Chapter 99

Though the rewards from special quests that were on a completely different level from normal quests were disappointing, if they could be done anytime they wouldn’t be called special.

‘What are the conditions for special quest generation? If special quests could be artificially generated, much faster growth would be possible. Worlds with serious side effects from user intervention? When clear ranks accumulate a certain number of times? Or just random?’

Though he pondered, it was impossible to fully grasp the nature of something with just a single example.

And above all, even if special quests were generated, it wasn’t certain whether he could complete them.

He had started [Twisted World] more as an investigation to understand what special quests were like. He had barely managed to clear it through overlapping coincidences – if conditions hadn’t aligned, he would have failed pathetically without even overcoming the initial situation.

Letting go of lingering thoughts, Yuseong started carefully scanning through the quests.

“The suicide squad numbers have really decreased.”

The suicide squad that had numbered around 160 members when he last checked had decreased to 130 in the meantime.

Same content as before, increased rewards, and even more vicious difficulty.

Quietly moving back through the screens, Yuseong clicked on an eye-catching quest titled [Why did heaven birth me, and also birth the Single Sword of Dharma, the Taeguk Sword God, the Master of the Drunken Sword, the Solitary Sword Emperor, the Plum Blossom Sword Lord, the Divine Tiger Sword, the Twin Swords of the Great Void, the Ocean Sword King, the Four-One Sword Ancestor, the Bloody World Sword Devil, and the Gentleman Sword Dragon!] and burst out laughing.

“Puhah! What is this?!”

The story of a swordsman born with talent seen once in 100 years who, unfortunately, lived in an era filled with those born with talent seen once in 200 years, 500 years, 1000 years, resulting in unfair undervaluation and a lifetime of comparisons.

Though the situation was amusing, the difficulty wasn’t amusing at all.

A brutal difficulty requiring defeating all 11 swordsmen evaluated as superior and being acknowledged as the greatest swordsman under heaven.

Though the rewards were substantial, they weren’t enough to outweigh the A-rank burden.

[Returning to quest selection screen.]

“Huh?”

The screen changed to the quest selection window along with a message he’d never seen before.

‘The quest disappeared.’

There were two possibilities.

One was that the quest had expired due to the client’s death or some other reason.

The other was that another user had selected the quest.

Though it was his first time experiencing this, he hadn’t planned to attempt this quest anyway, so he immediately continued checking other quests.

[Puha! P-please save me!]

-Civilization Classification: A-5

-Civilization Grade: 0.72

-Difficulty: D+

-Shapiro, working as a circus acrobat, became involved in a serious crime and was being transported to the capital. Just as hope rose that he would be freed upon reaching the capital, the ship carrying Shapiro was caught in a sudden storm and faced imminent sinking. Please help Shapiro escape the flooding ship and board a lifeboat.

-Clear Conditions

1. Board a lifeboat: Karma 100,000.

-Additional Conditions

1. Companion rescue: 100,000 Karma per companion brought aboard lifeboat.
2. Passenger rescue: 50,000 Karma per passenger brought aboard lifeboat.

Though he could have chosen C- or even C rank quests given that he had achieved SSS rank clears on C- rank quests twice in a row, Yuseong chose a D+ rank quest.

There were two reasons.

One was to build up karma points.

Until recently, he had never felt a shortage of karma points, but that changed after purchasing Tyrant’s arms.

The karma points needed to purchase high-rank skills and artifacts were truly astronomical.

This quest had the advantage of being perfect for his current situation – though low rank with no other rewards, it offered substantial karma points if conditions were met.

And the other reason was for rapid growth.

‘The higher the clear rank, the faster the growth.’

Rather than blindly attempting higher rank quests, doing slightly lower rank quests where he could achieve high clear ranks was several times… no, dozens of times more advantageous in terms of growth speed.

The ideal would be achieving high clear ranks while doing high rank quests, but unfortunately that was impossible with his current abilities.

[Starting ‘Puha! P-please save me!’]

[Initiating Deus Ex Machina Program]

[Dimension coordinates specified and Ariadne’s Thread connection complete]

[Initiating spirit particle transfer]

Shortly after Yuseong vanished into particles of light, the machine beside the bed flickered and a sharp voice rang out.

-Please check the community right now. It’s an emergency.

The communication device Sophia had given him for contact.

However, Yuseong had already departed for too distant a place to receive the message.

* * *

Though not all quests were like this, as with [Twisted World] which he had cleared most recently, many quests started in situations where life hung by a thread or comparable crises.

Therefore, no matter how low the rank, one absolutely could not let their guard down from the moment a quest began.

Steeling his mind to not panic at sudden changes, sharpening his senses to gather maximum information, and honing his consciousness to respond optimally in any situation.

