Chapter 23: The Beauty of Survival is Going Lu Bu (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 23: The Beauty of Survival is Going Lu Bu (3)
Having personally witnessed Jurokuana’s god-like archery, facing two archers at once put no small amount of pressure on Seo-un.
‘But this is all experience.’
Since he had already decided to "play the Lu Bu," he had no intention of backing down.
Operating on the mindset that he had nothing to lose even if he died, he vaulted out of the back window and sprinted toward the direction the arrows had come from.
As he covered a hundred meters in an instant, another arrow flew at him with unerring precision.
‘Front!’
Without breaking his stride, he threw a punch at the rapidly approaching projectile.
“Spinning Strike!”
Having successfully deflected a knight’s heavy spear before, his confidence was high. This time, he parried the arrow without much difficulty.
The moment the back of his hand brushed against the side of the shaft, its trajectory shifted drastically, sending it veering off course.
Three more arrows followed in quick succession, but none touched Seo-un’s body. After that, the barrage ceased, and a heavy silence fell over the area.
‘They’re close.’
He couldn’t sense their physical presence yet, but his intuition told him the enemy wasn’t far. He felt a taut tension vibrating against his invisible foes.
Seo-un didn’t move recklessly. He spread his Qi sense to its limit, refusing to show even a momentary opening. A psychological battle began as the two archers searched for a gap to drive an arrow through.
One of them was firing shots that felt subtly more bothersome than the other. Seo-un’s concentration intensified. A bead of sweat formed on the tip of his chin and dropped; he knew if he didn’t deal with this person here, they would remain a constant, lethal threat at his back.
—Swoosh!
An arrow tore through the air with fierce momentum.
Without a change in expression, Seo-un maintained his focus and evaded the projectile by simply leaning back slightly. Even as the arrow grazed past his face, his eyes didn't waver in the slightest.
‘Arrows fired from this distance aren't the problem.’
The real threat was the arrow from the one hiding nearby—the one giving off a heavy sense of dissonance that he couldn't quite explain.
Arrows continued to fly from various spots during the suffocating standoff, but for Seo-un, whose concentration had reached its peak, they weren't much of an issue. He had already grown accustomed to their rhythm, dodging with only slight, efficient movements.
‘This could go on forever.’
Hunting players and farming items—for Seo-un, both were crucial tasks he couldn't afford to neglect. Players provided vitality, and farming provided gear.
Wasn't there a saying that the best kind of farming was human farming?
However, the timing was bad. Right now, while everyone was still adjusting to the trial, was Seo-un's golden window of opportunity.
“Tsk!”
Clicking his tongue, he suppressed his presence and turned to run back. Three arrows immediately chased after him.
He swayed his body to change direction, but one arrow grazed his side, sending a spray of blood into the air.
‘I definitely can't ignore them.’
Clutching his torn side, he dove into an alleyway where houses were clustered. The arrows stopped flying.
“Whew.”
He checked his bleeding side and let out a breath. Simultaneously, Seo-un channeled his internal power. His body soared up the alleyway as he began to sprint across the rooftops.
Three more arrows flew at his back. The first one struck Seo-un squarely in the back of the head.
At that exact moment, another Seo-un threw himself toward the spot where he felt a subtle presence. The Seo-un whose head had been pierced vanished like a mirage.
The moment he felt something shimmering in the shadows beside a three-story house, Seo-un’s fist moved.
“Space Strike!”
—Thud!
Along with a heavy impact, his body entered the shadows, but all he saw was a bloodstain on the ground.
‘I definitely hit them...’
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the opponent’s presence—which he hadn't been able to feel before—was now clearly caught by his Qi sense.
—Swoosh! Clang!
He barely managed to roll away as an arrow fired from above his head embedded itself into the stone floor.
Reflexively looking up, he saw a figure in a pitch-black cloak nocking a new arrow while twisting in mid-air as they fell. He couldn't help but admire the skill of someone who could fire three arrows in rapid succession while plummeting to the ground.
But that was as far as his admiration went.
Arrows coming from an unknown location were a significant threat, but arrows fired by an opponent clearly in sight could be easily dodged. Moreover, seeing the person bleeding incessantly from the mouth, it was clear they had taken considerable damage from his fist Qi.
Twisting his lips into a smirk, Seo-un charged forward the moment the figure landed.
The opponent nocked another arrow, but Seo-un’s eyes showed no fear as he seemingly split into two and rushed toward them.
—Swoosh!
The figure’s expression crumpled as they watched Seo-un’s form vanish like smoke upon being hit by the arrow. In that instant, a heavy blow landed on their chest.
“Gah!”
With a scream, the figure collapsed. Seo-un was about to finish them off when he was forced to back away by another person charging fiercely and firing arrows.
Despite the interference, Seo-un’s expression remained bright.
‘This is the good thing about duos. You catch one, and the other shows up on their own.’
As the shabby hood covering the newcomer’s face fell back, Seo-un’s jaw dropped in surprise.
‘Wait, there are Elves too?’
He had encountered mages, knights, and even a werewolf, so there was no reason there wouldn't be Elves, but seeing one in person was still shocking.
The Elf had long green hair and a pale face that made actual Caucasians look tan by comparison. It felt like looking at the vampires from the movie Twilight. Moreover, the ears were so pointed they slanted upward—exactly like the Elves depicted in films and fantasy art.
While he was momentarily distracted by the face, his hands became busy as the Elf nocked and fired arrows with rapid, fluid movements.
He could now pinpoint the exact nature of the dissonance he had felt earlier.
‘Slow.’
Compared to the arrows from the one in the pitch-black cloak, the arrows fired by this newcomer were relatively slow. Unlike the previous arrows that required intense focus to block or dodge, he could deflect these from where he stood with just a moderate reaction.
