Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 74

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 74. Legendary Quest
《Remarkable!》
《You have survived for five hours.》
《You were never caught by the Chaser even once.》
《All stats amplified by 50%.》
《You have earned 8,000 Contribution Points.》
《From now on, you will be marked with a larger dot on the map.》
Five hours had passed since the Second Night began.
During that time, he’d already earned rewards just by staying alive.
‘So Survival Rewards are being multiplied tenfold here too.’
What surprised him was that the Survival Reward itself had also been applied at ten times the rate.
More than that, the longer he survived, the steeper the gains became.
If he made it until dawn without being caught, he’d accumulate a sizable amount of Contribution Points.
But then.
‘I can’t settle for just Survival Rewards.’
He had no intention of hiding away for something as meager as basic survival bonuses.
An unexpected variable had appeared, yet it didn’t matter.
By considering every possibility and reasoning swiftly and carefully, he’d become certain that Aheta’s prey was not himself.
Which meant.
This was an opportunity.
‘I’ll move while Aheta’s attention is elsewhere.’
The gaze of Aheta, Lord of the Moon, had been entirely captured by the Uninvited One.
If that entity were found and identified, a reward of one million Contribution Points awaited.
Aheta was clearly enraged.
But if the Uninvited One was a dragon of the ancient dragon rank, it would not be found easily.
The Creator could not interfere casually with the Creative Abyss.
That was why Aheta sought to borrow the hands of the participants rather than hunt directly.
《Shelter (5) has been destroyed!》
《6 Fugitive Marks were destroyed along with it.》
《Shelter (6) has been destroyed!》
《4 Fugitive Marks were destroyed along with it.》
《You have surpassed 500,000 Contribution Points for the first time!》
《You have cleared the Hidden Chain Quest ‘The Highest Place (3)’.》
《You have earned 150,000 Contribution Points.》
Park Chan-woo moved relentlessly, faster than anyone else.
As time passed, his stats climbed sharply, and his magic grew correspondingly more potent.
His frail constitution also improved considerably as his stats rose.
Wherever Heavenly Punishment had swept through, only dust remained in its wake.
“A shelter’s been destroyed again!”
“It’s the Ghost!”
“Damn it! Find the Ghost!”
Before long, the Doppelgängers had taken to calling him Ghost.
Moreover, as if they’d realized that Park Chan-woo’s objective was destroying Shelters, the number of Fugitives hiding within them steadily dwindled.
Instead, they prowled around the perimeter of the Shelters, desperately searching for him.
But their desperation notwithstanding, they could never find him.
‘The Masterpiece Map shows me all the information around me.’
The map didn’t merely reveal the locations of hidden Shelters.
It also displayed real-time data on every Chaser and Fugitive in his vicinity.
Chasers appeared as black dots; Fugitives as red dots.
Thanks to this, he could track positions and movement paths in real time.
‘197 Chasers within a 5km radius, 133 Fugitives.’
The detection range itself was a generous five kilometers.
Considering that standard maps typically covered around 500 meters, this too was tenfold amplification.
No wonder the Doppelgängers could never locate him.
Thanks to this advantage, Park Chan-woo could move with maximum speed and safety.
He hunted only the handful of Doppelgängers he could overpower, avoiding larger groups.
《Shelter (7) has been destroyed!》
《2 Fugitive Marks were destroyed along with it.》
《Shelter (8) has been destroyed!》
After that, he destroyed two more Shelters.
However, once eight Shelters were destroyed, the number of Doppelgängers hiding inside them dropped noticeably.
By the eighth Shelter, there were no Fugitives in hiding at all.
Even the swarms of Doppelgängers circling the Shelter’s perimeter, searching for “Ghost,” had vanished entirely.
“…They’ve decided to abandon the Shelters, it seems.”
Park Chan-woo let out a quiet laugh.
They’d realized it was futile to resist.
The decision had come faster than he’d expected.
He’d already noticed that Doppelgängers were exchanging information with one another, but even so, their sheer numbers should have made reaching a collective decision difficult.
‘They’re evolving from a mob into an organized group. A leader is emerging.’
Evidence of a transition—from scattered packs into a large-scale force unified under a powerful leader with genuine command presence.
The speed of their evolution was staggering.
This hadn’t happened during the Second Night before.
‘It’s fair to call this a direct confrontation between humans and Doppelgängers.’
Originally, the content had been designed to make humans compete against each other.
They’d wanted to watch mistrust bloom among mankind and see it tear itself apart.
Then Doppelgängers appeared out of nowhere.
Aheta, the Moon Lord, and the Creators—why had they played the Doppelgänger card as humanity’s rival?
‘…They’ve become curious about humans.’
Piece by piece, the larger picture was coming into focus.
The grand design they’d laid out.
It seemed they’d become fascinated by humanity, which they’d written off as worthless, and deployed Doppelgängers in overwhelming numbers.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason to deploy Doppelgängers at all.
They were desperately duplicating humans through their Doppelgängers.
‘They’re using Doppelgängers to map out every possibility humans possess, to extract information.’
But why the sudden shift?
Why start now, when they hadn’t done this in the past?
There was nothing obvious to point to.
