Chapter 29

Some people never hesitate once they’ve made a decision. Jopil was one of them.

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Jopil tossed the line out and kicked off the ground. Ten-odd zhang of distance vanished in two steps.¹ A flash burst from his waist.

Whoosh!

What the…?

My body moved before I could think. The moment my outstretched spear shaft met the flash—

Boom!

The thunderous impact hurled me backward. I shot toward the reconnaissance squad like a cannonball. Shields be damned—the three or four men in front went down in a heap.

“Argh!”

“Squad Leader! Are you all right?”

…Would I be all right?

Holy shit.

I clenched the spear shaft. It still hadn’t stopped shaking.

The flash had been Jopil’s sword. In all twenty-seven years of my life, it was the fastest, strongest attack I had ever faced.

It hit that hard even though I blocked it?

If my reaction had been even a moment slower, I would have been hiking up Mount Beimang by now.² I calmed my pounding heart and got back to my feet.

Jopil was smiling.

“I’m disappointed. Is that all you’ve got?”

The only reason I had been able to block it was because it was merely “that much.” If I hadn’t leveled up after mowing down those twenty men, I might already have been dead.

Fuck. I picked the wrong opponent.

My realm was Second Rate. Even so, I had easily beaten two First Rate masters so far—with the martial arts and stats I’d gained through the System, and with the combat experience I had built up.

But I could tell from that one attack.

This guy is different.

I felt outmatched in every way. Jopil was in a completely different league from Lee Seogeun or Black Mountain Blade.

Different enough to bring the word death to mind.

“You’re afraid.”

Afraid? Me?

I looked at my hand. The spear had stopped vibrating, but the hand gripping it was shaking like an aspen leaf. My heartbeat was so loud it felt as though everyone could hear it.

“How will you survive in the martial world with a chicken heart like that?”

Jopil clicked his tongue.

“This won’t do. I’ll give you a little boost.”

“What?”

“Anger always beats fear.”

Before I could even understand what he meant, Jopil flicked his sleeve. Several streaks of light shot out at once.

Danger!

The instant a red alert went off in my head, I swung my spear.

Clang!

Several throwing knives ricocheted away with a sharp ring.

But I couldn’t stop them all.

“Guh.”

One of the reconnaissance squad members clutched his throat. Blood fountained between his fingers, and I saw a throwing knife buried there.

“Grrk. Squad… Leader. Grrk.”

He dropped to his knees, gurgling on blood. His still-boyish face was twisted with the terror of dying.

“P-please, save…”

Whoosh. Thunk!

No one survived throwing knives to the throat and between the eyes. He was no exception.

Splat.

He planted his face in the ground, which had only just begun to thaw.

He never got up again.

It had all happened in an instant.

“I picked him because he looked the youngest… Was he a subordinate you cherished?”

I shook my head at Jopil’s question.

“No.”

“That’s a shame.”

“I don’t even know his name.”

“You called him a subordinate.”

“He was an NPC. No need to know his name or his age.”

“What?”

I turned the corpse onto his back. After brushing the dirt and snow from his face, I closed his staring eyes.

Then, like I was making a confession, I told the still-bewildered Jopil the truth.

“We’ve only known each other for three days.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right.”

“Then…”

Jopil smiled and went on.

“Why are you angry?”

He was right. Something was bubbling up from the pit of my stomach. My head and chest burned so hot that I had to say something.

What was that kid’s name again?

He was the one we called Number Seven in the reconnaissance squad. I had forced him to carry a shield when he didn’t want one and trained him whenever I had the chance. He was young, so a few words of praise would make him break into a goofy grin.

What was his name?

In the end, I couldn’t remember.

I didn’t even know all my goshiwon neighbors’ names.³ Why would I remember some NPC I had only known for a few days? There was no reason to. No need.

But…

I was annoyed. I was angry.

I had thought things would be different in a game, but even here, I had failed to protect my teammate.

The reason I had gone out of my way to train him, the work of the past few days—gone like foam. I opened my mouth and let out a hot breath.

“You son of a bitch. You’re dead.”

I chewed and swallowed my last fasting pill.

As a System message announced that my energy had recovered—

Boom.

I kicked off the ground and launched myself at him.

Jopil knocked away the spearhead that had surged up from his blind spot.

Clang! Skrrratch.

Fast, and strong. His fundamentals were solid, and his combat sense was quite good.

He was not someone that Mount Heng Sword Sect brat or a rootless wandering martial artist like Black Mountain Blade could handle.

The Jin Family of Taiyuan… A junchi is still a junchi, even rotten. Is that it?⁴

Jopil leisurely slipped past the spearhead as he thought.

The fall of the Jin Family of Taiyuan was nothing new. The prestige that had once covered Shanxi was already gone. All that remained was faded glory from the past, and talent that turned up once in a blue moon.

Someone like the Jin Taekyung in front of him.

They’ve raised an interesting one.

This much skill at twenty. He still couldn’t match the Heaven Shaking Sword, already called Shanxi’s greatest master, but he was an interesting kid.

Leave age out of it, and his internal energy and martial arts were both middling… but he knew how to fight. He knew exactly when to back off and when to press, and when a chance came, he charged like a fighting demon.

Just like now.

“Ha!”

Whoosh—Boom!

The spearhead flashed at his face and punched through empty air. With a bursting crack, Jopil’s hair flew.

Well, look at this.

The entire sequence, from raising the spear to thrusting it, was compact and flowed like water. And that movement—smoothly twisting his whole body before unleashing explosive force—was silk-reeling force.⁵ He was still clumsy with it, but there was no mistaking it.

Silk-reeling force at twenty?

Innate sense, combat experience that called to mind an old martial-world veteran, and talent.

Frightening potential.

