The Sword Demon Dragon Blade

One month ago.

The moment Ryu Hwi watched Linzea Guild's press conference, he sprang into action.

Destroying World of Phantasm would require more thorough preparation than ever.

The capsule hotel where he was currently staying wasn't suitable for lying low, so he decided to lean on Wolya.

To secure her cooperation, it was better if Wolya knew at least something about the YggON system.

"I can't tell her everything, obviously. Best to mix truth and lies in the right proportions."

Ryu Hwi decided exactly how he would deceive Wolya.

First, the existence of YggON itself would stay hidden. Whatever else she learned, that much had to remain secret.

A random box that could pull anything was a cheat in its purest form — and his trump card.

"All Wolya really needs to know is that I have a cheat ability. And I'll keep the details of that ability vague, too."

The cover story Ryu Hwi devised was this: skills and items obtained in one game labyrinth can be used in other game labyrinths.

With that, his use of skills and items from different labyrinths would have a ready explanation.

The problem was how to explain Delete.

"Hmm."

It wasn't a complete lie.

Something like that was more than plausible as a power of YggON's caliber.

Clever. Ryu Hwi nodded.

"For Delete, we should establish that it can't be used freely — that it carries brutal restrictions. A trump card I can't carelessly throw around."

Ryu Hwi set the story so that Delete had a fixed number of uses, and once they were spent, it could never be used again.

Even in a 'cooperative' relationship, there was no obligation to lay everything bare.

"Hmm, hmm. A cheat built on an account bug, eh... Well, game labyrinths do breed every bug imaginable."

The giant teddy bear nodded along.

It had been a small teddy bear before; this time it looked like a part-time mascot worker from some amusement park. Ryu Hwi resolved to pay Wolya's choice of full-body prosthesis no mind, no matter what she wore next.

"So Delete has no penalty other than the usage limit?"

"Every use puts a heavy strain on the account data. Push it wrong, and my account could be wiped entirely."

"I see."

Wolya wouldn't swallow his words whole, of course.

But if he showed too much hesitation, it could crack the 'relationship of trust' — flimsy as it might be from the very start.

"On that note — this is a magnificent hideout. You have more than just that warehouse?"

Ryu Hwi looked around.

He'd assumed they were headed somewhere else through the sewers again, only to emerge into a luxurious guest room straight out of a movie.

"This is one of the Entertainment District hotel's secret rooms. Barely anyone knows it exists. I happen to be on close terms with the hotel's owner, so I was able to borrow it."

"Any chance the owner sells you out?"

"If that were a concern, would I have brought you here? Even so, best not to wander the streets much."

Ryu Hwi knew that well enough. There had been people watching him, after all.

"I'll lend you one of my terminals. Use it whenever you have business outside."

Wolya pulled a silver cube about thirty centimeters across out of a travel case. With a snap of her fingers, the cube morphed, taking the shape of a dog.

"A pet cube robot. An outdated model released five years ago, but I've tuned it up here and there — it's more than serviceable. It transforms into a dog, a bird, or a cube. Three forms. Manual control works too, of course."

YggON warned him immediately.

"Remove the surveillance camera. I'm asking nicely."

"Tch."

Wolya grumbled as she disassembled the cube robot and retrieved the camera.

"I'll never understand how you detect these things so fast. Well, fine. Now, as for the plan—"

"Sorry, but I won't be entering World of Phantasm for a while."

"Might you be planning to tour other game labyrinths and gather skills and items?"

It wasn't far off the mark, so Ryu Hwi nodded.

"I also want to test whether I can actually blow a game labyrinth apart. Yggdrasil has labyrinths that wouldn't surprise anyone if they shut down tomorrow."

"That's something I'd ask of you as well. Very well — when you break a labyrinth, contact me too."

"Where's the labyrinth access terminal? A facility like this should have one."

Ryu Hwi had no need for an access terminal.

But since he had to keep that fact buried, he made a point of confirming the location of a terminal he didn't need.

Wolya waddled over and opened the door beside the room. Inside sat a Yggdrasil access unit — quite an old model, but a unit nonetheless.

"Painstakingly acquired off the black market. Still perfectly usable."

"Hmm... impressive."

Not that he'd use it.

A short while later, once he'd confirmed Wolya had returned to her shop, Ryu Hwi dove into Yggdrasil.

When he opened his eyes, a bamboo forest stretched before him.

A forest in the style of the ancient East, from the age before Yggdrasil.

An action game labyrinth that proudly billed itself as orientalism incarnate.

