Ranker Who Lives Twice
chapter-56

*Kwang*

Yeon-woo’s remaining mana erupted. The Mana Circuit started to produce enormous power as its core started to overheat.

Draconic Eyes, Combat Will, Sense Strengthening.

He cast three skills at once, causing his body to overload. But due to this, his body was able to reach its full potency.

Swimming in his own time, Yeon-woo started to make his move in order to make ‘the possibility’ become reality.

All it took him was a brief moment.

Just as it was shown in his Foresight, the first thing he saw was Phante’s punch.

Yeon-woo grabbed Phante’s fist and pulled his arm the other way around.

*Crackle*

Then he kicked Phante in the stomach with his knee.

*Puck*

“Kuk!”

Phante’s whole body rose to the air as he spewed blood from his mouth.

‘One second.’

He could see Phante frowning and trying to regain his balance while in the air.

But Yeon-woo didn’t give Phante a second look. Because next were Vyram’s attacks aiming for his head, neck, and ankle in order.

He dodged the first attack as he lowered himself close to the ground. At the same time, he stomped onto the ground.

*Kwang*

‘Two seconds.’

The ground sank down. A cloud of dust rose up, blocking their views.

But Yeon-woo jumped right into the dust and stretched out his left arm. He felt Vyram’s neck at the tip of his fingers.

Vyram also sensed Yeon-woo’s hand closing in thanks to his buffs, and tried to fall back from Yeon-woo’s reach

However, Yeon-woo had ‘predicted’ even that.

*Swish*

Yeon-woo threw a dagger he had readied in his other hand. But the dagger only brushed past Vyram’s cheek as Vyram quickly turned his head to the other side.

When the dagger missed his head, Vyram thought that Yeon-woo must have used up most of his mana. He believed his victory was at hand.

For the first time, his eyes were filled with a sense of glory.

“It’s over…!”

“Yes. It’s over.”

At that moment.

“For you.”

This is exactly what Yeon-woo wanted. To pull himself apart from the two of them.

Yeon-woo pulled out Vigrid, holding it right in front of his chest.

*Goooh*

Once again, the air began to circle around him, creating a huge whirlwind.

The wind gathered around the sword, compressing itself along the edge. It grew darker and darker as the demonic energy seeped into the wind.

Blessing of the Sword.

Vigrid was radiating a strong energy in reaction to the two strong opponents.

And after it was ready, Yeon-woo swung Vigrid from side to side.

‘Three seconds.’

Vigrid drew a simple diagonal line across the air

*Kwaaang*

But its aftermath was not that simple.

A series of violent explosions took place as the sword unleashed the compressed wind. The demonic energy contained inside burst out in all directions, corroding everything upon contact.

The stage.

The players.

Even the skills.

The thunder energy gathered around Phante’s fists dispersed into the air as if it had been completely eaten up by the demonic energy. His body was horribly mangled by the energy and blown off into the air.

Vyram’s three swords shattered into fragments. The broken pieces of the swords bounced upwards and Vyram had and incredulous look on his face with blood seeping out of his mouth.

*Thud*

*Rumble*

A thick cloud of dust spread throughout the stage.

The sound of player’s horrified screams rang across the whole section.

* * *

‘Foresight….’

Last time Yeon-woo checked his skills before moving on to the Section G, he had spent a long time agonizing over the ways to utilize this skill.

And then, he came up with one conclusion.

‘This is useless.’

Most of his skills were quite easy to use. They were powerful even by themselves, and some of them were even more effective when used in synergy.

But Foresight was different.

If only based on its description, it was the best skill he had. A skill that allowed the user to look ahead into the future, albeit for a short time. No other skill could be as useful as this skill.

In particular, Yeon-woo had been on several battlefields where a brief moment of inattention could cost one’s life. He was aware that knowing what would happen in the future despite being only a few seconds ahead, was just like carrying several spare lives.

However,

‘Considering the skill’s duration, it costs too much mana.’

Foresight provided images of the future for only a few seconds. But for those ‘few seconds’, the amount of mana it consumed was just outrageously big.

Even with his mana pool that was bigger than anyone else’s in the tutorial, thanks to the Snow Ginseng and the Neidan, it was still virtually unaffordable.

And an even bigger problem was that he didn’t know ‘when’ he should cast the skill.

‘If I don’t know when my life will be in danger, how do I know when to use it?’

If he were to cast this skill during combat, he would not only have to look at the images for three seconds while facing the opponent, but he would also have to analyze the opponent’s movements and set up a strategy to beat them based on what he had seen.

Definitely easier said than done.

However, Yeon-woo’s thoughts didn’t stop there.

‘What if I mix it with other skills?’

If he could raise his physical ability to its limit while looking into the future…

‘It’ll be a gamble of long odds.’

If it succeeded, he would be able to turn the tables even if he was losing.

But if it failed, that instant would signify his death.

Nevertheless, Yeon-woo tried it out in real combat.

And then,

‘That worked better than I thought.’

The result was a huge success.

* * *

“…!”

“…!”

The players couldn’t catch up with the speed of what happened in that short period of time. They only instinctively realized that something amazing and shocking had happened in front of their eyes.

But there was one player who was able follow everything that was happening.

Edora.

She tightly hugged the sword in her arms and raised her head. A glimmer of golden light appeared in her purple eyes.

Insight(慧眼).

Just as Phante was given Thunder Fist, Edora was able to get a hold of another secret skill passed down within the Cheong-lam family. However, its acquisition process was so difficult that no one other than Edora was able to learn this skill.

Insight provided the user with eyes that could see through the inward nature of things.

Thanks to this skill, Phante and Edora were able to take the first and the second ranks.

Edora used Insight to follow Yeon-woo’s movements. And now, she saw Yeon-woo jumping out of the dust cloud.

