Chapter 44
Chapter 44
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Character Switch
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# 44
He caught the moment of disappearance itself. But he couldn't see the process of movement. It was a skill closer to magic than a martial art.
Park Gwang-sik's right hand, held straight like a blade, struck the back of Kang-seok's neck. It wasn't a blow strong enough to make him lose consciousness, but it was sufficient to shatter his stance.
As Kang-seok staggered and bent forward, Park Gwang-sik drew back both hands as if tracking him. He unleashed another skill at Kang-seok's exposed back.
[Storming Stab!]
Originally, it was a brutal skill that repeatedly stabbed the opponent with blades attached to the wrists, but the current Park Gwang-sik had no blades. This time, instead of a hand-blade, he pummeled Kang-seok's back with his palms.
“Kang-seok!”
“Stay down!”
Park Gwang-sik's roar swallowed the voices of Choi Yu-ra and Seong Yu-jin. He swung his right hand toward Kang-seok's side.
The physical strength of a Player, who could well be called a superhuman.
But it didn't connect. Though he let out a pained groan, Kang-seok just barely managed to twist his body and throw himself forward. He quickly rolled once on the ground, increasing the distance between himself and Park Gwang-sik.
Having swung at empty air, Park Gwang-sik glanced from Kang-seok to Choi Yu-ra and Seong Yu-jin, then hissed as he took a large step back.
He was wary of charging in rashly only to be counterattacked by Choi Yu-ra and Seong Yu-jin.
“Tch, you’re pretty tough, aren't you?”
Park Gwang-sik's face held a mixture of frustration and playfulness. Kang-seok gritted his teeth and pushed himself to his feet.
‘He's changed.’
Not just his appearance, but even the skills he used had changed. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he had switched his ‘character.’
Meeting Kang-seok's eyes, Park Gwang-sik chuckled.
“You look surprised. Yes, this is my true ability.”
“Character switch?”
Seong Yu-jin asked. Park Gwang-sik nodded again. With a triumphant look, he began to spill details he hadn't even been asked for.
“When I first realized I’d come to this world as an AOS character, I was pretty discouraged. The max level was 20, and I only had four skills. The guys in the tutorial with me were all from MMORPGs, which made the comparison even starker.”
While it was true for both AOS and MMORPGs that characters grew stronger as they leveled up, the ‘max level’ was vastly different between MMORPGs, which were designed for long-term play, and AOS games, where a match lasted an hour at most.
One could grow strong up to level 100, while the other could only reach level 20 at best. Even if the stat gains per level were different, it was impossible not to feel deprived.
Moreover, the number of skills in AOS games was so small it was laughable to even compare.
“But I was wrong. I realized it when I passed the tutorial and reached the Silver rank. The fact that with each promotion, I get one more character to use!”
Switching.
The ability to use a different character.
When he switched characters, the skills he could use naturally changed. Depending on how he applied it, he could unleash unimaginable combat power through skill combos.
Of course, it wasn't an all-powerful ability. Switching had clear weaknesses and limitations. But Park Gwang-sik wasn't foolish enough to reveal such crucial information in the middle of a fight.
With a sharp clap of his hands, Park Gwang-sik assumed a fighting stance. He shouted provocatively at Kang-seok's party.
“Now, I’ll give you a taste of a split-second battle you could never experience in your slow-paced MMORPGs. You lot have no idea how long 1.5 seconds is!”
His actions were comical, but there was no doubt he was a formidable opponent. His skills, though few, were not to be underestimated. The skill he used to get behind Kang-seok was practically a teleportation spell.
Both Seong Yu-jin and Choi Yu-ra wore troubled expressions. Instead of looking back at them, Kang-seok met Park Gwang-sik's gaze. He straightened his back and said.
“I'll do it alone.”
“Kang-seok?”
Seong Yu-jin asked reflexively. Kang-seok didn't look back this time either.
“I can do it alone.”
This wasn't pointless pride. Against an aggressive opponent like Park Gwang-sik, a solid one-on-one fight was more efficient than a clumsy team effort.
Taking a few steps diagonally to the side, Kang-seok took a deep breath. After sheathing Durandal on his back again, he raised a hand toward Park Gwang-sik.
“Come on. I'll show you a true one-on-one battle, a world where a single second can mean the difference between triumph and tears.”
A fighting game Player.
Park Gwang-sik laughed heartily. As if accepting Kang-seok's challenge, he kicked off the ground violently. He charged toward Kang-seok.
What's important in a fighting game.
It's reading the opponent's moves.
Kang-seok had only played a few matches of the AOS game Park Gwang-sik had played. He didn't know exactly what skills the character Park Gwang-sik had now chosen used.
