/
Tae-san escaped.
‘I think I’ll be able to do it if I intentionally avoid it.’
But it was a difficult method. What if he tried it with minimal damage? But the answer was glaring at him.
‘I can’t afford any more damage.’
The probability of him getting hit by the tentacles was high. If he gets any closer, there was a chance to get hit at least once.
There were several solutions.
The first one being retreat and attack. If he uses a few skills, he’ll be able to avoid them all. Later silently and slowly approach the monster. He was guaranteed to reach them someday.
It’s a standard method but at the same time, it’s impossible for Tae-san.
Skills are exhausting. His mana would be slowly but surely consumed. He had to sort this out as quickly as possible.．
“Activate”
In the end, he’ll have to gamble as always. Tae-san shrugged and releases the energy he has gathered.
[Activated Super Acceleration]
Air blasted, Tae-san was running at full speed.
Super-Acceleration, a running skill easily surpasses the speed of sound. He reached the monster immediately.
However, there was a glaring drawback. While sprinting he can’t avoid any incoming attack. Monster 5’s tentacles headed for him.
Khinkkkkgg!
The green beam blinded Tae-san’s view. Tae-san kicked his feet and accelerated further.
[Second attack has been nullified.]
[0 damage done]
[Dropping]
Monster 5 was bewildered. There was no face, but Tae-san knew.
‘The nullification of the attack is over.’
Unfortunately, he couldn’t use any more neutralization skills, but thanks to that, he was closer. Tae-san grabbed the sword.
The moment he tried to attack Monster 5, Monster 7 appeared with a solid body.
Whoo~
Monster 7 took its position surrounding Tae-san. If the long-range type attack doesn’t work, the defensive type would come to play. That was the combination.
However, Tae-san laughed.
“I got this.”
[You have activated a forced duel. Except Monster 7 no other party can attack you for 1 minute.]
A golden barrier surrounded Monster 7 and Tae-san. Monster 5 attacked with a beam but the barrier didn’t move.
For Tae-san it didn’t matter if the attack was offensive or defensive. But the story was different with the Hard or Alone player setting. But right now with his poor stats and equipment, he had only one shot and it didn’t matter if the attack was a defensive type.
Tae-san grabbed the sword.
[You’ve activated addition. Current attacking power is increased twofold.]
[You’ve activated amplification. Current attack power amplified by 2 times.]
[You’ve activated absolute judgment. Ignoring the opponent’s defence.]
Doubling and then quadrupling the attacking power.
It was truly an overwhelming skill.
But it wasn’t enough.
His basic stat was too low and was multiplied to 9,604. This cannot penetrate billions of monsters.
So, he had to activate it again.
[You activated the specified skill for reset. The skill can’t be activated for a month.]
[You’ve initialized amplification]
[Activating amplification. Your current attack power has been amplified by 2 times.]
The square of 9,604. It wasn’t enough, there was still a shortage.
His stats didn’t even reach a million. So, this must be his limit.
Tae-san clenches his teeth. Mana flowing out of his body.
[Activating duplicate. The following attack is applied twice]
[Attack]
[92,236,816 damage to Monster 7]
[92,236,816 damage to Monster 7]
[Monster 7 has fallen]
The monster disappeared without a trace. Tae-san barely managed to get a hold of his trembling body. Monster 5 points its tentacles at him.
Khinngg!
A beam swallows Tae-san.
[22,543 damage to you]
[Endurance activated. The attack leading to death has been nullified. All damage will be 0 for 5 seconds]
Unlike attack nullification, he had to withstand this attack. Tae-san rushed forward to Monster 5. Its tentacles moved, but it was rather easy to avoid at such a short distance.
Right now, it wasn’t difficult. It is a simple repetition of dodging and attacking.
However, Tae-san’s expression was not good.
[Mana 21/82]
If he runs out of mana. He wouldn’t be able to activate amplification.
He had to cut through 1.25 million physical strength with pure attacks. Tae-san swung his sword.
[48 damage to Monster 5]
To simply put, he’ll have to hit it 25,000 times.
“I think soon I’ll go crazy.”
A long battle began, using only minimal defensive penetration skills.
* * *
[54 Damage to Monster 5]
The sun and moon appeared and repeatedly disappeared in the world. Tae-san lost the concept of time at some point.
