The Hero of the Cowardly Village
The shining armor only inherited by the hero of the Cowardly Village. The Bandit King's helm. The most expensive greatsword in the shop. And a whole arsenal of flashy consumables on top of it all. A character decked out in every last one of them stood right in front of my screen.
The talent that went beyond clearing the bandit camp and straight-up conquered the bandit fortress. That was none other than the hero Wayo.
“I will accept no further doubts.”
Now the safe bettors were the ones getting nervous. After all, they’d dumped every point they had on a stable 1.1x return, only for the underdog bettors to swoop in and snatch it all.
“You traitorous safe bettors finally coming to your senses??”
“Heh heh.”
I munched on a forkful of salmon and grinned. For the record, I’d left my character parked in the village while I ate. Gotta fill your stomach before you go save the world, after all.
“It’s a salmon salad.”
Roselia had made the salad herself, by the way. As my manager, she took full responsibility for my diet. Every time I came home she’d leave behind a mountain of prepped meals. Roselia’s baking game is seriously next level. Too bad the season’s starting soon and I won’t get to enjoy it.
“Yeah, well, I’ll order some mala hotpot and tanghulu after the stream.”
With that, I moved my character again. Time to get going for real.
“What kind of comment is that? You can’t even cheer properly?”
I gave the increasingly venomous safe bettors a cackling laugh and set off. Clank, clank. Just a few hours ago I’d felt intimidated looking at the Bandit Knight’s armor. Now I was wearing an equally impressive set myself.
“Presenting the hero knight.”
Crash! I smashed a jar on the way out. My friendship with the villagers was maxed out after saving the town, so nobody cared about a little property damage.
“It’s a farewell ceremony. A farewell ceremony. I’m not coming back anyway.”
Like Kim Yu-shin, I should be grateful I didn’t cut off the horse’s head in the village. “Anyway… the next map is a forest, huh?”
The first map where bandits were the main enemy had been mostly plains, but when I opened the map, the next area was all forest.
“A giant? Bring it on.” I’ll turn it into a tiny little dwarf. Who does it think it’s looking down on?
“I should just rush straight to the ending.”
Up until this point I’d assumed I’d steamroll the forest the same way. So I charged in like I was going to turn the whole thing into flat plains…
“What the hell is that?”
After arriving in the forest, I stared at the monster standing ahead. Yeah, not a person—a monster. It looked about twice my height and was carrying a massive iron mace over its shoulder.
“Wait, I thought we were still on bandits.”
Just bandits. No matter how strong, my opponents had been armored bandits or bandit mages. But what the hell was this…
“Ah… gatekeeper.”
Sure enough, I could see some kind of ruin behind the giant. That must be the entrance to the hidden dungeon.
“…Really?” It drops good stuff? Now I’m tempted.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”
Whoosh. The moment I applied the Fire Cloth I’d taken out to my greatsword, flames roared up the blade.
“Giants aren’t weak to fire?”
To be honest I did hesitate for a second, but I wasn’t the same as before. How many bandits had I already killed?
[Hahuur!!!]
Around then the giant spotted me and came charging with a thunderous roar.
The chat exploded as the giant raised its mace high overhead.
[Huraal!!]
Boom!! I immediately used a roll to dodge, then swung my greatsword.
“…Yeah, it is.”
I dodged sideways and slashed at its leg, but the damage was about as much as my viewer count. Meaning basically zero.
“Guess I’ll just have to keep hitting it.”
I drank a stamina potion and took a step back. Whoosh—!! The giant’s mace sliced through the air. I dashed in again, using every skill I had. My character swung the greatsword upward in a huge arc.
Slash—!
A satisfying hit sound rang out as the giant’s health bar dropped.
“This much is basic… wait… ack!”
Boom!! My body suddenly flew into the air as a huge chunk of health vanished.
“What the hell?”
I’d clearly seen the whiff and gone in, but the giant followed up with a lightning-fast double attack. Checking my health bar, I was barely hanging on to half. Even with armor on par with a knight’s, it had taken off nearly half my health in one go.
