22. Jo Jung-sik
Jo Jung-sik was a quite famous gang boss in Seoul.
There wasn't a gangster who didn't know about the Jung-sik faction.
Especially since he rose to the top position at the young age of 31.
And that was in Seoul, known for being cutthroat.
'It's talent, talent. Heaven decided I should be a gangster from a young age.'
Jo Jung-sik acknowledged that he was talented.
The environment, physical conditions, craziness, fighting skills, courage needed to be a gangster.
He lacked nothing.
Otherwise, he couldn't have created an organization bearing his name in Seoul.
'But why? Why do I have to be dragged to this shitty place?'
He went to see the bell-ringing ceremony secretly from his gang members and was suddenly dragged to another world.
'I made the nickname Life is a Documentary in a daze, but...'
The situation was still unlucky.
Cursing constantly didn't change anything.
He just had to kill green monsters to survive.
'You damn god bastard. I'll survive this fucking place somehow.'
He cursed god while slashing goblins.
It was a struggle to survive, but Jo Jung-sik adapted surprisingly well.
Rather, he easily cleared Round 1 while achieving 2nd place in the area.
'As expected, my fighting skills haven't gone anywhere.'
Killing goblins was easy.
Especially the [Rune of Insight] obtained from a random rune fragment was a big help.
'Anticipating the opponent's movements in advance. This is too easy, isn't it?'
Still, Jo Jung-sik was dissatisfied with the fact that he only ranked 2nd.
'Who's 1st place? Black Scythe?'
He was well aware of the nickname Black Scythe.
He was the one who ran first and slaughtered goblins while others were still dazed.
'What kind of guy is this bastard to kill 100 in just 10 minutes?'
Even he, who spent his life fighting, took over 23 minutes.
'Is he some kind of special forces? Damn.'
For the boss of the influential Jung-sik faction in Seoul to only rank 2nd.
It was a matter of wounded pride.
From then on, Jo Jung-sik was subtly conscious of Black Scythe.
'I'll take 1st place next round.'
When Round 2 started a month later and the quest was revealed.
Jo Jung-sik couldn't hide his disappointment.
'What? Select a district representative? Then what about rankings?'
It was a disappointing situation for Jo Jung-sik, who was expecting a ranking battle with Black Scythe.
'And I have to spend 3 hours chatting with these idiots here?'
He was very displeased at having to discuss with idiots far inferior to himself, the 2nd place ranker.
'Ah, should I follow that bastard too? There might be prey.'
He briefly considered following Black Scythe into the forest, but Jo Jung-sik changed his mind.
'No. Hunting isn't important now. It's important to take the powerful position of district representative.'
The benefit of command authority that could control all humans like slaves held Jo Jung-sik's feet in place.
'This is better. Black Scythe would have just been a hindrance. I'm the king here.'
Jo Jung-sik stayed put with the sole intention of becoming district representative, observing the situation.
As he was gauging the timing to step up, an unexpected event occurred.
A guy called Mint Choco Youth came forward as a representative and started inciting people.
'What? Who's this agitator bastard?'
Jo Jung-sik frowned at the sight of him suddenly stepping up and persuading people.
Especially the system messages appearing whenever Mint Choco Youth spoke bothered him.
[Mint Choco Youth is deluding players with the Rune of Persuasion.]
[You are free from the persuasion's influence due to being higher level than the target.]
His rune had detected Mint Choco Youth's power.
'Rune of Persuasion? Is he inciting people with that?'
Seeing the message, he understood the situation somewhat.
'Seems you're not affected by persuasion if your level is higher?'
Others were level 5, but Jo Jung-sik's current level was 6.
Getting [Level Up] as a reward for 2nd place ranking in the area was a godsend.
'Damn agitator bastard. I should kill him first.'
Jo Jung-sik stabbed and killed Mint Choco Youth without further ado.
People seemed shocked by that sight, but for a gangster like him, this was nothing.
