The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 140

"Ha, hahaha…"

Kim Jaehyun looked at the picture on the monitor and let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

He himself didn't know whether that hollow laugh contained admiration or a sigh.

On the monitor, a detailed view of the Forbidden City, which had not been released to the media, was being shown.

The Forbidden City, which used to fill a wide and vast area and show off its magnificent appearance, was now all collapsed in the picture, turned into a pile of dust and reduced to trash.

The remaining pillars were also full of holes like bones with osteoporosis, showing no dignity at all and only indicating that a castle had once been in this place.

It was a scene sufficient to cause shock.

But what Kim Jaehyun was focusing on was not such a trivial thing.

The main gate, where Mao Zedong's face and a nameplate with Chinese characters would have originally been.

That place was completely destroyed to the point where its shape could not be guessed, but something else had taken its place.

A flag with a huge black dragon drawn on it, fluttering in the wind.

Below the black dragon, the words 'Black Dragon Shakes the Heavens' were elegantly embroidered in golden light.

Kim Jaehyun looked at the flag, or more precisely, the flagpole to which the flag was tied, and said.

"…That thing the flag is tied to. That's a spear, right?"

"Yes, it's a type of spear commonly seen in the market."

"…Then it's probably that person, right?"

"Yes, probably, no, it's definitely that guy."

Woong-

At that moment, Kim Jaehyun's phone lit up slightly, indicating a new message had arrived.

The message was from Eun Yeonwoo.

The content was a reply that he couldn't be sure, but it was definitely Lee Shin who had done it.

"Heo…"

Seeing that, Kim Jaehyun let out a breath as if in disbelief.

"Then you're saying it was Lee Shin-nim who did that to the Forbidden City?"

"Yes, judging by the holes, he probably used a spear to do it."

"Is that possible?"

"It's possible, that's why the Forbidden City is in that state."

"Hah… Well, that's right."

Kim Jaehyun lightly pressed his eyes and organized his complicated mind due to the sudden situation.

Unlike Kim Jaehyun, who was frowning, Cheon Yuhwa smiled slightly while looking at the picture.

'Right, he was this kind of guy. I had forgotten because he had been so quiet for a while.'

She was once again reminded of the person named Lee Shin.

The epitome of a self-centered personality who is endlessly lethargic when still, but quickly comes to life and moves as he pleases when something interesting appears.

This time, perhaps thanks to the various things Cheon Yuhwa had set up, Lee Shin had been quiet without causing any major trouble, but it seemed his original personality wasn't going anywhere.

Was it because she had seen this side of Lee Shin after a long time?

Cheon Yuhwa thought that he was still the same and suddenly felt a sense of nostalgia.

Cheon Yuhwa let out a hollow laugh at her own ridiculousness.

To feel nostalgia for the selfish actions of a guy she had hated so much in the past.

She remembered the absurd words he had said, teasingly, whenever she got annoyed at him for causing trouble, that it would become a memory over time.

"Ha, he has a talent for making me worry about strange things."

"Yes? What did you say?"

"No, it's nothing."

Cheon Yuhwa thought, enjoying her slightly uplifted mood.

In fact, what Lee Shin had done now was not a very big deal.

The Forbidden City?

It was a cultural heritage with immense historical value that could be said to symbolize the country of China.

But?

Considering its size, even if Lee Shin hadn't destroyed it, it would have been destroyed by the monsters that came out of the dungeon break and turned to dust anyway.

The Chinese government was furious and said they would catch the culprit and execute him, but in about three weeks, when the dungeon break occurred, they wouldn't have the capacity to do so.

And for about three weeks, Cheon Yuhwa could hide Lee Shin with her power.

'Did that guy think of all this and do it?'

There was no evidence, but Cheon Yuhwa somehow felt that might be the case.

Because he was a guy who seemed thoughtless but was raising a cunning snake inside.

Cheon Yuhwa looked at Kim Jaehyun and asked.

"Do you think you can use it?"

Although the subject was omitted, Kim Jaehyun understood Cheon Yuhwa's words and nodded his head.

"It's not a matter of whether we can use it."

The possibility Lee Shin had opened up.

The subjugation of the [Black Dragon Society] using the Chinese government.

"On the contrary, it will be much more effective than what we had originally planned."

If they used this method, they could solve the problems that were bothering them all at once.

The fact that the [Black Dragon Society] was difficult to touch because it was protected by the Chinese government?

What's the problem when the Chinese government that was protecting them would be dealing with them?

The fact that the [Black Dragon Society] was spread all over China?

It is the Chinese government that manages and supervises the entire China where they are spread.

Of course, the Chinese government would have a brain, so they wouldn't think that the [Black Dragon Society] would have done something so openly.

They would probably try to cover up the incident by using some appropriate level of Players as sacrifices and calming the media, as they had a cooperative relationship behind the scenes.

But the Chinese people are a different story.

They are people who have fostered a sense of pride in their country through government education that is close to brainwashing.

There was no way they would stay still in the face of this terror that had torn apart China's pride.

The kind of control the Chinese government usually used was also impossible.

Because in their own way, they were moving for the honor of China, which the government always used as an excuse.

"It seems we can move by using the evidence we've gathered so far to guide the Chinese people."

"Then how much manpower do you think we can save?"

"I think we can reduce the currently dispatched manpower by at least a third."

