The Legal Sniper Arena (4)
As she logged out of New World and rose from her bed, the young girl let out a long sigh.
She stretched her arms high overhead, then exhaled deeply once more.
The game she had just been playing was Honor Above All, a title renowned for its hyper-realistic combat.
She was a fairly well-known player within Honor Above All.
Her knight-like appearance combined with her exceptional skill with a two-handed sword had earned her quite the reputation as a veteran.
A knight who wielded a two-handed sword.
Yet no one knew her true identity.
The game’s built-in voice modulation made it impossible to even determine her gender.
“Heavenly Demon… was that what he called himself?”
She stood up and walked over to her computer.
Beside the desk where her PC sat, a display cabinet overflowed with certificates and trophies.
They were proof of years of effort, accumulated since she was in the lower grades of elementary school.
She had first taken up the sword before even entering preschool, continuing through elementary, middle, and high school.
After years of relentless training, she had claimed victory in countless competitions and was now regarded as something of a living legend.
Wherever one traveled across the globe, only a handful of warriors could truly rival her strength.
Yet she had hit a wall. And so, to shatter that barrier, she had turned to virtual reality games.
She believed that facing the world’s strongest fighters and mastering different weapons would allow her to break through.
In Honor Above All, she had risen to become a powerhouse with a win rate exceeding eighty percent.
But the wall still refused to crumble.
“…VTuber? What is this?”
However, today had finally changed everything.
She felt as though she had glimpsed a crack in that impenetrable wall.
The mysterious man she had encountered in an unlimited duel in Honor Above All.
Nothing had worked against the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon, a man whose head seemed rather strangely attached.
It reminded her of the overwhelming sensation she had felt as a child when sparring against her kendo instructor.
It was humiliating, yet not entirely unpleasant.
Considering the advice that man had given her, she could overlook that much.
But her thoughts soon shifted.
“Subscribers… one million? One point one million?”
It had only been a week since he started on NewTube.
Yet his subscriber count was approaching 1.1 million. At first, she thought it was a bug.
But after watching the Heavenly Demon’s videos, she understood exactly why so many people were flocking to him.
His physical ability could only be described as overwhelming.
And paired with that was an almost artistic precision.
Within that monstrous physicality lay a psychological warfare so sharp it seemed to pierce straight through the opponent’s mind.
Modern combat AI had grown quite advanced, often engaging in psychological tactics that mimicked human behavior.
Yet the Heavenly Demon—Myeong-yun—treated such mind games as beneath him. He dismantled them all with contemptuous ease, seizing complete control of every battle. Whether the opponent was human or AI, the result was inevitable defeat.
‘That’s the scariest part.’
She could see it clearly.
What made Myeong-yun truly terrifying wasn’t his physical prowess—it was this.
Even if he had possessed only average physical stats, his ability to manipulate the flow of battle at will would have made him unbeatable.
“He’s a monster…”
Even as she muttered those words, her spirit refused to bend.
The world was still vast, and there were many masters yet to meet.
Having tasted true thrilling combat for the first time, she trembled with an inexplicable surge of competitive spirit.
In this small room of an apartment filled with trophies and certificates, a new warrior had just set foot into the gangho for the first time.
And the girl, as if in a trance, clicked the Subscribe button.
“Finally matched! I’m gonna flatten that arrogant nose of yours, Heavenly Demon bastard!”
Thirty-four consecutive wins.
They were roughly one-third of the way toward the Unlimited Duel goal of one hundred victories.
And with only one win remaining before breaking the world record, the sniper who had been sharpening his blade specifically to take down Myeong-yun finally appeared.
Apparently furious that matching had taken so long, the man holding two machete-like falcatas, one in each hand, roared in anger.
Myeong-yun found the outburst rather absurd, considering they had never met before.
“Do you know this seat?”
“This body who has come to capture the wicked Heavenly Demon is named ‘SadReindeerWithHornsOnItsButt’!”
“What?”
“Here I come, Heavenly Demon! Today I shall expose every last detail of your so-called physical prowess!”
SadReindeerWithHornsOnItsButt charged forward with both falcatas raised like horns, just as his name suggested.
To maximize speed, he wore only light brown leather armor.
He truly looked exactly like a reindeer.
“Looking at you now, you really do resemble a reindeer.”
“I shall paint Santa with your blood!”
The reindeer swung both falcatas in wide arcs.
He clearly had confidence in his physical stats and had played Honor Above All quite a bit—his movements weren’t bad.
Myeong-yun lightly leaped backward, slipping out of range, and observed for a moment.
Myeong-yun glanced at the chat and the corner of his mouth curled upward.
It seemed the reindeer was somewhat infamous in the community—quite a few viewers were venting their grievances.
