Chapter 182
Once I saw the opening, I kept seeing it.
Everything else aside
Pedro had a subclass. How was it that he had a subclass at just level 30?
An Irregular.
I was already seeing several Irregulars, anomalies I would have been unlikely to et even once in my past life. Probably because I now lived in a different world, aning I t different people. They were a class of humans I couldnt even have dread of eting in the past, but now, it felt all too ordinary.
Starting with CEO Song Kiyoung awakening as a Player at such an advanced age and showing outstanding performance.
There was also Ahn Seohye, who was currently one with the Guardian Tower. And now, there was a Master with the Thief class. Such rare facts completely unknown to the world were now a part of my daily life.
And the fun thing was, the manly man obsessed Pedro was a biological woman.
Though him being a girl isnt really important.
Whether Pedro was a woman, a man, nonbinary, or anything under the rainbow didnt matter to . But a thief? Master and thief was a seriously mismatched combo.
Whatever the case, Ive gotten another card up my sleeve.
That was a good thing.
Youre not thinking about sothing wicked, are you? Pedro squinted warily at .
Wicked? What exactly would that be?
Your smile felt kinda evil sohow.
Evil? Im only thinking about how to best use the info youre hiding to profit , thats all.
Youre mistaken. Theres no reason to have wicked thoughts towards a manly man, no?
Pedro was easily convinced. Thats true. Manly n need no words to communicate.
No, sir. n need to speak to communicate, too. Your idea of manly man is probably an ideal that doesnt exist in reality.
But I left that unsaid.
In any case, we arrived at Piazza Navona. It was bustling with countless picture-taking tourists. We headed to the fountain.
There are quite a lot of Players.
Senia showed herself.
Player Kim Hyukjin. I will give this as a gift. A certain Guardian sponsored it for the sake of smooth Playing.
She gave
a Translation Marble.
Nice.
It sure was convenient. Playing well really did pay off. With the Translation Marble, I heard murmurs from the vicinity.
Interdiate Administrator?
There was an Interdiate Administrator that beautiful out there?
The gazes of countless people imdiately focused on us. The culprit? Senias appearance.
My god
That she was beautiful, that she was noble, that she was like a lily; such words were thrown around all over the plaza.
Senia. Switch to invisible mode.
Is that necessary?
You draw too much attention.
Why is that so?
Thats
That sparkle in Senias eyes was just my imagination, right? It had to be. When I looked at her again, her expression was as much of an ice block as ever. As expected of the epito of expressionlessness, Senia.
But for whatever reason, she was being a little stubborn today.
Why is it that I draw attention?
...
What does Player Kim Hyukjin think that reason is?
Obviously because youre overly pretty. Pointlessly so.
Please tell
the reason.
What did this angel want to hear?
Because, well, you look interesting.
Senias wings fluttered for a very brief mont.
Interesting?
You have wings.
Is that interesting? Wilson over there is a tree. Isnt that more interesting?
Was it just my imagination that she was getting particularly irritated today?
Anyway, youre getting in the way of Playing.
Your appearance attracts too much attention, okay?
This interesting-looking angel will switch to invisible mode.
Her prim way of speech was the sa as usual, but it felt even more curt today. Well, her coldness wasnt a one or two day thing. I decided not to think about it anymore.
Lets see...
In the past, the Italian server fell short in combat Player competence compared to the Korean server.
Now theyre on a similar level with Korea, I guess.
It was true that the level of Korean Players had declined because of . They also had less crisis awareness.
But it still feels like the combat ability of Korean Players is a touch higher.
I scanned my surroundings with Observers Eye. The result of my observation was that on average, Korean Players had a little more combat prowess than Italian Players.
However, the craftsman and production classes
There was bound to be a big difference there. In the first place, the Italian server tended to have high growth in Players of that area. With that, I finished my general evaluation of the server.
But
A group of Players was camped in front of the fountain. I knew one of them.
* * *
* * *
What was his na again?
I couldnt rember his nahe wasnt a Ranker. I just rembered his face.
Na: Beratto
Ah, right. Beratto. An extrely famous racist and Youtuber Player.
He assaulted Koreans multiple tis, inciting public rage.
There was another thing he was famous for.
His class is similar to Lee Sungcheols.
He was a Player with a power similar to the Gatekeeper Lee Sungcheols, soone who was most powerful in places set as entrances.
His group noticed ours.
Hostility?
Out of nowhere?
Not towards .
It wasnt directed at , but at Vela.
Vela. Do you know that person?
Who?
One of the Players camping in front of the fountain.
Vela peered at the group.
No?
You dont know that man in the middle wearing the blue t-shirt?
I dont rember him at all?
I see.
He had no mory of him. Just then, Wilson showed himself.
Vela, hes the guy you beat the living daylights out of fourteen days ago. You even brought him to the verge of death.
Really? Why?
He appeared to have zero mory of the person he hit.
He was beaten for being a jackass in front of a gate.
Ah! Vela seed to rember now. But wasnt that a Korean? And didnt he die?
The green leaf on Wilsons forehead shook. He imdiately pressed a hand to it, very careful not to let it shake anymore.
Thats soone else.
Eh?
That was the Korean server.
Vela still looked like he didnt rember this guy at all.
Well Velas always had a lot of enemies.
His fiery personality had earned him a lot of fans, but also a lot of enemies. Beratto was probably one of Velas many enemies.
Passing through without trouble is gonna be hard.
For now, we walked up to the fountain.
But do they know theres a gate at the fountain?
Even in the Italian server, only production class Players were maybe aware of it. It might be that Berattos gatekeeper ability allowed him to sniff out the gate.
