu had not yet committed any truly serious crimes.
If so—
‘Couldn’t I use this bastard for my own purposes?’
Probably in two different ways.