The one closest to becoming king is Hyun.

That was the honest conclusion the top users of the world had come to after clashing with Atlas.

No one said it aloud, but when they looked at one another, there was a shared emotion in their eyes.

Anxiety.

There were far too many reasons for it.

After Duke Lukael had headed for Balas Territory, they had been certain of victory.

Because of the eighty thousand defeated troops under his command.

Balas Territory was very small, and the number of soldiers it possessed was doubtful to be even one-tenth of that.

But then the news had come in.

[Duke Lukael has died.]

Every last one of them had been struck with a chilling shock, and the heads of every guild received the report.

[Haetae: A Mythic bow has fallen into the hands of Hyeji, the Olympic gold medalist in archery. She fired one arrow and annihilated thirty thousand troops. She fired another, and thirty thousand more were annihilated.]

...Is that a movie plot?

Or some old tale?

Every nation had its own tales.

Just as Korea had Yi Sun-sin destroying hundreds of ships with only twelve of his own, every country had legendary stories of its own.

And the thought that the greatest Divine Archer had met a Mythic bow and wiped out sixty thousand troops filled them with fear.

But Hyeji had to defend Balas, and the ultimate skill Massacre Bow could not be reused right away.

Still, they thought this:

He had forged too many stories already.

The hunt for the Great Archdemon Gremory and the White ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) Tiger Sword.

The Turtle Ship and the Battle of Goyad Strait.

Hyeji and the Great Bow of Demon-Slaying.

And then...

“......”

“......”

“......”

That interview with Kim PD not long ago.

The truth they had overlooked in their intoxication over the User Kingdom Union forming a kingdom.

If we lose, Hyun might become king.

The whole world, always eager to elevate someone, would cheer for the man who had crushed the User Kingdom Union alone.

But the rankers gathered here had staked their very lives on this.

They had liquidated a significant portion of their assets to recruit formidable NPCs.

And among the members of this User Kingdom Union were famous mercenaries, and many others who were not mercenaries, but had still been brought in with payments ranging from one hundred million won to several hundred million won.

This is a battle we cannot lose.

At that moment, agitation spread through the rankers’ camp.

“They say AJ Internet Broadcasting Station is running an exclusive broadcast centered on Hyun. The program title is Wish.”

“Wish?”

That made them frown.

What wish is he talking about?

And someone clever guessed the answer.

It was Vera, the woman who had once become a legend, only to be one-shotted by Asura Kabel, and whose position as Gremory’s Representative had vanished forever when Gremory was permanently erased.

Did he really wait for a moment like this?

Each of them reached a different conclusion.

Some sneered.

Others answered while cutting down the necks of Atlas’s soldiers.

Then—

“...Why am I here?”

“...?”

“...?”

Who am I? Where am I?

A Korean man had appeared.

It was Kim PD.

A broadcasting station had nothing to do with the game company.

Which meant Kim PD was also a user.

He had come here at Hyunsoo’s request.

“Your ID is KingGod?”

“???”

“Middle-school syndrome?”

“......”

Kim PD flushed red at the sudden attention.

But even the high-rankers understood there had to be a reason for his visit.

“I’m here to deliver Hyunsoo’s words.”

Everyone looked puzzled.

What message from Hyunsoo could possibly be important enough for someone from a broadcasting station to come in person and deliver it?

Hyunsoo’s whisper was reaching Kim PD even now.

[Hyunsoo: You’re all dead. I’m launching a nuke.]

“......”

Can I really deliver it like that?

At that moment, another whisper came to him.

[Nell: Hyunsoo probably actually said something like, “You sons of bitches, do you all want to die?”]

[KingGod: ...Yes.]

[Nell: ...That’s a perfectly natural reaction. Hyunsoo has done nothing wrong, and this war was caused by their greed. But it would not be good to broadcast the future monarch speaking like that.]

KingGod had been about to relay it word for word.

[Nell: I’ll soften it for you. Please say it exactly as I phrase it.]

Kim PD kept receiving Hyunsoo’s words and translating them through Nell.

[Hyunsoo: I’ve let it slide and let it slide, but now I’m just too dumbfounded to put up with it anymore. You’re the ones who are lacking and full of inferiority, so why are you picking a fight with me?]

