Chapter 84

[Welcome to the 14th Floor’s waiting room . ]

[Round 15, Day 30, 04:15]

I said goodbye to Kiri Kiri and moved to the waiting room . As usual, I felt empty .

I wish I could sleep longer at the field and chat with Kiri Kiri while eating all sorts of things .

However, I have too many things to do now .

At minimum, I need to check everything I gained so far before the tournament starts .

First…

[Talaria’s Wings]

I tried summoning the Talaria’s Wings .

Talaria’s Wings used to look like just crystal sculptures . Now, the wings had changed, starting with the exterior .

First of all, now the pair really looked like wings .

The wings were still made of beautiful crystals . However, how should I describe them… Them look a little smoother and flexible?

Also, the color was changing constantly .

From red to yellow, to green, to blue… to purple…

Including black and white, the wings even assumed semi-transparent tint .

Because of the wings mysterious beauty, I looked into the wings for a moment .

The description definitely said the caster could set the wings’ color .

It seemed that the wings were changing the color constantly because I didn’t choose one yet .

Instead of picking a color, I think leaving the wings be like this will look prettier .

Wow…

I’m incredibly satisfied with seeing the color changes like this?

[God of Adventure is proud . ]

Now, let’s check out the wings’ performance side .

[You temporarily acquired flight ability . ]

[Stamina and mana recovery rates increased . ]

[Combat abilities increased . ]

[Great Magic Resistance Skill’s effectiveness increased . ]

[The skill makes the enemies around you shrivel . Enemies that are weak against Holy Power will shrivel in fear even more . ]

[Power increased . ]

[You acquired the title, ‘The Man Who May Become the Apostle of Ditzy God . ’]

Wha… .

What…

[God of Slowness is clicking tongue while looking at a certain someone with no manners . ]

As I thought, this is no joke .

Isn’t this a serious over balance?

I’m surprised that there are no limitations . The skill does not spend any power either .

Even the Blink Emblem had the five-times use limitation .

However, the Talaria’s Wings had no limitation . I could have it on for 24 hours, for 365 days, even though the skill had several incredible effects .

The skill did come with a strange title for me, but I couldn’t care less about that .

I feel like I just hit the jackpot on the lottery .

It’s the best, God of Adventure!

I always knew that the God of Adventure will achieve something great one day . I believed in it since a long time?

As I thought, God of Adventure is a true talent who is destined to greatness through steady steps!

[God of Adventure is flexing the ego . ]

[God of Slowness is throwing the pillow at certain someone . ]

[God of Slowness is yelling ‘get out’ to certain someone . ]

It is incredible that the Talaria’s Wings have so many features, but the bigger interest was in the details of the effects themselves .

Let’s see how much the combat abilities, Great Magic Resistance, and stamina and mana recovery rate had increased .

Also, I should check out the flight ability too! Damn it! There are no enemies around me, so I won’t be able to test out the shrivel ability .

I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep before I check out all of these .

Let’s check them all out quickly .

Quickly…

* * *

Eating the sandwich that I made with bread, canned tuna and cabbage that I purchased from the store, I checked out the performance of the Talaria’s Wings abilities again .

The performance verification, which took several hours, gifted me with great satisfaction .

In Perseverance Skill, the one that I received from God of Adventure, there is a description like this .

Your combat ability increases by ‘a small’ margin .

The margin was ‘small’ because the skill’s level was still only at one .

However, the Talaria’s Wings had Max level . There were no descriptions about the margins either .

What I found out through the performance verifications was that the margin of improvement constantly changed .

To be precise, it depended on how accustomed I was to the skill . Also, the margin of improvement changed depending on my strength .

In other words, the boost effects included in the wings are the type that grows in proportion to my specs .

This is the best .

I swallowed the sandwich I had in my mouth and got up .

I jumped, tightened the fists and mimicked a celebratory pose of a famous soccer player .

Wow!

[God of Adventure is amused . ]

[God of Adventure is happy . ]

[Round 16, Day 0, 00:00]

[The tournament will start . ]

[Please enter . ]

[Time left until the mandatory summoning: 4 minutes 59 seconds]

* * *

-Park Jung-ah’s perspective-

[You cleared 42nd Floor of the Tutorial in Easy Difficulty . ]

[Welcome to the 43rd Floor’s waiting room . ]

[Round 15, Day 25, 17:30]

That was close .

