What It Means Not to Die
[Exiting the 3rd floor of the Mythical Tower!]
Returning to the hill, Dark stretched languidly with a refreshed expression on his face.
"Much better."
Jinhyuk stared at him silently.
Just moments ago, an unbelievable sight had unfolded before his eyes.
All that millennial glacier, sucked into a single person's body.
Swish.
Jinhyuk reached out and prodded various spots on Dark's body.
He'd half-expected Dark to turn into some kind of ice human, but for now, there didn't seem to be any noticeable changes.
Dark, a faint smile on his lips, took a few steps back.
He summoned the Eternal Cold Iron and swung it lightly from top to bottom.
And the moment the chain's end touched the ground—
Crack-crack-crack!!
A massive sheet of ice erupted upward.
Ice that instantly dropped the surrounding temperature.
This must be the chill of a millennium, he thought.
"Ah."
Then, realizing something, Jinhyuk looked down at the foot of the hill.
Even in the old town district, not all the lights had gone out yet.
Snap.
Before Jinhyuk could even ask him to release it, Dark flicked his fingers.
With a scattering sound, the ice that had swallowed the earth shattered into pieces and fell.
Rustle.
The fragments, pulverized into fine powder, drifted away into the air.
He touched his cheek, feeling the cool sensation brushing against it.
Maybe he wouldn't need air conditioning this summer.
Step.
Dark, having stowed the Eternal Cold Iron, approached Jinhyuk.
"I must express my gratitude to my master. Thanks to you, that lingering dissatisfaction has been completely wiped away."
"Dark's growth in power is the same as my own."
"You're a master who grows on me more and more. I'm looking forward to the battlefields ahead."
As Dark chuckled to himself,
Jinhyuk checked his status window.
There was still more to do.
First up: using the Blank Card - Truth.
"I was thinking of imprinting Dark's chain combat onto this Blank Card. What do you two think?"
Every time he'd climbed the tower, Jinhyuk had made a point of observing Seira and Dark's battles in his spare moments.
He wanted to absorb into his eyes how these two masters of close-quarters combat moved their bodies in every instant and what judgments they made.
Dark, wielding the long-reach Eternal Cold Iron with effortless freedom, engaging in flashy yet stylish combat.
Watching him, Jinhyuk had thought to himself:
If he could handle not just the sword, but those chains too, he'd be able to deal with just about any style of opponent.
Seira was the first to speak.
"A barbaric style of fighting with no justice, no formality, no set forms."
Just as he wondered if another argument was about to break out, Seira continued.
"But he was the toughest human I've ever had to face. Water and fire can't mix, but if mixing them were possible, nothing would be better. You'd gain all the advantages of both."
"You heard her?"
Dark, his lips curling up, slung an arm over his shoulder.
"Time to ditch that boring, yawn-inducing swordplay and go all out. I'll teach you properly."
"Wasn't it that boring, yawn-inducing stuff that took you down?"
Jinhyuk shook his head with a wry smile.
He'd wondered why things were flowing so harmoniously for once.
"I can't stop training with the sword until the day I beat Seira."
"So you're saying you'll do it forever?"
Dark's cutting remark made him grimace.
But it seemed the message had gotten across clearly: he had no intention of stopping.
"From now on, I'll train with both sword and chains in parallel."
Was it because he'd said it with such resolve?
Seira and Dark both gazed at Jinhyuk in silence.
Eyes mixed half with concern and half with anticipation.
"Master, aren't you pushing yourself too hard?"
"You're going to end up half-dead at this rate."
Jinhyuk wagged a finger at the two of them as they each tossed in their two cents.
"You're both underestimating me. I'm not the old me anymore."
To be honest, he was incredibly worried.
Sword training alone was already overwhelming, and now adding chain training on top of that?
But what could he do? He wanted to get stronger faster, that's all.
[Using Blank Card - Truth on the Immortal Dark Castro!]
[Imprinting the unique passive skill, Chain Combat, from Dark Castro!]
Light seeped from Dark's body and settled into Jinhyuk.
The movements of the chains, which he'd only ever seen with his eyes before, now permeated his mind and body.
Fortunately, Chain Combat had no beginner or intermediate stages.
'The remaining Blank Cards...'
[Using Blank Card on Seira Kinkaiton, Captain of the Black Knights! One skill that the current player can learn will be randomly imprinted!]
Ding!
[Acquiring the skill 'Najevel-Style Draw' from Seira Kinkaiton!]
Having used up all his Blank Cards, Jinhyuk smiled.
He felt certain.
Today, too, he had taken one step forward.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
The incessant barrage of notification sounds.
"Fuck this shit!!"
Jo Kang-tae slammed his keyboard down.
TowerSite was burning hotter than usual.
All because of the newly updated Honor Scroll.
It was the 30th floor, where the Ogre Raider had appeared.
The difficulty must have been at least four or five times higher than a normal 30th floor.
And yet, some runner had cleared it in just 11 minutes.
Grit.
Jo Kang-tae ground his teeth.
It wasn't just anger over the runner setting another record.
The fallout was exploding in the comments section of the post he'd uploaded earlier.
@ Couldn't catch it, so he went and did?
@ Jo Kang-tae took 40 minutes even without the raider, but the runner did it in 11 with the raider? Isn't this just proof the runner's way stronger than Jo Kang-tae?
@ It was just the flailing of some attention-seeker from the start lololol. Now that the spotlight's shifting from him to the runner, he's pissed and stirring shit.