“Fuck”
Suddenly, Tae-san came back to his senses and looked at his opponent’s physical strength.
[Physical Strength: 655,212/ 1,255,212]
“Half.”
Some might say only half is left, but from Tae-san’s point of view, it’s a mess. He was already suffering enough. The fact that he has to do this over and over again made him sick.
“Sigh.”
However, he sighed and moved. He swung his sword avoiding the beam.
[50 damage to Monster 5]
Time passes by.
In addition, the sun and the moon appear repeatedly. Players tend to get stronger with desire but also slowly gets hungry. And Tae-san’s tip of the sword shakes due to his lack of sleep.
But his spirit remained the same.
Time passes by. And at some point, the spirit didn’t move the body, but the body reached the stage where it moved the spirit.
And then it ends.
[You are in a state of concentration. Your body and mind are harmonizing.]
[Miracle-like power is imprinted on the soul. You’ve acquired the skill, ‘Soul Raiser’.]
[You cannot acquire the skill because you are out of the labyrinth. [Soul Raiser] has been sealed.]
“Noisy.”
Turning off the unknown system window.
Tae-san barely caught hold of his trembling legs. And when he looked around, it was quite a spectacle. Everything was dug up and collapsed and while the city disappeared, a valley came into his view.
Tae-san spit.
“I’m gonna die.”
[48 Damage to Monster 5]
[Monster 5 has fallen]
[Gods of all dimensions are amazed by your feat]
The price of slashing 1.25 million times steadily was commendable. It was hard to even stand up. Tae-san barely managed to mumble out the words through his wheezing mouth.
“…Status window.”
[Kang Tae-san]
[Level: 57]
[Health: 1/1021]
[Mana: 2/820]
[Strenth: 105]
[Wisdom: 100]
[Agility: 98]
[Offence + 49]
[Defense + 581]
[The target is dying]
It was a miserable state window.
It felt like he’d had been fighting for over a month.
“Lack of fucking stats.”
At least being a normal player would have been more comfortable.
But still, he won.
Lee Tae Yeon-jo defeated the two S-class players, something he couldn’t ever guarantee.
He moved with his wobbly legs. He doesn’t have the mana to use for the big leap, so he had no choice but to walk back.
Fortunately, he recovered some mana and stamina while walking. By the time mana was around 20, the city began to appear in his sight.
He couldn’t see the monster.
However, Tae-san observed.
[You’ve activated a complete scan]
The information around him was shown in the form of a map. Blue dots were humans whereas Red dots were monsters.
He couldn’t see any blue dot.
All he saw was a huge red dot inside the city.
“Shit.”
Tae-san couldn’t help but swear and headed to the city. As he got closer, he saw bodies piled together.
They were familiar faces. Not long ago, they had spent time talking to him.
They were all dead.
“You’re the one who praised yourself for being the only hard level player in the world, but why am I the only one alive? Why am I the one alive after winning?”
As he complains. He enters the city with an annoyed face.
There were even more corpses in the city. Among them, there was also a mid-level player’s corpse. Tae-san remained calm.
“Looks like you’ve gone too.”
It was Lee Chang-chun’s body.
Seeing that his expression wasn’t too dark, he seemed to have accepted it at the very end.
Tae-san passed through multiple corpses. And at the end of the path, there was a single body.
“Lee Tae-yeon.”
The only person in the world that has cleared the Alone Level. The strongest human being in the world.
She died horribly.
And in front stood the monster that killed her.
Screech!
Something terrible was crawling in. An unknown monster was looking at Lee Tae-yeon’s body from the side.
Something beyond S-class. People named that monster the Apostle.
[!#$!#’s absolute gaze]
[You’ll die instantly]
Absolute gaze. Instant death declared that even players with a hard difficulty level cannot resist. It is known that Lee Tae-yeon is the only one who has survived.
Tae-san carelessly shakes his hands.
“Get rid of it.”
[Resistance is successful]
Kuruk!
Tae-san picks up his sword and nervously hits the monster.
The monster that even Lee Tae-yeon couldn’t defeat.
[You’ve activated a core strike]
[$##! Damage]
Urgh!
Tae-san trembled in pain and swung his hands. This monster was too wild for him to handle.
“Bring it on!”