The Unseen Blade
The room was empty.
Or rather, no one could be seen.
Ryu Hwi swept his gaze around the space, but nothing struck him as suspicious.
"Was I just imagining it?"
Having confirmed he was alone, he settled onto the edge of the bed. He must have been more exhausted than he'd realized — his eyelids fluttered shut almost immediately, and with a drowsy exhale, sleep took him.
How much time had passed?
Into a room that should have held no one but Ryu Hwi, a strange sound crept in. Footsteps, deliberate and measured, drawing steadily closer.
Thud. Thud.
The sound stopped directly in front of Ryu Hwi.
One second. Ten seconds. Time dripped past.
And then—
CRACK!
With an ear-splitting crash, the bed split clean in two. The devastation looked as if a razor-sharp blade had sheared straight through it — and if the bed could be cut in half, then whoever had been sleeping on it could hardly have escaped unscathed.
But a heartbeat before the bed was severed, Ryu Hwi had snapped upright and twisted out of the way, escaping the catastrophe — and in the same motion, he swung his knife.
The blade, which should have sliced through empty air, spattered blood. A scream rang out.
"Gh—ugh……"
A figure flickered into semi-transparent view. Clutching its freshly slashed arm, it scrambled desperately toward the hotel window and leapt.
"Like hell I'm letting you run."
Ryu Hwi snatched up the wooden sword he'd left within reach and dove out the window after the assailant.
That is a Yggdrasil item, Master.
"Figured as much."
Ryu Hwi trailed the assailant's escape, thinking it went without saying.
An attacker with no visible form. Not even a trace of presence — it was as if the thing's very existence were being hidden. Only thanks to his Intuition skill had he sensed it at all. In the real world, the skill's effects were diminished, so pinpointing its exact location had been impossible — but he'd known something was in that room.
Ryu Hwi had waited with Intuition stretched to its limit for the enemy to move. The instant it tried to strike, the skill blared an alarm in his head, and he reacted without a moment's hesitation. Without Intuition, responding properly would have been nearly impossible.
Of the items obtainable from game labyrinths, those that can be brought into the 'real world' — or more precisely, those eligible for Conversion — retain their full power even outside. No reductions.
The Yggdrasil item the assailant was using would have to carry effects like Transparency and Presence Concealment.
"Shouldn't an item like that be under government control?"
There are back alleys everywhere, Master. Believing that everything unearthed in Yggdrasil is properly managed is, frankly, naive. Kekeke.
"Well. Fair point."
Ryu Hwi followed the drops of blood spattered across the ground, tracking the assailant.
There was every chance the attacker carried other items, too. To be ready for anything, Ryu Hwi activated his Sword Saint skill.
Who the hell is this guy?
He had no way of knowing who was after him. The first things that came to mind were Black Snake or Iron Blood — the gangs keeping watch over the Entertainment District. Black Snake he could understand, but why Iron Blood would target him was a mystery. Then again, whoever the enemy was, if they came at him with hostility, he'd simply cut through them.
Before long, Ryu Hwi caught up with the assailant. The wounded attacker had run hard, but there was no shaking someone whose skills were active.
The street had darkened without his noticing, and the assailant's outline now flickered faintly in and out of view. The pain from the slashed arm was preventing the item from working at full strength.
"I wondered if it might be an ambush, but that doesn't seem to be it. So you came to kill me all by yourself?"
Ryu Hwi closed in on the assailant, all the while scanning his surroundings. A narrow back-alley on the city's edge. He could sense no one else nearby.
"Using a Yggdrasil item to commit murder, huh. Let's at least get a look at your face."
"Kgh! Damn it all!"
The assailant lashed out in desperation, swinging the weapon in its grip. The figure was too blurry to make out clearly, but he could tell it was a sword. His Intuition rang a warning: do not clash head-on with that blade.
Instead of parrying with the wooden sword, Ryu Hwi dodged. The instant the blade grazed past, a jagged fissure split open across the wall it touched.
That is extremely sharp. A wooden sword would be sent flying in one strike, you know~
Even Parrying might have struggled to turn that blade away.
Confirmed. That sword is a Yggdrasil item.
Concealed form and presence, plus a wickedly sharp edge — a fairly impressive weapon.
And yet…
The way he handles that sword is awfully amateurish, isn't it?
The Sword Saint skill had given Ryu Hwi a genuine eye for swordsmanship itself, and he read the enemy's level at a glance. Not a total novice, but someone far more comfortable with another weapon than a blade. Worse, there was something off about the way he moved — as if he were misjudging his own body's capabilities.
Wait — is this guy a Gamer?
The longer one worked as a Gamer, the more one's sense of the body tended to drift out of alignment without realizing it. The labyrinth system compensated for the sensory gap, but it could never fully bridge the divide between reality and the game. It was only a faint dissonance — but in a real fight, that difference was enormous.
And doubly so in front of Ryu Hwi, who could wield his labyrinth skills in the real world.
As he effortlessly evaded the assailant's strikes, a question occurred to Ryu Hwi: just how far could he push a skill's effects out here? Could he manifest something like Aura or Sword Gang in reality itself?
The thought had barely formed before he tested it on the spot. And in that instant, the Sword Saint's Sword Gang effect ignited — light wreathed the wooden sword.
"Wha—?!"
The assailant faltered, stumbling mid-step. No way. There was no way this guy could trigger Sword Gang too.
Ryu Hwi drew back the wooden sword to strike—
Pop.
"Huh?"
The wooden sword broke. Not merely snapped — it shattered to splinters in his hand.
"Why?"
The durability couldn't handle it. To begin with, nothing short of a Yggdrasil item can endure that output.
"Inside the game labyrinths I could use it without any restriction at all!"
