Chapter 133: Infection(2)
Gwanje and Enbi Arin made welcoming expressions at Hansoo who had just arrived.
“You succeeded!”
Hansoo nodded at Gwanje’s words as he looked at his surroundings.
‘The damage isn’t as great as I thought it would be.’
The clansmen were laid out in between the destroyed remains of the Akadus and were resting.
In one way there had been less casualties thanks to the ones who had betrayed this group and came to him.
If those guys hadn’t bought time for him from the golden Akadus then he would’ve had to go against all twelve of them.
Then it would’ve taken much longer to acquire the Crown of Thorns.
Somebody shouted out loudly at Hansoo as he arrived.
“What’s going to happen now?”
Everyone focused on their hearing after the loud shout of the man rang throughout the battlefield.
Though they had survived through the danger, not everything had been solved.
Hansoo shouted out loudly in reply:
“Don’t worry! The problem of the body fluids has been solved!”
At the moment Hansoo shouted.
The entire body of Lazar trembled, a perfect timing.
At the same time something spread out from the holy land and started to extend throughout the surface.
A huge wave that was turning the black land white at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Hansoo nodded as he saw this.
‘Taruhol is doing his job well.’
Everyone’s expressions turned positive at this sight.
Since they wouldn’t need to worry about the body fluids once this Gragos heals up fully.
Though the body fluids won’t come out instantly, waiting a few days was a piece of cake.
But the man who had shouted out earlier shouted out again as if he wasn’t satisfied.
“I wasn’t asking about that!”
“Hmm.”
As Hansoo gazed at the man, the man shouted out.
Even using a skill this time.
“It seems like the relationship between us and the Akarons isn’t that bad.... Can’t we receive the Body Enhancement Surgery then?”
They couldn’t do anything to the Akarons with strength.
Since they had seen it with their own eyes.
A single Akaron who flew into the distance with several shining golden Akadus.
It seemed like the silver army has fallen under the control of the Akarons.
But the Body Enhancement Surgery was too enticing for them to give up.
Since everyone had seen the Akarons who had smashed through the silver waves before.
A vicious amount of strength which came out from their huge bodies.
The Akadus, against which they had to use high level artifacts and skills to destroy, had been smashed apart by those guys with their fists, feet and crappy weapons.
Since it didn’t seem like they were on bad terms with the Akarons it’d be very good for them to receive the Body Enhancement Surgery before going up.
Hansoo shouted out again in reply.
“Of course, as much as you want. I never had the thought of taking it all to myself anyway.”
Everyone’s expressions brightened up.
But the expressions of Gwanje and the others darkened.
‘I expected this already but...’
Only chaos would be created if strength was given to those who couldn’t be controlled.
Why would a guy, who knew this better than anyone else, make such a choice?
But Hansoo added another word to the end.
“Except, it won’t be given to anyone.”
If they gave a large amount of strength to somebody who would act on their own, they would just use that strength for themselves.
So he would create a new clan in the Orange Zone.
A clan to distribute the responsibility and power properly.
Not a clan which moved at the wishes of the clan leader or somebody strong but a clan which would act according to their laws and rules.
They would provide the service of protecting and making the people inside the clan strong but in return they would need to follow the rules and bear responsibility for the clan.
The previous clan leaders Enbi Arin, Gwanje and Ariel all made doubtful expressions at those words.
‘...Not sure if that’ll work.’
Setting up rules was good.
Controlling it wouldn’t be hard since the Akadus existed.
But a deciding factor was missing.
They looked at the mumbling adventurers surrounding them.
...................................................
Kwajajajak!
Epitros, one of the adventurers who was hunting around the Lazar, spat out onto the ground.
‘Damn. For it to be this hard to kill a wimp like this.’
Moreover, the sight of the Akarons fighting was still fresh in his mind.
And because of this he had even more complaints.
‘Damnit. The Akarons are the ones working this hard but why is he making the decisions?’
As Hansoo tried to bind them instead of giving it to them for free it made him feel even angrier.
Even the giant clans had failed at controlling all the members in their ranks.
