175
-Oh
-That stalker’s back again
-Get lost, will you.
-The guy who hit rock bottom is still at it
-Pathetic. Truly pathetic.
-Want another taste of the lightning?
-Washed-up, out!
-Go learn how to write a guidebook from Black Dragon.
-Yeah, not happening. lol
Adventurer A had returned, as expected.
The viewers unleashed a torrent of sharp criticism.
“You’re going to make it humiliating?”
Hanbit looked back at Adventurer A, standing there with total self-assurance.
Judging by the movement of his hands, he had brought something along.
“Stop pretending you’re relaxed. I’ll strip away that mask of yours.”
“Hmm.”
The sheer venom in him made it clear he intended to see this through to the end.
The same was true of Hanbit.
“You came alone today?”
“Alone is more than enough. You think a vanguard is a vanguard for nothing?”
Arrogantly spoken, but the strength of a vanguard was real.
Going just by level, he was probably somewhere in the mid to late 200s.
“By the way, don’t even think about running. If you try to leave, the traps will detonate.”
Adventurer A pointed at the air with a finger.
A faint scattering of white particles was mixed into the atmosphere.
A trap magical device that relied on the user’s mana.
“Hard to deactivate before killing someone.”
“That’s right. Think carefully before you move.”
At Hanbit’s answer, Adventurer A curled the corner of his lips.
The face of someone who believed everything was in the palm of his hand.
“Black Dragon, should I take him on?”
Just then, Haneul, watching from nearby, asked casually.
Her level was 190, but the Tower of Vortex rewards had given her substantial stats.
Having invested heavily in agility on Hanbit’s recommendation, her speed was not lacking even compared to a vanguard.
As a bonus, since Adventurer A had struck first, Hanbit’s party had no PK penalty.
“Your student doesn’t seem to know much. Doesn’t seem like you’re much of a teacher.”
Adventurer A sneered with a scoff.
A middle schooler, with a level clearly lower than even Black Dragon’s.
It was, literally, nothing more than a child playing around.
And yet.
“Want to try?”
“Yes!”
Something about the exchange between the two took a strange turn.
“…What?”
He thought he had misheard.
Letting a mere young player fight a vanguard.
That was throwing straw into a fire.
Slide—
The sky-blue-haired girl drew the silver dagger and took her stance.
“Who do they think they’re treating like nothing.”
Adventurer A, now annoyed, drew his own sword.
The fact that he didn’t use a skill was because he was confident he could win on pure physical ability alone.
“Come at me. I’ll kill you in one——”
Fwish—!
In an instant, the girl vanished from Adventurer A’s field of vision.
All that remained in her place was a silver afterimage.
Eyes going wide, he spun around on reflex.
Clang—!
The colliding blades rang out sharply and sent shockwaves through his arms.
Tat—!
The girl used that recoil to step back and immediately kicked off again.
This time it wasn’t a disappearance — it was a scattering, like splintering afterimages.
A situation he couldn’t make sense of.
Apparently that silver dagger the girl carried had some special effect.
Grrrk—
Adventurer A ground his molars and loaded his sword with the grey energy of Ashen Form.
At the same instant, the silver afterimage came charging in once more.
Whorl—!
The girl’s speed as she spun and drove in was faster than most vanguards.
Screeeech—!
He swung his sword roughly and deflected the trajectory of the incoming attack.
This time, the point of impact scattered into a silver afterimage.
Whoosh—!
Just then, a dagger came flying from an unexpected blind spot.
Fwish—!
An attack that grazed his cheek and pierced through empty air.
The girl, continuing forward, came to a stop directly in front of him.
“Tch.”
Adventurer A used only a minimum of the Ashen Form skill in his response.
He could overwhelm her with an area technique, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to pour everything into it.
-Huh?
-Why is she so fast?
-Kids these days are scary. (genuinely scary)
-Could she actually win?
-Her damage does seem a bit lacking though.
-Referee’s call: Haneul gets the W.
-Agreed.
The viewers were just as shocked by Haneul’s remarkable movements.
Hanbit, on the other hand, was watching the fight with a cold eye.
‘She’s rushing a bit, as expected.’
The faster someone moves, the wider the gap between their intent and their actions.
It was a matter of experience, but it seemed she’d need to be taught more carefully.
As guidance, naturally.
Clang—!
The battle continued.
It was plain to see that Adventurer A was holding back out of pride, not going full force.
Of course, that restraint reached its limit quickly.
“You’re actually annoying me!”
At Haneul’s persistent hit-and-run attacks, Adventurer A snapped.
Slash—!
A wide sweep of his sword scattered grey fog.
Haneul, instantly sensing danger, pulled back quickly.
In that moment—
Boom—!
Adventurer A slammed something into the floor.
‘That’s… ‘
A brown cube the size of a fist came into Hanbit’s view.
A magical device that bound targets within its range.
Whooom—!
