Amid the Allied Army's Cheers

Yujun was still drinking in the victory, the allied army's cheers ringing in his ears, when he felt the place around him change.

Yujun flinched. The last step to becoming the Primordial Player? Only now did he understand what the Intermediate Tutorial's true reward actually was. He had no idea what good it would do him to become the Primordial Player, but if this was the prize waiting at the end of the Intermediate Tutorial, his expectations were already running high.

Something else, though, jumped out at him at once. His level would be set to 1. Wait. If I'm level 1...

He snapped his status window open and checked his stats and level. He really was level 1. The legendary title was gone as well. He was nothing but an empty level-1 game character, stripped of everything.

Paranet? Paranet was nowhere to be seen. Whether summoning itself had been locked or not, there was no answering signal when he sent the request. And I'm supposed to beat the Primordial Player like this?

It was an absurd trial. How in the world was he meant to defeat a Primordial Player sitting at level 500? Think. If the trial were truly impossible to clear, they never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would have hung the name Intermediate Tutorial on it. There had to be a way.

He was still turning it over when a middle-aged man with a handsomely groomed brown mustache appeared out of empty air. The Primordial Player. Those very words drifted above the man's head. Huh? What is this?

The Primordial Player was wearing gear meant strictly for beginners, and the presence rolling off him was, against every expectation, nothing much at all. Has the Primordial ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Player been dropped to level 1 too? Then there was a chance. No—more than a chance.

The Primordial Player spoke first.

"So you are the one who would be my successor."

The voice was grave and weighty. And yet, perhaps because of the novice clothes, it somehow failed to look impressive.

Yujun answered.

"Your successor? So the Intermediate Tutorial really was a place for choosing the Primordial Player's heir?"

"Intermediate Tutorial? What is that supposed to be?"

He looked genuinely lost. He knew nothing at all about the Intermediate Tutorial. The Primordial Player cleared his throat a few times, then spoke again.

"You must strike me down. Do so, and you shall obtain what you seek."

"Does it matter how I do it?"

At that, the Primordial Player sneered.

"It does not. Your level and mine are the same: one. But the gap between our stats is not a thing that can be ignored. My total exceeds one hundred. To speak plainly, you will never pass this trial."

"I'm sorry?"

The Primordial Player said it as if the matter were already settled. The difference in stats really couldn't be brushed aside. And if the gap in their totals was nearly a hundred? You couldn't even call it a fight between a child and a grown man.

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Defeat me, of course."

"Didn't you just say I can't?"

"That is a fact I cannot deny."

"..."

"Use every means at your disposal, and try."

Yujun let out an incredulous little laugh. So he was supposed to make the impossible possible. There was a limit to how unreasonable a demand could be. How was a level-1 character meant to beat the Primordial Player's character? And the man had said his total stats were over a hundred. His combat sense was bound to be better than Yujun's, too. An unwinnable fight... or so he nearly decided.

No. It wasn't as if there were no answer at all. A way to overturn that gap had just occurred to him. Items. The strongest weapon Yujun possessed. Against the Primordial Player, items were the only means he had.

"Come at me first. I shall yield you the opening move."

Hands clasped behind his back, the Primordial Player said it with the air of a man who had never once considered the possibility of losing. Yujun didn't rise to it. He simply nodded.

"All right."

The Primordial Player had handed him the first strike as if granting a favor, which meant time, and room to breathe. Before charging in, Yujun opened his inventory and drew out four familiar items. They were none other than the Super Novice Set. To think I'd be wearing this again. Aside from the Hell Difficulty Tutorial, he had been sure he would never have a use for it. And yet here was another chance to recycle the thing.

He equipped the entire Super Novice Set. Strength flooded a body that a moment ago had been limp and useless, and the Primordial Player's brow creased.

"Items? Such things are nothing but ornaments. True strength is the use of a player's own innate ability."

"That's a rather outdated way of thinking."

Hardly the sort of thing a man who had grown strong by borrowing the System's power had any right to say.

"What?"

While the Primordial Player was still boggling, Yujun kicked off the ground. There was no point in stalling. He trusted the Super Novice Set, and the one who faltered was the Primordial Player. A flicker of panic crossed his face before it hardened.

"One who leans upon items can never truly grow strong! I shall show you what real strength is."

He bit the words off, and Yujun's sword met his.

Shhk!

A single shearing note, and their reactions split cleanly in two.

"..."

Yujun's face stayed flat. The middle-aged man—the Primordial Player—was aghast. It hadn't even been a hard ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clash of steel ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on steel. The blades had merely touched, and his sword had been cut clean through. Faced with a result he could not believe, the Primordial Player's mouth refused to close.

"Wh-what is..."

Yujun didn't waste the opening. He swung with everything he had.

Whoosh!

But perhaps because his stats simply weren't enough, the Primordial Player slipped the blow without much trouble. Yujun stretched the sword out again and again after that, and not one attack landed.

"Hmph. You do seem to be using quite a fine weapon... but that will not be nearly enough. Allow me to show you the difference in our caliber."

The Primordial Player recovered his ease in a heartbeat and drew a new sword from his own inventory. It looked far better than the last. That's a level-1 Heroic sword. And he said items were ornaments... It was the strongest weapon the Primordial Player could bring to bear right now.

