The Player that Can't Level Up

It was an easy battle. They were inside Yoo-Bin’s shell, but Gi-Gyu still had his original form.

On the other hand, the creature in front of him was…

“You’re nothing more than a fragment, so how dare you?!” Gi-Gyu barked. He was furious because a mere fragment had played him. It had Yoo-Bin’s face and body, but it was still just a ball of greed and desire. And it wasn’t even the entire ball, just a fragment.

“Ugh… Don’t you want to save this child?” Asmodeus threatened Gi-Gyu.

This only made Gi-Gyu…

Crack.

It made him even more furious.

Gi-Gyu growled, “I know what I’m doing.”

Asmodeus’s piece was too drained by now, so it had given up on fighting back.

Now…

Fwoosh…

It was time to remove the piece from Yoo-Bin’s shell using Chaos. The grayish Chaos energy materialized in his hand and snaked toward Yoo-Bin to strangle her.

“Ack…” Asmodeus screamed as the grayness seeped into it.

The trouble was…

“Ugh!” Gi-Gyu was also screaming.

***

The battle paused.

“Master!” El shouted, her magic shuddering violently. She could feel the changes in Gi-Gyu and Yoo-Bin and knew immediately that something had happened to them.

“Don’t come in here!” El surrounded herself with an energy shield, which blocked Lou and Soo-Jung. When she felt certain they couldn’t approach her, she ran toward Gi-Gyu.

“Master…” El’s face crumpled. An alarming number of emotions flashed on her face.

Soo-Jung and Lou tried to reach Gi-Gyu too, but the invisible flame barrier prevented them.

Lou mumbled, “What the hell is happening?”

It was apparent why this was happening. Something had to have gone wrong inside Yoo-Bin’s shell. Had things worked out according to their plan, this wouldn’t be happening. Gi-Gyu would have separated the piece and returned like nothing had happened. Well, at least, this was what they had planned for.

Soo-Jung screamed, “Get this shield out of my face!”

“Don’t come near us! I’m going to protect my Master.” El ignored Soo-Jung, busy examining Gi-Gyu.

However, El had no idea what to do. She couldn’t touch him carelessly because his consciousness was inside Yoo-Bin’s shell. His mind was tethered to his body by a thread.

El’s hands trembled. At the moment, she couldn’t even control her own power. If she touched Gi-Gyu the wrong way, she could cause irreversible damage.

“Stupid bitch!” Soo-Jung shouted in frustration, making El turn toward her.

Faces full of worry and frustration, Soo-Jung and Lou were still stuck outside the shield. El looked at Gi-Gyu again and retracted the shield.

“Help me…” El whispered, “Please save Master.”

Her countenance and her emotions were finally calming down.

***

Chaos was strangling Asmodeus with an even greater might. It had gotten so strong that Gi-Gyu could barely control it.

“Ugh,” Gi-Gyu growled as the intense pain thrashed his brain. ‘What the fuck is happening?’

The power of Chaos wasn’t perfect, but Gi-Gyu knew he could use it. He had planned on using a small bit of Chaos to separate the piece from Yoo-Bin.

But…

“Ackkkk!”

This time, Yoo-Bin was the one screaming—Asmodeus’ piece, to be specific—and was about to faint.

The amount of Chaos being injected into it was too much. Gi-Gyu had no idea he could handle this much Chaos; now, he was stuck.

“N-no.” Slowly, he was becoming paralyzed. ‘This isn’t right. I have to separate them and not kill them both. I can’t let Chaos destroy Yoo-Bin’s body.’

If he lost control over Chaos...

‘We’ll both die.’

It was very likely that Chaos would end up killing both Gi-Gyu and Yoo-Bin.

Gi-Gyu focused, putting everything he had to control Chaos. This made him quiver.

Perhaps he should have known better. Such absurd powers had always brought him more trouble than it was worth.

“...”

Gi-Gyu didn’t fight the numbness and gave up on getting his senses back. Instead, he focused only on his mind.

Everything became quiet. He slowly reached out to grasp the tail of the Chaos rope strangling Asmodeus. It was flailing in rage. Caged beasts tended to destroy everything around them if they escaped captivity. Even worse, this was a starved beast.

Gi-Gyu needed to put it back in its cage. He needed to put a leash on it.

Inside Yoo-Bin’s shell, the Gi-Gyu form began sweating. If he failed in stopping this raging beast…

‘That will be the end of me.’

Knowing he might die here, Gi-Gyu targeted Chaos. It was still enraged, but it was slowly obeying Gi-Gyu’s command.

‘I know I already have the power to control this much Chaos.’ Gi-Gyu told himself. His other self, Jupiter, could handle more Chaos than him. All the Chaos that Jupiter used was derived from him.

If Jupiter could do this, then…

‘I can do it too.’

Finally, Chaos began to move according to Gi-Gyu’s will. He was gradually controlling more of it and was absorbed in the process. However, he could still hear Yoo-Bin moan.

“Ugh…”

It seemed that Chaos had loosened its grip around Yoo-Bin a little.

‘Yes, it was working. I can do this.’ Gi-Gyu refused to let his focus waver. He continued his effort to move Chaos away from Yoo-Bin.

He could now see hope.

‘Separate the piece, save Yoo-Bin, and save myself too.’

His original plan had gone astray, but the final result would be the same. At least that was what he thought until Jupiter began interfering

-Not so fast.

***

After studying Gi-Gyu’s condition, Lou mumbled, “I think he used Chaos.”

El stood behind him, her hands still trembling. She wanted to save her master herself, but it wasn’t possible. Her hands were shaking because of her unstable magic.