With an ominous resonating sound, a shockwave swept over the area.
“Wh — what is this?”
“My body——!”
Those who had reacted on instinct found themselves frozen, as though grabbed by something.
“Ugh!”
“It won’t break!”
Noeul and Haneul, who had tried to resist, were also bound without being able to fight back.
That was how absolute the effect of the binding magical device was.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen this.’
Hanbit, his own body equally frozen, calmly let his mind drift back.
He had been exposed to this very magical device through a certain mage’s trickery once before.
Pat— pat—
Cheonho, perched on his shoulder, was busily scratching at the air with its front paws.
The binding force was clearly visible to the Hwansoo’s eyes.
“Now that’s more like it.”
Adventurer A approached with a satisfied expression.
The lightness in his steps told everyone just how much he was enjoying this.
-Huh?
-Are they bound?
-What
-Gets beat in a straight fight so he pulls out items.
-Pathetic. Trash.
-Is this a loss?
-Ah, this isn’t right.
The sudden crisis sent viewers rushing to the chat.
Winning against an enemy while bound was impossible.
No one wanted to see Black Dragon lose in such a helpless manner.
“Is this your trump card?”
Hanbit asked in an utterly unhurried tone, body still frozen.
Adventurer A, standing a few paces away, curled his lips.
“Spent a little money. Good items are also a vanguard’s ability.”
“Well, that’s a fair point.”
Hanbit agreed and nodded.
Having broad knowledge of various items, and knowing how to use the right one at the right time — those were absolutely necessary strengths.
“So using mine is also an ability?”
“You? In that state where you can’t even open your inventory?”
Adventurer A scoffed at the question.
From the look of it, this magical device also had the effect of restricting part of the system’s operations.
Meaning he could only pull items once he broke free of this binding.
“So then, who should I kill first.”
Adventurer A shifted his gaze from Hanbit and began to walk slowly.
He came to a stop in front of Haneul.
“You moved fast enough. Guess your teacher never taught you about situations like this?”
Mockery aimed at the restrained girl.
But Haneul smiled faintly and said:
“You can never beat him.”
“….What?”
“I said you can’t beat him. Black Dragon doesn’t lose to ugly old men like you.”
“Ha.”
Adventurer A let out a hollow laugh at the blunt insult.
“Fine. I’ll just kill you.”
Fwish—
He immediately raised the grey sword high.
And the moment the cold blade came falling toward the top of Haneul’s head—
Clang—!
His sword was deflected with a sharp sound.
“…?”
Adventurer A, not yet understanding the situation, let his gaze land on what was in front of him.
Standing there was Black Dragon, pale blue sword in hand.
Tat—!
He took the sky-blue-haired girl and stepped back.
From head to toe, there was no trace of the binding force on him.
“…What?”
At a sight he couldn’t help but doubt his own eyes over, it was Adventurer A who froze instead.
A binding that required level 200 to overcome.
Black Dragon, who should have been far below that, breaking free of it made no sense whatsoever.
“How — how did you break it!”
“It was loose, so it came undone.”
Hanbit moved Haneul to a safe position and answered without much thought.
He reached into his inventory and drew out the Madness-Imbued Summoning Stone.
“There was actually something I wanted to test. Good timing.”
Flash—!
The moment he activated the summoning stone, a disturbing shimmer stretched from the crystal and drove into the ground.
And a short while later—
Slide—
Ten fully armed Madness Legion elites appeared.
“…!”
Adventurer A immediately came to his senses.
The grotesque summons he had seen on Black Dragon’s stream.
Those things had arrived.
“You think those summons are any match for me?”
“Normally it’d be a bit difficult. But these guys are in a brilliantly bad state right now.”
“What?”
Crack—
The elites came to a stop with the strange sound of joints snapping.
The faces that had always been cackling with laughter now wore only a quiet, still smile.
Drip—
The elite commander at their center was even shedding silent tears.
The elites who had been active in the tower’s inner depths for an entire week.
The deepened madness had twisted their condition in a peculiar direction.
“What a bunch of freaks….”
Adventurer A frowned and looked at the jesters with open displeasure.
Slide—
The grey blade had already shifted into a form suited to killing targets.
Annoyance flooding through him, he fixed his gaze on Hanbit.
Tat—!
Adventurer A kicked off and came charging at tremendous speed.
The result of combining that with the haste effect on his boots.
Boom—!
The sword clad in the grey Ashen Form struck the elite that blocked his path.
As expected from a vanguard, the force was immense.
Crack—!
Two elites whose bodies were crushed by the impact went flying and embedded themselves in the distance.
But—
Thud—
The ones who should have died rose back up with broken necks and shattered limbs.
The masks on their faces, bent the wrong way, still wore the same quiet smile.
“Creepy little——”
The unease, settling in like a chill, grew denser.
In the meantime, the other elites began their attack.
Crackle—!
Fwissssh—!
