―CRINKLE.
He casually tossed the half-eaten bag of potato chips out over the sea. One or two bites had been edible, but after that, honestly, it did not suit his tastes even if someone paid him to eat it.
Even if not Albanian white truffles, it would have been edible enough with Périgord or Yunnan black truffles on the side.
“You, what are you? Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Then he looked toward the direction the voice had come from. About ten meters ahead.
“Are you not answering? Judging by your outfit, you seem to be a warrior-line class. How are you floating in the air? The common skill [Levitation] doesn’t last long.”
There, he met eyes with a person wearing extremely ornate cardinal vestments.
“If you’re not a mage-line class, you shouldn’t have the [Dimensional Gate] skill either… There’s no way you ran all the way here. Are you not Korean?”
As he said, Han Woo-hyun’s current appearance stood out greatly.
He was floating in the air in front of the beach at Beidaihe District, the coastal area closest to Beijing.
―Wooooong.
―Wooooong.
And his whole body was wrapped in light in order to flaunt a presence that no player could possibly ignore and pass by.
No, in truth, it was not only the players who would find him eye-catching.
Chinese fishing boats that had already been coming and going along the coast had seen him, filmed him with cameras, and shouted something as they passed.
It did not matter.
In any case, by tomorrow, the whole world would be turned upside down.
“…Cao ni ma?”
When Han Woo-hyun still gave no answer, the man in cardinal vestments glared at him while muttering in Chinese this time.
Well, in this situation, it was more rational to think of him as Chinese.
“Pfft.”
“…You’re laughing?”
Of course, it was not a particularly wise judgment. Cao ni ma was the most famous Chinese curse in Korea.
Its meaning was roughly “your mom.”
Swearing at someone right away. What was he going to do if a player stronger than him flew into a rage?
“….”
Thinking that, Han Woo-hyun slowly examined the other man.
A bizarre face with bluish skin and long, slitted mouth and eyes.
An appearance resembling a ghost character from a classic Japanese horror game.
And over his entire body, excessively ornate cardinal vestments embroidered with jewels and gold thread that could not exist in reality.
In other words, just as Han Woo-hyun had expected and waited for, he was a World of Yggdrasill player.
“You talk too much. It’s noisy.”
“…What? You’re Korean, so why are you ignoring me? What are you doing here….”
“I’m not finished speaking. Character Name, ‘The Best Heal Is a Preemptive Strike.’ Choi Yoon.”
Han Woo-hyun naturally spoke his character name and real name aloud.
“…? Wh-what? How do you know my name?”
As was only natural, it was something Choi Yoon had not expected at all, so his eyes widened into circles.
“Stop what you are about to do. As the guild leader and ranker of Guild Lucid, I advise you.”
Ignoring that reaction, Han Woo-hyun continued saying what he had to say.
“Order must be maintained in the People’s Republic of China. It is a nation necessary for our plan.”
Before his regression, the greatest reason the world had ended was because the mad Villain Players ran wild however they pleased.
This time would be different.
Villain or not. All players would now be beneath him.
What if there was someone who did not want that? This world had no need for such a person. Therefore, he would be executed.
“This is the decision of the guild, so you have no right to refuse.”
The plan of a single organization called a guild, into which all players would be forcibly enrolled.
“The rankers of the global server, Chinese server, and Southeast Asian server have already agreed. The rankers of the Korean server are joining as well.”
In other words, it was time to bluff.
A bluff that would establish a new order and hegemony across the world.
The first step toward drawing a world ruled by Han Woo-hyun and the Villain Players who obeyed his will.
“If you dislike it, I have no choice but to exercise force.”
He spat out a threat and arrogantly looked down at his opponent.
“Do you want that?”
And naturally.
“Fuck, what kind of bullshit is this? Lucid? What no-name guild is that?”
His opponent was not so easy.
Choi Yoon was a psychotic man with anger-control issues who had committed terrorism against a neighboring country as soon as he felt he had gained some kind of power.
The world’s first Villain Player and commander.
Therefore, Han Woo-hyun had also expected that he would not accept it obediently.
“More importantly, it’s the first time I’ve heard that guild name. What kind of guild even exists in reality in the first place? Are you a game addict?”
“Huh?”
