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Chapter 54 - Chapter 54 – Let’s Turn the Tide!

After eating Ruan's rice, Klein's aura surged, exploded, and skyrocketed. His confidence reached an unprecedented high.

In that instant, Klein seemed to see his long-gone parents standing before him, both extending their right fists toward him.

"Then do it for us—become the Masked Fool."

Klein took a deep breath.

As expected of an organization that exists to save the world—its initiation test was insanely difficult.

It was so epic that his blood was boiling… he was almost moved to tears.

He replaced every bullet in his revolver with those purple beads called Eyes of Thunder.Back when he'd been squatting in the corner brooding, Klein had already maxed out the blessing of "The Imperial Star Descends upon the Vault of Heaven."

He casually tossed aside the bullets he'd taken out. They seemed to fall in slow motion.

The Eye of Thunder shot from the barrel, and although Klein didn't know why it didn't explode inside the gun—well, don't ask questions. It's alien technology. Magic.

The phantom soldier caught Klein's first shot as usual—but unlike a normal bullet, the Eye of Thunder exploded the moment it was struck, transforming into a sea of lightning.

Klein pulled back, retreating swiftly while activating his newly gained Echo of Fate. A vortex of swirling colors, dominated by violet, enveloped the phantom soldier.

Instantly, over a dozen negative buffs appeared all over its body.

A second later, the phantom soldier broke through the vortex and charged at Klein, blade swinging down.

Klein didn't even try to block it—he'd already learned from painful experience that even the edge of that light blade could slice objects apart on contact.

He raised his leg in a whip kick, striking the phantom's arm and deflecting the blow. He could feel it—burdened with those negative statuses, the phantom's strength had dropped by at least three-quarters compared to before.

Then, from its unused hand, a beam of light cannoned out. But Klein had expected that—he dropped a charm to the ground, instantly teleporting through flickering flame to the phantom's back, landing a heavy kick right between its shoulders.

The phantom spun and slashed, but Klein again blinked away in a flash of fire, widening the distance.

The phantom stabilized itself with a backward step, casually slicing apart several napkin knives flying its way.

"Crimson."

Klein spoke an ancient Hermes word, activating the Sleep Talisman that had landed earlier. The phantom froze mid-motion.

Right now, his goal was to stall for time.

The blessing of "Nihility" specialized in continuous damage over time—and every so often, it even caused sudden explosions.

And speak of the devil—

The multicolored mist clinging to the phantom's body suddenly swelled. Rays of light flashed across its frame—lightning, wind blades, and even golden and violet glows of unknown nature.

The golden light in particular formed chains, binding the phantom tightly, restraining its movement and lifting it into the air.

The phantom tried to cut the golden chains with its blade—but thanks to all the continuous damage it had accumulated, it triggered the blessing of "Perfect Experience: Silence."

The phantom froze midair.

Klein didn't rush to shoot.

He needed time.

Firing now wouldn't deal much extra damage—and might even help the phantom break free from the ice.

Instead, he kept circling, repositioning himself while flipping open the revolver's chamber, loading another Eye of Thunder into it while the phantom remained trapped.

Firepower-insufficiency-phobia demanded that the gun's magazine must always be full.

The phantom finally broke free and crashed to the ground, charging straight at Klein.

Unfortunately for it, directly in its path were the bullets Klein had tossed earlier.

"Bang."

Klein made a gun shape with his fingers and spoke the sound aloud.

As the phantom passed the bullets, an invisible bullet hit it.

At that instant, the bullets on the ground exploded from beneath its feet—Klein had remotely triggered the gunpowder with his fire control.

Attacked from both front and below, the phantom staggered, losing its balance.

Good chance!

Klein seized the opening and fired another Eye of Thunder—

Boom!

The phantom was blasted backward and slammed into the ground.

A volley of napkin knives followed up, striking the phantom. Though they caused no real harm, each hit triggered several blessings, adding even more debuffs—and freezing it yet again.

Too satisfying!

Klein hadn't had such an exhilarating fight in ages!

This sequence played out several more times, and Klein could feel it—the phantom's body was growing weaker and weaker.

Debuffs like Vulnerability and Weathering didn't fade over time like in games. They only made the target's defense crumble more and more.

After firing the last of his Eyes of Thunder, Klein reloaded once more while the phantom was frozen—this time with the final bullet Sairuis had given him.

A blue bullet.

Seilres had told him:

"When the phantom can no longer resist—use this bullet to end it. You'll be surprised by the result."

Klein didn't really know why the finishing shot had to be this bullet. Surely it wasn't because it was a one-shot kill and they didn't want him using it early?

The bullet looked far too big to fit in the revolver's chamber—but the moment it touched the cylinder, it dissolved into a streak of light and embedded itself within.

Its shape resembled a droplet of water, around which floated strange wisps of pale blue and white vapor, like clouds circling it loosely a few centimeters away, connected only at the tip.

It looked less like ammunition and more like a work of art. When Klein first received it, he was baffled—he couldn't imagine any gun that could actually fire something like that.Or rather… perhaps it wasn't even a bullet at all.

After getting beaten up so many times, it was finally Klein's turn to show off.

"Let's turn the tide!"

Bang!The gun roared. The bullet struck dead center on the phantom's forehead.

The phantom fell. Klein stepped forward to check.

No blood splattered, no head exploded—just a single clean hole through its skull.

"Nice penetration… but not as impressive as I imagined."

Klein's spirituality stirred, leading him to walk about a hundred meters behind where the phantom had fallen—up to the outer wall of the field.

There, roughly at head height corresponding to the phantom's earlier position, was a small hole.

Klein took out a napkin, lit it, and used the flame to peer inside—Still pitch-black, bottomless darkness.

"Hiss… maybe that 'penetration' isn't just good—it's terrifying."

He wondered—if he'd used that bullet from the very start, could he have one-shot it?

"Probably not. That thing can cut bullets, after all."

The ever-confident Klein, who had no idea how right or wrong he was, nodded sagely at his own conclusion.

The phantom's corpse vanished, leaving behind a chest where it fell.

"Whoa, a treasure chest?"

Klein walked up to it, narrowing his eyes.

"...It's not going to be a mimic, right?"

The whole fight had felt exactly like a battle in Soulborne, which made Klein start to suspect that whoever designed this simulation might've been Miyazaki Hidetaka himself.

What? He was just too weak?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

He flipped a coin for a quick divination.

"Should I open the chest?"

For divinations about oneself, the accuracy was always the highest—least likely to be distorted.

The coin fell—heads up.

That meant yes.

Klein stepped forward and opened the treasure chest.

PS: 

This battle scene felt a bit rough—but it makes sense. After all, you can't expect someone with the Blessing of Nihility maxed out to just brute-force everything, right?

(End of Chapter)

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