That was what Jopil was thinking when Jin Taekyung muttered with a stiff expression,

“What the fuck is this?”

“…”

Jopil’s feet tangled.

The instant he realized his mistake, Jin Taekyung’s spear slid in like a snake. He hopped back and opened the distance, but the internal energy on that spear was no joke.

Riiip!

It was the first attack Jopil had allowed through. His upper robe split in a long gash, baring his chest.

“Ah, so close. I could’ve finished it.”

“…”

So close? Finished it? Against me—Jopil, One Question, One Kill?

Watching Jin Taekyung smack his lips, Jopil felt a violent surge of rage.

“Youuu bastard!”

His shout, loaded with internal energy, shook the forest. His eyes rolled back as he charged at Jin Taekyung.

The moment I cut a long gash through Jopil’s clothes, the System notification rang.

Ding.

System

Lv.??? Jopil enters Berserk!

Strength and Agility increase for the duration!

Damn it. Even more?

“Graaaaah!”

Boom! Boom!

Blow after blow crashed down with a roar. The ground overturned, and trees were ripped out by the roots.

With his eyes rolled completely white, Jopil rampaged like a madman.

The problem is, he’s no ordinary madman.

A madman who happened to be a Peak master, no less. If I hadn’t had the Gambler Title, which increased my combat stats by 10% in a one-on-one, I wouldn’t have lasted this long.

Boom!

That wasn’t martial arts.

It was a bombardment.

But there was no precision in Jopil now. His movements were compact and fast, but the extra strength from Berserk had made them big and left him full of openings.

I just need him to show me one opening…

The problem was, I couldn’t see one.

He had completely lost it and was turning the area around us into a wasteland. All I could do was dodge. I didn’t even dare to block.

Step into range and I would be shredded. That much was obvious.

“Squad Leader!”

“We’re coming!”

I hurriedly waved off the reconnaissance squad members running toward me.

“Hey, don’t come! Don’t come! Fall back!”

Had they lost their minds? Coming here?

We had already lost one man for nothing. I didn’t want the entire reconnaissance squad wiped out.

And besides—

If those guys come over here, the Gambler Title’s effect disappears!

Gambler only applied in a one-on-one.

I was barely hanging on as it was. If the Title’s effect vanished too, I had no idea how much longer I could last.

“Get back, you bastards!”

I shouted and flung myself sideways. Sure enough, Jopil’s sword smashed the ground to pieces.

Crack!

“Squad Leader!”

Hyuk Mujin’s shout came a beat late. For all I had tried to stop him, he was already charging. Behind him, I saw Han Yeop with a set, determined face.

“Hey, don’t—”

“Jopil, you vile bastard!”

“Get away from the Squad Leader!”

But it was a step too late. Hyuk Mujin and Han Yeop, who had come running with everything they had, thrust their weapons at Jopil, who was preoccupied with me.

“Die!”

Sword and spear. Spear and sword.

Good timing, good attacks, like they had practiced it beforehand. There was just one problem.

They had the wrong opponent.

“How dare you, you rats!”

Jopil’s response was instant. He drove his sword into the ground where he stood, spun around, and smashed both weapons with his bare hands.

Facing a sword and spear empty-handed was suicide.

But in Murim, things were different.

More precisely, Jopil was different. He was a Peak master.

Crack—Crunch!

His palm had only brushed the side of the blade, and Hyuk Mujin’s sword still shattered into pieces before it reached him. Han Yeop stared in horror at his spear, the head sliced clean off.

That was the result of Jopil’s straightened knife-hand.

“What the…”

“That’s impossi—”

Before they could finish, Jopil slammed both hands into their chests.

They smashed into trees, spraying fountains of blood.

“I’ll kill you.”

On his chillingly smiling face, the whites of his eyes were gone.

Berserk had worn off. He was back in his right mind.

“Fuck…”

From bad to worse. Trouble on top of trouble. Surrounded on all sides.

Jopil, you son of a bitch.

The situation was hurtling toward the worst possible outcome. If anyone was going to stop him, it had to be me.

“Jopil—!”

The internal energy I had pulled up at full strength raced through my whole body. I kicked off the ground and shot toward him.

Jopil grinned wide.

“Right. I’ll kill you first.”

But I had something to count on.

He’s empty-handed right now.

It was a blunder he’d made while Berserk. And I was sure I could finish everything before he yanked the sword out of the ground behind him and swung it.

The next instant, I hauled up every bit of internal energy in my dantian. I focused all of it on a single point—the spear tip—and thrust.

“Die!”

The final form of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique, Sky-Piercing Strike.

If it could pierce the heavens, why couldn’t it pierce Jopil’s heart?

I was sure of it.

This is it… the end.

The world slowed, and I saw Jopil’s face.

He was smiling.

The moment I saw that smile, I knew.

Something was wrong.

Skrrrng.

Jopil’s sword was faster than my spear.

The blood-wet crimson blade shoved my spear shaft aside and drove inward. The instant my spearhead, laden with internal energy, stabbed into empty air—

Slash.

A chilling sound, and my chest felt cool. Then came the searing pain, and the blood bursting out.

Fortunately, I had jerked back at the last moment and avoided a fatal wound.

Damn it.

What the hell had just happened?

As I staggered back, Jopil charged.

Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!

Crimson sword-light poured down. Every flash was so fast and powerful I could barely see it.

I gritted my teeth and swung my spear, but Jopil had the edge in both momentum and martial arts.

Slash. Thunk. Splurt.

Lightning cut across my whole body. The blade stabbed my shoulder, slashed my knee, and punched through my side before coming back out with a spray of blood.

“Guh.”

“You didn’t drop your weapon. I’ll give you that.”

Jopil added,

“If you can take this, too.”

The next instant, his hand slammed into my chest.