Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Battle Attack
The broadcast ended early, at seven in the evening.
Stepping out onto the street, Mu-yeong found himself struck with decision paralysis.
The dazzling signs and alleys filled with delicious aromas.
Temptations were coming from every direction, making it hard to settle on just one thing.
'Gamja-tang, pig's trotters, kimchi stew…… Too many options is its own kind of problem.'
He'd earned some money, after all.
If he was going to eat, he wanted something expensive and delicious.
After rolling his eyes around for a while, he asked for opinions first.
"Is there anything in particular you'd like to eat?"
"As long as the Young Lord is treating, anything would make me happy!"
"Same goes for me!"
These two looked ready to lick the plate clean even if he handed them leftovers.
Mu-yeong let out a dry chuckle and scanned his surroundings.
"Why are there so many people, though?"
"It's because the end-of-work rush and dinner hour overlap, but it seems even more people have gathered due to news of a fireworks show by the Han River."
"Fireworks, huh. Is there a festival or something?"
"Yes. Would you like to head that way? The street food stalls over there are something truly special—you can only get them at events like this."
"No reason not to."
"Then allow me to lead the way."
About ten minutes of walking later.
The crowd had grown so thick it was nearly impossible to push through.
Gazing at the sea of dark heads filling his vision, Mu-yeong let out a short sigh.
Iron Blood Witch and Divine Dragon weren't ones to miss that.
They quickly moved to the front and took action.
"Hup!"
Divine Dragon put on a fierce expression and tensed his body.
Combined with his towering height of 190 centimeters and his hulking muscles, the pressure he gave off was no joke.
How many people could look at that and not step aside?
As the path began to part little by little, Divine Dragon proudly took the lead.
"This way, Young Lord."
"……Alright."
With some breathing room at last, the sights around them came into view.
Among them, what caught the eye most were the banners bearing the emblems of each sect.
"Quite bold of them, flying those things while running a stall."
"When would pride like theirs ever go away? They fly those banners and quietly compete to see whose stall does better business."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing. Competition is what drives progress."
"Quite right. And the mere presence of martial artists keeps the peace surprisingly well—something of a two-birds-one-stone situation."
Fair enough, that.
Mu-yeong changed direction and made his way toward the Daehwasan Sect's stall.
Considering how much he'd received from Yu Ye-rin, he was in the mood to give a little back.
Flap!
"Welcome! This is Hwaryong Stall, boasting the blazing heat of Daehwasan itself!"
"Ah……."
For a moment, Mu-yeong was at a loss for words.
Everything in sight was a blinding shade of red, and a sharp, stinging smell was already making his eyes water.
Iron Blood Witch sent a Transmitted Voice his way.
—It looks intense, but it actually tastes good once you try it. They've just fully bought into their own concept, the fools.
Bought in didn't quite cover it.
The food all looked like the kind that would have your stomach in revolt the next morning even if you so much as touched it to your tongue.
Still, curiosity got the better of him, and he boldly placed an order.
"I'll take this and this—three servings each."
"Three spicy flame skewers and three servings of Daehwasan tteokbokki! Coming right up!"
The food was ready quickly.
Mu-yeong speared a piece of tteokbokki with a toothpick.
Smothered in chili powder as it was, he hesitated until the very last moment before popping it into his mouth.
"……It's good."
"Ha ha ha! Every customer hesitates just like you, but they all say that in the end!"
"May I ask how long you've been in this business?"
In truth, from a vendor's perspective, Mu-yeong's manner of speaking—talking down to someone—could easily come off as rude.
But having spent most of his life in the Martial World, he could tell.
The guest standing before him was of an extraordinarily precious bloodline.
'Those bodyguards who look anything but ordinary, and that delicate face of his. This is a sure thing.'
The vendor had seen plenty of people lose their heads over a single wrong word.
Of course, things wouldn't go to that extreme here in the modern world, but there was no harm in being careful.
He kept his smile steady as he replied.
"As you might guess, I've carried on this trade since my days in the Martial World, so it's been well over twenty years."
"Impressive. Were you affiliated with the Daehwasan Sect, then?"
"More precisely, I ran my stall around the Shaanxi region. I'm not a direct disciple or anything, but in my heart, I'm Daehwasan through and through."
"Then you must know Yu Ye-rin."
"Of course I do! She's the pride of our Daehwasan—a truly remarkable person. How could I not know her!"
The vendor's voice shot up several notches.
That alone said everything about what kind of image Yu Ye-rin had.