If I was even just a little late, I would not have had enough time to take care of work .

“Everyone, thank you all for your hard work . The tournament will start in five days, so rest until then . ”

Although the members were dismissed like that, it was not like everyone could rest easy .

I went to a corner of the waiting room and brought out a desk, a chair and a stack of papers from the inventory .

It is time for me to do some work .

Just like me, other members of the Order who had paperwork to push looked like they were about to die as they brought out desks and chairs like I had .

There is a mountain of paperwork I need to take care of before the tournament commences .

I was never a diligent person like this…

Tsk .

“Excuse me… Commander?”

“Yes . What is it?”

“Would you like me to brew a cup of tea for you?”

“It’s fine . I’ll brew a cup myself later . ”

It was Lee Yuu-jung, a member of the Order and my party member .

She is two years older than me .

She was with me at the waiting room during the Round One . She had been with me before the Order of Vigilance was established .

She is also my closest friend .

She is always kind and hard working .

It was just that… She didn’t understand at all as to why I don’t want to show close friendship with any members of the Order in public .

Perhaps she was not even trying .

I also don’t intend to try to make her understand either .

There aren’t many genuinely pure hearted people like Lee Yuu-jung .

I don’t want to explain in verbose detail as to why we can’t act close in front of other people .

I was about to read the paperwork, but Lee Yuu-jung came next to me and told me a news that I could not ignore .

“Mr . Kim Chul-min, a Normal Difficulty player at 24th Floor, died . ”

“What about other party members?”

“They are all safe . ”

My head is getting convoluted with all sorts of thoughts .

At times like these, I need to organize one thing at a time .

First, I sent a message to Kim Min-hyuk .

It was to report to him about Kim Chul-min’s death and ask him to investigate the circumstance of his death .

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: … About to die . ]

[Park Jung-ah, 42nd Floor: No . I’m telling you . He is already dead . Did you understand me correctly?]

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: No, I’m saying I’m about to die . ]

He was whining about serious work load as always, saying things were too difficult for him .

How could he be in position to complain when he is sitting comfortably at the residential area and focusing only on administrative work? Unlike him, I have to worry about my image to the people and carry out the tasks of clearing stages and administrative work .

I ignored Kim Min-hyuk’s further messages and went back to focusing on organizing my thoughts again .

“Who is the sub tanker in the 3rd division?”

[Note:Tanker means an online RPG video game character type who has exceptionally high defensive capability . A tanker usually draws the enemies’ attention and shield the rest of the party members from enemies’ attacks . ]

“3rd division… It’s Park Su-hyun . He is a Normal Difficulty player at 22nd Floor . ”

“When this round… No . When the tournament ends, let’s issue the Idrean’s Shield to him . It would be better if we could send him a higher-level shield, but…”

“We don’t have enough spare points . ”

“Probably . Let’s ask him to hold out with that for now . The 3rd Division members will have it hard for a while . ”

Kim Chul-min was a member of the Order’s Strike Division . The division was not related to clearing stages .

He was the main tanker of the 3rd Division .

The Order’s Strike Division was formed with the goal of having the division step in first and neutralize unexpected situations in large-scale events like the day of the great harmony or the tournament .

The members of the Strike Division were required to step in as a party or an individual when unexpected situations occur in residential areas or waiting rooms .

Such situations didn’t happen all the time, but I must be always prepared .

When unexpected problems come crashing down, the behavior of the unprepared is far off from the prepared .

Also, that difference in actions taken will decide the survival and the future .

Right now, this Order of Vigilance and myself are the proof of this .

I am currently alive like this and taking care of administrative work for the Order, and this is the result of a man who were prepared when the very first day of the great harmony happened .

He was determined to see his plan through even if it meant attacking others and beating the crap out of them to bend their will .

Also, to make that possible, he had secured enough power for that goal .

Thanks to his kindness, I am now…

I suddenly remembered what happened during the day of the great harmony last time .

There was the issue of my attitude toward him which was brought up to my attention .

Also, requests were made, asking me to relax my attitude toward him .

Also… Ah… Uu… Why did I act like that?

I just had to take it easy and greet him casually in none-honorary terms . That would had been the end of it .

Even a kindergartener could do that .

However, back then… I stuttered and totally panicked .

I am certain I even blushed .

I probably looked ridiculous . I am certain about this .

Also, while I was talking like that, even the pitch of my voice was all out of wack .