“A proper education, you say.”
“Today this body shall give you a proper education! Then the entire world will know this body’s name!”
“It seems the entire world already knows your name even without you winning.”
Myeong-yun moved with light steps, dodging every single one of the reindeer’s attacks by the narrowest margin possible.
It was a familiar sight to Myeong-yun’s regular viewers, but to the reindeer it seemed entirely different.
“Haha!! You can’t even lift a finger against this body’s attacks! I shall carve you up and reveal your true identity!”
“Your dreams are rather grand.”
Myeong-yun dodged one of the swinging falcatas, and the moment the follow-up strike came—
He stepped forward and drove his knee into the reindeer’s wrist.
With a sickening crack, the reindeer’s wrist bent at a grotesque angle and one falcata flew from his grasp.
Having granted the weapon its freedom, Myeong-yun snatched it out of the air and slammed it violently against the reindeer’s remaining blade.
“Guh!”
The reindeer tried to hold on, but the overwhelming force ripped the second falcata from his hand as well.
As the weapons flew backward, the reindeer immediately spun around and sprinted after them.
“What a pathetic sight.”
Myeong-yun did not bother chasing the reindeer who had turned his back.
Until now he had ended fights quickly, but he intended to handle this particular sniper a little differently.
The man had started spewing insults the moment their eyes met. Sending him off the same way as everyone else would be far too boring.
The reindeer retrieved his falcatas and turned to face Myeong-yun once more.
“You’re dead! You son of a bitch!”
Still unable to read the situation, the reindeer hurled another string of curses while leveling his blades.
He still seemed to believe he held the advantage.
Myeong-yun, who had generously waited for him to retrieve his weapons, tossed the falcata in his own hand back to its owner.
“Huh? Wha—?”
But the reindeer, who had not expected the return, flailed wildly. The blade pierced straight through his thigh.
Even Myeong-yun, who had not anticipated this outcome, could not hold back a burst of laughter.
This was a type of character one would never encounter in the gangho of his previous life.
“Aaaaargh—! Y-you bastard! Fighting dirty!”
“Good heavens. Even a third-rate martial artist wouldn’t stoop this low.”
Myeong-yun was so dumbfounded that he was momentarily speechless.
However, despite his lack of skill, the reindeer seemed to possess both tenacity and spirit. Grimacing through the pain, he yanked the falcata from his thigh and gripped both weapons again with both hands.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!”
Limping heavily, the reindeer charged toward Myeong-yun.
He swung his falcatas with desperate fervor, but if he couldn’t land a hit while sane, there was no chance now.
Myeong-yun simply tripped the charging reindeer, sending him sprawling.
He waited patiently until the man got up, only to trip him again the moment he charged once more.
Every time he fell, he rose again like an unbreakable roly-poly toy.
“I’ll kill you—!!”
“You are no different from a wild beast.”
It was nothing short of pure humiliation.
Charge, trip, fall. Charge again, trip again, fall again.
After being sent rolling five or six times, the reindeer’s adrenaline finally seemed to wear off. Whether he had regained his senses or simply learned his lesson, he stopped rushing in recklessly.
“K-kill you…”
While the man—who may have genuinely become an idiot—hesitated and refused to charge, the system delivered its verdict.
Winner: ‘Heavenly Demon Myeong-yun’
The system had judged Myeong-yun the victor due to the opponent’s excessive blood loss.
The reindeer collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud.
Myeong-yun had achieved his thirty-fifth victory.
He had now surpassed the previous world record with a staggering winning streak.
At the same time, countless congratulatory messages flooded the chat alongside a deluge of donations.
People who had been waiting for this exact moment unleashed a storm of ultra-high-value Super Chats.
1,000,000 won
Lower Warrior of the Heavenly Demon Cult: A new world record! This one congratulates you, Heavenly Demon!!! Let us continue this streak all the way to 100 consecutive victories!!
500,000 won
Lotus Court Master of the Heavenly Demon Cult: The Heavenly Demon’s prestige grows with each passing day, causing the entire world to tremble in fear! Your heaven-shaking, earth-moving martial arts are truly the greatest under heaven! We look forward to your 100-win streak!!
700,000 won
First Beggar of the Open Sect: Wow, how did you even do that? Congratulations. I may be from the righteous path, but I have no choice but to congratulate you on this one.
Myeong-yun paused matchmaking for a moment to respond to the flood of donations and chat messages.
He couldn’t understand why they were donating so generously.
His goal was one hundred consecutive wins.
A mere thirty-five-win streak was nothing more than a passing milestone.
Myeong-yun made another declaration.
“Very well. Let us continue straight toward one hundred consecutive victories. Let us set a grand record that no one else shall ever reach.”