The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage-Chapter 388

"All of a sudden?"

"A site visit?"

"Well, if it’s a big event, we do have to go check the venue."

While Seong and An Yu-bin reacted like it was way out of the blue, only Lee Geon-dong nodded as if he agreed.

For this kind of group event, a site visit was pretty much essential.

What if you just went without checking and it turned out to be lousy?

At Lee Geon-dong’s words, An Yu-bin and Seong seemed to accept it a little and nodded.

Only, Seong hesitated for a moment at that.

‘Isn’t it a bit awkward since I’m currently part of Mihael’s party?’

He wasn’t the kind of person who wouldn’t understand if Seong said he had plans.

Even so, pulling out when he was participating in the party felt a little bad.

‘Let’s at least ask first.’

There was no particular reason Seong himself had to go on the site visit anyway.

Thinking that, Seong said okay.

"Fine for now."

"Are you going too, Seong?"

Seong hesitated for a second at An Yu-bin’s question.

He wasn’t exactly in a core guild position, but he was worried Mina might cause some kind of trouble if she went alone.

You could say, "She’s a full-grown adult, what trouble would she cause," but—

He still felt his heart drop when he remembered how he’d let her go to the beach with friends last time and then got a call from the police station.

Apparently she’d been hit on at the beach, and she punched the guy, so she got taken in on assault.

Sure, the guy was at fault too for being that insistent.

‘But no matter how you slice it, throwing the punch is the bigger wrong.’

There was no guarantee his sister wouldn’t do it again this time either.

If possible, he was already thinking he should go with her.

So when Seong nodded—

Something in An Yu-bin’s expression grew a little more resolute, and while Seong was watching that, the food arrived and his attention scattered.

Because her expression changed in that moment, Seong didn’t think much of it and let it pass.

"Wow... this is seriously good."

"The green color looked a little sketchy, but it’s great with garlic naan."

"It’s really good."

"Hahaha! Seeing you all enjoy it makes the recommendation worth it."

When even Mina and An Yu-bin, along with Seong, ate with gusto, Lee Geon-dong wore a very satisfied look.

Well, if you introduce a great place and everyone likes it, of course you feel good.

As Seong acknowledged and kept eating—

An Yu-bin and Mina muttered.

"No wonder you’ve been putting on weight lately, unni."

"Right? If you’re carting around this ‘good-restaurant database,’ of course you’ll gain weight. I need to make you exercise."

"Ahaha...."

The two talked like they already knew, and Lee Geon-dong laughed awkwardly.

Since the two even looked at him with these oddly amused smiles—

Fair enough.

Seong smirked at that and kept eating; then a few different topics came up.

"Come to think of it, where are you at now, Seong?"

"Me? Why?"

"Yu-bin says you’re getting hard to keep up with. The guild ran an event this time too, and you bulldozed it with a massive legion."

At Mina’s words, Seong looked at An Yu-bin, genuinely surprised.

Sure enough, she hung her head in regret.

"Ugh, I’m on the backup team, but there haven’t been many times I actually backed you up properly, so it’s a bummer."

"Hmmm, I see. I got the pass recently, so I’m in the ninth region."

"That’s quite a ways ahead. We’ve just reached the eighth region...."

"Hm?"

Hearing that, Seong tilted his head, puzzled.

If they were already in the eighth region now, that meant they’d passed level 250; the ninth required level 275.

Seong had just hit 270 and gotten in early with a pass, but the similar pace was a little surprising at first glance.

"What’s your average level?"

"We’re about to get close to 270."

"Hmmmmm."

Seong pondered that for a moment.

Then Mina, seeing him thinking, asked:

"What’s on your mind?"

At Mina’s question, An Yu-bin was watching too, clearly very curious.

She should at least know what her carry needed, since she had to back him up.

Approaching it that way—

Seong thought briefly, then spoke.

"I’ve actually gone into the city of Mugan lately, and I’m working on pushing through the deep layers...."

"Mugan City, Belhadan?"

"Yeah, that’s the most fun among the ninth regions, I guess—but if you can, it’s still better to move on to the next area...?"

"I’ve got a quest there, so I have to reach the deep layers."

At that, An Yu-bin’s eyes glinted hard.

If it was the ninth region, they were already close enough, and Seong needed to break into the deep layers!

Obviously, that was the backup team’s job!

Thinking that, An Yu-bin said to Seong:

"Then we’ll hurry up and help!"

She said it with a resolute expression, and Seong nodded inwardly as well.

It was a bit much to ask Mihael’s party to take down the Three Lords together anyway.

They were talking along those lines when Mina suddenly cocked her head, puzzled.

She hadn’t thought Seong would be the type to push through Mugan City from the 1st floor.

He was pushing through it?

"Are you doing that alone?"

"Mm, no, not that. I’m currently slotted into one of the parties challenging the deep layers."

"...!?"

At Seong’s words, An Yu-bin’s pupils trembled for a second.

Like a girlfriend catching her boyfriend cheating.

Sadly, because Seong was answering Mina’s question, he didn’t look at An Yu-bin—he didn’t see her swallow hard and send messages somewhere.

[Luna—Emergency!!! Seong is partying with other people!!!]

[Embris—Huh??? He left us and teamed up with someone else...?]

[Reaper—Snff, can’t blame him. We’re this slow.]

