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chapter-169

Pulling the Accelerator (1)

-Member, be alert. Erosion is occurring.

“If erosion happens on the streets of Hongdae right now…” In Korea, it would be an emergency equivalent to the countercurrent. It was for that reason gates in high-population density areas were under strict management. Considering that it was a dangerous challenge, Shinyoung had presented Kang Shin-hyuk and Baek In-ha.

-No, member. I am not saying that this gate is eroding Earth.

“Then what?” Kang Shin-hyuk sprinted through the forest as he spoke with the administrator. It hadn’t taken much time to reach this point from the wall, but now it felt so far away. Wasn’t it a little weird?

-This gate is being eroded by the enemy. It is reacting to the abnormal mutation of the source of shadows.

“Is that possible?!”

-Generally, no. But it is proof that the gate has already transformed into an irregular one. Not only that, it means that they are watching you if erosion is occurring immediately.

“They?”

-Those you have already met. The gate is gradually expanding from the erosion. Dear member, if you wish to rejoin your party, it is better to take out your bike.

“Right…!” The blue cow bike had been shown in the media several times already as the ride of Shin Eun-hyuk in Paris. It was a bike immediately recognizable as Shin Eun-hyuk’s. So using it now meant that Ahn Hyeongju might catch him, but…

“Human life is more important than that.” His agony lasted less than a second as he pulled out the bike and immediately placed the Shinfeng orb in it.

“Full speed!”

-Wow!

Reading his mind, the blue cow soared into the sky. Still in his hand, Kang Shin-hyuk could feel the Dark Spirit Pearl growing embarrassed as it met an object that resembled itself.

“That, what…?” Now that he was soaring above the trees, he could recognize the situation of the gate at a glance.

“The sky… the gate’s being invaded.”

-Cuoo…

Darkness spread over the sky. The environment of the gate was nighttime before, but this was a sort of darkness that shattered light and hung heavily above everything under it.

-It is them.

“Let’s hurry.” Kang Shin-hyuk accelerated even faster as he could feel the gaze of something similar to the shadow predators from that darkness. The blue cow powered by the Shinfeng orb rushed through the air like a thunderbolt, leaving an afterimage behind it.

-50,000HP bonus to this member’s awesome racing skills!

“Fortunately, it’s not a 100,000HP bonus this time. It’s really too much.”

-Oh, you’re going faster. 50,000HP bonus!

“So you gave it out twice…” The Shinfeng orb had recovered a lot, but Kang Shin-hyuk’s ability to drive had also grown. Golden Dragon Fighter strengthened the bike’s internal engine even further as they soared above the forest.

“Shin-hyuk!” It didn’t matter how much the gate was expanding as it eroded; he could reach the wall at the rate he was going. Ahn Hyeongju only barely recognized him after the bike landed.

“Where did you… oh, that bike…?”

“Let’s talk about it later.”

-Myu!

Kang Shin-hyuk stowed away the blue cow as Onyx let go of his magic and ran to Kang Shin-hyuk. He jumped up onto Shin-hyuk, frightened. Gently patting him, Shin-hyuk looked up at the darkness around them.

“What happened?”

“That’s what I want to ask. It seemed like something was happening in the forest, but then the sky became weird right after. It’s nice the shadow predators are gone, but now something else…

-Shaaah

Something began to fall from the sky toward them. It fell down like a dark rain, moving in a vaguely human-like way as it did.

-Due to the change in the gate’s environment, the gate has transformed into The Model Garden (SS)!

-It is a Shadow Elemental, a monster with a purer attribute than the Shadow Predator. It is SS-ranked, so they might not be as easily killed as before!

In response to the Gaia system, the administrator warned Kang Shin-hyuk. Baek In-ha and Ahn Hyeongju had seen the same message as they both prepared for battle. Hyeongju had a large shield in hand, and Baek was now brandishing two daggers in addition to his normal boots.

-Shaaaaah!

More of that dark rain began to fall as the closest poured down towards Kang Shin-hyuk. He instinctively filled his sword with spiritual power and cut it, but the feeling was lacking. The enemy had no clear shape, so he wasn’t sure how he could cut down a vital spot.

