Sol Squad. Invincible Epic Monster.
–Kuwaaaah.
As a vicious sound rang out, Seowoon grimaced, dodging the spread of a black net.
–Shhk!
"Damn it!"
Jinryung slashed with his sword energy to tear the net apart, but the black web, like a shadow, quickly reconnected.
"We have to move beyond its range! Conserve your energy!"
At Seowoon’s shout, Jinryung pulled back, but arrows rained toward them, forcing the pair to move again.
Dodging and deflecting as they retreated, the two exchanged glances—then suddenly turned and bolted in full flight.
After running a long distance and shaking all pursuit, they quickly brought up the map.
"This is already the third ambush today. I think..."
When Seowoon trailed off, Jinryung finished the thought.
"They’re tracking us."
"Yes. Judging by their tattoos, it must be a guild."
"I heard it’s a recently added system. But how many are there? In the waiting room, there were barely 30 or 40 of them."
"They probably kept their numbers hidden during the staging phase. Judging by their tactics, they might easily be over a hundred. I noticed several with identical tattoos on their hands and necks."
"This isn’t sustainable... It feels like the noose is tightening. Not quite Heaven’s Net, but still..."
"In that case, we’ll have to take a risk and stick close to the zone boundary. With their numbers, I doubt they’ll abandon the encirclent just to catch the two of us."
For the past several days, the two had avoided direct confrontation, scavenging from scattered, low-risk farming spots—a thod known as "scrap-farming."
The pursuit began only after they took down a four-man ambush squad.
Recalling that with so regret, Jinryung looked uneasy at Seowoon’s plan.
"If we head straight for the backfield, it’s a two-day sprint. But if we run into an enemy squad on the way..."
"Better that than getting cornered and beaten to death. If we keep getting pinched and cornered like this, we’ll run out of options. We need to kill the rear angle, hug the zone wall, and wait for an opening."
"...That’s tough."
"It’s not complicated. We just need to play to our strengths. We’re more mobile than a squad. If we move a lot and keep scouting, we’ll find a chance. We’ve already entered the safe zone, after all."
Nodding, Jinryung pulled a small bottle from subspace and handed Seowoon a brown pellet no larger than a fingernail.
"I’m fine. You take it, just in case."
The Blue Dragon Pill—an item that rapidly restored internal energy—was rare. For soone like Seowoon, taking ten could fill two ridian cores even without ditation.
It was lucky they managed to acquire a bottle containing just ten of them.
"Let’s go."
As Seowoon popped one into his mouth and took off, Jinryung closely followed.
Heading directly toward the reverse field from their current location was a high-stakes gamble.
But Seowoon believed it was a risk worth taking.
At this point, both the hunted boss monster and the untouched buff monster were located near the reverse field center.
’It’s about ti the buff mob gets taken down. But I bet things are still tense around it.’
With players swarming in competition for the buff monster, the ones lingering near the back of the reverse field were unlikely to be elites.
During the half-day sprint, Jinryung consud two more Blue Dragon Pills.
–Let’s rest for a bit.
Exerting so much internal energy on lightfoot technique for half a day was exhausting even for Jinryung.
It wasn’t hard to pace oneself when managing energy, but running at full power like this wasn’t easy.
Seowoon, also feeling the drain, nodded.
–You ditate first. I’ll stand watch.
As the sun began to set, he handed Jinryung an invisibility cloak and leapt into a nearby tree.
With the cloak wrapped around him, Jinryung sat down and began ditating.
Bringing Jinryung into his core squad under the pretense of coordination—since they were from different teams—had turned out to be a smart move.
’It was justified and natural.’
Jinryung had both competence and reliability—he lacked nothing.
It wasn’t easy to treat soone as a permanent squadmate after just one ga session, but with Jinryung, the bond of the sa martial lineage made it different.
Just under an hour into Jinryung’s ditation, Seowoon called out to him.
–Senior brother! Enemy contact!
