"There's still around 4 minutes until the Obelisk's entrance is revealed, and I welcome anyone who is unhappy with either ConcCube or me. Step forward now, and I'll gladly reduce the amount of competitors I'll face later competing for the Obelisk's entrance."
Kim Seongwon sounded strongly, and obviously, no one dared to take even a single step forward. No one wanted to lose their lives.
"Well, what can we do...Let's just wait and hope the entrance appears near us," One of the conquerors said with a crestfallen face, which is much expected with many Conqueror Companies having Obelisks to their own, "Yeah, I agree with you. No one would dare to go snooping around looking for possible places the entrance would appear at. They would just get themselves killed."
Seunghyuk was pretty angry when he heard snippets of conversations from all the different Conquerors standing around him. He was angered by the unfairness and the sole reason of power imbalance that caused the powerful to get even more powerful, and the weak to get even weaker.
"Well, I'm not going to be under all these companies' control," Seunghyuk spoke softly under his own nose as he slowly took a few steps backwards every once in a few seconds, until he reached the back of the crowd, "Okay, now I'm going to try my best to sneak to the back of the Obelisk, I'm pretty sure there is a chance the entrance would appear there."
"2 more minutes! Still no one? Looks like all of you are really a bunch of cowards trying to haul some cheap treasure without skill. Leeches," Seongwon provoked the helpless crowd once again, exuding animosity worth of a strong leader of a company.
Seunghyuk was mad. He was so vexed to a point that he almost went insane and stopped in his tracks. Seunghyuk was very close to the back of the Obelisk, he just needed to take 10 to 15 big steps and he would reach it, but his anger was forming a barrier in front of him, intentionally forcing him to turn back.
"WELL! I CAN'T STAND HIS COCKY ASS ANYMORE!" A random male Conqueror in the crowd shouted at the top of his lungs, rushing out of the crowd and jumped into the air, sending a sharp, blue wave of power towards Kim Seongwon, "Die! You arrogant piece of—"
The man did not have the chance to finish what he originally wanted to say, and Seongwon deflected his power wave back effortlessly, slicing the man into two, clean pieces. Every single person stood there shocked, but everyone seemed to be stirred by anger and annoyance, slowly one by one, every single Conqueror leapt forward and charged towards the haughty leader of ConcCube.
"Kim Seongwon, you—" Seunghyuk's eyes flashed angrily, seemingly uncontrolled fire danced in his eyes as he turned around sharply, losing the original goal in his mind, but something felt off, "Wait...Why am I so angry...?"
"The skill Heart of Cold Steel has been activated. Heart of Cold Steel has been upgraded, currently one star out of five stars."
Seunghyuk immediately realised he was affected by a mind-affecting skill of some sort. Kim Seongwon must have had some mind-affecting skill that made people angry, and luckily enough, Seunghyuk had the passive skill, Heart of Cold Steel to keep him out of trouble.
Seunghyuk immediately took the chance to run away, leaving the crowds and crowds of people to injure themselves or lose their lives while rushing towards Kim Seongwon and his company members. Seunghyuk immediately dashed to the back of the Obelisk and immediately scanned the area carefully.
"Okay, there isn't anybody here...Wait," Seunghyuk was about to start searching for Obelisk entrance traces but his Eye of Detection spotted someone else's status window, hence he decided to play it smart, "Yeah, no signs of human here. Let me just look for some clues..."
Conqueror's Name: Min Yeoksang (Male)
Conqueror's Level: 2
Strength: 4
Agility: 5
Defense: 5
MP: 5
Skills: One With The Shadows (One out of Five stars)
Assassin's Attitude (One out of Five stars)
Assassin's Kill (One out of Five stars)
Seunghyuk pretended to look for clues, while carefully analysing the Conqueror's skills and information. Apparently, his name is Min Yeoksang and he has skills that help him hide in the shadows and deal one lethal blow to enemies when they are not aware of his existence. The Conqueror's stats are at least equal or higher than Seunghyuk's own stats, so Seunghyuk could be easily overpowered by the Conqueror, hence he needed to be really careful.
While keeping Yeoksang, the Conqueror, in check, Seunghyuk surveyed the ground around the back of the Obelisk and noticed some ancient Mayan Numerals written on the platform accompanied with a single word 'knock'. Seunghyuk was not focussed enough to solve and decipher the Mayan Numerals as he kept more than half of his concentration on Yeoksang hiding in the dark, waiting for him to strike.
All of a sudden, the leaves shifted and footsteps was audible, then a figure dashed out from behind of Seunghyuk, wielding a sharp dagger in his hand, trying to catch Seunghyuk off guard, but to no avail.
"Mr Min, it's dangerous to point sharp objects at other people, you know?" Seunghyuk asked in a sarcastic tone, punching the Conqueror in the wrist with his knuckles as he twisted the knife out of the Conqueror, Yeoksang's hands, "It's dangerous for you as you might lose your life. Min Yeoksang?"
