The Duke's Son :Re-Chapter 253

Chapter 253
Having won China benefits time and time again, Chen Dian, the most beloved National Treasure in his homeland, had earned himself the lofty title "Phoenix." It was said that no matter the mission, he only knew success.
However, right now, China’s invincible Chen Dian had his brows pinched in frustration.
The Twilight Kingdom...
Gates with the “kingdom” qualifier were hard to find even in China and the United States. On its face, all such gates were supposed to be treasure troves. Even if it had been cleared once already, the same should be true of the Twilight Kingdom, which was why Chen Dian and his team had been sent to Korea in the first place.
Of course, the official reason for their arrival was to investigate Jiang Lei’s death, but that was merely a convenient excuse through which they held complete control over the Twilight Kingdom. Thus, for as long as Chen Dian kept the investigation open, the Twilight Kingdom fundamentally belonged to the Chinese.
Hence, the Communist Party had even boldly sent several National Treasure candidates with Chen Dian’s group—they knew it was the perfect opportunity for them to gain experience as well as potentially unique benefits in a foreign gate, and seeing as Korea had given the Communist Party full investigative autonomy, Korea could do nothing to stop them.
Overall, everything about this mission had seemed perfect to Chen Dian. In fact, rather than call it a mission, this felt more like a vacation the Communist Party had personally arranged.
The table was set; all he had to do was eat.
And by the time this “vacation” was over, he’d had hopes that the National Treasure candidates would return to China as genuine transcendents, thereby adding another merit to his name. After all, the news of a Korean gate giving birth to Chinese transcendents would impress upon the world China’s dominance at home. Should he achieve it, Chen Dian knew the Communist Party would be incredibly pleased.
Alas...
It had been ten days since Chen Dian and his group had first set foot in the Twilight Kingdom, and
still
Chen Dian had nothing to show for it.
Let alone finding rare treasures, even the experience gain in the Twilight Kingdom was nothing special, for though the orcs offered decent experience, they were clustered in small groups, and their respective villages were scattered across the land, making the time it took to farm them for experience inefficient. And aside from them, the other monsters that they’d encountered in the gate were simply too low-level to hunt for experience.
That wasn’t all.
The grey, rocky land of the orcs was also bereft of rare herbs and valuable minerals, supporting little else apart from the occasional half-withered tree...
In short, Twilight Kingdom had been one disappointment after another. However, at first none of this had really fazed Chen Dian—after all, anyone with half a mind could tell where the Twilight Kingdom’s true profits lay hidden. And that was none other than the Twilight Kingdom’s royal city.
From what Chen Dian had gathered, the royal city was what lay behind what the orcs called “the Great Wall.”
True to its name, the Great Wall was a smooth barrier of grey stone so vast that its top disappeared into the clouds, while its ends stretched from horizon to horizon.
Half a week ago, Chen Dian had decided to focus his efforts on crossing this Great Wall and robbing the wondrous treasures therein, but unfortunately, things had not gone as planned...
“
Tsk.
Is it the same this time?”
Under Chen Dian's glare, the Chinese player, a veteran in his own right, couldn’t help but swallow before nodding.
“Yes, we’ve yet to find any way past the wall. We can’t tell what type of magic it is, but even after climbing thousands of kilometers, we couldn’t reach the top. Similarly, the men on the ground traveled far yet found no sign of a gate or other opening in the wall. ”
“
Hmph
. Fine. Fine then. If there’s no way over, and there’s no way through, then all that’s left is to try digging a tunnel under.”
In order to figure out a way over the wall, the Chinese investigation team had tried various approaches:
In the first raid, they’d completely cleared out all of the orcs in every village, hoping to trigger a quest that would grant them entry into the Twilight Kingdom’s capital, but no such thing occurred.
In the second raid, they tortured the orcs, thinking they might hold the secret to gaining entry into the capital. Yet, the orcs claimed ignorance.
On the third raid, they used persuasion, building rapport with the orcs before asking them if they knew of a way to enter the capital city. Again, the orcs claimed they didn’t know.
In the fourth raid, they studied the civilization and history of the Twilight Orcs in an attempt to obtain clues. And in the fifth raid, they searched not only the villages but all the surrounding mountains...
On and on Chen Dian and his team had gone—yet no matter what they tried, they never triggered any quest.
Worst of all was that Chen Dian knew they had to be missing something.
