Chapter 47: The Silent Swordsman’s Dilemma

The monsters are strong.

Their blood flows differently from humans, and their history is much deeper.

They destroy mountains and stain rivers with blood.

Monsters inherit history passed down through various bloodlines, which are vastly different from one another.

They call it transmission.

Maganon explained this to Mukeon Geomgyeok.

“Monster transmission hints at abilities that have developed in a special direction, so if you understand it, it’s always beneficial.

This is the secret of how this weak Maganon has survived.”

“Humans. Worthless.”

“Wendigo is a powerful half-beast, so even without knowing about the transmission, it’s easy for them to win against their enemies.

But against a stronger monster, they would not be able to win, right?”

Human wisdom.

Maganon, who had appeared cunning and deceitful, unexpectedly revealed this wisdom.

“If you understand the transmission, you can understand the weapons of the strong and realize their weaknesses.”

“Can you kill a monster general too?”

“At least, if you know it, your chances of winning are at least 10% higher than if you didn’t.

So, you need to remember the fastest way to understand transmission.”

Unintentionally getting involved in the ticket hunting and turning countless monsters into enemies,

Maganon now realized that without this team, there was no way for him to survive.

He decided to pass on the precious wisdom that had protected him all his life to the entire team.

“True name. Every monster’s bloodline has an ‘original’ ancestor, and there is a ‘true name’ that refers to this original.

Strong monsters who know this usually hide their true name and present a false one, but most monsters just reveal their names without much thought.”

Maganon’s gaze briefly flicked to the Boogieman behind the closet.

He had subtly mocked the monster for being thoughtless and foolish.

Being the cunning type, his petty revenge against the monster who looked down on humans went unnoticed by the Boogieman, who didn’t even twitch.

It was as if he thought the words of such a small and insignificant creature held no value or meaning.

Even Wendigo didn’t seem to have any deep realization.

Only when it came to the illegitimate prince did someone finally seem to deeply reflect on something,

and after listening, Hae Eung Eung deemed the information worth remembering.

‘True names. It would be good to know them.’

Every time she defeated a field boss or interacted with someone before a parting,

the option of ‘True Name Release’ appeared frequently in the choices presented before her.

This confirmed that in the world of Half-beasts, true names held significant power.

While the team took a brief rest during their ticket hunting, Hae Eung Eung sat uncomfortably,

curled up in the narrow, cracked wall, as she absorbed the wisdom that had been passed down to her.

Some of the information she already knew, while others were new or unknown to her,

such as the true names and transmissions of various monsters.

She also learned the tactics monsters used to deceive, as well as how to deduce hidden true names.

The life-long wisdom of one person became knowledge in her mind.

‘But I don’t need it.’

With her sword held at an angle, she sliced through the monsters blocking her path with 3–4 strikes per second,

creating a blizzard of petals as she cleared her way.

To her, the true name was a nice-to-have but ultimately an insignificant burden.

Behind her, Maganon, struggling to keep up, finally realized how useless his wisdom was.

‘Wisdom is needed for the weak to survive. For her, whether she has wisdom or not doesn’t matter.’

For someone who could cut through enemies with a single sword, it was clear that wisdom was a futile effort.

To those with overwhelming strength, wisdom was nothing more than a desperate attempt from the weak.

Just as the strong monsters overwhelmed the weak with sheer strength, so too did Hae Eung Eung disregard the value of wisdom.

‘Surely, Lady is strong too. But there’s a key difference.’

Even though his wisdom was rendered worthless in the face of powerful half-beasts and monsters,

Maganon had been humiliated by them time and time again.

Although he was confident in his ability to escape, it was never hard for the stronger ones to injure him mentally, even if they couldn’t kill him.

However, Mukeon Geomgyeok…

He never once called Maganon useless or looked down on him.

With a formal gesture, he clenched his fist with one hand and extended his other hand to cover it, performing a respectful gesture of gratitude.

‘So that’s why the prince calls the strange human woman his mother.’

In the world of Half-beasts, where human life is as insignificant as that of insects, Maganon realized for the first time how pleasant it was to be respected by others.

Despite her cold demeanor and blunt expression, she cared for others with a gentle heart.

How could he not call this kind-hearted woman his mother?

However, she could never be his mother.

The prince met her first, and the prince had called her mother first.

She was the prince’s mother, and the prince was her child.

It was too late for Maganon to intervene in their relationship.

‘What a pitiful fool. I’ve lived with insults like “cunning rat,” and now my way of thinking has become as petty as a rat’s.’

