Chapter 50
Many streets of New York were copied onto the western region of the Capital. Among them, the 34th Street in Manhattan was where many notable buildings were located. One of them was the Empire State Building, the Union headquarters. There were 102 floors of this antique Western Woolworth Gothic-style building, and a man was looking down at Edu from the observatory on the eighty-sixth floor.
“It’s begun,” said Mikheil Gelovani, an overweight Russian man with grey hair.
He was twenty-fifth in the human ranking and was a well-known manipulator Ranker alongside Remy Martin. However, their goals couldn’t be more different. Remy was a member of the pioneering faction that strove to reach the center of the Mirror World, while Mikheil was a member of the conservative faction that stressed they should be satisfied with the regions the humans already seized control of.
“Remy Martin... you are too hasty. I’m sure you know how much of an eyesore the other races consider us.”
Humans started being Lost to the Mirror World ten years ago, much later than the other races. However, humans had considerably shortened the gap between them and the other races in that short time. Humans did not have talent in magic or have a secondary force, but it was because they started as a blank slate that they grew rapidly by absorbing everything thrown at them.
As a result, humans reclaimed cities up to the third zone and were currently in battle to occupy a bridgehead in the fourth zone. Mikheil was highly dissatisfied with the battle.
“Every Lost human can live just fine with the cities we’ve already reclaimed.”
The other races had been staring at the humans with contempt as of late. The more the humans reclaimed cities and expanded their hunting grounds, the more the other races felt their valuable resources, such as the Chaos and dungeons, were being taken from them.
However, according to the World Law, every race was free to reclaim cities from their dimension. The other races had no justification to complain since the humans were simply expanding their territory as per the law.
But it will come to bite us in the ass one day.
Nothing good came out of angering the other races since humans were still a weak race. Hence, the pioneering faction’s advances had to be delayed somehow, which was why Mikheil had made a deal with the goblins.
Don’t resent me, Remy Martin.
However, Mikheil’s objective wasn’t restricted to the common good of the human race. He knew Clan Martin, especially Remy Martin, had to disappear for his clan Chessboard to grow.
“Maestro... It’s quite the overblown alias, don’t you think?” Mikheil stared at the flames surging throughout Edu. “Checkmate. A true manipulator must know how to manipulate cost and benefit, and the desires of others.”
***
“Intruders! It’s an attack!”
“Crazy sons of bitches! Bold of them to attack Edu at the heart of Middle Earth!”
“Who are the enemies?!”
The entirety of Edu was placed in a state of emergency. The newbies ran out of their dorms.
“Jun! What should we do?” Ho-Geun asked as he gripped his sledgehammer tightly.
Shin Jun shouted, “What’s important is that we stay together! We have to regroup with people from the other categories!”
Students of each category were in different dorms.
Where are the instructors and the Bronze Cross Knights? Jun wondered.
He looked around, but the instructors, including Jaza Garlin, were nowhere in sight—so were the Bronze Cross Knights who were in charge of Edu’s law and order. He could only see panicking newbies.
“D-dammit! What do we do?”
“What the fuck else?! We have to run!”
Jun noticed the panic getting larger and shouted, “Everyone, please stay calm! This attack won’t go on for long! We’re in Edu, which is close to Union headquarters! The enemies must be aiming to handle things swiftly!”
Everyone paid attention to Jun. They all knew him since Jun was the focus of attention in the enhancement class.
“Let’s stay together and hold on for just one hour! That should be our goal for the time being! We’ll only be taken out one by one if we split up!”
Everyone calmed down once Jun set a clear goal.
We have to regroup with the others. The enhancement class has the most people. Which class should we regroup with first?
From where they were, they needed to choose between the manipulators and the emitters.
Emitters work better with enhancers! We’ll head there first! Jun decided.
He then shouted so that everyone could hear, “Madden! You’re in charge of the tanks that have defensive skills! Ken! You’re in charge of the attackers with offensive skills! Ho-Geun! You’re in charge of the nukers with burst skills!”
