One Slash Through a Million

Azure Sky Sword Emperor Kim Namwoo stared at the comment he had just posted, a hollow smile playing on his lips.

To think I believed something like this could bring me enlightenment. I still have such a long way to go.

It had already been well over a decade since he fell into this world of Murim. He had accomplished more in that time than most could dream of, and though he had earned even the title of Sword Emperor, he had never once abandoned his training. Yet one desire still burned quietly in his chest—the single longing that had lived there since the very first day he picked up a sword.

Could I, with this one body alone, bring down an army of one million?

From the moment he was born into this world, how far could he go carrying nothing but his own two hands? That was the silent question that had taken root in the Azure Sky Sword Emperor's heart from the very first day he learned the martial arts.

But reality was never so kind. No matter how lofty and solitary one's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠station, even a famed master trained in brutal discipline since childhood could be caught off guard in some back alley, surrounded by common thugs, and cut down. Succumb to poison, and you died. Get stabbed in the middle of answering nature's call, and you died. Be ambushed in your sleep, and you died.

Human beings were, in the end, creatures perilously easy to kill.

"Isn't that so, Chilbok-a."

He spoke the name that now existed only as bones and memory, but no one answered. No one ever would again.

"What use is it, no matter how high you leap in a single bound or how you shatter boulders with your bare hands?"

Crunch.

He clenched his fists, and still it all felt hollow. At the height he had reached, he had believed nothing in this world could frighten him anymore.

"My lord, what troubles you so?"

"I... I am afraid, Yang Hwa. Truly afraid."

"Afraid? My lord, who in this world would dare touch us?"

"You know as well as I, Yang Hwa—the court has been improving its firearms of late."

"That may be, but such paltry lumps of iron are no match for you, my lord."

"Yes. You're right."

Yang Hwa was right. No matter how many cannons the Imperial Palace refined, they were useless before his blade. Even if they brought modern missiles to bear, he was confident he could cleave them from the sky.

But what of the others? Yang Hwa, Namgung Seol, Baek Yuhwa—could he truly shield all three of them if that chaos ever came?

Could he? Yes. He could. Even if his arms ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were severed, even if his legs were torn apart, he would protect his wives no matter the cost.

But everyone else—the household, the servants, all those bound to them by ties of loyalty? On that, he could not stake his word.

"No. I cannot do it."

"How can you say that with such certainty, my lord?"

Ah, do not look at me with those innocent eyes that truly cannot understand, Hwa-a. You do not know. No one living in this era knows. Only I, who lived in the modern age, can know—gunpowder weapons are nothing so simple a matter.

Once before, at the Murim Alliance's behest, he had investigated the gunpowder flowing into the Imperial Palace. The court was already preparing not merely matchlock guns but a considerable number of cannons and bombs besides. It was common knowledge that the Emperor regarded Murim as a thorn in his eye, and judging by his current movements, his design was surely to unify the martial world within his own reign and sweep away the sects that defied him.

He would shelter behind the masters guarding the palace walls and march his overwhelming legions of Imperial Guards forward to wipe everything out in a single stroke. Absurd—but not unrealistic. Even among the Imperial Guard and the Eastern Depot, there lurked masters whose names the world had never heard.

So long as they stood at the Emperor's side, striking him directly was impossible.

Perfect protection, and an attack that could not be blocked.

"...It is checkmate."

"My lord..."

At the hollow look in his eyes, Yang Hwa's face went pale with alarm. He hesitated, unable to find the words to reassure her—and in that very moment, a tactless fool appeared right before his eyes.

The instant those words arrived, Kim Namwoo's eyes flew wide open.

Another him—another self, young and green, still wet behind the ears—hurling provocation so casually.

"Kwahaha! Ahahahaha!"

And that was precisely why it was so hilarious. That line had surely been lifted from some anime or movie. And yet that boy always delivered it standing tall, shamelessly spouting borrowed words as if they were his own creed, aggravating everyone in earshot—and yet, just this once, he could forgive it.

"So that is it! I have been playing at petty, small-minded tricks all this time—me, the Azure Sky Sword Emperor!"

"M-my lord?"

Seeing Hwa recoil in fright, he hastily choked down his rising aura—but the enlightenment born moments ago would not fade.

"Hwa, I must enter seclusion."

"What? My lord, what do you mean, all of a sudden—"

"That wretch dares call me small-minded."