How could he dare harbor such impure, personal feelings toward the prince he followed and the benevolent lady?

Thud!

As he distractedly pondered these thoughts, he stumbled, and the prince quickly grabbed his shoulder to steady him.

“Don’t fall behind! If you get left behind, you’ll be swept away!”

Whether the prince understood the ugly thoughts inside Maganon’s heart or not, he desperately stayed by his side to ensure he didn’t fall behind.

In that moment, instead of envy, loyalty began to grow inside Maganon’s heart.

“Is it a wall? It’s too high. We’ll have to either break through the door or bypass it.”

“No. We must climb the wall and get over it.”

“Maganon?”

Normally, he could have left behind monsters or half-beasts who looked down on him to fall into traps.

If things went well, he could have shaken off the prince and become the lady’s only “child.”

But Maganon rejected all those temptations and pointed to the eye at the side of the wall.

“That’s a wall monster. Its true name is Nurikabe.

If you go around it, the length of the wall stretches infinitely, and it’s impossible to pass through.”

A monster with an unreasonable rule that defies physical laws, Nurikabe was a powerful being, able to deceive the world and reshape itself according to its own form.

It was clear that this monster was among the strongest.

“Does the door even serve as an entrance?”

“Nurikabe doesn’t have a door. So, strictly speaking, this monster is a hybrid, a mix of a monster and another monster’s blood.”

“We don’t have time.”

Even Hae Eung Eung, facing the endless, vast wall, didn’t blindly swing her sword.

Instead, she listened to Maganon’s explanation and stopped.

To escape the monsters closing in behind them, their only hope lay in Maganon’s wisdom.

“Even Nurikabe, with its wall and infinite properties, cannot extend its ‘door’ infinitely.

We need to target the wall around the central door.”

The target was set.

The area around the door in the center of the wall.

To attack this, they had to overcome one final obstacle.

Two monsters guarding the door: one with the head of a horse and the other with a bull’s head.

Maganon recognized them immediately.

“They are Madu and Udu, monsters guarding the hell gate.

According to legend, these two have binding ropes that can capture anyone, so we must never be caught!”

Just as Wendigo, relying only on physical strength, was about to rush ahead recklessly, the prince urgently stopped him.

With Wendigo’s brute force, it was easy to predict that he would be quickly captured by the binding ropes.

“Mother, it’s dangerous!”

If anyone could clear the way, it had to be him.

As Hae Eung Eung tried to clear the path while avoiding the binding ropes,

a closet that had been floating aimlessly behind them suddenly opened the door wide and stretched out ten hands, each over 30 meters long.

The hands swiftly grabbed the binding ropes.

When the two monsters tried to tie them up with the ropes, the black arms grabbed the ropes with tremendous strength, pulling them into the door.

Without a scream, the monsters were pulled into the darkness of the closet.

“Don’t hesitate over insignificant pests.”

“…”

Although his words were all unpleasant, it was undeniable that, compared to their first meeting, his attitude had become much more amicable.

“Wendigo, it’s your turn now!” Well done!

“Woooaaaah!”

With a barbaric scream, Wendigo charged forward, using the explosive strength from his massive body to smash through the wall around the door with a single strike.

“To think the wall of Nurikabe, which has stood for five hundred years, is shattered. That monster must have been a veteran from the First Demon War!” Oh my God!

“The prince’s gladiators are no ordinary fighters. This can’t be withstood.”

As word spread that the wall of Nurikabe had been breached, the elite soldiers who had been pouring in started retreating, their morale plummeting.

“New gladiators are entering the arena for the 32nd round! To everyone’s surprise, the gladiator leader is none other than the bastard prince, born of the Demon King’s bloodline!”

The Silent Swordsman broke through the entire siege, entering the arena with a frontal assault.

Yi Haechan let out a bitter laugh.

“His swordsmanship has changed again.”

Catching up to the Silent Swordsman.

Since joining that bizarre content, Yi Haechan hadn’t let on in front of his viewers, but privately, he had harbored a personal desire to catch up to the Silent Swordsman’s swordsmanship.

In terms of pure swordsmanship, Yi Haechan had always prided himself on being the best among current streamers, ranking number one with confidence as Korea’s strongest swordsman, so he was particularly interested in the Silent Swordsman’s techniques.

“The Hill of Corpses. Blood Droplet Slaughter. Melting Great Forest. Spirit Tree Slash. Every time, he uses a different sword technique, but every one of them is at an elite level.”

