CHAPTER 74

20th Squad. Selling the Story.

"So I finally get to see a player bringing modern firearms into this world."

"Right? And yet, he still lost to a bow."

Seowoon smiled as he tucked his bow back into his subspace.

As the situation settled, the players, still buzzing with excitement, forgot their formation and swarmed around Seowoon.

"Priest, did you really master that archery on your own?"

"Yes. It just kind of happened…"

"Mr. Jin Seowoon, that was amazing. At this level, you could rival the master archers of the continent."

Seowoon simply smiled at Juriel's compliment without responding.

Even now the crowd was a handful. If he mentioned how he had fought that so-called master archer over and over and finally shot an arrow through his forehead, it would've caused another wave of fuss.

Especially the mages—each of them came up to him with long-winded explanations of their buff spells, offering to cast them on him.

It sounded generous on the surface, but what they really meant was: "Please stand in the back with us and shoot arrows to keep the enemies from breaking through our shields."

Keeping his polite smile intact, Seowoon handled them calmly until Juriel stepped in and quickly dispersed the crowd.

"Let's move out now. We've got a long way to go."

The formation reassembled, and Seowoon stepped forward alongside Kaien.

'Annoying bunch.'

It really was exhausting.

People who expect something from you and those who rely on you may seem similar, but they feel completely different.

He recalled a line from a movie villain: "When kindness continues, people start to think it's a right."

'Still, I might as well milk what I can out of them.'

That was why, despite the irritation, he kept his expression in check and didn't push his teammates away.

This game wasn't just about surviving or climbing the ranks anymore.

'The Insight of the Mad Demon. That's gotta be a locked item.'

It was only his fifth run, but Seowoon could already feel his limits.

As a martial artist, those limits were even more apparent.

Powering up through items was fast, but it never gave him everything.

Through training, he had come to understand martial arts more deeply—and with that came a clearer sense of his ceiling. That's why the moment he saw the item Insight of the Mad Demon, he understood instinctively:

'I have to get it, no matter what.'

Being a locked item, no one could say for sure what it would give him.

But right now, it felt like the only thing that could quench the thirst he felt inside.

"Magic, martial arts, archery… You have so many talents," said Kaien.

Seowoon gave a modest reply.

"What meaning is there in being broad, if I am shallow?"

In a place where people were judged by the depth of their martial cultivation, Kaien—who fought for the people's peace—found that answer deeply satisfying.

A bright smile spread across Kaien's typically stoic face.

"My master used to say that sometimes, a wide reach can be more useful than a narrow depth."

Seeing Kaien's face, Seowoon decided the time had come to start selling his story.

"Haaah."

Seowoon stopped walking, sighed heavily, and looked up at the sky. Naturally, Kaien stopped walking as well.

As the scout of the group came to a halt, the entire squad trailing behind them followed suit.

"What's wrong?"

"Ah, it's nothing."

But as Seowoon glanced back at the squad that had paused behind him, he began walking again. Kaien hurried to catch up, concern written on his face.

"You look burdened by something."

"I just… remembered something I shouldn't have. Don't mind me."

But Seowoon's voice was so faint and lifeless, like someone who hadn't eaten a proper meal in days, that there was no way not to mind it.

"I'm not exactly a great man, but I've studied Daoism a fair bit. They say if you let the cold thoughts of the heart out through your lips, the warmth of light will draw them out. So—why not try saying it?"

With a long sigh, Seowoon reluctantly opened his mouth.

"…I actually have a younger sibling. Just eight years old. Lost our parents early… and now she only has me."

Orphaned child. A universally potent tool for evoking sympathy.

Apparently, it worked across worlds too, as Kaien's face darkened.

"She's been weak since birth. In my world, they couldn't even name her condition. All she can do is lie in a cramped hospital room, day after day. And me? I couldn't do a damn thing for her."

Imagining a devoted older brother working for his only sister made Kaien's chest heavy.

After all, good drama begins with empathy and immersion.

You pull the audience in by giving them someone they can relate to.

Kaien found himself falling into Seowoon's drama.

"In our world, treatment is extremely expensive. Before I became a player, I couldn't rest even two hours a day. I had to work constantly just to cover her hospital bills."

Because Kaien had lived closer to the common folk than most martial artists, the story resonated even more deeply.

