The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player - Chapter 112

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

The Maxed-Out Player’s 100th Return – Episode 112
112. Exposing the Traitor
Unlike the Traitor Group, the Regular Group distributes experience and gold through party hunting.
‘Excluding the traitors, that’s 201 people, so it’ll be divided by 201.’
Without even calculating, I could tell the experience I’d receive would be pittance.
‘Well, if some players die along the way, the remaining shares would increase.’
Since we’re dealing with mere orcs, there shouldn’t be much danger.
Anyway, if I divide the 4,600 creatures from the assault by 201…
‘That works out to experience equivalent to killing 20 creatures solo.’
Which meant the experience gained wasn’t substantial.
After 30 waves to reach the destination, I’d only end up killing around 600 creatures total.
‘But once we reach the destination, everyone receives an experience bonus. A considerable one at that.’
The core of the escort quest lies in the experience reward at the end.
‘They actually double the experience earned during the escort.’
In other words, I’d receive an additional experience equivalent to killing 1,200 creatures.
That’s why Ryu Min had mentioned earlier that players could reach level 40.
‘Of course, that’s only possible if you perform well with the Human Merchant Caravan.’
Could An Sang-chul have joined the Human Merchant Caravan out of desire for level 40?
At his current level 34, reaching level 40 would be entirely feasible if he cleared the Human Merchant Caravan.
‘At this pace, I’ll easily surpass level 60.’
Despite completing only one wave, I had already reached level 55.
One level gained per wave.
‘If I block the remaining 29 assaults, I’ll surpass level 60 with room to spare.’
It couldn’t be otherwise—I had experience buffs.
A 3x buff limited to Round 8 and a 1.5x buff from my title.
With a combined 4.5x multiplier, I had no choice but to advance faster than others.
‘Plus, I’m not in a party.’
Since the Traitor Group allowed solo play, all the experience and gold from the 463 creatures I’d killed came entirely to me.
‘The other traitors probably did the same, but they couldn’t have killed as many as me.’
Even going solo, could anyone kill more than 50 creatures?
No matter how easy orcs are to fight, without one-shot kills, surpassing that would be impossible.
‘Still, they have brains, so the traitors will calculate their profits and losses.’
Unless they were fools, they’d already realized how worthwhile solo play was for experience.
‘They’d regret completing the quest too early.’
If they blocked the caravan and completed the quest, there’d be no more experience to gain—a waste.
‘They’d want to level up a bit more against these easy orcs.’
As I pondered this, the dwarf shouted.
“Let’s depart again!”
The carriage began to move.
Clop-clop-clop-
But that reprieve was short-lived.
Ten minutes had barely passed before the second wave began.
“These insane pig bastards! Already showing up?”
“We barely got any rest.”
The players grumbled their complaints while hunting orcs for experience points.
Yet several players couldn’t help but lose their motivation, and the reason was clear.
Shing—shing-shing-shing!
It was Ryu Min’s overwhelming prowess.
Every swing of his scythe cleaved through four orcs at once—a display of power that would demoralize anyone who witnessed it.
Especially with his already high level combined with Min Ju-ri’s buffs, the gap was insurmountable.
“Wow… I barely manage one, but how many is Black Scythe taking down?”
“Sigh, this is really soul-crushing.”
“At this rate, we don’t even need to hunt, right?”
“Right? We’re getting experience just standing here.”
“Why don’t we just ride Black Scythe’s coattails?”
Some players quietly retreated backward.
They abandoned their hunts despite being capable of killing more, simply because it felt exhausting.
With experience flowing in effortlessly, laziness was inevitable.
Ryu Min, still hunting, noticed their behavior and smirked.
‘To their eyes, I must look like a party member. That’s why they think they’re riding my coattails.’
The players were mistaken, assuming the constant stream of experience messages meant they were gaining experience from my kills as well.
‘But they can’t just idle around. Rankings are determined by contribution.’
This round’s ranking system was based on total contribution.
Simply escorting wouldn’t place them in the top half.
‘Successful escort is just the baseline requirement. The real ranking comes down to how much you contributed to monster hunting.’
If they continued sitting idle like that, this might be their last round.
Seo A-rin and Min Ju-ri understood this fact, which is why they hunted diligently.
‘Well, Min Ju-ri is an exception. She’ll accumulate enough contribution without fighting much.’
Min Ju-ri had gone around seeking out players before the hunt began.
The reason was simple.
By casting buffs, she was increasing her contribution.
“Hello, I have the Buffer job class. Would you like to receive a buff?”
“Huh? A buff?”
Min Ju-ri distributed buffs to people freely, like a missionary spreading the gospel.
While her behavior might have looked like a drug dealer to some, the actual response was explosive.
“Whoa, my stats went up by 60%?”
“What? Really?”
“I’m telling you, it’s true. You should try it too.”
“Where is she? The buffer? Give me one too!”
“Wow! My overall stats actually increased!”
“Give me one too! A buff, please!”
“Over here! There’s someone who hasn’t received a buff yet!”
“Yes, yes, I’m coming!”
It had only been twenty minutes since Min Ju-ri had rushed off to distribute buffs with a somewhat flustered expression.
‘Looking at how they’re clamoring for buffs, Blessing really is absurdly overpowered, isn’t it?’
Min Ju-ri was swamped applying buffs to roughly two hundred thirty people.
On top of that, she was also casting Swift, but since its duration lasted only thirty minutes, she had to make multiple rounds afterward.
“Phew, this is surprisingly busy. Haha.”
Min Ju-ri hadn’t realized she would become this popular.
‘Eventually, people would say there wasn’t a single person who hadn’t received Buffer’s buff, though some had only received it once.’
