The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 122

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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 122. The Game of Reading the Room (2)

The sand poured faster than anyone had imagined.
No, truthfully, it wasn’t so different from an ordinary hourglass. But with the situation moving so urgently, any sense of ease evaporated.
In the heavy silence, everyone’s eyes darted nervously—they were reading the room with desperate intensity.
Not a single person here failed to grasp the conditions. They were simply watching each other for any sign of weakness.
In this back-and-forth hesitation, a minute slipped away. The sand, though not dramatically diminished, had clearly fallen enough from what it was at first—a visible reminder that time was running out.
“Damn it.”
“Shit….”
Curses scattered across the Plaza. Their already crumpled faces twisted into something primitive and vicious.
The conditions were garbage to begin with—and now they’d imposed a time limit on top of it? Unless they were deliberately trying to torture everyone, there was no reason to force matters like this.
Either way, roughly nine-tenths of the sand remained. Which meant nine minutes—nine minutes to reach some kind of decision.
Finally, someone unable to bear the tension broke the silence.
“Everyone goes in!”
At the cry of one woman, the quiet Meadow erupted into chaos.
“The condition only says at least six must enter—there’s no maximum limit mentioned!”
The woman’s point: everyone enters and clears the Sacrifice Plaza together. It was the fairest approach available in their current situation.
But it was only a surface-level argument with appeal. Hoping that all 166 individuals shared identical motives was a pipe dream.
“Hmm… everyone going in is a bit….”
A man standing near the woman who’d first cried out stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“We only need six to enter. Why not set aside a minimum of six and send them into the Twisted Wish Plaza instead? That might be—”
The man’s reasoning was sound. But it was hopelessly idealistic.
“How would you select which six enter the Twisted Wish Plaza?”
“Well….”
The man opened his mouth, then closed it just as quickly. His eyes blinked rapidly. The woman’s face twisted with irritation, her teeth bared, but she held them clamped shut.
“That’s not even the main problem.”
Her clenched jaw made her voice come out tight, strangled.
“The only condition is that it remains consistent at all times. Whether the difficulty is one or a hundred—we won’t know until we actually enter. Unless someone volunteers to take one for the team, going in all together right now is the only fair option.”
……
“Let’s just go in. We need to check the difficulty first, then we can figure out what to do next.”
Faced with the woman’s forceful conviction, the man had nothing left to say. He wasn’t convinced, but her words were too sound—he couldn’t think of a counterargument.
“So then….”
“We’re not going in.”
Another voice cut through. The woman, who’d been checking the Hourglass anxiously, felt her face contort.
“What the hell—can’t you see that timer? We need to move!”
“There’s no reason for us to go.”
The man stood his ground. The woman who’d been shouting looked utterly stunned.
“What? No reason to go?”
“Right. The four of us came planning to stop at Stage 2. We’ll take our Matching Desire and head back to Paradise. Stage 3 doesn’t interest us. Let the people who care about it fight it out however they like. Don’t drag in people who have nothing to do with it.”
The man spoke with utter confidence.
His three companions, who appeared to be his allies, nodded in agreement, their voices murmuring assent. A handful of others nearby even offered quiet support to his words.
The man’s logic wasn’t entirely without merit. An event draws diverse participants, and their goals vary widely.
Many sought the Matching Desire and aimed for Stage 3, but there were also those who, once they’d grasped the nature of the trial, chose to exit at Stage 2.
So the notion that “those going to Stage 3 can sort it out among themselves, and let those stopping at Stage 2 withdraw” had a surface plausibility to it.
There was just one problem.
“What utter bullshit.”
If the entrances had been separate, maybe.
Ora-hui fixed her gaze on the man declaring non-participation, a contemptuous smile playing across her lips.
“You read the conditions and still spout that nonsense? That’s you advertising that your brain is broken.”
For the man’s logic to work, there would need to be separate entrances to Paradise and Stage 3. Someone would have to monitor and control which entrance each person chose.
But the problem lay in the fact that none of the relevant conditions supported any of that.

[Upon entry via the Red Portal on the altar, you will be transported to either Paradise or Stage 3….]

