World's Strongest Survivor

Chapter 70 - 70

20 Squad. What Koreans Do Well.

The majority isn't always better than the minority. With more people, it was inevitable that their mobility would suffer.

While they were quick at looting villages, the time it took to move to the next location increased significantly.

"This is getting a bit frustrating."

Kichan's comment earned a silent nod from Seowoon.

"We've already figured out where most of the nearby players dropped. We could afford to move a little faster."

As Seowoon finished speaking, Juriel looked like she was about to say something, but Kaite cut in first.

"This is when lack of experience shows. Just because you're a large squad doesn't mean you always stick together. Normally, you form a scouting unit or small mobile teams to operate guerrilla-style across a wide area. Getting tangled with those guys is a huge headache."

Every player here had highly developed hearing—missing even the slightest sound was rare.

So it wasn't hard for Seowoon to see through Kaite's intent, despite how loudly he was speaking for everyone to hear.

'Cute. Is this your way of saying you're ready to start playing political games?'

To Seowoon—who'd spent years playing League of Red, the notorious AOS team game infamous for turning players into scheming politicians, with jokes about making it to congress if you get good enough—this kind of provocation was almost adorable.

Juriel, catching Seowoon's amused glance at Kaite (who looked smug, clearly enjoying himself), quickly stepped in to redirect the conversation.

"We don't have any archers or assassins, so it's hard for us to run guerrilla tactics. Even our scouts—only two of them—are barely covering their roles. If we get harassed by guerrillas, the whole team might fall apart, so we have to be careful."

"I see. Since this is my first time doing fixed team play, I wasn't aware of that."

He accepted it lightly, and the players who had been watching began to lose interest.

Some had been waiting to see whether the main shield and sub-order would butt heads.

Watching them disperse, Seowoon casually glanced at Kaite, who still wore that smug expression.

'That kill you stole earlier—it wasn't an accident, was it? You just made a mistake.'

Seowoon gave a subtle signal to Kichan, who smoothly stepped back and infused mana into his necklace.

"That oversized bastard is gonna play politics till the end."

"Looks like he's trying to take the sub-order spot."

"Probably. And if he can, he'll try to stir people up and take the main order too."

"Let's show them what Korean politics looks like."

Seowoon smiled at Kichan's words.

Just then, Juriel approached them.

She came in close, just within the silence field's range, and twitched her cheek as she spoke.

"Don't keep whispering inside the silence zone. It's not good."

"Oh, I just enjoy dumb jokes. We were just chatting."

"Even so, you should be building trust and rapport with the others."

Seowoon smiled and nodded at her words, but inwardly disagreed.

Sure, if you clicked with someone, building trust might be possible—but finding such players wasn't easy.

Just because you ended up on the same team with total strangers didn't mean friendship and trust would bloom instantly.

As he walked with those thoughts, Seowoon's gaze suddenly sharpened.

—Master! I feel a filthy gaze on us.—

'Direction?'

—The left forest and the right riverbank.—

No sooner had he confirmed the locations than he activated team voice chat.

—Enemies on the left forest and right riverbank. Everyone...—

He slowed down the rest of his sentence on purpose, drawing it out to bait them.

Some of the sharper players continued walking with neutral expressions, but others visibly tensed and scanned their surroundings.

Anyone familiar with Cloyd would've reacted that way.

And Kaite took Seowoon's bait hook, line, and sinker.

"There's no way the scouts missed any enemies—"

That's as far as he got before Seowoon shot him a glare laced with murderous intent, cutting him off.

At the same time, he drew his bow and fired a special arrow toward the riverbank.

—BOOM!

The explosive arrow, inspired by the arrows of Juroquana, struck the bank and detonated. A figure in a black leather hood sprang up and bolted.

"Damn it!"

Seowoon stomped the ground dramatically, pretending to be frustrated with a slightly exaggerated gesture.

The scout halted at the spot while the rest of the squad prepared for battle.

A few players began to chase after the fleeing enemy, but Juriel quickly stopped them.

"Don't follow! It could be a trap!"

Everyone looked around nervously. Seowoon, his eyes blazing, threw a sharp glare at Kite and opened his mouth.