They just simply lent the name of the clan to those people.
Like a game.
Since we have a clan like this as a backer, don’t touch us without thinking.
And if there was profit they would go along and if there wasn’t then they would just leave.
Since there wasn’t much attachment to their clan, the clan leader couldn’t lay down or implement rules that easily.
Since they worried about the countless amount of adventurers, who had been living in freedom until now, just leaving them.
But this guy was different.
Since he had obtained both the Akadus and the Body Enhancement Surgery into his hands.
‘Damnit.’
He had disregarded speaking to Hansoo and had visited the Akarons personally but the fact that he had been denied made him enraged.
‘These things that I could kill off easily in the past...’
He couldn’t even do anything to the Akarons anymore.
Since the silver Akadus were glaring at him from the side.
‘And the clan leaders all went in as well... fucking hell.’
Hansoo had something that people could profit off of unlike the clans so far and he even had the strength to suppress and control them properly.
Since there was nothing in its way, the clan was expanding at a frightening rate.
At that moment Karen, one of his comrades standing next to him, asked Epitros.
“Hey! How about just going in as well? It didn’t seem like most people had a lot of complaints, why do you have so many?”
“You damned bastard. We will become kind little kids if we follow the rules. Do you want to live like that?”
Karen chuckled at those words.
“If it was a problem like that then just say it. Do we really need to follow it then?”
“Mmm?”
“Don’t you think that they’re expanding too fast?”
“Hmm...Yeah, that seems to be the case.”
Epitros mumbled.
The clan was very enticing.
But the people who had been living in freedom were all joining without a single complaint.
“What could they do even if they had rules and robots to deter people from breaking the rules? There aren’t enough people to monitor everybody. We can just do whatever we want where they can’t see us.”
“Nice.”
Epitros made a very content expression at those words.
This seemed to be the case.
The final judge of somebody following the rules or not was a person after all.
How could a brand new clan be able to raise people who would look over the others that resolutely?
“Hmm... Then this becomes much more attractive. Let’s have a look then.”
Epitros, Karen and the others headed towards the headquarters of the clan which had been built in front of the land which the Akarons called the Holy Land.
...............................................
“There’s enough body fluids for people to feed themselves... Our power is increasing fast. The search project for the portal is going well too. But controlling them is a bit hard.”
Gwanje frowned at the countless amount of carrier pigeons that were flying in from all around.
The sweet fruit to lure and the whip to control them had been obtained.
But the most important thing.
The people who would judge whether to give or whip them were extremely lacking.
“What are your thoughts? This is a critical problem at this rate.”
The rules not being followed despite them existing was the same as them not being there at all.
Since the people will prefer the choice of not following them if they could.
Gwanje firmly believed that the environment was the final factor in whether it was one person out of ten that would turn into a thief or five out of ten.
‘Tsk. I can’t really say anything since he seems busy as well.’
Gwanje made a discontent expression at Hansoo who was moving back and forth between places and preparing a lot of things.
Hansoo spoke as he looked at Gwanje:
“You’re working very hard huh.”
Gwanje replied with a cool expression.
“If everything goes according to your plan, there wouldn’t be a need to do anything anymore.”
His goal wasn’t getting strong.
No, that was his goal in the past but he realized after living without his wife while she was away from him.
What the most important thing to him was.
A situation where he didn’t know what would come to him if he went up.
If this place was to calm down then he would decide to stay here with his wife rather than going up.
And would strive his best to keep the peace in this place.
‘But... This is not even close to being enough.’
They had too little manpower.
Gwanje asked with a confused expression at first.
“Why are you trying to give the Body Enhancement Surgery to so many people? Do we really need to go this far? We can just give it to the ones we trust.”
He was confused as to why this guy was giving out Body Enhancement Surgery even whilst recruiting them.
It might be different for people whom he can trust, like the Cross clan, but why was he expanding his strength in such a dumb manner?
The difficulty of controlling them had been multiplied by several times thanks to this.
And the biggest problem was the flies.