Shall we learn to distinguish reality from game, Master?
An utterly correct — and utterly infuriating — answer.
This, from the very architect who'd been tearing down the boundary between the real world and the labyrinths!
"Die!"
The assailant, judging he'd spotted an opening, swung the sword again. The judgment itself wasn't bad.
Whether it would land was another matter entirely.
"Heh."
"—?!"
Ryu Hwi deflected the attack off its line and slipped behind the assailant in one fluid motion. The wooden sword had shattered, but somewhere along the way, a folding knife had appeared in his hand.
"Let's start by relieving you of that annoying weapon, shall we?"
He hammered his fist down onto the back of the assailant's hand — a single blow riding the enhanced physicality of the Sword Saint skill.
"AAAARGH?!"
With the bones of his hand crushed, the assailant dropped the Yggdrasil item. Ryu Hwi kicked the man flying, then doubled over to snatch up the fallen artifact.
Master, a word of caution, by the way.
"Yeah?"
When an unregistered individual touches a Yggdrasil item, adverse side effects frequently occur. Frequently. As in, quite often. Would you like me to list a few? There are several involving permanent—
"TELL ME THAT SOONER!"
Ryu Hwi recoiled in horror, jumping backward.
That much is common sense, is it not?
"How is that common sense?! When would I ever have a reason to grab someone else's item?!"
Your education is lacking, Master. Kindly do not hold your own ignorance against me. Kekeke.
"You goddamn—"
Ryu Hwi's lips twisted and muttered darkly.
I'm going to blow this thing to pieces one of these days!
He renewed the vow he had, by now, made more times than he could count.
With the Yggdrasil item dropped, its effects should have worn off by now. Ryu Hwi moved to identify the assailant. Unlike before, the figure stood out clearly to the eye.
"Hah."
The moment he saw the assailant's face, a bitter laugh escaped him without permission.
"A man who used to be a guild ace, playing dress-up as a cut-rate assassin. Aren't you embarrassed, Linpel Darius?"
"Kgh… damn it. Damn it all!"
As if answering his call, the assailant — Linpel Darius — glared up at Ryu Hwi with eyes twisted between agony and hatred.
"Did you come here to amuse me? Or are you just desperate to die by my hand?"
"Shut up!"
Gritting through the pain, Linpel forced himself to his feet.
"Because of you, I— I…!!"
"Let me guess — your account got deleted, so you came running for revenge. Oh wait, could it be… did you get kicked out of the guild too?"
The instant the words left Ryu Hwi's mouth, Linpel's face contorted beyond recognition.
"Wasn't Gabriel Darius the real power behind Linzea? So even family gets no mercy, huh. Tsk tsk. That's rough, buddy. Should I buy you a drink?"
"Don't you DARE look down on me!!"
Linpel hurled himself at Ryu Hwi. One hand was crushed, the other sliced open by the knife — neither worked properly. All he could manage was a wild boar charge.
"Heh."
Ryu Hwi slipped past the rush with ease and swept out a leg. With a spectacular clatter, Linpel went sprawling face-first across the pavement.
"YggON — any surveillance cameras around here?"
None. The security in this area is quite poor. Not that it matters — I can forcibly block them regardless. Even if the human before you activates a recording, I can cut it off preemptively. Kekeke.
Truly, a capable partner when it counted.
The problem was that he spent every other waking moment grinding Ryu Hwi's nerves.
"Good to hear."
An Unknown assaulting a Gold. If caught, that meant a lifetime behind bars. Even a claim of self-defense would tilt the verdict in the Gold's favor.
And the reverse? If a Gold assaulted an Unknown? Only in cases of attempted murder with ironclad evidence did the story change at all — and even then, the punishment a Gold received was laughably light.
No wonder they called them Gold -nim. Compared to a Gold, an Unknown might as well have been a slave — or livestock.
And an Unknown had just beaten down a Gold. But that, too, only mattered if there was evidence.
With YggON's power, leaving no evidence behind at all was entirely possible.
External connections: severed.
In that very instant, even the slimmest possibility of Linpel calling for backup evaporated.
Should I just kill him?
The thought drifted through his mind unbidden. But outside of a game labyrinth, killing someone in the real world still carried a certain weight he couldn't quite shrug off.
So what then?
"Right. Let's do it this way."
Ryu Hwi kicked the fallen Yggdrasil item across the ground, sending it sliding to Linpel's feet.
"You seem to have plenty of grievances with me, so I'll indulge your pointless little tantrum. You can't move all that well after getting carved up by a knife, but you can still fight — can't you?"
Linpel picked up the Yggdrasil item lying before him.
"What's it going to be?"
"I already told you. I'll play along with your tantrum. You went so far as to bring a weapon like that just to kill me, no? Go ahead. Continue."
Ryu Hwi waggled his fingers — come at me already — the exact same taunt he'd used to provoke him inside the game labyrinth.
Perhaps the gesture stoked Linpel's fury. He let out a roar and charged.
"My—!"
His game account was gone. Linpel was no longer a Gamer.
"Don't you dare underestimate me!"
He'd been expelled from the guild. He wasn't even Linzea anymore.
"I am Linpel Darius! I will not fall — not like this!!"
Having lost everything, Linpel turned the blade of his rage on the man responsible: Ryu Hwi.
"You call this losing everything?"
Ryu Hwi snorted.
"You still don't know what real desperation is."
Coming to find him of his own accord once was bad enough — twice? He couldn't stop laughing.
And now began the second round of a joyful, delightful revenge.
No — "second round" was too generous a name for it. This was nothing more than a post-meal exercise to work off a full stomach.
"Let me teach you what it actually feels like to lose everything."