LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 82
Chapter 82
Even after investing his entire fortune and pouring in billions, he couldn’t summon a Mythical God.
In the end, he had to settle for summoning a Heroic God, holding back his tears.
Still, it wasn’t the worst outcome.
‘I even managed to summon one of those borderline Mythical Gods among the Heroic Gods.’
Moreover, the god had attributes and unique abilities related to spearmanship, which was exactly what he had hoped for.
It was far superior compared to before.
If he combined this with his knowledge and connections?
‘I know more than 10 hidden pieces already.’
He believed that with enough time, he could reclaim his previous position, or even surpass it.
But it didn’t take long for him to realize that it was a delusion.
‘Life sucks.’
While he was diligently raising his character, others were also growing.
Of course, he hadn’t thought they’d stay in one place, but he hadn’t been fully conscious of that reality either.
When he deleted his account and tried to rebuild his network, most of his connections left him.
Now, only a handful of close acquaintances remained.
‘What was I thinking, Duke? What made me think I could do that?’
Life is said to be a series of choices.
Duke had made a poor choice, driven by some kind of madness, and he was paying a heavy price for it.
No, he thought positively.
Compared to before, he had solidified his foundation and cleared hidden pieces he hadn’t even known about previously.
And his attributes and unique abilities had also improved.
If he just invested enough time… time…
“Sigh. What am I even saying?”
Time flows equally for everyone, but what time? What nonsense was he thinking?
Of course, those guys had nearly reached their limits, so they would take relatively more time to improve their specs, but they were still getting stronger.
To compete with them, he would have to grow ridiculously fast, and that was unlikely.
Having lived too long at the top, he had forgotten what it was like below.
Now, even just reaching the ranker position would feel satisfying enough.
As he resigned himself to some extent and arrived at Brion, he was nearing the level required to take on the graduation quest.
[KAISER HAS RETURNED!]
[THE RETURN OF THE GOD! TAKES BACK THE RAVEN’S THRONE IMMEDIATELY!]
[KAISER—WHO IS HE?]
Suddenly, a commotion on the community pages caught Duke’s attention.
‘Kaiser? Could it be the Kaiser I know?’
It was an exceedingly familiar name.
And for good reason.
Although he had only dabbled briefly in DemRock, even back then, Kaiser’s reputation was immense.
He didn’t know the exact achievements but remembered thinking, “This guy must be amazing.”
But hadn’t Kaiser disappeared with DemRock when the servers shut down?
‘Did he just pop up out of nowhere? What? It’s real?’
At first, he couldn’t believe it.
But it didn’t take long for him to realize it was true.
-Kaiser is insane, lol.
-Lmao, I always believed in him!
-He came back and immediately took Myeolsal’s throne? Is this for real? I’m dying to know Myeolsal’s reaction.
-You’re so cool, Kaiser! Marry me! (boing-boing)
-Wow, every move he makes is so epic… Is he going to cause some huge chaos in Brion too?
-He’s bound to make a massive mess.
The *God of Savior* homepage, the green search portal, and the community boards were all filled with talk about Kaiser.
-But doesn’t this mean everyone will inevitably target Kaiser now?
-Is he going to expose all the guilds? Nah, they’ve got to have some conscience, right? They wouldn’t gang up on him or anything. Maybe just pressure him subtly.
-If we’re being honest, isn’t it better for them if he declares he’ll go solo instead of joining another guild?
-No, no, that’s not the point. Without a guild, he won’t have a shield to protect him.
Was it a coincidence that Duke’s eyes landed on that comment at that exact moment?
-Everyone knows who Kaiser is now. He’s super famous, but he doesn’t have a guild or even a party. Isn’t he the ultimate prey?
-Dude, who would have the guts to go after Kaiser? He’s achieved so much; nobody would dare.
-Isn’t Kaiser just a person? No matter what he was in the past, he’s just a newbie who barely graduated from the Raven area now. Am I wrong?
-You’re right, but… so what?
