Chapter 512: Treasure hunt (5)
It was as if something was directing the herd of rats.
There was only one person who Jared knew could do that.
‘Is the Prankster here!?’
The mice in the herd had empty eyes.
Instead, their eyes emitted a dark-colored ominous light surrounded by energy waves.
As soon as the mice reached the magic circle, they revealed their teeth and began to bite off the yellow rose petals.
“…!”
The sound of energy waves being crushed and the sound of rats clashing their teeth rang out.
As the herd of rats chewed up the yellow roses, the knight looked back, holding back her screams.
The magic circle being eaten up seemed to have affected her body.
The Knight of the Yellow Rose shook in shock.
“How dare that rat!”
Shwii!
A thorn came out of the knight with a sound that cut through the wind.
When the thorns covered the surface of the roses, the magic circle changed form.
Fwaa! Bang!
On a rose thorn, a swarm of rats popped out.
“It’s the rat from last time, huh! Show yourself!”
As soon as she shouted like that, a gap appeared that Jared could exploit.
He pretended to be out of it as he looked for a chance to escape, and he took the chance to hit the knight’s stomach with his elbow as hard as he could.
Hit!
He used up his remaining energy waves to hit the knight, but the damage to him was still high.
It was a surprise attack at the perfect timing, but the knight defended himself with a powerful energy wave before Jared Lee’s attack and managed to counterattack.
Jared’s elbow was crushed.
‘But the binding has weakened!’
Jared Lee shook off his rose-scented arm and jumped as far as he could.
The pain in his elbow was sharp, so he clenched his teeth and tried to fix the bone with a powerful energy wave.
He managed to escape but at the cost of his arm.
‘She’s like a monster. She’s still strong…!’
It’s been a long time since Jared escaped from this knight, but the situation was reminiscent of the past.
The knight tried to rush at Jared Lee, but the herd of mice caught her by the ankle.
Hit! Pak!
The herd of rats was soon eliminated before they could hold her back for long.
Most of the rats who were chewing up the roses had already been hit by rose spines.
It seemed unreal that the rats disappeared as ashes without a stain of blood.
‘That rat alone can’t hold the knight for long!’
Although her power has been greatly reduced from the ambush, Jared wasn’t confident of winning against the knight even if he was in perfect condition.
The wisest choice was to flee.
He was on an artificial island close to the bridge that connected to the inside of the theme park.
He can’t just jump to the lake, so if he had anywhere to run to, it would be through that bridge.
However, doing that would mean putting Kwon Lena and the other freshmen Class Zero students in danger.
The worst-case scenario would be a hostage crisis.
‘I have no choice but to survive until our team members come.’
Jared Lee called for emergency assistance and was determined to hold out.
The Knight of the Yellow Rose, who was still annoyed by the flock of mice, laughed at Jared who stopped running.
She said she knew Jared would make that choice.
It wasn’t long before the last mouse was killed and the knight rushed toward Jared.
Swaaaa….
The air suddenly got cold.
The knight halted right away when an ominous energy wave dyed the air gray.
The ground where the knight almost stepped on was rotting.
“The one who killed my mice is in Korea. I can’t believe it.”
It was Seodol’s voice.
Several small mouse-colored beads floated around him.
The size of the beads wasn’t large, but they had an unusual energy.
Jared, who thought Seodol just sent the rats on a whim, couldn’t hide his shock.
Though the knight was more astonished than anyone.
“How did you get over the mice trap so easily…!”
The knight seemed prepared for Seodol’s intervention from the beginning.
Seodol’s appearance was expected.
“A treasure-hunting prodigy helped me.”
Seodol said with great pleasure.
He sounded excited, confident even, to get the Knight of the Yellow Rose.
***
Inside the theme park, the students of Class Zero were busy searching for treasure.
They were indoors but looking for small notes made it very difficult.
Group 1, Kim Yuri and Maeng Hyodon were lagging.
They were performing worse than Group 4 Kwon Lena and Hani who were leisurely eating snacks.
“It’s another dud! Gah!”
The stiff Maeng Hyodon managed to find a note, but it happened to be a dud.
The note had the following message;
[Work hard with your partner to find the treasure. For your information, this is a dud so hurry up and find the next note! ^^]
It sounded like it was making fun of Maeng Hyodon.
Did Yong Jegun know that Maeng Hyodon would find the note?
Kim Yuri smiled as she comforted Maeng Hyodon but she had a doubt inside.
‘Was Daesok right? Did Professor Yong Jegun manipulate the teams?’
Maeng Hyodon was fuming as he threw away the note in a trash can.
He calmed down his anger and remained silent for a while.
Before Kim Yuri could tell him to cheer up, Maeng Hyodon spoke first.
“…Hey, wanna go to the artificial island?”
“Huh? Artificial island? Where group 6 is?”
“Yeah, where the VP, the pushover, and the Crazyhead went.”
Maeng Hyodon made an unexpected proposal, but his analysis was sound.
“The Group 6 guys can’t leave the artificial island, but there wasn’t a rule that said we can’t go outside.”
“That’s right. Yong-ssaem didn’t say anything about it.”
Maybe it wasn’t just Maeng Hyodon who realized that.
However, no other kids went to the island.
It was indeed cold, but there was another reason.
They didn’t want to take away the treasure notes available to Group 6 whose search range was already limited.