"Then I became a player—and I finally saw hope. I thought, just maybe, in this world, I could find something to make my sister healthy again."

Climax.

Kaien nodded fervently, like a drama viewer rooting for the main character to find hope and praying all conflicts would be resolved in the end.

"With that hope in mind, I gave it everything I had. I played like my life depended on it—and that's how I managed to reach the high ranks and secure a permanent spot by just the fourth run."

As the reason behind Seowoon's incredible gameplay was revealed, Kaien couldn't help but nod in understanding.

Learning that such a powerful motive had driven one of the most admired players made everything finally click.

"But no matter how many recovery scrolls or items I tried, my brother showed almost no improvement. After learning martial arts, I started to understand his illness a little better."

"What kind of illness is it?"

Kaien had forgotten all caution, his eyes now fixed solely on Seowoon's mouth. With a sigh, Seowoon finally answered.

"Have you ever heard of… severed meridians?"

A common trope in wuxia novels—there was no way a martial artist like Kaien wouldn't know it.

"Ah!"

A sigh of sympathy escaped Kaien's lips.

"What exactly is his condition?"

Seowoon's mouth twitched slightly as he willed himself to continue weaving the story of a nonexistent brother and a fictional illness.

Names like Nine Yin Severed Meridians and Seven Yin Severed Meridians, bits and pieces from martial arts tales, flashed through Kaien's mind.

"Nine yin meridians and even two yang meridians are…"

"Good heavens! It's a miracle he survived to age eight!"

Seowoon quickly added to Kaien's exclamation.

"He's been bedridden nearly his whole life, barely moving… that must've helped."

Thankfully, Kaien nodded solemnly.

"If it were a girl, she wouldn't have made it… At least he's a boy. That's something."

Seowoon hadn't specified a gender, but Kaien decided on one anyway.

A girl with nine severed yin meridians and damaged yang meridians surviving past five would be practically impossible.

"But then I saw this item called a Dragon Heart. An alchemist I know once said that unless I brought him something like that, there'd be no hope of crafting medicine that could save my brother…"

"So if you get the Dragon Heart, you can save him!"

"Yes. But… two hundred kills… You know how it is. That's no easy feat. Honestly, it's practically impossible—unless the whole team funnels every kill to you… Sigh. I shouldn't be burdening you with all this. You just reminded me so much of an older brother I used to know… I guess I leaned on you without realizing it."

In Korea, lines like that—"You reminded me of my dad… my mom… my older sibling…"—used to be a dime a dozen during the sales pitches of the 1980s. These days, they didn't fly in a society that had grown cynical and suspicious.

But what essentially translated to, "You look like family, so let me scam you a bit," somehow worked perfectly on Kaien.

"There must be a way. I'll—"

Just as Seowoon thought he had Kaien completely on his side, an unexpected interruption hit.

Master! Something strange is approaching!

At the same time, Seowoon stiffened, raising a hand and stopping in his tracks, jaw clenched tightly.

Sensing the sudden shift in Seowoon's demeanor, Kaien snapped into alert mode, eyes narrowing as he scanned the surroundings.

"Do you sense something?"

"A strange unease… hard to describe exactly."

Just then, the landscape around them shimmered slightly, like a heat haze.

"A formation! Get back!"

Kaien was the first to shout, quickly retreating, and the other players followed suit.

"Can you tell what kind of formation it is?"

"Not exactly—but it's definitely a killing formation!"

At the word killing formation, the expressions of the martial artists turned grim.

"Tch. Someone's got good instincts."

A monk dressed in loose robes and a paper sash slung over his shoulder clicked his tongue, frowning.

Beside him, a player held a palm-sized, intricately crafted statue and spoke with a smile.

"No need to worry. They're already fish caught in a net."

A fixed squad of fifteen—composed entirely of Taoists, formation masters, and alchemists—watched calmly from afar as the trapped players flailed to escape the spreading formation.

Through a Flexiv spell cast by one of them, they could see the distant players as if they were right in front of them.

"Hm. At this rate, they'll escape the formation."

A player in a red robe bearing the trigram symbol on the back twisted his lips as he pulled nine coffins from subspace.

A Taoist sprinkled unknown powders and liquids over the coffins laid on the ground. Then, he unsheathed a wooden sword and carefully peeled talismans from each coffin lid.

"Rise."

