I Can Do This All Day (3)
Julian of the seventh round.
Moon Junil carefully recalls that time.
It was the most recent of his lives as a hero, yet strangely, the memories remained the blurriest.
How is the most recent one the haziest…
There was a reason for it.
This was the period when Julian’s efficiency had reached its peak. If the first round was a dreamy startup, the seventh was like a stagnant megacorporation’s optimized workflow system.
He delegated anything unnecessary and focused solely on the tasks that mattered. Things that held no value rarely left any imprint on his memory.
He had handpicked only the most obedient elites for his party and assigned them perfectly optimized roles.
“Um… Julian? C-could I try fighting on the front line this time? I’ve been training a new—”
For example, the martial artist who excelled at holding a defensive line. His absolute priority was guarding Julian’s rear.
“No. Stay in the back and prepare for an ambush.”
“Ugh.”
Next was the mage.
“Hey. Mage. Focus fire on the clustered trash.”
Julian’s techniques at the time were specialized for single combat, so he left the area-of-effect spells to the mage.
“J-Julian… You still don’t know my name, do you?”
“Name? You’re Mage. Kim Mage.”
“That’s just a nickname you made up!”
Julian casually called him Kim Beop-sa—Kim Mage.
“Kim Mage is actually a good one.”
“……?”
The surname Kim was the highest honor he gave—the one he trusted most. Anything after that got pushed down to less common names like Lee, Park, or Choi.
The martial artist he had just instructed was called Park Fighter. The man himself never figured out why it was Park.
“All right. Moving in.”
Julian’s party stormed the castle where the Demon King’s army commander was stationed. At this point in his seventh life, Julian wouldn’t even draw his sword recklessly. He conserved every ounce of energy for the strongest opponent.
“What are you waiting for? Shoot, Kim Mage.”
“On it!”
KWAANG!
The door exploded open in a spectacular entrance, but a massive figure blocked their path.
“GRAAAAAHH! You shall not pass! I am the gatekeeper of this place!”
It was Grozya. Back then, he served as the Demon King’s army commander’s gatekeeper.
“Gatekeeper? The gate’s already smashed.”
“Well, that’s because you broke it before my shift even started.”
“What the hell, man? You’re supposed to clock in thirty minutes early, warm up, train the underlings, and stand ready! These demons are all slacking!”
“……?”
Julian suddenly roared. Grozya scratched his head.
“How am I supposed to show up thirty minutes early? Then why even set a shift time?”
“Never mind. The door’s broken, so just clock out.”
Julian rested his hand on his sword hilt as he made the offer.
“Oh?”
Grozya grinned.
“Just like the rumors. The merciful hero, Julian.”
It wasn’t mercy. It was simply refusing to waste energy on pointless fights. In Julian’s personal terminology, he was the “Skip Hero.”
“So? If you’re leaving, leave now. No need for dramatic introductions.”
Grozya smirked.
“I, the immortal demon warrior Grozya, accept your propos—”
“I said don’t say your name.”
The sword was drawn in an instant. Julian’s form scattered like smoke. In the brief moment it took to blink—
SHIIING!
Grozya’s body was sliced clean in half.
Even as his upper torso slid down, Grozya kept talking.
“H-how?! I specialized in durability! I don’t get cut that easily!”
He sure talked a lot for someone who was dying.
“Looks simple, but it’s a combination of seven different techniques.”
“S-seven…”
There wasn’t time for him to hear the rest.
THUD!
The severed half of Grozya hit the ground and his eyes closed.
Shing—
Junil sheathed his sword again and muttered, “Shouldn’t have said your name.”
Saying your name made you important to the story. Once that happened, you couldn’t just skip the fight. The Julian of the seventh round knew this all too well.
“W… wow…”
“He took down the gatekeeper in one slash…!”
“The greatest hero of all time!”
His comrades praised him enthusiastically as if they hadn’t seen it a hundred times before. Of course they did—he had specifically chosen members with great reactions. They were useful for holding the Constellations’ attention.
