Using Barbarians to Control Barbarians

If one had to describe this world’s setting in a word, it would be a typical introduction to an isekai story.

Of course, there were unique characteristics specific to this world in the details.

However, the main theme of “people living in a peaceful world being dragged to another world by transcendent beings to fight” matched exactly with isekai story introductions, and based on this fact, Yuseong could take time to think about how this quest would progress and how to tackle it.

‘Story with constellations, mission-based stories, tower climbing stories… What else is there?’

He examined all possibilities including the overall background, client’s status, difficulty, surrounding environment, and existence of hidden pieces.

And among those possibilities was also the regressor, who appears like a staple ingredient in isekai stories.

A regressor.

Though logically impossible, with users who could freely cross between worlds existing, having a regressor who came back from the past wasn’t strange.

“No wonder it seemed too easy.”

Yuseong let out a deep sigh.

Even [Twisted World], a B-rank quest, had been full of hardships throughout and almost failed at the end due to the obstacle named Oswald, but [I Don’t Think I’m the Protagonist No Matter How I Look at It] was too easy despite its B+ rank.

Even though it was day 9, besides the wolf encountered when first starting the quest, he hadn’t experienced anything that could be called a crisis.

He’d felt something was strange, but he never imagined this was happening somewhere without his knowledge.

-Re-regressor? Are you sure?

“You saw how he fought, right? Do you think someone who lived in peaceful 21st century Earth, specifically South Korea, could become that strong in just a few days?”

-Couldn’t he be a genius at swordsmanship or martial arts?

“This is different. His strength isn’t from a genius’s flash of insight but from power accumulated over long years.”

-What if he learned martial arts on Earth…

“Does your Earth have places teaching martial arts for fighting monsters?”

-……

While that might be possible on Yuseong’s Earth, Kim Hyun-jun’s Earth was a peaceful one where monsters hadn’t appeared.

Unless he had lived in a world with monsters in a past life and reincarnated on Earth, or visited another world with monsters before coming here, there was no explanation possible besides being a regressor.

‘Though I prepared plans to deal with regressors too…’

The problem was those plans were made assuming early stages, like nipping things in the bud or joining as companions by demonstrating usefulness.

He hadn’t prepared a single plan assuming a regressor who had completed their growth.

He couldn’t make plans when he had no idea how strong the regressor might become or what facts they might know.

‘The companions seem extraordinary too. Well, companions chosen by a regressor wouldn’t be ordinary. They must have talent that will let them grow into huge figures in the future or have that potential.’

Yuseong unconsciously bit his lip.

The regressor and companions numbered five in total.

Though it was a very brief fight, the regressor’s strength was beyond comparison to anyone including himself, and the companions were strong enough to rival those ranked in the top 10.

It was an emergency.

The clear condition for this quest was to enter the top 10 rankings before the preliminary stage ended.

Though it reflected all elements like money, hunting, items, skills, and loot, without knowing how much weight each factor carried, the disaster of being pushed out of the top 10 rankings might occur.

Lost in deep thought, Yuseong realized he had reached near the village and changed from his current equipment into new gear taken from subspace.

“Looking for two tanks for hunting in the south zone! Going halfway!”

“Buying broken longsword hilt! Already have the blade! Just need the hilt!”

“Selling map! Map that leads to a secret dungeon!”

The atmosphere in the village was very lively.

Incomparable to the first day when heavy silence had hung like dead mice.

However, that liveliness was somewhat off-kilter.

“You bastard! Daring to scam me? Give me back my money! Hand over my money!”

“Ah, who could have known it was fake. And I clearly said I wasn’t sure, but you said you’d take it anyway. Why are you making a fuss now? What? Want to fight? If you’ve got money to spare, bring it on.”

“Think I won’t if you tell me to!”

Thwack!

“This is really real, I’m telling you! Look here. When you hold it to fire, hidden markings appear. Have you seen fake maps that can do this?”

“Really? Then you can come with us to the place written there? We’ll pay right on the spot if we just confirm the entrance.”

“I-I’m not strong enough to go where it’s written…”

“Our party will protect you on the way there, so don’t worry.”

“…What about the way back?”

“We’ll decide that after finding the entrance.”

Shouts and curses rang out, fistfights broke out, and subtle mind games played out over single items.

