Chapter 21
Title : But Why Go Out of Your Way to Kill Another Player?
Author : ㅇㅇ*
- There has to be a definite benefit, right? Why else would you try to kill them?
└ There is a definite benefit. Killing one player as your first kill guarantees a two-level increase.
└ After that, the experience you gain varies by level, just like when hunting ordinary monsters.
└ Pioneer) The rest are either people who kill purely to take the other person's items, or people who have lost their minds.
└ You were living an ordinary life, then suddenly dropped into some bizarre place called the Tower. Since there are no laws or anything there, plenty of thrill killers go on killing sprees after losing their minds.
└ Great Mage) Quite a lot.
* * *
Before Han Yoo-seong was summoned to the Exchange Gathering, he recalled what people had been discussing in the gallery.
‘A guaranteed two-level increase.’
That was certainly enough to drive a player who had yet to commit their first murder to do something as insane as murder.
Baek Jin-young was still pointing his sword at Han Yoo-seong.
“Put the item you got for placing first in the Exchange Gathering on the ground, then stand there with both hands raised.”
Facing Baek Jin-young, Han Yoo-seong opened his mouth.
“When did you two become a team?”
Baek Jin-young curled up the corners of his mouth and readily answered.
“We met at the last Exchange Gathering and added each other as friends. That's why we were summoned together this time.”
Baek Jin-young continued.
“We decided that if one of us failed to place first, we'd kill the player who did and take their item. Ah, if you're planning to stall for time and return to the Tower you came from, you should give that up. If you attack while that circular white light is appearing, it cancels your return.”
Baek Jin-young also told him facts Han Yoo-seong had already learned from the seniors in the Transcendent Gallery.
When Han Yoo-seong remained still even after hearing him out, Baek Jin-young tilted his head.
“Can't you react because you're afraid, or are you just unwilling to hand over the item you managed to get your hands on?”
Baek Jin-young turned his head toward Sun Haoran.
“Then we should kill him and take what he drops. Sun Haoran, kill him.”
Sun Haoran curled up the corners of his mouth.
“Sure.”
Han Yoo-seong knew why they saw him as such easy prey.
It was obvious.
< 3 >.
The number floating above his head.
That single number.
That must have been the source of their confidence in approaching him so fearlessly.
“I was aiming for the last hit. Why'd you go and steal it by throwing a spear in there? That kobold got hit head-on without even dodging because the others and I had already worn it down, didn't it?”
Baek Jin-young clicked his tongue and continued.
“I don't know why that Laura bitch, a Hard-difficulty player, was so useless for her own difficulty. She didn't even know I was from Hard too. Since I acted servile, she just stuck her nose up, tsk.”
Baek Jin-young failed to notice.
He had no idea that Han Yoo-seong had made a decision after hearing what he had just said.
Han Yoo-seong asked casually.
“You're from Hard. What about him?”
Baek Jin-young snorted.
“He's from Normal. Even so, he's someone a nobody like you couldn't beat.”
Whoosh-
Sun Haoran waved the spearhead in front of Han Yoo-seong's eyes.
“Think of it as bad luck, Floor 3.”
As Sun Haoran said that, he stepped forward with his right foot. The spear shot forward like lightning.
Shhk-!
The shaft of the spear shot up into the air.
“…Huh?”
Sun Haoran's dumbfounded voice echoed.
Another flash of light flared across his vision.
This time, he couldn't make a sound.
Blood was spurting from his throat.
“Kuh…krrk!”
Sun Haoran dropped the spear and clutched his throat with both hands.
“Khhhaak!”
But that did nothing to stop the blood.
Sun Haoran's body, collapsed on the ground, writhed like a worm. Soon, even that writhing ceased completely.
He was dead.
“……”
Baek Jin-young swallowed hard as he stared at the pool formed by the blood flowing from Sun Haoran's neck.
He felt like a complete idiot.
As if his thoughts had stopped.
A resident of Floor 3.
A player who had only just cleared Floor 2 had killed Sun Haoran, a Floor 7 resident.
Something utterly incomprehensible had happened.
Baek Jin-young's mind was filled with nothing but confusion.
Baek Jin-young looked at Han Yoo-seong.
Han Yoo-seong was now holding a sword.
[Nemesis Sword Carnavalt].
The sword he had just received as the first-place reward in the Exchange Gathering.
Han Yoo-seong opened his mouth.
“I got lucky.”
He looked at the number ‘8’ floating above Baek Jin-young's head.
“…What?”
“I killed Sun Haoran by sheer luck.”
After saying that, Han Yoo-seong walked forward.
Baek Jin-young was standing in front of him.
It was strange.
That this guy had killed Sun Haoran in an instant.
But even so, he was only Floor 3.
The floor number floating above Han Yoo-seong's head, along with Baek Jin-young's origins in a Hard-difficulty Tower, made Baek Jin-young move.
‘Kill him.’
Mana flowed from Baek Jin-young's Mana Heart.
[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.2 – Activating skill.]
Baek Jin-young swung his sword, a scimitar, upward at a diagonal.
A white trajectory swept toward Han Yoo-seong's upper body.
‘I hit him…!’
Baek Jin-young's certainty immediately proved false.
The scimitar ultimately cut through empty air.
Thud!
“Kuh!”
Baek Jin-young looked down at his abdomen.
The hilt of Carnavalt, the sword in Han Yoo-seong's hand, had slammed into his abdomen.
