Genius Blacksmith's Game

Pureum was thrown into chaos.

Because of words that had come out of just one user’s mouth.

And the problem was that that “mere” one user was the man closest to Bahala in current Ares, and the strongest legendary user.

“Hyunsoo, you are a god.”

The ripple effect caused by that turned out to be greater than expected.

The department that managed search volume related to Ares panicked.

“Team Lead, search volume related to the user Hyunsoo has increased seventy-eight times over normal, and especially How to join Hyun’s Forge is climbing fast too, up thirty-two times over normal.”

The situation was the same for the other teams.

The Customer Service Team.

“I want to join Hyun’s Forge, how do I do that? If I join, can I get a Titan too?”

“We love you, dear customer. To join Hyun’s Forge, you need to visit Atlas and apply in person, and no, you cannot receive a Titan.”

The most common question:

“Kabel said Hyunsoo is a god, so is he really a god?”

“We are sorry, dear customer. In accordance with the protection of user personal information, we cannot tell you any—”

At that time, some prank calls slipped in, seizing the opportunity.

“Team Lead, there’s a user saying he’s a god too.”

“What? What kind of god?”

“He says he’s a damn idiot...”

“...Tell him we’re sending a complaint.”

“...Yes.”

Anyway, Team Lead Kim of the Special {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} User Management Team looked at Pureum, which had grown noisy because of what two mere users had done, and marveled.

They turned a crisis into an opportunity...

Why had Kabel made a statement like that?

Was it really because Kabel believed Hyunsoo was a god?

No.

He deliberately went into Hell Path and shared his field of view with every broadcaster. To show them the power of the Titan.

And when everyone had been enthralled, he delivered the statement that could elevate the current Hyunsoo the most.

This was the result.

[53,045 users migrate to Atlas.]

Their Atlas was still growing today as well.

And in Team Lead Kim’s view, Kabel and Hyunsoo deserved exactly this kind of response.

If Kabel had meekly accepted the Tyrant, this would never have happened. But even if he had cultivated power within that and returned to Atlas as a Tyrant, it would have taken at least five years.

No, Team Lead Kim shook their head.

If it were the Tyrant, he would have found some way to prevent Kabel from ever returning and isolate him. And if Kabel had gone on being isolated because of that, maybe he really would have become a “Tyrant.”

Then Team Lead Kim walked through the uproarious Pureum headquarters and marveled.

Rejecting a legendary class that leads an era, the Tyrant class... Kabel really is something.

Then Team Lead Kim realized something.

...Come to think of it, the user Hyunsoo also rejected the legendary class Radiant Monarch in the past, and that was one of the conditions for becoming a god class, wasn’t it?

A chill ran down Team Lead Kim’s body.

Only then did they realize it.

One of the conditions for becoming a god. Reject legend.

Kabel had fulfilled one of those.

If so, was he connected to a god?

He was.

[It is a strike that would make even a god admire it!]

It was the notification that had appeared for Kabel.

And even Team Lead Kim did not know everything about the god classes.

Because only Pureum’s CEO, Lee Sejin, knew.

At that moment,

Lee Sejin’s secretary approached.

“The CEO is calling you in urgently.”

At that, Team Lead Kim moved quickly.

Opening the door and entering, Team Lead Kim found Lee Sejin seated, studying something on a screen with close attention.

On the screen, a total of five emblems floated in the shape of a pentagon.

A sword.

A hammer.

A crown.

A heart.

A skull.

Sejin gestured for them to sit, then spoke.

“I call these the Five Chosen Gods.”

“...The Five Chosen Gods?”

Even Team Lead Kim did not know the conditions for becoming a god class very well.

The Five Chosen Gods.

A fitting name.

Because they were the highest classes, which only five beings chosen by gods could ascend to.

At that, Team Lead Kim looked at what was written on each emblem.

The emblem of the sword.

—The Sword God, who represents martial prowess.

The emblem of the hammer.

—The Blacksmith God, who represents creation.

The emblem of the crown.

—The War God, who represents armies.

The emblem of the heart.

—The Evil God, who represents demons.

And last.

—The God of Death, who represents death.

And now.

Team Lead Kim’s eyes widened.

The skull emblem was emitting light.

[The God of Death reacts to the user Kabel.]

*****

[Kabel: Looks like you don’t need to come. Situation over.]

[Hyunsoo: Damn, I was running over there, but of all times, Kkoko lost its memory at the Papal Palace, so I sent only the Titan first. Still, I’ll come anyway. By the way. Did you transfer the friend fee?]

[Kabel: How much?]

[Hyunsoo: 3 million gold.]

That was 3 billion won.

[Kabel: Friendship is disgustingly expensive.]

[Hyunsoo: ^^;; But is it really over? You killed the drakes? Will the Tyrant give up on you?]

Kabel said,

[Kabel: The Tyrant suffered major damage in his battle with the Saint King in the past. It has not yet healed, and because of that he cannot descend rashly. Also, after losing roughly 150 creations, he would have to come personally, and that won’t be easy.]

Kabel drew a faint smile and looked around.

Valon and the others were all fleeing by now.

And Kabel thought at a certain notification.

It is a strike that would make even a god admire it. As expected?

Kabel.

In the past, he had heard about the process by which Hyunsoo became the Blacksmith God.

That he rejected Radiant Monarch, accumulated great achievements, and at the end of it became the Blacksmith God.

In Kabel’s opinion, the Tyrant was truly a desirable and extraordinary class.

So Kabel had not “simply” rejected the Tyrant. He had been guessing this.

And no matter how much it is the Tyrant, it would never dare compare itself to the God of Death. Because the God of Death is a god that can even revive the dead.

Just thinking about it made his skin crawl.

