Master.

"Master. Might we not see to our maintenance outside? If we linger here and other players should happen to arrive..."

Paranet spoke with careful deference.

"Why bother? Walk out now and we'd just be doing everyone else a favor. Try a little thinking."

"Thi... thinking? What is that?"

"Use your head."

"R-right. Of course. I was lacking in thinking."

Yujun took out a Transcendent Stone. Without hesitation, he pressed it to the Primal Shabby Cloak. The stone vanished, and a brilliant light poured from the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cloak. The Primal Shabby Cloak looked a little more like an actual cloak.

Not that it made much difference either way.

Let's have a look. How much did it change?

"Oh. What the..."

Defense had jumped from 10 to 90,000. One rank up, and the number had multiplied nine thousand times—what kind of logic-free change was that? He had no complaints, of course. A forty-five percent increase to every stat sat just as well with him, and so did the broader boost to Luck.

What came next mattered most of all. Blink had become Flash. SSS+. Among the skills he possessed, it was the second-highest rank—Swordsmanship excluded, since that was a trait.

"Did the skill evolve?"

Flash was something Yujun had never so much as heard of. He used it at once.

A blaze of light.

Yujun's eyes went wide. There was almost no cast time at all.

"Master. Just now... you turned transparent for a moment."

Paranet stared, startled.

"What?"

"For two seconds? Three? You seemed to vanish entirely. Did you step outside and come back?"

"Hey. Hold on."

You didn't need to cast a skill to learn what it did. He'd only fired it off on impulse, curious how Flash would feel. Now he checked the effect itself.

After Flash, invisibility for 2.5 seconds...?

It was heavily influenced by Agility as well. The higher the stat, the more thoroughly one concealed both presence and form.

Oh. Come to think of it, didn't I pick up a Mythic title that raises Agility?

That was the one. The timing was almost uncanny, and the cloak's forty-five percent boost to all stats stacked on top of it. Yujun's raw Agility sat below a thousand, but once items and titles were applied, it climbed to nearly ten thousand. Use Flash in that state, and was there a single player who could even find him?

I'd be a hell of a lot better than that sloppy assassin from earlier.

Flash. He hadn't tried it in a real fight, but he could already tell it outclassed Blink beyond any comparison.

Using the Transcendent Stone on the cloak was the right call. Dump it on ordinary armor and he would have been pounding the dirt in regret. Truly, truly fortunate—because his eye for gear was just that good.

Still. I never thought I'd pick up an SSS+ skill this way. A movement skill he could actually ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠use in combat, no less. Movement skills were arguably the most important of all, and in a sense he'd gotten his far later than everyone else.

So long as the result is good.

Either way, he now held the finest movement skill he knew. Skills and traits of SSS or EX rank—how many people even had them? Almost no one. One or two, at most, if they had any at all. And Yujun had just obtained an SSS-rank skill by equipping a single item. If that wasn't luck, what was it?

All that remained were the random rune box and the Dragon Blood Stone.

I'll use those in a bit.

Right now his body itched too badly to sit still. Yujun burst out of the General Store.

The moment he showed himself, the players outside began to murmur.

"It's Shin Yujun."

"So that's what he looks like. Handsome, for a human."

"You can see his face? He's wearing a helmet. I can't make out a thing."

"That's because your eyes are bad. I can see him just fine."

"Let's keep our heads down. Annoy him and we could die on the spot."

Yujun swept his gaze around the crowd. Not a familiar face among them.

No Caston. No Jo Su-a either.

The ones who had teamed with him in the second event were nowhere to be seen. Plenty of people had come to the General Store, but they were still only a fraction of the tens of thousands. Yujun's eyes gleamed. He was looking for a suitable opponent, and he had a condition: they had to be Demon God Worshippers. He wasn't some murder-crazed lunatic, and he had no intention of staging a massacre without something to gain. Hence the Worshippers—terrifying enemies threatening the peace of the Continent. As far as justifications went, you couldn't do better.

Best to cut them off at the root.

Yujun moved. Without a moment's hesitation, he used Flash.

A soft pop. A wet slice. One player's head came clean off, and his life with it. Head and body parted in a fountain of blood.

Finding the Demon God Worshippers was easy. High Agility had sharpened his senses, but more than that, the aura they gave off was distinctive. He used Flash again. In the space of a blink—slice, slice, thud—three more dropped.

"Why's he doing that all of a sudden? What's going on?"

"Who's killing them?"

"Looks like Shin Yujun. He vanished."

"Then why can't we see him?"

"He's in stealth, obviously. Must you ask something so plain?"

"Shouldn't stealth break when you attack? What the hell is this?"

Thud. A sword punched through a throat and slid free—but only for an instant. The weapon vanished without a trace.

"Ghk!"

And in the middle of it all, another one died.

It was unbelievable. He could keep attacking without end while the stealth held? Not a single person survived even one blow. They dropped, one after another, and the players trembled, unable to tell who would be next. There wasn't a weakling among those gathered here, and yet not one of them could bring themselves to fight back. Why? Because they couldn't see him. They couldn't even feel his presence. There was nothing to be done.

