Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: 41. Everyone's First Sword (7)
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The mutant was intercepted before it could even land.
It was a strategy that stood out from the very concept, but more than that, it was something only Jeong Yeong-woo could pull off.
He was equipped with gear specialized for sniping, like Thousand-Li Eye and White Saturation, and above all, he was a monster with total stats exceeding 20,000.
If not him, who else would dare try to shoot down a mutant plummeting like lightning from the edge of the sky?
“G-go together……!”
Jong-seon hurriedly chased after the Chosun First Sword, who was already far ahead.
Ta-tat!
Luckily, the mutant struck by the arrow veered off course and crashed into the middle of Teheran-ro instead of onto a nearby building.
And right at that moment.
―No, fuck. What the hell is this……
It was rubbing its throbbing nape, struggling to open its eyes.
A Cyclops standing a full five meters tall.
Ku-gu-gu-gu……
As it finally lifted its upper body off the ground, a massive shadow fell over the road, accompanied by an enormous presence.
[Businessman-Song Myeong-bae]
‘Oh, Song Myeong-bae……!’
Spotting the mutant’s nameplate from afar, Yeong-woo’s eyes lit up.
It bore the ‘Businessman’ title just like CEO Kim Tae-jun, but Song Myeong-bae was a completely different breed.
‘Good thing a piece of trash like him got assigned to Gangnam.’
Gangnam District’s Day 5 mutant, Song Myeong-bae.
Known publicly as the ‘Dongdaemun Myth,’ he was the CEO of a major domestic clothing brand. But one day, he got nabbed at a drunk driving checkpoint, exposing his true colors to the world.
A cop, sensing something off beyond mere intoxication, ran a quick drug test—and it came up positive.
To top it off, his presumed girlfriend in the passenger seat tested positive too. A later police investigation revealed Song Myeong-bae had slipped her the drugs without her knowledge, sparking a massive scandal.
And get this—he was a married man with two kids who’d just hit adulthood.
Drunk driving, drugs, and cheating. All three at once.
‘I thought he ended up serving real time in prison… Guess you could call this an early release of sorts.’
Either way, Yeong-woo felt a twinge of relief at the familiar nameplate.
He’d fired off the arrow without checking the name first, so depending on who it was, he might’ve committed a grave faux pas.
“Myeong-bae! Thank goodness it’s you!”
Yeong-woo charged toward the mutant with a bright smile. Song Myeong-bae, just rising to his feet, sensed something ominous and whipped his head around.
―Who……?
The first thing that entered Song Myeong-bae’s view was the opponent’s bare upper body.
Some lunatic without a shirt was swinging a sword right at him.
―No, you fucking—!
Jolted by the nightmarish sight, Myeong-bae rolled backward on instinct, dodging Yeong-woo’s frontal slash.
Hwaaak!
Right then, the back of Song Myeong-bae—which hadn’t been visible until now—came into Yeong-woo’s sight.
“…Huh?”
Yeong-woo’s pupils dilated in shock.
Song Myeong-bae’s entire back was covered in flashy irezumi tattoos.
Probably the ink he’d gotten back when he was human.
‘Tattoos carry over unchanged, huh……?’
It was news to him.
None of the mutants he’d faced so far had tattoos this eye-catching, so this was his first data point.
Kwaat!
By then, Song Myeong-bae had finished his roll, scrambling to his feet and catching his breath.
His single eye gleamed with complicated emotions.
―You… who the hell are you? That thing from the sky earlier—you?
Myeong-bae didn’t even seem to know what had hit him from above.
Instead of answering, Yeong-woo nocked another arrow and drew the bowstring taut.
Keu-deu-deuk!
―Th……!
Only then did Myeong-bae realize his foe was a prepared assassin. Terror twisted his face.
―S-stop!
The five-meter Cyclops, Song Myeong-bae, barreled toward Yeong-woo, bowstring fully drawn.
Kwaang!
Sense Theft triggered, boosting Yeong-woo’s sensory stats.
「Sensory stat temporarily increased from 3,300 to 5,420.」
The stolen senses from the enemy: a whopping 2,120.
‘This guy’s insane. Even a pair of average First Swords would have a tough time.’