"How did you know—" Yeoksang tried to ask but he was kicked right in the face by Seunghyuk and rolled backwards, leaving black and blue bruises on his face.
Seunghyuk was a little confused, as Yeoksang's Defense stat was higher than his Strength stat, but he easily kicked him back and left him black and blue. It does not seem like he would put on an act and pretend to be weak as well, because if someone has a higher Defense stat, they would heal their wounds relatively quickly, or at least not look so weak. However, this case is totally different for the Conqueror Seunghyuk is currently facing, it seemed like Seunghyuk's own statistics are higher than Yeoksang's but in reality, they are lower.
"Well, stop rolling about on the ground like a dog. Stand up," Seunghyuk provoked the Conqueror and received a reply, Yeoksang immediately jumped up and grabbed Seunghyuk's chest with both his legs using Scissors Kick, but Seunghyuk's body stood still and did not topple, "Did you skip meals or anything? You're really weak for a 4-stat Strength Conqueror."
The poor Conqueror widened his eyes in surprise as to why Seunghyuk would know his body statistics, but he had no time to say anything as Seunghyuk quickly grabbed him around his neck and held him upwards. Yeoksang struggled to breathe through the lack of air but he tried to shout in order to get Kim Seongwon and ConcCube's attention.
"Help...There's someone stea-stealing the trea-treasure," Yeoksang screamed out, but he was too soft, like a cricket creaking softly, literally not even Seunghyuk, who is standing right in front of him, could hear what he was saying clearly.
Suddenly, the circluar Obelisk shook slightly and sounded a distinctive sounding alarm, which Seunghyuk recognises it as the Obelisk's alarm to signal the appearance of the entrance. The Obelisk's entrance are never obvious, always triggered by stepping on platforms or breaking of walls, or better Obelisks consisting of puzzles to solve, and even better Obelisks would need a certain objects to reveal its entrance.
However excited Seunghyuk was, he realised he had absolutely no time to waste and he threw the pathetic Conqueror on the floor and ended his life by dealing a strong kick to the side of his head, cutting off the nerves and veins there.
"Well, I think..." Seunghyuk immediately stopped himself, as he realised Kim Seongwon and his company would've started sweeping the area around the circumference of the Obelisk for the entrance. With Seongwon's hearing skill, he could hear Seunghyuk now that he's closer to the back of the Obelisk, "I need to solve these Mayan Numerals...Good that I've graduated with a degree and learnt this in University..."
Seunghyuk whispered to himself, as he always did to gather his thoughts. He quickly remembered that Mayan Numerals are an ancient numerical system dated back to around 752 BC, the Mayan people developed a number system with dots, lines and shells. One dot represented one, and there cannoy be five dots in one line, hence changed into a line, which represents five, and there cannot be more than three lines in one area, hence three lines and four dots is the maximum number it can reach in one layer: which is 19. When going up to another layer, things get complicated as for the second layer, each value is 20, hence one dot represents 20 and one line represents 100, then the third layer will have one dot representing 400, fourth layer 8000, and with powers of 20 it increases every layer.
The Mayan Numerical System is a complicated system but Seunghyuk knew how to read it and immediately analysed the numerals in his brain. The number had two layers, with the lower layer having two lines and three dots and the upper layer having 2 lines and no dots. Hence, the value is 13 in the lower layer and 200 in the upper layer, adding up to be 213. When Seunghyuk registered the link between the number and the word 'knock', Seunghyuk's eyes almost widened and popped out when he realised he had to knock the platform 213 times to get the entrance to be visible.
"Well, I'll have to do it really quickly, and accurately, I can't go over 213..." Seunghyuk whispered under his breath again and started to knock in sets of tens and counted 1 to 10, then repeating until he had 21 sets of tens, finishing it by knocking three last times, "I think I did it...Took me at least two minutes..."
Seunghyuk stood up and waited for the entrance to appear but nothing happened. Seunghyuk's brows knitted in annoyance as he thought he did everything correctly, but little did he know, he actually did. The wall at the back of the Obelisk had a part crack open and a stone eye opened up, scaring Seunghyuk suddenly. Then, the eye shot out a holographic blue ray out from its pupil, and Seunghyuk felt almost every fibre of his body get tugged and sucked away as his whole body disappeared from the back of the Obelisk. When Seunghyuk disappeared, the eye closed again, but the wall's crack did not fix itself.
"Wait! Something happened here," Kim Seongwon said solemnly and ordered his company members to search for clues and one of the members finally discovered the Mayan Numerals and some others also found the body of the Conqueror, Min Yeoksang.
"Yumi, call Taekwoon and get him to decipher the code," Kim Seongwon ordered and the female standing beside him merely nodded seriously saying, "Sir, Taekwoon lost his life to a newly-awakened Conqueror just now like I've reported to you."
"Right. I've forgotten, now what do we do."
Kim Seongwon and his company stood there helplessly waiting for what seems like eternity.