Duke Huserden's Dumbfounded Face
Duke Huserden's face went slack with sheer disbelief.
Why, in all the world, were there so many powerful humans? The ones who had come from that outfit called Coordination had all been human as well, and they were so strong it was impossible to believe they had possessed player abilities for a mere five years. And now a powerhouse those three feared had thrown in with the Royalist Faction. For Duke Huserden, who had staked everything on the Coordination members alone, it was a magnificent blow to the back of the head.
"Fine. For now, I'll do as you say."
The player Coordination had named was, in fact, in the middle of a slaughter. Delay any longer, and the Noble Faction's strength would not survive it.
At Duke Huserden's command, the Noble Faction players loosed a barrage of magic at Yujun, while those with close-combat abilities hovered near him, waiting for an opening.
In that instant, Yujun erupted with a vast surge of mana.
A roaring rush of power.
"Kh—!"
"Guh!"
He had not cast a spell. Simply releasing his mana was enough to leave the Noble Faction players reeling, and on top of that the effect of Absolute Dominion triggered. The moment their bodies locked rigid, Yujun unleashed Mana Explosion.
The blast thundered out and swallowed half the banquet hall. It was so violent that not only the Noble Faction, but even a few Royalist players standing well back were caught in the wash.
Having shaken off every player swarming him, Yujun smiled wryly.
Magic really is convenient at times like this.
He could commit mass slaughter with a sword as well, but it was nowhere near as efficient as magic. The two were not even in the same realm. No matter how he turned it over, choosing Ancient Magic from the Skill Archive had been an excellent decision.
Once I get out of Sourtul Forest, I need to visit the Skill Archive too.
Every time a thought like that surfaced, having only one body felt unbearably regrettable. The things he had to do were piled up like a mountain. In a sense, it was a trouble born of too much good fortune—still better than having no idea where to even begin.
Yujun took up his sword again, to meet the three figures charging at him through the smoke.
It's them.
Cloaked. A sliver of face showed, and they looked unmistakably Korean.
Coordination?
The odds were high. Right after an area spell, they must have assumed he would be wide open, and each of the three launched a committed killing blow.
He poured mana into his blade and struck aside the spell that arrived first. The impact cracked through the hall, and behind it the other two Coordination members came crashing in.
Yujun's sword hand twitched.
A clean, shearing stroke—so fast the eye could not follow it. The two players froze upright. Above their shoulders there was only empty air. Their heads were gone.
They had known he favored the neck and prepared for it, and it had not mattered in the slightest. His attack power was not something preparation could stop.
His level did not rise. He had killed his own kind.
Yujun smiled bitterly. Killing other races had grown somewhat familiar, but every time he killed a human, an unpleasant residue remained. Even the Equanimity trait could not erase it. Taking, with his own hands, the familiar faces he had grown up seeing across more than twenty years in Korea was never an easy thing.
He did not hesitate, though. Coordination had come to kill him. Waffling just because they were fellow humans, fellow Koreans, would be the most idiotic thing he could do.
Go Gwanghyeon was left alone. As if resigned, he let out a heavy sigh and charged.
The air hissed as Yujun swung, and Go Gwanghyeon used Blink, as though he had been waiting for it—a style faithful to the fundamentals, striking straight at the gap in his guard. Yujun turned and swung again. This time, too, Go Gwanghyeon blinked away.
He used Blink twice in a row?
Unlike Flash, Blink carried a long cooldown. It was not a skill meant to be chained at intervals that short. There were exceptions: if the skill's rank was extremely high, the cooldown dropped sharply. Which meant Go Gwanghyeon held at least an SS-rank Blink.
An SS-rank Blink or higher is genuinely hard to get.
He felt no envy, of course. He already had a skill that outclassed Blink entirely.
The tip of Go Gwanghyeon's thrust came knifing in toward the center of Yujun's brow. Only then did Yujun use Flash. In the same breath he charged Chaos into his fingertip and fired.
A dull puncture.
"Guhk!"
Both hands clamped to his throat, Go Gwanghyeon's body crumpled.
Just as he had drilled in the laboratory, he had fired Chaos like a laser the instant after Flash. It was his first time using the combination in a real fight, and the result was deeply satisfying. Exploit the moment of invisibility, loose Chaos, and no enemy could answer it, however quick their reflexes. The timing of the Flash had been exquisite on top of that. Even if Go Gwanghyeon had known it was coming, it was not an attack he could have dodged.
You have eliminated a Demon God Worshipper of high caliber! Your power as the Primordial Player increases slightly.
"Oh. Haven't seen this one in a while."
After the Primordial Player perk had improved last time, the message had never appeared again. The Demon God Worshipper he had just killed must have stood overwhelmingly above him in both level and caliber.
I'm past level 550, and there's still a gap. What on earth...
A faintly hollow feeling settled over him. Did levels simply have no end? Being able to grow stronger without limit was certainly a good thing, but among those who had lived long in this world, there would be people whose levels dwarfed his beyond any comparison.
Even that god I ran into last time was enough to turn my knees to water.
He had been fairly confident in his strength, yet the moment he laid eyes on that being, he knew by instinct. A god could kill him with a flick of the hand. Even so, he felt no despair. Given time, he was sure he could catch up quickly—not as a vague hunch, but as something he had the confidence to actually do. Starting from absolute zero might have been another matter. As it stood, he was already accelerating as hard as he could.
And once the inventory synchronized again, I picked up high-level equipment too.