Yuseong was confident he could respond calmly without panic even if a sword fell toward his crown or he started at the edge of a cliff the moment a quest began.

“Puha!”

However, while he had imagined starting quests in pre-crisis situations, he had never once imagined starting in a situation where life was already critically endangered.

The moment he came to his senses, he felt water entering through his mouth and nose, and when he reflexively inhaled, unbearable pain rose in his chest as water seemed to enter his windpipe as well.

Suppressing both the urge to cough and intense nausea, Yuseong looked around and spotting empty space through his blurry vision, quickly began swimming.

“Cough! Hack! Wheeze!“

Yuseong, who had been coughing so violently it felt like his lungs might pop out while shedding tears and mucus, finally gained enough composure to assess the situation after quite some time.

‘A prison?’

A small space of about ten square meter surrounded by iron bars.

The problem was that he was trapped inside and the situation was flooded almost to the ceiling.

Confirming that the air pocket which had been about a hand span when he first surfaced had now shrunk to about a finger’s length, Yuseong took a deep breath and went back underwater.

‘Can’t open it with force.’

Though he tried pulling just in case, it didn’t budge at all.

Using Tyrant’s monstrous strength he could snap it like a reed, but using an A+ rank artifact in a D+ rank quest would instantly tank the clear rank.

‘Plasma axe… wouldn’t work.’

Though it could easily vaporize blood spurting from severed body parts or small streams of liquid, activating the plasma axe underwater would cause an immediate massive explosion.

His breathing grew increasingly rapid and vision blurred.

However, knowing that getting excited would only shorten his life, Yuseong maintained maximum composure while thoroughly examining his surroundings.

‘That’s it!’

Among various debris floating in the water was a silver keyring.

Click!

After opening the cell door with the keys retrieved using Thorny Vine and moving to an area not yet flooded, Yuseong collapsed, completely drained of strength.

“Haa, haa, haa. I… I thought I was going to die…”

[Synchronization with ‘Shapiro’ is complete]

[You can now use ‘Shapiro’s’ skills]

-W-what’s this? Why is my body moving on its own?

“…Fear not. I am an apostle sent by the Great One who was moved by your sincere faith to save you from crisis.”

-But I’m an atheist?

“Hi? I’m another you sleeping in your unconscious. I borrowed your body briefly to save you in this emergency.”

-I’ve never had mental illness either.

“Ah, come on! Just accept that I’m someone who came to save you and leave it at that!”

-S-sorry!

Having no time for leisurely persuasion, Yuseong roughly convinced Shapiro through force of presence and immediately checked the status window.

Name: Shapiro

Class: Acrobat

Level: 65

Title: First-class Acrobat

Strength: 44

Agility: 62

Wisdom: 34

Constitution: 81

Mana: 11

Skills: Divine Balance(B), Throwing(B-), Acrobatics(C+), Tightrope Walking(D+), Tumbling(D+), Acting(D)

‘There are even jobs like this.’

Though he had experienced all sorts of diverse jobs like witch, demon sect leader, secret agent, academy student, bipedal machine operator, later-stage practitioner, and informant, he hadn’t quite expected an occupation like acrobat.

After roughly grasping this body’s abilities and skills, Yuseong staggered to his feet in water that had now reached his waist.

“Do you know this ship’s structure?”

-…Are you asking me?

“Who else is here to ask?!”

-I-I know a little!

“Where are we on the ship?”

-Just above the lowest level.

“How big is the ship?”

-Well? About the size of the Burgundy Building, I’d say.

Though he didn’t know how big the Burgundy Building was, the fact that “building” was used suggested it definitely wasn’t small.

Additionally, being just above the lowest level meant flooding had only started recently.

There was still considerable time before the ship would sink.

“Are there others nearby?”

-Y-yes! My companions are imprisoned! Please save them!

He would have saved them anyway due to the quest, even without being asked.

Ignoring Shapiro’s gratitude, Yuseong opened a nearby door.

Creak.

“Huh?”

The first room’s door was open and empty inside.

‘Not sure how they escaped, but if they got out they could have helped others too. How cold.’

Clicking his tongue briefly, Yuseong approached the second door.

Fortunately, this one was a hit.

“Help! Please help! What did I do wrong? Being imprisoned was unfair enough, but to die like this… Huh? Shapiro?”

A girl who appeared to be about high school age.

When he opened the door with the keyring, the tear-stained girl staggered out.

“Th-thank you. I thought I was going to die for sure…”

“Go rest by the stairs.”

“No way. We have to save the others! I’ll help!”

“Saving people is important, but getting out of here is important too. If you don’t want to hold people back during escape by scattering around, calm down and recover your strength first.”

After pushing the trembling girl’s back, Yuseong began opening the remaining doors and getting people out.