Chapter 125
Chapter 125
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 125
Chapter Title: 32. Trickster's Stamp (3)
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10:48 a.m.
The entire North Korea was in an uproar.
Just dozens of minutes after the "Trickster's Stamp" brand appeared, another unpleasant piece of news had arrived.
「Your national title, Hwanghae First Sword, has been stolen!」
In the morning—no, practically as soon as the day began—two major regional titles from North Korea had been sucked down to South Korea.
This would have been a massive problem no matter who the opponent was.
It was a national asset leaking out of the country.
Even in a world where people turned blades on their own citizens, everyone was united in outrage over this incident.
And Sinuiju First Sword Jo Sung-hu01 was no exception.
"What? You son of a bitch."
He was staring across the Yalu River during breakfast when he unconsciously crushed the rice bread in his hand.
"What the hell are they doing? Those southern bastards."
The "southern bastards" Jo Sung-hu was talking about weren't just thieves from South Joseon—it meant the entire southern region, including Kaesong and Hwanghae, which had lost titles one after another.
How lax did their minds have to be to suffer such humiliation?
To lose a fight—not just anything, but a fight—to South Joseon scum who had probably never known hardship greater than a grain of rice in their lives.
"Tsk."
Sung-hu furrowed his brow in frustration.
Yet he couldn't hide his ominous expression.
It was because Chinese bandits who had crossed the border to pillage had been spotted in Sinuiju just yesterday.
They were clearly unaffiliated rogues, not official agents, so Sung-hu had lopped off one arm from each and sent them back as a lesson.
But now titles had been stolen by South Joseon...?
The Chinese intruders were small fry, but this thief was clearly no ordinary player.
He knew Kaesong and Hwanghae First Swords were weaklings, but still—they were First Swords.
‘What the hell is going on down there that First Sword-level guys are already crossing the border?'
Flick.
Sung-hu raised his hand in the air as a signal, and one of his attendants waiting behind hurried over.
"Yes, give the order."
"Prepare one messenger to send to Pyongyang. Looks like I'll have to catch the rat myself."
* * *
At the same time, Young-woo was blissfully unaware of the assassin being prepared all the way from the Yalu River and was focused on his archery practice.
Whiiiing!
「White Barrage」 - Saga Bow
【Sense stat applied to arrow power.】
【Power increases with arrow range.】
He was thrilled at the fact that he could now unilaterally attack enemies hundreds of meters away at minimum.
"Whoa, no way!"
From atop the Neguig racing toward Paju City Hall, Young-woo aimed at a traffic light visible in the distance.
Then.
Creak.
He drew the bowstring with all his might.
Snap!
He released the hand gripping the string.
A flash of brilliance erupted from the silver-white bow body, and an arrow shot out like lightning.
Whiiiiiing!
Crack!
The time it took for Young-woo's arrow to shatter the red light nearly 400 meters away was practically instantaneous.
Of course, a top-tier opponent like Park Seol-hwa, who had dodged his arrows, could react to this attack.
With a 70% probability, that is.
「Mirage」 - Unique Shoes
【30% chance to evade detection.】
If a stealth arrow that even evaded regional swordsmanship detection came flying at ultra-high speed from outside their line of sight, how many could react to it?
'Just imagining it is terrifying.'
However, once the impact point exceeded 500 meters, he had to angle the bow upward slightly, so this would require a lot of practice.
'So that's why Park Seol-hwa's arrows looked like they were dropping from above my head.'
Her shooting angle from that hilltop for long-range fire must have been close to 40 degrees.
Assuming forward straight shots were level with the horizon.
Muscle power—the strength pulling the string—allowed arrows to fly farther at lower angles, while too steep an angle actually shortened the range.
'Archery is basically in the realm of intuition. Guess I'll just have to shoot a ton.'
But where was this? The post-Reset world.
Young-woo's sense stat of 1,400 rapidly boosted his archery proficiency.
Whiiiing... Boom!
He had just succeeded in a 700-meter precision shot.
'Not quite accounting for variables like wind yet... but I'll get pretty familiar with it by the end of today.'
As expected, arrow range correlated with strength, so Young-woo's realistic max range was about 2 kilometers.
So how to identify and snipe enemies beyond 2 kilometers?
That could be solved with one of the spoils from this battle: 'Thousand-Mile Eyes.'
「Thousand-Mile Eyes」 - Mutated Earrings
【Vision amplified up to 5x.】
This was the holographic device that had been over Park Seol-hwa's right eye.
And since it was jewelry, it could go into the codex too.
'The bow is Saga-grade, so she probably bought it herself, and Thousand-Mile Eyes was a mutant spoil, so she committed to the bow build after getting it.'
In game terms, acquiring the core item Thousand-Mile Eyes that enabled bow use was the starting point for her 'archer build.'
How many merchants had lifetime Park Seol-hwa visited to find a bow?
Moreover, the third spoil from her clearly screamed "for proper bow use."
「Earth Shrink」 - Unique Shoes
【Movement speed doubled when no nearby enemies.】
'To make full use of this, I need an armor codex ASAP.'
For now, the Neguig covered mobility, but in dungeons where mounts weren't allowed, he'd need it eventually.
'And the last one.'
