Jung-geun, who had been watching from a distance, quickly approached Taesan.
“Good work.”
“You’re here?”
“Of course I had to come see my hyung fight.”
“Nonsense.”
Taesan caught the potato Jung-geun tossed him. His face scrunched up at the potato, which had grown cold and lost its warmth.
“This is why I didn’t want to come.”
It was too much trouble to go back to the cafeteria, so he had no choice but to just eat it. Before he knew it, Lee Chang-chun was long gone from his thoughts. Only Jung-geun looked at the fallen Lee Chang-chun in admiration.
“Ha, hyung, you’re really amazing. To think you took down a Hard Player, of all people, in a single blow.”
“What’s so amazing about taking down a weakling like that?”
“He’s not exactly a weakling…”
Jung-geun said hesitantly. Chang-chun was strong. Augment was a rare skill that only a very few among the Hard Players possessed, and Power Strike was also a considerably useful skill.
Fortitude, which reduced all damage by half, was also a rare skill. Even Jung-geun, considered the strongest Hard Player, would have had a tough time subduing him. He wasn’t a Player who would go down that easily.
It was just that Taesan was overwhelmingly stronger. Jung-geun couldn’t hold back his curiosity.
“Just how do you get that darn Multiplication skill anyway?”
A crazy skill that unconditionally squares your Attack Power. And not your base Attack Power, but your current Attack Power. It only stopped around ten thousand because Taesan's base stats were low; depending on the user, it could produce near-infinite damage.
The only skill that was even somewhat similar was Addition, but it was laughably inadequate compared to Multiplication, and even then, besides Taesan, only Lee Tae-yeon possessed it.
“And what in the world is Absolute Judgment? Defense Ignore? Where do you even get a skill like that? Absolute Nullification of the First Attack? What kind of cheat skill is that? Where on earth did you get them all?”
Jung-geun was genuinely curious. If all Easy Players obtained skills like Taesan, Jung-geun would have wanted to kill himself for choosing Hard Mode. But only Taesan had such skills.
Taesan replied as he always did.
“By working hard, I got them.”
“There you go again. What is there to hide at this point?”
“That’s all there is to it, so what do you want me to do?”
Taesan said indifferently. He diligently broke through the Labyrinth, the place others called a tower. He didn't just pass through it; he grasped and analyzed many things.
That was all. But even when he said that, people couldn't accept it. To them, the Labyrinth was nothing more than a simple hell.
They didn't try to understand why someone would grasp and analyze such a horrifying world. As a result, Taesan no longer felt the need to explain himself diligently and just kept his answers simple. From the distance, another shout rang out.
“Oh. Looks like another Player arrived? It’s a bountiful day today.”
“I don’t think so.”
When a Player arrives, they usually appear in the very center of the city. But the shout came from the direction of the barrier wall. Jung-geun realized it too.
“Looks like Lee Tae-yeon is here.”
In a situation where humanity was on the brink of extinction, no one pursued elegance and safety. Most of the houses in the city were on the verge of collapse. But among them, there was also a neat house.
As if it had been consistently maintained, there wasn't even a speck of dust on the walls.
“She’s still so damn fussy about this stuff.”
Taesan stood in front of that house with a bothered look on his face. He stepped into the house.
Creeak.
As the door opened and the interior came into view, Taesan was even more dumbfounded.
“Good grief.”
All sorts of ornaments and murals came into sight. It was decorated quite stylishly, but in this crazy world, no one cared about decorations. If there was such a person, they had to be insane.
Taesan clicked his tongue and spoke to the woman waiting for him inside the house.
“Aren't you going to fix this strange habit of yours?”
“I don't want to hear you nagging about my hobbies, you know?” a woman sitting in a luxurious red leather chair grumbled.
With her long blonde hair, she proudly raised a finger.
“Isn't that beautiful? I went to the art museum and brought it back this time.”
At the tip of her finger was a giant portrait. The portrait, four times the size of a human torso, was without a single speck of dust or a single scratch.
It meant that in the outside world teeming with all sorts of monsters, in a world where one couldn't know if they would see tomorrow, she had carried this portrait, cherishing it, all the way back here.
Taesan sighed.
“Why is a woman like you the strongest human?”
Lee Tae-yeon.
The one and only human to have cleared Alone Mode. She was the woman regarded as the strongest human on Earth. And by Taesan's standards, she was also the most abnormal human.
Lee Tae-yeon smiled brightly.
“In times like these, an obsession with something is important. Why don't you get a hobby like me? I used to think things like art from the old world were meaningless, but now I see they each have their own flavor. Take this portrait I brought back this time…”
“Let's hear about that later when we have time.”
Lee Tae-yeon had a knack for losing the main point the more she talked. Taesan knew from past experience that it was best to cut to the chase without getting sucked in.
“What do you want?”
The reason Taesan had come here was because Lee Tae-yeon had summoned him. Lee Tae-yeon caressed the armrest of her chair.
“The Hard Mode kid. I heard you educated him?”
“There was no one else to do it.”
