The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 67

"......"

-......

At Alpha's words, Beta and Joker couldn't say anything.

They didn't know what to say.

The three of them were taken in by [Dawn] at a very young age and grew up receiving life-threatening training.

Alpha as an assassin, Beta as a spy, and Joker as a hacker, they all developed their skills excellently.

But in the process, their inner selves were wounded in various ways, and some parts died as they were.

Even after time passed, the scars did not disappear and remained in their places.

Thanks to the considerable time that had passed since they escaped from [Dawn], they were able to live a somewhat normal daily life, but sometimes there were moments when that daily life became unbearably awkward.

A moment like now.

In this situation, they had no idea how to express the emotions they were feeling.

It wasn't as if a good answer would come out just by desperately racking their brains.

"Th-thank you, Alpha."

-Uh... I think I'm quite moved.

"...Yeah."

Chirp-

A deep silence, so thick that the chirping of a bird from somewhere could be heard so clearly, fell between them, and they couldn't bring themselves to look at each other's faces, so they each turned their heads in different directions.

The first one to break the silence was Joker, who was at least on the other side of the phone.

-S-so, Alpha, how strong do you think you are now?

At Joker's question, Alpha's eyes lit up as if she had grabbed a lifeline, and she said.

"Yeah, I think I can do my part if I use the parts Smile taught me this time and the artifacts Joker makes. Just trust me."

The two smiled lightly at Alpha's words.

"But Alpha, what do you mean you tested Smile?"

At Beta's words, Alpha said quietly.

"It's just as it sounds. I thought Joker was thinking of letting Smile participate in the plan."

-Uh... was it obvious?

"A little, it showed on your face."

Alpha said, nodding her head, and Beta, who had expected it to some extent, was not surprised about it.

Beta was rather surprised at Alpha.

'She usually looks dazed, but there are times when she's strangely sharp like this.'

Whether she knew Beta's thoughts or not, Alpha continued her story.

"But I couldn't be sure if letting Smile participate in the plan was a good choice."

"You mean Smile is suspicious?"

At Beta's words, Alpha shook her head.

"No, that's not it. It's just as it sounds, I couldn't get a good read on the person called Smile. I kept watching him while moving with him, but I couldn't be sure if he would be a gain or a loss to us."

"But now you seem to have figured it out?"

"Yeah."

Alpha, who rarely spoke much, took a moment to catch her breath after speaking for so long, and then continued.

"If Smile had approached us with hostility, I thought that Smile's betrayal shouldn't happen while we were planning. So I showed him a big opening, but Smile just smiled and let it pass."

"...Then what if Smile had hostility?"

At Beta's words, Alpha said honestly.

"At that time, I was going to buy time. I had a lot of artifacts I got from Joker, and even if the worst happened, it would be a problem that would end with just me dying."

Hwoong-!

The moment she heard those words, Beta swung her fist without hesitation.

But Alpha took a step back and easily dodged Beta's attack.

"Why did you hit me?"

"You dodged! And don't try to think of such an important thing by yourself!"

-Beta is right about that.

Alpha found it hard to understand why the two were reacting this way, but she nodded her head for now.

"Alright, then I won't do that from now on."

"Haa!"

Seeing Alpha's appearance, Beta let out a big sigh in frustration.

And at the same time, she looked at Alpha with a pitiful look.

Although all of them had entered [Dawn] at a young age and received training, Alpha was especially young among them.

Moreover, because she had received assassin training, her emotional line was twisted in this way.

'They must have instilled in her the mindset that her own death doesn't matter for the sake of the organization and the mission.'

As her thoughts reached that point, Beta felt a sense of disgust for [Dawn] again and clenched her fists.

Joker, to resolve the situation, brought up a new topic again.

-So what do you think? Do you think it's okay to let Smile participate in the plan?

"Hmm, honestly, I'm still not sure, but I think he won't attack us at least. He might be after something else, though."

At Alpha's words, Joker thought that was enough and nodded his head lightly.

"I was prepared to take that much of a gamble when I first offered a deal to Smile."

Joker said, and lightly clapped his hands to signal the end of the story.

"Now, then, let's end this story here... I have something to show you two, so come back quickly. Thanks to what you guys brought, the puzzle has finally been put together enough to see the outline."

At Joker's words, Alpha and Beta's eyes lit up and they ran to where Joker was.

It was the morning when the sun was beginning to appear.

***

After parting with Alpha and Beta, Lee Shin decided to enter a nearby dungeon for a moment before returning home.

Since it was a LV.1 dungeon, he was able to handle it up to the boss room so easily that he yawned.

Thus, Lee Shin sat on the body of a giant gray wolf and checked his status and skills for the first time in a long time.

Name: Lee Shin

Level: 2

Path: Atypical Madness

Strength II: 27

Agility II: 31

Sense II: 39

Intelligence II: 38

Internal Energy: 45

Lee Shin looked at his splendidly grown status and nodded his head in satisfaction.

'My stats are going up well, probably because I keep [Madness] on even in my daily life.'

Muscles, simply put, grow stronger and tougher by repeating destruction and regeneration.

And Lee Shin had the skill [Madness], which could destroy his body, and the skill [High-Speed Recovery], which could heal his body.