The greatest harvest of all was none other than the Synchronization Marble. He had no idea how long the items would keep transferring, but with the synchronization rate still sitting at only 104 percent, there was every chance he would obtain still more. He offered a quiet word of thanks to No-Pay Casual Gamer.
Thanks in advance. Even after the server shut down, you're still looking out for me.
Yujun swept a glance around the hall. Near the king, Paranet and Manuela stood waiting, guarding him. He had not needed to give an order; they had read the situation and moved on their own. A satisfied smile crossed his face.
The summons are finally earning their keep.
Summons did not even eat, and Manuela was not a summon at all—but that was beside the point.
Quite a few Noble Faction players still remained. Yujun began to move in a blur, cutting their numbers down. They died screaming to an enemy they never saw, dropping one after another with heavy thuds.
Duke Huserden's face twisted.
"This cannot be..."
The Coordination players he had trusted were dead for nothing, and almost none of his own faction remained. As if that were not enough, the king's knights who had been off duty came rushing in, and a fight already turning against him plunged to its worst.
And so the battle ended in the Royalist Faction's overwhelming victory.
One player kicked Duke Huserden's legs out from under him and dropped him to his knees.
"You wretch!"
"What. You're a traitor. Glare all you like—what's that going to do?"
At the baron's insolent tone, Duke Huserden's face flushed and paled by turns.
Eight Noble Faction players were still alive. The Royalists had spared them for a simple reason: they had no intention of granting an easy death to those who had plotted rebellion.
"You will pay for your crimes properly—no, several times over."
"Do as you please."
Duke Huserden did not appear to fear death all that much. Watching him, Yujun felt a small twinge of regret.
Should I have left one of the Coordination members alive?
There were a few things he wanted to know about Coordination.
No. They're Demon God Worshippers in the end. Pulling information out of them would have been impossible.
The prohibitions binding them were severe. Even Yujun, as he was now, would not come out well if he poked at seals of that order. The one that had been laid on Iere was mild by comparison.
Once the fate of the Noble Faction players was settled, Yujun approached the king.
"I've come for the item you promised."
"Thorough, aren't you."
"It's my property I'm collecting. Of course I am. You're not about to pretend otherwise and withhold it, are you? That look on your face is a little ominous..."
"Perish the thought. You are no different from a benefactor to Us—no, to our kingdom. It would only be right to treat you with still greater regard."
"So the Transcendent Stone is just the base pay, and there's a bonus on top of that?"
"That is rather..."
"What. You said you'd treat me well."
"We are not exactly flush ourselves..."
"How about showing a little generosity? It's a bit much to say this myself, but I basically saved your life. And on top of that..."
"If Master says it himself, the dignity of the thing rather suffers, so allow me to speak in his stead."
Paranet cut in without warning. Yujun drove a fist into his side.
"Did you just diss me for looking undignified?"
"Diss? What might a... diss be?"
"Don't play dumb."
"I beg your pardon."
"Anyway. If you're a king, give like one. There's a reason they call you king."
"...You persist in unreasonable demands."
"Come on. It's not that hard, is it?"
"My heart yearns to give, but I have nothing worthy of you. Even in the palace item vault, there are only goods whose quality cannot begin to compare with the equipment you wear. Frankly, you would be difficult to satisfy."
"I see. Understood, for now."
Yujun let the matter drop without another word.
"We thank you for understanding Our intent."
"I got a little greedy, that's all."
He said it with a bright smile, and the king, seeming relieved at last, smiled as well.
Outwardly, though, the smile was all there was. Inwardly, Yujun was nursing a pitch-black scheme.
After going this far, I can't walk away with nothing but the Transcendent Stone.
He meant to start by quietly cleaning out the Underground Kingdom's item vault. All he had done for the king was kill a dozen or so players, but when he considered the impact he had made on the kingdom, a Transcendent Stone alone fell short. At the very least, he figured he ought to leave with one more item comparable to it, or the ledger would not balance.
King Calton handed him the Transcendent Stone at once.
"The item I promised. You have Our thanks."
"No—thank you, in advance."
"In advance? What do you mean by that?"
"Ah, a slip of the tongue. Don't mind it."
Yujun withdrew with a meaningful smile. Calton felt a flicker of unease at it, but he did not press. It might be discourteous to a benefactor. He simply hoped nothing would come of it.
Yujun left the banquet hall with Manuela and Paranet.
"Yujun."
They were wandering the corridor with no particular destination when Manuela called out.
"What?"
"You're going to steal items, aren't you?"
"..."
How did she know that?
Did I say what I was thinking out loud without noticing?
He had no memory of doing so.
"How did you know?"
"One look and I get it. How long do you think I've been watching you?"
"Huh? It hasn't been that long."
"Th-that's true! But we've been stuck together this whole time. An expression like yours is easy to read!"
"Yeah? If it shows on my face, that's kind of bad... this is a problem. Paranet, do you get it?"
"How could I dare fathom Master's most exalted thoughts? Of course I do not. A witch of single-minded devotion who stares at only one person, however... no, a woman, perhaps, might."
Manuela flustered at once.
"I-I never did that... Do you want to die?"
"Why are you the one flying off the handle? I never named anyone."
"You said witch!"
"Which is why I corrected myself. I said woman."
"..."
Still fuming, Manuela whipped her head toward Yujun.
"It's really not true! Don't misunderstand!"
"I know."
"...Huh?"
"I know it's not."
"What would you know!"
And what exactly am I supposed to do with that.