Chapter 23. The Power of Happy Points (2)

Potatoes.

Potatoes are delicious.

Potatoes are hearty.

Potatoes are beautiful.

Therefore, beating someone with a potato is legal.

Why?

Because they're delicious, hearty, and beautiful.

Smack!

The chunk of potato in Kim Jangcheol's hand smacked right between the brows of the 1st Star Master. Already reduced to a sliver of health and mid-transformation into a soul eater, the 1st Star Master's entire body trembled.

"...!"

At that moment, the 1st Star Master felt it.

'I...'

Is this the end?

Unlike the other subordinates, the 1st Star Master hadn't completely lost his sanity despite the transformation into a soul eater. Thanks to that, he could calmly assess his current situation.

It's over.

There's no way out.

He had already taken too much damage and turned into a soul eater. And in that state, he got hit by a potato. The moment he was struck, he felt it—

The life force embedded in the potato.

And then he got hungry.

He craved that life force.

His instincts as a soul eater screamed at him.

Rush toward that source of life force, now. Claim that fresh potato. Devour the life force. That way, maybe—just maybe—he could recover, even just a little.

But...

'No.'

The 1st Star Master shook his head internally.

He instinctively knew.

He must not give in to the temptation screaming within him.

If he were to latch onto that potato...

'Everything would be over.'

The Demon King Credos was not a merciful being. Especially not toward someone who had committed treason. Mercy? Never. Absolutely not.

'Then, could it be that he hit me with the potato to give me a chance to recover even in this soul eater state? No. Absolutely not.'

Nonsense.

So, the potato is a trap.

If he looked back, he'd already seen it.

'My legion soldiers...'

He had witnessed it clearly—his soldiers, in a soul eater state, getting struck by potatoes and collapsing like plants.

That meant this was part of Credos' scheme to turn him into the same pathetic mess.

'He wants to make me a creature that can neither live nor die.'

I must not fall for it.

I must resist the potato's temptation.

The 1st Star Master clenched his teeth and made a vow.

But it wasn't easy.

Just like how we seek out the fridge when hungry.

Just like how we go to the bathroom when our stomach aches.

A soul eater instinctively craved any life force it sensed.

The only instinct.

And therefore, the strongest instinct.

After all, instincts are called instincts because they are hard to suppress.

'...Grrrrggh! Grrgh!'

The 1st Star Master summoned every last ounce of his remaining sanity to resist the instinct. He tried to reject the temptation. But it was not enough. Before he even realized it, he was already drawn toward the potato. Because it's delicious. Hearty. Beautiful.

'This is... absolutely... ridiculous...!'

This couldn't be the end.

The 1st Star Master thrashed, gripped by a wave of despair. And yet, in the back of his mind, he sighed in realization. That his sanity would lose. That in the end, he would kneel before the instincts of his soul eater state.

'I...'

Was he to obediently accept a miserable end? To become a mockery, unable to live or die?

"...No."

He didn't want that.

If anything, a clean and total annihilation sounded far better.

However...

'Being annihilated alone... that's unfair.'

Crack—

The 1st Star Master ground his teeth.

And then, his eyes gleamed.

A grim acknowledgment of reality.

Followed by a vile resolve.

'I refuse to die alone!'

If he was going to die anyway.

If he was going to be obliterated.

Then he would take everyone here with him.

With that resolution, the 1st Star Master jerked his head up.

And released the final thing holding his inner self together.

...Click.

That was enough.

"...Ka! Kaaaaaagh!"

The whites of the 1st Star Master's eyes turned crimson. His pupils vanished. His whole body flushed red-hot. He swelled. Like a balloon. Like he was about to explode any second.

"...!"

Kim Jangcheol's eyes widened. His pupils shook. His ears turned red. He flinched. Just like a startled deer. Like he'd realized he was about to get hit by a car.

'What the f—?'

The 1st Star Master, still in his soul eater state, suddenly began changing rapidly.

Kim Jangcheol saw it, and instantly realized.

'This is... a self-destruction sequence!'

No doubt about it.

He'd seen it nineteen times.

When?

During the second boss fight, where you pull the 1st Star Master out onto the cliff. At the very end of that fight. Every time, without fail, he would enter this exact self-destruction sequence.

That's why Kim Jangcheol was dumbfounded.

'Why?'

This doesn't make sense.

Of course it doesn't.

In the game Paladin of Blood, the 1st Star Master doesn't become a soul eater during the second boss fight. In fact, before even turning into a soul eater, he would go berserk and try to self-destruct when backed into a corner during the battle.

'And when he starts that self-destruction, he even shouts something like this: Even if I self-destruct now, I'll survive as a soul eater scrap. Then I'll absorb your life force, you ragged wretch.'

In other words, the 1st Star Master's self-destruction wasn't a means of death, but a method of final retaliation.

He becomes a soul eater.

The enemy becomes a ragged husk.

And in that state, he absorbs the opponent's life force.

Rendering the opponent powerless while he recovers and returns to form—a truly vicious pattern.

'But he's using that... in a soul eater state already?'

If he self-destructs like this, he's guaranteed to be obliterated on the spot. That's why Kim Jangcheol had been so at ease. He was certain that the 1st Star Master wouldn't self-destruct in this soul eater state. That he'd be safe.

'That's why... I deliberately turned him into a soul eater instantly, using fast and powerful strikes, so there'd be no chance for him to self-destruct.'

It was all to prevent self-destruction.

And yet, he was now choosing to self-destruct as a soul eater.

Even for Kim Jangcheol, this was completely unexpected.

