The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 243

Lee Shin, who had taken out [Yagong] from the [Black Room], lowered his head and looked at Mio and Rwen.

"Hmm, since I have an audience for the first time in a while, shall I be a little serious?"

However, contrary to his words of being serious, the same wide smile remained on Lee Shin's lips.

With a playful gesture that had no seriousness at all, as if teasing, [Yagong] was swung.

Whoooosh-

The air in the trajectory of the playfully swung spear was gently pushed away.

At that, the bangs covering the two's eyes swayed, and the pupils behind them were revealed.

The two's revealed eyes were sparkling like a child seeing stars for the first time.

Until last night, the two were just street kids who knew nothing.

Naturally, when they heard the word 'martial’ from Lee Shin, they had just let it pass without being able to define it.

But now, seeing Lee Shin's spear, they felt as if their closed eyes were opening, and they felt they had understood a little of what 'martial' was.

In the two's eyes, which had turned slightly hazy as if not fully awake from a dream, the sight of Lee Shin moving his spear was reflected.

Swoooosh-

The spear, moving at a speed that was neither fast nor slow, drew a circle in the air.

The circle drawn in the air began to grow larger and larger, extending outwards, and in tune with that movement, a small storm was gradually created, and the air was pushed out.

In that state, Lee Shin lightly extended his foot forward and spun the spear he was swinging, moving it in reverse.

The circle being drawn in the air grew smaller and smaller, and the resulting vortex gathered the surrounding air to the center of the circle.

The moment the gathered and gathered air finally formed a single sphere.

Pang-!

Lee Shin extended his spear at the speed of lightning and burst the air bubble at the center of the circle.

"Crazy..."

"Wow..."

Mutterings filled with admiration overflowed from the mouths of the two who had seen Lee Shin's artistry, which was far beyond their imagination.

Chuckle-

"Seeing the audience's satisfied reaction makes it worthwhile."

Lee Shin said that and put [Yagong] away again.

"Well, anyway, I basically only use these three."

"...A truly strong person doesn't need fancy techniques. Is it something like that?"

Mio, who had been looking at Lee Shin's spear with eyes lost in the afterglow, asked.

At Mio's words, Lee Shin's head tilted slightly to the side.

"Where did you hear that?"

"I heard other guys talking in the back alleys. Things like how a truly strong person only uses basic techniques, and how there was someone who rose to the rank of a knight by only training the basics."

"Ah, those kinds of stories were quite popular."

"Hmm..."

At the two's words, Lee Shin nodded a few times and then said.

"Well, it's a topic that kids like that would enjoy."

"Kids like that?"

"Ah, to put it simply, kids who have nothing in their hands."

At Mio's question, Lee Shin answered as if it were no big deal.

"Since they have nothing in their hands right now, they put their hopes in their future. They just blindly believe that they can achieve a hopeful future by just using what they have now well."

Mio and Rwen, who were listening to Lee Shin's blunt words from the side, looked at him with slightly guilty expressions.

At that, Lee Shin said with a wide, smiling face.

"Well, since you don't know anything, it's not unreasonable to think that way, but it's all nonsense, so forget about it."

"Nonsense?"

"Yeah, nonsense."

Lee Shin said as if it were obvious.

"Logically, if you know a strong technique, why would you only use a basic technique instead of the strong one?"

"Uh... that's true, isn't it?"

Mio, who had been racking her brain for a moment, nodded and replied.

Then, Rwen, who was next to her, rushed in.

"Then is the story about someone who became a knight by only practicing the basics also a lie?"

"No, that's entirely possible."

Having said that, Lee Shin chuckled.

"It's just that there's a little trap hidden in it."

"A trap?"

"Yeah, the kids in the back alleys seemed to think that the basics are important while saying that, but the important thing to look at in that story is not the sword, but the person holding the sword."

Lee Shin said the truth of the story, which would have made the kids in the back alleys fall into despair if they had heard it, with a wide, smiling face.

"An outstanding talent that allowed him to enter the knight order despite having learned only the basic techniques, that's the real theme of this story."

