Chapter 162 : Chapter 162

Chapter 162 - The Conference (3)

A proposition that applied to all Conqueror players.

The Lancester Guild was a den of bastards.

Of course, among the Western guilds I had met so far, people who weren’t bastards, aside from Ms. Catherine, were rarer, but the reason these guys were seen as the representative axis of evil was simple.

The quality and quantity of their evil deeds were on a different level compared to other Western guilds.

Just look at the frozen atmosphere in this hall right now. It felt like even among the Western guilds, they didn't want to make eye contact with each other.

“...Hmm.”

And amidst that, there was an old man crawling on the floor with one arm blown off.

I let out a deep sigh and took out a potion from my bosom.

I still hadn’t even used half of the healing medicine I made a long, long time ago.

I might as well use it in a place like this.

“Why are you pulling that out as if you knew this would happen, man?”

Hearing a dumbfounded voice from behind me, I swiftly reattached the man’s arm.

And.

-!

[Cloak of Darkness]

I let out a sigh and deflected the attack that flew at me so naturally.

As expected of guys treated as the top dogs even in a hoodlum neighborhood. Every single thing they did was a work of art.

“Hey. Mister. What are you doing while I’m treating an injured person?”

“Ah, sorry. Isn’t it human psychology to step on bugs when you see them clinging together?”

Sword Calamity, who had launched the attack at me, replied with a smirk.

Considering he committed this act himself, he must have a pretty thick skin.

Which meant my reply to this was more or less decided.

“I’m so sick of this, really. Don’t you guys ever get tired?”

I scratched my head and spat out irritably.

I mean, wasn't it true?

Try putting yourselves in my shoes for once.

“...What do you mean?”

“No, I mean, the pattern is always the same.”

Even from the perspective of the one facing them, it was normal to hope for a slightly different opponent to appear, but when the routine was always the same, there was no sense of excitement.

It was just work, work.

The ones who started a fight always looked down on me, ignored me, and launched a thoughtless preemptive strike without asking any questions.

Then the procedure for my counterattack was also standardized.

[Mastery: Sword - Source Slash]

[Double Pulse]

[Shadow Secret Arts: Forceful Blow]

[Formless]

A thoughtless preemptive strike was met with a thoughtless counterattack that flew out without asking any questions.

And here.

[Rising Spirit]

It was a motion concluded with a simple movement, but with just that, a vacuum slash flew out, leaving an aftershock throughout the entire hall, and exploded where Sword Calamity had been sitting.

“...!”

The guys who were a bit lacking in weight class were sent flying in panic just from the aftershock of the attack, but the ones who were more perceptive and quick-witted all looked shocked.

Among them, the Lancester guys sitting at the head table were even more so.

“...Is that Damian’s technique?”

“He copied it?”

Watching them mutter like that, I grinned inwardly.

Well, to be precise, I didn’t ‘copy’ it.

It was possible to truly copy skills with Eye Opening, but it wasn't yet at a level suitable for practical use.

I was making the Knight of the Southern Yellow work to death to accumulate as much progress as possible, but it was still 2% lacking to be used in actual combat.

However, around me, there was someone who could actually copy it just by glancing at it, as long as it was limited to ‘Swordsmanship’.

[Mastery: Sword - Lancester Style Ancient Swordsmanship / NPC-Seo Jin-seong Exclusive Ability]

[This is the culmination of a swordsmanship style that has been passed down for a long time, improved and developed by a superior swordsman named Damian Lancester. It allows the use of several techniques subdivided into ‘space-related’ categories.]

And I was a bugged character who could take any skill that person learned as my own.

The reason Seo Jin-seong had Damian locked up in the torture chamber and was roasting him might have been to extract Lancester's internal secrets, but the main purpose was originally this.

To scrape up and devour every last one of his techniques.

And as that man grew stronger, I could also grow stronger through Share, so it was killing two birds with one stone.

“...They call you Asia’s Comet or whatever, but it seems you’re not completely useless, huh?”

And once the dust from the attack settled, a relatively unharmed Sword Calamity revealed himself, grumbling.

Seeing him with only his clothes slightly torn but not a single scratch after taking that hit, I thought an EX-rank was an EX-rank, but nevertheless, the leisure from before was completely gone from the gaze he directed at me.

It was understandable; I was a guy who suddenly came out with a copy of another guy’s technique.

Considering it must have taken Damian at least a few years to build up these techniques, I, who had copied them in less than a few weeks, would undoubtedly be treated as an irregular.

And just by showing this, I would be able to significantly reduce the number of guys who would rush at me with their own techniques.

In fact, there would be quite a few guys who would freak out just by assuming that ‘their own techniques could be copied at will’.

The higher the rank of a climber, the stronger their attachment to their own techniques.

“What’s wrong? You were talking about bugs and whatnot a moment ago. Not gonna attack again?”

And at this point, just making them hesitate for a moment like that, instead of coming to kill me ‘right away’, was enough.

“...”

To be honest, what I was doing right now was one of the most dangerous things I had ever done, even considering everything I had committed so far.