Naturally and obviously, people had become like this all because of Yuseong.

Starting with his first NPC impersonation, Yuseong had carried out numerous plans to cause conflict and discord between people.

He’d broken ordinary swords and sold them at high prices claiming they were legendary sword fragments, exchanged roughly drawn maps for premium items claiming they showed secret dungeon locations, and gathered people saying he had items that multiplied money before running away with large sums.

Of course, people weren’t fools who would keep falling for such scams.

However, unfortunately for people, Yuseong wasn’t just running pure scams.

“A lie mixed with a bit of truth is more effective than a complete lie.”

Yuseong reinvested part of his collected money to make his lies into truth.

He broke up and sold real unique-grade items bought from shops, cleverly hid money and items in secret locations, and let some people earn more than their principal.

The occasional real hidden pieces were a bonus.

This was the result.

People wasting precious money and time, blinded by dreams of instant fortune.

This chaos would continue until the last day when the preliminary stage ended.

“Hey, stop right there.”

About to climb the stairs after receiving the key from the innkeeper, Yuseong stopped at the voice from behind.

“…Me?”

“Who else is here besides you? You know me, right? Hand it over while I’m asking nicely.”

A group that looked troublesome at a glance.

Without saying anything, Yuseong took out a pouch of gold from his chest and held it out to the blonde thug.

“…47, 48, 49, 50. Right. Go on.”

Though taking them down would be easier than flipping his palm, it wouldn’t be good to draw people’s attention, so he quietly let himself be extorted and entered his room.

Though they seemed to know nothing, people actually knew quite a lot.

Who had what level of skill, who partied with whom yesterday, what monsters they handled and how much money they earned.

Though not certain, everyone knew roughly everything.

With a thousand people gathered in a small village, they couldn’t help but naturally know that much even if they didn’t want to.

‘Wait a minute.’

In Yuseong’s mind complicated by the regressor’s appearance, one question arose.

“How could those guys avoid being discovered until now?”

It made no sense that no one knew about people strong enough to defeat boss monsters.

This world was smaller than expected.

Unless one skipped all intermediate steps and entered unknown territories no one had entered before, like himself.

Normal people had to climb up step by step, inevitably encountering others in the process, and consequently their approximate strength would be revealed no matter how much they tried to hide it.

Because it all gets revealed – who hunted where and when – like hunting near the village on day 1, in the forest on day 2, near the four regions on day 3, and the outskirts of the four regions on day 4.

The rankings Yuseong had assigned to people were based on exactly this kind of data.

People who stayed ahead, hunting goblins when others hunted wolves, and orcs when others hunted goblins.

‘Even such people became known because they monitored each other. But among five people including the regressor, not a single one was known?’

Impossible.

It might be possible if it was just the regressor alone.

Given his skill, the regressor might have advanced four or five steps when others advanced one or two.

Then naturally no one would know about the regressor.

But his companions were different.

No matter how talented they were and how much the regressor helped, they were just ordinary people for now who had to climb step by step, and naturally all that process would have to be witnessed by people.

Yet despite that, their existence wasn’t known…

“Did they build up strength in a secret dungeon or something?”

In this world, besides the fake hidden pieces he scattered, real hidden pieces existed.

Unofficially known secret dungeons were one of them.

However, what mattered to Yuseong now wasn’t how they built up their strength.

“No one knew about them.”

At first glance, this information didn’t seem very significant.

Even if people learned this fact, they would just be briefly surprised or find it interesting, without showing any other reaction.

They had no reason to care about others secretly building strength when they were busy just taking care of themselves.

But Yuseong thought differently.

Creak.

Yuseong left the inn and started looking around the village.

Small things he usually didn’t pay attention to – people’s mood, casual conversations, topics of discussion.

After collecting information while walking around the village for half a day and returning to his room, Yuseong muttered the thought that had naturally occurred to him.

“This might be usable if done well?”

-What do you mean?

“The fact that the regressor and companions built up strength in secret.”

-…How would you use that?

Kim Hyun-jun asked in a dumbfounded voice.

Though they had seen and heard the same things, he couldn’t guess at all what Yuseong was thinking.

Yuseong explained his idea in a single phrase.

“Using barbarians to control barbarians (以夷制夷).”

A cruel smile spread across Yuseong’s face.