Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 549

◈ 549. Probably Doesn’t Even Care

The Red Devil ran until he was breathless, and when he looked back, he thought he would faint.

Ardor was chasing after him with the same expression, the same posture, and the same speed as at the beginning. The fact that he could run so fast without any change in his expression sent chills down his spine.

“You persistent bastard! Get lost!”

He ended up swearing out of anger, but instead of disappearing, Ardor smiled and said,

“Put down the High Priest right now, or I’ll blow your head off.”

“You crazy bastard! This isn’t even your High Priest!”

In the end, the Red Devil was so dumbfounded that he confessed, but it was no use.

“I know.”

“Then get lost!”

As the Red Devil seemed just out of reach, Ardor also became irritated, and his voice gradually lowered.

“Daring to impersonate the High Priest, carrying the High Priest like luggage and running, impersonating the High Priest, carrying the High Priest and running… running away?”

“What is that crazy priest even saying?”

The Red Devil was so horrified that he couldn’t stand it any longer and threw the ‘demon imitating Rembrary’ to the side.

Then, the demon who had been imitating Rembrary removed the illusion, revealing his original massive purple body and shouting,

“Stop chasing me, you crazy priest! This is me! This is me! Do I look like the High Priest to you?”

When Ardor saw the High Priest’s appearance completely disappear and a muscular, giant purple demon appear, he became serious and fired his gun.

As Ardor began to fire in rapid succession, the Red Devil and the Purple Devil ran away again, shouting.

“I don’t understand! Why is there divine power imbued in that bastard’s gun?”

“Isn’t Redrin crazy? Why would she give divine power to a guy like that!”

“If she were sane, the Yggdrasil Temple [a significant temple] wouldn’t even exist! Just run!”

Only when Noir sent a scorpion to grab Ardor’s feet were the demons able to escape the relentless pursuit.

In the end, Ardor, who had missed the demons, was furious and huffed.

“Daring to impersonate the High Priest and deceive me! The High Priest!”

Taking a deep breath and dealing with the monster scorpions, Ardor slowly regained his composure and thought.

This is no time to be doing this. Let’s find the High Priest. The impersonator won’t be imitating the High Priest anymore.

Ardor closed his eyes and tried to sense which direction Rembrary might be in.

“…That way.”

Opening his eyes, Ardor pointed in one direction and started running again.

How long had he been going like that?

Wasn’t that one of the organizers of the <5 Billion Project>, the one who had been annoying Rembrary the whole time, walking towards him from the front?

Ardor tried to ignore him and pass by, but the man smiled brightly when he saw Ardor and approached him, speaking first.

“Finally found you!”

When Ardor frowned and looked at him, the man smiled and approached, then asked awkwardly,

“You know who I am, right? Jo Jiho. You know, one of the people who organized this project.”

Ardor didn’t like this guy at all, but he kept his mouth shut and nodded.

He had promised Rembrary that he would never reveal his identity, so he was keeping his word.

When Jo Jiho saw that Ardor was acting polite and taciturn, he thought that he was the best of the Mask Trio [referring to Ardor, Rembrary, and Maeng Wooshin who initially hid their identities] and gestured for the cameraman to hold the camera.

Then, he said in a friendly voice, jokingly,

“How did you end up separated from Rembrary and Maeng Wooshin?”

Ardor looked at him, wondering, ‘How does that guy know our identities?’

Jo Jiho realized that Ardor didn’t seem to know what was going on, so he gloated inwardly and explained.

“We all got scattered too. But when I watched the live video, I saw that the brown-haired guy was Rembrary? And the other one is Maeng Wooshin. The two of them are with Pack-chup and Longchacha.”

Jo Jiho pointed to Seon Hari, who was a little behind him.

“Seon Hari and I were completely separated from the group, but we just rejoined.”

Ardor tilted his head.

He was mentally reviewing what Jo Jiho had said.

Rembrary and Maeng Wooshin revealed their identities? Then does that mean I can reveal my identity too? Like this.

Just then, Jo Jiho asked a similar question.

“I don’t know why you came here hiding your identity, but Rembrary and Maeng Wooshin also revealed their identities. Shouldn’t this person reveal their identity too? Haha.”

Jo Jiho’s cameraman zoomed in on Ardor’s masked face.

Ardor agreed with Jo Jiho’s words and nodded.

“You’re right.”

“Wow, your voice is nice.”

Jo Jiho thought that the other person was someone he could talk to, so he complimented him and asked,

“What’s your name?”

“This? Gun.”

“?!”

What came back was a gun barrel.

Before Jo Jiho could even say that he knew what a gun was, that he wasn’t asking what a gun was called.

He felt a loud noise and pain and screamed.

“Argh!”

Jo Jiho screamed and rolled on the floor, belatedly realizing that the other person had shot him in one arm.

Jo Jiho screamed even louder and rolled on the floor when he saw the blood dripping from his arm.

“Is this guy crazy!”

The flustered cameraman tried to step forward, but what came back was the barrel of the gun.

This time, Ardor hit the cameraman’s head with the gun barrel hard enough to make a loud thud.

“Ugh!”

The cameraman screamed softly and backed away.

The viewers who were watching this were flustered and quickly moved their hands.

―He’s crazy

―He’s a mad dog

―That’s Ardor

―Jo Jiho lololol He was shoulder-checking Ardor at first lol His shoulder is flying away now

―Ardor… I bet he was counting how many times he got shoulder-checked so he could fire that many shots ㅠ

ㄴThen he’ll fire a few more shots ㅠ lololol

But the viewers were only momentarily flustered. They started laughing, saying it wasn’t their problem.

