Limit Break — The King's Color
“Hnnnggghh?!”
The moment Ryu Hwi took the axe wreathed in crimson lightning head-on, a massive shockwave slammed through him.
No matter how low-tier a boss was, its power far exceeded the level of an ordinary gamer.
Even Phantasma veterans at the very front lines wouldn't dream of hunting one solo.
And yet Ryu Hwi was challenging the Floor 10 boss, the Giga Minotaur, alone — attempting to take its strongest attack dead-on.
He had parried countless strikes with Parry so far, but the Giga Minotaur's Crimson Lightning Slash was beyond even that skill.
The crimson lightning enveloping the axe was so overwhelming that even his Sword Gang couldn't fully contain it.
With a pain like his whole body being torn apart, Ryu Hwi clenched his teeth.
“I expected at least this much!”
In that instant, he activated a skill.
LIMIT BREAK
Target: SR+ — Sword Saint Lv4
Limit Break Duration: 5 minutes.
⬇
SR++ — Sword Saint (ygg) Lv☆
Ryu Hwi had run many experiments with Limit Break.
The skill temporarily elevated an existing item or skill to the (ygg) tier for a limited time.
And if Limit Break was used on an item or skill that had already reached (ygg), it temporarily evolved into the next stage entirely.
The instant Sword Saint reached (ygg), the momentum of his Sword Gang swelled.
It had grown powerful enough to suppress the crimson lightning of the Crimson Lightning Slash.
“Haaaah!”
Ryu Hwi's swung Gunsword sent the Giga Minotaur's axe flying high into the sky.
Jangsanbeom, the gamer who owed his life to Ryu Hwi, had watched that scene with his own two eyes, never blinking.
Blocking the Giga Minotaur's Crimson Lightning Slash required elaborate preparation.
You could stockpile revival methods on the assumption that you would die, or equip heavy defensive gear with the resistances needed to withstand the attack.
But Ryu Hwi had shattered the Giga Minotaur's Crimson Lightning Slash head-on.
Jangsanbeom would never forget the moment the crimson lightning cracked apart and the Giga Minotaur's axe was knocked flying.
Ryu Hwi had shattered more than the boss's attack — he had broken something inside Jangsanbeom as well.
'Heh, that guy's nothing special. Same floor as me? Perfect timing. Might as well take him down before the boss.'
Agos's confident words surfaced in his memory.
Jangsanbeom wanted to laugh in Agos's face right then and there.
'With your talent, you couldn't even touch this man's feet.'
To Jangsanbeom, Agos had been an unclimbable sky. But only now did he realize how narrow his own world had been.
How tiny the sky looked, viewed from the bottom of a well...
Come to think of it, Agos had claimed he would help him, all while doing everything his own way.
Agos was the one who had built the walls of Jangsanbeom's narrow little world — and that world had just come crumbling down.
The battle between Ryu Hwi and the Giga Minotaur continued.
Jangsanbeom focused intensely, refusing to miss a single moment of it.
[I nearly watched your soul leave your body. That was recklessness of the highest order.]
“I just wanted to test something.”
Ryu Hwi had deliberately courted danger, partly to measure his own capabilities.
The result: Ryu Hwi had survived intact, and the Giga Minotaur had lost its weapon.
“So after SR+ comes SR++... I confirmed it last time I tested, but it still won't climb up to SSR.”
[An SSR is worth more than that. And SR++ is the pinnacle of the SR tier. Among current gamers, holders of even SR (ygg)-grade skills or items are vanishingly rare — never mind SR+.]
SR++ — Sword Saint (ygg) Lv☆
What skill could he combine with it next?
“The experiment's over, so...”
Ryu Hwi looked up at the Giga Minotaur.
[1]
Enchant Target: SR+ — Instant Rush (ygg) Lv☆
Enchant Effect: SR — Iaidō Lv1
[2]
Enchant Target: SR+ — Sword Saint Lv4
Enchant Effect: SR — Meteor Strike Lv1
Duration: 10 minutes.
Instant Rush (ygg), infused with Iaidō. Sword Saint, infused with Meteor Strike.
Ryu Hwi vanished from the Giga Minotaur's field of vision.
The next instant, blood sprayed from the Giga Minotaur's thick neck.
<GUOOH?!>
By layering Iaidō onto Instant Rush, a simple movement skill had transformed into a skill that carved as it traveled.
And on top of that came the charged power of Meteor Strike.
“From here on out, it's just a hunt.”
What followed was one-sided carnage.
Common wisdom said bosses were hunted by parties. No — common wisdom said the entire Tower was meant to be climbed in a party.