The street kids might have imagined themselves soaring splendidly with just the basics, but reality wasn't designed so kindly.

"Well, you never know what will happen in the world, so I won't say it's impossible, but it's definitely better to throw away the idea that everyone can become strong just by polishing the basics."

"...For example?"

At Rwen's words, Lee Shin gauged the level of the knights he had seen for a moment and then said.

"For the story you mentioned to be true, you'd have to be a genius with the talent of at least one in a thousand."

Having heard that, the two pondered something for a moment and then said.

"That's you bragging about yourself, right?"

"Seeing him smile, I think so."

"Well, I wonder?"

Lee Shin skillfully dodged the two's interrogation and then shrugged his shoulders lightly.

"Well, the story got a bit sidetracked, but to sum it up, the basics are just the basics, and forms are necessary. On top of that, the stronger the forms are, and the more advanced martial principles they contain, the better."

"...I guess if you could keep getting stronger just by training the basics, forms wouldn't have been created in the first place. You could just keep training the basics."

At Lee Shin's words, Mio nodded with a convinced face.

However, Rwen, as if something was still bothering her, tilted her head for a moment and then opened her mouth.

"But Lee Shin-ssi, why do you only use the basics?"

"Hmm? Ah, come to think of it, that's right."

At Rwen's words, even Mio looked at Lee Shin with a curious expression.

"Ah, that? That's just because I'm a special case."

Even at Lee Shin's words, the doubt in the two's eyes did not disappear, so Lee Shin pondered for a moment and then said.

"Umm, should I say I don't really need anything else? No, rather than that... Ah!"

Lee Shin lightly tapped his thigh with his finger as if he had found a suitable expression and said.

"It's more accurate to say that it's because I can kill better that way!"

Let's compare a form to a piece of clothing made for a single purpose.

If so, the two techniques Lee Shin had created, 'Leaf' and 'Branch', were high-quality fabrics made by focusing only on the basics of deflecting and stabbing.

Therefore, to those who fight using various complex forms, Lee Shin's techniques might seem loose and baggy.

However, in Lee Shin's hands, those two things turned into flexibility and freedom.

The moment he faced something, countless methods of how to kill the enemy in front of him would pop up in Lee Shin's mind simultaneously, as if numerous people were speaking at once.

To freely choose from those numerous options, the most important thing for Lee Shin was the flexibility and freedom to change into anything and become anything.

Not fighting with a standardized form, but using the numerous killing intents that flashed in his mind as forms according to the situation at that time, and fighting in the way he wanted.

That was Lee Shin's way of fighting.

And for that, Lee Shin had stripped away the element of forms, which could limit his spear.

-Don't you sometimes shout out technique names when you're in the Flame Lightning state?

'You know that's not a proper form either.'

Although he sometimes muttered names and swung his spear as if using a form, it wasn't a real form.

It was just him saying the first word that came to mind after seeing the image that popped up to more strongly bind the unpredictable flow of internal energy as an image.

Thanks to that, Lee Shin didn't remember the names of the techniques he had used so far at all.

"...Then why do forms even exist in the first place?"

Was it because the Lee Shin in front of her was too peculiar?

Mio asked a fundamental question as if confused.

At that, Lee Shin answered as if it were no big deal.

"To attack the enemy more strongly, more quickly, and more effectively."

It's possible to work by coding one by one manually, but the work becomes much easier if you use a program that someone who has done this work before had.

The thing called a form played a role similar to that program.

As Lee Shin was pondering how to explain that analogy to make these guys understand.

"I don't get it. Can't I just do it like the master did last time?"

Mio, who had muttered something, bent her fingers slightly like Irehgue had done before and swung them around in the air.

She was quite serious, putting a lot of strength into it and even mobilizing her magic power.

Lee Shin was about to let out a chuckle at the sight, but he saw something forming at Mio's fingertips, and his eyes widened, and he froze with his mouth open.

A look of genuine surprise, unable to think of anything.

