Genius Blacksmith’s Game - Chapter 113
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Blacksmith’s Game
The Genius Blacksmith’s Game
The Most Terrible Sword (2)
The Most Terrible Sword (2)
Hyeon-su was weak.
In a world where everyone turned away from blacksmith work.
He was a loser whom even the government said they couldn’t help for countless reasons.
But Hyeon-su created everything anew with his own hands, one by one, within the game called Ares.
First, he gained his own people one by one.
After that incident, new people came into his life when he had no proper family and only Ji-hoon as a friend.
They said they would protect him.
Next, he made artifacts that others couldn’t create and sold them one by one.
The debt equivalent to billions of won disappeared.
When he finally solved all the medical expense problems, he cried with joy.
Just today, combining the reward money from Marquis Lukburg and various other funds, he saw about 1 billion won of purely his own money in his bank account and realized.
I am a winner.
Treatment for his burns was also proceeding smoothly.
Now all that remained for him was to move forward.
Now he decided to do what would make him happiest.
That happy thing was real-world blacksmith work.
Making various weapons in Ares was enjoyable and fun.
However, as time went on, it made him feel even more thirsty.
It was a thirst to hold a hammer in reality like before.
He wanted to show the last remaining master craftsman in the real world, not a virtual one.
Since that work made him happiest, he met his attending physician Jin-seop with an excited heart.
“As I said, if you continue forging with your right hand, I cannot guarantee what will happen to your right hand either.”
But it wasn’t meant to be.
Yes, a mirage.
That’s how it felt.
He could hold it in the virtual world, but not in the real world.
Of course, there’s supposedly a treatment waiting for U.S. FDA approval.
But that’s an indefinite wait.
“I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”
Attending physician Jin-seop was someone he had been seeing for several years.
If he, who had said he would do his best, was saying this much, it might be right not to hold a hammer for a while.
Having heard only indefinite stories, he walked away listlessly and powerlessly.
Before he knew it, he had boarded a bus as if possessed and stared blankly at the passing scenery.
Whirrrr
[Kim Hye-in: Hyeon-su, did the results come out?]
[Kang Hyeok-su: It’s obvious without looking, it must have gone well.]
[Lee Tae-ha: I’ll buy the first product from Hyeon’s real-world forge^^]
[Lim Ji-min: Everything will go well for you!]
Looking at the people in the KakaoTalk group chat, Hyeon-su’s mind went blank.
The place he arrived at without being able to reply.
It was the construction site where the blacksmith shop was almost finished and now they were building the house connected to the forge.
Chairman Lee Tae-seong had given special instructions.
To build the forge with the best materials and workforce, and to build a good house as well.
Hyeon-su had been eagerly anticipating.
The image of himself lighting the furnace again in a forge built with the finest materials.
But it scattered like a mere mirage.
Then he gritted his teeth.
‘I won’t give up.’
With that thought, he gripped a hammer that was placed neatly to one side.
Actually, it was the first time he had held a hammer since that incident.
Because Hyeon-su himself was afraid. The anxiety that something might go worse if he carelessly grabbed a hammer.
Hyeon-su placed a piece of iron on the anvil, secured it with tongs, and tried to strike down with all his might.
Hesitation-
Then Hyeon-su stopped.
It was before striking down, but he realized for certain.
Perhaps the person who knows their own body best might be themselves.
‘It’s different…’
He could feel the difference between the hammer he held when his hand was fine and now.
Back then, it didn’t feel that heavy.
But now, just holding it like this gave him a sense that it was different.
Of course, it didn’t hurt.
Literally to the extent that it didn’t interfere with daily life.
He finally understood.
As doctor Jin-seop said, if he struck down with this hammer now, his right hand would cross a river of no return.
Thud-
Hyeon-su put the hammer down on the ground.
It wasn’t because his will or persistence was lacking.
Hyeon-su had finally come to realize.
That he really shouldn’t do blacksmith work for a while.
‘…There are so many things I want to make in reality too.’
