28. Just with a f*cking pencil…!
Temporarily pausing the mental battle with Penelope, Yudahee turned his head first and stretched.
Fighting this guy would yield nothing, and besides… the alarm signaling the start of the arena rang.
[Now, the 1st Earth-Demon King Arena Tournament begins!]
[Theme of this arena: Vanilla]
Vanilla mode.
Adikia clenched his fist next to him and exclaimed, ‘Damn it…!’ with excitement.
It was a mode that Yudahee could handle well.
The mode was a battle where participants fought to win using the equipment they had prepared, combat senses, and the abilities influenced by the contracted gods, without any special modifications to the rules among the participants.
It was a simple yet tense sequence of battles.
However, this made the early skirmishes between the contractors, such as the massive battles or skirmishes, somewhat raw and preferred modes.
As the alarm sounded, all the equipment worn was stripped off, transforming into simple white activewear.
The parasuit was gone from the waist.
Yudahee looked at Adikia, wondering what was happening.
“All the equipment has been sucked into random boxes scattered throughout the map. There are only two types: weapon boxes and armor boxes. You have only one chance to open each box, and even if you open it, there’s no guarantee that your existing equipment will be replaced. If you’re lucky, the equipment you were originally wearing might drop, but…”
“If you’re unlucky, it’s a bust.”
If you thought you might die and be eliminated early on, it was better not to draw equipment and just stay out, Yudahee explained.
If you randomly picked equipment and were killed by someone else, you would incur a loss.
It’s better to participate in the next arena competition with all your equipment intact to increase your win rate.
A device introduced to add some variables to the game, but Yudahee paid no attention to such things.
He had participated in U.R.F mode without any equipment.
After all, equipment is a thing that can be there one moment and gone the next. To efficiently manage it, you should always acquire and wear something that looks new, rather than sticking to what you always use. Adikia looked at Yudahee with a puzzled expression as he muttered verbose nonsense about the need to acquire and wear something new.
“No, how do you get those new items…?”
“It’s simple.”
If you don’t have it, kill someone and take it.
Why, aren’t there people like that?
From Noble mtl dot com
Rather than working hard and sweating to cultivate crops, maximize the human farming that goes in unexpectedly, plunder the harvested crops, burn down houses, and even strip and eat panties.
The embodiment of that decision was Yudahee.
Just by watching the previous matches, hadn’t they completely stripped the nerves of the three opponents who used to make them nervous?
Even their character to the point of destroying equipment that they no longer needed.
“Now that I think about it, that bastard was there.”
The bastard who had cast detection magic on himself in the previous match.
They had looked around, wondering if they were participating in this match, but… They couldn’t see anything because of the crowd.
Moreover, they were all wearing identical white clothes, making it even more difficult.
Their memories of faces were somewhat blurred, but… there was a way to find them.
“Adikia, what about the previous equipment?”
“Huh? The ones I don’t use are just stored in the void.”
“Then, the gauntlets you used before, no, the one with the magic… uh, that.”
“You want to change equipment? But it’s impossible since it’s already in the random box.”
“Oh, it’s okay. I won’t use it during the match.”
It was the gauntlets that they had even asked if they could return later.
They raised the gauntlets high and shouted, as if telling everyone to listen.
“I came to return this magic gauntlet that I borrowed last time-!”
Ordinary humans wouldn’t turn around at such a sudden shout just before the match… But if it was the guy who had taken away their precious gauntlets, it was natural to seize the opportunity for a moment.
The gauntlet waved, and the gazes of the participants moved here and there, and among them, there was one guy with particularly nervous eyes.
Unconsciously, he raised his arm halfway and then put it down.
It was certain.
Yudahee lowered the arm they had raised and slowly walked towards him.
The closer he got, the trembling eyes clearly indicated that he was the culprit.
In the relationship between him and Yudahee, words were not necessary.
He simply put down the shoulder armor he was holding and just smiled broadly.
“uuu…!”
As Yudahee’s smile deepened, his face turned even paler.
The important thing is not this item… it’s the message.
Yudai.
He pointed with his index finger and lightly drew his thumb across his throat.
Anytime, anywhere, if they meet, it’s a clear implication that he will kill.
The vengeance of a nobleman does not grow old even after ten years.
With Yudahee’s bright laughter, the curtain of the match rose.
You have lost.
[00:00]
[The match will now begin.]
—–
The scenery changed in an instant. What was once a forest is now a downtown area in ruins.
As the contractors run through the streets, the crows perched on the telephone poles seem to signal their positions as they fly up, and the scattered debris in various places make a thud and fall, creating a place where one can even collapse with a sound.
