Only I Am A Reader

"In situations like this, we wait until we spot Aurora before moving into action."

'That's why they rightfully deserve it.'

Even as a veteran reader, Leo always found foresight novels to be confusing. Whether it was a regression novel, a transmigration to a game novel, or anything along these lines, choices were harder than they seemed.

It might be simple to read then, but what if one ended up in the protagonist's shoes?

Armed with knowledge of the future, did it make sense to kill all future threats even before they committed their crimes?

Going even further ahead, if they weren't even future criminals, but were triggers to huge disasters. Was disposing of such innocent people the right choice to make?

Reality never allowed these dilemmas to exist. However, they were dilemmas that Leo had to seriously consider as a True Reader.

If he could finish the main quest by killing an innocent bystander, would he do it?

'I don't have to consider it.'

Thankfully, Leo didn't have to find the answer to that at the moment. The situation he was currently dealing with was much different.

The people that he was about to punish were in the process of committing a crime. In fact, they had been committing crimes for a while already, but this one was particularly heavy.

'It doesn't matter.'

Leo didn't care if they were plot devices that were meant to balance the overpowered Aurora's challenge difficulty. In this world, they were actual people who had made their own choices.

They had to be ready for what was coming to them.

Bang!

Just by listening to his shameless words, Leo couldn't resist punching Ken in the face. It wasn't enough to calm down his irritation, but it was a start.

"Hah…"

Crashing into the wall, Ken used his hand to check his face only to find blood dripping down from his nose. It was broken!

"Why did you do that?!"

Ken shrieked in denial. Was this newbie wrong in the head? He knew that Aurora's random acceptance style would land them a Crazy one day, but he didn't think that it would happen so soon!

It just had to be the guy he decided to befriend!

"What did I do? Why don't you ask yourself?"

The more people that enter, the more stages that were there to clear. At first glance, this Gate seemed like it could only be cleared through solo play. However, that wasn't necessarily the case.

After all, the higher the number of stages, the less difficult they were. Despite the time disadvantage that large numbers suffered from, this Gate was best cleared by a team.

It was just that it had to be a proper one, not a group of opportunistic losers like Ken and the rest!

By sticking to their roles, each and every pair would show their perfect coordination skills to clear more and more challenges as soon as possible before eventually meeting up, manifesting the spirit of teamwork in the strangest way possible.

…Or so things should have been.

"Haaaaahhh? The only thing I did was tell you how to survive! Is this how you repay me?"

Holding onto his broken nose, Ken's expression was hideous. Truly, no one could be trusted!

'When we go out…'

Ken swore to make sure that Leo suffers from 10 times the humiliation that he suffered. As for now, he couldn't really fight back with his barely enhanced body.

Even without using his sword, Leo was already too strong.

"Forget it, it's my fault."

Ken thought that Leo had realized his mistake, but that was far from enough to soothe him. Leo had to…

Bang!

Before Ken could enjoy that moment of superiority, Leo followed in with a second punch to the face.

'It's my fault that I believed someone like you could come to their senses.'

That was how irresponsible these scammers were! The first thought that came to their mind was to wait for Aurora, something that ended up dragging the Gate Clearing process for far too long.

precious time waiting!

Yet somehow, Ken showed no remorse. This supposed Hero hadn't even suggested checking out the place before opting to waste precious time waiting!

Aurora already had a lot on her plate trying to go through over 80 challenges, but now she had to go around collecting the ragtag that her team was.

In addition, meeting them was of no help. Rather, the more people that joined the clearing effort the slower she was. She did have to make sure that no harm would befall them…

This was what it was like to have a group of parasites clinging to you!

'But this is one of the reasons why I'm here.'

If Leo's purpose had been just to clear this Gate as quickly as possible, his actions wouldn't have been this late.

He could have just prevented Aurora's useless team from accompanying her, to begin with. Harder challenges meant nothing to Leo and Aurora.

"What is wrong with you? Are you crazy?"

A qualified Hero would have at least been able to deploy his barrier ability before Leo's punch connected, but Ken's senses were too dull.

Not that it was easy to predict Leo's next move while his mental battle was still ongoing. 𝑏𝑒𝑑𝑛𝘰𝑣𝑒𝘭.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Maybe I am."

However, this was precisely why Leo chose to settle all of this inside the Gate. This was not only a vital part of his attempt to fix the story's ending, but it was also a precious opportunity to teach an important lesson to both Aurora and her scammers.

"Why don't you tell me?"

Blurting out words without any hint of emotion, Leo reversed Shadow Copy, once again revealing Cassian's popularized image.

Since this world gave him the image of a villain, he might as well act like one.

'For convenience's sake.'

"You- You- You!"

Seeing shadows moving on the ground, coupled with Leo's new look, the cat seemed to have gotten Ken's tongue as he kept saying the same thing.

"Yes, me. Now, shall we continue?"

Leo exchanged between opening and closing his fist a few times before he took another step toward Ken.

Since this was just a lesson, Leo wasn't going to kill Ken, but he had to make sure that he would wish for it…