Episode 6
This was how the incident began.
Ian had completely lost her mind.
She mistook Lee Suho, who stood before her, for the guild master of the Black Moon Guild.
The man who had ruined her life, and in the end, abandoned her.
Seeing him and Lee Suho overlapped in her mind, she raised her sword.
It had always been like this until now.
Whenever she saw players who spoke to her, she overlapped them with the Black Moon Guild’s guild master and killed them.
In Lee Suho’s case, because his face was handsome, and because there was an inexplicable pull toward him, the symptoms had simply appeared later.
“…”
Lee Suho looked at Ian’s sword, then at the chat window.
‘Help me out here.’
The gallery users rummaged through their storages however they could in order to save Lee Suho.
Then.
(Why Did God Create Me): Hey, newbie.
‘Yeah?’
(Why Did God Create Me): I think if you show Ian an overwhelmingly dominant fight, she comes to her senses. Remember, when you beat down that Alpha Orc earlier with overwhelming force, Ian snapped back for a moment, didn’t she?
‘…Right? She did.’
It was at that moment.
The tip of Ian’s sword touched Lee Suho’s neck.
“The Black Moon Sword, as expected… You’ve come to abandon me again, to kill me again.”
As if she did not remember the Black Moon Sword she had given him, Ian tried to cut Lee Suho’s throat.
(Why Did God Create Me): Looks like she’s mistaking you for the Black Moon Guild’s guild master. That fucker’s actually pretty strong. If you show the Heavenly Demon’s martial prowess with the Black Moon Sword, Ian will go even crazier.
‘Then what am I supposed to do?’
He was going insane.
(Why Did God Create Me): You trained your fists in your original world, didn’t you? I liked that you climbed up through effort without a single ounce of talent. The fact that you have talent with the sword is honestly fucking annoying… but when you use your fists, I’ll favor you.
Lee Suho could now vaguely understand what kind of person Why Did God Create Me was.
A mass of inferiority complexes.
A monster who had climbed up by using that inferiority as fuel.
Well, something like that.
(Why Did God Create Me): Suho.
The way he addressed him changed from newbie back to Suho.
(Why Did God Create Me): This time, I’ll favor you. I’ll grant you my teaching.
When his tone, usually playful and laced with curses, turned serious, Lee Suho answered in honorifics without realizing it.
(Why Did God Create Me): Put the sword in your inventory. Using a sword right now won’t do anything. Suho, people who use their fists must not fear swords. The sword is your limit. The sword is a wall. A fist artist’s role is to break that wall, that limit, with his fists.
He put the sword into his inventory.
Ian’s eyes narrowed.
Her gaze seemed to say, What are you trying to do?
(Why Did God Create Me): Fight the way you originally fought.
‘…What if I die doing that? You know how strong Ian is.’
(Why Did God Create Me): You said you did something called boxing on Earth, right? Pugilism.
‘That’s right.’
(Why Did God Create Me): Isn’t boxing something you improve at by getting hit?
‘It’s true you improve by getting hit, but if I die, it’s useless, isn’t it?’
(Why Did God Create Me): Then just don’t die. If you don’t die, it’s a double experience event, isn’t it?
You son of a bitch.
The words slipped out without him realizing it.
“…Are you saying that to me? You’re still a retard.”
Ian’s expression twisted noticeably.
Lee Suho had spoken aloud what he was supposed to keep to himself.
In the end, just as Why Did God Create Me wanted, a stage had been set where he had to fight with his life on the line.
Ian’s hand moved, and blood beaded on Lee Suho’s neck.
Lee Suho quickly pulled his neck back, barely preserving his life.
He raised both fists.
He put seventy percent of his mana into his legs, and thirty percent into his fists.
Because, in the end, the most important thing in boxing was both legs.
(Why Did God Create Me): Just land one hit. Just one hit. Then you pass my first test.
(Heavenly Slaughter Star): …I stepped away for a moment to settle my disturbed mind, and now some idiotic bastard is laying hands on my child.
(Why Did God Create Me): Shut up, 89th-floor scrub. I, of the 90th floor, am in the middle of teaching Lee Suho.
#
I decided not to look at the chat window.
Because if I couldn’t hit Ian with my own strength, I was going to die anyway.
Then I had to survive as long as I could.
As Heavenly Slaughter Star said, I had to prove with all my might that I was alive.
So I turned off the chat window.
I focused only on the opponent right in front of me.
Ian’s swordsmanship was so fierce that it was hard for my eyes to keep up.
The only fortunate thing was that I had the S-rank item Why Did God Create Me had given me.
Because the armor could nullify Ian’s attack just once.
Whooooosh—!!
The wind blew bleakly.
With a single sword strike from Ian, all the flowers around us vanished.
Literally, they disappeared as if they had never existed in this world to begin with.
Ian did not attack me directly, as if she intended to toy with me as much as possible.
She merely annihilated our surroundings, designing it so that I would be driven into a psychological corner.
Tap, tap, tap!
Kicking off the ground, I slowly bounced on my feet.
With my opponent holding a sword, the boxing I had learned on Earth probably wouldn’t work.
