Chapter 300: Episode 300_Wipe Them All Out (2)
3.
In a way, this might actually be the easiest and most comfortable kind of event for the Specialist and Han Simin, no matter what others thought.
One might assu that in the realm of politics, slandering others and sowing discord was the trickiest part. But what a person was good at was ultimately a matter of personal preference.
In that sense, Han Simin much preferred simply smashing things to pieces over undermining others.
“Think how easy it is. You just hit and break everything without thinking, and it’s over. Do you know how much brainpower it takes to sar soone? And it’s not just the ntal effort. Deceiving people cos with psychological guilt, too. I have no choice but to trick them, but if you knew how much my heart hurts afterward, you’d be shocked. I even have nightmares these days.”
Despite sleeping less than three hours a day, his skin was so smooth and glossy it was obvious he was sleeping like a baby. He spouted lies that wouldn’t fool a soul, but in a way, you had to believe him.
His expression was one of genuine joy.
A teor fell from the sky.
The rain of tiny fireballs from the Second Awakening skill that Kenji’s guild had shown, that Dino had ambitiously unveiled, now looked like a handful of pitiful dust motes before this enormous teor.
Its power?
One could guess without it even landing.
Of course, the cost to unleash a spell whose power was beyond what any user could normally wield was enormous. No matter how much he had squeezed out of the Emperor, it was still money that would be managed one hundred percent under his control, so it didn’t matter how much he embezzled.
Even so, Han Simin invested a great deal.
That, in itself, was proof.
For the miser Han Simin, it was proof that his words—that wiping everything out was the best way—were not just talk.
If only he could turn back ti to the early days of Fantastic World, he would have ditched this damned Enhancer with its zero offensive skills and that useless Tar. Instead, he would have chosen the flashy Legendary-grade Archmage class that Dino had, then taken a Buffer as a secondary class to cast wide-area buffs!
How strong would he have beco then?
The re thought sent a shiver through him.
The fact that it was only a dream, sothing that could never co true, made his heart race even more.
His reverie was short-lived.
It wasn’t long before the teor struck the castle.
Though the helpless struggles of the countless users and NPCs inside were invisible, there was no doubt all hell had broken loose.
It would have been strange if it hadn’t.
“This feels a little dangerous. Let’s move farther back.”
Even Han Simin’s party, watching from a safe distance, grew uneasy as the heat intensified and began to retreat.
As always, Fantastic World was far too realistic.
What was the point of casting such a spectacular spell? Anyone trying to get cool footage would just be swept away and killed by their own magic.
Still, the effort paid off.
They successfully avoided the explosion that erupted with the teor’s impact, and although they didn’t manage to capture it with so cool, over-the-top pose, they still recorded the glorious collision.
One massive spell.
A single spell that cost a staggering 200,000 Gold erased the lofty, imposing castle walls that had seed capable of completely blocking any intruder.
Perhaps they had prepared for such an attack, as defensive magic circles inside the castle activated, preventing total annihilation. Still, with the walls gone, the royal capital could no longer function as such.
That, in itself, was the conclusion.
Beginning, developnt, turn, and conclusion.
Han Simin ignored and skipped all the storytelling required for war, unilaterally and forcefully delivering his verdict.
Defeat.
And submission.
It was only at monts like this that Han Simin strode forward with absolute confidence, heading toward the inner keep where the king would be residing.
*
It was broadcast live.
From the very mont the spell fell.
People were left speechless by Han Simin’s brilliant setup, which had even calculated the perfect timing for the ads.
Of course, not everyone saw it.
No matter how famous Han Simin was, not many people would get a notification the mont his stream went live, then imdiately pay and jump in as if they had been waiting.
Compared to other paid streams, the number was staggeringly high, but considering Han Simin’s total viewer base, it wasn’t even one-tenth.
Only they watched from the mont the teor fell to the very end.
There were probably a few users inside the royal capital who, upon noticing the historic scene, turned on their own streams to broadcast it. But given their channels’ popularity, the number of people who caught the entire spectacle would be small enough to count on one hand.
Still, swallowing their disappointnt, the viewers watched on.
They watched the Imperial Army march toward the inner keep—dignified and imposing, fast yet unhurried.
An elite few.
’Shouldn’t that phrase apply to them, not Kenji?’
Users had gotten chills when Kenji entered the capital to seize the kingdom, but this went beyond that; a shiver of true dread ran down their spines.
If Kenji’s expression had been filled with the hope that he could devour the royal capital, Han Simin’s was the exact opposite.
Annoyance. Boredom. Irritation.
Even after smashing the capital of a kingdom ranked right below the Empire, he felt nothing.
He didn’t even seem to be thinking about how much he could squeeze out of this kingdom.
He looked like soone who had co simply to deliver a foregone conclusion and exact revenge for being inconvenienced.
Above all, the sight of him with his aura turned off was absolutely heart-stopping for the viewers.
—What kind of outfit is that for a war? He looks like he’s walking to the corner store.
—Don’t underestimate it. Every piece of that gear is
15.
—Still, at a glance, he seriously looks like a top-tier pro.
Wasn’t this everyone’s fantasy?
To wander the continent in newbie clothes with only a wooden sword in hand, lightly snorting at anyone who tried to pick a fight, traveling as you pleased.
Han Simin looked exactly like that.
The formidable subordinates following him did chip away at that image a bit, though.
He didn’t care.
He only moved straight ahead.
He paid no mind to the survivors watching him with terrified eyes from within the ruined buildings.
He simply walked his path.
