Hyper Luck

Only silence remained in this place.

He… Lairo… was staring right at me.

I could not even dare to fathom the depth of his emotion within his deep eyes, which resembled an endless void.

A moment after, a thick black tar-like substance started to drip from his eyes.

It dripped down the cheeks along the curves of the wrinkled face and emitted intense smoke the moment it touched the ground.

And then a terrifying voice, completely different from his screaming voice, leaked out of his mouth.

“Hold my hand. You will be the king of this world. Now, kill that lousy woman who can’t even see you out there. Kill those sons of bitches nobles who are nothing but minions of the empire that fills the world of rotten luxury beyond! Rip out the tongues of anyone and everyone who walks on the Empire with their feet! Tear them apart! Tear! Them! Apart!”

Black liquid spurted out of his mouth and splashed in all directions.

The liquid dripped onto Lairo's pale face, making his distorted face even more sinister.

“I know it all. That you can see something we cannot see, and you can enjoy the power that we cannot! That you are called the Players! And that you are from a different world!

I did research after research with the power I earned through selling my body and soul. Your existence. The very existence that suddenly appeared out of nowhere into the world we live and breathe in.”

My body stiffened up after listening to his horrifying voice.

I started to question who could possibly have made this world, the virtual reality game of <Circuit>.

No, before that, I had to question if this game really was even a ‘man-made’ game. That was how overwhelmingly realistic his identity and twisted ideals felt to me to the point I couldn’t believe it was all fiction at all.

“You’ve come to this world so you could earn powers, and find new entertainment and stimulus which you couldn’t even dream of having in your world. Am I wrong?”

His voice began to soften. My body, which had been stiffened for a moment, began to slowly loosen up.

“So I gave it to you!”

His shoulders started to tremble once more. And his tearing voice popped from his throat again.

“New power! New dreams! Stimulus! Entertainment! Pleasure!”

Black liquid continued to gush out of his mouth.

“Why won’t you listen to my request? You are no more than just a simple guest who came to this world for some piddling entertainment and pleasure! You don’t care what happens to this world!”

“Stop…”

It felt like my heart was crumbling. I spit out words from my mouth, which felt difficult to move, without realizing. The voice that came out from me was a very resolute one that I had never spoken in, even in the real world.

“You’re right. I too came to this world because I wanted to make some big money. And Lairo, thanks to you I have built up some unbelievable experiences and power.”

I slowly moved towards him. I felt some trembles between my eyebrows, and my ears were warming up. My heart felt like it was about to explode.

“Yes… Most of the Players, including myself, come to this world with a goal like mine, or just for pure entertainment and stimulus. That is the truth.”

***

I looked straight at Lairo.

Lairo, who was staring at me with a terrifying light in his eyes, was no longer in the form of a human.

His hair was fluttering in the air like the tail of small embers, ignoring even the direction of the wind.

“But you see, this world was far greater than I could’ve ever imagined.

Linduroak, the place I lived in misery, had a beautiful ocean glowing in the color of an emerald, and the rampart of Asparagan was higher than any buildings I have ever encountered in my life.

The ever freezing snowy mountain of Langeru had made me revere nature, and this place, Bing Caravan, made my heart beat just by knowing that a place like this existed.”

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid. However, I firmly grabbed my sword with both of my hands.

And raised it upwards and pointed the tip of the blade towards him.

“And I’ve met many people on my way here. I’ve met the kind grandma back at the inn of Linduroak, and a Player living a stable life working hard with his carriage.

I’ve also met a person who taught me the way of blades through insanely tough practice routines, and I’ve met my friend, Khea.”

I swallowed dry saliva mixed with heavy emotions.

“I am not a hero or a supernatural being like you think I am. I am also not a psycho who feels joy in slaughtering others without any reason. 

“Mose is no more than just an average person who learned a lot from this world thanks to the chance you have given him.”

And I closed my eyes.

“And this time, I met you Lairo. I’ve learned about the plan you wished to achieve using me, and that you had a sad backstory, not that I could know a lot about it.”

Heavy tears welled up my eyes.

“I am sorry. I cannot grant you your request. However, Lairo, I'll ease the pain you're suffering through. I will try my best, I swear upon my life.”

I moved my right foot to the back. I put strength into my laps. Strength began to enter my calves and ankles like the roots of a tree.

“I will try my absolute best. For you. And for all the people I came across so far.”

With those words, I clenched my teeth as if they were to be crushed, and I jumped up, kicking the ground I had placed my right foot on.

And I swung my sword at him as I was in the middle of the air.

Slash!

The greatsword dug through Lairo’s left shoulder. A numbing sensation rode through my arms as if I’d just cut through a rock.

And at the same time,

Music started playing that resonated with my whole body.

The calm, sad and ephemeral piano tune began to flow, and soon a message window appeared below my view.

There was,

An HP bar.

Which showed how much life Lairo had within him.

At the same time, a struggling movement began to appear inside Lairo's stomach. The movement was so grotesque that it made me want to vomit just looking at it.

The black tentacles that burst out of his stomach immediately rushed towards me.

I quickly retrieved the sword and threw my body back, mixing Sworder techniques with Attoria's swordsmanship to cut and slash the flying tentacles.

However, Few of the tentacles managed to get past since there were just simply too many of them.

Crack!

The armor I was wearing started to break. I was blown back by the strong blow of the tentacles, and I struggled with the pain rising from within.

“Aargh!”

