[Trantor - Night]


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    Chapter 364: Between Good Karma and Bad Karma (5)


    "What? A ranking board?"


    Yeongwoo, standing atop the fallen gori, gazed into the void.


    However, the ranking board had yet to appear.


    Without hesitation, Yeongwoo drove is Bastard into the creature''s neck.


    St!


    The gori’s already melting skin, corroded by its own acidic blood, gave way like tofu.


    -No... this is absurd.


    -Oh my God...


    The remaining members of Unit 002 were visibly demoralized by the spectacle.


    Even the virtuous members of Unit 023, who were on the verge of descending to assist Yeongwoo, froze in their tracks.


    -…Horrific.


    Amana summed up the scene underfoot with a brief remark.


    At that moment, a glowing entity from Unit 002, who had been wielding a lightning spear, nced toward the ins behind them and muttered:


    -I''m sorry.


    Then, spreading its arms, it sent a current surging toward a chained knight who was still alive.


    Crackle!


    It had paralyzed the knight to buy itself time to escape.


    -Damn it!


    The chained knight stiffened instantly and fell to the ground, screaming in frustration.


    Soon, the sickening sound of corrosion mixed with the pungent smell of blood emanated from right beside his head.


    "......"


    It was none other than Jeong Yeongwoo, the First Evil of Promotion.


    -Pl-please spare me...


    "There’s a saying on Earth."


    "W-what are you suddenly talking about...?


    -If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."


    "...What does that mean?


    -It means whether you go fast or far, you''re dying at my hands."


    Bastard pierced the chained knight’s forehead in an instant.


    St!


    He then turned his gaze to the lone escapee who had chosen to flee and paralyze an ally rather than running together.


    Had that enemy decided to split in opposite directions instead, it would have been far more challenging to chase them.


    But thanks to their betrayal, Yeongwoo now had only one target to focus on.


    This left him in a position where he didn’t even need to run to capture them.


    "General, time to rack up some merit points. Let me give you the coordinates."


    Yeongwoo pulled out a coordinate tracker from his pocket as he spoke.


    In no time, the coordinates of the promotion arena appeared in his vision.


    sh!


    〔||-Beset-007-469-2088-13〕


    "Huh?"


    Yeongwoo unconsciously parted his lips at a strange sense of difort.


    The reason was none other than the identification code of this.


    ||-Beset


    Theary ID code, Beset, was strikingly shorter than any he had seen before.


    ‘What’s with this ce? Why is its code so unusually short?’


    The promotion evaluation was managed by theary Court.


    And this was the second test location, the Promotion Arena.


    Thus, the owner of this was likely theary Court, or in other words, the intergctic government.


    ‘Could it be because it’s a government-owned?’


    A short identification code could mean it was assigned early in theary ssification process.


    This implied that the was either rtively close to the center of the universe or—


    ‘It could mean it’s an ancient.’


    Whatever the case, it was clear that this was no ordinary one.


    Which raised the question—how could external bombardment ur here?


    ‘Does that mean theary Court authorized it? Thatary bombardment weapons can be used within the Promotion Arena?’


    Given that this was a venue where representatives of variouss showcased their umted might, it made sense for all firepower to be permitted.


    "Beset, 007, 469, 2088, 13!"


    When Yeongwoo recited the coordinates of the fleeing enemy, Toma’sser cannon fired down from the sky without dy.


    Boom!


    ‘You''re getting quicker at inputting coordinates.’


    Yeongwoo smiled with satisfaction, noticing how much faster the General had be at reacting.


    And in the meantime—


    Crash!


    Thest survivor of Unit 002, who had been fleeing desperately, was annihted.


    「Team 002, annihted.」


    At that moment, the central-western section of the Promotion Arena was nearly obliterated.


    [45/50]


    With five units now eliminated, an announcement was made.


    Amana and her team descended to the ground just in time.


    -That’s monstrous.


    Her gaze lingered in the direction where theser had just torn through the sky.


    She couldn’t fathom that this insane Evil Karma Collector had even managed to deployary bombardment weapons.


    -Does you have any more ultimate moves up your sleeve? It’d be nice to know before I get shocked again.


    When Amana asked this, Yeongwoo blinked briefly.


    The only thing that came to mind immediately was a friend he could summon with a whistle, but then, another thought struck him.


    "Don’t talk down to me."


    -...What?


    "Even our Crown Prince uses honorifics with me. Who do you think you are to speak so rudely?"


    Swish!


    As Yeongwoo brandished his ultimate weapon, Bastard, Amana bristled, clicking her beak in frustration.


    -What’s wrong with you all of a sudden? Are you insane?n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "The truly insane one is you, daring to disrespect a viin with an Evil Karma Count of two hundred million. Do you want me to send an eulogy I’ve written about you to the good folks of Sutral?"


    -You...!


    Amana tried to retort but shut her beak.


    If nothing else, she didn’t want the lunatic''s eulogy delivered to her home.


    “You guys are so good-hearted that I end up doing all the dirty work, and yet instead of giving me a penny, you talk down to me? Isn’t that basically asking to be killed on the spot?”


    As the characteristic madness flickered in Yeongwoo’s eyes, Amana finally took a step back.


    -C-calm down. I think I may have made a mistake…


    Amana broke into a cold sweat.


