The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 178

Kiiik-!

A car with such dark tinting that the inside was barely visible entered a shabby-looking factory and stopped.

"Hoo, has it been three days since we came back?"

"It seems to be about that long. By the way, even though it's our base, it's really shabby. This is why I didn't want to come back."

"Well, it's only like this on the outside, the inside is pretty clean."

The two men who got out of the car started to take out the people in the car one by one, as if they were luggage, while chatting.

Everyone was unconscious and thoroughly restrained, but perhaps because they were properly drugged with sleeping pills, no one opened their eyes even though they were being moved roughly.

-It seems to be quite spacious, more than I thought.

'It's amazing that I can't feel any presence.'

While the people were being moved to an unknown location, Lee Shin figured out what the factory he was in looked like through Irehgue's explanation and his own senses.

"Hoo, moving people is also a job."

"I know, right."

While Lee Shin was organizing the information, the two guys approached him, who was pretending to be unconscious, to move him, the last one left.

"Let's put a straitjacket on this guy and move him to where Raven-nim is."

"Hoo, I hope Raven-nim experiments on this guy as painfully as possible."

"Hehe, who knows? Maybe Raven-nim is listening to you right now and thinking he should."

And so, Lee Shin quietly laughed to himself as he listened to the two guys' conversation.

'Alright, I should kill these guys right after I'm guided.'

-Hmm, it might not be bad to leave one of them alive… no, considering the intelligence level of these guys that I confirmed on the way, it wouldn't matter if I just killed them all.

Without even knowing what Lee Shin was thinking, the two guys were tapping his cheeks and preparing to put a straitjacket on him.

'…No, I'll just kill them here.'

At that, Lee Shin, who was properly annoyed for the first time in a while, was about to open his eyes and break the two guys' teeth.

Deolkeok-

Suddenly, the sound of a door opening was heard from one side of the factory, and then the sound of someone's footsteps getting closer was heard.

"Heok!"

"Heup!"

The two who had been playing with Lee Shin with a sly smile suddenly took a deep breath and froze stiffly in an at-attention posture.

-Hey, you…

'Yes, I think I can roughly guess without you telling me.'

Lee Shin smiled to himself and listened more intently to the sound he heard.

"What are you doing now?"

"This is the guy we brought this time!"

"Since the anesthesia is done, we were about to put a straitjacket on him so he can't resist and move him to Raven-nim's workshop!"

The two shouted in a voice that was as disciplined as a new recruit's.

-A large robe that makes it impossible to tell the body shape, and a mask that completely covers the face… it perfectly matches what the two guys said. By the way, I didn't think he would have even modulated his voice…

'Is that guy Raven? I never thought I'd run into him at the entrance all of a sudden, I'm lucky.'

Lee Shin muttered that to himself and began to seriously consider whether to open his eyes or not.

But it wasn't a problem for Lee Shin to worry about.

"I wasn't talking to you."

And for good reason, Raven had already seen through the fact that Lee Shin was not unconscious.

"Why are you pretending to be passed out?"

Raven, while saying that, simultaneously activated a spell and attacked not only Lee Shin, but also the two guys next to him.

"Uek!"

"Kkuwok!"

At that, Lee Shin grabbed the two guys by the scruff of their necks, threw them to one side, and quickly got out of the way.

Kwagwagwang-!

"Ra, Raven-nim, what is this all of a sudden?!"

"No, by the way, what's with that guy? Wasn't he unconscious?!"

The two guys who still hadn't grasped the situation properly chattered loudly, but that didn't last long.

Puk-!

"Hoo, I almost had what I had my eye on snatched away right in front of me."

Because their necks had been cut by the spear Lee Shin had swung, blood had blocked their throats.

But that didn't mean they were dead.

It was thanks to Lee Shin leaving a hole for them to breathe, with a paper-thin difference.

"Normally, I would have beaten you until your flesh was tender and then killed you, but it's turned into suffocation. Anyway, you guys have been strangely lucky since I first saw you."

Lee Shin wiped a few drops of blood that had splattered on his cheek from moving quickly with the back of his hand and then looked at Raven with a wide smile.

"By the way, you're hot-headed, aren't you? I didn't think you'd try to blow these guys away all at once."

"…You're not my enemy?"

Raven's low and emotionless voice, which had been modulated to make it impossible to tell the gender, covered the two's faint breathing.

Lee Shin answered with a light smile.

"I probably am."

Judging by the way he spoke, a blunt child came to mind.

But this feeling that was being transmitted tinglingly through his whole body was telling Lee Shin not to be careless.

"Why did you come here?"

"It's not that I came. These guys kidnapped me, so I ended up here."

"Lies."

As Lee Shin said, pointing to the two who were writhing on the floor, spitting blood, Raven cut him off.

"There's no way you would have been caught by guys like that with your skills."

Raven, who had noticed Lee Shin's skills, naturally thought that he had come here with some purpose.

It was reasonable to think so, and Raven's thought was also half-correct.

Although it was for the insignificant reason of being bored.

Raven quietly looked at Lee Shin and held his breath.

"Hmm, it seems your questions are over, so can I ask a few questions now?"

Lee Shin smiled, looking straight into the eyeholes of the mask Raven was wearing.

In Lee Shin's smile, there was an unconcealed joy, anticipation, and excitement.

"You, where on earth did you pop out from, and what are you?"

Just as Raven had noticed Lee Shin's skills, Lee Shin had also roughly grasped Raven's skills with that one move a moment ago.

And as Lee Shin guessed, Raven was a skilled person who had one foot in the realm of LV.5, a level that no Player had reached yet.

