Chapter 18
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Among the many products, a large-capacity item overflowing with small-wrapped chocolates caught my eye. It was perfect for snacking while I played the game. I thought that to myself. I reached for it right away. But my hand didn't reach the shelf at the very top. Ha Yunseo's height is a little below average for women. And the chocolates were on the highest level of the display rack. I couldn't quite touch them even when I stretched. I set down the basket I was holding, pressed my body against the display rack as if I were sticking to it, and extended my arm fully. But I still couldn't reach it. Even standing on my tiptoes only gave a slight brush of my fingertips. It didn't look like I'd be able to grab it.
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"Ah... damn it. If I had been in my old body..." I muttered to myself, feeling annoyed. Well, with my old body I wouldn't have even glanced at such sweet snacks. I twisted my body as if I were flying upward, but the result was the same. A bit of irritation flared up. My patience was steadily draining. The thought of stepping on the lower shelf and climbing up, or just jumping and grabbing the item from below, crossed my mind. At that moment- A long arm suddenly reached in from beside me and picked up the large-capacity chocolate. I had been so focused on my hand that I hadn't noticed anyone nearby and jumped back in surprise.
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"Hic!" I cried out, retreating as if my breath would stop any second. I tripped over the basket I had just set down and fell straight to the floor. "Uh... uh... kyaa! Ouch!" "Kwang-tang!" A loud sound echoed as the floor shook. The basket overturned and the ice creams I had packed spilled everywhere.
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"Wow..." I paused. "It really hurts." "Ah... damn it... it... really hurts... ah..." "Huuu... uuuuah... huuuuah..." Tears welled up. My butt hurt so much. If I had been at home, I would have just rolled around on the floor. "...A-are you okay?" A low voice came from behind my sudden reaction. A tall figure crouched in front of me and looked at me worriedly. I slightly lifted the brim of my Han Yang hat and peeked up. A muscular build. The kind of warm appearance that people often said was handsome. That man gently placed the chocolate bag I had been reaching for on the side and spoke to me. "...Ah, sorry. I didn't know you'd react like this." I hurriedly bowed my head and answered. The pain made a moan slip from my lips. "...Huet- I-I... I'm fine..." I said only that and gritted my teeth, trying to stand up. Even standing up was difficult due to the sharp pain. The man in front of me extended his hand. I tried my best not to consciously take it and forced myself to my feet. He took back his hand with a hint of embarrassment and began picking up the spilled ice creams one by one from the floor. I picked them up with my stinging palm as well. After gathering everything while groaning, he handed me the chocolate bag I had been trying to grab earlier. "Here you go." "......Ah. ...Thank you..." I bowed my head and received it. I roughly placed it in the basket and lifted it with effort. Then the man said, "Shall I carry it for you?" "......No. It's fine." I said only that while keeping my head bowed. "Please, let me carry it. You'll be in pain after falling just now." The man reached out while saying that. I sharply warned him. I shrank my body and stepped back a little. "...It's fine." I said only that and hurried away, walking quickly while limping a bit to avoid the pain. "......Ah, ...that..." A voice with lingering reluctance came from behind, but it didn't grab me any further. I finished payment at the register, crammed the items into two polypropylene shopping bags, and headed home while groaning. When I got home, I was drenched in sweat. I let out my rough breaths in big gulps and collapsed onto the entrance, sitting there wearily. "Wow. I thought I was going to die." This is why. If you don't do it moderately, you get scolded. I muttered to myself as if scolding my own body. Of course, the immediate desire to eat the sweet ice cream erased the thought from my mind. I stood up from my tired body, put the ice creams packed with ice into the fridge, and picked one out. I removed the packaging and took a big bite. The sweet taste of chocolate exploded in my mind. "Wow..." It felt as if the hard labor of just a moment ago was instantly healed. It was like having a hearty meal after a day of hard work. Why do people live? I felt as if I could proudly answer the philosophical question of why we live by eating sweet chocolate ice cream. ...It was worth the hardship. Chocolate is truly great. I thought that at some