Chapter 60: The Silent Storm

No Room for Denial

[Citizens, this is the Disaster Management Agency’s Myungwol-2 District Alarm Control Center.]

[A monster aerial assault alert has been issued.]

[At the current time, due to the outburst of the Myungwol-2 District Gate 313, a large number of monsters are respawning on the surface.]

[When this alarm sounds, immediately stop what you are doing and take shelter in the nearest underground bunker or indoor space.]

The announcer’s urgent voice echoed through the air.

Fortunately, as it was the middle of the night, there were hardly any pedestrians on the streets.

“What should we do now?”

“Do we keep defending the outer wall?”

The guard captain gritted his teeth.

“Damn it. I knew this would happen when they kept dragging their feet on tackling the gate.”

” Effective immediately, I authorize the use of live ammunition and heavy artillery.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Teams 1 and 2, hold the entrance. The rest, intercept the monsters respawning in the streets.”

” We just need to hold them off for 15 minutes until the Association’s support team arrives.”

Following the orders, the guards dashed into the streets.

“Spread out to your assigned areas!”

“Request backup immediately if anything happens!”

Under the team leaders’ directions, the guards divided the zones among themselves.

Among them, Choi Hopil, a guard with a bruised and swollen face, glared with fierce determination in his eyes.

“That damned convenience store. You’re going down this time.”

After being humiliated and kicked out for hitting on a clerk,

Choi Hopil had been reported to the sub-guild leader of the Myungwol Guild.

This led to a beating so severe by the ruthless Kim Changshik that he ended up with injuries requiring ten weeks of recovery.

Barely returning to duty two months later, his body still wrapped in bandages,

he found himself reassigned to Guard Team 4 a demotion from his once-promising career on the brink of a team leader promotion.

Now a washed-up guard with no prospects, he seethed with rage, vowing to destroy that accursed convenience store.

“Team 4 Guard Choi Hopil requesting a change in patrol zone from the team leader.”

“Are you kidding me? Do you think this is a picnic? Just follow your orders and move!”

“I’ve just been discharged from the hospital, and I can’t handle long-distance patrols. ”

“Could you assign me to a route along the main street instead?”

Reluctantly, the Team 4 leader cursed and adjusted his patrol zone as requested.

If a team member were to die after filing a formal request for reassignment,

it would result in severe penalties on the leader’s performance review.

‘Got it.’

Choi Hopil smirked, now in control of the area he wanted.

As long as no emergency calls or backup requests were made,

no other guild members would have a reason to show up in his patrol zone.

If a few monsters managed to slip through and, purely by coincidence, headed toward the convenience store,

and if he “didn’t hear” any screams in the chaos, the store could end up in ruins overnight.

By the next morning, the staff could be dead, the business destroyed,

and he could exact the perfect revenge for his ruined career.

‘Maybe that clerk will even beg for her life. That might be fun to watch.’

Choi Hopil’s eyes gleamed with a dark and twisted desire.

Lee Haechan felt a surge of anxiety.

“Turn off the lights immediately.”

“What?”

“This is practically right next to the gate. ”

“Where do you think the monsters respawning on the surface will appear first?”

Joo Ahyoung’s mind snapped into focus, realizing the urgency.

“I-I’ll lower the shutters right away.”

“The signboard!”

“Oh.”

The 24-hour convenience store sign, on this particular day, wasn’t for customers but was instead a brightly lit, open buffet for monsters.

Monsters typically attack anything that stands out, and a convenience store glowing brightly in the dark would undoubtedly be their primary target.

“I turned off the lights!”

“Everyone, take a flashlight, but cover the light with your palm and only uncover it when necessary. Like this. Got it?”

“P-please! Don’t go outside!”

“Did you turn off the signboard lights too?”

“Those aren’t controlled by a power switch…”

“Then we’ll have to destroy it.”

Lee Haechan placed a camcorder on the counter and set down the duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

Opening the bag, he pulled out a live sword.

“Just keep an eye on this for me. I’ll be right back.”

