Chapter 16

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone use that.”

A one-time revival item, The Resurrection Cross.

Although it possessed the powerful effect of resurrection, it wasn’t allowed to be used in important matches such as national league games, promotion matches, or guild wars, due to its inability to be used.

“The penalties are quite significant.”

Furthermore, even if The Resurrection Cross was used and the user died again, their current rank would be fixed at the lowest regardless of their previous position. Penalties such as experience loss and GP depletion were also tripled.

Unless you’re confident about securing the 1st place, using it would only result in losses.

“Additionally, this item has a fatal flaw.”

Seeing streamer Golden Light’s death after using The Resurrection Cross made it evident that the ‘flaw’ was the reason for it.

“Judging by his surprised expressions, it seems that the flaw of The Resurrection Cross hadn’t been revealed by 2020.”

With that thought, Seong Jihan looked around. In the nearby vicinity, there were only summoned monsters or small groups in the colosseum. There was no sign of hostility from any player.

“Guys, Why are they staying so far away?”

He hadn’t realized that the players had fled to avoid conflict after they saw him fight Streamer Golden Light. Seong Jihan looked at the distant players with regret.

He needed to achieve 10 kills, and this situation made it difficult.

“I have to at least secure tenth kills while I’m at it.”

Tenth kill..

That was the value of a monster’s life in the colosseum.

After scanning his surroundings once, Seong Jihan ran towards the location with the largest group of monsters.

At that moment, an achievement window popped up in his vision.

[Defeat the Goblin Champion.]

[Goblins are the weakest but most numerous monsters in the colosseum. The Goblin Champion is their leader, aiming to win in the colosseum by gathering more goblins. Suppress it before it gathers more goblins.]

[Reward: 500 Achievement Points]

A champion monster was a type of elite monster that sometimes appeared in games—their stats were three to five times higher than regular monsters, and they were hard to deal with due to their powerful equipment and special skills.

Players usually avoided champion monsters in such situations but they were just bonus quests for Jihan

“500 achievement points. It’s a bit low… but since I’m going that way anyway.”

With a sudden burst of speed, Seong Jihan charged towards the goblin horde.

He wasn’t using a charging skill like Golden Light, but his new technique shot him forward like a projectile.

“Wh-What is that? Throw rocks at him!”

A massive goblin champion, about 2 meters tall, hurriedly urged his underlings.

Bang! Bang!

However, the heads of the leading goblins all exploded at once.

Like a bulldozer, Seong Jihan charged forward. Against the tiny goblin, there was no way they could stop his advance.

“Re… ward…!”

Slash!

A massive cleaver slashed through the goblin’s body as if cutting through tofu, And Green blood splattered in all directions.

The Goblin Champion’s eyes widened. The 40 goblin subordinates he had gathered were quickly cut down and exploded in the blink of an eye, their corpses littering the ground.

“Grooaaar!”

The Goblin Champion, seemingly trying to overcome his fear, charged at Seong Jihan with a roar.

Thwack!

The iron mace hit his head squarely, and simultaneously, the cleaver sliced through his chest.

[Normal Quest. ‘Defeat the Goblin Champion’ has been completed.]

[You’ve earned 500 achievement points.]

With the quest completion message…

[You’ve crushed the heretic’s head and carved out the heart in the correct order]

[You’ve learned the proper method.]

[The Relic enhances the user’s divine power.]

[Divine power increases by 1.]

Unexpectedly, he received a bonus as well.

“Smashing the head and carving out the heart… That was the order?”

Seong Jihan looked at the iron mace and cleaver with a bewildered expression. The two weapons he had bought at a low price on the BattleNet Market.

[Otherworld’s divine item – the cult’s cooking Set (Grade D)]

– Cleaver and Iron Mace.

– This set item reveals its true power only when both are worn simultaneously.

– On a certain planet from another dimension, it’s used to ‘cook’ heretics in a predetermined manner.

Although the item was of D-grade quality.

The set, which required both the mace and cleaver, was hard to use effectively, so the Relic’s price had been exorbitant. He had brought it along, thinking he might gain divine power by using it during battles.

During the process of defeating the Goblin Champion, he had unexpectedly grasped a specific order.

“From now on, I have to subdue enemies in this order.” Seong Jihan reviewed the explanation of the cult’s cooking Set.

Before gaining divine power, it had been a D-grade, but now it had fallen to E-grade.

Since divine power 1 had been absorbed by Seong Jihan, it seemed that the grade had dropped.

“Still, Since it’s E-grade for now, I can gain one more divine power.”

Seong Jihan surveyed his surroundings. Having achieved 10 kills and added divine power, he wondered where his next target would be.

“There seems to be a lot of players over there.”

He soon spotted a location where multiple players were engaged in combat.

“Let’s go.”

Streamer Golden Light logged out of the game.

Within the Battle Net connector, he sat with a vacant expression.

“I never thought I’d experience such a complete defeat in Bronze…”

Golden Light’s BattleTube channel was in chaos, with discussions already erupting about his defeat.

– Wasn’t this guy supposed to be Gold?”

– He’s so useless!”

– That’s why he kept messing with players in Bronze.Tsk tsk!”

Sreamer Golden Light left a brief comment, “I apologize for not meeting your expectations,” before turning off the broadcast.

His next action was to search for Seong Jihan on BattleTube.

While it was possible to access BattleTube using a computer or smartphone, the experience felt more real within the BattleNet connector.

“There are 3,123 simultaneous viewers… It’s more than I expected.”

Considering that he was a bronze player and it was his third game in the match, the number of simultaneous viewers was higher than anticipated.

