El. Psy. Congroo.
Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part 1
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You can grab the PDF here.
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Gate of the Otherworld ・ Deepest Part of【THE NEW GATE】
Two shadows were squaring off against each other.
One of the shadows belonged to a monster.
The name of the Gatekeeper [One Who Guards the Gate] was【Origin】.
It was the end of the VRMMORPG【THE NEW GATE】, and its strongest monster.
As a humanoid dragon type, it had a humanoid body with a dragon’s head, wings, and tail.
It spanned roughly 20m. Its eyes were dyed sky blue, while the horn on its forehead and the scales that covered its entire body glittered golden. Concealing the stature of its well-trained body was, again, golden armor. The spear in its hand that was completely devoid of ornamentation was, once more, golden.
Though one might be tempted to just call it ugly, its body was radiating an overwhelming air of intimidation that was on par with the gods. However, it did not emanate hatred.
It was indeed worthy of being called the most powerful monster. It would not even be an overstatement to call it a divine beast.
The other shadow belonged to a human.
The man’s name was【Shin】. His real name was Kiritani Shinya.
He was the top player with the highest combat ability who had been in the VRMMORPG【THE NEW GATE】from the very beginning.
His height was slightly over 180cm. If one really had to say, his physique was more on the slim side.
Both his eyes and his hair were black. Despite facing off against Origin, his face, which was quite mediocre, being neither very handsome nor particularly ugly, did not show a single sign of nervousness.
Around his neck was a thin, black muffler with red zigzag lines on it. He was also wearing a long coat and pants that were also black with red lines. Aside from the deep crimson hand guards and greaves on his arms and legs, he was not wearing anything else that looked like armor.
The only weapon he was wielding was the black katana in his right hand. Though the handle, guard and blade were all black, the edge of the blade glowed a faint red, as if rubies had been rubbed in.
Shin took a step forward. In response, Origin took a stance.
In contrast to Shin, who had on only hand guards and greaves for armor, Origin was equipped head to toe with his armor and spear. From an outsider’s point of view, this scene was the epitome of folly. The only foreseeable future was one where Origin would turn Shin into a lump of meat with only a single swing of his spear.
The very moment Shin took another step forward, Origin lunged with its spear. A speed unimaginable for its gigantic body coupled with the sheer size of the spear made it look like a wall was pressing in.
The attack from the spear pierced the ground under the flagstones. The thrust not only blew away all nearby flagstones, it even gouged out a large part of the earth underneath.
However, Shin’s figure was no longer there.
Shin was at Origin’s feet.
The instant before the attack, he had predicted where the attack would land through the Support-Type Martial Skill【Shingan [Mind’s Eye]】, then rushed forward at high speed using the Movement-Type Martial Skill【Shukuchi [Blink]】.
While hidden from Origin’s sight, Shin aimed at its right foot and activated the Sword-Type Martial Skill【Kogetsusen [Arc Moon Flash]】.
The edge of the blade glowed crimson along with the activation of the skill. At that moment, the speed and damage of the sword was amplified by 1.5 times. Shin struck with the weight of the momentum of his entire body.
“Shi!”
All of his fighting spirit concentrated into that split second.
Leaving behind a red trail, the blade split the armor on Origin’s right foot in half.
The slash almost sliced the foot in half, causing fresh red blood to gush out, staining the golden scales.
Origin’s HP bar fell by about 2%. Considering that it was a single strike against the game’s strongest monster, it was an impressive amount of damage.
"■■■■■■■■■■■■■■――!!"
Origin shrieked from the pain of the attack on his foot.
A shrill sound like pieces of metal being scratched against each other echoed around the room. As【Shingan】predicted the next incoming attack, Shin reacted instantly, dashing out from under Origin as fast as he could. Having amplified his leg strength to the very limit, Shin’s body left afterimages from the movement.
Right after Shin moved away, the butt of the spear slammed down, almost as if it was trying to crush the afterimages. The power did seem to be slightly less than before, seeing as fewer flagstones were blown away. However, it needs not be said that the power was still way beyond any normal standards.
“Fast. As expected of the final boss.”
Even while facing the frightening power of the spear, Shin had the composure and room for admiration. Acknowledging his opponent, the last Gatekeeper [One Who Guards the Gate], as a worthy opponent, he stoked up his fighting spirit even higher.
Although Shin was composed, he still remained very vigilant.
When the HP bar at the edge of his vision becomes empty, he would be the one who’d die. Shin had come this far while knowing this.
Shin was here in order to clear【THE NEW GATE】, which had turned into a death game.
There was no one fighting alongside him, but there were a lot of people who’d supported him.
The equipment that he had on were mainly procured by himself, and the items that he had received from people turned out to be pretty ineffective in a boss fight. Despite all that, he was determined to fulfill the hopes that all of his nakama had entrusted him with.
There was that young girl who cried from wanting to see her family so badly. There was that young man who had become lost after losing his elder brother. There was that man who struggled on in the face of adversity, refusing to give up. And there was that girl who always ran back to offer help to people who needed it.
Everyone had struggled, given up, then risen again to challenge and fight the world. Sadly, some of them had eventually disappeared.
They were imprisoned for a whole year. Shin didn’t know if it was long or short.
At this moment, only one word filled his chest.
“Win!”
Just that alone.
He had to defeat Origin and help release from this death game all those people who had supported him and pushed his back.
For that very reason,
“I will have you hand over your head!!”
As Origin turned and glared at him, Shin readied his sword again.
“Oooooohhhhhhhhh!!”
With a piercing scream and a slicing attack he managed to sever one of Origin’s wings at the base.
