Ep. 9 — Chapter 39: Youngest Prodigy (4)

"Who are you?"

Amamiya Kenji had entered the battlefield in a flashy manner, catching his staff that I tossed back at him. He shot me a glare and I could hear him mumbling to himself now. "Oh, it's that guy again…"

"Why are you acting like you know me? I won't team up with you still, you know?" He had to remind me that with the nasty attitude.

Nonetheless, I gave him a reply, trying to match the energy he was currently giving me. "Yeah, I could guess that much. I wasn't really looking forward to your cooperation anyway."

"Speak properly."

"You aren't so young that you won't understand that much."

Iris Falcone and her men were now armed and became cautious of us both. She hid herself behind her group of men as they all equipped their weapons and started to approach us slowly. Amamiya Kenji didn't seem to be bothered in the least. Instead, he was more focused on me now.

"How do you even know me? Wait, are you…are you perhaps a bastard stalker for pretty young boys like me? What the hell…" His voice came out like he was extremely sure that I was that sort of person.

Hold on, what does this bastard take me for? It was really annoying that he would think about me of someone like that. I found it even more annoying that he was speaking in that sort of tone. The overly accusatory one. Damn this kid…

"What do you take me for? I just knew you were coming this way so I was sure that you'd want to get a piece of these…gorillas first."

"It's even weirder that you'd 'know' that I would be coming here."

I snapped, "Hey, get that narcissism under check, bastard. Do you really think you're all that good-looking? Your self-confidence is higher than your head, honestly."

"You…!"

"Heads up."

My body quickly jumped away, avoiding the bullet shot by Iris Falcone. One of her guards jumped forward and started swinging his large hands to me, but I was able to dodge them rather easily. At the same time, several more members of her group all moved towards Amamiya Kenji, but were easily held down by the boy and his staff.

It was a bit hurtful that several grown men were all after one boy, but only one of them went after me, someone twice his size.

Though I could understand why, honestly. I've spotted Amamiya Kenji several times throughout the game, and I realised just how powerful the boy really is. He was able to hold his own against numerous grown adults and even managed to activate the second monolith.

Plus, that blow from earlier. His power levels were most definitely higher than my own.

With the 'Wind Cloak', I was able to easily defend against the attacks delivered by the guys from ≪Purple Hyacinth≫. He was indeed powerful, but I was sure of my skills to overpower him.

The kid was able to hold his ground for now. But if this continued on for any longer, it was obvious who would lose.

After all, Iris Falcone was here. In addition to that were these other bastards. Despite them being seen as mere henchmen, they were properly trained members of the ≪Purple Hyacinth≫, hired by Iris Falcone herself. Surely, she wouldn't hire weak players to accompany her in this mission.

I didn't know whether to activate my [Secrets of Killing] skill yet. If Iris Falcone sees it, she would immediately realise that I have met with the lieutenant.

Damn, this was going to be a big problem that I had initially expected it to be. Especially with Amamiya Kenji's sudden entrance.

And I didn't have my chains anymore, so I couldn't deal with multiple people at once. That bastard, Han Jiwon. He must be watching me fight now in the waiting room as he most likely qualified in the earlier round. If only he gave me the [Abyssal Blade] to borrow.

"I will leave them to you." Iris Falcone retreated away, leaving all of her men except for two to deal with us while she went looking for other people to take down and qualify as quickly as possible.

None of them seemed to be distance fighters, so that was working in my favour. I was able to leap over one of them with the additional help of the 'Wind Cloak' and sliced his shoulder, knocking the man out by slamming his head against the tree.

"Urk!!"

That prompted the other men to stop chasing after Amamiya Kenji and turned to me. Some of them left their pursuit for the boy and ran towards me with their weapons.

Maybe it wasn't so bad that they didn't come to me, now that I think about it.

"Hey, you! Don't you dare get killed by these guys!" Amamiya Kenji yelled out at me as he slammed his staff against one of the men. It was funny to see someone that was like a bear compared to the boy being knocked down with a single hand movement.

I leapt back several times, moving several metres in only one kick of my leg. The 'Wind Cloak' carried me around easily and I manoeuvred around the trees swiftly.

Amamiya Kenji continued to fight them head on, until even he realised that their numbers were overwhelming, causing him to back away. He would run a bit before striking them again. A hit and run tactic.

I focused on myself briefly and continued to run around. With the stamina usage reduction, I would be able to continue running for a while before getting tired. It wouldn't take long before these guys run out of stamina and I beat them all down at once.

Huh?

It was unexpected.

Amamiya Kenji was being pushed back by the other guys. Of course, I had expected them to overpower him soon, but this was way too soon?

Then, I realised the mistake in my expectations.

I had forgotten that the bastard could possibly have extremely low Points invested in his Agility. Given that he's young, it isn't wrong to guess that he would invest most of his Points into Strength and Magic.

His movements became sloppy and I redirected my movements to head back towards the boy. I easily evaded the guys following me and quickly reached where Amamiya Kenji was last at. His staff was no longer in hand, and the members from the guild were not crowding over the boy.

