175. Return (2)
Dark dawn.
London, the main gate of the Tower of Trials.
[There are rewards according to contribution.]
[1. Baek Jinwoo (Republic of Korea): 83%]
[2. Rachel (United Kingdom): 17%]
[The 60th floor of the Tower of Trials will be permanently sealed.]
The UK was also thrown into chaos because of that message.
A resident staff member confirmed Rachel’s appearance, and Red Rose was contacted immediately.
“H-huh! Rachel! It’s Rachel!”
“Please wait just a moment!”
“My goodness, you’re returning after a full 4 months! Are you alright?”
Bow.
After greeting the resident staff, Rachel looked up at the tower soaring high into the sky.
‘....Permanently sealed?'
The message definitely said so.
That means.
From now on, players will never be able to clear the 51st through 60th floors?
[Your rewards are arriving.]
[You have obtained the King's Emblem(Bound).]
[You have obtained 17 Top-grade Rune Selection Tickets (Bound).]
[You have obtained 510 Omnipotent Polishing Agents.]
[You have obtained 255 Top-grade Summoning Scrolls.]
[You have obtained 2 Ultimate Summoning Scrolls.]
[You have obtained 510 Essences of Light.]
[You have obtained 510 Essences of Darkness.]
“Huh.”
Rachel’s mouth fell open.
‘This is... quite a lot, isn’t it….?’
This is how much a 17% contribution reward amounts to?
‘Then.’
How much reward did God Ji-nu get?
And that was not the end of the rewards.
[Congratulations.]
[You are ranked 2nd in contribution.]
[You have obtained the Silver Key Fragment (1/3).]
'Silver….Key Fragment.'
What is this now?
[Silver Key Fragment (1/3)]
[Grade: A-rank]
[If you gather 3 key fragments, something mysterious will happen.]
Will they be giving this according to contribution rewards from now on?
Just as she was deep in thought.
“Rachel unni!”
Olivia and the UK national team players were running over in a single rush.
* * *
Rachel was listening to what had happened, then.
“Then.”
A slight doubt arose in her mind.
“You just let Bale and McKiver go?”
“......Yes, and we haven’t heard from them for the past hour. We told them to send a text every 30 minutes in case anything happened.”
“That bastard Veskov.”
She had a bad feeling about this.
Rachel herself had been the one who led the meeting of the Five Emperors, and even she had been startled when she saw Moscowman in person.
'How can a person look that sinister?'
After that, she had kept a bit of distance from him.
And in that brief gap after she disappeared, he pulled this kind of stunt?
“I should go check.”
Sorting out the rewards could come later.
First, she needed to figure out whether the national team players who had gone to Russia were safe.
And while she was at it, she might as well take a look at the faces of those Five Emperors brats who had joined in.
“Archmage.”
Swoosh.
The white-haired mage stepped forward holding his staff.
“Unni!”
“You stay here. If you come along for no reason, we might run short on magic power.”
Even if teleportation magic was 7-circle, for long-distance travel across continents, he had to use the 8-circle ‘Heavenly Gate’.
And to take many people along?
An enormous amount of MP was required.
In that case.
'I’ll go alone.'
“The coordinates are Russia, the Kremlin Palace.”
She had already made the Archmage memorize Earth’s geography and coordinates.
After a brief calculation.
Nod.
The Archmage nodded.
Thud!
Below the tip of the staff, countless hieroglyphic symbols began engraving themselves into the floor.
Great Wizard, 8 Circles - Heavenly Gate.
Kuuuuuuung!
The moment the flow of mana swirled wildly, a dimensional gate opened.
And Rachel boldly threw herself into it.
* * *
The skies above the Kremlin Palace.
Countless players were attacking Xenos.
“You’re enduring quite well.”
Veskov’s lips twisted upward.
“All your companions are dead, yet you still want to survive that desperately on your own?”
“Shut up!”
Xenos roared.
Most of his summons had already been reverse-summoned.
There was only one left.
Tyrant (A-rank).
But even that one’s HP was scraping the bottom.
'Damn it.'
Kobe Pochettino was already dead.
So were the UK’s Gareth Bale and Sandy McKiver.
'So this is how it ends?'
Right as that thought crossed his mind.
[Ding!]
[Humanity conquers the 60th floor of the Tower of Trials.]
“....What?”
Xenos frowned.
“Huh?”
“What?”
The rankers from Russia and Taiwan were also bewildered.
All of a sudden?
The 60th floor of the Tower of Trials?
“......This.”
Even Veskov, who had been so relaxed, had his expression twist.
Then.
When even the contribution message appeared, his face flushed red.
'What kind of bullshit is this!'
This was the worst possible situation.
Rachel and Baek Jinwoo were alive?
“Keuk, kekekeke.”
Xenos clicked his tongue and laughed as if it served him right.
Of course, his eyes were not laughing.
“Look at your face. You look like a fox trying to rob an empty forest only to come face-to-face with a tiger.”
It was understandable that he felt wronged.
He must have endured for months, judged them completely dead, and then made his move…..
“Since it’s come to this, it can’t be helped. Let’s finish this quickly. Baekcheon.”
When Veskov looked toward Baekcheon.
“No.”
Baekcheon shook his head.
“Heh heh, wasn’t our contract void the moment Rachel noona returned?”
“What?”
“.....I’ll stop here and withdraw.”
The one even more dumbfounded than Veskov at the sight of Baekcheon stepping back was Xenos.
“Hey, old man.”
“Hm?”
“Quit the bullshit and come at me.”
Well, fine, maybe he could join hands with Veskov for a moment.
But?
Three rankers from the US and the UK were already dead.
The moment he took part in that, it was already over.
“If you’re old, your head ought to work as much as your age suggests. Do you think Rachel will forgive you?”
