Leveling with the Gods

“Well, this is going to be a complete walk in the park.”

Unlike Team A, there was not a shred of tension among team B.

They were just slightly amused by who the ‘king’ was. There was no talk on how to utilize the ‘king.’

“There’s just way too big a difference.”

“Have any of you guys heard of a guy named Vance on the other team? I took a test with him before, and, man, he’s a complete joke.”

“Why?”

“He doesn’t have many skills, and his level is low, too. But most importantly, he’s completely incompetent. It’s honestly a shock he even got this far.”

“Do you think that Team A is full of guys like that?”

“Probably.”

“Other than Kim YuWon, I haven’t heard of any of them. Besides, there’s such a massive gap in numbers.”

The mood was completely relaxed.

Hoon looked around at his companions who had come with him, observing the same thing.

“Being too nervous isn’t good,” a deep voice ripped throughout Team B, “but being too lax is even worse.”

Hoon’s words made his companions tense up a little.

It was something he had told them multiple times. Every test, Hoon insisted on a moderate level of tension.

The best condition was moderate tension. The second best was extreme tension. And the worst condition was carelessness. That was how Hoon was taught.

“That’s right.”

“This is a test…”

“And the enemy team does have YuWon.”

The only opponent they had to be cautious of in this test was YuWon. That meant the only variables for them were YuWon and the existence of the ‘king.’

“He’s right. Let’s be a little more alert. We can have fun after the test is over.”

“Yeah. We can go out together or something.”

“All of us?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Then let’s hurry up.”

The players on Team B started skedaddling.

Hoon’s brows furrowed watching them. ‘They didn’t understand a word,’ he thought.

It was 51 versus 200. With such a dominant difference in numbers, it couldn’t be helped that they weren’t nervous. This applied to Hoon as well.

But this went beyond not being nervous. They were being outright careless, talking as if victory was guaranteed and thinking of the after party. It was like his words went in one ear and right out the other.

“Are you nervous?” said a voice from behind Hoon, making him turn his head.

It was a woman with stunning blonde hair that reached her waistline. Her radiant beauty paired with pure-white clothes was enough for her to grab everyone’s attention around her.

Hoon wasn’t all that interested in others, but he knew her name.

“Your name is Ro’el, right?”

“I’m honored that you know my name.”

She was called the Angel Ro’el. The nickname ‘Angel’ came from both her beauty and her ability.

A gentle breeze blew around her.

Hoon felt his body becoming lighter. He narrowed his eyes, realizing that it was the result of Ro’el’s ability.

‘Healing and buffing. They’re uncommon abilities,’ he thought.

There weren’t many support players. Not only was it hard for them to fight alone, but they were also the most susceptible to danger. Paired with the fact that it was hard to obtain buffing skills, it severely limited the number of support players.

Ro’el was a rising star among the few support players. Thanks to that, despite being only on the 11th Floor, she was as highly valued as players on the top floors.

“Don’t be too nervous. It’s an undeniable fact that there is a massive difference in power,” she told Hoon.

“That is an undeniable fact. Or that’s how it looks on the surface. ”

“What do you mean?” Ro’el asked.

Hoon replied while looking around at the players that were spreading out, “Don’t you think it’s odd? For being randomly placed, there’s too large a difference between the teams.”

“Is this not just a coincidence?”

“In the world I’m from, there is a saying. ‘There’s no such thing as coincidence in the world of the strong.’”

When something looked like a coincidence, there was likely a hidden reason for what was going on. Hoon felt that something was off with this test. And the same went for Ro’el.

She wasn’t an idiot. It was only natural to think that something was weird when such a large difference in teams happened, but that was the extent of her thoughts.

“But we’re still on Team B. Does the reason really matter?” she told Hoon.

“… I guess,” Hoon replied, but on his face was a look of doubt. Did the reason really not matter?

It might have been like Ro’el said, where the reason didn’t matter as long as it benefited them, but the whole situation was still greatly off-putting for Hoon. It was an instinctive feeling, and rarely were his instincts wrong.

“By the way, who is our team’s ‘king’? Does anyone know?” Ro’el asked.

Hoon’s companions shook their heads in response. The same went for Ro’el’s companions. And there was no need to bother asking Hoon, who barely remembered Ro’el’s name.

“It must be a not very well-known player, seeing as how no one knows,” Ro’el spoke nonchalantly. She didn’t really care who the ‘king’ was, and that was inevitable because even if something potentially happened to the ‘king,’ it seemed like an unloseable game for them.

Meanwhile, Team A was in a position where they had to protect the ‘king.’

Hoon thought, ‘I guess it’s inevitable that she doesn’t care.’

Their obvious dominance was likely the reason why no one paid interest to the ‘king.’

‘But…’ Hoon wondered about the face of the ‘king’ that flashed gold in color. ‘What did that guy look like?’

It was the strangest thing. Due to his great memory, since he was a kid, he never forgot something he saw once, yet he couldn’t remember the face of the ‘king’ on his own team.

* * *

Halimun didn’t move around by himself. Rather, to be exact, he couldn’t. He was accompanied by many people on top of his regular companions.

The reason was simple. It was the golden light that shone out from Halimun’s body because he was Team A’s ‘king.’

“Found it!”

“Nice. So it was in a place like that.”

