Fifteen Hidden Traits
‘Not even a year has passed since Wilhelm died.’
A year? Hardly.
Barely more than half a year had gone by.
Even if it had been a full year, he still would not have believed it—yet this man had caught up to, and surpassed, all of that in a little over six months?
Combat power exceeding three stars, achieved in so short a time?
Was that even possible without cheat keys?
Therefore this could not be Randolph.
The man standing before him could not possibly be Phantom.
“I find that hard to believe.”
“If you were truly Phantom… you would have sought out and claimed Wilhelm’s ‘star’ no matter what. Yet you never used that star’s power.”
“I still haven’t hit Level 10.”
“……?”
“My level is 8.”
“…………What?”
Master’s jaw dropped.
What kind of nonsense was this bastard spouting?
Level 8?
He had not even reached Level 10 yet, and therefore could not transcend and use the star’s power?
“Enough with the jokes—”
“‘The Star That Drinks the Nebula.’ A star that can only be found after reaching Level 10, and only through a special Stellar Engraver. I simply haven’t hit Level 10 yet, so I haven’t found it.”
“……!!!”
Master’s eyes flew wide open.
The Star That Drinks the Nebula. The man even knew its name.
The very star Master had coveted, only to have it stolen by Wilhelm.
A name known to only two people in this entire world—and the man before him knew it.
……Then was he truly Phantom?
Wilhelm’s predecessor, the one who had raised countless characters, who had crafted more builds and possessed more information than even Master himself—the sole gamer of this world—was this man?
Master’s ability Dominator has activated.
Master requests Information Disclosure from the target.
Fine. If you’re so confident, go ahead and show me.
Master was not called Master for nothing.
He possessed the ability to view another’s status window.
The target had to consent, of course—but if everything the man had said was true, he might actually allow it.
He’ll refuse, of course.
Everything he just said had to be a lie.
Believing such absurd nonsense was difficult enough on its own.
The bastard probably had no idea Master even possessed this ability.
Go on, refuse. I’ll laugh myself sick.
The target has temporarily permitted Information Disclosure to Master.
……He agreed?
Information Disclosure.
Normally everything remained private, yet Master could request that another Player open their information to him.
Of course, almost no one ever did.
Players hid even the fact that they were Players from one another.
Moreover, what was revealed was the status window itself—the most objective window through which every weakness could be laid bare.
Showing it was reserved for the most extreme cases: when Master accepted someone into his guild, or when he forced someone into submission.
And now the man before him had consented to that Information Disclosure.
At the same moment—
Name:Randolph
Class:Star’s Successor
Class:Supreme Sword Saint
Natural Regeneration: 315%
Total Penetration: 12.8%
Curse Penetration: 15%
Curse Reflection: 30%
Curse Duration Increase: 30%
1: Possesses ‘Star’s Successor – 3 Stars (All Stats +15)’
2: Body fused with the ‘Transcendent Baal Set’; related stats have been added. New equipment may once again be equipped on the corresponding slots.
3: Pure stats corrected by the effect of ‘Eternal Randolph’.
4: Possesses ‘Baal’s Core (Fragment of Ruin)’ within the heart.
5: Stats increased by the skill ‘King of the Dead’ — Strength (+2), Agility (+1), Holy Power (+3).
6: User of Supreme Unique-grade ‘Winter’ (All Stats +10)
“What…… is this……”
His voice trembled of its own accord.
Master doubted his own eyes.
He could not even be certain that the status window he was looking at truly existed.
The name Randolph itself,
two Classes,
Level 8,
stats that far exceeded the limits of that level,
already possessing three stars, and even those Baal-related lines…
Baal’s Core?
Everything was bizarre, yet the most bizarre of all was Baal’s Core.
A core could only be obtained by killing the monster.
Why did Randolph have it?
And inside his heart, no less?
Don’t tell me……
No.
It couldn’t be.
The Baal that had appeared on the Mountain of the Cultivator.
That Baal had ultimately completed itself in the Abyss and invaded Jeju Island.
Afterward it was said to have been devoured by an unknown existence called the “Black Egg.”
The Guardian of the Black Egg.
……Moreover, the majority of the surviving Jeju Islanders each carried a drawing or photograph of the being called the “Guardian of the Black Egg.”
That guardian had resembled a Death God.
And the only ones who commanded Death Gods were the Death God Religion of the Empire.
Ah……
Only then did every piece of the puzzle fall into place.
The bastard—Randolph—was clearly an executive of the Death God Religion.
Executives of the Death God Religion could command Death Gods.
Which meant the “existence of the Black Egg” that had slain Baal was none other than Randolph. The lines visible on that status window proved it.
Just what the hell have you been doing in that short time?