“This is Master Blacksmith Hyun. He respectfully addresses you all.”

[Hyunsoo: User Kingdom Union? Is it really right for one user to fight seventy-five of the world’s users at once?]

“It appears that prolonged battle has inflicted enormous losses on both sides. Therefore, in the interest of peace, he believes it would be best to stop here and have both sides withdraw their armies.”

Damn, “in the interest of peace”?Wow, Hyunsoo’s such a great man lol. The whole world knows the User Kingdom Union started this for no reason.The translation Nell had written was working brilliantly.

It relayed Hyunsoo’s meaning while winning over the viewers too.

[Hyunsoo: I’ll give you ten seconds to get lost.]

“...If you do not comply, you will pay a tremendous price. Lord Hyunsoo of Atlas says he is giving you generous time to retreat.”

[Hyunsoo: If you’re still here after that, I’m really firing.]

Then Kim PD revealed the real reason he had come.

“If you refuse, Lord Hyunsoo says he will drop a nuclear bomb on the enemy camp. That is all.”

“......?”

“......?”

“......?”

The top users stared at Kim PD blinking blankly, wondering if they had heard wrong.

A nuke?

Has he lost his mind?

Is he insane?

A nuke? What kind of bullshit is that, lol....Now he’s threatening people with nonsense too.But maybe Lord Hyunsoo has some kind of plan behind saying that?Maybe, sure. But no matter how amazing he is, comparing anything to a nuke is a bit much. What kind of attack could even be compared to that?That was true.

No matter what kind of attack it was, comparing it to a nuclear weapon was pushing it too far.

“10.”

Kim PD began counting down.

The entire world laughed at the absurdity of it, and the commentators pounced on it at once.

Master Blacksmith Hyun has the skill Counter, right? So this must be the return of the Great Bow of Demon-Slaying!If it’s the return of the Great Bow of Demon-Slaying, then a comparison like that is at least possible!!Only a few hours earlier, the ultimate Ultimate Massacre Bow in Balas Territory had been broadcast.

It was enough to make the comparison plausible.

“G-Guild Leader...”

“Massacre Bow?”

“...It wiped out thirty thousand enemies?”

The world’s rankers tensed.

“If Hyun is speaking that confidently, then he’s probably strengthened it in some way of his own.”

“Then it makes sense to estimate at least forty thousand casualties.”

“Forty thousand from one arrow? Insane. No wonder he reacted like that.”

But the high-rankers were fundamentally different from the defeated soldiers who had been there before.

And back then, those routed troops had only died because it was the first time that power had manifested and they had not been prepared. At the end of the day, they had only been ordinary soldiers.

There was also a difference between defending against something you knew about and defending against something you did not.

He’s exaggerating. Hyun must be desperate.

Fond, Liu, and the other users sneered.

Unlike ordinary soldiers, they were equipped with rare and extraordinary artifacts, and every one of them had at least something that could cut incoming damage in half.

And then they saw it.

Hyunsoo stood atop the wall, swapping artifacts and summoning the Great Bow of Demon-Slaying through the workings of Counter.

“...How does he keep managing to do exactly what we expect?”

And on top of that, the sight of Hyunsoo was frankly ridiculous.

His gear was a riot of clashing colors.

It looked as though he had thrown on clothes with colors that suited him in no way at all; every artifact he wore had changed.

His armor was red. His gauntlets were black.

In contrast, the necklace at his throat was emerald green, and the shoulder guard on one side was brown.

His helm was blue, and the earring hanging from one ear swayed like something a woman would wear to a banquet.

With the black Great Bow of Demon-Slaying in his hands on top of all that, the whole result looked absurd.

“PWAHAHAHA!”

“Kh...”

“This is killing me.”

“He’s putting way too much faith in Massacre Bow.”

The high-rankers laughed.

Their laughter spread through the uneasy user camp, putting smiles back on people’s faces.

The lower ones were always desperate to please the higher ones, and once the powerful began laughing, it spread through the battlefield.

“That idiot...”

“Who called someone like that a Master Blacksmith?”

“He’s using a power everyone can already predict and acting like he’s the greatest. Is that really supposed to impress us?”

“But isn’t Hyunsoo a god?”

Someone answered.