"Hey, kid!"

The boy was helplessly being pushed around. I then remembered the state of the world currently.

It is no longer a place where morals and humanity still exist. Everyone here in this world only fights for themselves, with no regards to the consequences it could bring to others. And thus, I was watching Amamiya Kenji being beaten down by grown men.

In this world, those with power rule over everything else. And what deems the power one holds in this world is only one thing.

Connection.

And these guys were slaves of the daughter of the ≪Purple Hyacinth≫ guild's guild master. They were power-hungry dogs who would lick the soles of the feet of Iris Falcone just to rise in ranks within society.

I could understand now what Lieutenant Schroeder meant back then.

「 "This place has gone to shit." Lieutenant Schroeder said that, his feet were on the body of one of the officers he had killed. "I wanted to bring down the system at one point. But a mere creation of it, such as myself, does not have such powers."

His chest was bare. Marks from the cuts he received in his 'battles' were now exposed to me. I barely realised what they were then.

"The System Monitoring takes different forms. The most common one would be sparks and electrical shock being sent all over your body. It would reduce and constrain your ability. I was a victim of it once. Then, it becomes fire and burns away at every inch of your body. And so on, it continues to get stronger. I only managed to withstand until it became blades that cut me all over."

Finally, he turned to me. "I will teach you the [Secrets of Killing]. However, you must promise to do one thing for me." 」

The one thing I promised Lieutenant Schroeder.

「 "This world have no more moral values. So, when you see things like that, I would like you to stop it." 」

It was the first step of taking down the system. Because that was the first thing the Game took from us humans.

Our humanity.

And one by one…

「 "We will destroy this Game." 」

At that moment, a red screen appeared before me. I suddenly felt a strong aura being released from somewhere. My body tensed up and I stopped moving, looking around for the source of this great pressure.

[Due to your situation, a trigger quest has been imposed!]

[A subsidiary category quest will be activated!]

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.

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—

Sub - Trigger Quest — [Gaming Prodigy]

Difficulty: B-

Requirements: The 'Gaming Prodigy', Amamiya Kenji, has broken his 'Peace Pledge'. Subdue the awakened Amamiya Kenji and stop his rampage from spreading further into the forest.

Amamiya Kenji is currently feeling overwhelmed with agitation!

Time Limit: 30 minutes

Compensation: ???

Failure: ???

—

[A new subsidiary quest has been imposed!]

[Additional information about the Player, 'Amamiya Kenji' will be revealed to you!]

[Player, 'Amamiya Kenji' is currently feeling agitated!]

This was unexpected. A subsidiary trigger quest was issued. And it revolves around the boy. The 'Gaming Prodigy'. Holy shi…he already has a title to his account? Is it really possible for someone young like him to already possess a title.

Even when I was playing [World Ascension], I had hardly seen anyone with titles. In fact, the only ones with titles were the NPC's in game, like the guild leaders. Not that I interacted with many, but still.

The next second, crimson liquid flew in the air and one body flew past me, crashing into a tree.

The other members stepped back and distanced themselves away from Amamiya Kenji. They were trembling. He no longer had the staff in his hand. Instead, he was bare-handed. Blood dripped down his fingers and he faced the other members of the ≪Purple Hyacinth≫ guild.

"I'll kill you all…!"

In fact, it wasn't a bluff.

Amamiya Kenji charged at them and began clawing them down. His nails dug into their skin. Each one of his scratches left marks that resembled that of a beast's attack. Like fighting a wild monkey, Amamiya Kenji jumped around and clawed his opponents.

It was a massacre. The boy who was being pushed back a moment ago was now killing them one by one. He jammed his fingers into the eyes of one of them and continuously bashed his head with his elbow. I watched as blood continued to spill all around. His face was dyed in crimson fluid and he continued his rampage.

I now understood what the Game wanted me to do.

To stop his rampage. At first, I thought it was because the system wanted to see me struggle and fight for my life. But that isn't it.

It wanted to save the other Players from dying, so that its source of entertainment would be saved from annihilation. The system wanted them to survive so that it could watch them struggle in the third round.

The other guys were now all dead. Amamiya Kenji still kept beating them down, even when it was clear that they were dead. He then faced me with the same look he game them and pointed at me. "If you get in my way, I will kill you too."

"Oh, I just got a quest telling me to do just that, actually."

"I'll kill you."

I stared at him. "I think I get why you use a staff now. But don't worry, I have no intention in completing this quest to begin with. It'd just make me a puppet of this Game."

"…What are you talking about? Stop bullshitting or I'll kill you!"

"You…you actually hate killing people, right?" I told him and began walking over to him. "That's why you use a staff instead of an actual deadly weapon. But I wonder why you love boasting so much, especially when you were afraid like this."

[Amamiya Kenji is feeling confused by your words…!]

"What are you…?!"

"Amamiya Kenji." I said, my voice sounded powerful that even I was shocked by it. Nevertheless, I continued, "Are you really going to let yourself be taken control of by this damned Game?"