Chapter 103: Poisonous Toad King

The second round of their fight had started. Rovan quickly dashed towards Minhyuk, who was currently using his Absorption Conversion to recover from his injuries. Rovan thought,?'I don't have time.'

Rovan’s MP was running out. While Minhyuk looked like he had a freakishly high level of MP, that was not the case for himself at all. Once the cooldown for Minhyuk's skills had reset to zero, Rovan knew he would definitely have no chance of winning.

'The only thing I can rely on right now is Greatsword's Violent Assault,'?Rovan thought, his eyes narrowing sharply as he swung his greatsword.

[Step.]

[You can instantly travel a distance of one meter twice allowing you to quickly narrow or widen your distance from your target.]

'Again...!'

One step widened the distance between Minhyuk and Rovan and another step narrowed the distance between them. This was the most difficult skill that Minhyuk had in his arsenal, and it was tricky to deal with. 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]

[Your attacks will deal damage twice.]

Minhyuk stabbed his sword towards Rovan’s stomach. However, Rovan was able to block the attack. Their weapons both flew back in the air from the collision. However, Minhyuk was suddenly able to stab his sword once again. It left Rovan confused, how could Minhyuk stab him again when both their swords clearly flew up in the air.

Stab!

"Ugh!" Rovan groaned as he took a step back. Just as Minhyuk was about to pull his sword out, Rovan’s greatsword suddenly glowed bright red. The light was the most brilliant light that Minhyuk had ever seen Rovan’s sword emit. Then, the red light slipped out of the sword and turned into a snake. It was a snake made out of blood. The snake quickly flew towards Minhyuk.

[Greatsword's Violent Assault]

[The blood snake will deal twelve consecutive explosions upon collision with the target.]

This attack that could create a series of explosions was Rovan’s most powerful offensive skill. Rovan quickly grabbed his sword and narrowed the distance between them as the blood snake finally collided with Minhyuk.

"Kiiieeeeeeee!"

Bang!

Minhyuk took a step back, but the snake had already started to explode despite only colliding once with him.

Bang!

Minhyuk felt something strange when he realized that there was another explosion. In the third explosion, Minhyuk was sent flying backwards. Unfortunately, the explosions did not end there.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The blood snake shattered like fragile glass after all of the explosions ended. As if to emphasize the damage that it caused to its opponent, the blood that formed the snake splattered everywhere.

[The effect of the skill: Berserker's Madness will now disappear.]

Rovan felt the powerful strength that filled his body just earlier suddenly ebb away. He sighed, “Phew.”

He won. Unfortunately, it seemed like Minhyuk had been forced to log out. However, Rovan could not do anything about it. It was quite hard for him to control his strength, especially in such a taxing fight. Rovan thought,?'If I cared about that, I'd never win. Once Minhyuk logs in again, I'll pay him as much as the penalty he received.'

However, a man had appeared in front of him once the dust had settled.

'Crazy...! What kind of reflexes does he have?! Isn't this impossible?!'

Rovan quickly backed off. He saw Minhyuk covered with bandages and dust from the explosion.

"He's really a monster..." Rovan muttered. He stumbled as he fell down on his butt.

Minhyuk realized that their match was finally over. He could see that the mysterious power that surrounded Rovan’s body had long disappeared. On the other hand, he was still standing strong.

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. Minhyuk was notified that his HP had hit rock bottom on the eighth explosion. The skill had tremendous power considering that his enormously high HP was reduced to zero. Thankfully, a notification rang in his head right at that very moment.

[He Who Overcomes.]

[Your HP has increased to 1. You are now invincible for 3 seconds.]

[All of your abilities will increase by 30% for 3 seconds.]

Minhyuk took advantage of that three-second time frame and quickly increased his HP by bandaging all of his wounds. This was the reason why Minhyuk still had 27% on his HP bar.

'I lost...'?Rovan thought. He felt that everything he did was futile. He had no choice but to finally admit defeat.

***

Joo-Ah watched the number of viewers increase as she murmured to herself, "It's over..."

The Frying Pan Killer had won. She also had a hunch. She thought,?'Plenty of stations and guilds would send an olive branch to that player once they watched this broadcast!'

Right now, the comments were literally flooding all over her live broadcast screen.

[Caro: Wow, f*ck. 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? Maybe?that helmet?is a legendary artifact?]

[Chaos: What's important is how high his HP is, the rest is not important.]

The entire screen turned silent the moment the ranker named Chaos appeared in the comments. Even Joo-Ah also gathered her senses and waited for his words.

[Chaos: In the past, our country was called the gamer powerhouse but now we're named as the ruined gamers. This was the case even if our country is the one that launched the game Athenae.]

Joo-Ah nodded, this was something really sad and pitiful. The people of their country were called the Gods of Hard Work but they were regressing in the virtual gaming scene.

