Episode 10. The Demon’s Secret Double Life (3)
So you must not focus on holy power. The weakness of this guy I’m about to tell you… is right [Tanks].>
‘Hmm, it would be best if they came mostly with tanks, right??’
If parties with a lot of tanks in their team composition came, Ted couldn’t be happier.
The difference in HP between the two classes. Before Ted’s attack power, that difference was merely that of a mosquito and a fly.
However, since dealers’ attacks posed even the slightest danger, Cheon Gyeong-u had written “tanks.”
‘No. No. There’s something more important than tanks.’
Cheon Gyeong-u changed his mind for a moment, erased the text, and edited it.
‘Yes. It’s headcount!’
Yes. What use were tanks or dealers?
To Cheon Gyeong-u, whether they were flies or mosquitoes, having a lot of them come was what mattered.
Having roughly finished writing the post, Cheon Gyeong-u’s mouth stretched from ear to ear.
What was needed now was evidence to raise credibility.
He logged into the game right away and took a picture of himself. Though he was taking a picture of himself, the Demon in the photo was staring off into empty space as if he knew nothing.
‘Hmm. Good selfie. Evidence photo prepared just like this!’
Cheon Gyeong-u added additional explanations just like that.
Still, there are a few interesting things I learned while dealing with the Demon. I would like to let you know about them.>
Cheon Gyeong-u attached two photos to the post.
One was the Demon’s face, i.e., a selfie.
The other was the
A photo capturing the purple vibration that only appeared on A-grade Chronicle materials! Of course, he had taken it while avoiding the status window.
Finishing the description, Cheon Gyeong-u informed them of his exact location, even using a map.
It was a fabricated post made with incredible effort, yet with real evidence.
‘Good. That’s right.’
The post instantly received recommendations from many users and rose to the Best section at the top of the board.
At the same time… the corners of Cheon Gyeong-u’s blankly vacant mouth rose as well.
‘This is it. This is it.’
* * *
The power of the fabricated post began to reveal itself slowly starting the next day.
The number of users, who had been somewhat discouraged until yesterday, had increased greatly again.
“Huh? That’s him! The post on the community really was true!”
“It said he holds an A-grade Chronicle material, right? Everyone, stay alert!”
Users chasing after Ted, blinded by the reward!
“Kraaaah! Human… scum…!”
Ted greeted them with a welcoming performance that took everything he had. Then he rushed at the users and launched attacks with fists and kicks.
From that day, Ted massacred countless users for several days.
The
They were all veterans of large boss raids.
They cornered Ted with various strategies they had each devised.
A joint attack of users ranging from minimum units of 8 to large-scale forces of 120!
‘Hoo, it’s getting a bit tough from here.’
Countless
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that Ted was classified as a
Accordingly, Ted was automatically in a situation where his
It was a system that should originally exist only for boss monsters.
But now, Ted, a user, was such a boss monster.
In such a situation, his tankiness was abnormally excellent as well, so even though the users did their best, they could not defeat Ted.
“Damn it, we almost had him.”
“Ugh… what a waste! What kind of monster is so tanky…?”
They had to drink the bitter cup of a disappointing hunt while harboring doubts.
Their regrettable deaths triggered a virtuous cycle.
Users who had been forced to log out went to the board and raised the credibility of the post Ted had uploaded.
It was truly smooth sailing.
‘Good. Let’s keep it up like this!’
With that mindset, Ted massacred countless users for four days, making it seem like a close call each time.
But.
On the fifth day. An unexpected strong individual came to find Ted.
* * *
There were quite a few
Because it was a kingdom with developed public order compared to other nations, many users targeting hefty rewards enjoyed the game while calling themselves
‘Did she come to hunt me alone? Hmm, but that face… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.’
Short emerald-colored hair. She wore an off-shoulder type mage’s robe, so her shoulders were fully exposed.
Eye makeup that gave a moderate accent to her eyes, and large emerald pupils that were listlessly open.
‘Who is she…’
Between users, unless they reveal themselves or use the
So Ted couldn’t know her name right away. However, her face was vaguely familiar. She was a very recognizable user.
‘Anyway, I need to be on guard.’
The only thing he could recall from fragments of memory was that this woman was incredibly strong.
“Krraaah! Arrogant human….”
Ted shouted while tense.
“….”
The woman raised a spoon-sized wand she held in one hand.
Then, in an instant, the trees on the ridge of the mountain range began to tremble.
Soon, countless trees moved as if alive, wrapping around the two of them like a ring.
‘A nature-type mage? Could it be…’
The moment he confirmed her magic, a name surfaced in Ted’s mind.
‘Bounty Hunter,
Very rarely, there are users who enjoy the game alone.
Most such users play for self-satisfaction.
Thus they inevitably fall beneath users who play in groups. Even though it is a game, it is still a place with people. An individual cannot defeat a group.
However… occasionally, there were people who broke that common sense, like Ted or the woman before his eyes.
Bounty Hunter,
Though she was clearly a user, she was one of the few rankers who moved entirely alone. She mainly caught and killed wanted players, or cleared dungeons through solo play.
To Ted’s memory, her level was in the early 600s.
She fought balanced battles using grand magic that utilized nature, and surprisingly, she was quite popular for her young and radiant appearance and style.
‘This is…’
At that moment, Ted slowly bent his knees and lowered his posture.
