The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 166

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 166
166
4.
The faces of viewers who purchased live tickets brimmed with shock, amazement, and delight.
It was only natural to be thrilled by a new broadcast.
Yet those watching the same screen as these viewers displayed something different.
Their expressions held the same shock and amazement, but misfortune rather than joy painted their faces.
None other than Lee Won-sang and Oh Jin-hyuk.
The two stared at the screen with grave expressions.
A single homunculus entity.
They had accepted it multiplying into two.
‘It’s possible if you use Carmine’s corpse.’
They had hoped the alchemy would fail at this point.
Yet it succeeded spectacularly, with a bonus alchemy success on top of that.
Even if an alchemist NPC returned to life, I doubted they could perform this well.
Moreover, the Creation of Death obtained just moments before played a crucial role.
Without that stability, the critical success rate would have plummeted significantly.
This success couldn’t be manipulated by fate either.
They had expected failure.
Yet every element of fortune favored Yoo Sung-hyun’s hand.
Both were Mythic-grade summons.
Especially that summon who looked identical to Helena….
‘It transcended Mythic.’
The materials mixed were absurd.
It was plausible, though.
“Measure the damage.”
“Y-yes!”
At Lee Won-sang’s command, Oh Jin-hyuk urgently began measuring the damage.
The skills Serpina was currently using.
Especially that crimson moon’s ray—let’s measure that.
“It’s over 300,000!?”
“Haa…”
300,000 damage from a level 130s character.
It was essentially comparable to a Legendary-grade user’s damage output.
After measuring Helena’s damage next.
“Wow, this time it exceeded 400,000! That final sword strike was 550,000!”
“Now that’s near Almighty-grade.”
Lee Won-sang clutched his throbbing head and lowered his gaze.
Damage output resembling Almighty-grade.
It was no coincidence that Kyou had suffered at Fiora’s hands.
Fiora’s damage output easily surpassed 400,000.
But Helena exceeded that with 500,000….
Yoo Sung-hyun was already formidable to begin with.
Now it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him a one-man army.
‘At minimum, we’d need five Almighty-tier users and ten Legendary-tier users just to take him down.’
The numbers were utterly absurd.
But this was only the minimum estimate—if we factored in his full potential.
It could grow even higher.
His stat values themselves weren’t normal either.
I couldn’t fathom Yoo Sung-hyun’s limits.
That’s why even Lee Won-sang had given up.
“I don’t know anymore either.”
It was probably better for my mental health to stop thinking about Yoo Sung-hyun.
“S-Senior?”
“Don’t worry about the Yoo Sung-hyun user. Focus on other users instead.”
“Huh? I-Is that okay?”
We’re part of the User Management Team.
Shouldn’t we be monitoring the most rapidly ascending user right now?
That’s what Oh Jin-hyuk thought.
But Lee Won-sang spoke coldly.
“What can we even do by watching? All we do is predict variables, anticipate content acceleration, and pass the information to other departments anyway.”
“Y-You have a point.”
“Besides, with that level of skill, he would’ve definitely obtained an Almighty-tier job even without mysterious powers or an absurd number of hidden pieces.”
Lee Won-sang had watched Yoo Sung-hyun’s screen and commented on it before.
But he couldn’t deny the user’s overwhelming ability.
“W-Well, there’s no other user with a synchronization rate exceeding 100% besides Yoo Sung-hyun….”
“That means he can utilize his stats to their absolute limit.”
No one in the User Management Team doubted Yoo Sung-hyun’s skill.
Witnessing his overwhelming synchronization rate and his prowess, even the developers themselves were left in awe.
So let’s just give up.
There’s nothing that changes even if we keep watching.
That was the judgment of an exhausted Lee Won-sang.
Shouldn’t we only check when errors or anomalies occur?
Upper management hadn’t issued any further directives regarding Yoo Sung-hyun anyway.
“We just need to monitor for buggy skills, malfunctioning abilities, and newly discovered hidden elements.”
“Understood.”
“Good.”
The two exchanged such words.
Then they looked around, deciding to focus on other users instead.
With this decision made.
My mind was at ease.
