Chapter 70

Chapter 70
## Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Arena of Competition (3)

《The skirmish has concluded.》

《A total of 36 points will be allotted based on individual effort.》

《Randolph: 10 points. Isaac: 10 points. Isabella: 16 points.》

《Accumulated points are valid for various upcoming trials.》

《You have secured the Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule for a duration of 10h 11m.》

The tallying of our rewards triggered the moment the final Barbarian collapsed.

“Hah… hah… hah…”

Isabella was gasping for air, her skin glistening with a heavy layer of perspiration.

Almost immediately, a shimmering radiance surged from the fallen Barbarian’s remains, flowing directly into her form.

“Isabella. By how much did the Golden Rule’s timer extend?”

“Phew… it gained an additional 16 hours and 27 minutes.”

Roughly sixteen hours.

It appeared there was a direct correlation between the points earned and the fragments of the Golden Rule currently in her possession.

By that logic, if anyone managed to kill me, they would instantly harvest over 900 points.

Swaaaa!

Eerie limbs manifested from the stone walls, reaching out to claim the corpses.

Watching the masonry consume the bodies, I felt a slight tension in my brow as I spoke.

“Do you think the Desert Queen has entered the fray herself?”

“…I’m uncertain. But the presence of a Barbarian means we have to consider it a possibility.”

In the desert, the title of ‘Barbarian’ was reserved for only a handful of elite combatants.

They served as the most prestigious guardians of the Desert Queen.

Finding warriors tasked with the Queen’s safety inside the labyrinth was significant.

It suggested they might have been commissioned as mercenaries.

Unless Paysalmer, the great desert city, was facing some sort of economic collapse.

‘Perhaps being “hired” is just a convenient cover story.’

Attempting to storm the labyrinth in one massive wave would be counterproductive.

Infiltrating in smaller, specialized units was a far more effective strategy.

This explained why the participants were moving through the conquest under the guise of being employed by various factions.

But what was the underlying motive?

What had prompted them to start seizing the Abyssal Labyrinth now?

‘If the Queen is indeed here, steering clear of her is the priority.’

The Desert Queen was a hybrid of human and beast. She wore a mortal mask, but a predatory entity lived within her.

The true nature of that entity remained a mystery.

No one had ever truly identified it.

Speculation suggested she might be among the high-ranking vampires, considering her propensity for blood-drinking and weaving curses.

Even with Serengeti at my side, a direct confrontation was currently ill-advised.

Waging war against the Queen and a cohort of Barbarians simultaneously was a losing bet.

“Keep your head still.”

“Ah… my thanks.”

Isabella had come dangerously close to a forced disqualification.

The constraints of this place were proving to be more cumbersome than I had anticipated.

They were especially difficult to manage in the heat of a chaotic struggle or in the exhausted moments immediately following one.

‘Players, the desert city, the followers of the Goddess Church and the Earth God Church… who else is lurking in here?’

It seemed the scale of this labyrinth conflict involved far more organizations than I had initially guessed.

Complacency was a luxury we couldn’t afford.

Right then, a new notification flared.

《The Labyrinth Merchant has surfaced.》

《The Labyrinth Merchant offers a limited stock of rare commodities.》

《The Labyrinth Merchant will relocate via random teleportation at regular intervals; its current position is visible to all participants.》

《The Labyrinth Merchant is situated at coordinates 114.447.》

《Your present coordinates are 114.331.》

The merchant had appeared in our general vicinity.

“Damn it all!”

The man gnashed his teeth in frustration.

Every single member of his guild who had entered with him had been slaughtered.

And it had been done by a lone individual.

‘What the hell? Who is that monster!’

A warrior obscured by a silver fox mask.

His comrades, veterans who had successfully taken down a level 10 elite raid boss, had been wiped out by that single man.

It happened in a heartbeat.

They hadn’t even been able to mount a defense.

‘I saw a black bell on him.’

The image of the bell hanging from the stranger’s belt stuck in his mind.

Wasn’t the black bell the hallmark of the Death God Church?

