[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]

Chapter 411

NPC Maint.

His assigned role had been to guide anyone who’d hunted up to the mid-field boss Arangurt to the tomb of the Forgotten Throne—level 1,015—located at the eastern edge.

But the current Maint had lost that role and, in order to lure skilled visitors to Arandis, had directly created a bizarre quest.

‘It’s because of free will.’

The newly granted free will for NPCs. That freedom blurred the very concept of what an NPC was.

Jeong-hoon tightened his grip on Maint’s throat and slowly applied pressure.

“Ughhhh!”

Despite having surged to level 2,500, Maint thrashed pathetically as if all that growth meant nothing.

“Recite the contents of the quest.”

“Ugh! Guh!”

‘If you ask him like that, no one will answer.’

At Tenebris’s remark, Jeong-hoon relaxed his grip a little.

“Recite it. If you don’t answer, I’ll kill you.”

At that murderous tone, Maint, suffering, hurriedly opened his mouth.

“Ugh… I-I will speak. So please….”

“Don’t even try any funny business.”

Only then did Jeong-hoon fully loosen his hold.

Freed, Maint coughed and panted, then struggled to speak.

“I… I am a believer who follows Beelzebub.”

“Beelzebub?”

Jeong-hoon frowned.

‘What is he even saying right now?’ Tenebris looked down at Maint with a stunned expression.

Beelzebub was a demon. A believer who worshipped Beelzebub?

‘Did Beelzebub intervene during the process of being led into Heaven?’

If not, it made no sense for an NPC to try to harm users.

The present New World was a game. Not reality. So even if Jeong-hoon were late and Hajin lost his life here, it wouldn’t be a real death.

The problem was the NPCs’ change in attitude. If Beelzebub had interfered during the handing-over process, it was likely not only Maint but other NPCs had begun attacking users as well.

“Did he send a signal asking for help because he was captured?”

“How would I know… ugh!”

Maint clamped his mouth shut in panic. It seemed that this was top secret. The source of this content ɪs novel~fire~net

A wicked little smile curled at the corner of Jeong-hoon’s mouth.

“Besides you, who else is involved?”

“I—I don’t really know either…”

“Then you die.”

When Jeong-hoon raised his fist, Maint screamed in terror.

“Wait! Please wait a moment! There is a way!”

“A way?”

“Yes! We hold regular gatherings! If I attend, you could capture them all at once!”

“Then why did you lie and say you didn’t know?”

“Because I’ve never attended one myself! I’m sorry!”

Hooh, so they hold regular gatherings?

There were cults that worshiped Tenebris or Psyche, so it made sense that a sect devoted to Beelzebub might exist as well.

The problem was—

‘I’ve never once heard of a sect tied to Beelzebub.’

Before regression, Jeong-hoon had acted based on his previous memories.

Thanks to that, while playing New World he swept up countless fortuitous opportunities and achieved explosive growth.

That included rooting out cults—but never once did he come across any information about Beelzebub.

Even if they operated in secrecy, with the number of players in the game, their existence should have been exposed without fail.

“You—answer everything you know about the villages I’m about to name.”

Jeong-hoon quickly listed off villages, starting with the Beginning Village and on to Atlas.

“Uh… sorry, but such low-level places don’t have any cults.”

“What about believers?”

“None there either.”

“That so?”

That was a relief.

‘At least no players will be harmed.’

Even James Marcus hadn’t managed to properly carve a path through Arandis.

Leveling there was brutally difficult, and to push through its path required more than just James alone—it demanded the strength of many.

By the time reality had overlapped with the game, fewer than 500 people had managed to advance through Arandis.

And even those had only done so by subduing boss monsters over level 1,500, seizing the World Tree’s power, and opening a gate to the next town.

In the end, James’s best record was reaching the World Tree sleeping beneath Arandis’s core.

Jeong-hoon, on the other hand, had reached Muran instantly, aided by both New World’s transfer to Heaven and his own ascension to a demigod. But the same couldn’t be said for anyone else.

The requirements had to be fulfilled directly before anyone could step into Gustine, the town beyond Arandis.

“The next gathering is in Gustine! If you wish, I can go there and bring back the roster!”

“No, I’ll go myself.”

“G-Gustine is inaccessible without the Seal.”

“Then just hand me the Seal.”

At that blunt solution, Maint hastily added—

“It doesn’t respond unless it recognizes its master!”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes!”

“Then how did you suddenly jump to level 2,500?”

“That was a miracle bestowed by Lord Beelzebub.”

As he said that, Maint produced a glass vial. Inside sloshed a red liquid, barely half remaining.

[Level & Stat Amplification Elixir]

* Type: Consumable

* Grade: God

* Drinking it explosively raises level and stats for one hour.

This was what let him jump from level 1,000 to level 2,500 in an instant.

“Okay. I’m confiscating this.”

With that, Jeong-hoon tossed the vial to Hajin.

“Huh? Why are you giving this to me?”

“You take it.”

“You’re insane… you’re giving this to me?”

“Yeah. They said it’s God-grade.”

“‘God-grade’? What’s that even mean?”

Hajin eyed the glass bottle once, then stuffed it into his inventory.

“Th-That precious thing…”

Maint felt a surge of anger at having the elixir taken, but he had no courage to oppose Jeong-hoon and only muttered under his breath.

