Chapter 3
Chapter 3: A Game That Cannot Be Cleared
Mu-yeong stepped boldly into the Capsule Room, then stopped short at the sight of the interior.
Was this how a savage who had spent his whole life in the remote south would feel upon arriving in a great city?
Or perhaps the emotions of a monk tasting meat for the very first time?
If anything, it was more than that never less.
'How fascinating. To think a place like this could exist.'
He had expected to find strange things, but reality was far removed from imagination.
Strange machines, blazing with light of every color, were lined up in a long row how to describe them?
Giant ant egg sacs? Or perhaps eggs?
For Mu-yeong, who had not yet spent a full day outside of his Closed Door Training, the space was almost aggressively alien.
Just then, Divine Dragon stepped forward.
"Young Lord, please wait a moment. I shall go make the payment."
"I'll leave it to you."
While the quick-witted man went to the shop owner, Mu-yeong began to look around.
He had not gone more than a few steps before a conversation between what appeared to be friends drifted into his ears.
"You said today's your first time, right? Go do the biometric registration and get in quick. I'll be waiting in the beginner's village."
"You said this game has a tutorial won't it take long?"
"It basically just shows you this is what the game is like, so you can cruise through it. Either way, there's a boss that's impossible to beat who puts on a whole show, so the faster you die, the better."
"Got it. I'll be right there."
The two of them slipped naturally into their capsules.
The lids closed on their own with a clunk.
'So that's how you use them.'
Knowledge gained. Mu-yeong nodded and stored it precisely in his mind.
There would be no more fumbling around wondering now how does this work.
After making a full circuit of the room, he returned to find Divine Dragon at his side.
"It's spot number 27. Go in and enjoy yourself. I'll wait out front."
"I'll only be going in long enough to see how it works, so I won't be long."
"Please take as long as you like, until you're satisfied. Now then, allow me to explain how to use—"
Clunk!
Before the words were out of his mouth, Mu-yeong had already stepped into the Capsule.
The sheer naturalness of it left Divine Dragon with a look of bewilderment.
He must have expected Mu-yeong to fumble around, it being his first time.
Mu-yeong allowed himself a private smile and settled comfortably into the pod.
The interior dimmed, and the outside world disappeared entirely.
—Verifying user……
A flat, mechanical voice suddenly spoke.
Then a red light began to sweep his body from head to toe.
It was an unpleasant sensation, as though every last cell was being pried open and laid bare.
Fortunately, the process did not take long.
—Scan complete. Welcome, first-time visitor.
Guest437123.
Please select a game to play.
An enormous list materialized before Mu-yeong's eyes.
[Last Flag: 1,220,000 currently connected]
[Monster Night: 1,010,000 currently connected]
[Honor of Sword: 690,000 currently connected]
From the titles alone, he had absolutely no idea what any of them were.
The one thing he could glean was the number of users connected in real time.
As he scrolled through the list, Mu-yeong recalled what Divine Dragon had told him.
'He said I can stream gameplay from here over an Internet Broadcast, didn't he?'
To make good money, he would naturally need to play something popular.
But you can never expect a full stomach from the very first bite.
Today was strictly for one purpose and one purpose only to understand how the thing worked.
In case he made an embarrassing showing, he wanted somewhere with as few people as possible……
Swipe, swipe.
Mu-yeong scrolled through the list one after another.
The leading digits changed, the units shifted, and still he kept going.
Then, all at once, something caught his eye.
"This one appeals to me."
[Castle Defense: 350 currently connected]
Repel the enemy forces storming your castle!
Comprised of 10 stages in total, with a boss appearing in each wave.
※Warning: Difficulty is considerable.
Having read the description, Mu-yeong pressed it without a moment's hesitation.
[Please state the nickname you wish to use]
'Nickname? What's that?'
He was fairly sure the system had said something about guest437123 a moment ago so why did it need him to choose something else now?
Nothing else particularly came to mind, so he simply gave his name.
"I'll go with Mu-yeong."
—Mu-yeong. Confirmed. We hope you have a pleasant time.
In that same instant, an entirely different world unfolded before him.
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.
.
