Everyone Except Me is a Newbie

 Merciless!

The design for increasing Jannelet’s affection was Kim Iseo’s idea. 

“This is a combat game, not a dating sim,” he had said. He didn’t want the essence of the game to be overshadowed by affection mechanics.

“So, naturally, we should induce combat situations… Users should only need to fight monsters well to increase their affection. That way, they won’t have to waste time on unnecessary romantic interactions.”

The reason why saving Jannelet from danger caused a significant increase in affection was exactly that. Users could focus solely on combat without being distracted by romantic elements.

“Of course, it’s a high level of difficulty to intentionally put her in danger. But that’s the kind of challenge needed for such significant rewards.”

It went without saying that deliberately putting her in harm’s way was a high difficulty level. But this only applied to challenging monsters. Dealing with low-level thugs who didn’t even know what a Mana Sword was didn’t require much difficulty.

* * *

‘This bastard… was trying to kill Seo-yeon?’

Kim Iseo felt a surge of fury as he blocked the man’s blade. The weight of the sword indicated that the man had intended to kill Choi Seo-yeon.

‘To kill someone over just quest-stealing?’

Was this the world it had become?

“Even now, if you back off, I’ll let this slide.”

Having already gained affection, Kim Iseo decided to use words to make them retreat.

“You’re delusional. Hey! Kill these bastards!”

The man with the headscarf shouted. His followers, about eight in number, joined in. They all drew their swords.

And then they swung.

One, Choi Seo-yeon also decided not to just stand by.

Clang! Clang!

Swords clashed, and sparks flew. Screams were heard from all directions.

Heo Won-moo, Ji Ho-tae, and Lee Hae-won joined the fight. They couldn’t just stand by and let someone try to kill them.

Kim Iseo grated his teeth.

‘Crazy bastards…’

They were trying to kill all of Weplug’s members. It was insane.

To face these insane bastards, Kim Iseo had no choice but to go mad himself. The world had become such a place.

“I’m warning you. Kneel and beg for mercy now.”

“Shut up! Die!”

Of course, the suggestion was rejected.

Kim Iseo knew that.

[Skill: Gale Sword Activated!]

He immediately struck at the man in front of him.

Slash!

The man’s wrist flew away.

“…What?”

They fell into chaos. The sword strike was so fast it was barely visible.

‘What… what is this? It was just there a moment ago?’

‘Is it a ghost?’

Slash! Slash!

They didn’t even get a chance to clash blades with Kim Iseo.

“…Madman!”

“Argh!”

Despite being eight against one, their legs were being severed in a daze.

“C-Cannot see him…”

“What do we do…”

Some began to retreat after witnessing Kim Iseo’s overwhelming combat prowess.

It wasn’t strange.

Slash! Slash!

Even as they retreated, their comrades’ legs were being cut off.

“Damn it!”

The leader of the group, Oh Seok-hyeon, gritted his teeth.

‘What the hell? Is that the speed of a human…?’

Kim Iseo’s slashes seemed like he was using instantaneous movement repeatedly.

‘This can’t be…’

It was understandable that Oh Seok-hyeon was in despair.

Kim Iseo wasn’t actually using an instantaneous movement skill.

‘This is the synergy of skills. Damn it.’

He had simply managed the synergy between his skills like perfectly meshing cogs.

In other words, he created a synergy effect.

Kim Iseo’s ability to appear everywhere and massacre the enemies was due to the combination of the Blue Constellation’s unique passive and the Red Constellation’s Gale Sword.

[Gale Sword: Charges forward at a speed of 210, slicing through all enemies in the path.]

[Blue Constellation Unique Ability: Players influenced by the Blue Constellation see their agility increase proportionally with the duration of combat. When movement speed exceeds 200, they enter a ‘Light Speed’ state for 10 seconds.]

Kim Iseo used the speed boost from Gale Sword to meet the conditions for ‘Light Speed’ mode.

[*Light Speed: Allows the use of ‘Blink,’ which teleports 50m every 2 seconds. Cooldown: 150 minutes]

In other words, for 10 seconds, he could use Blink every 2 seconds.