***

The emotion Raven felt the moment he first saw Lee Shin was wariness.

From Raven's perspective, Lee Shin was an uninvited guest who had suddenly barged into his residence.

"You, where on earth did you pop out from, and what are you?"

And the moment Lee Shin threw that question at Raven.

Adeuk-

The wariness Raven had reached its peak and turned into hostility towards Lee Shin.

"You came to catch me."

The low and small voice that spread out had its emotionlessness erased and was filled with a blade-like coldness.

At the same time, Raven began to move his circle in earnest and activated a spell.

Shuuu-

At that, a pitch-black shadow spread out from Raven like a spiderweb, wrapping around the floor, walls, and ceiling of the factory parking lot.

'Why is he suddenly attacking?'

-Isn't it a natural measure against an uninvited guest?

'That's true, but it wasn't like this a moment ago.'

Seuk-

"Well, this is better for me."

Lee Shin muttered that and took out the Yagong he had put in his inventory and held it.

At the same time, he activated [Mad Dragon] to the maximum and strengthened his body.

He didn't know the situation, but the person in front of him was an enemy and a skilled person who was at a higher level than him.

The option of not going all out from the beginning was not there in the first place.

Shurarak-!

And that judgment saved Lee Shin's life.

Simultaneously with Lee Shin taking out and holding the Yagong, numerous shadow thorns were shot at him like arrows.

The thorns pouring in from all directions were not a type of attack that could be completely avoided.

Lee Shin had no choice but to swing his spear wrapped in spear ki, cutting down the thorns, and observed Raven's appearance.

'Judging by the fact that I can somehow respond, it seems he's just reached LV.5…'

Kwagwagwang-!

"The problem is that even if I know that, nothing changes."

Lee Shin whistled, looking at the shadow hammer that had struck the ground.

If he had been standing there without deceiving Raven using the Flame Leaf Return Art, he would have been beaten to a pulp by now.

Thinking that, Lee Shin let out a hollow laugh.

Assuming a one-on-one fight between a warrior and a mage, the disadvantageous side is naturally the mage, who needs time to cast spells and a distance to use magic.

"So I thought I could do something…"

But the compatibility between a warrior and a mage is not as clear as rock-paper-scissors.

It can be overturned at any time depending on the superiority of the individual's skills or the surrounding environment.

"It seems that wasn't the case."

And among those environments, the place that makes a mage soar is the mage's personal space, where research and experiments are conducted simultaneously, and a place where the mage can draw out his power beyond his limits, the mage's workshop.

"To think he's using the entire factory as his workshop, not just a room in the factory. He's on a pretty big scale."

Lee Shin, who had grasped that much through the short exchange, muttered in a low voice.

"His skill is one level higher. On top of that, it's a fight in a workshop equipped with facilities that can use magic of this level with just a glance…"

-It seems it will be difficult to drag it into a battle of attrition as usual.

Irehgue's words were correct.

If this was a workshop, he didn't know what he would use to recover his stamina and magic power.

'What should I do about this…'

"You…"

While Lee Shin was contemplating how to overturn this crisis, Raven asked with a puzzled expression.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Huh? Isn't that obvious? Because I'm happy."

Lee Shin answered that and swung his Yagong, cutting down the shadow thorn that was trying to pierce his neck.

At Lee Shin's nonchalant answer, Raven stared at him as if he couldn't understand.

At that, Lee Shin opened his mouth with a wide smile.

"No, a dungeon break happened recently, right? So I thought nothing fun would happen for a while."

Grin—

"But breaking my expectations, I met a guy like you and got to fight… how could it not be fun?"

The difference in their skills was clear, and even the environment was not on Lee Shin's side.

That's why Lee Shin was happy.

The familiar feeling he had felt when he first entered the Horned Rabbit dungeon in a helpless state began to rise within him.

His heart pounded as if it would explode at any moment, and his nerves were on edge as if the inside and outside of his skin had been turned inside out.

Every time he felt this, Lee Shin couldn't help but realize.

That he loved a situation like the present, where death was hovering around, where the opponent might die or he might die.

"Strange."

"You don't have to say it directly, I've known it since I was born."

Lee Shin answered that and took a light breath.

For some reason, the shadow thorns that had been pouring down like rain had subsided a little.

At that, Lee Shin, thinking it was a good thing, looked at Raven.

"Then can I ask a question too… what were you doing here?"

Lee Shin's voice, as he asked that, was filled with a certain conviction.

And Raven, at Lee Shin's following words, froze.

"A demi-human who knows nothing about our world, and the first thing you do when you come to the human world is to take over an organization in the back alleys… anyone would find that suspicious."

"…How did you find out? The camouflage magic and mental magic are working properly."

Raven, who had judged that pretending not to know would not work after observing Lee Shin's demeanor for a moment, said, raising his thorns.

"What, so it was magic that I didn't get caught?"

Lee Shin let out a small sigh as if he were disappointed.

Whether he did that or not, Raven's head was spinning complicatedly.

'An insight that sees through my magic at once, and a power that far exceeds the average of Earthlings that I heard from the temple, but he's not on the list of ten. Don't tell me…'

Raven muttered to himself in a trembling voice without realizing it.

"The hero chosen by Gaia?"

"Hmm?"

At Raven's sudden muttering, Lee Shin's head tilted to the side.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I don't think it's me."

Doesn't the word 'hero' traditionally refer to a good-natured pushover?

No matter how he thought about it, he and a hero seemed to be far apart.

"By the way…"

Heejuk-

"You seem to know a lot of interesting things, how about you tell me some too?”

(End of Chapter)