The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 195

"Spy? No, what do you mean by spy all of a sudden…"

"Spy means the enemy isn't a monster, but an intelligent being!"

"Wow, you caught a spy, Hyung. What on earth have you been doing and where?"

"Oppa, I've been very interested in spies for a long time, please show me just once!"

At Lee Shin's single word, countless words burst out from everyone in the room simultaneously, as if a bomb had been dropped.

"Are you all asking me that?"

But at Lee Shin's low word, they immediately shut their mouths.

They remembered the condition that they had to give Lee Shin one item he wanted per question.

"Just wait a moment."

In the end, they chose to talk among themselves for now.

"What's a spy? I'm starting to get really interested!"

"Me too! A secret enemy! A mastermind hiding behind the scenes! I've been waiting for something like this!"

"Sigh, alright, both of you calm down."

Irehgue, who had been watching them exchanging opinions in whispers for a moment, said to Lee Shin as if to scold him.

-Didn't you reveal too much from the very first one?

'I know, I got too engrossed in playing the villain. Well, isn't this much okay? It seems fun too.'

-Hah, normally, this lord would not interfere with every single action you take. But given the current situation, I would appreciate it if you would do it a little more properly.

'Huh?'

-What is it? Did you have a good idea or something?!

'No, it's not that. Did you usually refer to yourself as 'this lord' when you were talking about yourself?'

-Yiik! This is not the time to be concerned about such trivial things!

At Lee Shin's words, Irehgue rampaged on top of his head, continuously hitting the back of his head with his tail.

At that, Lee Shin, while looking at the list with his eyes and writing down the incantations of the [Flame Lightning Tree Divine Art] he had just managed to organize in his notebook, soothed Irehgue with his mouth.

"What's a spy? No, before that, when did he find that spy?"

"Probably about a week ago. It was exactly a week ago that he started rampaging like crazy."

"That's when he disappeared and an organization in a town full of gangsters was annihilated."

"Then it seems a week ago is correct. Plus, I also know the location where he found the spy, so it's killing two birds with one stone!"

While Lee Shin was doing that, the Ten Kings were sharing information with each other and having a discussion that was close to a debate.

If the amount of information Lee Shin had presented had been moderately large, they would not have been so serious.

However, the amount of information Lee Shin had presented was larger than they had imagined, and even after hearing the answers, their curiosity was not satisfied, but rather grew.

If it were an ordinary person, they would have used various methods, such as persuasion or threats, to make them spill the information, but the opponent was Lee Shin.

Therefore, they chose to follow the rules and continue this deal rather than getting involved with Lee Shin in a bad way.

Therefore, Lee Shin also observed them without letting his guard down.

'Even if I made a mistake, to find out that much with just one question. They are really something. I can't let my guard down.'

-Kuhuhu, you might just lose all the information you have.

At Irehgue's sarcastic words, Lee Shin had a dumbfounded expression.

'If I lose the information I have, I'll be ruined, and you'll be ruined too.'

-…If you lose it, I will not forgive you. So take care of it yourself now.

'Pfft, alright, I understand.'

Lee Shin answered that and then looked at Cheon Yuhwa.

Although the information and reasoning abilities of the others were sufficiently threatening, if he had to pick the person he had to be most wary of, it was definitely Cheon Yuhwa.

Because unlike the others, Cheon Yuhwa had memories of the future, so the line of how much information he should give was blurry.

"Alright, second question. What kind of process creates a dungeon?"

At the words that clearly showed her intention to extract as much information as possible, Lee Shin chuckled and told her.

"It's created when fragments of a dimension that couldn't be absorbed fall to Earth. Originally, the fragments should have poured directly onto Earth, but they didn't explode due to Gaia's arrangement. You can think of it as a water balloon. Oh, and what I'll receive this time is the [Boots of Crimson Clouds]."

Lee Shin said that and recalled the item he had quietly checked off in his mind.

'I wonder if I only need to get about 5 more?'

Since he had caused such a grand commotion, they would surely think that Lee Shin would make a big score and then leave.

So Lee Shin decided to gauge the atmosphere appropriately, collect the items he had obtained, and then quickly leave.

It was an optimistic plan that depended on the opponent's curiosity, but Lee Shin was confident that it would be fine.

Because the saying that curiosity killed the cat wasn't just for show, and three of the ten people in front of him were mages who were nothing but corpses without curiosity.

◎ ◎ ◎

As compensation for the third question, he chose the [Exoskeleton of the Heavenly Beast], a black leather armor that could compensate for his relatively lacking defense.

For the fourth, he chose the [Ash Dragon Robe], a dark red coat that could be worn over the leather armor.

All the items Lee Shin had chosen so far were of amazing quality, boasting a unique top-tier grade.

'Two pieces of upper body armor, a pair of shoes that will be the most important mobility, and a pair of bracelets to assist in attack.'

Since his original goal was to steal one pair of boots and one piece of upper body armor, he had already exceeded his goal.

-Then are you planning to leave this place now?

'No, I think it would be better to observe the situation a little longer before leaving.'

Looking at the list, there were also some artifacts with unexpected functions, so he planned to take as many as he could.

"When I heard the name Gaia, I definitely thought it was a god! In most comics, if it came out as Gaia, it was always a god!"

"By the way, it's even more amazing that there are other dimensions! What kind of spiders are there? It would be nice if there were cute fluffy ones."

"…Can you two be quiet?"

