Chapter 156:Solo. 100 vs. 1.
The players gathered inside the castle were caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, staring in shock at the unfolding situation. The two knights flanking the first player to be beheaded weren't able to properly defend him, but after their own heads were crushed, the guild leader shouted.
"Knights, stand together! Mages, fall back! Don't let them destroy you!"
His shout had the power to clear their minds and allow them to quickly respond to his commands.
"Is this a command skill?" With that thought, Seo-woon focused his attention on the knight shouting from afar.
***Woosh! Zzzzt!***
As he concentrated on the fireball as it cut down the charging knights in their iron armor, he began to see the commanding knight's abilities.
***Kang!***
Thinking he was facing low-ranking players, Seo-woon winced, advancing with brute force. As he charged forward, a sharp slash landed on his back. A player, holding a crowbar in one hand and a long, thin dagger in the other, retreated into the crowd as soon as his attack failed.
"An assassin." This one was even more skilled than the assassins he'd encountered before. Keeping him alive would be a problem, but pursuing him once he disappeared into the crowd behind him would mean walking into an ambush while they advanced.
Seo-woon had three reasons for deliberately charging into the crowd and starting the fight. One was to attack their weakest point. Another was to neutralize the mages' attacks. And finally, to create an atmosphere of fear. If he charged into the crowd and created chaos, it would be very difficult for the mages to use offensive spells. Not only would area-of-effect spells be ineffective, but even small spells could accidentally hit allies, placing significant restrictions on the mages. Even with his high fire resistance, the repeated hits from dozens of mages' concentrated spells would inevitably cause the damage to accumulate.
***Crack! Crack!***
Seo-woon shattered the stone hands that sprang from the ground and gripped his ankles with force, and continued forward.
"Magicians! What are you doing? Grab his legs!"
Seeing them focusing on status-altering spells, Seo-woon stepped toward Moo-ryeong-hwanbo. His body began to multiply, becoming twelve in a flash. The misdirected status-altering spells ricocheted off the guild members.
"Idiot! Where are you looking when you cast spells? Break it quick…"
***Thud.***
One of the excited warriors screamed, clutching his own leg, before his head was cut off.
"That's Ganggi! The real one using Ganggi! Look closely and aim correctly!"
At the enemy commander's words, Seo-woon's lips curled into a smile. "Then he won't use it."
Muryung continued to expand his body with Hwanbo, killing the enemies with his own sheer strength. Even without using Ganggi, his breakthrough power remained undiminished. It was impossible to detect from a distance, as the moment he attacked the enemy, he unleashed a short burst of Ganggi from his fingertips, knocking them to the ground.
"What are you doing! Drop the illusions and aim for the real one! Mages!!"
Despite the enraged shouts, the mages couldn't keep Seo-woon on his feet. With every step he took after finishing his attack, his body doubled or tripled in size, making it difficult to stop him.
"Don't get too close! I can't use magic!"
He already knew how to deal with mages from fighting Cloyd. He had to either get close to the mage or stay close to his allies. Using this standard tactic, Seo-woon fought against 100 enemies.
***Kvaang!***
"Kraaah!"
"Ah! Retreat!"
Seo-woon, advancing relentlessly, stopped for the first time since the battle began. The knight, thrown by Seo-woon, picked up the fallen iron mace and glared at Seo-woon.
"His advance is slowing." Several skilled knights blocked his path, and Seo-woon licked his lips in disappointment. He wanted to at least reach the mage line before the guild members could adapt, but the enemy's reaction was faster than he expected.
A knight who appeared to be as skilled as a Royal Knight began to attack Seo-woon.
***Kang!***
Seo-woon blocked the heavy knight's attack, but his body was slightly pushed back. Unlike other knights who relied solely on strength, this knight's agility seemed quite high as he used his weight to launch his attacks. Seo-woon frowned, focusing on the enemy commander while also keeping an eye on him.
"A little more… Can I focus more?"
The moment he thought this, Seo-woon increased his concentration, concentrating Hwa-an Geumjeong within a radius of about five meters. The knight's movements in front of him became clearly visible.
"A little more… a little more…"
His Hwagangjin glowed intensely with a blood-red light as he dodged the knight's repeated attacks like fluid water, and Seo-woon could sense the movements of everyone within a 50-meter radius like the back of his hand. He began to see every single movement of countless people and could sense the flying spells, the status-altering spells flowing around the ground and approaching him from every angle. Seo-woon began to be overcome by that exhilarating and unique feeling.
***Poof!***
Seeing Seo-woon's constant defense, the knight lost his confidence, and blood gushed from his mouth as he unleashed his stunning skill. The shock was even greater because it was a decisive skill that could instantly freeze enemies within a 10-meter radius if the weapon in his hand were to strike the ground.
Even before the weapon touched the ground, Seo-woon blocked it with the sole of his foot, spun back, and in one fluid motion, struck the knight's heart with his elbow. The knight, his heart pierced, fell to his knees and bowed his head.
Several top players blocked Seo-woon's path as he passed, but they couldn't even touch a single strand of hair. His attacks were so natural, as if he could read every move, that it was impossible to know how to respond.
"Kraaah!"
"What is this? This isn't an illusion…"
At that moment, screams rose from the back row of mages. Seo-woon had sent clones of himself, mixed with the illusions he'd created with Moo-ryeong Hwanbo, into the back row, drawing all the enemies' attention to himself. Seo-woon, enveloped by the strange feeling Hwa-an Geum-jeong had unleashed, began to fall under his spell.
