God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 174: Episode 35_A Feint in the East, a Strike in the West (2)

Chapter 174: Episode 35_A Feint in the East, a Strike in the West (2)

3.

Kardian walked with her lips jutting out in a pout.

“My dragon life... how did it come to this...?”

She had charged a human to protect her mother’s Dragon Heart, and this was what she had to show for it. If she had known it would turn out like this, she would have cut her losses and walked away clean. Her reason for trying to protect the Dragon Heart wasn’t simple affection for her mother, but the thought that she could loosen her own restraints and lead the demons onto the continent.

Even though she had betrayed her kin and joined hands with the demons, in the end, the most important thing was her own life. It wasn’t as if dragons were born with three lives each. You could tell just by how quickly she had gone dormant the moment the demons retreated.

“Haah.”

In any case, she had already sealed the contract; nothing was going to change. All she could do was faithfully fulfill the vow, see the contract to its end, and regain her freedom.

’Humans only live for about a hundred years anyway, right?’

She decided to take comfort in that. The time allotted to her was, at the very least, longer than Han Simin’s. The problem was that while she had always felt a hundred years was a short time, ever since she got tangled up with him, a single day felt like a year.

Naturally, her shoulders grew heavier, and her steps slowed.

The monsters trailing her glanced nervously in her direction. It felt like the perfect moment to bare their fangs. The overwhelming presence they had always sensed from her had dulled considerably. The monsters of this mountain range, where survival of the fittest was law, could sense it better than anyone.

They felt like they might be able to win if they fought. In her current state, Kardian might not be able to hold back so many monsters.

Yet the monsters didn’t dare to dream of rebellion.

That was what a dragon was. Even when polymorphed into a human, even without mana. Her majesty remained.

“Ugh.”

The only tragedy was that this majesty didn’t work on humans—or rather, on Han Simin.

“Oh? Monsters!”

“What the—are those people?”

“There’s a mage with them!”

“Kill them.”

“GROOOAR!”

As Han Simin’s slave, bound to faithfully carry out his missions, Kardian spotted the humans and immediately issued the order to attack.

Finally, some time away from Han Simin.

Even though she was technically “free,” she couldn’t shake the feeling that her entire body was being constricted. This was the power of the vow.

“Kill them all!”

She had no choice but to vent her stress on the humans before her.

* * *

“Simin, is it really okay to send her off like that?”

“Her?”

“You know, that dragon lady.”

“She’s at least a few hundred years old, and you want to call her lady?”

“Hey, anyone prettier than me is my big sister. That’s the rule. But that’s not the point. You didn’t tame her, right?”

“It doesn’t matter. If she was going to run, she would’ve done it already.”

After explaining the plan to Kardian and sending her off, Han Simin answered Kang Yeseul’s anxious question with confidence.

His infinite trust in dragons! 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Or rather, his faith in the power of the vow. Kardian had certainly become docile and followed his words after forming the pact. He was at least sharp enough to tell whether that obedience was genuine.

“If she’s a real dragon, there’s nothing I can do about it anyway. I just have to use her appropriately and squeeze out everything I can.”

A realistic assessment and maximum efficiency. That was the scenario Han Simin envisioned. Of course, the best-case scenario would be to somehow tame Kardian like Squeaker, but he didn’t indulge in dreams with no basis in reality. There was simply too much he needed to extract from reality as it was.

Having sent Kardian off, Han Simin immediately began hunting. He relentlessly sought out monsters, especially those in groups. Monsters that moved in packs naturally existed in large numbers, and if their level was high on top of that, all the better. The danger, of course, increased, but safety was always his first consideration.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

He only hunted when he could fully benefit from the rune’s effect. It had a 300-minute cooldown, meaning he had to wait five hours to enjoy its 300-second effect. But those 300 seconds of rune-powered hunting were as efficient as 300 minutes of normal grinding. In the Mountains of the Crash, the synergy between the rune and the environment was beyond words.

“Wow. They just keep coming, no end in sight.”

“Less talking, more casting!”

“Okay!”

You could call it a berserk mode. For a brief time, they wielded power far beyond their usual limits—enough to crush forces they would normally struggle to even escape from. Their score couldn’t help but skyrocket.

On top of that, they didn’t stop hunting even during the rune’s cooldown.

Thirty points. Fifty points. A hundred points.

The Specialists shattered every daily record that could be set.

Once every five hours. It sounded long, but on a 24-hour basis, that was four times a day. While everyone else killed one monster and then ran from the horde that followed, they used this bug-like method four times a day to wipe out those very hordes.

Once the name “Specialist” was carved into the rankings, the situation began to change. Players and NPCs started to circle warily. They had begun to see them as a threat. They killed anyone they saw without mercy, but the stream of challengers didn’t stop. That was how fierce the Guild Selection Tournament was.

“Wow, we’re only at rank 100, and they’re already this wary?”

“Imagine what it’ll be like if we hit the single digits.”

“Can we even get there? There’s only a week left.”

“If we keep this up, we can.”

The pressure was already this intense at rank 100. Of course, it could be a reaction to how quickly they had rocketed up the leaderboard, but that didn’t change the outcome. Han Simin had no intention of stopping until he reached first place, and the incumbents would fight to maintain their positions.

