Chunbae Is a Treasure
Chunbae was a treasure.
Since his regression, Yujin had obtained absurd strokes of fortune.
God-Infused Body [S], King of All Remedies [S], the Heavenly Silk Thread [C], the Akasha System 2.0—things an ordinary player couldn't even dream of.
But right now, Yujin was certain.
Of everything he had gained after returning, Chunbae stood at the very top.
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA—!
Fifteen cruise missiles tore across the sky, tails streaming fire. Guidance systems? Evasive maneuvers? None of that. Wherever Chunbae's eyes locked on became the target.
Tomahawks moved at Mach 0.7—roughly eight hundred ninety kilometers an hour—flying in a dead-straight line toward the enemy. Needless to say, there was no interception net, no air-defense grid. Magic skills or arrows might have existed, but they would never get the chance to fire. That was simply what a cruise missile was.
"W-what—?"
"This crazy bastard."
"What the hell is that… a Tomahawk?"
Voices of stunned awe rose behind him. Yujin smiled.
And then—
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG—!
A rain of fire hammered down into the heart of the enemy formation. Soldiers in leather armor, heavy infantry, full-plate knights—even mages wreathed in mana—were shredded to pieces. No screams carried. Only the catastrophic thunder of heaven-sent disaster rolled across the battlefield.
Fifteen Tomahawks had crippled nearly half the enemy force. In practical terms, it was annihilation. The survivors were in total panic, incapable of coherent thought.
Yujin looked away from the burning earth and turned. The 3 No, Kang Mu-hyun and his party, even the gnat and the junkie who'd finally come to their senses, plus three nameless others—every single one of them was staring at him as if he were the rarest lunatic the world had ever produced.
"What? What is it? You got a problem?"
He cradled the Chunbae Cannon carefully against his chest and went on.
"You just gonna stand there? Clean up the leftovers so we can climb."
A lunatic.
That man was a genuine lunatic.
How he'd even managed to bring something like that into the Tower, she had no idea. She didn't want to know. The price for it couldn't have been ordinary.
One thing was certain: Seong Yujin was an absolute psychopath.
Lee Sia thought as much as she sprinted toward the enemy. Even with distance still left between them, searing heat was already baking her face. For a moment she almost felt sorry for the enemy. They had to die either way, but—
They never imagined they'd go out like this.
Watching them scatter in every direction, screaming, she felt a pity she hadn't known she possessed. She flicked a glance sideways. A woman running right beside her, face a patchwork of fresh bruises, caught her eye.
Jane, was it?
The player who'd picked a fight for no reason and gotten herself beaten senseless for it. Surprisingly, she was matching Sia's stride—while even Kang Mu-hyun was falling behind.
Right, she used a speed skill earlier.
Barely thirty levels, and still she'd moved well enough to startle. It hadn't worked on Sia, who'd already been through hell and Seong Yujin on top of that, but among the players Sia had seen, Jane ranked near the top.
"What are you looking at?"
Jane glared at her with venomous eyes.
"Oh, for—"
She hadn't been hit enough, clearly. Sia almost reached out on instinct, then forced her hand down. What mattered right now wasn't this woman. It was the enemy.
She drew Black Wing [B].
Ssrrring—.
At that keen whisper of steel, Jane flinched. She was still playing tough, but the beating's aftereffects clearly lingered. Sia laughed inwardly and poured mana into the blade.
Fifteen to twenty thousand enemies left? Yujin had thinned the numbers, but the force remaining was still enormous. Sia wasn't afraid. Fully prepared troops might have been one thing; broken soldiers flinging away their weapons and running were nothing. All that remained was a massacre of the helpless.
"Hey. You said you were confident in your speed?"
Jane looked at Sia's sword and nodded.
"Yeah."
Pride filled her voice. The bruises all over her face ruined the cool factor, though. Sia lifted a corner of her mouth.
"Wanna bet on who's faster?"
"…What?"
"You said you were confident. Let's race to that line over there. You can even take a buff from your boyfriend."
"Ha!"
Jane barked a hollow laugh.
"You know what they call me?"
"Should I?"
"Ray. Ray—as in a ray of light."
"So what?"
Ray of light, sagging flesh—what did a nickname matter?
"Fine. Let's go. You might be stronger, but I'm faster."
"Okay. Right now?"
"Hold on. Logan!"
Jane looked back and called to her boyfriend.
"Buff me!"
"…Skill Enhancement [D]."
Logan didn't argue. He activated the skill. Mana surged and sank into Jane's body.
Is that really a boyfriend, or just a buff slave?
While Sia was thinking that, Jane smiled around her split lip.
"Let's see what you've got."
Instant Acceleration [D]
KWAAAAAAAAAA—!
A shockwave erupted, and her body seemed to stretch out in an optical illusion—afterimages left by raw acceleration. She was fast. Faster than any player Sia had seen. Except Seong Yujin.
