The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 33

Thud-

The moment Lee Shin woke up from his state of self-forgetfulness, the [Madness] that had fulfilled its role disappeared like a bubble, and Lee Shin collapsed on the floor.

'Ah, I might really die if I stay like this.'

It wasn't an exaggeration or a joke, but his pure impression after objectively assessing his own condition.

His body was torn to shreds from continuously moving while [Madness] was activated, and he had sweated so much that he felt like he would collapse from dehydration at any moment.

'Seeing that the carrier is empty, it seems I was consistently putting energy bars in my mouth even while I was in a state of self-forgetfulness.'

Lee Shin crawled to where his carrier was, panting as if he would pass out at any moment.

Just by reaching for the carrier, his arm creaked and screamed, but he forcibly moved his trembling hand and brought the water bottle in the carrier to his mouth.

Fortunately, since he had opened the lid in advance, the farce of not being able to drink water because he couldn't open the lid did not occur.

'Phew, now I feel like I can live.'

As he emptied one bottle of water, he felt the [Recovery] that had stopped moving at some point start to move again.

He felt strength gradually returning to his body as it recovered, and he emptied all the other water left in the carrier into his mouth.

He had brought a large amount of water in preparation for a 'just in case' situation, but the amount of water he had lost through sweat was even more than that.

'Haa, my thinking was short. If I had known this would happen, I would have brought two carriers.'

Thinking so, he let out a sigh of relief at the sensation of being alive again.

"Even if I met an oasis in the desert, I don't think I'd be this happy..."

As his body was getting further and further away from the Sanzu River, a system message appeared before him as if to congratulate him on his survival.

[Your stats have increased.]

[You have reached the limit of your level.]

[A level-up quest will occur.]

'Hmm, I thought I would achieve it in the near future, but I didn't think it would be today. The combination of [Madness] and [Recovery] is more effective than I thought.'

The moment he was about to check what quest had appeared, a new message appeared one after another.

[You have already achieved sufficient conditions.]

[The quest will be automatically cleared.]

"What?"

He momentarily doubted his eyes at the unexpected system message, but the system message continued as if it didn't care.

[Your level is increasing.]

[The limit that was blocking you is disappearing.]

[You take one more step toward the path.]

[The path grows by absorbing what you have experienced.]

[Your skills grow as the path grows.]

"Status, skills."

Lee Shin, who had been staring blankly at the message, slowly opened his mouth and checked his condition.

Name: Lee Shin

Level: 2

Path: Atypical Madness

Strength II: 14

Agility II: 14

Sense II: 24

Intelligence II: 23

Internal Energy: 25

"Hmm, seeing that the numbers written after the level and stats have changed to 2, it seems my level has definitely gone up."

And yet, he felt somewhat bewildered.

"By the way, leveling up without a quest... I've never heard of such a case. Ah, right, there are no players who have leveled up."

He thought about the current phenomenon for a moment, but soon erased it from his mind.

It wasn't something he could know just by thinking about it for a moment, so it was a waste of time to think about it.

After lightly clearing his head, this time he looked at his skills.

Nothing else had changed, but one skill was different.

[Atypical Madness]

-Unique

-Your mind is abnormal. Therefore, you have succeeded in controlling [Madness] in an abnormal way. In this abnormal situation, your [Madness] has learned and grown. This, which has changed, is, like you, crazy but not crazy, something that is madness but cannot be called madness.

His brow furrowed slightly as he read the skill to the end.

"What kind of explanation is this? No, if it's a system, it should just state the main points simply, why are there so many useless supplementary explanations?"

He grumbled in disbelief, but nothing changed.

At that, he thought for a moment, then switched the switch and caused [Madness] just a little.

-[Madness] is encroaching on your body.

An eerie atmosphere was about to flow out from around him, and the cracked gears were about to move again.

In that instant, he immediately released [Madness] and fell into thought.

'I used it for too short a time, so I don't know what has changed. It doesn't seem like the usage has changed, at least.'

He decided to investigate properly later, put the carrier with the items and the spear into his newly expanded inventory from leveling up, and then left the dungeon.

"First, I should go eat."

It felt like his stomach was sticking to his back.

***

He went into an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant he had seen on his way and filled his stomach.

The waitress who was serving him looked at him as if she were looking at a monster, and the owner of the restaurant looked at him with murderous eyes as if he were looking at the enemy who had killed his parents, but he just ignored them and focused on filling his stomach.

"Phew, now I feel like I can live."

After eating 100 plates of sushi and emptying 5 water bottles, he felt a sensation of being reborn and stood up with a satisfied face.

"Check, please."

"...Ten thousand won."

