The 2nd round has started.
Rovan quickly dashed to where Minhyuk was. Minhyuk had used absorption transition to quickly recover all of his injuries.
'I don't have time.'
His MP was also running out. Even though Minhyuk looked like he had a freakishly high MP, that wasn't the case for him at all. Once the cooldown for Minhyuk's skills had reset to zero then he would definitely have no chance of winning.
'The only thing I can rely on right now is Greatsword's Violent Assault.'
Rovan narrowed his eyes as he swung his greatsword.
[Step.]
[Quickly move a distance of 1m for two steps.]
'Again...!'
The moment Rovan swung his sword, Minhyuk had taken a step back. And in another step, he had already narrowed the distance between them.
That was the most difficult and tricky skill that he had in his arsenal. Quickly moving in two steps. It was even fast enough to leave afterimages that could confuse the enemies. The only problem that he had was that there would be a gap if he tried to step back to dodge and move forward to attack.
[Two Consecutive Quick Assault]
[One strike would become two consecutive quick attacks.]
Minhyuk's sword stabbed towards Rovan's abdomen. Rovan tried hard to block off the attack. The greatsword and Minhyuk's sword clashed and both swords flew up in the air.
However, at that moment, Minhyuk stabbed his sword once again.
Both of their swords clearly flew up in the air so Rovan was quite confused about how this attack happened.
Staaaab!
"Kgghk!"
Rovan took a step back. Just when Minhyuk was about to pull his sword out, Rovan's greatsword suddenly flashed and glowed a bright red light. The light was the most brilliant light he had ever seen the sword emit. Not long after, the light rushed out of the sword and turned into a red snake.
It was a snake made out of blood.
The snake quickly shot out to where Minhyuk was.
[Greatsword's Violent Assault]
[A blood snake will be created. The snake can trigger twelve consecutive explosions once it hits the target.]
This was in fact Rovan's most powerful attack skill!
An attack that causes a series of explosions. Rovan quickly caught his sword and swung at Minhyuk as he narrowed the distance between them.
At that moment, the blood snake finally made contact with Minhyuk.
"Kiiieeeeeeee!"
Bang!
Minhyuk took a step back, but the snake that made contact quickly triggered a series of explosions.
Bang!
Once the second explosion blasted, Minhyuk finally felt that something was strange. Then, the third explosion blasted and he flew backwards. The explosions did not stop but continuously blasted.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
After exploding continuously, the blood snake also exploded like a fragile glass after hitting the ground. And as if to emphasize the damage that it caused to its opponent, the blood that formed the snake splattered everywhere.
[The Berserker's Madness' effect has disappeared.]
Rovan felt the powerful strength that filled his body just earlier suddenly melt away.
"Hooo."
I won.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Minhyuk was forced to log-out. But it was quite hard to control his strength especially with such a taxing fight.
'If I cared about that then I'd never win. Once Minhyuk-nim logged back on then I'll pay him as much as the penalty he received.'
Just as he thought of that, he was shocked speechless when he saw a man appear after the dust has settled.
'Crazy...! What kind of reflexes does he have?! Isn't this impossible?!'
Rovan quickly backed off.
Minhyuk, who was dusty after all the explosion, stood up. He was bandaged all over.
"He's really a monster..."
Rovan stumbled as he fell down on his butt.
Minhyuk saw that the match was finally over. The mysterious power that surrounded Rovan's body had long disappeared. On the contrary, he was still standing strongly.
The only reason why he was able to bandage himself after experiencing all of the explosion was because of Ellie's Kitchen Knife's attached skill, He Who Overcomes.
As soon as the explosion reached the 8th explosion, Minhyuk was notified that his HP had hit rock bottom. Considering that his HP was enormously high, the power that struck him was considered to be tremendous for it to be able to reduce it to zero.
But just in the nick of time, a notification rang out.
[He Who Overcomes.]
[Your HP has increased to 1. You are now invincible for 3 seconds.]
[All of your abilities have increased by 30% for 3 seconds.]
Within that 3 seconds time frame, Minhyuk had quickly built up his HP by bandaging all of his wounds. This was the reason why he still had 27% on his HP bar.
'I lost...'
Rovan felt that everything he did was futile. He had no choice but to finally admit defeat.
Joo-ah kept on murmuring to herself as she watched the number of viewers increase.
"It's over..."
The Frying Pan Killer has won.
She had a hunch.
Plenty of stations and guilds would send an olive branch to that user once they watched this broadcast!'
Right now, the comments were literally flooding all over her live broadcast screen.
