Only My Skill Tooltip Is Strange

Chapter 74

There’s no penalty for mission failure.

Well, there is one, but it’s not something to worry about.

‘They say up to three times is fine, so this time, I can afford to try something a little more challenging.’

Of course, I wouldn’t try something I couldn’t afford to fail at.

I wasn’t looking to lose on purpose.

Who would want to fail, even if I had the chance?

I only have three chances too.

I wasn’t about to throw away the little chance I had.

‘I’ll make it count.’

What I’ve done so far is just the groundwork to make it count.

I’d call it my own strategy to gather as much information as possible.

Of course, the others might see it differently.

But I wasn’t going to show any loyalty to strangers I didn’t even know.

Whooo—.

My phone kept vibrating.

I could feel it was being sent with quite a bit of anger.

I didn’t need to check to know what was coming.

I ignored the messages and didn’t look at them.

‘...Killing a police player brings extra penalties, huh?’@@@@

Increased notoriety, heightened suspicion.

What effects would that have?

It was easy enough to check.

“He looks scary.”

“Tsk, don’t point your finger like that.”

The notoriety makes ordinary NPC citizens keep their distance from me.

People who could be considered NPCs, ordinary citizens, started to move away from me.

‘The higher the notoriety, the more extreme the reactions around me, huh?’

Even if I took off my mask, the effects didn’t change.

Standing there without it, people still looked at me with distrust.

‘But it’s not that bad.’

At this level, it was hard to notice.

Killing a single police player didn’t amount to much.

So, what about the increased suspicion?

Nothing obvious immediately, but I had an idea.

‘This must be an advantage for the police players.’

Notoriety and suspicion are penalties for the thief who commits murder.

Looking at it from that perspective, the answer was more or less clear.

‘If I’m a thief, then I should act like one. Don’t try to overpower them, just steal quietly.’

It was absurd.

Whooo—. Whooo—.

The vibrations continued.

If they kept ignoring me, I would’ve stopped, but King of Thieves’ pride was relentless.

‘King of Thieves. Is he orthodox or unorthodox?’

I could get a rough idea of his nature from the name alone.

Having learned a bit about martial artists, I could make a shallow guess.

‘Poison is unorthodox, but "King" sounds orthodox.’

I had heard some basics of martial arts knowledge from Kim Min-seong.

That was around four months ago.

Honestly, I couldn’t remember much.

I had forgotten all of it.

So, I couldn’t be sure what sect he belonged to.

The only sect I knew was Eun Seoryeong’s Jeomchang sect.

At least, I had the Sail Sword technique to mimic.

[King of Thieves] ─ Enough. I’ll forgive your rudeness, but don’t create any more variables.

[Elise] ─ We need to work together. Charging forward recklessly isn’t the way to go. If suspicion gets too high, we won’t even be able to enter the museum.

[King of Thieves] ─ This damn bastard is ignoring our letters. What the hell is he doing? Does he think he can handle the aftermath?

It was noisy.

[EarthlingJJMan] ─ Haha.

[EarthlingJJMan] ─ Killing one cop, nothing happened.

I had only assassinated one police player.

The Blinding Poison Needle was the most reliable assassination method.

[King of Thieves] ─ Crazy bastard. It’s a miracle you only killed one cop. The more people you kill, the more suspicion rises. Don’t you understand what that means?

[EarthlingJJMan] ─ I didn’t know, or I wouldn’t have done it. You idiot. Haha.

Would I have done it if I knew the consequences?

“What an absurd guy.”

I waited for King of Thieves’ response.

But no reply came.

The opposite of the police faction.

From the outside, they seemed so weak.

But they were stronger than anyone.

Only those confident in their abilities would dare to take on the highest difficulty missions in the thief faction.

Weak players couldn’t even think about attempting it.

Unless they were an anomaly like me.

“...Two uncontrollable ones.”

King of Thieves clicked his tongue.

Left alone with Elise, he seemed to let out his true feelings.

“Elise. Do you know what this EarthlingJJMan guy is doing?”

His slanted eyes, thin cheeks, and protruding cheekbones gave him a vicious look.

His face immediately felt off-putting.

Even Elise was cautious at first, his sharp looks were enough to make anyone wary.

“He’s a new player who just arrived today. I don’t know him, why would I?”

“Is that so?”

King of Thieves didn’t really expect Elise to know him.

He was asking because he was that angry.

“...Don’t kill him if you can. I know that killing a thief player doesn’t affect the mission, but still.”

“Hmph. Don’t tell me what to do. Do you think I need a reason to listen to you? You’re the one who said we should just focus on the mission equally.”

Elise nodded as if acknowledging.

“Yeah, I did. But the thing is...”

Her expression darkened.

It seemed like she was thinking about all the things King of Thieves had done.

“You’ve killed thief players. No one wants to apply for the mission now.”

King of Thieves’ reputation had spread among the thieves.

For missions with difficult difficulty, it was better to avoid applying at all.

Because if you’re not careful, you could end up being killed by another thief, not the police.

And so, they were struggling to recruit team members.

No one was applying.

Without enough members, the mission couldn’t proceed.

Elise was getting frustrated.

King of Thieves clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“The guys who heard my reputation are no use. Those guys, if we team up with them, I’ll die of a stroke before the mission’s even done.”

Reputation was something I was familiar with.

In the martial world, a name is strength, and rumors that make you seem strong are always welcomed.

King of Thieves had the ability to turn those rumors into reality.

There was no reason to refuse.

But in the Tower of Struggle, he had met too many stronger players than himself.

“...Heh, heh. It doesn’t matter who applies. We’ve got four people, that’s enough.”

For instance, the man squatting in the corner from the middle realm.

Even King of Thieves, who never thought of himself as handsome, couldn’t help but think he might be handsome compared to that guy.

King of Thieves frowned and turned his head toward the sound.

“Hehe. See? Four of us is enough.”

King of Thieves didn’t like him.

Even though he had a reputation for being a troublemaker, he still had his limits.

And in his opinion, the man he was with was crazy.

How could he look favorably on someone carrying around a zombie-like corpse?

‘Even the Mad Dogs aren’t like that.’

What was even more chilling was that the corpse was treated as a player.

‘Turning another player into a zombie like that.’

I didn’t want to get any closer.

If it weren’t for the mission, I’d have nothing to do with them.

Even the poison-master couldn’t handle the madness that was in the man.

“...Let’s call him, then.”

“If you promise not to fight.”

“Do you think I’m that foolish? I won’t do anything to mess it up. I’ve got a plan.”

“......”

With King of Thieves’ resolute words, Elise didn’t voice what she wanted to say.

“He’s probably not far. If you tell me the location, I’ll find him soon.”

But no matter how long we waited, EarthlingJJMan didn’t show up.

Instead, an incident occurred.

Whooo—.

[The ‘Police’ has been killed.]

[Notoriety increased.]

[Suspicion increased.]

[Police player’s stats increased by 1.]

“EarthlingJJMan? This damn bastard...”

King of Thieves gritted his teeth.