Normally, the conditions to activate Light Speed were very stringent. To achieve the necessary agility beyond 200, a player with a 1-star contract would need about 10 minutes of combat.

For Kim Iseo, who hadn’t contracted at all, it would take around 45 minutes due to his poor increment.

Given the fast-paced design of the Mana Sword’s combat system, such extended combat was almost unheard of.

‘But Gale Sword raises the speed to 210 instantly.’

Gale Sword’s charging speed was precisely 210. It surpasses the requirements for Light Speed mode.

It’s a synergy that should be impossible under normal circumstances. Unless one had both the interest of the constellations and the Hero-grade skill Gale Sword.

‘This is why Black Constellation players are so strong.’

The Black Constellation, contracting both Red and Blue, reveals these balance flaws.

Skills weren’t designed with the expectation of contracting both constellations.

‘Let’s max out the affection and head to the Black Constellation.’

The easiest way to enter the Black Constellation was to get a guarantee from Jannelet, whose affection was maxed out.

With that thought, Kim Iseo mercilessly cut down his enemies.

[New Skill Discovered!]

[Skill: Agile Movement Lv. 1. Acquired!]

After swiftly dispatching the enemies, Kim Iseo acquired a new skill. Moments later:

[Light Speed mode has ended.]

[Remaining cooldown: 150 minutes]

An alert showed the end of the skill’s duration.

[Blue Mana: 0]

[Red Mana: 8]

Due to the passive effect, his Blue Mana was depleted. However, he remained unperturbed.

“Now… how about it? Do you want to continue?”

There were still many red skills that hadn’t been used. The enemies were ignorant of this skill mechanism. To them, Kim Iseo seemed like a god of combat.

“Ugh… ugh… I’m sorry…”

The leader, Oh Seok-hyeon, had been crawling on the floor with his left leg severed.

“So, are you surrendering?”

Kim Iseo asked with a gentle smile.

“Y-yes… surrender… urgh!”

Thunk!

A harsh kick landed on his face.

“Does someone who says they’re surrendering talk like that? Why the casual speech?”

Kim Iseo was not the type to forgive easily.

* * *

“Good, that’s it. Well done. You there! Get up properly!”

An unamusing scene unfolded in a sauna. Eight muscular young men, each missing a limb, were being subjected to punishment.

“O, oh, Hyung… I’ve lost one of my arms… ugh!”

Thunk! Thunk!

Those who were making excuses were met with relentless kicks.

“Hey! Even if you only have onr leg, you can stand! Do you want to try standing on no legs!?”

“No, no! Please, spare me!”

“How dare you touch the quest goddess! Do you want to see the end of the world? Huh!?”

Thunk, thunk!

After several rounds of beating, they all managed to take their positions successfully.

“Um… won’t those people die?”

“Don’t worry. They’ll heal naturally.”

In Mana Sword, maintaining a non-combat state for over 10 minutes gradually restores health.

“Will that really happen?”

Choi Seo-yeon was concerned whether it would work in reality.

“Everything else has been implemented, so why wouldn’t this? Don’t worry. Not a single person has bled excessively so far.”

As Kim Iseo said, no one had bled profusely yet. Whether they were recovering was unknown.

“If not, so be it.”

He wasn’t concerned if they ended up dying from excessive bleeding afterward. After all, they had tried to kill Choi Seo-yeon.

“Don’t worry. That guy in the hood tried to attack you earlier, remember? You could have died.”

“…That’s true.”

In short, they deserved what they got.

Kim Iseo wasn’t the only one thinking this way.

[Colorless / 67584: Why let them go? Is this a sweet potato channel?]

[Colorless / 184890: Are you trying to look all high and mighty now?]

[Red / Unyielding Warrior: A true warrior never lets those who tried to harm them go.]

[Blue / Calculating Strategist: You can’t just suddenly become a killer.]

[Colorless / 8599: Now? The thugs who died in the subway aren’t human?]

[Colorless / 354: Yep, they aren’t human.]

[Red / Unyielding Warrior: If someone tried to harm you, how can a warrior just let them go? It’s obvious they’ll cause trouble later!]