If so, was that masked swordsman an agent of the Death God Church?

“H-Hey! You there!”

He shouted as a figure moved past him.

The woman, who had been walking with an air of indifference, paused and turned toward him.

“Are you addressing me?”

“Yes, you! Do you have any restorative potions?”

“Potions?”

“Wait… you’re a cleric of the Goddess Church. Heal my wounds! I’ll pay you whatever you want!”

He wasn’t ready to die here.

That bastard in the silver fox mask—he was going to make him pay.

It seemed his luck was turning around.

The woman wore a ring engraved with a golden crest, a clear sign of the Goddess Church.

Such jewelry was strictly reserved for high-ranking priestesses and those of even greater standing within the faith.

‘She looks strangely familiar…’

He dismissed the thought quickly.

The Saintess of the West was supposed to have perished during the Great Expedition.

Regardless, a holy woman of the Goddess Church wouldn’t leave a wounded man to suffer.

The woman gave a small nod and walked toward him.

“I will provide healing.”

“Th-Thank you.”

She reached out and placed her palm atop the man’s head.

And then.

*Crack!*

She violently wrenched his head around, snapping his neck.

As the man died instantly, a soft, innocent smile played on her lips.

“There~ all better.”

Arena of Competition (3)

114.447

The location where the Labyrinth Merchant had manifested.

114.331

My current position.

Based on the coordinate system where each unit represents approximately ten meters on a grid, the merchant was roughly a few kilometers away.

‘The announcement went out to everyone.’

The concern wasn’t just my awareness of the message.

Every soul in the labyrinth knew. There was no telling how many hundreds or thousands of people were currently racing toward those coordinates.

The minor groups weren’t the real threat; the true danger lay with the elites.

Players of transcendent caliber, like Gracia and the Master.

There were also the powerhouses from the continent of Pangeniar, such as the Desert Queen.

A collision with them over the merchant’s wares would inevitably lead to bloodshed.

It would be a fight to the death, and one side would be wiped out.

…And right now, the odds of us being the ones wiped out were uncomfortably high.

‘The logical choice is to stay away.’

We had no idea what the point requirements were, and it was certain that a swarm of lesser scavengers would be trailing behind the heavy hitters.

Furthermore, this was still a labyrinth.

Taking a wrong turn could mean missing the window entirely.

If the items for sale weren’t things I needed, the whole trip would be a massive waste of energy.

The smarter move would be to use the distraction to advance further into the depths.

While everyone else killed each other over the merchant, we could slip through the chaos and gain a lead.

“What’s the plan?”

“We’re moving.”

Still, sometimes you have to take the gamble.

Gracia flicked the crimson stains from her blade as she studied the glowing text in the air.

‘A Labyrinth Merchant.’

It was a surprise to see one manifest this early in the game.

If the rumors were true—that one could purchase artifacts like the Hydragon’s Soul, things that were otherwise unobtainable—

‘I must be the first to reach it.’

She needed to secure the inventory before anyone else.

She wouldn’t hesitate to cut down anyone standing in her path.

This was the Arena of Competition within the Abyssal Labyrinth.

Every person who stepped foot in here understood the stakes.

*Gurgle, gurgle…*

Amidst the pile of butchered bodies, something was still twitching.

A malformed chimera.

“How tedious.”

With a swift motion, she embedded her sword into the creature’s skull.

It fell silent, but Gracia felt a nagging sense of confusion.

The Abyssal Labyrinth wasn’t just home to human intruders.

‘Why am I seeing chimeras and the walking dead?’

These were summoned or crafted monsters.

They could have been the work of an entrant’s ability.

However, the craftsmanship was far too sophisticated for a standard summon.

These were at least level 8.

The stronger specimens were hitting level 10.

To Gracia’s knowledge, only a very small number of individuals possessed the power to animate undead of that quality.

The eccentric bioengineer responsible for the Hydragon, or perhaps the player known as MintChocoDelicious…

‘Neither of those two would likely operate so openly.’

They preferred the shadows for their work.

If it wasn’t them, then these were indigenous monsters.