On top of this…

‘Life isn’t working…’

Why was this happening? Why couldn’t she use Life right now?

El was confused about her own identity, but she knew she had to first work on her composure. She turned toward Gi-Gyu, who was clearly in danger, and wondered if she could do anything for him.

“Snap out of it!” Soo-Jung scolded her. Then, pushing Lou away, Soo-Jung suggested, “Lou, step aside for a moment. I’ll have a look at him. I might be better at dealing with the shells than you.”

Soo-Jung placed her hand on Gi-Gyu and closed her eyes.

Drip.

Suddenly, Soo-Jung’s eyes, nose, and mouth began bleeding. Baal jumped and quickly pulled her away from Gi-Gyu.

“Ugh.” Soo-Jung wiped away the blood and whispered, “This is…”

Lou, El, and Baal waited for Soo-Jung to explain.

Why did she bleed so suddenly? What was happening to Gi-Gyu right now?

“It’s Jupiter… It has descended into Yoo-Bin’s shell,” Soo-Jung muttered.

Lou’s eyes widened. He had failed to sense this, but it appeared that Soo-Jung did.

Eyes filled with despair, Soo-Jung announced, “At this rate, he will eat Gi-Gyu.”

***

‘Jupiter?’ Gi-Gyu couldn’t hide his confusion when he heard Jupiter’s voice in his head. It broke his concentration, and he lost control of Chaos again. He had been close to putting a leash on Chaos, but it was going wild again.

‘Wait, no…’

Gi-Gyu hadn’t lost control because he had lost his focus.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’

Jupiter was somehow interfering. So, apart from materializing here, it was also throwing a wrench in his plans.

‘But how?’

Gi-Gyu became curious. Jupiter's seal was skin-tight, to say the least, and it wasn’t powerful enough to freely appear without Gi-Gyu’s permission. Both Lou and El had confirmed this.

If there were any doubt about this, Gi-Gyu would have never helped Jupiter, including the time he had given it the First Potion. It was assumed that Jupiter couldn’t do as it pleased without Gi-Gyu’s permission for a while longer. It couldn’t even make an appearance unless Gi-Gyu deemed it necessary.

-Why? Did you really think I would obey all of your commands?

Gi-Gyu heard Jupiter’s mocking voice. If you remove the derisive tone, the voice sounded exactly like his own.

‘How did you…? More importantly, why are you doing this?!’ Gi-Gyu screamed at Jupiter. The first thing he needed to know wasn’t the “how” but the “why.”

Why?

Why now of all time?

-Why do you think? It was a great chance for me, so I had no choice but to take it.

Jupiter laughed before adding,

-After all, I created this opportunity.

‘What?’

-You idiot. Do you really think I make mistakes like you? Think about it. Why is there a fragment of Asmodeus inside her? Because I put it there.

‘But why…?’

Gi-Gyu couldn’t figure it out. He had already made preparations in case Jupiter stole his body. He had discussed this with Lou and El, and they had eliminated all possibilities of this ever happening.

Yet, at the moment…

Gi-Gyu had never even considered this a possibility.

-Also, there isn’t just one fragment. There is one inside Shin Yoo-Bin, and one inside me. I left it there when I passed on Asmodeus’s Ego to you. Do you know what that means? With you being a moron and all, I doubt it.

‘Could it be…’

Terminal.

If divided, all beings tried to reattach themselves. Pieces of the same thing always tried to assimilate.

-When you summoned Chaos to remove the fragment inside her, the fragment inside me recognized her fragment. The fragments acknowledged each other and are now trying to assimilate. So, technically, I didn’t come out on my own. Kekeke.

Jupiter’s laugh became darker. He continued,

-Her Asmodeus fragment pulled me out of the seal. Just wait for it. I’ll first absorb it, and then…

Gi-Gyu’s consciousness began to fade away. Vaguely, he heard Jupiter add,

“You are next.”

This time, the voice didn’t ring in his head. It was a natural voice, and it belonged to Shin Yoo-Bin.

***

“I made a mistake. This is my fault.” Lou blamed himself. He continued, “I made the wrong judgment call. I never thought something like this could happen.”

Lou’s face showed how guilty he felt. He felt Gi-Gyu was in danger because of him.

Gi-Gyu had deemed Jupiter a safe weapon because he trusted Lou’s judgment. But in Lou’s defense, he had been certain Jupiter couldn’t take over Gi-Gyu’s body alone. On top of this, they had made a deal, right?

But, all these safeguards were broken now. Jupiter had schemed to steal Gi-Gyu’s body, and…

“There is something wrong with Gi-Gyu’s eyes,” Soo-Jung commented.

“It means Jupiter succeeded. It’s devouring Gi-Gyu’s mind,” Lou replied. It appeared Jupiter was close to getting what he wanted. The Chaos scent from Gi-Gyu was deepening.

Gi-Gyu would lose his body at this rate. So what could they do?

“There is one thing we can do,” Lou said.

Both Soo-Jung and El shouted,

“What is it??”

“Lou!”

“I’ll enter Shin Yoo-Bin’s shell too. And…” Lou reached for Gi-Gyu’s chest as he calmly continued, “I will give my body to Jupiter. This will free Gi-Gyu for a moment. I’ll trap Jupiter in my body, and then you can either put a seal over me or kill me.”

Soo-Jung and El’s faces turned rigid. Lou’s hand was about to touch Gi-Gyu’s chest when suddenly, El grabbed his hand and stopped him.

“Lou, I’ll do it,” El declared.

The black wings on her back, the innocence in her eyes, and the determination on her face created quite a contrast.

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