Hyper Luck

The window that covered my sight disappeared with flames. My vision was still shimmering in flames that were not visible. The only thing I could see clearly was Lidornn, himself.

I could not control that something that was boiling from the bottom of my heart. All I could do was accept it with my entire body.

A moment later, I could feel the intense heat from behind my back to the point where a scream would immediately come out if I had kept my lips apart even a little.

The sadness and anger felt from Swordsman’s death seemed to be similar to the emotions I felt in my daily life in the real world, but the depth was completely different.

How many times in real life will a person witness the scene where your close friend is pierced to death by a long sword right in front of your eyes!

It was the first time that I had fallen into such a vivid and intense anger at a scene that could only happen in virtual reality that was so terribly realistic.

This deep emotion made my body move, awakening a new sense that I had never had before.

I aimed my sword at Lidornn, who made the anger inside me fully bloom. And at the same time, notification windows started pouring in front of my eyes.

< ‘Solar Rampage’ activated. >

[ Solar Rampage ]

Class: Restricted Active Skill

When equipped with all of Attoria's sets and activates in the form of ‘Forced activation' when the emotional state is ‘Anger'.

Passive: When casting Attoria's Swordsmanship, the area around the caster becomes a fire zone, dealing 556 damage per second to nearby enemies (radius 15014).

Effect: Strength + 500, Speed+ 500

HP is consumed at 3% per second. The caster will enter the state of death upon exhausting all the HP. Consumed health cannot be recovered with recovery items or magic unless ‘Solar Rampage’ is removed.

Additional stats other than HP will increase according to the consumed amount. (Strength and Speed are increased by an additional 50 per 10% of consumed life)

History: "Please put a ‘special rune' in the armor you will make for me.", asked Attoria to ‘Furnace the Short Fingered', Furnace, who claimed to be the hero's best friend and his exclusive blacksmith, held his tears back that night as he carefully engraved the runes on the armor. The rune had endowed the armor with a more powerful ability as if the armor itself would use the wearer as firewood to create a bigger fire. Attoria, who went to fight in the front line, burned himself in the final battle as he had turned to ashes.

The words in the notification window disappeared as if they combusted in an instant in my flaming vision. As the burned words turned to ashes and fell below my sight, my heart started to pulsate vigorously again. Soon, an indescribable power filled my entire body and overflowed within me.

The feeling I got when the stats that exceeded my original figure several times were added in an instant, the pleasure was enough to put a wretched smile on my face that was twisted in anger again.

Hieroglyphs of unknown meaning appeared blazing everywhere in the gray armor. A veil of flames of uncontrollable shape became a cloak on my scorching back, flowing down like lava from my shoulders.

< Health consumed by Solar Rampage has exceeded 10%. >

< Strength and Speed stats are increased by an additional 50. >

Feeling as if the blood that had been running all the way to the tip of my toes had hardened, I rushed towards the white wolf with the force of charring fire.

Thud!

I kicked the ground leaving it with a vicious vomit of dirt and a deep hole, and I was able to reach the front of Lidornn in an instant as I jumped at him with the recoil from the kick.

< Health consumed by Solar Rampage has exceeded 20%. >

< Strength and Speed stats are increased by an additional 100. >

I could see the drops of sweat on the prince's face, the seemingly dismayed expression on his face as he still couldn’t recognize my movement, and his fluttering blonde hair, everything. The total strength stat close to 700 was beyond imagination.

I held my arms wide and swung Attoria's stigma.

Boom!

Lidornn, who was hit directly by the weapon before he could fully defend himself, was thrown back like a cannonball and crashed to the ground.

< Health consumed by Solar Rampage has exceeded 30%. >

< Strength and Speed stats are increased by an additional 150. >

My body turned around because of the large swing I took with the Stigma, and the cloak of flames behind me waved around vomiting flames in every direction.

< Health consumed by Solar Rampage has exceeded 40%. >

< Strength and Speed stats are increased by an additional 200. >

It felt as if my body was gradually turning to stone. However, apart from my body hardening up, I was turning into something lighter than a feather.

“Lidornn!”

Intoxicated by the sudden onslaught of supernatural power, I cried out towards him. Lidornn’s remaining health bar, visible at the bottom of my field of vision, had already been reduced by more than half with just that one hit.

Nevertheless, the prince of rebellion regained his cold face and quietly stood up from his seat.

“So it seems that you also know how to be furious.”

The wounded wolf rushed like the wind and swung his white fangs. And I took the strikes with my own strength without any problems.

Clank! Clank!

However, Lidornn was not pushed back.

Or rather, I was taken aback by his momentum.

***

“You would get this furious at the death of your colleague even though you are immortals!”

