The Player Killers' Ambush

Better get back, sort the loot, and sleep. Adding sparring to his usual schedule had left the day running a little short. Push a bit harder, and it'll even out.

Today Shin Sua had done nothing more than set Sanctuary and treat Cheon Museong's injuries, but from tomorrow on, that was going to change. Time the old man learned how precious a healer really is. Jin-soo meant to let him feel it for himself — just how useful a holy-attribute healer's Heal, Blessing, Protection, Dispel, and Purification could be.

"Let's go."

"Then I'll release Sanctuary."

"Yeah."

The moment Jin-soo gave the word, Shin Sua let the skill fall. Huh? In that same instant, dozens of presences brushed against his senses.

"My Lord."

Cheon Museong had felt them too. His face tightened, and Shin Sua, reading the change in both their expressions, was already moving — Blessing spun over Jin-soo and Cheon Museong, Protection cast on their heels.

"Come out. Stay hidden any longer, and I'll take it as an ambush and attack."

They showed themselves almost before the words had finished.

"Sharp little bastards."

"Tell me about it. There goes the ambush."

"Shame. Could've been easy."

None of them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠made the slightest effort to hide their hostility. Player killers? He couldn't be sure, but the circumstances pointed hard that way.

"This is getting annoying. Now it's going to take extra work."

"Still, nothing to complain about. Just the three of them, and they went pretty hard in that spar. Stamina and mana ought to be scraped clean."

"Figures, this close to the main streets. Quiet little honey spot, this place."

That was enough. They were player killers — habitual ones, specialists who preyed on anyone who wandered into the slums for one reason or another. They knew Sanctuary was up for a spar, so they smothered their presence and waited. After a bout, stamina and mana were spent, and the skills with real destructive power were often still cooling down. In short, they had waited for the moment their prey was at its weakest. Only three of them, too. They must have thought it couldn't fail.

There were more than thirty of them. With numbers like that, swallowing a party or two whole would not have been difficult. Plenty of players must already have ended up as their food. The favorite game, no doubt, had been the martial artists out of Moosung and the knights out of Arius — the ones who sparred often.

"We've got a sound-dampening skill up, so screaming won't do you any good. Don't waste your breath on anything stupid."

"First, cough up whatever you've got stuffed in your inventories. Hand over something decent, and we'll just take the points and let you live."

They pressed the party with an obvious lie, all easy grins.

"Real scum. Not one of them gets away."

"Yes. I shall remember, My Lord."

Cheon Museong answered in a voice that was perfectly calm.

"Have they lost their minds?"

"What are three of them going to do?"

"Talking isn't going to get through. Just leave them breathing."

"Beat them to the edge of death, and they'll spit out every item they've been hoarding in those inventories like squirrels stuffing acorns."

Mana streamed off them in threads as the player killers charged.

The dark-attribute healers' curses came in first.

Right behind them, the mages poured out binding magic. Arrows hissed from the archers as well, aimed at arms and legs. So they think it's already over. The assault was openly meant to take them alive.

The curses ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠screaming in on the party lost their power in an instant under Shin Sua's hand. The binding spells burst against the Protection she had laid and failed to break it, and the arrows never even reached their marks — because Jin-soo and Cheon Museong had already launched themselves, slipping the shafts with ease and closing to the enemy's faces in a breath.

Baekcheonsingeom and the Blood-Sucking Sword roared in Jin-soo's grip, pure-white sword aura and blood-red sword aura streaming from the blades in torrents. The tanks and warriors who had stepped out front were swept away before they could set themselves.

Cheon Museong drew his pure-white aura out long as a whip and cracked it toward the healers, mages, and archers in the rear. Stretched thin and vicious, that white lash split their bodies in two.

"Eek—!"

"M-monster..."

"Damn it! We picked the wrong fight!"

"Run!"

More than half their number gone in the first clash, the player killers lost the will to fight and fled with everything they had. They had walked in as they pleased. Leaving would require permission. Sword aura streamed from Jin-soo and Cheon Museong in cutting threads, and the player killers who turned their backs died in moments.

"T-too fast."

"At this rate we're wiped out."

A few of them scrabbled for another play, and their eyes found the healer.

"Grab that bitch!"

"If we want out of here alive, that's the only way!"

They broke toward Shin Sua.

Stone ground on stone, and the golem bellowed as it rose to meet the charge. One player killer took the blow full on, smashed into a bloody pulp, and tumbled across the ground. But the stone golem was far too slow, far too lumbering.

"A lump of rock like that—!"

"Dodge it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and we're fine!"

Using their comrade's death as a stepping stone, four of them rushed Shin Sua.

"Nyaaang!"