Before he realized it, Duke had straightened his posture and was focused intently on the conversation.
As someone who had been a ranker, Duke was well aware of the nature of God of Savior.
He couldn’t help but understand what the person was implying.
-Now’s the chance.
-Chance for what?
-A chance to rise to the top, idiot. If you catch Kaiser, you instantly become a star. You’ll get a free pass to the top 100 guilds. Not just the top 100—if you play your cards right, even the top 10 isn’t out of reach.
-…Now that you mention it, that makes sense.
-I heard that players in Brion are already forming teams to take him down.
Gulp.
Having read that far, Duke raised his head.
More comments scrolled past, but he didn’t pay them any attention.
-A chance to rise to the top, idiot.
-If you play your cards right, even the top 10 isn’t out of reach.
Those comments alone churned in his mind.
‘…This is it.’
The top 0.01% ranker.
The man who had deleted his account and started over to hunt down Kaiser.
He could already hear the clicks of people’s mice. Everyone would be watching him, and that would mean a free pass into a guild.
Because, in their eyes, nothing was as valuable as star power—something even greater than talent.
‘Something I never had…’
Duke had no star power to speak of, even as a ranker.
A tragic ranker whom no one recognized.
That had been the old Duke.
But with the title of the one who brought down Kaiser, things would be different.
People would call him the Kaiser Hunter or the God Slayer.
Thud.
Duke shot out of his seat and dove back into the capsule he had just exited.
Logging into God of Savior, he was consumed with one thought: to find Kaiser.
Finding Kaiser wasn’t difficult.
Step, step.
In the middle of the city.
A man was walking confidently through the crowd, parting them like the Red Sea, as if enacting the miracle of Moses.
There was only one person who could leave such an impression.
‘Kaiser…’
Completely unfazed by the stares of others, the man strode confidently into the Grand Temple.
His presence was so striking that Duke couldn’t look away.
It was the ideal Duke had always aspired to.
And it reignited his burning determination.
‘I can have that.’
He now had hope that he might be able to achieve that position.
That was why—
“Damn it, he logged out.”
“Why is he so unpredictable? You can’t anticipate anything he does.”
“Sigh. Well, I guess… If I were in his position, I’d just log off too. So many people are after him.”
“Tsk. Let’s just go hunt. News will spread again if he shows up.”
The reason for not giving up, even when everyone else gave up and went back to their own tasks after hearing that Kaiser had logged out.
“Huh? Isn’t that Kaiser’s porter?”
“It is, right? What’s this, why is he wandering alone? Should we follow?”
“Nah, forget it. If we get caught, it’ll be trouble. Besides, it’s not like Kaiser is going to be there anyway.”
“True… I mean, he’s a swordsman, so it’s not like he has stealth or teleportation.”
When they saw Kaiser’s party cloaked in robes in the field.
Even when others merely looked on out of curiosity, the reason for not giving up and sticking to them.
And that persistence bore fruit now.
“Wow, this doesn’t get noticed.”
After several minutes of persistently tailing the robed figure.
The man who suddenly revealed himself next to the figure who had stopped—none other than Kaiser himself.
Though it was unclear how he used stealth, it was undeniably Kaiser.
Thump, thump, thump.
‘Oh my god….’
His heart pounded as if it would explode.
To see the Kaiser he’d only heard about in stories, or barely glimpsed in videos and photos!
It felt surreal, like meeting a historical figure from the annals of history.
But that feeling quickly subsided, transforming into determination and greed.
‘This is a chance. I discovered him first. If I take him down now, I’ll get the title of Kaiser Slayer.’
He was only amazed to meet the star, not particularly nervous.
Kaiser was likely only around level 24–27 at best. Meanwhile, he himself was a solid level 34, built meticulously with strong stats.
With nearly a 10-level difference, there was no way he’d lose in a one-on-one.
He was confident in his skill, too.
…Or so he thought.
Swish—!
“Ah, feels good.”
‘…?’
Until he saw Kaiser slay a charging orc in one blow.