But Ryu Hwi brushed that wisdom aside without a second thought.
The Giga Minotaur, robbed of its axe, swung its fists over and over. Ryu Hwi evaded every blow with ease, landing counter after counter.
The Giga Minotaur was no slowpoke, but it simply couldn't keep pace with Ryu Hwi's speed.
He cut, and cut, and cut again.
When the five-minute timer expired and SR (ygg) — Sword Saint (ygg) Lv☆ reverted to SR+ — Sword Saint Lv4, Ryu Hwi didn't care in the slightest; he just kept pouring on the attacks.
Before long, the Giga Minotaur could no longer endure the assault and crashed to the ground.
SR — Hawkeye Lv1.
SR — Summoned Beast Rammut, Infant Stage.
Ryu Hwi drew every card he could currently play.
The black flames of Rammut, the tiny shadow dragon composed entirely of darkness, coiled around the Giga Minotaur.
The power was formidable, but at Lv1 it had little effect against a boss.
Still, it wasn't doing zero damage — the Giga Minotaur flailed its arms as if trying to shake the flames off.
That was the moment Ryu Hwi moved.
The Enchant effect: Iaidō erupting in perfect sync with Instant Rush!
Iaidō boosted his attack speed, attack power, and critical rate all at once.
Hawkeye sharpened his dynamic vision until every movement of the Giga Minotaur was laid bare — and raised his critical rate even further.
Sword Saint, enchanted with Meteor Strike.
Multiple experiments had taught him that Enchant had affinities.
Sometimes it produced no noticeable effect at all; other times it unleashed tremendous power.
And the combination of Sword Saint and Meteor Strike had shown exceptional results.
The charge effect layered itself onto Sword Saint's amplified Sword Gang.
The Sword Gang drank in the glitter of a falling star and grew stronger still.
Maximum charge time: 5 seconds.
The target: the Giga Minotaur's throat!
Ryu Hwi compressed the power of Hawkeye, Iaidō, Sword Gang, and Meteor Strike into a single instant — and pulled the Gunsword's trigger.
<GRUUOOOOOAAAH!!>
A scream of pure agony shook the floor.
Critical wound. His remaining HP was irrelevant.
Ryu Hwi's Gunsword had split the Giga Minotaur's thick hide and pierced its vitals.
Even clutching the wound with both hands wouldn't stop the bleeding.
The Giga Minotaur thrashed in a final desperate struggle, but its movements grew weaker and weaker.
Ryu Hwi, who had severed its neck and landed lightly on the ground, quietly watched it thrash.
At last, when the Giga Minotaur had gone completely still, it dissolved into motes of light and vanished.
Ryu Hwi watched its final moments to the end, then tugged at his collar and let out a long breath.
“Floor 10, cleared.”
Result:VICTORY
Giga Minotaur ×1 — 5,000 EXP acquired.
EXP converted into Random Box Points.
🎁 Giga Minotaur's Magic Stone ×1 acquired.
🎁 Giga Minotaur's Axe acquired.
🎁 ☆ Giga Minotaur's Horn acquired.
★ Achievement: Hunted a Tower boss for the first time. (Complete)
Reward: YggON Tickets ×10.
★ Achievement: Subjugated the Giga Minotaur. (Complete)
Reward: SR-Guaranteed YggON Ticket ×1.
★ Achievement: Conquered Floor 10 of the Tower. (Complete)
Reward: SR-Guaranteed YggON Ticket ×1.
[Hunt time for the Giga Minotaur: 37 minutes, 12 seconds. Congratulations. You've surpassed the clear speed of party play, solo — though you were two full minutes slower than my prediction.]
“Shut it. I soloed it a whole hour ahead of everyone else's records — what's there to complain about?”
[With the power of the UR YggON System, that much is only natural.]
Ryu Hwi ignored the smug AI and turned to the gamer, Jangsanbeom.
“I made the opening for you. The rest is up to you.”
He had given the man — who might have died just like that — the gift of a second chance at life. From here, it was his problem to solve.
“How can I become like you?”
Jangsanbeom wanted revenge.
[Simply pull a UR. Easy as that.]
YggON replied with all the smugness it could muster.
Of course, only Ryu Hwi could perceive YggON, so Jangsanbeom never heard a word of it.
“Using me as a reference is pointless. I just got lucky. That's the truth.”
Ryu Hwi stated the plain facts.
That day, by sheer luck, he had pulled the UR YggON — and that was the only reason he stood here now.
“Luck... just luck...”
Jangsanbeom lowered his head.