[Caro: Wow, fck. How did he withstand that?!]
[Holos: Is that really the bandaging skill that I know...? But it doesn't even make sense that he withstood that just by using the bandaging skill. The bandaging skill can only recover 10% of his HP. In the first place, I think that his HP is extremely high.]
[Cardeal: Do you know that helmet that he's using right now? Do you think that helmet is a legendary artifact?]
[Chaos: What's important is how high his HP was, the rest is not important.]
The moment that the Ranker Chaos spoke in the comments, the whole screen turned silent for a moment. Joo-ah also focused on his words.
[Chaos: In the past, our country was called as the game powerhouse but now we're named as the game ruins. This was the case even if it was our country that launched the game Athenae.]
Joo-ah nodded her head. She felt that it was really sad and pitiful. The people of their country were called as the God of Hardwork but they were regressing in the virtual gaming scene.
[Chaos: Just in time, Versal's most famous user the Crazy and Suicidal Hunter, Rovan, came back.]
Joo-ah felt that her heart was thumping fiercely. She could feel her blood boiling.
His growth, his ferocity! He will definitely show it to the world!
Then, Chaos added…
[Chaos: And now another user with a better physical and combat sense that could beat such a good fighter has appeared.]
"Waaaaaaah...!"
As a person who was dedicated to her country, Joo-ah clenched her fists tightly.
After their fight, she saw the two people talking. The two looked like they were having a heartwarming conversation.
'What are they talking about?'
As she thought of that, she quickly ran towards them. She wanted to interview them.
After the match, Rovan looked at Minhyuk.
He seemed like his mind was filled with different complicated thoughts.
'Does he feel sorry for me? Or does he feel happy to win?'
He was sure that he knew that Rovan had a power that exceeded his own level. In all honesty, he was much stronger than Lucia in real life.
Then… Minhyuk slowly opened his mouth.
"I'm hungry..."
That's right. Minhyuk did not think any complicated thoughts unlike Rovan. The only thought in his head is that he's hungry.
He took out some anpan from his inventory as Rovan turned to him.
"Minhyuk-nim, do you want to join my guild? It would be really nice if you come and join us."
Rovan thought that Minhyuk would join him. However, contrary to his expectations, Minhyuk shook his head. He even shook it while he had bread on his mouth.
"Thank you for your offer. But I'm fine."
"...Is there a guild that's holding you back?"
"That's not it..."
Minhyuk smiled bitterly.
He still had those friends that he hung out with back in middle school. He was sure that they made a guild in Athenae too. Minhyuk was only playing this game to have fun and eat something delicious. And for him, hanging out with them was also something fun. So he decided that once he met with them, he would definitely join their guild.
"There's a place that I wanted to go to."
"I envy that guild. A guild that Minhyuk-nim wanted to go to. Ah, by the way… would you like to go and hunt with me some more?"
The guild recommendation was a bust. It was a bit regrettable but Rovan still believed that they could still hunt together and bomb their way through their levels.
However, Minhyuk looked through the distance.
"There are still so many things in the world that I want to eat. And I have to be alone to be able to do that. Pizza, chicken, jokbal, bossam, duruchigi, sushi, grilled eel, shabu-shabu... ha..."
Minhyuk's expression was filled with nostalgia. He was gazing at the distant mountains as if he was recalling an old lover who died.
"Uhm..."
Rovan thought that he really was someone that was so peculiar.
"Then, let's add each other as friends?"
"That's good."
Minhyuk was also quite fond of Rovan so he readily accepted his request to add him as a friend.
[Rovan-nim is asking to add you as a friend.]
[Yes / No]
"Yes."
Minhyuk nodded his head as his information appeared in his friend window.
[Rovan / 161]
As expected, Rovan's job class was also set to private and hidden from view.
"I'm so tired so I'm going to log out now. I did a lot of things today too."
Rovan looked exhausted.
The timing after the end of their match was just in time for Minhyuk to log out too. He had to log out once every four hours to exercise and eat in reality. Minhyuk was not that different from the others when playing the game but he had to maintain this timing perfectly.
"See you next time."
"Yes. See you next time."
Rovan was the first one to log out. Then, Minhyuk followed suit. Both of them disappeared in an instant.
And the woman who was running from afar arrived just when the two of them disappeared. Joo-ah was panting as she looked at the spot where the two of them disappeared from.
"Kgghk. What a waste...!"
She looked so sullen and sad for missing the opportunity to interview them.