He had learned this trick around the fifth round. No matter how spectacular your performance, if the people around you gave weak reactions, it all looked mediocre. Like a sitcom with the laugh track removed. A clown needs an audience.
“Kill them all!”
“Yes sir!”
His comrades performed their roles flawlessly from their assigned positions, clearing out the small fry.
KWAGWAGWANG!
They advanced with unstoppable momentum toward the deepest part of the castle—until an unnamed middle-aged man appeared. Judging by the density of his magi and his position, he was the one in charge. The Demon King’s army commander.
Vrrrrng…!
Julian focused mana into his eyes and analyzed the flow of magi. The man was primarily a necromancer type. What was interesting was that he had reinforced his own body as well.
What a pain in the ass.
Among enemies, fusion types like this were the most troublesome. They also tended to have decent brains, which made them even more annoying.
“You’ve worked hard to get here. I am the Demon King’s army comman—”
The middle-aged man smiled leisurely, clearly trying to project the image of a deadly villain. Julian had no intention of playing along.
“Bury him!”
The preset command rang out, and Kim Mage executed it without question.
“Yes sir!”
THUD—
The moment the spell activated, the earth shook violently. The ground swirled like a vortex and swallowed everything above it. An antlion pit.
The commander naturally shot upward to escape—
“Grab him!”
“Woof!”
—only for Park Fighter to arrive right on cue and slam down with all his strength.
“!?”
THUD!
But even in midair, the commander twisted with an uncanny movement and dodged. He countered by stomping down on the martial artist with his foot. Park Fighter was about to be driven straight into the antlion pit when the healer deployed a barrier to save him. The commander shattered it with a massive black hand.
“N-no way!”
“Julian! This guy’s no pushover!”
That was how he remembered the desperate struggle. And the result?
“Hah.”
Junil dusted off his hands and muttered, “What a tenacious bastard.”
In the end, they had buried the woman deep underground. Park Fighter patted the dirt flat with a shovel and wiped his sweat.
“Done.”
If they had tried to truly annihilate him, it would have taken several times more effort. Burying him roughly and rushing to kill the Demon King was the optimal path.
And so, Julian’s seventh-round party quickly headed toward the Demon King’s castle.
Park Fighter asked, “By the way, what was that guy’s name?”
“No idea.”
* * *
[Strange Old Man Lv. ???]
Even now, it only displayed as Strange Old Man.
That guy… Back then I thought annihilating him would be too difficult, so I used the sealing tome…
Not killing him back then had come back to bite him like this. Who could have imagined the bastard would chase him across dimensions just to harass him?
What should I do?
Junil bit his lip, trying to come up with a strategy. The old man, however, was examining his enemies with leisurely confidence.
“Let’s see… Well, I can always revive Grozya later… but how did you lot manage to suppress him?”
Neither Junil nor anyone else could move recklessly. They were overwhelmed by the old man’s presence.
Yu Jihun asked, clearly frustrated, “What the hell is going on? Why is there a separate boss? The message clearly said World Boss summoned earlier!”
The World Boss summoning message had appeared, and Grozya had emerged. But Grozya apparently wasn’t the actual World Boss. Did that mean the System had deceived the Awakened?
Now that I think about it… what is this?
Junil also reflected for a moment. The World Boss message had appeared when Grozya showed up, so why was the old man the boss?
“Ah, that’s not it.”
“What do you mean?”
Come to think of it, Grozya hadn’t actually been summoned at that moment.
“His hand had already emerged before the summoning was even complete.”
“……!”
That was right. Grozya had come out ahead of schedule. That was why Kim Ri-el had nearly died.
“That doesn’t make sense. The sacrifice hadn’t been offered yet—how could his hand appear?”
When you thought about it, it was contradictory. You offer a sacrifice to perform a summoning, yet the summon appears first and takes the sacrifice. It was a paradox.
Plot twist.
Junil recalled the message he had seen while his consciousness was dragged into that other space.
So that’s what it meant.
He explained the situation.
“The one summoned as the sacrifice was that old man. Grozya’s only role was to pull the sacrifice in faster.”
“…….”