[Longfeng—Hey, Reaper, you’re not even in our party yet???]

[Hwa-Wol—Forget that—what do you mean???]

[Joseon’s Greatest Sword Kim Che-geon—What do you mean by that????]

[Mayrin—Hahahaha! Burning already!!]

[Kyou—Who is it?]

Everyone fired off messages loaded with emotion.

But since she was sending them secretly, all An Yu-bin sent was her own quick updates.

[Luna—I’ll explain the details later. For now, just know we need to clear Mugan in Belhadan.]

At An Yu-bin’s message, everyone replied "Got it" and burned with resolve to level.

If Seong had seen it, he’d already be shaking his head, saying it was too noisy.

Then the sharp-eyed Kim Che-geon suddenly spoke up.

[Joseon’s Greatest Sword Kim Che-geon—But how do you know that, Luna-gong? Are you with him right now, by any chance?]

[Hwa-Wol—Huh? Good point???]

[Kyou—Found it. A team called Mihael, currently ranked 3rd. Seong’s showing his face on stream here, full-on.]

[Mayrin—Hahahaha! I was wondering when he’d show that precious face! Not as the Demon King, but somewhere random.]

[Embris—Seong is handsome. Very....]

[Joseon’s Greatest Sword Kim Che-geon—Luna-gong, how do you know???? I am asking a second time.]

Ignoring the raucous chat, An Yu-bin turned her head.

At any rate, she’d given them enough of a prompt.

Then Seong’s eyes met An Yu-bin’s again, and An Yu-bin clenched her fist and said to him:

"We’ll definitely overtake you."

"...Huh?"

It wasn’t strictly necessary. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Granted, Seong’s leveling had basically stalled.

The required experience was no joke, and there were too many vassals splitting the exp—like Transcended Death and the legion commanders.

Even the newly joined Belzarach was a huge exp hog.

So it felt like it wouldn’t be long before he’d be roaming with the backup team again.

Party hunting had been pretty fun this time, so maybe that wouldn’t be bad either, Seong thought, grinning.

"Sounds good. I’ll be waiting."

"Yes. We’ll be there soon."

Seong answered, and An Yu-bin nodded too, saying she’d push herself.

Then Seong stroked his chin for a moment.

‘Hmph.’

Now that it was like this—

‘So the Cheongwi party, Mansik’s party, and Mihael’s party—does a three-way become a four-way?’

Thinking that, he chuckled—it sounded fun too.

He was curious what would happen when a big fish entered the pond; smiling at that, Seong finished his meal.

The race to reach the Mugan deep layers—the main content here—was, you could say, fairly fierce.

In particular, Cheongwi’s party, which was currently in the lead, had broken through the 76th floor not long ago, widening the gap back out to the 77th—yet Cheongwi, the party leader, was frowning slightly.

‘Of all things, Mihael found a shortcut....’

He’d wanted to widen the gap as much as possible while they couldn’t find a mage.

But Mihael’s party achieved the feat of clearing the 74th floor in a single day and reaching the 75th, which was nothing but a nuisance.

Cheongwi’s party was ahead for now, but no one knew better than Cheongwi did—

Mihael’s party’s true strength.

Their pace, cutting through with truly exceptional skill, exceeded even Cheongwi’s expectations.

He wanted to avoid being caught no matter what, but at this rate, by tomorrow they might be overtaken; with that thought, not only Cheongwi but the faces of his party members didn’t look great.

Above all, the mage they’d just recruited was the problem.

‘A mage of that caliber joined Mihael’s party.’

Honestly, who could have predicted that?

He figured they’d find a mage, but he hadn’t imagined it would be one that strong.

So while Cheongwi clenched his teeth and worried—

One party member came up and spoke to him.

"Whew, Cheongwi, don’t stress too much. Let’s just move."

"...Yeah, we should."

He answered that way, but seeing how wounded his pride looked, the other party members spoke to him carefully too.

"Right. Let’s not obsess over our ranking."

"We’ve got our own pace."

"Exactly. We just have to arrive in our own way."

"Mihael’s party is originally from the guild’s second string anyway...."

"Tsk."

At that last comment, he couldn’t help clicking his tongue.

Right.

Unlike Mihael’s party, Cheongwi’s party had been formed by players who’d never joined any guild in the first place.

They couldn’t help but be outclassed compared to Mihael’s party.

Whether it was because of that, Cheongwi felt inferior; what started as an expedition to explore the deep layers apart from any competition—

Gradually twisted into a rivalry.

Mihael had started joking about it on his stream, and the viewers followed suit and talked that way too.

Maybe it was inevitable.

With a sigh, Cheongwi thought:

‘Fine. Maybe it’s easier to think we were never going to beat them anyway.’

They had a full six-man party, while Mihael’s wasn’t even that—it was a four-man party.

In terms of skill, it was basically a loss already.

He comforted himself inwardly.

‘Yeah. Second place is still good.’

He decided to leave it at that.

And Cheongwi had no idea.

That a few days later, three parties would start from the 1st floor.

Demon King Backup Team 1—1st Floor

Demon King Backup Team 2—1st Floor

Demon King Backup Team 3—1st Floor

At first, they didn’t {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} care.

But a week later—

Demon King Backup Team 1—67th Floor

Demon King Backup Team 2—67th Floor

Demon King Backup Team 3—67th Floor

"??????"

Something happened that defied understanding.