With that cute little roar, Leo — who had been yawning wide on Shin Sua's shoulder — launched himself like lightning and gifted the player killers a flurry of cat punches. Struck one after another, they folded and hit the ground like puppets with their strings cut, strength gone out of them.

"Guhk—!"

"Urk—! M-my strength..."

Not like I stayed still for no reason. From where Jin-soo stood, Shin Sua already had Leo for a guard. There had been no need for him to move. A last clean slash, a choked gasp — he cut the breath from the final fleeing player killer, and the field was cleared in an instant.

Hm? One more presence caught on his senses. Someone still hidden, watching. There was another one? Jin-soo gave Baekcheonsingeom a light swing. Pure-white sword aura stretched out long, reaching to erase the target—

"I-I'm not an enemy!"

Urgent Korean stabbed into his ear. He yanked the aura back at once.

"I... I almost died."

Jin-soo's eyes found the player who had been hiding.

"I'm not a player killer! I'm with the Daehan Guild!"

The man under that gaze rushed the words out. Jin-soo was not inclined to believe them. The player killers they had just finished had all been from Arius — but being Korean was no proof a man wasn't a killer himself.

"Then why were you hiding there?"

He had been concealed under a stealth skill, which was suspicious enough on its own, and a high-level one at that. If the fight hadn't left Jin-soo's senses still keyed sharp, he might not have noticed the man at all.

"Th-that's..."

"So you are a player kil—"

"The branch chief ordered me to watch in secret and confirm whether you're the Blood White Sword Demon!"

The Korean player who had claimed the Daehan Guild blurted his purpose out at the top of his voice.

"And why would your branch chief suspect I'm the Blood White Sword Demon?"

Jin-soo asked it with genuine puzzlement. Out in a hunting ground, maybe — but he didn't recall doing anything inside the city that would have caught anyone's eye.

"Well, that kid Seung-woo reported..."

The man hurried through the reason the Daehan Guild's branch in the Starting City had come to suspect him. So the problem was that Daehan Guild scout from when I first arrived on the Tower's 200th Floor. Kang Seung-woo — the one who had tried to recruit him, run his mouth with arrogant talk, and eaten humiliation for it. He had reported upstairs that Jin-soo might be the Blood White Sword Demon. Working from that testimony, the guild had sifted its suspects, landed on Jin-soo as the most likely, and set a watch on him. And that's how we ended up here.

He hadn't expected a brief exchange back then to snowball into this. Well. It was never going to be much of a problem anyway. The man had already watched him sweep the player killers aside. He was surely convinced. If Jin-soo wanted the information buried, there was always the simple method of leaving no one alive to talk. But there's no need to go that far. The Korean player in front of him hadn't done anything worth dying for, and the Daehan Guild learning that he had caught on would change very little. At most they'll beg me to join, or try to get friendly. Whining like that could simply be refused.

There was, however, one thing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to be careful of.

One guild clinging to him could be ignored. Every guild on the Tower's 200th Floor clinging at once would be a genuine headache.

"I-I'll remember."

Pale to the bone, the Korean player stammered the answer out.

"Then go. And see to it nothing annoying comes my way."

"Yes. Thank you."

He scrambled up, bent himself into a full ninety-degree bow, and vanished all the same.

"Let's clean up quick and go."

"Yeah."

"Yes, My Lord."

They gathered the spoils, left the slums at an unhurried pace, and returned to their lodgings along the main streets.

I nearly died. Kang Ho-seong of the Daehan Guild, spared only by Jin-soo's mercy, let out a silent sigh of relief. If Jin-soo had meant him harm, that would have been the end of him right there. Report first.

He hurried back to the guild's branch in the Starting City and reported that Jin-soo was, without a doubt, the Blood White Sword Demon. The moment the report went up, the guild master of the Daehan Guild — still in the Final City — moved for the Starting City at full speed.

The next day Jin-soo hunted as usual, then headed for the slums bordering the main streets. It was time for the day's spar. It helps me too, more than a little. Cheon Museong was strong, and because of that Jin-soo had to stay sharp and go all out in the first bout at least. The second, where he used skills from other classes, was comparatively easy — but even then he couldn't afford to grow careless.

The sparring was meant to temper Cheon Museong, yes. It was also training for Jin-soo himself: a way to take stock of his own full strength, and to learn which skill was the right one for which moment. Chances to find out, against someone of Cheon Museong's caliber, exactly when to use which class's skill for the best result did not come easily. Just meeting a partner I can hit at full power, without weighing whether he'll live or die — that's luck enough.

Treating the man like a high-performance sandbag pricked his conscience a little, but... This is all just training to make the old man stronger. Telling himself it was entirely for Cheon Museong's sake, Jin-soo firmly looked the other way.