Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 305

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 305

Episode 305. Imperial Palace Strategy (2)

* * *

‘Living beings are governed by causality.’

There must be a cause for a result to occur. You must throw a stone into a pond for ripples to form, and you must inhale before you can exhale.

That’s why the past must exist for the present to be, and the present must exist for the future to finally open.

But….

‘…In the「Realm of the Dead」, the story is different.’

Here, ripples could form in a pond first, and a stone could fall afterward without any contradiction.

A world where results precede causes, where the future invades the past. A space where the very concept of time becomes meaningless.

Don’t understand?

Of course not.

This isn’t a realm that humans can comprehend in the first place.

How could humans, thrown into a three-dimensional world from birth, understand a trans-temporal dimension that no one has ever experienced?

─Wait, you don’t understand this?

Ah, of course.

That Strawberry Latte bastard started rattling off theories at an offline meetup to make me understand.

Something about relativity theory, curved spacetime, closed timelike curves….

‘…What is he even saying.’

Damn it.

Honestly, I didn’t understand even half of it.

No, maybe not even a tenth.

In the end, I had no choice but to raise my hands and surrender.

─Let’s just drink, Jeongho.

Whew-.

Strawberry Latte sighed as if slightly disappointed.

Then he quoted a famous line from an old movie to conclude his explanation.

─Hyung. Just don’t think, feel it.

─…?

─You’re not playing Roel to dig into scientific accuracy like me. So there’s no need to understand every principle.

─….

─Just enjoy the game as you always have. Just like how we live perfectly fine without understanding all the physical laws of the real world.

He was right.

Not knowing the principles didn’t mean I couldn’t adapt.

It was the same now.

At first, it was confusing. The mixed flow of time disrupted my senses and even twisted my sense of direction.

However.

‘…I’m gradually adapting.’

My body learned first.

Before understanding with my head, I instinctively grasped how to move through this space.

Like learning to swim underwater.

At first you flail around, but at some point you naturally cut through the current.

I began to focus my consciousness on my avatar and glide along the timeline.

‘Good.’

Swoosh-.

The first place I visited was where the「Trial of Two Paths」unfolded.

I could see the party moving along the drainage channel.

Balhwan, the Koshat Siblings, and four Relic Investigation Team members.

They had just entered the underground waterway.

“Hmm….”

Pean watched the scene beside me. He too had been following me around since losing his life to the Gravedigger and crossing over here.

“The Protagonist.”

Pean carefully spoke up.

“In our current situation, can we help them?”

Nod-.

At his words, I nodded briefly and answered.

“We might not be able to, but ‘I’ can.”

“…?”

Pean’s eyebrows twitched slightly. The limiting expression “I can” seemed to bother him.

Regardless, I continued my explanation.

“Right now we are ghosts existing in a different dimension. People in the Lower Realm cannot perceive us.”

“….”

“Similarly, we also cannot directly interfere with them. The reason we can freely pass through objects like walls is because of this.”

We exist here now while simultaneously not existing here.

A dimension that overlaps with the Lower Realm but never touches it.

That was the characteristic of the「Realm of the Dead」.

Just like relativity theory and thermodynamic laws on Earth, this world also had absolute unchanging principles.

Namely, the「Heavenly Laws」.

Of course, unlike natural laws, these were artificial rules set by the gods of the Heavenly Realm….

“Due to the Heavenly Laws, unless it’s a special case like the Ghost Prime Minister, it’s impossible for the dead to intervene in the Lower Realm.”

“…But you said The Protagonist can intervene?”

“Yes.”

The reason was simple.

“My main body is still in the Lower Realm.”

“…!”

That’s right.

I was in a superposition state, both freed from causality and bound by causality.

Dead yet alive.

A ghost yet substantial.

An existence that was contradiction itself, with two states coexisting simultaneously.

“That’s why only I can uniquely intervene in the Lower Realm.”

“….”

Pean was silent for a while.

