- Volume 3, Chapter 8-58. Easy Mode. Choi Jung-hyuk (2) Choi Jung-hyuk looked around the spacious room with a pleased expression. Right now, so many people had gathered at the City Hall that every single room was filled to capacity.

But he was using this spacious room all by himself.

“This is power.”

It felt so good. This was why he had worked so hard to build his influence.

“You son of a bitch. You happy?”

A woman with long hair spoke bluntly. Next to her, a boy with a youthful air was biting his lip. Their bodies were tightly bound in thick iron chains.

Choi Jung-hyuk sneered at them.

“Of course I’m happy. This is a power you ignorant fools will never possess.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. If you hadn’t pulled your cheap tricks, you’d be dead.”

Lee Tae-yeon ground her teeth, and Choi Jung-hyuk conceded.

“Well, I’ll admit that. You are strong.”

He spoke calmly, but their strength was marvelous. With monstrous strength that could bend chains and crack walls, it was a difference in power that would have shattered his limbs if they had fought head-on.

‘But luck is on my side.’

Choi Jung-hyuk twisted the corner of his mouth into a smirk. The Special Quest to return to the outside world. While everyone else rejoiced, Choi Jung-hyuk got goosebumps.

He thought he would never have to meet those from Alone Mode. According to what they posted on the community forums, clearing Alone Mode was a distant dream, so unlike Hard or Normal Mode, they became a suitable target for confrontation. So he had openly shown his contempt and malice toward them, but now they had come out like this.

He didn’t think everything posted on the community forums was true, but if even a part of it was, his faction would be literally crushed. He had anxiously searched for a solution, but in the end, he came outside with no real plan.

But fortunately for him, he was summoned near the City Hall, so he was able to enter without encountering a single monster. There, he realized that the people claiming to be from Alone Mode were incredibly weak, and he quickly captured them. There was resistance, but he suppressed them with surprising ease.

Choi Jung-hyuk realized. Most of the Alone Mode players were weak, which meant he could capture them. After all, if the difficulty was as insane as the community forums said, everyone would have focused solely on survival.

So he let his guard down. When Lee Tae-yeon and Kang Jun-hyeok appeared, he had also tried to capture them by force.

“Monstrous bastards.”

Choi Jung-hyuk clicked his tongue. But those two were different. They threw off the Easy Mode Players trying to capture them in a single blow and tried to grab Choi Jung-hyuk.

Faced with their bull-like momentum, he too was terrified and had no choice but to flee breathlessly. But he had won.

“This is why people need to use their heads.”

The captured people from Alone Mode. Once he took their lives as hostages, the two had no choice but to be captured quietly.

“Fools.”

Choi Jung-hyuk sneered at the two. Even they couldn’t escape the chains wrapped around them in several layers.

“You should have fought regardless of the hostages. That’s why you’re the ones who get preyed upon.”

He was different. Even on Earth, he had been a predator. He had repeatedly intimidated fools, tricked them with false contracts, taken their money, and run away.

He considered himself a winner. That didn’t change even after entering the Labyrinth.

“Everyone is so stupid.”

They had entered the Labyrinth. A world where they risked their lives, a world with no law or order. So, people should adapt and live according to this world.

But everyone tried to maintain order and the laws of Earth. Everyone tried to help each other and stick together. He wasn’t that stupid.

Choi Jung-hyuk quickly entered the Labyrinth and assessed the difficulty. He was the first to realize the separated dimensions and came to several conclusions. The number of people who could enter the Labyrinth was limited.

Even if the dimensions were split, there were so many Easy Mode Players that there couldn’t be an empty dimension. In other words, control was possible. With this conclusion, he moved quickly.

He recruited those who were even slightly ahead of the curve. It was a place with no law or order. With just a little push, people would go wild.

He began to control the people he had gathered. At first, there was considerable opposition, but after dealing with it through violence and persuasion, his control soon became routine. Except for a few who resisted, everyone followed his orders.

It was so captivating.

“In the end, wherever people gather, it’s bound to be just as wretched.”

