Chapter 208 - Slave Contract
"Black Scythe..."
John Delgado murmured with an expressionless face.
Having the enemy he was supposed to avenge right in front of him.
And that, not in another world, but in reality.
"It's not the time to get distracted."
John regained his composure.
In the past, he would have attacked immediately upon seeing him, but now he knew better.
Confronting Black Scythe was practically a suicidal act.
"Are you really Black Scythe?"
"Do you think you would utter those words even after seeing this scythe?"
Ryu Min brandished his scythe menacingly.
John, surprised, unconsciously checked if his limbs were in place.
"Ah, so you are Black Scythe. How did you know about our house?"
"Is that important?"
John tilted his head.
How he knew wasn't important.
Why he came was what mattered.
"Why have you come...?"
"What do you think?"
Responding to a question with another might have been a joke, but John felt it.
Black Scythe knew everything before coming.
"Yes, I come for revenge."
"Go on."
"We know your organization attempted to assassinate our Messiah. Well, the attempt was good. Instead of taking our members hostage like last time, this time you planned to assassinate us while we were trapped in the fever."
"Who suggested that? Dark Soul? Yang Qiwen? The Spaniard?"
"..."
As expected, Black Scythe knew everything.
But.
"Is Swingman really a traitor?"
He shuddered, but that didn't matter at the moment.
When he thought about what he had done against Black Scythe, it wouldn't be strange if he were killed right here.
"I can't die like this. I can't..."
He couldn't even consider a surprise attack as foolish.
Even if he had powerful summons, to Black Scythe, they were like candles in the wind.
Would he respond with the summoning of an archangel when he was already under the effect of a penalty?
"Facing this with force is the worst option. To survive, there is only one way."
Thud-
John Delgado suddenly knelt.
"Well, I was mistaken. Black Scythe. I truly apologize."
"Tell me what you did wrong."
"I joined the organization called Messiah, I made the mistake of trying to confront the formidable Black Scythe. I did foolish things trying to carry out an impossible assassination. I was wrong and I offended the venerable Black Scythe. I will immediately withdraw from that insignificant organization called Messiah. Please, I beg you, for your mercy, forgive my insignificant life..."
"You can really extend your plea for mercy."
Though he said it like that, Ryu Min was satisfied.
He felt sincerity in John Delgado's thoughts.
'He's not trying to sugarcoat the situation to avoid it. He truly fears me and seeks to prolong his life.'
The word "revenge" in his thoughts was now fading away.
Of course, perhaps due to what he had experienced, John had almost completely given up.
"It seems you have the determination to survive until round 20."
He knew that revenge would be a luxury, something possible only after that.
"I'm glad to feel your sincerity."
"So, um..."
"Yes. But I will only let you live."
"T-Thank you! Thank you..."
"However, there is a condition."
Upon hearing the word "condition," Joon opened his eyes in surprise, showing no joy.
"What condition is that...?"
"Let's have a duel."
"Eh? A-A duel?"
"Yes. I will present the conditions right away, so take a look at them. They won't be too bad for you, so look at them and decide."
Ryu Min manipulated the system window in the air and sent a duel request.
John Delgado, who was silently reviewing the conditions, showed a surprised look.
[A duel request has been sent to the opponent with the nickname 'John Delgado'.]
[Duel type ▶ Simple combat without death.]
[Victory condition ▶ Touch even a single hair.]
[In case of victory ▶ The loser becomes a lifelong slave and obeys the winner's orders.]
[Punishment for the opponent ▶ Prohibition of equipment and skill usage, not moving a step until the duel is over, yielding the initiative.]
[Punishment for John Delgado ▶ None.]
[Do you accept the duel under these conditions? Y/N]
"What is this?"
John knew the rules of duels, but the betting conditions were strange.
"Becoming the loser's slave?"
Wasn't that practically a slavery contract, rather than a bet?
"No way. I won't accept it in any way."
But what if he won?
He could turn Black Scythe into his slave instead of becoming one himself.
That would be much more beneficial than just killing him.
"The problem is if I can win in a duel with Black Scythe..."
From a logical standpoint, winning was impossible.
He would disrupt the balance, as always.
It was a senseless fight.
Still, John was at a crossroads.
"Not using skills or items, not moving, and yielding the initiative too..."
Unexpectedly, there was a chance to win.
"The conditions are good. I will win by just touching the opponent's body."
Having the initiative and just touching the opponent's body, wasn't it like receiving a free victory?
Despite that advantage, John didn't easily fall into temptation.
"He surely also has the possibility of winning. He's offering these conditions because he knows there's a chance I might win too. He's challenging me to a duel to make me his slave."
It was obvious from his intention.
Although he knew that, John couldn't easily reject the proposal.
If he did, he might be killed on the spot for being useless.
"No, he surely will. If he's that ruthless..."
Then, there was only one way out.
Contrary to Black Scythe's expectations, winning the bet and turning him into his slave.
[The duel has been accepted.]
[Within 10 seconds, the duel between both of you will begin.]
The corner of Ryu Min's mouth lifted slightly as he read the message.
