The Sniper of the Gate was summoned forth by the top-tier intruder detection gimmick of the Golden City, revealing the Golden Colossus.
The Golden Colossus was born from the countless flows of the Golden River and realized its mission at the same time.
It had to eliminate the unprecedented strong enemy that invaded the city.
[Signal Lost]
The strong enemy hid its presence, but ultimately, it was a living being too.
To survive in this city, one needed Golden Coins.
Thus, it aimed to remove every possible way for the strong enemy to acquire Golden Coins, making it weaker with time spent hiding, forcing it to eventually reveal itself.
According to its programmed thought process, the Golden Colossus ranked all living beings within the city starting from the second most dangerous target.
[Minimum Target Level Exceeded]
[Activation of Lethal Beam]
As the Golden Colossus converted a massive amount of mana sufficient to maintain its giant form into beam energy and fired it off, cracks appeared on Don Nemuoja’s Gluttonous Armor.
“…!”
He realized.
If he allowed such a strike to continue, his armor would break, and all the power he had gained would be scattered and lost.
Fortunately, he noticed.
The Golden Colossus had rigorously adjusted its output and range to avoid damaging the city’s structures.
“We’re retreating into the city!”
His decision to retreat was valid.
The Golden Colossus abandoned the direct confrontation.
But that did not mean the crisis was over.
The moment golden radiance emanated from the body of the Colossus, parts of the buildings and landscapes that made up the city split apart, and numerous Golden Guards emerged.
A Golden Guardian Corps made up of countless Golden Guards, enough to be called a legion.
They began to hunt down all detected targets starting from the second priority threat, searching the city for the destruction poised by the Golden Colossus.
“No! Look at how hard we worked to avoid the Dark Golden Squad!”
“Damn it, it’s all over now! Thanks to the sudden emergence of the Golden Guardian Corps, we can’t escape anywhere!”
Adventurers, who were secretly gathering treasure in a corner of the city, raised their hands in surrender when the tips of several golden spears aimed at their throats.
Those who expected death were pierced by the spear tips, while the cowards who hesitated or bowed their heads for a future were dragged away with Golden Handcuffs in place.
“Where are they taking us?”
“Maybe they’ll lock us up deep within the city, turning us into items if we can no longer pay with Golden Coins.”
“Damn it, I should have fought instead.”
“Shut up, stupid. You’d be dead already. Alive is the only chance you’ve got.”
“Goodness. Wait, look over there! Isn’t that the Sniper of the Gate?”
A competent person more powerful than Don Nemuoja, the leader of the Dark Golden Squad.
Even a figure as strong as this, comparable to an entire organization, was dragged out beyond the gate while handcuffed.
What’s more, his captors were outfitted with a more splendid armor and several enchanted treasures displaying great magical reactions than the Golden Guards.
“It’s the Golden Imperial Guards.”
An adventurer who had been caught relatively deep within the city recognized the captors of the Sniper of the Gate.
“They’re the ones dispatched when strong entities who can’t be captured by ordinary Golden Guards cross the bridge or violate the city’s taboos.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve stolen a lot of stuff in the city, and they started coming after me. If I had known this would happen, I’d have learned harder at the Academy and graduated.”
“The Academy? You can’t be from that Academy, can you?”
“If that Academy is the Gift Academy, then yes.”
The eyes of the adventurers all turned to the adventurer from the Gift Academy.
“I heard graduates from that academy are all monsters. Do you have something unusual about you too?”
“I learned enough to realize what these handcuffs are and how to break them.”
“Really?! How do we remove these sealing handcuffs?”
Since they were already in a situation of being handcuffed together, the man didn’t think to act stingy.
“The sealing of this Golden Handcuff can be broken by achieving one of three conditions.”
“Spit it out! I feel like I’m going to die from frustration!”
“First. Immediately transfer ownership of one thousand Golden Coins to the Golden Handcuff.”
“…I guess that’ll have to wait until later. When the Golden Guardian Corps pay less attention to us.”
The veteran adventurers nodded or thanked the man for this valuable information.
However, the weak adventurers, who were only alive because of their caution, desperately clung to his knowledge and begged for another solution.
“If we give all that Golden Coin, we won’t survive to make it out. Tell us another way!”
“It’s not hard. Second. Offering a sacrifice worth a thousand Golden Coins against another treasure to be released from the handcuffs.”
“That means…! You’re saying we should offer most of the treasure we gathered!”
A thousand Golden Coins was equivalent to one basic artifact at +10 enhancement level.
For the adventurers who had only hoarded treasure without acquiring any artifacts, it was practically asking them to give up all their loot.