“It’s just, the VP looked suspicious…”
Maeng Hyodon said Jo Euishin was being suspicious, but his voice sounded worried.
The delay in his search might be because of that.
‘Hyodon feels it too…’
The artificial island was surrounded by the lake.
It felt like the superior beings related to water were whispering something to Kim Yuri.
She couldn’t understand the overlapping voices, but she could judge that they were warning her.
‘…I’m worried too.’
But it was Jo Euishin and Hwang Jiho who headed there.
Kim Yuri knew that the two had extraordinary abilities.
If she makes a mistake, she might get in their way.
“Can’t we go outside for a bit?”
Maeng Hyodon seemed to have already been distracted by the artificial island.
If he really only want to take a look, he could’ve pretended to go to the bathroom and sneak out for a while, but Maeng Hyodon was considerate of Kim Yuri.
On the other hand, Kim Yuri was in a dilemma.
“You wanna steal Group 6’s treasures? You’re too mean.”
Yong Jegun appeared like the wind.
They wondered where he went when the treasure hunt started, but it seemed like the professor hid his presence and flew over the area.
“Ah, we just wanted to take a look…”
“You wanna interrupt them. Didn’t you fail to find treasures so far?”
“…”
Maeng Hyodon was speechless.
It was impossible to win against Yong Jegun using words.
Kim Yuri pointed to the cyan opaque space floating around Yong Jegun to change the subject.
“Oh? What’s in that space? Is it a treasure?”
“Hahaha, this one’s not a treasure. You could say it’s a landmine.”
Yong Jegun was hunting for mines while the kids were looking for treasure?
Yong Jegun spoke in a playful voice.
“You curious? Wanna see it?”
Ddak!
They didn’t say they want to see it, but Yong Jegun moved.
When he whipped his fingers, the cyan space became transparent for a while.
Inside it was a lump of yellow otherworld ore that looked like a mouse trap.
“What is that…”
“Oh, so that’s what’s inside. Alright, you guys go search for the treasure!”
Feeling a sense of crisis, Kim Yuri thought she should get out of this position quickly.
Before Maeng Hyodon asked what it was, Kim Yuri quickly pushed his back.
“Let’s go look over there, Hyodon-ah.”
“Wait, d-don’t push me.”
Kim Yuri pushed him away from the road connecting to the artificial island.
Words of praise sounded in Kim Yuri’s ears.
It seemed that the superior beings had an aversion to Yong Jegun too.
Kim Yuri decided to focus on treasure hunting again, ignoring the superior beings who seem to be saying something.
***
Seodol should be dealing with the Grand Cross by now.
I calculated that he’d come, but as long as Yong Jegun cooperates, there wouldn’t be any problem.
‘Persuading Yong Jegun was the most difficult.’
The main goal today was to stop Mok Wooram’s assassination.
I wasn’t foolish to think that I could stop the Oath of the Three Knights on my own.
Even though they’re pieces of trash who are trying to assassinate a high school student, the fact remains that they are one of the world’s top ten-player teams.
The other kids, the Tiger Clan, and Yong Jegun aren’t their targets.
‘Those who they’re after are…’
Mok Wooram and Jared Lee.
And the Crow Demon.
I didn’t want to expose the people who they aren’t after.
That’s why I had Yong Jegun host the treasure hunt event and support Seodol.
Fortunately, Yong Jegun accepted.
“…”
The atmosphere changed when I told them the Grand Cross wasn’t coming.
They wanted to buy time just now, but it seemed like it changed into a burning enmity against me.
Their hands reached for an item card.
Strange.
There’s no way they can use offensive items that can penetrate the shield that I made through Saeum of April’s wind skill.
Then, a thought flashed by.
— He realized he couldn’t subdue me, and when it occurred that it was impossible to escape, he killed himself.
— They have quite a unique item. As soon as the effect was activated, not only the blonde guy but also everything he was wearing began to melt.
Seodol ran into a man who committed suicide in China.
The man had the OTK’s team mark.
They can’t escape right now, but it’s not like they can’t try to subdue me.
‘They’re gonna blow themselves up…!’
I immediately activated it by light skill, replacing the Fate of the Unknown card character to Do Wonwoo.
<Light skill Player Identity activated.>
<Using character’s light skill Iron Chain.>
Shwaaaa!
As soon as the light skill was activated, a chain of power stretched out in the air, drawing countless lines.
Hundreds of chains tied them together before the lethargic group could load the suicide items they held in their hands.
They resisted strongly, but their efforts weren’t enough to escape Do Wonwoo’s light skill.
“I wonder what kind of face you have for you not to want to leave a trace.”
I reached for the items that covered their faces.
The duo who first attacked Mok Wooram were wearing glasses, while the others were wearing diamond-shaped perforated masks.
Rip!
When the chain moved to reveal their faces, I heard Mok Wooram gasp.
‘They have the same face!’
All the attackers had the same face, but that wasn’t the problem.
The appearance was respectable, a face of a model loved by teenagers.
But having that face on several people made it creepy.
‘It’s a face I’ve seen somewhere…’
There weren’t that many foreigners that I met in this world.
When I saw the blonde hair, I thought it was impossible.
“This is… no…”
Mok Wooram murmured in a shocked voice.
He looked at the blonde face, doubting his own eyes.
“…That’s Jared-ssi’s face when he was young.”