The Uninvited Guest
Ryu Hwi had gathered every scrap of information there was to hear about Iron Blood.
Their unnaturally rapid growth, rumors that they possessed multiple Yggdrasil Items — everything.
And then…
[Digital narcotics, is it. Humanity truly does delight in the pleasures of the crudest means.]
Ryu Hwi had gotten his hands on the digital narcotics that Iron Blood was spreading through the Entertainment District. A drug that infiltrated the SEED implanted in the human body and flooded it with overwhelming euphoria. Worse, the addiction rate was sky-high.
Fortunately, a program that neutralized the drug had since spread among the public, and the addicts were reportedly being treated.
[This was made using a Yggdrasil Item. What an astonishingly crude piece of technology.]
YggON saw through the digital narcotics at a glance.
So this was the filth they'd been peddling for profit?
Ryu Hwi remembered his three years in hell.
Three years as an Unknown, three years watching every kind of human scum there was. Some fought tooth and nail to claw back their identities. Others simply existed, stripped of all hope, going through the motions of being alive.
Those who had given up on everything, without exception, ended up chasing digital narcotics like something possessed. For the exhausted Unknowns, the drug was the only escape left — a way to forget reality, to dream a happy dream.
He had watched so many of them rot away like that.
Some of them had even tried to drag him down with them, whispering their temptations.
"Filthy trash."
Ryu Hwi clicked his tongue.
[And what do you intend to do?]
"Stomp them into the dirt. Even harder than I planned."
He wasn't about to go easy on people who peddled digital narcotics.
Ryu Hwi grabbed his wooden sword and folding knife and headed for Iron Blood's headquarters — a five-story building located a good distance from the heart of the Entertainment District. From the outside, it was a perfectly ordinary building with nothing to distinguish it.
He paused to consider his approach. If this were a mere street gang, he could sweep the whole place without effort. But they had Yggdrasil Items. A careless assault would be dangerous.
Come to think of it, it's awfully loud in there?
Was something going on inside? The building was in an uproar, but from out here he had no way of telling what was happening.
[Master, I have detected a signal from inside the building.]
"A signal?"
[It's faint. It appears someone forcibly punched through a heavy firewall to get it out. Shall I receive it?]
If he accepted the wrong transmission and something like a disk-drug wormed its way in, that would be a disaster. But Ryu Hwi's Intuition told him to receive it.
"Accept it."
[Acknowledged.]
Information bloomed across his vision — data sent by Wolya. It contained a full inventory of the Yggdrasil Items Iron Blood possessed, along with a great deal more.
And buried in it were several pieces of information that were outright lethal to Iron Blood.
"Ha…"
Ryu Hwi let out a hollow laugh. He'd known she wouldn't just sit there quietly in captivity, but seriously — hacking her captors' files in that situation?
[Merely reporting this information would be enough to end Iron Blood.]
"And by the time that happened, Wolya would be finished too."
She had to be in a dire situation right now. Even so, she had sent this data, trusting that Ryu Hwi would be nearby.
"Trust deserves to be repaid."
Any more delay and Wolya would be in danger.
Ryu Hwi strode straight toward Iron Blood's headquarters. His walk was so brazenly open that the men guarding the entrance froze in confusion.
"Who the hell are you?"
"No civilians allowed. If you're lost, beat it."
They waved him off, telling him to turn around. He ignored them and kept walking. Only then did they register him as an intruder and whip out their weapons —
Too late. Ryu Hwi was already standing right in front of them.
"Huk?!"
"What the—?!"
In a blink, he swept his wooden sword and dropped both men where they stood. He glanced down at the two who hadn't even managed to react, then gripped the building's door.
[You intend to charge in, brute-force and unsubtle?]
"I don't know what state Wolya's in."
Ryu Hwi decided to rampage as loudly as possible. If Wolya was in danger, he needed to yank their attention away from her. Iron Blood's goal was him, after all — they would never be able to ignore him.
Ryu Hwi opened the door and walked in, bold as brass. Inside, the men turned at the sudden sound of the opening door, wondering who had walked in.
Ryu Hwi greeted them with a warm smile.
"I hear you've been looking for me?"
Astonishment flooded every Iron Blood member's face. Not one of them had imagined Ryu Hwi would walk in here of his own two feet.
"Ryu7017?"
"That's right. Ryu7017."
He advanced on them with unhesitating strides.
"Terrible hospitality around here, I have to say."
Compared to the other powers of the Entertainment District, Iron Blood was still a young, fast-growing organization. And yet no one in the district dared look down on them. The viciousness of their boss, Crow, had every rival syndicate trembling, and the Yggdrasil Items they possessed were near-impossible to counter.
Those very Yggdrasil Items, however, were proving useless right now.
"Spear of Lightning — a weapon steeped in lightning's power. A single graze delivers a shock."
Ryu Hwi read the tagged information as he slipped past his opponent's attack with casual ease.
"And it can activate a special technique called Electric Wave."
An electric shockwave rippled outward from the spear his enemy swung. He had anticipated the attack already and stepped cleanly out of its radius.
In the same motion, Ryu Hwi threw his knife. It sank into the man's right shoulder, and a scream full of agony rang out in every direction. The Spear of Lightning clattered to the floor — but Ryu Hwi couldn't have cared less, kicking it off into a corner. Without an owner registration, it was a useless stick anyway.
"Damn it! What the hell IS that guy?!"
