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The skill Lanpeach used was [Masquerade] Level 2.

The skill to deceive the cognition of others that he obtained by suing his remaining 3,000 EXP. +2 Mind every level.

He can’t hide himself like with Stealth, and can’t change his appearance freely like with Disguise.

Its effect is to not let the other party recognize you. That’s all there is to it, but it can deceive even cameras. It is an outstanding skill that won’t reveal you unless Uncover is used on you.

It is a skill he used when getting into stealing. He would get beaten up and thrown into a cell when found, so there wasn’t much meaning to it though.

His way of speaking is simply the taste of Libra.

He had a talk with Libra and this was the ‘mysterious person’ that she invented.

The reality is that he is simply wearing a black long coat and black jersey which is an outfit like that of an old man that’s going out to a convenience store for a bit.

But Krita, who doesn’t have Uncover, saw this as armor he has never seen before, and was completely deceived.

By the way, he went with a jersey because, in the case Masquerade didn’t work, Krita would laugh. He wanted a reaction that was easy to understand.

[Hm? Isn’t he a bit too weak? He should be level 5.] (Libra)

[Krita: Level 5.]

Libra looked at the giant Krita who was thrown and tilted her head in wonder.

It is true that a level 5 wouldn’t be thrown so easily, but Lanpeach knew the reason.

[Krita’s Spirit Armor, Spriggan, is comparable to level 5. It is a rare armor that can use both Appraise and Spriggan Mode after all.] (Lanpeach)

Lanpeach slowly walked out from the armored bus that’s pretty much settled to be scrapped with a big hole opened on its rear, and observed Krita.

He has been feeling something off this whole time since his battle against Guy.

“Nu-Nuaa!”

It seems like Krita didn’t suffer much damage, he stood up soon after, shouted, and rushed at him.

His movements were all messy and way too childish.

He unleashed a right straight, but Lanpeach simply inclined a bit forward and shifted his body half a step to the side.

The punch of Krita hit empty air and Lanpeach got close to him while maintaining his leaned forward stance, took a strong step with his right leg, and unleashed a sharp left uppercut, smashing the chin of Krita whose body was swimming from his straight missing.

“G-Goh!”

His mouth was forcefully closed because of the uppercut, the sound of teeth slamming together rang. He then twisted his waist, put strength in his right fist, and landed a hook onto the temple of Krita.

A nasty sound rang from Krita’s head and he easily fell onto the ground.

[Look, Libra. His combat power is not a big deal. He is just a merchant and his Spriggan is just the bare minimum for self-defense. It is something that prioritizes on endurance so that he doesn’t die even if he were to get ambushed.] (Lanpeach)

Lanpeach looked at Krita on the ground and directed a cold gaze as if looking at a fool.

[Your Appraisal most likely shows the highest skill level the other party has. If someone were to have Etiquette at level 10, it would probably show as level 10.] (Lanpeach)

[Agh! There was such a weak point in my Appraisal? I didn’t notice at all!] (Libra)

Libra made her shrine maiden clothes flutter, sandwiched both of her cheeks with her hands, and made a surprised face.

Lanpeach was suspicious that she is probably seriously surprised judging from her expression.

[Why didn’t you notice? You would normally notice something like that. Krita is blatantly weak. That means the levels of humans can’t be trusted at all compared to the levels of monsters. Well, the clear reward depends on the level of the enemy, so it is tasty EXP though.] (Lanpeach)

[Fumu fumu, I see. Levels are involved greatly in destiny, but it doesn’t correlate to strength, huh.] (Libra)

[Why didn’t you know? Are you really a support character? Could it be that you are actually just a ghost haunting me?] (Lanpeach)

[It can’t be helped. I am reliant on your field of vision, knowledge, and skills, so even if I have access to the Space Library, and am an Artificial Spirit that has almost no authority on the deeper ends.] (Libra)

Libra pretends she is crying.

It is the moment he realized she really isn’t that useful. No wonder he thought she was a useless support character.

“K-Kill him! Attack him all at the same time. If you don’t, we are the dead ones!” (Krita)

Lanpeach was talking to Libra even in the middle of combat, and Krita shouted while covering his cheek.

The ambushers watched dumbfounded as Krita was thrown out of the armored bus and the mysterious man in a black outfit came out afterwards, and then hurriedly grabbed their weapons.

“Something’s weird. Begin attacking!”

They saw the clearly suspicious appearance of Lanpeach, readied their guns, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

A storm of bullets assailed Lanpeach all at once, sandwiched from both sides.

But Lanpeach was not flustered.

[Magic Iron Plates x99]

He took out 10 magic iron plates from the Dimensional Pouch. Magic Iron refers to iron that has mana in them, and has magic resistance, so it has far more sturdiness than steel when it comes to normal attacks with no mana imbued in them.

The thick magic iron plates bigger than even Lanpeach were deployed around him.

[Telekinesis].

They are magic iron plates that are floating with psychic energy. One of them weighs 50 kilograms.

They are thick even if rough, and easily blocked the rifle bullets.

They are the magic iron plates that he got from diligently grinding the machine monsters in the Dream Island.

The bullets bounced off and lines of bullet shots were drawn on the ground.

“Wa?! Defense magic?!”

“I don’t think of you guys as enemies. Sorry about that.” (Lanpeach)

He snapped his fingers and the magic iron plates flew like frisbees.

Those are magic iron plates with a weight of 50 kilos. If you were to send them flying like cannonballs, even people without good imagination should be able to imagine the power of it.