Bam!
This time, his head snapped backward.
Han Yoo-seong's fist had struck his chin.
Barely holding on to his fading consciousness, Baek Jin-young drew his sword in an instant and slashed horizontally.
Han Yoo-seong's eyes gleamed as he tracked the arc.
Even after taking the attack, he immediately recovered his stance.
Then came an attack that shot out like lightning. Baek Jin-young's attack was sufficiently threatening.
Clang!
“Your actual combat sense isn't bad.”
Baek Jin-young's scimitar shot up into the air.
Baek Jin-young's right arm was raised high.
“But you're far too weak.”
Crack!
Han Yoo-seong's low kick made Baek Jin-young's leg buckle.
“Aaaaargh!”
Han Yoo-seong approached Baek Jin-young, who was rolling across the ground while clutching his left leg, and twisted the elbow of his right arm upward.
Crack! Snap-!
He broke the shoulder joint.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
His grotesquely bent right arm went limp.
His shoulder had been completely dislocated.
Han Yoo-seong bent down and met the eyes of Baek Jin-young, who was trembling all over while clutching his right arm.
“Can you see this?”
Since all Baek Jin-young could see was Han Yoo-seong waving his hand in the air, he shook his head from side to side.
Could other climbers see the Transcendent Gallery?
That was what Han Yoo-seong was checking with his question.
Han Yoo-seong opened his mouth again.
“Answer me out loud. Don't gesture.”
Baek Jin-young didn't even dare think of resisting him.
“It—it just looks like you're moving your hand through the air.”
Deep fear took root in far too short a time.
“You can't see this either, right?”
Han Yoo-seong waved his left hand around.
He was also checking whether Baek Jin-young could see the terminal in his hand.
“I can't see it. Anything.”
Baek Jin-young shook his head vigorously.
“What level are you?”
Han Yoo-seong decided to ask about the things he was curious about one by one.
Baek Jin-young replied in a trembling voice.
“F-fifteen….”
Perhaps it was because he was a twenty-first-century Earthling.
His level had risen quite a lot, just as Han Yoo-seong had expected.
“Strength, agility, vitality, mana. Tell me in that order.”
Baek Jin-young's lips trembled.
“If I tell you…will you let me live?”
“That depends on you.”
Baek Jin-young bit his lip for a moment, then forced the words out again.
“Status window…Strength 38, Agility 36, Vitality 49, Mana 21.”
Every stat except Vitality was roughly half of Han Yoo-seong's.
Considering that he had just gained two levels by killing Sun Haoran, the gap between them was even greater.
“Did you also form a party of at least five or six when you tackled the Tower floors?”
“…Why ask something so obvious?”
Han Yoo-seong carefully filed away everything Baek Jin-young had said in his mind.
Baek Jin-young, lying on the ground, was thinking.
‘This guy has no intention of letting me live.’
The guy who had shown no hesitation in killing Sun Haoran.
That guy was now carelessly staring at the empty air above him.
‘I have to kill him.’
The decision was put into action in an instant.
Whoosh!
Baek Jin-young, who had until then only been writhing like a worm, abruptly heaved his upper body upright. In his left hand was the scimitar he had dropped moments earlier.
Swish!
He thrust.
Straight at the Floor 3 bastard.
But that belief was wrong this time too.
The Floor 3 resident had dodged his killing intent like a ghost; in his right hand was a dagger he had never seen before.
Thunk.
The dagger was aimed at his throat.
Baek Jin-young's body collapsed onto the ground again.
Blood flowed.
He was dying.
As he died, Baek Jin-young thought hard.
Who the hell was that guy?
The reason for his defeat was apparently clear.
< 3 >.
He had been too consumed by that damn number.
A Floor 3 resident who had only just cleared Floor 2.
And yet, an extraordinarily strong person.
At the moment when a montage of his life should have flashed before his eyes, ironically, a scoreboard came to mind.
《 Floor 2 - Score Rankings 》
1st - Undisclosed : 1,532 points
The Floor 2 score rankings he had seen just before entering the Exchange Gathering and laughed hollowly at.
“…1,532?”
Baek Jin-young's barely uttered words reached Han Yoo-seong's ears.
“Too late. It doesn't mean anything in this situation anyway.”
At those words, Baek Jin-young opened his mouth to say more, but couldn't utter another word.
Baek Jin-young's body went limp as his breath stopped.
Tsk.
Han Yoo-seong clicked his tongue.
* * *
Title : What do I do if a player tries to kill me? I guess I should kill them too.
Author : ㅇㅇ*
└ Heavenly Demon) What sort of obvious question is that?
└ Light’s Sword) Kill them.
└ Great Mage) Find out what you're curious about according to your standards, then kill them.
└ Shaman) Kill(殺)!
└ Ice Queen) Freeze, freeze! So there won't be any future repercussions! Everything must be thorough!
└ Dragon Demon King) Beltui—I'm happy we all agreeee. Kill themmm.
└ Pioneer) Well…you should kill them, I guess.
└ Absolute Sovereign) That's the Tower. That's the world. You have to give up on staying pure.
└ Shut-In Theorist) Old man, you mean noble, right? LMAOOOOOO
└ That's a completely pointless thing to worry about, for real.
└ Be more suspicious of players than NPCs. At least there are some NPCs with pure hearts, you know ㅇㅇ
└ Look at them all telling him to kill every single one of them LMAOOOOOO