The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 97

Alice (Light): Is everyone doing well?

A single message from Cheon Yuhwa appeared in the chat room, which had been utterly silent.

Since everyone in the chat room was living a busy life, no one responded immediately to her message.

-Tiring

However, after about an hour, people who had seen Cheon Yuhwa's message started to gather in the chat room one by one.

Arachne (Poison): Unni, it's been a while! I've been doing well! Have you been well?

Heracles (Strength): Hahaha! A scary person has appeared! What news have you brought today?

Even though he had only read the message, it felt as if he could hear Arachne's cheerful voice and Heracles' hearty laughter.

At that, Cheon Yuhwa smiled lightly and moved her fingers.

Alice (Light): It's nothing much. I just contacted you to ask if the work of dealing with the Black Guilds is going well and if you are reviewing the things I told you well.

Heracles (Strength): Hmm, was that the reason? If so, there's no problem. I'm handling it smoothly.

Arachne (Poison): I'm studying hard the things you showed me, unni!

After receiving answers from the two, Cheon Yuhwa chatted about various things.

As they were chatting, people started to come in.

Alice (Light): Ah, come to think of it, I think the LV.3 dungeon will appear soon.

Merlin (Magic): Oh, did Crowley upgrade the dungeon detector?

Oz (Black Magic): Come to think of it, there was a lot of research related to dungeons among research.

It was a short sentence, but Merlin and Oz, who were fellow mages, were able to roughly deduce the situation from that alone.

And through the words of the two, the rest of the people were also able to roughly deduce the course of events.

Heracles (Strength): It's always been like that, but Crowley's artifacts have many strange functions.

Uriel (Recovery): Did Mr. Crowley also receive blueprints or ideas from Alice unni?

Crowley (Alchemy): That's right. It was an experience that completely shattered the frame of my thinking.

Merlin (Magic): Right, I never thought the day would come when I would receive the research results of my future self.

Oz (Black Magic): I'm still overflowing with ideas, so I'm just researching every day.

Oz (Black Magic): Ah, but I'm also properly doing the things you asked for, Alice.

Oz, after saying that, quickly added as if he were conscious of Cheon Yuhwa's gaze.

Arachne (Poison): I'm kind of jealous~ After hearing about my future self's fighting style and its characteristics, I only fought with Alice unni.

Heracles (Strength): Hahaha! The fact that those three are mages is one of the reasons, but it seems that psychics are getting special treatment.

Instead of making an excuse, Cheon Yuhwa readily nodded her head.

Alice (Light): Since I myself am an aura user, it can't be helped. As a bonus, the nameless guy is similar. It ends with just giving him the fighting style and the secret martial arts manual.

Arachne (Poison): Hmm... that's right.

Uriel (Recovery): It would be easier to understand it as a characteristic of magic that makes it easy to transmit knowledge.

And so, the topic of conversation naturally began to flow around Cheon Yuhwa.

Come to think of it, it was natural.

In terms of the skills they had.

In terms of the information in their heads.

In terms of the experience they had fought with so far.

Because the one at the center of the ten of them now was Cheon Yuhwa.

Heracles (Strength): Even thinking about it now, the appearance you showed during the spar was amazing. As a fellow aura user, there were many things I could see.

Uriel (Recovery): I know, right? The total amount of aura seemed to be less than that animal idiot, but everything else seemed to be superior in unni's case.

Alice (Light): In the end, what has the biggest influence on aura is mental strength.

Cheon Yuhwa had faced and continuously overcome greater hardships than all of them present here combined.

Her current mental strength was nothing more than a byproduct of that.

Arachne (Poison): The parts about the aura were certainly amazing, but the way unni kept activating her skills was even more goosebump-inducing.

White Tiger (Fist): Was it?

Baek Hyun-woo reacted a little lukewarmly because the face of one person he had fought to the death for two weeks came to mind.

But the thoughts of the other people who had never faced that person were firm.

Uriel (Recovery): Right. I was certainly surprised while watching. It was to the point where I thought she had another head.

Arachne (Poison): By the way, what were you doing that you're only here now?

White Tiger (Fist): Don't even ask. I thought I was going to die.

Hearing those words, Cheon Yuhwa chuckled.

To think she had another head.

'If I have two heads, then that guy would have about ten...'

Cheon Yuhwa briefly imagined ten Lee Shins gathered at the same time.

"...Ugh."

Goosebumps ran down her entire body.

Alice (Light): Now! Let's talk about the LV.3 dungeon!

At that, Cheon Yuhwa quickly decided to change the topic of conversation.

Alice (Light): As I said, thanks to Crowley making a new dungeon detector, we know when the LV.3 dungeon will appear.

Arachne (Poison): When is that?

Alice (Light): They said it seems like it will start appearing in about a week.

At Cheon Yuhwa's words, Crowley added.

Crowley (Alchemy): For reference, that prediction was measured in Italy where I am, so there may be an error.

Heracles (Strength): Hmm? Wait a minute. A week? I think that's different from the time Alice told us before.

Alice (Light): That's right.

At Heracles' question, Cheon Yuhwa readily nodded her head.

This was the real reason Cheon Yuhwa had gathered them.

Alice (Light): I don't know the reason either, but the future has started to move in a slightly different direction from the future I knew.

Cheon Yuhwa explained to them the sense of incongruity she was feeling.

Alice (Light): It seems there are cases where higher-grade dungeons appear, skipping the intermediate process, and the overall movement of the dungeons is a bit different from what I knew.