His wrist spun softly, and the broadsword in his hand drew a whirlwind and bounced me off. I was pushed back this time, with that recoil. This time, it seemed that the change in his emotions had some effect on his own strength.

“Could you even dare to wonder my anger at the eternal parting caused by you, immortals!”

Lidornn had once again turned into a wolf as he pressured me with a furious gaze with ruptured blood vessels on his sclera.

And during all of that, the blazing text that appeared over his head began to change to something thicker like lava.

And after a moment, the number began to change each time his sword struck me.

Clank!

<Lv.177 Lidornn>

Clang!

<Lv.198 Lidornn>

Ka-Klank!

<Lv.235 Lidornn>

“ Players! Immortals! Outlaws! You do not qualify to set foot on this land!”

To make matters worse, even with my body enchanted with increasing stats over time in return for the loss of my HP, all I could manage to do was barely hold against his strikes. His vicious strength and momentum made me continue to take steps back.

“Die, player!”

The index finger of Lidornn's right hand pointed at me. Then smoke rose and a sword suddenly appeared and pierced my shoulder.

Stab!

“Guh…!”

As the freezing cold blade pierced my shoulder, I lost my balance and fell to one knee.

“You are not the masters of this world. Why do you try to control this world without anyone’s permission? Why do you decide the fate of those I love with your filthy hands!"

Screaming, Lidornn had quietly raised his right hand once more. Then he opened his index finger and pointed at me. I squeezed my strength and turned around to see Sharan and Guile standing outside the area scorched by the Solar Rampage, not knowing what to do.

“Watch out!”

Stab.

I shouted out loud in an instant, however, the moment I shouted out loud, a blade that appeared from the black smoke had already pierced Guile’s chest.

“Guile! No!”

Guile collapsed to the ground and did not even twitch. The blade was soaked in blood as it turned its direction toward Sharan.

“Stop it!”

I stood up and ran towards Lidornn as I screamed at him. Lidornn was only keeping a cold smile on his face.

“Feel the emotions you get when my blade pierces through your loved ones, player.”

I swung the Stigma as hard as I could toward Lidornn. However, his finger did not stop as his ashen gray armor broke into pieces.

“I said, stop! You son of a bitch!”

I grabbed Lidornn by his collar and screamed at him as he collapsed to the ground. When tears came out from both my eyes, the heat that was gripping my back had disappeared.

The Solar Rampage skill had been canceled due to the sudden shift in my emotion. Lidornn laid still on the floor, looking up at me with cold eyes. I turned my head around to see behind me.

Sharan was not there.

However, there was a blue aura faintly waving around. When I turned my head to face Lidornn again, he was staring at me with sorrowful eyes.

“You are hypocrites. Selfish hypocrites. Monsters who have wrongfully taken the blessing of blind Bellica.”

“Shut your mouth!”

“The sorrow you feel as a being that has infinite lives in this world is nothing more than just a filthy and fake emotion!”

Lidornn’s eyes welled up with tears.

“It’s only a few days. The amount of time it takes for your lost ones to return to you!”

It felt like my head had been struck after hearing his words. I was at a loss for words and just stared at him.

“My beloved Aine had more beautiful blonde hair than the Bellica’s glare rising at dawn. She had the most beautiful dazzling golden eyes than anyone. Not even the wall of status could prove to be an obstacle to love for us! She was my perfect lover!”

The wolf started to howl.

“Then two men appeared in front of her. They had plotted the filthiest and the most odious things in the world against her, captured her in a barn, humiliated and strangled her to death. I’ve captured those wretched rascals and fed them to my hounds, not leaving a single piece of flesh left of them!”

He kept his two piercing eyes fixed on me, pouring out anger hotter than the heat of my Solar Rampage.

“Then I heard that they had returned to this world as if nothing had happened. They were players and immortals. I captured them again and again and slaughtered them even more wretched than their last death. But then do you know what they said after that?”

I couldn’t help but be curious when I heard his question.

“They said, ‘let’s just stop playing this game.’ They said they had no regrets. They just giggled at each other. This was nothing more than just a ‘gossip’ to them!”

Blood gushed out of his mouth as his anger was getting more intense as the time went.

“Players! You claim that not all of you are as filthy, however, all of you have that stench in you. You were too busy trying to control this world that you didn't even try to solve your own problems!”

Incredible leg strength had smitten my stomach. I barely got back to my position.

“That is why I will solve this for you. Everything!”

His pure rage could not be compared to the puny anger I had a moment ago.

Because we are players who will be revived as many times in this world. We did not even qualify to discuss the anger he possessed.

