CH 107

“I’m pretty sure the rescue party’s supposed to be led by my subordinate, so why are you here with those Adventurers?” asked Siegfried.

“Ah, so what happened was…” Pyo Cheol-Ju trailed off with a smirk before he shrugged and continued. “You mean Carell? That NPC won’t be coming.”

“Why not?”

“He is too busy commanding his forces. He said that he can’t come to rescue you because the battle is simply too fierce for him to leave his spot.”

“Hmm…”

“That’s why we came instead of him,” Pyo Cheol-Ju said as he pointed at the men behind him with his chin.

There were twenty Adventurers affiliated with the Camellia Guild standing behind him.

“Is that so? Hmm… there’s no way that Carell is simply going to—” Siegfried started.

However, Pyo Cheol-Ju cut him off and said, “I thought you needed a rescue party. I don’t see a single Cryptid behind you, though. Did you manage to shake them off?”

Pyo Cheol-Ju didn’t wait for Siegfried to answer as he said, “Mother of the Colony? Is that the one controlling the Cryptids?”

“…”

“Oh, you cleared the quest?” Pyo Cheol-Ju asked with a hint of certainty in his voice.

The reason that he sounded certain was that he could see the details of the Mother of the Colony through the Rune of Insight he possessed as an Adventurer.

“Amazing, I failed mine, you see? I barely managed to escape alive.”

“Is that so?”

“Anyway, shall we start heading back? Let’s go, we don’t know when it’s going to start becoming dangerous again,” Pyo Cheol-Ju said. He motioned to Siegfried with his hand.

However, Siegfried did not follow him. Instead, he replied, “You are dumber than you look, aren’t you? I know I look stupid, but I’m not that stupid, you know?”

“Stupid? Dumb? What are you talking about?” Pyo Cheol-Ju feigned ignorance.

“Playing dumb, are we?” Siegfried smiled and pointed at Pyo Cheol-Ju’s sleeve.

“That blood, whose blood is it?”

“It’s mine, of course. I failed my quest and barely made it out alive. I didn't even have the time to rest before they asked me to join the rescue party.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I have no idea what you are on about.”

“Where is the rescue party?”

“We are the rescue party…”

“Where is the real rescue party?” Siegfried asked once again.

“What the hell? Are you accusing us of doing something to the rescue party?”

“Finally, we’re talking. Did you kill them?”

“Are you writing a novel? Why are you making things up all of a sudden?”

“There’s a limit to how much you can feign ignorance, you know? I’m sure that you spared no effort to cover your tracks, but you should have done a better job.”

“…!”

“Where is the rescue party?” Siegfried asked with certainty in his eyes.

He could see faint traces of battles between humans all over the forest, and he could see some traces of battles between Pyo Cheol-Ju and the Adventurers as well. He could only come to the conclusion that Pyo Cheol-Ju and his gang ambushed the rescue party, no matter how much he thought about it.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding here. It’s not what you think…” Pyo Cheol-Ju muttered. He slowly approached Siegfried with a troubled look.

Puuuk!

A grotesque noise echoed all of a sudden.

Thud!

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The sound of something falling to the ground could be heard as well.

***

Mount Kunlun.

The mountain located at the northwestern tip of the Nürburg Continent, which was the main stage for BNW, was the highest mountain not only in the continent but in the entire world. There was a house approximately one kilometer below its peak, and the ruler of Mount Kunlun was living in that house.

That ruler was none other than the Level 999 Hidden NPC, Deus.

“Hmm… I miss my disciple,” Deus muttered. He was starting to miss his disciple, who left him a few months ago.

“That little punk. How dare he not even contact me after so long? Shouldn’t he at least send a letter to his master, no matter how busy he is? Ehem! What an ungrateful brat! Just wait and see, I will beat the living daylight out of you once you come back!”

Deus seemed upset, even though he was the one who sent Siegfried far away without warning.

***

“This bastard!” Pyo Cheol-Ju gnashed his teeth and glared at Siegfried from the floor.

A few seconds ago…

“I think there’s a misunderstanding here. It’s not what you think…”

Pyo Cheol-Ju walked toward Siegfried.

However, Siegfried suddenly ‘ambushed’ him out of nowhere.

Lightning Spear Art: First Form.

Siegfried stabbed Pyo Cheol-Ju using the spear art Weapon Master Shakiro had handed down to him.

‘I definitely made the first move…!’ 

Pyo Cheol-Ju was baffled.

He was planning to nonchalantly approach Siegfried and stab the latter like what he had always done to his many other victims, but he could have never imagined—even in his wildest dreams—that his target was faster than him.

However, he couldn’t have imagined that he was like an open book in front of Siegfried.

‘Traces of battle at the exfil point, a sudden change in the rescue party, and suddenly approaching me for no reason… Isn’t he being too obvious…?’ Siegfried thought.

There was no way that such a cheap parlor trick was going to work on him since he was a seasoned veteran in BNW who had gone through all sorts of things. Pyo Cheol-Ju was obviously lying in wait to steal the quest clear item—Memorize Monocole—from a player who managed to complete their own quest.

After all, Pyo Cheol-Ju had already failed his quest. He was definitely planning on stealing the quest clear item from someone else and bringing it to the NPC while pretending that he had cleared his quest.

This was a common occurrence in BNW, and it was even more common when it came to quests with extremely great rewards.

That was why Siegfried ambushed Pyo Cheol-Ju before the latter could do it first.