“Isn’t it in somewhat of a dangerous spot?”

“I’ll go grab it.”

At the bottom of a cliff, a red flag could be seen. It was the fourth flag they had found.

A member of Team A scaled down the cliff to fetch the flag.

“There are way too few flags spread out around the path. The other three flags were all held by monsters…”

“That’s probably where most of the flags are. If they were all in the middle of the road, this would just be a luck-based test.”

“True.”

“But we still got a good number.”

They were collecting the flags while escorting the ‘king.’ As important as protecting the ‘king’ was, if they couldn’t collect any flags, it would be entirely meaningless.

“And that’s now another flag for the ‘king’…”

Halimun took the flag from his teammate, and the number of his flag changed from 6 to 8.

“When you give the flag to the ‘king,’ you get an extra flag. Plus the ‘king’ and the person who grabbed the flag get additional CP. This is a sweet deal.”

“It’s a huge boost.”

“It really might be doable as long as we can get the enemy team’s ‘king.’”

They had gained a sliver of hope in a test that originally seemed doomed. It was thanks to the number of flags the two teams held.

[Team A: 59 flags]

[Team B: 110 flags]

The difference was almost double, but that didn’t necessarily mean despair.

‘We can overcome this difference if we can just get their ‘king,’’ Halimun thought.

The difference was just slightly shy of double, and Team A had yet to gather all their flags to the king.

It was likely that Team B also didn’t give all their flags to their ‘king’ yet, but whether or not that was the case, it didn’t change the fact that they could still make up the difference by getting the enemy ‘king.’

‘And the only one who can do that…’ Halimun thought while tightening his grip on his flag, ‘is him.’

Kim YuWon. It was highly likely that a good number of the 59 flags were found by YuWon.

“But this place is really big. Navigating around is also no joke…”

“I wonder where Team B’s starting point is.”

“Since we agreed to meet up at midnight and pool our flags together, we should hurry up.”

“Since we’re a party of ten, we need to try harder.”

“We have to find at least ten…”

Snap—

It was the sound of a branch snapping, and it wasn’t caused by any of the party members present.

Halimun and the other players turned their heads towards the source of the sound.

“Who goes there?”

The area became silent, and no presence could be felt, but that didn’t last long.

Suddenly, the surrounding area grew noisier, and they could feel the presence of multiple people.

“Come on.”

“They found out.”

“Who was it that stepped on the branch?”

“I told you guys to watch your feet.”

Rustle, rustle—

A group of people walked out from the foliage.

And with that…

[Players from the enemy team have appeared.]

[Defend your flags.]

A message popped up for players of Team A.

They were players from Team B.

To each side, players of the opposing team had a faint red glow to them. This was likely a similar principle to how the ‘king’ shone gold.

“It’s just that I’m worried about YuWon on Team A.”

“Even YuWon won’t be able to do jack shit if he doesn’t have a ‘king.’”

“It’s like taking candy from a crying baby.”

“Not to mention the CP you can get from getting the enemy ‘king’…”

A few players on Team B did become more alert after hearing Hoon’s warning earlier. They were players that were intimidated by YuWon’s name. However, they also knew that there was no reason why they would have to directly face YuWon.

Their objective wasn’t YuWon, but the ‘king.’

Due to the rules of the test, as long as they got Team A’s ‘king,’ victory was as good as theirs, not to mention the flags and CP they’d gain from taking down the ‘king.’

“W-Why are there so many people here?”

“Twelve… No, thirteen?”

“No. There’s even more than that.”

“Damn it. Don’t be a wimp. We have ten people on our side!” someone from Team A shouted, but it was no use.

“Ten?” someone from Team B said, smirking. It was a player wearing a black mask, wielding a dagger. “I think you mean nine.”

“What… do you…” A faint red line appeared across the neck of the player that was trying to ask what he meant. Then soon after, his head fell to the ground.

It was an assasination.

“F-Fuck!”

“Atroc!”

“W-We give up!”

Unfortunately, you couldn’t give up in this test.

The players on Team A fell into a panic. They were aware that there was a difference in skills, but they didn’t know it would be this great.

“Run!”

“This way, Halimun!”

“I’ll stop them somehow…!”

Halimun’s teammates pulled him by his hand.

At first, Halimun’s head went blank, but he started moving at the thought that he had to survive no matter what.

“Save me!”

“Agh!”

“I-I surrender… Ahhhh!”

It was complete and utter chaos.

Halimun wasn’t that fast at running.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

“The king’s head is mine!”

“No, it’s mine…!”

He was being chased by enemies from all sides, so Halimun had no choice but to draw his sword.

“S-Stop! Stop…!” Halimun shouted.

“What are you looking at?” a voice said from behind him, causing a shiver to run down Halimun’s spine.

Halimun’s eyes widened. It was the assassin that first killed his teammate.

He could feel the cold blade coming closer to his neck, so he closed his eyes, anticipating death.

‘This is it for me…’ Halimun thought.

“And with this, it’s our…” the assassin’s voice trailed off.

Halimun’s head remained in one piece.

Confused, he opened his eyes and heard a familiar voice.

“I told you to stay still.”

It was the voice he wanted to hear more than anything.

“Why do people never listen to me?”

Splatter—

Blood splashed on Halimun’s back.

YuWon had arrived.