Chapter 182


    Once I saw the opening, I kept seeing it.


    Everything else aside


    Pedro had a subss. How was it that he had a subss at just level 30?


    An Irregr.


    I was already seeing several Irregrs, anomalies I would have been unlikely to meet even once in my past life. Probably because I now lived in a different world, meaning I met different people. They were a ss of humans I couldnt even have dreamed of meeting in the past, but now, it felt all too ordinary.


    Starting with CEO Song Kiyoung awakening as a yer at such an advanced age and showing outstanding performance.


    There was also Ahn Seohye, who was currently one with the Guardian Tower. And now, there was a Master with the Thief ss. Such rare factspletely unknown to the world were now a part of my daily life.


    And the fun thing was, the manly man obsessed Pedro was a biological woman.


    Though him being a girl isnt really important.


    Whether Pedro was a woman, a man, nonbinary, or anything under the rainbow didnt matter to me. But a thief? Master and thief was a seriously mismatchedbo.


    Whatever the case, Ive gotten another card up my sleeve.


    That was a good thing.


    Youre not thinking about something wicked, are you? Pedro squinted warily at me.


    Wicked? What exactly would that be?


    Your smile felt kinda evil somehow.


    <em>Evil? Im only thinking about how to best use the info youre hiding to profit me, thats all.</em>


    Youre mistaken. Theres no reason to have wicked thoughts towards a manly man, no?


    Pedro was easily convinced. Thats true. Manly men need no words tomunicate.


    <em>No, sir. Men need to speak tomunicate, too. Your idea of manly man is probably an ideal that doesnt exist in reality.</em>


    But I left that unsaid.


    In any case, we arrived at Piazza Navona. It was bustling with countless picture-taking tourists. We headed to the fountain.


    There are quite a lot of yers.


    Senia showed herself.


    yer Kim Hyukjin. I will give this as a gift. A certain Guardian sponsored it for the sake of smooth ying.


    She gave me a Trantion Marble.


    Nice.


    It sure was convenient. ying well really did pay off. With the Trantion Marble, I heard murmurs from the vicinity.


    Intermediate Administrator?


    There was an Intermediate Administrator that beautiful out there?


    The gazes of countless people immediately focused on us. The culprit? Senias appearance.


    My god


    That she was beautiful, that she was noble, that she was like a lily; such words were thrown around all over the za.


    Senia. Switch to invisible mode.


    Is that necessary?


    You draw too much attention.


    Why is that so?


    Thats


    That sparkle in Senias eyes was just my imagination, right? It had to be. When I looked at her again, her expression was as much of an ice block as ever. As expected of the epitome of expressionlessness, Senia.


    But for whatever reason, she was being a little stubborn today.


    Why is it that I draw attention?


    ...


    What does yer Kim Hyukjin think that reason is?


    <em>Obviously because youre overly pretty. Pointlessly so.</em>


    Please tell me the reason.


    What did this angel want to hear?


    Because, well, you look interesting.


    Senias wings fluttered for a very brief moment.


    <em>Interesting?</em>


    You have wings.


    Is that interesting? Wilson over there is a tree. Isnt that more interesting?


    Was it just my imagination that she was getting particrly irritated today?


    Anyway, youre getting in the way of ying.


    <em>Your appearance attracts too much attention, okay?</em>


    This interesting-looking angel will switch to invisible mode.


    Her prim way of speech was the same as usual, but it felt even more curt today. Well, her coldness wasnt a one or two day thing. I decided not to think about it anymore.


    Lets see...


    In the past, the Italian server fell short inbat yerpetencepared to the Korean server.


    Now theyre on a simr level with Korea, I guess.


    It was true that the level of Korean yers had declined because of me. They also had less crisis awareness.


    But it still feels like thebat ability of Korean yers is a touch higher.


    I scanned my surroundings with Observers Eye. The result of my observation was that on average, Korean yers had a little morebat prowess than Italian yers.


