Chapter 27

Chapter 27: [Knight Soul] Is This Really That Hard? (3)

Ju Seo-jin’s attempt to teach the basics of Virtual Energy Operation through an easy-to-understand explanation (?) while showing a bit of frustration only lasted a short while.

“Hm. I don’t know where you’re finding it difficult. There really isn’t anything hard about it… Strange.”

“……….”

Unable to keep watching Ju Seo-jin continue reacting with pure sincerity, as if he genuinely thought, ‘Why can’t they do it?’ Grandis stepped in and offered a word.

“…Lord Ju Seo-jin. I am cautious about saying this to the One Who Reclaims the Light, but- while I can also handle Soul Power, I find that explanation difficult to accept.”

“I don’t know. I find that hard to agree with. I definitely explained it in a way that was easy to understand───”

“-No. Not at all. It is difficult. Without exaggeration, it is truly difficult to understand. So much so that I want to ask you in return why you think anyone could understand that easily.”

“……….”

-This is ridiculous..

-Lolololololololololololololololololololololololololol.

-She’s right;;;; How the fuck are we supposed to understand that easily?? What even is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Ah lol even a KniSoul NPC knows how to use Virtual Energy but still says she doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about lol.

-If even a KniSoul NPC can’t understand it, then it’s not actually easy, you bastard!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Refreshing.

-Fact) It is.

The viewers also seemed to feel refreshed by Grandis’s words… as if their frustration had been relieved. 

Ju Seo-jin narrowed his eyes, rubbed his chin, then tilted his head.

“Hm. Is it that bad? I want to ask which part of this feels difficul…”

“Oppa…”

“?”

“Please stop. I’m begging you… Please stop that weird explanation nobody can understand…… I was wrong…… Please.”

“…….”

Ding- ding- ding-

[<Let’sGoHardcore> donated ‘200,000 won’.]

━I was.. wrong.. Please stop.. allocate your stats.. and just progress the game.. please.. I’m begging you........

[ donated ‘200,000 won’.]

━Teacher Seo-jin.. money.. I’ll give you money.. Let’s.. stop this.. okay?

[ donated ‘200,000 won’.]

━You crazy bastard.. I lose. I’ll give you money, so let’s stop.... Please just progress the game..............

Even the viewers who counted as Big Spenders could not endure the Ju Seo-jin-style Virtual Energy Operation lecture (?) that had gone on for nearly thirty minutes and were crying out for him to stop.

Normally, when someone did not understand him, Ju Seo-jin would explain in an even more difficult way- but with donations, there was none of that.

He cleanly stopped.

“Understood. Well… this is something you can do once you just keep doing it, so- there’s no reason to explain it any further. I’ll move on.”

-?

-No.. that.. never mind.. fine.. You just move on.. Yeah;;

-..................................

-Can you actually use Virtual Energy in reality or something?? Have you been handling some invisible energy since birth???????

-Are you sure you’re a modern person? How can Virtual Energy Operation come so naturally to you?? Were you seriously born somewhere like the world of KniSoul?????

-└Everyone shut up, you fucking bastards. Don’t provoke him any further and open up a 100-minute debate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a result, Ju Seo-yoon, who had also been suffering under Ju Seo-jin, went to Grandis to receive the ‘Rune’s Blessing’ as well… and Ju Seo-jin, leaning against the wall of the chapel, opened his Status window just as everyone wanted.

‘Well- it’s no different from the Status windows in games I played a long time ago. Allocating Bonus Stats from leveling up is similar too.’

Since things like levels and stats were in-game feature setups he had commonly seen in other games, they felt familiar.

If there was anything he particularly needed to know in the Status window, it would be the fields for ‘Soul Aptitude’ and ‘Personal Traits’… but those were not hard to understand either.

‘Soul Aptitude’ simply meant which Knight Soul suited him best. It did not have any deeper meaning… and ‘Personal Traits’ were special abilities of the Player Character, just like in other games.

《 Oath of Bond 》

=1 Rank

━Form Bond(Active)

*After obtaining the consent of an ally with a certain level of intimacy or higher, a can be formed. When a target in the ‘Bond’ state exists within effective range, stats can be temporarily received from them.

**If a target in the ‘Bond’ state dies, the ‘Bond’ state is permanently applied, allowing 70% of all Status stats to be permanently inherited.

└( *However, the maximum number of users is 1, and once the ‘Bond’ state is set, it cannot be released at will. )

《 Temptation of Madness 》

=3 Rank

━Draw of Madness(Passive)

*Targets with Status Abnormalities such as ‘Madness’, ‘Reverie’, ‘Delirium’, ‘Megalomania’, ‘Obsession’, ‘Mental Defect’, ‘Fanaticism’, and so on become more likely to feel intimacy and rapidly develop affection.

