An Unnecessary Fight
"……."
"……."
He might have owed Yepe an apology, but Yujun swung his sword without mercy all the same, for Jo Su-a's sake.
No. Honestly, I'm not even sorry.
Whether it was Equanimity or simply his own eye for people, Yepe's insincerity was obvious at a glance. Dying here would not actually cost the man his life, so there was no reason to hesitate. Killing him shifted the rankings, and Jo Su-a rose to fiftieth. That was satisfying enough.
In truth, it hardly mattered what became of her. That was why he had left her to act on her own. He was not entirely indifferent, though. When the event ended and the time came to face the Demon God Worshippers, it would only benefit him if her strength had climbed in a way he could see.
Wait.
If he killed every player ranked above Jo Su-a, he could push her as high as second. The grassland was far too vast for that to be realistic, but he could at least try. His goal was set: hunt the players inside the rankings. Jo Su-a was little more than an excuse.
If I want to sharpen my combat sense any further, I should be fighting the strongest ones I can find.
Once this many people remained, wandering around just to pad his kill count no longer meant much.
Should've started sooner.
A few hundred thousand players were left—roughly a hundredth of the number at the start. Time was hardly generous, and Yujun moved at once.
Paranet.
He called the summon inwardly. Their souls were linked, so he could tell where the creature was and reach him even from a distance. Paranet had not died when he was forcibly dismissed. He used Spatial Movement at once and appeared before Yujun, looking thoroughly delighted—perhaps because it had been so long since he had a proper fight.
"You called, Master!"
"Yeah. I've got something I need you to do."
"Yes! You need only command me!"
"Play shuttle. Spatial movement."
"A shuttle? Is that not merely a means of convey—"
"Do it the way you usually do."
"Yes."
Yujun did not care in the slightest whether Paranet's spirits sank. The grassland lay wide open, ideal ground for spatial movement, and he pushed his eyesight to its limit. With his agility so high, even the far distance came through sharp and clear, down to the holographic letters floating over people's heads.
Unreal.
He had not expected to see this well, though it made sense once he thought about it. Factoring in every title and item effect, his agility had broken past two thousand.
I might as well be a god.
Absurd long-range vision, and Paranet's Spatial Movement on top of it.
"Paranet. Over there."
The moment he found a target, he ordered the teleport.
"Yes!"
Ranks thirty-three and forty-one were locked in a fierce fight, and both of them, as it happened, were using swords.
An awful lot of people fight with a sword.
He had no idea why. The thirty-third looked Korean. The forty-first belonged to a race Yujun did not recognize. They were evenly matched, and the shock of their clash was enormous. No other player dared step into that savage fight.
Except Yujun.
Rank 1. Shin Yujun
A man appearing with Rank 1 burning over his head was bound to draw every eye.
"Shin Yujun?"
"That's the player who's been first this whole time."
"There are barely any players out here. Why would he come…?"
By then the two ranked fighters, still tearing at each other, noticed him as well.
"……Rank one?"
"Y-you've got to be kidding me."
Without warning, the scale of the fight ballooned. Players scattered at speed, and the two in the rankings were no exception. They fled side by side, as friendly as if they had never been trying to kill each other. Even before this, more than half the field had been running the moment the rankings appeared. He had expected as much.
No need to move any faster than this.
For the first time in a while, Yujun called on a skill.
Absolute Dominion (SSS)
Lays crushing pressure upon any foe weaker than the caster.
The pressure took hold just the same with their backs already turned.
"Ah—ah!"
They were not frozen outright, but their feet refused to work as they should.
Thud!
Forty-first place, Malik, tumbled gracelessly across the bloodstained grass. Thirty-third, Jang Daehyeon, fared little better. He did not fall, but his legs churned as if something had seized them, and he could not advance a step.
"What the hell is this?"
"……."
The two who had just been trying to kill each other stared at one another, utterly lost. They could not begin to understand what had happened. It was a kind of skill they had never faced. Binding spells and magic that restrained a body at least left a moment to prepare. Absolute Dominion did not.
Yujun walked forward at an easy pace, reached the pair, and glanced around.
Fifteen watching. None of them ranked.
He had little interest in the rest.
"H-hold on a moment. This is a total balance collapse. Why is rank one even coming here?"
Jang Daehyeon, the Korean, shouted it. Yujun stared back, incredulous.
"Sorry? What kind of nonsense is that…?"
"Think about it. This is too much. You shouldn't be showing up. It's like an adult jumping into a children's fight, isn't it?"