The crux: that word “or.”
Since there was no way to know where an entering person would end up, anyone targeting Stage 3 would never simply stand by and watch.
“It’s amazing, really. How did an idiot like you even manage to clear Stage 1?”
“What?”
The man who had been swaggering at her peculiar, dismissive mockery suddenly looked uncomfortable.
“This woman’s got a loose mouth, hasn’t she….”
He tried to foster menace with a vicious expression,
Whoosh!
Ora-hui moved like wind, thrusting her left hand out roughly to clamp his mouth shut.
“Loose mouth?”
“Mmmgh!”
She curved all five fingers, hollowing his cheeks so thoroughly, then slowly lifted upward. A spectacle unfolded: a burly man dangling and kicking uselessly, suspended by the delicate grip of a single woman.
“What the hell are you—!”
One of the dazed man’s companions hastily drew bow and arrow,
Clang!
but he never finished his words.
The moment Ora-hui’s right hand flashed like lightning, the bow went flying through the air.
The archer, who had been nocking an arrow, saw the Long Sword gripped in Ora-hui’s right hand and his face went pale.
Ora-hui let out a disdainful snort and looked back up at the man she held.
“If you’re going to be sneaky, at least try to hide it. But being so blatant and confident? That just pisses me off. Got it?”
“Nnnngh!”
Faced with her icy stare, the man’s struggles gradually slowed.
“So, will you shut your mouth and go in quietly? Or do you want your jaw shattered and a chance to reconsider?”
She relaxed her grip slightly, and the suffocating pressure on his windpipe eased a fraction. The man who had been choking managed to catch his breath with difficulty.
With a face streaked in dust, he forced his mouth open.
“I—!”
“Ah, never mind.”
Ora-hui smiled coldly.
“Beasts that don’t listen need to be beaten to come to their senses.”
She gripped his face forcefully again and began walking with long strides. She stopped before the Sacrifice Plaza and slowly stretched her arm over the opening.
“Now, our little dog, go on in and wait quietly, won’t you?”
“Mmph! Mmmm-mmmph!”
“You bark so nicely~.”
The moment she released him, he would plummet into the hole. Even as he thrashed desperately and kicked for his life, Ora-hui remained unmoved.
Seol Jihoo swallowed hard watching the man flail uselessly.
With Ora-hui going to such extremes, no one dared step forward. Her companion stared with blank eyes, and those who had been vocal moments before fell silent as the grave.
In truth, among the 166, Ora-hui wasn’t the strongest. There were skilled fighters who could match her.
But those caliber of masters would surely aim for Stage 3, so their silence in the face of Ora-hui’s actions amounted to tacit agreement.
‘Still….’

[Ora-hui’s Status Window]
[1. Information]
Summoned Date · Month · Day: 2015. 09. 18
Mark Grade: Bronze
Gender · Age: Female · 25
Height · Weight: 168.8cm · 54.2kg
Condition: Good
Class: LV 5. Imperial Chevalier
Nationality: Republic of Korea (Area 1)
Organization: Blood Line
Aliases: Chief, Loose Mouth, Death by a Single Blade, Sword Ghost of the Blue Eyes

[3. Physical Status]
Strength: High-Middle
Endurance: Low-Middle
Agility: Middle-High
Stamina: High-Middle
Mana: Middle-Middle
Luck: High-Low
Remaining Physical Status points: 2

[4. Abilities]
① Innate Ability (0)
② Class Ability (6)
Single-Minded Focus (Intermediate)
③Other Abilities (2)