point. ...Ah. No. ...I don't like sweet things. It was just that this body happened to think that way. I wanted to be certain you understood that. ......You got it? ** I took a light shower again to wash away the sweat. After returning to a fresh, puffy state, I prepared late lunch. Frozen egg fried rice with shrimp. Even with a simple cooking method, the result was surprisingly good. I really liked it. I transferred the well-filled bowl to the computer and executed the browser like a routine action. I accessed KelInGal. And on the sub-monitor, I connected to YouTube's cloudy sky channel and played the most recent video from three years ago. The video began with the rough opening from the early days. People peacefully chatting in the gallery today. They were discussing a meaningless topic altogether. Today they were talking about the 3-power-level super ability pills you could eat only up to three of. Each one pushed their own preference while forcing their opinion on others' choices. "Pfft." "Mmm." I chewed the chewy rice grains while lightly nodding at the various opinions from the people. "People who like teleporters say they don't care if they get stuck in the wall and crushed to atomic level." "...Sure. It is dangerous if you get stuck." Recommended. Click. "People who want to eat pills that make you look handsome? Why do they need that?" "...That one I want to kill..." Not recommended. Click. Even so, I was focused on Cloudy Sky's gameplay video. ...Those days, the magic assassin must have been really difficult to fight. Or was it that Cloudy just played well? Maybe both. The more I watched, the more I was impressed. Especially the guard psychology in magic projectile defense was amazing. Celt of Heroes' magic attacks can block 'defense' but not 'parry'. For example, the basic attack of Lancer-Cartia couldn't block magic projectiles with the short-timing parry that exists. But if you use the basic skill 'defensive stance', you could block the damage. However, the magic assassin's enhanced basic attack penetrates 'defense' and deals damage, and bounces off the parry judgment. Using that, you feint a sword strike while throwing a magic projectile, and feint throwing a magic projectile while swinging the sword. The opponent must always decide between the two. Cloudy was skilled in such psychology. ...No matter how many times I saw it, it was really difficult. All of Celt of Heroes' characters have 'basic skills'. Among them is the 'basic survival skill' that defines the character's category. It is divided into two main types: 'defense' characters and 'evasion' characters. Defense characters are basically given guard and counter that can nullify damage from attacks. Evasion characters are given movement skills with short evasion judgments while moving far distances. Characters with both have not existed yet, and they have solidified into 'guard cas' and 'evasion cas' like a biological classification. Evasion characters include spear users, archers, mages, priests, musketeers, healers, and so on. And guard cas include Lancer, swordsman, knight, Viking, paladin, and such characters. They are mainly called 'guard losers'. Guard basically boasts high performance. Not only can you use powerful counter skills from the start just by blocking an attack, but each character's additional effects apply to the counter. For example, Lancer-Cartia makes the opponent into the strongest CC 'fall' state in the game, Gorang attacks with a small sword 'Wakizashi' that deals massive additional damage when it stacks 5 blood stacks, and sets the distance to his liking with a dash, Knight strongly smashes the opponent with a greatsword, and stuns them for 2 seconds. Viking spins the opponent's close weapon stuck in his shield to prevent it from being removed, approaches instantly, and deals massive damage with a one-handed axe. In the case of a long-range opponent, he jumps high and chops down with the axe. Paladin recovers health if defense is successful and smashes the opponent with an iron shield, making them dizzy. In this way, guard characters have high-performance skills basically just because they received the 'defense' basic survival skill. On the other hand, evasion characters only do a little hop jump. Although there is an evasion time, it is extremely short. Most of the time, they get hit by the opponent during casting and fall to the ground and die. The developer also knew this and made a patch where magic attacks don't trigger counters. And thus, the magic assassin took the place of the counter character for guard characters. Currently, all characters actively performing in Rank Glen are guard characters. Among them, the assassin-Seyn is continuing the lineage of close-range evasion cas called 'avoiding evasion cas'. But even that is trending to become a dungeon runner lately.