The Sword Master's Humiliation
Baek Yeon-woo and Park Gwang-seob.
One was a rookie, the other a high-ranked veteran. Aside from both wielding swords as their main weapon, the two had absolutely nothing in common. Yet they now stood facing each other with only a single step between them.
Gulp.
The Baekgeom Guild members swallowed nervously. Shouldn’t we stop this?
Even the other hunters were watching with interest. This should be fun.
Just as tension and anticipation tangled together—
Lee Shin placed a hand on the back of Baek Yeon-woo’s head and gently pushed it down, forcing the boy into a bow toward Park Gwang-seob.
“My bad. Our kid here made a huge mistake.”
“I’m sorry.”
An apology at this timing?
Whether it was the completely unexpected development or the sudden flood of attention, Park Gwang-seob missed his chance to respond.
In that opening, Lee Shin continued with perfect politeness.
“As I mentioned on the broadcast, this guy was seriously ill for a long time. He literally has no concept of what a ranker even is. The only ones he knows are ‘Divine Archer’ and ‘Phantom Marquis.’”
“I really didn’t know.”
“!!”
The moment the names Divine Archer and Phantom Marquis left his lips, Park Gwang-seob’s eyebrows twitched violently.
Korea’s number one, Divine Archer. Korea’s number two, Phantom Marquis.
Both were opponents who had inflicted deep, bitter humiliation on the Sword Master.
“The reason I didn’t recommend Park Gwang-seob’s videos to him was absolutely not out of disrespect. It’s simply because, given this kid’s condition, I couldn’t afford to pour as many resources into him as I would for someone like you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“……”
Resource hog. That label, along with the trendy insult “trend chaser,” had been tormenting the Sword Master for a while now.
Park Gwang-seob’s complexion grew worse by the second.
“And as for that ‘that guy or whatever’ comment, I already gave him a very stern scolding. How could he say ‘what have you even done’ to the Sword Master who has won so many awards? I’ll bow once more on his behalf. I’m truly sorry.”
“I’m sorry……”
It was an extraordinarily polite apology—so polite it made the onlookers feel sorry just watching.
But Park Gwang-seob’s face had turned bright red.
Is this… are they fucking with me?
Every single word of that apology had struck his reverse scale. At this point, he would have preferred being cursed out.
Yet the guild representative himself had come forward and bowed, and Baek Yeon-woo kept lowering his head in genuine remorse. Their attitude and posture were completely sincere.
The reactions around them were also overwhelmingly positive.
I thought he was a hothead, but he’s surprisingly classy. People were quietly impressed by this new side of Lee Shin.
Fuck. Fuck……
Am I the weird one? Am I the only one losing my mind here?!
If they had argued with him, he could have responded in style. Hell, if it had just been Baek Yeon-woo alone, the situation would have played out completely differently.
The gap between a rookie nobody and the third-ranked hunter was like heaven and earth.
But when the representative showed up in person and they both took such a low stance, he had nothing to say.
Now he was even starting to doubt himself.
Is this because of my complex? Or are these bastards actually provoking me? Is it paranoia? Or is that guy doing it on purpose?
Goddamn it! Goddamn it!!
Rage boiled inside him.
What made this situation even more infuriating for Park Gwang-seob was that even if they were openly mocking him, there was nothing he could do about it.
Strictly speaking, he had been the one who caused the original problem, and he was the one who had escalated things by failing to fact-check.
The entire situation was already favoring Baek Yeon-woo.
Once the moral high ground had shifted to their side, the moment they bowed first, Park Gwang-seob effectively had no options left.
If he lashed out now, he would become the shameless high-ranker who bullied a sickly minor. And if he got angry on top of that?
One of them would genuinely have to leave the country.
Endure it. You have to endure.
With superhuman patience, Park Gwang-seob somehow forced the corners of his mouth upward.
“I-it’s fine. I should have been more careful too.”
“As expected of the Sword Master! What a true ranker!”