In high-level gates, the presence of at least one Named monster was a commonality, but in all the time they’d spent in the Twilight Kingdom, they’d not come across even one—the number of Twilight Orcs numbered in the hundreds across the villages, but not one of them was Named.
“...
Haha!
Phoenix, I didn’t realize you also knew how to joke.”
“You think I’m joking?”
The Chinese player’s face paled by several shades almost as fast as the nervous smile died on his lips.
“You’re... really telling us to dig a tunnel?”
“Are you questioning my orders?”
“I-I wouldn’t dare. We’ll get to it immediately!”
After ten days of grinding this gate, the Chinese investigation team—and in particular, the Chinese National Treasure candidates—had come to understand both the nature of the Twilight Kingdom and Chen Dian’s temperament quite well.
Regarding the gate...
Indeed, they hadn’t found any treasures, and indeed the gate’s monster density was somewhat sparse, making each run somewhat time-consuming for the amount of experience gained; however, from the perspective of the National Treasure candidates, these flaws were made up for by their unchallenged claim over the gate, which thereby allowed them to clear it whenever and however many times they wished. Furthermore, the main quest was also straightforward, only requiring them to kill all the orcs in the orc villages—something they would’ve done anyway to collect experience.
For these reasons, the National Treasure candidates were not all too disappointed with the Twilight Kingdom. No, in fact, they were quite satisfied to continue clearing the gate as they had. Of course, none of them dared to say as much before Chen Dian, and they could only secretly hope that Chen Dian would let go of his obsession with trying to cross the city wall.
There was a time when they’d shared Chen Dian’s enthusiasm for crossing the Great Wall, for upon climbing the tallest nearby mountain, they’d been able to peek over the Great Wall to see the wide roads and grand buildings beyond. But whenever they attempted to scale the Great Wall themselves, the top stretched endlessly away from them. And no matter how far they traveled around its base, they never found an entry through the Great Wall either.
After days of fruitless attempts, the National Treasure candidates had long given up in their hearts. The laws of the dimension clearly barred their entry. So even if they could dig a thousand tunnels, there was no way any one of them would lead past the wall.
The National Treasure candidates shared these thoughts among each other through quiet glances.
But since Chen Dian had said to dig, they could only dig...
***
In front of the Twilight Kingdom gate, a platoon of heavily armored players stood in neat rows, their tower shields resting before their chests.
They belonged to none other than the Guardian Guild.
“What the hell is this? I can’t sleep these days out of anger...” one player muttered.
Ten days ago, Jae-Hyeok had risked his life to keep the greedy Chinese from claiming the gate’s first clearance, and yet despite his best efforts, the Communist Party had still managed to wrest control over the gate, using Jiang Lei’s death as the pretext.
Had the Korean government stood firm in supporting Jae-Hyeok, something like this would’ve never happened—this, everyone knew.
Be it Jae-Hyeok’s allies or the public at large, their resentment toward the Korean government had reached a simmer.
However, none felt more resentment than the players of Guardian.
As a guild of defensive tanks, the role of escorting and protecting national guests fell to Guardian. In the past, this had been a point of pride among Guardian’s members—after all, the other top guilds rarely received government commissions, so it highlighted Guardian’s value to the nation. But as of current, pride was the last thing the players of Guardian felt.
Day after day, they had been forced to organize a protective detail to guide the Chinese investigation team to the Twilight Kingdom gate. Once there, they were then forced to wait outside as the Chinese cleared the gate again and again, plundering whatever opportunities were secreted therein.
This was like holding a thief's coat and shoes after guiding them to the vault. The players of Guardian could hardly stand it. And if not for their respect for the Guildmaster, they would’ve refused their orders outright.
“Boo! Booooo!”
“Are the government and Guardian the dogs of China?”
“You bastards!”
Protesters crowded the outer barriers surrounding the gate, shouting and spitting curses at them; there was no end to it, and after ten days of this treatment, the players had grown so frustrated that their temples throbbed, and their knuckles had gone white.
“Don’t lose your pride.”
Suddenly, the crowd parted to reveal Park Chang-Cheon, who strode through with a singular focus on his men ahead.
He held his helmet in his hands, and on arriving before the platoon of Guardian players, he swept a steely gaze over their tight and orderly formation before nodding to himself. Then, he announced, “I’ve returned from the Blue House. After listening to the president, I’m certain this situation was created by Young Master Kang.”
