‘Th-That’s impossible! Even if his “level of existence” was lowered, how could he deal with Levi that easily?’
‘He,’ who had been watching from outside, could not hide his shock.
He could not even tell how Levi had lost.
All he could tell from the screen was that the two had clashed head-on, and although Levi had appeared to be overwhelming Lucas completely, the situation had reversed in an instant.
At a glance, it even looked as though Levi had somehow done himself in.
But anyone with eyes could surely tell.
That was Lucas’s doing.
Levi’s technique, which should have rained down on Lucas, had instead carved Levi’s own body to pieces.
‘Lucas…….’
A pure thrill ran through him at Lucas’s strength.
And he knew.
Lucas would be the greatest obstacle to his plan.
No matter what, Lucas had to be eliminated before the operation began.
‘He has to be dealt with first.’
The invasion of Grasco was the signal flare that would spread the flames of war across the entire continent.
He could not afford to get the first button wrong.
He etched Lucas’s figure firmly into his memory.
***
“Professor, thank you so much!”
Luina was the first to run over and seize my hand.
More precisely, the locket I was holding.
It happened so quickly that I missed my chance to react.
Seeing her clutch the dust-covered locket tightly to her chest, it looked like it had found its owner.
“Don’t lose it.”
It must mean a lot to her.
[Luina’s Favorability greatly increases! +40]
……Her Favorability went up a lot.
Favorability going up was usually a good thing, but Luina’s was not exactly welcome.
I could not make use of her skills.
Befitting the heir to the Magic Tower, most of her skills were magic spells with tremendous firepower.
Naturally, they consumed an enormous amount of mana.
And there was no way I had that much mana.
With the amount of mana I had, the only magic I could use was enough to light a cigarette or make a glass of water nice and cold.
At that point, I would be better off carrying a lighter or a tumbler.
‘Wait, Ritt’s Favorability went up too.’
Come to think of it, Ritt’s Favorability had also increased greatly.
‘Why did they suddenly pop up?’
Anyway, Ritt’s Favorability increasing was a tremendous boon.
The best part was that their hostility had disappeared.
The fact that I no longer had to fear for my life around Ritt brought me immense relief.
And…….
‘Special Voucher? Are you kidding me, seriously?’
This was the thing causing me the most stress right now.
‘Why now…….’
The idea itself was good.
It would give me any eligible item no matter how expensive it was. The catch was that I had to cough up everything I owned.
Even if I poured in my entire fortune, it was still an enormous perk.
Tier 1 items cost up to 1,000G, while Tier 2 items hovered around 100,000G.
‘It should’ve given it to me sooner!’
But now I had already received two massive 10,000G donations, along with a pile of additional support.
If it had given me the voucher just a little earlier, I might have danced while apologizing for calling it a fucking garbage game all this time. Then I would have savored every bit of the support that came afterward.
But there was no way this fucking garbage game would ever do me that favor.
Resentment toward this system’s fucking dogshit timing billowed up inside me, and my blood pressure shot through the roof.
At the same time, I felt my own weakness more keenly than ever.
The root cause of all this anger was that I was weak.
That was why I needed more items from the Gold Shop, and why even 100G felt precious.
Just look at the battle from a moment ago.
It might have looked like an easy victory, but in reality, it only happened because coincidence piled on top of coincidence.
My spoiler was recognized as a lesson by Levi, and Levi’s curiosity was recognized as Favorability.
Thanks to that, I was able to steal his skill much more easily.
More importantly than anything else, the biggest factor was that his “level of existence” had been lowered when he was summoned into .
He had not yet adapted to being weaker than usual, so he died without being able to put up any meaningful response.
Under normal circumstances—no, if his “level of existence” had been lowered even a little less, I would have been the one to die with those spikes piercing my entire body.
‘I want to live.’
I felt it sincerely, desperately.
Those meat shields still had not grown enough for me to rely on them alone.
Then again, even in the original course of events, they never properly manifested their talents before Grasco was destroyed.
I thought all I had to do was guide them.
But there were far too many variables that could kill me before I could wait for them to grow.
‘Gold Shop.’
I called up the Gold Shop immediately.
Normally, I might have hoarded this and put off using it until later.
But that would be disrespecting both me and the readers.
It would mean underestimating the attention of those who wanted me to grow, and the sincerity behind it.
‘Instead, I’ll choose the best option I can.’
So that I would not regret it in the slightest.
What mattered most in this Gold Shop was not the price.
It was how much practical use I could squeeze out of the item.
Besides, there was nothing absurdly overpowered among the items or skills up through Tier 2.
Anything that looked genuinely powerful required the kind of insane spending you would see in LinAge just to even dream of obtaining it.
That did not mean the products up through Tier 2 were useless.
-Myriad Streams Return to the Source 99,900G
.
.
-Sonic Slash 92,500G
-Calling a Deer a Horse 91,000G
.
.
-Laser Shot 82,600G
Myriad Streams Return to the Source, which had the unmistakable feel of a Daoist cultivation method; Sonic Slash, a sword strike at the speed of sound; Calling a Deer a Horse, which looked like a verbal persuasion skill; and Laser Shot, which seemed like it would at least pack tremendous destructive power.
Those were only a few of them. There were many more items.
As I stared at the endless list, one thought came to mind.
‘Ah, I’m fucked.’
I was the kind of hopelessly indecisive person who could spend thirty minutes choosing from the menu at Gimbap Hell.
***
was not restored until a full ten hours after all the fighting had ended.
“Eilon!”
Stephen Dust pushed through the enormous crowd and pulled Eilon into a hug.