《 Impulse of Rampage 》

=3 Rank

━Final Frenzy(Passive)

*When Life Force falls below 30%, stat values related to physical abilities increase by 1.5x, and damage taken decreases by 5%.

-Oh.

-That’s good?

-1, 3, 3? That’s insane??????????

-He rolled really good Personal Traits, didn’t he..? Originally, you need a fucking ton of luck just to get two Rank 3 Personal Traits, lol fuck.

-Three Personal Traits, all plastered with basically Rank 3 or higher-tier stuff, fuck; if you add his stats on top of that, this really is a grade-school-notebook-style Status window???

The best Personal Traits a Player Character could possess in [Knight Soul] were listed there.

It was an unprecedented level of Status window, one that could never be seen by playing [Knight Soul] normally.

It was enough that the viewers who saw Ju Seo-jin’s Status window became excited for no reason and even started backseat-gaming.

-Teacher Seo-jin, just dump all your Runes into STR/VIT/AGI <<< these, right? Anyway, END < even if you raise this separately, it’s just for blocking damage from trash mobs;

-For real; END looks like a survival stat, but in reality, it’s just a trash stat for stomping weaklings. Just dumping Runes into STR/VIT/AGI is the standard play.

-If he grinds all 81 Held Runes into STR/VIT/AGI, can’t he STR-stomp up to Great Enemies like the fake knight??

-Ha.. All 81 Held Runes dumped into STR/VIT/AGI, then game start?? My mouth is watering, yeah?? Lol.

“…….”

And then.

“Hmm.”

Click-

The next moment.

《 Ju Seo-jin 》

=Origin / Knight’s Descendant

━Level: 27 (12.9%)

━Equipped Title: ‘Halkenburg’s Last Disciple’

━Knight Soul: ───.

━Soul Aptitude: ‘Patience’ · ‘Temperance’ · ‘Diligence’

━Personal Traits: ‘Oath of Bond’ / ‘Temptation of Madness’ / ‘Impulse of Rampage’

━Bonus Stat │ Held Runes: 0

━Status

*Strength: 37

*Vitality: 31

*Agility: 31

*Endurance: 34

*Technique: 39

*Soul Power: 112 (↑)

*Nobility: 12

“Ah. …There. I like it a little better now.”

-?

-???????

-?????????????????????????

“The balance seems properly set too, so that’s a relief.”

-Pardon?

-Fuck?

-Balance..? You just dumped everything into Soul Power.. What balance???????

-No, why are you allocating that there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-He makes me want to soccer-kick him, fuck;;

-?????????????????????????????

“This feels good.”

Ju Seo-jin nodded after dumping every Rune he had straight into Soul Power.

As if he were satisfied.

And then.

After a few seconds of silence passed, the chat window went berserk, and donations even exploded.

[<Let’sGoHardcore> donated ‘200,000 won’.]

━Hey, you crazy bastard, why the hell are you dumping all of that there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Countless people were triggered by the fact that, in direct opposition to their backseat advice, he had gone all-in on raising Soul Power with his Runes, but that was only the beginning.

“Mm- well… Isn’t it because this is the most rational choice?”

-?

-I’m going insane..

-??? What?

-Rationality is fucking dead;

-?? Are you asking for a soccer kick, Teacher Seo-jin????????????????? Should I really kick you?? Should I do it??

-└I think you’d be the one to die if you tried a soccer kick..

-..What.. does going all-in on Soul Power with Runes.. have to do with.. being rational..????? I’m asking because I seriously don’t know, yeah;

On the contrary, Ju Seo-jin frowned slightly and revealed confusion, as if he found their reaction somewhat hard to understand- unintentionally triggering the backseat gamers once more.

“Could it be. Am I the first one to discover that this is the most efficient growth method? That might be the case.”

-?

-Kyaa lolololololololololololololololololol.

-Look at him properly screwing over the backseat gamers lololololololololololololololololol.

-I’m not a KniSoul expert, but I’m seriously fucking triggered. Is that normal?? Yeah???? It’s normal, right?? I’m the normal one here, right, yeah????????

As if it were obvious.

***

Temple of Twilight.

On the Training Ground. Beneath a giant tree that looked as though it had dried to death, Halkenburg was gulping down liquor when he took his mouth off the bottle and wiped his lips with his sleeve.

Swipe-

And then.

Grin-

Halkenburg stretched his lips wide into a displeasing smile, lifted his head… and faced Ju Seo-jin, who had arrived in front of him before he knew it, moving his lips.

“Hic- Pffhehe, you came? Fast, brat.”

“…Well. There’s no particular reason to be late.”

Ju Seo-jin answered calmly. Halkenburg then half-closed his eyes, rested his chin on his left hand, and tilted his head in confusion.

