Chapter 64: The Golden Golem Rampage

“What have these useless fools been doing all this time?! The prison’s been raided, the vault’s been robbed. And you still haven’t dealt with it?!”

Crowing, having just heard the news, logged in belatedly.

When he’d received the whole report, he could barely control his rage, shouting out loud.

“There’s an Elf, apparently. And if it’s an Elf, it’s a hundred percent Alicia’s side moving.”

“That’s your excuse?!”

Bang—!!

At the Sub Guild Master’s words, Crowing couldn’t contain his anger and smashed the chair he was sitting in.

“No, even if it’s an Elf, there were only two of them, right?”

In truth, there’d only been one… but Jaeho’s identity still hadn’t been revealed (yet).

“You’re telling me a bunch of Rangers swarmed them and still couldn’t catch just two Elves? How are you supposed to show your faces after this?!”

“We had no choice. We cornered them, but they opened the vault and hid inside. You know how it is. Only royalty can open that place.”

“Ughhhh!!”

Crowing clutched his head, tugging at his hair in frustration.

His hair fell in clumps to the floor, a testament to just how realistic New World was.

“…Even baldness is accurately reproduced, huh.”

The Sub Guild Master was quietly impressed.

“Hoo… Is there any chance those bastards can escape from inside? With something like Teleport or a Scroll of Return?”

The Bulgeom Guild had already lost once, ambushed by Jaeho’s long-range Teleport during the Elysia Garden expedition.

But the Sub Guild Master was skeptical.

“If they had something like that, they’d have used it by now, don’t you think? I don’t think they have the means this time.”

“Then that means they’ll have to come out at some point. Put troops on standby at the entrance and gather all the officers! And that bastard we sent as warden this time. Get him and beat him to a pulp! And kill that guard on duty, too! Bring all the officers here! No matter what, we have to catch those bastards…”

—Cra—Crap, big trouble!

A frantic message popped up in the guild chat.

—Ah, XX!! What now!!!

—The intruders are coming out again, but we can’t stop them… Aaaagh!!!

—S-send backup!! We can’t stop this with our current force!!!

—You idiots! How many Rangers did we send down there, and you’re getting wiped out?!

—R-raid monster’s appeared, beep!

***

Kugugugu—

A rumbling sound came from the tightly sealed vault door as it began to open again.

“They’re coming out!”

“Don’t rush in! It’s their plan!”

The Bulgeom Guild assumed it was a strategy to lure them further inside.

But it was a serious misunderstanding.

Thunk—

The vault door was fully open.

But beyond the door, there was a wall that hadn’t been there before.

A wall, glinting gold.

“What is that?”

“What did they do in there?”

As they eyed each other, unable to guess the purpose, the wall began to move.

“?!!!”

“It’s moving?!”

KRAAAANG—!!!

With a shattering crash, an enormous Golem burst through the wall!

Its entire body seemed covered in gold, shining so brightly it was blinding as it raised a massive fist.

“Damn! Dodge!”

KUUUUNG—!!

Those who took a direct hit from the Golem’s fist were crushed beneath it.

Even those who were lucky enough to dodge were sent rolling by the shockwave, suffering heavy damage. There was no need to say what happened to the ones who took the hit head-on.

GUUUUONG—

The Golem raised its other arm to strike again!

“A-attack it!”

“AAAHHHH!”

They counterattacked, but the Golem’s resilience was so overwhelming that even the Rangers’ attacks couldn’t deal significant damage.

It couldn’t be helped. ……….

[Lv.980 Rampaging Golden Golem]

This was a monster far beyond anything a player could handle.

“…What on earth is your class?”

Watching the Golem go berserk, slaughtering the Bulgeom Guild, Wansik asked.

“Flower Shop Owner.”

“You’re seeing this in front of your eyes and still saying that? And you’re not even a Flower Shop Owner, you’re a Regent of Spirits!”

“Why ask if you know?”

With that, Jaeho gripped his now much lighter transplanting trowel.

“What the—? I thought it was a dagger, but it’s a trowel?!”

Ignoring the stunned Wansik,

“Let’s start clearing a path now.”