Uuuuaaa!

I suddenly felt the urge to get up and scream .

I hurriedly buried my head on the desk and pushed down the urge .

Uuuuuuu…

I felt a presence from the side, so I lifted my head . Lee Yuu-jung was staring at me, wondering why I was doing that .

Ugh… Let’s just get back to work .

* * *

[Round 15, Day 29, 03:20]

[Dangerous Individuals Assessment Report]

Can you make a more official sounding title for the report?

While I complained about a trivial matter, Lee Yuu-jung poked at my waist from the side .

“Here, drink this tea . ”

“Thank you, Big Sis . ”

So that others could not hear me, I expressed my gratitude to her as if I was whispering . I looked around myself .

Other members of the Order, who were pushing the papers around me, all dozed off .

If they were being lazy, I would have shaken them, awaken them and yelled at them .

Although we were at the waiting room where the body was recovered automatically, focusing on paperwork for a long time naturally made our mind tired and lead us to sleep .

We have not figured out the cause of this exactly yet . However, the prevailing theory at the moment was that the brain is not able to recognize the waiting room’s recovery effect and it is forcing the body to sleep regardless .

I do not know what is causing it .

I think it might be a simple matter of differences in mental strength . I think it might be a matter of will as well .

Anyway, everyone around me, who were obviously dozing off, had fallen asleep after working hard to their limits .

I decided not to wake them up .

We had taken care of most of the paperwork in the past four days, so…

Let’s just focus on my own work .

List

Detailed Description

Counter Measure

Like the title, the sub-titles were made haphazardly as well .

Just who wrote this report?

[Writer: Lee Ho-jae]

Ah…

Um… Let’s get back to work .

First, I looked over the list .

Lee Gi-min: Danger level 1

Lee Gi-chul: Danger level 1

Jung Jin-uu: Danger level 2

Lee Gi-jun: Danger level 2

Lee Jun-suk: Danger level 3

Lee Hyung-suk: Danger level 5

Lee Chan-yong: Danger level 6

The Order had been making a list of dangerous individuals like these people and managing them .

We had been since the Order was established .

Most of the people who made it to the list had been living quietly without causing much trouble .

However, many of the criminals who were executed for having caused troubles were those who got their names listed in the Dangerous Individuals List .

Because of this, the Order of Vigilance never stopped making the list .

Instead, we had been making the list proactively .

At each round, we changed the observer and continued to make new lists and watched the people who had their names on the list .

It was not a pleasant kind of work .

Sometimes, the work involved watching someone by assuming that the person might be a dangerous one when that person actually had been living peacefully .

To make an excuse to say this was not a bad thing, we were just keeping them under surveillance and nothing further .

We didn’t interfere with their lives . We didn’t cause them troubles either .

We just kept them under surveillance and carried out the arrests and punishments when they were found to be committing crime .

I tried making an excuse, but I didn’t feel like this was all right .

I think I’ll just have to acknowledge it .

It is not all right .

However, it is necessary .

I checked the detailed descriptions about the people on the list and flipped a page over .

What would be the counter measures that he came up with?

Counter Measures: Follow Kim Min-hyuk’s plan .

… Um .

[Park Jung-ah, 42nd Floor: What is that plan?]

[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: What plan? I don’t know . ]

… Um .

He must have written it like this because he had a good reason .

Let’s just ask him later .

I organized the Dangerous Individual Report and set it aside . I brought out booklet of paperwork from the inventory .

It was information about the past crimes in Tutorial and the involved criminals .

All this time, I have read them over and over, so the booklet became tattered already .

I think I should make a copy soon .

Although they are things from the past, they are also records of things that we should never forget .

We must remember what happened in the past and prepare so that something like these will never repeat in the future .

To that end, we need to keep the memories of what happened in the past in our head .

The circumstances that lead to the incidents .

The perpetrators’ motives and characteristics .

How the incidents ended and the counter measures .

We need to continue to analyze such information and think hard about crime prevention, response and punishment .

First Incident

Time: Tutorial Round Two, Day 0 ~ First day of the great Harmony

Rebel Leader: Lee Chang-suk

Summary: On Round Two, Day 0, Lee Chang-suk, the Representative Federation’s Commander…

I read this record over a hundred times already . However, I could feel my head cooling down cold as soon as I started reading the first incident .

With that cooled head, I continued to read the record .

[The tournament will commence . ]