“My, a Hard Player getting taught by an Easy Player. It's a strange story no matter how many times I hear it.”
Lee Tae-yeon looked at Taesan as if seeing something fascinating, then opened her mouth.
“Status Window.”
Lee Tae-yeon’s Status Window appeared.
[Lee Tae-yeon] [Level: 258] [Health: 45810/45810] [Mana: 7020/7020] [Strength: 10152] [Intelligence: 9899] [Agility: 13254] [Attack Power + 5421] [Defense Power + 8456] [The target is in a frightened state.]
They were stats that would leave anyone else speechless with awe. A light attack from her would likely be equal to a Hard Player's full-power strike. Looking at such a status window, Taesan wore a sullen expression.
“What, are you bragging?”
“It’s just a simple check. Taesan. You show me your status window, too.”
“You're definitely bragging. Makes an Easy Player too sad to live.”
Taesan grumbled as he opened his status window.
[Kang Taesan] [Level: 57] [Health: 1021/1021] [Mana: 820/820] [Strength: 105] [Intelligence: 100] [Agility: 98] [Attack Power + 49] [Defense Power + 58] [The target is in peak condition.]
Lee Tae-yeon nodded.
“As expected, you’re damn weak.”
Taesan’s face crumpled.
“You looking for a fight?”
“I told you, it’s just a simple check. Still, that’s pretty decent. Most Easy Players had stats far worse than yours. In the case of your mana pool, you'd be in the upper ranks even among Normal Players.”
Taesan was fundamentally a Player of the easiest difficulty. And the Labyrinth had an extreme difference in growth based on difficulty. The moment one cleared the Labyrinth, all growth stopped, making it impossible to get any stronger.
A Hard Player would typically have stats easily ten times higher than Taesan's. In Jung-geun's case, it was twenty times. But none of them could even withstand a single blow from Taesan. Even Lee Tae-yeon couldn't guarantee she would win against Taesan.
It was all because of the skills Taesan possessed.
“The number of skills you have is two hundred, was it?”
“Around two hundred and thirty.”
“…That's truly a phenomenal number.”
Lee Tae-yeon let out a hollow laugh. The number of skills she had was about fifty. Hard Players had about twenty in total.
Furthermore, it wasn't just the sheer quantity; the quality of each and every skill was different. Lee Tae-yeon raised her fist.
“Stay still for a moment.”
[Lee Tae-yeon has activated Augment. Half of her base Attack Power is added.]
[Lee Tae-yeon has activated Addition. Her current Attack Power is doubled.]
[Lee Tae-yeon has activated Sure Hit. This attack will absolutely land.]
[Lee Tae-yeon’s attack.]
Damage that could kill Taesan more than ten times over rushed toward him.
[Kang Taesan's Absolute Nullification of the First Attack has been activated.]
[0 damage dealt to Kang Taesan.]
But only a short System Window popped up. Taesan hadn't even taken a defensive stance.
“What are you doing?”
“…Just. It’s nothing.”
Lee Tae-yeon gave a wry smile. Sure Hit, her strongest accuracy skill. It was one of the top five skills she possessed, but in front of Taesan, it was completely useless.
“Absolute Nullification of an Attack. Absolute Judgment. Multiplication, Multi-layered Attack, Copy, Simple Time Stop… they're truly ridiculous skills.”
Skills that, if one possessed even one of them, could make them a top-tier powerhouse. Taesan had over two hundred such skills. That was why, despite his pathetic stats, he had survived until now and could overwhelm everyone else.
“You said you got these skills by playing through every nook and cranny of the Tower, right?”
“Not Tower, Labyrinth. Why call a place you go down into a Tower?”
“Almost everyone but you calls it that, so what does it matter? The ones who call it a Labyrinth are a minority, including you, right? Just answer the question.”
“Yeah. Because you can obtain skills regardless of the difficulty.”
Lee Tae-yeon lowered her head and mulled it over.
“We should have properly grasped the Tower like you did. We should have grown stronger to our limits instead of just being obsessed with clearing it…”
They couldn't do that. Paralyzed by fear, they were obsessed with clearing the Labyrinth and getting out as quickly as possible, so they missed most of the elements that could have made them stronger. Lee Tae-yeon realized that simple fact too late.
“I doubt it.”
Taesan said indifferently. If others had acted as he did, would they have become as strong as him? From his perspective, no. What Lee Tae-yeon was saying now was the same as saying that if everyone lived like Edison, everyone would invent the lightbulb.
But he didn't want to argue about something meaningless, so he just spoke vaguely.
“It's all in the past anyway.”
“That's not necessarily true.”
Lee Tae-yeon gave an enigmatic smile. Taesan looked at her with a curious face, but Lee Tae-yeon changed the subject instead of answering.
“Anyway, you're amazing. If you had played Alone Mode, we might have been able to win.”
Though his skills were powerful, most of them were used based on his stats. The current Taesan wasn't able to use even a tenth of his skills' potential. If only Taesan had stats comparable to an average Hard Player, humanity could have progressed twice as far.
Taesan waved his hand in annoyance.
“Can we stop talking about this?”
