The Mad Dog and Her Trainer
“Noir, you okay?”
“Huh? Oh—yeah?”
Noir snapped awake at the sound of Bisque's voice.
“What's with you? Ryu Hwi's stream is in full swing right now. Focus.”
“Right, I know. Yeah……”
Noir pressed her fingers hard against her eyes.
She was strangely tired. Had she been working too much lately?
On the stream, Ryu Hwi had been getting rolled nonstop. He'd blasted open a hidden passage with the 'Bomb' and gone inside—only to find himself locked in a desperate struggle against monsters that had swarmed him out of nowhere.
Every time Ryu Hwi got rolled, the chat exploded too. If he died, the screen flooded with 'lololol'.
“Honestly, I always thought he was just some guy who stumbled into a weird power and went wild trusting nothing but that.”
“You thought that, huh……”
Noir gave a wry smile at Bisque's blunt honesty.
“But watching him, I'm reminded all over again that he really is a gamer. Dying over and over like that, and still enjoying himself, still going…….”
“So gamers are just perverts who take pleasure in suffering, then.”
“That's not what I meant!”
Since the start of The Gacha King broadcast, Ryu Hwi's death count had casually blown past three hundred.
It would be one thing against an absurdly overpowered boss, but this difficulty made even the lowliest trash mob lethal. The fact that Ryu Hwi kept throwing himself back in without giving up earned him a genuine flicker of respect.
“You didn't become a gamer by choice, after all.”
“That's true, but I've been doing this for years, so I can't help feeling something. Besides, his game overs are slowly going down.”
“Huh?”
Noir pulled up Ryu Hwi's record. Sure enough—slowly, but undeniably, the deaths were decreasing.
“Really? Why, though…….”
“The reason's simple.”
As Bisque saw it, Ryu Hwi had a tendency to lean on 'cheats'—his skills and items. His analytical ability was sharp, his insight exceptional, his split-second judgment solid. But he let his own power carry him, rather than the other way around.
Until now, that had been enough. But the Fall of Saynal difficulty of Legend of Lambda was too brutal to handle even with cheats. Ryu Hwi ran a fresh gacha pull every broadcast, but since the Master Blade, the results had been underwhelming.
And yet his deaths kept dropping. The game hadn't gotten any easier.
“He's evolving.”
“Evolving……”
Noir watched Ryu Hwi's figure on the screen. Her eyes grew hazy, distant.
“Noir?”
“Ah…….”
“Are you really okay? If you're tired, take a break.”
“No, I'm fine. I'm fine.”
Noir slapped her own cheeks to shake herself alert.
Today, she had a role to play too.
The longer Ryu Hwi endured the Fall of Saynal difficulty of Legend of Lambda, the sharper his senses grew. This wasn't Intuition or a skill—it felt like his own innate abilities were climbing.
Enemies whose movements he'd once been unable to even perceive without Intuition had, at some point, become things he could faintly feel coming. The way his body reacted moment to moment had changed too.
It was a strange sensation. Something apart from Intuition—as if the entire landscape around him came into view in a single glance.
You are adapting.
“Adapting?”
Simply put, you've grown accustomed to the enemies' speed. This is not a skill—your own innate ability is rising, Master.
It wasn't talking about game stats. He was, quite literally, training himself.
Whether Yggdrasil intended this or not, I cannot say—but it is the perfect opportunity to forge your foundations from the ground up.
Foundation training, at a time like this. But there was no denying he'd been leaning on skills alone all this while. A situation where even maxing out his skills couldn't secure an easy win was, ironically, the perfect environment to rebuild his fundamentals.
The proof was right in front of him: an attack from a bat monster he'd previously struggled just to block now slid cleanly off the Master Blade. Not a skill—his body had simply moved on its own. He'd internalized, physically, how to respond to the monster's attacks.
Once might have been luck. But he parried the bat monster's attacks again and again, in succession.
The chat went berserk. To everyone watching, that last exchange must have looked like pure magic.
'Nice, this is it!'
Ah, Master. If you let your guard down now—
“Huh?!”
In the blink of an eye, he was dead again.
Tsk tsk. Still a long way to go, I see. How does it feel to receive a facial kiss so passionate it shattered your skull against a bat?
“Damn it!”
He pressed both hands against his face. Even with pain suppression maxed out, the ache lingered.
“Still a long way to go. Continuing!”
After seven more deaths, he finally cleared the cave.
You have yet to find even the first Quartz. Do you truly believe you can clear this?
YggON's words made his ears burn.
⟨ And now, for The Gacha King's main event! The Random Box Quest begins! ⟩
Noel's energetic voice rang out.
