Chapter 64
[The day of the great harmony will commence.]
[The day of the great harmony will continue for 24 hours. Remaining time: 22:40]
[Please enter. Time remaining until forced summon: 3 hours 40 minutes]
“Idy, would you like to go too? If not, it’s fine to just hold the port. Again, there probably won’t be anything fun happening there this time either.”
“Keruk. Of course I will go.”
It would be boring there and there wouldn’t be anyone who would be able to understand her language either.
Still, I couldn’t just leave her here when she said she wanted to go, so I decided to go with Idy.
The day of the great harmony was held at Kiri Kiri’s green field again.
Of course, Kiri Kiri was not there.
Instead, what I saw there was Park Jung-ah beating the c.r.a.p out of the people responsible for triggering the day of the great harmony.
Is it because I came in a little late? It looks like the situation is already wrapped up.
I just stood at a distance and watched.
There is no need for me to show my face now and cause confusion.
“Keruk. Humans have a violent side that I never imagined.”
That’s true.
The punishment lasted for another thirty minutes before ending as I sat in the corner of the field, waiting. By that time, I was extremely bored and my face was frustratingly contorted.
However, Park Jung-ah had no intention of finishing it yet.
Now, she gathered the members of the Order and started a verbose lecture.
The content of her lecture was pretty harsh.
Wow, did she serve in the military?
She is totally a top-notch at slapping around grunts.
I became suspicious of Park Jung-ah’s school days.
“Keruk. For how much longer do we need to just wait here? Captain?”
“… Let’s go.”
We walked around the back of the Order members who were listening to Park Jung-ah’s rough lecture. We were hoping n.o.body would notice us, but unfortunately, I locked eyes with Park Jung-ah’s.
Park Jung-ah was chirping away her foul mouth. However, as soon as she saw me, she slightly lowered her head to greet me.
The members of the Order, who were drowning in Park Jung-ah’s insults presently, also turned their heads towards our direction. We ended up receiving unwanted attention.
Tsk.
Hurriedly, I saluted to Park Jung-ah and quickly left the scene.
I moved to middle of the field and opened the inventory.
“Inventory.”
Wow… It’s so great to meet my precious items again.
How have you been? My precious babies…
I brought out a magic tent, but it was no ordinary magic tent.
It is a reward item that I got after clearing none other than the Ninth Floor.
I tossed the magic tent haphazardly on the ground and the large tent set itself up, occupying about 50 square meters.
Kuuuu…. All right.
I entered the tent with Idy.
The inside had a few small chairs and a bed.
‘I should have brought this into the 12th Floor.’
I thought that as I sat on the chair and yawned, stretching my arms.
As for Idy, the chair was not big enough for her, so she just sat on the floor.
“Well, the tent was upgraded. As I thought, points are great.”
Kim Min-huk entered the tent as he swept the tent’s flaps toward the side.
“I didn’t buy this with points.”
“Your lizardman friend is here again? h.e.l.lo.”
Kim Min-huk waved at Idy and said h.e.l.lo.
“Keruk Keruk.”
Idy also waved her hand back at her.
“What are you doing here? You were nowhere to be found when we were busy. Have you have been sitting around on your a.s.s here?”
“We got here only a while ago. It looked like there wasn’t anything in particular that needed me. Park Jung-ah was slaughtering the kids, so I ran off instead of meddling.”
The topic turned to Park Jung-ah and her current situation.
“She’s overdoing it a little. Still, I think this is necessary at the moment. She is strict to others, but she is as strict to herself. Also, it is not like there are serious complaints about it either.”
Overdoing it a little?
That’s a type of mental illness.
Unable to escape the sense of anxiety because of an uncertain future and past regrets, she is forcing her perfectionist goals onto others
The first problem was that she was imposing such strict guidelines to others in addition to herself.
The second problem was that human beings simply could not maintain such perfection forever. One day, she will be forced to realize that she cannot live up to her own ideals.
Normal people would just console themselves about such failures and move on, saying things like it could happen or they performed well enough.
However, Park Jung-ah cannot do that.
Instead of letting go, she will criticize and hate herself for being imperfect. She will only suffer further from such thoughts.
When that happens, the problem will really get serious because that’s when people start to break.
I’m speaking from personal experience.
“You need to look after her. That woman is at the level of a runaway train. If you cannot get brakes for her, at least make sure she does not get derailed.”
