The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 244

"Hmm, this is strange."

Twitch-

Twitch-

Hearing Lee Shin's low murmur, cross-shaped veins popped out on Mio and Rwen's foreheads.

The two glared at Lee Shin while ferociously chewing on the deer meat they were eating.

"Tsk, here we go again."

"Che, what is it this time?"

The two's voices were laced with thorns, and their gazes towards Lee Shin were fiercer than when they had first met in the alley.

Mio had always had a rebellious streak, so such a sight wasn't that surprising.

However, it was quite unexpected to see Rwen, who had shown a rather favorable and obedient attitude from the beginning, act this way.

"Now, kids."

However, Lee Shin, the one receiving their gazes, wasn't particularly surprised by Rwen's change.

"Let's think about this."

That was because the culprit who had changed Rwen like that over the past week was none other than Lee Shin himself.

"It's already been a week since we left the domain and started our journey."

"I don't know. Besides eating, training, and being passed out, we've just been fighting with you all day."

"And you don't even distinguish between day and night. Do you really think we have any sense of time left?"

The two's answers were full of thorns, as if to stab Lee Shin to death.

However, unfortunately for the two, that wasn't enough to even scratch Lee Shin's face.

"But how come we haven't met a single bandit while coming this far?"

Lee Shin completely ignored their words and only said what he wanted to say.

In Lee Shin's view, Carnia might have absorbed various worlds and a vast amount of knowledge, but perhaps due to the Church's monopoly on knowledge in the center, the overall level of civilization was rather low.

He could be sure of that because he had seen things like horse-drawn carriages a few times while looking around the domain.

Therefore, Lee Shin naturally thought there would be bandits who would attack passing people.

But since he hadn't seen a single hair of a bandit, let alone an attack, it wasn't unreasonable for him to have such a question.

Grin-

At first, the two had annoyed expressions on their faces at the fact that they were being ignored by Lee Shin, but now they were looking at him with eyes that had found an opportunity.

"What, you didn't even know that? That's common sense that even we know."

"Ah, come to think of it, you said you were a transmigrator. Even for a transmigrator, to not even know this... Lee Shin-nim, you seem to need some common sense study."

At the blatantly sarcastic tone, Irehgue, who had been quietly watching the situation from above Lee Shin's head, looked at the two with a strange expression.

In Irehgue's eyes, he could see the two teasing Lee Shin now, along with the memories of the past week.

In the sparring sessions over the past week, Lee Shin had used only the minimum attacks that could awaken their minds, such as flicks on the forehead, and had mostly sparred using only defense or deflection.

In other words, the one defending was always Lee Shin, and the ones attacking were always Mio and Rwen.

Normally, when the difference in level is this severe, the attacker's motivation can be broken, but the two always rushed at Lee Shin with burning enthusiasm.

And the reason they could pour all their heart and soul into the sparring was largely due to Lee Shin.

"What, you can't even do this? Strange. I just tried it a little on my own and it worked. Strange. I don't know if I'm the strange one or you guys are, but something is strange. Right?"

"Wow, don't you guys like that dirty ground too much? I think a snake that crawls on the ground would suit you better than a dragon. No, since you're wriggling instead of crawling, are you an earthworm instead of a snake?"

"Wow, why are you guys, who are attacking in a 2-on-1 fight, getting tired before me, who is only defending without attacking? What, are you hungry? Want something~? Should I catch it for you~? If you want, I can even cook it with fire."

"What, it seems you still have energy left? Tell me anytime if you're hungry. But you remember what you have to say to get food, right? If you don't put sincerity into the pose and the lines, I won't do it."

Because with his brilliant eloquence, he had relentlessly teased them, making it impossible for their true feelings not to come out.

It was only natural that the two, who had become so dark, were now rushing to repay what they had suffered from Lee Shin.

If they had been the same as before after being tormented by Lee Shin like that, that would have been more surprising.

-I do not know how long I should just let this continue.

As Irehgue watched the two for a moment, a hint of jealousy seeped into his eyes.

It was a bit much to watch his first subordinates, whom he had just gotten, seem to be more influenced by Lee Shin than by him.

However, that light of jealousy soon turned into an ambiguous hesitation.

It could be seen as being influenced by Lee Shin, but it could also be seen as their personalities just getting worse, and to stop it, Irehgue also had a lot to gain, so it was hard to stop easily.

"Master, if I throw a rock at that guy later, just pretend you didn't see it..."

"I'm really going to smash his head with a rock when he's sleeping later..."

-Yes, I understand. So for now, get into position and try to operate the cultivation method. I will help you.

Irehgue comforted the two who had been constantly tormented by Lee Shin and was steadily turning the arrows in their hearts to point towards himself.

When Lee Shin tormented them, Irehgue would comfort them.

It was a kind of good cop, bad cop game.

"Alright, so just tell me what you know."

"There's a lack of sincerity in your words."

"Why don't you try at least half of what we did when we were eating?"

At those words, Lee Shin's lips curled up, and he blatantly sneered at the two.

The moment the two were about to get annoyed at the smile, Lee Shin, while still maintaining his wide, smiling face, said in a low voice.

"Do you really want me to do that?"

At Lee Shin's single word, the two's expressions rotted.

Lee Shin, who had clearly engraved who was the boss with a single word, stared at the two as if to say 'hurry up and tell me'.

"...Hoo, do you know about the phenomenon where our world is absorbed into your world?"