Players who learned of Buffer’s existence would call for her every time their buffs expired.
Though being summoned here and there didn’t look ideal, it was a profitable venture for Min Ju-ri.
‘In fact, it’s an enormous gain. When the buffed players defeat monsters, contribution points flow to Min Ju-ri as well.’
Consider receiving just one percent contribution from two hundred thirty people.
She could accumulate contribution points without doing anything.
That’s why Ryu Min wasn’t worried about Min Ju-ri falling behind in the round.
Seo A-rin wasn’t worried either.
She was doing her part by using summoned creatures to grant protective shield buffs to allies and handling all the tanking duties.
“Huff, huff.”
When the players were exhausted after repelling the seventh attack, the dwarf Hammer struck his chest and shouted.
“All clear? Let’s depart at once, warriors of the Other World!”
“Hey, Dwarf Elder! Shouldn’t you give us some time to rest?”
“Rest? There’s no time for that! If we don’t move immediately, the monsters will attack. If you want to rest, do it while walking.”
At the dwarf’s words as he drove the carriage, the players irritably got to their feet.
There was hardly any time to sit down.
‘I don’t know about the others, but they probably want to kill the dwarf quickly.’
Even among regular players, murderous intent would arise—what about the traitors?
The difficulty itself wasn’t harsh, but the lack of rest made it grueling.
Like marching day and night without pause.
Ryu Min, still brimming with energy, wished they could keep hunting.
‘My level has already reached 59.’
Just one more level and I’ll finally reach Master rank.
Then Master-tier normal equipment will appear in the shop, and I can combine and enhance all the unique materials I’ve pre-purchased.
‘And I’ll gain new skills and abilities too.’
Since both were efficient skills and abilities, I couldn’t help but anticipate a swift level increase.
‘When will they make their move, I wonder?’
The person Ryu Min was referring to wasn’t from the Traitor Group.
Someone from the Regular Group would make a move.
Assuming they had any sense at all.
And indeed, they did.
“Everyone! Rather than continuing to hunt like this, shouldn’t we find the traitor first? At this rate, we’ll all collapse before we even locate them!”
At someone’s cry, the crowd nodded in agreement.
“That’s right, we can’t just keep slaying monsters.”
“Exactly. We need to find those traitor bastards too.”
“But how do we find them?”
“I have a method!”
The person who had made the initial suggestion continued.
“You said the traitors aren’t part of our party, right? So if we stab them, damage will register, won’t it? So we just attack each other to verify. What do you think?”
“Ooh, that makes sense.”
“We could find them easily that way.”
“Let’s do it!”
The players agreed to this remarkably simple method of rooting out the traitors.
Meanwhile, the traitors all kept their mouths firmly shut.
Their minds must have been in turmoil, knowing that the moment they’d dreaded had finally arrived.
“Aren’t the people who aren’t speaking right now the traitors?”
“Hehe, seems like it, doesn’t it?”
“They’re probably scared. Their identities will be exposed soon enough.”
The Regular Group laughed while the Traitor Group grew increasingly anxious.
-Damn it, what do we do? We’re going to get exposed at this rate.
-At this point, we need to kill that dwarf bastard quickly.
Ryu Min, who had been reading the traitors’ thoughts, locked eyes with them at that very moment.
-Black Scythe. Why don’t you make the first move?
-Let’s strike the dwarf together. If not now, we won’t get another chance.
They sent their thoughts through their eyes, but Ryu Min turned his head away, deliberately ignoring them.
‘Selfish bastards. Why don’t you just announce that I’m a traitor while you’re at it?’
He had anticipated that things would unfold this way.
Though it was happening a bit later than expected.
“Those with area-of-effect skills, feel free to use them on the players right now.”
“Understood!”
“Then let’s begin! Attack the person next to you!”
The players suddenly began stabbing each other.
Ting—ting—!
Clear metallic sounds rang out from all directions.
“Wow, really no damage at all?”
“It’s like hitting a lump of metal.”
“You’re definitely part of our party!”
But clear sounds weren’t all that echoed.
Squelch—
“Aaaah!”
“W-what? This person’s blade went through!”
“Traitor! That bastard’s a traitor!”
Some of the traitors mixed among the players were caught off guard and attacked before they could react.
“Kill them! Kill those traitor bastards!”
Thwack—thud—thud—!
“Gack!”
One traitor became a human shish kebab, pierced from all directions by blades.
There was no way a single person could evade attacks coming from every side.
Especially not when these were players who had already committed murder in Round 4.
They had no hesitation whatsoever about stabbing a person.
“Excellent! We’ve apprehended one traitor here!”
“Here too!”
“We found a traitor here as well!”
Traitors were being filtered out from every corner, and the remaining ones panicked.
“Damn it! You bastards!”
Several traitors attacked the players first before they could be exposed.
“Ugh! That… that bastard just stabbed me out of nowhere.”
“Definitely a traitor! Grab him!”
The traitors fled, evading the players’ grasp and running toward somewhere.
There was only one way for them to survive this situation.
Kill the dwarves and complete the Quest.
If they managed that, they could forcibly end the escort Quest and escape this dire situation with their lives intact.
‘Hammer. I’ll kill Hammer.’
The traitors’ blades, gleaming with murderous intent, rushed toward the dwarf Hammer who was driving the carriage.
Hammer, unaware of the danger, shouted toward the players.
“I, I say there. Warriors of the Other World! What on earth is happening all of a sudden?”
He was simply bewildered by the sight of the Other World’s warriors drawing their weapons.
He never imagined the stray sparks would land on him.
Only then did he turn his head belatedly and realize what was happening.
“Die, you shortstuff!”
“Ah, ah!”
Just as the blade was about to reach the dwarf.
Clang—!
Ryu Min blocked the traitors.
In the form of Lost Yak.

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