“You rascal. You always ask me to do the heavy lifting. You don’t need to tell me. I’ve already been doing my best.”
Kim Min-huk complained before sending a message to someone.
“I contacted the user of Blitz Skill that I told you about before. The user will come here soon.”
Almost immediately after Kim Min-huk said that, the tent door was swept open.
“Ah… h.e.l.lo?”
It was a young boy with seemingly shy and good-natured personality with a round appearance.
He looks like he is in middle school.
“He is a middle schooler.”
“Excuse me… I… My name is Lee Jun-suk.”
Why is this kid shrinking in front of me?
“Keruk Keruk.”
I looked to the side and noticed Idy looking at Lee Jun-suk.
“Idy. This kid is scared because of you.”
“Keruk. You are accusing the wrong person. That little human is shaking from looking at you.”
“Hey. Are you scared because of me?”
Having heard what Kim Min-huk said, I also felt wronged.
Seriously, I have a lizardman sitting next to me, but this kid is scared of me instead? Does that make sense?
“Hey, that’s not it, right? You are not scared of me, right?”
“N… No! I am sorry. It’s my fault…”
Lee Jun-suk was shaking as he apologized over and over. I felt conflicted inside.
When did my image become like this?
Lee Jun-suk was at Eighth Floor of the Hard Difficulty.
On top of that, he was a mage who mostly used Blitz magic in addition to being a member of the Order of Virtue in the Hard Difficulty.
I contacted Lee Jun-suk through Kim Min-huk because I wanted to improve my pa.s.sive skill.
“Sit here. I just need you to use the Blitz Skill at my arm. If you run out of mana, just tell me. I have plenty of potions.”
“Pardon? Yes… Will it really be all right? It will hurt a lot…”
“Hey, that guy plays catch with heat stone to increase his fire resistance. Don’t worry and get started.”
Lee Jun-suk grabbed my arm and started to use the Blitz Skill, and making my arm twitch.
Looks like I’ll have to restrain my arm for this.
I asked Idy to tie my arm to the chair’s arm rest with a rope.
“Now, try it at a higher strength.”
“Pardon? Increasing its strength beyond this could be dangerous.”
“I’ll be healed automatically, so why does that matter?”
Lee Jun-suk was breaking a cold sweat and didn’t know what to do. Leaving him be, I turned my head toward Kim Min-huk.
“So, why did the day of the great harmony happen this time?”
“… Didn’t I tell you last time? At the 30th Floor residential district in the Easy Difficulty, someone formed a small syndicate, manufactured narcotics and distributed them. It seemed they were trying to bend the people to their will using the narcotics.”
“How did it get resolved?”
“I also told you that last time, you rascal. We had a member of the Order infiltrate the syndicate. Once our member rose to the ranks of management, we got a list of the syndicate members.”
“That worked? That must’ve been dangerous. People sure volunteer easily for things like that.”
It was always like that.
The Order of Vigilance always infiltrated said problematic groups and procured the information.
After that, as soon as the day of the great harmony commenced, the order ambushed the group and handled the problem.
They were no different from secret agents. They were literally 007s.
PR Note: This is a reference to Bond and how his identification as “Agent 007.”
The members of the Order who were active on the open were well known throughout the Community. However, the members who were hiding among regular users were completely unknown.
People didn’t know who they were or how many there were.
The only person that knew was Kim Min-huk.
So far, there was never a problem that didn’t get resolved after the day of the great harmony.
Their success rate was 100%.
Is that even possible? It is not easy for me to believe that people would go such great lengths to maintain public order.
“Responsibility, justice, goal, anxiety, danger… Do you have any idea how critical those things are to people? This is especially true in an extraordinary environment like the Tutorial. Everyone volunteers with just a little bit of encouragement. They are doing it because it can be handled.”
You are probably the only one in the world who can say it so easily.
“Actually, I don’t know how many secret agents there are. The operation is managed in a point organizations style. There probably are more than what people believe.”
“Looks like the Tutorial will get filled with secret agents later.”
“If that happens, I could not ask for a better setting. That would be perfect. Everyone is in check against each other, and all individuals are protecting justice. That’s no different from a utopia.”
Are you sure? I don’t think that would be the case.
At that moment, I could feel serious pain in my arm.
“I… I’m sorry. Are you all right?”
My arm’s skin was burning black.
I waited for a moment and the healing effect from the day of the great harmony was activated.
The part that was burned to crisp was erased completely along with other less-heavily burnt parts.