“Let me look at you, my boy. You’ve gotten so gaunt. You don’t have to worry anymore. It’s all over. You’ve been through so much. You really have!”
“…….”
Eilon silently returned his father’s embrace.
Somehow, his father looked even more haggard than he did.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Yeah, Dad. I’m okay.”
Stephen spent a long time patting and examining Eilon.
As his father, he could tell.
Eilon was not fine at all.
It was not a physical wound.
He was suffering from a more fundamental kind of agony.
It could be called growing pains.
It pained Stephen to see Eilon like that, yet he was also proud of him.
“Oh, Professor Lucas.”
At last, Lucas emerged from .
Though he had clearly been trapped inside with the students for a long time, his bearing had not lost a trace of its nobility.
Stephen’s admiration lasted only a moment.
He hurried over, clasped both of Lucas’s hands, and offered his heartfelt thanks.
“Thank you. My son survived thanks to you. I do not know how I can possibly express my gratitude. I can never thank you enough.”
“I apologize for causing you concern.”
“No! It was an excellent opportunity to witness your tremendous martial prowess. You truly have the bearing of the ‘Hero of the Eastern Front’! And thanks to you, my son…… seems to have grown a little as well.”
“Thank you for understanding. Then, I will take my leave.”
Even though he had just spoken one-on-one with the richest man in the world, Lucas merely gave a slight bow and walked away as though it meant nothing to him.
“Professor Lucas!”
But Stephen was not the only one who wanted something from him.
Starting with Dean Harriet, Vice Chancellor Ronald, and even Chancellor Heinz, the professors had a mountain of questions for him.
“Professor, please look over here for a moment!”
“I’m Reporter Kibitan from Aerok News!”
“Professor, the entire continent is waiting for your interview!”
Above all, the ones creating the greatest commotion were the reporters desperate to land an article on this enormous scoop.
They thrust filming and recording magic tools toward him and bombarded him with questions.
“You won easily in a battle against a Demon. Was this a reenactment of the Eastern Front?”
“What do you think of Grasco’s security system being riddled with holes?”
“Professor, just one comment, please!”
Their relentless pestering brought Lucas to a stop.
He swept his gaze across the crowd once.
Countless eyes converged on Lucas’s mouth.
His lips slowly opened.
“Dk, Tlqkf ghkwkdtlf rmqgkslRk Rjwu. (Ah, fuck, I need the bathroom, so get lost.)”
A language they had never heard before.
Yet somehow, they could feel an inexplicable dignity and charisma within it.
The reporters stood dumbfounded for a moment.
Without caring about their reaction, Lucas began walking again.
The massive crowd naturally opened a path for him as though spellbound.
***
‘Bathroom, bathroom…….’
After being trapped in there for so long, I was dying to use the bathroom.
If those trash-reporter bastards had not held me up, I would have taken care of it ages ago.
Trash reporters are a problem even here.
I sat on the toilet and emptied out everything I had been holding in.
At the same time, I continued to deliberate.
My damned indecisiveness had kept me from reaching a decision for more than ten hours.
Anyone would be the same.
If you had managed to get your hands on something like this, would you not want to squeeze the greatest possible benefit out of it?
I had narrowed down the candidates.
First was , the most expensive skill among those that met my criteria, along with several attack skills that looked powerful.
Ah, was obviously excluded.
My gift of gab was already more than sufficient.
‘Ah, which one should I pick…….’
Having too many choices was almost painful.
If I chose this one, that one kept lingering in my mind. If I chose that one, this one felt too good to give up.
Just as I was still unable to decide,
[A new notification has arrived.]
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
The donation alerts began chiming in rapid succession.
‘Huh? Uh, uhh?’
My joy lasted only a moment before a déjà vu I had already experienced once flashed through my mind.
One reader had once fired off ten sharp 100-won punches by donating 100G at a time.
As that memory overlapped with the present, I began to grow anxious.
‘I need to choose before more donations come in.’
If I stayed like this, every donation that came afterward would vanish into thin air.
Nothing could be more wasteful than that.
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
Sure enough, the donations kept coming.
The notification window began to feel like a ticking time bomb urging me on.
‘Hurry!’
Instinctively, I chose one skill.
[Used ‘Special Voucher’ to purchase Myriad Streams Return to the Source.]
===
▶Myriad Streams Return to the Source
The higher the Proficiency of the first skill learned, the faster the Proficiency of other skills increases.
===
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
[Geomeunmigung donated 100G.]
[k2929 donated 100G.]
[Sogogigukbap donated 100G.]
[g2523_lancetein1223 donated 100G.]
[g2523_lancetein1223 donated 300G.]
[g2523_lancetein1223 donated 500G.]
[g2523_lancetein1223 donated 1,000G.]
[Abc1234 donated 300G.]
With uncanny timing, more donation notifications followed.
I had almost let my dear readers’ precious sincerity vanish into thin air.
‘That was close.’
A whopping 3,100G in additional donations.
If my decision had been even a little slower, I would have thrown all that precious support away.
Under the time pressure, I had instinctively picked the most expensive skill, but I had no regrets.
Sonic Slash and Laser Shot, which looked like they would boast tremendous destructive power, still lingered in my mind, but I could not expect overwhelming power from Tier 2 skills.
, which grew in conjunction with my other skills, could instead turn out to be the best possible choice.
……or so I consoled myself.
Even after making my choice, I could not help feeling some regret.
They say humans are creatures of regret.
But then.
[Jikyeobogetda registered a Recommendation Post.]
[‘Item Draw TicketX1’ awarded for Recommendation Post registration.]
A notification capable of blowing away all that regret in one shot appeared before my eyes.