“Gaha!”

“Run awa—gah!”

“Evade them. Escape into a building!”

It is beyond wounding you. If it lands on your body, it will tear your body apart. Even scraping you would gouge a good chunk of meat.

It turned into a hellscape.

Krita went on all fours and hurriedly escaped inside an abandoned building together with the ambushers.

“Even if it is Lanpeach difficulty, this is a hidden quest from a tutorial after all… This event is easy. What’s more important is that I wanted to experiment.” (Lanpeach)

Even in the game, this quest was difficult to find, but the battle was easy.

He watched the ambushers escaping to the abandoned buildings opposite of the one Krita escaped to, and he snapped his fingers with cold eyes like those of a scientist in the middle of an experiment.

[Uncover].

[Telekinesis].

Cracks begin to show on the pillars of the abandoned buildings.

The buildings that were already deteriorated greatly made rumbling sounds and collapsed.

He hit them in the most brittle parts with Telekinesis by relying on Uncover. The pillars were burdened with extreme pressure and couldn’t endure it.

“H-Help.”

“Something like this…”

“Guah!”

A massive amount of sand and dust scattered, and the abandoned buildings collapsed while making thunderous sounds.

The screams of the ambushers echoed, and their appearances disappeared within the mountain of rubble.

Lanpeach waved his hand to loosen it up and smiled in satisfaction.

This was the objective of this time’s battle.

[The differences from the game. On manual, Telekinesis should have infinite possibilities.] (Lanpeach)

He managed to obtain a variety of meat with Manual Dismantle instead of Auto.

That was because of the knowledge that poured into him with Dismantle, but that’s when Lanpeach noticed…

He thought that maybe…just maybe…he could use other skills on manual as well?

He has the knowledge and experience in his brain. In that case, there are skills that change greatly in manual over auto.

That’s Telekinesis.

Telekinesis relies on your own strength, but now he is able to carry close to 700 kilograms.

But he is not controlling them as one item, but controlling several objects at the same time.

He noticed that he can put pressure on brittle walls in manual.

And so, he practiced by gathering a whole lot of eggs at the same time with Telekinesis, butchering chicken meat, and lifting Koume high up in the air.

He can finally control several iron plates at once.

“Seal his magic! Use Stereo Flowers right now.” (Krita)

“Use all the ones you have in hand!”

They must have lost the will to fight right from the first move, watching as the abandoned building fell.

Krita shouted at the ambushers in fear, and the ambushers saw how abnormal Lanpeach was, so they hurriedly took out a small flower magic tool.

It was surprising how everyone had them, and pointed them at Lanpeach.

A loud acute sound overlapped and echoed in the place, hurting his ears.

[Resisted.]

[Resisted.]

[Resisted.]

[Your magic has been sealed.]

[Fighting with numbers, huh. This is some horrible Lanpeach difficulty.] (Lanpeach)

[Well, this is a natural choice if they fear mages. It would instead be weird if they didn’t prepare anything to counter them.] (Libra)

[Man, the reality modifier is a harsh mistress.] (Lanpeach)

The enemy isn’t an idiot either. They don’t do soft attacks that would create openings for the player to attack like in a game.

“Now! His magic should have been sealed. Shoot your bazookas!” (Krita)

“Got it! Eat this!”

One of the ambushers readied a bazooka.

This would most definitely be a certain victory if it were on the level of the slums.

A rocket flew his way while letting out smoke.

It is the cheapest rocket launcher, but it has a decent amount of power.

“But ‘eat this’ is a death flag line, you know. I would say that.” (Lanpeach)

[Telekinesis].

He snapped his fingers and the rocket stopped cold in midair.

He snickered and snapped his fingers again.

“Hey, your magic should have been sealed.”

“Magic is called magic because it can create unbelievable miracles.” (Lanpeach)

That’s a lie. It is just that there’s no point since it is psychic powers.

But Lanpeach didn’t say a thing about that and just grinned.

The rocket headed towards Krita and the others as if it was flung away, making the ambushers stiffen up.

The ambushers hurriedly ran out of the building, but they were caught in the explosion and sent flying.

“Geho, geho, w-why did it turn out like this…?” (Krita)

“If you were going to use a bazooka, you should have used one made out of magic iron without being stingy.” (Lanpeach)

Lanpeach approached Krita, who was covered in snow and soot from the explosion.

As expected of the Spirit Armor that prioritizes endurance. He survived unlike the other attackers.

Telekinesis doesn’t have much effect on the magic and magic weapon of enemies. That said, bandits from the slums wouldn’t be able to prepare expensive rockets.

“Now then, there’s also the choice of fighting just like that.” (Lanpeach)

“P-Please spare me! I had no intention of getting in the way of you people. I will do anything. Please spare my life at least!” (Krita)

Magic he has never seen before that can’t be sealed. Guns and bazookas don’t work either.

Krita witnessed the fearsome power of a person from the Underground District and the mere merchant lost all fighting spirit and groveled.

He realized that he had no other choice but to beg for his life.

“…Fine, but I hope you won’t regret those words.” (Lanpeach)

The battle ends easily and Lanpeach made an evil grin.

[You have cleared The Scheme of Krita. You have obtained 25,000 EXP.]

Looks like he can clear without killing Krita, contrary to the game.

This result was a small one, but this is big considering the story from here on.

—Because he managed to clear without having to kill a character that was originally required to be killed after all

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