Genius Blacksmith's Game

No top-tier high-ranker was without a passive skill that activated at a rare probability.

Take tanker Ivan as an example. Shield God’s Grace activated with a 1.4% chance when he was attacked by an enemy.

Its effect was unconditional resistance to the attack he had received.

Even if that attack came from Baal, the Evil God.

High-rankers each possessed one or two extraordinary passive skills like that, but using them was never easy.

Because passive skills with low rates—1% at the low end, 5% at the high end—rarely had a chance to shine.

So when Endurance was chosen as an event,

the rewards team configured the rewards so that, upon achieving an overwhelming result, this percentage-based passive would be imbued.

After discussion between the Korean Story Team and the Global Story Team, what they set was, first, an All Stats increase potion.

Second was what those users so desperately wanted: a “Passive Skill Instant Activation Parchment.”

But when they set it, they did not know.

A passive skill with a 0.2% chance—not even in the 1% range.

A power Hyunsoo activated fewer than ten times a year, as if following the formula that “the lower the activation chance, the greater the effect.”

They never imagined the first instant-death skill would activate against Baal.

Baal’s long black finger aimed at Hyunsoo one final time.

Before the explosion erupted, Hyunsoo had already used the parchment and was charging forward.

BOOOOM!

After the sound of Hyunsoo’s body exploding rang out,

FWAAAAAA—

Hyunsoo was clearly scattering away.

But Hyunsoo had been in the middle of a charge, and his target was Baal’s abdomen.

Even as the character scattered apart, the body that had been moving fulfilled its final purpose.

STAB!

[Extremity has activated.]

Hyunsoo’s sword lodged in Baal’s abdomen.

Baal was a demon, and he was the Evil God.

SHAAAAAA—

He admired the blacksmith’s unwavering gaze as the man scattered away, and the human who still carried out an attack in his final moment.

But what came faster than admiration was a chill.

He lowered his head and looked at the massive blade lodged in his abdomen.

From the tip of the Twin Dragon Sword, buried only twelve centimeters into his abdomen, an indescribably immense force was erupting.

[Activated at 0.2% probability.]

[It manifests with additional damage equal to 200% of the strongest power previously unleashed.]

Even Hyunsoo, scattering away, was curious about how much damage Extremity would deal.

He had realized it too.

[You are establishing an awe-inspiring achievement.]

[Reward conditions have been met.]

[You have exceeded reward conditions.]

[You have exceeded reward conditions.]

[A new reward will be granted after aggregation.]

Those were the notifications he had heard endlessly every time he attacked Baal.

Hyunsoo knew nothing about the rewards the branch heads had gathered to set.

He only gained a hint.

He would receive an excellent reward.

It would be an even better and more remarkable reward than the original.

And what was needed for that reward to become even more special and remarkable was the damage from Extremity.

Fortunately, Extremity had crossed another limit today.

The reason was simple.

Once every three months, Extremity “instantly activates” the highest damage output the caster has ever unleashed.

Depending on the case, if the owner of Extremity was not outstanding, it could indeed be an unimpressive power.

However.

Hyunsoo had blown off one of Baal’s arms only minutes ago.

That had been through Awaken, Even If It Breaks, the tournament potion, the Hero modifier, One Who Does Not Submit to the Evil God, the title Unconditional One-Kill, and more.

This time, that condensed power erupted from Baal’s abdomen as x2 damage.

Baal’s pupils widened, and the corners of the scattering Hyunsoo’s eyes rose.

A pain the Great Archdemon had never experienced in all his life forced its way through his abdomen, throbbed, and released its power.

CRAAAAAACK!

The damage value appeared above the Great Archdemon Baal’s head.

[You have dealt 25,349,301 damage!]

“GRAAAAAAAAGH!”

For the first time, a scream burst from Baal’s mouth and shook the entire stadium.

The world fell briefly silent as Baal staggered back several steps with the Twin Dragon Sword lodged in his abdomen, thrashing in agony.

SHAAAAAA—

Even as Hyunsoo scattered away after letting go of the Twin Dragon Sword, the sight of him standing firm with his back to the tankers, refusing to retreat as his cloak fluttered behind him, was enough to inspire awe.

