Chapter 2012

“……”

Hwang Gildong, the members of the Chivalrous Robbers, Old Sword Demon, the thousands of rankers, and the millions of viewers witnessing the fight were all mesmerized by Grid. Replacing his limbs with prosthetic ones at a critical moment and succeeding in outwitting and decapitating his enemy was phenomenal.

Old Sword Demon, who was more thrilled than anyone else, said, “This… shows that the weak can put on a good fight.”

Old Sword Demon considered Grid weak compared to Garam. This was his sincere impression. He didn’t mean to demean Grid. Rather, it made everyone aware of the fact that Grid was an ordinary player just like them.

“That’s right. Grid isn’t that different from us.”

The somewhat agitated rankers nodded their heads in agreement.

After the update, the players became weak overnight. They were forced to fight against enemies who had entirely different skills and systems, rendering most of the information that players had about the enemies in the game useless. The whole world had been in turmoil after the cultivators’ appearance. The players felt that they had been deprived of their privileges as they kept losing to the cultivators, so they were understandably outraged. They cursed the S.A. Group for suddenly updating the game.

However, the S.A Group never responded. They refused to communicate with the players, like they usually did.

In the end, the players’ anger wasn’t resolved, and instead spread like wildfire. They eventually turned their anger in the direction of Grid and the Overgeared Guild because Grid and his group remained victors even after the update. They easily destroyed the Full Moon Fortresses that the famous rankers and their forces couldn’t do anything about despite teaming up.

At this point, people were wondering if the Overgeared Guild were the only ones enjoying some type of privilege. They were particularly suspicious of Grid. People’s doubts were confirmed when the world message appeared that he had killed Hanul, a God of the beginning, while Rebecca supported him. Regardless of the contents of the update, there was surely some connection between Grid and the S.A. Group since it looked like Grid kept getting stronger.

Yet today, the rankers realized that they had been wrong all along. Grid wasn’t privileged. He always struggled to do his best. They already knew this, but Grid really was worthy of respect.

Thud.

Garam’s head landed on the ground near them.

Garam was an Absolute NPC, an incredibly powerful enemy who could use hundreds of Treasures to keep the old dragons from helping Grid. He had swung his sword with one arm and one leg while repeatedly spinning like a spintop. For a while, he’d had the upper hand. His ability to maintain his balance like he had invisible limbs all while showing off phenomenal swordsmanship was clearly superior to Grid.

But in the end, he lost. Grid caught him off guard. Grid, who was weak, as Old Sword Demon claimed.

Grid knew how the weak fought. Others could tell how much experience Grid had fighting enemies more powerful than him. Instead of hiding that he was weak, Grid was using this knowledge to defeat his enemies.

The players felt closer to Grid after realizing that he was not that different from them.

A few people recognized Garam. “Hey, didn’t Garam die a long time ago?”

People who used to be in the East Continent when the yangbans reigned knew Garam. He used to be famous for his particular ferociousness and strength. Some people knew that Garam had killed the thousands of blacksmiths who had gone to the East Continent because of Hanul’s quest.

“Seriously, how did he resurrect and pretend to be an Absolute?”

The crowd stepped back in confusion. Garam, whom they thought was dead, opened his eyes. His eyes were full of life. This wasn’t an illusion. Garam was still alive even though his head had been cut off.

[I miscalculated.]

Garam’s intent was engraved everywhere as he glared at Grid, who was clad in black and gold prosthetic limbs.

[If I knew I was going to lose this badly, there was no need to be so wary of the Refractive Dragon.]

Flash!

Garam’s gaze seemed to become more intense. A bright light engulfed the area. The people closed their eyes, and when they opened them again—

[Even if I die, at least I’ll do it without having any regrets.]

Garam’s head reattached to his body. He also regained his lost arms and legs. No, to be more precise… Garam seemed to use the light to make up for his lost limbs.

The people didn’t understand what was going on. Garam was emanating a mystical, subtle glow.

Hwang Gildong was the one who saw through the power of light. “Huh… Could that be the power of Goddess Rebecca?”

Since he was the leader of the Chivalrous Robbers, he knew a lot of things, but this information didn’t really help him now. Just because he knew that Garam was using the power of light, that didn’t mean he knew how to deal with it.

“Hngh…!”

“Aghhh!”

Hwang Gildong groaned and the rankers screamed. Exposed to the power of light, their bodies were swelling and melting, unable to handle the heat. This extreme heat that had the potential to burn everything was another ability of light. The Annihilation energy boosted its power. The players felt as if the sun had gotten closer.

Grid was closer to the light, so he took more damage than anyone else. The Chaos set and the prosthetic limbs were melting. His skin turned red from the heat.

“His items aren’t helping him?”

Back when Grid used to be called the Overgeared King, people believed that his items were invincible. So why were his items getting destroyed? The people witnessing what was happening were taken aback.

“Um…”

However, Grid was calm. He took off his armor that had lost its function and was only a hindrance and pushed back his blood-stained hair. He scrutinized Garam, his eyes fierce and cold like a bird of prey’s.

‘It seems that when he turns into light, he loses his regenerative ability.’

That had also been the case with Hanul, and that had made it possible for Grid to kill him. However, the Refractive Dragon was lurking nearby, which meant that Garam was prepared to die the moment he unsealed the power of light.

The real battle started now. It was time to go all out.

Grid wasn’t reduced to ashes thanks to the clone’s use of Blizzard. He unfolded the black and gold sphere created by the God Hands like it was a pair of wings. As he did so, he pointed his sword at Garam with his one remaining arm. He was putting in very little effort into defense, deciding to go all out on the offensive for the final fight.