As Seol Jihoo checked Ora-hui’s status window through normal observation, he understood the source of her confidence in stepping forward so boldly.
No matter how many times he looked, her Physical Status and Abilities were brilliant. Her Class name was beyond comparison, and above all, his eyes fixed on one of her Class abilities: Single-Minded Focus.
It seemed like an ability that couldn’t be mastered through simple acquisition.
‘Perhaps.’
Ora-hui might be one of the “genuine” Upper Ranks that Jangmaldong had mentioned.
Only now did Seol Jihoo truly grasp just how formidable the person he’d brought with him through Stage 1 actually was.
That was when it happened.
“Stop.”
Just as Ora-hui was about to shove the man into the pit, a woman intervened in her action.
She had the same bright blonde hair as Maria and wore glasses, her features refined and intelligent.
Seol Jihoo had never seen her before, but suddenly murmurs erupted around them. He quickly checked her status window and found her name was Evangeline Rose, and her Class was the same as Kazuki’s: Great Pioneer.
Which meant she was an Upper Rank.
“And who the hell are you?”
Ora-hui asked with a look that suggested she was dealing with an idiot. Apparently she wasn’t interested in what seemed to be a fellow Upper Rank.
“Let him go.”
However, Evangeline Rose seemed intent on avoiding pointless posturing, keeping her words brief and direct.
“We’ll go in first.”
For a moment, Seol Jihoo doubted his own ears.
“What?”
Ora-hui felt the same way. The hand that had been loosening its grip tightened once more.
Evangeline Rose continued.
“That’s not to say we’re just going in carelessly.”
“?”
“Twelve of us will enter as the vanguard, and I’d like for these two to go to the Twisted Wish Plaza instead. Of course, they won’t be coming back to Stage 2—we’ll be using the Red Portal.”
Listening to her clear, pleasant voice, Seol Jihoo detected that her proposal involved calculation rather than mere sacrifice.
Scanning quickly with normal observation, most of her companions were Level 4, while only the two she’d singled out were Level 2.
It seemed they’d been brought along by the group as a matter of experience and learning.
But as the situation deteriorated, it appeared she was making a move to safely return those lower-level members.
“What happens if they accidentally end up in Stage 3?”
“Then they’ll have to make a break for it themselves. We can’t do much beyond that.”
“So you’re not exactly concerned about your own people?”
“The entry condition for Stage 3 only has a limit of ten people—there’s no first-come-first-served clause. Which means either there’s an unknown condition or it’s random. We can’t control an individual’s luck, can we?”
As Ora-hui posed her challenge with a provocative tone, Evangeline Rose answered in a calm voice.
“And I’m not saying we’ll let all six through. We’re taking responsibility and going in ourselves—can’t we overlook a few extra people, say two or four?”
Subtly, she’d increased the number of entrants by two.
“…Hmm.”
Ora-hui let out a hum, her expression showing interest. She swept her gaze around as if asking what the silent onlookers thought, but no objections came.
Taking silence for consent, Ora-hui let out a snort of laughter and turned to the trembling man.
“That’s how you pull off a cheap move like that. Watch and learn.”
She flicked her arm. The man tumbled through the air, panic-stricken, scrambling desperately to crawl away from the hole.
‘Perfect timing.’
Seol Jihoo alternated his gaze between the hourglass with roughly three or four minutes remaining, silently impressed.
This was only possible when information was scarce at the start. Evangeline Rose had leveraged the dwindling time, made her deal, and it had worked.
By entering first, she’d essentially stopped the hourglass and secured a chance to gather information in exchange for sending some of her companions to the Twisted Wish Plaza.
Conversely, the remaining members now faced the possibility of forfeiting some slots for entry into Stage 3, but they’d managed to gather information about the difficulty without taking on the full risk.
In truth, it was a gamble and an adventure for Evangeline Rose. Of course, she was an Upper Rank, and each of her companions had polished equipment—they looked like people who’d tasted some of Paradise’s waters. The team balance wasn’t bad either.
‘Still, twelve people shouldn’t feel too uncertain….’
“Is there anyone who might like to share our intentions? A person or two more for the Twisted Wish Plaza—”
Apparently thinking along similar lines, she subtly raised her voice with the question.
Seol Jihoo glanced at Kazuki. He merely watched quietly, showing no sign of willingness to volunteer.
That was typical of Kazuki. He never stepped forward unless he was certain about something.
After a brief moment of murmuring, ten additional people volunteered.
The terms were the same: eight would join the vanguard, and two would go to the Twisted Wish Plaza.
Evangeline Rose seemed to think this was sufficient, nodding to herself.
Filling out a full six risked backlash, and besides, time was running desperately short.
And so, twenty people disappeared in orderly fashion into the hole on the left side.
The Sacrifice Plaza saw no more arrivals even after several seconds had passed,
Bang!
Judging that the procession had ended, the entrance closed automatically with a grinding noise.
Then the right pit, which had been sealed tight, slid open with a soft rasp.
The four who had received their teammate’s consideration hesitated, but when they saw dozens of eyes fixed upon them, they hurried into the Twisted Wish Plaza and vanished.
Space remained. Two more could still enter.
Yet no one moved carelessly. They had just witnessed what happened when Ora-hui let loose on one man—seen firsthand the fear that still trembled in him—and they had no wish to discover the answer themselves.
The sand in the hourglass had fallen completely to the bottom, and it had already rotated a full 180 degrees again.
Seol Jihoo, observing quietly, suddenly found merit in this method. His own coalition team had no weaklings to send back beforehand, but if they trained with the other teams, it seemed there might be answers after all.
Finding a team you could trust would ordinarily be the real challenge—but that was essentially already solved.
‘The Triad, and… wasn’t there one more team?’
This was the moment Kazuki’s preemptive alliances bore fruit.
In any case, difficulty assessment came first.
‘Six was the minimum, so twenty should present no real problems, right?’
That was his prediction, but it was only a guess. Just because the monsters in Stage 1 had been weak didn’t mean Stage 2 would be easy—that was wishful thinking.
‘Golden Law.’
Seol Jihoo stared quietly at the two pits giving off a pale golden glow and waited.

