Level 0 Master

Dungpyong's robot started ruthlessly attacking Sungjin. Weapons in both its hands fiercely attacked Sungjin, while its torso ceaselessly shot laser and fire.

He's not too bad.

Sungjin started to move in high tension. Although he was fighting back a smile, it wasn't easy fighting back Dungpyong's attack. He is really putting everything into this fight.

To get the rich middle class life in this world, or for his revenge, whatever the reason was, Dungpyong put his soul into every movement he made, and it wasn't easy to fight back an attack that had someone's soul in it, especially when that was supported by the strong ability of a robot.

The laser beam spinned quickly, following Sungjin's movements. As soon as Sungjin avoided the laser, weapons from both the robot's arms would attack Sungjin without stopping. Dungpyong made twelve consecutive stabbing motions using the robot's high speed. It was a simple sequence, but it was very fast.

The robot recalculated Sungjin's movement each time Sungjin avoided the attack, so it was difficult for Sungjin to make counterattack or to find its weakness.

Sungjin had to admit Dungpyong's ability. Although Dungpyong was putting all negative emotions into his attack, such as revenge and greed, but doing everything he could in desperation, he also had a sense of what he had to do to fight, so it was not an easy fight for Sungjin.

It was hard to determine who would be the winner of this fight, but… it was about to change soon, because the time on Sungjin's Stat Exchange would soon run out, and when the stat went back to Sooryun, Sooryun wouldn't be able to fight against Dungpyong, who was synchronized with the robot.

His time was up. Sungjin's movements became slow, and Dungpyong's spear pierced him mercilessly. "Ugh." Sungjin raised his left hand to stop the spear, but that only caused his arm to be cut off and blood to spread.

"This is it!" Dungpyong threw his final blow. I can win. I can win against this guy. I will defeat Sungjin to get what I want.

"Sungjin!"

When Sooryun tried to jump in, Sungjin stopped her. "Yes, this is it." He threw the blood from his arm onto the robot's visual sensor.

"What?" The shield was activated to stop the blood, but Sungjin's sword cut the shield to open the way to spread the blood onto the sensor.

The blood covered Dungpyong's sight. "You!" But that moment, Sungjin had already attacked the central system of the robot, and his sword stabbed the engine.

Zing.

The robot made broken movements before stopping and eventually exploding. "Ugh!" Dungpyong's screams filled the air.

"The fight's over." Sungjin put back his sword and his stat returned to normal.

"Sungjin… you made it." Sooryun couldn't stop looking at him in surprise. He defeated five robots… with one sword… and not on a battlefield with a narrow path but in an open space where the robots could siege him.

Although four of the robots had been operated by AI, Dungpyong had not been an easy opponent to fight against, but Sungjin had made it.

Wow… You are amazing. She held her hands together while her eyes shined. She looked like a fangirl at a K-pop idol's concert. Wow… that was really amazing. That was the reason why Sungjin didn't care that it was a two-on-five fight.

Sooryun was not able to fight against five, but when Sungjin had her power, he was able to fight against all of them.

"That's it." Sungjin cleaned up his sword, stepping on the remains of the five robots. A drop of sweat ran down his neck.

That was… amazing. Sooryun's heart pounded hard. She hadn't been able to take her eyes off him during his fight. She was a warrior as well, so she knew her limit, but Sungjin was above and beyond the limit anyone could possibly reach. It almost gave her ecstasy to see something unimaginable become real.

Each line of his muscle that had showed while he used his sword was attractive. Ahh, what should I do?

She was already into Sungjin, but he kept showing more attractive sides of himself. She wanted to be happy just with the memory of their first kiss, but he was making her want more.

She almost screamed like a girl who had seen her favorite star, but she stopped herself, thinking of her social status. You are such a conqueror of not only the continent but of a girl's heart.

Her head told her that they needed to say goodbye. There wasn't much she could do, even if she loved him. She knew that the memory of that one night was the only thing she would keep…

Ahh, I really want to know more about you, Sungjin.

She wanted to know his ambition, what he would do to be on the top of the world. She wanted to stay with him longer and know him more.

I want to know him. I want to be with him, and I want him to want me as well.

She didn't know how to deal with her feelings.

"Now it's over. Relax." Sungjin's voice was calm, and that put her back down on her feet.

There's… no way… She was sad. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure?"

"If you had this much power, why didn't you tell me?" It wasn't a complicated plan that he couldn't have explained quickly.