Mu-yeong gave a small smile and swallowed the last of his tteokbokki in one go.
"It was delicious. I'll try to come by again sometime."
"Yes sir! Do take care on your way!"
Stepping outside, Mu-yeong began looking around for something.
Iron Blood Witch wasn't the type to miss what that meant.
"Young Lord, are you looking for a stall run by the Demonic Heaven Sect?"
"Do you happen to know where it is?"
"I remember the spot they used last year. Barring anything unusual, it should be in the same place."
"Let's go check."
A short while later, a tent appeared—neither particularly flashy nor plain.
The emblem of the Demonic Heaven Sect was clearly stamped on the outside.
Giving his suddenly ticklish nose a scratch, he walked in with confidence.
"Welcome! Welcome to Cheonsan's Game Corner!"
What greeted Mu-yeong was a boy who looked to be about seventeen—still not quite past the look of a child.
'Is he here alone?'
There was no one who looked like a parent.
He asked outright.
"What are you selling here?"
"We have various mini-games to play, and guests receive prizes based on the score they earn!"
"Games, huh…… Which one's the most popular?"
"Hitting targets with a BB gun is the biggest draw! Ten shots for ten thousand Won, and if you hit them all, you get a plushie and a keychain!"
So that's the one.
He turned his head and spotted an unfamiliar type of weapon mounted in place.
It looked quite blunt and heavy.
'How do you use this thing?'
It didn't look like something you'd swing.
But calling it a blunt weapon didn't quite fit either—the shape was too ambiguous for that.
As he ran his hand along the surface, Divine Dragon offered an explanation.
”This is called a gun, a modern weapon. It uses gunpowder, and its destructive power is several times greater than a bow—it's a weapon that even martial artists fear.”
“Several times greater than a bow? This thing?”
“Indeed. Even the weakest type, called a handgun, fires at a muzzle velocity of around 300 meters per second, and a standard rifle goes up to 900.”
“What?”
The speed defied his imagination, and Mu-yeong was genuinely startled.
He had assumed it might be somewhat faster than an arrow, but apparently the weakest type was already several times that.
He tried to picture it in his head, but nothing came.
“This one is a toy, of course, so it only mimics the appearance. I'll show you how it works first—just follow along after me.”
Divine Dragon paid ten thousand Won and stepped up to the gun.
He planted himself in a somewhat awkward stance, then settled into a perfect shooting position.
Mu-yeong's impression was brief.
'Strange thing.'
So the projectile comes out of that long protruding part at the front?
He didn't let a single one of Divine Dragon's movements escape his attention, and then he saw him move his finger.
Tak—a sound rang out, and something was fired.
"It's a hit!"
“Just take the same stance I did, aim at the target, and pull the trigger. Would you like to give it a try?”
“Sure.”
Divine Dragon stepped back and Mu-yeong took his place.
'Fix the shoulder here, left hand at the front, right hand gripping here, right?'
Even mirroring Divine Dragon exactly, the awkward feeling wouldn't go away.
Still, with the thought of just giving it a shot, he pulled the trigger with confidence.
"Oh! Just slightly to the left!"
Tak!
"That one's a little too far right……"
Tak!
"Just aim the tiniest bit to the left and……"
Tak!
It wasn't until the fourth attempt that he managed to hit the target plushie he'd been aiming for.
"Harder than I expected. Trying to look through this tiny circle is so frustrating."
"Everyone says that at first. But you'll get used to it the more you shoot."
"Let me fire off the rest of them, then."
The result: five hits out of ten shots.
Setting aside the one shot Divine Dragon took, that was better than a fifty percent hit rate.
Mu-yeong shook his head and stepped away from the gun.
The young vendor then handed him a headband.
"You normally wouldn't qualify for a prize, but…… you look like a first-time visitor, so take this as a souvenir!"
"Is that alright?"
"It's fine. Honestly, these are pretty much all we have left anyway……"
A brief shadow crossed the boy's face.
Mu-yeong asked.
"Was your affiliation in the Martial World with the Demonic Heaven Sect?"
"Yes. That's right."
"I've heard the debt is difficult to pay off—is it alright to give out prizes like this?"
"Honestly, I spent everything I had just to come to this festival. The booth fee……. But if I don't do at least this much, I can't earn enough to pay next month's share, so I had no choice."
Something surged up inside Mu-yeong in that instant.
'Even a child like this is working this hard, contributing to paying off a debt.'
If he didn't break this vicious cycle as soon as possible, he felt like his insides would burn away.
