Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 302

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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 302

Episode 302. The Fourth Night (3)

* * *

“….”

Even after Gaon finished speaking, Pean couldn’t say anything for a long while.

His mind went completely blank.

It felt like someone had struck him hard on the back of the head.

He had clearly heard what the other person said, but he needed time to accept its meaning.

‘To save the dead, he’s going to follow them in death?’

What on earth could this mean?

Pean had sworn absolute loyalty to Gaon.

That’s why he followed his words to the letter. Even when he couldn’t understand them.

However….

This was the first time a statement was so incomprehensible.

“Just what….”

Pean muttered in a trembling voice.

“Just what… why do you always go this far…?”

He had lived for thousands of years.

During that long time, he had seen countless heroes and watched the actions of numerous strong individuals.

But someone like Gaon was a first.

Unfolding such a salvation plan while not hesitating to face his own death?

“Pean.”

Gaon’s voice broke the silence.

It was the same coldly calm tone as always.

“Outside the door, a Gravedigger will be waiting.”

“…Gravedigger?”

“That’s the name of the monster that was chasing us.”

Gaon continued while staring at the tightly closed door.

“The moment I disappear.”

He paused briefly and looked straight at Pean.

“Go outside that door and let the Gravedigger kill you.”

“…What?”

A bewildered question escaped from Pean’s lips.

He couldn’t help but doubt his ears.

To die?

To the Gravedigger?

“There’s no time to explain.”

But Gaon didn’t add any further explanation.

His unwavering voice was filled with certainty as always.

“Trust and follow my words this time too.”

“….”

“When the time comes, you’ll understand the meaning of it all.”

* * *

‘Sigh.’

If I could, I wanted to explain everything to Pean.

But I couldn’t bring myself to do so.

To properly make him understand my plan, I would need to reveal everything about the game’s system and the design intentions behind its rules.

Unlike fellow Possessed Ones like Muwolcha or Strawberry Latte, this was structurally impossible to explain to Pean, who was a native of this world.

Moreover….

‘…There’s no time.’

What I had to do next was extremely dangerous.

Even after conquering Rashutku Imperial Palace dozens of times, I had only succeeded with this route once.

And even that was when all conditions aligned perfectly.

‘Not only is the control difficulty extreme, but the mechanic itself is the worst.’

That’s why my mind had to keep working without rest.

Timing, variables, backup plans in case of failure. I had to keep checking and rechecking the plan until the very last moment.

In such circumstances, there was no luxury of time to give Pean detailed explanations.

‘But….’

Suddenly, one question crossed my mind.

Why was I trying to shoulder such risks?

Honestly.

If this playthrough had been a game, even if Pean had been banished, I wouldn’t have gone to save him.

According to the original flow, Pean should have died when he met the Abyss Corrupted One.

As I’ve mentioned several times, the ‘disaster’ that prevented him from appearing in the latter half was precisely because of the Corrupted One.

In other words, the latter part of the game could flow sufficiently without Pean. It would be convenient to have him, but he wasn’t absolutely necessary.

‘Even right now with Rashutku Imperial Palace, I can clear Mukgyeon Lord by myself.’

Therefore….

Throwing myself into an extremely difficult challenge that I had only succeeded at once in 200 playthroughs, just to save Pean, was an absurd choice.

No matter how much this was a world where high risk, high return applied, there had to be some limit, right?

However.

‘…This isn’t a game.’

Right.

If it had been a game, I would have abandoned Pean. ‘If’ it had been a game.

But now that it had become reality.

People couldn’t always act calculatingly and coldly.

‘Let’s admit it.’

The reason I liked Roel was simple.

Because only within it could I have the illusion that I held the initiative.

Because I felt a sense of control in the process of calculating all variables, designing optimal routes, and executing them perfectly.

But that was just a means.

Control and obsession were ultimately just tools to achieve a purpose.

‘Then what was my real purpose?’

It’s simple.

To safely protect myself and the people around me.

The reason I tried to calculate and control everything was because I believed that was the only way to avoid losing precious things.

Therefore.

If protecting the means and protecting the purpose came into conflict….

