Child of Destiny

……

While Shin was putting all his focus on the Phantom Apparition, he started controlling its movements. He had even started giving out orders about the skills that were not in his arsenal.

After watching for quite a while, Shin was able to memorize most of the skills that the Phantom Apparition had that he did not.

This state continued for quite a while, reaching the point where Shin realized that he had come to possess the Phantom Apparition itself.

His mind seemed to merge with the clone, making Shin feel control of its movements!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shin continued to move according to his earlier thoughts, using all the skills that the Phantom Apparition had while fighting the sand soldiers.

Under this state, Shin seemed to know all kinds of abilities that the Phantom Apparition had in its arsenal. Even the skills and abilities that he had never seen before were clearly reflected in his mind.

It was as if these skills and abilities were his to begin with.

Following his instincts, Shin started fighting alongside these newly found abilities that he currently possessed.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shing!

Along with the Phantom Dance that he had already mastered, Shin was able to take down multiple sand soldiers while possessing the Phantom Apparition.

He had also started utilizing the variety of skills and abilities that it had, complementing all the combat techniques that he was executing.

He did not stop here since he quickly expanded his senses toward the phantoms that the Phantom Apparition had summoned, remotely controlling each of them with his mind.

He had split his mind to accurately control these phantoms, ignoring the fact that it put quite a lot of burden on him, especially when he was in the state of Reality Manifestation.

However, he had also limited the moves that he was using to the most basic ones, starting from the fundamental techniques before gradually increasing the difficulty with more advanced ones.

At first, the phantoms were only using basic movements meant to confuse the opposing side. Shin would then swap places with them with the most optimal timing, either dodging or attacking a specific sand soldier.

However, the more Shin controlled them, each phantom seemed to become more independent from him, capable of executing an extremely realistic move that looked like a true martial skill in the real world.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shing! Shing!

Shin cut through all the sand soldiers while incorporating most of his techniques into the special and unique abilities of the Phantom Apparition.

Under this state, Shin was also able to somewhat understand a part of being a Phantom Swordsman.

One of them was being sneaky and crafty whenever they were attacking. Instead of being straightforward, just like how a true swordsman acted, it focused more on sneaky ambushes and surprise attacks that came out of nowhere.

In the Phantom Swordsman Class, the ‘swordsman’ word was only secondary while the ‘phantom’ word carried more weight in it.

Shin had to focus more on ‘phantom’ if he wanted to understand more about this secondary combat class.

He realized that these phantoms were not just illusions meant to distract his enemies or a special way to escape.

These phantoms could also be used to attack his enemies from multiple angles while also hiding his true intention during the process.

Recalling the choices that he had before entering the tower, he seemed to have remembered that the Phantom Swordsman Class was somewhat related to ‘Mirages’.

What was a mirage?

From Shin’s current understanding, it was another form of illusion to trick his enemies into believing something. It was another form of misdirection that lured his opponents into certain traps that he wanted to set.

It could also be a bridge between reality and illusion, navigating between the two eras.

Shin’s understanding of this power was still a bit too shallow, making his current situation a bit tricky.

He neither knew how to continue nor if he was truly doing the right thing.

Aside from knowing and understanding most of the hidden abilities of the Phantom Apparition, Shin did not know what he was supposed to do next.

He might have learned these hidden abilities, but he did not know what he could do with most of them.

When reaching this point, his concentration seemed to have been broken, throwing him out of his trance.

Fortunately, he still had absolute control over the Phantom Apparition and was able to instinctively sense the hidden skills and abilities from the latter’s arsenal.

He also maintained the ability to accurately control all the movements of the phantoms, making it somewhat easier for him to fight these sand soldiers.

Having lost the hyperactive state of his mind, Shin felt a bit of pity, especially when realizing that he was still falling short of what he was truly looking for.

“Mirage, mirage, mirage-… just what am I lacking?” he continued to mumble these words while fighting the sand soldiers, who were slowly getting better at dealing with him and his phantoms.

They seemed to become more skilled and gained a better understanding of his strategies, making it easier to face him and his phantoms.

Their battle formations had also undergone certain modifications, which were directly targeting these abilities that he was showcasing.

Their individual martial prowess had also risen by a large margin, making it harder to find any gaps in their movements.

Even if he was continuously switched places with these phantoms, a tightly closed formation and a series of highly coordinated attacks would always greet him in the process.

Shin had become aware of the glaring weakness of this current strategy, which put quite a lot of pressure on him.

Even if he increased his speed when switching places with the phantoms, it would be all useless when the opposing side could accurately predict which place he would be appearing.

Seeing that this was going nowhere, Shin decided to drop his earlier plan and returned the control of the Phantom Apparition to its original Combat AI.

Swoosh!

Right after his consciousness returned to his body, Shin continued to watch the ongoing battle while also paying close attention to both sides.

This time, he was no longer focusing solely on the Phantom Apparition and its phantoms. Instead, he was also giving the sand soldiers enough attention, trying to find the answer he was looking for from them.

Unfortunately, he was immediately thrown into a dead end, unable to find the answer.

Fortunately, this trial did not have any time limit when it was being challenged. It might only be for this floor or in the other lower floors, but it had at least worked in his favor.

He had spent almost all his remaining online time watching his Phantom Apparition and the sand soldiers fought, not gaining any insight in the process.

He was forced to pause the trial when it was finally time to log out.

…

Right after his regular morning training, Shin spent the rest of the day attending classes while chatting idly with the rest during their break.

They asked each other about the progress that they had made with their respective businesses, checking on one another.

This also gave them a decent understanding of their respective events that they had been involved with.

Shin also learned about Arthur’s friend within the game and the latter’s little brother. Arthur had even told Shin about the current situation that Lawrence was facing, which piqued the latter’s interest.

Unfortunately, since Arthur was not clear about the details and did not mention much about Lawrence’s elder brother, Shin was unable to make any connection with a certain acquaintance he had from the Black Serpent Mafia.

Moreover, Shin’s mind was still too occupied with the matters within the game, particularly about his current trial.

He was unable to pay too much attention to this matter, making him overlook quite a lot of things.

The others also noticed his distracted mind, but after learning it was only focused on his current predicament in the game, they just shrugged and offered a few suggestions.

…

After the entire day and having dinner with everyone, Shin quickly went back to the game, planning to continue investing what he needed.

Swoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

While watching the ongoing battle, Shin could not help but furrow his brows deeply, unable to find anything.

He felt like giving up on this matter after not much progress.

“Tsk! Just what am I lacking this time?” Shin clicked his tongue repeatedly after failing to find any decent breakthrough despite watching everything too closely.

The earlier discovery was quite decent, but he found that he could not directly use those sets of skills and abilities from the Phantom Apparition unless he was directly possessing it or the other way around.

At most, this was nothing but an extra trick under his sleeves, increasing the variety of attacks that he could choose from.

Unfortunately, he already had too many cards in his hands, and he was almost lacking the right opportunity to use them.

What he needed right now was something that could have a lot of impact in his future battles.

“Aside from both sides felt like being alive, there is not much to see from them,” he mumbled while repeatedly clicking his tongue.

He was about to lazily lie on the top of a dune when he suddenly realized something. “Wait!”

An idea suddenly struck his mind, making him hit his forehead with his palm. “Wait! How can I overlook such an obvious thing!”

“That’s right! It is ‘life’! These guys look more alive compared to regular clones and illusion!” he mumbled while his eyes were turning bright.

“A real mirage is more lifelike when compared to regular illusions!” Reaching this point, Shin felt that a new path was slowly opening before him.

……