"As expected, I knew you'd accept."
From the start, John had no options.
The situation didn't allow freedom to choose among several options.
"It was probably a tempting offer for him. He said he could make me his slave."
Moreover, they balanced the situation properly by imposing penalties.
Though it was just an attempt to induce him to seem disadvantaged and offer a win, Ryu Min wasn't concerned.
With runes of his inner thoughts and runes of future sight, he was confident he could decipher any move, even if it employed any strategy.
"We'll grant you the initiative. Come."
"No need to tell me..."
Pzzt!
"Understood, you damned!"
From the tip of John Delgado's staff, an ethereal figure formed like a ghost.
An incorporeal body that would only suffer damage from magical harm, Sariel, an ethereal undead.
He appeared in a grotesque appearance, only his skull remaining.
"Kill him, that bastard."
Following the owner's order, Sariel ran wordlessly and arrived in front of Ryu Min in the blink of an eye.
He was so fast it seemed like he teleported.
In an instant, Sariel traced a line with the staff he used to wield in life.
He had yielded the initiative as agreed.
In response, Ryu Min barely moved, easily dodging and uttering only one word.
"Farewell."
Zzzzap— The lightning shot through Sariel's body and pierced the roof of the house.
"What the hell?"
Though the Archangel's invocation was indeed a disappointing outcome, John Delgado's surprise wasn't about that.
"I said skills were forbidden."
"This isn't a skill, it's the rune's effect."
"You damn scammer!"
Realizing he had been tricked, John Delgado calmly pulled out his next move.
Wooooosh—
Generated from the tip of his staff, five ethereal entities dispersed in all directions, attacking Ryu Min simultaneously.
However, there were no changes.
"Area burst."
With a single skill use, everything in the surroundings was cleared.
But John, who had already anticipated this, immediately summoned five more.
"No need to release all power at once. It's settled with a single blow anyway."
John's strategy was simple.
Attack by dispersing forces.
"This damn skill must have a cooldown."
Handling five at once, it would be difficult to defend due to the cooldown.
A smile formed on John's lips.
It was a plan prepared for this situation and indeed was a strategy with chances of victory.
If Ryu Min didn't have the runes of darkness, that's what would have happened.
"Fragmentation."
The darkness balls that surged transformed into dozens of blades that scattered in all directions.
Shhhhh—
Since it was a mix of magical damage, the ethereal undead were hit by the blades and faded away.
All, including John Delgado, were among them.
"Ugh..."
With darkness blades embedded in his forehead, John knelt on the ground.
"The duel is over. Victory goes to 'Black Scythe'."
"As the opponent lost, he will become a slave and execute lifelong submission to 'Black Scythe'."
The duel had ended.
A smile formed on Ryu Min's lips.
"Everything went as planned."
Just like Joo Sung-taek, he turned John into his slave through a duel request.
Suddenly, the wound on John's forehead disappeared as he knelt.
"I greet you, master."
"John. I have something to test with you."
"Just give me the order."
Though he had just killed Sariel, it was a duel request, so who knows.
"Summon an archangel."
"There's still 5 minutes of cooldown time. Can you wait a bit?"
"So be it."
After 5 minutes, John summoned an undead again.
Without self-awareness, Sariel didn't recognize Ryu Min.
"What happens if I test if the accumulations stack when killing an invoked one? Let's see."
Fwoosh!
He shot a lightning and faded Sariel away.
However, there was no pop-up message, and the numbers of demonic runes didn't change.
[Arcangels eliminated: 1/100]
"It seems it only counts if it's the first time I kill Sariel."
In other words, even if he killed an invoked archangel, he couldn't accumulate demonic runes.
"Well, I don't need to go through this if killing invoked ones doesn't benefit me."
The same applied to other invoked ones; he didn't gain experience or gold by killing them.
If he did, players worldwide wouldn't stay still.
"Probably all summoners are working together to level up in reality too."
He knew he wouldn't gain anything by killing invoked ones, but he tested it just in case.
"My situation is so desperate."
To face the next archangel, he needed to accumulate runes to activate the Devil's Blessing at any time.
"But how do I catch 99 angels? However, there's no way to accumulate runes if I don't kill them."
"If I had known, should I have threatened and called angels before killing them, like I did with Remiel?"
Though he felt it was a waste to simply kill Sariel, he quickly shook his head.
"This guy resisted until the end. He wouldn't have surrendered easily."
He wasn't someone who would submit to threats.
"There's no other choice. Instead, next time I encounter an angel, I'll test it out. It might be that, being an undead, it doesn't count towards the count."
If the corpse was intact, he could create a real undead.
Unlike undead ones, real undead couldn't be invoked again after being destroyed, so the situation might be different.
"I'll wait for the next experiment. To see if killing an angel turned into a real undead increases the count or not."
If counting real undead was possible, John Delgado's value would also significantly increase.
It would be easier to accumulate the runes.
"Then, I'll pamper you for the rest of my life, regardless of the outcome."
Of course, regardless of the results, Ryu Min planned to keep manipulating him.
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