“Too bad, then. If you die with the treasure, other adventurers or archaeologists finding your corpse later will think you had something cool and will become curious about your story.”
“…”
“Then what’s the third method?”
“I won’t tell you. I have to live too.”
“Well… that can’t be helped. We’ve got to have some decency. Thanks for at least telling us two.”
“I think I know the third method.”
The despondent adventurers were startled by a voice they hadn’t heard before, or rather, a voice they had never heard among them, but felt somewhere familiar.
It was definitely not a voice associated with a good meaning or a pleasant situation.
“Yikes! Look over there! On the building’s roof!”
“Oh my god. The leader of the Dark Golden Squad?”
“Don Nemuoja! Don Nemuoja has appeared!”
Instead of being terrified by the appearance of the leader of the organization that had plundered and killed countless adventurers, the man from the Academy merely showed interest.
“What do you think the third one is?”
“To hand over the handcuffs and offer someone else’s treasure as a sacrifice.”
“…!”
The atmosphere among the adventurers turned chilly.
The man laughed heartily.
“That’s correct.”
And then, he choked one of the nearby adventurers unconscious and pressed his treasure against the handcuffs to release their binding.
“Cough!”
“Betrayal!”
The party flipped on its head at the man’s betrayal as the ground suddenly surged upward, aligning their sight level with that of the leader on the roof.
“You don’t have to thank me for taking out the Golden Guards,” the leader said.
With the assistance of the Golden Gauntlet, the vice leader unleashed his alchemical magic as he mercilessly struck down the handcuffed adventurers, absorbing their treasures.
“The Dark Golden Squad is attacking us!”
“Release us now. We can’t delay any longer!”
“Damn it, there’s no one you can trust!”
As the adventurers freed from the handcuffs began fleeing in all directions, the leader focused his gaze on the man who had called himself a graduate of the Gift Academy instead of chasing them.
The man met Don Nemuoja’s gaze without flinching and chuckled softly.
“Are you not satisfied with these small fry?”
“Let them go. They’ll be dead at the hands of the Golden Guardian Corps in no time anyway. More importantly, even if I add them all up, they aren’t worth even one of your treasures.”
Standing next to the leader, an Observer nodded and spoke.
“116,000 Golden Coins.”
A competent individual more than double that previous strength before absorbing all his subordinates.
He couldn’t afford to miss out on a Gift Academy graduate with such value.
Just absorbing that alone would significantly boost the leader’s power.
Even at the very least, it would help recover the damaged armor.
“If you hand over all your artifacts willingly, I won’t kill you.”
“Why? You don’t have the kind of history that warrants that kind of sympathy. I’ve heard the number of adventurers who died in your wake is reaching the thousands.”
“Touching a Gift Academy graduate could lead to unforeseen consequences.”
That was a reasonable claim.
“Before I hand them over, is it okay if I vent a little?”
“As long as it doesn’t take too long.”
“The Gift Academy makes its graduates do something called a Graduation Project.”
The man hated that.
“Most of the things worthy of a graduation project have already been done by the seniors, and this graduation project can’t overlap. Those coming after find it increasingly difficult to graduate.”
“Still, you introduced yourself as a ‘graduate’.”
“Yeah, I graduated. By stealing a professor’s thesis.”
“…”
“Thanks to that, I’m now being chased by teaching assistants and other graduates under a bounty issued by the professor. I’ve been paying the price for my impulsive action of being too eager to graduate without considering my future.”
“What a pathetic complaint. The professors of the Gift Academy are the world’s top contenders in their fields. Isn’t it natural to pay for hands touching theirs?”
“Natural? What’s so natural about it? Damn, that guy used students as test subjects for his research. That bastard deserves to be robbed.”
The Golden Colossus had yet to move.
The Golden Guardian Corps had pursued the small fry.
While the Golden Imperial Guards were instead aware of him and moving, they had sufficient time to reach this point.
Don Nemuoja calculated.
There was still time to resolve one doubt.
“Which professor’s thesis did you steal to end up in such a magical territory like this?”
“Weird Professor. That crazy professor who feeds every type of stone and magical stone to students.”
“What… did he feed?”
“With the city in chaos, the Watchers waiting outside won’t be able to remain idle any longer. Soon, Weird Professor, along with teaching assistants who flatter him like they’ve sold their souls and other graduates will come crashing in. There will be openings, but it’s too risky to make a run alone.”
The man got down to business.
“Let’s team up and escape.”
“Is the Weird Professor stronger than this?”
The man glanced sideways at the Golden Colossus, narrowed his eyes, and shook his head.
“With that kind of Golem, he wouldn’t stand a chance. It’s on par with the weaker Plato Professor.”