He hadn’t dodged and attacked, or blocked and countered.
He simply sliced through the charging orc’s neck, as if the orc was running into its own death. It looked so natural that the orc seemed like a suicidal attacker.
‘No way, is that even possible?’
There’s a reason people avoid charging orcs.
First, even if you block their charge, you’ll often be overwhelmed by their stats and sent flying.
Second, even if you don’t lose in a strength contest, attacking a charging enemy head-on isn’t practical, so dodging is the usual approach.
It’s not for nothing that this is the standard strategy. But he was doing it so effortlessly, as if it were second nature. For a moment, it made him question if this was the proper strategy all along.
And that wasn’t the end of the oddities.
‘More than that, what’s with his damage… How is he one-shotting? Isn’t he in the level 20s?’
Even someone like him, confident in his specs, would need at least three solid hits.
And that’s assuming the attacks landed well—usually, it would take more.
‘…He must have dumped all his stats into attack power. He’s probably a glass cannon.’
Yes, that seemed like a reasonable assumption.
Rankers who are confident in their control often focus more on attack power than health.
Kaiser, being who he was, could have taken this to an extreme.
If he could just ambush him well, it should be doable. After all, the only person beside him was that porter.
‘So it’s true he’s a Guardian. He must’ve raised him for loot collection.’
That made sense.
Duke’s expression brightened again.
‘Yeah. The porter can be dealt with later if needed…’
Groan, groan.
Until he saw the bizarre sight of orcs and goblins.
The orcs were one thing, but why were goblins here? Upon closer inspection, their appearances were unusual.
They were far too decayed, their eyes lifeless, exuding an ominous black aura.
It was almost like…
‘…Undead?’
And soon, they brought down an orc.
They swarmed the orc, grabbed it, and began pummeling it mercilessly.
The orc soon lost its life.
“……”
Watching this, Duke made up his mind.
‘Run.’
This was impossible.
Dealing with just Kaiser’s abnormal damage was daunting enough, but now there were undead too?
Picking a fight here would be outright suicide.
Who on earth called that guy a porter? He was a noble necromancer walking the king’s path!
Was there even a Guardian with abilities like that?
‘Guardian or not, who cares.’
As far as he knew, there wasn’t. But that wasn’t the point now.
What mattered was that the previously inconspicuous person was, in fact, a commanding necromancer.
‘I should’ve gotten a team together too…’
If he contacted his network right now, maybe… But it was too late.
Damn it, he’d been too hasty.
No, in truth, he’d probably been overconfident, thinking he could handle this solo. After all, soloing would boost his prestige.
‘Whatever. First, retreat. That’s the right choice.’
At least Duke wasn’t foolish enough to repeat a dumb decision twice.
One character deletion was enough for his God of Savior account.
It was fortunate that he was still hiding behind a rock and hadn’t been noticed yet.
As Duke calculated an escape route.
Swish—.
A shadow suddenly loomed over him.
When he instinctively looked up, a grotesque-faced orc was staring down at him.
“Ugh!?”
When startled, people tend to move their hands instinctively.
Not everyone, but Duke did. And in his hand was a spear, which he unwittingly thrust into the orc’s leg.
-Greeeaaagh!!
“…Greee?”
An oddly cute voice for an orc.
Before he could make sense of it, a message window popped up above his head with a chime.
[You have made a preemptive attack on player ‘Kaiser.’]
[If you are killed by the opponent, the chance of dropping an item increases significantly.]
“…? What the hell….”
He couldn’t understand.
All he’d done was stab an orc, so why was it considered a preemptive attack?
Looking at the orc in confusion, Duke noticed its pale hands.
‘Were their hands always that color…?’
Before he could solve this mystery, a deep voice rang out.
“What’s this? A person?”
“Gah!?”
“Whoa, calm down. Why are you yelling?”
It was Kaiser.
Before he realized it, Kaiser and the porter—or rather, the necromancer—had surrounded him.
Duke couldn’t help but mutter to himself.
‘…I’m screwed.’