The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 151

"Oh, you look better than I thought."

Lee Shin smiled with satisfaction as he looked at Diz and Hercules.

Just looking at this scene, it would seem like he was checking on a friend who had caught a cold and was relieved.

But since it wasn't such a touching situation right now, Diz and Hercules just frowned without saying anything.

Because it wasn't something Lee Shin, who was spewing out a blatant and dense killing intent that felt like it was right in front of them even though he was far away, should be saying.

"I thought he might be like this from the first time I saw him, but it seems he's a crazy guy."

"Hmm? But I'm trying to act normal."

At Lee Shin's words, Diz looked at him with disbelief.

"Do you not know the meaning of normal?"

"No, I know. There was a time when I thought about nothing but that all day."

Lee Shin said that and shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, I can act normal if I have to… but if I try to suppress it more, I might explode from frustration. Even if it's a shame, this is my limit, so accept it."

"You're a guy with a bunch of screws loose in your head."

"I was born with only twisted gears from birth."

As Lee Shin chuckled and said that, Diz glared at him intently.

"Hah, I get that you're a strange guy, so stop talking. By the way, what do you mean by 'you look better'?"

Hercules, who had been listening to the two's conversation for a while, sighed and cut into their conversation.

"Ah, that's nothing much. To put it simply, I was saying that you look fine even after taking my killing intent head-on."

"…Is that something the person who shot the killing intent should be saying?"

"Is there any reason I can't?"

At Lee Shin's words, Hercules was at a loss for words and closed his mouth.

Taking advantage of that gap, Lee Shin slung the Night Sky over his shoulder as if the fight was on a short break and continued to speak nonchalantly.

"Well, I was planning on explaining it to you step by step from the beginning so you can prepare yourselves, so listen up."

"No, that's fine, so get out of the way…"

"When you go from LV.3 to LV.4, that is, from a beginner to a proficient, the path you've walked so far closes, you know?"

Hercules glared at Lee Shin with anger as he continued to cut him off, but Lee Shin continued to talk as if he didn't care.

Hercules contemplated whether to just attack him, but he blew away such thoughts at Lee Shin's next words.

"And when the beginner stage path is completed, a new path opens up in the proficient stage."

"A new path?"

"Yes, the system wrote it as the first path and the second path. Well, leaving out the complicated stuff and just getting to the core, it means you get a new skill."

Lee Shin's words were interesting.

Although there were many known ways to get skills, getting a skill that was optimized for an individual like the skill obtained through a path was like plucking a star from the sky.

"Is that killing intent you showed a moment ago the skill you got?"

"Ah, that's not a skill. That's just something I could do from birth."

"You spew killing intent from birth?"

At Lee Shin's words, Diz muttered with disbelief.

Diz's question was natural.

Because logically, there was no way a human could be born with killing intent from birth.

"Well, if you don't want to believe it, don't believe it and move on. It's not that important anyway."

Lee Shin also didn't feel the need to explain it to the two, so he just passed it off with a light word.

"What I want to say is that the skill I got this time when I leveled up has a very good synergy with my killing intent."

Lee Shin said that and recalled the description of the newly acquired skill in his head.

[Ghost]

-Unique (Growth Type)

-Your appearance, which moves strangely as you wish, is not caught by anything, and throws everyone into confusion, is literally a ghost. At your appearance, people will be intimidated, gradually lose their strength, and collapse, eventually becoming your puppets.

"What kind of skill is it."

"To put it simply, it's a skill that weakens an enemy who is scared of me."

Telling someone the effect of one's skill was a taboo act, but Lee Shin, as if it were none of his business, told the effect of the skill to the opponent who had picked a fight with him.

It was an expression of his confidence, but it was also a provocation, as if to say 'if you're thinking of pulling some trick, go ahead and try'.

Because the skill Lee Shin had just mentioned was not the kind of skill that could be neutralise just because you wanted to.

"Well, there is a rather tricky condition that it only activates when you make the opponent scared…"

Lee Shin said that and raised his killing intent once again.

"But for me, it's as simple as breathing."

Diz and Hercules frowned at the killing intent Lee Shin was emitting.

It wasn't fear, but as they continued to face Lee Shin, a certain amount of tension naturally arose.

On top of that, although it was faint, they could feel their physical abilities gradually decreasing, just as Lee Shin had explained.

"Is this why you told us not to be scared?"

"That's right. I came all this way because I wanted a fun fight, so it would be disappointing if you got scared just because I let out some killing intent. And I also hate fighting while controlling the killing intent that's flowing out."

At those words, Hercules tapped his shoulder with the club he was holding and looked at Lee Shin with disbelief.

He was on the verge of being dizzy from hearing such words for the first time in his life.

"Then what's the reason you told us to fight together?"

"It was my kindness, telling you to settle the score quickly with a short, decisive battle."

Diz, who had heard those words, touched his earring and glared at Lee Shin.

He felt a kind of emotion he had never known before welling up at being treated like this for the first time in his life.

Watching the two, Lee Shin smiled.

"Hoo… then lastly, what did you do to our guild members?"

"Huh? I didn't touch a single fingertip."

"Stop playing with words and tell me what you did."

Hercules frowned and glared at Lee Shin, and Lee Shin smiled widely and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Well, it seemed too perfect to test my skill, so I did test it a bit. Well, but they're probably just catching their breath with their legs trembling."

"Is that so?"

"Hm? You believe me?"