「Poison Sting」 - Mutated Dagger
【Neurotoxin】
|Target's sense reduced by 10%.
This was the dagger Park Seol-hwa carried in her bosom.
Likely her last resort for when she had no choice but to let an enemy close in.
Of course, with weapons overflowing for Young-woo, this was just another reason to wait for a new codex.
If he got a weapon codex, wouldn't the neurotoxin coat his Black Sword or Dragon's Legacy?
'I want to hit a dungeon soon.'
Entertaining such crazy thoughts, Young-woo drew the bowstring and nailed the center of a signboard in the distance.
Whiiiiiing... Bang!
Thanks to his rapidly rising archery proficiency, he could now shoot with considerable accuracy even while mounted.
'Who knew getting sense gear would pay off like this.'
Also, Young-woo's base strength was currently 3,100.
If bleeding started in this state, strength rose 25%, and doping with blue blood added another 30%.
Meaning arrow power and range could increase by nearly 60%.
'Mutants appear in visible spots, so I could pre-position and snipe them.'
As Young-woo thought this, Paju City Hall—the meeting place—came into view.
He drew the bowstring for one last practice shot before the meeting.
* * *
Around the same time, Paju City Hall front parking lot.
Contrary to Young-woo's expectations, numerous First Swords were already gathered in front of the city hall.
All barefoot, no less.
Meaning they had all rushed over in response to Gangnam First Sword's bombshell announcement about visiting North Korea.
"You won't see a sight like this twice in a lifetime."
Mapo First Sword Yang Woo-taek07 chuckled as he scanned the "barefoot crew."
Dongdaemun First Sword Jang Jung-ho01 plopped down on the ground and grumbled in response.
"What the hell is this that dragged all us high-value assets out here? Better not be nothing."
Seongbuk First Sword Lee Yoo-bin16 sneered at him.
"Nothing? What, you planning to shake hands again?"
A reminder of yesterday's meeting, where Jang Jung-ho had challenged the new Gangnam First Sword to an arm-wrestle and gotten thoroughly schooled.
"By the way, the staff hasn't arrived yet? We should at least get some chairs. Or go inside. We have a new face today, and this looks bad...."
Dongjak First Sword Lee Han-uk09 said this while pointing inside the city hall building.
A few meters away stood this meeting's first-timer: Eunpyeong First Sword Kim Hyung-gyu11.
He had planted his massive, flat greatsword into the ground.
Though a Seoul-region First Sword, joining late had him feeling terribly out of place.
"......"
His expression was so ferociously intimidating that no one dared approach casually.
He figured he had to at least not look weak since he didn't know the meeting's structure or vibe.
"Is Gangnam First Sword... the strongest right now?"
When Eunpyeong First Sword asked in a gravely heavy voice, the noisy group fell silent for a moment.
Everyone here had witnessed the changing of the guard for the meeting's top dog.
The new Gangnam First Sword, Jeong Young-woo.
The freak who rode an iron horse from another world and tackled Jeong Hyun-sik down with a wrestling move.
"He's strong. Insanely so."
Seongbuk First Sword Lee Yoo-bin finally said with distant eyes.
She was recalling how he had lopped off Jeong Hyun-sik's head with an elbow strike.
On the other hand.
"He's strong, but he's a weirdo, so stay sharp. The guy's the type to chew up human organs."
Dongdaemun's Jang Jung-ho recalled the scene of him ripping open Jeong Hyun-sik's gut and eating his stomach, his face paling in disgust.
"He eats human organs...?"
The newbie's heavy vibe cracked for a moment.
Eunpyeong First Sword Kim Hyung-gyu11.
The hero who had defended Eunpyeong District against daily mutants, but even he couldn't help being shocked that the meeting's strongest ate human entrails.
'Fuck... what kind of monster is he...?'
As Kim Hyung-gyu imagined the ultimate villain, Yongsan First Sword—who had been scanning around for Young-woo's arrival—pointed south.
"Oh... there's our meeting's number two."
Kim Hyung-gyu's head turned involuntarily, and soon a tall woman wielding a crescent blade entered his view.
Tata!
It was none other than Songpa First Sword Oh Yeon-hee04.
Trailing close behind were Seocho First Sword Choi Nam-hee11 and Gangdong First Sword Kim Ju-woo13.
Gangdong was especially the farthest straight-line distance from Paju among Seoul regions.
"Looks like everyone's here who was coming. Now just the host needs to show...."
As Yongsan First Sword Kim Do-ha said this and glanced north—likely Young-woo's approach direction.
Whiiiiiing!
An unfamiliar whoosh cut through the air from somewhere.
Screeeeech!
A silver-white arrow flew between the First Swords with a sharp whistle and embedded itself.
Crunch!
The arrow's power was so immense it pierced the hard asphalt like tofu.
"Wha..."
"What the—where'd this come from."
"What is this...?"
The First Swords stared blankly at the arrow in confusion, only reacting belatedly when it melted away into the air.
Swish! Screech!
They drew weapons from their waists and began searching the direction it came from.
Then.
-Kwiiiing!
With the iron horse Neguig's distinctive cry, Young-woo's voice echoed from across the city hall.
"Hah... sorry! No one got hit, right?"