Chapter 16: Ganging Up is Always Annoying
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 16: Ganging Up is Always Annoying
Even a light jog propelled him forward with more speed than a full sprint ever had in the past.
‘I’m getting the hang of managing my internal energy.’
The wind whipped past him as if he were riding a motorcycle—a strange but pleasant sensation.
—Ding! The force field is shrinking.
‘Wait, already?’
The moment he pulled up the map, he saw the next boundary being established.
‘The magnetic field cycles are getting shorter. This isn't good.’
As Seo-un navigated through a thick cloud of dust using his map, a rain of arrows suddenly poured down from the sky.
The volley descended the instant his vision cleared. Seo-un swerved sharply, throwing himself into a violent roll across the ground.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
A strange rain of arrows slammed into the earth behind him. Watching the projectiles melt into nothingness the moment they hit the dirt, Seo-un scanned the area for his attacker.
Not far away, a figure clad in a deep-hooded brown robe waved a staff. Blue light flickered from the tip, and a new wave of ice arrows embroidered the air before falling toward him.
‘I can’t dodge this one.’
Even at a glance, there were far more arrows than before. they occupied the air like a solid wall, boxing him in. Reflexively, he crossed his arms to shield his face, but a sudden sense of dissonance struck him. Instinctively, he thrust his arm out instead.
Crack-crack-crack!
Among the countless projectiles, Seo-un’s fists shattered the specific arrows that posed an immediate threat. He looked down at his hands, surprised by his own actions.
The moment he had raised his arms to block, he’d felt a nagging sense of inefficiency. In that same heartbeat, the forms of the Boundless Fist had flashed through his mind, and his fists were already flying, smashing the ice arrows to pieces.
Shaking off the shock, he composed himself and charged the mage. Gaining confidence, he ran straight through the incoming volley, shattering only the arrows he absolutely had to parry. His fists, infused with internal qi, made short work of the magically conjured ice.
Just as he broke through the barrage and closed the distance, an enormous ice arrow—the size of a massive stone pillar—hurtled toward him.
Seo-un flinched, but it was too late to pull back his strike.
‘To hell with it!’
Drawing the maximum amount of internal energy from his dantian, he funneled it into his fist and struck with everything he had.
Crr-ack! Shatter!
With a resounding roar, the giant arrow split down the middle before exploding into ice fragments and vanishing. The recoil was severe; Seo-un stood frozen in place, his wrist fractured and his breath coming in ragged gasps.
The mage’s mouth, the only part of their face visible under the hood, curled into a smirk. A look of frustration crossed Seo-un’s face.
Gurgle…!
Suddenly, the mage, who had been raising their staff for another spell, began foaming blood. They collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Seo-un stared at the crescent-shaped blade that had pierced through the mage’s chest from behind. He quickly pulled a recovery scroll from his subspace and tore it open.
As the mage slumped forward, the man standing behind them revealed himself. He wiped the blood from his blade and locked eyes with Seo-un. Dressed entirely in pitch-black clothes with his face wrapped tightly in cloth, the slender man looked exactly like an assassin from a martial arts movie.
“I came to catch a bird, only to find it already clutching a fish.”
At the black-clad man’s words, Seo-un rotated his partially healed wrist and glanced up at the sky. The full moon, which had briefly peeked through the dark clouds, was slowly being obscured again.
“You’ll have to see for yourself whether this bird caught a fish or a venomous snake,” Seo-un replied.
The man’s silhouette seemed to flicker, and Seo-un moved just as quickly. Before he could even register the several daggers thudding into the spot where he had just been standing, a black shadow lunged at him.
Clang!
The man swung his half-moon blade, then leaped backward, staring intently at Seo-un’s arms.
“That’s an interesting item. I intended to take both your arms with that strike…”
The man’s voice shimmered with murderous intent as he stroked the edge of his blade. Even though Seo-un had protected his arms with internal qi at the moment of impact, they were tingling. The man’s physical strength was no joke.
“You don’t seem like a martial artist…” Seo-un muttered.
The man sneered. “That doesn’t mean I can’t know martial arts. Especially here, where the boundaries between us are meaningless, don't you think?”
He was right. In this world, the boundaries of their original worlds blurred. There was no reason a mage couldn't learn martial arts, and no reason a martial artist couldn't use magic.
“You’re a specialist in surprise attacks.”
“In my world, they call us assassins.”
Only then did Seo-un feel like he understood his opponent. Stealthy, swift movements. A lethal, one-hit-kill strike that took out a mage in an instant. And that pitch-black appearance. If that was the case, he still had a chance.
‘Especially when complete darkness swallows everything!’
The moment Seo-un’s presence seemed to fade, the man moved and threw hidden weapons, but they only whistled through empty air. Seo-un’s presence, now completely assimilated with the darkness, could not be felt anywhere.
Only then did the man realize things weren't going according to plan. He was weighing two options, his dilemma continuing even as he kept his body in constant motion.
Run? Or fight?
Neither choice was easy. The fledgling he’d thought was prey had suddenly become a dangerous enemy capable of deceiving his senses. According to everything he’d been taught, he should have turned and fled without looking back. If this were his own world, he would have done so a hundred times out of a hundred.
But the problem was that this wasn't his world. This was a place where tigers grew wings and a mere fox could turn into a tiger in an instant—all thanks to items. He had no way of knowing what would come out of the box belonging to the mage he’d just killed. He couldn't easily turn his back, fearing he might let a fox he was scared of turn into a tiger.
Swish! Clang-clang!
“Shallow tricks!” the man barked.
The moment he parried the incoming hidden weapons, he hurled a dagger in the direction they’d come from, but there was no sound of it hitting a target.