Whether Yoo Sung-hyun grew stronger through some incomprehensible force or not.
Lee Won-sang had no intention of worrying too much about it.
When what felt like a relatively short span of time had passed.
Yoo Sung-hyun’s user profile appeared on the screen once more.
What’s going on?
I had configured the settings so the screen wouldn’t display unless something significant occurred.
As Lee Won-sang fixed his gaze upon the screen.
[User 『Yoo Sung-hyun』 has arrived at the hidden city, 『Ninyaru, the headquarters of the Labyrinth Merchant Guild』.]
“What? How did he get there!??!”
There was no way to stop watching Yoo Sung-hyun’s screen now.
0.
The headquarters of the Labyrinth Merchant Guild, no less.
Yoo Sung-hyun looked at Helena in surprise.
Helena’s remarkable qualities certainly included her power.
But it was knowledge like this that truly set her apart.
Especially since she was one of the rare transcendents in this world.
She couldn’t help but know a great deal.
After all, she was one of the ancient transcendents from long before Hindel was even born.
Helena parted her lips with a playful smile, her voice tinged with mischief.
“How is it? Useful enough?”
“Yeah, definitely useful. But….”
Yoo Sung-hyun trailed off, letting silence hang between them.
After giving it some thought.
“The knowledge you possess must be quite ancient, isn’t it?”
“That’s a rude thing to say!!!”
Helena’s sharp rebuke cut through Yoo Sung-hyun’s words.
So Helena was indeed a bit sensitive about her age.
In any case.
Yoo Sung-hyun offered an apologetic smile and asked in return.
“So how do you know about that place?”
Since I couldn’t read Helena’s memories.
I had no choice but to ask.
I was genuinely curious.
Helena was essentially a living history book of the Eternal World itself.
So when I asked.
Helena regarded Yoo Sung-hyun with narrowed eyes and posed a question.
“You weren’t just thinking something rude again, were you?”
“Ah… no.”
“Hmm.”
It took me a moment to respond.
Helena regarded me with suspicious eyes before shaking her head.
In any case.
“Sigh, I can’t match Yoo Sung-hyun.”
As a Ghost who could only harbor goodwill toward Yoo Sung-hyun.
Helena shook her head as if she had no choice in the matter.
Yoo Sung-hyun seemed a bit embarrassed too, clearing his throat.
“Ahem.”
“Anyway, I think I might know the owner of that place. At first I wasn’t sure, but seeing it now, I’m certain who it is.”
“Oh, I see.”
“It’s just a guess, but I know one of those Cat Merchants. If my memory serves, the location of their headquarters should match too.”
I wondered if it was a place that existed from back then, and considered asking Helena.
But I decided to let it go, worried she might say it was an impertinent question.
However.
“Hey, it used to be what you’d call a sanctuary within the Labyrinth, but now it seems to have become the headquarters of those merchants.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Yeah, so. You’re obviously going, right?”
Helena said this while looking at Yoo Sung-hyun.
Yoo Sung-hyun smiled faintly, as if asking what she meant.
Clearly, this place reeked of hidden field potential.
I couldn’t possibly skip a place like this.
And this hidden field was supposedly filled with Cat Merchants.
‘There must be tons of creatures like Becky there.’
That was something to look forward to.
Not that I was particularly fond of cats.
But few people dislike cute things.
With that decision made by Yoo Sung-hyun.
“Then I’ll guide you.”
“Sounds good.”
“I’ll follow~”
Yoo Sung-hyun summoned Helena and Serpina, and just in case a vanguard might be needed, Fiora, Nocturnium, and Baltar as well.
Naturally, Leonik said he was in the middle of training.
I thought I even saw Leonik’s arm poking out from the Underworld’s gate before being dragged away by something.
I decided to deliberately ignore it.
With a party of six formed this way, we set out.
At first she seemed uncertain.
Then Fiora exclaimed as if remembering something.
-Ah! You’re going there, right? Ninyaru?
“Oh, that’s right, Fiora. You’re sharp?”
-Hehe.
Fiora beamed with joy at Helena’s praise.
And at Fiora’s words, Baltar fell into deep thought.