Unlike other video game NPCs who often only repeat the same dialogue, people in this world think and act like a virtual reality game.

Although in the real world where I, Lee Kiho, live in, they are called artificial intelligence, AI for short.

Seeing his expression in front of my eyes, confronting his anger, and blocking his way, unspeakable emotions flooded into me.

Lairo had confessed for forgiveness and quietly closed his eyes in the end.

Firli was altruistic enough to cover all those who had hurt him.

However, Lidornn not only possessed the rightful and justified anger like the two mentioned before, he was pouring his anger out on a specific target. Nothing I could say would hold any meaning against him.

But even so, I raised my sword and glared at him.

“ Yes! Player, stop me. Please! Stop my anger! If you don't put a stop to it, then I'll become a storm like an unbridled Horace, and exterminate every single one of the filthy plague, you players are!”

Lidornn approached me, wielding the broadsword in his left hand as he swung it around without a fixed target.

Now that the Solar Rampage skill has been deactivated, I thought that receiving his strike was meaningless, but I picked up the stigma to block it anyway.

His power was much weaker than before. The battle against tens of thousands of players, and even the bloody battle against me, his body must already be in exhaustion.

Our blades collided, and particles from our blades spilled around us instead of our blood.

As I started to even notice a pattern as we shared strikes, Lidornn suddenly retrieved his blade at one point.

And the moment I tried to swing my Stigma,

“Not so fast, player.”

His index finger was pointing at my stomach before I could even react. 

‘Shit!’

Before I could even spit my thought out of my mouth, the black smoke that appeared in front of my stomach pierced straight through the Attoria armor and my body.

“Cough…!”

[ Your HP is below 20%. Be careful. ]

The unrealistically enlarged, urgent heartbeat, the vision dyed in red, and even the alerting words that flashed up,

As a player, this series of texts felt like it was taking away my cause to fight Lidornn.

“Mose!”

Just before Lidornn’s fang tore my throat apart, I heard Khea’s cry from afar.

With her ebony hair fluttering as her headband was cut, Khea was looking at me with clever traces of intense battle left on her face.

“That woman, she’s not a player, huh?”

Lidornn retrieved his sword as he raised a question for a moment. Then his lips trembling in anger opened up again.

“Then Mose, maybe you could feel what I had felt. What eternal loss feels like.”

Slowly, Lidornn raised his right hand.

“No! Please! Khea, Run! Now!”

I screamed with all the strength I had within me as I coughed up blood from my inside. She was different. She was from this world. She would never be able to return if she was to die here.

Having fully demonstrated the  ‘players’ selfishness’' that he had criticized just now, the only thing I could do was shout at Khea as loud as I could with tears dropping from my eyes.

“Khea!”

Lidornn raised his index finger with no hesitation after he had watched my desperate attempt to save Khea. He opened up to speak a moment later.

“Are you aware of this player!”

Khea carefully retrieved her blade.

“Yes, I do. Very well, actually.”

“Are you willing to sacrifice your irreplaceable life just for this immortal?”

She stared at me with a faint smile on her face.

“Of course. He’s a special person to me. And even if he’s an immortal, I cannot allow those two eyes to close even for a bit.”

Lidornn’s eyes started to shake after hearing her determined answer.

“How foolish! I pity you for your fanaticism and blindness towards the immortal!”

“How foolish of you to trample on the vows of many, whilst using the immortals as an excuse to do so. I pity your heart that sees the wrongdoings of the minority as blame for the majority.”

At Lidornn’s words, Khea retaliated calmly.

“Everyone lives with a story. You with yours, and I with mine. I live with the memory of my own mother fading away by those animals. And you live with the memory of that incident in which you lost your lover. Nevertheless, it is our essence to find and protect what is precious. And I am willing to give my life away in order to protect Mose, even if he is an immortal.”

She said with her eyes closed, and opening her arms out.

“And I really don’t have anything to say about what you are about to do. Because that is the fate you have chosen. Now, show me your resolution.”

“No!”

She stood confident and still despite my cries for her. Lidornn summoned his sword from his fingertip. And that sword mercilessly charged at Khea.

I threw my Attoria’s Stigma with every single strength I had left in me. As Lidornn’s sword flew towards her, the sword that contained every bit of power I had left in me collided with the fang of the wolf and fell to the ground.

Lidornn, who watched what happened, turned to me in order to strike my neck with the broadsword he was holding in his left hand, and in that very moment,

“Sharma.”

With the blade that bloomed in my hand after a short calling, I deeply stabbed him in his side.

< Quest Completed >

< Prince of Rebellion >

< Main target: Lidornn’s Elimination >

< Elimination successful. >

< Initiating automatic reward distribution. >

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