[Chaos: Just in time, Versal's most famous player the Crazy and Suicidal Hunter, Rovan, came back.]

Joo-Ah felt that her heart was thumping fiercely. She could feel her blood boiling. Rovan’s growth, his ferocity! He would definitely show the world!?Then, Chaos added…

[Chaos: And now another player with a better physical and combat sense that could beat such a good fighter has appeared.]

"Wow...!" Joo-Ah exclaimed, fists clenching tightly to cheer for her country. After their fight, she saw the two people talking. The two looked like they were having a heartwarming conversation.

'What are they talking about?'?Joo-Ah thought, running towards them for an interview.

***

Rovan turned to look at the conflicted Minhyuk after the match. Rovan thought,?'Does he feel sorry for me? Or does he feel happy to win?'

Rovan was sure that Minhyuk was someone that had a power that could exceed his own level. To be honest, Rovan could tell this because he was also stronger than Lucia.

Then… Minhyuk slowly opened his mouth and said, "I'm hungry..."

“...”

Indeed. Minhyuk did not have any complicated thoughts like what Rovan assumed. The only thought in his head was that he was hungry. He took out some red bean buns from his inventory as Rovan turned to him and said, “Minhyuk, do you want to join my guild? It would be really nice if you 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 in his mouth. Minhyuk said, “Thank you for your offer, but I’m fine.”

“...Is there a guild that’s holding you back?”

“That’s not it...” Minhyuk said, smiling bitterly.

Minhyuk 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. For him, hanging out with them was also something fun. So he decided that once he met 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 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 and said, “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, braised pig trotters,?bossam, spicy korean stir-fried pork, sushi, grilled eel, shabu-shabu...?sigh...”

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, he asked, “Then, let’s add each other as friends?”

“That’s good,” Minhyuk agreed. He was also quite fond of Rovan so he readily accepted his request to add him as a friend.

[Rovan is asking to add you as a friend.]

[Yes?/?No]

“Yes,” Minhyuk said, nodding as Rovan’s information appeared in his friend's window.

[Rovan / 161]

As expected, Rovan’s 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 said. He looked exhausted.

The timing after the end of their match was just nice for Minhyuk to log out as well. After all, he had to log out once every four hours to exercise and eat. He was not that different from others when playing the game, but he had to maintain this timing perfectly. So, he said, “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. Joo-Ah arrived after running frantically, only to witness the two of them disappear. She was panting as she looked at the spot where the two of them disappeared from. She said, “Ugh. 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.

“Yaaawn…”

Another strong person had appeared, furthermore, he was someone that was unique. Yoon Chan grinned as he closed his eyes. Sleep took over him the moment his vision turned dark and without realizing it, he slept for quite a long 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?” Yoon Chan asked dumbly as he pulled out his charger and plugged his phone. Then, his phone began to ring non-stop the moment he opened it.

[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. He quickly jumped out of bed.

“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 war against them.

[Genie: What kind of player are you with?]

Genie thought that it would be helpful if the player that Rovan was with was someone stronger than their level. She thought,?‘There’s nothing we could do to help him right now...’

It was unfortunate but that was the reality. The Shrieking Hills had 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, she would protect him and put some pressure on Ares Guild.

However, ever since Rovan sent his last message in the guild chat, he had not answered nor sent them any message for an hour or two. It was fortunate that they had not heard any forced logout notifications. This meant that he was not dead yet.

[Khan: Genie. Go to Athenae’s official website 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 could not help but jump up in surprise. She said, “It…it’s Minhyuk!”

The Frying Pan Killer was none other than her best friend. And that was not all. The person that was standing next to him was none other than Rovan.

“Th…the person hunting together with Rovan...”

Genie had tried to contact Rovan ever since then. However, it looked like both his guild chat and whisper had been turned off. She could not reach him at all. She thought,?‘He must have turned it off before his fight against the Ares Guild...’

Whenever a message came 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. For Rovan, it was something that was extremely detestable. This was not the first or second time that she had lost contact with Rovan. The other guild members did not care much since they knew that he was focusing on the battle. However, there was no noise whatsoever, and he could not be contacted for quite a long time now.

Genie could not sit still. So, she went to the cafe and met with her friends. She was currently sitting with the bandit-like Jisoo and the handsome Seoktae. None of them had touched their food.

“You still can’t contact Rovan right now?”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“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 learn that he’s the Frying Pan Killer?”

Seoktae smiled as he turned to look at Jisoo. He asked, “Why do you look like you don’t care?”

“To be honest, I think that bastard is just too much!”

Jisoo frowned and said, “He just went under the radar for so many years, and didn’t even contact us at all. To think that we have to find out 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 100 kilograms before, but because of him, she decided to lose weight. He was Jihye’s first love.