Most enhancers were short-range attackers. Hence, it was best to divide them into these three groups.
“Our destination is the emitter dorm! Let’s regroup with them and hold on for at least one hour until reinforcements arrive!”
***
The corpse of a young black man was split into three pieces and sprawled on a large sports field that one could see as they entered Edu through the main gate. It was Jaza Garlin, the instructor of the enhancement class.
“Krrrk! What is the meaning of this?”
“Grrrk... It seems the humans have... betrayed us.”
“Kraaak! That can’t be! This wouldn’t have been the end of it if they truly betrayed us. There must have been a slight information leak!”
Fifty goblins in black robes were on the sports field, and a goblin about a head taller than the rest stood at the front.
“Krrrk! Fairy! Prepare a warp gate!” the boss goblin said to the only one among them who was not a goblin.
It was a fairy, no bigger than a human head, with four pairs of translucent wings.
“I... understand,” the fairy responded lifelessly and gathered mana.
The boss goblin thought, An information leak? Then their promise to delay the dispatch of Union reinforcement still stands. We’ll capture as many humans and retreat as soon as possible!
He ordered his goblin subordinates, “Krrrk! Disperse! Grab as many human newbies as possible! We have already promised our guests a good time!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Grrrk!”
The goblins quickly scattered. Just then, the boss goblin sensed an anomaly.
“This mana... Krrrk! Halt!”
The eighty-meter-tall stone clock tower before them was uprooted like a toy. It then flipped upside down and flew at the goblins like a spear.
“Kerek! Everybody, move!” the boss goblin shouted as he charged forward and clenched his fist. “Kraaah!”
He infused his fist with Sorcery Force and mana and swung his fist at the flying clock tower.
[Activating Race Skill: Contact Sorcery - Shatter.]
The boss goblin’s fist hit the clock tower. It should have been the same as an egg smashing into a rock, but the result was different. The clock tower broke into fragments and fell to the ground.
The boss goblin landed on the ground and looked forward. Around thirty humans were standing before them, and at the front was a blond middle-aged man with blue eyes. The corpse of the young black man was floating toward him.
“Krrrk! Who are you?” the goblin asked.
“You will forever be in my memory, Jaza Garlin.” Remy ignored the boss goblin and handed Jaza’s corpse to the people behind him. He shouted, “Hear me, Martin clansmen! Exterminate those filthy goblins and protect the newbies! Reinforcements will be here soon!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Let’s go! Wherever you go, it doesn’t matter! Attackers are everywhere!”
“Traitors of our kind are among them! Capture or kill them!”
“The clan leader will be rampaging here! Get away or you’ll die if you get caught in the crossfire!”
The clansmen quickly acted at Remy’s command. Remy moved his hands, infused with immense power. The fragments of the clock tower floated in the air and were enveloped in blue mana.
“Kreeeh! Magnificent! You must be Remy Martin, the human Ranker who refused my offer!” the boss goblin shouted.
Remy frowned and thought, So, he was behind that sketchy proposal.
He recalled the letter with the suspicious proposal to send the newbies out of Edu for a practical lesson. The sender even wrote that they would provide information useful for the reclamation of the fourth zone territory.
It had been an official proposal from the Union, but Remy refused it immediately because it sounded suspicious. Although he prioritized the reclamation over education, he was not okay with risking the future of the human race for it.
Remy shouted, “We will demand an explanation from Abyete about this!”
Abyete was number one in the goblin ranking and the king of the goblin kingdom, Humilitas. He was a High Ranker with absolute influence over the goblins.
“Krrrk! Abyete has nothing to do with this. It is the sole act of Clan Trophy! I do not work for Abyete!”
Remy’s expression hardened. He asked, “Trophy? The trafficking black clan? Then you must be—”
“Krrrk! I don’t know where you got the information from, but it seems you weren’t sure about it. If you knew I was coming, you would never have even thought about facing me alone!”