Hyeon-su smiled bitterly.
And in one corner of the forge, there was a small space prepared for resting while doing blacksmith work.
He lay there for quite a while. Then he fell asleep without realizing it.
Sleeping Hyeon-su had a dream.
Dreams sometimes continue one dream throughout, and while dreaming, scenes change and sometimes continue with completely different content.
In the dream, Hyeon-su was his ten-year-old childhood self.
It was strange.
Father and himself sitting across from each other at the dining table.
His much younger father spoke.
‘Try eating the seasoned black beans with your left hand.’
‘Try eating the seasoned black beans with your left hand.’
‘Ugh, using chopsticks with my left hand is uncomfortable.’
‘Ugh, using chopsticks with my left hand is uncomfortable.’
‘Hehe, but try it once.’
‘Hehe, but try it once.’
Father at that time would sometimes make him try using chopsticks with his left hand.
The scene changes.
Blacksmith Shop.
‘Father, my right arm is getting numb. Should I take a break?’
‘Father, my right arm is getting numb. Should I take a break?’
‘Then how about trying to swing with your left arm?’
‘Then how about trying to swing with your left arm?’
‘Huh? But then it won’t be precise.’
‘Huh? But then it won’t be precise.’
‘The remaining work doesn’t need to be that precise anyway, does it?’
‘The remaining work doesn’t need to be that precise anyway, does it?’
Such memories flash by.
The bitter scene that Hyeon-su in his dream had witnessed also flashes by.
It was the sight of Father gripping his trembling right arm while forging when Hyeon-su returned from school.
At that time, Hyeon-su had pretended not to know.
No, he had no choice but to do so.
He couldn’t pretend to know about Father’s weak moments.
Then the dream guided Hyeon-su back into darkness.
Multiple scenes flash by once again.
And the final scene.
The scene of Father holding his trembling right arm appears again.
Father turned his head and smiled gently at Hyeon-su.
‘Hyeon-su.’
‘Hyeon-su.’
Father smiling the brightest smile in the world.
Staring at him blankly…
Flash-
Hyeon-su woke up from his sleep.
And as usual, he woke up from the dream with someone else, caught in that heavy feeling.
He looked at his left hand.
‘Could it be…?’
Hyeon-su wasn’t ambidextrous.
However, Hyeon-su had used his left hand as well, just like in the dream.
Clench-
Hyeon-su repeatedly clenched and opened his left hand.
And he couldn’t help but smile.
Father had hoped that Hyeon-su wouldn’t walk the same path as him.
‘If we hadn’t had that accident…’
Father might have taught him to use both hands.
Perhaps Father had been feeling his deteriorating right hand for a long time.
That’s why, to prepare for any situation, he might have laid the groundwork for Hyeon-su to become an ambidextrous blacksmith by using his left hand as well.
‘Thank you.’
Hyeon-su stood up from his seat.
Roar-
The furnace in the real blacksmith shop ignites.
Watching the furnace heat up intensely, Hyeon-su’s heart beats rapidly.
His first crafting in years was about to blaze like fire.
***
Jin-seop watched Hyeon-su with admiration.
A right-handed person using their left hand.
That was definitely an awkward thing.
Just like how it’s difficult for a right-handed person to use chopsticks with their left hand.
But Hyeon-su was a little different.
‘He doesn’t seem to have that level of discomfort.’
As if he had been making efforts to gradually get used to his left hand.
Jin-seop was excited.
‘This crafted item will show that possibility.’
There were actually similar cases to this.
A right-handed pitcher throwing with their left hand after injuring their right arm.
But Jin-seop wasn’t that positive about this either.
‘When a right-handed player trained with their left hand, the speed reached up to 90%.’
Yes, that was the problem.
That 10%.
That 10% becomes a meaningless figure for ordinary people.
But for those who have reached the top, it becomes a significant figure.
In reality, the person who threw 90% of the ball gets pushed from the most glamorous first team to the third team.
Because that 10% difference was enormously significant in their league.
That’s why the key is how good that crafted item will be.