"No! Why would you say something like that out loud instead of using team voice?! Everyone was keeping quiet and pretending not to notice!"

The other players, who had unconsciously been surveying the area in tension, silently nodded in agreement with Seowoon's words and turned their eyes toward Kite.

Feeling the weight of their stares, afraid he'd become the scapegoat, Kaite opened his mouth to defend himself.

"W-Well, if you hadn't shot the arrow—"

"So what, you think we should've just let them run away? If we had stayed quiet and struck first, we could've started off by taking down two of them easily... Jeez."

Seowoon let out an exaggerated sigh, as if deeply frustrated. The other players found themselves nodding without realizing it.

Rule number one of politics: start every statement with a denial.

Following Seowoon's lead, Kichan chimed in casually.

"Such a shame. Even if we missed the guy in the forest, we should've at least gotten the one by the riverbank."

"Right? It's not like we didn't know there could be guerrillas, and we even sensed them early. That should've been an easy fight."

"Seriously. It's really unfortunate."

As one or two people began expressing their thoughts, Kaite felt like he was going to lose his mind.

Sure, he admitted he'd made a mistake. But how could anyone have imagined that Seowoon—who had been far behind—would notice the enemy presence when even the scout watching ahead didn't catch it?

His mistake was assuming Seowoon was just talking nonsense out of spite after being humiliated earlier.

"Damn it! What the hell's the point of even having a scout if they miss stuff like that?!"

His gaze naturally shifted to the scout standing ahead.

"I just never thought the scout would miss the enemy's presence..."

The moment those words left his mouth, the expressions of the two scouts—one in front, one behind—twisted in anger.

"Are you seriously blaming others right now? The two scouts voluntarily took on a role that gives up the chance to loot items, fully aware of the disadvantage."

At that, the two scouts turned toward Seowoon with heated eyes, silently expressing their gratitude.

The surrounding players also began looking at Kaite with a tinge of contempt at his attempt to shift blame.

"What a fool. The quickest way to avoid political fallout is to apologize right after making a mistake."

No matter how capable and experienced they were, the players surviving in this world of Cloyd were still human at their core.

And humans, by nature, seek recognition from others.

When such people gather together, factions inevitably form.

To secure an advantageous position in that structure, there are two paths: either prove yourself with overwhelming skill, or rally a large number of allies to your side.

Kaite had failed at both.

Red-faced and seething with frustration, he couldn't say another word—until Juriel stepped in to save him.

She touched Seowoon's shoulder as if to say, That's enough, and stepped forward.

"Regardless, we fended off the guerrilla attack without being shaken. No harm done, so let's leave it at that. We don't have time for a blame session."

As the scouts resumed their movements, the group started marching again. Kaite shot Seowoon a bitter glare, but it only earned him more scornful looks from the other players.

"Stupid guy. With a head like that, what kind of political maneuvering does he think he can do?"

Seowoon thought that if he pushed Kaite just a few more times, the guy would fall in line.

Having experienced a guerrilla ambush, the scouts moved forward with greater caution. Seowoon approached one of them and said,

"I may not be great with traps, but I can catch most presences pretty well. It's safe to pick up the pace a little."

The scout nodded in acknowledgment.

The other players sneaked glances at Seowoon with curiosity brimming in their eyes.

Even though he'd stated he only used 4th Circle magic, they all wanted to ask how he had detected the enemy faster than a scout.

But asking about an undisclosed skill was taboo.

Questioning a teammate's skill or item could be taken the wrong way, so everyone kept quiet.

Reading the room, Juriel cautiously broke the silence.

"You've got good instincts."

Seowoon replied indifferently, keeping it vague.

"I guess."

Since that was all he gave, Juriel didn't pry any further.

As the scout picked up speed, so did the rest of the group. Before long, they came across a small village.

Smaller than the one before, it was barely marked by a shabby fence made of woven bushwood that separated the village from the fields.

The moment the scout leaped over the humble fence and entered, an explosion erupted, tearing apart the fence in an instant.

BOOOOM!