“Yes, sir!!!”

Jaeho and Tina charged out together, taking down their enemies.

Watching them blankly, Wansik felt a storm of emotions.

A trowel instead of a dagger for a weapon, soaring through the air, firing lasers, summoning a monstrous Golem…

“Ah, now he’s firing lasers from his eyes too…!”

Wansik shook his head at Jaeho’s utterly unclassifiable performance.

He decided it would be easier on his mind just to give up trying to understand.

***

The Golem Jaeho had created was several times more powerful than anything Brejal had ever commanded.

The reason for such overwhelming performance was simple: he had used all the Treasures stored in the vault as material.

Because all the gold and jewels the Kingdom had hoarded over the years were poured into the Golem, its specs had gone through the roof.

To be more precise, Brejal’s Golem was a ‘Golden Sand Golem.’

Brejal, unwilling to invest his own Treasures, had created a shoddy product using sand instead!

But Jaeho’s Golden Golem, simply put, was pure 24k gold!

In reality, that should have made it fragile, but in New World, it was the opposite.

“As overpowered as it is, the limit is clear.”

As the ‘Rampaging’ modifier indicated, the Golden Golem was not in a normal state.

[Golem Maintenance Time: 29 minutes 20 seconds]

Under normal circumstances, it should have lasted longer, but due to the excessive amount of materials, it was now in a state of overload and about to explode.

They had to escape from here before the time ran out, no matter what.

BANG! BANG! BANG!!

Watching the Golem smashing everything as it advanced, Jaeho’s worries faded.

“That should be enough.”

DADADADAT—

At that moment, a group of people appeared on the stairs connecting to the vault.

“What the hell is that?!”

As they hesitated in confusion,

“Smash it down!”

At Jaeho’s command, the Golem brought its fist down on the corridor.

KRAAAANG—!!!

“Gah?!”

“D-dodge!”

KRRRRRRR—

The corridor collapsed instantly, completely sealing off the passage so no one could enter.

But the scale of the destruction was so immense that it caused the upper floors to cave in as well.

“Alright! Let’s go!”

They had to escape before the enemies regrouped.

Led by Jaeho, the group quickly entered a secret passage connected to the underground waterway.

“Hey! The Golem can’t follow us here!”

“Yeah, I already gave it orders.”

See you on the other side.

“Are you insane, is that even an order?!”

KRAAAANG—

A distant explosion echoed from the vault behind them.

And along with it, faint screams—or perhaps hallucinations.

“P-Prince! What on earth happened here?! Are you alright, Your Highness?!”

The prisoners, waiting in extreme anxiety, gaped as Third Prince Piso returned.

All color drained from his face, and his eyes were hollow, as if his soul had fled. On top of that, he was wearing Noble Attire.

“W-what happened, Your Highness?! Why do you look like…”

Jul-kan grabbed Jaeho and asked.

“It was a fierce battle… I was pushed to the brink several times, and I’ve lost my mind…”

He couldn’t admit that it was because the entire Royal Treasury had vanished.

Th-that…

Tears welled up in Jul-kan’s wrinkled face at Jaeho’s words.

“This isn’t the time to get emotional. We need to escape from here, fast!”

Afraid someone might say otherwise, Jaeho hurried everyone along…

Clink, clink—

“Hm?”

Just as they were about to set off, something shiny caught Jaeho’s eye.

The source was Dae-wa Jingjing-i, decked out in all sorts of flashy accessories.

“Someone’s gone full noble, huh.”

— …Sorry.

“It’s fine. I wasn’t expecting anything from you anyway.”

— So go to hell.

—What did you just say?

Kkodae’s snark riled Jingjing-i up, but…

—What? You wanna go? Wanna fight?

Sadly, Jingjing-i was inferior in personality, combat ability, and temperament…

He could only swallow his words.

“Still, you did manage to grab some Treasure. I’ll give you that.”

Once he’d taken all the Treasures Jingjing-i was carrying, it turned out to be more than he’d expected.

“Not counting the ones that were stacked like mountains before.”

Considering what they’d just been through, it wasn’t a bad haul.

***

A state of emergency was declared in the Bear Kingdom.