-Ninyaru? I feel like I’ve heard that name before….
As Baltar scratched his chin, unable to recall, Nocturnium spoke beside him with an exasperated tone.
“Ninyaru—isn’t that where you left Nyao behind?”
-Ah!! That’s the name of the place where Nyao is!!! Kahahaha!!! It’s been ages since I’ve heard that name. I wonder if they’re still alive?
-W-well, L-Labyrinth beastfolk live for a thousand years, so th-they should still be alive.
As they spoke, Yoo Sung-hyun and Serpina listened in silence, unable to join the conversation.
A name like Nyao.
It was a fitting name for a cat.
When Yoo Sung-hyun had such a thought.
[You have acquired the keyword ‘Ninyaru’ and the keyword ‘Nyao’.]
An unexpected message appeared.
Ah, so these are keywords.
It seemed like a route that would lead to the Labyrinth Merchant Guild’s headquarters once I obtained hints or clues.
However, Yoo Sung-hyun didn’t need to search for keywords or gather clues.
Helena was already wandering through the Labyrinth, muttering to herself.
She was simply tilting her head in confusion, lost in thought.
“Hmm, I think it was around this area.”
“What are you looking for?”
At Helena’s murmuring, Yoo Sung-hyun asked back.
Helena scratched her cheek and answered.
“If you look closely here, there’s a gap, right?”
Looking at what Helena pointed out, Yoo Sung-hyun saw it too.
There was a very thin gap.
Or rather than a gap, it felt like the walls of the Labyrinth weren’t fitting together properly.
As if.
‘There seems to be a step difference.’
It looked like there was a misalignment from assembly error.
Something seemed to be there.
And looking around, there was nothing.
What was she looking for?
As Yoo Sung-hyun held that question.
“There should be something that looks like foxtail grass around here, but I don’t see it….”
“Foxtail grass?”
In the Labyrinth?
It was strange, but.
Helena’s words couldn’t be wrong.
As Yoo Sung-hyun tried to search the surroundings.
He called out to Nocturnium and asked.
“Is there no doggrass around here?”
“Ah, I was hoping to find it first.”
“Please wait a moment.”
If Nocturnium searches, he’ll find it quickly.
Yoo Sung-hyun asked Nocturnium, while Helena expressed her disappointment.
She had wanted to find it herself.
But no matter how thoroughly I examined the surroundings, there was nothing.
Nocturnium, who could detect spatial anomalies, was the perfect choice.
As Nocturnium scanned the area.
“Hmm, it appears to be here.”
His uncertain tone made both Yoo Sung-hyun and Helena tilt their heads in confusion.
It was rare for Nocturnium to speak with such hesitation.
When they both looked at where Nocturnium was pointing.
There was indeed something that resembled leaves.
Located not far from a wall with a distinct step.
However, it was cunningly hidden within the moss crevices of the Labyrinth wall, making it difficult to spot.
So finding this was quite an accomplishment.
But.
“There’s no stem?”
“Is it just the base?”
It looked like a sprout, yet also like just a base.
The way the leaves spread across the ground, somewhat like a dandelion, made it rather peculiar.
However.
“By my assessment, this is indeed doggrass.”
Since Nocturnium said so with such certainty.
It must be correct.
Yoo Sung-hyun and Helena made their judgment and rose to their feet.
So this is the entrance?
With that thought, Yoo Sung-hyun looked at Helena.
She nodded and lightly swept her hand across the wall from the stepped section to where the doggrass was located.
Crrrrrunch.
The Labyrinth wall shifted sideways with a powerful grinding sound.
And the long corridor that was revealed.
Torches ignited within it, and everyone entered.
After walking only a short distance, I could discover a city gate.
And a feline creature similar to Becky, who stood guard before it, startled upon seeing Yoo Sung-hyun and cried out.
“An outsider?!”
“How in the world did you get in here?!”
[You have discovered the entrance to the hidden city, 『Ninyaru, City of the Labyrinth Merchant Guild』.]
It seemed I had found the right place after all.
And
-Meow? This is my first time seeing a foreigner, meow.
There was even a ghostly cat.

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