"Snap out of it! You little bastard! What are you spacing out for?!"
“Oh.”
The first thing to enter his field of vision was a man with a shaggy beard.
He looked similar to the soldiers he had seen at the palace, yet subtly different.
How to put it rougher, rawer somehow.
"This is a real war! If you don't want to die, draw that sword first!"
He shouted, face flushed red.
Mu-yeong, who had never been spoken to like this in his entire life, let out a quiet smirk.
In the Martial World, such words could warrant summary execution but there was no time to dwell on that now.
'So this is what a Virtual Reality Game is? Truly extraordinary.'
The ground trembling as though an earthquake had struck, the clash of weapons ringing out, battle cries erupting from every direction.
Every one of his five senses was vivid, exactly as if he stood on a real battlefield.
And what of his body?
From head to toe, every part of it obeyed his will perfectly.
A thrill ran through him. How on earth was something like this truly possible?
It was incomparable to the internal sword discussions he held only in his mind.
Mu-yeong drew a long breath and looked ahead.
He was standing atop the walls of a fortress.
Below, an enemy force as dense as a swarm of ants was charging forward.
Among them, some had already placed ladders and were climbing up.
'Then my objective is to hold this position.'
Child's play.
There was no one who could stop him, not when he had fully mastered the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Mu-yeong drew his sword with confidence.
Woefully inadequate compared to the sacred weapon he was used to, but still a cut above bare hands.
He immediately discovered a far greater problem, however.
'……My energy won't move?'
At that same moment, a semi-transparent window appeared before his eyes.
[The use of energy is prohibited in Castle Defense.]
‘What kind of nonsense is this?’
Did they expect him to win on physical strength alone?
Mu-yeong furrowed his brow at the unexpected restriction.
'At least the body is my own that's fortunate.'
What if he had ended up in the body of the round-bellied soldier standing next to him?
Unthinkable.
He was still shaking his head when an enemy clambered up a ladder and came into view.
The moment their eyes met, Mu-yeong swung his sword.
Schlk!
A geyser of blood erupted.
The body, now without its head, pitched off the battlements and crashed below.
Mu-yeong flicked the blood from his sword and looked down at his hand.
'It truly feels the same as cutting through a human neck.'
The sensation of flesh parting and bone shattering.
The dense, copper-heavy smell of blood soaking the ground was identical as well.
It was growing more real by the moment.
A tension he could never feel in ordinary life, and a surge of emotion that set his whole body alight.
Here, he was free to run wild to his heart's content.
Mu-yeong suppressed for ten long years began to loosen up.
"G-gack!!"
"Urghk!"
How many had he cut down by now?
The frequency with which enemies appeared at the top of the wall gradually began to taper off.
As the fighting settled into a lull, the bearded soldier from earlier came over.
He looked Mu-yeong over drenched in blood and spoke carefully.
"A-ahem……. You there. I may have said something out of turn earlier. I got a little too worked up in the moment, without thinking……."
"It's fine. More importantly what's the situation?"
"We expect them to launch their final assault now. They've been wearing us down, so they'll likely send in their true strength next their Knights."
"Knights?"
"Men who can channel mana into their blades. Warriors capable of cutting through heavy steel armor with ease."
"Cutting through steel……."
Wasn't that something anyone could do?
No with his energy sealed, not everyone could manage it.
Boom!
Just then, someone leapt powerfully off a ladder and landed before Mu-yeong.
A man bearing a greatsword nearly seven feet long, clad in full plate armor.
He had Knight written all over him.
'I wonder what kind of swordsmanship these men use? How exciting.'
Mu-yeong studied the figure with interest, looking him up and down.
The Knight, in return, regarded him with the eyes of a man looking at an insect.
"You mean to say this is what they've been struggling to break through this whole time? Utterly pathetic."
"……."
"Count it an honor to die by the hand of Gallien. You insects!"
He raised his sword high.
He charged with a rush and cut the soldier beside Mu-yeong diagonally across the body.
His movements were certainly different from those of the enemies he had faced until now.
But they were slow. Far below what he had hoped for.
"A-a Sword Expert! Everyone, form a defensive line!"