I heard a voice.
Stay back.
It was Beratto.
Co any closer, and Ill kill you, he growled.
Are you talking to ?
Thats right. You.
The hostility that had been directed at Vela earlier was now pointed at . I had a good idea of why Beratto was doing that.
His attitude is influenced by a Guardian.
And the Guardian wholeheartedly backing him most likely had a racist disposition.
What does this yellow monkey think hes doing, stinking up the air with his breath?
He was intentionally using provoking language.
It will be difficult to capture the hearts of many Guardians with such an extre style of Playing.
What are you saying, you damn monkey!
He didnt even dare look at Vela. Apparently, this battle nut had given him a really severe beating.
Vela squinted at the guy. Were you ever beaten by , by any chance?
...
Beratto flinched. There was a spark of rage in him, but fear won over his anger. Just how badly had Vela thrashed him?
Looks like you need another beating today.
Shut up! Beratto shouted despite his fear.
Because he gets stronger in front of a gate.
The fountain itself was a gate. Activating it by fulfilling special conditions would allow us to teleport to the Forest of Dwarfs.
The confidence slowly began to return to Berattos face.
Well, he prolly got so support or sothing.
Fighting Beratto wasnt my objective, and I had no intention of wasting a bunch of ti here.
You must have camped here knowing there was a gate, but we will be going through.
Shut up, monkey. How dare a re monkey butt in when humans are talking.
Vela brandished a fist.
Wilson. Im killing him, okay?
I stepped in front of him. You cant kill.
This was related to what I said earlier. Guardians with extre dispositions would like to see this guy killed, but the majority of Guardians with moderate dispositions wouldnt be particularly pleased with killing soone over sothing so minor. In other words, it was a polarizing Play. To achieve great success, it was best to aim for Play that wasnt polarizing.
Also
Even outside of that reason
Murder isnt right.
A person killing another person wasnt right. I wanted to avoid unnecessary killing if it wasnt a special case like with Seo Joohwan. That was what I thought in the past, and that was what I would continue to think.
The monkey cant go through. If you guys wanna go through, cough up the Coins.
...
Ah, right. If the monkey wants to go through, just gim 10,000 Coins. Itll be 7,000 Coins for you guys.
Pedro appeared to know Beratto already.
It was 5,000 Coins before!
That was then. The price has gone up today.
Killing him would be easier, Vela muttered.
I took one step forward. I felt a weak authority from the gate. Water surged skyward from the fountain and ford a spear.
Monkeys need to be beaten to see reason.
The spear made of water rushed towards . I didnt dodge. I just let it hit .
Szzzz!
The spear vaporized and disappeared when it hit . That was because the fire ki within
was far stronger than the water ki the spear possessed.
You seem to be rather confident in your skills.
I once destroyed a distorted authority made by the Shepherd Boy as well as the distorted authority of the Yellow Charm Gate. Compared to that, breaking an authority of this level was childs play.
Your Playing doesnt break the rules.
This Play of occupying a gate and displaying great power there to extort tolls wasnt against the rules. That was his ability, after all.
But its also not an upright and fair style of Playing.
The System had a tendency to seek fair Play.
Distorted authorities can be easily broken, you see.
Basically, I had the type advantage. Freeing a gate was closer to fairness than blocking it with force. Gates were made by the System to be entered, not blocked. The System settings would take my side.
Ill give you one chance before I break it. Back off.
It wasnt that great to cause a fuss in another server. The Guardians of that server didnt really like it when Players from another server made a ruckus in theirs. At least the majority didnt.
Beratto chortled. Is a dog barking sowhere?
And that was the last thing he said before Velas fist t his face.
[May all lies.]
[Be shattered.]
Berattos authority shattered with my quiet incantation, and Beratto was beaten half an inch from death by Vela.
Sp-Spare .
Apologize for calling my friend a monkey and all that. If you dont, Ill pull out your tongue.
Beratto kneeled in front of , desperately rubbing his hands. Snot and tears ran down his face as he professed he would never do it again, but I didnt pay him much heed. It was a waste of ti and ntal energy to pay attention to a small fry like Beratto.
A lot of people started filming us in the process. Of course, I was using Cognitive Dissonance.
...I will activate the gate, said Pedro.
A gate that could only be activated by a special class. I was suddenly able to click the fountain.
[Move to the Forest of Dwarfs?]
After a short ruckus, we were able to make it to the Forest of Dwarfs, a forest of steel. It was indeed a forest, but one made of iron, gold, and countless other minerals.
Thats
I spotted an object I could click with my eyes, a silver stone laying on the ground.
[Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron]
Cold iron that is at least ten thousand years old. A mineral with an extrely cold nature, only special people can handle Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron.
*Cannot be collected
I couldnt collect it.
Theres Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron here?
As I examined the surroundings, Vela interrupted .
Hyukjin. Can I just ask one thing?
What?
That gate just now, how did you do it? You muttered sothing and that guy totally freaked out.
I shrugged. I learned an incantation from Vela, a very basic one. That ant Vela would one day co to know about the existence of incantations as well.
An incantation.
Not just Vela, but Pedro was focusing on . Pedro seed extrely fascinated with
breaking Berattos authority as well.
An incantation? Whats that?
Its like a chant that draws out a special strength. Youll learn about them later, too.
...
Vela scratched his head. You really do amaze
more and more. And here I was, priding myself as a Ranker. Next to you, Im such a country bumpkin that Im not even from this planet. Sothing seed to occur to him. But that gate earlier, could it have been broken with this, too? I was actually thinking of using it.
Reviews
All reviews (0)