In other words, it was like taking part in a murder scene, then trying to step back and say, ‘It wasn’t me!’ once the police arrived.
Even before conscience, anyone with common sense should know that excuse would never work.
And at that moment.
Woooooong!
In that distant sky.
Along with an enormous wave of magic power, Heavenly Gate began to open.
Rachel had arrived!
-Krrrraaaaaaah!
-Krrrraaaaararararara!
From the skies above Russia, the Yellow Dragon and White Tiger began descending.
Xenos smiled.
Yeah.
You bastards.
You’re all dead.
Five Emperors?
Now it’s Three Emperors...
No, maybe now it might even become Two.
* * *
The moment Rachel arrived and grasped the situation, she was furious.
Gareth Bale and Sandy McKiver lay there as cold corpses.
Both were members of Red Rose, and people who had been with her for over three years.
“Veskov….. So in the end, you really did it.”
She had also read the text Baek Jinwoo sent her.
It said he had taken care of two Russian rankers and one Japanese ranker.
That alone was clear enough evidence.
There was no need to question anything further.
“Xenos.”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s behind this?”
Rachel asked coldly.
The enlarged Yellow Dragon had already coiled around the entire Kremlin Palace with its jaws wide open.
Whether it started a war or not.
She was forcing herself to hold back the urge to wipe Russia itself off the map.
“....Russia and Taiwan are the main force. Japan stood by and watched.”
“I see? Then they’ll all have to pay the price.”
Every player here?
She alone could handle them.
After killing countless monsters and demons on the 51st through 60th floors of the Tower of Trials, her level had risen, and she had found great opportunities there as well.
And that wasn’t all.
She had also received training from HunGyo.
'Ten years of friendship?'
Bullshit.
Group chat or whatever.
Now everything was over.
“Rachel.”
It was then that Veskov stepped forward and shouted at her in a low voice.
“No matter how strong you are, it’ll be difficult to fight this many players.”
Rachel did not reply.
“That’s right, Rachel noona.”
Baekcheon stepped forward as well.
“I got dragged into this situation too, but let me say one thing. If you forgive us, noona, I’ll leave this whole mess right now.”
She listened silently to the two of them, then opened her mouth.
“Are you done yet?”
“.....Huh?”
“So that was the end of your last words, right?”
Her expression was firm.
An expression that said she would not listen to another word.
From the moment her people died, no excuse, no matter how flowery, could ever earn forgiveness.
“So there’s no choice.”
Baekcheon had no option but to summon his summons again.
“From this moment on.”
Rachel declared in a low voice.
“I’ll give you exactly 10 minutes. Everyone except the Russian and Taiwanese national teams, get out of the palace. Anyone else who comes at me will be considered to have a death wish.”
-Krrrraaaah!
White Tiger tore through the air.
About five summons charged at him.
Slash slash slash!
With just two sweeps of his claws, he butchered them all.
And then.
-Krrrraaaaararararara!
With the Yellow Dragon’s roar, every summon below it was bound in place, unable to move a single inch.
Dragon Fear.
Along with Breath, it was a basic skill possessed by dragonkind.
“W-what do we do?”
“.....What do you mean, what do we do?!”
“Run!”
About half the players began to flee, and even the employees working inside the palace hurried to evacuate.
Rachel’s arrival had caused such a stir that the current situation was already being reported in the foreign press.
“Hah.”
Despair filled Veskov’s eyes.
How futile this all was.
Just one Rachel.
And yet he could not overcome that one person, and he had dreamed of conquering the world.
That made it even more bitter.
'If she hadn’t taken all the first-place rewards for herself. . . . .'
If she hadn’t monopolized all three S-ranks, none of this would have happened.
Why!
Why was she allowed to, while he wasn’t?!
But complaining was useless.
Over these past four months, the gap between Rachel and the other Five Emperors had only widened.
-Krrrraaaah!
Veskov’s summon, the Black Bear (A-rank), charged toward White Tiger’s head with terrifying power.
It was so fast that, despite being a bear, afterimages trailed behind it.
But to White Tiger, that was nothing more than a cub throwing a tantrum.
Whoosh!
Lightly dodging the bear’s strike, White Tiger swung at its head at twice the speed.
Smash!
And Veskov saw it.
He saw the Black Bear’s head explode with absurd ease.
And it wasn’t only the Black Bear.
-Krrrraaaah.
White Tiger roared, leaping here and there, smashing the heads of summons, slashing through their bodies.
As though to say that you and I are fundamentally different beings from birth.
As though to say, how dare mere beasts try to challenge a spiritual creature.
He utterly trampled them.
“Ah…….”
The word despair arose in Moscowman’s mind.
'Was it greed.'
If he had just gone on living as usual.
Bearing the title of one of the Five Emperors, he could have enjoyed every possible luxury and glory.
Probably.
He simply could not stand not being the best.
Was this how Salieri felt when looking at Mozart?
Slowly.
Veskov turned his head and examined Rachel’s face.
There was no emotion there.
No anger, no sorrow. She was probably hiding it on purpose.
Then.
-Krrrraah!
White Tiger began charging toward Veskov.
The barrier was already gone, and there was no way he could evade it.
Nor did he have any subordinate left to shield him.
“.....”
Everyone was merely trembling in fear.
Truly.
Life was so futile.
Thud!
A strange sight entered Moscowman’s field of vision.
Something like a gigantic claw piercing through his body.
And then.
Rip!
The sensation of it being pulled out.
That was the last pain Veskov ever felt.
Thud!
His body collapsed.
And the blood pouring from it began soaking the grand hall of the palace.
“Next.”
Slowly.
Rachel’s gaze turned toward Baekcheon.
She had no intention of forgiving Baekcheon either.
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