Chapter 314: Rioters Called Adventurers 4
TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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Even if the elite Harpy soldiers charged at me, capturing me alive instead of fighting was an impossible challenge.
Unless I stood still and took all their javelins, there was no way I'd lose, and aiming to capture me was arrogant.
Regardless, the Harpies, with faces twisted in greed, tried to capture me.
It seemed like they wanted to present me to the capital, as if the lower floor were some provincial town.
What should I say?
I felt like a white elephant escaped from an ancient city like Rome.
The rampaging elephant was damaging the city, but that was none of the nobles' concern.
The greedy imperialist Harpy nobles only wanted to offer me to the city and receive gold and jewels in return.
"Drive him to the cliff!"
"If you say that loudly enough for me to hear..."
Of course, their abilities seemed a bit lacking compared to their desires.
The soldiers, whose combat experience probably consisted of kidnapping weak Dwarves, showed such a sloppy structure that the words "ragtag army" and "Tang soldiers" came to mind.
Even the warriors who died before my eyes and the adventurers caught on Han Se-ah's camera seemed to be victims of their own carelessness against high-level monsters rather than proof of the Harpy army's prowess.
As someone who had witnessed the Kingdom's Knights' tactics multiple times, I'd say the Harpy army was worse than a military fan club filled with otakus.
Probably even lacking in tactics compared to those who play airsoft as a hobby.
"If we just leave Roland here, won't he conquer the city and come back in a few days?"
-Is the Harpy Empire's name the Holy Harpy Empire?
-One of the small-fry Harpies carrying a spear just got caught in a net and fell, haha.
-Watching this stream gave me confidence in the upper floors :) This looks surprisingly easy.
-This isn't infiltration; shouldn't we just bring the temple brothers and knock them down one by one?
Just like Han Se-ah murmured, the Harpies' response was quite weak.
The most threatening attack was their javelins, supported by steel nets and shackles, but their coordination was so poor that they got tangled up with one another.
Heavy steel javelins driven into the ground to guide me would get caught in the net and fall off, or a supply soldier carrying supplies from the warehouse would get caught up when nets and shackles were thrown simultaneously...
The tension from the beginning of the infiltration in the dark was nowhere to be found.
The viewers, feeling more relaxed, were laughing and watching me.
In the meantime, the only heavy thing was Han Se-ah's inventory, filled with minerals she had carefully stolen instead of bombs.
She wasn't gathering jewels like adventurer thieves but was packing the ruins of the luxurious buildings I had destroyed, intending to hand them over to the Magic Tower.
I'm getting a bit tired of this. Should I wrap it up and slip into the cave?
"It seems like the rescue is about done, so I'd better join up."
A muttered soliloquy conscious of the camera filming me.
The Harpies above me didn't hear it due to the noisy flapping of their wings, but Han Se-ah, who had the camera focused on me, probably did.
She hurriedly checked her inventory and removed worthless pieces of stone.
Perhaps she got anxious after hearing my suggestion to sweep up quickly and leave.
It was only natural that viewers scolded her, and naturally, many viewers paid to do so.
As expected, the genius of streaming, she added a bit of spice to induce donations.
From a corner of the collapsed warehouse roof, Han Se-ah used Earth Control to dig a burrow and organize her inventory.
After confirming on the mini-map that she had started moving toward the cave, I also began running in that direction.
If I encountered anyone along the way, I'd just tuck them under my arm and keep running.
"He's running again! Stop him!"
"The net! What are you doing!"
Thinking this, I lifted my shield once more, startling the Harpies.
I hadn't needed to use my mace, so it hung by my waist while I pushed through buildings with just my shield.
Perhaps they thought I was revving up like a car engine as I raised the shield, and the Harpies began flapping their wings frantically.
What would they come up with after steel nets and javelins?
I felt no threat to my life or safety, so I could approach the situation with the carefree feeling of playing a flash game in my childhood.
"Throw it! Hit him!"
"Those are expensive! More than your wages!"
Just as I was about to dash toward the mountain range where the cave was, a team of four low-level Harpies appeared, each carrying a large wooden box in a line.
Instead of a javelin launcher, the large, red Harpy commander held a long belt-like sling and a round bomb.
In a world of magic and alchemy, you never know what might come out of that simple-looking black bomb.
