God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 154: Episode 31_You Come In on Your Terms, but You Leave on Mine (1)

Chapter 154: Episode 31_You Come In on Your Terms, but You Leave on Mine (1)

1.

At a glance, their situation looked disadvantageous. No, it looked like a situation where they could be swept away and snuffed out like debris in a flood, and no one would be surprised. That was how vast the numerical gap was between Han Simin’s group and Kenji’s expedition.

“WRAAAAH!”

And morale naturally rose in proportion to that gap. The players shouted, dreaming of a rosy future. Of course, no one actually wanted to be at the very front, so the vanguard was relatively sparse. Kenji and his guild members naturally took the lead, and the distance between the two sides shrank.

The tension peaked. It was a powder keg waiting to explode.

The ones watching with the driest throats were, of course, the viewers.

[How’s this gonna end?]

[No matter what, it’s four versus thousands.]

[It’s not really four. Don’t forget the rabbits are stronger than most players.]

[Even so, how do you stop thousands of them?]

Arguments flew back and forth in a heated debate over who would win. There’s nothing more entertaining than a good fight, making the frenzied atmosphere inevitable. If any of them were actually dropped onto that battlefield, they wouldn’t be thinking about who would win; they would only be thinking about how to survive.

[I’m betting on the Specialists. Honestly, at this point, it feels like Simin has planned out everything.]

[Agreed. He must have some kind of plan if he jumped into the middle of the enemy like that. Maybe he’s got something like a Town Portal Scroll?]

[There’s no such thing. This isn’t some 2D online game.]

—You never know. Would he really come here planning to fight thousands unless he was insane?

—Or maybe he did come here just to die...

—No way.

Then someone suddenly posted the most plausible theory yet. At first, it sounded negative, but the more you thought about it, the more sense it made.

—Look, the Specialists already got the last hit and took the rewards. As for the tamed monsters, they can just send them away on Squeaker. The items they’d drop on death are random anyway, right? If it were me, I’d do exactly that.

Huh.

The chat went quiet for a moment as everyone silently nodded. Then they quickly rejected the idea.

—No way. Not after hyping it up like this.

—Exactly. That would mean he has zero conscience or pride.

—He took $200 a head, and he’s gonna end this war by just dying? When he called it “off the record”?

Only then did the price they had paid come flooding back. They had invested $200 for the chance to see the end of the war, not to watch the Specialists walk away with a lone happy ending.

—Please. Just fight.

—Fight? That leech? Yeah, right.

The mood gradually shifted. All in just a few seconds. Even though they would have their answer if they just waited a few more seconds, the viewers were already antsy.

For their sake, Han Simin grabbed his hammer and sprinted toward a single point, the rabbits at his side.

—Huh?

—What’s he doing?

An unexpected twist. It was the most textbook move imaginable, yet because the one executing it was Han Simin, everyone had instinctively dismissed it.

A frontal assault.

The viewers went wild.

And then, Han Simin and Kenji clashed.

* * *

Han Simin had also been thinking long and hard.

’Running is the smart move, right?’

It wasn’t as if he had charged in here without a plan. He had a deal with the Specialists, for one, but more than that, it just pissed him off to see Kenji up there, striking every cool pose imaginable as the self-proclaimed star of the show.

So he hadn’t been able to make up his mind—until he saw Kenji charging at the head of the pack.

Then he decided. This time, instead of making the same choice he always did, he would take a different path.

The odds were good enough. He had his enhanced gear and his newly upgraded rabbits. The risk would skyrocket, but if things played out the way he wanted, the reward would be far greater.

’He’s going to keep chasing me around anyway.’

On top of that, Kenji had declared war. A total war that wouldn’t end until the game itself did, until one of them quit. So even if he took a hit now, nothing would really change. In fact, it might be easier to stomp him out early.

Above all, if he ended a pay-per-view broadcast—one that tens of thousands of people had paid $200 each to watch—by simply running away, it would be terrible for business.

So this time, he decided to overextend a little.

No, it didn’t even feel like overextending.

’All I have to do is take him down.’

Why do commanders always stay in the back, barking orders in a war? Because they are the symbol. They are the pillar, the head, the core of morale. Every soldier marching into battle places their trust in that one person.

So what happens if that commander dies?

Chaos, naturally. That was what he was aiming for. Then he would slip away.

The picture formed in his head in an instant. It didn’t matter if there were thousands or tens of thousands; if he punched a hole through one point, getting out wouldn’t be hard.

“WRAAAAH!”

Amid the earth-shaking roar, as Kenji closed within striking distance, Han Simin smiled at him.

“If you have anything you want enhanced during the war, come find me. Prices are a bit steep in wartime, but I guarantee the results.”

“Y–you...!”

Their weapons collided.

SLAM.

“Guh!”

Naturally, Kenji was the one who dropped to a knee. He had no choice. He could pour all the money in the world into this game, but inside 『Fantastic World』, he could never surpass Han Simin. The only saving grace was that he hadn’t been hit with a status effect, saving him from a follow-up critical strike.

