Chapter 13: 13

Max Talent Player

Chapter 13: D-Tower 2nd Floor (2)

Sung Minchul considered meeting So Yoohyun to be his life’s greatest fortune. In his eyes, So Yoohyun had an enormous talent for ‘Playing’. To put it in other words, he was a genius.

[Let me help you. Come with me.]

The sight of the good natured-looking Yoohyun saving him from getting eaten by a goblin was still vivid in his mind. Among the Players, So Yoohyun was simply overwhelming. If he stayed with this person, he would probably be able to, at the very least, survive this ‘strange phenomenon’. Sung Minchul didn’t doubt for a moment that this ‘Tutorial Field’ was a field set up for So Yoohyun.

However, the situation changed a little. Not far away, he saw a green mass of muscle, named a ‘Magic Troll’.

Its name was red, and its level wasn’t even indicated.

Uohhhhhh!

The magic troll swung its huge fist.

“Argh!”

So Yoohyun tried to block it, but the situation wasn’t looking too good. From the way his left arm dangled afterwards, it looked like his shoulder was dislocated.

“Hah! Haah! Haah!”

So Yoohyun looked exhausted. Sung Minchul barely managed to sit up, blood dripping from his mouth. Next to him were people who had died in one hit of that fist. Whether they had fainted, or died, he wasn’t sure, but they were most likely dead. He didn’t have the luxury of checking. In any case, the only people who still had their heads on straight were Minchul himself and So Yoohyun.

Minchul wiped the blood from his lips with his sleeve.

“Dammit…”

He had a feeling… that he would die here. If, by some chance, someone were to get out of this place alive, it wouldn’t be him. It wasn’t as if he didn’t consider running away, but…

[The Boss Zone has not been deactivated.]

[Fleeing the Boss Zone is only possible for ten seconds after entry.]

[You cannot flee.]

He couldn’t flee.

‘I might… die here.’

No, there was a high chance he would die here.

‘I’m going to die.’

Fear swelled within him. He truly regretted his bravado before coming to the 2nd floor.

So Yoohyun’s right fist glowed blue.

“Aahhhhhh!”

He punched out, hitting the green monster, the ‘troll’, squarely in the side. That fist that had smashed every monster up until now had no effect this time.

There was a resounding impact, but the troll merely frowned a little.

‘Dammit!’

Even So Yoohyun felt like he was fighting a massive wall. But just then, he heard another notice.

[New Players are entering.]

[There is no maximum Player limit.]

[Fleeing the Boss Zone is only possible for ten seconds after entry.]

Minchul and Yoohyun turned to look at the escalator at the same time. Minchul cried out, “Run!”

Ten seconds. They only had ten seconds left.

“You can still run within ten seconds!”

If they didn’t go back on the escalator within ten seconds, they would be trapped here. He saw a young girl, a child in her early teens at best. Suddenly, tears welled up in his eyes.

‘Mina.’

He had a daughter exactly around that age. She had just become a middle school student. His daughter’s face came to mind and seemed to overlap with the face of the girl he saw. It would be great if that child didn’t die, he thought. She’s not my daughter, but it would be great if she lived. It would be great if she didn’t come here. Because if she did, the only thing that awaited her was a brutal death.

“This guy can never, ever be killed, so hurry and get out of here!”

Whether they heard his words or not, the two people walked over from the escalator not far into the distance.

“Please! Please, run. Can’t you hear me? Don’t you see this crazy monster?!”

He had walked over here just as gallantly, thinking that no matter how strong the monster might look, it was still the Tutorial Field, a tutorial, and they had So Yoohyun. Because he was with a person who had been born to Play. That conceit had been shattered in just one minute. It was obvious that the same would happen to the newcomers.

“Don’t be reckless and go back! It’s too dangerous!”

Please go back. Don’t come to this harsh place and die.

Crash!

The sound of impact rang out. It was the sound of So Yoohyun getting hit. Taking the troll’s fist to his head, Yoohyun fainted.

Meanwhile, Kim Hyukjin came ever closer.

* * *

* * *

“I told you to aim for the left eye, didn’t I?”