I didn't even have the Gnosis's Heart that would pump up my combat power to the maximum, and the guys I was facing right now were a force that could win a fight against a whole country if they put their minds to it.

And since this place itself was like Lancester’s home base, the guys who were on guard duty around had all drawn their swords at once and were spewing hostility ‘only at me’.

‘They were the ones who started the fight, so it feels a bit unfair.’

I smirked and thought to myself.

But the reason I could still make such a life-threatening provocation was.

“Good.”

It was because of a certain masked man who spat out those words in a dry voice from the head table.

Altair Lancester.

Depending on the route, a number 1 final boss candidate.

“You know some interesting tricks, you.”

“What are you talking about, you mask-wearing concept-addict bastard.”

As soon as I said that, the entire hall stirred once again.

The reactions were mainly divided into two types.

The first was the side that was close to Lancester and expressed terrifying hostility towards me.

The second was.

“...Brother. Didn’t you say that guy, Kim Gyu-sik, would run away just by seeing Altair’s face? Looking at what he’s doing, he’s not just crazy, he’s utterly insane.”

“Shut up. Extras like us have to erase our presence as much as possible if we don’t want to get crushed in a whale’s fight...”

“...”

Right.

The side of the common folk struggling to survive.

I felt a certain sympathy for the latter, so I didn't even think of saying anything.

“...”

However, Altair, who heard such words directly, showed no reaction.

Just slowly.

As if trying to dissect me.

He slowly scanned me from head to toe, as if ‘savoring’ me.

A feeling of displeasure washed over me, like a snake’s tongue was slithering all over my body.

“Alright. I’ve confirmed it. We're done for today. Disperse.”

And Altair, who had been slowly dissecting me, immediately spat out those words.

Then he really did kick his seat and disappear.

“...”

“...”

At the sudden, unexpected action, the atmosphere of the hall, which had been filled with a touch-and-go tension, was lifted.

Everyone was just blinking their eyes, looking like they didn't know how to react.

Among them.

Only I was glaring at the spot where Altair had disappeared with a deep frown.

“...”

Well.

I had several reactions from Altair that I had anticipated, but among them, that guy retreating this meekly was the situation I had pushed to the very back.

Because.

‘Ah.’

This was the worst-case scenario.

I sighed deeply and thought.

‘It’ll take a few more days to catch him.’

If he had attacked me here, I could have killed him right away.

For a time attacker who has reached the realm of a master, this was a kind of disgrace...

“Agh.”

I was hit on the back. It was Seo Ah-in, as always.

“What.”

“No. I had a feeling you were having crazy thoughts again.”

“...”

I wish she would at least respect the privacy of my own mind.

***

The inside of Altair Lancester’s head had a slightly different structure from others.

The ‘information power’ to be able to grasp the source of things just by looking at them once was not a skill that could be dismissed as simply having good insight.

There were many things he could do, but the fact that even the powerful experts who had reached a certain level nearby believed in and followed him absolutely would account for the largest share of it.

So.

“...Why did you just back down?”

For such a question to be openly directed at a person with such an ability, it must have been a very difficult action to understand just now.

At those words, Altair stared intently at the person who had asked the question.

His gaze was hidden under the mask, but there was enough pressure to make the person who had uttered such words retreat.

“Are you doubting me?”

“...No, sir.”

“Good. Don't do it again in the future.”

After saying that, Altair smirked and replied again.

“If I had fought him there, I would have died.”

“...?”

“...?”

An atmosphere of even greater confusion than before spread around.

Die?

‘The Undying’ Altair?

To a half-baked man like that?

“H-how could such a thing...?”

“You all saw that he had something on one of his arms, right? A bag or something.”

Well, everyone did see it.

It was a plastic bag filled with trivial items that weren't even worth mentioning. They had wondered why he would bring it all the way here.

“He would have killed me with that.”

“...”

“...”

At Altair's calm words, the people around stared at each other blankly.

The Altair they knew was certainly someone whose intentions were hard to grasp, but he was by no means a person who enjoyed joking. Especially if his own life was on the line.

If so, all these words must be true...

“...Were we, in fact, facing an unbelievable monster?”

“No. To be honest, his simple combat power didn't seem that great. For his reputation, that is.”

Considering that the man named Kim Gyu-sik was often described as a genius that might appear once in a thousand years, Altair's 'analysis' was very bland.

Well, in terms of specs alone, no matter how you looked at it, he didn't seem to be at that level.

But.

“If we had immediately rushed at him with all our might there... we would have lost. Without even putting up a fight. For sure. We would have been thoroughly trampled.”

“...”

“...”

At this point, they didn't even know how to react.

Seeing the Lancester executives just blinking their eyes, Altair let out another laugh.

“But don't be too scared. We have our own ways, don't we?”

“...!”

The expressions of the executives, realizing what he was about to say, changed completely.

“If we can't win now, we just have to prepare properly and face him then.”

Altair said, still in a light voice.

But, even with the mask and the atmosphere for such a ‘disguise’.

He couldn’t hide the sticky malice embedded beneath the sentence.

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