Dark crimson lightning and shadows of madness scattered as they charged forward.
The frenzied battle unfolded at a rapid pace.
Boom—!
Kra-krrr—!
Adventurer A’s attacks dealt heavy damage to the elites.
But with bodies shattered and bent all wrong, they kept on coming.
The corners of the masks on their faces curling slowly upward was even more unsettling.
-Good grief
-Stop smiling
-Is this real?
-Were they undead all along?
-Even an undead would cry and go home at this point.
-For real, they’re sobbing.
The scene had become too bizarre to even call a battle.
Adventurer A, dealing with the elites, was also swept up in the strange atmosphere.
“Just die already!”
With a player, you could at least infer their emotions.
But the insane jesters closing in on him just kept smiling without a sound, giving nothing away.
There was one way to end this.
Kill Black Dragon.
Kwa-kwa-kwa—!
Adventurer A shifted the shape of his sword and charged toward Hanbit, ignoring the elites.
In that moment, the elite commander who had been shedding tears moved.
Slide—
It slid in and attached itself like a shadow to the back of the running Adventurer A.
Then it stretched out its arms and legs and wrapped around his body.
The dagger touching his neck conveyed nothing but a cold sensation.
“…!”
Adventurer A, who had failed to notice the approach, went wide-eyed at the creeping sensation.
“Aaaargh! Let go!”
He stopped instinctively and screamed, trying to shake the enemy off.
But the elite commander, slowly tightening its grip around his body, just kept pouring out silent tears.
Looking at its state, it seemed to want to take its sweet time in killing him.
‘Not bad.’
Hanbit watched the fight and calmly assessed the situation.
Thanks to the influence of the deepened madness, even a sustained fight against a vanguard was manageable to a degree.
Of course it wasn’t generating enough firepower to kill — but upgrading the summoning stone could be done later.
“Aaagh!”
Ka-boom—!
Adventurer A screaming and using skills at random.
The blast’s shockwave was gradually drawing closer to the others who were still bound.
“Everyone, return.”
Tat—!
At Hanbit’s command, all the elites returned to their positions.
He dismissed all the summons and put the summoning stone back in his inventory.
“….Huh?”
Adventurer A let out a dazed sound, screaming still dying on his lips.
His gaze landed on Hanbit, standing there completely composed.
“You little——!”
As though only now registering his own actions, anger ignited in his eyes.
A thoroughly self-indulgent man.
“Let’s wrap this up.”
Hanbit took his stance with his sword in hand.
The attitude, as though standing above the situation, grated on Adventurer A even more.
Grrk—
Most of his plans had already gone sideways.
But killing Black Dragon was a problem that could still be resolved.
Slash—
Adventurer A, who had reshaped his blade into its distinctive form, also took his stance.
He was the first to kick off.
Tat—!
Adventurer A charged, scattering grey energy.
He had boosted his speed with items, but that very fact made his movements easier to read.
Whoosh—!
The sword swinging diagonally came flying toward Hanbit’s neck.
Having predicted the trajectory, Hanbit tilted his body with ease.
Fwish—!
“…!”
The attack, missed far too easily, sliced through empty air.
Adventurer A, who had trusted in his own speed, could only go wide-eyed.
Whorl—!
Hanbit leapt off the ground, twisting his body and swinging a leg around.
That light-looking motion carried tremendous force behind it.
Crack—!
“Ugh!”
The impact that drove into his waist sent Adventurer A’s body crashing to the ground.
A kick aimed precisely at the vulnerable spot in the armor he was wearing.
Even accounting for the difference in their levels, this was something that simply shouldn’t have happened.
That kind of speed paired with that kind of power — it defied any sensible understanding.
Tat-tat—!
Adventurer A crawled away and retreated quickly.
With his judgment lost, his mind was a jumble of ‘kill him’ and ‘run’.
Slide—
Adventurer A drew a bomb item from his inventory.
An expensive piece of equipment that tracked and killed its target.
“Die!”
Whoosh—!
About eight round orbs surged toward their target.
Looking at them, flame was blazing on Hanbit’s blade.
Fwish—!
He swung his sword immediately, and a wind blade mixed with Salliste’s flames carved a wide arc through the air.
A trajectory that sliced precisely through each of the eight orbs.
Ka-boom—!
The tremendous explosion that erupted in midair stirred up dust and obscured the view.
Tat—!
Just then, the sound of retreating footsteps reached him.
Not letting it escape him, Hanbit settled into a draw-cut stance.
And then—
Fwish—!
With Wind Leap, he surged through the cloud of dust.
Shhk—!
Hanbit came to a stop alongside the pale blue sword that had cut through something.
When he turned his head, he saw Adventurer A, severed from shoulder blade to throat.
“This is impossible——!”
Crackle—!
His last words were cut off by the flames blazing along the wound.
Adventurer A’s reddened body vanished in no time.
Ding—
[Experience points increased by 2,500,000.]
