Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 138
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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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One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 138
Episode 138. Auction Preparations (12)
“Kreeek, kreeeeeek…!”
Puppet Master Batu’s screams filled the room.
But Dorico Shiro glanced at Batu dismissively and began focusing on her painting again.
‘…Why is he acting like that, seriously?’
Dorico Shiro’s contemptuous gaze clearly showed that she genuinely couldn’t understand Batu.
“It’s not! It’s not that I lack social skills…!”
Regardless, Batu continued shrieking.
“That damn bastard is the weird one! I just wanted to have a conversation, but he suddenly killed my puppet!”
“Really?”
Dorico Shiro answered with annoyance while keeping her eyes focused on her painting.
“That’s strange. The Gaon I saw was really kind. He kept his promises well and was easy to talk to.”
Swish, swish—.
Dorico Shiro’s practiced brushstrokes continued.
Dark yet intense colors began taking their places on the canvas one by one.
“Then maybe you’re just the weird one?”
“…What did you say?”
Batu’s eyes rolled back.
He glared at Dorico Shiro’s back with an expression of disbelief.
“Hey! Are you done talking! Is that the right reaction when a friend you’ve known for hundreds of years almost died?”
Once his resentment began overflowing, it poured out endlessly. Batu clenched his fists and continued shouting.
“Gaon can kill Immortals! Camillo von Taribas, The Adversary… both died to Gaon! And I almost followed those bastards!”
“…”
“But you’ve only been friends with Gaon for about a month! Is that short time more important than our friendship of hundreds of years? Why do you always take his side! Why!”
Pause—.
Hearing those words, Dorico Shiro stopped her brush and turned to look at Batu.
“Sigh.”
Then she let out a deep sigh with an expression that said she was fed up.
“Batu.”
“What!”
“Since when were we friends…?”
“…?”
Pause—.
Batu’s mouth fell open.
His mind went blank from the completely unexpected blow.
“Uh, uh, uhhhh…”
While Batu stammered, Dorico Shiro continued speaking.
“I never really thought of you as a friend. Hundreds of years of friendship? What’s that supposed to be? All you did was barge into my room unilaterally and ramble on about whatever you wanted to say before leaving. Isn’t that right?”
“…!”
Thump—!
His heart sank.
As if a dagger had been thrust into his chest, Batu’s expression contorted with pain.
Standing there with his mouth open, he soon gritted his teeth and turned around.
“R-right… I, I got it…”
His muttering voice was mixed with emptiness and despair.
Trudge, trudge—.
Batu walked toward the door with heavy steps.
Dorico Shiro glanced at his retreating figure, then immediately focused on her painting again as if it wasn’t her concern.
“As expected… my only friends are my dolls…”
Batu muttered in a hollow voice. It contained a loneliness that even he didn’t realize.
“…Fine. I’ll just play with dolls.”
Right.
Dolls don’t betray him.
They don’t lie or say hurtful things.
They only move according to Batu’s will and control.
Creak, thud—!
That was the exact moment.
The sound of a door closing came from behind him.
It turned out Dorico Shiro had locked the door.
“…”
Now even her faint humming could no longer be heard.
It felt as if his existence had been completely shut out by Dorico Shiro.
Left alone in the quiet, dim corridor, Batu stood frozen in place and bit his lips.
“Ah, ahhh…”
Thump—.
All kinds of emotions began rushing in.
He had lost a cherished doll he had carefully trained over many years.
He had hurriedly sent other puppets to try to retrieve it somehow, but since the memorial service had already been completed, there was no way to restore it.
Was that all?
He had even been betrayed by a colleague he had believed to be a friend for hundreds of years.
Truly, there had never been a more terrible and humiliating day than this.
“…I’m going to kill him.”
Crack—!
Batu’s expression turned murderous.
His directionless anger turned toward Gaon, and that intense emotion began consuming his fear.
Batu began muttering in an eerily sinister voice.