Kim Hyukjin walked towards the troll, not too fast or too suddenly. Though the troll was that large, it was as fast as a lithe tiger. He walked slowly on purpose, judging it wouldn’t be good to draw aggro while he still didn’t have a good grasp on the situation.

While he was walking, he heard a shout that was nearly a scream, but he ignored it. After coming closer, he saw the troll’s information in his mind.

The name was written in red, indicating that it was absolutely not a monster Hyukjin could easily kill. In fact, it was likely a very difficult opponent.

A little ways to the side, he saw So Yoohyun lying unconscious after getting hit in the head.

‘It’s a monster that can go up against the Fist King So Yoohyun.’

The troll was a monster with incredibly good vitality. It was also extremely resilient. Moreover, it happened to have a particularly high resistance to ‘fist attacks’. With the addition of the boss monster stat buff, the troll was definitely a tricky opponent, a boss monster that required you to stack on continuous damage with frontal methods.

[The ‘Nameless Observer’ is watching you.]

[The ‘Lady of the Scales’ is watching you.]

It seemed even the Guardians thought the current Kim Hyukjin couldn’t kill the troll. However, he didn’t run. Instead, he continued to advance. The notices continued to stream in.

[The ‘Nameless Observer’ has high hopes for you.]

[The ‘Lady of the Scales’ marvels at your heroic appearance.]

The Nameless Observer seemed to want to observe how Hyukjin would kill the troll, while the Lady of the Scales was more interested in how he would save the survivors here. The two Guardians wanted slightly different things, but in any case, there was no mistake that Hyukjin had to defeat the troll.

He pulled out the ‘Iron Sword’ and checked his ‘slots’.

‘I memorized how to use them.’

If he used the slots, he didn’t have to physically drink the potions. Items moved to his slots could be used immediately simply by willing it. It was like a keyboard shortcut in a game.

‘I’m all ready to go.’

He was scared. Originally, he would have never come into this place. But now, he had the ‘Item Shop’. He had potions.

‘Besides its enormous resilience, its actual attack power isn’t that high.’

The fact most of So Yoohyun’s group was still alive was proof of that. They were scattered on the ground, almost all of them unconscious. It lacked the intelligence to check whether the people were dead or not. 

The troll could be defined as such: a dumb monster with strong resilience and constitution.

Kim Hyukjin said, “Sunhwa. Those people aren’t dead yet. They’re not corpses.”

“Huh?”

Sunhwa flinched in surprise. Her face flushed a bit.

“I-I didn’t think they were dead. Really. I wasn’t thinking bad thoughts.”

“That’s not what I mean. Put this in their mouths.”

He handed her recovery potions, which he had stocked up from the Item Shop. With these, they would be out of the woods for the time being. It was the final act of conscience he could offer after having turned away from so many people. He didn’t intend to die for them, but he could still save them from dying.

‘This is all I can do for them.’

Getting out of here alive was their responsibility. 

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“If they happen to regain consciousness, be sure to tell them not to move and just stay still. Tell them not to attack,” he added.

“Got it.”

After Kim Hyukjin thought he had done everything he could, he looked forward again.

The monster that looked like the Hulk stared in Hyukjin’s direction.

‘The Fist King of the past managed to kill something like this.’

Of course, there were differences from the past and now. Other than So Yoohyun, everyone here had died. There was also a high chance that Yoohyun had been the one who had hunted the miniboss, the Goblin Soldier.

‘As a result, the Tutorial’s Fist King has become as much weaker as I have grown stronger.’

Which meant—

‘His current skills are lacking.’

Yoohyun was still unconscious. Hyukjin walked close, but not close enough to greatly provoke the troll.

‘It has great resilience and moves quickly, but its attacking speed is slow.’

There wasn’t any real strat. You had to slowly, steadily pile on the damage over a long period of time. That meant the challenger had to last a long time, too, something that was possible with potions.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The mass of muscle began to stomp its way over. It was fast.

Whoosh!

Within mere moments, a huge fist came swinging his way. However, Hyukjin could follow that fist clearly with his eyes. He couldn’t quite read the next movement or perfectly track its path, but…

‘I can see the trajectory.’

At the very least, at this moment, he could see exactly how that fist would swing.

‘Duck my head.’

Whoosh–!