But Park Gwang-sik had already shown him two skills. A full two out of four.
Added to that was Park Gwang-sik's personality.
Park Gwang-sik, who had been running in a straight line toward Kang-seok, vanished with an afterimage. Kang-seok naturally spun around.
Smack!
Their arms locked. Park Gwang-sik's hand-blade, which had been aiming for the back of Kang-seok's neck, was blocked by Kang-seok's left arm as he swiftly turned. Kang-seok didn't stop there, delivering a right hook to Park Gwang-sik's chest.
“Huh?”
Park Gwang-sik staggered back significantly. His face was a mask of pain and bewilderment.
Kang-seok ran after him. He leaped high into the air diagonally.
A situation that had already played out once. Kang-seok, who had used High-Speed Drop to get behind Park Gwang-sik!
Park Gwang-sik quickly turned and shouted.
“You fool! You think I'd fall for the same trick tw—.”
Wham!
A dull thud cut off Park Gwang-sik's words. Instead of using High-Speed Drop, Kang-seok put his weight into a blow that struck Park Gwang-sik's wide-open back.
A basic dilemma forcing a choice upon the opponent.
Park Gwang-sik stumbled. For a moment, his knees buckled.
But Kang-seok didn't let him fall. He kicked up with his left leg, pushing the collapsing Park Gwang-sik back up. He threw punches with his right and left hands alternately.
“Ugh! Switching!”
Park Gwang-sik, who was getting beaten to a pulp, roared. With a flash of pure white light, he returned to the form he had when he first appeared.
Kang-seok watched the transformation. The moment it finished, he aimed a punch at Park Gwang-sik's head.
“High! High! High!”
It was a brutally honest high attack. Park Gwang-sik, who took the first hit, gritted his teeth and activated Feralization. He raised his arms in a guard to protect his head.
But even so, Kang-seok didn't stop hitting his head. Despite his attacks being blocked by the invisible barrier of Feralization and thick muscles, he unleashed a three-hit combo.
Park Gwang-sik's guard tightened. The height of his arms protecting his head naturally rose.
And just before the fourth punch was thrown.
“High!”
Kang-seok's body, after the loud shout, momentarily froze. From the punching stance, he instantly shifted into a side-kick stance.
A fleeting moment.
Park Gwang-sik's eyes widened.
Kang-seok's eyes sharpened.
A normal attack cancel, followed by a command skill!
↓↙←←←+K
Lightning Kick!
A lightning-infused side kick exploded into Park Gwang-sik's midsection—his abdomen. A terrifying impact sound erupted from Park Gwang-sik's stomach, which had been left open as he raised his guard to protect his head.
BOOM!
It was a Lightning Kick that could send even ogres weighing hundreds of kilograms flying. As if it were a lie, Park Gwang-sik flew several meters and crashed through the cabin wall, getting embedded inside.
The basics of mind games: baiting a high guard, then attacking mid or low.
Kang-seok, who had held his kicking leg extended for a moment, soon took a deep breath and corrected his posture. He smiled and turned to look at Seong Yu-jin and Choi Yu-ra.
Choi Yu-ra smiled back at him, but Seong Yu-jin, for some reason, wrinkled her brow.
“Ch-cheap.”
To say you're going high and then hit mid.
“Well, it was a fake-out.”
Kang-seok shrugged and grinned once more. This time, Seong Yu-jin couldn't help but smile as if she had no choice.
Choi Yu-ra approached Kang-seok and draped an arm over his shoulder. She gestured with her chin toward the hole in the cabin that Park Gwang-sik had crashed through.
“Anyway, that guy, he’s out this time, right?”
“Probably?”
It was a blow he took while completely defenseless. With all the accumulated damage, he should be unconscious unless his body was made of steel.
While the two were talking, Seong Yu-jin raised her shield and peered inside the cabin. She was checking if Park Gwang-sik was unconscious, but she was also worried he might have died.
Choi Yu-ra asked.
“How is he?”
“It's fine. Looks like he's just knocked out.”
Although his condition was a bit too poor to be described as *just* knocked out.
Relieved by Seong Yu-jin's report, Kang-seok spoke to everyone.
“Alright, let's go find the Green God's Tear again… Mr. Hunt?”
Kang-seok stopped mid-sentence and looked around. Come to think of it, Hunt was nowhere to be seen. Even if he had fled from the fight with Park Gwang-sik, where could he have gone on the deck, which was practically an open field?
Seong Yu-jin and Choi Yu-ra also looked around in confusion. And then, another surprise came to the party.
The medium-sized airship began to slowly turn with a magnificent sound. It turned its bow in the complete opposite direction of its previous course.
A voice followed.
