How to Survive as a Player Chapter 40

#40

“Jaeyoung, can you do more?”

“I’m fine… What about your brother? “Brother, don’t overdo it.”

“Okay, then let’s try a few more times and then let’s go.”

“huh.”

Seeing that he was more confident than when he entered the dungeon, it seemed like he could definitely do it. Se-hyeon looked at Jae-young with a look of relief and secretly sighed. The pounding headache was coming little by little.

Se-hyeon tried to pretend that nothing was wrong and moved with Jae-young Lee to find the next monster.

***

Headache was an aftereffect. To be exact, it was an aftereffect of potion poisoning. What Se-hyeon learned while touring the dungeon with Jae-young Lee for a few days was that overdosing on the potion would cause addiction. The headaches caused by continuously drinking the potion did not subside until the addiction subsided.

When he tried to treat this with a skill, he was struck again and eventually passed out. Lee Jae-young went on a rampage and even invaded the village chief’s house, creating an atmosphere of mourning.

Thanks to this, only Se-hyun had to listen to Kim Gap-jun’s arrogant insults. Every time I saw him, he clicked his tongue and looked pitiful, as if he was telling me not to fool around with the weakest person.

To top it off, Se-hyeon was even banned from using potions. It was a special measure that Kwak Jeong-han, who was worse off, had gritted his teeth for the first time. Because of that, for a while, Se-hyeon had to have her every move observed by Kwak Jeong-han, who entered the dungeon and monitored her.

Since the standard of 30 potions a day was drastically reduced to 5, Jaeyoung Lee’s skill growth was bound to slow down. Fortunately, however, much was accomplished in the beginning, so there was no significant delay.

It’s the 6th day of living in the dungeon day and night. Jaeyoung Lee finally succeeded in acquiring command response skills.

Perhaps because it was a valuable result obtained after enduring countless pains, Lee Jae-young could not hide his tears. Se-hyeon and Kwak Jeong-han just stared at Lee Jae-young, who sat down and cried.

This was because the path Jaeyoung Lee had walked was too difficult to express the joy and pain contained within it in just one word. I couldn’t even say, “Thank you for your hard work.” No words could replace Jaeyoung Lee’s miserable patience.

After crying for a while, Jaeyoung Lee smiled with a face filled with joy. She smiled at Se-hyeon and stretched out her arms and shouted in a loud voice that she had done it.

When everything was over, everyone left the hard work behind and left the tower with a grumpy expression on their faces. No, actually, the only one who was grumpy was Sehyun. Lee Jae-young and Kwak Jeong-han supported Se-hyun, who appeared with a look that drained her soul.

“Jaeyoung… “Are you sure you got the skill?”

“huh. I did get it… Are you really okay? I think my brother is more of a problem than me… . “Your face has turned white, bro.”

“haha… My brother is fine… .”

“Ha, can you just keep your mouth shut?”

“okay! “Brother, just let that mackerel carry you on your back.”

Jaeyoung, mackerel.

Se-hyeon looked at Jae-young Lee with a trembling look, not having the strength to speak. As if he thought that was a word of permission, he immediately saw the mackerel in front of him, no. He sat down with Kwak Jeong-han sticking out his back. Even Lee Jae-young was helping, so Se-hyeon felt helpless and had to ride on Kwak Jeong-han’s back.

Somehow it felt like my fins were bigger than before, but I wasn’t sure.

“Sehyun, it would be best for you not to come out of the dorm until you feel better.”

“I’ll bring you every meal, so you can just get some rest. huh?”

Sehyun’s body was firmly supported by the thick forearms that came below the crotch. Se-hyeon just relaxed and lay down on Kwak Jeong-han’s back and nodded to him. He drank seven bottles of potion in a row, thinking it was the last time, and he felt like he was going to die.

Now that Jaeyoung Lee’s problem was solved, all that was left was the town going crazy. What else had happened in the meantime, the atmosphere in the village was on thin ice. It was clearly visible that the factions were divided, and among the people, there were many who became part of the Kural tribe.

According to Kwak Jeong-han, the Grand Duke is showing signs of trying to hierarchize military power. He said that he could not make it happen because of Kim Gap-jun’s opposition to treating people differently based on class, but he is waiting for something to happen by messing with the villagers.

Oh, I’m dying.

Sehyun stuck out her tongue and looked with blurry vision at the portal that appeared in front of her. Then I suddenly realized that it wasn’t an illusion that his fins had gotten bigger, and I became curious about his level.

“… Mr. Kwak Jeong-han… .”

“Can’t I tell you later? Se-hyeon looks like she needs to take care of herself.”