Seon Hari didn’t know what was going on and stood there blankly. When Ardor looked at her with crazy eyes, she quickly smiled and said,

“I was scolding this guy earlier. For bullying Rembrary. We’re not close. He’s mean, right?”

―Seon Hari is pulling a Seon Hari

―Seon Hari is offering to sell out her friend

―Seon Hari is activating Jo Jiho’s shield

―Seon Hari is trying to negotiate to take down Jo Jiho

The viewers started laughing again as they watched Seon Hari.

If Jo Jiho was the type to openly reveal his selfish side, Seon Hari was the type with a strong opportunistic side.

They didn’t know what they were really like, but that’s how they acted on the broadcast.

That’s why the viewers just went along with it, even when they saw Jo Jiho or Seon Hari’s behavior.

None of the five organizers of this project were recognized for having good personalities, so no one was surprised or disappointed by their personalities.

Ardor took off the cumbersome mask, hat, and glasses, and pondered Seon Hari’s actions, finally coming to a decision and saying,

“Good.”

The cameraman thought that Ardor was crazy but seemed somewhat reasonable, and he regretted stepping forward, feeling dejected.

Ardor ran his hand through his slightly flattened hair from the hat and instructed,

“From now on, I’m giving you guys a task.”

“Yes, sir!”

―ㅅㅂ Seon Hari will survive anywhere lololol Look at how pumped up she is lololol

―Why is her nickname Seon Hari?

―Did Octopus Potato get called Octopus Potato because he was really an octopus potato?

Seon Hari’s channel and Jo Jiho’s channel were laughing and in chaos, but the atmosphere on the scene was definitely not one to laugh about.

The rumors about Ardor were already at the level of urban legends.

As soon as he revealed his identity, the first thing he did was shoot an ally, even in front of the camera.

“You guys must find the High Priest first and foremost.”

“What about escaping…?”

“Find the High Priest. That is your survival task.”

―This side has become a real survival situation;

―A dungeon named Ardor…

―Jo Jiho ㅠ He chose Ardor after losing rock-paper-scissors with Maeng Wooshin and Rembrary ㅠ Don’t ever buy a lottery ticket in your life

Jo Jiho glanced at his phone and saw people’s comments, making him even more frustrated.

But whether it was because they heard the news that Ardor and Jo Jiho had met, the number of people watching the live video in real-time had doubled.

Jo Jiho tried to control his emotions.

It’s okay. Calm down. It hurts like hell, but I have to find the High Priest. The High Priest can heal my arm.

Taking a deep breath, Jo Jiho wrapped a bandage around the wound and pointed in one direction.

“Let’s go towards the pillars.”

* * *

At that time.

Rembrary was waiting with Pack-chup, Longchacha, and many other participants.

It was because Pack-chup was trying to contact Jo Jiho, Seon Hari, and Octopus Potato.

“Wow. This is my first time seeing Rembrary in person. He’s really amazing.”

“Should I join Redrin too? Do they show their faces regularly if you join?”

“Maeng Wooshin… a face genius. A real-life encyclopedia. He’s so cool.”

Maeng Wooshin straightened his posture, listening to people whispering.

Rembrary didn’t care much and nonchalantly took out snacks and ate them.

Meanwhile, Pack-chup succeeded in talking to Octopus Potato.

“Where are you? I don’t know either. What’s around you? Rocks, dirt, and stones. You? Oh, you too? Seon Hari and Jo Jiho aren’t answering the phone.”

Longchacha listened to Pack-chup and Octopus Potato’s conversation from the side, switching between the organizers’ channels on her phone to figure out their locations.

“Chup, Seon Hari and Jo Jiho are together right now. They must have met. Ardor is there too.”

“Ardor? What Ardor?”

“One of the people we thought was one of the Celebrity Trio is Ardor. Jo Jiho got shot by Ardor, and their channel is in chaos.”

Maeng Wooshin pretended not to hear the conversation, cursing inwardly. That Ardor bastard. Causing trouble as soon as we got separated.

Longchacha continued to switch between channels on her phone and said,

“Chup, looking at it like this, I have no idea where Octopus and Jo Jiho are. Let’s just give up on meeting up and escape with the people who got separated.”

Pack-chup conveyed the suggestion to Octopus. But Octopus Potato immediately opposed it.

“Hey, Chacha, Octopus wants us to all gather and continue.”

“Why?”

“He said that even if we escape from here, there’s going to be a dogfight over the 5 billion [referring to intense competition for the prize money]. Let’s just finish it and go.”

“Why would there be a dogfight? We can continue in another dungeon, right?”

Pack-chup pointed at Rembrary with his eyes and added softly, so that only Longchacha could hear.

“Those guys just go around clearing dungeons. Later, when it’s safe, there will be a lot of people among the participants who will object to them.”

After a few more words, Pack-chup, Longchacha, and Octopus Potato learned that Jo Jiho’s group was heading towards the pillars, and they decided to go there too.

That’s how the movement started again, but the atmosphere was completely different from the beginning.

Even before, there were many people who showed interest in them as the Celebrity Trio, but after their identities were revealed, the interest became completely blatant, perhaps because they were famous people.

Some courageous people even cautiously tried to talk to Rembrary or Maeng Wooshin.

In the midst of all this, the only one who was getting anxious was Gong Do-hyun.

‘Damn it. What should I do? Am I the only one who got singled out? I need to get on Rembrary’s good side too. If I suddenly act nice now, won’t I look even more two-faced? Rembrary is probably laughing at me while looking at me, right? Ah, this is driving me crazy.’