“I will definitely kill him… Gaon, that bastard… I’ll kill him for sure and add him to my doll collection…”
Batu muttering alone in the darkness.
His appearance looked dangerous yet somehow pitiful.
An Immortal who had lived for hundreds of years. But a lonely being trapped in his own world without a single true friend.
The anger harbored by such a person was more persistent and tenacious than any hatred.
* * *
Sitting face to face with Strawberry Latte, memories of the past suddenly came to mind.
The Lost Elder Ranker Gathering.
If I remember correctly… it was probably the third meeting.
We had rented an entire chicken restaurant building and nearly 40 people had gathered.
“Look at this! This is the spell formula for ‘Flowing Flames’ that Crimson Empress mainly uses… but this magic circle is really strange.”
Strawberry Latte, completely drunk, showed game capture screens and passionately lectured the people around her.
“It has a topologically closed structure with a dual energy loop system, and when activated, plasma forms like fluid flow. More precisely, it looks like a convection-like model?”
“No. What on earth are you talking about, Strawberry Latte…?”
“She’s drunk.”
Murmuring sounds came from around us, but Strawberry Latte ignored them and kept talking.
“But it has both a heat source and heat sink built inside simultaneously. No, that doesn’t make sense, right? To mimic an ideal Carnot cycle, the heat source and heat sink should be separate externally, and the internal fluid should only transfer heat… but this one is just structurally broken.”
Strawberry Latte’s voice grew increasingly passionate. However, the expressions of those listening gradually turned to shock.
“Moreover, after about 3 seconds, the forward energy vector becomes disturbed. This means the boundary conditions have changed, which causes energy to concentrate locally. Then reactivity occurs in that area… well, combustion or emission-type phenomena happen. When heat increases, fluid flow becomes unstable, eventually leading to turbulence.”
People slowly began looking at each other and murmuring.
“Isn’t that guy crazy?”
“He only plays mage characters to do stuff like that in the first place.”
“Wow… what a complete nutcase…”
“No way, does that make sense? Studying even in a game you’re supposed to relax with?”
Of course, Strawberry Latte, already quite drunk, couldn’t hear the voices of others.
“In conclusion, this magic needs to maintain equilibrium to function, but the maintenance conditions are too fragile. The energy vector itself is the starting point of catastrophe, so even a slight increase in output makes it uncontrollable. It’s structured so the user burns to death first. It looks stable on the surface, but there’s a time bomb ticking inside… urp, uurp! Uuuurp!”
“Just drink your alcohol.”
“Uuuurp!”
“So those are the kinds of kids who get PhDs from MIT.”
“Is that what they call ‘true madness’?”
“If you ask me, the ‘true madness’ isn’t Strawberry Latte, but the developers who implemented such things in the game…”
I remember the chicken restaurant erupting in laughter.
Right.
Like this, Roel meetups always proceeded in a harmonious atmosphere.
“…”
I let out a chuckle.
Strawberry Latte passionately explaining, and people giggling while watching him.
I was sipping draft beer while watching that scene.
“Hey, Ppakgyu!”
Thud-.
Someone approached the seat next to me and suddenly put their arm around my shoulder.
Ppakgyu.
That’s what everyone called me at meetups. It was because of my nickname ‘Middle Finger’.
Though it had nothing to do with my real name.
“Long time no see, Muwolcha.”
“Hey! Call me noona! Why do you treat Strawberry Latte casually but put up walls with me!”
“…Long time no see, Muwolcha noona.”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Muwolcha.
She was ranked 3rd in the Hall of Fame and a player who mainly raised Martial Arts characters.
Her real job was… working at a major game company in Pangyo.
Perhaps because of that, she often posted articles analyzing and praising Roel’s systems by examining them one by one.
Her analyses, which meticulously examined everything from combat system balancing to skill tree structures and even UI/UX design, were quite interesting. I found them quite entertaining to read too.
“Ppakgyu, why do you like Roel?”
That Muwolcha asked me an unexpected question.