A giant raid Monster had appeared in the underground vault, threatening to bring down the palace at any moment.

“XX!!! How the hell did something like that get out from under the castle?!”

People were dying, but Crowing, determined to maintain royal dignity, still sat on the throne.

“Apparently… it’s a Monster that was in the Royal Treasury.”

The Sub Guild Master spoke.

No one had considered that such an overwhelmingly powerful Monster could be a summoned creature.

“I don’t know how they figured it out… But maybe we were set up from the start. Even Muscle Pangpang being captured might have been Alicia’s scheme…”

“You’re saying they came for the Prince from the very beginning?”

“Doesn’t it all fit a bit too perfectly? The ones who checked the prison said the ceiling had been broken through. How many people would know about such a secret route? And the vault, needless to say.”

“That does make sense.”

Crowing ground his teeth.

“Then… someone must’ve leaked information about the Prince.”

There was one person who came to mind for both of them.

That was…

“Red.”

Currently residing at the Red Mage Tower in Rasel Kingdom—Red!

He already had a record.

Back during the Elysia attack, he didn’t join the guild and actually attacked his own allies.

At the time he’d insisted it was because of a quest, and it was overlooked, but rumors that followed only deepened suspicion.

He’d suddenly started walking around decked out in flowers…

Flowers = Alicia

By now, anyone could connect the dots to Jaeho, so suspicion was inevitable.

“That bastard! Issue an Assassination Order immediately!!!”

“Of course. Betrayal must be paid for in blood.”

“But what about the Golem?”

“Eh?”

Only now did they realize the biggest problem still remained.

KRAAAANG—!!!

Just then, a deafening explosion rocked the palace, making everything before seem trivial.

“G-Guild Master!!! Th-there!!!”

A panicked guild member pointed outside.

Crowing rushed to the palace terrace and witnessed a shocking scene.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A gigantic Golem was stomping over the city, crushing buildings as it rampaged.

“Th…That’s insane…”

The fact that thing had made it outside meant the Rangers they’d sent had been completely unable to stop it.

“Damn! Useless bastards! You went in a group and couldn’t even take down that thing?! Look at this mess!”

If the Rangers heard that, they might just revolt.

Even they had never seen a level 980 Monster before.

***

Jaeho and his party safely escaped to the outskirts of the city.

With chaos erupting inside, there was no way anyone could chase them.

“Haa, finally I can breathe.”

As everyone shed tears of relief at their escape,

KRAAAANG—!!

A tremendous explosion from behind made everyone turn.

“Hey, hey, is that thing okay?!”

Wansik, gaping, finally came to his senses and asked.

On the hill, the giant Golem that had smashed the castle came crashing down to the ground.

KUUUUUNG—!!

Landing, the Golem immediately began charging toward Jaeho.

“Is it… is it coming to attack us?!”

Wansik went pale, and Jaeho felt the same way.

“Why’s it coming at us like that?!”

“How could you not be scared when it’s charging like that?!”

Why did it look like it was out to kill them?

[ <Rampant Golden Golem> has completed its mission and is returning.]

“Mission? What mission?!”

[Mission: See you alive.]

In other words, it just wanted to survive!

“So that’s why it looks so desperate?”

Jaeho was moved… but set aside his feelings for now.

[Golem Maintenance Time: 14 minutes 23 seconds]

There was still plenty of time, and he needed to use it well.

“Alright. Smash the castle walls on your way out!”

With things having reached this point, Jaeho decided to go all out.

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—

At full speed, the Golem crashed into the castle walls.

KRAAAAAANG—!!!

Without hesitation, it smashed everything in its path.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

It pounded the surrounding walls, reducing them to rubble, and far off, Crowing, watching the destruction, had already foamed at the mouth and collapsed.

“Let’s get moving.”

“Are you insane?! You want us to go through that mess? Are we supposed to scale the cliff?!”

KUUUYONG—

Just then, the Golem paused its rampage and extended its hand toward them.

“Hmm, not bad.”

Once all the group had climbed onto the Golem’s huge palms, Jaeho gave the next order.

“Let’s get out of here.”