I shifted my body diagonally to the right and took a side step.
Sure enough, Ian sent out a sword strike that merely grazed my cheek.
Whoooosh—!!
The cherry blossom trees were annihilated.
Cherry blossoms scattered through the air, then vanished before my eyes.
Reflexively, I lowered my waist.
Sword aura passed over my head.
I grabbed some weeds from the ground.
I grabbed some sand.
Then I threw them.
Paaak—!
With a single gesture, Ian annihilated the sand.
At that moment, as if this was my chance, my heart did not waver.
I poured all my mana into my legs.
I had no intention of throwing a punch powerful enough to wake her mind.
Just one hit.
Just one hit. Please, please, let me land just one hit!!
Boom—!!
I kicked off the ground at a speed that even surprised me.
All my mana vanished.
I had no mana left now, but the distance between Ian and me was just enough for one fist to fit.
I swung the fist I had swung every day until now one more time.
It was a punch that stabbed out and snapped back immediately, without any preparatory motion.
Tap.
Like a newborn baby tapping an adult’s hand, it was an incredibly weak punch.
Ian’s eyes trembled.
The S-rank item, Dragon Scale Armor, vanished.
Now all I had left was my bare body.
She gripped her sword even tighter.
Just as I wondered if I was going to die like this.
(Why Did God Create Me): Pass. Suho, as I said, when you use your fists, I will favor you. I will be your teacher, and I will become your family. The sight of you trying to land one hit on your opponent somehow, with no talent at all and only effort and grit—I like it. You really don’t have a shred of talent.
…Honestly, it pissed me off, but even so, it meant I had proven I was alive, so a small laugh slipped out.
Right. This is why I browse the gallery.
(Why Did God Create Me): The weeds you’re holding in your hand—put them up in the trade window. This master will raise those weeds for you.
I put the weeds up in the trade window.
[S-rank Passive Skill, Heavenly Astral Body]
- Heavenly Astral Body: Your body is naturally strengthened. Your skeletal structure changes with each passing day, and your flesh transforms into a body containing the astral energy of the heavens.
(Heavenly Slaughter Star): …? Wh-Wh-Why Did God Create Me, were you a martial artist? How do you know the Heavenly Astral Body…? The Heavenly Astral Body, a secret manual even I barely obtained?
(Why Did God Create Me): I have no desire to converse with a mere 89th-floor scrub Heavenly Demon.
(Heavenly Slaughter Star): Hah…, y-you son of a bitch…. Child. The Heavenly Astral Body is a secret manual that will change your constitution. Your body will change from day to day. You’ll be able to grasp physical talent. Once mastered, your body will become so good it won’t even compare to something like Dragon Scale Armor.
Ian’s sword moved lightly and elegantly.
It sank for a moment into my forearm muscles, which had grown firm in that short time, then came out.
Blood flowed from my forearm, but fortunately, my arm was not cut off.
I survived.
A strange light shone in my eyes.
For the first time, truly the first time, I thought that perhaps I might be able to save someone.
Now that I had obtained the Heavenly Astral Body, it was time to throw a punch that would wake Ian up.
(Why Did God Create Me): Lower your center of gravity more.
I bent my knees.
(Why Did God Create Me): You’re left-handed. Set your front foot wider and relax your legs. Eighty percent on your rear foot, twenty percent on your front foot. You need to put mana into the body that holds the Heavenly Astral Body.
As he said that, Why Did God Create Me gave me an upper-grade mana stone.
…My favorability toward this person was rising more and more.
(Why Did God Create Me): In the end, we have to memorize patterns and concretize them. Since we have no combat sense to begin with, we have to memorize every possible case. Suho, have you memorized them?
‘Yes.’
(Why Did God Create Me): But you haven’t memorized the possibilities for an opponent who uses a sword.
‘That’s right.’
(Why Did God Create Me): Then memorize them now. Don’t look around you. Only look at my chat. Weave to the right. Use the spring of your knees as you are and move forward. Swing your right hand and throw a hook, then duck to the left.
…When I moved according to his words, all of Ian’s skills were avoided.
Before I knew it, as if I were holding the Black Moon Sword, I began to see the optimal attack trajectory.
At this moment, Why Did God Create Me was the Black Moon Sword itself.
No, maybe he felt like an even higher-grade version of it.
(Why Did God Create Me): Memorize all these patterns!
Dodge, snap a hit, avoid with a backstep, go back in, then an uppercut toward the liver.
(Why Did God Create Me): Put all your mana into one hand and knock the sword away!
Thung—!!
Blood flowed from my arm.
The sword flew into the sky.
The sight of that sword was so beautiful that I became entranced.
Tiiing—!!
The sword fell to the ground.
Ian’s pupils shook.
Ian stared intently at me.
I… took Ian’s hand in mine.
“…Oppa.”
Her mind returned.
Not completely, but enough that she no longer recognized me as an enemy.
“What just happened? Nothing happened, right? Oppa, you won’t run away from me, right?”
I nodded.
Because I wanted to know more about her story.
Because, for the first time in my life, I wanted to try saving someone.
So I nodded.
“I won’t run away. I’ll save you.”