At Cheon Yuhwa's words, the other people.

Diz (Element): What, then is there a possibility that the dungeon you said would appear won't appear? I thought I could get some fresh inspiration.

Arachne (Poison): Ah, that could happen.

Crowley (Alchemy): Then that would be a shame.

They showed no particular reaction, to the point where Cheon Yuhwa, who had spoken, was flustered.

Alice (Light): ...I'm talking about something serious right now, so why are your reactions so indifferent?

Diz (Element): Because to us, it's all the same anyway.

Diz answered immediately without any hesitation.

Diz (Element): You're a self-proclaimed regressor, so you're anxious about the fact that the future you knew has gone awry, but to us, what we didn't know has just changed back to what we didn't know. There's nothing new.

Heracles (Strength): Hmm, is this what the young people call a 'fact attack'?

Arachne (Poison): Rather than that, that oppa's way of speaking is just snappy in the first place.

Heracles (Strength): Come to think of it, that's right.

No matter what they chattered about outside, Diz, as always, just said what he had to say at his own pace.

Diz (Element): Well, don't be too scared, coward. If you just do your best and struggle, it will work out somehow.

'Is he trying to comfort me right now?'

Cheon Yuhwa was so dumbfounded that she stared at her phone for a moment before moving her fingers.

Alice (Light): If you're going to say something like that, do it after you've beaten me, you loser.

At Cheon Yuhwa's single sentence, everyone in the chat room fell silent.

Seeing that, Cheon Yuhwa decided to just pour a whole lot of oil on the fire.

Alice (Light): As far as I know, Nameless and White Tiger are feeling a sense of crisis and are getting stronger at an increasingly faster rate. If you keep staying still, you'll fall below those two.

Alice (Light): Ah, for reference, I'm saying this to everyone here.

Cheon Yuhwa left the chat room after saying that.

The smartphone she had thrown on the bed was vibrating violently, but Cheon Yuhwa ignored it.

"Doing my best..."

It was certainly the right answer.

Perhaps she had been thinking a little arrogantly.

That because she knew the future, she could perfectly handle any situation.

Chuckle-

'It was clearly an absurdly arrogant thought, but to think I'm only realizing it now.'

Cheon Yuhwa let out a chuckle and got up from the bed.

"Then for the remaining week, shall I go and get some of the fortunate encounters I've been putting off?"

And the other people, stimulated by Cheon Yuhwa's words, also devoted themselves to training and acquiring fortunate encounters, preparing for the coming future.

***

Flutter-

"Oh? Is this the last one?"

Lee Shin, who had confirmed that there was no next page, carelessly threw the bundle of paper he was holding in his hand somewhere on the floor, as if he were throwing away an empty coffee can.

Thump- Thump-

And he fumbled on the floor in search of a new cultivation method.

"Oh?"

There was nothing his hand could touch.

Lee Shin rolled his eyes and checked the floor, only then realizing that what he had just thrown was the last one.

It had only been a week since he had borrowed them, but he had read all of the more than 3,000 books.

"Hmm, this is a problem."

Lee Shin looked at the now empty space with a slightly sour face.

It wasn't a problem of not understanding the martial arts or not having enough time.

Because during this week, Lee Shin had slept all he needed to sleep and eaten all he needed to eat, and had read, perfectly memorized, and understood 3,527 cultivation methods, and had accepted them as his own.

Thinking about it with common sense, it was an impossible task, but that was only for the body of an ordinary person, not a player.

Lee Shin's mind, which boasted infinite stamina when it came to things he was interested in, and the memory of having researched numerous martial arts cultivation methods in the past tutorial, made such an impossibility possible.

In the first place, Lee Shin had the ability to use sword ki, albeit in a limited way.

But...

"I don't know what to do from now on. I thought if I read a lot, a direction would naturally be set in my mind."

The reason Lee Shin had read the cultivation methods for the past week was to reinforce the [Flame Lightning Water God Art].

Although he had been using it well so far, the [Flame Lightning Water God Art] was a cultivation method whose framework was made with basic cultivation methods, so there were many empty parts in various ways.

'What should I do...'

Well, if he wanted to reinforce the cultivation method right now, he could.

He hadn't read over 3,000 books out of boredom.

But that wasn't enough.

The problem was not in Lee Shin's head, but in his heart.

"Hmm..."

There was nothing that struck him in his head, saying 'this is it!'.

99% of steady effort and 1% of flashing inspiration.

If one inspiration points the way, ninety-nine efforts become blocks and create the path that the inspiration points to.

That's why Lee Shin considered one inspiration more important than ninety-nine efforts.

Because effort without a direction is just a vain struggle, and what is created with it cannot fascinate people.

What he had done so far was a kind of preparation to be able to catch the flashing inspiration whenever it came.

'Come to think of it, I miss it.'

This wasn't the first time he had been in this situation.

He had gone through a similar process when he first created the Flame Lightning Water God Art.

'At that time, I got inspiration while looking at a picture on the internet, right?'

He remembered it as a picture of a skinny, golden tree with no leaves, under a red sky at sunset.

It was ambiguous to call it a well-drawn picture, but to Lee Shin at the time, that picture had come as a flashing light.

"...Shall I take a light shower first?"

Inspiration is something that you don't know when it will come.

Lee Shin decided to take it easy for now.

(End of Chapter)

Nameless is Sword King.