Exuding confidence, Lee Haechan walked out of the convenience store, his back to the others. He couldn’t help but feel proud.

‘She must be smitten by now. Honestly, even I think I looked pretty cool just now.’

It’s only natural for a man to indulge in a bit of self-admiration when standing before a beautiful woman.

However, the beauty Lee Haechan was smitten with was fundamentally different from the ordinary.

Ding-ding.

“Don’t come outside! It’s dangerous huh?”

Unfazed by the air raid sirens blaring a disaster warning,

the woman calmly carrying a ladder in one hand stepped outside.

Setting the ladder in front of the signboard, she climbed up without hesitation.

Lee Haechan tilted his head, confused.

‘This isn’t quite what I pictured.’

Clang! Clang!

Using the hilt of her sword like a hammer, she shattered the signboard.

The glaring lights, visible even from 100 meters away, flickered out.

“Now go back inside! It’s really dangero what the hell is that?”

While the signboard was no longer a problem, an issue lay on the road.

Fluorescent paint arrows stretched from across the main road right to the convenience store’s vicinity.

From the shadows, Myeongho Guild’s Guard Team 4 member Choi Hopil watched and smirked wickedly as he hid himself.

‘See? I knew this might happen, so I prepared for it.’

Some annoyingly cocky-looking guy might have tried to show off for the woman,

but even if he managed to turn off the signboard lights, scrubbing off the fluorescent paint was near impossible.

As he relished in his triumph, a woman stepped past the man, walking toward the fluorescent arrows.

In her hand was something long and menacing.

The woman spread her stance and held her weapon low, pointing it toward the ground, as if she were about to shatter the earth itself.

‘Insane. Does she actually plan to break the ground? No way, it’s just for show. One hundred percent!’

Though Choi Hopil scoffed at the absurdity of it, an inexplicable sense of dread crept over him, emanating from the woman’s ominous presence.

Even as he dismissed it as impossible, a lingering question gnawed at him what if she actually did it?

Nervous sweat dampened his palms.

“Hey, what are you doing? I told you to get back inside the convenience store! Leave this to me and go, quickly!”

At Lee Haechan’s urgent prompting, Hae Eung Eung, who had been staring blankly, finally sheathed her sword and retreated into the store.

‘Wow, geez, just her stance was enough to make me this tense. Is she an Awakened, or what?’

Still, it was just two of them against the world.

Meanwhile, the voice crackling in his in-ear comms estimated the number of respawned monsters to be around 3,000.

And that was just in the past three minutes.

‘Finally, they’ve taken the bait!’

Right on cue, a massive group of over a hundred monsters surged down the road, following the fluorescent paint trail.

The monsters were swamp-dwelling Lizardmen.

Known for moving in [large groups], they specialized in [weapon-based combat], frequently causing [unexpected situations] and displaying [unpredictable behavior].

Their elite variants appeared more often than other monster types, and even their lowest tier, F-rank, tended to rise to C or B-rank, making them a formidable force.

For just two people to guard the convenience store against such a strong and massive group was utterly ridiculous.

‘Serves them right. They should’ve taken the chance to escape when they had it. It’s not like it’d benefit me alone if they did. Huh?’

It seemed the man, perhaps resigned to his fate, decided to go out in a blaze of glory.

He moved the woman back and stepped forward on his own.

‘What a pathetic simp. Hurry up and get skewered, scream a little, and drop dead already!’

Choi Hopil’s mind brimmed with curses, his malicious glee brimming over.

But then, something happened that was not part of his plan.

The lone man began taking down the Lizardmen at an astonishing speed.

His skills were clearly beyond those of an ordinary human.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me! Who the hell is this guy, and where did he come from to cause such chaos on his own?’

Lee Haechan, the “Nationalist Swordsman,” had begun to show his true might.

In the first half of 2047, he claimed first place in the Streamer Swordsmanship Tournament.

He repeated the feat in the second half of 2047.

In 2048, he took first place again.