Seeing Choi Jung-hyuk leaning back leisurely on the sofa, Lee Tae-yeon taunted him.

“Yes. You’ve done so well. How long do you think you can last, living so diligently like that?”

Choi Jung-hyuk scoffed. He had certainly chosen Easy Mode. Its limitations were not just clear, but stark.

Lee Tae-yeon and Kang Jun-hyeok. These people from Alone Mode were truly strong. The Hard Mode players from outside also possessed strength incomparable to his.

No matter how strong he became, there was a wall he could never overcome.

“Physical strength isn’t everything.”

A rule that existed since Earth. Power and status are not correlated. He ruled Easy Mode.

There was a difference in strength, but their absolute numbers were far greater. The side with more voices always wins, so he planned to use that to his advantage. And they were the key to that.

As long as he held the other Alone Mode bastards, he could use them as he wished.

“Idiots.”

Good people. But weak.

That’s why they are used by smart people like him.

“The future looks bright.”

“I think so too.”

A voice from outside the door was followed by a tremendous roar.

KABOOM!

“Uwaaah!”

Choi Jung-hyuk screamed and ducked. Dust spread thickly through the air.

“What the hell!”

At the doorway stood a man with a languid expression. A man with a rugged face. Lean muscles caught his eye.

Choi Jung-hyuk.

A familiar face appeared. And there was another person he missed, in a different sense. A face more youthful than he remembered.

Perhaps because she was still immature, the changes in her emotions were clearly visible on her face. Bound in chains, Lee Tae-yeon was staring blankly at him.

‘It’s been a while.’

They had talked several times through the community forums, but seeing her in person felt different. After looking at her for a moment, Taesan shifted his gaze. The face of a young boy, staring at him blankly just like she was.

“You’re Kang Jun-hyeok, right?”

“Ah, yes. Yes…”

Bound in chains, Kang Jun-hyeok hurriedly nodded. Their gazes were directed not at Taesan, but to his side.

“That’s…”

[Oh? It seems these ones can see me.]

The Ghost muttered, feeling their stares.

“We can talk later.”

Thump. Taesan advanced.

After flinching for a moment, Choi Jung-hyuk smirked.

“I see. You must be Kang Taesan.”

“Ah…”

Lee Tae-yeon and Kang Jun-hyeok let out a gasp.

‘He’s younger than I thought.’

While Lee Tae-yeon thought to herself, Taesan stared back silently. His sunken gaze sent a momentary chill down his spine, but Choi Jung-hyuk tried his best to ignore it. He had hostages.

Seeing how he broke the door, he was certainly strong, but he couldn’t lay a hand on him.

“Sir!”

Belatedly, Jung-geun arrived, supporting Hwi-yeon.

“Ugh… Jung-geun. Thank you.”

Hwi-yeon staggered to her feet. After glaring resentfully at Taesan for a moment, she saw Lee Tae-yeon and Kang Jun-hyeok bound in chains, and Choi Jung-hyuk, and bit her lip.

“You…”

“Looks like everyone who’s coming is here.”

Choi Jung-hyuk leaned back against the sofa with a slick attitude. Hwi-yeon said coldly.

“That’s enough. If you cross the line any further, I won’t stand by idly either.”

“What right do you have?”

Choi Jung-hyuk retorted.

“Have I killed anyone? What have I done? They were fighting amongst themselves, so I just detained them to tell them to stop bothering me. So why are you pressuring me like this?”

“You…”

Hwi-yeon gritted her teeth. She had ears too. Among the Easy Mode people she had rescued, there were those who spoke of Choi Jung-hyuk.

They said that there were quite a few people he had dealt with in secret. But there was no proof. If the opponent were a monster, she could just beat them down, but since he was human, she had no idea how to respond.

In the end, Hwi-yeon gave up and asked calmly.

“What is it that you want?”

“What I want?”

“Don’t play games. You’re causing all this trouble because you want something, aren’t you.”

At her cold words, Choi Jung-hyuk grinned.