Considering the low, threatening manner in which he spoke, conversation seemed impossible. Sehyeon kept his mouth shut and stared at the entrance to the village shrouded in fog. It was then that something caught my eye.

“uh? “That looks like a person.”

Jaeyoung Lee next to me opened her eyes and said, wondering if Sehyun was the only one who saw it. Kwak Jeong-han quickly approached the place where the blurry human figure was.

As expected, people were lying down in front of the village. To be exact, it wasn’t a human since it had been fully awakened, but it was clear that it was a player from Earth.

“Both of you are out of your mind… Should I just throw it away?”

“You have to take him in.”

“Get out of here, it’s about mackerel.”

There were a total of two people who fell. He was covered in wounds and his whole body was covered in sweat. Judging from the fact that his cheeks were puffy, it looked like he had starved for a few days.

“Jaeyoung, please call the village chief to the dormitory. “Mr. Kwak Jeong-han, please let me down.”

Without saying anything, Kwak Jeong-han put Se-hyeon down and picked up the man, one in each arm. Se-hyeon walked towards the dormitory, following Kwak Jeong-han, who was moving around carrying his men. Then he roughly spread dry grass and made the men, who were even more scrawny than me, lie down on it.

“Take the potion first.”

Sehyun searched through her inventory, took out two stamina potions, handed one to Kwak Jeonghan, and slowly poured one into the mouth of the man lying nearby. Kwak Jeong-han also supported the back of the other man’s neck and slowly poured the potion into his mouth.

“They are not from our village.”

“They are people who came from another village. Judging by his condition, it looks like he starved for a few days… “It seems like something happened to the village these people were in.”

“What exactly is going on?”

“… Elix has something called village hunting. In order to increase their size, empires in the middle and lower classes hunt and absorb lower-ranking villages… This is possible if the king surrenders, so it can be absorbed into the village itself. “The goal is to increase the population by stealing the people of the empire.”

“That means… .”

“Yes, it means that our village is no longer safe.”

Sehyun knew this would happen early on. No, I actually thought it was too late. Even when he enjoyed Elix as a game, village hunting was a frequent occurrence among empires. I couldn’t stop it, and even if I knew, it wasn’t easy to avoid.

However, a condition was necessary to absorb the village. The target empire to be absorbed must be smaller than your own empire. Also, if the vassal in the village to be absorbed is of a higher level or grade than the vassal, the vassal cannot be absorbed.

During the absorption process, there were panicked residents who escaped, and it was highly likely that the men in front of Sehyeon were such residents.

“What happens if the king doesn’t surrender?”

“There is a high probability that the king will be murdered. If that happens, all the village residents will die. You will be defeated. Although most of them did not surrender in the game… It will be different now. Since you have to surrender to avoid death, most of the village chiefs probably surrendered. “It is absorbed into the other empire.”

“Do you mean to become a resident of the absorbed place? Does the king who surrenders also become a citizen?”

“yes. However, absorbing an empire through village hunting has negative effects on both empires. As Kwak Jeong-han also saw, tribes are not very willing to defend people unless they belong to their own tribe. Other absorbed imperial citizens become nothing more than livestock. “You become a slave.”

There were many more confusing situations, but I couldn’t explain them all, so I had no choice but to roughly explain only the important ones. Nevertheless, Kwak Jeong-han fully understood and accepted all aspects.

“I don’t know why there is so much bad news.”

For the first time, Kwak Jeong-han showed a weak side. It was worth it. That was the case when anyone first encountered Elix. Even Se-hyeon had to suffer a lot in the beginning as a victim of the village hunt.

Ellix was that kind of place. A place without mercy, exclusive between races, and always suffering from territorial fights. It would have gotten even worse now that survival was at stake.

“Brother, I brought the village chief!”

Suddenly, the door burst open and Lee Jae-young and a gasping Kim Gap-jun appeared. Looking at Kim Gap-Jun’s expression, which became more serious than usual, it seemed like he had anticipated the current situation to some extent and rushed forward.

“He collapsed in front of the village?”

“It probably came through a portal. “It is the only place where villages are connected.”

“Ha, I already have a lot of trouble right now… “It’s so crazy.”

Gapjun Kim had puffy eyes under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept in several days. He was also stressed about various things in the village, so it was natural for him to do so.

“I gave you the potion, so you will wake up soon. “Let’s listen first.”

“If another empire asks you to surrender, will you accept it, chief?”

Kwak Jeong-han asked Kim Gap-jun a serious question. Gapjun Kim closed his eyes sheepishly for a moment, but eventually nodded his head.