    However, the craftsman and production sses


    There was bound to be a big difference there. In the first ce, the Italian server tended to have high growth in yers of that area. With that, I finished my general evaluation of the server.


    But


    A group of yers was camped in front of the fountain. I knew one of them.


    * * *


    * * *


    What was his name again?


    I couldnt remember his namehe wasnt a Ranker. I just remembered his face.


    Name: Beratto


    Ah, right. Beratto. An extremely famous racist and Youtuber yer.


    He assaulted Koreans multiple times, inciting public rage.


    There was another thing he was famous for.


    His ss is simr to Lee Sungcheols.


    He was a yer with a power simr to the Gatekeeper Lee Sungcheols, someone who was most powerful in ces set as entrances.


    His group noticed ours.


    Hostility?


    Out of nowhere?


    Not towards me.


    It wasnt directed at me, but at V.


    V. Do you know that person?


    Who?


    One of the yers camping in front of the fountain.


    V peered at the group.


    No?


    You dont know that man in the middle wearing the blue t-shirt?


    I dont remember him at all?


    I see.


    He had no memory of him. Just then, Wilson showed himself.


    V, hes the guy you beat the living daylights out of fourteen days ago. You even brought him to the verge of death.


    Really? Why?


    He appeared to have zero memory of the person he hit.


    He was beaten for being a jackass in front of a gate.


    Ah! V seemed to remember now. But wasnt that a Korean? And didnt he die?


    The green leaf on Wilsons forehead shook. He immediately pressed a hand to it, very careful not to let it shake anymore.


    Thats someone else.


    Eh?


    That was the Korean server.


    V still looked like he didnt remember this guy at all.


    Well Vs always had a lot of enemies.


    His fiery personality had earned him a lot of fans, but also a lot of enemies. Beratto was probably one of Vs many enemies.


    Passing through without trouble is gonna be hard.


    For now, we walked up to the fountain.


    But do they know theres a gate at the fountain?


    Even in the Italian server, only production ss yers were maybe aware of it. It might be that Berattos gatekeeper ability allowed him to sniff out the gate.


    I heard a voice.


    Stay back.


    It was Beratto.


    Come any closer, and Ill kill you, he growled.


    Are you talking to me?


    Thats right. You.


    The hostility that had been directed at V earlier was now pointed at me. I had a good idea of why Beratto was doing that.


    His attitude is influenced by a Guardian.


    And the Guardian wholeheartedly backing him most likely had a racist disposition.


    What does this yellow monkey think hes doing, stinking up the air with his breath?


    He was intentionally using provokingnguage.


    It will be difficult to capture the hearts of many Guardians with such an extreme style of ying.


    What are you saying, you damn monkey!


    He didnt even dare look at V. Apparently, this battle nut had given him a really severe beating.


    V squinted at the guy. Were you ever beaten by me, by any chance?


    ...


    Beratto flinched. There was a spark of rage in him, but fear won over his anger. Just how badly had V thrashed him?


    Looks like you need another beating today.


    Shut up! Beratto shouted despite his fear.


    Because he gets stronger in front of a gate.


    The fountain itself was a gate. Activating it by fulfilling special conditions would allow us to teleport to the Forest of Dwarfs.


    The confidence slowly began to return to Berattos face.


    Well, he prolly got some support or something.


    Fighting Beratto wasnt my objective, and I had no intention of wasting a bunch of time here.


    You must have camped here knowing there was a gate, but we will be going through.


    Shut up, monkey. How dare a mere monkey butt in when humans are talking.


    V brandished a fist.


    Wilson. Im killing him, okay?


    I stepped in front of him. You cant kill.


    This was rted to what I said earlier. Guardians with extreme dispositions would like to see this guy killed, but the majority of Guardians with moderate dispositions wouldnt be particrly pleased with killing someone over something so minor. In other words, it was a prizing y. To achieve great sess, it was best to aim for y that wasnt prizing.