“Simple. Give me command.”

“To you, an Easy Mode player?”

“I know you guys are strong. But have any of you ever commanded anyone?”

Hwi-yeon couldn’t answer. As an ordinary university student, her only experience giving orders to people was being the leader of a group project. Of course, she had never managed a large, unspecified group of people.

“I, on the other hand, have ruled over people many times.”

“I’m sure there are many others like you.”

“Sure. There might be among the many people of Anyang. But did they manage an entire mode like I did?”

Choi Jung-hyuk said confidently.

“I have a track record of managing people on both Earth and in the Labyrinth.”

When he put it like that, Hwi-yeon had nothing to say. It was a fact that he had, in some way, managed the entirety of the Labyrinth.

“I want one thing. My safety. And command. Guarantee me those two things. Then I’ll release them.”

Choi Jung-hyuk said leisurely. He was confident they would accept. They killed monsters, they didn’t kill each other.

He judged that no matter what he did, they would only imprison him, not kill him. Hwi-yeon couldn’t answer. Still young, she couldn’t judge what the right thing to do was.

“This isn’t something I can decide on my own…”

“If you, a Hard Mode player, can’t decide, then who will? Are you going to pass the buck to those people from Earth with their flimsy power?”

Hwi-yeon faltered.

She was still young. When her opponent asserted himself so strongly, it was hard for her to answer. Just as she was about to agree.

“And what good would that guarantee be?”

Taesan, who had been silent until now, spoke up. Choi Jung-hyuk’s face distorted at the interruption just when things were going smoothly.

“Do you think that guarantee will protect your life? If I wring your neck right here, who’s going to complain that a promise was broken? Who’s going to punish the one who killed you?”

Taesan said indifferently.

“You’re mistaken.”

Choi Jung-hyuk thought he was smart. He didn’t abide by law and order, and he oppressed people. But he had forgotten that he, too, could not be protected by law and order.

Taesan took a step forward. As Taesan drew closer, Choi Jung-hyuk flinched and trembled. Looking into Taesan’s endlessly sunken eyes, Choi Jung-hyuk realized.

The man before him was not a man who belonged to law and order, just like him. In that instant, a chilling sensation washed over Choi Jung-hyuk.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Taesan didn’t answer. Watching him slowly approach, Choi Jung-hyuk hastily picked up a radio. He intended to contact the ones holding the hostages far away and tell them to kill one.

The moment he was about to say something, the sound of slicing wind echoed.

Crack.

The radio in his hand was crushed in Taesan’s. “Huh?” Lee Tae-yeon’s eyes widened. For the radio to be in Taesan’s hand meant that he had moved and taken it himself.

But she hadn’t seen a thing.

“Th-this bastard!”

Choi Jung-hyuk ground his teeth. He wasn’t foolish enough to be so confident with only one set of hostages. He pulled a lever.

Rumble!

With a crumbling sound, steel beams fell from the ceiling.

“Die!”

Giant steel beams fell, accelerated by gravity. Taesan didn’t dodge the steel beams that would crack the ground and collapse the building. The steel beams struck Taesan violently.

[Kang Taesan’s Block has been activated.]

[0 Damage dealt to Kang Taesan.]

Kicking aside the fallen steel beams, Taesan advanced again.

“Wh-what.”

The System Window that appeared before his eyes made Choi Jung-hyuk’s mind freeze for a moment. Players had Defense Power, but not enough to block steel beams of that size. He had already tested it.

Even someone with a Defense Power over 5 would take nearly 20 damage.

But 0?

He took no damage at all? Unable to bear the fear, he shouted.

“Come out!”

Slam!

The doors inside the building burst open and people rushed out. As if they had been waiting outside, a crowd swarmed in and surrounded the building.

“Why are there so many?”

Jung-geun, who had been watching blankly, was astonished. Hundreds of people had surrounded them. Choi Jung-hyuk shouted roughly.

“Kill him!”

Taesan stared blankly at the hundreds of people. Leveling up through battle