"...Huff... Huff..."

The mayor bandaged his bleeding hand with a makeshift tourniquet, and then with his other hand, which still had fingers, he grabbed one of the police officers’ pointer weapon.

"Don’t do that. You’ll just get yourself killed."

Leon said with a smile.

"Silence, you evil! I am the mayor, and I have made a promise to protect this city. I will not let you do as you please!"

The mayor screamed, and he suddenly lunged forward—he used Godspeed—moving so quickly that the viewers were completely oblivious to the fact that he was even attacking.

However.

All of the Dead Redemptions could still "see" him with their honed senses and with the help of Godspeed as well.

While Godspeed allowed them to move at insane speeds, it also allowed them to slow down the pace of time around them.

"I told you."

Leon sighed, and he tapped his finger on the hilt of his sword, and suddenly, the mayor’s head exploded.

The gory blood splattered all over the yard.

[=CHAT=]

[KittyMom: What in the world just happened?!]

[RIPerion: At one moment he was standing over there, and as soon as I blinked, his head exploded, and he died...]

[Leviado: Hahahaha, when I saw some of you chat about Seonwoo possibly defeating Leon, I literally laughed. This is who he is. He is the strongest in the entire tower, you fools!]

The viewers were once again reminded why Leon D. Hardt was called the strongest player in all of Black Online.

Everyone agreed for a simple reason, and that was because Leon was simply the most skilled and strongest.

There was a reason why all these other "strongest" of their respective fields joined his Dead Redemption Guild.

"Alright, guys. I think we should get going!"

Leon smiled.

The members of the Dead Redemption walked over the corpses and looked at the messy scene before them.

"Go where?"

Kerr asked.

"To the 57th floor, of course. I think we have caused quite a commotion here, and I don’t think we’re welcomed here anymore."

Leon laughed.

"I’ve found out that the entrance to the tower is at the end of that dungeon, but I haven’t scouted enough to know what monsters are there in the dungeon."

Rasmus said.

"That’s fine. We’ll just get through it."

Leon said, and then he grabbed the camera and made it point straight at his face, and he smiled handsomely.

"That’s the end of the stream, guys. Sorry about that. It was a little shorter stream than I would’ve wanted, but we have to get down to business now.

"Thanks for watching!"

...

Fang Raon watched as the stream ended, and he stayed silent, just sitting on the chair, contemplating things.

’What the hell was that?’

He grabbed his head with a really serious expression on his face as he saw something truly scary.

’First of all, Seonwoo Kim is definitely strong. She is a league above Anna. Her intimidation skill is the highest-level skill that I’ve ever seen.

’From what I know, the max level is 10, so she is not that far away. I can’t even imagine how strong that intimidation of hers would be at max level.

’Truly terrifying.

’And that Leon guy...’

Fang Raon let out a cold breath, and he used the computer mouse and went back on the stream to watch the confrontation between Leon and the mayor.

’I just don’t get it. How was he able to kill all those police officers without moving a muscle? It wasn’t a skill.

’He didn’t do the activation word.

’Could it be... Was that one of the Five Pillars of Power—Reach—per chance?’

Fang Raon wondered.

’But how was he able to use Reach without even pulling his sword from its sheath? Did he just happen to swing the sword so quickly that I was unable to see?’

He thought, and then he rewatched the moment again, but at 0.1 speed, he still could not figure it out.

It looked like Leon just touched the sword hilt, and once he removed his hand from it, the police officers just happened to get cut.

’I thought that there was no way for anyone to be stronger than my big brother, but the world really is a big place.

’I’ve heard of Leon’s name for a while now. He was always called the strongest. By everyone. I guess this is why.’

Fang Raon, out of curiosity, went to the Lagless website and wrote down "Leon D. Hardt" in the search bar.

Tens of thousands of videos of him popped up.

Interviews, stream clips, and even fan-made animations.

’...That’s the one I want to see.’

Fang Raon saw a video of him fighting against a player and quickly clicked on it.

It was recorded by another player. A little shaky, but still managed to capture enough of the fight.

The fight happened during the early days of the Black Online. During the first month. It was why Leon looked quite shaky in the fight.

It was before he was trained by Rock.

However, still, his talent was more than enough to overpower his opponent.

His opponent was Warrior, just like him. And honestly, his opponent was a better swordsman. It was really obvious.

Leon looked amateurish, like he wasn’t even comfortable using the weapon in his hand, but still, for some reason, he was winning!

All of his opponents’ attacks came close, but at the last moment, he always managed to dodge or deflect them.

He was also quick at changing trajectories of his sword swings.

When he noticed that his sword would get blocked, in an instant reaction, he changed the trajectory and managed to graze his opponent.

’Amazing reaction time.’

Fang Raon thought.

The fight ended in Leon’s victory, and the video ended, but the last frame showed the displeasure on his face.

’He isn’t satisfied with just a victory. He is seeking perfection. I guess it is only possible to become the strongest with that kind of mentality.’

Fang Raon thought.

It made him think things, and he once again felt like the pinnacle of strength was so far away from him.

Even someone like Lock and Kerr felt unreachable to him.

’I can’t sleep now.’

He thought.

Then, he picked up a new shirt from the wardrobe, and he put it on, and he took a quick trip to the dojo.

From there, he grabbed a couple of training swords and twirled them around as he made his way to the mirror.

He remembered the days of the dojo.

He always sat on the sidelines while listening to his brothers spar and train with their father.

He was never allowed to take a step on the sparring mat, as it wasn’t the place for the blind, as his father liked to say.

No longer was he blind.

"Whoo..."

Fang Raon moved the swords to the fighting stance, and then he swung them to the front and to the back.

With his left sword, he treated it as a blocking sword, blocking the attacks from invisible enemies, and with his right, he attacked with a flurry of strikes.

Dead. Dead. Dead.

All invisible enemies—fragments of his imagination—all got slayed in an instant, but of course, in a normal fight it wouldn’t be that easy.

’This is nonsense. Why am I training against the weak? I should train against the strongest right away!’

Fang Raon thought.

Then, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and once he opened his eyes, he was face-to-face with Leon D. Hardt.

He was smiling, just like he always was, and he had one hand touching the hilt of his sword, and there was danger to it that made Raon’s heart race with fear.

"I won’t—"

As Raon only opened his mouth, Leon tapped the hilt of his sword with his index finger, and a slash came.

"Ah!"

Fang Raon touched his throat, as he felt like it had just been cut, but once he looked in the mirror, it was still fine.

’If I were facing the real Leon, I would’ve died right here and there. What a terrifying opponent.’

It didn’t matter how much health he had. If he got his head sliced off his shoulders, he would be instantly killed.

It was called the Critical Hit for a reason.

"What to do..."

Fang Raon looked at the two training swords in his hands with great intensity, and he didn’t notice one thing.

The mirror showed that his eyes were turning red for some reason. They then started smoking. A flicker of fire suddenly appeared in them.

"My eyes are itchy..."

Fang Raon rubbed his eyes, and as he turned to the mirror, he noticed that his eyes were smoking really bad!

"What the..."

At that moment, his eyes caught fire, and in fear, Fang Raon released a scream, which caused the fire to shoot out of his eyes!

SWOOSH~!

The fire pierced through the mirror, shattering it into pieces, and it burned straight through the wooden walls like it was nothing.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

He screamed, and the fire beam sliced through the wall and the ceiling like a hot knife through butter.

In that moment, he forcefully closed his eyes, and his eyes were still feeling warm and itchy, but at least the fire beam ended.

He opened his eyes, looked at the destroyed mirror and the burning dojo, and was genuinely shocked to the core.

From the destroyed mirror, he was still able to see his smoky eyes, as they were on fire just moments prior.

"What the hell... Was that Heat Gaze?"