Unless there was a human capable enough to reshape the board itself.
Han Shin wasn’t at that level yet.
Besides, Aheta was keeping his Avatar Contract with Han Shin secret.
‘Adora mentioned it. That Creators descended en masse during the Second Night.’
Then, suddenly, Adora’s message came to mind.
《’Beware. During the Second Night, Creators have descended in great numbers. They are using vast quantities of Coins to summon strange things into the Second Night.’》
It was a detail he’d given little thought to at first.
The emergence of Doppelgängers had been far more striking.
…But were these “descended” Creators ordinary ones?
‘New Creators. Ones with no interest in Earth until now.’
With vast quantities of Coins, they’d summoned massive numbers of Doppelgängers.
And Aheta had permitted it.
Which meant.
That high-ranking Creators—the sort whose words Aheta would listen to—had begun taking interest in this Second Night.
And they were almost certainly Creators who had shown no prior interest in Earth.
Interest that hadn’t existed before had emerged.
Investment-grade interest, no less.
There had to be a catalyst for their sudden attention.
‘…Did my conquest of the Tower of Pride trigger this?’
Likely. The conquest of Pride itself.
That deed would have been the subject of discussion at the heart of the Abyss.
They were curious how a human had conquered Pride.
How a human with talents worse than garbage had accomplished a feat even the Twelve Tribes had failed to achieve.
They might possess talents we don’t know about!
So perhaps that’s why they’re using Doppelgängers to replicate all of humanity’s talents, all of their information.
‘They’re searching for new possibilities in the human who conquered Pride. More precisely, they’re searching for me.’
He nodded to himself.
For something happening during the Second Night, the scale was far too vast.
Because his actions had set powerful, unplanned Creators in motion.
An unprecedented phenomenon.
‘Things are turning out interesting.’
Park Chan-woo actually welcomed this situation.
The fact that so many high-ranking Creators were taking notice of Earth was an extraordinarily good thing.
Especially before the Tribal War even began.
‘The demons are searching for a counterforce to stand against the Twelve Tribes.’
The demons of the Abyss never touched the Twelve Tribes.
Likewise, the Twelve Tribes had never touched the Abyss.
Both sides were too powerful; should they collide, the path to mutual annihilation would open.
‘If we merely suggest the possibility that humanity could rank among the top in the Tribal War… the demons will spare no investment in Earth.’
The demons and the Twelve Tribes.
What they chose instead of war was the Tribal War.
An entertainment for the sake of peace, you might say.
The Tribal War was something like a colosseum.
A stage where they displayed their prowess and forced a semblance of peace.
When new species were discovered, they too were granted participation rights.
‘Yet no species surpassing the Twelve Tribes has emerged in a long time.’
The Twelve Tribes were far too powerful.
When new species appeared, they posed no threat whatsoever.
Rather, they were toyed with like playthings and enslaved.
Humanity too saw vast numbers of their kind vanish into slavery.
Each time the Tribal War opened, mankind finished last without fail, and five percent of the remaining population was selected as slaves.
In the first Tribal War alone, 120 million humans became slaves.
Ten million sent to each of the Twelve Tribes.
After that, no one knew what became of the enslaved humans.
Yet it was certain they most likely became test subjects and perished.
‘Though other new species occasionally participated in the Tribal War, humanity was always last.’
Humans were the weakest.
So why would the demons spare them any attention?
As interest in Earth waned, the number of Creative Abyss dungeons dwindled as well.
As the Creative Abyss shrank, humanity could grow no stronger.
A vicious cycle.
The Creator was evil that must be destroyed, yet for that very reason, they needed to be exploited.
At this point, high-ranking Creators taking interest in humanity was a good sign.
‘Then I need to show humanity’s potential far more dramatically.’
Ten million Contribution Points had been the goal.
The target changed.
‘Hundred million points. Aim higher than that.’
Actually threaten Aheta.
He’d meant to hold back, but it seemed he’d need to consume everything after all.
To do that.
‘Monopoly.’
Total monopoly without any concession was essential.
Park Chan-woo moved immediately.
‘Heavenly Punishment.’
Crack-crack-crack!
Divine punishment descended from the sky.
Then.
《’Magic Critical Hit (32%)’ has activated!》
《’Double Casting (25%)’ — Heavenly Punishment strikes twice.》
《The final Shelter, ‘Last Haven,’ has vanished.》
《Unbelievable!》
《All twenty Shelters have been destroyed.》
《By destroying all Shelters alone, you have achieved the Masterpiece Quest ‘Shelter Destroyer.’》
《The qualification of ‘Silent Betrayer’ has evolved.》
《You have obtained the qualification of ‘Silent Destroyer’!》
《’Silent Destroyer’ is one of the qualifications that can lead to ‘Lord.’》
《All rewards are now doubled.》
《You have broken through 2,000,000 Contribution Points for the first time.》
《You have cleared the Hidden Chain Quest ‘The Highest Place (Complete).’》
《You have acquired 1,200,000 Contribution Points.》
《All hidden conditions have been satisfied!》
《’Legendary Quest: The Path to Legend’ has appeared!》
《The appearance of a ‘Legendary Quest’ is announced to all participants!》

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————