However, the next words were somewhat unexpected, so a hollow laugh escaped him.
Naturally, at this level, both he and the other man were game addicts. Severe addicts at that.
Yet Choi Yoon attacked him so naturally, as though he himself were not one at all, so Han Woo-hyun could only find it absurd.
“It seems words won’t work.”
“Ha, you want to fight? Fine. But.”
“Hmm?”
“Who do you take for an idiot? Guild? Ranker? Why would I fight without knowing whether that’s true or bullshit, or what kind of bastard you are? [Sharp Eyes].”
“Ho?”
Han Woo-hyun was slightly surprised inside. He had already discovered that skill’s use in reality?
[Sharp Eyes] was an essential skill in the game. It had the effect of passively increasing critical damage without conditions.
As a secondary effect, when activated actively, it also allowed the user to learn more detailed information about monsters.
In the game, it was a meaningless effect.
If one wanted to know detailed information about a monster, one should open the wiki. Why would anyone do something like that in the middle of hunting or a boss raid?
However, in reality, that function had become much more important.
“[Status Window], let’s see….”
Because it had become a skill that allowed one to see another person’s status window.
“Fine, take a good look.”
“Don’t order me around, you bastard….”
―FLAAASH…!
The faintly magnified flow of skill energy formed in Choi Yoon’s eyes.
“Oh… uh…? Uuh? Uuuuuh…?!”
And his eyes and mouth opened wide.
“What’s so surprising?”
Han Woo-hyun asked, feeling slightly puzzled inside.
If the status window appeared broken to him, then naturally, he had expected it would not appear properly to his opponent either.
But that was not the level of reaction Choi Yoon was showing.
It was closer to the emotions one would show when witnessing something transcendent.
“Insane. What is this? What the hell is this?”
Choi Yoon’s face distorted, loosened, and trembled wildly.
Such an excessive reaction was not simply the level of questioning a status window that could not be seen.
“What is so strange about it?”
“No, no, fuck… There’s no level 300 in Korea, is there? There’s no max level, right? What are you? Your stats are insane. Your primary stat is 120,000? Your Combat Power is 1.2 billion? You’re number one in the world?”
What?
Han Woo-hyun was also slightly flustered inside at those words.
Was the bugged status window not invisible, but merely invisible to him?
Did actual status window values exist?
However, a primary stat of 120,000? A Combat Power of 1.2 billion? When he had tested the stats acting on him in detail, they had certainly not been at that level.
It seemed that due to the error, values far higher than reality were appearing through some kind of overflow.
“….”
“Wait, your class is Paladin….”
However, because Han Woo-hyun did not show even the slightest sign of that confusion, Choi Yoon continued talking by himself as he looked at Han Woo-hyun’s status window.
“Why would anyone choose such a trash class… uh, a Paladin ranker? I remember, I think I saw something online….”
He was right. Paladin was a trash class.
World of Yggdrasill boasted an enormous variety of classes, numbering forty-six in all.
However, if one looked into it in more detail, that number had a slight problem.
Because it was made up of forty-four DPS classes, one Healer class, and one Tank class.
“…I remember now. The tank-concept freak. Why…”
“Oh, you know me?”
World of Yggdrasill was a game where Tanks and Healers did not have much meaning.
So those classes were looked down on, and their populations were small.
Therefore, Paladin was the worst trash class.
That stood in contrast to Priest, the game’s only Healer, whose population had been maintained to some degree after a DPS tree was newly added through a patch.
Because of that, the character [Arthur] had been quite famous.
Han Woo-hyun had not been the only high-level Paladin.
However, he was the only Paladin player who had exceeded level 290 and entered the ranks of rankers.
Since he had kept playing Yggdrasill with that trash class, he could only become famous as a target of ridicule.
After both of them thought along similar lines up to that point, their eyes met.
“….”
“….”
“Do you feel a little more inclined to listen to me now?”
The first to speak was Han Woo-hyun.
“….”
“Answer.”
“Fuck, what is this? How did you know I’d come here in the first place…”
“Answer.”
“…What are you saying?”
Han Woo-hyun had been a little flustered by the unexpected status window values, but judging by the situation, Choi Yoon was far more flustered than he was.
Then he would twist the situation in reverse and take the lead.
“You. Join our guild.”