The magic troll’s fist swept past the hairs on his head. As expected of its enormous size, the attack carried a certain degree of strength, but that meant nothing if it didn’t land.

Hyukjin thrust his sword into the troll’s abdomen.

‘It’s not hitting.’

Just like how Hyukjin had read the troll’s movements, the troll had read his as well. Their speeds were evenly matched, victor or loser not apparent to the eye. With the buff of the ‘Excellent Hunter’ title, their speeds were equal.

‘Okay.’

He opened his Status Window.

[Status Window]

Name: Kim Hyukjin (Player)

Level: 15

Title: [Excellent Hunter] [First Pioneer]

Strength: 17

Intelligence: 17

Agility: 17

Perception: 17

Constitution: 17

Willpower: 17 (+30)

Bonus stats: 2

Random stats: 4

Undistributed stats: 6

He was level 15. Thanks to getting random stats for whatever reason, his stats were a far cry from a regular level 15 Player. A regular Player would have stats like these at level 20.

‘6 undistributed stats.’

When fighting the lycanthrope, he had used the ‘High Strength Elixir’. Back then, he physically experienced how big an effect ‘+6’ had.

‘Put them all in Agility.’

The troll had high resilience, but its ‘defense’ wasn’t actually so high that it couldn’t take damage.

[Agility increased.]

…

…

[Agility increased.]

Adding +6 to Agility, his current Agility was 23. As his Agility stat shot up, he felt his body grow lighter. He could see the troll’s movements more precisely, and with his increased speed, Hyukjin began to gain the upper hand.

Uooogh!

The troll swung its fists. Hyukjin dodged and struck repeatedly, hunting the troll while continuously avoiding close calls. From afar, Sung Minchul stared in a daze.

‘Even So Yoohyun was at its mercy, but…’

A single person was fighting a monster that not just So Yoohyun, but all fifteen people who had come here, hadn’t been able to touch. Though the fight looked so dicey it seemed as if the Player could be blown away at any moment, he was hunting the troll.

‘He’s soloing it?’

There’s always someone better. That was what people said. Watching the scene before him now, Sung Minchul felt it was true.

‘How can he be like that?’

They had been Playing for the same amount of time, so how could that man handle such a monster on his own?

‘Is he… the real genius?’

His talent was so overwhelming it made even So Yoohyun, someone Minchul had thought of as a genius, look like an ordinary Joe. A crème de la crème level of talent that relegated geniuses to normalcy. A kind of skill reaching a different world, a domain that couldn’t be approached by any amount of effort. Minchul felt that the man he saw had that kind of talent, skill, and something more.

At that moment, that was how the situation played out for Sung Minchul. One hour passed with him watching in awe.

* * *

Blood flowed from the troll’s left eye. I breathed raggedly.

“Haah…! Haah…!”

The troll was estimated to be level 25. With the boss monster stat buff, the constitution of the ‘magic troll’ was beyond imagination. Despite that, I didn’t feel all that desperate.

‘I can do this.’

While fighting the magic troll, I felt it again. The magic troll wasn’t an impossible foe to hunt. For Players of the Tutorial level, it was considered as a foe that couldn’t be soloed, but that wasn’t true.

‘I can definitely kill it.’

I could kill it normally, without any tricks. As I fought, I could certainly feel that I was most likely a genius.

[Low Constitution Potion has been used.]

[Low Constitution Potion has been used.]

Of course, I hadn’t gotten to this point on talent and strategies alone. There was definitely some item abuse going on. ‘Potion abuse’, to be exact. I was only managing by chugging two potions in one go, but without potions, I would have really fallen over. But now, the end was nearing.

Perhaps because they were suffering under the special ability of the ‘magic troll’, the people seemed to have no intention of stirring. They had been unconscious for one hour. If they at least woke up, if So Yoohyun at least woke up, he could help out a little, but it didn’t matter—it was almost over. The troll was as exhausted as I was.

The troll could no longer regenerate. That was the result of one hour of bloody fighting. Another ten minutes ticked past, and then I clenched the hilt of my sword.

‘The final blow comes later.’

I had to wait. Right now, I had to bide my time. A little later, every piece of the puzzle would come together. The time was coming for me to put the final stroke on the picture.

But just then, a kink occurred in my plans.

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