“Thank you, sunbae.”
And so the three of them parted on a supposedly warm note. By the time Baekgeom Guild Master Jang Yo-han came running over, Lee Shin and Baek Yeon-woo had already vanished, leaving only Park Gwang-seob trembling violently in the corner.
“……Fuck. What the hell just happened?”
And sure enough, once the match began—
“Grit your teeth and run forward. Anyone who falls behind, prepare yourselves.”
Dozens of swords flew out from behind the Sword Master’s back.
After sending the raid party into the gate, the group was on their way back to the guild.
Lee Shin lounged in the massage chair inside the raid bus with an utterly refreshed expression.
“Kk-kk-kk-kk-kk, uuuuugh, that’s so gooooood~”
“Do you really have to provoke people and escalate things just to feel satisfied?”
“Hehehe, it’s fine, it’s fine. Hehehe.”
“Of all places to pick a fight… ha……”
“We had the moral high ground anyway. Ooooh, that hits the spot.”
“Ha… I should have realized the moment you said you were going to apologize……”
Using a sincere apology to piss someone off. In a way, it was genuinely impressive. Chae Dong-ha shook his head in disbelief.
“So what was your plan this time? You always have some scheme. Tell me.”
“Scheme? I didn’t have one.”
“……?!”
“I was just bored, so I poked him. Hehehe~”
“You scratched an itch because you were bored? You’re joking, right?”
“No, I’m serious.”
The Sword Master wasn’t even on his radar.
What did some dice roll matter anyway?
Lee Shin’s own boredom was far more important.
“Lately I’ve been feeling way too relaxed. Normally during special matches or big events, I’m so busy I can’t even see straight. But this time the kids just handled everything on their own.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It is… it is good, but… how should I put it? It feels a little lonely. Like the page count dropped in a novel.”
“I thought you quit reading web novels.”
“I got bored again so I picked it back up. Anyway, Lee Shin realized something. Ah, so this is what it feels like. You guys have grown up!”
The guild that used to require Lee Shin’s personal control over every little thing was gone.
Just look at how they handled the Baek Yeon-woo “that guy or whatever” incident. The entire guild had leveled up and become much smarter.
Lee Shin felt both proud and a little bitter.
“They used to be such cute babies who followed me around going ‘Director-nim! Director-niiim!!’”
“They were never babies.”
“There’s an old saying that’s never wrong. ‘A child in your arms.’ Back when I was making formula and changing diapers, I prayed for them to crawl soon, to walk soon, to grow up quickly. And now they’re slamming their doors saying ‘Dad doesn’t know anything!’ Is this puberty?”
“I have younger siblings, so I know. Kids usually prioritize their friends during puberty.”
“Now I stare at the closed door, feeling the cruel passage of time, and console myself with a glass of soju and some kimchi while reminiscing about the old days… Yep. The head of the family really is cold.”
“Ha… That’s enough. So what exactly are you trying to say? Are we going back to the baby days?”
“I’m just feeeling so looonely. Uuuuugh~”
Chae Dong-ha stared at Lee Shin with an incredulous look as the man let out a thick groan from the massage chair.
Missing the old days? The loneliness of being a father? Those slumped shoulders?
This was the same person who had scouted every single promising talent in the league.
“It was quiet for a while, but here we go again. That damn illness of yours.”
“Uuuuugh, give them back. My baby Mir. My page coooount.”
“Stop talking nonsense and finish explaining the match.”
Click. The moment Chae Dong-ha pressed the OFF button and stopped the massage, Lee Shin’s expression instantly returned to its usual calm, as if the previous pathetic display had been a lie.
The two men turned their attention to the large TV broadcasting the competition raid battle.
“Honestly, I still don’t fully understand. Is the competition raid battle really that special? I mean, the only difference is that four teams enter the same gate, right?”
“Our SS-rank genius puberty-stricken team leader (real) has been so busy doing what he calls a ‘full investigation’ on every single supply item for the past few days that he’s annoyed, huh? My bad for being so oblivious?”