“You cowardly bastard—” Pyo Cheol-Ju gnashed his teeth and cursed at Siegfried, but he was not given the chance to finish cursing as Siegfried’s spear suddenly turned into a hammer.

Paaak!

Siegfried used Smite and slammed the hammer into Pyo Cheol-Ju’s head.

“Kuheok!”

Siegfried did not even react to the huge amount of blood Pyo Cheol-Ju coughed out. He silently continued to slam his hammer down until Pyo Cheol-Ju died.

~

[Alert: You have killed ‘Pyo Cheol-Ju’!]

~

A message popped up once Pyo Cheol-Ju died, and something shiny dropped on the ground as well. A player would experience a random item drop penalty once they died, and naturally, Pyo Cheol-Ju was no exception.

Siegfried did not even spare a glance at the item Pyo Cheol-Ju had dropped as his eyes were solely focused on the Camellia Guild members standing behind Pyo Cheol-Ju.

“What the hell?! How is he so strong?!”

“Did you see that damage just now?!”

“Guild Master-nim died…?”

‘It’s going to be a problem if this thing dies…’ 

Siegfried tossed the Mother of the Colony aside.

Sseuuu…!

Then, a fog of green radioactive energy seeped out from his body and surrounded the Adventurers. The radioactive energy melted the under Level 200 players in the blink of an eye.

The Camellia Guild members, whose levels were much lower than Pyo Cheol-Ju instantly melted as soon as the radioactive energy touched them, and they turned into a pool of bloody mess.

The only thing they left behind was the items they dropped as the penalty for their deaths, just like how Pyo Cheol-Ju dropped a random party as well.

“Now, where is the original rescue party?” Siegfried asked the Adventurer he purposely spared.

“O-Over there… We threw them behind those bushes… Kuheok!” 

At that, the last remaining Camellia Guild member died. Siegfried smashed his hammer into the Adventurer’s head as soon as he heard the information he wanted.

Then, he rushed toward the bushes leaving behind the Camellia Guild members’ corpses and the items they left behind. Those were not important to him right now as his main priority was…

‘Carell!’ 

The only thing on Siegfried’s mind right now was Carell’s safety.

***

It did not take long for Siegfried to find the rescue party. More specifically, he found their bodies littered across the ground.

‘Don’t die, Carell!’ Siegfried pleaded while going through the corpses in hopes that he would not find Carell there.

But then…

“K… Keuk!”

“Carell!”

“Y-Your Majesty…?”

Siegfried found Carell among the corpses with a knife stuck in his chest.

“Breath! Breath!”

“Your Majesty. I do not think that… I will make it…”

“Shut up and breathe! I will give you a potion, so drink it and stop with your nonsense!” Siegfried exclaimed. He took out a bottle of potion and poured it into Carell’s mouth, and then he took out a bandage and put pressure on the wound to stop it from bleeding.

“I am glad that I got to see… Your Majesty one more time… before I die…”

“You’re not going to die, so shut up and breathe!”

“Your Majesty…”

“I will carry you and run. Hang on. I will chase you to the depths of hell if you die!” Siegfried shouted. He then carefully picked Carell up and placed him on his back. Then, he used the active effect of the Mercedes Speedrunner he had received from Overlook.

He also used an Elixir of Speed to exponentially increase his speed.

‘I’m not going to let you die…’ 

With Carell in tow on one side and the unconscious Mother of the Colony on the other, Siegfried steeled his resolve and ran toward the command center at breakneck speeds, thanks to the artifact and the elixir.

***

“Medic! Mediiiic!”

Siegfried arrived at the command center and rushed to the medical tent to look for a medic. Then, the medic, who was capable of using healing magic and had some medical knowledge, rushed over to treat Carell.

However…

“Lieutenant Colonel Sieg-nim, I think you should prepare for the worst…” said the medic after checking Carell’s condition before adding, “He has sustained a wound that not even a high-ranking medic can cure, so I think it will be best if you—”

“I’m not asking you to treat his wound. I just want you to save his life. Just save him, okay?” Siegfried interrupted the medic.

“Pardon…?”

“Just keep him alive.”

“That is possible, but… it is going to be no different from keeping a corpse alive. He will be bedridden, and he will have to depend on potions and healing magic for the rest of his life…”

“That is not your business, so just make sure you keep him alive. Do you understand?” Siegfried sternly said.

“Yes, sir. If you wish so… However, I am informing you this as a medic, but that is really not a wise decision. He will be alive, but he will be as good as dead, and it will be no different than making him suffer for the rest of his remaining miserable life—”

“Just do as you’re told, soldier!”

“…!”

“Shut up and follow orders!”

Siegfried’s sudden change in attitude changed the atmosphere within the medical tent.

“Hey, Captain Aaron.”

“Yes, sir!”

“I know what your concern is, but I also have a plan, so just follow my commands. I also don’t want my most precious subordinate to become a living corpse, so don’t worry about it.”

“B-But sir, my professional opinion is that—”

Before Captain Aaron could continue, Siegfried pointed his spear at the medic’s neck and warned. “Any other word from your mouth will be treated as insubordination.”

“…!”

“Just do as you’re told and keep him alive if you don’t want a hole in your neck. You said it yourself that you can keep him alive, right?”

“Y-Yes, sir…”

In the end, the medic, Captain Aaron, was forced to keep Carell alive under duress.

‘I just need him to stay alive. I will be able to save him then…’ 

Siegfried desperately thought. He was confident that he would be able to save Carell.

He looked toward the northwest, or rather, exactly in the direction where Mount Kunlun was located.