The Heavenly Demon's Impossible Arrows (6)
“She’s actually insane.”
Hansik, who had once edited highlight reels of pro gamers, knew exactly what kind of scenes made viewers lose their minds. He understood perfectly how absurd a play needed to be before people would explode in the chat. And from his perspective, every single one of Hwaryeong’s movements was the kind that planted giant question marks in people’s heads.
Dodging the moment she saw a gun muzzle. Sensing killing intent to detect ambushes. Landing perfect headshots every time she pulled the trigger. Nothing about her was normal.
Yet while those feats were impressive, they weren’t exactly special. Top-ranked players could replicate most of what she did, if not perfectly. Skilled viewers would watch her movements and feel genuine awe, but to casual eyes it would simply look like “wow, she’s good.”
But the madness Hwaryeong displayed with her bow was on another level. It inspired reverence in anyone who saw it.
“There’s one hiding behind that tree over there.”
As Hwaryeong drew her bowstring, the arrow shot forward. What should have flown straight before gravity pulled it down instead completely ignored the laws of the world. The arrow swerved mid-flight as if it had grown wings, curving sharply before slamming into the player hiding behind the tree.
Only then did the user realize his position had been exposed. He tried to flee in panic, but Hwaryeong didn’t allow it. No matter where he ran, he could not escape the arrows she had fired. After taking several shots to the head, the fleeing player didn’t make it far before he was ejected from the game.
“There are still twenty people left to hunt. I need to move quickly before someone else steals them.”
“As many as possible.”
Hwaryeong answered the donation in a calm tone, then tilted her head. A bullet whistled through the exact spot where her head had been a moment earlier. Without even turning to look, she drew her bowstring. A scream erupted from far away.
It was cinematic. No—beyond cinematic. The chat flooded with pure shock at the surreal scene, and a helpless chuckle slipped from Hansik’s lips.
Working under Hwaryeong really gives you no time to rest. She produced jaw-dropping footage every single day. He had applied for this job expecting exactly these kinds of moments, but the workload was still overwhelming. Three editors were working together, yet Hwaryeong generated clips faster than they could process them.
“I should stop by the convenience store later and grab some caffeine.”
Whatever else happened, the footage of Hwaryeong playing with her bow needed to be edited and uploaded as quickly as possible. That was how they would ride the wave of interest and maximize the views.
Enri carefully made her way toward the center of the shrinking zone, then glanced up to check the number of survivors. Only twenty players remained in the match. Out of the forty who had already been eliminated, how many had died at Ara’s hands? Considering the arrows that had been flying around earlier, it was definitely more than one or two.
“She’s my friend, but even I have to admit she’s ridiculous.”
Enri would feel proud of herself for getting six or seven kills in a single match if her aim was on point. Meanwhile, if Ara felt like it, she could casually rack up thirty kills without breaking a sweat. Enri understood the difference in talent, but the gap was still absurdly wide.
“There’s plenty she can’t do.”
Ara excelled at anything involving physical movement, but that also meant she was surprisingly clumsy in every other area. She was awkward with new technology, got lost when trying to navigate system menus, and once spent a long time struggling in front of a kiosk at a store. It had been both frustrating and hilarious to watch.
Enri had been vividly describing the sight of a helpless Hwaryeong staring at the kiosk when she suddenly fell silent. An arrow was slicing through the air in the distance. There was no way Ara could have heard her from this far away… but still, one could never be too sure.
“Stop! I don’t want to die yet!”
She hadn’t said anything that bad. It wasn’t like Ara would get angry over a little bit of embarrassing history… but Enri still couldn’t shake the feeling that a stray arrow might come flying her way at any moment.
“Huu… Playing Epic Legend doesn’t even feel like a battle royale anymore. It feels like I’m in a horror game.”
An overwhelmingly powerful enemy that killed you the moment it found you. Players dying one by one to attacks from an unknown source. The only escape from the fear was death itself. The situation was so perfectly terrifying that it could have been lifted straight from a horror movie trailer. Enri let out a small, wry laugh.
“I wonder what kind of person it would take to actually kill Hwaryeong once?”
