Chapter 253

Soma thought as he watched the man emerge from the bushes with a tired expression.
“Who is…?
This was the demon realm. Not just any user could enter. Soma pondered the man’s identity.
“…No way.
Soma pondered, then looked at the man with a surprised expression on his face. It turned out that he was not the first user to enter the Demon Realm. Several had already entered the Demon Realm, and Soma knew some of them.
‘I don’t think it’s an expedition…’
The first thing that came to mind was the expedition users who had made a name for themselves with their messages when the gates to the Seven Realms had opened, but they didn’t seem to be expedition users based on their solitude and equipment. I couldn’t be sure, but they seemed a little too low-level for an expedition that had captured a demon king.
“If so…
Unless you’re an expedition user, there’s only one case left.
“Killing…?
Ssangsal, the user who opened the Demon Gate twice, is arguably the most famous player in Legend.
“I think you’re right…
Of course, this wasn’t a sure thing either, but Soma had a strong feeling that the man was probably a killer.
“Do you want me to ask…?
At first, he hid, not knowing who the source of the footsteps was, but there was no point in hiding now; even if a battle were to break out, he was unlikely to lose. Soma finally decided to give the conversation a try and started walking. No, she tried to move.
Sigh
“Hmmm… where is it?”
A figure emerged from the bushes behind the man. Soma was about to take a step when the suddenness of the figure caused him to duck again, keeping his eyes on the newcomer.
“…Demons?
Soma couldn’t help but be surprised. The figure that emerged from the bushes behind the man was not human. It was a demon.
“It’s just a little further.”
The man answered the demon’s question. What on earth were the man and the demon talking about? I couldn’t figure it out, but I felt uneasy for some reason.
“Hmph, I can finally go to Middle Earth!”
From the demon’s words that followed, Soma realized what the man and the demon were talking about.
“Moon…!
It was clear that the man and the demon were talking about the gate that connected Middle-earth to the Seven Realms. Soma looked at the man and the demon with a puzzled expression.
‘You can’t be serious. You’re bringing demons to Middle-earth?
Apparently, he was planning to take the demon through the door and return to Middle Earth.
“I’m going to have to tell them.
If the man and the demon were to return to Middle-earth, they would surely encounter her brother and his guildmates surrounding the tower. Soma whispered to Margaret to let her know.
[Margaret cannot receive whispers].
‘…’
But as he whispered, Soma could only stare at the message that appeared, puzzled.
‘It’s a demon world. Can’t I?
Margaret was in Middle-earth, and he was in the demon world. The worlds were different, and the whispers didn’t seem to work. She couldn’t be sure, of course, but for whatever reason, it was a constant fact that she couldn’t whisper.
Sigh
Soma looked away from the message and back at the man and the demon.
“…What should I do.
And then I thought to myself, what the hell am I going to do?
‘…To find out the level of the demons. Do you want to fight?
After all, the reason he came here was to find out the level of the demon world. As it turned out, Soma had to fight demons as well, so he decided to find out the level of the demons.
That was the moment.
“Wait a minute.”
The demon, who was about to walk after the man, stopped and said.
“…?”
At the demon’s words, Sana stopped walking and looked at the demon with a puzzled expression, and then the demon smiled curiously and muttered, “I’ll tell you what.
“Did you see… There was a rat?”
“…You’ve been found out.
Soma assumed that the one rat the demon had spoken of was referring to her, and that assumption turned to certainty when the demon’s gaze turned to the rocks where she was hiding.
Jumbled
Convinced that he had been spotted by the demons, Soma walked out of the rock. When Soma walked out of the rock, his skin had already turned red.
“You’re Mr. Chansal, right?”
Soma asked the man to confirm the identity of the man he was curious about.
“…!”
The man, or rather, Chansal, flinched and then looked at Soma with a look of recognition. Soma smiled at Chansal’s reaction.
“I guess…
As expected, the man’s identity was a celebrity assassin, a “legendary” who had opened the gates of the Demon Realm twice.
“What, do you know him?”
At Soma’s words, the demon frowned ruefully and turned to Chansal, but Chansal didn’t recognize Soma. He shook his head and replied.
“No, I don’t know him.”
“…Then it’s okay to kill it, right?”
The demon grinned broadly at Chansal’s words, and Chansal nodded.
“…”
Soma frowned wordlessly at their conversation. Then he swung his sword at Sansal and the demons.
Whiz! Bang!
A black pillar of fire rose up and exploded at their feet. The two were instantly engulfed in the explosion of the pillar of fire, and a message began to appear.
[You attacked the high-level demon ‘Arudosa de Penek’].
[You enter hostilities with the high-level demon ‘Arudosa de Penek’].
[Attacked user ‘sharpshooter’].
[enters hostile status with user ‘killing’].
“Advanced…demon?
The moment Soma saw the message, he couldn’t help but panic. She knew it was a demon, but she hadn’t expected it to be an advanced demon. Soma swallowed hard and looked toward the spot where Sansal and Arudosa had been.