Sword-Type Martial Skill【Hazan [Mountain Crusher]】.
It was a karatake wari from the joudan stance (T/N: Imagine slashing down from above.)
Living up to its name, it was a move that boasted an extraordinary 2.5 times the damage against opponents larger than the user.
With its wing cut off, the accumulated damage to Origin finally brought it to its knees. Thankfully, this prevented a counterattack while Shin was recovering from the momentary freeze caused by the use of the huge skill.
Origin’s armor was by now broken and cracked in numerous places.
It wasn’t only the single wing that was cut off; its left arm was also cut off, and the tip of its golden horn was also gone.
“Haa, haa, suuuuuuu haaaaaaaaa...........”
Shin calmed his ragged breathing.
Using【Hazan】one more time would be enough to finish the fight. However, the cooldown time for that skill was long. Among all available skills, Hazan probably was the highest, or at least second highest, in terms of cooldown time. Therefore, it can’t be used anymore in this fight.
(Well, in the first place, this wasn’t an enemy against which he could just spam large attacks against. No need to get all worked up from not being able to use one skill.)
【Hazan】wasn’t the only high damage skill. When quality is not enough, one merely has to make it up with quantity.
“Let’s not get hasty, alright?”
Origin’s HP bar had been shaved down to a tiny sliver, but it was not completely empty yet. It would be beyond pathetic if he lost at the very end from being careless.
Origin looked over at Shin. Although everything was supposed to be mere pixels, Shin could palpably feel the fighting spirit in its eyes.
Immediately afterwards, Shin heard a robotic female voice.
――【Seizon Honnou [Survival Instinct]】 Activated: Attack Power and Speed Increased
――【Ougon no Hadou [Golden Wave]】 Activated: HP, Damaged Parts and Equipment Steadily Recovering
The automatic skill【Analyze X】had activated to tell Shin about the skills that Origin was now using.
(T/N: Shin has the Analyze skill at level 10, the max level. ‘X’ here is for 10.)
At the same time, Origin’s HP bar began to refill itself in increments. A golden light shone from the stump of its left hand and wing and those parts started to regenerate.
If left alone, it would most likely return to its former status.
Of course, there was no way that Shin would allow it to do so.
At the same time he got the notification from Analyze X, he activated【Shukuchi】and closed in on Origin, who was still on its knees.
"■■■■■■――!!"
In response to Shin’s movement, Origin roared and swept his spear across in a mowing attack.
The wind made a “GOU!!” sound as the spear cut through the air and sped towards Shin.
Shin activated the Sword-Type Martial Skill【Shiraha Nagashi [Drawn Sword Diversion]】and the Unarmed-Type Martial Skill【Hagane Hajiki [Steel Repel]】.
Lowering his center of gravity, while receiving and stopping the spear with his katana through 【Shiraha Nagashi】, he slid the spear off the edge of his blade by diverting the direction of the attack. On top of that,【Hagane Hajiki】helped reduce the damage taken and also reflected some of the damage back.
Sparks flew as the spear slid on top of the katana with terrifying force. Even though it was not a direct hit, Shin’s body almost flew away along with the spear’s momentum, but he managed to endure it with the help of his skills and his taijutsu.
However, with the higher damage from Origin using【Seizon Honnou】, Shin was unable to nullify all of the damage from the attack. His HP went down a bit.
“Fu!”
The moment the blade left the spear, Shin rose up from his lowered stance and added that momentum to the spear.
Due to that, the speed of the spear went beyond Origin’s expectations, causing it to overreach and lose its posture.
Shin then instantly activated the Sword-Type Martial Skill【Gekkou Zanmai [Moonlight Beheading Dance]】. A silvery light like moonlight wrapped around his black katana, turning it into a silver blade. The blade also momentarily grew to around 2m in length.
“Seeehhhyaaaaaa!!”
The silver blade slashed into Origin’s now defenseless torso.
First strike!
Second strike!
Third strike!
The blade of light flew so fast that it left afterimages, carving paths of light in the air. The first three slashes dealt enough damage to cancel out all the HP that Origin had regained from【Ougon no Hadou】.
Fourth strike!
Fifth strike!
Sixth strike!
Seventh strike!
Eighth strike!
Ninth strike!
Tenth strike!
The series of ten slashes brought down Origin’s HP in quick succession.
After that, the light from the blade disappeared, indicating that the skill was finished.
【Gekkou Zanmai】was a skill of ten consecutive slashes with boosted attack speed and range. Attack speed was 1.3 times, and range was doubled. Although the damage from a single strike was not that high, the increased range and number of strikes combined together added up to much more damage than a simple power-up attack.
Although it couldn’t be compared to a【Hazan】dealt with Shin’s STR and weapon’s attack power, it was not far off.
Indeed, the intense attacks from【Gekkou Zanmai】’s ten-strike combination left only about 2mm in Origin’s HP bar.
“I will finish you off!!”
Shin ran onto Origin’s body as it collapsed from the damage of【Gekkou Zanmai】. Although Origin’s HP bar was still recovering even now, Shin judged that he would make it in time.
Perhaps as a final act of defiance, Origin let go of the spear in its right hand and let loose a backfist. Shin jumped over the fist, and adopted a joudan stance in midair.
Their eyes met. This was the very moment when Origin would be finished off, but still there was no anger in its eyes. Instead, Shin felt that Origin was at peace with itself.
With that said, though, even if there was no animosity in its eyes, the blade that swung down did not deviate nor slow down at all.
The heart that had decided to win would not budge.
“This is the end!”
With those words, Shin swung down his black blade towards Origin’s forehead.
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