Only My Skill Tooltip Is Strange

Chapter 76

Rising Suspicion.
I realized what this meant right after eliminating Hikari.

‘This kill might have been the trigger.’

Light emanated from my body.
It wasn't a blinding flash, just a soft glow seeping out.

Though the light was faint, it was undeniably an obstruction to stealth.
Judging by the chatroom reactions, it seemed like a serious penalty.

‘They’re trying to kill me?’

I couldn’t help but laugh.
If they were going to consider me an enemy first, I’d actually be grateful.
It would give me a valid reason to fight.

I was actually looking forward to fighting the King of Thieves.
Given his alias, it was highly likely he had poison-related skills.
What would happen if I absorbed his skills based on luck?

‘It’d be nice if he had a skill that reduced poison damage.’

What I lacked right now was defense.
In other words, survival ability.

I needed defensive skills that could withstand a single hit from my opponent.

‘I haven’t gotten any skills related to spell damage or elemental damage. Honestly, I’m a little worried.’

Even though I was causing a ruckus, I was only acting based on the situation.
I was only making moves within the range I could handle.

But what if I got stronger?
Then I could expand that range.

“Hey! There’s a thief over there!”

The light that covered the thief also applied even after the mask was removed.
Once suspicion reached a certain level, a fight became inevitable from the thief’s perspective.

‘The more police there are, the worse the battle becomes…’

Elise and the King of Thieves were likely formidable players on the 5th floor.
They’d be among the top.

Yet, they chose not to eliminate the entire police faction and instead focused on the mission.

‘That means even with their skills, they couldn’t handle the stat advantage.’

All stats increased by 1.
Though it was just +1 in stats, it meant an actual increase of 6.

“Catch him!”

Moreover, the police faction players weren’t holding back.
They wouldn’t hesitate even if they died because they wouldn’t be eliminated.

‘Bait play.’

Disruptions erupted everywhere.
It seemed like Elise and the King of Thieves were also in battle.

“Thief! Let’s see if you can kill me!”

Could they not capture a single police player with their abilities?

‘It’s not that they can’t kill them. It’s that they won’t.’

If they killed a police player recklessly, the entire police faction would become stronger.

“Wow… I guess each faction has its own strategies and tactics. This is fascinating.”

Some police players were chasing me.
Even when I hid inside the building, they instinctively located my position and kept following me.

‘Does the light penetrate walls?’

There’s a cheat called X-ray in some games.
It allows you to see enemies beyond walls, drastically reducing the difficulty of the game.

The police players had X-ray cheats equipped.
For thief players, hiding became nearly impossible.

“Damn it.”

I killed another police officer.
My notoriety and suspicion rose.

My stats didn’t increase.

‘Stats go up in twos, not ones.’

The total number of police players was 50.
Doing the math simply, the last remaining police player would have all their stats increased by 25.

‘Not that high, though.’

What’s the increase in my stats due to survival instinct?
Every stat gets a boost of 50.

But only 25?
It was so small that it made me laugh.

I could eliminate the pursuing police players with even more resolve.

[‘You have killed a ‘police’ player.]
[Your notoriety has increased.]
[Your suspicion has increased.]
[The police player’s stats have increased by 2.]

As expected.

‘It’s only +1 at first. After that, it’ll be +2, +3.’

My smartphone vibrated.
The King of Thieves was especially frantic.

He was complaining about how I hadn’t killed anyone, just incapacitated them, saying I’d messed things up.
Why was he making such a big deal out of it?

[King of Thieves] ? It’s not too late. Stealth is impossible now, but we can still infiltrate.
[Elise] ? King of Thieves is right. We should use this chance to infiltrate together and steal the artifact in one go. I’m sure everyone is confident in their skills, and we won’t be caught by the police players.

They seemed rushed.
They were clearly wary of me messing things up again.

[EarthlingMaster] ? What can I do to help?
[King of Thieves] ? Please just stay still.
[EarthlingMaster] ? I’m part of the thief team too. If there’s anything I can do, I’ll help.
[King of Thieves] ? Staying still is helping. Or, you can just get eliminated and leave the field. If you’re around, too many variables make things tiring.

Seeing him so angry made me feel good.

‘Maybe it’s better to help them out soon.’

Although I had tried to provoke the King of Thieves with trolling, I didn’t actually want to cause their failure.
I was drawn to the reward—the artifact for the mission.