“Hm-? It seems you did not bring that girl who looks like your squire, the same ‘One Who Reclaims the Light.’ Is she still receiving the ‘Rune’s Blessing’?”

“There shouldn’t be any issue with that.”

“Hrrrmm, well. True, is it not? This old man does not particularly care about that girl anyway. She does not look especially talented… I only asked because you kept sheltering that girl so closely. More importantly- the one I am truly interested in is you.”

“…….”

Halkenburg stroked the white beard on his chin with his left hand and tilted his head more and more.

“Fascinating. Not a single drop of Soul Power is leaking outside. You should not have received training… Were you born with it? Did you do something?”

“Nothing. I only did what I saw. …I structured the flow of circulating Soul Power and divided it into several methods of operation. To be precise-”

“───Hmm. More precisely, you turned the circulation of Soul Power into something like blood vessels, creating pathways so it can move throughout your whole body. Then, when you encounter a specific situation or condition, you transform the basic structure and change the flow to suit its usage… correct?”

“That’s right.”

-?

-He understood that?????????????

-How much reinforcement learning did they fucking do on Halkenburg’s A.I. for him to understand that?

-└It’s ‘that’ old man.. He could turn KniSoul into a horror game, so of course he can understand it, yeah;

-?? What the hell.. Was that actually an understandable explanation? Was I the only one who couldn’t do it............??

Everyone spammed question marks at the sight of Halkenburg immediately understanding the Virtual Energy Operation method that no one else had understood even after nearly thirty minutes of explanation- but only for a moment.

“Hm. …I never imagined you would reach this level as soon as you received the ‘Rune’s Blessing.’ As expected, you are a monstrous bastard. Ha.”

After saying that, Halkenburg let out a “Hup─” and rose to his feet, leaving the base of the giant tree and walking toward the center of the Training Ground.

“Still- even so, you are arrogant. Brat, looking at your Soul Power, it seems you poured every ‘Rune’ you had into it… but that was a hasty judgment.”

Halkenburg continued speaking coldly, his expression looking chilly.

“There is a reason Runes were designed so they can raise the abilities of the body. Soul Power- this Aether force may seem omnipotent at first glance, but it is not.”

As if he were lecturing him. Or perhaps, as if he were giving him instruction.

“Kheh- well, it is simple. Soul Power is something you must directly control. In the middle of an exchange where dozens of moves are traded within a single second, imagine taking a hit because you failed to defend or reinforce a specific part of your body with Aether.”

That also aligned with the reason one should not pour everything into a single stat when allocating ‘Runes’ to Status in [Knight Soul].

“I guarantee it, you will die immediately. You are no different. Within hundreds of exchanges of moves taking place second by second, you die if you fail even once… and Soul Power itself is not some perfect and flawless power either. That is why gathering Runes and pouring them all into Soul Power like you did is foolish.”

-Damn.

-GREAT HAL KEN BURG.

-For real;; If you dump all your Runes into Soul Power, you’ll just die because you’re a fragile body, right?? It’s not like I’ve only played KniSoul for a day or two, so I gave that advice for a reason;;

-This is true.

-Teacher Seo-jin, seriously, why did you dump everything into Soul Power?? Old Man Halkenburg also says it isn’t rational?? Yeah????????????

-He needs.. a soccer kick, right???

And then…

“That doesn’t really resonate with me.”

“Ha. Insolent bastard. Heh, I knew you would say that. Long ago, there was one other bastard who said something like that… Raw gems of talent that seem like they might become the finest masterpieces are all the same. They think they are the greatest.”

“That’s not really it… well, think whatever you want.”

“Kheh-heh- well, do not worry. There is one trick that can bring even those called geniuses to their senses. ───This.”

Slide-

Halkenburg clenched his left hand into a fist, stretched his right hand forward, and beckoned with it.

As if telling him to come at him.

“Heh- brat, do you think you are the most special one in the world? Come then. I will teach you who is strongest under heaven.”

Heh-

“On the off chance you manage to land even a single attack on me- on the name of Halkenburg─── I will grant you one thing you want. How is that? Does that not interest you?”

And then.

-GREAT HAL KEN BURG.

-Damn.

-Teacher Seo-jin, you were a bit too arrogant, yeah; you need an injection of humility before you go..

-Humility injector on lolololololololololololololololololol.

-...But I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before, fuck; am I the only one feeling something off here?? Something’s strange??;

Ju Seo-jin lightly took his stance and answered.

“Hm. If I only need to do it once, then if I land an attack- you’ll grant me one thing I want, anything?”

Slide-

It was────

“That. Not bad.”

The basic stance of the ‘Larkranz Style’ he had learned while testing his skill against Crack in [Limitless War].