"Yes. Because my gut tells me so."

At Hercules's words, Lee Shin said with disbelief.

"Isn't the basis of your trust too weak?"

"Don't ignore it. It's a gut that has saved my life several times and even let me meet my wife."

"Eh? You're married?"

"Then do you think a cool guy like me would have reached this age without getting married? I'm already married to the prettiest woman and have the cutest daughter."

Hercules, who had already begun to find his initial hearty appearance, said with a stealthy smile.

Watching him, Lee Shin glanced at Diz.

"Hah, it's troublesome and annoying, but…"

Diz tied his long, flowing hair with a rubber band and smiled crookedly.

"I feel like I can get some inspiration for a painting, so I'll play along for a bit."

"You seem to be an artist."

It was the smile of an artist who was dogmatic, self-centered, and would never compromise.

"Yes, and the model for my next painting is your face, all messed up."

"If you can do it, by all means."

As Lee Shin said, tapping his cheek, Diz's smile deepened.

Watching him, Lee Shin smiled.

The way to resist killing intent is simple.

To arm one's mind to the point where it can overcome that killing intent.

To defeat an enemy with the power of love, to move one's body with the anger of losing a comrade, to forget fear with the desire to protect something.

Just like the fighting spirit Diz and Hercules were showing now.

'Well, I've done this much for them, so they should at least do that much.'

Thinking that, Lee Shin held the spear he had been leaning on his shoulder and emitted a killing intent of a density incomparable to before.

Watching him, Hercules let out a hollow laugh and raised his aura.

Strength was added to the hand holding the club, and tough leather was overlaid on the steel-like muscles.

"Who on earth did Alice introduce?"

"She also surprises people with her crazy antics sometimes."

Diz said that and likewise raised his aura.

The aura, shining with four colors, split in turn and divided into four.

"But I can roughly guess why she introduced him."

"Well, it's not easy to meet a guy like that."

The Lee Shin the two were looking at as they talked was smiling at them with the eyes of a reptile that was quietly burning.

***

"Is the strategy meeting over?"

Pfft-

"Yes, it's over."

-Materialization

-Hercules's Bow

A part of the golden aura that had been enveloping Hercules's body like a heat haze gathered in his hand and created a huge golden bow.

"What, you think you'll be fine if you attack from a distance?"

"I wonder, what do you think?"

Hercules said that and drew the bowstring.

Simultaneously with his entire body's muscles being pulled taut along with the bowstring, 12 golden arrows appeared on the bow and took their places.

The golden arrows, as if matched to the size of the bow, boasted an immense size, and they looked more like spears than arrows, and it seemed that if even one of them hit, it wouldn't end with just a wind hole.

But Lee Shin's eyes were not on the size of the arrows, but on the faint green energy flowing from the tips of the arrowheads.

"Poison arrows?"

At Lee Shin's words, Hercules grinned.

"Didn't Hercules defeat the Hydra and put its blood on his arrowheads?"

"Even without using something like poison, ordinary guys would die if they were hit by something so ridiculously big."

"Of course, that's right. But you're not one of those ordinary guys."

Pfft-

"That's true."

Lee Shin answered that and tried to get away by unfolding the Lightning Tree Immortal Art.

Because he wasn't so stupid as to just stand still even when an arrow was aimed at him.

Deolkeok-

"Huh?"

But Lee Shin's attempt returned to nothing.

"Are you ignoring me after provoking me like that?"

Because the sticky mud from under Lee Shin's feet and the water from a nearby puddle were wrapped around his legs and not letting go.

"What is this?"

"Hah, I thought that might be the case when I saw you talking with Hercules, but you don't know about us, do you?"

Diz laughed with disbelief.

"Still, if you've played the game, you should at least know that I handle the four major elements, shouldn't you?"

At Diz's words, Lee Shin smiled as if he found it amusing and said.

"I'm the type who hates spoilers. Well, it's not like I live with my ears plugged, so I knew roughly, but unless they openly put a name like Hercules on it, it was hard to figure out what kind of ability it was."

Lee Shin looked at the mud and water that had caught him with a sense of wonder, then looked at the two and smiled.

"But is this all? It seems you're aiming for a one-hit kill, but that's not enough."

"Really? Then…"

Diz said that and gestured once again.

At that, an orange flame enveloped Hercules's arrows and shone brilliantly, and a green wind swirled at the tips of the arrows, creating a path towards Lee Shin.

"With this much, can you go to the afterlife without any regrets?"

Grin-

"Wouldn't we know if we try?"

"Hmph, you crazy bastard."

Diz smiled and raised his aura, holding Lee Shin's legs even more strongly with water and mud, and raised the power of the arrows with wind and flame.

In sync with that, Hercules pushed his aura into the arrows to the extreme.

At that, the arrows shone brilliantly with a golden light, and a faint green light gathered at the tips of the arrowheads in a sharp shape.

The moment those two lights reached their peak and attracted each other.

Shwoooo-!!!

12 arrows were shot from Hercules's hand, flashing with a golden light.

The arrows, which had spread out in all directions, curved like hawks aiming for their prey according to Hercules's will and fell on Lee Shin from all eight directions.

Watching that, Lee Shin.

'Hmm, if I'm not careful, I might really die.'

He thought for a moment whether the provocation had gone too well, and then.

'Well, that's why it's fun.'

He soon gave his characteristic smile and swung his spear, dyed red and golden, at the golden light pouring in from all directions.

(End of Chapter)