The Red Knot
Seolhwa stared down at the knot wrapped around her wrist.
Why is this here?
With a trembling hand, she brushed her fingers across it.
Ding-a-ling—
The little bell at the end of the knot swayed, its clear chime ringing through the quiet living room.
"Ha…"
Seolhwa let out a long sigh at the ceiling. It felt as though every headache she'd managed to banish had come flooding back all at once.
Just then, something Sohwa had said flickered through her mind.
"You said this was the second time."
Turning that words over and over, Seolhwa forced her thoughts into order. Aurora, the first weapon she had ever received. The boss monster's line, spoken as if it knew she was clearing this world a second time.
She fidgeted with the knot as she thought, and every time she did, the bell rang out clear and bright.
"Well, I've already done the whole other-world thing. If I just keep playing the game, the answer will come eventually."
To everyone else this was a game. To Seolhwa, it had been reality. She knew things no one else could possibly know.
"I can't afford to fail twice."
And with that, Seolhwa steeled her resolve once more.
"Cleared it!!! AAAAAAHHH!!! I CLEARED IT!!!"
Sohwa's head went tumbling to the floor, and standing in the place where her body had been was a black-haired man.
The winner of the massive community challenge at Jagyeongjeon was Ente. The reason it had taken four full days was the dungeon's unique nature — the health of the monsters and their mechanics scaled to match the level of whatever player entered.
"There you have it, folks! I am, in fact, cracked at this game!"
Ente wheezed out the words between breaths as he addressed his viewers.
"Ah, the reward."
Prodded on by the chat, Ente scrambled over to where Sohwa had fallen.
"She had a silver-inlaid sword, right?"
"Hey! I can pull off a look too!"
With trembling hands, Ente scooped up the reward lying on the floor. A faint blue scabbard — and resting in it, a Joseon hwan-do ring sword, seven stars inlaid across its blade.
"What is this thing?"
Shhhiiing—!
The moment he drew the blade, blue light erupted from the Big Dipper pattern etched along the steel.
Grade: Unique
Special Effect: Blessing of the Seven Stars
Deals additional damage on every 7th strike.
Ente's reaction to it was… complicated. It was undeniably a Unique-grade weapon, but the bonus effect didn't look all that impressive on paper.
"I mean, it's obviously a good weapon, but I'm not sure yet. Hard to say how much bonus damage it'll actually do."
Still, it was better than the sword he'd been using, so Ente swapped it in without hesitation.
"Alright then — shall we head back to Jagyeongjeon?"
Beaming from ear to ear, Ente returned to the dungeon. But unlike with Seolhwa, nothing happened.
"Huh? What gives!"
He scoured Jagyeongjeon from corner to corner, but nothing turned up.
"Seriously?"
Just then, a blue window popped up before Ente's eyes.
The bonus reward based on Jagyeongjeon's durability has been cancelled. (Current durability: 56% / Requirement: 90%)
"Ah…"
The viewers' reactions were much the same as Ente's.
"Honestly, it feels like a miracle I even saved this sword."
After leaving the gate, Ente headed for the Association's simulation room.
"For today's stream I'll test this out a bit, then we'll wrap up."
Ordinarily the chat would have insisted streaming came before health, but after a four-day, nonstop clear-a-thon, the mood was one of rare, unanimous agreement.
"Here we go!"
Ente began swinging the sword in rapid, fluid arcs. Every time the blade connected with a training dummy, an impact of starlight burst across its surface.
And with each strike, one more star was carved into the air above the dummy's head.
"Here's the finisher!"
The instant the seventh and final strike slammed into the dummy's chest, the blue mana scattered across the air froze solid, as if locked in ice.
Seven points of light hung suspended in the void. They traced the exact shape of the Big Dipper, radiating a soft, otherworldly glow.
Click—.
Chains of blue light sprang up between star and star in the blink of an eye, binding the dummy fast.
"There it is!"
KRA-KOOM—!
The moment the chains tightened to their limit, the shape of the Big Dipper detonated inward, swallowing the dummy whole.
"Okay, that's insane?"
Having witnessed the effect firsthand, the missed hidden reward evaporated entirely from Ente's mind.
"It took me four days just to scrape through, and you guys want to clear it?"
Ente swung the sword a few more times, then spoke up.