How much time had passed?
It felt like dozens of minutes had slipped by.
Just as those waiting without end began to grow bored, their faces growing dull,
Bang!
At last the sound of a door opening came, and immediately after, the sound of it closing. The moment the Sacrifice Plaza reopened, the Twisted Wish Plaza sealed itself shut again.
The crowd, fearful of being misunderstood, didn’t approach and instead gathered in small clusters around the left pit.
Seol Jihoo followed Kazuki, moving slowly. He waited for the advance team to emerge, but—
“…What?”
“Why aren’t they coming out?”
The door stood open, yet a long time passed with no sign of the advance team.
“Could they have been so badly wounded they can’t climb out?”
Someone offered a theory, and others even cupped their hands and shouted down, but only hollow echoes came bouncing back.
Unease and dull dread began seeping slowly into every face.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
Someone’s index finger pointed at the pit, then jerked sharply upward.
Something erupted from the hole with violent force. What looked like a human body traced a long arc through the air before crashing down into the Meadow.
It didn’t stop. The hole continued to spew and discharge, coughing up matter like someone hacking up food caught in the throat, scattering it in all directions.
Thud!
Roll, roll, roll—!
Hair streaming outward as it fell, a round object tumbled to a stop against the feet of Seol Jihoo, whose mouth hung slightly open.
Seol Jihoo reflexively looked down and couldn’t help but gasp.
Because—
“A c-corpse—!”
As someone’s cry echoed, a severely mutilated face came into view.
‘Evangeline Rose?’
What on earth had happened?
Her long, fine hair was hacked away in irregular patches, and her radiant blonde was stained with crimson blood.
That wasn’t all. Her high, prominent nose had been sliced away by something sharp, with more than half carved off, and the eyes that had shone with wisdom and clarity were now caved in—whether gouged or crushed, they were no longer visible at all.
Watching blood stream from the hollow eye sockets, Seol Jihoo let out a small groan.
‘The neck…’
Seeing the neck muscles twisted and severed like a spiral, he understood how the philtrum had contorted beyond recognition, and why the lips hung open so wide that the uvula showed, their surface so ravaged and mottled.
She must have thrashed in unimaginable agony in the moments before death.
Whoosh—!
As the stopped hourglass suddenly rotated halfway and began to pour sand again, everyone’s faces went blank with despair.
The advance team had returned as grotesquely mutilated corpses.
The hourglass begins to flow once more.
The meaning of these two phenomena was unmistakable.
If either all enemies perish or all participants perish, the exit opens automatically.
And all twenty members of the advance team who had entered the Sacrifice Plaza had been annihilated.
In other words—
‘There was an Upper Rank among them—!’
As a result, the remaining 142 had made the worst possible opening move.

(To be continued in the next part)

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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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