Thanks to that, if he kept [Madness] and [High-Speed Recovery] on in his daily life, his stats would grow on their own.

But this was a foolish method that only Lee Shin, who could feel pain and still be fine, could do.

As mentioned before, when [Madness] is activated, the person feels a severe pain as if their bones and flesh are being ground in real time.

In other words, Lee Shin was living while experiencing such severe pain every day.

An ordinary person would have gone crazy long ago, but Lee Shin was just happy that his stats and [High-Speed Recovery] were growing well on their own.

'Irhegue is teaching the cultivation method, so the internal energy will grow gradually. Then what's left is the skills...'

Lee Shin looked at the skills he had one by one.

-[Flame Lightning Divine Art] ([Flames], [Lightning])

-[Flame Lightning Divine Spear] ([Leaves], [Branches])

-[Flame Lightning Divine Step] ([Flame Leaf Returning Step], [Thunder Wood Line Step])

-[Atypical Madness] ([Irhegue])

-[High-Speed Recovery]

-[Ten Poisons Immunity]

'Hmm, if I include the additional skills, I've gotten quite a lot of skills.'

Among them, Lee Shin looked at the description of Ten Poisons Immunity.

-[Ten Poisons Immunity]

-Normal

-In the process of returning from death, your body has instead devoured the poison and made it its own. Your body has now begun to have resistance to basic poisons.

'This was also a skill I got when I met Irhegue. Thinking about it this way, Irhegue is a complete lucky charm.'

Kkyu-!

Irhegue, telling Lee Shin that he could praise him more, wagged his tail.

'As for the items, it would be better to look at them all at once when I check the ones Geum Hyun-mo made for me later. Well, the growth is smooth.'

But for Lee Shin, that was precisely the complaint.

That time was flowing too smoothly, so he was bored.

Although he was trying to find various interesting things, it was still incomparable to the feeling he felt in the moment of a life-or-death battle.

'There's a lack of incidents...'

"Ah~ I want to have fun, going 'bang' here and 'bang' there..."

Lee Shin, who had carefully let out his inner thoughts where no one was listening, looked at the sky and began to think about what to do in the future.

'Should I stop messing with the Black Guilds for now and focus on raiding monsters again?'

It wasn't a bad choice.

Recently, top-tier LV.2 dungeons were also appearing here and there, and if he borrowed the name of [Wonderland], he would be able to enter them somehow.

'The Black Guild guys were not bad at first because there was a fresh taste of things like guns or traps, but after playing with them for a week, I'm getting tired of it.'

But even as he thought so, Lee Shin knew that he would not stop hunting the Black Guilds.

Because there was something that bothered him, making it hard to stop hunting the Black Guilds.

Lee Shin took off the mask covering his face and muttered.

"Ah~ If I just coax those guys a little more, I think they'll let me in."

Lee Shin tapped the wolf's fangs with his heel and was lost in thought.

As a result of the information Lee Shin had gathered so far, for some reason, the three were building up their strength to get revenge on an organization called [Dawn], and by the looks of it, they were contemplating whether to drag Lee Shin into it or not.

Of course, if they made an offer because it seemed interesting, Lee Shin was thinking of accepting it gladly.

But the problem was that these three, as if to tease him, did not offer to join them.

But to wait any longer, raiding dungeons seemed more interesting than hunting Black Guilds, and above all, his annoyance was starting to rise.

"Hoo, alright. Since I've come this far, I'll try to endure for up to 3 days. For now, after tomorrow's work is done, I'll say I have something to do and give them time to think. And in the meantime, I'll go into a dungeon and heal myself by rolling Yeon-woo and Hyun-seok around."

Grin-

Lee Shin praised himself for his perfect plan and stood up, dusting off his bottom.

"Well, if the three of them decide not to accept me after 3 days, I'll just change my course to taking over their plan itself."

Lee Shin, who had decided on his future course of action, came out of the dungeon with a refreshed mind.

Tiring-

The moment Lee Shin came out of the dungeon, the smartphone in his pocket rang with a cheerful sound.

Geum Hyun-mo: The items you ordered are all finished, so come and get them tomorrow.

"Is this Sally's law?"

Lee Shin, at the continuous good things that had happened, smiled and returned to his house.

"Hmm... hyung, you're here?"

"Oppa, you're here?"

When Lee Shin returned home, Lee Hyun-seok, with a bedhead, greeted him with a sluggish voice, and Lee Hyun-young, who was wearing an apron and preparing breakfast, greeted him curtly.

After Lee Hyun-young had been in danger in that neighborhood before, the two had come to live in Lee Shin's house on the condition that they would take care of various chores.

"Kid, give me food. With a meat side dish."

"What's with the greasy meat side dish in the morning..."

"Rent, food expenses, transportation expenses, the clothes you're wearing, and other leisure expenses."

"Alright!"

Thanks to the two of them doing various things like laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc., Lee Shin was spending happy days with many parts of his life becoming more convenient.

"I'll be out after a shower, so please have ten steaks ready by then."

"What kind of person eats like that every time? There must be a beggar in his stomach..."

Lee Hyun-young, following Lee Shin's words, grumbled continuously while opening the refrigerator to cook the steaks.

But unlike her words, her hands, which were cooking the steaks, were full of sincerity.

(End of Chapter)