"Wait, seriously? Well — first off, thank you so much for the hundred-thousand-won donation!"
Ente did a full backflip as his reaction to the donation.
"But hold on — are you really the person from that clip?"
No answer came back.
Ente hurried to speak.
"If it really is you — could I invite you onto my stream sometime?"
After Seolhwa's donation, Ente kept searching for her in chat, but ten minutes passed and she never appeared.
Disappointment was written all over his face. Even so, he turned to his viewers with a smile and gave his sign-off.
"Quite the commotion at the end there! But someday, I swear, I'll bring her on. Ah — and tomorrow's stream is a day off! Ente, out!"
The stream cut off, and Ente climbed out of the capsule. Yeon Taejun, in the flesh.
"Still — today was a productive one!"
It was four in the morning, the hour when everyone else was long asleep — but for Taejun, this was his own personal time after work.
"Never thought she'd actually show up in person at the end, though."
Taejun rewatched Seolhwa's clip that had been posted to the fan café, lost in thought.
"If we really did a stream together, the view count would explode."
A few of his fellow streamers used firearms in-game, so Taejun had once shown them Seolhwa's clip and asked whether something like that was even possible — and gotten an earful of "how am I supposed to do that?" in return.
"Someday. I'll bring her in."
Three days had passed since the knot appeared on her wrist. She'd spent two of them simply sorting through her thoughts.
And on the third, she built a streaming channel. It was because she'd caught a passing line of chat — "Couldn't you stream on a proper platform for us?"
Besides, it means there'll be a record to rewatch if I miss anything.
She didn't bother with an elaborate handle. She simply used her own name.
[Snow Flower]
Then, once she entered the settings she'd found online, the capsule began applying them automatically.
"Expensive really is better, huh."
While she waited, Seolhwa wandered into the internet streaming platform. She wanted to get a feel for the atmosphere, and she was curious how other people were playing.
She opened the Last Promise category. Countless people were streaming the game, and one room immediately caught her eye with its towering viewer count.
[Ente]
Seolhwa moved her mouse with care. She clicked through — and there was Ente, locked in combat with Sohwa.
"So that's how he got past the water guardian."
Seolhwa shifted her gaze to the dungeon's durability readout.
Jagyeongjeon Durability: 56%
"So he compromised. Reasonable."
On screen, Ente was weaving his sword through the air, dodging Sohwa's thrown blades. His sword lines were clean and unadorned, without a single wasted motion.
"Did he train formally?"
Ente was using a style where attack and defense flowed together as one.
"Not Korean swordsmanship… Western fencing, maybe."
Seolhwa kept watching his clear attempt unfold.
"He fights well."
When Sohwa entered her desperate final phase, Ente threw up a barrier around himself.
"Not again! Not this time — I'm not dying!"
Ente began blocking the attacks raining in from every direction. The ones he couldn't dodge or deflect he simply took head-on, chugging potions to claw his health back.
"AAAAAHHH!!!"
Having endured Sohwa's last desperate rampage, Ente threw himself straight at her. The moment the barrier shattered and her face was bared, his sword flashed across her throat.
"DIE!!!"
Shriiing—!!
The blade swept through, and Sohwa's head dropped to the floor.
"Cleared it!!! AAAAAAHHH!!! I CLEARED IT!!!"
Seolhwa watched Ente celebrating on screen.
"He pulled it off."
On the screen, Ente was pulling a sword from the spot where Sohwa had died. A beautiful ring sword, seven stars gleaming across its blade.
"So this is where it shows up."
The Seven Stars Sword.
I remember seeing a member of another guild carrying one.
When Ente swung the final seventh strike, chains of light bloomed into being and wrapped around the training dummy.
"Still — as expected of someone trained in Western fencing. It's not perfect."
The chains Seolhwa remembered had been stronger and far brighter than Ente's.
Probably just a difference in swordsmanship.
Seolhwa clicked the donation button and began typing out her message.
What Seolhwa didn't know, however, was just how much of a sensation she had become.
Her sudden appearance sent the chat into a momentary blizzard of question marks. Ente himself stared blankly at the donation before snapping into action, performing his backflip reaction.
"But hold on — are you really the person from that clip? If it really is you, could I invite you onto my stream sometime?"
Hearing that, Seolhwa said nothing. She simply opened the donation window again.