A Max-Level Returnee
A moment after blood splattered from the spot targeted by the laser pointer, the black-tailed monster shrieked in agony and lunged at her.
"Damn it!" No matter how much she attacked, the monster wouldn't go down easily. Knowing this, the woman aimed her gun directly at its head and pulled the trigger once more.
Screeech! Bang! The bullet pierced straight through its wide-open maw, completely blowing the black-tailed monster's head off.
"Whew!" She had shot calmly, but she seemed to have been quite tense. Taking a deep breath, she glanced at the remaining Yunjae and aimed her gun at him.
"Who are you? Why were you hanging around with a monster?"
"Ah! Me?" Yunjae, still unable to grasp the situation, tilted his head. "I'm just..." But having only just escaped Mamon Saga to arrive here, how could he possibly know anything? "I don't know anything..."
And as he stepped closer to her, "Stop!" she shrieked sharply, clearly finding his attire and appearance highly suspicious. "What on earth are you?" Just as Yunjae was about to answer her dead-serious question...
"Slender Forearms? What on earth is that above your head?"
"Ah, pardon?" In that moment, an utterly bewildered Yunjae looked up to see what was above his head. "Ah! What is this?! Why?!" Why was there a character name like "Slender Forearms" and a health bar floating above his head like a game character?
"How should I know, you idiot!"
"This is impossible! This can't be happening!" He thought he had finally returned to reality, but to return like this! "I only made it as a joke! How many years is this thing going to follow me around?!" As he fell into another mental breakdown and wailed, the woman looked at him with a bewildered expression.
She didn't know what his deal was, but his appearance was incredibly bizarre. Though his voice was soft and melodic, he didn't seem to be a girl, but rather a boy with features so delicate and beautiful that if he just grew his hair out, he'd be prettier than her. How bruising to my pride! Annoyed by that realization, she shouted with a slight flush on her face.
"Hey! Don't move! This is a restricted area. Why are you here? Are you a hunter too?"
"A hunter?" I'm a Holy Knight, though. "Ah!" Yunjae, who was about to answer as such, quickly realized how absurd that would sound and made a sorrowful face.
"I told you to stay still!" As she backed away, still keeping her guard up, a voice called out. "Mari! What are you doing?" Two men, who appeared to be her teammates, approached.
"Jay! Jimmy!"
"Who's that guy?" Her teammates flinched as they spotted Yunjae, who was currently wailing with the name "Slender Forearms" and a status bar floating above his head.
"Is there a monster like that? What is that?" "Is it a girl or a boy?" They asked in confusion, but the woman called Mari had absolutely no idea what his identity was either.
"I don't have a single clue either!" Even though Mari was the first to find him, she couldn't get a grasp on what Yunjae was.
"Isn't he a game character?" When she cautiously voiced her opinion, "Ah! Why am I the only game character?!" he wailed again.
"H-Hey! I told you not to move!" But would a despairing person hear that? Yunjae blankly stared at Mari and her teammates, Jay and Jimmy, but no matter how hard he looked, there were no names or status bars above their heads.
"How can this be!" Utterly devastated by this realization, Yunjae covered his face with both hands. "Hey! Put your hands over your head and get on your knees!" Mari's companion, Jay, raised his voice at him.
"...Why on earth did this happen to me?" But Yunjae, having completely broken down, had no intention of listening to their commands. He thought he had finally returned to reality, but somehow it had merged with Mamon Saga, and to top it off, he was the only game character!
He's actually kind of cute. Seeing him like this, both cute and deeply pitiful, Mari felt a bit guilty even pointing her gun at him.
"A-Anyway, if you don't follow instructions, we will fire!" He didn't seem like a bad guy, but she couldn't just let him be. Regrettably, this world had fallen into great chaos ever since portals opened several years ago and monsters began to appear. Therefore, if there was a suspicious person in a restricted area, it was their job as hunters to handle it.
"Whew... But since this isn't a game, it should be fine, right?" Meanwhile, Yunjae seemed to have quickly resigned himself and begun adapting to reality. He hated games to death, so he absolutely loathed being the only game character, but at least this wasn't a game field, and the people in front of him weren't NPCs spitting out repetitive scripted lines.
"Yeah, that's something to be grateful for." With an ultra-positive mindset, Yunjae stood up, seemingly cheering up. "Anyway, it's so nice to meet you! I can't believe I'm finally meeting real people after 500,000 hours!"
"D-Don't move!" Mari and her teammates shouted in annoyance at his sudden movement, but he was far too relaxed.
"Ah, it's okay! I won't hurt you!" The moment he laughed and shook his head, "I told you not to move!" Bang! Mari's companion, Jay, pulled the trigger.
"H-Hey!" He didn't seem like a civilian, but what if he was? Jay had always been rough and short-tempered, but this was going too far. Startled, she shouted at Jay, but—
The bullet couldn't even touch his body.
"W-What on earth is that?" Not only Jay, who was utterly shocked by the sight, but even Jimmy cried out. "Damn it!" "What is that!" Bang! Bang! Bang! They fired wildly at Yunjae.
But it was the exact same result!
"W-What!" "What the hell are you?!" How could he not get hit by a single bullet? It wasn't even like he had done anything.
And what on earth is that "MISS"? Does it literally mean they missed? Even Mari, who had tried to stop the shooting, aimed her gun at him in panic. Yunjae, finally realizing what was happening, bowed deeply and spoke.
"Ah! I'm so sorry! I wouldn't take much damage anyway, so I really wanted to let you hit me... but I'm max level, so I can't!"