The scout had moved too far ahead for Hamit to detect the mana-trap in time. The explosion happened in the blink of an eye.

The blast flung the scout across the ground violently, and before he could even recover, seven spells were fired at him in unison alongside a surge of mana.

The first to move was Seowoon, who had secondary command authority.

The moment he sensed the explosion, he sprinted toward the scout.

By the time Seowoon reached the trembling, injured scout, enemy spells were already crashing down upon them.

'Kaire Barrier.'

Just as the barrier deployed, dozens of jagged stone spikes shot up from the ground.

If Seowoon had been a moment later in pulling the scout out, the poor guy would've been shredded to rags.

Grabbing the faintly breathing scout by the collar and retreating, Seowoon swung his free hand into the air repeatedly.

BOOM!

Chunks of ice that had been barreling toward them shattered midair under the pressure of Seowoon's energy blast.

FWWIP!

At the same time, blades of wind slashed past him, tearing through his clothes.

Though he'd reinforced himself for defense, the dozens of wind blades left plenty of small cuts across his body.

"Sixth circle..."

After enduring and analyzing magic with his body time and again, Seowoon had built up enough experience to the point where, upon getting hit, he could roughly guess the magic's circle level just from impact alone.

Even as that happened, Seowoon stood firm in front of the heavily injured Scouter. This time, two firebirds flew toward him.

He swung his fist once again at the oncoming firebirds.

The firebird split cleanly from head to tail in an instant. Yet even though its size had shrunk slightly, it reformed its body and once again dove relentlessly at Seowoon and the Scouter.

-Fwoosh!

In a flash, he was engulfed in flames. Another firebird joined the fray, and searing pain spread across his entire body.

Yet even so, Seowoon drew up his inner power and endured.

"Now!"

Just as Seowoon charged his fist with inner power and threw a punch again, a boulder the size of a house flew in with immense force—only to shatter into countless pieces.

-Crash-crash-crash!

Shattered fragments of the rock battered Seowoon's flame-cloaked body as they flew past him.

After holding out until that point, Seowoon finally pulled back—and found that the Scouter, who had been on the brink of death, had taken his last breath.

He laid the charred body in front of the rest of the team and pointed directly at one of the mages.

"Revive him! Now!"

Seowoon had thrown himself into the ambush that had taken down the Scouter in a flash, and somehow managed to recover his body. The other players, momentarily stunned by this, quickly snapped out of it and sprang into action.

Juriel also issued orders swiftly.

"Shields, move up! Remaining Scouters, keep a sharp watch on the rear! There might be a guerrilla strike incoming. Unmanned units, don't spread out too much!"

As she barked orders and looked ahead, the previously empty space shattered away, revealing the opposing players gathered in the center of the village.

"Mirror Illumination!"

Even though she recognized the spell, the fact she had been caught by it seemed to frustrate her, and she ground her teeth.

Meanwhile, Kichan began briefing.

"Sixteen. Four missing. Not sure if they were taken out or split off for guerrilla tactics."

Both sides stood in a standoff, unable to make a rash move.

The ambushed side was wary of yet another trap and couldn't step into the terrain the enemy had prepared. Meanwhile, the attackers had failed to secure even a single confirmed kill despite their surprise attack—so they, too, hesitated to push forward.

In group battles, momentum was everything.

As both sides remained on guard, studying each other's intent, the revived Scouter gritted his teeth and stepped forward.

But Seowoon blocked his path.

Still using a healing scroll to treat the burns covering his body, Seowoon shook his head when the Scouter looked at him—and the Scouter finally calmed down.

"I'll initiate."

(Initiate = 'Initiating' a fight, a term from AOS team games referring to the act of starting combat.)

"But... must it be you, Jin Seowoon...?"

Juriel trailed off, trying to stop him.

What Seowoon had just done—withstanding all that magic on his own—was something even most magic-resistant tanks couldn't accomplish.

With both sides locked in a long-range standoff, only someone capable of shaking the enemy in close-quarters combat could break the stalemate.

More accurately, only Seowoon was willing to take on such a dangerous role without complaint.

[T/L: Read extra Chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]

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