"He-he killed someone!"
"That person killed someone!"
Jo Jung-sik sneered at the people making a fuss.
"So what? We're all going to die anyway, I just sent him a bit early."
"Then you should die too!"
Jo Jung-sik smiled coldly at someone's condemnation.
"Yeah, I'll die someday too. But not now."
"Murderer!"
"Come at me if you have a problem."
Jo Jung-sik raised his dagger, but no one approached.
"What are you hesitating for? I said come if you have a problem."
"He's crazy. That guy is insane."
"If you don't want to come, I'll go."
Jo Jung-sik jumped into the crowd.
Swish swish- As he swung his dagger, blood spurted from two people's necks.
"Aaargh!"
"That crazy bastard!"
"How can you swing at people!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Jo Jung-sik rampaged like a madman, stabbing people indiscriminately.
If this was reality, there would be headlines about indiscriminate knife attacks, but this was the other world.
There were no reporters to take photos, no police to save them from danger.
Much less CCTVs for evidence.
"Die! Die, you worms! Haha!"
Blood sprayed every time Jo Jung-sik swung his dagger.
Players he had never met before died on the spot.
"Stop him!"
"Let's all kill that crazy bastard!"
Players tangled together with weapons to kill Life is a Documentary, their common enemy.
Even if he was 2nd place, he should be quickly subdued if many attack at once.
But things didn't go as expected.
"Ah, damn, the knife touched me! Be careful!"
"What? Damn? You look young, watch your language!"
"Come on, how do you know my age? Your old man mindset is showing, damn."
"You bastard!"
The players who were supposed to face Jo Jung-sik suddenly started arguing with each other.
Eventually, they crossed a line that shouldn't be crossed.
Stab-!
"Kuk!"
"Oh, oppa! Are you okay? Hey you bastard! Who are you to stab my oppa? Everyone! There's another murderer here, help!"
With weapons in hand, even light arguments easily escalated to knife fights.
"Die!"
"Let's kill all the murderers! Or we'll be next!"
"You bastards!"
The discussion site turned into pandemonium in an instant.
The spark Jo Jung-sik lit spread to innocent people.
"Aaargh!"
"It hurts!"
"Kyaaak!"
Jo Jung-sik's knife rampage only stopped when there was no one left approaching.
"Huh? Why are these bastards fighting among themselves?"
Jo Jung-sik stabbed someone beside him in confusion.
"Everyone stop!"
He shouted, but it wouldn't reach the ears of people already excited.
"I said stop! You bastards!"
People who reacted by turning their heads at Jo Jung-sik's shout lowered their weapons one by one.
They realized they had gotten too excited caught up in the atmosphere.
"Why are you fighting each other to the death? Are you sworn enemies?"
At that rebuke, people sheepishly distanced themselves from each other.
Though Jo Jung-sik, who attacked out of nowhere, wasn't one to talk.
"Don't reduce the number of achievers by killing each other needlessly, just vote for me later."
"Wh-who are you to tell us to vote?"
"Don't want to? Then die by my hand now."
When Jo Jung-sik pulled out his dagger again, the person who spoke up flinched and stepped back.
The blood splattered everywhere showed how much of a psycho Jo Jung-sik was.
"I won't say it twice. Vote if you don't want to die. I'll remember the nicknames and faces of anyone who doesn't vote for me and definitely kill them next round. Got it?"
"..."
No one answered, but Jo Jung-sik was perceptive.
'They're all scared of me.'
He knew scared faces well.
Threatening and scaring others was Jo Jung-sik's specialty after all.
'They'll all vote for me out of fear of retaliation.'
The result was obviously his overwhelming victory.
Black Scythe or whatever, he had a high chance of becoming district representative.
'Hehe, as expected, people only listen when you pull out a knife.'
It seemed a foregone conclusion that he would become district representative.
'As district representative, I can wield the powerful authority of command, right? Hehe.'