***Kwaah!***
***Squeak!***
***Bang!***
As he advanced, killing the players rushing towards him with a single hit, he gradually forgot his current state and surrendered his body to the feeling that enveloped him.
***Kwaah!***
Finally, the mages unleashed powerful wind and fire spells to stop him, even at the cost of his comrades' lives. A terrific explosion of flames erupted and engulfed Seo-woon. However, he leaped out of the flames and continued his attack, completely unharmed.
Unfortunately for them, they had concentrated their attacks on fire magic.
"This is impossible! How high is his magic resistance?"
The screaming mage's head was cut off, and finally, all the players in the arena were defeated, leaving only one player. The officer, who had been playing since the guild's early days and had steadily increased its membership, stared in disbelief at Seo-woon approaching him. With the crown within sight, he knew the names of the players he should watch out for. Of course, Jin Seo-woon was among the best players. But Jin Seo-woon was different from Cheonma, who was to be avoided at all costs. He had decided that a three-digit number of guild members would be enough to defeat him.
"What's frightening about him is his growth rate." The guild leader's appraising words flashed through his mind.
"Zzzzzzzzz!" Raising his sword, he charged at Seo-woon, his mind no longer in a state of cold-blooded judgment. With more than half of the guild members already dead and the backline decimated, he should have ordered a retreat. Even now, the right decision would have been to survive at all costs and avoid being left behind. But he couldn't.
***Ssshhhh!***
His sword was slashed in the air, and the light of life faded from his eyes as the commander's body collapsed, his entrails spilling out.
With no enemies left to kill, the feeling that gripped Seo-woon began to fade. "Ah!" A burning pain in his left eye and a headache that felt like his brain was being squeezed shut gripped Seo-woon. Pressing his hand to his eye, Seo-woon dropped to one knee and remained there for a moment.
Surrounded by over a hundred boxes, Seo-woon stood up with a regretful expression after the pain subsided and looked around. "Just a little longer… I wish I had stayed a little longer." A feeling of regret lingered in his mind, thinking he might have realized something if it had lasted a little longer.
After a moment of that lingering feeling, he began collecting the loot.
#
"What the…"
"Damn it! Crown's Jin Seo-woon!"
"More than a hundred have been eliminated."
"Where is he? Where do you think he is?"
"There were only two guilds with around a hundred members. One was..." The player, looking at the castle rising at the edge of the city, was speechless and swallowed.
"Does anyone know who Jin Seo-woon is?" The player looked at the twenty or so guild members and frowned. They knew his name, but it was difficult to recognize his face unless they saw him in person.
"I've heard of him. He looks like an ordinary young man with short hair. He's around 180 cm tall, maybe a little shorter…"
"…"
It was nearly impossible to identify Jin Seo-woon based on this description alone. Less than two hours after the game started, a fifth of the players had already died, causing unease among all the players who had participated in the game with Seo-woon. Given the high elimination rate in this game, it was inevitable that all the players were worried that he might be nearby.
#
"Survivors." Remaining survivors: 397/500 . . . Jinsu-… Jinsu-… Jin Seo-woon…
Seeing the incredible list, the silver-haired player smiled and looked at his guild members.
"Wow. Isn't that amazing?"
"Sir. They're just players of that rank. They're nothing special."
"Really? I met him on Earth once… I felt a significant presence. It's hard to describe… It was like he saw his brother."
"My lord has already surpassed Gwanggun."
"Don't make dangerous comments. The throne still belongs to my brother."
The man, emphasizing the word "still," went through the list one by one with an amused expression.
#
Having finished looting the boxes, Seo-woon sighed and looked at the massive castle. "This will take a long time." As Seo-woon walked towards the castle, he muttered something that would make the other players envious. "At least I escaped a penalty."
All that was left was to hunt item monsters and finish the game by placing in the top 10. Seo-woon frowned, looking at the map as he walked. "Far away." The epic monsters hadn't appeared yet, and the buff monsters and bosses were far away.
After looting the castle and obtaining a significant amount of scrolls and two uniquely named rings, Seo-woon walked out. He had acquired many other good items, but the only ones he could directly use were uniquely named rings. If he could replace five rings with unique ones, he could wear unique rings on all nine of his fingers.
"I'll give the rest of the rings to others." The named rings themselves were quite valuable and difficult to loot, so he considered selling them, but more money meant nothing to him.
After leaving the castle, Seo-woon looked in different directions for bosses and power-up creatures, then began moving in the direction of the bosses. This game wasn't real-time, but it was unique in that it was affected by Earth time at a 30:1 ratio. Since 30 hours here equaled 1 hour on Earth, he didn't want to make the game too long.
As he ran along the city walls, gradually revealing himself, the sun began to set, and darkness fell. Despite this, Seo-woon didn't take off his invisibility cloak. Normally, it would have been natural to hide at night, however, he kept his appearance clearly visible because he wanted to encounter as many enemies as possible in this game.
#
"Is it really the right thing to go towards the castle?"
"This game is already challenging with epic-level monsters. If we play it safe and collect loot slowly, we might fall behind. It's better to go for the main prize."
"But what if there's an enemy there?"
"No problem. I've collected enough Crooked Eyes. If things get bad, I can use the teleportation scroll."
With that, the warrior held up the scroll and ring in his hand. "This is our chance. Collecting this item early is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Cloyd. If we release the demon king in the underground dungeon, we'll be playing big. We're not releasing it into the real world anyway!"
After saying these things, the knight threw his black cloak over his head and walked towards the palace with his guild members.