Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 732
Chapter 732: Clown (1)
Back against the wall: a saying that meant one could no longer back away but must take action and fight if they wished to accomplish their goals.
It was a saying I liked. It did hold a certain truth to it, after all.
A person pushed to their limits could accomplish extraordinary things, and not just metaphorically either. When your back was against the wall, you didn’t have to worry about what was behind you and could focus entirely on fighting the enemy at your front.
It was something I could get behind.
And right here and now was a perfect example.
Crunch!
There were enemies I needed to defeat in front of me.
Fwoosh!
And a burning city was to my back.
Thanks to that, there were no signs of enemies behind me. It also meant our escape route was blocked off, but that didn’t matter much to me. I didn’t have even an ounce of desire to run away.
Crunch!
In a sense, that was how Hansu Lee had lived his life. He’d always needed to put up a fight at dead ends because he didn’t have any other choice.
Children’s ward.
He fought with all his might to survive his illness.
Amusement park.
He fought against the pain of abandonment.
My room.
And then, he continued his endless fight against loneliness —a battle without a winner.
“We were born warriors. If we don’t fight, we die.”
Hansu Lee’s life was very similar to that of a barbarian in that way. However, there was a very distinct difference between the two.
“You still haven’t fixed your habit of running away.”
If I had no other choice, I fought—which was another way of saying I always ran away.
If given the choice, I chose to run.
Crunch!
I hated fighting. More than anyone else, I knew just how difficult it could be. Most importantly, there weren’t many things I wanted so badly that I would fight tooth and nail to get them.
Crunch!
Today was an exception.
“Raveeeeeen!” I shouted.
My ally, who had followed along with my moronic plan, immediately began to cast her spells.
[Arua Raven has cast the rank 4 attack magic Water Cannon.]
[Arua Raven has cast the rank 6 support magic Change Properties.]
The flames of the city spread even faster.
Vwoong!
As Astarota followed after me, every swing of his sword created waves of aura, proving why he was the King’s Guard.
“M-monster!”
“Damn it, where did a monster like that come from?!”
It was a one-sided battle, so overwhelmingly skewed in the knight’s favor that the difference in numbers was entirely irrelevant.
It couldn’t be helped, really. This was the kind of world where even a character like the Corpse Collector could be a one-man army.
It goes without saying that he’s skilled, given how he’s the closest to the king.
I was no different. With my more-or-less completed shield barbarian build, I was confident I wouldn’t get trounced no matter who came after me.
We make a good pair too.
Best of all, I didn’t need to worry about protecting the backline.
Boom! Boom!
I charged with rumbling steps like a tank to disrupt their frontline, and Astarota followed me in and minced them like a blender.
“Behel—LAAAA!”
“Don’t get overly excited. Seeing how there is only fodder at the front, the true threats should be at the back,” he scolded under the guise of giving advice.
Come on. He wouldn’t have even said anything if I were the king.
Well, not that he’s wrong…
The ones here were just wasting our time. The real battle hadn’t begun yet.
The Corpse Collector, the Blood Knight, or any other members of Orcules—they hadn’t shown themselves yet.
Crunch!
I needed to use the chance to cover even more ground. Once they finished rallying their side, plowing a path through their ranks would be much harder.
Dash!
I increased my pace.
Crunch! Crunch!
The faster my arms and legs moved, the louder the impacts they made. At some point, however, the enemy combatants began to retreat.
“Fall back!”
“Distance! Keep your distance!”
For every step I took toward them, they took one step back.
Well, I called it taking “a step back,” but it was no different than them turning their backs to us and high-tailing it out of there. We were, after all, running toward them at full speed.
“Aaaack!”
Crunch!
“S-save me!”
Slash!
I eventually lost track of how long I spent crushing the skulls of the straggling soldiers.
Since we’re nearly halfway there…
If we just pulled off what we did a second time, we would be able to enter District 7, the place that was practically my home.
“N-no… No—!”
Crunch!
That was, if I ignored the fact that we had already burned down half of District 8. A sudden question struck me: Had I become the villain? I had burned down all the roads and chased people down to kill them, after all. Still, I didn’t feel all that guilty about it.
For one, in this world, looking at your enemies as “people” was bound to get you killed sooner rather than later.
Zing!
Besides, my rampage didn’t last that long.
A bright light flashed, engulfing us in its rays. It was an immense beam of mana, I realized, lasering in on us from afar.
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis absorbed all damage.]
Thankfully, the beam was smaller than my shield, so I successfully guarded against it.
That didn’t mean I could relax, however. The fact that they sent out their elite members meant that they were now fully prepared to defeat me.
I should get started too, then…
Time to face them at full power.
[You have cast Iron Fortress.]
[You have cast Scales of Greed.]
I activated both Knight Destroyer Mode and Wizard Destroyer Mode just as something like twenty people appeared in front of me. Since this was a game that scaled off of equipment, their outfits were in no way uniform. However, that show of individuality made them feel all the more elite for some reason.
Not to say I was nervous or anything.
“This ends now.”
I spied a very familiar face among the elites. As soon as I saw him, I understood just how powerful the group would be.