"I know, you called it a cataclysm, right?"

"It's easier to explain if you know."

The two, who had sat down grumbling, began to explain while eating deer meat.

"When we absorb another world through a cataclysm, our world also changes as a backlash. And at that time, even the people in the domain gather together, holding weapons with tense faces, and even the knights of the lord's castle get nervous."

"Because you can't predict at all where and how the terrain will change, and what will pop out from the changed place. They're scared."

Having said that, Mio looked at Lee Shin and said.

"A cataclysm is like that. The world completely changes. But there's no way there would be people casually roaming around outside, committing banditry."

"You could suddenly get isolated in an unknown terrain if you're not careful."

At the two's words, Lee Shin tilted his head.

"I heard it's been about 10 years. Then shouldn't there be some people roaming around even outside the domain?"

"To put it differently, it's only been about ten years since this messy world was created."

If you put hot water and cold water in one container, it takes some time to adjust.

But if two worlds are contained in the vessel of a single planet, how much time would it take for them to mix?

And how much time would it take for the chaos caused by the aftermath of the two mixing to subside?

No one knew.

And in the fierce struggle of the wild, a clumsy bandit would not be able to survive.

Mio gave various situations as examples.

Things like a lava zone suddenly appearing in front of the domain, a giant monster suddenly appearing, or a situation where a glacial region and a desert region appear right next to each other.

"Oh, it's a more interesting world than I thought."

At Lee Shin's words, the two looked at him with exasperated expressions.

"By the way, I thought it was strange that the roads were cut off in the middle, so that was the reason."

"You're lucky. It's because a forest and a forest terrain merged."

Mio, who had said that, glared at Lee Shin and said.

"But you didn't even know that, so how were you planning to get to the next domain?"

"I just thought I'd get there if I followed the road. And now that I hear you, it seems I was right, thankfully."

It seemed true that the world was suddenly rearranged by absorption.

However, in Lee Shin's view, it didn't seem to be a completely random rearrangement.

It seemed closer to a situation where if the original parts overlapped, that part would be pushed out, creating a strange terrain.

The current scenery of a continuous forest was proof of that.

On top of that, Lee Shin had already seen a similar phenomenon with his own two eyes.

The moment a World Dungeon burst due to a Dungeon Break.

Because at that moment, the terrain inside the dungeon comes out and mixes with the terrain of Earth.

Rwen, who had roughly guessed Lee Shin's thoughts, asked.

"What are you going to do if some unknown terrain appears in the middle?"

"Then I'll have to go up to the sky and see."

"Huh? You can fly too?"

"To be precise, I can step on it."

Having said that, Lee Shin looked somewhere for a moment and then said.

"But this is interesting."

"What is?"

"I understand that with the world in this state, you can't properly commit banditry as you said. But to put it differently..."

Grin-

"It means that the guys who survive and commit banditry in this chaos are all guys who are backed by a certain level of skill."

Swoosh-

Lee Shin muttered that while looking at a place hidden by trees.

The moment a noble receives a domain recognized by the Church, they receive a certain amount of gold and treasures from the Church and a castle to stay in the domain, and at the same time, they gain the right to have a knight order and build up their power.

However, at the same time, they bear one duty as a noble.

That is to protect and manage their own domain.

It was a natural condition, if you think about it, and not a very difficult one.

However, that was only in normal times; in a world where a cataclysm had occurred, that duty could turn into an extremely heavy burden.

In a cataclysmic world, the lord's job could be to clear the terrain near the domain or to exterminate monsters that suddenly appeared nearby.

But that wasn't all.

Because what came into their world through absorption also included buildings and humanity.

Then let's think.

There are people who have suddenly lost the world they were living in and have come over to another world as a group.

Among them, how many would obediently listen to the lord's orders and bow their heads to them?

Literally, not even a handful.

Most transmigrators resisted the Church and the nobles and wanted to find their own rights.

And the role of the nobles also included dealing with such transmigrators.

Well, and most of those rebellions ended at the noble's level.

Even if the noble was incompetent and died, if the Church confirmed that the related life orb was broken, the Church's paladin order would be immediately dispatched to suppress the rebellion and restrain the transmigrator.

In that way, the Church managed the world by exterminating or suppressing transmigrators.

However, just as there are exceptions to everything, not all transmigrators surrendered to the Church.

Although they could not overcome the power of the Church, there were many transmigrators who chose to escape outside the domain instead.

And the people who gathered like that created their own colonies in the unmanaged wilderness and lived there.

They had created their own territory, avoiding the rule of the Church.

Swoosh-

So for them, the existence of people passing near their territory was naturally a subject of caution.

Even more so if that existence had the skill to notice their presence.

"What's that, why are they suddenly making a fuss?"

"They're violent people. To suddenly threaten without even thinking of talking."

Mio and Rwen muttered, looking at the unidentified people who had suddenly appeared around them with tense eyes.

At that, Lee Shin stood up and said in a nonchalant voice.

"No, if you have power, that's the natural thing to do. It's much more convenient to subdue them first and then ask questions."

At Lee Shin's sudden words, the two looked at him with exasperated expressions, and Lee Shin looked back at them with a wide, smiling face and said.

"So let's do the same."

Grin-

"First, we subdue those guys. Questions come later."

The two, who understood Lee Shin's words belatedly, soon smiled brightly.

It was the smile of a cat that had found a mouse to use as a toy to relieve the stress it had received so far.

(End of Chapter)