Yet there was still so much he could not understand.
Strength that defied common sense.
In particular—pure stats exceeding 100 at Level 8? Was that even possible?
A character’s single stat was capped at a maximum of 10 per level.
Special cases could raise it further, but never by a difference of twenty.
The dual Classes were the same.
Just what kind of acts would one have to commit to end up in a state like that?
A moment later, Master learned the reason.
Randolph’s Hidden Traits are temporarily revealed to Master alone.
Hidden Traits.
If any variable could create something like this, it could only be Hidden Traits.
Master knew of a total of seven Hidden Traits.
He expected he might obtain one more while climbing the Tower.
But even possessing a single Hidden Trait is difficult.
He knew of eight in existence, yet Master himself possessed a mere two.
If the opponent were Phantom, however, he might possess around five.
Yet the moment the window rose before his eyes—
“Wh-what is this……?!”
Master could only let out a cry of unprecedented shock.
And for good reason.
……Because the number was simply absurd.
Because it showed that the Hidden Traits applied to Randolph numbered a full fifteen.
More than double the number Master had ever known of.
Faced with a status window so divorced from reality, Master was left speechless.
Yet it could not be a lie.
His own ability—
a status window revealed through Information Disclosure, with the target’s consent—could contain no falsehood.
A monster……
If every incomprehensible thing stemmed from those Hidden Traits,
then Randolph was a monster beyond all common sense.
An existence no one could measure.
An irregular who had stepped outside the laws themselves.
“You seem to believe me a little now.”
“……”
Master’s will to fight collapsed.
He no longer felt there was any chance of victory.
The stats themselves were lower than expected, yet he realized this was not a beast that could be handled by stats alone.
If he had slain Baal, it meant he was a powerhouse beyond even that.
……Phantom.
Only Phantom could make such a miracle possible.
And the fact that Phantom had allowed him to see the status window meant—
“……Spare me.”
—that he intended to kill him.
Phantom never opened his information to others.
He never left a single trace of himself behind.
There was no way he would leave alive someone who had seen his status window.
The end of those who saw what they should not was always the same.
Phantom would never, under any circumstances, let him live.
“I thought it over countless times. Yet I still cannot understand. You, too, must have used the ‘builds’ I designed and posted. Why did you betray me?”
“Betray……? What are you talking about?”
“Why did you make the Great Expedition fail? You knew as well as I did that killing the Demon King would bring peace to the world. The other Players knew it too.”
In a situation where they should have been desperately helping, they had hoped for the Great Expedition’s failure.
Master and countless other Players.
He asked as though he truly could not understand.
Master swallowed hard.
“Because we…… are addicts.”
“Addicts?”
“Because once the game is cleared, we become nothing—game addicts……”
By becoming Players of Pangenia they had seized power.
Traveling between reality and Pangenia, they had begun to live lives completely different from before.
What would happen if the Demon King were slain and the game cleared?
Would they no longer be able to return to Pangenia?
They had been terrified of returning to their former daily lives.
The thought of going back to the life of pigs was too frightening.
And so they had not joined the Great Expedition.
“For a reason that petty, you handed information to the Demon King?”
“……Handed information to the Demon King? I-I never did anything like—”
He had merely refrained from participating.
Hand information to the Demon King?
What information was he even talking about?
Tsk. The man clicked his tongue softly.
“So it wasn’t you after all. I sensed it from the beginning—you lack the caliber for something like that.”
“……”
“I will ask one last time. Who is the one who orchestrated this entire board from behind you?”
Ssssss.
A chill at the tip of his throat.
At that chill, Master’s body shuddered violently.
Randolph was certain that Master himself was not the mastermind behind everything.
Would he die in silence like this, or would he gamble on a thread of hope?
Master slowly opened his mouth.
“Th-that is……”
MintChocoIsDelicious
“Th-that is…… Phantom……”
Phantom?
Hearing Master’s words, I reflexively frowned.
What was this all of a sudden?
I already knew they called me “Phantom.”
I had been famous under that name even in my gamer days.
But the Phantom Master spoke of had to mean someone other than me.
“You’re saying there is someone impersonating me?”
“I-I don’t know. He was a Player, yet not a Player. Beyond that, nothing……”
“A lie. You’re not the type to move on the word of some unknown figure alone.”
Crack!
Winter lightly sliced Master’s throat.
At the same time the skin around his neck began to freeze.
Little by little, Winter was devouring Master.
Master was a cautious bastard in his own way.
He never moved without a certain degree of conviction.
Whether that conviction was right or wrong could be set aside for later—he was absolutely not the sort to play figurehead on the word of some unidentified person alone.
I slowly looked into the bastard’s eyes and spoke.
“Speak. Who is it.”