With that thought, Yeong-woo unleashed the arrow mercilessly at the mutant before him.
Pyu-uuu-wut!
―Aaaah!
This time, Myeong-bae clearly saw the arrow coming.
But he had no means to block it.
Peur-eu-reu-eong!
It struck his chest dead-on, sending him staggering sideways.
Hard to believe this was the level of a mutant who’d triggered a special public alert.
Had he spawned anywhere but Gangnam, things would’ve played out very differently.
“You’re not the one who marked me with this, right, Myeong-bae?”
Yeong-woo slung his bow and pointed at the ‘General (將)’ character hovering over his own head. Song Myeong-bae squinted his lone eye.
―What bullshit is that?
Overexposed to ability damage, purple cracks spiderwebbed across his body.
He was probably in a fragile state now—ready to crumble at the slightest touch. And sure enough.
-Whiiiiiing!
As Yeong-woo held his attention, a golden arc sliced in from behind, striking his neck.
Kwa-ja-jak!
It shattered like a crumbling cookie, his thick neck splintering apart.
“Kyaaak!”
Jong-seon let out an involuntary scream at the unexpected decapitation.
Not so much from the Cyclops’s neck being severed, but from the way the flesh around it burst into hundreds of fragments.
She’d never seen a mutant’s body degrade like that before.
“Wh-what is that? A mutant crumbling like candy…….”
“Ability damage effect. I thought it only shattered armor, but with enough power, it wrecks the body too.”
Yeong-woo gave Jong-seon a quick explanation while watching the goblin scoop Song Myeong-bae’s orb into its pouch.
“Gangnam’s monsters will get handled by the Taewon crew. Let’s head straight to Gwangjin.”
As Yeong-woo sheathed the unused Sasinsa at his waist, the northern sky erupted in chaos right on cue.
“Huh……?”
Jong-seon’s expression turned grim.
Glancing north along with her, Yeong-woo’s face darkened too.
“Aigoo.”
Three mutant markers in Gwangjin’s sky.
The First Swords—no, two ten-million-won clients—were already there.
***
Gwangjin District.
An abandoned zone now, with no remaining residents or proper First Sword.
Yet today, it buzzed more than any city.
The reason?
“No, this is insane!”
“Right! Veer right!”
Two First Swords, each with their own mutant and a horde of monsters on their tails, sprinting full tilt.
“Fuck! Where the hell is that bastard?”
Dongdaemun First Sword Jang Jeong-ho01.
And.
“This isn’t what we agreed on. What’s going on……?”
Seongbuk First Sword Lee Yu-bin16.
Grouped together due to adjacent districts, both had rushed straight to Gwangjin—neither trusting the other’s skills, in a ridiculous twist.
Sure, the plan to dump the dangerous stuff on Jeong Yeong-woo had been coordinated beforehand.
The problem?
“Jeong Yeong-woo! We’re here……!”
The guy supposed to be waiting in Gwangjin hadn’t clocked in yet.
“That dumbfuck—did he croak in Gangnam or something?”
Growing scared, Jang Jeong-ho cursed and glanced south. Lee Yu-bin leaped over the monsters blocking her path, letting out a near-scream.
“Don’t jinx it! Then what do we do with these?!”
Jang Jeong-ho and Lee Yu-bin.
Tailing them weren’t just their district mutants—Gwangjin’s own drops and over a hundred monsters too.
The moment they stopped running, they’d face the full swarm plus three mutants.
“Wh-what now? Should we just keep circling?”
Lee Yu-bin looked at a loss.
At least they weren’t dragging the monster army into other districts, thanks to a shred of First Sword responsibility.
Gwangjin was abandoned anyway—no big deal if buildings got trashed. Other places? Not so much.
Ta-tat!
Pat!
Even mid-death marathon, they were taking mental hits.
―Running like cockroaches, huh.
―First Sword……? Who slapped that title on you?
―Aren’t you ashamed, you losers?
The three mutants hurled taunts in booming voices.
Fair enough. These mutants had returned for revenge on the world, carrying their grudges—only for so-called First Swords to show up and just run circles. Annoying as hell.
And they were damn good at running, too hard to rip apart on the fly. That was the real kicker.