“He’s faded. Crushed by endless pressure and hundreds of thousands of troops, and too despairing to even find a way to fight back.”

And the user who had just said that glanced at the man named Kim PD.

Kim PD.

While counting down, he watched them with a look that all but called them pathetic.

“3.”

And the instant Hyunsoo’s bowstring twanged—

“Ah... I told you to get out of the way...”

Kim PD almost pitied them.

Then he understood them too.

He was one of the few who had seen it in person.

And he was also the one who had given it that name.

Because the power that would appear once those nine artifacts came together really was enough to deserve the comparison.

“0.”

PWAAASH—!

Kim PD vanished into light, and a single arrow slowly rose toward the sky.

Users activated skills to protect their bodies, and hundreds of thousands of flashes of light burst across the battlefield.

Through that sea of light, the one arrow flew upward, and then cast down hundreds of thousands of shadows.

“...It targets every enemy it recognizes?”

[Million Bow.]

[It ignores all defense and hits.]

[It cannot be evaded.]

Everything the users possessed related to evasion became useless.

[It is a guaranteed skill.]

A guaranteed skill.

The most representative example was Annihilate Evil from Babylon, which Hyunsoo had forged.

Babylon’s Annihilate Evil guaranteed a reduction of HP.

And then the rain of arrows—so slow it almost felt unreal—drove into the users’ chests, foreheads, heads, the seams in their armor.

Or into their shins, buttocks, throats, and shields.

Ignoring defense, they buried themselves into iron and bone alike.

Four hundred thousand arrows exploded at once, and cameras across the world captured four hundred thousand detonations.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!

[80% of HP is erased!!]

Everyone there was stunned.

Users at level 200. Users at level 400.

Users at level 499 as well. Their total HP, total defense, resistance to magical attacks—every single one of those values was completely different.

Yet the fact that it targeted all enemies, ignored the sum total of their defenses, and guaranteed the erasure of 80% of their HP was completely beyond reason.

And once the brief explosions died down, the devastation revealed beneath them left everyone reeling.

It did not shock only the User Kingdom Union.

It also stunned those standing atop the walls of Atlas.

Resil, who had rushed over in a hurry, asked Nell,

“Was Hyunsoo, by any chance, from North Korea in a past life?”

“Could his birthplace have been North Korea...?”

“...Oh.”

Even they, who had no prejudice of that kind, were shaken. One camera caught Resil’s remark, and while rumors were already starting to spread that Hyunsoo was secretly North Korean—

The core members of the User Kingdom Union were still staring in disbelief.

What kind of insane nonsense is this...?

I only have twenty percent of my HP left.

Is he actually North Korean? Or Russian?

Then Hyunsoo, the man who had warned them from the start, spoke.

“There’s still one shot left.”

“......”

“......”

“......”

In contrast to his words, the Great Bow of Demon-Slaying was already slowly disappearing from his hand.

But everyone tensed.

Because these were the same people who had been laughing moments ago, scoffing, A nuke? What stupid bullshit.

Now the whole world focused on him.

On the man in black full plate armor, holding the sword For the New King.

Since the war against Atlas, this was the first time Hyun’s clash with other users had been shown openly to the public.

Just as everyone leaned in with anticipation—

Hyunsoo, with lofty seriousness, began to recite carefully,

“Divinity. Uh, Hyunsoo’s Swordsmanship?”

The whole world stared, bewildered.

Why does the sword art’s name sound like that?“Hyunsoo’s Swordsmanship”? Seriously?After the North Korea rumor, I guess the middle-school syndrome rumor’s next.But they did not know.

This—

Was the first Mythic-grade swordsmanship.

And they had no doubt that the power it would manifest would lie beyond common sense.

Enduring the embarrassment, Hyunsoo called on that power and checked it again.

[Chapter 1: Sword of Stillness]

Active Skill

Mana Cost: 5,000

Cooldown: 2 hours

Effect:

· Within the stillness of silence, all targets recognized as enemies within a 50-meter radius are cut down before they can even realize it.

· The number of silent sword energies that cut the enemy is four times the number of enemies.

· Enemies cut by it are afflicted with the status ailment Confusion.

“Sword of Stillness.”

At that moment—

An unknown power robbed the world of all sound.