God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 26: Episode 6 _ What Would Happen If I Enhanced This_ (1)

Chapter 26: Episode 6 _ What Would Happen If I Enhanced This_ (1)

1.

“Do you know when a player truly dies?” Simin asked everyone.

The devil’s whisper tickled their ears, accompanied by a wicked smile.

“When they’re pathetically beaten by a monster? No!”

The strangely familiar lines were unsettling, and though they wanted to shut him down, no one could easily reveal their inner thoughts.

“When the weapon they bought for a high price yesterday is worthless today? No!”

The players remained silent.

‘Someone shut that bastard up!’ The urgent glances exchanged in the silence cried out, but as expected, nothing changed. Han Simin held the last remaining healer hostage with his crimson dagger.

“It’s when they’re one-shotted by a lowbie who hasn’t even shed his beginner status!” He continued, “What? Why the long faces? Is that the look of someone who wants to lose their last healer and wait for the ruins raid while sucking their thumbs for forty-eight hours?”

“No!” the healer on the verge of death shouted most urgently. The remaining players, their faces contorted in scowls, broke the encirclement they had formed around Jeong Seolah. Of course, they only backed off a little, maintaining a distance from which they could still pounce at any moment.

"Let’s stop doing things that won’t benefit either of us," a player from a different party threatened. "If you kill the healer, we will kill your guild mates."

The reason they were scowling, even though a healer from a party they had no connection with was being held hostage, was simple: their own guild’s healer was already dead. And so was their mage. Thanks to the buy-one-get-one-free deal that sent them on a forced forty-eight-hour vacation via logout, they would have to sit around and wait out the penalty time even if they won the fight. If they had their way, they would charge forward and slit that bastard’s throat, regardless of whether the last healer died.

‘Not only did five players die, but he also killed a healer and a mage.’

‘Crazy. His gear is even more OP than I thought.’

‘What the hell is his job class?’

‘I thought he was an enhancement master...’

But they had no desire to take out their anger only to end up convalescing for forty-eight hours like the healer and mage. That was the common thought among the dozen or so remaining players. So, even though it was a game, they obediently complied with the hostage-taker’s demands.

“See? This is why education is so important. To think that even in a lawless place like this, everyone is working together for the sake of a hostage’s life. If you guys stick together for the ruins raid, you might actually succeed.”

The players didn’t respond.

Excited by the fact that his enhanced armor and weapon were showing tremendous efficiency even against players, Han Simin spouted whatever came to mind and waved his hand. The crowd naturally parted, and the Specialists walked through the gap.

“What is this, a reunion of long-lost family members...?” Kang Yeseul said with a disbelieving laugh.

Jeong Seolah and Jeong Hyeonsu nodded as if in agreement. Han Simin had no interest in the main quest in the first place; he had just come because he was bored. But the players who saw him had used it as an excuse to intimidate him, leading to the current situation. Looking only at the result, the players had been hoisted by their own petard. It was poetic justice.

“Now let him go.”

Once the Specialists had safely joined Han Simin, the other side demanded the healer’s release. The atmosphere among the players, who had been holding back for fear of infighting if they attacked while disregarding the healer’s life, was grim. It felt like he should let him go, even if reluctantly. Their sincerity was fully conveyed to Han Simin—so abundantly, in fact, that it felt like he had to return the favor. He nodded.

‘Right, I should give him back.’

Pshnk.

The players cried out in shock.

“What are you doing?!”

But being a frugal man, Simin returned only the sentiment he had received, in full. It was a dagger that could pierce even the dealers and tankers who fought monsters directly. The slender neck of a healer who had only invested in mana was no match; a critical hit landed in a single blow, killing him instantly.

The gazes that fell upon him were once again filled with utter despair. The battle was over. No matter who won, the surviving players would have to wait forty-eight hours. That was what a healer meant in Fantastic World.

“Son of a bitch!”

“You damn bastard!”

“You coward!”

Naturally, the despair turned to anger.

“Hahaha!”

Han Simin, on the receiving end of every curse imaginable, laughed with satisfaction.

‘Look at those pure souls! Society hasn’t completely rotted away yet.’

“You devil,” Kang Yeseul muttered.

“Hm?”

“Nothing.”

He thought he heard Kang Yeseul say something strange from behind him, but his conscience was clear. It was a game, wasn’t it? They had started the fight. Besides, the reward at stake was still the raid order, something valuable enough for top-tier players to invest everything in. There was no need to be picky about the means.

“I’ll tank, so let’s just wipe them out,” Jeong Hyeonsu said.

“Okay,” Jeong Seolah replied.

She drew her weapon and stepped forward, a faint smile on her face.

‘As I thought, my judgment was not wrong.’

The other side still had more numbers, but now she was certain. They would win. The difference between having a healer and not having one created an incomparable gap in combat power, a gap that would only widen as levels increased.

And the Specialist guild had a monster on their side: armor that could withstand attacks from top-ranked players, and a crimson dagger that could pierce through armor worth over a hundred gold coins in a single strike. If only she could forget the fact that it was a beginner’s low-grade dagger, it was a perfect offensive and defensive weapon.

Flash.

She shook off her distracting thoughts and charged forward. Even with reliable comrades behind her, getting carried wasn’t in her nature. Now, she would show them—the trump card she had been hiding.

“Kill them!”

“If we kill the dealer first, we might still have a chance!”