“What? Fuck, what kind of….”
“You don’t want to?”
“No, no. This is too sudden. What do I know about that guild? Guild leader? You’re a fucking no-life loser too.”
“Hmm.”
It was a sharp point.
The fact that Han Woo-hyun was famous among users did not simply mean he was famous as a Paladin ranker.
After dropping out of high school, he had devoted all of his time to the game and become a ranker.
Naturally, he had joined an internet community in order to boast about it.
Using the ID and password he usually used, without thinking much about it.
“Fucking psychotic named bastard….”
And so, his personal information had been exposed. Very quickly.
Naturally, Han Woo-hyun’s life in reality had not been particularly satisfying.
It was a life in which he suffered from several mental illnesses because of school violence and fought countless times with his parents over the game.
Moreover, his appearance was one that could not be called decent even as empty flattery.
Naturally, he received countless mockeries on the internet.
“Ha. A no-life loser?”
“What, what! Did I say something wrong? It’s true!”
At first, he had tried to stop the spread of his personal information, but soon realized it was impossible and gave up.
So before the world became a game, whenever he saw posts like that, he had forced himself to ignore them.
However, whenever Arthur’s Character Ranking rose or he became the center of some incident in the game, his personal information was dragged up again and paraded around for ridicule.
Each time, he had sat alone in his room, huffing and puffing while suppressing his anger.
“Yes, it isn’t wrong. But so what? Is that important?”
“What?”
Now that Han Woo-hyun thought back on it, that had been quite unpleasant at the time.
But not anymore.
The countless wars he had experienced against boss monsters and Villain Players over twenty years.
Those things had completely transformed the mind of Han Woo-hyun, who had once been a weak room-bound wreck.
“Are you any different?”
“What? This fucker…”
“Let’s be honest, level 289 Priest.”
So he twisted Choi Yoon’s point in a completely different direction.
“To reach that level, even devoting yourself to nothing but hunting for years wouldn’t be enough. Did you have a job? How many hours a day did you hunt?”
“Are you trying to start a diss battle right now? Fucking bastard, I’m pretty sure I was better than you. A max-level Paladin….”
His opponent flared up at once.
―SNAP!
And he did not simply flare up. He thrust the huge white staff he was holding toward Han Woo-hyun.
―Woooooong…!
White light gathered there, forming a sphere.
The omen of an attack.
“Did that hit a nerve?”
“[Holy…]”
Naturally, it was not even laughable.
―Wooooong!
Han Woo-hyun thought inwardly that he should break Choi Yoon’s spirit once.
―Zzzzzng!
Han Woo-hyun spread Yggdrasill Force down through the soles of his feet and ankles, activating the movement skill [Steps of Light].
―SHWAK!
In an instant, Han Woo-hyun swept past Choi Yoon’s side from far away.
“…Huh?”
Choi Yoon let out a dazed voice.
―Twitch. Twitch.
Because the staff he had been holding until just now had vanished from his hand.
“Let’s settle this nicely, with words. Fighting me won’t do you any good, Choi Yoon.”
―Whirl!
Han Woo-hyun spun the staff he had stolen in one hand and sneered.
“Huh? Uuh? What, what? I didn’t even see it?”
“Do you think you’re the only player?”
“No, no. Even if I was hit, I couldn’t even react…?”
―THOOOM!
Before the flustered bastard could finish thinking, Han Woo-hyun released Force laced with [Intimidation] through the entire space and pressured him.
“U-ugh?!”
“Do you feel a little more inclined to listen to me now?”
“Fuck….”
Looking at Choi Yoon, who spat out a curse, Han Woo-hyun clicked his tongue inwardly.
To think he would still curse after having his weapon taken right in front of him.
Han Woo-hyun felt a sense of wonder at the fact that even in this situation, he showed signs of anger-control issues. As expected, he was worthy of being a Yggdrasill ranker.
A psychotic nature that could not suppress rage even before an overwhelmingly strong opponent.
Well, viewed favorably, it could also be interpreted as courage.
“…Fuck. What do you want to say?”
However, one could not keep up pride without even a weapon.
In the end, Choi Yoon lowered his voice.
“I know you came to take out your anger on China.”
“…So?”
Now that his spirit was broken, it seemed a proper conversation could finally begin.