He clenched his fist, and a poster caught his eye.
"What's this?"
"Oh! It's a flyer for a gun game called Battle Attack. It says they're opening registration for a tournament starting three days from now."
"A tournament?"
"Yeah, it's actually one of my favorite games, but I don't have the time or the skill to compete, so I'm planning to just watch the stream."
"Is that so……"
He was intrigued.
As he read through it carefully, something made Mu-yeong's eyes light up.
[Battle Attack Seoul Server Tournament]
1st Place Prize Money: 100,000,000 Won.
2nd Place Prize Money: 30,000,000 Won.
Mu-yeong stroked his chin and curled the corner of his mouth up slightly.
'Maybe I should enter this.'
.
.
.
.
With full-dive games becoming widespread, the level of physical demand had risen considerably.
Every genre had its challenges, but the one rated the most difficult of all was, without question, FPS.
Aim—an absolute truth that had held ever since the days of keyboards and mice.
But Battle Attack wasn't a game you could dominate through shooting alone.
Movement, use of terrain, game sense—all of it was required.
It was a hyper-FPS battle royale.
A streamer named 'Yu-na' had fallen completely in love with it.
"Get that one! Low health, low health, low health!"
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
The last remaining enemy and the last remaining ally were exchanging fire in a life-or-death firefight.
Running, rolling, jumping—an absolute frenzy—but it was her teammate's HP that started dropping.
"Come on, just hit him three times! That one's seriously so tanky!"
Yu-na crawled across the ground shouting as she laid out the briefing with every ounce of desperation she had.
And yet what she was met with was a grey screen.
[Squad Eliminated]
Crash!
"Are you kidding me! I killed two of them! I'd already chipped through half their armor—how do two of you fail to finish off that one guy!!!"
—Lol lol lol lol lol lol
—If you hate it, just kill all three yourself lol
—Real talk, she could only kill two, so they lost.
"Who do you think you are!? I carried 2.5 people's worth this round!"
—We're saying carry three people's worth? Three.
—Just hit everything and dodge everything and you would've won, yeah.
—Ugh, the team luck just wasn't there.
Battle Attack runs on a system where three players form a single squad to fight.
And what does that mean?
It means no matter how well you play solo, if your teammates are bad, you lose.
"Ugh, this is exactly why I hate random matchmaking. It keeps pairing me with weird people."
—Why don't you pre-stack a team?
—She doesn't have friends.
—Putting one together is kind of a hassle.
—Probably doesn't want to be a burden since she's bad? Lol
"Hey, what did you just say?"
Under normal circumstances, she would've laughed it off as a joke.
But after about five rounds in a row of this, her anger had finally boiled over past the top of her head.
"I don't stack a team because I'm bad? Fine. Let's see how good you are then. I'm opening a room right now, get in. Let's go one-on-one."
—?
—Taking her frustration out on viewers now.
—What are you gonna do if I don't come in?
"If you don't come in, you're banned. Oh—and if you beat me, I'll apologize on the spot. I'll throw in a burger gift voucher too."
There was a reason Yu-na was this confident.
It was a while back, but she had been known as a semi-pro-level talent in another FPS title, and in Battle Attack she was sitting in Master tier—within the top one percent.
On top of that, it was a record she'd built entirely on solo queue, which everyone called the most grueling grind possible.
Taking that into account, her actual skill was clearly even higher.
"You can see the room title, right? Get in, fast."
Yu-na braced herself to deliver a lesson and waited.
A moment later, one user entered.
"What—is this you?"
Yu-na let out a disbelieving laugh.
And for good reason—the opponent was using the default look, without a single skin equipped.
On top of that, it was the starter character that came with the game by default.
Anyone could see this was a newbie among newbies, someone who had barely just started.
'So it was just someone who doesn't even play the game talking trash.'
The wind went out of her sails all at once.
She felt stupid for having gotten worked up over it.
Naturally, her anger quietly fizzled out.
Instead, a desire to mess with them filled the space it left behind.
'Actually, this could make for some decent content on Newtube. Maybe I'll play along for a bit?'
Finding herself with some unexpected entertainment, Yu-na smiled.
Then, in a playfully teasing voice, she said:
"I'll count it as your win if you chip even half my HP. Fair conditions, right?"
Before her words had even finished, the opponent hit ready.
"Alright then, let's gooo~"
The loading screen for the training grounds—the sacred ground of one-on-one—began.
At that moment, as Yu-na hummed to herself, one chat message slipped past her unnoticed.
—That's not me, though?