Chapter 209

Junghwa's eyes widened like saucers.

'He didn't… take much damage?'

It was a little flabbergasting.

'How come?'

Her arrow had flown straight and her aim was true, landing precisely on the heart. But Hyukjin hadn't taken much damage.

"Miss Junghwa."

"...Yes."

"Did you do your best?"

"..."

Of course, she couldn't quite say she had put her all into it, since it was a normal attack and not a special skill.

"I didn't do my best."

"Then please try your best this time."

In all actuality, Hyukjin himself was a little surprised. He had allowed an attack on the most vulnerable of places, his heart. He bared his greatest weakness to a long-distance DPS, yet he registered little damage. It felt like less than half of his HP went down, which made him wonder if a stat advantage made this much of a difference.

"I would have been truly disappointed if this was your best, Miss Junghwa."

"..."

Hyun Junghwa took two steps back and raised her Sylphid's Wing.

"Kim Hyukjin."

She drew the bowstring.

"I know you are a sovereign who can handle a bow well." Her bow still drawn, she asked, "But what is with that ridiculous defense?"

It was hard to believe. However his skills as an archer might be, or however good a sovereign he was, such things weren't important to Junghwa. She wouldn't be fazed even if he were good at magic. But this was different.

Archer. Sovereign. Mage. All of them were far from classes with great 'defense'. But Hyukjin, a person with a class in the same vein, facetanked a direct hit. To his heart. And he was just fine.

'Just what the hell is that incomprehensible def…'

Hyukjin answered her.

"Guess you could call it stats and overgearing?"

"..."

Actually, being overgeared wasn't playing a role here, since his Great Orc Warrior set was destroyed. He wasn't wearing any outstanding armor. He'd be able to get fantastic armor from the soon-to-open Gardens by the Beach Gate in Singapore, so he hadn't invested in any yet.

Junghwa nodded. 'Stats and overgearing, huh?'

She thought there wasn't actually much stat difference between them, so this result couldn't be attributed to a stat advantage. The truth was different, but she misunderstood.

'Just how good are his items?'

What kind of mega armor did he have equipped under that t-shirt? She would have to ask later. After all, archers were squishy. It would be ideal if she could get such an OP item.

"I'm going for real this time."

She fired. Junghwa was well aware that she couldn't kill him in one shot, so she notched and fired several times in succession.

[Using the innate ability Consecutive Rapidfire.]

Junghwa's strength was imbued in Sylphid's Wing.

"This is my innate ability, Consecutive Rapidfire."

She released the bowstring. Despite firing one arrow, several arrows were fired in quick succession, her hand moving so quickly it couldn't be seen.

This was her innate ability—firing several arrows while consuming only one, arrows made of mana and bearing great destructive power.

Hyukjin took in her impressive display.

"Pretty—"

Pretty good, was what Hyukjin wanted to say, but before he could finish, he died.

* * *

Hyukjin dusted himself off, getting up.

"Not a great feeling, is it?"

Sung-gu said, "Fuck. I know that feeling too. Your stomach turns and you get all dizzy. It's pretty damn meh."

It was a feeling everyone here knew, since they had died at least once in PVP zones.

Unable to hold back her curiosity, Junghwa asked, "But how did you revive? This isn't a PVP zone."

"Would you like to know?" It wasn't a huge secret or anything. "My title has an unlimited resurrection authority in it."

*Unlimited resurrection within the Gran Seoul Dungeon.

He just didn't say it was limited to the Gran Seoul Dungeon.

"Un-Unlimited resurrection authority?"

But then, someone new appeared. That someone looked like a pistol the size of a person's arm. The gun had eyes on it.

'Streamer?'

It was the Intermediate Administrator Junghwa had signed an exclusive contract with, 'Revolvol'.

"Hold on, hold on for a quick sec. How the hell is this possible?"

Senia suddenly appeared as well. "A bug review has already been performed. By the Intermediate Administrator contracted to Player So Yoohyun over there, Neptune. Right, Administrator Neptune?"

Those words forced Neptune, the one-eyed pygmy with skin of a shade somewhere between green and emerald, to show himself, too.

"Please confirm my statement, Administrator Neptune."

"...That's correct."

Neptune glanced at Hyukjin with a bitter face, recalling how he incurred a loss back then from carelessly challenging Kim Hyukjin.

Senia continued. "You used Forced Submission to pressure Player Kim Hyukjin by unfair means, escalating into violence. Afterwards, when the bug review came back negative, Administrator Neptune gained nothing from the process."

Hyukjin smiled. These days, he really felt that Senia had grown a great deal. Back then, when Neptune was throwing a fit, she hadn't been able to do a thing in protest. Her growth made him feel rather emotional.

Hyukjin quipped, "The Lady of the Scales protected me by using her special authority, Innocent Until Proven Guilty."

The pistol-shaped Intermediate Administrator, Revolvol, fired into the sky.

Bang!

An ear-splitting bang rocked everyone's eardrums.

"But still, how does this make any sense? Didja do the bug review properly? What the hell is his class, to be like this? No matter how you slice it, this is balance breaking. Miss Angel, take a good look. This is the beginner period. Does this make sense for the beginner period?"

"Does it not?"

"Why I never, y'all are in cahoots. Of course it doesn't make sense. Of course! What kind of bug didja exploit? Spit it out! Dontcha think the same, Neptune?"

Neptune didn't express his opinion, but on the inside, he agreed with Revolvol. They'd been Playing together all this time, but Kim Hyukjin was seriously strange. He was a monster of a Player who growed by leaps and bounds every time Neptune looked away, someone who could not be considered a beginner period Player.