“……How long are you going to keep joking around?”
“Hehe, fine, fine.”
Twenty years. Enough time for mountains to change twice.
Especially in the modern era transformed by smartphones and YouTube, twenty years was long enough for the entire structure of society to shift.
That was how long ago the competition raid battle belonged to the distant past.
“Like you said, the basic framework is four guilds entering one gate and competing through raiding. It’s almost identical to regular raid battles.”
There were time scores, hunting scores, exploration, objects, mid-bosses—fundamentally no different from existing raid battles.
“In short, the scores from the raid determine the ranking of the four teams, and each rank is awarded victory points.”
1st place: 3 victory points.
2nd place: 1 victory point.
3rd place: -1 victory point.
4th place: -3 victory points.
“This is the part I still don’t understand. Negative victory points? Doesn’t -3 for fourth place basically count as a penalty? It’s too harsh.”
“Krr… As expected, our SS-rank genius puberty-stricken team leader (real) may not understand his father’s heart, but he grasps the core—Ouch! That hurts. Fine, fine.”
Just as Chae Dong-ha had said while smacking him on the back, it was true.
In regular league matches, even losing gave 0 points. Here, third place and below received negative points. Especially that last-place -3, which was a brutal penalty capable of ending a league race after just a few losses.
And then Lee Shin said,
“That harshness you mentioned is the very foundation of the ‘competition raid battle.’”
“Harshness is the foundation……?”
“Remember that well. You’ll understand as you listen.”
Next rule.
As already mentioned, the competition raid battle was almost no different from regular raid battles. The rules didn’t even need separate explanation.
But there was one absolute rule.
“You must not attack the opposing teams.”
It was a competition based on raiding.
The match was decided solely through raiding. Attacking opponents would result in the referee issuing penalties.
“Typical penalties include a light warning accompanied by ‘point deduction,’ ‘ejection’ for maliciously harming opposing teams or players, and in rare cases where things go too far, even ‘disqualification.’”
“Disqualification?!”
“It’s only happened a few times in history, but it has happened. Oh, and just so you know, disqualification is automatically treated as last place. -3 victory points.”
“Insane.”
For now, that was everything one needed to know about the competition raid battle.
Pretty simple, right?
It was so straightforward that one might wonder why everyone had made such a fuss. At the same time, the simplicity meant there was an enormous amount of room within the rules.
“Aside from that one simple rule, you can do pretty much anything.”
“Guilds desperate to avoid the harsh negative points, combined with rules that leave so much room……”
“It’s going to be incredibly fierce. If you end up in last place a few times, you’re really out of the league. So everyone will be desperate.”
“Desperate people are extremely dangerous.”
“Not to mention, this isn’t an ‘artificial gate’ inside a stadium. If someone gets hurt? Boom. It gets real. What if one of the main league players gets injured??”
“……Hoo. I don’t even want to imagine it.”
Chae Dong-ha finally understood why both the guilds and the association had unanimously agreed to abolish the competition raid battle.
One mistake and everything could be ruined in an instant.
The astronomical costs spent during the Stove League, the blood, sweat, and tears of the front office working day and night, and the hunters’ own hard work.
The competition raid battle was something that could turn all of that into nothing with a single blow.
Lee Shin smiled brightly.
“Welcome back to the coliseum after twenty years.”
A forest dense with trees. Vines covered everything, and the ground was entirely wetland.
The humid air was heavy with moisture, and the ground that kept sinking beneath their feet drained their stamina.
This tropical rainforest, filled with an unpleasant dampness, was the gate assigned to Mir Guild’s group.
Kawwwww―!!
At that moment, a Sand Worm burst through the ground.
It was already a large monster, but this one was nearly twice the size—an ultra-giant Sand Worm.
As it thrashed about, the earth quickly turned into a wasteland.
From the hole the Sand Worm had created, countless glinting lights appeared one by one.
A moment later, the creatures that emerged were insects.