“It’s all right. Looks like this will also increase my fire resistance.”
“By the way, didn’t you say you had been focusing on the Mana Circuit instead of resistance skills?”
“I had been. Still, it looks like I’ll need resistance against Blitz. My body movement is seriously hindered whenever I get struck by Blitz Skill. Also, there are so many b.a.s.t.a.r.ds in my current stage that have this skill, so really need this resistance.”
Kim Min-huk was looking at me as if he was curious. I gave a simple summary of how the 12th Floor in h.e.l.l Difficulty was like.
“Also, I am still running the Mana Circuit.”
“What? Now? … Since when?”
“Ever since I entered here.”
Kim Min-huk looked at my arm that Lee Jun-suk was shooting Blitz at. He then looked at my face.
“You are running the Mana Circuit in that state?”
“Yes.”
“You really are a fiend.”
I got electric shock ma.s.sage for about ten minutes and talked to Kim Min-huk before the tent entrance was swept open by a muscular man.
“I was wondering where you guys all went off to. I see you were all here sucking on honey. Oh, h.e.l.lo Lizardman friend.”
It was Park Jong-sik.
If I was to say I was managing h.e.l.l Difficulty, Kim Min-huk was managing the Normal Difficulty, and Park Jung-ah was managing Easy Difficulty, it could be said that Park Jong-sik was managing Hard Difficulty.
“What do you mean sucking on honey, Big Bro Jong-sik? It was just that it didn’t look like there was anything that needed me, so I just politely left the scene on your behalf.”
“Yo. Jun-suk. You are here too.”
Park Jong-sik ignored my excuse and greeted Lee Jun-suk.
He then flipped a chair around and sat as he said,
“Things are almost wrapped up. Everyone will come here soon. We need to have a meeting, don’t we?”
As he said, a whole bunch of people came in through the tent.
They were the core members of the Order, including Park Jung-ah.
“Keruk.”
It seemed Idy was uncomfortable with having so many people entering the tent at once.
I stopped Lee Jun-suk from using Blitz and I untied the rope on my arm.
After that, I corrected my pose.
There were too many people here; it was impossible to sit comfortably.
Even though they were the core members of the Order, I couldn’t sit comfortably
Kim Min-huk and Park Jong-sik were about all who I felt I could be at ease.
It wasn’t that the people made me feel uncomfortable.
It was just that I had a need to maintain a respectable image and maintain distance from the people.
That was helpful for maintaining the Order of Vigilance.
Actually, I had a similar experience when I was a professional gamer.
When I was at the top, I was showered by the gazes of countless people looking up at me.
Countless losers and compet.i.tors would focus their glares at me.
There was a time when I enjoyed it. However, because I also experienced a nose dive in my career, I was unfamiliar with my current position here where I was being looked up to by everyone else.
The tent was pretty big inside. However, the inside became quickly packed after more than a dozen people entered.
There weren’t enough chairs either. Most people just sat on the floor like Idy or just stood. Like that, we decided to start the meeting.
“Well then, we will start the meeting.”
The meeting started with Park Jung-ah’s words.
First, she went over the cause of the day of the harmony and current progress to the solution.
She then proposed a preventive measure against a similar incident in the future.
After that, brief reports from the managers of each difficulties were given.
Up to this point, the meeting was progressing as the usual.
It was not so different from the meetings we held through the Community messenger.
“Now, we have two very important things left.”
Kim Min-huk refreshed the atmosphere and said,
“First, Big Bro Chan-yong cleared 89th Floor.”
People muttered in awe.
Lee Chan-yong.
He was in the Easy Difficult, but he was the closest one to the 100th Floor.
He was the player who became increasingly active ever since the news about the outside world being in danger became known to the people in the Tutorial.
He was held up in an obsession to return quickly to the reality, desperate to return to family outside.
Many people said it is not like other people don’t have families outside and wondered why he was acting like that. However, Lee Chan-yong demonstrated his resolve with his actions.
When he started to make strive as the top floor player, the Order of Vigilance also started to actively support him.
Not only did they support him with equipment and potions, but the information that he needed for the higher floors were also obtained by the Order and a.n.a.lyzed.
Clearing the 100th Floor was not just for him.
The first challenger to clear the 100th Floor and get out to the reality was going to be our messenger.
It was our message that we were still alive in here.
Also, it was our message to tell the people outside that we will get out of here soon, and that they need to hold out just a little longer.