Defeating Ara while she could use her martial arts was nearly impossible. She had already shown overwhelming dominance against former pros in her last stream. Even if several current professionals teamed up, the result probably wouldn’t change much. Someone like Han Seo-woo might make a difference, but that was nothing more than a pipe dream.
But right now, Ara wasn’t the character from a wuxia novel. She couldn’t use her internal energy here. If enough skilled players worked together to take her down as a group, maybe it was possible?
While the zone continued to shrink, Enri pondered the question aloud. All her curiosity was instantly shattered by a single donation message.
“...Yeah, that’s true.”
That was right. Ara was a monster who didn’t care whether the game allowed martial arts or not. She simply changed the genre to suit herself. If she wanted to, she could probably turn this FPS battle royale into a wuxia world right now.
“She’s still holding back even now.”
“I already told you. She’s completely hopeless at anything that doesn’t involve using her body. You all only see her incredible side on stream, but she has a lot of clumsy moments in real life.”
There was no way the legendary Heavenly Demon would spend ten minutes having a staring contest with a kiosk. That didn’t even make sense. Even if Enri didn’t know much about wuxia, she knew the Heavenly Demon was supposed to be dignified, terrifying, and cold. What kind of Heavenly Demon giggled while watching cat toy videos on MyTube?
Enri had been passionately explaining how far removed Ara’s everyday self was from the image of dignity when she suddenly realized she had been badmouthing her friend on stream. She quickly shut her mouth.
“Um, everyone? Can we keep what I just said between us? I didn’t say anything, okay?”
“You loud-mouthed traitors!”
“If by kiosk you mean the self-ordering machine, then yes—there might have been a slight exaggeration, but it’s essentially true.”
Ara had looked extremely flustered the first time she encountered one. With no instructions anywhere, she had stared intently at the screen, lost in thought for a long time. Only after Enri came over and explained how to use it did she finally escape the machine’s clutches.
Well, that was in the past. These days Ara could confidently claim she knew how to operate one properly.
“But who told you that story?”
She was certain she had never shared that particular tale with the chat herself.
That brat. Is she trying to get revenge for all the trouble I caused her by exposing my stories?
Normally Ara would have to punish her for this transgression, but since she herself had committed a few offenses first, she would overlook the slip of Enri’s tongue this time. However…
“Didn’t Enri say she was participating in this match?”
Her arrows might just happen to fly in an unexpected direction.
The zone had become quite restricted now. The players who had been hiding and stalling would have no choice but to reveal themselves one by one. Enri would be no exception. It would be nice if she didn’t die before reaching Ara’s hands. After all, Ara was quite curious what excuse she would offer when they met.
With that thought, Ara nocked an arrow on her bowstring. Before she could go find the hiding Enri, several figures stepped out in front of her.
“Was cooperation allowed in this game?”
There were five… no, six of them. They were all carrying the same assault rifles. Their gear was decent, but their skills seemed rather lacking. They were stronger than Enri, but being stronger than Enri wasn’t exactly a high bar.
That girl really had no sense of how to apply what she learned. Ara had taught her how to fight with the spear and even given her some basics on body movement, yet she couldn’t use any of it in this game. Or was this actually her applying it? Normally Ara would think it impossible, but since it was Enri, she couldn’t be sure.
Since guests had arrived, she would set those thoughts aside. Ara steadied her breathing and raised her voice.
“Greetings.”
They had been listening the whole time yet still refused to come out. Did they truly believe they hadn’t been discovered? How foolish.
“It seems you have gathered because you wish to kill me, but unfortunately, your desperate struggles will be meaningless.”
She had already pinpointed their locations. Listen well, children. You wanted to make me your prey, but with your level of skill, that is impossible. No matter how many of you gather, you cannot threaten me. You cannot become the hunters. Even if a hundred sheep appear before me, they are still nothing but sheep.
Ara drew her bowstring three times in quick succession. Soon after, the number of survivors decreased by one. The first arrow had struck him, and though he struggled desperately to dodge the rest, every movement had already been within the palm of her hand. He simply danced there for a moment before dying like an insect.
At this point they should have realized exactly what kind of existence she was and what situation they had walked into.
“Go on. Run.”
If you are prey, then act like prey and make the hunt more entertaining.