My Skeleton Soldier Is Strange - Chapter 49

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 49
―Pop! Pop! Pop!
The moment the skill activated, three arrows launched from Ye-jin’s bow. Compared to her previous rapid-fire barrages, it might have seemed unremarkable at first glance, but….
‘As expected.’
A miracle unfolded—each single arrow multiplied threefold.
‘They say it’s the archer’s lifeline in PVP. This won’t be easy.’
―Whoooosh!
Hundreds of arrows began to blanket the sky.
As if dark clouds had gathered, arrows cast their shadows across the night sky.
The arrow tips tracing brilliant blue trajectories gleamed like stars.
Countless arrows shimmered in the air, radiating azure light.
The procession of arrows descended like a merciless downpour, piercing the earth.
―Boom! Crash!
―Thud! Bang!
The storm of arrows tore across the ground.
The earth, which had trembled from the collision of the two skeletal soldiers, shook violently once more.
In a brief moment, the vast meadow transformed into a field of spikes.
The tsunami of arrows that covered the sky was utterly overwhelming.
There seemed to be nowhere for Kim Jae-beom to escape. He gazed upward at the sky with eyes more serious than ever before.
“This is fun.”
Yet Kim Jae-beom merely smiled.
For some reason, that expression sent a chill down Ye-jin’s spine even more than when the skeletal soldiers had collided.
“Hnngh!”
Kim Jae-beom gripped the steel staff tightly with both arms.
Then he raised the staff toward the sky. He wasn’t swinging it.
―Shhhhk.
“Hnngh!”
Kim Jae-beom began to ‘thrust’ the staff toward the rain from above!
“That’s impossible!”
Even if it sounded like the work of a common soldier, there was no helping it.
Kim Jae-beom felt that mere swinging wasn’t enough—he was deflecting every single arrow by thrusting the tip of the staff and adjusting its trajectory!
―Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The way he swung his staff toward the sky was, in a manner of speaking.
Like the Lunar Fang
Piercing the heavens.
Finally, when all the arrow rain had subsided.
“This technique’s name is the Lunar….”
“Stop.”
The moment Kim Jae-beom opened his mouth, Ye-jin spoke with a rare sharpness in her tone.
“…Right, there was a technique with a similar name, wasn’t there?”
“No, more than that—if I use that name, I’ll probably be forced to rely on that skill until the story ends.”
And besides, you’re a necromancer.
Ye-jin swallowed the last words back down. There was no point in saying it now.
* * *
“I’ve lost.”
Ye-jin’s mind turned cold for two reasons.
First, looking at that state, I had no confidence I could win.
And second, if this was a “sparring match”… I could just forfeit and end the duel.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Kim Jae-beom nodded in satisfaction as well. Though it hadn’t worked on him, he’d managed to reassess Ye-jin’s full strength once more.
‘The synergy between stats is greater than I expected.’
Without the additional stats that came from gaining the Overlord’s power, pulling off such a feat just now would have been difficult.
“Since we’ve assessed each other’s abilities, shall we call it here for now? I need to sleep too.”
“You’re ending quite early today?”
Ye-jin checked the real-world time.
11 PM.
Considering I’d been playing the game all this time, it was indeed time for bed, but given that I’d briefly met them in the middle, it was somewhat early for Kim Jae-beom and Ye-jin, who had staked their lives on the game.
“…Right now there’s a summoning penalty…”
“Ah.”
It was good that he’d assessed their abilities, but a penalty was a penalty—without Dercan and Arulan as fighting force, it was better to recover fatigue and do whatever else needed doing.
‘Why is time passing so quickly?’
And even accounting for that, it was still remarkable.
The speed at which time flowed was so different from when I played alone.
“Next time.”
Ye-jin stared intently at Kim Jae-beom’s face.
“We can meet again, right?”
She asked a somewhat abrupt question.
“Huh? That’s a given.”
“Just in case.”
“I’ll log in again tomorrow. From the morning.”
…
It was a sincere question, but Kim Jae-beom’s “see you again” apparently meant in Evern Online.
“Are you unemployed?”
“YouTuber and rice-eating life. I’ve opened a second account now.”
Kim Jae-beom answered her question matter-of-factly. Back when he was playing first-generation virtual reality games, his occupation was “dark gamer.”
Of course, that was what Kim Jae-beom claimed. The dark gamer = rice-eater equation had been established for over twenty years. So he usually told people outside that he was a “YouTuber.”
…
Perhaps memories from back then surfaced? Kim Jae-beom found himself staring blankly at the ground without realizing it.
Well, unlike now, back then being a rice-eater was a joke, and he could actually call himself a YouTuber.
―Crunch.
Ye-jin had probably spoken without much thought, yet I found myself sinking into pointless sentimentality. After all, it wouldn’t be long before I reclaimed the top ranking here as well and made my YouTube channel flourish—there was no reason to feel this way.
“I’ll log in first. Send me a message when you connect tomorrow.”
To do that, I needed proper rest. Kim Jae-beom said goodbye to Ye-jin and quickly logged out.
“Wait!”
Before Ye-jin could even respond.
“Seriously. He just vanished without a second thought.”
