9. The Living Necronomicon
“Our god didn’t mention that the ones we should catch would be these monsters…”
The contractor, who saw the two corpses lying on the ground, swallowed his saliva.
Damn it. Stupid god, couldn’t you have told us properly?
This is screwed.
He thought he was going to kill a rookie contractor participating in the arena for the first time, but instead, a monstrous creature with bones as flexible as willow branches stood before them.
Even though it was an arena where killing and being killed were taken for granted, the atmosphere was something that could never come from an ordinary human.
The thick smell of blood flowed with the wind through the forest.
Unlike themselves, who hadn’t even properly farmed, that crazy guy was rummaging through the equipment of the two dead men.
“Oh, what, you beggar? You don’t even have anything.”
The opponent didn’t look like much of a threat… but the three contractors, taking advantage of the uncertainty, were not stupid enough to break their heads on the rock without a reason.
One of the three immediately shouldered his gun, raised his hands, and stepped forward.
“…It doesn’t seem like a good idea to fight, can’t we just go our separate ways?”
With that, he subtly conveyed the atmosphere that meddling would not end well… but there was no way such a feeble attempt would work on Yoo Dahee.
If threats and persuasion were effective, he would have been fed up with them in that far-off universe.
And now, in this situation, Gap is still himself.
“Just going like this? Saying that makes me feel bitter again.”
Yudahee, wiping a dagger stained with blood on the corpse, lightly tapped the tip of the sword.
“Either hand over everything and leave, or fight with me right here. The choice is yours.”
“Going to see the end…?”
A statement without any room for negotiation.
Damn.
He thought he was a representative who stepped forward for nothing.
Stealthily, as the two beside him tried to move away, Yudahee also prepared, bending his body and flexing his legs.
“Seeing the end is not me, but you. Oh, and don’t think about giving up just because you split and run. I’ll at least chase and kill one guy to the end. In that sense… Representative, your equipment seems to be in decent condition.”
The gaze aimed at the prey, a posture ready to jump out at any moment.
This was a sincere intention. A 100% sincere gaze.
It would have been nice if the end was different, but the representative had no choice but to raise his hand, realizing that he was only being targeted.
Their god had also said to try only when the odds were 3:1, and he hadn’t advised risking one’s life for a gamble… It was right to step back.
Sighing, he took out the small staff hidden in his embrace and placed it on the ground.
As he signaled an intention of surrender rather than attack, Yudahee’s posture slightly relaxed.
“…Each time you put down your equipment, step back. It would be inconvenient if you attack suddenly when disarmed.”
“Alright, let’s allow that much.”
Messing with it would only lead to trouble, and once this match was over, the representative was at a loss about what to say to his god. He had rushed in with a 3:1 advantage and ended up chickening out…?
Mother.
Each time she placed a piece of equipment, she carefully stepped back, and Yuda-hee, in order to keep her promise, relaxed her posture and began to inspect the equipment that had fallen to the ground one by one.
“Oh, this one looks a bit expensive.”
A gauntlet that scattered light powder, as if surrounded by magic.
“…Can’t we return it later?”
“If you have a problem, come at me.”
Finally, the three of them put down their staffs and disappeared into the thickets.
She wondered if they would come back to attack again, but the sound of their retreat grew fainter, indicating that it was not their intention. Once again, the forest was filled with the sound of grasshoppers.
In the Battle Royale, it was said that human farming was the best farming method compared to amateur farming. Yuda-hee was dressed from head to toe in armor.
Due to being evenly torn apart by the five guys, the color scheme became strangely distorted, like a rainbow flavor of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, but it didn’t matter.
Regardless of whether it was male or female, as long as the taste was good, that was all that mattered. The principle was that as long as the equipment fulfilled its role, that was enough.
As for the remaining equipment, she carefully repaired each part with her own hands, as it would be troublesome to retrieve them if they went back.
“[Damn jerk…]”
It seemed like such a delusion, but it didn’t matter.
If you have a problem, come at me.
Despite being burdened, she felt her body lightened by the abilities of the worn equipment and soared into the air.
The number of remaining participants in the sky.
Just a moment ago, she had [97/100], excluding the three she had killed, but it had decreased to [80/100] as battles raged in various places.
There were only about 30 people left out of the remaining 50.
At the rate it was decreasing, she felt that she could easily secure a rank even if she withdrew and stayed put somewhere, but… considering the current mode, that would be a foolish move.
As time passed, the number of participants, growing exponentially stronger, made it a situation where even if a meteor fell from the sky and flattened the arena, it wouldn’t be surprising, considering the pods they had unleashed in the waiting room.
It was better to eliminate those who were complacent when there was even a slight moment of respite.
While planning and moving on to find the next target –
Zing –
Along with the high-frequency sound brushing past the ears, the dice automatically rolled.
[Detection magic passes by Yudahee.]
[Due to the forest being filled with various obstacles, there is difficulty in specific detection. A -2 adjustment applies.]
[The opponent wants to specify only the source of heat among the obstacles. A +3 adjustment applies.]
[Rolling the dice….]
[Rumble… 1D20 is rolled.]
[1…!]
[Minimum evasion for leaking detection magic is 10…]
[It’s not a spell directly affecting the target; it doesn’t affect spell resistance.]
[The dice seems to be smiling favorably.]
No, damn, sh*t, motherf*cker, f*ck.
…Did someone really screw with the dice?
Why is it that every rolled dice seems to end up as a fumble.
Damn it, getting some sh*tty ability from outer space, and it doesn’t even roll the way you want it to.
