Only I Am A Reader
chapter-400

The scenery in Leo's eyes had completely left the flat plains, yet it wasn't alien to him. He saw parts of Murim that he had never been to, but it was greatly familiar to him, especially at this specific moment!

In the end, Leo even saw Baekho, who was none other than himself, raising the White Tiger at him, which he received using the Blue Dragon. At this point, Leo could already guess what he was experiencing.

However, before he could confirm it, the scenery changed once more, and most importantly, the recurring swords of various forms that he held were no longer present.

'This is…!'

After holding high-quality swords worthy of only top powerhouses, a wooden training sword followed with an iron one flashed by before changing into a long weapon that Leo was similarly familiar with, the spear!

Although the fleeting scenes were very brief, the core essence of these moments was rapidly crystalized and etched into his mind. Leo could tell that the hands holding the weapon had also changed.

Every moment lasted less than a second, but as if time was being stretched, each second felt like a year. Once the sword changed into a spear, it felt even longer.

Unlike the sword techniques used by the first person who Leo looked through his eyes, which he had only caught a glimpse at before, the spear techniques were extremely intimate to Leo…

They were the foundation that he had spent most of this life setting up!

'Senior Brother!'

The pitch-black spear radiating intense dread that appeared in 'his' hands confirmed Leo's suspicion.

This was indeed the Black Dragon's Transformation performed using the representation of The Black Dragon itself, and the one performing it was none other than Cheon Chang!

This was definitely a 'Character Reading', and it wasn't the first time that Leo had experienced something like this. However, reading more than one character in a row and reading a character other than the protagonist were both undeniable firsts.

Leo wasn't sure, but perhaps because this was someone that he was actually close to, the experience he viewed seemed more real and concrete. Aside from learning how to hold the spear one more time, he also grasped snippets of his Senior Brother's life.

The grief that almost ate away Cheon Chang's soul, the brilliant yet distant figure of their Master in the background, the second wave of grief that came with his passing.

The despair of being incapable of learning the sword no matter how much he tried, the emptiness that came after he shot straight to the peak after giving up the inheritance that held him back, and finally…

The complex emotions that he felt towards this new junior of his!

Unexpected interest and intrigue followed by jealousy! Leo had never noticed it before from his side, but now that he was somehow in Cheon Chang's head, he recognized slight jealousy towards his ability to equally master the sword and the spear.

'...Unexpected.'

Despite knowing that he wasn't normal, Leo never viewed himself as someone talented. If he didn't rely on his reading to learn something, the learning curve for him was the same as most normal people, average.

He never expected that he would be envied by someone who had an actual monstrous talent like the Absolute Spear.

'Well, it's not like I can't understand him.'

Leo was incapable of complex thought in the state that he was currently in, but he perfectly understood everything he perceived as Cheon Chang since he was literally looking at it from his point of view.

The dilemma of 'You can't possibly understand what I'm going through from the side' was nothing to him. At the moment, Leo was 'Cheon Chang'.

He didn't completely integrate with him as he did with Arthur or Baekho, but Leo deeply felt the stifling frustration that came along with Cheon Chang's talent.

As long as it came to the spear, he could do everything. As if to balance things out, however, he was trash when it came to everything else. Even Leo could feel jealousy towards himself under the same conditions.

In reality, there were really people who were perfect at almost everything. On the other hand, as a novel character with very clear settings and limitations, Cheon Chang's statistics weren't overwhelmingly high, they were just concentrated on a single aspect…

Even then, the jealousy that Leo sensed towards himself didn't last long. It was quickly replaced by a sense of fulfillment through association. Cheon Chang couldn't fully inherit his master's path, yet he had still found someone he could, and that was enough to satisfy him!

The feelings that followed grew even warmer, happiness, excitement, expectations… Unlike his silent character, Cheon Chang was quite expressive deep inside. It didn't take him long to progress to the stage where he perceived Leo as an actual little brother.

As the time fast-forwarded back to the flat plains where the final battle was taking place, Leo once again saw himself through someone else's eyes, but the feelings were different and much more pronounced than last time.

Cheon Chang was proud of the heights that Leo had achieved when he was battling Geochin and Namgung Hyun using both the sword and the spear!

'Eh?'

It was a happy instance to receive these feelings directly like that, especially since he didn't have much time left in this world. However, it wasn't this that caught him by surprise. It was something far more unexpected that broke through the walls of the plot!

All of the feelings that he perceived suddenly disappeared as everything culminated into a state of clearness that was news even to Leo. It was like Cheon Chang had reached a whole new state of mind, and…

'... Profound?!'

His body simply followed through!

A heightened state of being at this level wasn't something that Leo had experienced before, but he could already tell what was happening by experiencing what followed that.

It was undeniably a breakthrough! A breakthrough to the Profound Stage nonetheless!

'To think that Senior Brother would breakthrough on the battlefield.'

The Greatest Spearman who was destined to die had actually stepped into the top of Murim's pyramid, this was simply the biggest butterfly effect that Leo had caused so far!

'If I can experience this for a little bit long-'

Just then.

"I surrender!'

Everything was shattered by a loud declaration.