Whoosh—! Boom!
Every time the giant swung its mace after that, the chat went wild. This enemy was on a completely different level from anything before. The attacks were strong and fast, but more than that…
“Why isn’t this doing any damage?”
The Fire Cloth enchantment I’d been making and carrying around since the first time I used it wasn’t working at all.
“It’s not even catching fire.”
When I’d hit the Bandit Knight or the Bandit King a few times with a flaming sword, their whole bodies would ignite and take constant tick damage. But this giant was completely fine.
“Why are you only telling me now??”
Damn it… no wonder the attacks weren’t landing. I hurriedly rummaged through my bag. I was pretty sure I’d stocked up on some Poison Cloth as well…
Boom!!
“Ugh!”
Dodging attacks while trying to pull out cloth. After frantically moving around I managed to find a few Poison Cloth and quickly applied them to my sword.
Ssssss. The flames disappeared and an ominous green glow climbed up the blade.
“Shall we begin round two?”
“Poison? What, did you think I was fighting a saint or something?”
Besides, my opponent is a giant. What’s the problem with using poison?
Sure enough, once I applied the poison enchantment the damage started going in properly.
“You should’ve told me sooner…!”
I muttered as I swung my greatsword and sliced the giant’s leg. It would’ve been nice if they’d told me in advance.
Now that the damage was landing, a new problem appeared. Just like the chat said, I was out of stamina. With my current health, two hits—or one unlucky hit—would kill me, so constantly rolling was draining my stamina like crazy.
“Huff…!”
I’d just rolled sideways to dodge another mace strike. Maybe I shouldn’t have rolled to the right.
[Hwaala!!]
The giant’s combo attacks slammed down right above my head one after another.
“…!”
No time to roll. In that case…
Clang!! I right-clicked and took a defensive stance.
[Kuhuk!]
Of course, since I didn’t have a shield my character was knocked back and staggered, but I managed to endure it once.
“This is for real now.”
I’d used up all my stamina potions during the fight and had none left. But the good news was that the giant’s health was almost gone too.
[Huuultang!!]
In the middle of that, the giant started an attack motion. From the patterns I’d seen so far, this was the start of a combo. Could I dodge the entire combo with my current stamina? Even if I did, I wouldn’t have any stamina left to follow up.
So instead…
I stepped forward instead. The two-handed greatsword had the highest single-target damage of any weapon in the game, but its slow attack speed made it unpopular. However.
[Graaaaah!]
What if I pressed the attack key just a tiny bit faster?
The giant’s mace came crashing down toward my head at the exact same moment my greatsword, swung just a fraction faster, sliced upward from below. The tip of the blade barely grazed across the giant’s chest.
Thud!!
The giant’s massive body collapsed straight to the ground.
“Huff…”
I caught my breath and looked at the wildly buzzing chat. Yeah. This is why I stream.
I planted my feet firmly on the giant’s corpse like David standing over Goliath.
“Patriotic underdog bettors, you may raise your heads now.”
Clang! I raised my greatsword high while calmly watching the traitorous haters and safe bettors declare their defeat. I guess I’m the Giant Slayer Wayo now.
“Whoa, the loot is nice.”
After looting the giant’s massive mace, its heart, and all kinds of other items…
“Shall we go inside?”
I pointed at the entrance of the hidden dungeon the giant had been guarding. Since I’d taken down the gatekeeper, it was time to head in.
Even though I’d just killed the giant, the viewers were shaking again. I opened my mouth calmly.
“Something my mentor once told me—”
My former teacher, Han Seonghwa, used to diligently check a quote-of-the-day app on his phone and would randomly drop memorable lines on us. One of them came to mind right now.
“A coward dies a thousand deaths before his end, but the brave taste death only once.”
“Because that’s what a hero does.”
I nodded and confidently stepped into the hidden dungeon.
“Stop…! Stop it!!”
The hero Wayo entered his grave that day.