"The year 2070... I really spent my entire life playing a game and turned into a septuagenarian." At Yunjae's sorrowful voice, Mari, Jay, and Jimmy stared at him with incredibly dubious expressions.
"Are you seriously out of your mind?"
"I wish I were crazy too." Yunjae had dodged every single bullet with the word "MISS" without even moving.
"If he's not a hunter, there's no way he's human! He must be a new species of monster!" Having wasted a ton of live ammunition because he dodged so effortlessly like a game character, Jay and Jimmy kept their guard up against Yunjae.
"...I don't think he's a monster. He just looks like a game character to anyone."
"Ah! That's so mean! A game character! How could you say something so harsh?!"
"Are you kidding me? Anyone looking at you would see a game character!"
"How could this be...!" For some reason, he seemed to hate being called a game character even more than being called a monster. But since he looked exactly like one, what could they do?
"Anyway, what happened to that black-tailed monster from earlier?" Regardless of whether he was a monster or a game character, fortunately, Yunjae was not violent. In fact, he was as exceptionally polite as his delicate appearance suggested, so there was no friction at all.
"Are you asking because you really don't know?"
"Ah, yes. Why did the world become like this...? And is this not Korea?" At his words, which made him seem completely ignorant, Jay let out a hollow laugh.
"You don't know about the Portal Incident?"
"Ah, I've crossed portals often, but the Portal Incident is completely..." He's probably going to talk about games again. Thinking that, Jay shook his head and said,
"Why are we wasting time with this idiot? Hey, we came here to make money!" Wasting live ammo was bad enough, but did they have to waste time too?
"Don't you know protecting civilians is our primary duty?" Mari replied to the prickly Jay, as if she had no choice.
"Who actually cares about that stuff nowadays?" At his words, Mari glared at him in annoyance.
"Don't forget that's the very reason we're allowed to carry firearms and military weapons, Jay!"
"How noble. Then go ahead and show off all that responsibility." In a world rampant with selfishness, what was the point of bringing up such absurd responsibility?
"Ah, because of me..." Meanwhile, Yunjae looked incredibly apologetic as he watched Mari and Jay argue over him.
"Tsk." It was true that although he was definitely a guy, he was strikingly pretty. With a slender build that matched his name "Slender Forearms" and a pale, oval face, he really looked like a girl, which made even Jay soften a bit.
"Then our noble lady can take care of him, and we'll go make some money." "Sure. Let's meet at Point 6." The two were always at odds, with Jimmy remaining neutral. But when it came to money, Jimmy seemed to side with Jay.
"Damn it!" Once the two left to make money, Mari scowled, clearly displeased with the situation. She needed money just as much as they did. She was living hand-to-mouth with no special abilities, so where did she have the time to waste like this?
"Ah, I'm so sorry! Because of me..." When he apologized with a deeply apologetic face, Mari sighed. "Whew. Forget it." She looked like a tomboy on the outside, but she seemed to have a soft heart.
"Anyway, the Portal Incident refers to when portals opened all over the world, and monsters like the one you saw earlier started appearing and attacking people."
"Ah, is that so? It sounds similar to the monster rushes in Mamon Saga." Mari frowned at that. "Just how long are you going to keep talking about games?"
"Ah! I'm sorry! Since I did nothing else for 500,000 hours..." Even if he had become the strongest existence in Mamon Saga, it seemed he wasn't like that in the real world. He had always been extremely timid and introverted, but spending 500,000 hours alone seemed to have made him even more withdrawn and passive. On top of that, he had wasted more than two-thirds of his life on a game he hated so much, and now he was the only game character—how could he not feel an immense sense of self-loathing!
"I'm really sorry!" At his continuous apologies, she sighed. "Sigh..." He was just too cute and pitiful for her to leave him behind. She said,
"Point 6 is safe. We'll have to run a background check on you once we get there, but I'll take you that far. Just don't try anything funny. Got it?" She couldn't just take a complete stranger, let alone someone so bizarre, with her. But she couldn't leave him behind either. Unlike Jay and Jimmy, who worked as hunters solely for money, Mari possessed a sense of responsibility. At her words, Yunjae beamed.
"You're very kind, Mari!" How long had it been since she had seen someone smile so purely? And had she ever seen such an incredibly beautiful boy? Thump! Her heart suddenly skipped a beat, causing Mari to raise her voice defensively.
"Sh-Shut...!" "Ah! I'm sorry!" Since he was max level, he apologized at an incredible speed before she could even finish her sentence, making Mari flinch.
What is his true identity? She had heard a brief summary from him. He had fallen into a game world, played for 500,000 hours, and reached max level. Then, deciding he couldn't take it anymore, he tried to destroy the game world so they would all go down together, but right before that, someone opened a portal for him, and he ended up here.
It sounds completely insane, but... The problem was how he had dodged those bullets. Just as the word "MISS" indicated, he had truly dodged them, but without even moving, as if he had warped space itself. Furthermore, the armor he wore, though unfamiliar, was clearly equipment of extraordinary quality.
"Anyway, I have to work, so just follow me without any complaints." "Ah! Thank you, Mari!" If there was one saving grace, it was that he was incredibly polite and amiable. He's like a puppy. And on top of that, extremely cute. Realizing he was a gentle soul, a rare find in a world ruined by the Portal Incident, Mari couldn't help but chuckle.
"Then follow me." But she couldn't let her guard down here. They were very close to a portal, and monsters poured out of those without rest!
"By the way, are there only black-tailed monsters here?" "Huh?" Mari flinched at the presence of Yunjae, who seemed to be just walking normally but was keeping up with her fast pace like a