The boss goblin took off his black robe, revealing his green skin, long ears, and red eyes gleaming with hostility. He was covered in muscles despite his small stature and had a diagonal scar on his abdomen.
“Kreeeh! My name is Tutobure! I will decorate my room with your head, Remy Martin!”
“Tutobure!” Remy gritted his teeth.
Tutobure was the leader of the infamous black clan Trophy and tenth on the goblin ranking. In other words, he was a High Ranker like Abyete.
I can’t believe a big shot like him would take action for something like this!
On top of that, if a goblin High Ranker was so proudly in Middle Earth near Union headquarters, it meant a deal Remy was unaware of had been made in the shadows. No matter how Remy thought about it, he seemed to be their target.
I can’t die here! Remy shouted inwardly, his eyes filled with determination.
He couldn’t let himself die until the day he obtained the Master Stone. His life was no longer his to give away until he revived Vivienne.
***
Looks like Jurie sent the information, Seong-Hwi thought as he ran.
He was made certain of it once he noticed Clan Martin’s countermeasures. The attack on Edu in his past life was hell. The Bronze Cross Knights in charge of Edu’s security had been nowhere in sight, and the few Martin clansmen died as they did their best to protect the newbies.
However, there had been an emitter human keeping watch on the east gate this time. Although he was forced back by the advance of the attackers’ reinforcements that arrived soon after, he had bought enough time for the newbies to understand the situation and act accordingly.
If Remy Martin heard about the attack in advance, he must have summoned his clansmen from the fourth zone. The issue lies in how many arrived on time.
Various clans took turns being Edu instructors so that one clan couldn’t monopolize the prospects. Clan Martin was in charge of this season of newbies, and since Remy prioritized reclamation over education, he came to Edu with only a select few.
The rest of his clansmen were in the middle of reclaiming the human city in the fourth zone because the front lines would become unstable if the entire clan were to pull out. The number of casualties would be determined by how seriously Remy took Jurie’s information.
I can only hope he called as many clansmen as possible or even another Ranker, Seong-Hwi thought as he searched the enhancer dorm.
His plan would begin once he followed Clan Trophy, retreating to their base once the attack was over.
Their base is in the second zone, and the dungeon where the Ancient Fairy Queen’s Wings were discovered lies inside!
“Dammit! Hey! There’s no one here! All the newbies ran away!” shouted a middle-aged woman with a red mark on her left hand as she ran to Seong-Hwi. “For fuck’s sake! Where the hell did they go? I need to capture as many humans as possible to be acknowledged in Clan Trophy!”
“I’ll say. But isn’t this going a little too far? We’re capturing and selling newbies who barely know anything about this world,” Seong-Hwi replied.
The woman scanned Seong-Hwi and replied, “Cut the generous crap. We didn’t even have an education facility like Edu in our days. We were on our own to learn information and survive!”
The woman irritatingly kicked a dorm room door and approached Seong-Hwi, saying, “Why are recent newbies the only ones who get these benefits? No one can blame me for selling a few newbies when I had to start from nothing!”
“You have a point.”
“Stop the bullshit and let’s chase after them. We need to get as many as possible before—”
The woman suddenly stopped talking. She saw a red string coming out of the man’s sleeve. She followed the string to a dagger embedded in her chest.
“Kurgh!” The woman vomited blood and collapsed.
Seong-Hwi pulled the Longus String and retrieved the Ackher Ring Dagger that stabbed the woman’s heart.
[567 Karma obtained.]
“I agree. I need to get as many as possible before they’re killed by the others.”
Although Seong-Hwi’s true plan would begin after the Edu attack, he couldn’t pass up on this golden opportunity to eliminate the human trash and earn Karma in the process without worrying about the Union.
I need to collect as much Karma as possible if I want to clear the dungeon alone.
Seong-Hwi sprinted throughout the dorm in search of his next prey. He was the hunter who hunted the hunters.