“Young Master Kang?”
“Indeed. From what I’ve heard, Young Master Kang has given his guarantee that the Chinese investigation team won’t obtain anything of value. In his words, ‘This is all just to fatten up the pigs,’ so don’t worry.”
“?”
Fatten up... the pigs?
Uh... Does that mean what I think it means?
Surely not...
The players shared stunned glances. Could it be true? Was Jae-Hyeok really scheming against Asia’s most powerful country? They could hardly believe it. But when they looked to Park Chan-Cheon, they saw nothing but calm certainty.
Before they knew it, their hearts swelled with a steely confidence that mirrored their master’s.
Inwardly, Park Chan-Cheon let out another sigh.
Kang Jae-Hyeok, my boy. I really hope you know what the hell you're doing.
***
After winning Theodore’s service, Jae-Hyeok decided to remain in Lion’s Castle for the time being.
—W-what?
You won over that hollow-skulled fool?
You... Sigh.
You really have weird tastes! First, it’s that red-haired maniac, and now, you’re adding an ancient Death Knight to your list of friends.
“It isn’t friends, it's my servant...”
—
Same thing! The point is, you're keeping a tiger by your side—whether you call it a friend or a servant is beside the point. Sigh... I should’ve known there was something off about you the first time you came back to visit me. No normal person befriends a stone statue... Tell me honestly: do you even like me? Or are you really some kind of eccentric who likes to collect oddball monsters?
“That’s not fair. Do-Jin isn’t a monster.”
—Oh, really. I couldn’t tell.
A chuckle escaped Jae-Hyeok before he shook his head.
He hadn’t expected the lion head statue to have self-esteem issues. Trapped where it was, perhaps it was to be expected, but Jae-Hyeok hadn’t expected the lion head statue to have low self-esteem.
Theodore started complaining then.
“You’re telling me to follow you without being seen? How am I supposed to do that? You realize you're not a necromancer, right? You can’t just shove me into a coffin and stash me in your inventory. Beyond that, I’m a two-meter-tall skeleton. I don’t think wearing a really long trench coat is going to fool the guards at the gate.”
“Yeah, I know...”
“Well then—”
Jae-Hyeok waved a hand as if to clear Theodore’s words from the air.
“Just, quiet. Let me think.”
If he could at all help it, Jae-Hyeok really didn’t wish to reveal Theodore’s presence. After all, concealing trump cards for as long as possible was basic practice for any player. Moreover, Theodore was an ancient Death Knight of extraordinary power. If the Baus family caught news of Theodore having left Lion’s Castle, they were sure to rush over with shining eyes.
Jae-Hyeok rubbed his eyes in a tired manner.
I’ve got enough on my plate with China... But is there really a way to smuggle Theodore out of Lion’s Castle?
Just then, Jae-Hyeok's thoughts were interrupted by a squeal of laughter from Do-Jin, who was playing by the red-lined forest with his group of screeching orcs.
“Stay. Stay—okay! Here you go!”
“Slow down! What did I tell you guys about manners? As punishment, I want you all to oink like pigs. Whoever doesn’t, gets no supper tonight!”
Oink.
Oink. Oink!
“
Hehehe
～”
Having been personally raised by Do-Jin, the orcs seemed to have evolved many times. Not only were they utterly obedient to Do-Jin, but some had also changed physically. The ones with red skin were particularly intelligent and loyal to Do-Jin.
He won’t want to take them out later, right?
Jae-Hyeok imagined Do-Jin parading down the street with an army of orcs and quickly shook his head at the impossibility of it.
Even if Do-Jin harbored the will—which, knowing Do-Jin’s reckless nature, he most certainly did—he wasn’t so foolish as to try something that had no chance of succeeding.
Lion Castle’s security was airtight at the gate portal. Even for one measly Death Knight, Jae-Hyeok wasn’t confident he could smuggle it out. Naturally, smuggling a horde of orcs through was even more impossible...
Thinking to here, Jae-Hyeok’s own worries deepened.
What do I do? There’s only one entrance. How am I going to get Theodore out...
Just then, a chill wind rustled Jae-Hyeok’s collar, and with it came the voice of his savior.
“I thought I sensed a certain
someone’s
time resume. Kang Jae-Hyeok, it turns out it’s your doing.”
White Night...
Jae-Hyeok’s eyes brightened.
When in doubt, shove the problem to Chairman Seol!