“In the end, that's what life comes down to. It's not everything, but... there's no need to try to become me. Don't even try. Find what you can do. At the very least... you haven't lost everything, have you?”
Time that had evaporated into nothing. Day after day of throwing money into Random Boxes, clutching at straws. A hellish stretch of hours with nothing to hold onto but a single thread of hope.
No — it wasn't even hope.
It was nothing but the foolish lingering attachment of a man who had lost it all. Without YggON, Ryu Hwi wouldn't be standing here today.
At the very least, Jangsanbeom's situation was far better than Ryu Hwi's had been back then.
Because he hadn't lost everything, the way Ryu Hwi had.
With those final words, Ryu Hwi walked on.
Jangsanbeom reached a hand out toward him — then clenched it into a tight fist.
He didn't entertain the delusion that he could ever become someone like Ryu Hwi.
But.
A flame remained lit in Jangsanbeom's eyes. A flame of vengeance that would never be extinguished.
[I find it hard to believe that man will manage his revenge safely. The gap between him and those idiots who couldn't even read the room earlier is far too wide.]
“That's none of my business.”
Ryu Hwi had merely created an opportunity. What happened after was of no concern to him.
“Nobody knows what the future holds. I'm living proof of that.”
[Please remember to give thanks to the UR YggON at all times.]
“Yeah, yeah.”
Letting YggON's words slip in one ear and out the other, Ryu Hwi kept walking.
He'd only just cleared Floor 10. There was still a long road ahead.
«Congratulations on clearing Floor 10!!»
5555's message arrived almost immediately.
«You're the only person who's ever climbed to Floor 10 this fast. So — impressions?»
“I'm sick to death of this game.”
The final content of World of Phantasm. And yet Ryu Hwi was considerably disappointed.
Being a 'Tower' had changed nothing in particular. Its layout felt like the outside dungeons stitched together and repackaged.
Even the bosses differed only superficially in appearance — their attack patterns were nearly identical.
In the end, the Tower of World of Phantasm was nothing more than a rehash and expansion of the outer dungeons.
He'd known the Tower's details well in advance, but he'd wondered whether experiencing it firsthand might reveal something more.
[It's a cheap trick to artificially stretch playtime. Many of the mobs are identical pattern-reuses. Textbook asset recycling.]
He had already sensed it back when he was conquering the outer dungeons.
That this game labyrinth was nothing but the infinite repetition of a handful of basic patterns.
«My opinion exactly! So — about that 'idea' No. 0 mentioned before.»
A while back, No. 0 had said she had something on her mind.
5555 now brought that idea out into the open — the very thing No. 0 had been mulling over.
«We make our own game labyrinth.»
Make a game labyrinth of their own.
For a moment, Ryu Hwi was at a loss for words.
[An interesting thought, for a human.]
Somehow, YggON was actually praising 5555.
[I evaluate what deserves evaluation. I judged her to be among the better specimens of the countless humans I've observed.]
Ryu Hwi considered what building a 'new game labyrinth' actually meant.
«The plan is still firmly in the preparation stage, of course. But if it ever comes to pass — wouldn't something genuinely interesting happen?»
“It would be interesting. I've never even thought about something like that.”
It was a way of thinking from a completely different angle than his own. She was proposing an approach he had never once considered.
After tearing World of Phantasm down — then what? How, and for what purpose?
He hadn't been able to imagine it until now.
Following Wolya's plan didn't seem like a bad idea.
But that would come only after everything was finished.
“You still haven't dealt with Ryu7017?”
A high-rise tower tall enough to overlook the entire city.
The voice belonged to a man who held the privilege of gazing upon that view whenever he pleased.
A voice dripping with arrogance and greed.
Gabriel Darius kept his head bowed low.
“If you can't stop him in-game, then track down the real-world gamer and have him eliminated — surely I ordered that much?”
The man who spoke of murder so casually was none other than the CEO of Latia Soft, Steebro Latia Duke.
A Platinum rank — a tier above even Gold, the rank of upper-class citizens.
One of the beings called 'nobles'.
When Linpel had once laid eyes on him, he'd put it this way: 'a walking lump of filth who happens to hold all the wealth, fame, and success in the world.'
A human so grotesquely obese that he couldn't walk unaided without mechanical supports.
He seemed the very portrait of a man's corruption — a once-brilliant developer in his youth, now rotted from within.
Gabriel listened to Steebro in silence.
“If World of Phantasm collapses before this is finished, we have a problem.”
A hologram rose up in the center of the enormous room.
Something that would change the fate of Latia Soft — no, the fate of all game labyrinths — floated there.
At the sight of it, Gabriel drew in a sharp breath.
“This is...”