The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 246

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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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Episode 246
246
When Kyou first joined the Backup Team, he was nothing like this.
He simply wanted to stand closest to the Demon King, ready to strike him down.
That was the sole conviction with which he had entered.
But as he gradually adapted to the team, a peculiar sensation began to take root.
Rather than viewing the Demon King as merely a target to capture,
following in his footsteps, watching his back,
his entire perspective had shifted.
‘He’s a monster.’
He’d sensed it to some degree before.
But now it was undeniable.
Had he been alone, he could never have kept pace.
Even now, it felt less like he’d caught up and more like he was clinging desperately to stay attached.
Leveling itself had been no easy feat.
Training collectively at full power—no, beyond it—he could feel himself growing in real time, his level and abilities rising with each passing moment.
Accomplishing what he could never do alone, now achieved as a collective,
felt strange.
For Kyou, whose pride had always been inflated, this was a sensation entirely new.
He’d believed only he was flawless.
He’d deluded himself that only he was strong.
Single-ranked players?
He’d dismissed them as mere commoners who’d simply started before him.
But reality proved different.
‘…I couldn’t even defeat Kim Che-gun.’
Reality was that even that scatterbrained woman wasn’t easily overcome.
His record against Kim Che-gun was nearly even.
Most encounters ended in draws.
The victories he did claim were matched almost equally by defeats.
Had the world simply grown wider?
With this team, it felt as though nothing was impossible.
Yet the Demon King, Yoo Sung-hyun, remained as elusive as grasping at clouds.
Still distant, always out of reach.
Though such feelings arose, he deliberately suppressed them.
With his team, he could close that gap.
The Backup Team could achieve it.
That was what he believed.
Then the Reaper appeared.
Someone with that same screw-loose quality as Kim Che-gun.
‘…He’s faster than us?’
Kyou couldn’t accept it.
Faster than Kim Che-gun, Luna, or Embris.
Faster than himself.
The thought kindled an inexplicable fury within him.
His team had to be the strongest—aside from Yoo Sung-hyun.
And he intended to prove it himself.
Luna, Kim Che-gun, and Embris—those three were comparable to him.
If he defeated the Reaper, it would prove that they too surpassed the Reaper.
Even if the Black King had been captured faster by them, he would demonstrate that he was the stronger one.
Because that’s what our team is.
Kyou genuinely believed this and gave everything he had.
‘…!’
Meanwhile, watching Kyou, the Reaper had initially regarded this merely as a light sparring match.
Because Kyou appeared somewhat young.
He’d dismissed it as naive thinking.
But seeing the intensity in his eyes, the Reaper understood.
He needed to take this seriously.
Kyou was never a clumsy prodigy who would joke around.
And so the Reaper’s gaze sank to an appropriately grave depth.
It was at precisely that moment when Yoo Sung-hyun’s voice rang out.
“Begin.”
With that cry, all their thoughts and ideologies melted away as lightning surged in every direction.
Kyou’s lightning had no inherent color.
If anything, it was white.
A pale white tinged with the faintest hint of blue.
The lightning spreading in all directions dyed everything around it—thoughts, ideologies, even fleeting impressions—in pristine white.
From the perspective of the lightning, the world became endlessly quiet and slow.
Within it, lightning strands drifted freely in all directions, stretching outward in every bearing.
Kyou gathered each strand of lightning and seized them as a single bolt.
Holding the lightning he’d released, he hurled it toward the man standing before him—the Reaper.
Crackle-crackle-crackle———!!!
The lightning discharged into the void split from a single strand and stretched outward in all directions again, its range expanding progressively.
Moreover, the single bolt fractured into dozens, hundreds, thousands of strands, descending upon the Reaper.
A wave of lightning occupied every space as it surged forward.
Yet the Reaper didn’t move at all.
As if it were utterly irrelevant.
He stood motionless, and the moment the lightning wave reached him—
The Reaper’s body scattered like smoke into the void.
Was it a technique similar to Embris’s mist form, the vampire’s ability?