There were several entities capable of commanding such a legion.

Names like Eldritch, the Dark Lord, the Abyssal Rag Ghouls, or a member of the Four Kings like the Death King came to mind.

Any one of them would be a catastrophic encounter.

Gracia shook off the thought.

‘If they stand in my way, they’ll die like the rest.’

She felt no doubt.

The identity of her opponent was irrelevant.

Her true aim was the Sword Saint Laila.

The sovereign of this maze, the monarch of the Abyss—the one who claimed the same legendary title she sought to define!

‘I will slay him, prove my worth, and claim dominion over this realm.’

This was the Abyss.

Laila was its master.

And the Abyss was a forgotten territory of Pangeniar on the surface, a land that had remained lost to history.

It was the desolate prison where Laila was held.

If Laila were to fall, this territory would ascend, merging back into the continent to become a flourishing city.

The one who struck the killing blow would become the lord of this ‘labyrinth city.’

It had happened before with other abyssal monarchs whose territories were converted into cities after their defeat.

She would carve through anything that obstructed that goal.

Swoong.

Swoong.

Swaaaaak.

A multitude of swords, numbering a thousand, materialized in the air behind her.

“Seek it out.”

Swish!

Swoosh!

The thousand blades fanned out through the corridors, acting as beacons and scouts as they searched for the Labyrinth Merchant.

A tide of entrants surged toward the merchant’s location.

Everyone was desperate to be the first to purchase the ‘special items’!

*Boom!*

A sudden explosion acted as a grim signal.

“What? Where did this smoke come from?”

“Are these mushroom spores?”

“It’s toxic!”

Hidden traps triggered, releasing clouds of spores that blinded the rushing crowd.

Simultaneously, a paralytic toxin began to shut down their nervous systems.

Swoosh!

Thud!

“Agh!”

Projectiles hissed through the haze.

Many were killed instantly by the arrows, but the survivors faced a worse fate.

“I can’t see anything!”

“Help me!”

“I… I can’t move my legs!”

“Gaaah!! The pain!! Kill me!! Please, just end it!!”

The air was thick with wails of agony.

Some of the screams were pleas for death.

The level of suffering was clearly beyond natural limits.

Those cries sent a chill of terror through the surrounding entrants.

‘Where are those arrows coming from?’

‘That’s no ordinary bow. It’s enchanted to amplify pain.’

‘They’ve turned the approach into a death trap. Moving forward is suicide!’

Ambushers had arrived first and set the stage.

The latecomers were already at a disadvantage.

Unless the disparate groups could find a way to cooperate—an impossible task among rivals—they were stuck.

‘Damn. What’s the move?’

‘Maybe we should just wait for the next merchant to appear?’

People lingered at the perimeter, paralyzed by indecision.

By the time the smoke eventually dissipated.

“What? There’s nobody here?”

The sniper who had been raining death from the shadows was long gone.

In their place stood the Labyrinth Merchant.

“A… vending machine?”

It was nothing more than a solitary automated dispenser.

The sight triggered an immediate eruption of violence.

“Kill them all!”

“Stay away from the machine!”

A brutal struggle broke out as people slaughtered each other just to reach the interface.

In the midst of the chaos, one person managed to slip through and interact with it, a smug grin on his face.

‘Morons. Tearing each other apart while I take the prize.’

With a racing heart, he touched the machine’s display, and a list materialized.

But as he scanned the available stock, his grin vanished, replaced by a mask of pure irritation.

“…Why is the leftover stock such garbage?”

It felt like a gift from above.

Having a Labyrinth Merchant pop up so close—I wasn’t about to pass that up.

I sprinted to the location, secured the area momentarily, and laid my own traps.

‘I don’t have enough points.’

The merchant appearing as a vending machine was a bit of a curveball, but the real issue was my lack of currency.

‘Even the ones who got here before us checked the stock and walked away.’

We hadn’t been the absolute first on the scene.

Seeing that we lacked the points to buy anything meaningful, we retreated before the main horde arrived.

It was clear that this coordinate was about to become a bloodbath.