@ All that tough-guy act, but turns out he's a total wimp.
@ Heard from a friend that the Hunter Agency even revoked that bag they promised him?
"Who the fuck is doing this again...!"
His forehead heating up, he leaned back in his chair.
Nothing was going right, from one thing to the next.
"Who the hell is this guy anyway? I wanna kill him for real."
Jo Kang-tae bit at his nails, glaring at one particular nickname in the comments.
Nickname: Basement Yeopo.
The same bastard who'd posted about the raider last time and ruined the atmosphere Jo Kang-tae had so carefully built.
And now the guy was back, spewing all sorts of mockery and abuse.
Boiling with rage, Jo Kang-tae crushed the mouse in his grip.
"This fucker... If I catch him, I'll really kill him."
And beyond that nickname, Basement Yeopo—
"Now stop staring at the soaring runner and get back to your real job of climbing the tower^^. No, add a couple of lol's at the end. That'll piss him off more."
Yun Miri grimaced at the endless demands.
"Team leader, do you have some grudge against Player Jo Kang-tae? Why are you tormenting him like this?"
"Just write it first."
Jin Yun-ho exhaled cigarette smoke into the air.
Then he scowled deeply.
This whiny little shit Jo Kang-tae—if he could, he'd track him down and beat the crap out of him.
He'd wanted to divert some of the attention focused on Yu Jinhyuk, but instead of helping, the idiot had gone and posted that crap.
Click.
Having posted the comment, Yun Miri spun her chair around.
"Team leader, you're getting better at malicious comments than me now. You should do it yourself."
At first, Jin Yun-ho had come in with this total dad-vibe energy, posting comments like some out-of-touch uncle.
When she couldn't stand it anymore, Yun Miri had stepped in to help, but thanks to his focused roasting of Jo Kang-tae, his trolling skills had sharpened to a razor's edge.
"Well, with this much, Player Jo Kang-tae should finally quit, right? He already posted that crap for no reason and ended up with zero upvotes and a ton of reports."
"That's what you get for being a prick."
"Still, it feels good. One of my colleagues in the support team used to vent all the time about wanting to tear Jo Kang-tae apart."
Yun Miri wore a relieved expression.
Truth be told, no one at the Hunter Agency liked Jo Kang-tae.
The constant whining for items was bad enough, but the way he threw tantrums about emigrating at the drop of a hat, like some spoiled brat—it was impossible to like the guy.
"Sigh."
Leaning back in his chair, Jin Yun-ho tilted his head up.
'Just fuck off already, Kang-tae.'
He wished for it from the bottom of his heart.
He wanted that shitfly Jo Kang-tae to finally buzz off from their precious runner.
And in a way that made Jin Yun-ho's wish ring hollow—
Bzzzzt-bzzzzt-bzzzzt.
Jo Kang-tae's phone, back at his place where he was fuming, began to ring.
Late into the night, on a hill in the old town district.
Thud.
Jinhyuk's body crumpled like a paper doll.
"Master, I'll head back first. Kancho says he ordered chicken."
"Yeah... bye-bye. Enjoy."
Jinhyuk waved weakly.
Seira, who had just thoroughly pummeled her master, was now heading back to the officetel for some chicken.
Rubbing his throbbing shoulder as he watched her receding figure, unceremonious as ever.
Then, a dark shadow approached Jinhyuk.
"Get up. We still have more to do."
He squeezed his eyes shut.
The bold man who had once declared they could learn together was gone.
All that remained was one pathetic, exhausted chick who wanted nothing more than to fall asleep right there.
But there was work to be done, so he forced his trembling body to rise.
"You really laid into him. She's a scary woman, that's for sure."
Dark held something out.
Two lengths of arrowroot vines, from who-knows-where.
"Wrap them around like you would my Eternal Cold Iron."
Perhaps because he'd just learned Chain Combat, it wasn't difficult.
Following his instincts, he swung his arms a couple of times, and the vines coiled neatly.
"Hoo. What an absurd talent."
Even on the first try, it felt familiar.
As Jinhyuk swung the vines this way and that, he spoke up.
"Dark. This might be a bit of a random question."
"Hm?"
"What does it feel like... not aging? Not dying?"
"Are you stalling because you don't want to train?"
"That's part of it, sure."
Jinhyuk pulled a box from his inventory.
The bizarre potion-making box, with one use left.
He'd agonized over what to make with it, but lately, he'd made up his mind.
Since he could only spin it once anyway, why not create something that didn't exist in the world?
And that's when he'd thought of the legend of Qin Shi Huang and his quest for immortality.
"Feelings, huh."
Dark let out a low hum and shrugged.
"It's been so long that I can't really feel anything about not dying anymore. It's become too natural, too numb."
"I guess that makes sense."
"But one thing's for sure. It's not all good."
Dark crossed his arms and leaned against a rock.
A strange smile played on Dark's lips.
"Watching family and friends die, living on in a world where everyone you know is gone—it's not exactly a barrel of laughs."
As far as Jinhyuk knew, it was the first time.
The first time he'd seen Dark wear that smile.
It seemed refreshingly candid, yet strangely tinged with melancholy.
Dark, who had been staring intently at Jinhyuk, finally spoke.
"Still, if it's possible, I hope you become immortal, Master."
"Why?"
Dark crooked a finger, his smile enigmatic.
"Get up. Break time's over."
"Ugh."
The immortal Dark Castro didn't say it outright.
That he hoped this bond, formed after hundreds of years, would last forever.
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T/N:
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