With a war arrow nocked on his reflex bow, Seowoon called down. Jinryung quickly wrapped up his ditation and asked calmly:
–Direction?
–Between 140 and 150.
Having set their compass based on due east as zero and dividing it in tens, Jinryung was used to the system and instantly turned toward the indicated angle.
–Distance: a little over 500 paces. I think I’ve been spotted, so I’ll move first. Until we’re sure how many there are...
–Got it.
Thus began their bait-and-stalk strategy: Jinryung slowly approached under stealth, while Seowoon deliberately revealed himself to draw attention.
As Seowoon turned and bolted the way they’d co, hidden enemies erged and chased after him.
–Three chasing, five holding back.
The eight enemies had split into 3 and 5, assigning roles between pursuit and backup.
As the three players chased Seowoon, they happened to pass right by Jinryung’s hiding spot—and stopped.
–Looks like they’re not going to pursue any further.
Of course not. Chasing too far and splitting from the main group was risky for any team down to less than half-squad size. They wouldn’t risk getting wiped.
Hearing the update, Seowoon stopped and drew his bow again.
–I’ll try to pull them in further.
–It’s eight against two. Wouldn’t it be better to just let them pass?
–If I can take out those three martial players up front quickly, they shouldn’t be too much trouble.
Even before he finished speaking, Seowoon released the arrow. It smashed the shield of the dagger-wielding martial artist in the lead.
–Clang!
The startled warrior flinched and ducked behind a teammate, raising another shield.
As they regrouped and discussed their next move, Seowoon loosed another arrow—this ti a lightning-charged one pulled from subspace.
–Zzzzzk!
The electric shockwave disabled all their shields and barriers in an instant.
With their defenses down, the three martial players and the backup five rushed forward.
Normally, against such provocations, players would retreat or counter from range—but these enemies fell for the bait too easily.
As the five-man main force neared Jinryung’s location, Seowoon launched an ice lance and another arrow in staggered timing.
–Hit them the mont you have their backs!
Already gripping his Hamite, Jinryung used Ghost Step Illusion to elongate his form, charging head-on toward the three enemy players.
The mont Ice Lance disabled the new barriers and shields of the three martial players, an arrow followed and pierced one of their shoulders.
–Fwoosh!
Flas erupted from the point of impact, engulfing the martial artist in an instant.
When Seowoon’s illusion clones increased to twelve, the faces of the remaining two martial players twisted with frustration.
–Boom! Whooooosh!
Fire magic, amplified by wind magic, exploded as it flew toward Seowoon, and a mighty wind hamr followed, striking him and wiping out his clones one by one.
As the mages of the enemy squad prepared new spells, waves of mana surged outward, and all eight enemies’ attention locked onto Seowoon.
That was when Jinryung, having tucked his invisibility cloak into subspace, appeared behind them and swung his sword.
"Guhk!!"
It took only a mont—three mages collapsed, the backs of their heads split open.
One mage, slightly ahead of the others, survived the initial strike with a lighter wound and let out a feeble death cry.
With their mages gone in an instant, the two knights who had been guarding their front turned to charge at Jinryung a mont too late.
–Clang!
It didn’t take long for the two-man Jinryung and three-man Seowoon squads to clean up the enemies.
***
"Knew it! Surprise Assault FTW!"
Kichan shouted, pumping his fist triumphantly as a crowd of 30 players behind him cheered in unison.
"Sending Jinryung out solo really was the best decision!"
The female player who had invited Juriel nodded in satisfaction, echoed by Lilingwi.
"No wonder they call him the Prodigy of Yookok. A true disciple of an Immortal, indeed."
All the martial artists present nodded in agreent.
Regardless of faction, everyone here was now rooting for Jinryung and Seowoon.
Behind the group, quite a few more martial artists stood, quietly watching the duo’s battle.
So of them had previously lost to Seowoon.