"Is he insane?"

This was basically a death sentence for everyone.

If that bastard completed the self-destruction sequence here, every single member of the farming corps present would die.

'If only this place were as open and wide as the second boss fight area for the 1st Star Master...'

Then he could've at least shouted for the farming corps to run.

But here, that wasn't even possible.

'The moment he explodes, this whole place will collapse. Everyone will get buried alive.'

What about stripping down and using a glitch to flee as far as possible? No chance. With the farming corps' glitch speed, it would take forever to get far enough away to escape both the explosion and the subsequent collapse.

'Then what do I do?'

He racked his brain desperately.

Opened every drawer of memory he had.

The first reference was how he dealt with the same situation in the game.

'Right. The 1st Star Master. The second phase, when he attempts self-destruction. There were two methods of dealing with it during that boss fight.'

He remembered.

One was to use a movement skill the moment the self-destruction sequence started, create as much distance as possible—so far that he'd vanish from sight—then hide behind a rock for cover, and pour out defensive skills and potions to survive.

A standard strategy that had worked wonders back in the low-level days.

But now...

'No good. We're underground, there's no space to create that kind of distance, and I don't even have enough potatoes to eat, let alone potions.'

Naturally, the first option was scrapped.

Then what about the second?

"....."

Kim Jangcheol could feel his happiness index plummeting.

For a simple reason.

The second method was even less realistic.

'The second method. That's to throw him into the large mana grinder near the second boss fight zone... and grind him into powder...'

The overwhelming destructive power of the grinder!

In front of that, the self-destruction sequence was meaningless.

A simple solution—grind him into dust before he explodes. But that was impossible right now. The mana grinder was located in the Demon King's castle annex, after all.

There was nothing like that here...

...Huh?

'Wait a sec.'

Kim Jangcheol froze mid-thought.

A faint thread of an idea surfaced.

A sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, it was possible.

'Something... like a mana grinder?'

Of course, there wasn't one now.

But on second thought—no.

There was.

No, he could make one appear.

How?

'Farming tool set... summon...'

He mumbled unconsciously.

Suddenly, a message he'd glanced at earlier came to mind.

It was a reward from a stat-boosting quest. A new skill had been registered in his list of bloomable skills. But back then, he hadn't paid it any attention. Just a farming tool set summon—he thought it was useless at the time.

That's all he had thought.

"..."

But now, it is different.

If it really was a farming tool set summon...

If it really summoned a full set of farming tools, just like the ones he was familiar with...

Then maybe... that might be included...

'Just maybe.'

It might be possible.

No—it had to be possible.

This might be the final hope. There was no better option right now.

So...

".....Kaaaagh!"

Boom!

A violent roar pierced through his thoughts.

The 1st Star Master's body, which had turned crimson, began to darken. Just like during the second boss fight. That's how he knew.

'Time until the explosion... about two minutes.'

When the 1st Star Master's body turned completely black, he'd blow.

He had to finish this before then.

Thump!

His heartbeat pounded against his eardrums.

He opened the system window.

Ding dong!

[Opening the Happy Point usage menu.]

[Searching bloomable skill list.]

[Skill: Farming Tool Set Summon (Bloom Cost: 100 Happy Points)]

[Current Happy Points: 102]

'There it is. It's really there.'

The farming tool set summon skill appeared on the list.

Just as the earlier message had said.

Without hesitation, he moved his hand.

Pressed the "Bloom" button next to the skill.

Ding dong!

[100 Happy Points have been deducted.]

[The Farming Tool Set Summon skill has blossomed.]

[Skill Name: Farming Tool Set Summon (Lv.1)]

[Summons a farming tool set regardless of location. The summoned tools' quality may be improved and modernized depending on skill level.]

[Current Happy Points: 2]

'...Got it.'

His first time blooming a skill.

It wasn't as difficult as expected.

At the same time, new knowledge poured into his mind. No—it was more of an imprinting process than information. More like instinctively knowing that, to activate this newly bloomed skill, you just had to...

'...do this?'

Stomp!

He stomped the ground with both feet.

Tensed his waist.

Took a deep breath.

Then, toward the empty air—

He shouted with all his might.

"Bountiful harvest! Bless me!"

A thunderous shout that echoed across the chamber!

A torrent of messages in his mind!

[Activating Skill: Farming Tool Set Summon (Lv.1)!]

It happened in that instant.

Flash!

Far above, where the chamber ceiling rose dozens of meters, a brilliant light burst out. Space itself split open. And from the rift, something plummeted down.

Kwaaaang—!

As if it would crash through the earth.

Like a meteor tearing down from the sky.

A massive 'chair' embedded with dozens of various farming tools slammed into the ground.

No—descended.

But Kim Jangcheol didn't even flinch.

Now wasn't the time to be surprised.

Instead, he focused even harder, scanning the tools embedded in the chair. His eyes searched for that one tool.

But...

"It's not here?"

He couldn't see it.

Though the chair was stuffed with hoes, shovels, flails, and countless traditional farming tools, the one tool he needed more than anything was nowhere to be found.

'Damn it...'

Even after going this far, it was still no use?

He was on the verge of despair.

Flash—!

"...!"

The space above opened once more.

And another mass came crashing down.

Kuaaaaang, KWAANG—!

Heavier, bulkier, and with a completely different silhouette from the other farming tools—it slammed down in front of Kim Jangcheol. With an earth-shattering boom, it struck the ground like a meteorite.

The farming tool Kim Jangcheol had so desperately hoped for.

That massive, savage lump of iron that could crush and grind anything.

A millstone.