Chapter 112: Immortal Appear (1)
A straight road without trees or rocks.
The topography was only a few broken walls.
This environment, often referred to as 'the highway' by the users, was the place where you can play the hottest confrontations on the Way of Proof.
So, this environment was also a favorite environment for users who like melee. It was not such a good environment for users who like to use the topography with ambush tactics or force an opponent into a ranged battle.
In this sense, it was very pleasant news that this environment appeared to Choi Sangryul.
In fact, Choi Sangryul was not a negligible opponent.
The reason Choi Sangryul was called the strongest in the previous life was not just because Sang Hyuk had given him the best skill, the Heavenly Dragon Card Deck. To be precise, the Heavenly Dragon Card was the greatest 'Trump Card' and Choi Sangryul was the best soldier with the ability to use this 'Trump Card' to reach the top of the world.
In other words, it meant that he was a person who was strong without the Heavenly Dragon Card Deck. In fact, he was a top 10 pro-gamer even when he had not learned the Heavenly Dragon Card Deck.
He was called one of the top three professional gamers during his peak season.
The interesting thing was that he did not have a special Ancient Knowledge.
Choi Sangryul was a double soul player, his Ancient Knowledges were 'Twin Swords of the Wind' and 'Windstorm'.
Twin Swords of the Wind was the most popular ancient knowledge among users that used two swords as their main weapons and while wind storm was not as popular, it was an ancient knowledge which showed a very great power in melee.
Choi Sangryul continued to play with these two Ancient Knowledge combinations until he met Sang Hyuk and was reborn again as a new user.
The combination of these two Ancient Knowledge was 'Blade Crush'.
Choi Sangryul had a powerful combat skill to crush his opponents like its name.
The highway with few obstacles to Choi Sangryul was the best environment.
* * * *
Choi Sangryul laughed lightly as the game started.
"The weather is good and even the road is widely open… It cannot be better than this."
Choi Sangryul liked the environment very much.
"By the way, an assassin user…. it seems that he only uses a single strike to win each match, so in the end is that all he has?"
The preliminary competition was still going on, so he could not get the full information on his opponent. However, an LGN staff, who was acquainted with him, provided a report, so he was able to figure out who the other person was.
In some ways, it could be a foul, but Choi Sangryul was completely unconcerned because he liked to use all he could to get the maximum chance to win.*
"However, just in case something happen, I should be really careful."
Choi Sangryul invoked the Storm Curtain over his body and prepared for ambush. The storm curtain can hold up to 4 layers, each layer reduced 20% of the attack power. If you activate all 4 layers, the attack power is reduced by 80%.
Using those 4 layers provided a very strong shield with a shield amount equal to 80% of the maximum vitality. It also reduces the opponent's chance of critical damage by 88% and reduced damage by 40%.
In other words, it was a shield that maximized the defensive power by reducing the attack power.
However, it was no possible to replenish the layers during battle because it was a skill that can only be invoked outside of battle, nevertheless, this skill was very powerful, depending on how you use it.
If Choi Sangryul did not know about his opponent, he would have kept one layer at most, but as he knew about his opponent, he would keep all 4 layers and induce the opponent's 'surprise' attack.
"If you bite the bait… you die."
Choi Sangryul used his body as the bait and started fishing.
His plan seemed perfect.
But there is a fact he did not know. That one fact ruined his perfect fishing strategy dreadfully.
A man who knows Choi Sangryul more than anyone else in the world.
Sang Hyuk knew precisely how Choi Sangryul would play.
"He has not learned Storm Wall yet, so he used 4 layers of the storm curtain and wait for me to ambush him, right?"
Sang Hyuk knew very well what skills Choi Sangryul has and how he used them.
Sang Hyuk in the past had no choice but to thoroughly analyzed everything about that person called Choi Sangryul and remodel him. So it was so easy for him to predict Choi Sangryul's moves.
"In this situation, the most common method is to break each layer and attack with a full-scale attack, right?"
Talking about the storm curtain with 4 layers, meant that all of them could be stripped off if you hit it 4 times.
Because the curtain blocked only one attack anyway, so this way was the best.
But Sang Hyuk had a different idea.
"If you take the bait, you will be eaten? Fine, that bait… I will bite it."
Sang Hyuk did not care, although his opponent crouched behind a strong shield.
"I'll split the shield in its entirety."
Sang Hyuk chose a method far from common sense.
Splitting the opponent wholly including the shield…. This was the most destructive and cool revenge method.
Choi Sangryul was obviously revealing himself because he was using himself as the bait. Of course he was looking for Sang Hyuk, who was using Concealment somewhere, but he did it passively.
This was literally asking for an attack.
Sang Hyuk was reducing the distance while waiting for Choi Sangryul's approach. Choi Sangryul wanted to be attacked anyway, so waiting like this did not matter at all.
Sang Hyuk held the Great Sword of the Weakened Shadow King and quietly concentrated his strength. Sang Hyuk would smash Choi Sangryul, who was confident in his strong shield, smashing both the trap and his opponent in a single strike.
The two opposing intentions would collide in the near future.
"Shouldn't he appear by now?"
Choi Sangryul looked around and confirmed the duration of the storm curtain once again.
The remaining retention time is 10 minutes. This much is supposed to be enough.
He thought that if the 4 layered storm curtain was maintained, any ambush could be negated unconditionally.
"Because waiting is boring, let's bite it."
Choi Sangryul loosened his defensive stance slightly while being careful that he wasn't seen. If that was the case, his opponent will absolutely decide to come in and strike.
"If he does not come in and strike, he must be a fool or else a careful sick person (a person who always be careful like a disease)."