"A third…"

Considering how many people were currently dispatched to China, it could be said that they had saved a huge amount of manpower and costs.

Then, with the saved manpower and costs, they could prepare for the dungeon break more thoroughly.

Cheon Yuhwa, who had thought that far, thought for a moment and then muttered.

"…It's better to pay off a debt quickly."

Cheon Yuhwa took out her smartphone and posted a short message in the group chat.

Tiring-

Light: If that guy comes to find you, fight him once. It will be helpful in some way.

***

Tiring-

"…So she says."

"Really? That's strange. She hates me."

At Lee Shin's words, a woman with dark purple hair, wearing loose black clothes that created a 'bottomless' fashion, which was a rare sight in the mountains, nodded her head as if in agreement.

"I know, right? This unni isn't the type to say something like this. Oppa, what on earth did you do to Alice-unni?"

"Oppa?"

Lee Shin tilted his head at the suddenly changed sense of distance.

As Lee Shin didn't answer his question and clung to a strange part, she looked at him with disbelief.

"Why? You have a mask on, so I don't know your face, but you seem to be a man, so I called you that. Are you by any chance an unni, not an oppa?"

"No, I'm a man. It's just that you're the first one to call me oppa, so I was a little surprised."

"Huhu, it seems there are no pretty girls like me around you, Oppa."

"No, there are, but they don't call me oppa."

"Then what do they call you?"

"One calls me ahjussi, and the other calls me by a nickname."

Lee Shin said, recalling Lee Hyunyoung and Lee Sieun.

"Ah, I see."

She looked at Lee Shin with a sullen expression as her words were flatly denied, but when she heard that he was called ahjussi and by a nickname, she lowered the corners of her eyes and looked at him with pity instead.

Even though Lee Shin had said it without much thought.

"Ah, now that I think about it, there's one thing I can guess about why Cheon Yuhwa is like that."

"Oh, what is it?"

"I destroyed the Forbidden City a bit before I came here. It's probably a reward for that."

"…Yes? What did you do?"

"I destroyed the Forbidden City in China."

As Lee Shin said it so nonchalantly, her expression turned bizarre.

"Search for it. It's probably a hot topic right now, so you should be able to find it quickly."

Lee Shin said, chewing on a [Wonderland] special high-calorie energy bar while sitting on a tree branch.

Right now, Lee Shin needed to recover his body a bit because his body had been slightly strained and he had used a considerable amount of internal energy from the aftereffects of throwing a spear with all his might for the first time in a while when he destroyed the Forbidden City.

'Well, I've taken a spiritual medicine for internal energy recovery, and Irhegue is also diligently operating the heart art, so it should be fine if I just talk for a bit. And I'll also check the choker's translation function while I'm at it.'

Lee Shin thought that and slowly examined the woman in front of him.

Dark purple hair that was just long enough to cover her neck.

Sharp yet soft eyes similar to a cat's.

Outwardly, she just looked like a pretty girl enjoying her youth on the street.

But she was Arachne, the top-ranking Player called the best assassin in the Pantheon, one of the [Kings] Lee Shin was aiming for.

"By the way, why did you come up to the mountain at this hour? Did you come to dispose of a body or something?"

"Aren't you watching too many movies?"

"Am I? I think it's normal."

"No, it's not. And I just came here for a common night walk."

"You came to the mountain for a walk?"

"If you're going to take a walk with this body, it has to be at least this much."

Lee Shin shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'whatever'.

"In the first place, Oppa. Didn't you come to me at this dawn knowing that I was free right now?"

"No, it shows the location, but it doesn't tell me such detailed things, so I didn't know."

"Eh? Then why did you come?"

At Arachne's words, Lee Shin swallowed the energy bar in one bite and said nonchalantly.

"I just came because you seemed to be the most free person."

"…What?"

Arachne asked back, as if in disbelief.

The corners of Arachne's eyes sharpened as she said that.

Arachne, famous for assassination and deadly poison, glared at him with eyes full of clear hostility.

Probably, most people who faced such a situation would choose to kneel and apologize.

"Well, you don't have a guild, do you? Then you'd usually be free."

But Lee Shin, on the contrary, looked down at Arachne and smiled widely, as if to say 'what's wrong with that'.

"No, what if I was doing some special mission or training?"

"You usually don't do that at this dawn. And you weren't actually doing it."

"No! Agh, really! That's not what I'm talking about right now!"

At Arachne's annoyed tone, Lee Shin's smile deepened.

The deepened smile contained clear ridicule.

"Eeeek!!! Really! Oppa, you don't have any friends, do you!"

"Oh, you found out? How did you know?"

"No, what am I supposed to do if you admit it so easily!"

Arachne, who had noticed that Lee Shin's smile towards her contained ridicule, jumped up and down, expressing her rising annoyance.

Woong-

At that, her purplish aura, responding to her anger, began to flow out faintly.

Seeing that, Lee Shin stealthily checked his own body.

Both his body and internal energy had returned to normal.

"Then, since we've talked enough, shall we start?"

"What?"

Ignoring Arachne's blunt words, Lee Shin nonchalantly came down to the ground.

"What's with you all of a sudden? In the chat, you were so eager to get me, as if you couldn't eat me."

Lee Shin took out a spear from his inventory, pointed it at Arachne, and smiled playfully.

"Come at me. Let's have a real-life fight."