I Became an Illegal Cheat User – Chapter 138

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Firearms Expert.

Battle Priest’s Holy Aura.

One to enhance the power of guns, firearms.

The other to enhance the power of holy power itself.

Purchasing the two talents had been an excellent choice.

Ah, some might be puzzled.

That I, who was neither devout nor baptized, obtained a holy power talent.

After all, unlike mana, which could be acquired later in life, holy power had to be innate.

But that didn’t apply to me.

Flare!

A white flame, Holy Flame, ignited in my hand.

The manifestation of holy power, something only priests, especially battle priests, could do.

And I was doing it.

How?

With the System’s power.

The simplified status window in the bottom right corner of my vision.

It displayed the amount of holy power I currently possessed.

As shown in the status window, the original amount of holy power I possessed was 75.

But due to the restrictions of this alternate world, it had been reduced by 20%, and it indicated that I could only use 60 holy power.

For your information, the plus value next to the number was from one of the effects of the weapon I was currently using, Astra, “All Stats +.”

‘Including the additional stats from Astra, it’s a total of 110.’

According to the Insight skill, it was mid-rank.

Barely above low-rank, a beginner’s level.

Simply put, a rookie.

A rookie just learning to utilize their power.

Of course, that was just an example, I wasn’t a rookie.

Flare, flare!

Holy Flame blazed fiercely, as if to incinerate everything.

But only for a moment. The flame’s intensity decreased rapidly according to my will.

And not long after…

Flicker…

The Holy Flame, its intensity reduced to the point of barely maintaining its form, covered my hand and gun like a coating on paper.

An astonishing level of delicate control.

Even though I was the one doing it, I was impressed.

‘At this rate… I’m better than most priests, aren’t I?’

Of course, excluding Saintess Gloria, Saint Noah, and Cardinal Remilia.

Those three, beloved by God, the authorities on holy power.

Anyway.

The reason I was so proficient in controlling holy power, not mana, was because of the weapon I had used while fighting Greed during the Duel Season.

Ascalon.

The dragon-slaying sword used by Saint George, a Christian saint.

Although it wasn’t the genuine article, but a replica created by Astra’s Imitation ability…

Perhaps because I had been exposed to, and used, the immense holy power contained within that replica…

Even after defeating Greed and my stats returning to normal, the purity and control I had gained while using the sword remained.

It seemed the numerical value hadn’t increased, but the flow of holy power, like a channel, had widened.

So, when purchasing talents this time, I had thought, since it’s like this, why not get a holy power-related talent?

So, along with the talent that enhanced the power of my main weapon, firearms, I purchased…

Increased Holy Flame damage.

Reduced holy power consumption.

And various other effects I hadn’t confirmed yet.

Battle Priest’s Holy Aura.

A perfect talent for me, who was already familiar with controlling holy power, but lacked a large amount of holy power itself.

Rumble, Crash, Bang, Bang!

I pulled the trigger.

Continuously, without rest.

Each time I did, a flash of mixed blue and white light, accompanied by a thunderous roar, shot out from the muzzle coated in Holy Flame.

“Yu-jin…”

“Lee Yu-jin-nim…”

Voices calling my name.

Bang! Bang, Bang, Bang!

But they were immediately drowned out by the sound of exploding bombs.

And at the same time, monsters’ heads exploded everywhere.

Monsters disguised as Lee Seo-yeon, and now even as Arthur and Noah.

Thud, thud.

Gurgle, gurgle.

The headless bodies of the monsters, collapsed on the floor, melted away.

Purple mud monsters.

The monsters, reverting to their original forms, hidden beneath their disguises, unable to regenerate, melted and seeped into the ground.

The increased power from purchasing the talents.

And holy power, fatal to demonic attributes.

The synergy between the two inflicted severe damage, exceeding the monsters’ unique regenerative abilities, preventing them from recovering.

In other words, the damage the monsters were currently taking was instantly fatal.

Perhaps because of that…

…as if realizing that their disguises were ineffective against me, and that they could no longer withstand the damage…

Splash, splash.

…the monsters approached in their original forms, as flowing mud, without even bothering to disguise themselves.

“Disgusting bastards.”

I frowned and looked around.

The squelching sounds coming from all directions.

The purple mud monsters filling my vision.

They were truly repulsive.