The tentacles only hit the armor, but it felt as if I was bruised all over my body with a shattered rib cage. I somehow managed to correct my shaky vision in that excruciating pain.

< You have 70% of your HP left. >

Thankfully, my body was relatively fine despite the pain I was in. This was possible because Mose’s stats had surpassed far beyond those of a normal human.

I cut and slashed through the tentacles flying at me again and again with my blade.

But as I cut through the tentacles, it became so painful that it got difficult to even breathe.

< You have 50% of your HP left. >

< Warning! You have 30% of your HP left. >

My vision was soaked in red.

However, I never let go of my consciousness. I gave everything I had in dodging and slashing all the tentacles that were flying at me.

“Mose! Feel my hatred! Every single one of these stems is the living embodiment of my hatred! It is fundamentally different from the trivial little memory lane you tried to show me!”

His evil voice made my ears tremble. And so,

< Warning! You have 10% of your HP left. >

“Kurgh!”

I was struck by a tentacle that I couldn’t manage to dodge. I kneeled down on the ground with blood gushing out of my mouth. I barely managed to cut the tentacle that was flying at me in this position.

I was helpless before the power of a three-digit level.

If this was just an ordinary game, he would’ve been considered a very strong boss monster.

A boss monster with a sad and desperate background in the story that the main character in the game has to fight against.

As I slashed through the last tentacle, I had come to accept my end.

But at that moment,

The greatsword held in my hand was engulfed in golden light. The red jewels adorned in the sword turned golden and wrapped around me.

And a message window appeared,

< You have successfully defeated 100 monsters. >

< The effect of Attoria’s Stigma is activated. >

< New skill acquired! >

[ Disastrous Flame: Solar Storm ]

Class: Active

This skill can only be activated when equipped with Attoria’s Stigma. If ‘Attoria’s rising sun set’ is present within the skill caster’s inventory, it is automatically equipped as the skill is activated.

Summons an intense flame storm.

(Range: 250m radius within the caster)

Attack damage: 14,245 ~ 15,561

1,226 damage per second to the enemies touched by the flame

(Duration: 100 seconds, up to 3 stacks)

(The flame can only be cleansed by ‘holy’ type based skills)

I felt an indescribable foreign feeling that filled my head after the words that quickly passed in front of my eyes.

My collapsing body instinctively began to follow the new sensation of a foreign feeling in my head.

Kneeling down on one knee, I grabbed the sword with both hands and slammed it into the ground, like a greeting from a knight in a movie.

This was the command required to activate the Solar storm. It was the action required to activate an ‘active skill’.

Kneeling steadfast in the midst of the piercing tentacles flying towards my body from all directions, I gripped the hilt of the sword that was getting hotter by the seconds.

And then,

I felt it.

The cold metal that covered my body, the broken armor that fell to the ground, and the new set that began to be put on me was the Attoria's armor set.

As soon as I put on this surprisingly light ash gray armor, my whole body was filled with strength. And before I could even feel it to the end,

Fwoo—!

And eventually, the golden light that fluttered from the sword

Exploded and spread all across the land.

Just like sunlight!

The light soon turned into a flame. The flames swirling around me were like a cruel, hungry beast.

The flames burned all the tentacles into ashes and filled the space of silence that Lairo had created.

Lairo's remaining health bar, located below my line of sight,  was noticeably falling.

This was the power of the legendary item.

If the unique item Sharma manifested the ability to momentarily twist the laws of physics, the legendary item had the power to completely overcome the laws and annihilate the opponent.

The flame turned everything within the space of silence into ashes and suddenly disappeared.

Lairo, wrapped in flames all over his body, began to writhe and scream in pain.

“Kyeeegh!”

The shape of the face protruding from the slimy mass that was hard to even call a body was definitely Lairo.

He screamed and screamed. Lairo, who had been repeatedly protruding from the mouth of the face within another in a monstrous shape, was unable to extinguish the fire and continued to struggle in pain.

The man had become a monster so full of hatred that each one of his tentacles was considered a monster,

And I was sure that he wouldn’t have any holy type skills to cleanse himself from the flame of Attoria that continued for 100 seconds.

I carefully walked up to him. 

The sad piano tune that echoed in my ears was reaching its climax.

There was only one thing I could have done for the ashes of hatred groaning in pain.

I thrust the sword into his left chest with all my might.

The tentacles that had bloomed all over Lairo's body started shaking, then stopped moving.

As soon as the black tentacles receded, Lairo's pale face appeared as if floating above the surface of the water.

He had tears in his eyes, with a relaxed smile on his face. I raised his collapsed body and put him on my lap.

“Thank you…”

And as soon as I saw his face, my whole body was engulfed in white light.

Then words filled my vision.

< Your level was increased by one! >

< Your level was increased by one! >

< Your level was increased by one! >

< Your level was increased by one! >

… 

…

…

Though I didn’t pay any attention to them. I slowly looked over Lairo’s expression.

“Mose, the thing I truly wanted from you might have been salvation.”

Lairo shed clear tears with completely black eyes with no whites in his eyes.

“Thank you, thank you… And I’m sorry…”

He said, with a weak whispering voice.

He turned to ashes, scattered in vain between my fingers and my knees. And soon, the veil of silence that was around me disappeared.

“Mose!”

I heard Khea’s voice. However, I was only staring at the handful of ashes on the floor and the words that appeared in my sight, weeping sorrowfully.

< Hidden trait ‘Lucky Ruiner’ acquired! >