Yujun swallowed a laugh and met the man as he closed in.

Whoosh! Whuff! Clang! Krang!

There was a reason the grade was called Heroic. Yujun was driven back with no answer at all. The problem was that the sword the Primordial Player swung never once bit through Yujun's armor. A faint smile touched Yujun's face. There's a bit of impact. And that's all it is.

Having taken the measure of the Primordial Player's strength, he moved more boldly, ignoring the blows aimed at his vitals and committing entirely to the attack. The sword hammered his armor again and again. The armor did not so much as give. Yujun, who had abandoned defense altogether, began, little by little, to push the Primordial Player back.

"This is impossible!"

It had gone past disbelief into pure absurdity. Driven back for a long while, the Primordial Player finally let out an empty laugh.

"I see... So that confidence of yours was not unfounded."

Every time his sword actually connected, it was the edge that came away badly notched. Long fight or short, unless the Primordial Player equipped the very same items Yujun was wearing, this was a fight he could not win.

Yujun wasted no words. He kept moving, never letting up, and drove the Primordial Player all the way into a corner against the wall. The pure-white space had an end after all. Yujun's sword kissed the man's shoulder and slid past.

Spurt!

It had only been a graze, and still an outrageous amount of blood burst free.

"Kh—!"

Once Yujun had the momentum, the Primordial Player could not easily stop him. It was the set effect of the Super Novice items. The option that amplified the power of critical hits made every single one of Yujun's blows vicious.

"How hollow..."

"Weren't you going to hand over the Primordial Player's power anyway? Isn't this exactly how it should go? Why the funeral face?"

The Primordial Player snorted.

"Yes. I wished to bequeath my power to one who had talent. But your talent is ambiguous. To my eyes you are nothing but a whelp, swaggering because he trusts in items."

Whatever scrap of composure Yujun had left was ground away—no. The words were simply beyond absurd. Then what sort of person did the Primordial Player even want? Surely no one was going to clear the Hell Difficulty Tutorial on talent alone.

Yujun was quiet for a moment. Then he spoke.

"Items are skill, too."

"What?"

"I've watched no end of users—no, people—who talk just like you, insisting that control is what matters. Know what happened to them?"

"..."

"They quit. Put a whale's wallet on the table, and everyone's equal."

"What in the world are you saying? I cannot make sense of it. Those drunk on false power shall d—"

Whoosh!

Yujun extended the sword again, and of all things, a critical hit burst on the strike.

Shhk!

The Primordial Player came apart into particles and vanished. For all the grandeur of his entrance, the end was a shabby one.

"Hahh... hah."

Yujun, who had poured everything into it, let out a rough breath.

"Yeah. You really can't ignore a gap in stats."

If the Primordial Player had been wearing even slightly better gear, bringing him down would not have been easy. In a word, Yujun had been lucky. If I'd thrown the Super Novice Set away because it was wasting space, I'd have been finished.

In that instant, his body warped. He was inside the Ancient Ruins, strange images carved across the walls—the very place he had been standing before the tutorial began. And as always, the hologram windows appeared without warning.

The windows poured out all at once, fast enough to make his head spin. Yujun went through them one by one. An Impossible Achievement, again. Wait... it's giving me a mythic title? Well, he had seen a mythic title on the Primordial Player's status window, too. This is huge.

He hadn't expected to pick up a mythic-grade title this easily. Not that defeating the Primordial Player had been easy in any absolute sense. Without the Super Novice Set, he wouldn't even have dared to face the man. Primordial Player... Let's see what actually changed.

A title even No-Pay Casual Gamer had never held. Yujun opened his status window.

"..."

Yujun's mouth fell open. It was outrageous. They're handing out a privilege like this? He had already known the title's effect. What he had never expected was the stat reward that came with becoming the Primordial Player. If this were still a game, the users would have rioted over the broken balance.

Four unallocated points every time I level up... So by the time I hit level 500, that's another four hundred on top? The further into the late game you went, the more weight a single point of stats carried. A privilege like this was as good as wings on his back. And the title effect was nothing to scoff at, either. All stats increased by 25 percent. Excessive, even for a mythic-grade title—the simplest effect he had ever seen on any title, and the strongest.

Primordial Player. He simply could not get his mouth to close. And that was not the end of it. There was also the effect that ignored equipment restrictions. Fifty might not sound like much, but to Yujun it was anything but a small number. No—it was an effect every player alive would ache to have.

The eyes that had been smiling in quiet satisfaction narrowed. Wait... I got another Legendary Item Box? Clearing an Impossible Achievement had paid out a legendary box as a reward once again, and the corner of his mouth climbed higher. Then I can ignore level requirements up to 150? His level was 102, which meant he could equip an item meant for level 250.

From the Legendary Item Box (Choice), he selected the Rainbow Sticker without a second thought.

Better to use it on a weapon again this time. There was a saying that the best defense was a good offense, so he meant to spend it on a weapon without holding back.

Yujun dropped onto the floor where he stood and opened his inventory. First, let's find a weapon that fits. A legendary-grade weapon locked behind a level-250 requirement. That was what he had to find.