Inevitably, someone would be pushed out.

If they had no intention of yielding quietly, friction was guaranteed. Naturally, if it came to a fight, the Specialists would be at a clear disadvantage.

Even so, Han Simin smiled.

“First, we’ll stomp Kenji’s group on our way up.”

Life was about planning, and he had more than enough cards in hand to draw up a good one. To still not be able to take first place after all this?

Unacceptable.

After checking the cooldown, Han Simin headed out to hunt again.

4.

An emergency broke out in the Kenji Guild.

Overall rank: 74.

If they just held their ground, they had the number one player guild ranking all but locked in. But in the span of a single week, the tectonic plates had shifted.

The Specialists.

The name alone made his skin crawl, and now they had crept right up to his chin. It was time to make a decision.

No, it wasn’t even really a decision. From the moment the Specialists began their surge, Kenji’s guild had been hunting harder than ever, pushing their score higher and higher. Yet the gap kept shrinking, and now the point difference was negligible.

What did that mean?

A reversal.

With four days left, the ranking difference was barely a gap at all. By tomorrow, the Kenji Guild’s name would likely be sitting below the Specialists’.

There was only one choice left.

“We crush them.”

He only had to crush one of the four. Their movements had already been made public through their brazen live streams, and they were still broadcasting even now. He didn’t like donating 100,000 won to Han Simin every day, but thanks to that, he knew exactly how to sabotage them for a guaranteed takedown.

“The ore from that otter-like thing. When it glows, a random buff is applied. The duration is about five minutes, and the cooldown is roughly five hours.”

It was extremely important information—the one and only reason the Specialists had vaulted up the ranks in a single leap, the core of everything they were doing.

Which was why, instead of being pleased, he felt uneasy.

’Why would they reveal something like this?’

No matter how money-crazed Han Simin was, if he’d been more careful, that information never would have gone public. He could have simply not streamed at all.

It felt like a scheme.

“Guild Master.”

“We’re going to hit them.”

He didn’t have much time to think it over. In the end, they had to strike. They had to go kill them, create a two-day gap while the Specialists were dead, and widen the lead. That would give them time to interfere again once they resurrected.

He had no choice but to move, harboring that unease. Thanks to hunting so much that the Mountains of the Crash felt like home, it wasn’t hard to find Han Simin’s location from the broadcast.

“Guild Master, I don’t see the woman who appeared on the stream as their new companion.”

“A woman?”

“Yes. She was insanely pretty, wearing a robe. Looked like a mage.”

“Ignore her. This isn’t the time to worry about that. We have to arrive within three hours and finish this within two.”

“Yes, Guild Master.”

The board was set. He was a piece that had no choice but to move. In his foul mood, he had no room to spare for some trivial variable.

He really didn’t.

But then—

“Guild Master! Breaking news! The Black Dragon is in critical condition and being attacked by monsters!”

That tiny variable reached out to him first.

Eliminate a rival, or strike it rich?

He fell silent.

Two options presented themselves to Kenji.

* * *

“Two options?”

“Yeah. I’m not that smart, but I’m good with clever tricks.”

She fell silent.

“Even if we just go head-to-head, I’ll win. But they’re clearly planning to kill us during our rune cooldown. Now imagine that, at that exact moment, an opportunity to kill the Black Dragon drops in your lap.”

“That would be hard to pass up,” Jeong Seolah nodded.

Number one in the player rankings versus number one in the continental rankings. The weight of those two titles was on a completely different level. Of course, both scenarios assumed the Kenji Guild would win, but who in this world makes plans assuming they’ll lose? Both paths were uncertain, but both looked winnable. If an impregnable dragon was in critical condition, then whoever struck it first would claim it.

“So what do you think he’ll do?”

“Rationally, this side has the higher probability of success.”

“I’m curious.”

Jeong Seolah didn’t just sit on her curiosity; she opened the list of streams. Among the countless players in the Guild Selection Tournament, surely at least one was broadcasting the situation. There weren’t many, but she eventually found a stream showing Kardian being pounded by monsters.

They all lay on Squeaker’s back and watched the broadcast.

NPCs were gathering one by one, and players were gathering too. Kardian was definitely getting beaten up by monsters, just as planned. It looked realistic enough that anyone would see it as an opportunity.

Pitifully so.

“GRAAAAH!”

She roared, but somehow, it sounded as though tears were mixed into the cry. It made your mouth water. If it was this tempting just watching a stream, even knowing the truth, how must it feel for the people actually there?

All the points they had accumulated so far? They didn’t matter. All they had to do was swoop in and deliver the final blow.

Everyone started watching each other.

And factions formed.

Those who wanted to protect the dragon.

And those who wanted to rise by killing it.

In the midst of the chaos, some familiar faces appeared.

“As expected.”

Kenji. A man of great greed, but also a man who had the right to be greedy.

Han Simin shut off the stream with a satisfied expression. Everyone who needed to be there had arrived. It would be rude to watch such a glorious fight only through a broadcast.

“Let’s go, Squeaker!”

“Ppaeaek!”

They were going to watch it live.

Squeaker took to the air, flying to personally witness the pandemonium masquerading as a dragon raid.

* * *