Kyou thought so for a moment, but he realized that despite its appearance, it was fundamentally different.
That creature had substance until the moment of attack, but the instant it was struck, its form vanished.
And the Reaper’s silhouette, scattering like black mist, entered Kyou’s vision with startling clarity.
Though the world had been bleached white by his power.
In one place alone, shadow pooled like a dark puddle.
Kyou swiftly identified it and unleashed a bird woven from lightning.
The lightning bird, prioritizing speed over any other thunderbolt, streaked forward with terrifying velocity, and the shadow writhed as if caught off guard.
To be discovered so quickly.
The Reaper found the matchup decidedly unfavorable.
Yet the duel had already begun.
In that instant, the Reaper burst from the shadow and slashed the lightning bird with a gleaming dagger held in reverse grip.
Screeeech!!!
Crackle——!!!
The lightning bird released electricity upon being cut, electrifying everything around it.
But the Reaper was already gone from that spot.
Speed was his forte.
Among all the velocities Kyou had encountered, this ranked among the highest.
Yet it could not match Kyou’s command of lightning itself.
The descent of the Thunder God, once displayed against Fiora.
Kyou had woven that descent together with a fusion skill, tempering lightning into his very being.
Like refining a single blade, he shaped lightning and honed it to razor sharpness.
Though he was a spellcaster by nature.
Now every nerve in Kyou’s body had been honed to lethal acuity, sharpened for direct combat, and his speed and physical prowess matched that intensity.
Yet he did not channel it into raw physicality.
‘Faster. Even faster.’
He fortified his nervous system, refining his reaction speed into something impossibly sharp and swift.
The moment Kyou conceived of a skill, it manifested with the speed of lightning itself.
Then a tempestuous storm of lightning descended upon the Reaper, and he narrowed his eyes in displeasure.
The violent lightning storm, crackling with electricity and blazing white light, was more than sufficient to engulf the Reaper, who stretched his form like shadow before beginning to split into fragments.
Multiple clones spawned, yet the ravenous lightning storm devoured them all indiscriminately.
As the clones were torn asunder and vanished, the Reaper materialized behind Kyou.
An assassination technique bordering on perfection.
With movements as swift as an assassin’s template, he swung his dagger toward Kyou’s nape.
The moment Kyou’s transcendent senses registered the threat, he unleashed all his electrical current backward in a torrent of lightning.
‘Damn.’
The Reaper vanished instantly—whether through spatial displacement or sheer speed—and reappeared elsewhere.
Both possessed extraordinary reaction speeds.
Or rather, had Kyou not reached this state.
The Reaper’s movements would have held a slight advantage in velocity.
Now their reaction speeds were nearly equivalent.
Yet Kyou’s lightning prevented the Reaper from closing the distance.
This pattern repeated itself several times over.
The Reaper tried to close the distance while Kyou blocked and scattered attacks in return.
-What the heck???
-This is insane;;;
-Crazy;;;;
-The Celestial Realm really is different.
-Kyou’s skills are seriously killing it.
The viewers were all equally amazed by the level of combat unfolding before them.
Luna, Kim Che-gun, and Embris watched intently, nodding along.
It was the kind of sparring match that offered lessons simply by observing.
How those two utilized their skills.
The way they positioned themselves and attacked their opponent.
As everything became clear piece by piece,
it proved to be quite educational.
Meanwhile.
‘Hmm.’
Yoo Sung-hyun watched with a tilted head at certain moments, as if puzzled.
True, there weren’t many skills I could use immediately,
but watching Kyou’s application left me somewhat frustrated.
And the Reaper’s movements frustrated me as well.
As I let out a brief sigh watching both of them,
-Why is the Demon King sighing?
Haha, I guess it looks like kids just playing around.
Haha, you seemed like a nice person when I saw you answering that question earlier though?
Haha, it’s different from the name “Demon King.”
-But why is he sighing???
-Right? Does anyone actually know???
Everyone began saying such things.
Yoo Sung-hyun must have read the chat and answered.
“It just feels a bit frustrating.”
The viewers found it somewhat amusing but couldn’t help being bewildered.
