The Player Who Can't Level Up

Michael sat down, but the tension remained in the room. 

Suddenly, the expression on the stone-faced Ironshield’s face began to change. The initial mild interest turned into fury, resentment, jealousy, and envy. 

“You…” Ironshield whispered in shock, “How did you become so strong?” 

At first, Ironshield believed Gi-Gyu had only become a little stronger. However, as he continued to read Gi-Gyu’s energy, he realized that the one before him was no longer the helpless player he met in the Maze of Heryond. Gi-Gyu’s growth rate was so unbelievable that Ironshield had a hard time believing he was even the same player. 

Gi-Gyu didn’t respond and just glared at Ironshield, who said, “Is it because of the elixir? Or… Did that bitch Lucifer help you?”

Since nothing much was known about what transpired inside the Maze of Heryond, those tidbits piqued the bystanders' interest. But from what Ironshield said just now, it was clear that Gi-Gyu got the elixir. Everyone also realized that Gi-Gyu and the infamous Lucifer had a close relationship. 

Ironshield quickly put his usual blank face on and tried to get Gi-Gyu to talk, but it was useless. All Gi-Gyu did was remain silent and release his power. Sung-Hoon, who was standing behind him, considered trying to stop him. However, Sung-Hoon didn’t dare because he feared Gi-Gyu’s wall of energy would rip him into shreds if he even tried to touch him. 

Tao Chen had no idea what was going on. He only knew that something unpleasant must have happened between Gi-Gyu and Ironshield. Trying to prevent a disaster, he murmured, “Morningstar. Please stop. I admit that everyone here finds that man’s behavior offensive, but this isn’t the place to confront him.” 

Fortunately, Gi-Gyu retrieved some of his energy, and Ironshield’s attache also lightly touched Ironshield’s arm, silently asking him to control himself. Ironshield’s frown deepened, but he walked by Gi-Gyu and sat down on his designated chair. 

“Consider this your lucky day. But this isn’t over,” Ironshield smirked and whispered. 

Rattle!

Gi-Gyu rose from his chair suddenly. 

“Ranker Kim Gi-Gyu!” Sung-Hoon yelled in fear. The situation worsened in a blink of an eye. The interested bystander players also became tense. A single wrong move could lead to a full-blown battle. 

Should they stop Gi-Gyu and Ironshield?

Or should they just watch?

The players contemplated as they murmured among themselves. Just then, Michael grabbed Gi-Gyu’s arm. When Gi-Gyu glared at Michael sharply, Michael shook his head and murmured, “Personally, I don’t want to stop you, but this isn’t the right place. If you do this here, you will be bringing shame to your boss and your country. Control yourself.”

Gi-Gyu didn’t respond. More accurately, he didn’t get the time to respond. 

Creak.

The door opened again, and everyone’s eyes turned toward it. The escort, who brought Gi-Gyu into this room, stood there and asked in a calm voice, “Is Morningstar from Korea present?”

“Right here!” Sung-Hoon raised his hand quickly, taking this chance to ease the tense situation. 

The escort announced, “Morningstar has been requested in the meeting. Immediately.”

Never once in the history of GPA meetings had an attaché been called into the meeting, so Gi-Gyu was kind of creating history, which left everyone speechless. 

Before, the room had a tense atmosphere due to Ironshield and Gi-Gyu’s encounter; now, it was strained for an entirely different reason. 

With their superior instincts, the players could tell that a new era had just begun. 

“Ranker Kim Gi-Gyu,” Sung-Hoon called out pleadingly. 

Thankfully, Gi-Gyu was no longer glaring at Ironshield and had begun walking toward the entrance instead.

Step, step…

Only Gi-Gyu’s footsteps could be heard inside the dead silent room.

Creak.

The moment Gi-Gyu left the room and closed the door behind him, a deep sigh of relief from Sung-Hoon filled the air, “Haa…”

***

“Morningstar has arrived.” The escort went inside the conference room first to announce Gi-Gyu’s arrival. He then turned toward Gi-Gyu and stated, “You can go in now.”

Gi-Gyu’s Egos asked silently.

-Are you all right?

-Master.

-Master…

Since they were connected to him, his Egos could feel Gi-Gyu’s emotions better than anyone. 

Gi-Gyu replied mildly, ‘I’m fine.’

However, he wasn’t fine. ‘It bothers me.’

After his long-awaited confrontation with Ironshield, Gi-Gyu realized, much to his own surprise, that his resentment was more explosive than he anticipated. Also, he still couldn’t figure out how Ironshield could walk normally with just one leg. Of course, there was also the matter of Ironshield’s demon attache.

‘Everything about him bothers me.’ Gi-Gyu couldn’t help feeling this way as he walked into the conference room. But of course, this wasn’t the time to process his feelings and thoughts. He was now inside the conference room where the chief players who ruled the world were present. Completely unaware of why he was called in, Gi-Gyu felt nervous, not scared, because he didn’t want to embarrass Tae-Shik or Korea. 

Gi-Gyu bowed slightly to his audience with a blank look and introduced himself, “I’m Morningstar from Korea.”

“Hmph!” Some players looked at Gi-Gyu with displeasure, seemingly disgruntled with Gi-Gyu’s casual greeting. He looked around the room and saw powerful players from all around the globe watching him. Some watched him with interest, while others seemed tense. From one corner, Tae-Shik was also watching him grimly.  

The man sitting at the head of the table asked, “Morningstar. Do you know why we called you in here?” 