"You're both adults."
"No, I mean that's just how the saying goes. A figure of speech…"
"Players fighting players. Where do children and adults come into it?"
Yujun lifted his sword.
"We can't die this pointlessly…"
Thirty-third and forty-first wore hollow faces. Being noticed by Yujun had been their mistake.
Shhk. Shhk.
Two ranked players were eliminated just like that, and Jo Su-a's rank climbed to forty-eighth.
Time raced on. Fewer than thirty thousand players remained, not far now from the target of ten thousand. In that span Yujun had killed twenty ranked players in all, and every one of them had looked aggrieved. Fair enough. They had clawed their way up the rankings, only for the player in first to appear out of nowhere and cut them down. Some had resisted. It had not mattered. None of them were his match.
Two of them had been Demon God Worshippers.
Didn't expect to run into the ones I met before the event even started.
As he had guessed, they sat high, around the thirties.
Which means there are stronger ones still.
He doubted everyone above them was a Worshipper. A few members of Coordination, perhaps, and some hidden experts besides.
Either way, my swordsmanship is definitely improving.
He was still killing them in a single stroke, but he could feel himself learning how to end a fight even more cleanly. Then it happened.
KRA-KOOM—KRA-KOOM!
A tremendous blast rolled in from far off, and with it a vibration that shook the ground. Crimson flame surged high into the air.
Oh?
Yujun's eyes lit up. This was no ordinary fire magic. The scale of it was astonishing.
Was there a player who could cast something like that?
Grinning wide, he broke into a run. For him, this event was little more than a playground. He spotted one ranked player, and several others fleeing in blind panic—survivors who had barely lived through the blast. Yujun drew closer.
One man stood there in an imposing stance, and the ground around him was heaped with the corpses of other beings.
Did he kill all of them alone?
He looked strong. Yujun knew at once that the man ahead was stronger than any enemy he had met so far.
A race I've never seen.
Everything about him felt the opposite of a demon. His build was enormous. The face was humanlike, but he stood a good two meters tall, and absurd muscle covered him from head to toe. The hologram above his head bore these words.
Rank 3. Caston
So that's him…
Strong enough to hold third in this region.
"Rank one?"
Caston was the more surprised of the two. Yujun had locked down first place with an overwhelming kill count, and the only way for Caston to take first in this event was to kill him. He could never catch up on kills. The situation made it impossible. Only a few hundred thousand players remained, and Yujun's count had already passed nine million. Caston's gaze sank deep.
I was curious what he looked like.
Caston had no interest in the politics of the Continent, so he did not know the rising power named Yujun.
Nine million is no empty number. Odds are he's stronger than I am.
Tension settled over Caston's face. Fail to kill the man, and he himself would die. He had climbed to third. He had no wish to die in vain, and any player would have felt the same.
"Hey."
Caston spoke first.
"Hm? What?"
"I have a proposal."
"A proposal?"
"We don't touch each other until the event ends. How about it? There's no need for an unnecessary fight between us. The risk is too great."
"The one taking the risk is you."
"What?"
"Why would it be unnecessary for both of us? Kill me, and you rise to second."
"Second or third, the reward isn't so differ—"
"Second and third pay the same? You actually believe that?"
"……."
Anyone could see it was a ridiculous excuse. Among the tens of millions of players in this region, taking second and taking third would not be rewarded on the same tier. Both of them already knew that from long experience. Caston simply wanted to avoid the fight.
"You truly mean to see this through with me?"
Yujun did not answer. He swept his gaze around the field. No other ranked players.
I can fight without holding back.
In truth, it would not have mattered much if someone had been there. Yujun raised his sword. Caston had just unleashed large-scale magic, but that did not make him a mage. A great spear was strapped across his back.
Let's see what he's got.
Yujun kicked off the ground and shot forward. He closed a considerable distance in a breath and swung along a simple line—an attack that was nothing but speed. But it was far too fast. Caston sucked in a sharp, useless breath and threw his body back. A line of blood opened across his forehead. He had moved quickly enough that the cut stayed shallow. A chill ran through him, and he swallowed hard.
A player who has honed the swift sword to its limit?
Even granting that, the number of players the man had slain was beyond belief. Caston had assumed that, sword in hand or not, he would prove closer to a mage. Now he had a rough measure of the first-ranked player's strength. From this moment on, he would have to move if he meant to stay alive. Caston dragged his mana up in a rush.