Watching Jeong Seolah charge, the enraged players ground their teeth. Since it had come to this, they couldn’t die alone! They would just have to decide the raid order again in forty-eight hours. Unlike before, the players, now resolved to die, moved without hesitation. They may not have a healer, but a healer’s role was to ensure sustained combat; it didn’t diminish the explosive power of individual dealers.

“Downward Strike!”

“Power Thrust!”

“Cleave!”

All sorts of skills rained down on Jeong Seolah. Her armor was also leather, but it didn’t shine like Han Simin’s, so if any of those attacks landed, they would inflict considerable damage. However...

Tap-tap-tap.

The players gasped in shock.

At an unexpected moment, Jeong Seolah kicked off the ground, leaped up, spun in mid-air, and then kicked off the air itself to propel herself backward. One rotation, two spins! The unbelievable acrobatics allowed her to completely evade attacks aimed at a space a human would find impossible to dodge from.

“Whoa!” Han Simin exclaimed.

It was a judgment call that naturally drew admiration. And her agility. Who could have predicted that she would dodge like that, at that timing, from that position? An ordinary person would have wondered, ‘Is that even possible?’ and in the brief moment it took to have that thought, the enraged players’ attacks would have pierced their body. But she had done it, and in doing so, created the perfect stage to reveal her trump card. Before her were players full of openings. It wasn’t that they were sloppy; her skill was just that much higher.

The +13 golden longsword let out a low hum. Separate from the aura, the energy of mana creating a skill made its intense presence known. The targets were those who had lost their target and swung their weapons at empty air. They had poured everything they had into their attack and failed, so now it was time to pay the price.

"Fire Ball," she whispered, and in that decisive instant, time itself seemed to stop.

The mana responded to her command.

Whoosh.

The flames, mixed with a golden light, were unleashed with her swing.

BOOM.

With an explosion that shook the world, she made her spectacular debut.

“The hell. What was that?” cried the continent’s only Legendary job holder.

* * *

The world didn’t turn upside down, nor did the nearly ten players who had been charging get logged out all at once. If that had been the case, Jeong Seolah wouldn’t have been in the predicament of being surrounded in the first place. But what was clear was that her hidden card had been more than effective enough.

“Kid, what was that?” Han Simin reflexively asked Kang Yeseul, too stunned to care about the nickname. He just needed an explanation for that absurd power.

“Hee hee. She’s got a Unique-grade job.”

“What?”

“She’s been saving her stat points since level one to become a magic swordsman. When she finally hit fifteen and went for the job change, she said she just... stumbled into this one by chance.”

The explanation came as a huge shock to Han Simin.

He was speechless.

“Isn’t it cool? If it had been a Legendary, our guild would have had two already. Too bad.”

He couldn’t share in her disappointment. Anyone who had witnessed the scene would understand. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

‘No, I’d rather you just say it was a Legendary.’

‘A mere Unique-grade job is that powerful?’

Even if it was a magic swordsman, and even if the opposing players had practically thrown themselves at her, begging to be hit, for a single attack to critically wound five and force the rest to retreat... that job was insane.

But what he disliked most was something else entirely.

“For a mere fire ball to be that strong. This is breaking the game’s balance.”

It was probably a fire ball in name only, but it still felt unfair. He sighed, the incompetence of his own job class hitting him all over again just as he was getting used to it. He knew full well that it was Seolah’s brilliant timing and her trump card that had sealed the deal, but still...

‘To think she now has the power to back up that insane control.’

For some reason, his crimson dagger looked shabby. What good was it if players dropped like flies every time he swung it? It lacked the most important thing in a game: style!

“Haaah.”

‘I guess that was the most important of the various preparations for a successful ruins raid.’

Sure, no matter how much money they had, there was a limit to what players could obtain at this point. They could pour in more money, but that would be wasteful, not efficient. But with a job that had that kind of potential, and with Jeong Seolah wielding it, a raid on a named monster ten levels higher was a real possibility. The feeling that he had just been setting the table for them wasn’t just a feeling.

Seeing the players staggering as they recovered from the stun, his anger welled up.

‘Why me?!’

“I’m a Legendary class!”

This was bullshit. How could he not have a single attack skill?

Swish.

His anger-fueled dagger cut through the air and embedded itself in the chest of a player who was just getting up.

“Ack!”

The player clocked out with the sudden calamity. It was indeed destructive and powerful.

‘But it doesn’t look cool at all.’

It lacked the special effects of Jeong Seolah’s attack. The character itself was flashier and more overwhelming than anyone else’s, but the grass is always greener on the other side.

“If only I had a combat-type Legendary job...”

If he had gotten that kind of job class before learning enhancement, maybe none of this would have happened. His imagination gave way to delusion. Then, he quickly came back to reality.

“Right, Simin. Get a grip. You’ll go broke thinking about being cool.”

Not that he had a fortune to lose, but wanting what he couldn’t have would only make him miserable. This envy he felt every time he saw Seola... he had to shake it.

’Let’s just make money!’

With a determined look, Han Simin retrieved his dagger and stepped forward. The items lying there were begging him to claim them, to quickly rescue them from their wicked former owners.

“Tsk tsk. That guy isn’t in his right mind either, as expected,” Kang Yeseul rationalized to herself, clicking her tongue. ‘So that’s why he rejected me.’

Next to her, Jeong Hyeonsu was contemplating today’s battle and taking out his gold coins pouch.

“We’ll be raiding first, so if you want to interfere, be my guest! Mwahahaha! By the time you come to interfere, we’ll already be on the second scenario quest!” Simin jeered.

With his obnoxious personality on full display, the four-versus-twenty battle came to an end.

* * *