"Yggdrasil Items, that easily…"
One by one, the Yggdrasil Items that had been the very symbol of Iron Blood's power were being neutralized. Desperate to bring Ryu Hwi down, they even brought firearms into play — but he moved on pure danger instinct, always a half-step ahead of the trigger, and not a single bullet found its mark.
One man fell after another in the space of a blink.
"Die! Just die already!"
Even spraying bullets in desperation, the space where Ryu Hwi had stood was already empty. Iron Blood's members were tasting what it felt like to be haunted by a ghost.
"That's exactly how he moved in the videos!"
"Don't say stupid things! This is reality. It's not a damn Game Labyrinth!"
They couldn't bring themselves to believe the scene unfolding before their eyes — even though they themselves had built their empire on the power of the Game Labyrinths.
"Damn it!!"
"Hey! Wait—stop!"
One of the members yanked out a grenade. One wrong move and the shock alone could bring the whole building down.
Before anyone could stop him, the grenade was already sailing through the air.
Ryu Hwi glanced at the grenade arcing toward him in a lazy parabola — and lightly swung his wooden sword. Hitting a live bomb was an act of sheer madness.
But no problem at all.
SR+ — Sword Saint Lv4 (Parrying)
The incoming grenade simply turned around and flew right back.
When the grenade landed at their very feet, the members screamed and scattered in blind panic.
BOOOOM!!
The blast shook the entire building.
[Did you kill them?]
Members swept away by the explosion lay sprawled in every direction. Ryu Hwi brushed the dust off and shook his head.
"Nah. I batted it somewhere that looked like it could take the hit."
Proving him right, the fallen men groaned and stirred. Badly injured, yes — but every one of them alive.
[I believe Intuition's performance may require some adjustment.]
Ryu Hwi found himself agreeing more than he'd like to admit. Intuition was broken in the game — no, it was even more broken in reality, because this was reality.
Ryu Hwi found the way down to the basement. Wolya's data included full intel on this building — he knew exactly what lay beneath it. And, roughly, where Wolya would be being held by now.
"Whoa. Now this is impressive."
Cutting down everyone who blocked his path as he descended, Ryu Hwi let out a whistle of genuine admiration. The place was a mess, scarred by fire damage, but even through the wreckage he could see a remarkably well-maintained facility. They'd built all of this underground — it renewed his sense of just how strong Iron Blood was.
[Although you are demolishing it single-handedly as we speak.]
"Even Yggdrasil Items, most of these aren't all that high-grade."
Yggdrasil Items came in every shape and quality. The truly powerful ones, it was said, could distort reality itself. Compared to that, the items down here were child's play.
"Well…"
Ryu Hwi stopped walking.
"Looks like there's at least one semi-dangerous thing down here after all."
The air around him had gone cold. A chill like midwinter had settled over the corridor — frost creeping up the walls, the floor. A freezing wind drifted from the far end of the hallway, cold enough to raise goosebumps.
Ryu Hwi walked slowly toward the source of the wind.
There, among a handful of men, stood a single figure.
"Ryu7017. I never dreamed you'd walk right into my hands."
The man stared at Ryu Hwi with an expression of genuine surprise.
"You Iron Blood's boss?"
The atmosphere radiating off him was different. Ryu Hwi recognized at a glance that this man led the pack.
"That's right. I'm Crow, boss of Iron Blood. Welcome, Ryu7017. Welcome to our little family."
Crow spread his arms wide in greeting. Ryu Hwi had no interest in Crow whatsoever.
"Where's Wolya?"
He ignored Crow entirely and scanned the surroundings. Ignored, Crow's face darkened a shade. At a flick of his gaze, a subordinate nodded and raised what he was holding.
A cube-shaped robot, smashed to pieces.
Its functions were still running — barely. But there was no telling when it might fail completely.
Ryu Hwi pieced together the situation without needing an explanation.
"What a pathetic sight, Wolya. Any excuses?"
The cube robot's lens gave off a faint glow.
[My apologies — I haven't the strength left to excuse myself.]
Static crackled through the voice.
"I take it you've come to rescue the good lady Wolya."
Crow raised the sword in his hand and leveled it at the cube robot.
"Our target was always you, Ryu7017 — but Wolya has rubbed Iron Blood the wrong way one time too many. I cannot simply let her go, so to speak—"
"She's been enough of a nuisance to me that she'll be paying a fair price for it."
Ryu Hwi kept right on ignoring him. At that attitude, Crow's expression twisted even harder.
"Do not disrespect me."
"Disrespect? Don't be absurd."
Only then did Ryu Hwi turn his eyes to Crow.
"I was in the middle of carefully considering exactly how to blow this place apart. You'll have to wait your turn."
In that instant, a violent blizzard erupted from the blade in Crow's grip. His bloodshot eyes locked onto Ryu Hwi.
"Ryu7017, let me tell you one thing. Of every human who ever disrespected me, not one has walked away with all his limbs attached."
"You're full of crap."
Ryu Hwi scoffed.
"Gabriel Darius is still breathing just fine, isn't he?"
Those words shattered what remained of Crow's patience.
"RAGH!!"
Wielding the Yggdrasil Item Frost Ice Sword, Crow came charging at Ryu Hwi. Faced with the roaring wall of freezing cold, Ryu Hwi showed not a flicker of tension — simply raised his wooden sword high.
As he faced his enemy, a merciless gleam sharpened in his eyes.
"Quit posturing."
Through the howling blizzard, his eyes burned colder, crueller still.
"Trash mob."
A cold fury descended upon the battlefield.