Insects larger than humans.
Like a faucet turned on full blast, ants, beetles, mantises, ladybugs, and all kinds of giant insects poured out of the hole in a torrent.
An endless wave of giant insects.
That was why it was called ‘LV7 Giant Insect Hell.’ Because this place truly was hell for insects.
And here, in that very hell, dozens of swords were dancing.
Dozens of blades flashed brilliantly as they sliced through the undergrowth, cut down vines, and felled trees.
Sword light flashed. Swords carved open a path.
The Sword Master and the Baekgeom Guild charged forward through the cleared terrain.
“I’ll carve the path first, so keep up properly!”
The moment he shouted and drew his sword, his figure vanished.
His form blurred from the incredible speed, then gradually narrowed.
When his shape twisted, shrank, and finally became a single line—
The Sword Master, having become a single blade, split the world in two.
Shwaaak―!!
An ant the size of a bull was sliced in half with one stroke. A ladybug was shredded. Nameless insects were bisected, and along the flashing line, a river of disgusting bodily fluids formed.
When he held a longsword, he displayed the essence of the upright sword.
When he held a greatsword, he displayed the domineering sword.
When he held twin swords, he displayed the swift sword.
Going beyond revealing the true nature of whatever blade he held, he had reached the realm of becoming one with the sword.
The wielder of the SSS-rank trait Unity of Sword and Body. That was Park Gwang-seob. The third-ranked Sword Master.
“Sand Worm! We have to take that thing down!!”
Having split the battlefield in two, Park Gwang-seob turned around and shouted valiantly.
But……
“Huh?”
There was no one. No one nearby. The main force was still far behind.
“What are you guys doing?!”
— “Something feels off, Gwang-seob. Hold on a second. This is different from what I expected.”
What the hell are you talking about?
Irritation surged through him, but the match was what mattered right now. Park Gwang-seob looked up.
Even at this very moment, the Sand Worm was spewing acidic liquid, dealing dot damage across the area.
They had to kill it. That thing gave the highest score.
Reading the Sword Master’s will, the swords floating beside him lifted him up. The moment he stepped onto a blade—
Shweeeak—!
The sword shot into the sky.
It was Sword Flight Technique, utilizing the Sword Manipulation Technique that allowed free control of blades.
With his eyes closed, his hand reached for the scabbard at his waist.
A greenish-purple scabbard that glowed with an eerie light. It was the Legendary sword that had recently become his beloved weapon—Nenekirimaru.
As the cursed blade Nenekirimaru danced, the swords guarding him scattered sword light as well. A storm of blade light exploded against the Sand Worm.
The Sand Worm’s body was torn to shreds. As the creature thrashed in agony, the ground itself was also torn apart.
Yet despite the one-sided trampling, Park Gwang-seob’s expression was deeply twisted.
“What the hell? Why is it like this……”
Why? Why was something that should already be dead still holding on?
That was when a swarm of giant flying insects came rushing toward them.
If he dragged this out any longer, even he would be in trouble.
I’ll end it in one strike.
The moment the Sword Master’s will and Nenekirimaru’s devouring instinct resonated, radiating a greenish-purple glow—
— “Gwang-seob! Come back! The line is collapsing over here. It’s worse than we thought.”
“Ah, shit…… seriously.”
Looking down, the battle situation was not good.
If he wasted any more time, even he would end up isolated.
“Goddamn it!! Goddamn it!!”
Nothing had gone right from the very beginning.
With no other choice, Park Gwang-seob rode the sword back to the main force.
The moment everyone retreated and the field became eerily quiet as if nothing had happened—
KWAAAAAAAAANG────!
!!!
With a gunshot loud enough to tear ears, the massive body of the Sand Worm collapsed to the ground.
“Yat-ho! Direct hit!! Did you see that, sunbae?!”
“Nice shot.”
In the distance, Yu Ri-ra and Hwa-rang high-fived each other.
Don’t forget.
This was a competition raid battle.