    Also


    Even outside of that reason


    Murder isnt right.


    A person killing another person wasnt right. I wanted to avoid unnecessary killing if it wasnt a special case like with Seo Joohwan. That was what I thought in the past, and that was what I would continue to think.


    The monkey cant go through. If you guys wanna go through, cough up the Coins.


    ...


    Ah, right. If the monkey wants to go through, just gimme 10,000 Coins. Itll be 7,000 Coins for you guys.


    Pedro appeared to know Beratto already.


    It was 5,000 Coins before!


    That was then. The price has gone up today.


    Killing him would be easier, V muttered.


    I took one step forward. I felt a weak authority from the gate. Water surged skyward from the fountain and formed a spear.


    Monkeys need to be beaten to see reason.


    The spear made of water rushed towards me. I didnt dodge. I just let it hit me.


    <em>Szzzz!</em>


    The spear vaporized and disappeared when it hit me. That was because the fire ki within me was far stronger than the water ki the spear possessed.


    You seem to be rather confident in your skills.


    I once destroyed a distorted authority made by the Shepherd Boy as well as the distorted authority of the Yellow Charm Gate. Compared to that, breaking an authority of this level was childs y.


    Your ying doesnt break the rules.


    This y of upying a gate and disying great power there to extort tolls wasnt against the rules. That was his ability, after all.


    But its also not an upright and fair style of ying.


    The System had a tendency to seek fair y.


    Distorted authorities can be easily broken, you see.


    Basically, I had the type advantage. Freeing a gate was closer to fairness than blocking it with force. Gates were made by the System to be entered, not blocked. The System settings would take my side.


    Ill give you one chance before I break it. Back off.


    It wasnt that great to cause a fuss in another server. The Guardians of that server didnt really like it when yers from another server made a ruckus in theirs. At least the majority didnt.


    Beratto chortled. Is a dog barking somewhere?


    And that was thest thing he said before Vs fist met his face.


    [<em>May all lies.</em>]


    [<em>Be shattered.</em>]


    Berattos authority shattered with my quiet incantation, and Beratto was beaten half an inch from death by V.


    Sp-Spare me.


    Apologize for calling my friend a monkey and all that. If you dont, Ill pull out your tongue.


    Beratto kneeled in front of me, desperately rubbing his hands. Snot and tears ran down his face as he professed he would never do it again, but I didnt pay him much heed. It was a waste of time and mental energy to pay attention to a small fry like Beratto.


    A lot of people started filming us in the process. Of course, I was using Cognitive Dissonance.


    ...I will activate the gate, said Pedro.


    A gate that could only be activated by a special ss. I was suddenly able to click the fountain.[Move to the Forest of Dwarfs?]


    After a short ruckus, we were able to make it to the Forest of Dwarfs, a forest of steel. It was indeed a forest, but one made of iron, gold, and countless other minerals.


    Thats


    I spotted an object I could click with my eyes, a silver stoneying on the ground.


    [Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron]


    Cold iron that is at least ten thousand years old. A mineral with an extremely cold nature, only special people can handle Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron.


    *Cannot be collected


    I couldnt collect it.


    Theres Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Cold Iron here?


    As I examined the surroundings, V interrupted me.


    Hyukjin. Can I just ask one thing?


    What?


    That gate just now, how did you do it? You muttered something and that guy totally freaked out.


    I shrugged. I learned an incantation from V, a very basic one. That meant V would one daye to know about the existence of incantations as well.


    An incantation.


    Not just V, but Pedro was focusing on me. Pedro seemed extremely fascinated with me breaking Berattos authority as well.


    An incantation? Whats that?


    Its like a chant that draws out a special strength. Youll learn about themter, too.


    ...


    V scratched his head. You really do amaze me more and more. And here I was, priding myself as a Ranker. Next to you, Im such a country bumpkin that Im not even from this. Something seemed to ur to him. But that gate earlier, could it have been broken with this, too? I was actually thinking of using it.