“He’s insane.”

“Incredible......”

Tanker Ivan. Valkyrie Emily.

The strongest tankers in the world stared blankly at his back.

The world’s rankers had judged that Korea would suffer defeat in the Endurance event because of the arrogant Hyun.

They too were gathered on one side, watching the giant screen, and they could not help but marvel at the man who had made the devil scream for the first time.

Archmage Rund, Japan’s Musashi, Hyunsoo’s new daughter(?) Poison King Liu, and China’s top, Fond.

Alexander of America, and the one standing to one side with his arms folded, silently watching.

“......He’s insane.”

Even Valhalla.

“Grah, graaaaaagh!”

They were watching Baal, whose eyes had rolled back as he staggered with a single sword driven into his abdomen.

As they watched the screen, Hyunsoo scattered away completely, together with the Twin Dragon Sword he had driven in.

But the cameras did not miss the moment. They closed in on Hyunsoo.

Hyunsoo, still glaring at Baal with burning eyes until the very last instant, finally turned to ash and disappeared completely along with the Twin Dragon Sword.

SHAAAAAA—

As he scattered into the wind, it announced to all under heaven that he had begun carving history and myth into the Continental War: World Championship.

It rang out across the whole world.

[Republic of Korea player Hyunsoo has been eliminated.]

He had been completely eliminated and had won nothing, not even a medal.

However, in the officials’ seating, the Indian branch head, CEO Lee Sejin,

and the branch heads from more than a hundred countries who had set the rewards with them were still staring wide-eyed.

Because there was a truth only they knew.

The score had continued rising until, at some point, it stopped.

That was because of Divine Step.

Divine Step increased attack speed and movement speed by x3, and because of that, Hyunsoo’s number of attacks had risen at an absurd speed.

And the branch heads from over a hundred countries knew that the reason the score had stopped was because it would be announced after being aggregated, just like the number of successful hits.

The branch heads could not take their eyes off the score that would soon appear.

They had at least some sense.

They guessed that the direction of the rewards they had set had already been surpassed long ago.

A higher reward would now be set by Ares arbitrarily, and the core of what he would receive lay in the score.

And soon,

Hyunsoo’s score was revealed to the world.

[Hyunsoo’s score has been newly updated.]

[1st. Republic of Korea, Hyunsoo. 401 points.]

The whole world was swept into shock.

The branch heads knew better than anyone that the score required to receive the reward was 200 points.

Yet the Indian branch head had originally thought no tanker would even reach that point.

In truth, Ivan, currently second place in score, had not even reached 80 points.

The branch heads were not the only ones shocked.

Ivan, who was participating in the match, Emily, and over a hundred tankers from around the world doubted whether what they were seeing was real.

Even the Korean citizens in Jamsil Sports Complex were at the point of doubting their own eyes.

But then the world fell into another shock.

With Cut Them in Two and Divine Step, how much HP had Baal, the Evil God, lost?

[Baal’s HP has fallen below 90%.]

Even after unleashing those two powers, the HP Hyunsoo shaved away had only been about 10%.

But the final Extremity.

At the spot where the completely vanished Twin Dragon Sword had been, blood was now gushing from Baal’s body.

[Baal’s HP has fallen below 80%.]

Around 10% had been shaved away in a single blow.

—One thing seems certain. For the next few years—no, perhaps even the next ten years—the only user to have shaved away roughly 20% of Baal’s HP will be user Hyunsoo.

—We must not forget that Baal was a powerhouse against whom holy power did not work, and even Destroy Evil had no effect.

—The Level gap between Baal and Master Blacksmith Hyun was over 300. Before the eyes of hundreds of millions of viewers, he is leading this era.

However.

“Die.”

The surviving tankers in the stadium had to receive Baal’s fury with their entire bodies.

“Fuck......”

“That fucking Hyunsoo......”

Baal’s fury had reached its peak, and massive attacks meant to vent that rage wrapped around the tankers one after another.

The total time Hyunsoo endured was 4 minutes and 1 second.

After that, when the Endurance event ended,

[Endurance event final record: 6 minutes 1 second.]