At his command, the nine talismans lifted with the sword—and astonishingly, the coffin lids burst open, revealing nine jiangshi (hopping vampires) rising from within.

Each resembled a player, but one stood out—their eyes gleamed with an eerie, unnatural life.

"Do we really need to use a living jiangshi? Shouldn't we keep it for defense…?"

"We'll retrieve it the moment they're forced deeper into the formation."

With that, the Taoist pointed his wooden sword toward the retreating players.

"Capture them!"

The nine jiangshi launched forward with incredible speed, racing toward Seowoon's squad.

Master! Strange foes are approaching!

As the formation expanded like a living thing, threatening to swallow them whole, Seowoon furrowed his brow and shouted in the direction Hamit had indicated.

"Enemies on the right!"

All eyes turned—charging toward them were pale-faced players.

Four martial artists, five knights.

Eight of them looked unnaturally pale.

Kaien shouted almost instantly upon seeing them.

"Jiangshi!"

Everyone's face went pale at the word.

They hadn't yet recovered from their last encounter with those cursed undead in the Simu zone.

Grinding his teeth, Seowoon veered toward the nine oncoming enemies and charged.

Kaien and Jinryung followed immediately at his heels.

"The rest of you—avoid the formation and provide support!"

It was clear that escaping the growing formation came first.

Juriel seemed to agree, nodding and focusing on retreating.

The first knight to charge lunged forward, thrusting his spear straight at Seowoon's chest.

A grotesquely twisted hand coiled around the shaft like a serpent, snaking up to seize the knight's head.

Crack!

Seowoon had aimed to crush it in one blow—but instead of shattering, the knight's scalp merely peeled back loosely, as if he'd struck solid rock. The skull remained perfectly intact.

As the knight toppled backward, more jiangshi surged in, stabbing their weapons toward Seowoon.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Jinryung's shimmering blade danced like heat haze, slicing and stabbing with expert precision. But not a single one of the creatures coughed up blood or fell.

"These aren't ordinary jiangshi! They're ironbound—reinforced by a Taoist!"

Holding them off just long enough to retreat a few steps, Seowoon shouted, "Ironbound? What does that mean?"

"They're made with special alchemical compounds. Unless you take off the head completely, they won't die!"

"Even sword aura isn't cutting through. That thin neck of theirs is harder to hit than it looks."

Kaien responded grimly, shoving one of the jiangshi back as he narrowed his eyes. "There is a way."

With that, he pulled a rather large gourd from his subspace inventory and poured its contents over his wooden training sword.

Then he tossed the gourd to Jinryung. "Coat your blade with the blood inside!"

Jinryung didn't hesitate. He quickly splashed the thick black liquid onto his sword, then threw the gourd to Seowoon.

—Master, why are you putting this vile stuff on me…—

Ignoring Hamit's protest, Seowoon smeared the dark, foul-smelling blood across his hands.

The moment he did, the jiangshi approaching them changed. Their expressions twisted—they bared their teeth openly in hostility, yet now hesitated, unwilling to recklessly charge in.

"Kaaargh!"

"Kiiyaaah!"

Their inhuman screeches echoed out just as a surge of mana flared behind the group—magic came flying, swift and deadly.

The earth upturned like a wave beneath their feet. The three leapt over it in one motion, and even the jiangshi tried to follow, but—

Spiked rocks erupted from underground, a tight cluster of jagged stone halting the creatures in their tracks.

BOOM!

As the jiangshi faltered, the rocks exploded from within, blasting shards of stone in every direction.

From behind the dust and debris, jiangshi emerged once more—clothes and armor shredded, but still moving.

"Jinse is no longer chasing! We fight here!"

At Juriel's command, everyone focused their attention on the advancing undead.

—Master! Behind you!—

Just as the team braced themselves, a pale silhouette appeared behind them.

"Behind! There's an enemy—!"

Seowoon hadn't even finished his warning before the strange monk-like player at the rear brought his palms together in a prayer gesture.

At that instant, the surroundings dimmed as the environment began to shift.

Thoom!

Thoom!

Thoom!

Thoom!

"We're caught in a formation!"

The rhythmic tremors shook the ground, echoing deep into their bones. At Kaien's shout, the players launched a glowing orb of light into the air to illuminate the area.

As the light burst overhead, the source of the sound revealed itself.

[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]