The bearded soldier regained his senses and shouted.
The soldiers rallied and raised their shields, but Gallien did not stop.
He spun his entire body in a single rotation and swung his greatsword with the gathered momentum.
"Help me!!"
"Aaaargh!"
Terror flooded the soldiers' faces.
Each of them thrust out their weapons in an attempt to resist, but it was all for nothing.
Just as another man was about to lose his life, Mu-yeong stepped in to block Gallien.
Claaang!
"I had high expectations for a Knight. I find myself disappointed."
"Wha—……what?!"
"Watching your movements, I am certain of it. Second-rate. Perhaps even below that."
"Shut your mouth! What does a common soldier think he's saying?!"
Without bothering to respond, Mu-yeong subtly twisted the force loaded into the crossing blades and Gallien lost his balance.
As the man staggered badly, Mu-yeong murmured:
"Your level is no different from common street rabble."
"How dare you—!"
Gallien rolled across the ground and reset his stance.
He breathed deeply, several times, and brought his agitation under control.
Then he began channeling mana into his sword.
Mu-yeong watched with interest then let his gaze go dim.
"One question. Among Knights, how far from the top do you stand?"
"There are countless men stronger than I am! They are being sent here even as we speak!"
"I was close to yawning at least that's some small consolation."
"What are you on about? Die!!!"
Gallien came at him with every last ounce of strength he possessed.
He swept his arm around with enough force to cut Mu-yeong cleanly in two at the waist.
But it never connected.
"A sword path without any subtle technique is no different from a child at play. Go back to the very beginning and start again."
"What do you mean—"
Gallien's eyes went wide.
He looked at his armor, shattered to pieces before he even realized it, and then crumpled to the ground.
The last thing he saw was blood pouring out in a torrent.
"If the first one is only this level……the next will probably be second-rate as well."
As though nothing had happened, Mu-yeong walked back to the battlements with a light step.
He took in the fierce battle still raging all around him, and licked his dry lips.
'I hope the next one gets here soon.'
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There was a community that barely ever saw any new posts a place where only the most entrenched veterans gathered.
The Castle Defense Gallery.
One day, a newcomer appeared in that wasteland.
[Why is this game so ridiculously hard???]
—Picked it up because the title sounded cool, but I'm already stuck on the very first boss. I'm just a regular person, and some Knight shows up out of nowhere wtf
At the appearance of a fresh face, the veterans swarmed in.
—Knight King: Gallien's chewed up another newbie lol. This game's a dumpster fire, just get out.
—EatsAndGames: They literally made it so you can't clear it lol. You know what the developer said? "Experience the helplessness of a medieval soldier." Just an absolute lunatic fr.
—LookingUpAtTheSky: The best anyone's ever done is getting a peak-level martial artist to half-health on the Stage 6 boss. On pure physical ability alone, that's honestly insane.
The newcomer fled.
And never came back.
The gallery seemed ready to settle back into peace until one post set it ablaze again.
[Yo, the rankings just updated says some person cleared Stage 6.]
—OverwhelmingDifference: Stop lying lol. There's a Knight there wrapped head to toe in aura, how the hell would anyone clear that.
—OnlyPlaysBadGames: Watched the clip, and this person is literally just a berserker. Had a hurricane going, basically a human blender.
—Grrrrrowl: I'd die from eye contact alone fr
Nobody believed it.
Which was a perfectly reasonable reaction.
Over the past three years, any number of top-tier martial artists had challenged it and come away beaten more times than could be counted.
But when a screenshot was attached, everyone rubbed their eyes.
—Knight King: Wait, how is this actually real? It's not edited, right?
—Post12: I just hopped in the game and I'm watching live it's real. But the nickname is Mu-yeong? Never heard of them. Who is this person?
—PersonalBest4thFloor: How did they even clear that lol, genuinely insane respect.
For the first time in a long while, the gallery was buzzing.
The veterans debated among themselves who was Mu-yeong, how had they pulled off the clear, and more.
Ten minutes later.
[Yo what the hell. Mu-yeong just cleared Stage 7.]
The post rate jumped ten times over.