'And where else can you see them acting like that?'

-It's certainly a rare sight.

Lee Shin didn't give information, but rather answered the questions by saying specific nouns like 'Gaia' or 'Carnia', thus increasing their curiosity.

So much so that they were now writing fantasy novels among themselves.

Of course, there were times when Lee Shin would flinch slightly at some of their words that hit the nail on the head, but he could just ignore them with a poker face.

"Hey, I've written down all the incantations of my heart method, so give me yours too."

"Here you go."

After putting the heart method he received from Yeonhwa into his inventory, Lee Shin extracted a few more things from them.

A mask called [Gourmet's Mask] that transfers food in a subspace into his mouth, earrings called [Circling] that enhance his senses, and an upgraded choker with improved performance that Yeonhwa had told him about.

For reference, since there wasn't enough time to upgrade the [Choker] immediately, he decided to exchange it with Crowley's.

It wasn't because he had any ill will towards him, but simply because he thought that since Crowley made the artifact, the one Crowley had would be the latest model, so he just changed it for that reason.

"Oh, indeed, items are not to be underestimated. I just put them on, and I can clearly feel myself getting stronger."

Lee Shin said that and naturally took a step to leave the conference room.

Kwoong-!

And before he could even properly take that step, the open conference room door automatically closed.

Lee Shin's head automatically turned to look at the culprit who had closed the door.

"Oh my, where are you going, dressed like that?"

Oz, holding her beloved black broom, [Clear], was looking at Lee Shin with a greedy expression, like a cat looking at a mouse.

"Can't you open the door for me? I need to go to the bathroom for a moment."

"Aren't you too heavily armed to go to the bathroom? It's not like you're going to war, so why don't you wear something a little lighter?"

"Ah, you don't know? For a man, the bathroom is always a battlefield. And I'm constipated, so I need this much heavy armament."

Lee Shin said that and lightly rolled his eyes.

The three mages looked at Lee Shin with greedy eyes, as if they would never let him go.

Next to them, Hercules and Diz were smiling, as if to say, 'you're caught,' and Cheon Yuhwa was whispering something into Uriel's ear with a gentle face, continuously pointing at him with her finger.

No matter how he looked, there seemed to be no opening, but hope was not completely lost.

Because Baekhyun and Arachne, who were not as curious, had taken a step back and were just chewing popcorn, as if looking forward to what would happen next.

Yeonhwa was reading the notebook with the incantations of the [Flame Lightning Tree Divine Art], as if he had no interest in whatever commotion was happening.

-It's good news that a few of them have been dropped.

'I know, right? It's worth all the effort I put into sending mental messages during the deal.'

-It seems one of them has escaped.

"Excuse me, oppa."

The moment Irehgue said that, Uriel, as if she had heard Irehgue's words, said to Lee Shin.

"Why did you do something like this?"

"Uhm, it's a question, but it's a trivial one, so I'll just tell you as a service."

Lee Shin said that and smiled playfully.

"Of course, for world peace."

"Woo, didn't you mean world domination?"

Everyone nodded their heads inwardly at Arachne's words, but Lee Shin shook his head.

"That's too much. I'm quite serious, you know? World peace is harder than world domination."

"Hmm…"

At Lee Shin's words, Uriel frowned for a moment as if contemplating something, then smiled slightly and nodded her head.

"Alright! Then I'll trust you this time, oppa. Alice unnie, I'm sorry!"

Uriel, who had stated her position like that, quickly retreated and sat next to Baekhyun, and began to snatch his popcorn.

"Sigh, the boomerang I threw to stop you from causing trouble has come back like this. Your image is too good, so Uriel isn't helping me."

"Is this the time for me to be grateful?"

"It's creepy, so no need."

Cheon Yuhwa, who had said that, looked at Lee Shin and said in a voice mixed with a sneer.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"There's no need to even think about it. From the moment I first came in here, I was determined to break through head-on."

"You're going to outwit these six by yourself?"

Cheon Yuhwa's words were correct.

Realistically, there was no way Lee Shin could escape from the combined attack of those six.

But Lee Shin had a trump card to escape this impregnable encirclement.

"Hey, Cheon Yuhwa. This is my last act of mercy, but how about you obediently move aside before you become a scarecrow for my equipment test?"

At Lee Shin's words, Cheon Yuhwa felt a surge of unease from within.

It was a reflexive reaction, like quickly pulling one's hand away from something hot.

'No, there's no way he can use any method in this situation. And even if he does use some method, I can't let him go now.'

Cheon Yuhwa, who had suppressed her unease with such firm determination, refused Lee Shin's proposal by tightly closing her mouth.

"Hoo, alright. If you're going to be like that, I'll have no choice but to use my trump card."

Lee Shin said that and took something out of his pocket.

At that, everyone who had been watching Lee Shin intently for a moment had slightly tense eyes, but the moment they saw what came out of Lee Shin's pocket, their tension turned into emptiness and bewilderment.

"A phone?"

"Why did he suddenly take that out?"

"Well, I don't know either."

Uriel's, Arachne's, and Baekhyun's whispers echoed in the room, and Lee Shin touched his phone a few times as if operating something.

"I'm asking one last time, are you really not going to move aside?"

"…I won't move aside even if I die, so do as you please."

Grin-

At Cheon Yuhwa's words, Lee Shin smiled brightly as if he had been waiting for those words, and touched his phone.

(End of Chapter)