“You want to have a stealth battle with me?”
The man scowled at the lack of a response and began to suppress his own presence. However, Seo-un could sense him clearly.
At first, he’d been startled by the man’s sudden appearance and couldn't think calmly because his life was in danger. But the only truly impressive things about this man were his silent footwork and his raw strength. That strength, which overwhelmed even Seo-un—whose own power had increased nearly sevenfold—was formidable, but that was all.
Looking at the man’s simple attack patterns and dagger-throwing, he didn't seem like a particularly great enemy. In fact, he was easier to deal with than the mages. He might be suppressing his presence, but that was merely a result of the techniques he’d learned, not some extraordinary stealth art or item effect.
That difference decided the outcome. Seo-un, who had erased his presence using an item, versus the assassin, whose presence was clear to him. It was no different from fighting a blind man.
‘So this is what Qi Sensing feels like.’
He wasn't seeing with his physical eyes, yet he could sense the man’s location as clearly as if he were. Adapting to this new sense, Seo-un stealthily approached. Just as the man felt a chill down his spine and swung his sword backward, Seo-un’s fist had already shattered his spine.
“Gah…!”
With a final gasp, the man’s life was extinguished. Seo-un gripped his cloak tightly and absorbed the man’s vitality, thinking that if it hadn't been for this cloak, he would have been the one lying on the ground.
‘Survivor!’
—4/100
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Jin Seo-un -> Tamiren (Kill via Martial Arts)
‘Now there are only three left…’
He hadn't expected to make it this far, but he’d come too far to stop now. Since he was here, he might as well aim for Rank 1. He hurried to open the boxes that appeared. Several items were revealed, but only one caught Seo-un’s eye: a single secret manual.
[Ding! You have obtained Muryeong Phantom Step. Would you like to learn it?]
Muryeong Phantom Step. The name alone explained the secret behind the man’s silent movement. Without a second thought, he pressed the O button. The manual crumbled into dust and vanished as the essence of the technique flowed into Seo-un’s mind.
“Ah!”
Only then did he realize that the man he’d killed had only mastered half of the technique.
‘He couldn't use it properly because he lacked internal energy.’
Because he hadn't obtained a proper mental art, the man could only use the Muryeong Phantom Step as a silent movement technique. But the true essence of this manual was something else entirely.
‘The true essence is using the phantom steps to bewilder the opponent.’
With that thought, Seo-un quickly opened the mage’s box. As expected of a mage, it contained many items, but the first thing to catch his eye was a grimoire.
[Ding! You have obtained the grimoire: Carmen’s Eye. Would you like to learn it?]
He pressed the O button again, but this time, he couldn't learn it.
[Ding! This grimoire cannot be learned by the current user. It can only be learned by mages of the 5th Circle or higher.]
[Carmen’s Eye applies a mana filter to the eyes, granting perception and vision that transcends human limits. It is a unique magic created by the Archmage Carmen and has been passed down to a select few mages who received his teachings. This magic can detect the stealth skill of the cloak the user is currently wearing.]
Only then did Seo-un nod.
‘No wonder they started pouring arrows down the moment I stepped out.’
That part had been bothering him. Since no player had been able to find his location when he was determined to stay hidden until now, his suspicion had only grown.
After packing away the smaller items, Seo-un immediately left the two boxes behind and began to run.
‘Three more people.’
The players who had confirmed Nam Sa-gwang’s death were acting as if they owned the place. Judging by the conversation between the archer he’d seen earlier and the man who died by his hand, it was clear that the remaining players’ tactics had changed.
‘If I can just stay hidden and lay low until the end…’
Just as he thought that, an incredibly bright light rose into the sky, illuminating Seo-un’s surroundings. It wasn't just one. As spheres of light, brighter than flares, embroidered the sky and turned the surroundings as bright as day, a flustered Seo-un looked around.
‘Dammit!’
He didn't know if they were targeting him specifically, but this situation was bad. Currently, Seo-un’s greatest weapon was the Cloak of Stealth. It was an item that made him absolutely undetectable in the dark of night, unless he ran into a specialized mage. But in a situation like this, he had lost his greatest advantage.
As he scanned the area, trying to gauge how far he’d have to go to escape the light, he saw a man walking toward him with a bow in hand.
‘Hell!’
A curse escaped his lips. He turned to run the other way, but there, a man in armor with a thin rapier was slowly walking toward him, his long silver hair fluttering.
‘Are you kidding me?!’
He turned in yet another direction, only to see a man in a white robe approaching, holding a staff high above his head. The bright spheres of light popping out of his staff soared into the sky, illuminating the area.
“Ha! My luck has truly run dry.”
Standing in the center of the three approaching figures, Seo-un muttered with a sigh. Regardless, the three men continued to close the distance before stopping at a set interval, as if by prior agreement.
The archer was the first to speak.
“Lord Escrow. It is an honor to meet you in a place like this, rather than on a battlefield.”
The robed mage nodded toward the archer, acknowledging his greeting.
“You must be Baron Jurokuana. Your god-like archery skills are famous even in our empire.”
“As far as fame goes, can I really compare to the King of Cueren over there?”
At the archer’s words, the man who had brushed back his long silver hair spoke.
“It feels good to meet heroes who would make my heart race on a battlefield like this. Especially since I never expected to meet the one who inherited the name of Escrow.”
“O King of Cueren. It is an honor for me to meet you as well.”
Watching the three of them, Seo-un put a hand to his forehead. It wasn't that he was annoyed at being left out. It was just that, in a situation where he would die if they didn't kill each other soon, seeing them acting all polite and relaxed made his stomach churn.
Watching their relaxed demeanor, he considered attempting a surprise attack, but not a single one of them looked like an easy target.