Chapter 342: Episode 342_Life Is About Coming Empty-Handed and Leaving Loaded (3)

5.

Kenji received the news in the middle of a raid.

His movements, which had been smoothly dismantling monsters with overwhelming divine power, halted for a moment.

He even did something uncharacteristic and asked for the report to be repeated. The moment he was sure he had heard correctly, he burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahahahaha! Of course.”

It was laughter of acknowledgment.

He hadn’t joined the war, but he had been secretly looking forward to it.

’How on earth is he going to get out of this?’

When he ran through every possible move, this continental war was a checkmate; there was simply no way for Han Simin to win.

Kenji had been the one to cross over to Heaven after Simin. But unlike Simin, who had merely shaken hands with the Demon King and returned, Kenji had directly received the Heavenly King’s power and changed his class to Pope. It was probably inevitable that Simin hadn’t known about that variable.

So, since he was going to win anyway, he had chosen not to participate directly, instead deciding to use the time to boost his stats even more.

However, a situation he had considered absolutely impossible had shifted slightly.

With a single card.

From Han Simin’s perspective, it might have been his first and last card, but Kenji applauded the fact that a probability that had been zero now had a 0.1% chance.

That could only be called a remarkable talent.

The more he saw of him, the more he wanted to recruit him.

’If I offered to recruit him on the condition that I only take his ideas, it might actually work.’

By now, Kenji had grasped Han Simin’s habits to some extent.

He stopped overthinking it, wrapped up the rest of the raid cleanly, then sat down and continued watching the video.

At first, he had just left it running, intending only to confirm the obvious ending with his own eyes. He had invested $500 just to savor the thrill of watching Han Simin’s despairing expression and the feeling of losing his world.

Now, however, the meaning of that investment had shifted to satisfying his curiosity.

One thing was clear: this was a rival.

This might even be the episode that decided who would lead the direction of Fantastic World for the next several years.

Considering that, it would have made more sense to interfere with Simin after the raid was over—to halt his growth and make it impossible for him to play the game—rather than sit and watch a video.

But he didn’t.

For the first time, Kenji, who had been watching Han Simin for over a year, was able to relax and watch with the heart of a fan.

“Demons, huh. Looks like I’ll need to improve my stats some more.”

Kenji chuckled as he watched the demons pour down, even as the endless tide of humans faltered.

Because he knew.

Han Simin’s choice had certainly created a possibility that hadn’t existed before, but in doing so, he had also summoned an even greater wave.

*

Since the era of the Black Magicians, the continent had never been this united.

It had no choice but to unite.

The moment speculation turned into certainty, the humans of the continent no longer had any reason to fight among themselves.

They all had to join forces.

The continent had to remain intact if they wanted to continue their squabbles over territory or expand their kingdoms’ borders.

In the wake of the millions of troops that had already marched toward the Rich Territory, another army of millions was preparing to depart.

This time, no one opposed it or tried to hush it up.

They had undeniable evidence.

The Imperial family no longer maintained a stance of mere non-interference, and the Great Temple was already pouring all its strength into capturing Han Simin.

“Let’s execute the adventurer who toyed with the continent!”

“Waaaaaah!”

“Let’s drive out the devil who is trying to stain the continent in darkness by using the Demon King!”

When millions move, even securing daily food supplies is an issue.

Even so, it didn’t take long for those millions to head toward the Rich Territory.

That was because the one personally leading the war was the Emperor.

The Emperor’s expression as he rode at the head of the army was grim.

He remained silent.

No matter how much he disliked the man, he was his son-in-law.

It had already been a week since the Princess had shut herself in her palace, showing no sign of coming out, and more than three days since she had stopped eating and drinking.

That was why the Emperor himself had taken up arms and was leading the troops at a rapid pace.

Besides, this was not a situation that required much deliberation.

Even the millions of troops who had already arrived at the Rich Territory had gone there for their own profit.

There was no way they would have left anything behind for the latecomers.

Even if a Gate to the Demon World had opened there and demons were pouring out of it.

Humans were the kind of creatures who would fabricate a Dragon Heart that had never existed if it meant making money.

For people like that, tens of thousands of demons right before their eyes were just another opportunity.

Of course, the demons were strong.

But behind them stood millions of comrades.

And they weren’t just ordinary soldiers.

There were knights among them, and bards, and mages, and priests—all sorts.

Hope rose, and courage welled up.

In normal times, these soldiers would have pissed themselves and collapsed if demons who ate humans alive came charging at them. But now, as if they had been drugged, they screamed battle cries and advanced.

It had begun.

A war that would go down in history.

*

“From this moment on, we forget about the Rich Territory.”

The group looked confused.

They exchanged puzzled glances.

“Simin?”

Having emerged into a secluded forest via a secret passage from the Rich Territory, out of sight of the millions of troops, Han Simin glanced around and declared in a low but resolute voice.

The eyes of the party gathered with him wavered.

His pets all nodded, but for anyone capable of rational thought, it was only natural that they couldn’t understand such a contradictory statement.

In response to Kang Yeseul’s question on behalf of the group, Han Simin revealed his philosophy without hesitation.

“What’s the best defense?”

“Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”

“What is it?”

“...Offense?”

“Correct. Guess you’re not a total airhead.”

“Ugh, seriously. Is this really the time for jokes? Are you not going to protect the Rich Territory?”

He had already taken one hundred thousand Gold from the aide on the condition that he would protect the territory.

And he had spent it.

In cash terms, it was no different from blowing through $15,000,000 in one go. Shouldn’t he at least pretend to keep his promise?

The fact that Han Simin kept his promises wasn’t exactly unfamiliar to the three who had been watching him all this time.

But like this?

It was true that this wasn’t a force that could be stopped just by trying.

The number of troops was so great that even while they were being brutally and one-sidedly slaughtered by the demons, enough of them were slipping through to approach the territory.

If not for the +15 magic circle, the walls would have likely already collapsed under the human flood.

In that sense, the situation was ambiguous.

Even as she asked, Kang Yeseul and the rest of Specialist were already following Han Simin’s orders.

Because, just like Kenji, they were all curious about the same thing.

’How is he going to overcome this crisis?’

From their expert perspective on Han Simin, there was one simple method.

“So we’re just going to run?”

“No.”

Face reality and minimize the loss.

He could simply break his promise to the aide and run.

The pursuit would be relentless, but at least he wouldn’t be wasting time on a fight he couldn’t win.

Above all, with Han Simin’s current stats, he could easily trample most pursuit forces.

However, Han Simin shook his head.

What came out of his mouth, loud and proud, was something that made even Specialist, who had been with him for a year and a half, jump in surprise.

“We’re going to wipe them all out.”

The group was dumbstruck.

“We gathered all these busy people here, so we have to get something out of it.”

Baseless, absolute confidence.

Far in the distance, the endless line of humans that had seemed to stretch on forever from above was now visible from the ground. As they turned their heads to take in the reality of the situation, exasperated looks shot toward Han Simin.

“You’re going to kill all of them?”

It was true there were no high-ranking NPCs present who were impossible to kill, like before.

But there was a reason people distinguished between a war and a battle.

In the end, no one could stand against sheer numbers.

Even so, Han Simin’s resolve did not waver.

His pets followed with each step he took.

The closer they got, the nearer they came to the edge of the forest, and the faster his pace became.

And just as they were about to emerge from the trees—

“Boss!”

A wild, energetic voice shattered the heavy atmosphere and crashed over Han Simin’s party.

6.

Nodaji had been forgotten for a very long time.

At first, he had been a User who brought in valuable “honey items” with rare options, enough that Specialist had recruited him. He had gotten at least a bit of attention whenever they thought of him. But at some point, once Han Simin got busy and Nodaji fully committed to the path of the Grave Robber, they no longer had time to contact each other. Their personalities were similar; once they dove into their work, they would dig endlessly. It had taken months for them to finally meet again.

He had never felt resentful about it.

Han Simin had deposited a steady income into his account as promised, so he didn’t need to keep digging up rare items and wait indefinitely for Simin to show up. He had been able to set out on a journey to develop the Grave Robber class, which he was slowly growing more interested in.

Since his real-life job had been a simmani—a mountain ginseng digger—he had no trouble traveling around the continent. The fact that he could purely enjoy the game, doing something other than his real-world work, only gave him more strength to dig graves.

On top of that, he had a Specialist-grade Grave Robber class.

More than anything, Nodaji had been born in the right era.

Digging graves was no easy task.

Even if it was “just a game,” Fantastic World was a world of its own, and most graves had owners.

Those owners didn’t stand guard over their graves all the time, but most grave sites were cemeteries, and where there were neglected graves, there were monsters.

You could dig a grave with nothing more than a shovel, but to avoid being noticed by monsters—or to kill them and then dig—you needed levels and stats.

That was where it had all started.

The adventure of Nodaji the Grave Robber.

A hard road stretched out before him, but in a world where Black Magicians ran rampant and the Demon King had appeared, he had been lucky enough to slip in with the hiding Black Magicians and reap the benefits of their early-game growth.

It was a single, seemingly trivial stroke of fortune.

That one stroke, perfectly reflecting the sentiments of the current Fantastic World Users who cursed it as a luck-based trash game, had allowed Nodaji to become one of the tiny handful of Users who fully enjoyed its benefits.

And since he was aligned with Black Magicians, not demons, there were no particular restrictions. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

He had simply helped them a bit with hiding their identities and received some help with his growth in return.

After that, the road had been smooth.

The more graves he dug, the more the power of his Specialist-grade class increased. As his level rose and his class effects grew, better and better items appeared.

And then he had found him.

At such a critical moment.

“Boss, thank you so much.”

Nodaji bowed his head first.

He didn’t care that the man was younger than him.

While he had been enjoying the game, Han Simin had turned him into a diligent breadwinner for his family.

He offered his thanks first, then dumped out the prime goods he had been stockpiling.

From his magic backpack poured items that looked like exactly the sort of things Han Simin would need, the sort of things he would like.

Han Simin’s eyes flashed.

His hand naturally reached for the goods.

But that hand did not get its way.

Nodaji blocked it with a smile and spoke.

“Boss.”

*