Soon he slowly nodded and let out a small laugh.

“To summarize… I definitely cannot intervene because I’m dead, but The Protagonist can intervene because your main body is alive in the Lower Realm?”

“Yes.”

Pean seemed to have roughly grasped the situation.

“However, if I intervene too excessively in the situation, I’ll become more deeply entangled in causality.”

“…?”

“If that happens, the time when I’m expelled from the「Realm of the Dead」will also come sooner.”

That’s why I had to coordinate everything so that all strategies proceeded smoothly while making only minimal interventions.

Neither excessive nor insufficient.

Just the right amount needed.

“Then what should I do…?”

Pean asked cautiously.

I looked straight at him and answered.

“Just watch quietly.”

“…”

“That’s all you can do for now anyway.”

Pean fell silent for a moment.

Nod-.

Though he clearly wanted to say more, he eventually nodded reluctantly and stepped back.

* * *

Balhwan’s group arrived at the “Trial of Two Paths.”

Right side and left side.

Whichever they chose, the same place awaited at the end, but the trials they would face in the process were completely different.

They split into groups as I had instructed the night before.

Crack-! Clang-!

And so the trial began.

I followed the Girl in Black Robe toward the right path.

Skeleton Soldiers poured out, and the girl’s Heukya cut them down.

Fluid movements.

Her swordsmanship was indeed top-class.

‘…This should be fine.’

The right path proceeded smoothly.

Balhwan took the lead disposing of enemies, while the following members cleaned up the stragglers.

Of course, dangerous moments still occurred frequently, but each time I intervened to save the members.

Clang-!

Before long, the end of the trial came into view.

But.

At that very moment.

“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”

A scream came from somewhere.

‘…The left path.’

I immediately broke through the wall and moved to the left path to assess the situation.

“My arm…! My arm…!”

Markus Koshate’s left arm was severed below the shoulder.

And.

One of the Relic Investigation Team members beside him had collapsed with his chest pierced. He had been dead for some time.

Tsk-.

I clicked my tongue.

Even though they had followed the strategy I’d shared in the meeting, the difficulty of the trial had skyrocketed due to the continuous stacking of “Prohibitions.”

Of course, there was nothing to worry about.

Huu-.

I closed my eyes.

Then I traveled back through time.

.

.

.

Swirl-.

The scene before my eyes spread like paint, then came back into sharp focus.

The starting point of the trial.

It was the moment just before Balhwan split the group in two.

‘This time I need to move differently.’

I chose the left path instead of the right. The left path chosen by the Boy in White Robe and Markus Koshate.

And.

“Urgh…!”

This time too, I intervened whenever dangerous moments arose.

I deflected enemy trajectories and blocked fatal strikes just before they landed.

Neither the Koshat Siblings nor the Investigation Team members noticed.

They simply thought they were lucky.

That they had narrowly escaped. That they had miraculously survived.

“…?”

Only Balhwan sensed something strange and kept looking around.

And so.

“We did it! We actually did it!”

An Investigator’s cheer announced the end of the trial.

This time, everyone survived.

Markus Koshate’s arm was intact, and there were no casualties.

The only damage we sustained was a few minor scratches at most.

‘…Good.’

I nodded and exhaled.

First trial, cleared.

* * *

Whoooosh-.

Bright light filled the space.

Within that radiance, a fist-sized sphere slowly revealed itself.

A luminous, jewel-like object emanating a gentle glow.

“Th-this is…”

An Investigator’s eyes widened.

“An essence!”

One of the three keys that could break the Imperial Palace’s curse. It was the reward for the “Trial of Two Paths.”

“We did it! We really did it!”

The members embraced each other in celebration.

The result obtained after overcoming several life-threatening situations.

Their excitement was only natural.

“Um, excuse me… but…”

It was then that one member cautiously spoke up.

“…Will the other assault teams be okay? You said we need to gather all the remaining essences within 3 minutes.”

Murmur murmur-.