Its user count had plummeted recently, making shutdown a very real possibility.

Ryu Hwi immediately checked his system.

"Excellent."

If he went to World of Phantasm right now, the interference of Linzea Guild and other gamers would make proper play impossible nine times out of ten.

So for the time being, he intended to farm RP in game labyrinths with few gamers in them.

Better yet, simply connecting to a new labyrinth had netted him five more YggON tickets.

If he logged into every existing game labyrinth once each, he'd secure a staggering number of tickets.

"Tch. So it can't be that easy, huh."

Three per day.

Tickets earned through login achievements would cap out at 15 a day — roughly 450 over thirty days.

"Ugh."

More restrictions than he'd expected.

Random Box points. YggON tickets.

Both were directly tied to his growth.

Delete is a last resort, nothing more. Intuition is useful, but it can't decide a fight on its own.

He needed new power.

Power that wouldn't lose — not to Linzea Guild, not to Latia Soft, not to anyone!

"First things first — let's claim that 7-day login reward in Sword Demon Dragon Blade."

The text floated into view.

According to his research, Sword Demon Dragon Blade was structured as a series of stages, each connected to the next upon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠defeating a boss.

Clearing the labyrinth itself could be done quickly, but the rewards were pitifully meager for how brutal the bosses were.

Pile on the mountains of other garbage design and people's verdict wrote itself: classic Latia Soft, all right.

He had no intention of actually conquering this labyrinth, so Ryu Hwi planned to just wander around and kill time.

"?"

A number ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠appeared in his field of vision: 9999.

"What's this number supposed to be?"

It dropped to 9998. A few seconds later, 9997.

"Don't tell me... "

"Damn it. Never changes — a Latia game to the core."

Even killing time was a struggle.

Fine. No helping it.

Since it had come to this, Ryu Hwi decided to experience firsthand just how low-rent Sword Demon Dragon Blade really was.

The starting point was a forest thick with bamboo. No tutorial, no nothing. It didn't even bother to state an objective — the bare minimum any game should provide.

Something reeked, and it reeked from the very first minute.

"I just follow the path through the forest, right?"

Ryu Hwi set off along the trail. All the while, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠timer in his vision kept ticking down.

Before long, he heard sounds from up ahead. With a tremendous clamor, enemies came slicing through the bamboo — every one of them clad in a dark blue robe.

"So the tutorial doubles as story progression?"

...The thought had barely formed when the enemies came at him, blades swinging, without a word of explanation.

Had Intuition not sensed the danger, it could have been ugly. Using Flash Step, Ryu Hwi tore backward in an instant.

"They attack out of nowhere AND they're insanely fast? What is this? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠What are first-time gamers in this labyrinth supposed to do?!"

"Is this another game where you die in the tutorial the moment you log in?!"

He had. But beyond vague complaints about the overall flow and the boss fight difficulty, there had been almost nothing worth reading.

Gamers had cleared it, so he'd assumed the difficulty couldn't be outright unfair...

"Wait — is this some kind of forced event? Something scripted to be unwinnable?"

Lose-by-design sequences do exist in stories.

Not a bugged-out monstrosity like World of Phantasm's Chaos Dark Knight, but a development deliberately placed by the creators.

In other words, if this was a forced-defeat battle, then losing here was likely how the story advanced.

But...

Watching the blue-robed martial artists charge in from every direction, Ryu Hwi drew his Gunsword.

"Losing before the fight even starts? Like hell I'm accepting that!"

He had zero intention of taking it lying down.

The attackers' swordsmanship was superb. The flow of their blades never faltered, flashing like lightning.

These were not enemies meant for the early game. Worse, their combined assault left no openings.

Every stance, every movement carried a weight that made the wuxia genre of this game unmistakably real.

When Ryu Hwi swung his Gunsword, their attacks all came ringing off it.

Yet the attackers showed no surprise whatsoever — they simply pressed the offensive again.

The 'techniques' they wielded were unlike anything in World of Phantasm, making them tricky to counter — but Ryu Hwi grasped the patterns in no time.

The attackers numbered eight in all.

At that moment, an alert flashed.

At the sudden mission, Ryu Hwi glared daggers at YggON.

"A sudden mission should pay out a guaranteed SR ticket at minimum! What am I supposed to do with ten normal tickets?!"

Well, obviously.

"Five minutes? I'll wrap this up in three."

The Ryu Hwi of today had both the skill and the confidence to say so.

"I don't lose anymore!"