Some participants quickly grasped the gimmick and quietly hid inside the buildings, but Yudahee paid no attention to such things and simply ran forward.
After all, even if they figure out his location, there is no reason to hide, as the situation is not about defeating the opponent with a punch right now.
On the contrary, it’s better to quickly arm oneself even if the position is compromised.
The location of the random box was easier to find than expected.
Even though she didn’t know what had happened, in a world that had turned into ruins, a shallow light was coming out along with an inappropriate song.
In the middle of the 3rd floor shopping mall, there was a box placed, and Yoo Da-hee quickly went up the escalator that was set in the middle and grabbed the box.
A random weapon given with a simple light.
As Yoo Da-hee was blankly staring at something in her hand, three latecomers arrived and revealed themselves.
However, even in that short period of time, it seemed that everyone had picked up a box in the middle and each was holding a weapon.
Two daggers and a baseball bat.
There was no way they had prepared a baseball bat as an arena weapon, so the item that came out of the random box was probably a dud.
Still, in terms of being able to make good use of the weapon, it might be better than a real dud…
The contractees somehow silently decided that it was right to quickly kill the winner of the previous round on the spot, and they were slowly closing in on each other while maintaining their distance…
Yoo Da-hee was blankly staring at the ‘dud’ in her hand.
“Damn it…. Why is this happening to me since the last dice fumble…”
Yoo Da-hee let out a deep sigh, holding a pencil in her hand.
—–
The image of Yoo Da-hee, the previous game’s winner, grabbing the box appeared on the big screen, and shortly after, laughter erupted in the waiting room.
What Yoo Da-hee drew from the box was just a pencil.
A complete dud.
On the other hand, the three contractees who had closed in from behind were each armed.
It was an obvious disadvantage.
She hadn’t received any assistance yet, and her equipment was extremely poor.
Running away without looking back would be the right thing to do… But the escalator, the only way out, was blocked.
Adikia’s eyes trembled slightly.
What an unlucky situation from the beginning.
The caution towards the winner was always strong, but this time it seemed particularly intense.
Normally, if you missed the box, it would be right to quickly move to another location to continue farming… Instead of avoiding, everyone was closing in on Yudahee.
The impact Yudahee showed in the last game was so significant.
If you give the opponent time, space, it leads to overwhelming disaster…
The shocking record of the previous round, where everything was annihilated, hung over like a shadow.
So, it was a unanimous decision for the three of them to choose to defeat the previous winner, Yudahee, even at a slight loss.
While Adikia was biting her lip and rolling her foot restlessly, another game within the game was unfolding in a corner of the waiting room.
A real-time betting system against the contractors that appeared on the screen…!
Shin-Gyeok Toto.
Yudahee and the three were the subjects that came to mind.
Yudahee wins vs. the three win.
Those who sided with Yudahee were certainly rare.
Unless it was during U.R.F when basic body adjustments are made, or the contractor had a physical ability-related advantage from the start, unfortunately, Yudahee was neither.
Due to being in vanilla mode, even basic physical abilities were leveled out.
Yudahee’s side 1
Three’s side 9
– an overwhelmingly tilted additional odds.
They were the ones who had won the previous round, so some believed they must have some tricks up their sleeves. However, on the contrary, most of the 9’s worshippers, judging from the ritual of mutual offering they performed in the last race, were of the opinion that they were contractees closely related to the summoning system and hence would have a weak proximity.
When countered with the argument that they hadn’t witnessed the battle in the forest, they dismissed it as mere coincidence and attributed the outcome to their excessive focus on the bounty. Even the worshippers who disparaged the 9’s had changed their tune, claiming that everything had changed and it was different from before.
However, it didn’t take long for them to realize that their choice had been wrong.
No matter how much adjustment was made, Yudahee was still Yudahee.
With a significantly different density of time spent up to now, how could the results be the same?
Even if it was just a worthless pencil, in Yudahee’s hands, it had become something more fearsome than a knife of the same size.
And if it was Yudahee, who had lost half of her sanity in consecutive bets, that made it even more terrifying.
The scuffle that began with a pencil jammed into one person’s ear took barely 10 seconds to end.
From the denial of the worshippers who couldn’t accept this reality to the screams that erupted at the end, everything was mixed together and spat out in an instant.
“Arghhh!”
“Ahhhhh! My points!”
“Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies!”
A worshipper, who was staring blankly at his shattered betting slip, muttered towards the scoreboard.
“How… can one pencil kill three people…?”
With just a damn pencil…!
Yeah