Soon Hyeon-su also noticed Jin-seop.
Hyeon-su explained the whole story.
‘So Kang Hyeon-tae had prepared for his son…’
Then that percentage might go up a bit more.
Jin-seop didn’t leave and watched him.
It was a sight he was seeing for the first time.
‘This side of my patient.’
This space seemed to be dominated by him alone.
The insignificant young man whose shoulders had been drooping.
That young man reigns like a king in here.
Clang, clang-clang-
Jin-seop admires the ghostly hand movements.
Time passes and dawn breaks.
Since tomorrow was a day off, Jin-seop takes in the sight of the sword that would determine his future, slowly being completed.
He realizes from those inspired movements.
‘It wasn’t that he wasn’t a Master Craftsman because the blacksmiths had disappeared.’
At this moment, Jin-seop was certain.
Hyeon-tae and Hyeon-su.
These two people were called the only remaining Master Craftsman in the world simply because they were exceptional.
And Hyeon-su put all his heart and soul into it.
The hammering was less precise than usual and occasionally creaked with the awkward use of right and left hands.
The hammer sometimes struck other unwanted places.
Finally quenching the sword that was less perfect than usual.
Hiss-
He tries polishing it.
It slowly reveals its form.
What if the place he was in right now was Ares?
[You have crafted a shabby sword.]
[This is the worst crafted item among all the artifacts you have made so far.]
He would have been frustrated.
But reality now was different.
Hyeon-su lifted up the completed sword.
A sword blade less smooth than usual and patterns less refined.
Every single detail.
When considering such things, this was the worst crafted item Hyeon-su had ever made.
But in this place, it was different.
He had made it.
Yes, a sword of this level had been created with his left hand.
The most insignificant yet most needed sword.
Jin-seop said.
“…Wasn’t this your first left-hand crafting?”
“Yes.”
Jin-seop was genuinely amazed.
“I think it’s possible. Let’s train together on how to become familiar with your left hand. If your first left-hand crafted item is at this level, you might be able to regain your previous condition.”
Whether it would take one year or three years was unknown, but Jin-seop saw possibility.
At that moment, Hyeon-su felt extreme pain in his right hand.
“Kheup.”
“May I take a look?”
Blacksmith work ultimately requires using both hands.
Hammering with the left hand and holding steady with the right hand gripping the tongs.
Assuming the impact received by the left hand while hammering is 100, the impact received by the right hand is about 30.
Hyeon-su trembled with anxiety again.
But this was a problem Jin-seop could solve.
“I think we can make medical protective gloves. Gloves that are as thin as possible and won’t interfere with blacksmithing work. With this level of impact, 99% of it would be protected by the gloves, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Hearing those words, Hyeon-su collapsed to the ground.
He was relieved that protective gloves could be made for that right hand.
And Jin-seop realized something.
Come to think of it, Hyeon-su hadn’t had a single sip of water for a long time.
“I’ll go buy something to drink.”
Jin-seop hurried off.
His running footsteps were light.
Had he ever been this happy while living as a doctor?
No.
Had he ever felt his heart race like this when saying he would do his best?
This too was a no.
Jin-seop would help his left hand become familiar and prevent his right hand from receiving impact.
Also, the reason Jin-seop was happy was this.
If the FDA approval went smoothly, Jin-seop might be able to see a blacksmith who could freely use both hands.
Soon Jin-seop returned with something cool to drink.
He opened the blacksmith shop door and entered, then was left speechless.
Blacksmith Hyeon-su, who was certain to do his best just as much as himself.
He was sitting in his spot, hugging the shabby sword that had entered the scabbard, and sobbing.
“Heuk, heuheuk…”
Though he was crying, Jin-seop felt it.
That his happiness right now was greater than his own happiness.
That the hammer he grasped again had changed his collapsed world.
Jin-seop placed the water in front of the door and slowly closed it.
A few seconds later.
“I can make them agaaaaaaain!”
His voice burst out from inside the blacksmith shop.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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