Sia watched Jane's back shrink into the distance, then drew up her mana.
And—
"Black Flash [D]."
Black light carved itself across the blood-soaked earth. As if a stretch of pure night had fallen in a single straight line, the darkness cut through space without a sound. Reaching Jane's side took barely a fraction of a second.
Sia slipped past her as if it were nothing. She caught the sight of Jane's eyes flying wide—disbelief so complete she reached out without thinking, trying to grab Sia's clothes. Impossible. Sia was already far beyond her fingertips.
One second. An absurdly short time to cover hundreds of meters.
Black Wing [B] moved. A sword stroke faster than footwork. Disaster steeped in black light poured down on the enemy once more.
KUAAAAAAAAANG—!
A belated shockwave tore through the burning ranks.
"I win, right?"
Standing atop hundreds of corpses cleaved open by Black Wing [B], Sia smiled and welcomed Jane.
She's not right in the head either.
Watching Sia, Yujin shook his head. She was always calling him a lunatic, a psycho, a psychopath—but anyone looking at that performance would pin those words on her instead. One lunatic sighed at another.
"Chunbae."
"Kkyaaaang—?"
"Thanks to you, we cut a ton of work. Right?"
"Kkyaaaaaang—!"
Chunbae cried out as if laughing.
Well, we could have cleared the floor without going this far.
Yujin and the 3 No. Even without anyone else, the four of them had more than enough power to push through the sixteenth floor. The enemy was numerous and strong, but his side was no pushover—especially with Vivian joining, long battles had become far more manageable.
It would have been rough, sure. At least a full week of nonstop fighting. Advance and retreat, stealth and ambush, over and over, until the enemy finally broke. Possible. But with fifteen Tomahawks?
No need to suffer through any of that.
And it wasn't just forcing a retreat—it was total annihilation. The gap in achievement rating would be enormous, and the rewards would be just as sweet.
"You're a walking gold mine. A real gold mine."
He stroked Chunbae's head and surveyed the field. With Sia leading the charge like a madwoman on a trampoline, the others began engaging the enemy one by one.
Not bad.
Even Park Ji-hoo, the one he'd worried about most, showed no hesitation facing the enemy. The trait he'd earned on the seventh floor seemed to be helping a great deal.
And over there…
Chiyou—Kang Mu-hyun. Watching him move, Yujin felt a flicker of genuine admiration. Barely level thirty, with no particularly special skills to speak of, and still he was carving through the enemy. Extreme efficiency. Every motion found the optimal path; every thrust skewered at least three soldiers.
That's pure talent.
No wonder they'd called him the God of War, Chiyou. On a battlefield like this, he was performing on par with Sia and Ji-hoo.
If he keeps growing without dying, I'm almost looking forward to it.
Satisfied, Yujin shifted his gaze. Vivian. Always focused on healing, she was fighting this time too.
KURURURURURUNG—!
Thunderbolt [E], channeled through Vajra [C], crashed down without pause. Through Super Spatiotemporal Information Collector [C], she had perfect grasp of the battlefield and was landing precision strikes. A mere E-grade attack skill—and it was more than enough. Right now, she had dropped more enemies than anyone else.
"Good. Real good."
Feeling experience surge in, Yujin smiled with satisfaction.
"This is what auto-hunting looks like."
The harder the 3 No fought, the faster Yujin grew—incomparably faster than in the first timeline.
Twelve hours.
That was how long it took to wipe out every last remnant of the enemy force, down to the final soldier. In the first timeline it had taken a week. This speed was absurd. The levels matched it. Annihilating thirty thousand troops had netted Yujin a full three levels. The 3 No rose with him. Yujin, Sia, and Ji-hoo were now level fifty-eight; Vivian had hit fifty-seven. The gap was slowly closing.
Yujin looked over the 3 No, Kang Mu-hyun's party, the gnat, the junkie, and the other three, all gasping for air. Exhaustion was written all over them. Twelve hours of nonstop combat made that inevitable.
"Nobody's gonna thank me?"
Yujin swaggered.
"You crazy bastard."
Sia rasped between harsh breaths.
"Without me you'd still be fighting. So say thank you."
"Th-thank you."
"Thank you."
Unlike her, the others had manners. Everyone offered their thanks with drained faces—except Sia and Vivian.
"Anyway, the quest's done, right?"
They had won the war. A total victory with not a single survivor left. The Akasha System would have no choice but to hand out solid rewards for this. And this was a first clear, wasn't it? At minimum, better than the seventh floor.
Right on cue, the quest completion alert rang out.
The enemy has been completely eradicated.
You have achieved a perfect victory in war.
◈ Quest Clear Reward: Skill Piercing Mind's Eye [C]
◈ Achievement Reward: Item Requiem Sword [C]
◈ Achievement Reward: Item Reversal [B]
◈ Achievement Reward: Trait Luck Pill [C]
…B-grade?
Yujin's eyes went wide.