The speaker was the Global Players Association (GPA) head and one of the first five high rankers in history along with Tae-Gu, code-named Blood Emperor. 

"I do not,” Gi-Gyu replied as he looked straight into Blood Emperor’s eyes. The Global Players Association’s president twitched in displeasure but quickly regained his calm. “I have been told you know something about the new exceptional gates.”

Gi-Gyu turned toward Tae-Shik. Because Tae-Shik nodded, Gi-Gyu assumed that he was free to speak. 

“What I know hasn't been confirmed yet.” When Gi-Gyu replied, Blood Emperor nodded and asked, “You can still go ahead.”

“I was present when the first unratable exceptional gate appeared in Gangnam. The second I saw it, I realized something was odd,” Gi-Gyu answered.

“And what was it?” 

“The aftermath of the gate's appearance affected the non-players, but the magic it gave off wasn’t much to note. Therefore, I didn’t expect this gate to have a high grade.” As Gi-Gyu explained, the world leaders listened silently. Then, one Asian player murmured, “But it turned out to be an unratable gate…” 

“That’s right. We couldn’t measure its grade. Well, since it is an exceptional gate, I guess we have a ballpark figure. But my instinct told me otherwise. Something didn’t feel right, so I did further investigation, and…”

“And?” Blood Emperor asked. 

“I’m not sure if you’re in the know, but I believe someone opened these exceptional gates.” When Gi-Gyu finished his sentence, a white-haired Caucasian rose and shouted angrily, “Nonsense!” 

This player had long, messy white hair, and his body was unusually muscular. He continued to yell, “A human controlling the gates? Do you expect us to believe such nonsense?” 

That was a reasonable objection since the world believed no one could control the gates.

Gi-Gyu asked confidently, “How do you know that for sure?”

When Gi-Gyu’s eyes didn’t waver, the white-haired player turned toward Tae-Shik and muttered, “Ha! You must think you’re something, but you are very mistaken. The Korean representative attending this meeting today, your name is Oh Tae-Shik, right? I had high hopes because I heard you’re Asura’s son, but I guess I was wrong. You just brought an insolent little pup here today.” 

Returning to Gi-Gyu, the white-haired man continued, “We know things that a rookie ranker like you can’t even dream of. The history and the battles we made and witnessed are proof that no human can control the gates. And that wouldn’t change just because you said so.” 

The white-haired man clicked his tongue in disapproval. 

‘Well, I, for one, can control these gates you speak of.’ Gi-Gyu smirked secretly, but he didn’t say anything. For now, Gi-Gyu wanted to keep his ability a secret. He believed that someday, this ability would become a vital weapon. 

Instead of telling the players about his ability, Gi-Gyu announced, “Unique ability.”

“...?”

“Do you know the unique abilities of every single player in the world? You must all know how absurd and impossible these abilities are, but they are all real. So, I believe it’s logical to consider that someone in the world may have the ability to control the gates.” When Gi-Gyu suggested, the white-haired stammered, “H-how dare you!” 

The white-haired player was ready to scream when someone interrupted him. 

Blood Emperor said, “Stop. Zeus, have a seat. What this young player speaks of is plausible.” 

The white-haired man, code-named Zeus and the European Union Players Association (EPU) head, became quiet. Gi-Gyu assumed this man belonged to the same association as Athena and Artemis. 

Blood Emperor turned toward Gi-Gyu and continued, “I think it’s possible. There could be a player out there who has such power. After all, no one here knows all the unique abilities in the worl—”

Gi-Gyu suddenly interrupted Blood Emperor, “And”—he looked at the players with a grin—“When did I ever say the perpetrator was a human?” 

“What?!” Everyone in the room except Tae-Shik began to murmur in shock. When Gi-Gyu turned, he saw that Tae-Shik looked as calm as ever. It was a silent permission from Tae-Shik for Gi-Gyu to speak his mind. 

Gi-Gyu inhaled deeply and added, “After all, didn’t Zeus say that the players here know things a rookie like me doesn't?”

Zeus glared at Gi-Gyu, who refused to back down. His back straight, Gi-Gyu continued, “It was a demon.”

“A demon!” one of the leaders shouted in shock.

“De…!” another player gasped. 

The room was swept by an uncomfortable silence. Gi-Gyu murmured, “I believe a demon opened these exceptional gates. And I believe this demon had help. It wouldn’t surprise me if one or more of these helpers were humans.”

The room became dead silent. It seemed everyone was deep in their thoughts. Finally, Blood Emperor ended the silence. 

“How do you know t-this?” Blood Emperor’s voice trembled a little.  Gi-Gyu wondered if it was because he was shocked to learn that a demon opened an exceptional gate.

‘Or is he surprised that I know about this?’ Gi-Gyu asked himself. It was clear that Blood Emperor knew about the demons. In fact, everyone here knew about the existence of demons. 

What confused Gi-Gyu was that Blood Emperor brought Ironshield here, whose attache was a demon. The irony of this situation was astounding. Could it be that Blood Emperor didn’t even recognize that Ironshield's attache was a demon? 

But Gi-Gyu and Michael could sense it the moment they saw him. So how could Blood Emperor, someone as powerful as Lee Sun-Ho, not know? 

‘Nonsense.’ 

Gi-Gyu didn’t doubt whether Blood Emperor knew about the creature Ironshield brought. He knew, but he kept quiet about it. 

But why?

He had many questions, but he didn’t ask anything. Instead, he smiled and answered, “It’s my unique ability.”

“...” 

No one could question Gi-Gyu with such an answer.