Choi Sangryul thought it was one of those two reasons if he already gave enough chances but there is no attack.
If it was a fool, he would not have much of a problem but if it was a careful sick person, it would be a headache. But his worries did not last long.
The darkness in one corner broke as Sang Hyuk saw the gap in his opponent's defense.
"It's coming!"
At the very moment, Choi Sangryul also crossed his twins swords and set them as his defense. He had storm curtain, but he could not only stand and get attacked, so by using 'Cross Defense', the skill obtained through the Twin Swords of the Wind, he raised his defense to the maximum.
The black flash that splits the darkness flew through the air at a tremendous speed, but Choi Sangryul's 'Cross Defense', which was already prepared, was his first line of defense.
Clank!!
The black flash immediately hit Choi Sangryul's body. It pierced the storm curtain and hit Sangryul's body which was locked into a defensive stance.
The four-layered storm curtain lowered the power of attack significantly. And because there was additional Cross Defense in use, theoretically Choi Sangryul should have been half invincible.
In fact, at this level Storm Curtain reduced the damage significantly, so it did not make much sense to use his 'Cross Defense'. No matter how powerful the ambush was, it was insane to think it could break all his shields.
At least Choi Sangryul knew so.
The critical hit did not trigger. And the damage was reduced properly. Even the defense was perfect. *
However…..
When Choi Sangryul got hit, the result was completely outside of his expectations. It was completely different.
Kwakwakwa! Dudududuk!
The storm curtain shattered in an instant. It has nothing to do with the impact of the strike, just as soon as the shield was hit by the black flash, it exploded as if all of his defenses had been stripped away in an instant.
"Ugh!"
At the moment, Choi Sangryul felt something went wrong. Although the critical hit didn't trigger but this was a really ridiculous result.
But the more striking thing was that this was not the end.
Kwaduduk, kwakwakwang!
The two swords, that crossed and used in the perfectly defensive posture, were thrown back. And…. uncouth damage swept across his body.
"What, what was that exactly….."
At that moment, the question 'why?' was appear in Choi Sangryul's head. But at the time he had that question, it was already late.
The black flash swallowed everything up and took half of Choi Sangryul's life in a moment.
Of course, when half of the vitality flies in a moment, he was momentarily shocked and fell into stun lock.
In that situation, Sang Hyuk naturally waved the Great Sword of the Weakened Shadow King three times quickly.
It was similar to the skill of Ancient Knowledge: Knight named 'Triple Slash', which Sang Hyuk learned a long time ago. Of course, now that the Ancient Knowledge has been changed to Shadow Knight and has been deleted, but Sang Hyuk just reproduced the skill as his body remembered.
There was not much power in the attack itself because it was not a skill and has been quickly done three times as concise, light movements, but he took off the three layers of the storm curtain by those three sword cuts.
Sang Hyuk spent only 1.5 seconds on these three sword cuts.
However, since Choi Sangryul's stun duration was 1.7 seconds, Choi Sangryul recovered from stunning almost simultaneously with the end of the three cuts.
"Dangerous!"
Choi Sangryul instinctively knew how dangerous the situation he was in now. So, as soon as his stun time ended, he tried to get out of the crisis by using Wind Storm.
Thatak, Phaphaphat!
After the stun lock ended, Choi Sangryul withdrew about 10 meters backward. The biggest reasons for Choi Sangryul to use Wind Storm was because its cooldown was only 10 seconds and the travel distance was fairly long, and even the speed of movement was fast.
Is that so? Choi Sangryul could barely escape the crisis thanks to this skill. Nope, he thought he could escape.
Choi Sangryul who quickly got out of Sang Hyuk's attack range.
He was going to do the next thing after catching his breath. But his actions were only possible up to this extent.
Bwok!
"Awk!"
The Great Sword of the Weakened Shadow King dug at his abdomen.
Surprisingly, Sang Hyuk appeared before Choi Sangryul right where Choi Sangryul was about to move to and Choi Sangryul was rushed to Sang Hyuk, like a moth flies to the flames.
He could not help it because Wind Storm was a moving skill that could not stop in the middle.
Choi Sangryul had no idea at all that Sang Hyuk would have the movement technique Blink. Even Sang Hyuk didn't expected that he would accurately predict Choi Sangryul's movement.
Thanks to this, Choi Sangryul was hit by a powerful attack once again without proper defense and no avoidance.
This time, about 30% of the vitality is lost again.
Of course it was not enough to collapse yet.
But it was not just about collapsing. It was about 50% vitality lost in one strike and another 30% lost again.
Two consecutive strong shocks once again stiffened Choi Sangryul's body.
If you allow these powerful attacks in PvP in the first place, it had to lead to defeat.
Choi Sangryul tried to grab and hold onto the flesh that is being stiffened, however, even 0.5 seconds of the stiffness was fatal for him.
Hwiiing, sgok! Gwaduduk!
Sang Hyuk swiftly unsheathed the twin moonblades, secondary weapons that were on his waist while leaving the Great Sword of the Weakened Shadow King stuck in Choi Sangryul's abdomen. At that moment, Choi Sangryul's neck fell and his head fell to the floor.
All of these movement happened naturally as flowing water.
This was the end of the first death. Choi Sangryul will resurrect in the safety zone straight away….but the first death itself was so shocking that all those who watched this match could not close their mouths.
Sang Hyuk ended the fight in just five seconds of a collision with Choi Sangryul. And it was also so neat…
And finally, Sang Hyuk's figure was clearly revealed.
Guild Master of One Guild, 'Immortal'.
At the moment he revealed his brilliant appearance while smashing Crash Choi Sangryul, the top rank of the winning candidates, some people recognized him at once.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone