The lead soldier stepped fully into the center of the living room, his calloused hand resting heavily on the hilt of his weapon as his gaze drifted over to me.
"Enough of this pathetic melodrama," he growled impatiently, his face twisting into a scowl. "We're taking you with us right now, whether you like it or not, peasant." His eyes flicked to Lilia, a cruel, predatory smile spreading across his lips.
Then he looked back at me. "And if you dare to get in our way, well... killing a disgraced and useless ex-general son will just be a massive bonus for our pockets. Hahahah"
The other six soldiers chuckled loudly, their eyes gleaming with the anticipation of an easy slaughter.
"Wait, the main story campaign shouldn't even have started yet, I calculated rapidly. In the original story, didn't the Antagonist just need to hand her over to them, leading to her capture and eventual enslavement?"
[Master is experiencing a crisis]
[Calculating the best course of action to solve the problem]
[Analysis Complete]
[There are two options:]
[1. Allow the princess to be taken by the imperials. (Survival chance: 20%)]
[2. Obtain a random Unique Skill with 100 Points to fight the soldiers. (Survival chance: 80%)]
Huh!? Who said that? I thought someone had spoken, but as I looked around at the crowd, I realized the voice was echoing inside my own head.
What the hell was that? A unique skill? Don't tell me it's a skill like in that game!?
I look at the soldier in front of me and at the crying princess behind. Then i though again.
I'll still die even if the princess gets captured? No guide ever mentioned a forced battle here before! Not even the online strategy guidebooks I memorized back home!
A body with physical ability at D-Rank fighting an elite soldier!? Are you joking right now!?
"Dammit, if it's like this, then it's do or die!"
I cracked my neck, letting my vision lock onto the lead soldier's stance.
I knew it sounded crazy, but I could hear a voice from moments ago telling me how to escape this situation, along with my chances of survival.
If the game mechanics and the hidden development path of this avatar still functioned just like the ones I knew, then I might still have a winning condition.
"Get Unique Skill."
[Unique skill roll activated]
[Unique Skill Acquired]
[All Status Up (10x): Increases the owner's status tenfold for ten minutes. Drawback: EXP acquired -10x]
Great!! I got the legendary skill that I used to have!!!
Wait...WTF!? Minus ten times!? It was not having that side effect before, though!? You don't want me to level up or what!?
But that status up... Ugh...
Guess it's better than dying here.
Put the issue of the negative EXP aside for a moment. Right now, I have the chance to smash their heads in, one by one.
As the vocal command left my lips, a sharp, semi-transparent blue interface screen flickered directly in front of my eyes, rewriting my baseline values in real-time.
===================== [ STATUS WINDOW ] =====================
Name: Landra Aurelius
Level: 8
Active Spell: [Status Up (10x)]
Attributes:
Strength: 11 -> 110 (Physical Power)
Agility: 14 -> 140 (Speed)
Vitality: 12 -> 120 (Life Points)
Intelligence: 69 -> 690 (Mana Capacity)
Dexterity: 8 -> 80 (Accuracy)
Luck: 7 -> 70
Mana: 50/690 -> 500/6900 (Temporarily Amplified)
=============================================================
[SYSTEM WARNING: Severe physical strain detected. Prolonged usage beyond 10 minutes will result in severe consequences.]
An immense, explosive power immediately coursed through my veins, pushing my low D-Rank physical limits straight into the A-Rank realm—nearly reaching S-Rank in certain aspects.
Whoohooo, look at those numbers! Except that 69 i don't want to explain, all the others are crazy! You bastard better be prepared!! One hella mosters coming right at you!!
This was it. The legendary glitch skills that only one person in my previous world had ever discovered.
My close friend was the one to stumble upon it by pure chance when the game was newly launched, utilizing it on the Hero character. But two years ago, he tragically passed away from a severe illness, leaving the game behind long before future updates, expansion packs, or hidden story arcs were ever released.
He never got to see the dark turns this world would take.
After he died, I became the second person to master the glitch—and the only maniac who ever applied it to the only second character with immense mana that can use it, Landra.
The developers had created Landra as a twisted joke: a swordsman with a monstrous 690 Mana pool at level 8, but with completely trash stats and absolutely zero magic skills to use it.
The community hated him for being a useless "troll" character. But they didn't account for this specific Lost Skill.
You can even slay a dragon if you get a hand of this skill with the right characters.
It required a staggering 650 Mana to activate, which would leave any regular low-level character either completely drained or unconscious. For Landra in the game, it left him with exactly 40 Mana and few options to use basic skills one or two times. But in this world, that was where the game's math broke.
Alright then. If this is the only way forward, get ready to taste the wrath of the man who held the title of Speedrunner in his previous life.
The lead soldier's smug grin instantly faded as I spoke, replaced by a sudden flicker of uncertainty. He glanced back at his comrades, clearly reconsidering the situation as the atmosphere in the room grew suffocatingly heavy.
"A lazy, failed son of a late general wants to retaliate, huh?" he muttered, tightening his grip on his sword. "We'll see about that. Kill him!"
With a synchronized nod from their leader, the soldiers surged forward as one, drawing their blades and charging directly at me with a chorus of fierce battle cries.
But the moment they collided with my calculated movements, their confidence instantly shattered into pure dismay.
Every single attack they threw was effortlessly avoided by my fluid maneuvers. I saw all their strikes in slow motion, as if the flow of time itself had stopped around me.
Moving like a ghost, I forcefully slammed my palm into the throat of the nearest attacker, instantly taking him down with a crushing windpipe strike.
Before his body could hit the floor, I smoothly snatched the steel sword right out of his gripping fingers.
"Clang!"
"Spurt! Spurt"
Spinning on my heel, I unleashed a devastating arc, slashing through two more soldiers simultaneously while perfectly parrying a barrage of incoming strikes from the side.
This was the efficiency of a pro speedrunner, combined with crazy, powered-up stats.
For the next ten minutes, not a single soul in this old, abandoned mansion would get to touch even a single hair on my head.