Watching Kim Jae-beom disappear in the blink of an eye, Ye-jin puffed out her cheeks.
“See you tomorrow, then…”
Actually, tomorrow I had planned to take a day off from Evern Online for modeling work.
“I really don’t deserve to be treated like this anywhere.”
Even as Ye-jin said this, somehow she didn’t look displeased at all.
* * *
After logging out, Kim Jae-beom didn’t go straight to sleep as he’d told Ye-jin.
―Click. Click.
After all, he still had to continue his YouTube activities.
[Colossal Guardian Solo Raid][Views: 34,300][Likes: 432]
[2v1 Duel with Herman][Views: 45,122][Likes: 700]
“Huh…?”
But both videos had unusually high view counts.
The numbers had jumped into five figures.
Kim Jae-beom blinked at the sight.
―Click.
[sua121: Skull punch! Skull punch!]
[SoloTopLaner: Wow… no… wow…]
Most comments were marveling at the movements of Kim Jae-beom and Dercan.
[MysteryNecromancer: Are those really skeleton soldiers? Ours are just tin cans? Could we win if we brought like 250 of ours?]
[ExpertCooker: They say they’d consider it at 2500~]
Among them, the necromancers were paying special attention to Dercan. His skeleton soldiers were on an entirely different level from what they understood.
“Hmm.”
Regardless, the comments on the video were quite favorable.
[GameAddict donated 50,000 won.]
[GameAddict: Please upload more videos~]
There were even viewers sending donations. Kim Jae-beom, who had been casually reading the comments, quietly replied to the donation comment.
―Tap! Tap tap!
[I’ll do my best. Thank you.]
“Wow. Money’s already coming in.”
At this rate, I was willing to buy Poong Wa-won a serving of grilled pork belly.
Of course, two servings were out of the question. Kim Jae-beom was destined to become a big name eventually anyway.
―Whoosh…
‘By the way, why hasn’t he contacted me?’
After reviewing all the comments, Kim Jae-beom shifted his gaze to his smartphone. The person he was waiting to hear from was none other than Kim Ji-min.
“Hmm.”
‘Most of the messages are actually coming from YouTube.’
The email inbox on YouTube.
It was overflowing with collaboration requests from countless streamers. But Kim Jae-beom had no intention of appearing on their broadcasts.
He was confident he could grow YouTube without their help.
Besides, doing collaborations risked exposing his identity, so it was better to refrain.
‘Kim Ji-min….’
In any case, what mattered to Kim Jae-beom right now was Kim Ji-min.
First, he tried sending a few messages.
[Me: Hey.]
[Me: Hey.]
[Me: Hey.]
[Me: You awake?]
[Me: Let’s talk.]
“What the—”
It seemed his mind had gone elsewhere.
[Me: Kim Jae-beom sent you a gift and a message.]
Kim Jae-beom even tried his ultimate move, but it didn’t help much.
‘Come to think of it, he’s loaded.’
Unless he’d sent a house as a message, this wasn’t someone who’d fall for a text.
[Me: You know, I’ve wanted to tell you something for a while now. The truth is, I’ve been wanting to….]
Finally, the “1” disappeared.
[Me: kill you. How dare you ignore my messages?]
[Kim Ji-min: …Are you seriously garbage?]
[Kim Ji-min: You need to know you’re three times more of a garbage person than you think.]
Kim Ji-min seemed quite angry, but in any case, the message had been effective.
* * *
“So. When did you become a cosmetic surgeon?”
Ye-jin arrived at Kim Jae-beom’s house not long after. From the way he got out of the car, it seemed he’d been playing Evern Online during the drive.
“Why are you like that? You look like an amateur.”
And to Kim Jae-beom’s following question, Kim Ji-min didn’t take his eyes off his face. Rather, he wore an expression suggesting it was no big deal.
If he weren’t kneeling in Kim Jae-beom’s room, he might have looked a bit more convincing.
“There’s no certification needed for customization. I did put forward a fake career as a cosmetic surgeon… but there’s nothing really wrong with that.”
“Really? Even though it’s false information?”
“I didn’t write it in the shop’s official promotional materials. I simply… didn’t react to the rumor at all.”
“Hmm….”
He even added that it was unfair.
He’d done nothing, but the players who received customization attached ‘plausibility’ to Kim Ji-min. With that level of skill, he must surely be a cosmetic surgeon in real life, they said.
“Well. That’s not why I called you here anyway.”
In truth, it didn’t matter to Kim Jae-beom what was real or not. What mattered was that she was a famous player in Evern Online.
“Since I’ve got leverage on you, you’ll have to pay the price.”
“…What do you want?”
Kim Ji-min swallowed hard at Kim Jae-beom’s words. For some reason, rather than feeling displeased, she seemed to be anticipating something, despite being told to pay the price.
“Let’s see. What should I ask for so word gets around that I was well compensated?”
“That portable access device you use in your car?”
“You’re insane. The base model costs 80 million won. This one’s fully loaded, and it’s customized specifically for me—you couldn’t give it away even if you wanted to.”
“…”
The question ‘Then how much is the fully loaded version?’ never made it past my throat. It had to be at least 150 million won, maybe more.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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