"If I told you that I would fight against five robots, I knew that you would try to take at least one out to help me," Sungjin answered with a grin. He looked like a conqueror, but he also looked like a bad boy.

"So… You didn't want me to struggle…"

He was thinking ahead.

Even if I go back to my world, I will never be able to forget you. I will remember you forever.

As my first love.

[Team Blue won.]

The Valkyrie made the announcement.

[The connection to the World Stone is opening.]

That was the reward for the winner of this battlefield. He could decide if he wanted to destroy this world or keep it.

The winner was able to decide the destiny of this little world that Kaiser Varka had created with his heroic power.

Chapter 8

A ray of light came down to the center of the battlefield, and with the light, the ground opened up. A pure white stone appeared in front of Sooryung and Sungjin. It was a disc with miniatures of the cities of this world on it. It looked just like this world.

"So this is the World Stone."

"Yes. If you break it, Varka can't keep this world anymore, and we can go back to our own worlds."

"Okay."

They looked at each other. It was time to say goodbye.

"I will remember you, even when I go back to my world."

"I will remember you as my precious teammate."

"Your precious… teammate…" Sooryun repeated in a low voice. I get it. That's who I am.

She had tried, but Sungjin hadn't made a move, and now they had to say goodbye as teammates. She was sad, but there wasn't much she could do. She was in love with a guy who was a strong conqueror but also a nice guy who wouldn't play her for a one-night stand.

"So, should we destroy it?" When Sungjin raised his sword, Varka's image came up from the World Stone.

"The one who came here, whoever you are, you did a great job." It was a recording Varka had planted in the World Stone when he had created it. "Now you can decide if you want to keep this world or break this world by destroying the World Stone."

"Pff. Is this the World Stone's last words?"

"But think twice. You might not like my order, but this is the best world for humans, who are weak and stupid."

"You are talking too much." Sungjin laughed. "So, Let's do this."

"Ok."

Sungjin struck it with his sword and Sooryun played the lute. When both attacks hit the stone, the World Stone cracked, and a backflow of energy came from the fissure.

"Ugh." A bit of reaction was expected, but that was not what surprised Sungjin. This is…

The truth of the world came to Sungjin when the energy flow started to cover the whole world.

When people were covered by the black energy flow, they started to change their shape. They became chunks of revengeful spirits, and started to gather to the center. They looked like condensed dark clouds, and more and more started to gather.

"No!"

"I don't want to leave this world!"

They screamed. They didn't just want the soma from the chip. They didn't just want to live their peaceful lives.

When Sungjin learned the truth of this world, he was able to understand that they had more desperate reasons.

This was why.

Apart from Sungjin, all the souls in this world were from the Earth that Varka had come from. They were living under tyranny.

They had no freedom at all under brutally strict order and they couldn't even think of criticizing the tyrant. The tyrant was the only one who had wealth, while the others had to live from hand to mouth, but they started to learn about wealth and freedom from other countries, until people finally started a revolution. There was support from the outside, and the revolution was successful. They kicked out the tyrant and… a civil war started. Tribal conflict erupted as soon as they were free of the tyrant. They started killing each other during the civil war, and the country became just like what Varka had told Sungjin when they first met.

Neighbors became enemies. They raped each others' daughters, mothers and wives… They caused people to become orphans.

They started to regret the revolution, thinking it had been better when they had been under the tyrant's rule. They thought that when they had been under tyranny, they never had to worry about food or if they could survive another day, but now they had to kill each other to survive, and when they died, their souls fell into an endless hell, locked in an endless loop where they had to keep killing each other. It was a loop that they couldn't run away from.

But there was salvation. It was a white silver light. It was the light of salvation that Varka created with order. Varka took every soul and sealed them into this new world under an absolute order. It was a distorted world, but it was a desperate form of salvation. Now that this world was falling apart, the revengeful spirits had lost their bodies from this world. When this world was destroyed, they had to go back to hell, where they had to keep killing each other.

Revengeful spirits started to get on Sooryun.

"Ugh." Her beautiful skin became black. The faces of spirits came out from all over her body to blame her.

"Is it you?"

"You are trying to put us back where we were?"

"This b*tch is the leader of the resistance army."

"I want the order back!"

"Put us back in the system of Varka!"

"He is the only savior for us!"

To give freedom to humans: the resistance army tried to do the right thing, but what if humans wanted to return the freedom they got?

Moreover…

It was because of desperate reasons…