[Yes, that’s right. If you want to kill me, you have to be prepared to die as well.]

Flash!

Of course, it was practically impossible to react to the speed of light.

Garam appeared behind Grid and stabbed him in the forehead and chest with his Annihilation sword. The pain was so great, Grid felt dizzy. A notification about taking serious damage appeared and his vision flashed red.

Grid didn’t counterattack with Revolve because he knew he would use it too late. It was impossible to counterattack when Garam moved so fast.

Instead…

“Wave.”

Just like when he had fought against Hanul, he used an AOE skill. He used it at the same time Garam turned into light. Grid got stabbed before he even finished casting the skill, but at least his sword dance didn’t get canceled. Grid no longer needed to move in any way to perform a sword dance unless it was at least a five-fusion sword dance.

[Yes, this is it! Grid!!]

‘Why is he so excited?’

Grid’s head was half smashed in. Garam also had also suffered three serious wounds, despite turning into light. These injuries should have been fatal for both of them, but they still didn’t collapse. Even if they were going to die, they were determined to not be the one to die first.

Flash!

Boom!!

Flash!

Baang!!

Every flickering light was followed by an explosion. Garam relentlessly attacked Grid’s weak spots while Grid used AOE skills to keep up with the speed of light. Both of their HP bars dropped instantly, and they looked increasingly more hideous. Garam became a torn ball of light while people could see all of Grid’s bones, blood vessels, and internal organs, as if he was an anatomical model.

“Yikes.”

Even the rankers were nauseous upon seeing this despite seeing gory scenes before. People hurriedly changed their game settings. By lowering the realism of the graphics, the game environment became appropriate for audience members of all ages.

Garam seemed to be smiling. [I understand why Hanul revived me. He must’ve believed that I would end up hurting you no matter what.]

He felt pleasure every time he slashed at Grid. Garam was convinced that, even if things had gone according to his plan, in the end, the outcome would have been the same.

[Yes, I would’ve wanted to kill you, come hell or high water.]

Flash!

Garam continued to attack at the speed of light while moving around.

Roaaaar!

He was trying to evade the attacks of the Refractive Dragon, who started to strike again the moment Garam unleashed the power of light. Because of this, he failed to respond properly to Grid’s counterattacks. He kept taking damage from Grid’s AOE attacks.

That was fine. It was better to be slashed and stabbed a few times than to be swallowed by the Refractive Dragon.

‘In any case, he’s persistent.’

Grid’s anxiety reached its peak. His invincibility passive had already triggered. Now he was at risk of experiencing the true power of the Annihilation energy, which had a high probability of nullifying his invincibility passive.

Perhaps Grid had gotten lucky, or perhaps Garam’s Annihilation energy was still incomplete, because Grid was still in the invincible state fine. In any case, the duration of his invincibility passive remained unchanged.

[There are three seconds left on the invincibility passive.]

If Garam’s Annihilation sword failed to remove this passive, Grid could heal up by a lot by using Doran’s Ring just before the immortality ran out.

But he didn’t want to do that. If the Annihilation sword slashed him while using Doran’s Ring, the item was likely to shatter. Grid had been using this accessory since his days as a low-level player. It had suffered extreme modifications over the years, so Grid didn’t want to lose it.

‘…This isn’t the time to be sentimental.’

The only drawback to being an Absolute was that dying was very really bad. He couldn’t die, even if it meant losing an item. Grid took a deep breath and regained his composure.

Bam!

The sword slashed and stabbed him dozens of times.

Fortunately, his invincibility passive still wasn’t removed. At this point, it was obvious that this wasn’t just Grid being lucky. Garam’s Annihilation energy was still incomplete.

‘It doesn’t make sense to take someone else’s power and then be able to use it properly.’

This balance meant Grid didn’t think that this battle was unfair. Grid took this as a consolation and used Shunpo.

[Are you going to run away now?]

Until now, Grid had been fighting back with an AOE sword dance every time Garam attacked him. Garam hadn’t expected Grid to change his attitude so suddenly. He was taken aback.

Grid—

[The effect of ‘Dragon Knight’ is activated!]

—was on top of the Refractive Dragon’s head.

Did Grid just move on top of the dragon’s head without permission or did the Refractive Dragon allow him to do that? Garam didn’t know the answer to that question. But one thing was clear. This was bad.

[Do you think I’m just going to back down?]

Nevertheless, Garam once again acted impulsively. He charged at the Refractive Dragon, determined to kill Grid even if he would die in the process.

For the first time in ages, Grid got goosebumps. Even his mind went blank for a second. This was how fearsome Garam was.

“I admire your tenacity and skill. Maybe I won’t forget it for the rest of my life.”

[I am the one who will acknowledge and remember your tenacity!]

I am the one who will survive.

I will never give up. I will never doubt myself.

Grid and Garam collided. Garam shot forward at the speed of light once again and seemed to have the advantage.

But…

The light flickered after an explosion occurred.

Grid’s purple sword energy had become transparent thanks to the combination of the Refractive Dragon and the Dragon Knight title. It absorbed Garam’s light and repeatedly refracted it, disrupting it. Only the Annihilation energy remained.

Garam didn’t stop his advance. He had no intention of letting go of Grid, who was so close to death, he was like a candle on the verge of going out.

Grid and Garam stabbed each other in the heart.

[…You damn bastard.]

Garam lowered his head. He slumped forward and turned into ash.

Grid just took a few steps back and fell to his knees. He survived.

“Let’s never see each other again.”

Grid’s face was pale as he shook his head. The blue ring on his finger broke into pieces, its fragments scattering everywhere.

A world message appeared.

[The Only One God, Grid, has extinguished Garam, the new ruler of the Hwan Kingdom.]

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