“Some people like the magic system and detailed settings like Strawberry Latte. Others say they enjoy the political gameplay.”
“…”
“Some say the characters have distinct personalities. Others like the impactful action. Some others simply like the graphics and sound…”
Perhaps due to the slight influence of alcohol, Muwolcha noona’s cheeks were subtly flushed.
Her bob cut and business attire gave off an even more neat atmosphere under the soft lighting.
Her smiling face as she spoke seemed somehow playful.
“Ppakgyu, what makes you like Roel?”
“…”
I turned my head slightly out of politeness and took a sip of draft beer. Then I slowly answered.
“I…”
* * *
“Lost Elder can theoretically control everything.”
The memory from the past was cut off, and I returned to the present. I was still sitting on the edge of the bed, and Strawberry Latte was sitting on the floor across from me.
“That’s why I liked Roel.”
“…”
“Reality has too many variables. No matter how much you calculate and prepare, unexpected problems always pop up somewhere.”
At least within this world… I could directly choose all options, predict the flow of variables, and even bring about the results entirely with my own hands.
“Actually, events like exploring the Ruins of Rashutku or the Dawnguard auction aren’t really a problem.”
I spoke with a voice full of confidence.
Everything was flowing according to plan. A perfect scenario designed considering all variable and invariable elements.
No variable would leak outside my calculations.
“But if ‘external elements’ get involved, the story changes.”
Strawberry Latte, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
“You’re talking about other possessed ones.”
“Yeah.”
I answered briefly.
Possessed ones were too big a variable. They were beings not originally included in this world’s scenario.
The bigger problem was that they, like me, were veteran gamers.
Armed with meta knowledge about existing settings, they could make completely different choices… they were truly bundles of variables.
Could I really bring all of them to my side as completely trustworthy ‘allies’ like Strawberry Latte?
“But hyung.”
“What.”
“There’s something I don’t understand…”
Then, Strawberry Latte scratched his head and asked a question.
“Why are you so anxious about other possessed ones?”
“…?”
“Is there anyone among them who’s better at Roel than you?”
“…”
Is there?
No.
“Do they know more hidden pieces, easter eggs, glitches, or strategies than you?”
“…”
This too, no.
“But even if such players come in as latecomers, they won’t be much of a threat. By then, your specs will be much higher than theirs anyway.”
“…”
“And would there be players who’d side with the Evil Gods? Who would be crazy enough to try to drive the world to its end? There are no psychopaths among the rankers. They’d be helpful if anything, they wouldn’t do stupid things, right?”
Right.
Nothing he said was wrong.
“Even in the worst-case scenario you’re most worried about… yes. Even if the Necromancer revives a player as an Immortal and recruits them to the Evil Gods’ side, what’s the problem?”
“…”
“Even though it would be heartbreaking to kill a fellow possessed one, you have the True Eternal Slayer, right? It probably won’t happen, but if the situation reaches the worst point, you could just activate the Soul of the Sword Master, couldn’t you?”
“…”
This too was all correct.
“So what exactly are you worried about?”
“…”
Right.
What was I worried about?
“Stop worrying so much. There’s no reason to be impatient, so why do you keep getting distracted by strange things.”
“…”
“Let’s just focus on the Rashutku Ruins exploration and the auction for now. Okay?”
“…Ah.”
I let out a sigh. Somehow… my head felt hazy.
“Jeongho.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“….”
“Thanks to you, my mind feels much more at ease.”
Right.
Strawberry Latte was correct.
For now, let’s just focus on the situation right in front of us.
* * *
Three hours passed like that.
“Wait, hyung.”
“What.”
“You said to focus only on the situation right in front of us.”
“Yeah.”
“But then you go and plan out everything from killing a single mob to opening a single treasure chest in the Rashutku Ruins we’re entering tomorrow, all while keeping in mind the chain events that will happen 3 years from now, mapping out strategies down to the second, and even preparing up to Plan C like some crazy person…?”
“….”
Kid.
For me, that’s what’s ‘right in front of us.’
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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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