But even more disgusting was…

“Yu-jin, Yu-jin, Yu-jin…”

“Lee Yu-jin-nim, Lee Yu-jin-nim, Lee Yu-jin… nim.”

…that they were still mimicking my friends’ voices, even after giving up on their disguises.

And those voices were becoming increasingly distorted, sharp like a beast scratching its vocal cords.

I found their appearance and behavior disgusting, and…

“…Terra, withdraw.”

…extremely unpleasant.

“Yes, Master.”

At my command, the maids nodded.

And at the same time, they swiftly kicked away the monsters they had been slashing with their blades, and those nearby.

And then, they immediately opened their inventories and entered them.

Execution of orders without a moment’s hesitation.

Anyone watching them carry out orders even with enemies swarming would have been bewildered, but from my perspective, the one giving the orders, it was nothing special.

Rather, I was satisfied with the convenience of not having to explain the reasons, since they could read my mind.

[Master, withdrawal complete.]

I nodded at Terra’s message. And I scanned my surroundings.

Monsters were swarming.

Straight towards me.

“Yu-jinYu-jinYu-jinYu-jin.”

“LeeYu-jin-nimLeeYu-jin-nimLeeYu-jin-nim.”

The monsters filled the gap created by the maids’ withdrawal. And plop, plop, they extended their mud-like hands towards me, calling my name in unpleasant, disgusting voices.

Just as the hand of the closest monster was about to reach me…

Grab!

…I reached out first.

I grabbed the repulsive, squishy head of the monster.

And just like that…

Crush!

…I clenched my hand.

At that action, the mud-like head of the monster lost its shape and was crushed.

But perhaps because it wasn’t fatal damage, like from a Holy Bullet…

Gurgle.

…the monster tried to regenerate its head with its unique regenerative ability.

‘No way.’

There was no way I would just watch.

Flare!

I activated holy power.

I manifested Holy Flame on the hand gripping the monster’s head.

“…Screech—!”

The monster, its head on fire, let out a chilling scream that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

But the monster’s scream didn’t last long.

Flare!

The Holy Flame burning the monster’s head incinerated its entire body.

“……”

I shook my hand.

The ashes of what was once a monster scattered.

‘I only burned one monster…’

The holy power, which had been over 90% just a few seconds ago was halved the moment I used Holy Flame directly, not through a gun, even with the 40% reduced consumption effect applied.

‘…Seeing how much it consumes, it seems to be even greater than mana consumption.’

One of the Death Fog’s special properties, doubled mana consumption.

I had thought holy power consumption would be the same…

But after using holy power, it seemed I was mistaken.

Or rather, not entirely, but half.

‘When firing a gun coated in Holy Flame, the consumption is the same as mana.’

When attacking directly with Holy Flame, the consumption was about four times higher, but currently, with the gun coated, it was only twice as high.

Of course, since my holy power was much less than my mana, even double consumption wasn’t insignificant. But I thought it was manageable.

It was better to consume it continuously, albeit quickly, than to consume it all at once in this situation.

‘Activate Injector 5.’

Whoosh.

Along with the whirring of the device, I felt a prick in my waist.

At the same time, a cool, yet warm liquid flowed into my body from the needle that had pierced my skin.

I felt revitalized, and my depleted holy power began to rapidly recover.

Golden Apple (S).

Remilia’s Special Holy Water (A).

Divine medicine and elixir.

The effect of the extract created by combining the two items was truly remarkable.

Continuous health and stamina regeneration from the Golden Apple.

Continuous holy power regeneration from the Special Holy Water.

And various resistance buffs as well.

Although I had simply blended them with a mixer, not using alchemy, for recovery purposes… it was probably one of the top three recovery potions in the world.

‘If I could add mana recovery, it would practically be an elixir.’

Mana potions reacted negatively with the Special Holy Water, or more precisely, with holy power.

I had wondered if the ingredients were the problem, so I tried mixing only the mana-related ingredients after decomposing mana potions, but…

‘…even that didn’t work.’

They still clashed with the holy power and didn’t harmonize.

Since there were no such recipes or cheats to create infinite items in the game, I couldn’t figure out the cause.

So, I gave up for now. And I thought I’d resolve the issue later when I met Midas, who possessed a Rank S alchemy talent.

Anyway…

Thinking it would practically be an elixir was just a wishful complaint.