If only he had played Normal Mode. If only he had played Alone Mode. He was sick of hearing those words by now.
It was just irritating.
“Just get to the point. Didn't you just get back from scouting?”
“That's right.”
Lee Tae-yeon said with a serious face.
“The next wave is about to begin.”
Taesan frowned.
The wave, a full-scale attack by the monsters. A wave occurred every time they returned to Earth. In the first wave after the final return, humanity lost Seoul.
In the second wave, half of the Hard Players died. In the third wave, humanity could only defend a small city. With every wave, many people died and their territory shrank significantly.
Now, it was the fourth wave.
“How many?”
“Two S-class. Dozens of A-class. Hundreds of B-class. And an Apostle.”
Lee Tae-yeon said calmly. Taesan nodded his head.
“It's over.”
An S-class was a monster that even Lee Tae-yeon could barely handle. And there were two of them. On top of that, dozens of A-class monsters.
There weren't even twenty Hard Players left to face the A-class monsters. And the Apostle. Something alien that surpassed even the S-class.
Defeat was, in effect, a certainty.
“But we have to struggle, at least. Taesan. I need you to handle the two S-class monsters.”
“What?”
Taesan let out a hollow laugh.
“Are you telling me to go die?”
“There's no one else who can handle the S-class monsters. I'll have my hands full just dealing with the Apostle, so I won't have time for anything else. You know that, right?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Taesan grumbled but did not refuse. He, too, knew that there were truly no other options left. He turned his body.
“Going to let them know?”
“They should at least have time to prepare themselves mentally. Are you going to let them die without knowing anything?”
“They might be happier that way.”
“I don’t think so.”
Even if you have to crawl on the ground and spit blood, you must strive to survive. That was what Taesan believed. Taesan went outside.
Left alone, Lee Tae-yeon muttered to herself.
“Taesan, you're strong. Someone like you could lead us to victory.”
She gave a bitter smile.
“But I'm a coward.”
In her hand was a dark, grimy stone.
“Damn.”
Jung-geun stared beyond the barrier wall with a restless expression.
“I knew a day like this would come eventually, but this feels really damn awful.”
“How are the others?”
“It’s chaos. Everyone’s saying it’s the end. Praying and making a huge fuss.”
“Well, I guess so.”
No one could maintain their sanity when told they were all going to die and that it was the end for humanity.
“What about you?”
“I'll accept it. All things considered, I've lived a long time in a situation where everyone was dying. This is a good death, I'd say. A good death.”
“What's so good about dying?”
Lee Chang-chun walked past them, his face dark and dead.
“Come to think of it, that guy is really pitiful.”
He must have been thrilled at the thought of clearing the Labyrinth and enjoying modern life. But instead, he witnessed a horrifying reality and had to wait for death just one day after seeing the world. As a Hard Player, he must have gone through all sorts of hardships to clear the Labyrinth.
It was truly a luckless life.
“What about you, hyung?”
Jung-geun asked Taesan.
“Honestly, I think you have the most reason to feel wronged. If we had been half as good as you, we wouldn't be facing extinction, would we?”
“I feel so wronged I could die. Happy now?”
Taesan said indifferently. His tone was light, but those were his true feelings.
Grrrrrr...
The cry of a monster was heard. Jung-geun's expression hardened. It was the beginning of the wave.
“Wow, damn. This is insane. For real. What did she say you had to fight, hyung?”
“Two S-class.”
“…See you in the afterlife. You'll probably go first, hyung. Please wait for me.”
“Sure.”
Taesan leaped lightly into the air. His main enemies were not the group of monsters on the other side. They were far from them, just two single monsters.
Taesan kicked off the ground.
[You have activated Great Leap.]
His body flew through the sky. It brushed past the clouds, instantly moving far away from the city. The fight with an S-class monster had a massive aftermath.
It could create a crater the size of a city, so he couldn't fight near one. From high in the sky, Taesan looked down at the ground.
[You have activated Perfect Reconnaissance.]
He saw dots on the ground. The blue dots were gathered in one place and were very few, while the red dots twinkled, filling the ground like a city's nightscape. Among them, two red dots shone brighter than any other.
“Found you.”
[You have activated Landing.]
Taesan descended to the ground. The two monsters that had been heading for the city stopped, surprised to see him.
“Happy to see me?”
Groowl.
[Monster5 is hostile towards you.]
[Monster7 is hostile towards you.]
The monsters stared at Taesan. At their gaze, a System Window appeared.
[You have witnessed horrifying beings.]
[Beginning judgment.]
[Mental Derangement judgment in progress…]
[Confusion judgment in progress…]
[Fear judgment in progress…]
[Instant Death judgment in progress…]
[...]
[All judgments successful!]
[You have endured with your indomitable spirit!]
[All stats have increased.]
[Your spirit will never be broken.]
[You are endowed with an unyielding body.]
They attempted an Instant Death judgment just by being looked at. Taesan sighed and drew his sword. It was the worn-out sword that had been with him his entire life.
“Die. You bastards.”
[You have activated Unstoppable Power.]