‘The answer is already decided.’

To save the lives of those close to me.

To protect the very source that gave birth to this tendency in the first place.

I would gladly abandon such means and leap into danger.

Even a hundred times over.

* * *

Time passed quickly.

Before I knew it, nearly an hour had passed since entering the ‘Room of Necessity’.

With my eyes closed, I continued to mentally rehearse what I needed to do next. It was something I’d been doing since before Rashutku’s night began, but there was no harm in being thorough.

’10, 9, 8, 7….’

Even while doing image training, I counted the seconds relentlessly in my head.

Now, gradually.

The time for the mirror curse to activate was approaching.

[If you are smiling, please commit suicide within one hour. That would be the least painful choice.]

The rule warns.

That suicide would be better.

As a player, I naturally couldn’t help but be curious about this passage.

‘Why?’

Since it all leads to death anyway, what could be more terrible than suicide?

Roel’s world was originally a game. This rule was also designed with gameplay in mind.

In a game, no matter how painfully a player dies, the outcome is the same whether it’s suicide or being killed.

Then….

‘It means there’s something special about the death that comes from looking in the mirror.’

The hint for this was in the fourteenth rule.

[Please pray for their souls. Even when morning comes, do not try to find them. Not finding them would be better for you.]

Praying for souls.

This meant that the banished ones die.

But what was interesting was what came next.

‘Don’t look for them.’

If they had died normally, the corpse would have remained there on the spot.

There would be no reason to leave a warning not to look for them.

‘It means the corpses disappear somewhere.’

Moreover….

‘The fact that it’s better not to find them also means, in other words, that they could be found.’

At the same time.

It was also a hint that terrible things would happen if they were discovered.

‘In other words.’

To summarize, it was like this.

Corpses that died due to the Imperial Palace’s curse move somewhere.

That ‘somewhere’ was an accessible place, but a space so horrific that the living should not discover it.

‘6, 5, 4….’

Therefore.

What I needed to do now was simple.

‘3, 2, 1….’

Die from the curse and move to that place.

Of course, if my main body died directly, everything would be over.

‘Now.’

…I planned to send an avatar, not myself, to ‘that place’.

Ding-!

〔Authority Skill: 【Avatar Manifestation】 has been used.〕

Whoooosh-!

The moment my soul separated from my body, my main body switched to an “Untargetable” state.

A state that escapes all system targeting. An authority that makes it impossible for anything—curses, attacks, or anything else—to designate me.

And in the very next instant.

The mirror curse activated.

Kwaaaaang-!

Black energy began swirling and devouring the avatar.

Like an abyss pulling in its prey, the avatar’s form was rapidly sucked into the darkness.

Whoooook-!

And so.

My avatar disappeared.

It had moved to the space that the Imperial Palace’s curse only permitted to the dead.

〔Sword Energy: 25/30〕

However.

The connection with the avatar was still maintained.

With all senses, including the five senses, remaining uncut.

‘Normally, sword energy should be depleted per second while maintaining an avatar, but….’

Right now, the consumption value wasn’t being applied.

Considering the characteristics of ‘that place’ where the avatar was, it was natural.

‘Phew.’

Swoosh-.

I floated up in the Room of Necessity while in an untargetable state.

At the same time, I began peering into the space beyond through the avatar’s senses.

‘Good.’

Everything was going smoothly.

‘Now….’

…it was time to begin the next plan in earnest.

* * *

[Kongiabum]: Ppakgyu, it’s me.

[Kongiabum]: Thanks to you, I succeeded in advancing the Feather Sword Jinmyeong Geopbang.

[Kongiabum]: I acquired Avatar Manifestation and entered the Ruined Imperial Palace of Rashutku.

[The Protagonist]: Congratulations.

[The Protagonist]: So did you successfully break through the doppelganger?

[Kongiabum]: That’s not what’s important.

[Kongiabum]: I discovered something even cooler.

[The Protagonist]: ?

[Kongiabum]: You know about the strange sounds heard in the corridor on the first night, right?

[Kongiabum]: The voice knocking on doors and crying for help.

