Novel Lived
Chapter 53
Chapter 53
[Welcome to the Final Colosseum.]
[200 users have been placed in the Final Colosseum.]
The final Colosseum, entered after enduring the 2nd and 3rd rounds.
The atmosphere was quite different, perhaps because it was a Colosseum composed only of users who had survived through survival.
‘Everyone’s level is over 100.’
In the 1st Colosseum, there were only a handful of users over level 100.
In the final Colosseum, it was harder to find users who weren’t level 100.
And over 95% of them were users who had completed rare class advancements.
‘It’s difficult to advance to epic in the 2nd Class Advancement.’
New World was a game where leveling up was extremely difficult.
Even if the 2nd Class Advancement was smooth, leveling up after level 100 was extremely difficult.
If they failed now, they would have to aim for the epic grade in the 3rd Class Advancement, which meant they would have to wait until the 4th class to try for unique.
Considering the time it would take, they couldn’t give up on the epic grade here.
There were even one or two epic grades.
They were probably aiming for first place like Jeong-Hoon.
“…”
Unlike the riff raff from the previous Colosseum, they were scanning their opponents first.
They knew that getting this far was not easy, so they couldn’t let their guard down.
And when their eyes turned to Jeong-Hoon, they stopped for a moment and didn’t move.
Jeong-Hoon, meeting their gaze, smiled faintly.
‘I can clearly see what they’re thinking.’
Lower martial artist, 1st Class.
Not only a martial artist, but a normal grade reached this far?
They must be thinking something like that.
Of course, unless they were fools, they wouldn’t let their guard down just because he was a martial artist.
[The final round of the Final Colosseum begins.]
[The 200 users placed in the Colosseum will be moved to ‘Lv. 150 Desolate Dark Street’.]
[You need to survive there while completing each task.]
[The round continues until only one person remains, and users cannot kill each other.]
In other words, it meant to survive as long as possible while completing tasks.
“Tsk.”
A few users clicked their tongues.
They must have been planning to quickly end the round by slaughtering users as soon as it started.
‘Lv. 150 Desolate Dark Street…’
Jeong-Hoon knew this street.
He had entered the Desolate Dark Street when he was around level 150 in his past life.
That’s why he could once again realize how evil the developers who organized this event were.
[The final round begins.]
With that message, the bodies of 200 users, including Jeong-Hoon, glowed and disappeared.
* * *
[Lv. 150 Desolate Dark Street]
Desolate Dark Street was a dungeon that hadn’t been revealed yet at this point in time.
Therefore, there was no information about this dungeon at all.
The users who had made it to the final Colosseum couldn’t hide their bewildered feelings at the sight of the dungeon.
“What the hell? I can’t see anything?”
Darkness had descended, making it impossible to see anything with the naked eye.
“Damn it, even Light doesn’t work.”
The mage tried to illuminate the surroundings by casting magic, but the magic didn’t work at all.
It couldn’t be helped.
‘Because you’re blinded.’
How flustered Jeong-Hoon was when he first entered the Desolate Dark Street.
[Status Condition: Vision Blocked]
If it weren’t for this status condition, he would have been able to check the dungeon’s state with his naked eyes, but it was impossible because it was a debuff inherent to the dungeon itself.
The old ancestors used to say that if the body was worth a thousand nyang, the eyes were worth nine hundred.
That’s how precious the eyes were, and it was frustrating to have them blocked by a debuff.
“Is this a debuff? Then with divine power…”
The users who had given up mana and walked the path of a priest used divine power to try and dispel the debuff.
“Ha, shit. It doesn’t work…”
Of course, it was all in vain.
‘This is a Lv. 150 space.’
So unless the divine power was at least 200 or higher, the debuff couldn’t be dispelled.
Jeong-Hoon used his divine power.
[Status condition removed.]
The debuff was lifted, and the surrounding space came into view.
A scene he hadn’t seen in his previous life.
The Desolate Dark Street, which he had barely escaped from by relying on his other senses except for sight, could finally be seen with his own eyes.
‘So this is how it looks.’
The Desolate Dark Street was literally a street in the middle of a city.
Moreover, the background wasn’t the medieval European style like New World villages, but a bustling street commonly seen in South Korea.
Currently, including Jeong-Hoon, 8 users were placed in that bustling street.
‘They must have been split up.’
Users couldn’t attack each other anyway.
They couldn’t do that in the first place.
Monsters were slowly approaching this way.