He entered the inner keep, and although the soldiers leveled their spears at him, he paid them no mind and continued forward.
The path opened naturally, and the gate to the inner keep swung open before him.
No, it was already open.
And there, he ca face-to-face with him.
The king’s face, filled with terror and, at the sa ti, brimming with rage.
“Wh-what is the aning of this!”
Simin honestly wanted to ask what kind of reckless, tightrope-walking life the man must have lived to have placed defensive magic circles across the entire royal capital—circles strong enough to block a 200,000-Gold teor spell. But he decided against such a personal question and simply raised his hand.
The rabbits moved with him, forming a guard around him.
Personal questions could wait. Or he could simply never ask them.
Han Simin understood that type of thinking better than anyone.
If you were going to gamble with your life, you had to be that prepared.
In a true worst-case scenario, the king had probably prepared a contingency plan to either confront the Empire head-on or withstand their attack long enough to escape.
It was a praiseworthy effort.
Unfortunately, the king had underestimated the Empire’s strength.
If Han Simin hadn’t been on the Emperor’s side, things might have gone differently.
Even if the Tower Master, a 9th Circle Archmage, had co, teor was a spell with a long casting ti, and they might have been able to respond. But Han Simin was different.
The spells he cast did so by consuming Gold as a dium through Squeaker.
A penalty.
He traded away casting ti in exchange for the penalty of spending Gold.
That was the decisive factor that had created the current situation.
Thanks to that, the Imperial Army had reached the treasonous king without shedding a single drop of blood, and now, it was their turn.
“...So this is the Empire’s will!”
“And where do you get off talking down to
when we’ve just t?”
In a situation where the power dynamic was crystal clear, Han Simin never forgave rudeness.
If anyone was going to be an asshole, it would be him, not the other way around.
As a reservist who had completed his full term in the Republic of Korea Army, he found this unforgivable.
He grabbed one of the rabbits beside him and hurled it.
His Agility wasn’t 1,000, but with more than 600 Agility and Strength combined, the rabbit flew at high speed between the knights guarding the king and struck him squarely.
Thud!
“Urk!”
The king toppled over with a grunt.
Startled by the sudden turn of events, the knights hurriedly drew their swords, but Han Simin spoke in a relaxed tone.
“I’d stop right there if I were you. Unless you want rumors spreading that your king died because a rabbit bit his neck clean in half.”
The knights fell silent.
There was no real need to threaten them.
His side was already overwhelmingly superior in strength.
He did it for one reason.
Because it was easier.
The anger faded from the king’s eyes, and fear gradually filled them.
He didn’t have the strength to deal with even a single monster rabbit.
Yet that very rabbit was clinging to his neck, baring its teeth.
If he so much as twitched, his neck might really be sliced clean off by those razor-sharp teeth.
He swallowed hard.
That was a sign of submission.
Satisfied, Han Simin nodded and asked.
“Why’d you do it?”
The king looked at him in confusion.
A sentence so half-assed it lacked both a subject and an object.
However, the king knew exactly what those three words ant.
No, everyone here knew.
And the viewers watching the stream knew as well.
They all understood the current situation: the relationship between the Emperor’s Empire, the Great Temple, and the other factions, and the tense balance they maintained.
That one question contained all of that, and it also implied what the Empire’s next move would be.
Realizing this, the king naturally had nothing to say.
“I asked why you did it. Just because His Majesty doted on you a little, cut you so slack, did you really think this whole continent belonged to you? I an, that can happen. It’s understandable. And it is allowed. As long as you contribute to the safety of the continent, His Majesty is more than willing to overlook that kind of cute mischief. But even so, treason? That’s a bit much, isn’t it?”
In place of the king, who could not answer, Han Simin spoke for him.
The king shook his head, his face ashen.
“Treason! That is utterly absurd, sir!”
At so point, his rude tone had turned into polite speech, and the posture he had taken when the rabbit knocked him over had naturally shifted into a kneel.
For the ruler of a kingdom—one that could proudly call itself second only to the Empire—it might have been a pathetic sight, but at the sa ti, anyone who knew the Emperor’s character would recognize it as the only proper stance to take.
“So you’re saying it’s not?”
“Yes! Never! Our kingdom has always taken the lead in eradicating the Warlocks! We sent many troops to the war, and we poured a great deal of military funds into wiping out the remnants of the Warlocks! How could we possibly dream of treason? If we had, instead of taking such an active role, we would have gathered soldiers, built up our army, and waited for our chance, would we not?”
He rattled off plausible argunts.
They were valid points, and they were also cards the king had prepared long ago.
A clever way of slipping through the gaps.
Unfortunately, his opponent was Han Simin.
“So it was all just a smokescreen. What a bad guy. His Majesty was completely fooled. While you were pretending to be such a decent ruler, you were secretly giving full support to that cult backed by the Warlocks, letting them operate and proselytize freely within your kingdom. If you want to deny it, go ahead. We already have more than enough evidence.”
The king was speechless.
All Simin had to do was strike at the heart of the matter and deny everything else.
The king was at a loss for words for a mont.
He truly had nothing to say on that point.
He had just assud, ’It won’t be ,’ and gone through the motions for show.
He couldn’t make excuses even if he had ten mouths.
If it hadn’t been the Empire, if it hadn’t been the Emperor, he might have tried to wriggle out of it, but that would only have backfired.
There was only one thing left that the king could say.
“I-I didn’t know!”
’I don’t know, whatever.’
’I just need to survive first.’
The ga of hot potato with a shit-filled bomb had begun.
*
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