When the tiger dies, the jackals come out to play.
It was something Seoun had expected from the very first moment he began learning martial arts here.
Given the conflicting attributes and affinities of martial arts, he had always thought it might become impossible to learn different techniques. Accepting that, he tucked the secret manual into his subspace and brought up the map.
He studied it for a moment, then suddenly rolled aside, eyes flashing sharply.
Boom!
A pillar of red flame shot up exactly where he'd been standing a second earlier.
The mage in the gray robe, locking eyes with Seoun, took a quick measure of him and curled his lips in a sneer.
"Sharp instincts, but you're nothing special. I came to check just in case after that meteor fell, but…"
Though the mage seemed to have finished sizing him up, Seoun wasn't nearly done assessing his opponent.
Fixing his gaze on the mage, Seoun spoke.
"Why do you think that?"
"Hmph! You're lucky to still be alive, but I've seen my share of chaos. You can't even counter basic spells, and you're not as elusive as those otherworlders. At best, you're just a commoner."
For some reason, that last word—commoner—set Seoun's anger ablaze.
Whether it was the man's tone or his smug expression, Seoun couldn't tell. But in that moment, rage surged through him.
In a flash, Seoun's body shot toward the mage with terrifying speed.
The mage, however, seemed ready, lifting his staff high.
"Kirave Wall!"
A thick wall of earth erupted from the ground, cutting between them.
But Seoun vaulted up the rising wall with both feet and came crashing down over the top in an instant.
Whoosh!
"Tch!"
Waiting for him on the other side was the mage, smirking triumphantly as he backed away, another pillar of fire exploding upward.
Even as red-hot flames engulfed him, Seoun didn't feel a hint of panic.
All he could think about was twisting the neck of that arrogant bastard.
His feet hit the ground inside the inferno, and before they'd even settled, Seoun lunged forward, moving faster than before.
Flames clung to him, licking at his body, but he barely noticed the heat.
"Hup!"
The mage gasped, stabbing his staff toward the charging Seoun.
From the red crystal at the staff's tip, a torrent of scarlet fire blasted out toward him.
At that exact moment, Seoun's fist shot forward.
'Samjang First Move… Direct Strike!'
The massive energy coiled in his core surged into his arm, pouring out through his meridians in an instant.
It looked like a simple punch, but the result was anything but.
His fist tore straight through the searing fireball, shattering the mage's shield in one blow. The sheer force left the mage stunned, and before he knew it, he was spinning around and bolting away.
Even as he fled, muttering a spell under his breath, the mage only managed a few steps before coughing up blood and collapsing forward.
"Gah! W-Wait… I'll give you what you want—ugh!!"
Before he could finish, Seoun's fist caved in his chest, killing him on the spot.
"What I want… is your life."
Sure enough, the moment the man died, a rush of vital energy burst from the corpse, drawn straight into Seoun's core through his absorption technique.
"Huff… Huff…"
Pat! Pat! Pat!
Only after the mage was dead and the last of the vital energy had been absorbed did Seoun finally start beating out the flames licking his shoulders and limbs, blowing on the embers to snuff them out.
"A magic resistance ring really is a must-have in this place."
From the very first attack, when he hadn't felt much heat from the flames, he'd already suspected the mage wouldn't be too tough to handle.
However, he hadn't expected to win this easily, either.
For some reason, he felt that every surviving player must be a monster, like Namsagwang or that mage who fought him.
"Well, anyone still alive has to be strong."
By sheer strength alone, Jang Docheon would've been at the top of the list. Yet, he hadn't even cracked the top 10 before getting game-overed.
Standing outside the still-settling cloud of dust, Seoun sensed a faint presence and shook his head.
'The moment Namsagwang dies, they all come crawling out.'
When that lunatic Namsagwang had been on the hunt, the others had been so quiet, Seoun had wondered if there were even any players left. But now, with Namsagwang dead, they were suddenly on the move—and Seoun didn't like it one bit.
Feeling that this uneasy night was going to drag on, Seoun moved off without even bothering to loot.
Even as he kept on the move, he didn't forget to check the survivors list.
-7/100
.
.
.
Jin Seoun -> Jihak (kill by martial arts)
After trekking for a while, Seoun pulled a scroll from his subspace, tore it open, and shouted:
"Activate!"
At the same moment, mana began to warp and ripple outward from where he tore the scroll.
Moving swiftly, Seoun escaped the area and climbed to the top of a massive tree that had somehow remained standing.
Holding his slightly ragged breath, he peered over the ruined forest, where the dust still hadn't fully settled.
It was much clearer than before, and his visibility had improved.
It didn't take long before a shout rang out near the tree where Seoun was hiding.
—Hey! Jin Seoun! Don't run off—come play with us!
A hulking figure appeared, slinging a massive bastard sword over his shoulder, wearing armor but having stripped off his breastplate and helmet—a strange sight.
