Only I Am A Reader

After receiving Bing Baek's earnest promise, Leo and the rest backed up and boarded the ship in preparation to set off. However, his consideration of the ice princess's future provoked another wave of thoughts in Leo's mind, the lonely silence of his ship room was especially helpful in that regard.

'I used to dislike this, but…'

As a Reader, Leo had gone through several phases, each having their likes and dislikes. At one point, he would desire to read interesting characters with smart interactions, at other times, he would just want to read a straight power fantasy where characters could be as two-dimensional as possible. Still, in the end, he started to settle for novels with loner characters or ones where the protagonist is always the main focus.

In such cases, the quality of other characters remained irrelevant, so he could just enjoy everything with the troublesome parts that came from deep interactions. However…

'It's not too bad.'

Leo's null experience with relationships was greatly enriched as the years passed by ever since he entered the world of 'Murim Supremacy'. Compared to his life on the Sword Continent where he chose to follow the loner path for the majority of his time, starting up with some company was a life-changer for him.

Being an introvert wasn't something that someone could simply grow out of, but being incorporated into a new environment worked wonders when one attempted to change. Having friends as quirky as Sohee and Yong, and being in a borderline relationship with the extreme Yeon couldn't exactly be called normal, but it was actually what Leo needed to ease himself into that change…

'Perspective really means everything.'

One of the reasons he hated reading about team making protagonists was because he felt like it was a waste, same as many other readers. Why should the main character share his gains when he can just pile it up on himself and become overpowered? It was only when he experienced a similar situation that he understood that his complaints meant nothing.

Possessing countless resources in the world of Murim didn't always translate to more strength, one also needed time, comprehension, and many other aspects. Even if he was given all the resources that the other three consumed, Leo had no confidence in taking down the Devouring Centaur on his own. On the other hand, they had a much bigger chance with their numbers even if they didn't enjoy all the resources spent on them!

Someone like Geochin who started with a large handicap might have needed everything, but Leo didn't. Even after being expanded, his Dantian had almost filled up again just by using one of the four cores in addition to his share from the mutant one! Keeping them for later wasn't viable either as the conversion ratio would terribly fall down after the first consumption!

Instead, sharing with everyone brought about a very different result. Whether it was the fearsome Heavenly Demon Queen, the Tyrannical Demon Dragon, or even the less relevant Dancing Roc, just pushing one of these SSR companions into achieving Transcendence ahead of time drastically changed the playing ground!

'We will need to brace ourselves for what is to come.'

Unfortunately, even with everything falling into place, Leo couldn't relax just yet. Geochin's Ascension materials were stolen by them, but would he really struggle to find a replacement? The scene of the Roc Parrot dropping the Sky Fruit on the protagonist out of nowhere was still vivid in Leo's mind. The lacking Legendary event rating and the number of the Reading Points he received also noted how his influence was still downplayed…

Most importantly, however, what he achieved didn't come without cost. Starting from the point where he tried convincing Cheon Jeong to back off and up to his 'chance' meeting with Bing Baek, he risked giving up his identity by acting too out of place while throwing the blame at his 'instinct'.

"Baekho orabeoni, come join us for food!"

Brought out of his daydream by Cheon Sohee's call, Leo didn't know how to feel. He didn't think he did too badly, but no preparations would be enough in the face of the upcoming trouble.

'Wrong. Rest should be given when due!'

Being caught up in the mindset of a workaholic was a dangerous trap. If he didn't want to end up succumbing to something worse than the reading addiction that he dreaded, Leo couldn't afford to look at the future in distress.

'A reader's omniscience is supposed to make my life easier and not the other way around.'

"On my way! I want to participate in the process this time!"

With his fear of another month of endless seafood, Leo didn't board the ship unprepared this time! He couldn't bring in other ingredients that would go bad since using Internal Energy to preserve them was too much effort, but he could at least prepare things that he could add to make the food edible.

"I found this recipe during one of my night walks, let's see if it will actually be good."

With a very random disguise for his otherworldly knowledge, Leo took out the eggs and flour to make some frying batter. If seafood was the only option, then he would fry them crispy!

"Oh?"

Since they happened to catch some shrimp this time, Leo proceeded to make fried shrimp, the dish he liked the most in the fishy world of seafood.

Yeon and the others only watched curiously as bright scarlet fire emerged from Leo's hand. His very first use of True Internal Fire was ironically for heating up the frying oil. Throwing in the battered shrimp, a fragrant smell emerged from the black ship.

"This is pretty good!"

It lacked some extra condiments, but as one would expect back on Earth, anything tastes better with some batter!

After an action-packed trip fraught with bonding and great achievements, the Heavenly Strength Society's dispatch team sailed back towards their big home as they enjoyed the Reader's unique fast food recipe, detoxing the stress they had gradually built up to this point…