Even though the water he drank alone would easily exceed ten thousand won, the waitress had no choice but to answer so while glancing at the owner.

In a situation where other customers were watching with great interest, she couldn't suddenly change her words and ask for more money for the food.

"It was delicious. I'll come again next time."

"That is..."

Lee Shin left without even listening to the rest of her words.

He had no particular intention of coming again, but seeing the waitress's troubled face was fun, so he had said so without thinking.

'Well, it might not be bad to come again one more time.'

Lee Shin drove his motorcycle back to his house, thinking something that would have made the owner faint in horror if he had heard it.

He was thinking of taking a light shower and then sleeping for a while before entering another dungeon.

He thought that this daily routine would probably continue until the day Cheon Yuhwa had mentioned, and he fell asleep.

Wudeudeuk-

And even while he was sleeping, [Recovery] was diligently focused on returning his body to its original state.

***

10 a.m., three days after he came to [Wonderland].

A time that could be called late if you said it was late, and early if you said it was early.

Eun Yeon-woo was staring blankly at a bus in the guild's underground parking lot.

'How did things end up like this?'

On the first day he was free from Lee Shin, he had enjoyed a long-awaited vacation, using various methods he had only thought of until now.

And the next day, after finishing his preparations, he had received a one-sided message from the guild telling him to come here today.

To briefly explain the contents of the message, it was like this.

-You have been selected as a member of the dungeon raid team. Please come to the conference room by 8 a.m. tomorrow to listen to a brief briefing, and then board the bus to the dungeon at 10 a.m.

"...Haa."

The moment he saw that message, he was able to experience what it felt like to lose his appetite for the first time in a long time.

And time passed, and today, the day of the dungeon raid, had come.

"Haa, I just took a short break, but I really don't want to work."

He looked up at the ceiling with blank eyes, then, out of boredom, decided to loosen his hands a bit and began to take out and organize his butchering tools one by one.

If there was someone nearby to talk to, he might have thought of making some simple small talk and getting some information, but since he often moved alone with Lee Shin, his guild connections were not wide.

'Well, but the numbers in my bank account are more than most players, so it doesn't really matter.'

He checked and maintained his tools one by one, and then finally looked at the things he had received after arriving here.

"Hmm, three potions and two daggers..."

Thump, thump-

He looked at them for a moment and muttered to himself without realizing it.

"Since it's a LV.2 dungeon... does it mean we have to protect ourselves if a 'just in case' situation happens?"

"That's probably right. After all, in a LV.2 dungeon, you can't guarantee that there won't be any threats inside. By the way, it's a bit surprising that they're even giving out potions. It seems supporters aren't being persecuted or abused."

"Ah, this wasn't given for us to use individually, but for the team to use...?"

He stopped talking and suddenly turned his head.

He hadn't noticed because they had blended in so naturally, but someone had come right up next to him.

"Really? Well, it's right for the supporters to have the potions, since it would be a funny thing if the person fighting broke them."

When he turned his head in the direction of the sound, next to him was a man with sharp eyes, looking at the potion in his hand with fascination.

And his expression became a little strange as he confirmed the person who had spoken to him.

'What is this? Did he come to pick a fight with me? It doesn't seem like it.'

Eun Yeon-woo thought so, momentarily tensing up at the man's villain-like face, but no matter how he looked, the man didn't seem to be trying to pick a fight with him.

And yet, he did not avert his wary gaze from the man and naturally came to examine his face.

'By the way, how can a person look like this?'

It was an incredibly handsome face, recognizable even from the side.

But when that face was combined with sharp eyes and a playfully raised corner of the mouth, the images of villains from dramas came to mind, and his wariness automatically rose.

'But something about his voice feels familiar...'

"What are you staring at me so strangely for? Is there something on my face?"

At that moment, the man turned his gaze from the potion and faced him.

And the moment his eyes met the man's, one person's name naturally came to his mind.

"Brother?"

The man who heard his words, Lee Shin, looked at him as if he were absurd.

"Hmm? What's with the sudden strange question? By the way, do you have the potions I'm supposed to eat too?"

"......"

Eun Yeon-woo stared blankly at his suddenly changed overall appearance.

He hadn't noticed at first, but as he looked at Lee Shin, thinking it was him, he began to see his appearance little by little.

Pale skin from not going out often and a voice that seemed to strangely get on one's nerves.

Eun Yeon-woo, who had completely accepted that the man in front of him was Lee Shin, let out a chuckle in disbelief and muttered.

"He's not a character from a comic or a novel, but he suddenly becomes handsome after getting a haircut, what is this..."

But Eun Yeon-woo didn't even have time to be dumbfounded.

Beep-

The clock was already pointing to the assembly time.