Elixir.

Commonly known as a heavenly treasure.

The greatest potion after “Styx’s Breath,” which could even revive the recently deceased.

Recovery from all status ailments.

Instant and continuous recovery of health, stamina, mana, and holy power.

Doubled all stats and resistances for one hour.

And various other buffs and permanent stat increases.

How could a simple recovery potion compare to such a remarkable potion?

Ah, there was one similarity.

The recovery amount.

The final recovery amount of the potion I had just used and the instant recovery amount of an elixir were similar.

Other than that… well, the elixir was overwhelmingly superior.

Thinking that, I transferred an item from my inventory into the air.

It was a small potion, containing a platinum-colored liquid, shimmering beautifully, with a sharp syringe attached.

That’s right.

What I had just transferred was the potion I had just used.

A cartridge for the Potion Auto-Injector (A), a mixture of Golden Apple and holy water.

So, why did I transfer it?

It was for an experiment, to confirm something.

I watched the potion falling through the air. And reacting and responding to the killing intent detected by Sniper’s Sharp Sense (A+), I counted inwardly.

‘One second.’

Crack.

I saw cracks, like spiderwebs, appearing on the potion bottle.

‘Two seconds.’

Shatter.

The bottle broke.

‘Three seconds.’

Sizzle!

The potion, exposed to the Death Qi as the bottle broke, evaporated instantly.

‘Three seconds. Three seconds…’

I mused, shooting down the monsters swarming around me, trying to engulf me in Death Qi-filled mud.

‘Not bad.’

Three seconds until the potion vanished.

A very short time to open the bottle cap, consume it, and have the potion reach the stomach.

But what if I didn’t ingest it orally?

What if I could obtain the effects instantly, within one second?

‘I don’t have to worry about the potions.’

I had been worried about conserving potions due to the special properties of this region, the Death Fog, but…

Three seconds… well…

If I activated the Potion Auto-Injector as soon as I transferred a cartridge, the potion would be injected into my body before the bottle even broke, and the effects would manifest immediately.

As soon as I had that thought, I stopped holding back.

First, I transformed Astra.

Clang, clang!

The transformation I had performed while breaking through the onslaught of monsters and Fallen with my classmates during the Duel Season.

Missile ports appeared on both shoulders of the activated armor.

Eight missile ports on each shoulder, equipped with Thunderbolt muzzles without handles, were enveloped in Holy Flame.

Crackle, crackle!

Lightning coursed through the armor.

The effects of “Lightning (B)” and “Paralysis (B)” inherent in Thunderbolt manifested externally.

I raised my hand.

With Astra’s transformation, my hand was empty. So, I transformed one of the ten Aegis rings I was wearing on my fingers inside the armor into a shield.

And as soon as I gripped the shield, I activated holy power.

Flare!

I coated it with Holy Flame.

‘Now, with this…’

I activated mana.

I used the skill, Telekinesis, on the Holy Flame covering the shield.

Telekinesis on Holy Flame.

Literally, a coating upon a coating.

‘With this, the Holy Flame won’t directly touch the monsters.’

I could fully benefit from the Battle Priest’s Holy Aura effect while reducing holy power consumption from four times to twice.

Of course, in exchange for the reduced holy power consumption, mana consumption would increase significantly.

Since I would be continuously using Telekinesis, as well as Transfer to resupply bullets and potions.

But this method was much more efficient than having the Holy Flame directly touch the monsters.

I had much more mana than holy power.

And the potions to recover mana were infinite.

[Only Master is capable of such a method.]

Stating the obvious.

‘I can only use this method because I have cheats. I wouldn’t even consider it otherwise.’

I chuckled and spun my body. And with the momentum of the spin, I swung the arm holding the shield.

Bang!

Along with a loud noise, I felt a heavy impact on the shield.

At the same time, the monster that had been approaching me was thrown back into the air.

Rumble, Crash!

And the muzzles on my shoulders fired flashes of light towards the monster.

Bang!

The monster’s head exploded.

It melted away before even touching the ground.

Seeing that, I activated the injector containing the mana potion.

“Phew.”

I exhaled deeply.

Feeling my mana rapidly recovering, I clenched my empty hand tightly.

And when my mana had recovered to some extent…

Bang!

…I kicked off the ground.

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