[The Protagonist]: That’s one of the representative anomalous phenomena.

[The Protagonist]: You just ignore it and pass by, right?

[Kongiabum]: No no no no no

[Kongiabum]: When the forced expulsion rule activated, an NPC who got kicked out to the corridor with me shouted the exact same lines.

[Kongiabum]: It was the completely identical script to what I heard on the first day.

[The Protagonist]: ?

[Kongiabum]: Did you watch the InterX-tellar movie?

[Kongiabum]: You know that “Stay” meme from it, right?

[The Protagonist]: I know it.

[Kongiabum]: The protagonist enters a 5-dimensional space inside a black hole. The scene where he freely travels back and forth between past and future.

[Kongiabum]: I think dying in Rashutku Imperial Palace puts you in that kind of state.

[Kongiabum]: Hurry hurry, I’m bringing Strawberry Latte too

Ding-!

〔’Kongiabum’ has invited ‘Strawberry Latte’ to the chat room.〕

.

.

.

[Kongiabum]: Is this scientifically possible? You’re good with this kind of stuff.

[Strawberry Latte]: Interesting lol

[Strawberry Latte]: Real-world physics can’t explain it… but the logic works if we assume the in-game setting.

[Strawberry Latte]: You know relativity theory, right? Time and space aren’t separate but woven together as one structure called ‘spacetime’.

[Strawberry Latte]: We can move freely in spatial directions within that spacetime, but time direction is only one-way traffic.

[Strawberry Latte]: Because players are governed by causality. Since there must be a cause for an effect to occur, time can only flow from past to future.

[The Protagonist]: So?

[Strawberry Latte]: But ‘ghosts’ in the Loel World are quite special. They exist in a completely different dimension from us.

[The Protagonist]: What are you talking about.

[Strawberry Latte]: We’re subordinate to causality so we can only travel time one-way. But ghosts are considered immaterial beings that ignore physical laws, right?

[Strawberry Latte]: Just like we can’t perceive up and down if we’re drawings on a flat surface, ghosts are beings with spacetime perception one dimension higher than ours.

[The Protagonist]: So.

[The Protagonist]: Ghosts can freely travel back and forth through time?

[Strawberry Latte]: No no no

[Strawberry Latte]: Rather than freely ‘traveling back and forth’, time is just another direction they can move in.

[Strawberry Latte]: If the flow of time is one-way traffic forced by causality for us, for ghosts it’s just one of the coordinates.

[Strawberry Latte]: This also explains hearing the NPC’s voice. For ghosts, the first day and the fourth day are just ‘different positions’.

[The Protagonist]: OK

[The Protagonist]: I roughly understand.

[The Protagonist]: But did the game developers really think this far when making it?

[Strawberry Latte]: Who knows?

[Strawberry Latte]: Whether intended or not, it works within the game’s setting.

[Strawberry Latte]: The Ghost Prime Minister said he’s been bound to the palace for thousands of years, right? It could mean he’s spatially bound to the palace but temporally free.

[Strawberry Latte]: Actually, if we assume only time coordinates move separately, you should become lost in space every time you go to the past due to orbital velocity… but if the palace’s curse binds the entire spacetime coordinate system together, it makes sense.

[Strawberry Latte]: This would also explain why the forcibly expelled NPC’s lines were heard on the first day.

[Kongiabum]: Now.

[Kongiabum]: My turn again.

[Kongiabum]: To summarize Strawberry Latte’s words in one sentence…

[Kongiabum]: Those who died from the palace’s curse can freely traverse past and future.

[The Protagonist]: Ah.

[The Protagonist]: Don’t tell me.

[Kongiabum]: Let’s connect this well with Avatars.

[Kongiabum]: If you deliberately get cursed, then use Avatars at the right timing?

[Kongiabum]: The main body stays in the present.

[Kongiabum]: And the avatar can freely operate across the timeline, right?

[The Protagonist]: No way.

[The Protagonist]: Did you succeed with that?

[Kongiabum]: Yeah

[Kongiabum]: The control is insanely difficult, but it does work.

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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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