They’d half a mind to ditch the pair and head elsewhere ages ago.
“Com… coming soon! We meet here!”
“That guy shows, you’re all dead meat, you fucks……!”
Bluff or not, the two cowards kept yapping about someone en route, stoking the mutants’ pride enough to stick around.
―Who the fuck’s coming anyway? Even if it’s a First Sword, so what?
Han Seong-gyu—the mutant who’d chased Lee Yu-bin from Seongbuk—felt his patience snap and turned away.
No point wasting time here.
[Athlete-Han Seong-gyu]
A second-team player in Korea’s pro baseball league, Han Seong-gyu.
Two weeks before the reset, he’d beaten a citizen bloody in a road rage spat. Now he was a four-meter Minotaur.
Two massive bull horns to match his bulldozer temper.
―I’m done here. Headin’ elsewhere.
Declaring the chase over, he planted his heavy legs and halted.
Go-ooo……
A fierce gust whipped up near his hooves, his skin starting to prickle.
―Huh? What’s this.
He wasn’t the only one sensing something off. The two First Swords fleeing wildly, the other pursuing mutants and monsters—they all instinctively froze.
Because.
Suuuuaaa……
The wind, once confined to their feet, swelled into a gale strong enough to stagger even the mutants.
Unidentified green particles began drifting through the air too.
―…The hell.
―What’s happening all of a sudden?
―W-does the weather flip like this?
The wind grew so eerie ominous that one mutant even barked the question at the ‘locals’—the First Swords. Then the blood-red Gwangjin sky flashed green all at once.
Kwa-rung!
Lightning cracked, thunder boomed.
And in that instant, everyone saw it.
“Huh?”
“Eek!”
―What’s that.
―A dragon……?
A colossal silhouette—call it a dragon and you wouldn’t be wrong—looming beyond the green-tinged clouds.
“F-fucked up.”
Dongdaemun First Sword Jang Jeong-ho gnashed his teeth.
Dodged three mutants just to run into a dragon. What else was this but doom?
“We gotta run now. Stay here, we die.”
He said it to Lee Yu-bin, standing dazed beside him—then freaked when he spotted the green sweat beading on her forehead.
“Wha…….”
Right on cue.
「[Abnormal Weather] Malignant Typhoon generated in Gwangjin District.」
An abnormal weather alert popped up, followed by an eerie voice emanating from the clouds where the dragon’s shadow had appeared.
―Still got courage? Then step into my domain.
Jang Jeong-ho and Lee Yu-bin figured it was aimed at them and bolted out of the toxic typhoon like mad.
They’d never had courage to begin with—but more than that, their bodies throbbed with poison pain.
That’s when.
Clank, clank.
They ran smack into a man strolling in from the opposite direction.
None other than.
『Chosun First Sword』
Jeong Yeong-woo, shirtless as ever, casually traversing the heart of the toxic typhoon.
“Jeong Yeong-woo, you……!”
Jang Jeong-ho started to greet him enthusiastically—only to hurl up a wad of black vomit.
“Guh-urgh!”
Yeong-woo dodged it in a flash and addressed the pair.
“Poison resistance is crap, and no immunity gear, right?”
“…….”
“Standing around will kill you, so scram. And don’t forget your ten mil each.”
He jabbed a thumb backward. Lee Yu-bin nodded frantically, grabbed Jeong-ho’s arm, and dragged him out.
The mutant watching from atop the clouds spoke in a satisfied tone.
―Impressive courage. Ready to face me now?
True to dragonkin form, its voice brimmed with colossal pride and confidence.
As if it already owned this world.
So Yeong-woo played humble, addressing it with utmost respect.
“Um… sir, before we fight, one small request.”
―What is it? Speak.
“Could you say ‘Dogo’ just once? It’s this lowly creature’s dying wish.”
―Dogo? What’s that?
Yeong-woo, as if he’d been waiting, snapped his left-hand bowstaff upright and yanked the string taut with his right.
Teu-deu-deuk!
“That’s what I’m about to teach you—so listen up!”
―What?!
“This battle is brought to you by the intergalactic brand Dogo……!”
Dogo’s arrow launched.