And in 2049, yet again.

Among the top-tier physical streamers, Lee Haechan had maintained an unshakable three-year streak as the undisputed number one.

His swordsmanship alone made him a legend, and he was widely regarded as the strongest active streamer.

‘So this works in real combat too, huh?’

Lee Haechan’s eyes, hands, and feet moved with precision, analyzing the battlefield three-dimensionally as he fought.

‘I knew Sword of the Emperor had accurate mechanics, but I didn’t expect it to work this well.’

Lee Haechan’s debut game as a streamer, and the one that propelled him to fame, was the virtual reality swordsmanship game Sword of the Emperor.

Unlike clumsy players who relied on assistive actions, Lee Haechan was known for perfectly embodying sword techniques with his own body, achieving mastery in “embodiment.”

And now, his true skill was shining in real combat.

‘With this, I’m not scared of however many of these lizard people come at me.’

His swordsmanship, Yeonhwan 64 Swords, comprised eight footwork techniques and eight core stances, adaptable to any situation.

Renowned as the pinnacle of combo-based swordsmanship, it was particularly effective in chaotic battles against multiple opponents assuming the wielder had the stamina.

In a flash, he cut down more than a dozen Lizardmen, proving the mastery of his craft.

“Grrrk…”

The Lizardmen screeched in metallic tones, attempting to encircle him.

But Lee Haechan didn’t allow it. Pressing his back against a wall, he slowly lured the creatures into a narrow alley.

“Yeah, that’s it. Follow me, you dumb lizards. Don’t even think about looking at the convenience store.”

At the mention of the convenience store, one of the Lizardmen suddenly scanned the area.

It spotted the unlit store and let out a sharp hiss, “Shhhhaaah!”

‘Wait a minute. Did that thing just understand me?’

A chill ran down his spine.

A monster that could comprehend human speech?

‘Right, I’ve heard of this. Elite monsters that are far superior in intelligence or strength compared to their peers.’

Unlike the other Lizardmen with bare green skin, this one wore leather armor and wielded a sword.

The elite monster began commanding some of its underlings toward the convenience store.

“Hey, you primitive lizard scum! You look like a failed housing loan application, and now you think you’re some big-shot leader? Feels good, huh?”

If it had been a human, the bizarre taunt would’ve prompted derision or laughter.

But monsters, driven by emotion rather than reason, picked up on the scorn and disdain in his words.

Their slit pupils narrowed to razor-thin slivers, radiating rage.

“Shaaaah!”

With a screech from the elite Lizardman, the group charged at Lee Haechan.

Although they had numbers, the narrow alley allowed only two or three to attack at a time, nullifying the advantage of their [large group] formation.

Their otherwise dangerous [weapon skills] couldn’t overpower Lee Haechan’s Yeonhwan 64 Swords.

Even their characteristic [unpredictability] proved useless in the face of his provocations.

And the elite monster, which might’ve been a wildcard, wasn’t specialized for close combat.

Slash!

─Splatter.

Blood soaked the alley as Lee Haechan stood tall over the corpses of more than thirty Lizardmen.

“Huff, huff… Damn, that was exhausting.”

He struggled to catch his breath, drained from the intense physical effort.

‘This is harder than playing in real mode. Then again, this is real life, so it makes sense.’

Even in real-mode gameplay, players occasionally received passive skill effects that boosted physical abilities based on their progression.

Taking down everything barehanded without a single skill was an achievement in itself one that only a silent swordsman might manage.

‘Ugh, stop thinking about nonsense. Get it together, Lee Haechan. You’re using too much unnecessary energy.’

Unaccustomed to cutting down monsters in real life, he had unintentionally tensed his body far more than needed.

“Not ants, but just as annoyingly numerous.”

If there was any consolation, it was that the relentless assault of the Lizardmen had paused, allowing him a brief moment to catch his breath.

“Sha-sha-sha.”

The elite Lizardman, perched atop an outdoor air conditioner unit in the alley, had been observing him the entire time.