Using the incoming arrows as practice for his Spinning Strike, Seo-un deflected them all and smiled at the charging Elf.
The Elf, his handsome face wrinkled in a frown, tossed his bow aside and drew a thin longsword.
“Huh?”
The moment the longsword was gripped in the hand that had discarded the bow, a chilling aura swept over Seo-un’s entire body.
“So that’s your specialty!”
Seo-un shouted as he rushed toward the Elf, unleashing his fist Qi. To his surprise, the Elf’s green eyes sparkled as he rapidly sliced through the fist Qi with his thin blade.
Narrowing his eyes at the slender but sharply gleaming sword, Seo-un glared at the charging Elf, his body tensing.
“Whew.”
He took a long breath, preventing his body from becoming too stiff.
With spears and arrows, even if Spinning Strike failed, he could avoid major damage as long as he dodged the sharp tip. He could challenge those relatively comfortably.
But a sword was different. Even if he dodged the tip, a single mistake could result in his arm being severed by the length of the blade.
He heightened his concentration, trying to broaden his vision which was narrowing onto the sword, making sure not to lose sight of the opponent’s shoulders.
The most important thing in the Boundless Fist’s method of dealing with weapons was accurately grasping the movement of the opponent’s shoulders. No matter how great the martial art, one must ultimately use their hands. Using hands means using arms, and using arms means moving the shoulder joints.
Of course, all martial artists knew this well, which is why they hid real strikes within feints, but this opponent was not a martial artist.
The Elf, seemingly displeased with Seo-un’s stance—standing slightly sideways with both hands raised in front of his body—began to sway from side to side, his long green hair fluttering.
Seo-un retreated three steps and focused on the opponent’s movements once more.
It was a simple movement, stepping once to the left and right while charging, but the agility shown by the Elf was anything but simple. To Seo-un, whose vision was already narrowed, it looked as if the opponent momentarily vanished.
Closing the distance in an instant, the Elf turned to the right and thrust his sword.
Seo-un turned to the left to dodge the blade by leaning his waist, then continuously retreated with a feigned look of panic. It was a mistake to dodge because he didn't dare try to deflect that thin blade with Spinning Strike yet.
Once he retreated from close range, the opponent’s attacks followed one after another in a continuous chain.
“Tsk!”
The Elf swung his sword continuously, his movements flowing without gaps, almost like a character in a video game.
As Seo-un channeled internal power into his legs and leaped backward, the Elf’s mouth twitched, and for a moment, his presence seemed to expand.
‘Rush?’
The Elf closed the distance in an instant and twisted his lips, thrusting his sword toward Seo-un’s heart.
He could dodge it if he wanted to, but doing so would only keep him on the defensive.
“Spinning Strike!”
He shouted powerfully to psych himself up and thrust his fist forward. For a split second, a sneer flashed across the Elf’s face.
The rotation traveled from ankle to hip, hip to waist, and through the shoulder. The moment it reached Seo-un’s elbow—just as his fist narrowly brushed the inside of the sword thrusting at him—the Elf’s pupils shook in disbelief.
—Bang!
With a sound like exploding air, the moment his elbow lightly touched the blade, the Elf’s sword arm was flung wide to the side.
The moment Spinning Strike landed on the Elf’s shoulder, Seo-un followed up with a rapid succession of fist strikes to the neck, heart, and solar plexus.
“Cough!”
Having taken the triple strike directly to his vitals, the Elf spat out dark blood and collapsed backward.
“Whew.”
It was a short battle in terms of time, but an intense one. For a match against a skilled opponent who could slice through fist Qi with a sword despite not knowing martial arts, the conclusion had come suddenly.
As expected, the corpse vanished, and Seo-un didn't forget to absorb the sensed vitality through his Qi Absorption Gate.
“Spinning Strike!”
After absorbing the vitality, Seo-un performed the Spinning Strike he had just used to deflect the sword into the empty air, then tilted his head.
‘Something felt different.’
There was a disconnect between the sensation of the Spinning Strike that had unfolded so naturally in that split second when the sharp blade was flying toward his heart, and the Spinning Strike he was performing now, which felt subtly off.
After throwing a few more punches into the air, he shook his head and opened the wooden box.
“This guy is a beggar except for this longsword and bow.”
He hadn't expected much from this one anyway. What Seo-un was truly looking forward to wasn't this guy.
“I didn't think we'd meet again so soon, Cloak of Stealth.”
The black cloak worn by the one who had been firing those extraordinary arrows—it wasn't something he would fail to recognize. It was a treasure that had saved his life multiple times and helped him reach the Top 2 in his past life.
His hands moved faster as he opened the box.
[Ding! You have obtained the Broken Obsidian Breastplate.]
[Ding! You have obtained the Broken Cloak of Stealth.]
“Huh?”
At the ominous word "Broken," he unfolded the cloak and saw a fist-sized hole right in the middle.
[This cloak has lost its function. To repair it, you need a craftsman with special skills or a special scroll.]
“Ah...”
He stood there despondent, looking at the hole he had punched through it himself.
“The durability of this damn cloak is absolute garbage. It was like this last time, too.”
It was the same cloak that had been turned into a rag in an instant by Blade Storm in his previous life, losing its function then as well.
After staring down at the cloak with regretful eyes for a moment, he shoved it into his subspace and rummaged through the box.
[Ding! You have obtained the Lightning-Struck Cottonwood Bow.]
[Ding! You have obtained the Subspace Quiver.]
[Ding! You have obtained the Skill Book: Rapid Fire.]
[Ding! You have obtained a Recovery Scroll.]
He tore the scroll first, and the gash on his side healed instantly.