Was he bowing his head out of fear?
‘Talk about a windfall.’
No. It was merely a preparatory motion for a jump!
Kwaang—!
Ted, having unfolded
And then,
‘
He fired the Charged Lightning he had saved up in advance.
Startled, she hurriedly cast
There were only three mages in Korea who could cast Blink with chantless casting.
However, Ted also used
‘Yes. If it’s you, of course you would have come here.’
In fact, Ted knew Ellie well.
Because he had experience fighting her several times before.
Back then, she had red hair and no makeup. Her clothes had been completely different, so he hadn’t recognized her.
The moment he realized she was
‘Because I have memorized all your attack styles and patterns.’
Even during his previous playthrough, Ted had been a matchless user among those who played solo in the Caron Kingdom. He had especially enjoyed catching boss monsters alone.
But when he did so, he often ran into Ellie, who was also a solo user.
‘Anyway, she was probably a strange girl.’
At the time, Ted had said something like they could hunt together and share the loot, but Ellie hadn’t seemed interested.
She, who didn’t talk much, had attacked Ted out of nowhere, so Ted and she had clashed several times.
Their record was 4 wins, 4 losses.
She had been a strong mage.
‘I won today. You brat.’
However, the current Ted had specs far superior to the Ted of his previous playthrough. In level terms, he possessed attack power and HP higher than a Musketeer in the 700s!
In such a state, and having memorized her movements perfectly, no matter how much she was
Ted relentlessly drove her into a corner.
She cast various spells of her own.
Countless tree roots bound Ted’s feet, and dozens of giant wooden spear blades shot toward Ted. At the same time, she summoned dozens of living tree monsters,
‘It’s useless.
But Ted knew most of them.
Ted used counterattack skills at the right moments, driving her into a corner.
Consequently, she was helplessly beaten, and her HP dropped to 5% in an instant.
“
At the last moment.
Ted used
‘…’
Ted hesitated for a moment, feeling somehow like he was shooting an old friend he hadn’t seen in a long time.
“It’s been a while.”
But then.
Facing Ted, who had his gun pointed at her head, she spat out those words while meeting his eyes.
A clear but somewhat cold voice.
“Kra… ah, right. It was nice to see you.”
And Ted responded in kind, firing a bullet at her.
Bang—!
Soon she collapsed and began to fade away.
‘…’
A bitter aftertaste.
In fact, Ted had also thought she would naturally recognize him.
He himself had changed in every way—skills, stats, combat style.
But his opponent was who she was.
Just as Ted had made a name for himself among rankers for his tankiness, she too was a ranker incredibly famous for her tankiness.
She wasn’t simply a ranker mage in the 600s, but a top-tier ranker within the top 0.01% in skill.
With her discerning eye, there was no way she couldn’t recognize Ted’s trivial evasion movements, attack habits, etc.
For example, movements like bending his waist back like a bow when evading were the same even for Ted, who was now a Demon.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like that girl would go around talking about it.’
Ted decided to think comfortably.
For one, he had no personal connection with her.
Besides, she wasn’t a very sociable person either. She was one of the few solo rankers with no ties to any guild or group.
‘Well then… shall we wrap up today’s battle with this?’
Ted shook off any thoughts of her.
The sun was slowly rising.
Ted calculated the EXP he had gained from five days of hunting users.
‘I ate an absurd amount.’
His level, which had initially been 314, had now risen to 389. He had leveled up a total of 75 times in just 5 days.
Moreover, the items dropped by dying users were piled up in heaps. There were so many that it was hard to check them one by one right away!
‘So this is what effortless gains taste like. Yes… this much has to happen for my reincarnation to be worth it!’
He recalled himself from his previous playthrough.
From the 300s onward, the EXP required to level up increased with each level.
The Ted of his previous playthrough had invested nearly 4 months to barely succeed in leveling up from early 300s to late 300s.
Four months. About 120 days. Yet now, he had gained equivalent EXP in just 5 days.
This was possible because Ted was a low-level user who received Boss classification while simultaneously wielding +19 reinforcement.
‘But… the remaining 2 days are the problem.’
Ted had aimed to hit level 400 through this 7-day hunt.
But the scale had already grown too large.
All the strong users in the Caron Kingdom interested in this incident had flocked here.
Accordingly, he had been able to power level for 5 days, but now there were hardly any users worth coming.
Because all the users who had expressed their intention to participate on the board had died by Ted’s hands.
‘Where can I gather more users?’
Recently on the board, posts like
Now they were doubting. Doubting the Demon’s strength.
Fortunately, there had been no reports of ultra-high-level NPCs moving yet. That was why Ted was still staying here.
‘I want to hit 400… what should I do?’
He had used up all the bait.
Most users had probably realized that the
Ted, after worrying for a moment, called the goblins that had been playing in the bushes until then.
Kki-ik?
They had been leveling up by receiving the EXP from Ted’s hunting over the past few days.
While their master was performing a desperate act, those guys just sat around playing!
‘You guys really have it made…’
But as Ted looked at those guys carefully, a good idea came to mind.
‘Good. I don’t know if this will work, but let’s try it.’
Soon Ted began making new bait.
Had all the fish catchable with a net disappeared?
Then he just had to catch the fish hiding underground.
The new thing he was making.
It was a type of basket trap.