Now safely within the survival zone, they watched for two reasons: so wanted to observe a future threat, while others were curious about the fad Prodigy of Yookok’s skills.
Juriel wanted nothing more than to drive them off—but inside the lobby, there were no rules against spectating other teams.
As the players watched Seowoon and Jinryung swiftly finish off eight enemies, a shout from one corner drew everyone’s attention.
"What the hell?! That can’t be real!"
The player yelling was staring wide-eyed at the screen, unable to tear his eyes away.
Curious spectators began gathering around.
Monts later, as even more players joined and began shouting, a crowd ford like a cloud around the scene.
Kichan, Juriel, and their group were among them.
"No way..."
"That... That’s not possible."
"Is that even allowed in this ga?!"
Martial artists murmured in disbelief, the buzz of shock growing louder.
****
A grotesque stone, vaguely shaped like a human, was wrapped in black cloth and covered in unknown white runes.
Around it, 20 players gathered, their expressions lighting up.
Then soone slashed the cloth with a sword.
As the cloth split, the tightly bound fabric unraveled and dropped to the floor.
Cracks ford in the revealed white stone, and a piercing blue light spilled out.
As the radiant, human-shaped being erged from its shell, the squad—including the Sword Emperor—unleashed their attacks all at once.
And in less than a minute, they were annihilated.
It was an overwhelming force that completely ignored any notion of ga balance.
The mont the squad was wiped out without landing a single aningful hit, surviving players received a flood of alerts:
[Ding! Epic Monster "Forsaken Wonyoungshin" has been unsealed.]
[Ding! Epic Monster "Wonyoungshin" has slain the entire Oliver Kalitz Squad of twenty players.]
***
While Seowoon absorbed the life force of the fallen enemies to refill his core, Jinryung rifled through boxes for loot. Their eyes t.
At the sound of the notification, Jinryung tilted his head in confusion.
"How long has it been since the seal broke—and already twenty people are dead?"
Seowoon’s face hardened. He didn’t answer, instead activating the map.
There it was—in the very center of the zone marked Forgotten Ascension Grounds of the Immortal—the area now marked as the domain of an Epic Monster.
While he scanned the map anxiously, another ominous notification rang out—just as he had feared:
[Wonyoungshin’s resurrection is complete. The ga will now enter Phase 2.]
The only silver lining: the zone wasn’t shrinking like last ti.
The real problem was that Wonyoungshin’s domain was now roaming steadily across the map.
"Senior brother... W-Wonyoungshin—is that the Wonyoungshin...?"
"The one said to have beco an immortal by transforming enlightennt into celestial qi? That’s him."
"..."
Even Seowoon, usually quick to process and decide, needed a mont to collect his thoughts.
Finally, he spoke.
"Do you think a human could beat Wonyoungshin?"
"I’ve never seen him in person, so I can’t say for sure. But I doubt it’s within the realm of human ability."
"Right? Even soone like Namsagwang couldn’t beat him, right?"
"Even if you filled an entire squad with players like Namsagwang, I don’t think they’d stand a chance."
As they talked, the system continued delivering updates—Wonyoungshin was still hunting down players.
"Is this going to be a Lee Bong-joo ta now...?"
(Lee Bong-joo ta: A term from survival gas aning endless running without mounts, nad after a famous Korean marathoner.)
The thought crossed Seowoon’s mind—this would beco a ga where whoever managed to avoid Wonyoungshin until the end would win.
"A... what ta? I don’t get the reference."
"Ah... just ans the ga might end with us running non-stop."
"Not bad for us, really."
"Maybe. Depends on whether this twist helps or hurts us. Either way, we need to find a way to use it..."
As he spoke, Seowoon’s eyes glead.
"Senior brother! Maybe... maybe it’s better if we go toward Wonyoungshin!"
At that, Jinryung’s eyes widened as if to say—Are you insane?
[T/L: Read extra Chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : sko-fi/pokemon1920 ]
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