Kim Iseo’s eyes darted around the chat window. At the same time, his mind was calculating intensely.

‘As expected, they’re not pleased. It seems I need to manage their reactions too.’

Players can be swayed by the reactions of the deities. Though the help from non-red and non-blue deities was uncertain, they were there for a reason.

‘No one likes leaving behind future trouble.’

This had been a dilemma. Whether to leave them alive or not. If they recovered and sought revenge, it would be quite problematic.

‘…I should eliminate them.’

Thanks to the reactions from the deities, Kim Iseo made his decision.

* * *

The night in the sauna was peaceful. No one dared approach those who had turned the place into a bloodbath.

The only potential trouble was if the hooded gang recovered and came back. At least they would need to bring a force of around one squad to be a match.

“Yawn… I can’t sleep. Maybe I’ll take a walk.”

While everyone else was sound asleep, Kim Iseo spoke to himself in a deliberately casual tone as he headed outside.

‘Can they hear me?’

He checked if his self-talk was audible through the chat window.

[Colorless / 9482: Oh. Kim Iseo is up.]

[Colorless / 482: It’s true?]

[Colorless / 429: What’s he planning…]

Several deities reacted as soon as he got up.

‘There are quite a few watching.’

The number of deities watching Kim Iseo had almost reached 500.

‘But what’s the benefit of having so many?’

The problem was that having more interested deities only made the chat window more cluttered without offering much benefit.

‘The ones who are useful are those two.’

Kim Iseo was looking for the two deities: the Unyielding Warrior and the Calculating Strategist. Their responses had appeared.

[Red / Unyielding Warrior: Oh. Is he not sleeping?]

[Blue / Calculating Strategist: Hmm… Is he going outside to deal with those coming?]

Seeing the blue response, Kim Iseo nodded slightly in satisfaction.

‘As expected…’

He confirmed through the deities’ reactions what he had been considering.

He glanced around to see if any of his other allies might wake up.

‘Everyone is asleep.’

The current time was 1:30 AM. After a tiring day, everyone in the country was likely sound asleep.

‘Except for those guys.’

There would be those who stayed awake despite it all.

Kim Iseo slowly exited the sauna.

* * *

“…Hyung. Can we do this?”

“Hey, they’ve brought more followers.”

Oh Seok-hyeon pointed behind him with his thumb. His severed arm had already fully recovered.

“Hey, hyung. Can we really steal the quest? Are you joking? You know that, right?”

“Ah~ come on! I told you we can. We almost finished it, but we didn’t have enough numbers. We’ve almost defeated them, so now there are only about 5 left.”

Oh Seok-hyeon lied skillfully with a confident smile.

‘Let’s see if you can handle 30 people.’

He went around alleyways, proposing deals to dominant factions in each area.

“Doesn’t it sound like a trap?”

“Ah, come on! Why would I set a trap for you? I’m annoyed because I’m trying to share the spoils with you! We fought 20 people and left 5 behind! I only recruited you just in case!”

Someone snickered upon hearing this.

“Tell your lies with some restraint.”

“Who’s that? Ah, these old men are no good…”

Oh Seok-hyeon turned angrily, but no one responded.

“…Hmm?”

“It was the person over there who spoke.”

The group pointed to where Kim Iseo was sitting.

“I knew you’d come back. You damn bastard.”

Kim Iseo stood up slowly, gripping his sword. Seeing him, Oh Seok-hyeon’s legs trembled.

“Do you know why I spared you even though I knew?”

Oh Seok-hyeon couldn’t answer. He just stared blankly, waiting for the next words.

Kim Iseo pointed at Seok-hyeon’s recovered arm.

“I wanted to see if it healed.”

This time, it was a statement of death.

* * *

[Red / Unyielding Warrior: Kill him! Kill him! A warrior shouldn’t be walking around with his tail between his legs!]

[Colorless / 8572: Damn! It’s a festival!]

[Blue / Calculating Strategist: Since they attacked first, it’s self-defense.]

[Colorless / 29201: But there are thirty of them… Can one person handle that?]

[Red / Unyielding Warrior: He’s probably on par with a 3-star in terms of skills, so what are you talking about!]