The guy strode forward, chest muscles flexing grotesquely, seemingly overconfident. Seoun had no intention of responding and simply watched.
The man had managed to home in on his direction, but Seoun's cloak, at least at night, hid him well.
"You're a dude, right? Jihak was a pretty decent mage, you know. If you're not shriveled up and useless down there, why don't you come out like a real man?"
That insult about being Jihak's underling did momentarily scramble his rationality, but Seoun was unimpressed by the guy's open provocation.
He had zero interest in engaging and drawing more attention from other prowling players.
'You idiot. Yell all you want—it only makes you a target.'
Just as Seoun expected, arrows started whistling toward the lumbering man before long.
And not just a few—it was as if several archers were firing in rapid succession.
Ping, ping, ping!
But despite his bulky frame, the man wasn't sluggish; he raised his massive bastard sword and shielded himself, blocking every single arrow.
After a moment, the rain of arrows died down.
"Jin Seoun! You think you can kill me with those puny arrows?!"
Shriek—THUD!
Just as he was about to charge where the arrows had come from, a terrifyingly fast arrow forced him to halt, and he had to raise his bastard sword like a shield again.
Even though he blocked it with the thick blade, the impact drove him back nearly two meters before he could steady himself.
'What the…?'
Seoun's eyes sharpened with curiosity.
Shriek—THUD!
Another arrow came streaking in from a completely different direction. On high alert now, the man barely managed to block it, gritting his teeth as he was shoved backward once again.
"Jurokana!! Is that you?!"
"Heh heh heh. Yeah, it's me. Never thought I'd run into you out here."
The archer stepped into view, not even bothering to nock another arrow, standing confidently before the big man.
"Damn it! I've got no business with you—I'm here to take down Jin Seoun…"
"You think you're the only one after the guy who killed Namsagwang? Heh, you didn't make a peep while that bastard was alive, and now you're suddenly trying to act like him the moment he's dead?"
"Who are you to talk? You were hiding too when that bastard was hunting players—it's the only reason you're still alive!"
"Of course. The goal of this game is survival. Fighting someone stronger than me isn't the point of the game."
"Jurok Ana, really now. Do we have to fight each other here of all places? That Jin Seoun guy must've grabbed Nam Sagwang's key items. Let's take him down and—"
"And share the loot with you? Do you think I'm stupid enough to trust the silver tongue of Koran, whose reputation is built on lies?"
The man thumped his chest, frustrated.
"You idiot! Honor and pride mean nothing here! Only stronger gear—"
Thwip! Thunk!
Before he could finish, the man with the bow fired an arrow, nocking another even as he opened his mouth.
"Do I look like a fool to you? And do I seem like the kind of man who would betray my own brother's vengeance just to shake hands with scum like you?"
Thunk, thunk, thunk!
Seoun stared, entranced by the archer's near-supernatural speed and skill.
It wasn't just the rapid firing that amazed him—the man wasn't simply shooting arrows straight at his target. Even with a hulking enemy right in front of him, he was loosing arrows at angles: to the sides, upward, all over.
Arrows that seemed to miss wildly twisted in midair, curving smoothly to strike the huge man from every direction—left, right, even from behind.
Especially terrifying were the arrows that disappeared into the dusty air, only to whip back into view and strike from blind spots. Even Seoun felt a chill watching it unfold.
What the hell… why doesn't that quiver ever run out of arrows?
The battered, old quiver didn't look like it could hold more than ten arrows, yet it kept spitting out shafts without pause.
Seoun's eyes twitched after watching for a while, finally spotting something unusual amid the fluid, lightning-fast movements: one arrow with a slightly different-colored head.
That arrow, shot high into the air, traced an impossibly sharp curve and fell precisely toward the huge man's head as he swung his bastard sword like a shield.
The moment the man blocked it—
BOOM!
The arrow exploded, releasing a shockwave of force.
The giant man tumbled to the ground, clutching his broken arm, and before he could even react, the archer was already there, bow drawn point-blank at his face.
"Farewell. Won't be long before I sever your leash in the real world too."
Thwack!
The arrow, fired from mere inches away, pierced the giant's eyeball, killing him instantly.
As soon as the massive man fell, his life force erupted outward. Seoun, from his perch in the tree, exhaled slowly, drawing it all in with focused intent.
Perched among the branches, he carefully absorbed the surging energy through his Qi technique, draining every last drop of vitality from the corpse below.
Meanwhile, the archer, rummaging through a wooden box for loot, suddenly glanced upward, sensing something off. But even with his sharp eyes, he spotted no threat lurking in the trees.
After gathering the items from the box, the archer scanned the area one last time before slipping away with a light, effortless movement.
Emerging from the shadows, Seoun watched him disappear into the distance.
"Sharp senses, that one."
He glanced down at the box the archer had searched through, then, without hesitation, darted off in the opposite direction.
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