Sansal and Arudosa still stood there, a black shield appearing around them and seemingly unaffected by it.
“Kahahaha, you’re a funny guy!”
Arudosa, inside the black shield, laughed merrily and shouted, and with that, Arudosa disappeared.
“…!”
Soma quickly looked around in surprise as Arudosa suddenly disappeared.
Siaak
I heard someone appear from behind me. It was Arudosa. Soma quickly launched himself forward.
Squeal!
Flung forward, Soma frowned at the sensation on his back and quickly stood up to face Arudosa.
“Ho-ho, that’s pretty good.”
Arudosa looked at Soma with a slightly surprised expression. Soma glanced at Arudosa to see how much health she had lost from the attack earlier.
“…!
After checking the vitals, Soma couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Eighty thousand cuts?
I didn’t go all the way in, just a quick glance, but 80,000 health was gone.
“…Holy shit.
I wasn’t sure I was going to win, but I thought, “Why not? I thought to myself. But that thought was very wrong.
“Can I get away with it this time?”
Siaak
Arudosa disappeared from her seat again. Soma nervously began to glance around again.
“The Bondage of Death.”
Soma, who was keeping an eye out for where Arudosa would appear, couldn’t help but panic for a moment at the shout of Sansal coming from behind him.
“Damn.
It wasn’t just one Arudosa.
[Stunned for 5 seconds].
A message popped up, and with it, the disappearing Arudosa reappeared.
“…”
Soma stared at Arudosa’s hand as it appeared in front of him. Arudosa’s hand was a ball of black energy.
“Bye-bye.”
Soon, Arudosa reached out for Soma. Stunned, Soma was unable to move and allowed Arudosa to attack. Soma quickly checked his health.
Squeak!
‘100,000…’
100,000 health evaporated in a single attack.
Squeak!
‘110,000…’
The second attack topped 100,000. Soma looked away from his own dwindling health and looked at Arudosa, thinking.
“It’s so… cheap.
Arudosa was stronger than I thought it would be.
Squeak!
[He is deceased].
Soma smiled bitterly at the message that appeared.
* * * * *
“Where are you going?”
Arriving at the warp gate some time later, Ming Hu responded to the wizard’s words by opening his inventory and pulling out the gold.
“All four of them are Remas.”
The gate to the Demon Realm was in Hemb. But it wasn’t close enough to get there in one trip, so Ming Hu planned to make two warps through Remas, the halfway point.
“Warp.”
Soon enough, with the feeling of floating, Myung-hoo and company were able to reach Remas.
“Hemp.”
Upon arriving in Remas, Ming Hu handed the money to the wizard and warped back to Hembro.
“Wow, warping is fun!”
Arriving at Hemb, Lafydd exclaimed with a smirk. Ming Hu smirked at Rafid’s shout and stepped out of the warp gate.
“…?”
But as Ming Hu stepped out of the warp gate, he couldn’t help but frown slightly. There were far too many people wandering around in what should have been a quiet hembe. The problem was, there were guild marks floating above their heads.
“Why are my users suddenly…
Ming Hu was baffled as to why users were suddenly flocking to the site in droves, but that wasn’t the only problem.
‘That mark is…’
Ming Hu knew the guild marks of the players.
“Soma-sama…
It was the mark of the Guild of Soma, the Pacific Guild.
“Were there always so many people here?” said Minhyung. Minhyung was also surprised.
“Let’s just… Let’s go.”
Ming Hu responded to Min Hyung’s words, and with Rafid and the girl looking on, they began to walk out of the village toward the dark forests of the Barton Mountains, where the Black Moon Tower was located.
“What the heck…”
“Yeah.”
Myung-Hoo and Min-Hyung reminisced about the users they had seen on Hemp earlier. What could have brought them to HEMB all of a sudden?
“You didn’t just find out, did you?”
“That could be…”
“Dad, it’s so spooky in here!”
Myung-hoo and Min-hyung, who were having a conversation, realized that they had arrived at the Dark Forest when they heard Lapid’s cry.
“Huh? There’s someone walking in front of my dad.”
And then, in a quiet voice, Rafid said. Rafid’s words made Minghu and Minhyung stop walking for a moment.
Yuck…. Swoosh swoosh
As Rafid had said, someone was walking up ahead. Ming Hu began to look toward the direction of the sound.
Sigh
Soon, the source of the sound emerged from the bushes. It was a male user in his 20s. The reason he was sure it was a user was because of the guild mark above his head. When Ming Hu saw the user’s guild mark, he realized that his conviction had changed.
“…Pacific Guild.
It seemed that the Pacific Guild had found the entrance to the Demon Realm.
“…Huh?”
The Pacific Guild’s user let out a gasp of embarrassment when he spotted Ming Hu’s group. After looking at the group for a moment, the Pacific Guild’s user looked at Ming Hu at the front of the group and opened his mouth to speak.
“Hello. I’m Lavus of the Pacific Guild.”
After introducing himself, Labus continued with a puzzled look on his face.
“I’m sorry, but there’s something my guild is doing here, so we’re closing off access.”