‘Four seconds.’

Yeon-woo twisted his body in midair.

He realized that his skills synergized well.

He looked into the future with Foresight, fully enhanced his body with Draconic Eyes, Combat Will, and Sense Strengthening, and quickly moved around the stage with Shunpo. And as for the massive side effects from overloading his body, he could bear with them thanks to Physical Resistance.

If it wasn’t for Diamond Physique, he would have never dared to think of using such an empty-headed method.

But in the end, he made it.

And now he only had one last target left, standing right over over there.

Edora.

When he looked at her, he saw that she was also looking at him with some kind of golden glow in her eyes.

That was probably the source of the ‘thing’ he had felt earlier.

Now, he only had a little more than a second remaining.

‘This will be the end.’

Yeon-woo squeezed out the mana from his Mana Circuit for one last time. Its core spun fiercely once again, drawing out the remaining mana.

*Kwang*

Yeon-woo dashed towards Edora.

*Swish*

*Schwing*

Edora removed the sword she was hugging in her arms from its scabbard.

Shinmado(神魔刀) . It was a sword said to hold the powers of both holy and evil beings.

*Clang*

Yeon-woo’s Vigrid was easily blocked by Edora’s Shinmado. But he wasn’t disappointed because that was still within his prediction.

The real attack was the next one.

Yeon-woo twisted his body and pulled out Carshina’s Dagger he had been hiding under his sleeve.

He swung his dagger directly towards Edora’s throat.

Yeon-woo was sure of his victory. According to the images that his Foresight showed him, his dagger would soon penetrate Edora’s throat and kill her in that instant.

However,

*Clang*

Edora shifted her sword a little and protected her neck.

Because the side of her sword was so broad, just a slight turn was enough to block off the dagger.

And just like that, Carshina’s Dagger helplessly fell to the ground.

‘It was blocked?’

Yeon-woo looked at Edora, eyes filled with curiosity.

He then quickly spun in the other direction, consecutively stabbing three with Vigrid.

*Clang**Clang**Clang*

But Edora easily fended off all of his attacks and,

*Kwang*

Even managed to strike back.

When Yeon-woo was about to launch another attack, Edora swung her sword vertically, striking Yeon-woo’s sword.

A strong shockwave creating from the impact pushed Yeon-woo back. There were two deep, straight furrows in front of Yeon-woo.

*Whoosh*

As the dust cloud cleared away, there stood Yeon-woo and Edora staring at each other on two opposite ends of the stage.

“You’re strong.”

Edora spoke with her cherry-like lips.

However, Yeon-woo only stood with his brows creased.

Edora had blocked all of his attack so effortlessly.

‘Those eyes. It’s because of those eyes.’

Yeon-woo was able to realize that her golden eyes, that ‘something’ she had been hiding until now, were the one that looked through all of his attacks.

*Click*

Yeon-wop’s pocket watch stopped when the remaining time reached zero.

And just like that, he felt his body going limp. His Mana Circuit shut down, giving him massive fatigue and dizziness.

But he couldn’t show weakness. He had to pretend as if nothing was happening.

Yeon-woo stood still with his eyes fixed to Edora.

“Are you going to continue fighting?”

Edora asked in a slightly worried voice as if she already knew his current condition.

At the same time, her hand didn’t let go of Shinmado’s hilt. It was a warning indicating that she would subdue him if he decided to continue fight.

Yeon-woo then shook his head, relaxing his posture a little bit. He put Vigrid back in its scabbard that hanging on his back.

*Clunk*

“No. I’ll stop.”

“That’s a good idea. You’ve just fought against so many players all at once, including Vyram and my brother. That was really impressive.”

Edora smiled in between her talk and soon carried on.

“I’ve never seen a player as strong as you. I would have given you the first rank if I could, but… We also have our reason to take the first rank.”

She spoke with an apologetic tone. But at the same time, she resolutely addressed she couldn’t give away her Karma.

However,

Yeon-woo let out a smirk.

“That’s strange. What makes you think I gave up?”

“What do you…?”

When Edora was about to ask what he meant,

Yeon-woo suddenly held out his left hand.

Below his hand, there were five huge gold crystals hanging from a string.

Edora took a quick look at her waist in surprise.

But the gold crystals Phante had passed to her were nowhere to be found.

‘How… did you…?’

Edora looked at Yeon-woo with a look of disbelief. Her two eyes were filled with utter confusion.

Insight could look into the true nature of anyone and anything. When in a battle, it allowed the user to read the opponent’s thoughts and intentions, helping the user predict their attacks in advance.

And this was the reason why Yeon-woo’s Foresight couldn’t do its work.

So, she couldn’t understand why her Insight didn’t warn her about him stealing her crystals.

Yeon-woo lightly snorted as he pulled back his hand.

“Your eyes, they can only predict something within your field of view, right?”

“…!”

Edora couldn’t help but feel shocked to see that Insight’s weakness was discovered so easily.

And she belatedly understood what Yeon-woo did to take her crystals.

It was Carshina’s Dagger.

While the dagger was falling, Yeon-woo must have led her to where the dagger’s falling trajectory would cut the strings attached to her waist that were holding the crystals.

She was solely focused on reading Yeon-woo’s onslaught, so she didn’t notice such an ‘accidental’ factor in his plan.

Fortunately, she had lost only half of the crystals she had, but that was still a painful loss.

“Well, thank you for your Karma points. I’ll take good care of them.”

Yeon-woo hung the golden crystals next to his waist.

*Ding*

[The tutorial ranking has been updated.]

[Tutorial Ranking]

1. Unknown (510,590 Points)

2. Edora (60,000 Points)

3. Brock (13,200 Points)

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