“Hyung, is it really that amazing?”

“Pathetic. No matter how many times you edit a video, what’s the point? If you don’t have the eye for it, you’ll never get better.”

“Well, I did get your video a million views.”

“What’s the point of having the eye for it if you don’t get a million views first?”

The two of them, Yi Haechan and his video editor, were close friends outside of work and often drank and hung out at Yi Haechan’s house.

Due to their line of work, they drank, had fun, and casually watched videos of other streamers, but the Silent Swordsman’s streams were always their number one priority.

Now, however, that fact had become rather frustrating.

“Sure, the Silent Swordsman is impressive, but he only fought the trash mobs. That closet monster and beast monster are probably stronger, right? Looks like he got a free ride.”

“You fool. The Silent Swordsman cuts through those mobs like they’re nothing, but each of those monsters is elite.”

Sigh.

“Really?”

“They’re way stronger than those so-called special troops. The bloodline they come from looks stronger than those of the special monsters too.”

“Oh, is that so?”

The editor, not particularly interested, shrugged it off, but Yi Haechan, having played through the Half-Beast world himself, knew better.

‘The swordsmanship he’s mastered is on a whole other level. Without that, such one-sided slaughter would be impossible.’

Just like a boxer who forces in six punches per second into an opponent’s body, the Silent Swordsman’s sword techniques flowed seamlessly, with no pauses between moves. His sword never got stuck in the bones of strange monsters, and wherever his blade passed, a storm of blood was left in its wake.

Such fluid and rapid strikes could not be achieved without years of relentless practice.

That was why it frustrated him.

He had already seen four different sword techniques, and for someone like Yi Haechan, each of those techniques would require at least five years of training to master.

But just counting what he had seen so far, the Silent Swordsman had proven an achievement in real combat that equaled Yi Haechan’s twenty years of training.

“Why would someone master four different sword techniques when just sticking to one would be more than enough?”

“What’s the point of knowing?”

“Well…”

“Why? You want to fight him?”

“Ah, I knew it. That’s why I don’t like smart guys.”

The Silent Swordsman’s twenty years of mastery were impressive, there was no denying that.

But if the depth of his techniques was spread thin across four different styles, wouldn’t it be possible for someone like Yi Haechan, who had focused on just one, to overcome him?

“Just throw down the challenge if you want to fight that badly.”

“You crazy bastard, that’s something you do with people you’re actually close to. Who goes up to someone they’ve never met and just does that?”

“Then what should we do? Want me to make a promise like Speedmaster? Let’s fight after Half-Beast ends.”

“Are you out of your mind? After this stream ends, I’ll probably disappear for more than half a year, so forget it. I’m not waiting.”

The team that submitted tickets to the arena ended up being only four, and as it turned out, the other teams that weren’t the Silent Swordsman’s started to dwindle as well, narrowing it down to the final four.

As the arena competition began to heat up, Yi Haechan felt a tingling sensation in his hands.

“This won’t do. From what I can tell, this guy doesn’t even check his email.”

“You classify types based on women too… Ah, I get it. Let’s talk after you put down that chicken bone, okay?”

“Did you check the post about the Silent Swordsman cosplayer appearing in Myeongho-dong?”

The editor tapped his screenphone with one hand and pulled up the information.

“I checked, and the match rate is pretty high. Facial recognition said there’s a 99% chance it’s really them.”

“We’ll be focusing on our streams for now.”

“Are you going there in person?”

“Well, there are a lot of outdoor content I need to catch up on anyway. Might as well do it all in Myeongho-dong and, if we’re lucky, run into them.”

“Run into them?”

“We’ll have to do some digging first. They look like an awakened one. I’ll also stop by Myeongho Guild and ask around.”

As the speed of chat scrolling in the Silent Swordsman’s stream increased, Yi Haechan’s heart began to race.

If he could actually face off with the legendary Silent Swordsman and win…

How thrilling and exciting that would be!

“That’ll have to wait until after the stream ends.”

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

Given the Silent Swordsman’s usual streaming pattern, where each field was cleared in one broadcast, the end of the stream was probably going to be after the field boss was defeated. But he didn’t even know what that field boss looked like.

[New VTube BJ]

[The Silent Swordsman has started streaming.]

– Half-Beast (Similar Style)

[Playtime: 64:13:02]

[Streaming Time: 62:07:55]

On the 62nd hour of the broadcast, the extreme content enthusiast, the Silent Swordsman, seemed determined to fulfill her three-day, 72-hour marathon stream.