It was a rare expression that would have surprised Cheon Yuhwa if she had seen Lee Shin's face now.

"...I'm not seeing things, am I?"

-My eyes see the same thing, so I declare. You are seeing correctly.

To an outsider, it would just be a scene of a child playing around, waving their arms in the air.

However, in Lee Shin's eyes, he could clearly see something like a white speck of dust flashing at Mio's fingertips for a moment and then disappearing.

It was incomplete, but it was definitely a fragment of materialized internal energy.

Mio was now unconsciously achieving the materialization of internal energy, something that could only be imitated upon reaching LV. 3.

'No, is it not that strange in the first place? Those two have a sufficient amount of magic power, and they even have a Dragon Heart that amplifies it and helps them control it at will.'

In fact, Lee Shin himself was now able to casually do things similar to the Three Flavors True Fire, which he shouldn't have been able to use at his original realm, thanks to the skills [Flame] and [Lightning].

'Using what one has to casually do things that would normally be in a higher realm and impossible in one's current state...'

Was Mio's appearance some kind of trigger?

Or was it just a coincidence?

Lee Shin's thoughts, which would normally have stopped there, began to extend to a more distant place.

'There is a way to use the power of a higher level without raising the level. Then what exactly is a level, a realm?'

The thought that started with a skill, went through the level.

'No, in the first place, the fact that you have to have a certain amount of stats to raise your realm is strange.'

It reached the stats, which could be called his own body.

'Whether the body is weak or strong, enlightenment is enlightenment. In other words, stats are a supplementary element necessary to fully use a realm, not an essential element to raise a realm.'

There can be a situation where one cannot fully digest an enlightenment due to a lack of physical ability.

However, the fact that one must have a certain amount of stats to climb the next step is extremely unnatural.

Then why did that unnaturalness occur?

It was simple.

'It must be Gaia's blessing to give power to as many people as possible.'

Then a question arises.

Now that he is beyond Gaia's blessing, is Lee Shin still subject to that system?

Does he have to raise all the necessary stats to raise his level?

Squeeze-

'No, this is not a place where Gaia's divinity reaches. In other words, it's entirely possible for me to raise my realm with just a simple enlightenment.'

Of course, enlightenment wasn't something that came so easily.

So for others, it might be more difficult to raise their level, or realm, under these conditions, but for Lee Shin, it was the opposite.

For Lee Shin, this condition was like having a restraint he had been wearing constantly removed.

Lee Shin smiled, feeling a sense of liberation as if he had spread his bound wings.

"I happened to get a clue to raise my realm."

"What?"

"Huh?"

At Lee Shin's muttering, the two's eyes widened and they asked back.

At that, Lee Shin, who had chuckled, stood up and said.

"I'll tell you about the forms later, so for now, just come at me. I'll see how you fight first."

"Huh? Didn't you say you were going to make a cultivation method and forms first?"

At Mio's words, Lee Shin beckoned with his finger with a wide smile.

"I can make the cultivation method while fighting you and picking my nose with one hand, so stop talking and just come at me."

"...If you make something weird, I'll curse you for life."

"...I'll sprinkle dirt on your face every day."

At Lee Shin's provocation, the two hardened their faces and prepared to charge.

At that, Lee Shin said in a voice full of ridicule.

"That's so scary."

Grit-

Grit-

At the continued provocation, the two gritted their teeth, surrounded Lee Shin, and charged at him from the front and back at the same time.

Grin-

'It reminds me of the old days.'

Lee Shin looked at the two rushing towards him and briefly recalled things that had happened in the past and the guys he had left behind on Earth.

For reference, while Lee Shin was having fun rolling Mio and Rwen and thinking about Eun Yeonwoo's gang.

"Move quickly, quickly. If you can't even win against your own shadows, what are you going to do against the enemies that will come?"

"...I never thought I'd say this, but I miss hyung-nim."

"...I never knew magic was such a good ability for making people roll around."

Eun Yeonwoo's gang was being thoroughly rolled by Irin.

(End of Chapter)