Moreover, the enslaved Dwarves weren't just simple blacksmiths but a versatile race that mastered metalworking, jewelry crafting, and even alchemy.
So, I crouched low to be ready to spring away at any moment, tensing my thigh muscles as I focused intently on the bomb flying fiercely through the sky.
"Got it!"
"Nope! Missed!"
There's no reason to just stand there and take it, so I shield my face with a shield and dodge.
A bullet, aimed fiercely at my chin, smoothly grazes the shield and embeds itself in the ground.
Watching this, I momentarily feel a tank-like pride, even though I'm not skilled with blunt weapons, I have become quite adept at deflecting with my shield.
Green gas rises from the bullet embedded in the ground.
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Raei Translations
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As a tank, being sturdy didn't mean I was completely immune to various elemental magic attacks.
Although my health didn't decrease, it was natural from a gaming perspective that I'd suffer burns from fire magic and frostbite from ice magic.
Defense and resistance were separate stats, and when discussing the overpowered nature of cleric characters, the term "immunity" often came up, which was common knowledge to gamers.
This common knowledge also applied to Roland, a top-tier 6★ pure tank.
With immense defense and health, he could withstand most attacks with his bare body, but he was still susceptible to status effects.
Our saint candidate, Irene, would need to cleanse him with her nearly-perfect purification.
Even so, there was no way the mass-produced capturing magic tools made by Dwarves could work on me.
"Squawk— Oh, damn it!"
"He's rampaging! Hit him properly!"
Perhaps my confidence was my downfall.
The Harpies had pulled out gas grenades to incapacitate and capture me.
Not poison gas or tear gas that would inflict damage or pain… but pure stink bombs.
"Damn, damn, damn, ugh…!"
Even though I had a mana/divine energy pool as solid as my HP bar and a superhuman body that could endure even when my mana was drained, this was a level that was hard to endure.
Those bastards threw gas grenades that settled heavily on the ground, relying on their ability to fly.
As expected of imperialists, they seemed familiar with biochemical warfare.
Even if I tried to break the ground with mana-charged attacks or used my shield to create a gust of wind, it couldn't match the wing flaps of dozens of Harpies.
I could handle hitting and breaking things, but how was I supposed to win a fanning contest with dozens of wings using just a broad shield?!
“Ugh, damn it, my nose hurts…!”
Of course, it wasn't the kind of gas that would leave me writhing in pain and unable to move.
There seemed to be more than just a foul smell; perhaps it also had paralytic and sleep effects.
The Harpies were startled to see me still running around after inhaling the gas.
The problem lay in the craftsmanship of the malicious Dwarves who made this gas grenade.
It's known that the human nose quickly adjusts to smells—that's why people can't detect their own body odor.
Apparently, it's due to the sensitivity of olfactory cells, which can't perceive the same smell for more than a few minutes.
Perhaps to counter this, the alchemical gas grenades made by the Dwarves contained a constantly changing foul odor.
“He’s jumping up! Grab him with your bodies!”
“He’s got a sensitive nose! Bring more gas grenades!”
At first, it stung my nose like tear gas, but after a few blinks, it changed to the foul smell of sewage mud regurgitated on a rainy day.
Then it shifted to the musty stench of rotten food waste mixed with stinky tofu in a back alley of a night market I had visited in Taiwan.
After that, it turned into a sour smell like Western body odor, repeating its variations over and over again.
Even sturdiness aside, with the overwhelming stench that no human would want to endure, I naturally had no choice but to leap high into the air.
It felt like I was a hunted animal in a drive hunt… but the smell was so unbearable that my desire to avoid it was stronger than my anger.
“Screech! He’s strong! He’s breaking through the net!”
“Screech! The smell!”
With that thought, I smashed the building I used as a stepping stone and leaped into the air, charging straight into the Harpies rushing at me with nets.
I sent them flying.
Even though I hit them head-on, the Harpies didn't die instantly, probably due to the mid-air collision.
They crashed into the building debris and were buried in the gas, stiffening up and freezing in place mid-scream.
Watching this made me feel a bit relieved.
Damn it, even if this is a fully immersive VR game with perfectly implemented senses, gas grenades with such a foul odor are just too vicious.
And combining them with an empire makes me wonder if the developers are crazy.
I couldn't help but mutter curses from my now-dry mouth.
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