Yoon Chan, or Rovan, fell down on his bed after logging out of the bed.
"Huwaaa…"
A strong person has appeared, furthermore, he was someone that was unique.
Yoon Chan grinned as he closed his eyes. Since he was exhausted, sleepiness quickly visited him as soon as he closed his eyes. Without realizing it, he had already slept for quite some time.
When he woke up, he finally remembered his mobile phone that he had previously thrown haphazardly on the bed.
"Why is it turned off?"
He tilted his head as he pulled out his charger and plugged it in his phone before opening it. As soon as his phone opened, it began to ring non-stop.
[Genie: Why can't I contact you through the guild chat or whisper? Please answer my call.]
[Genie: If you don't answer right now, I'm going to kick you out of the guild. Don't test me?! Do you really want me to do it?!]
[Genie: (photo)]
[Genie: (video)]
[Genie: Haaa... I can't believe you got caught in pictures and videos... Are you still online...?]
Yoon Chan felt that something unusual had happened. The GM was usually a calm and serious person. He looked through the text messages that he received with a curious look on his face. Then, he jumped out of bed with a bit of hesitation.
"OMG...?"
[Genie: Are you with the frying pan killer right now? He's my friend!]
This was back when Rovan informed Genie that the Ares Guild was trying to declare a war against them.
[Genie: What kind of user are you with?]
Genie thought that it would be helpful if the user that he was with was someone strong for his level.
'There's nothing we could do to help you right now...'
It's unfortunate but this was reality. The Shrieking Hills have a level restrictions and the other guild members were either too high leveled or too low leveled to enter the field. However, if Rovan was forced to log out then she would protect him and put some pressure on Ares Guild.
But ever since he sent his last message in the guild chat, he hasn't answered or sent them any message for an hour or two. It was fortunate that they haven't heard any forced logout notifications. This meant that he was not dead yet.
[Khan: Genie. Go to Athenae's official homepage right now and click on the video about the Frying Pan Killer!]
'Frying Pan Killer?'
Genie looked at the words curiously. There must have been something important in the video for Khan to be extremely excited over his whisper. She entered the official homepage and clicked on the 'Frying Pan Killer'. It was the first on the real-time search list.
As she watched the video, she couldn't help but jump up in surprise.
"It, it's Minhyuk!"
The Frying Pan Killer was none other than her best friend. And that wasn't all. The person that was standing next to him was none other than Rovan.
"Th, the person hunting together with Rovan-nim..."
Genie had tried to contact Rovan ever since then. However, it looked like both his guild chat and whisper had been turned off. She couldn't reach him at all.
'He must have turned it off before his fight against the Ares Guild...'
Whenever a message came in in the guild chat or whisper, it would twinkle brightly in the corner of their eyes. This was especially irritating to a person who was in battle. And for Rovan, it was something that was extremely detestable.
This was not the first or second time that she had lost contact with him. The other guild members did not care much since they knew that he was focusing on the battle. But Rovan has been dead to the world and couldn't be contacted for quite a long time now.
Genie who couldn't sit still went to a cafe and met with her friends. She was sitting with the bandit-like Jisoo and the handsome Seoktae. They did not even touch any of their food.
"You still can't contact Rovan-nim right now?"
"Yeah. I don't think I'll be able to contact him until the attack is over..."
"...We've been out of touch for years but now we will learn that he's the Frying Pan Killer?"
Seoktae smiled as he turned to look at Jisoo.
"Why do you look like you don't care?"
"To be honest, I think that bastard is just too much!"
Jisoo frowned.
"He just went under the radar for so many years, he didn't even contact us at all. But we have to learn about him in this way? Did we lend him some money for him to hide like that? What are we, loan sharks?"
Seoktae fell silent when he heard his words. He looked over to see what Jihye thought of it.
'This senseless bastard...'
In a way, what he said was correct. However, Seoktae also knew something.
Minhyuk was the reason why Jihye lost weight. She was 100kg before, but because of him, she decided to lose weight.
He was Jihye's first love.
Food Discussion Corner
Anpan – Danpatbbang or red bean bun. A bread filled with sweet red beans inside.
Jokbal – A dish made with pig trotters, cooked with soy sauce and other spices. Usually braised with soy sauce, ginger, garlic and wine.
Bossam – pork dish. Usually the pork shoulder. The pork shoulder is boiled in spices and sliced thinly. Usually served with an array of side dishes including kimchi, lettuce, perilla leaves, pickled radishes, ssamjang etc.
Duruchigi – Spicy stir fried pork.