[Lv. 150 Dark Knight]
From knights dyed in black
[Lv. 150 Dark Mage]
To mages dyed in black
They were shadows in the shape of humans.
[The first task begins.]
Even under the status condition, he could check the tasks in New World.
“Task?”
“Shit, they want us to do tasks in this state?”
The users who hadn’t yet escaped the status condition cried out.
[Defeat one Dark Soldier.]
The first task was to defeat one Dark Soldier.
Jeong-Hoon, after checking the task, used his movement technique.
“Human?!”
As Jeong-Hoon moved, the approaching monsters’ faces were filled with surprise.
They hurriedly raised their spears and shields, but Jeong-Hoon was half a beat faster and unleashed the Underworld King’s Fist Technique.
“Cough!”
The monster closest to him was struck in the throat by his fist, and it screamed and fell backward.
Jeong-Hoon finished him off with another blow to the neck.
[First task completed.]
[Proceed to the second task.]
“What, what was that!”
“What’s happening?!”
The users, unable to see due to the vision block, hurriedly heightened their senses as the battle unfolded.
As expected of those who had survived to the final Colosseum, they were quick to grasp the situation.
‘They’ll survive on their own.’
The Colosseum was a strictly individual competition.
Jeong-Hoon checked the next task.
[Find NPC Isaac.]
The next task was to find an NPC.
An NPC hiding somewhere in this vast street.
He had encountered this NPC in his past life when he was desperately trying to survive.
If it weren’t for the help of that NPC, he wouldn’t have been able to escape the Desolate Dark Street safely.
‘He’s probably there.’
Jeong-Hoon hurriedly left the spot.
* * *
“Many strangers have come.”
Isaac, who had been hiding between buildings to avoid the Dark Soldiers and observing the situation, secretly slipped away and hid in a store.
It was a messy store that wasn’t currently in business and hadn’t been maintained.
“Kyaak!”
Through the window, he saw a stranger being pierced by an arrow and dying in real time.
“Tsk, tsk. This is not a place to enter carelessly.”
This dungeon had an unknown power, and if you entered recklessly, you would experience the absurd phenomenon of having your vision blocked.
How many years had Isaac himself struggled to escape this status condition when he first entered?
Currently, the status condition had faded to the point where he could distinguish things with his naked eye to some extent.
“Kyaak!”
“Keuheuk!”
As time passed, the screams of the strangers increased one by one.
Isaac sat on a dusty chair and passed the time.
How much time had passed?
Creak.
The door of the store opened, and a stranger entered.
He looked too clean for someone who had passed through the streets.
“…”
But what was this?
He felt like he had just made eye contact with the stranger.
“Found you.”
As if to confirm that it wasn’t an illusion, the stranger approached him and grinned.
* * *
[Second task completed.]
[Proceed to the final task.]
Smooth progress.
Judging by Isaac’s reaction, it seemed like he was the first to clear the second task as well.
===
[NPC Information]
-Nickname: Isaac
-Level: 160
-Class: Saber (2nd Class)
===
An epic grade Saber.
An NPC with enough power to survive in the Desolate Dark Street.
‘He’s the same as before.’
In his previous life, Isaac had revealed that his level and class were 160 and Saber, respectively.
He assumed that it was set that way and hadn’t changed.
“Can you see me?”
Isaac asked, unable to hide his surprise.
“I wouldn’t be standing here if I couldn’t see you, would I?”
“…That’s true.”
[Get Isaac out of this street.]
[To escape, you need to guide Isaac to the hidden portal.]
Jeong-Hoon’s eyes widened at the third task.
‘Get Isaac out of here?’
Isaac was an NPC assigned to the Desolate Dark Street.
That’s why he was able to meet him in the Desolate Dark Street years later, when Jeong-Hoon entered New World and was trapped there.
To think that the third task was to get Isaac out of here.
‘Ah, is that how it is?’
Isaac was originally assigned to the Desolate Dark Street for a task.
But no one could get Isaac out, so he was trapped here.
‘Then there’s no time.’
This round would end forcibly when only one survivor remained.
So he needed to move quickly.
“Don’t you want to get out of this street?”
Isaac nodded vigorously at Jeong-Hoon’s question.
“If it’s possible!”
He had tried every method to escape the street, but he failed miserably.
Now he was resigned to his reality.
“Then let’s go.”
“Where?”
“There’s a portal near here, right? Let’s go there.”
Jeong-Hoon knew the location of the hidden portal.