"I never heard Shin Yujun had a stealth ability."

"Sh-shouldn't we run?"

"He's out to kill everyone. This is bad."

"I'm out."

Only after about four more players had died did Yujun's assassination spree stop. He let his sword hang loose at his side.

Flash. This is way too broken...

So long as he had the mana, he could use it without end. The cost was enormous, but his Magic was high. He'd still need to be sparing with it, though a handful of uses wouldn't leave him gasping.

"I-is it over?"

"Looks like he's done killing?"

Every race had gathered in front of the General Store, and the players Yujun killed had come from all sorts of them. Because he hadn't cared what race they were, the crowd was even more confused. Among them, though, was one unusually sharp player. Someone muttered.

"Don't tell me... he only killed the Demon God Worshippers?"

More people than one might expect knew what the Demon God Worshippers were.

"Demon God Worshippers?"

"Now that you mention it... they were giving off a strange aura."

"So everyone who just died was a Demon God Worshipper?"

"They did feel kind of chilling."

"Looks like Shin Yujun sees the Worshippers as enemies."

"Thank god. If that human had been on their side... ugh, I don't even want to think about it."

"You're sure? He's their enemy?"

"Shin Yujun doesn't give off that feeling the Worshippers do. I'm sure."

"Whew..."

Seeing no more Demon God Worshippers, Yujun left. The players watched him go, and for a moment silence hung over the square. It didn't last. A bloodbath broke out over who would buy the General Store's goods.

Points are all spent.

He'd also obtained a broken item only the Primordial Player could equip. Plenty of questions remained unanswered.

What's the connection between Ner and the Primordial Player? Is that why she gave me the cloak—because she knew I was the Primordial Player?

Or maybe it was just a leftover item, the conditions happened to match, and she'd handed it over. Either way, the cloak was not remotely a waste of fifteen million points. Those points would vanish when the event ended anyway. For the price, he was thoroughly satisfied.

Yujun left the General Store, made his way to the midpoint, and came to a clean stop.

I'll check them here.

He took out the random rune box and the Dragon Blood Stone. No reason to draw it out—he meant to use both right away.

And thanks to the cloak, Luck has shot up too.

He'd consumed a Luck ring long ago as well. The Dragon Blood Stone probably wouldn't care, but the odds of something good coming out of the random rune box were high.

In most games, runes boost stats or skill effects.

What about here? A rune box worth two million points. It had better not cough up a dud. If it did, he really would smash the whole place. Just in case, he gathered Chaos into his fist.

"Master."

"What?"

"A swarm of king mosquitoes is—"

Crackle. Zzzzt. A bolt of lightning erupted in an instant and wiped out the entire swarm. A trickle of points came in, but by now they hardly mattered. Paranet shot him a thumbs-up.

"As expected of Master! I never doubted you!"

Yujun decided to use the Dragon Blood Stone first. He took out the Bloodstone Extractor.

This thing was originally made to apply other races' traits to your character...

Absorb an orc bloodstone, for instance, and you gained exceptional fertility. Awkward. The very picture of awkward. What was anyone supposed to do with fertility in a game? Extracting bloodstones from the other races was no better. All you ever got were abilities that barely did anything in-game, so of course the Bloodstone Extractor had never been popular.

I've only got fifteen left, so I ought to be saving them. Tch. I have to use one now, don't I?

And the extractor had cost a whopping three hundred dollars in real cash. Expensive, and barely useful, so almost no one had bought it. There hadn't been many players willing to spend money on a dead game ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the first place.

Calling War of the Gods a dead game. Feels a little strange.

He had loved that game so much. Had his affection cooled? Not a chance. The game had simply become reality, so there was no need to cling to War of the Gods anymore.

Honestly, Yujun was enjoying himself ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠these days. His life had been in danger a few times, but the catharsis of winning a fight—of standing above everyone else—was beyond comparison. And there was no ceiling on how strong he could become. That was the best part. Running the same old routes forever on a max-level character was dull beyond belief. He'd only kept playing out of love for the game; without that affection, he would have quit long ago. Which was why now was better.

Struggling to stop the destruction of Earth, or of the Continent? In a way it was play, a role he was acting out for himself alone. Fun. If he had to name the most enjoyable stretch of his life, it was exactly now. This very moment.

"Dragon Blood Stone."

An item he had never obtained before. The blood of an ancient dragonkin. It obviously couldn't be compared to the bloodstones of orcs, elves, or dwarves. Yujun set the Dragon Blood Stone on the Bloodstone Extractor. That was all. There was nothing more he needed to do.

A low hum. The extractor activated, and the Dragon Blood Stone gave a faint vibration. A red liquid rose above the device and solidified in an instant—dragon blood, condensed into a small, drop-shaped solid. Yujun picked it up. The texture was nothing special. It felt like holding a bar of soap.

He moved his mana and absorbed the bloodstone. The dragon blood liquefied again and seeped in through his fingertips.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart began to race. His blood and the dragon's blood started to mix.