Nobody dislikes something for free.
I was no different.

[‘A ‘police’ player has been killed.]

The police faction’s players began to make their move.
Were they throwing themselves elsewhere? I could hear about more police officers getting killed.

My stats increased.

[The police player’s stats increased by 3.]

Including the previous stat advantage, that’s an increase of 6.
All stats combined, that’s a massive increase of 36.

[King of Thieves] ? There’s a psychic. This is tough. Elise, you need to stick with me here.

The King of Thieves’ request for help.

I could feel who was causing the trouble.

‘If there’s Hikari, then Yuki must also be involved.’

Could Yuki hurt someone?
It seemed like she avoided it on the 3rd floor, but maybe things were different in this mission field.

‘Even if she kills someone, it’s not like they actually die. She might be fine with it.’

Even if the thief faction fails a mission, they don’t die right away.
As much as they fail, clues about them are scattered in the police station, and they’ll die if they get “arrested.”

Three failures are close to the limit.

I didn’t take my eyes off the smartphone to understand what was going on.

[Thief Faction (4/5)]
[Elise] ? The King of Thieves is dead.
[EarthlingMaster] ? He was so weak.
[Elise] ? At least a 7th grade psychic. Ice-elemental. I can’t handle this on my own. Stick with me. High Wizard.
[High Wizard] ? Haha, okay.

The High Wizard also stuck with Elise.
There was no choice but to do so if they wanted to break through the museum and steal the artifact.

‘The glowing is more annoying than I thought.’

The light seeping from my body made stealth impossible.
It forced me into combat, pushing me toward failure.

‘Good lesson learned.’

From now on, I shouldn’t touch the police or the civilians.

I headed toward where Elise was fighting.
On the way, I ran into police players, but it was difficult to incapacitate them without killing them.

“This bastard’s weak!”

A police officer who had been hit by me screamed.

“Do you want to die?”
“Try killing me.”

Even when I revealed my killing intent, my opponent wasn’t scared.
They actually seemed to welcome it and rushed at me.

They knew that if they died, their faction would benefit.

Moreover, the police had no burden about mission failure.

“Do you think I’ll just let you take the artifact?”
“Not happening.”

What they had left was pure selfishness: they wouldn’t let the thief faction get the artifact they wanted.
The ugly, lingering desire to hinder others.

‘Nothing more effective than that.’

By the time they reached the 5th floor, the poison in their bodies was more potent than the poison from the Blood Poisoning Dragon.

I dodged the zombie-like approaching police players.
Their stats had increased, but they couldn’t catch up with me.

“Catch him!”

At best, there were only five.
At least thirty more were inside the museum.

Was Elise facing all of them?

Creeeek-

A chilling sound crawled across the floor.
Looking down, I saw a rat squeaking as it ran off.

‘Bones?’

Should I call it a skeleton mouse?

There were so many undead.
They were charging toward the museum like a wave.

Since they weren’t attacking me, it seemed like one of the thief players was controlling them.
An overwhelming amount of numbers.

“Heh, there’s a Dark Sorcerer!”
“We can’t kill them anyway. Just smash them and chase. We can’t let them escape!”

Ignoring the shouting police players, I entered the museum.
It was already a mess.

‘The King of Thieves really set it up.’

The King of Thieves seemed to be able to control poison freely.
The most effective poison in this situation was the one that could subdue without harming.

Grrr.

A few players and civilians fell into a deep sleep.
There was no injury on their bodies.

I marveled again at the King of Thieves’ abilities.
I had to reconsider the usefulness of his skill.

‘I want that.’

Crash!

I heard a familiar sound from a distance.
I rushed toward it.

There was moisture everywhere.
Traces of ice forming and then melting.

The battle must have been fierce, with shattered glass scattered everywhere.
Ancient artifacts, which seemed to be valuable, were scattered like trash.

None of the artifacts here were what the thief faction was aiming for.

‘3rd floor.’

I could roughly figure out where the flintlock pistol was.
I could sense it.

Elise hadn’t told me any specific plans.
She didn’t have time for that.

But Elise had positioned Yuki in such an obvious way that I knew exactly what she wanted from me.

“Thief!”

The problem was the police players coming in droves.

‘This is fine…’

I quickly activated my survival instincts.