“Guide us.”

“Pardon?”

“We’re moving to Gustine right now.”

“Ah… understood.”

Maint opened his mouth as if to say something, then simply nodded.

It would be better to just use the Seal to open Gustine’s gate.

‘If you don’t qualify, you can’t step into Gustine.’

The World Tree sleeping beneath the center of Arandis — unless you take its power, you can’t cross into Gustine. But as of now no one else had set foot on the World Tree, so it should be impossible for an outsider to enter Gustine. The fact that no one could create the gate themselves was proof of that.

‘I’ll go alone and ask for help.’

Maint took out the Seal and infused it with energy. The characters engraved on the Seal glowed, and a portal formed before them.

A one-time portal that would vanish after a single person passed through.

“Is this the portal to Gustine?”

“Yes. It is.”

“Okay. Let’s go right away.”

Without hesitation, Jeong-hoon stepped into the portal. The portal swallowed him as if it had been waiting, then vanished without a trace.

“Wha—?!”

Maint’s face froze in shock at the portal’s operation. That portal should only recognize and work for the Seal’s owner — Maint. How could an outsider manipulate such a portal?

As he gaped in disbelief, the vanished portal shimmered into being again, and the outsider walked back out through it.

“Hurry up and come.”

“Uh… huh? Why did it appear again?”

“If you don’t come, I’ll kill you.”

“I—I’m coming!”

Maint leapt into the portal, his mind a tangled mess.

The portal swallowed him whole, but unlike before, it didn’t vanish—it stayed open.

“Hajin, Bong-Goo, you two keep clearing Arandis.”

“Ah, got i—hey! What the hell is going on here?”

“Questions later. We don’t have time right now.”

Explaining properly would take too long.

“…Alright.”

Reading Jeong-hoon’s expression, Hajin gave a small nod.

“Thanks.”

* * *

After Jeong-hoon left—

“Hyung-nim, seriously, what the hell is Hun-hyung?”

For the first time, Bong-Goo, who had kept quiet all along, spoke up. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut, still in shock. The sight of Jeong-hoon effortlessly suppressing someone at level 2,500, coupled with the fact that Bong-Goo couldn’t even check how far Jeong-hoon had grown, left him unsettled.

[Information cannot be read.]

What in the world had changed about Jeong-hoon?

“I don’t know either.”

Hajin brushed the question off as he kept walking.

“Hyung-nim, aren’t you curious what kind of change happened to Hun-hyung?”

“Curious enough to die.”

“Then why…?”

“He said he’ll tell us after he deals with the urgent stuff first.”

Hajin felt the same way Bong-Goo did, but for now, he decided to wait patiently for Jeong-hoon.

Jeong-hoon was the kind of man who always kept his word.

“Still, how the hell do you crush a level 2,500 like it’s nothing?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t even read his info… you don’t think he broke the law, do you?”

Rumor had it Earth Saga had gone down. Not just “down,” but completely crippled.

Because of that, several attempts to meddle with New World from the shadows had been detected. The New World headquarters had swiftly handled things, dragging the culprits into the light and rendering them useless.

“Come on, no way Hun-hyung would do anything illegal.”

“Then how do you explain that?”

“…That’s true.”

“For now, let’s wait. Hun will explain everything himself.”

Right now, their priority was clearing the path through Arandis.

* * *

Gustain.

Across all his regressions, it was a city no outsider had ever set foot in.

And now, Jeong-hoon became the first.

“…So this is completely freewheeling.”

Gustown didn’t look much different from an ordinary city.

Back then, he’d rushed through to Muran without a chance to really look, but now he could see clearly—NPCs lived freely, regardless of their assigned roles.

‘Maybe it’s because they’re high-level. Or because hardly anyone ever comes here. I can’t believe this is a game world.’

I fully agreed with Mukho.

Normally NPCs have a limited range of activity. Even after being given free will they mostly stuck to their roles. Maybe because their levels were low, they were faithful to their assigned duties. But Gustain was different. It seemed as if the idea of a limited activity range didn’t exist here.

“Um… the gathering is scheduled to start at midnight.”

Maint, who had followed them in, briefed them on the meeting’s schedule. The venue was the tavern’s underground hall. The building wasn’t large, but they expected as many as a hundred people to gather. Usually fifty to sixty attended, but since Beelzebub himself had requested help, many more would participate.

“What’s the agenda?”

“Eliminate outsiders.”

“Eliminate outsiders….”

Jeong-hoon nodded as if he understood. In short, it meant killing players — but players can just reconnect even if they “die” at an NPC’s hands. Sure, NPC chaos would throw the game into disorder, but what advantage would Beelzebub gain from that? The answer was simple if you thought about it.

‘He’s trying to slip out of the Heavenly Realm.’

Create chaos in the New World to divert the attention of the Heavens, then use whatever power he has to escape and slip back to the Infernal Realm. In other words, it was an attempt to complete his spy plan successfully.

“So… what should we do?”

Maint asked cautiously while Jeong-hoon sat with his eyes closed, thinking. Jeong-hoon opened his eyes and nodded once.

“Guide me.”

“R-right now?”

“Yes.”

Go first and wait, then strike them all at once when they arrive.

Beelzebub — whatever plan you cook up, it will never succeed.

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]