‘But my soul poison…’

-Shaaah!

The enemy screamed out the next second, expanding in place like a piece of popcorn popping. Even if it couldn’t be cut down in a single blow, the soul poison certainly worked. If so, there was no reason to hesitate. He placed the sword on the floor and spread out his hands. His power flowed through the soul connector to spread out as ten strands in all directions.

“You are Shin Eun-hyuk!”

“Please be quiet, please!” The threads were backed by his S-rank wind mastery, dancing along the wind to confront the shadow rain.

-Shaaah!

-Kiiii!

Kang Shin-hyuk’s attack opened up like a large umbrella to greet the rain. Ten strands as pillars and the spreading wind formed an umbrella-like membrane to resist the rain. The shadow elementals fell through to the ground, hit by the poison.

“What are you doing? Kill it!”

“Yes, right!”

“Here we go!” Baek and Hyeongju, who had been stunned by the sight of Kang Shin-hyuk, regained their senses at his sharp remark and began to attack the weakened elementals. Hyeongju charged in with his shield to kill them one by one, while Baek kicked off the floor and fired crystals of blue mana from his feet, kicking them into the nearest ones.

“It’s too fast…!”

“Is he slow?” Now that the enemies were weakened by his soul power, a magical attack was enough to finish them off.

“What is happening to them?”

“Focus on cutting them down.” The thread that came out of the soul connector was both a thread of soul and a thread of shadow, making it the perfect weapon to cut down these shadowy guys. Those who tried to climb into the shadows were cut down by the thread that followed them.

-Shaaaaaah!

-Shaah!

Kang Shin-hyuk swung his hands in a dazzling display to cut down the hundreds of shadow elements falling down upon them.

“It’s a hard counter, in many ways.” But would that keep up in the future? What if all of the light disappeared here?

-There are a number of worlds made up of only shadow, as there are many made of light.

“The scale is a bit too big for me.”

-But your way of thinking is a good start. It’s clear that light is a weakness for them. Of course, they know that too, so they rush to swallow up the light.

‘Hmm.’

-It would be good for you to have some means to attack with light. Light has a divine nature that makes it effective against undead and demons, so it is one of the top priority attributes to purchase.

“Then… Baek!”

“Huh?!” Kang Shin-hyuk kept managing his ten threads as he called out to Baek. Baek was moving fast around the area created by Kang Shin-hyuk to finish off the shadow elementals.

“Do you have any means to attack with light?”

“I’m only as fast as light.”

“Then it can’t be helped.” He didn’t like where the administrator was heading with it, but there seemed to be no choice.

‘What you’re saying is, something like Light Mastery?’

-That’s right!

The administrator’s voice was suspiciously bright in responding.

-You have a very high affinity with fire, but also with light, which shares some attributes of fire. In addition, by interpreting Excalibur that was absorbed into the Godslayer, your understanding of light has also improved. So, the conditions to learn Light Mastery are rather good.

‘Oh, then I’d rather take Fire Mastery.’

-You can learn that later. Light Mastery will increase the type of weapons you can craft and handle in the future!

‘…Like?’

Only

-That is beam weapons.

‘I’ll buy the best I can.’ The second he heard the word beam, Kang Shin-hyuk was sold on the idea.

-Purchasing Light Mastery (SS) skill stone for 3.5 billion HP. Your VIP special discount has brought the price down to 2.145 billion HP. Purchase successful!

In returning for failing to curb his middle schooler sense of taste, all of his property had been robbed. He understood that attribute skills were expensive, and SS was rare, and even the VIP bonus was good…

But if it was that expensive, why didn’t he confirm the purchase beforehand?!

-It is a dangerous moment. SS-grade skills often don’t remain for long, especially since that person who signed up a while ago…Excuse me, a member put it up for sale at a price lower than the normal selling price. If I hadn’t bought it right away, another member would’ve claimed it.

‘Isn’t that wrong in various ways as an administrator?’

Well, it had already been bought. Kang Shin-hyuk pulled out the skill stone and used it right away.