Suddenly, it let out a mocking hiss.

Clang… Clang…

A faint sound reached his ears, the distinctive noise of weapons clashing.

“You… don’t tell me!”

“Sha-sha-sha.”

Lee Haechan had assumed all the monsters were gathered in the alley.

But that was merely a misconception born from their overwhelming numbers.

Beyond the alley, hidden from his sight, a battle was raging at that very moment.

‘Could it be her?’

A woman who fearlessly climbed a ladder or casually wandered with just an umbrella someone with the same faint scent of plum blossoms as the silent swordsman.

It had to be her.

While Lee Haechan thought he had lured the monsters into the alley, the truth was the opposite.

The elite Lizardman had deceived him, drawing him away from the convenience store.

“You sneaky lizard bastard! Stop your schemes and fight me head-on! Come at me, I said!”

“Sha-shaat. Sha-sha-shaat.”

The Lizardmen, who had been recklessly charging and dying up to now, suddenly changed tactics under the elite’s command.

The monsters entering the alley sheathed their swords and drew spears slung across their backs, aiming them forward.

A narrow space he had to break through.

Long-range weapons specialized for thrusting.

A horde so vast it couldn’t be counted.

The strengths of the Lizardmen, rendered useless earlier by Lee Haechan,

now flipped entirely because of one woman and the convenience store’s peril.

‘These bastards are trying to drag me out intentionally.’

If not, it didn’t make sense for these Lizardmen capable of seamlessly switching weapons,

and altering their momentum to fail to take down a lone woman in the open field.

Frustration mounting, he glanced at the emergency support app on his wrist-mounted screen phone.

[Guild members from the Awakener Association are enroute.]
[Dispatched Awakeners – Codename: Spider-Man (C), Mantis-Man (C)]
[Estimated time of arrival: 7 minutes 39 seconds]

Seven minutes. A time span in which neither the woman outside nor Lee Haechan himself could be guaranteed safety.

“Damn tax thieves. Seven minutes is ridiculous.”

But sitting idly to complain or cowering in the alley to save his own skin was out of the question.

“A virtual reality streamer, you see, works day and night, nonstop, always pushing their body to the limit.”

” Something like this won’t even make me blink, you bastards!!”

For some reason, memories of chaotic battles from the silent swordsman’s streams surfaced in his mind.

Not flashy skills or overpowered builds fueled by synchronization, but pure skill true, decisive duels.

The strategies and insights from those memories started to take root, if only slightly.

The Lizardmen’s spears no longer posed a threat to him.

He deflected thrusting spear shafts with his sword, causing them to tangle together.

Then, he kicked their exposed legs, breaking them, and used the subdued enemies as shields to cut down the rest in an instant.

“Huff, huff!”

Lee Haechan wiped the sweat dripping near his eyes with his bloodstained sleeve, now smeared with crimson streaks from the grazing spear cuts.

Throwing aside the severed head of the elite Lizardman he held in his hand, he stepped out of the alley.

‘Too late.’

He had prepared for this moment even before stepping out.

It had been five minutes since the clashing sounds of weapons outside had ceased.

He regretted his misplaced bravado.

Instead of bluffing, he should have escorted the women away from the convenience store and fled.

While scanning the area, perhaps intending to at least close the eyes of the deceased, he was suddenly blinded by a dazzling light.

“Ugh!”

“Hey, sis, how could you shine a flashlight in someone’s face?”

‘Sis?’

Wasn’t that the cashier’s voice?

Squinting and narrowing his eyes, Lee Haechan finally saw through the extinguished glare.

Beyond the dim streetlamp, he spotted two women standing together.

Behind them lay a heap of monster corpses twice as many as the ones he had slain in the alley.

‘It’s obvious now.’

Even in this dire situation, one of the women twirled an umbrella dripping with blood as if she were on a casual picnic, fidgeting with her hands while glancing his way.

Considering her nonchalant gaze and the mass of fallen monsters, it was clear.

This woman was none other than the silent swordsman herself.