The power to revive even the dead.

When compared to legend, it was called Revival of the Dead.

Of course, even he could not be certain of the final condition.

However.

...If that really is true, it will take longer than expected.

Kabel’s eyes sank.

Then.

“...”

Goosebumps rose on Kabel’s body.

Why, why... ?

The reason for the goosebumps.

Because the entirety of this place had begun to feel far too quiet.

His senses, which surpassed those of ordinary users, were informing him.

No, that cannot happen. Tyrant Jebar suffered serious damage from the Saint King, and he is still in the stage of recovering.

Therefore, Kabel had judged that Jebar would not reveal himself directly, and that once these Modified Drakes were stopped, it would be over.

At that moment.

This crazy bastard!

A curse burst from Kabel’s mouth.

[Tyrant’s Descent]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Madman’s Fury.]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment One Who Has Encountered a Madman.]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Great Terror.]

Among the drakes, what he had feared was happening.

Tyrant Jebar was rising to his feet in spite of his injured body.

And there was also a clear reason, one Kabel did not know, for why Tyrant Jebar was descending.

He, too, had seen Kabel through a crystal sphere.

He had admired him, trembled with excitement, and thrilled at the sight.

And because of that, he needed one thing.

What was it that Tyrant Jebar wanted?

The strongest “weapon.”

His ultimate goal was to obtain a “divine being” greater than the Bone Dragon he had pursued and stronger than the Death Knights he forged out of legend.

Jebar had learned the method.

And what was happening now was because of that.

And it was approaching as a crisis that could not be endured.

I will not retreat.

But Kabel.

He really was that kind of person.

He believed in the buff of the most noble good, Saintess Aria.

So before that thing could complete its descent, he tried to throw himself forward.

But from what he saw next, he understood.

[Tyrant Jebar Lv.623]

That Saintess Aria’s level was only in the five hundreds.

And before power that could not even be estimated, he felt that no matter how much she was a Saintess, she was insignificant.

[All buffs from Saintess Aria are removed.]

[Kabel’s Guardian’s level is reduced to its original state.]

[The active skill Assimilation is downgraded to Unique grade.]

[Asura’s willpower attempts resistance.]

[You cannot resist.]

[All stats decrease by 15%.]

[All Attack Power decreases by 15%.]

[All Agility decreases by 22%.]

[You have encountered the Tyrant’s eyes.]

[You cannot move.]

“...!”

Wrapped in a black robe, from the corpse of a dead drake, Jebar revealed himself, half lich and half human.

One of his eyes belonged to the living, and one belonged to the dead.

He was young.

“Haaa.”

And what made him feel even more grotesque was that, although exactly half of him was split into lich and exactly half was split into human, his human half was as beautiful and handsome as a noble young lord.

Twitch, twitch—

Kabel, fused with the Guardian, struggling intermittently to move, felt it.

Everything became meaningless.

The moment he swung the Transcendent-grade staff, Tyrant’s Staff—

KRRRRRRAAAAAASH—!

[Kabel’s Guardian is destroyed.]

The strongest weapon, which Hyunsoo had spent two days forging, scattered away into thousands of parts, minerals, and screws.

As Jebar looked over those parts one by one, greed, ecstasy, desire, and admiration lit up his eyes.

“K-Kuhuhuh... Kuhahaha! I’ve gained inspiration.”

Before the eyes of the entire world, laughing like a madman, he understood and grasped Kabel’s Guardian.

“The way to forge a god’s creation! Turn Master Blacksmith Hyun into a Death Knight, have him craft the strongest Guardian, and then let you, my ‘descendant’ and ‘servant,’ dwell inside it so that you may live forever as my descendant and my creation!”

Tyrant Jebar’s wish was to create the strongest undead or weapon that did not exist in this land.

By that horrifying idea,

Kabel, subordinated within the “Guardian,” would no longer be playing a game.

It meant he would fall into being a slave and a creation.

And Jebar believed he could become the master of the “god’s creation” he had long desired.

However.

Tyrant Jebar had always been insane.

He wanted Kabel to be lonely.

And the fact that Hyun had made a Guardian for Kabel made him jealous of the bond between them.

“Still, I shall give you a grace period. You too shall become alone. Abandon your one and only friend.”

“...”

“One word is enough. Just that one word...”

He was cruel.

“...And I will postpone capturing Master Blacksmith Hyun for three months.”

Three months.

A period in which, perhaps, Hyunsoo might be able to resist.

And this statement by Jebar.

It sounded insane, but it was not.

And the people of the whole world, seeing the sudden uninvited guest, trembled in fear.

“Jebar... by making him do this, he is trying to force Kabel to abandon Atlas and promise the loyalty of becoming a ‘dog.’”

“It may be that if Kabel does it, it becomes the act of barking before his ‘master.’”

That one line.

I never had friends in the first place.

I’m alone.

I will become the Tyrant.

Those were the kinds of things he wanted.

And Kabel met Jebar’s eyes and spoke his first word.

“Friend...”

A brighter pleasure than ever before settled over Jebar’s face.

There was no joy greater than subjugating the strong.

But then Kabel shouted with all his voice.

“Friend, help me!!!!”

“...???”

“...??”

“...??”

“...?”

The people of the whole world were bewildered.

At a moment of crisis, they wondered if his mind had finally snapped.

Jebar thought the same.

Friend, help me?

What the hell kind of idiotic nonsense was that?

However, there was only one person who knew what it meant.

FWOOOOSH—!

He descended as flame.

Before the blaze had even settled, six blades called Blade of Longing flew in at his side and smashed into Jebar.

KRRRRRRAAAAAASH—!

Descending from the sky, he looked at Tyrant Jebar with a cold expression and said:

“Friend has arrived.”