And war wasn’t fought one-on-one.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Kenji’s mouth as he knelt. He had blocked it. That was enough. In a moment, his guild members and the thousands of expedition members would charge in for the money.

“You’re finished n—”

“Kkyu kkyu kkyu kkyu!”

“Kkyu kkyu!”

“See you next time. Bye.”

Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t the only one thinking that way. The far more cunning Han Simin had anticipated it, and the rabbits were faster than the players following Kenji.

Kenji met a pathetic end, swarmed by rabbits armed with brand-new weapons.

In that instant, the charging players’ footsteps stopped as if someone had hit pause. Thousands of players, all at once. It was a moment that made you marvel once again at 『Fantastic World』’s disregard for the laws of physics.

In the strange silence that settled over the battlefield, Han Simin raised his hammer high.

“We have won,” he spoke quietly.

He closed his eyes slowly, like a cinematic hero who had just vanquished a great evil. And in reality, the players couldn’t bring themselves to step forward.

It wasn’t because they were scared or because they were afraid of that overwhelming firepower.

“What the hell? Is it over?”

“Was that the main event?”

“How does he die in one hit?”

“So what about the bounty?”

“He said it was until the game shuts down. Kenji dying doesn’t change that, does it?”

“True.”

“But with the mood like this, it kinda feels like we should back off.”

They fell silent.

It was awkward. Based on what little common sense they had, nobodies like them were supposed to run away now. That was how the scene was supposed to end. The guy who should have been raging at the front had died in a single blow, and it had completely deflated the situation.

Players started glancing at each other, one by one. What should they do?

“Heh.”

That was exactly what Han Simin had been aiming for. He smiled faintly as he watched the restless crowd.

If he slipped away now...

“Die!”

...that would have been the plan, but unfortunately, not every player was on the same page.

A weapon flew at his back. Han Simin, who had been striking a cool pose, took the hit full-on.

“Urk!”

The damage wasn’t huge, but the solemn mood shattered.

“Which bastard...?”

He grimaced and turned his head, spotting a small group of players who didn’t care about the atmosphere.

Kenji’s guild members.

’Ah. Those guys...’

He had forgotten about them.

“Shit.”

That led to a single conclusion. Or rather, a glimpse of the immediate future.

“WRAAAAH!”

Even though their commander had fallen, the army fought on.

2.

Regret crashed over him like a wave.

’Should’ve just run.’

If he had, he wouldn’t be suffering like this.

“Ugh, damn it! This is exhausting!”

“Hey, Yeseul! Can’t you use something like five Meteors at once?”

“How the hell would I do that?!”

“Useless. I went to all that trouble to sell you that skill book, and you can’t even use it. Tsk tsk.”

The silver lining, if there was one, was that they hadn’t lost anyone yet. Not that this was good news by any stretch.

“Why are there so many of them?! Just go away already!”

Things were absolutely not going the way Han Simin had pictured.

“Man. In movies, this is where the protagonist breaks through and escapes.”

“That’s only when you’re the protagonist, Oppa.”

“Yeah, fair point.”

No matter how many they killed, more players kept coming. Punching a hole through a force this size with just a handful of people was no easy task.

After fighting for what felt like an eternity, Han Simin had to look for another option. This wasn’t working. At this rate, they might run out of strength and die before they even got a chance to run.

“Hey! Squeaker, take the rabbits and get out of here!”

“Oppa!”

“Don’t worry. We have our own way out.”

The ones who could live, should live.

With a look full of trust, Han Simin persuaded the Specialists and bought time for Squeaker and the rabbits to escape. Of course, that came at a heavy price.

“Wait! Everyone, stop for a second!”

The four of them stood back-to-back, barely holding their ground, surrounded by thousands of players. They were drenched in sweat, but the players’ faces were full of joy.

It felt like...

“We’ve become raid bosses.”

“Right? I wonder if bosses think this way when they see players swarming them with sheer numbers.”

“Imagine how pissed they must’ve been right before they died.”

...this.

Maybe it was because they felt victory was guaranteed, but the players gave them a little breathing room. Han Simin hurriedly seized the chance to speak.

“Let’s call it a day.”

The players looked confused.

He said it brazenly. Naturally.

“I just realized it’s already been forty-eight hours since I last logged out. Same for you all, right? Don’t tell me you’ve been playing every day without even eating properly. No matter how much you love a game, you still have to take care of your real-life self. So how about we all take an hour-long dinner break, starting n—”

“Die—!”

“Ah! Okay! Okay, I get it!”

Of course, that was never going to work. The bounty on their heads echoed far louder in the players’ minds than anything Han Simin could say. Kenji’s guild members actually stepped back, cutting off any variables and preparing for the worst. The bounty meant little to them; they chose revenge for their guild master instead.

Han Simin clicked his tongue. ’So games really aren’t like movies.’

What could he do? He would have to play the card he had been saving for last.

“Hah. I really didn’t want to have to use this.”

His stomach twisted. These stubborn bastards.

Resigned, Han Simin shouted, “If you help me get out of here safely, I’ll enhance one piece of your gear to +13 for free—for the first hundred people!”

The crowd fell silent in confusion.

* * *