Senia opened up a window visible to everyone.

[System Scan Result: No bug values have been discovered.]

[System Scan Result: No illegitimate methods have been used.]

"The notice window shown here is the result determined by the System."

Senia had apparently saved the notices as a screenshot. Revolvol was instantly reduced to agape silence, any further nitpicking instantly shut down by the absolute evidence before him.

Hyukjin was a little amazed. He hadn't thought Senia would have had something like that prepared. She'd grown so much.

"Mind if we move onto the next Play?" asked Hyukjin.

Revolvol swung around, fixing his muzzle on Hyukjin. "Didja just speak down to me?"

Hyukjin just stared cooly at Revolvol. "Must I really be respectful to an Intermediate Administrator who treated me as a bug on conviction alone, without any proof?"

"Ha. Forgot how to be afraid, didja? You insane?" Revolvol's barrel turned red-hot. "Unlimited resurrection authority? You messin' around because you think that'll save you?"

Revolvol fired his gun a few times into the sky again.

"Shall I show you whether that authority's real or not? I absolutely don't believe such an authority exists. That kind of broken authority doesn't exist even in the expert period!"

"Fine by me if you test it," Hyukjin said with a grin. "Is it okay to throw out a spoiler like that though? Mm. This kind of authority doesn't exist in the expert period, huh. Maybe I should make a note of it."

Revolvol's body froze in midair. "Wh-What do you mean, spoiler?"

"I think you just revealed expert period content to a beginner period Player. Right, Senia?"

"Yes. You mentioned expert period content before it happened."

"You're filming, right?"

"I am streaming, yes."

Intermediate Administrators were not allowed to mention things about the future. Doing so was called a 'spoiler', and spoilers were a grave crime punished by the System.

"I don't care if you kill me, but I've got a new field to clear right now."

A new field. And they were mid-stream.

What Hyukjin was implicating was simple.

Revolvol turned away to furiously mumble something, too engrossed in saving his bacon to further oppose Hyukjin.

Hyun Junghwa blinked, staring at Hyukjin. It was her first time seeing a human verbally dominate one of these terrifying Intermediate Administrators. Junghwa could tell that countless Guardians were barging into Revolvol's channel with complaints right now.

'Water is dripping down Administrator Revolvol's barrel.'

In human terms, cold sweat was running down his "back". He had rudely interrupted the flow of an important moment leading into exciting new content. Several heavy-hitting Guardians were obviously enraged.

Senia added one more thing. "The Barrier of Blue Light is also very furious."

The Barrier of Blue Light was the kind of Guardian who cherished a Player's safety and wellbeing more than other Guardians. They were, to use Hyukjin's words, an overprotective parent. Revolvol had stepped on such a Guardian's tail.

Hyukjin shrugged. "We should do what we're here to do."

Basically, this hot potato was for Revolvol to settle.

"Miss Junghwa. I think you can stick the gravestone here and break it."

"...Okay."

She put in the gravestone. New information flooded into Junghwa like the rising tide, and her expression darkened, a change Hyukjin noticed.

"Is there a problem?"

"I'm told a special condition must be met to destroy the gravestone."

"What kind of condition is it?"

"Only someone with the Tome of the Divine Wind Physique can break this."

"The Tome of the Divine Wind Physique?"

"Yes. It's an item I've never heard about, which makes me think it's simply that rare and valuable."

"Really? You've never heard of it?"

Hyukjin tapped Sunghyun's back. "Sunghyun."

"Yes, Hyung."

"You can break that, right?"

"Yes."

'Huh?' Junghwa thought, her gaze moving to Sunghyun. Those words… 'Sunghyun… had the Tome of the Divine Wind Physique?'

She hadn't known that at all. Hyukjin said, "Miss Junghwa. Have you heard about the Korean Playstyle?"

"The Korean Playstyle…?"

"Such a term has been coined in Italy."

To be exact, it was coined by Pedro, and the term was steadily spreading through Pietro's Black Butterfly guild.

–Koreans have a strange, but fascinating Playstyle of gathering all the quest items in advance and clearing the quest as soon as they get it. In the process, they rake in everything there is to take. It's a crazy Playstyle, that's for sure. That's how the Korean Players I've met were like. But… the absurd thing is that they weren't Rankers.

Master Pedro's words were the start of the gradual spread of the term 'Korean Playstyle'.

Meanwhile, Sunghyun raised a wind. A small whirlwind formed around the gravestone, and a crack began running down the stone.

Crack–!

The gravestone crumbled apart with a crack.

[The 'Gravestone of the Gatekeeper Grave' has been destroyed.]

[The entrance of the 'Wind Temple' has been opened.]

It wasn't a place just anyone could enter. To enter, a Player needed to fulfill one of four conditions.

[Has absorbed the Tome of the Divine Wind Physique.]

[A sorcerer who has fulfilled the wind's will.]

[Has a very high wind affinity.]

[Possesses 'Sylphid's Wing'.]

Another notice followed.

[Only Players who have fulfilled one of the four conditions can enter the 'Wind Temple'.]

Hyukjin immediately chose to enter.

[Entering the 'Wind Temple'.]

Hyukjin, Sunghyun, and Junghwa entered. But it wasn't just the three of them. An unexpected Player from the Giantgod crew had come in with them.

"Sunhwa?"

"Hehe. I'm here too, Oppa."

Hyukjin hadn't expected this outcome.

"Sunhwa, what condition did you fulfill?"

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