-Haha, you think that looks frustrating?
-Wait, that’s not how you use that word, is it?
-What world is he living in?
-I honestly can’t even see it clearly???
-Fighting at that speed and he calls it frustrating????
-If it had been someone other than the devil, I would have been criticized for saying it was a lie lol.
“Lol, since he’s the Demon King, let’s just watch and see how it goes for now.”
That’s hilarious lol.
The chat continued with such remarks.
Yoo Sung-hyun observed them fighting and subtly gauged the situation.
Then he spoke to the viewers.
Hmm.
I’m serious.
Yoo Sung-hyun pondered for a moment with that thought in mind.
Then he spoke quietly, just loud enough for the viewers to hear.
“First, Reaper—that person isn’t fully utilizing their mobility. They’re using their skills well and pushing them to their limits, but it feels like they’re preemptively limiting themselves at crucial moments to avoid overextending.”
Despite Yoo Sung-hyun’s kind explanation, naturally, no viewer understood.
-??????
-What are you talking about?
-Huh??? If we understood that, wouldn’t we all be rankers?
-Lol just go “oh yeah, I see!” and move on lol.
Those chat messages came flooding in because they genuinely had no idea what he meant.
From their perspective, Reaper was clearly performing well.
Because of that, Yoo Sung-hyun continued, sounding slightly frustrated.
“And Kyou? That person is misunderstanding the nature of the lightning attribute and their skill application is still clumsy.”
Even that statement was completely incomprehensible.
Who could possibly say such a thing while watching them engage in combat that seemed straight out of legend?
Certainly not the viewers.
-Lol I seriously have no idea what you’re saying.
-Isn’t that person using lightning really well????
-They don’t understand the lightning attribute well???
-What are you talking about????
-Lollll we’re not the only ones who don’t get it?
-Even the Luna Team is startled hearing the Demon King say that?
-Lol they’re subtly leaning in this way to listen better?
-So cute lollll.
The viewers weren’t the only ones confused.
The Backup Team members, with their keen hearing, all wore bewildered expressions too.
They didn’t understand what Yoo Sung-hyun meant.
Weren’t they performing well right now?
That was exactly the look on their faces.
When Yoo Sung-hyun saw so many people reacting that way,
he wondered if his explanation had been insufficient and decided to demonstrate directly.
And with that,
“Reaper, since that person uses skills involving shadows, if you chain them like this…”
As Yoo Sung-hyun spoke, he vanished like a shadow into darkness.
When he reappeared, he was standing directly behind Kyou.
But unlike when Reaper appeared, Kyou hadn’t sensed even the slightest presence.
And Yoo Sung-hyun lightly poked Kyou’s back once before returning to his original position.
Kyou felt a chill run down his spine and glanced behind him, but Reaper was still standing in front of him.
He turned to look at Reaper with a bewildered expression.
Reaper returned his gaze with an equally bewildered expression.
“…???”
“…???”
Then he looked back toward Yoo Sung-hyun.
“So if you’re going to utilize shadows like this, you can use another shadow skill simultaneously with the movement, and by using a skill with the shadow’s properties, you can achieve concealment while touching your opponent—effectively deceiving their senses.”
“….”
-Wow;;; I have no idea;;;;;
-I seriously don’t understand at all….
-Professor, you’re going too fast….
Yoo Sung-hyun felt a bit frustrated seeing those messages and was about to explain further.
“So in other words…?”
Yoo Sung-hyun quickly sensed a presence behind him and turned his head.
There stood Kyou and Reaper, their eyes gleaming with rapt attention as they stared at him.
And beside them, the entire Backup Team was watching him with the intensity of students preparing to take dictation.
Pride?
Feelings toward the team?
Kyou had cast aside everything he’d been thinking about until now, waiting solely to hear Yoo Sung-hyun’s next word.
Hahahahaha.
-It’s become a cram school.
Hahahaha~ I can’t resist a lecture from a top-tier instructor~
Hahaha, it’s so funny how they’re just sitting there like that while fighting.

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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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