-This airship is mine now. I can do whatever I want with it.
“Hunt?”
Choi Yu-ra's eyes widened as she looked at the speaking tube from which Colonel's voice had come. Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin couldn't hide their bewilderment either. Hunt's strangely calm voice continued.
-I am currently occupying the main control room. Please come down quickly and repel the Colonel Family, who are currently clamoring outside the main control room door.
Great Thief Online.
A crime simulation game where you become a lawbreaker, steal cars, and rob banks—a game good kids should never play!
[Party member Hunt (Male) has hijacked a medium-sized airship.]
[Fortunately, there are no police nearby, but the airship's owner is glaring at the party member with terrifying eyes from outside the door.]
[Please hurry, just a little.]
The party members looked at each other. Almost simultaneously, they burst into cheerful laughter.
* * *
[Quest: Reclaim the Green God's Tear. Cleared]
[Quest Reward: 3,000 Kron for each party member]
[*Please receive additional rewards from Roxley of the Keyman Guild.]
“Hey, you're Iris, right? I won't get mad, so just tell me. Huh?”
On the hotel rooftop.
Choi Yu-ra, who had jumped off the safely landed medium-sized airship, spoke into the empty air, but once again, there was no reply.
Standing beside her, Seong Yu-jin carefully took out the jewel box she had been keeping in her arms. It was the box containing the Green God's Tear, reclaimed from the Colonel Family.
“You're looking at it again?”
“We won't be able to see it again once we give it to Mr. Roxley.”
With a gentle smile, Seong Yu-jin carefully opened the jewel box. A soft green light, resembling moonlight, emanated from within.
“It's beautiful.”
The shape itself was nothing special. Just a round, green stone.
But just looking at it warmed the heart.
The gentle light it emitted seemed to soothe the viewer's soul.
Swallowing dryly, Seong Yu-jin gathered a little more courage and reached inside the box. She appraised the Green God's Tear.
“Green God's Tear. A jewel formed from the crystallized tear of the Green God, the goddess of the moon and night. A thousand years ago, whenever one of the first-generation Elders—the legendary race that unified the world—passed away, the Green God, who was the mother of the Elders, could not hide her sorrow. As if to prove this legend, most of the Green God's Tears are said to have been created a thousand years ago.”
As Seong Yu-jin read the description aloud, Choi Yu-ra pouted slightly.
“Forget that stuff, what are its stats?”
“It doesn't really have any abilities that help in combat. But just looking at it makes my heart feel warm. If it's really a god's tear, isn't that amazing? The Green God must have really loved the race called the Elders.”
This was a fantasy world, and with oracles existing, it was possible that gods were real too.
Instead of immediately agreeing with Seong Yu-jin, Choi Yu-ra examined the Green God's Tear more closely.
Watching the two of them, Kang-seok smiled faintly and turned around. He faced Hunt, who had disembarked from the medium-sized airship.
“Should we just head back now?”
They had reclaimed the Green God's Tear, but both Colonel and the Richmond Guild, who had commissioned this job, were still active.
Hunt patted Kang-seok's shoulder as if to say not to worry.
“The eldest daughter of the Richmond Guild cleanly admitted that this was their loss. The fight from here on out belongs to Mr. Roxley and the Keyman Guild, not us.”
The person Park Gwang-sik had said he had to protect.
The eldest daughter of the Richmond Guild and one of its executives, Masha Richmond, had handed over the Green God's Tear to the party.
The job for the ‘Players’ ended here. There was no room for Kang-seok's party to intervene in the subsequent power struggle between the Keyman Guild and the Richmond Guild.
Kang-seok looked up at the deck of the medium-sized airship again. Masha Richmond, a maiden with beautiful red hair, was looking down at the unconscious Park Gwang-sik.
The AOS Player, Park Gwang-sik.
Hunt, who had come from a sandbox simulation game.
Baek Gi-hyeong, who was clearly a racing game player.
The FPS Player, Choi Yu-ra.
It wasn't just fighting games and MMORPGs.
He couldn't even begin to guess what other kinds of games Players had been summoned from.
For what reason had the one who caused the Great Summoning brought so many Players here?
‘A World Quest.’
Clear the seven World Quests, and you can return to your original world.
The only demand the orchestrator of the Great Summoning had directly shown to the Players.
‘I don't know who it is, but they want us to fight, to grow stronger.’
The remaining survival time wasn't meant to cruelly kill off the Players. It was meant to provide a constant ‘motive’ to fight.
Players with diverse backgrounds.
The executor of the Great Summoning, urging such Players to become stronger.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Kang-seok turned around again.
He took light steps toward Seong Yu-jin and Choi Yu-ra, who were now waving at him.