An anxious atmosphere spread.

Their success alone wouldn’t be enough.

The team attacking Mukyon Citadel. The team attacking the Aquarium. Everyone had to obtain their essences within the same timeframe.

If the timing was even slightly off, if they failed, all their efforts up to now would be in vain.

However.

“There’s nothing to worry about.”

Balhwan spoke calmly.

“Remember what Gaon said during yesterday’s meeting.”

“….”

“The other raid teams will adjust the pace of their trials to match ours.”

In other words.

Balhwan and his party had finished their task.

The rest was for the other raid teams to handle on their own.

‘Honestly….’

Balhwan thought to himself as he slipped his hand into his pocket.

Clink-.

His fingertips touched a small object.

The compass-shaped artifact that Gaon had handed him before starting the raid.

【The Compass of the Exalted】

‘…I don’t know how we can synchronize our raid timing with just this thing.’

Even so.

He felt no doubt.

During the raid, Balhwan had witnessed several strange phenomena. Attacks that should have definitely hit went wide. Ambushes that were impossible to avoid sliced through empty air.

It was as if invisible hands were protecting the party. Just as Gaon had said, it seemed like the heavens were blessing the raid team.

‘This world is moving according to Gaon’s will.’

Pfft-.

At such an absurd thought, Balhwan couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

However.

This surreal situation could only be explained that way.

* * *

“This is….”

Pean let out a voice filled with shock.

His gaze was still fixed on Balhwan’s party. On that unbelievable sight of them passing through the trial without a single casualty.

“…Due to Lord Gaon’s intervention, the future can be changed.”

“That’s right.”

I nodded calmly.

In the first raid, one member of the Relic Investigation Team had died, and Markus Koshate’s left arm had been severed.

However, when I went back to the past and tried again, everyone was able to survive safely in the second raid.

“Hah.”

Pean’s expression twisted into a complex grimace as he let out a hollow laugh.

Probably countless questions were swirling in his mind right now.

‘That’s understandable.’

Just because I went back to the past and chose the left path didn’t mean my actions of helping the right path disappeared.

I was on the right path, and I was also on the left path.

Two choices existed simultaneously.

In ordinary time loops, when you go back to the past, what you did then disappears. It’s like a new choice overwriting the previous choice.

Like erasing a drawing on sand and drawing it again.

‘But the “Realm of the Dead” is different.’

A completely different method from ordinary time reversal.

Here, even when you went back to the past, the previous future didn’t disappear.

Instead, two future lines overlapped and ‘superimposed’ into one.

It wasn’t about erasing the drawing on sand, but drawing a new picture over it. The two pictures overlapped to become one completed drawing.

‘But….’

I felt it clearly this time.

The more I intervened in the Trial of the Two Paths, the shorter the time I could remain in the “Realm of the Dead” became.

‘…This isn’t omnipotent either.’

I could feel the connection with my avatar gradually fading.

The sensation that had been clear at first was now distant, like looking through fog.

Confirming this, I posed a question to Yeonwoo the Feathered Sword.

‘Yeonwoo.’

[Yes.]

‘If the connection level when we first entered the “Realm of the Dead” was 100, how much is left now?’

A moment of silence passed.

Yeonwoo seemed to be carefully checking her senses.

Eventually.

[…About 30.]

Seventy percent.

I had consumed a whopping 70% of my influence on just one Trial of the Two Paths.

Only 30% remained.

That meant I had to help with the remaining two trials with just that.

But…

‘…There’s no need to worry.’

Even if the avatar traveling through time in the “Realm of the Dead” couldn’t properly exert its influence.

‘I’ll handle it myself and cover the shortfall.’

The other party members might have some anxiety factors.

Variables could arise, and they might face unexpected crises.

But the current ‘me’ was different.

He would be making the best choices I could make, even at this very moment.

‘And I guarantee….’

…Even if you searched the entire Loel World, there was no insurance as reliable as me.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————