He had already thought about what orders to give first when he becomes representative.
'Black Scythe. I should kill that unlucky bastard first.'
He decided to order people to kill Black Scythe first thing.
Killing his rival and obstacle to become 1st place himself.
That was the ending Jo Jung-sik desired.
* * *
Slash-!
Ryumin's scythe cut an ogre's waist.
[You have killed an ogre!]
[3x Experience Gain Buff is in effect.]
[Experience +3.15%]
[Gold +20]
[Current Kill Count: 265/100]
[All stats increase by 100% due to Rune of Massacre effect.]
[You have leveled up!]
It died in one hit without even managing a proper attack.
Thanks to the Reaper's Rune doubling weapon attack power and the Rune of Massacre doubling stats.
'Plus with Death's Seal doubling damage, there's no way it could withstand.'
Hunting was already easy, but it became even easier after changing class.
'Of course, the leveling speed has decreased sharply in exchange.'
Unlike before, the experience gained was reduced to less than half.
From level 10 where you can become stronger through class change, the required experience increases.
Perhaps because of that, he only raised 6 levels despite killing 200 monsters in 2 hours.
'Even with the 3x experience benefit, it only gives 2-4%, so leveling is bound to be slow.'
Still, level 16 is overwhelmingly fast compared to other players.
There were countless players who hadn't even reached level 10 and didn't know about the sub-quest's existence.
'Time's almost up, should I wrap things up?'
After putting the scythe in his inventory, he opened his status window.
Unlike before, he invested stat points in Luck.
'With the random gold pouch, it's good to invest in Luck.'
High Luck is good in many ways.
Sometimes additional gold comes in when killing monsters, and item drop rates increase too.
Plus critical chance increases, which synergizes well with strong dealers like Reaper.
'Critical damage ignores the opponent's defense, which is good. Plus the damage is double normal hits.'
Though the chance only increases by 0.1% per stat point, so the probability of crits is low.
'Current Luck is 30. Only a 3% chance.'
But if it gradually builds up to around 300 later?
A 30% chance of defense-ignoring double critical hits with every attack.
That would be tremendously helpful.
Just then, a message appeared before Ryumin's eyes.
It was time to vote.
[Time remaining until voting: 00:00:00]
[Voting time has arrived.]
[Players in this area are being summoned to the starting point.]
A moment later, the environment changed in the blink of an eye.
He was instantly teleported from the forest to a wide open space.
"Wh-what's with those people? They suddenly appeared."
"Seeing the summoning thing, I guess they're the players who went into the forest?"
The players at the starting point were surprised to see those who had entered the forest.
But this side was just as surprised.
"Wh-what's this mess? There are dead people!"
"What the hell happened here?"
The bloodstains and corpses visible everywhere were enough to shock the players who had entered the forest.
It was natural since they thought people would just be discussing in the open space, but it had come to this.
But only Ryumin wasn't surprised.
It was all as he expected.
'I knew a fight would break out. It happened in previous regressions too.'
Of course, he also knew the cause of the fight.
Ryumin turned his head following people's gazes.
There stood a man with the nickname Life is a Documentary, arms folded.
'As expected, Jo Jung-sik has seized power.'
Jo Jung-sik.
A born fighter as the boss of the Jung-sik faction and a talented person who ranked 2nd in the area.
But due to his terrible personality, there's a risk in taking him to the final round.
'It would be better to remove a time bomb that could explode anytime soon, but...'
It's not time yet.
He needs to make Jo Jung-sik the representative and use him in Round 3.
Just then, perhaps feeling Ryumin's gaze, Jo Jung-sik looked this way.
"Hey, Black Scythe."
He approached with a swaggering gait and suddenly smiled.
"Where have you been? I've been waiting a while."
"What do you want?"
"Nothing much, just have a proposal."
Jo Jung-sik wiped his nose and spoke nonchalantly.
"I'll get straight to the point. Come under me."