It’s really no different from those damn foreign bastards.
[Exactly captured by the detection magic…!]
“The target is the object of my vengeance…!” he roared.
“….”
Are those bastards the culprits?
“…It’s not just something I can let slide, damn it.”
[The detection spell is a great success, with additional effects attached.]
[For the next 10 minutes, your location will be shared with everyone in the arena.]
As those words echoed in my mind, a magnificent golden pillar rose above my head.
“Ah-“
There was no mention of it shining so brightly.
With this level of exposure, I can’t even hide, and instead of using the forest terrain for disruption, every move I make will be easily exposed.
…But if I’m going to give up this easily, then I might as well have perished in that alien world long ago.
“…I’m really screwed.”
Yoo Dahee grimaced deeply and began to retrace his steps.
*****
“Hieeek!”
As quickly as Deke’s face had brightened, it quickly paled.
This kind of magic is deadly in the midst of a sniper attack.
If only I had any related magic or spells to evade, I might have been able to do something, but with my power dwindling, I couldn’t offer any help.
I’m truly disqualified as a participant in this arena.
As the golden pillar rose, the gazes of the participants began to turn.
And then, realizing what it meant, they all stopped what they were doing and started running towards it, one by one.
“20 points! The location of 20 points has been shared!”
“Hey, you damn contract bastard! Stop fussing around and run! You’ll get snatched by others!”
The shrinekeepers of the arena were also in an excited state, shouting to their contractors to run towards the 20 points.
In ordinary circumstances, the conversations of the shrinekeepers in the arena waiting room wouldn’t reach, but if special equipment related to contacting contractors was arranged beforehand, they could pay a considerable amount of divine power to the Bureau of Comprehensive Management and unidirectionally send messages.
Instantaneously, vapors of divine power were rising from all directions.
Even those not interested in sniping were presented with an opportunity to join the frenzy.
The situation where victory became a secondary concern.
Just moments ago, the contractors who were fighting left their opponents behind and were running like crazy. It was a ridiculously amusing scene, but Dike couldn’t laugh.
“Uh, Universal Oversight…! The company Unicorn & Byco is approaching…! The debt… the debt is increasing!”
In this situation, where such a dreadful future was about to unfold, Dike looked at Yoo Dahee through the screen assigned to the goddess who had contracted him.
Yoo Dahee was behaving in a way that he couldn’t understand.
Instead, she was turning back.
Why?
A question arose above Dike’s head.
But soon, that question turned into astonishment.
“What, what is this crazy bastard trying to do!”
Because, from the place he turned back, Yoo Dahee was surrounding herself with the corpses of the contractors she had killed.
Even if he were to discard everything and run away during the 10 minutes of continuous detection, it would be close, but grabbing that burden was clearly a suicidal act.
“Dikeee!”
Dike unleashed a cry.
*****
Yudahee returned to the square for the first time.
From Noble mtl dot com
She was greeted by the corpse of a military-colored assassin with a split head.
As they lowered the two bodies they carried on their shoulders, there was a clattering sound, and they unpleasantly overlapped.
Ten minutes is truly a long time.
The size of the arena, as seen in the guidebook, was a square of 10 km by 10 km.
It was a place with diverse terrains in each section, such as deserts, wetlands, forests like this one, or volcanoes, rather than a uniform terrain.
If contractors were to see and rush from all those places, it would take about 10 minutes.
Yudahee prayed that as many people as possible would gather now that things had turned out this way.
The plan she had tried to execute by the book would end up being a futile result in the chaotic situation. Responding the same as before would only lead to a spectacular oxidation at the end of the pursuit.
If that happened, the damn goddess watching from outside would be treated as a slave along with Dike in the future.
How would she earn the 500 billion won?
Even with a fixed interest rate of 2% per year, it’s 100 billion won. What on earth was this crazy goddess thinking when she borrowed at 20%?
The goddess had a sense of money that had been sucked into a black hole.
So, this was an unavoidable situation.
Penalty.
A restriction that allows the use of what one considers to be their main skill only once.
The axe and parachute, which had been wielded as the main skills until now, were not included in that main skill.
“Dice, just roll it.”
[Dice rolls….]
[Tumble… A 1D20 rolls.]
[1…!]
The dice, too, just the same.
But damn it, another fumble.
Unluckily.
…If only he could go outside, grab a lenient shaman, and perform a ritual. Various thoughts flooded into Yudahee’s mind.
The fact that the dice were rolling again meant that neither the dice’s ability nor the axe wielding through Parashu was considered Yudahee’s main skills.
So, what was the one thing Yudahee could use just once?
The answer was one.
Translation.
The book that had thrust him into an indescribably dreadful alien realm…
Necronomicon.
Reading it while translating, reading it again and again, memorizing it naturally even without looking at it during all the time of fixing mistakes and cross-verification…
That memory was truly Yudahee’s real expertise.
The only translator and recorder in this world who, even without looking, could recall the true essence of Necronomicon, a book that, if mistranslated, would convey the wrong meaning, and merely looking at it could drive one insane.
[Yudahee, the living Necronomicon.]
Whether it’s a firm victory or just a self-destruction that will explode with everyone, it’s truly a gamble that may or may not result in a resounding success…
Isn’t it better than not trying at all and falling into a pile of debts after dying?
The vast and repugnant record of Necronomicon unfolds in his mind.
For no reason, he didn’t prepare three corpses by exerting force needlessly.
A technique of human sacrifice based on three individuals.
Yudahee looked at the crowd gathering and let out an unknown laughter.