Perhaps the aftermath of the previous broadcast related to the Sword King was still lingering.

Moreover, Seong Jihan’s channel had over 8,000 subscribers.

– Seong Jihan is on his 7th kill.

– He killed the champion monster by smashing its head and tearing its chest open. He’s doing the same thing against every player he meets.

– He’s already at 8 kills. His kills are increasing in the blink of an eye.

– At this rate, he might really achieve 10 kills!

Communication was blocked in Seong Jihan’s channel. Seong Jihan, focusing on the game, couldn’t read the chat, so the viewers were casually chatting among themselves. However, the chat messages in Seong Jihan’s channel were notably professional.

– His abilities are clearly beyond Bronze level.

– According to scouting system assessments, he’s showing strength and agility stats of around 35 and 38, respectively. These stats greatly surpass the stat limit of 25 in the Bronze League.

– What’s even more surprising is that he seems to have room for more. He clearly hasn’t exerted his full strength yet.

– I wonder what kind of gift he possesses…

– Without a doubt, he’s the most promising player in this Gangnam League.

‘There seem to be many scouts already.’

The way they were analyzing Jihan and estimating his stats was a method that large guild-affiliated scouts used.

– Once his Gift is revealed, he’ll most likely receive recruitment offers from numerous guilds.

– He’s related to the Sword King, so there’s some risk… but his abilities are phenomenal.

– But the top 10 guilds are sensitive to public opinion, so they will hesitate a bit before making an offer.

“In truth… he’s still just in Bronze.”

If Seong Jihan had showcased only his abilities without any connection to the Sword kings, he would have likely received guild offers from the top 10 domestic corporations by now.

However, he held a unique position as the Sword kings’ brother-in-law, and because he embodied the opposition of the nation’s number one fan club, the large corporate guilds that monitored public opinion couldn’t rashly offer him a recruitment proposal.

‘To think they’d hesitate to recruit him even with those abilities… It seems like public opinion is indeed complicated’, reading the chat messages, Golden Light thought this.

– That guy must have undoubtedly stolen something from the Sword kings.

– Exactly. That tracksuit is probably an SSS-grade item.

– That’s a very plausible deduction.

– Yes! Maybe the Sword King got tired of his brother-in-law stealing from him, so he’s acting!

“Truly… Ignorant people.”

The members of the Sword King Fan Club were saying nonsense, but since their opinion had some weight, the guilds were hesitating.

Thinking this, Golden Light continued reading the chat messages.

“Wow…!”

When Seong Jihan clashed with an opponent, Golden Light exclaimed in admiration, watching the scene unfold.

“H-How… How did he dodge that strike?”

“Ah… Such a clean hit!”

Even to someone like him who was once a Gold League player, Seong Jihan’s attacks were amazing.

How could a Bronze player fight so proficiently?

– Wow. He’s achieved 9 kills…”

– How did he smash their heads so easily?”

– Is he going for 10 kills?”

– He’s doing it all by himself.”

And seeing the surprised reactions of regular viewers to Seong Jihan’s accomplishments…

“Ah. These kinds of reactions should be on my channel…” Golden Light felt a sense of unease that his deep-sea exploration content might be challenged by Seong Jihan.

Thud!

Yet Seong Jihan shattered another player’s head.

“10 kills! He’s got 10 kills! 10 kills in the Survival map!”

He found himself participating in the chat without realizing it.

“Why is Golden Light here?”

“He contributed 20% to the 10 kills…”

“Ah, that’s the guy who lost twice in a row?”

“Yes.”

“Oh no, my username…”

Streamer Golden Light… He shouldn’t have chatted while using that ID. He regretted his actions for a brief moment, but…

– It’s the first time someone has achieved this record in Korea since Sword King Yoon Saejin!

– Yeah. But you died twice.

– Hehe. My death will be the opening scene of Player Seong Jihan’s saga…!

– Crazy…

– Didn’t you say you were a reaper?

– Yes, I was a reaper, but Jihan was my reaper…!

-Yeah. I’m unsubscribing to you.

He seemed to be excited as he typed.

* * *

[You’ve achieved 10 kills in the Survival map, ‘Colosseum’.]

[You’ve cleared the hidden quest achievement, ‘Achieve 10 kills in the Colosseum.’]

[You’ve been rewarded with 5,000 achievement points.]

‘5,000… Quite good.’

In the Colosseum map where only 50 out of 100 players would survive until the end of the battle, taking down 10 opponents by oneself was truly a daunting task. Honestly, unless one possessed extraordinary power like Seong Jihan, this achievement was nearly impossible. The 5,000 achievement points might seem small in a way.

“Still, gaining 5,600 achievement points and obtaining a Divine Power value of 2 in a single game…”

Seong Jihan looked at the equipment in his hand, ‘the cult’s cooking Set’. Its grade had changed from E to F, and the item’s name had been changed to ‘Former item from another world(F-grade)’.

With only one Divine Power left after absorbing the remaining four kills, he had obtained everything he could from today’s game.

“When I exit the game, I should check out the unique stats.”

As Seong Jihan contemplated this, waiting for the game to end…

[You have cleared the hidden quest.]

[Epic quest has been unlocked.]

“Epic… quest?”

Seong Jihan stared at the new quest window that had just appeared before him.

[Epic Quest]

-Find and provoke the Shadow Queen located in the spectator seats of the Colosseum map.

[Reward: 50,000 achievement points / The constellation Shadow Queen’s interest]

“The constellation’s interest…!”

Seong Jihan’s eyes widened significantly.