The Random Box Quest was a segment where Ryu Hwi spun the Random Box and answered viewer requests using nothing but whatever he pulled. The heart of the show was the desperate struggle between viewers who tossed out absurd joke requests and Ryu Hwi somehow surviving them.
Today's request: fight the Bisque and Noir duo from Jucheongwang. The condition—all skills and items sealed, fighting only with what he pulled today.
“Who submitted this request? No—why did this even get pulled?”
⟪Don't look at me…….⟫
He complained to Noel, but it was pointless. The requests themselves were decided by gacha. Even Noel couldn't predict what would come up. She pre-censored anything too outrageous, but the one she'd slipped in thinking 'this much is within acceptable bounds, right?' was exactly what got drawn.
“Well, nothing to do but pray something good comes out.”
Is that possible?
“……”
He could already see the future: pulling more garbage and getting stomped by Bisque and Noir.
The two of them were, of course, playing Legend of Lambda as well. While Ryu Hwi was stuck grinding the Fall of Saynal difficulty, they'd already claimed their second Quartz. Naturally, they'd have the skills and gear to match.
“YggON. Random Box.”
Projecting.
A virtual Random Box terminal materialized from YggON. The moment it appeared, Noel's ecstatic shriek filled the stream.
⟨ RANDOM BOX TIME! So, can Ryu Hwi pull something that will get him through this request?! What fate awaits him?! Lately the results have been less 'Gacha King' and more 'Gacha Slave'—shouldn't we just rename the show already? ⟩
He wanted nothing more than to gently brush that gaping mouth of hers with the Magidrive Toothbrush.
Gritting his teeth, Ryu Hwi fed in his tickets.
“Come on, even one SR!”
The instant the words left his mouth, the Random Box terminal erupted in golden light.
⟨ No way—could this be an SR?! ⟩
The chat flooded with SR. But Ryu Hwi didn't let his guard down—SR was stuffed to the brim with trash, too.
The results appeared one by one.
N N N N R
R R N N …….
From the R pulls came the Round Shield and Iron Sword—marginally useful, but nowhere near enough to fight the Bisque-Noir duo. One ticket remained. His entire fate hung on this last pull.
And the result was—
◈ A handgun that fires glass marbles imbued with a variety of random effects.
The moment the item appeared, Ryu Hwi felt his head swim for a second.
It was a palm-sized pistol that fired 'marbles' as ammunition.
⟨ Aaah, the Random Orb Bullet! An S-class item from Super Gemini has appeared! ⟩
Weapon:
SR – Random Orb Bullet
A handgun that fires marbles carrying a variety of effects.
⟨ Details ⟩
[Special Ability: Reload]
– One marble auto-reloads every 10 seconds. Maximum capacity: 6.
[Special Ability: Random Orb]
– The effect cannot be known until the marble detonates.
= SYSTEM OFF =
In terms of sheer variety, even the Shuffle Gun would have to take a back seat. The problem was that there was no way to know what effect would trigger until the marble actually burst.
There was the Instant Death Orb—a marble that killed anyone it hit outright. Cheating-tier performance like that.
And then there was the Super Enhancement Orb—which super-enhanced the target it struck. A self-destruct button, essentially.
Personally, it was an item he'd wanted to pull. A terrifying thing where anything could happen—but with good luck, a weapon that could flip the entire battle in one shot.
With good luck.
Shut up.
⟨ Unbelievable—he actually pulled something usable! The Gacha Slave has evolved into the Gacha Aristocrat at this very moment! ⟩
I'm brushing your teeth later. I swear it. Vowing this in his heart, he finished his preparations.
⟨ Super Gemini item versus Legend of Lambda gear and skills! What a delicious matchup! Wait, was this segment the Jucheongwang Showdown all along? ⟩
Well, yes—it had been ever since the gacha spat out Bisque and Noir versus Ryu Hwi.
⟨ In ten seconds, the Random Box Quest begins! Ah, Mr. Gacha Aristocrat, please deactivate all equipped skill effects. Now. Quickly. ⟩
Intuition included, of course.
“I have no intention of cheating with that.”
He deactivated every skill. With even Intuition stripped away, he was now nothing more than a completely powerless ordinary gamer.
“Why on earth did they design a segment like this?”
No matter how he looked at it, this Gacha King quest existed purely to savor his misery. And the mastermind behind it was, without question, Wolya. She was clearly settling every score she'd been banking up.
The stage was the village square—a spot prepared for PvP. Bisque and Noir had finished their preparations and stepped into view.
⟨ And here they are! Jucheongwang's pride, the golden duo—the Mad Dog Bisque and the Mad Dog Trainer Noir! ⟩
“'Mad Dog Trainer'? What even is that?”
