Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: My Defeat on Land.
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1.
Ambushers that floated like corpses on the water before suddenly springing up to attack.
Suicide bombers charging recklessly with bodies swollen to the brim.
Ranged attackers spewing green liquid from atop rocks, melting the ground.
'Definitely tougher than dealing with the blood ghosts.'
Her breathing restricted by the biogases.
Her movement paths limited just to catch a breath.
She was especially weak when it came to respiration.
A youthful folly from once upon a time.
It's not even my real body, so this should be fine.
That complacency had invited this self-imposed constraint.
When oxygen runs low, physical performance drops.
Mental acuity plummets sharply as well.
With her current body, the longest she could hold her breath was about 40 seconds.
Amid intense movement, that time shortened even further.
'Within safe limits, 20 seconds. Even in the worst case, never stay in the biogases for 30 seconds or more.'
The standard method for clearing water ghosts.
This wasn't much different from the blood ghosts.
Water ghosts appearing in a line.
Luring them one by one.
Producing only enough gas that her poison antidote could handle, then automatically detoxifying it.
[Rotten Fish]
Like catnip before a cat, an ultra-effective lure item that drives water ghosts mad, eyes rolling back as they charge.
With just rotten fish, she could steadily repeat lure-and-kill, even if slowly.
Charging alone into a pack of water ghosts.
Holding her breath.
Killing them all and escaping.
A mass murderer's way, far from standard.
But if it's possible, why not?
Swordsmanship and footwork.
If those two dominated the tutorial field.
This time, the key elements were
breathing techniques and distance calculation.
One wrong breath.
One miscalculated distance.
The biogases' poison would surely take its toll.
Unlike the blood ghosts she hunted proactively.
The water ghosts swarmed at the sound of explosions.
One dies, three come.
Three die, nine come.
Not an exaggeration to say every water ghost on the map rushed in—a tidal wave of numbers.
Harshly unfavorable odds.
But not every element was against her.
'Good spot. Let's finish this here.'
Atop a hillock with the wind at her back.
Even killing water ghosts, the gas blows away quickly.
A golden opportunity aided by the wind.
Slash! Thud.
A headless corpse flailing as it falls.
Thick gas rises belatedly, but.
The smoke rising from below the hillock vanishes in an instant, pushed by the fair wind.
Water ghosts climbing the hill lose their heads one by one and tumble down.
A water ghost protected by sturdy full-body armor.
No gaps for even a single blade—an absurd sight.
Players who'd tackled Half-Demon Gorge screamed in PTSD.
Regular players fled upon encountering armored water ghosts.
Fail to escape, and they forfeit a life.
Attacks all blocked by the armor, yet the armored ghost charges, grabs the player, forcibly poisons or drowns them in water.
Invincible in close quarters with no counter.
Grabbed once, massive damage.
Its infamy was well-earned.
Hae Eung-eung neither swung wildly nor fled.
Instead, she grabbed a dead water ghost's spear and slung it over her shoulder.
Whoosh!
A javelin streaking across the battlefield.
From 25 meters, it smashed dead-on into the head.
The armored water ghost staggered as if concussed.
Unable to regain balance, it toppled backward.
Thud thud thud!
Other water ghosts struck by the rolling armored one.
Suddenly, five or six exploded in chain blasts.
The battlefield eased after clearing that hurdle.
Before she could savor the breather.
Dust clouds and tremors rose from afar.
A hundred or more water ghosts pouring out.
Plus compounding misfortunes.
'Wind direction changed.'
The fair wind now a headwind.
Biogas from below rises to the hillock.
High ground advantage reversed.
Even encirclement tightening from the opposite side.
Like demonic forces camped on the mountain—as if she'd invited the crisis herself.
All declared it over—the final charge.
Like a candle flaring brightest before extinguishing.
A last-ditch struggle, return of the light.