"Who would spout such insolence?!"

"Exactly what I said. A truly insufferably arrogant fellow."

Arrogant and brazen. Haughty beyond bearing, with no idea how high the sky stretched. And yet—

"I find I cannot hate him."

From that day forward, the thought of leaving the Gallery vanished from the Azure Sky Sword Emperor's heart. What remained was nothing but the burning resolve to protect what was precious—and a small, quiet wish to keep watching that boy a while longer.

"It... actually worked?"

Honestly, I was dumbfounded. When the Azure Sky Emperor first asked that question, I had no clue what he was even talking about—my mind went completely blank. Then I just typed in a line from an anime I used to watch with my brain switched off, since I was already in the middle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of riffing on that show anyway. And it landed.

"This actually works?"

I had no idea why it worked, but a gain was a gain. I sprang out of my chair and threw both arms over my head.

"Free lunch! Free lunch, free lunch, glorious free lunch!"

I immediately pulled up my status window to check the upgraded skills.

Looking at those cleanly polished skill levels, I felt full without having eaten a thing. Speaking of which—

"Ugh, I can't stand it anymore."

I snatched up my sword and dove straight into the Tower's fourth floor. Once the now-familiar shift in vision finished, the forest landscape spread out before me again. Just imagining the goblins lurking in all that greenery made my mouth water.

"Hurry up and let me test myself!"

I drew my sword and bolted. I didn't summon a single plant bird with the nature magic I'd learned from the Druid—not because "Leafbird" is an embarrassing name, mind you, but simply because right now, all I wanted was to burn off this fullness thrumming through my whole body.

Driving the Azure Dragon Heart Method harder and rougher than ever, muscles surging as I ran, I spotted a goblin far ahead staring at me in confusion. Distance, roughly ten meters. I halved it in a single step—then one slash.

Shraaack—!

"Kehak?!"

The goblin split apart and died before my sword had even drawn near. At this unprecedented calamity, the other goblins visibly froze in terror.

But I wasn't done. The Azure Dragon Sword Technique had gained something new when it hit level three.

With a pop, a fist-sized hole punched through the skull of the goblin standing beside the first one. A piercing technique born from extended range—its power drew a gasp of admiration even out of me, so what must it have felt like for the goblins on the receiving end?

The moment they saw my Azure Dragon Emerges, they turned and ran.

Part of me wanted to chain the technique over and over and riddle them all like Swiss cheese, but that was impossible.

Mana: 270 / 400.

"Man, this thing eats a ton of mana."

One use and a full hundred points gone. Apparently it was meant as a finisher-type move, so, sadly, spamming it was off the table. Still, I was fundamentally stronger and faster now, so it didn't matter.

"Found you."

"Ke!"

From that point on, it stopped feeling like tower-climbing and started feeling like I was some deranged slasher hunting down poor, helpless survivors. I caught them one by one and turned them into former goblins—and that was when I heard something crashing through the underbrush behind me.

By sound alone, it was absolutely not a goblin, so I dropped straight into my ready stance.

"Keheaak!"

But contrary to my expectations, what appeared was a goblin after all. The difference was that it was far bigger and far more muscular than the others. If a regular goblin was a lower elementary schooler, this thing looked like a goblin on a steroid cycle doing nothing but curls.

"Doesn't matter what you are."

I took the Azure Dragon Emerges stance once more. My arm drew back, taut with crackling tension like a bowstring at full draw.

The creature registered that my presence had changed, but it didn't care—it just kept shrieking and charging, dead set on bashing my skull in.

"Knee first."

The fully-cocked arm shot forward, and a hole opened clean through its kneecap.

Thud—!

No leg left to step with, so naturally that hulking frame went tumbling magnificently forward, ending up flat on its back with its belly exposed right in front of me. The moment the stunned steroid goblin slapped its palms against the ground in a desperate bid to lever its upper body upright—which was exactly the moment it had no arms or weapon left to block with—

My sword drew back once more and drove home, striking true between its eyes. The sheer force of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Azure Dragon Emerges finished it on the spot, and with that final kill, my conquest of the fourth floor came to an end.

"Senior... what the hell was that?"

"This is driving me insane. Genuinely."

And the Hunter Administration Bureau, watching all of this unfold yet again, could only stare at Kim Namwoo's inexplicable growth rate in baffled silence.