“It isn’t as though I can’t understand it at all. I don’t particularly like China either.”
“What the hell? Then why are you stopping me?”
Han Woo-hyun had not come simply to stop him unconditionally.
The world’s first Villain Player and their first commander-in-chief.
Whether it was his decisiveness, talent, or boldness, in some way, even if in a bad sense, his ability had been proven..
So he should not stop at merely blocking him, but help him use that ability in another direction.
“I told you. This is the decision of a guild made up of ranker-class players.”
Han Woo-hyun wracked his brain and chose his words carefully.
The Han Woo-hyun of the past had not been a smart person, even by empty praise.
A shut-in who had devoted his entire life to a game could not be a smart person.
“Our guild is currently gathering information on players all over the world who have awakened skills and holding a meeting.”
“…Ha?”
But now, he was different.
The countless conflicts and wars he had experienced over twenty years had forcibly planted the virtues and wisdom of a leader into him.
So he could devise a fairly plausible story.
A plan and scenario that would seem quite sloppy to an expert.
But a story sufficient to deceive game-addicted shut-ins for a short while.
“There aren’t many users above level 290 in the world. Even combined, there aren’t two hundred. So we have a Discord channel among ourselves.”
“…What?”
“Don’t interrupt. Listen. We held an urgent discussion and made a decision.”
“There’s something like that among rankers? I-I’ve never heard of it.”
“Yes. We gathered, and we decided to maintain order and unite.”
After hearing that much, Choi Yoon’s expression twisted in bewilderment, and rebelliousness returned to it.
“Fuck, who do you people think you are….”
“Who do we think we are, huh?”
With a chilling gaze, Han Woo-hyun took a long stride forward, right before Choi Yoon’s eyes.
―Woooooong!
At the same time, he let Force flow with extreme delicacy and took an aggressive stance.
“Is that so important?”
“….”
“Isn’t the important thing this?”
“….”
“That there is a max-level Paladin in front of your eyes right now, and he is far stronger than you.”
In truth, it was a bluff.
It was true that the current Han Woo-hyun had enough skill to defeat Choi Yoon, but with so much work ahead of him, he could not waste his insufficient Force on something like a fight.
“W-wait a second.”
However, that was information his opponent, misled by the status window, could not know.
“A-all right, all right. I just need to hear the rest, don’t I? Fuck, seriously, acting all dramatic….”
“Now it seems we can finally talk.”
“Damn it, it hasn’t even been a few hours since this happened, so how did a bastard like this come out?”
“What did you say?”
“…I didn’t say anything.”
He lowered his gaze and clearly revealed the emotion of “annoyance,” but in any case, submission was submission.
“Good. Let’s have a constructive conversation in earnest.”
As if answering that, Han Woo-hyun nodded and smiled broadly.
What came next was important.
With only his current explanation, he could not stop that bastard forever.
Nor could every problem be solved simply by stopping Choi Yoon alone.
Villain Players.
Lunatics who had thrown away all sociality and humanity after devoting their entire lives to a trash game and becoming rankers.
He could not rule them all from the beginning.
Prey.
He had to throw out a tempting bait and let them tear into it.
Choi Yoon was the first stepping stone for that.
“First, let me say that I can understand the dissatisfaction from your position.”
“…Huh?”
“You probably think there shouldn’t be so much to nitpick about wanting to fuck up those bastards.”
“Hm? Uh, well… yeah.”
When Han Woo-hyun began explaining in a softer tone than expected, Choi Yoon answered with a reluctant attitude.
“As I said just now, the guild has assigned China a purpose. There are also the opinions of the Chinese server rankers there. So it can’t be collapsed recklessly.”
“…I said I understand. Why are you saying the same thing again?”
“Listen to the end. But there is a place you hate, and where there will be no problem even if you vent your anger.”
“…?”
Choi Yoon blinked dumbly.
―Slide.
Then, when Han Woo-hyun silently stretched out his finger and pointed in one direction, Choi Yoon turned his head to look the same way.
―Slide.
That finger was pointing east.
More precisely, slightly northeast.
Toward the direction where the northern part of the Korean Peninsula lay.
Toward the isolated place that was the most useless in all the plans Han Woo-hyun had made.