“What… That portal doesn’t work.”
And Isaac also knew the location.
It just wouldn’t work because the conditions weren’t met.
“There’s no time. Aren’t you coming?”
It was an urgent situation.
Only a few users had survived to this point.
The round would end soon.
Even if it ended like this, Jeong-Hoon would be ranked first, but he didn’t want to leave Isaac, who had helped him, in this desolate dark street.
Sensing his kindness, Isaac nodded with a determined face.
“…Alright. Let’s go right away.”
The days when he wanted to grasp at straws, but there weren’t even any straws to grasp.
Now a small hope had appeared.
There was no reason not to take it.
He headed towards the hidden portal with Jeong-Hoon.
The portal was located under a stream connected to a sewer, 5km away from the store.
“This is it.”
Jeong-Hoon nodded as he looked around the stream.
In his previous life, he had felt nauseous and struggled because of the stench of the sewer in a situation where he couldn’t see anything due to the status effect.
As a rookie, he was extremely confused and floundered just by having his vision blocked.
“…Phew, do you think it will work?”
Isaac asked in a trembling voice.
“We’ll see when we get there.”
The round wasn’t over yet.
Jeong-Hoon entered the sewer with Isaac.
As they went deeper into the sewer, they saw a flickering portal in front of them.
“Huh?”
Isaac’s eyes widened at the state of the portal.
The portal that hadn’t worked at all when he found it was now working perfectly.
And in front of it, a monster was guarding the portal.
[Lv. 170 Guardian of Darkness]
It was the Guardian of Darkness, a whopping Lv. 170.
It was 10 levels higher than Isaac, who was Lv. 160.
And it boasted a level difference of 69 with Jeong-Hoon.
It seemed like they had no choice but to hunt this monster to get through the portal.
[The final round is almost over.]
[Current survivors: 4]
There were 4 survivors.
If 3 more people were eliminated, the round would be forcibly ended.
They had to finish it within that time.
“I’ll handle it, please cover me!”
Isaac drew his sword.
[Guardian of Darkness uses ‘Status Condition: Enhanced Vision Block’.]
Then the Guardian of Darkness activated its ability.
At the same time, the status condition that had been on Isaac was strengthened, and even Jeong-Hoon’s vision, which had been fine, was blocked.
Isaac groaned at the sudden darkness.
“You shall not pass!”
The Guardian of Darkness raised its twin swords and rushed at Isaac.
The fact that the monster was attacking the NPC meant that they had to cooperate with the NPC to complete the quest.
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Isaac swung his sword and deflected the Guardian’s twin swords.
Having his vision blocked was a major disadvantage, but Isaac had fully absorbed the experience of living on the streets and his senses as a knight.
Compensating for the disadvantage was no problem.
“You must stay here. Forever!”
The Guardian of Darkness muttered and swung its twin swords like crazy.
The twin swords were filled with a dark red aura.
Sword Aura, which could only be manifested after completing the 2nd Class Advancement.
A mere monster was manifesting it.
“Shut up!”
Isaac also drew his aura and confronted the Guardian of Darkness.
Clang! Clang!
Even with the continuous clashes, Isaac wasn’t easily pushed back.
“Pathetic fool!”
[Guardian of Darkness uses ‘Status Condition: Morale Decrease’.]
[Isaac’s stats have generally decreased.]
Isaac’s level, which was Lv. 160, instantly dropped to Lv. 100.
With his strength greatly reduced, he started to lose ground in the power struggle against the Guardian.
“Keuhk!”
Isaac groaned and stepped back.
It was a body that had been constantly trained while wandering the streets.
However, he couldn’t help but kneel before the overwhelming difference of 70 levels.
Clang!
With a heavy attack, Isaac couldn’t hold on any longer and collapsed.
His knees buckled, and blood flowed from his nose and mouth.
He had suffered internal injuries from the shock.
‘Am I going to die here…?’
He hadn’t trained so hard just to die here!
Despite his will, his body wouldn’t move.
That was when.
“Oh, another bug is trying to stop me?”
Jeong-Hoon intervened.
“D-Dangerous! Run away now!”
Isaac shouted.
The stranger in front of him was definitely strong, but he was weaker than Isaac.
There was no way he could handle the Guardian.
“It’s okay. I have a way.”
He couldn’t just stand by and watch the Guardian of Darkness run rampant when time was running out.
So it was time to use a different method.
‘Brainwashing.’