    After all, as he’d just seen, surviving this promotion arena would be impossible without this viin from Earth.


    “Yes, let’s get along well.”


    With those words, Yeongwoo picked up his severed left arm and reattached it to his torso, causing everyone present to freeze in ce.


    Squeak.


    They had just witnessed his neatly severed arm seamlessly rejoin his shoulder in an instant.


    -Y-Yeongwoo…?


    -Your arm just…


    No one, except Yeongwoo, had ever considered the possibility of fighting a teammate, yet they couldn’t help but be stunned.


    Yeongwoo’s disy of recovery was nothing short of astonishing.


    “Hm.”


    As he checked his left arm, now moving bit by bit, Yeongwoo turned his gaze to the still-hidden leaderboard hovering in midair.


    “We need to move quickly. Everyone around here probably saw us exchanging fire with Team 002.”


    -What does that have to do with us needing to hurry…?


    Elemental Immunity Golem Taru asked, seemingly clueless.


    Yeongwoo’s gaze shifted to the world map projected prominently in the arena''s air.


    “By now, everyone in the central-west should be fleeing to somewhere far from us.”


    -And?


    “And we need to chase them down and kill them, of course.”


    With an unchanging expression, Yeongwoo spoke of “killing” as if it were mundane.


    The three benevolent allies, on the other hand, looked burdened despite just escaping the jaws of death.


    -Do we really need to go out of our way to hunt them down and kill them?


    -Exactly.


    “If you let them go, they’lle back stronger, you know…”


    Yeongwoo sighed and rubbed his forehead.


    “The examiners surely know there’s a big power gap among participants. So they must have scattered something across the promotion arena to offset it.”


    And in Yeongwoo’s mind, that “something” was the elements marked on the world map—beast-shaped icons likely representing monsters, as well as shield and shop icons.


    Just now—


    “Ah!”


    He noticed one of the monster icons near the central-west disappearing.


    That meant at least one team had been stationed there until moments ago.


    ‘Huh, so the world map updates in real time.’


    This meant they could avoid pointless wandering if they watched the map closely.


    “Amana, can you take us to that location as quickly as possible?”


    [Trantor - Night]


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    Yeongwoo pointed to the area above where the monster icon had vanished.


    There was still an unknown shield icon there, and Yeongwoo believed it was the next destination of the team that had just dealt with the monster.


    -That shield? We can reach it within three minutes.


    “That’s plenty. Let’s go right now.”


    At Yeongwoo’smand, Amana nodded and once again enveloped the team in wind rings, lifting them high into the sky.


    * * *


    At the same time, far above the promotion arena, the examination headquarters was abuzz as dozens ofary examiners stared at a massive screen.


    “Rankings will be revealed in one minute.”


    In less than ten seconds, the power and scores of the second trial’s participants would be disyed.


    Normally, the first leaderboard during the second trial was just a preliminary indicator of early trends. But today was different.


    ■ I heard Team 9 ced a bet?


    ■ On what?


    ■ Who knows?


    ■ Aren’t they just insane?


    The examiners murmured.


    A team had dared to challenge the “sry negotiation” system.


    Forary examiners, sry negotiations weren’t with their employer, such as theary Management Bureau or theary Court.


    The only way to increase their sry was to correctly predict which team would ce first on the initial leaderboard of the second trial’s promotion arena.


    If sessful, their sry would double.


    If they failed, half of it would be shed.


    The peculiar purpose of this negotiation system was somewhat noble: encouraging examiners to spot and back promising candidates.


    ■ When was thest time this happened?


    ■ Feels like eight rounds ago.


    ■ Did Team 9 have any basis for their bet? Where have they been recently?


    Predicting the final victor was one thing, but guessing the first leaderboard leader—a position influenced by momentum and luck—was near impossible.


    As a result, many examiners saw the sry negotiation system as a malicious government trap to reduce payroll costs.


    Yet today, Team 9 unexpectedly dered their intention to negotiate, drawing every other examiner team to the headquarters.


    「10 seconds until rankings are revealed.」


    A notice shed on the massive screen, and therge steel doors at the back of the hall swung open, revealing Team 9.


    ■ Hah! Have you alle to witness history in the making?


    The team’s senior examiner, Gern, d in a heavy metal mask and a flowing cape, strode boldly through the crowd.


    This was none other than the examiner who had epted a bribe from Yeongwoo just the day before.


    ■ What’s this about, you lunatics?


    ■ Why would you risk a sry negotiation?


    ■ Who did you bet on?


    As the other examiners bombarded them with questions, a gaunt examiner to Gern’s right let out a cacklingugh.


    ■ Heheh, today, we ascend to a higher ne.


    Then, a massive floating water orb to Gern’s left rolled its eyes.


    ■ We saw something incredible… on Earth.


    At this, the others blinked in confusion.


    ■ Earth?


    ■ Wait, Earth as in…


    ■ The home of Dogo…


    Finally, the screen disyed:


    「Rankings revealed.」


    The headquarters rumbled, the screen glowing brightly.


    Down below, the promotion arena’s leaderboard was simultaneously transmitted.


    ■ Hah.


    Gern trembled as he slightly lifted the mask covering his face to check the screen.


    He then lowered it again, murmuring softly.


    ■ We’ll have no choice but to offer a wedding gift to that lunatic.


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