Noir recoiled at the nickname, the first she'd ever heard it.
“Big mouth for someone with a hole in her face. Just you wait.”
Bisque ground her teeth too.
⟨ The two of them have already collected two Quartz in Legend of Lambda! Unlike Ryu Hwi, who has zero! How long can he possibly hold out?! ⟩
Noel made enemies every time she opened her mouth, but the broadcast rolled on without a hint of concern.
“Noir, you're looking a little pale?”
Flagged by Ryu Hwi on top of Bisque, Noir looked flustered.
“I-I'm fine. Just a little tired, that's all.”
“If you're not feeling well, why not sit this one out?”
“I said I'm fine. What, are you scared of fighting two-on-one?”
Since she was the one throwing out taunts, there didn't seem to be anything to worry about.
⟨ Alright, everyone, eyes front! The Gacha King Quest begins NOW! ⟩
The gap in power was overwhelming. All Ryu Hwi had to believe in was the Random Orb Bullet. Bisque and Noir had cleared two Quartz and armed themselves with top-tier gear and skills. There was no comparison to make.
“Boomerang Slash!”
Bisque's boomerang tore through the air, hunting Ryu Hwi. A blade trailing a vacuum wave, its effective range far wider than the eye suggested. The moment he trusted his vision alone, he'd be sliced in half by the vacuum—game over.
“Die, Ryu Hwi!”
“I'm technically your boss, you know!”
With his skills equipped, dodging would have been trivial—but every skill was sealed, leaving him with the physical ability of an ordinary person.
Ryu Hwi barely evaded the boomerang, and a bomb immediately dropped toward his head. Noir, ever the perfect partner, had thrown it at the absolute best timing.
Perhaps it was all those hours rolling through the Saynal difficulty—but without invoking Intuition, Ryu Hwi grasped how he needed to move and answered the attack. He read the bomb's blast radius and launched his body instantly.
He couldn't escape the explosion entirely, but he minimized the damage, then rode the shockwave to put distance between himself and the duo.
'Movement like this, with his skills stripped away…… His stats got weaker, but his fundamentals got better.'
The old Ryu Hwi had moved by leaning on his skills. Now, even with everything sealed, he was showing movement of a considerably high caliber.
“Haha! Now that's more like it!”
“Shut up, you battle maniac!”
Bisque caught the returning boomerang and dropped back into a throwing stance. Ryu Hwi aimed the handgun at her and pulled the trigger.
Come on, anything good—please!
As if his prayer had gotten through, the orb bullet struck Bisque's boomerang dead-on and produced an effect very much in Ryu Hwi's favor.
{{HOT}}
The word 'HOT' burned itself into Bisque's boomerang, and the weapon glowed scarlet.
“Ah—hot?! HOT!”
Even with pain suppression active, it was hot enough to make her cry out involuntarily—too hot to even hold, let alone throw. Bisque dropped the boomerang and drew a different weapon.
Seeing Noir wind up to throw a bomb, Ryu Hwi prayed for another good roll and pulled the trigger again.
{{SPEED UP}}
A speed-boosting effect. And of all things, it boosted the speed of whatever the bullet struck.
“Khh—?!”
Noir's bomb came screaming in at the speed of a splitting gale. It might kill him from sheer physical impact before it even detonated.
“This weapon is genuinely hilarious.”
{{ZAP-ZAP ORB}}
The Random Orb Bullet fired again. This time: zap-zap. Bisque hastily batted away the incoming shot, but a lingering static-like effect made her lose her grip on her weapon.
“Ow, that hurts!”
The moment Bisque shed a few tears, Noir hurled her bomb. She'd probably invested in bomb-related skills—bomb throwing, bomb power boosts, and more. Noir unleashed a whole arsenal of bomb skills, driving Ryu Hwi back step by step.
'This is fun.'
In the middle of it all, Noir caught herself thinking it.
This moment—playing against Ryu Hwi—was fun. She was drawn to his every movement. Watching him slip impossibly between the bombs, gripping that speaker of a gun, Noir's cheeks flushed a warm red.
'I want to corrupt this man.'
“……?!”
For an instant, it felt as though his mind had been dyed violet.
It wasn't unpleasant. If anything, it felt good.
As he stood bewildered by the sudden sensation, YggON's voice rang out.
Master. Equip Intuition. Right now.
“What?!”
Ryu Hwi wondered what YggON was suddenly on about. Equipping 'Intuition' now would mean breaking the rules—outright cheating.
An anomalous reaction was detected, momentary in nature. It was too brief even to verify the data.
Ryu Hwi's expression changed.
This is dangerous. Equip Intuition. Now.