[Gold medal: Russia, Ivan.]

[Silver medal: United States, Emily.]

[Bronze medal......]

As expected, Ivan seized the gold medal, Emily took the silver medal, and the bronze medal went to a Taiwanese user named Shrin.

Ivan stood on the podium, receiving Russia’s blazing cheers and countless waves of applause, yet he said,

“......I think the real gold medal was won by another user.”

Surprisingly, silver medalist Emily gave the same reaction.

“It feels like the real winner is someone else.”

The whole world accepted that.

No matter who looked at it, the winner of this Endurance event was Hyunsoo.

Even if he had not won the gold medal.

*****

The simplest way to check rewards was to log into Ares.

The moment he logged into Ares, a welcome notification rang out.

[Sudden Quest: Attack Baal completed.]

Sudden Quest: Attack Baal granted a special benefit if he inflicted a critical wound on Baal.

‘When I used Cut Them in Two, it gave me more than twenty-five counts.’

A single successful attack was worth a full 1,000 gold.

One million won.

The quest grade of Sudden Quest: Attack Baal was SSS.

In reality, there was a high chance most users at Hyunsoo’s Level would not even have been able to make their damage land.

[It is judged as 226 counts.]

A thrill settled at the corners of Hyunsoo’s mouth.

“I was sad I didn’t win the gold medal......”

It was not over yet.

[It is an awe-inspiring achievement.]

[X2 has been applied.]

[It is judged as a total of 452 counts.]

[You have acquired 452,000 gold.]

Four hundred fifty million.

It was a reward meant to partially offset the fact that participants in the Continental War: World Championship could not hunt, quest, or Level up during that time.

But Hyunsoo saw that many notifications were still left below it.

They were most likely notifications related to the reward conditions he had heard earlier.

Hyunsoo scrolled down.

[You have recorded a total of 401 points.]

[The existing reward will be announced.]

[It is 500,000 gold and 20,000,000 EXP.]

“......Five hundred million and twenty million EXP?”

It was a respectable reward. However, Hyunsoo also had this thought.

“The reward is stingy......”

Pureum had always been famous for being stingy to begin with.

Ivan’s final score had ultimately been 175 points.

No matter how supplementary the reward was, considering that even Ivan had failed to reach it, the reward felt stingy.

Right then,

[The reward will be changed due to an awe-inspiring achievement.]

At the reward-change notification, Hyunsoo thought,

‘Then will I get about twice that?’

But that was unfortunate.

Hyunsoo was still Level 499.

He had remained at Level 499 for over a month.

According to Hyunsoo’s research, the total EXP required to cross from Level 499 to Level 500 was about ten times that of a normal Level up.

‘Because Level 500 is the wall where you surpass the limit.’

And for a Legendary class, it was even more special.

Was a Legendary class a Holy Grail?

Half right, half wrong.

It was widely known that the required EXP for a Legendary class to Level up was doubled.

And according to rumors circulating quietly, a god class—

In other words, Valhalla—required about four times the EXP.

That meant Hyunsoo also had the four-times rate applied, so compared to ordinary users, he had to gain an overwhelming amount of EXP to Level up.

‘......When am I ever going to Level up?’

By Hyunsoo’s calculations, he expected to receive around fifty million EXP.

It was a simple calculation.

But there was something Hyunsoo did not know.

[It is an achievement that even a god would admire.]

It was the mistaken assumption that because the score was twice as high, the reward would simply be doubled too.

The difficulty of reaching 400 points from 200 points was considered not twice as great, but many times greater.

[EXP and gold will be applied at x10.]

[You have acquired 5,000,000 gold.]

[You have acquired 200,000,000 EXP.]

[Congratulations.]

[You have reached Level 500.]

[Changes will occur due to reaching Level 500.]

Level 500 was the standard for a new transformation.

For ordinary users, it was the path toward reaching High Class, and the sole number that meant stepping onto a new road.

And the fact that the total EXP required was high, and Leveling up was difficult—

meant that much greater change would occur.

At this moment, while the Continental War: World Championship was still in full swing,

a being who should not be allowed to grow was growing once again.