The one who had appeared with the World Boss message was the old man. Grozya had simply been clearing the path for him. In other words, he had intentionally shown up a beat late.
Just like in the seventh round, no matter how strong the old man was, he preferred not to fight first. That was natural—he was primarily a necromancer, after all.
“Damn it… What now? Should we ambush and restrain him? Can we tame him with the whip like before?”
“……No.”
Junil shook his head.
“He’s not on that level.”
The whip could only be used on targets whose level was lower than Belzerak’s. But this old man’s level wasn’t even visible. He might be above Belzerak. Moreover, the old man wasn’t even paying attention to them.
Just as humans don’t particularly care how ants live their lives, the old man treated humans like insignificant insects. He seemed far more interested in the distribution of mana in this place.
“The energy here is… I see… so it’s like this?”
Vrrrrng…!
A magic circle he drew experimentally glowed. A single violet bullet shot out from within it.
Whoosh!
It flew toward the building across the street. Everyone assumed it would only have the power of a small bullet.
But—
“!”
It pierced straight through the building, drilling a clean hole through everything in its path. And it didn’t stop there. The bullet zigzagged wildly, slicing an entire building into pizza-like slices.
The building collapsed pathetically, spewing clouds of dust.
It was an astonishing level of magi control.
“Adaptation seems to be going well. Heh heh.”
The old man flicked his finger again. The violet bullet suddenly changed direction, heading back toward the rooftop.
This…?
Junil’s eyes widened. It was an ambush. When he glanced at the old man, the bastard was smiling faintly.
He wasn’t uninterested after all?
The bullet shot toward them. Getting hit by that right now would be dangerous.
Srrrng—
Junil drew his sword in an instant, preparing to deflect it—
“Not us.”
Isilen muttered from the side. Only then did Junil realize.
Kang Hae-il!
WHOOOSH—!
The bullet that grazed past Junil flew straight toward Kang Hae-il, who was clutching his injured arm in the back.
* * *
Kang Hae-il was having trouble understanding the situation.
What the hell is going on…
Some old man had appeared and everything had come to a standstill. For some reason, no one could step forward. Not even Sagosul.
Should I kill him? But…
He looked down at his arm. For some reason, it wasn’t recovering.
At that moment—
“!?”
His transcendent senses barely caught it.
It’s coming.
Something was approaching. A very small something. A violet bullet.
Kang Hae-il instinctively raised both arms to block—
Ah?
He remembered again. The fact that he wasn’t recovering. If he blocked it, his arms might get blown off. But there was no time to dodge.
Is this the end?
It might as well have been. That was how it should have ended.
But a black figure stepped in.
Huh?
KWAAAAAANG!
The black figure collided with the violet bullet.
“!?”
Not only Kang Hae-il, but all his teammates stumbled backward in shock. Within the rising hot steam, the being who had protected them was revealed.
It was Sagosul.
* * *
Junil gasped for breath.
“Haa… haa…”
His hands were shaking. His wrist was swollen and throbbing. More than anything, his insides felt twisted, causing intense nausea. Something hot was bubbling up his throat.
Protecting Kang Hae-il is seriously… a massive pain in the ass.
Did he really have to go this far? But since things had come to this, he needed to gather Constellations. Only then would he have a chance.
Have to do what I have to do.
Junil spat out the sour fluid that had risen in his throat and muttered, “I am… Sagosul!”
DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL HERO THEME
“Ho…”
The old man looked at Junil with interest.
“You deflected that? But how long can you last…?”
In truth, the impact had been so strong that even Junil was shocked. Still, he couldn’t afford to lose momentum.
Swallowing back the nausea rising in his throat, Junil declared, “Haa… I can do this all day.”
Of course, no amount of bravado could overcome actual bodily functions.
Ah, I can’t hold it anymore.
Junil suddenly bent forward and vomited.
“Uweeeehhhk!”
It was a little embarrassing, but the number of Constellations was steadily rising.
Current Viewers: 3,108
There was also another piece of good news.
Experience: 87.8% → 89.5%
His experience points had suddenly risen.
Huh?
He might really have to do this all day.