“Not even you will be able to face off against all of us, pshe…”
Says the guy who ran away with his tail between his legs while straight up abandoning his ally. Look how confident he seems just because he brought his friends—
“Abed Necrapeto! You fucking bastard!” Lyranne Vivian screamed in anger as soon as she saw him in the crowd.
“P-pshehe… Ms. Vivian, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? It’s good to see you safe and sound! Since I’ve come back to rescue you, you can come over to our—”
“The hell are you saying?! You’re dead meat, you son of a bitch!”
“Pshehe… Am I to take that to mean you’re betraying Orcules and siding with the enemy?”
“You’re the one who betrayed me first!”
“How am I the traitor here? In the end, you didn’t get hurt or die, and I’ve brought the main force here as well.”
“What…” Vivian trailed off, caught off guard. “Sir Yandel! No, Mister! Please, help me kill that bastard! I’ll do everything you tell me to, so…!”
Completely blinded by anger, she started throwing out empty promises without even giving me a second glance.
The Corpse Collector just clicked his tongue at her reaction.
“My my… It seems it’s already too late. Let’s not think about reclaiming the woman who went over to the barbarian and…”
“Raaaaah!”
Unfortunately, if we used volume to judge who kept their cool and won the exchange, Vivian was the clear loser from how loud she was screaming by the end.
However, I couldn’t have my dark magic pawn lose it when we needed to fight together for the time being. I tossed out a few words of my own.
“The jealousy of a small man. What an ugly sight.”
Sure enough, he jumped straight to agitation at my opening lines. “Wha… What? What did you just say…?”
“I said the jealousy of the small man is ugly.”
“Wh-what are you saying?! Th-that was a fight back then, so o-of course I—!”
“I was talking about your height.”
He froze like he’d been given bad directions and wound up taking the wrong turn.
In game terms, his stun bar had filled up.
“Another ugly thing about you is how you make excuses for everything.”
With the final blow dealt, he stood there frozen, unable to say a word.
“Wow…”
Even Vivian, who had been screaming until then, let out an exclamation of awe. The sight of me perfectly dissecting him and his character must have calmed her down.
“No more of that.”
Then, the person who looked to be the enemy commander waved the Corpse Collector to the back and stepped to the front.
Hmm, I hadn’t seen this guy before.
“Bjorn Yandel, your heroic tale will end here,” he declared.
“Huh?”
“But don’t worry. I will inherit the fame and reputation you have amassed until now.”
What the? His appearance gave him the look of someone important, but his way of speaking screamed NPC.
Vwoong!
I smirked and threw a handaxe at him.
“Remember this, the name of the man who will kill you. My name is Nortia—!”
“Oh, so you can block that?” I interjected tauntingly.
“Ugh! Kill him!”
With his perfect entrance ruined, the man gave the order to start the fight.
***
I hope I’ll never be special.
Had there ever been a person who truly desired something like that?
No, there was no way. It was human nature to want to be special, and the little Caucasian American boy was no exception.
From a young age, the boy loved comics, especially those cliche-riddled American cartoons about heroes. However, the characters he loved most were the so-called “villains” who exited the stage after leaving behind a memorable story.
Compared to the heroes who only said what they were supposed to say, who only gained their powers after lucking into them, the boy admired the villains who said whatever they wanted to and caused trouble for the heroes.
He looked up to the villains, but the wall of reality stood even taller.
I am not special.
As the boy grew older, he accepted the ordinary truth that every ordinary person came to realize with age. Then one day, that little boy grew into a man.
I am ordinary.
He’d grown old enough to know that truth would never change, no matter how much he tried.
Or so he believed, until he downloaded the cheat version of the game he gave up on because of its insane difficulty, and then cleared it.
[The transmission will now begin.]
The things he only saw in comics, novels, and movies happened to him.
The world of the game was laid out before his eyes.
Abed Necrapeto.
The ugly and fat man was given a new name.
Here, the man was no longer ordinary. He had information that the NPCs couldn’t know, and a future where he could become even more special awaited him. Even though he was hated for being a so-called “evil spirit,” the man only considered that another thing that made him special.
And in truth, he was special. The man had talent, and he became much stronger and faster than even most evil spirits.
However, that only made him more and more reckless—just like a cartoon villain who could only be satisfied when he got his way.
“Why do you need to die? Because you’re weak!”
“Ah, and I happened to need a corpse as well!”
The man didn’t shy away from anything if it meant he could become stronger, and in the end, that became the shackles that bound him. He was captured, interrogated, and ended up being exposed as an evil spirit.
But then, as he was rotting away, just waiting for the day of his death, he had a fateful encounter.
“You have no place in this city.”
“Follow me, Abed Necrapeto. I will create a world for you to live in.”
Orcules.
A vigilante terrorist organization that was built on the desire to oppose the royal family of the city above.
There was no reason for him to refuse. Even if it weren’t the only path left to him, the organization just looked cool in his eyes.
He followed the captain into the underground city.
“The C-Corpse Collector…!”
Soon enough, he had obtained infamy that far surpassed his previous reputation.
“Pshehe!”
As the days passed, his laughter became louder.
“Why does everyone look so sad? Smile!”
He couldn’t hold back his joy.
Joy at the fact that he was the center of attention wherever he went.
And joy at the fact that his actions alone could cause them to laugh and cry.
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