She toppled shield-bearers' sturdy defenses by stabbing ankles, using stolen planks to push suicide bombers into mutual destruction, caught incoming spears from three directions to tangle them, then sliced all ankles with her redrawn sword.
Compared to the massively swelled water ghost horde.
Her relatively small 165cm frame.
Exploiting her size advantage to dive deeper in.
Their attacks missed her, while her onslaught swept front, back, left, right—every direction.
Whirling blood spray and biogases in her wake.
'Faster than the gas spreads—don't stop, keep advancing.'
Five suicide bombers' chain mega-explosion.
Double acceleration frontal breakthrough evasion: 7 seconds.
Six ranged javelin barrage.
Using shield-bearers as walls to close in: 14 seconds.
Seven spear-wielders' group charge.
Detonate suicide bombers for mass kill: 17 seconds.
'Worst case. Terrain turned to mud.'
Heavy water ghost weights and successive blasts flipped the ground entirely.
In ankle-sinking mud, breakthrough time stretched.
20 seconds.
25 seconds.
24 seconds.
28 seconds.
'Dizzy.'
Shrinking margin.
Gasping breaths.
Body pushed to the limit.
'When did the gaps narrow this much?'
The wide-open path filling her view.
Now a thread-thin line.
'Honestly underestimated them. Big mistake thinking they were just trash mobs.'
With skills, AoE to clear crowds easily.
Mobility for freer movement.
Escape to break encirclement swiftly.
No skills at all.
Highest difficulty mode.
No system buffs.
Reaching this far was a miracle.
She admitted it.
This time, she'd been reckless.
'Concede. Even trash mobs are way trickier than tutorial.'
Not just swarming together.
Same-type coordinated attacks.
Synergies from mixed types.
Difficulty spikes felt acutely.
Still, she hacked through relentlessly, finally breaking through.
Before Hae Eung-eung after piercing the horde.
A vast red river like an endless sea.
Facing the river after breaching enemy lines—back to the water.
Wind stilled, biogases pooling everywhere.
Crossing enemy lines again to the far shore?
No confidence.
'This is it.'
River at her back.
Water ghosts ahead.
'My defeat.'
Flanks: sunken planks in the riverbank shallows, human bones washed downriver, assorted trash.
'On land.'
Amid it all, still intact.
A single dilapidated ferryboat.
Thud—
—Splash!
Ferry shoved fiercely into the river.
Hae Eung-eung leaped aboard gracefully.
Her eyes on the shore still burned with fight.
'But what about ship-to-ship?'
Dozens of dumbstruck water ghosts staring.
A beckoning finger their way.
Bold taunt.
As if casting a wide taunt skill.
Chat exploding like mad.
Then, water ghosts—looking somehow pissed—leaped into the river en masse.
86 water ghosts soloed on land.
Massacre-level performance leading to
Water ghost extermination round 2.
But the stage not land—a rickety ferry.
Claiming ~2 pyeong of cramped deck as turf,
she dives into naval combat against river-roaming water ghosts.
64 water ghosts left.
3,300 viewers watching.
Neither the 64 nor 3,300 believe she'll survive.
One fact only Hae Eung-eung knows.
Sword grip, stance on deck.
Both markedly changed. Eyes closed, she smiled.
'This sway. The feel of standing on a boat. All so long missed.'
Behind the name Silent Swordmaster.
Player Hae Eung-eung.
Disciple of Haenam Sect, where isles and seas were the front yard.
Naval combat.
Not just for water ghosts.
Her strongest domain too.
"Kee-yaak!"
"Kee-yak!"
Unlike on land, water ghosts raced through water at ferocious speeds.
Fish in water, frolicking freely. Her? Rocking on a light ferry in choppy waves.
These conditions.
This environment.
Water ghosts stronger, her weaker.
Obvious even to monsters. They leaped from the surface confidently to strike.
From that misconception.
That wrong judgment.
Water ghost extermination round 2, naval battle, began—sinking countless foes beneath the river.