Most people were accepting the clan without a problem but the minority of flies who were just trying to suck out the sweet water and were mixed within the majority was the problem.
A negative precedent will remain if they couldn’t control such guys properly but they didn’t have nearly enough manpower to filter out such people.
Hansoo mumbled inwardly at Gwanje’s words.
‘...Because then we wouldn’t be able to fight with the Abyss.’
If there were only humans then Gwanje’s words were right.
But he had to prepare for a great war.
They would get smashed apart if he only gave strength to those whom he could trust and which he liked.
‘But oh well. There’s still a method.’
Hansoo finished thinking and looked towards the worrying Gwanje and spoke.
“I’ll filter them all so don’t worry. I’ll start to call out people to help us.”
Gwanje chuckled.
He had long recruited everyone he could trust.
“Where are they then?”
“Below.”
“What?”
The moment Hansoo finished speaking he activated his trait, Seven Soul Fragments.
And then connected his soul to the younger Tekilon who would be in the Red Zone.
Hansoo laughed quietly at the younger Tekilon’s reply and then mumbled.
‘Slowly. One step at a time...’
He would go up once he found the portal.
He needed to calm this place down before he went up.
Kiiiiiiiingg
The lake that had been created as a tunnel by the fairy started to shine brightly.
“Hmm.”
Gwanje flinched as he saw this scene.
‘If people from below come up and help...’
But Gwanje shook his head right away.
“It’s not something that can be solved with one or two people. We can’t do much with your networking...”
Gwanje frowned and squinted his eyes at the scene in the midst of his speech.
It wasn’t that one or two were shining.
The thousands of lakes all over the Lazar were shining.
‘How many are coming up... What the hell have you done below?’
Gwanje squinted his eyes and made a dumbfounded expression as he saw this scene.
.................................................
“Uwaaaaaa.....”
Epitros and Karen were scared stiff after reaching the headquarters of the clan in order to gobble up some benefits on the side.
Chuk chuk chuk chuk chuk
Countless amounts of adventurers were coming through the lakes that were connected to the Red Zone.
Unlike the chaotic situation where they all came up of their own volition, the tens of thousands of people were lined up and were marching like an army.
‘I wondered why the newcomers weren’t coming up for the past few days... What happened below?’
Karen frowned.
A large scale controlled movement like this meant that somebody had gobbled up the entire region below.
‘No, just eating it up wouldn’t be enough.’
Karen’s brain couldn’t comprehend how such a thing was possible.
Such a number was abnormal in the first place.
And the fact that such a number was being controlled was even more impossible.
There was a lot she wanted to ask but one thing was clear.
“...What are you going to do? Those guys are definitely people the new clan leader guy called up.
If those guys all join up then we won’t be able to do anything.”
“Shut up for a moment, I can see as well.”
Epitros pondered deeply for a moment and then made a decision.
“Let’s not go in.”
“Huh?”
“Think about it, people live in the world above as well. The fairies aren’t obsessed in killing humans or anything. If it was an environment in which one needed the Body Enhancement Surgery to live then they would’ve publicized it themselves already.”
“Well... it’s not that we would die by not going in.”
There was no worry of the Gragos rolling and there weren’t any Margoths either.
And the only possible danger, the Akarons, were their allies.
Since there was no danger factor, they didn’t have a reason to join up.
Karen pondered at the rules that had flown into her again and then nodded.
‘No murder allowed. Fair distribution... What fun would there be?’
Others might be afraid of the lawless Otherworld but she liked it a lot.
She didn’t want to become a cog by following such rules.
‘As long as nothing major happens, it wouldn’t be a problem.’
The two finished their thoughts as they turned their back to the headquarters and walked away.
Proofreader’s note
Regular chapter 3/3.
Posted this early because of mixup yesterday.
The amount of time does seem short to raise an army that fast. Granted, there is a great number of people in the Red Zone and a good portion were already in their second year or close to their third year, but still, to even make them behave like an army so neatly?
Regarding bonus chapters next week, the Wiki activity more than warrants it but no promises. We’ll try.