Chapter 90: Clash of the Flawless Warriors

The yokai were fooled by the hanyou’s desperate wit.

“You arrogant bastard. Were you planning to enjoy all the fun alone?”

“Let’s go after him. We’ll kill him and steal the snacks for ourselves!”

The monkey yokai and hyena yokai eagerly raised their voices, ready to give chase.

“Snacks, huh…”

However, the crocodile yokai who had been the first to detect the scent of blood slowly surveyed ,

the surroundings with the sharp gaze of a predator before his mouth twisted into a wide, eerie grin.

His gaze landed on a suspicious wardrobe, its four wheels firmly planted on the ground.

“I prefer to eat my meals alone, at a leisurely pace. I’ll stand guard so no one else tries to run. You two can go ahead and take your share first.”

The monkey and hyena yokai grinned in satisfaction.

“Now that’s a guy who knows his place.”

“I thought the newbie from the outside world would be a pain in the ass, but he’s got some sense after all. Keep it up.”

The hanyou who had realized the situation belatedly screamed and tried to flee.

However, those whose yokai powers were specialized for magic had no way of using them in their current state.

Their feeble attempts at escape were meaningless they were quickly captured.

“H-Hurk!”

“No… Please, spare me!”

“That bastard was lying! That damn warden is already dead!”

“A human came and tried to save us!”

“We hid the warden’s corpse in the garbage pile, and the human is still hiding somewhere nearby!”

Desperate to survive, the hanyou readily sold out their savior.

Yet, their shameless betrayal was met only with laughter.

“A human? Oh, that’s rich. Hah! You guys have some real talent for comedy. I should make you tell jokes before we eat you next time.”

“What a bunch of idiots. What a waste of yokai blood. Let’s slit their throats before they pollute our ears with more nonsense.”

Those once called “hanyou” had now been reduced to nothing more than “snacks.” And only now did they realize their mistake.

‘I should’ve fought alongside that human instead of trying to take advantage of them.’

‘I should’ve betrayed earlier!’

But it was too late.

And there was no point in regret.

The silent swordsman had no reason to save those who had no gratitude.

In mere moments, two-thirds of the hanyou were slaughtered.

The remaining ones trembled as they looked toward the crocodile yokai.

“Don’t worry. I don’t eat trash like you. A yokai who fills his stomach with weaklings will never rise to the top.”

His words were so unapologetically psychopathic that even viewers accustomed to monstrous yokai were momentarily speechless.

Damn, that line was brutal.

I got so used to “soft” yokai that this one caught me off guard.

Oh, right… Yokai were originally like this.

This guy’s so unapologetically evil that it’s almost respectable.

Satan: Dad, why are you like this?

GTFO, I’ve never raised a kid like you.

Satan: Yeah, Mom raised me alone.

Holy crap, what a bastard.

LOL, dude just abandoned his own kid.

“Mom raised me alone” LMAO.

Somebody get a paternity test!

Satan: deletes account

The crocodile yokai showed not a shred of interest in the broken, defeated hanyou.

Instead, he fixated on a certain spot within the trash heap, speaking as if he knew someone was hiding there.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret. Crocodiles don’t usually use their sense of smell to hunt, but as a yokai, I do. I devoured a <Legend> that granted me this ability.”

“……”

“Thanks to that, I can perceive a lot through scent and I remember special scents very well.”

He smirked.

“I remember the scent of blood seeping from the corpse of a foolish yokai buried in the trash.”

“The faint fragrance of soft, human flesh.”

“The stench of a cursed artifact, reeking with an ominous spirit.”

“I remember them all.”

The crocodile yokai’s eyes gleamed with a murderous glint.

Wait, hold on. Doesn’t his gaze look… familiar?

Holy shit. That’s him. The Final Field.

Huh? No way wait, you’re right.

Some of the viewers finally recognized him.

“So don’t bother trying to deceive me. Just come out, human unless you want to test whether that wardrobe can withstand a compactor.”

A chilling warning.

Isn’t he that mid-boss from the five consecutive fights before the final boss in the Hanyou Route?

Crocodile Merchant? But didn’t he become our ally before the last battle?

No, that was in the Yokai Route.

Mid-boss five-fight sequence? Ally yokai? What the hell are you guys even talking about?

LOL, newbies who never reached the ending wouldn’t know.

Is this even a normal yokai? He feels… different.

The chat buzzed with excitement.

[Sudden Event Activated]

[Due to recent full exterminations and hunts in several fields, a powerful yokai has become alarmed.]

[Difficulty has been raised to the highest level. The dispatched yokai will now be at the highest rank.]

[At least one of ■■■’s top subordinates will now be placed in each field.]

[■■■’s subordinate <Crocodile Merchant> has appeared.]

A barrage of notifications.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

Her heart pounded as she sensed the impending danger.

Every instinct whispered to her

A new formidable enemy has arrived.

This was the fifth field of Hanyou’s Requiem.

And the <Crocodile Merchant> had appeared as an extreme difficulty variant.

He was the one who recognized the Boogeyman’s wardrobe.

She thought to herself

This opponent…

Would be no less powerful than any Field Boss she had faced before.

“If you refuse to come out…”

Dooong

The entire trash heap trembled under the force of his step.

Garbage was sent flying into the air, unable to withstand the sheer pressure behind his movement.

“Then I’ll make sure you have to come out.”

BOOM

The deafening sound didn’t belong to a mere spear strike.

It roared like an artillery shell, filling the entire area with its violent shockwave.

If the wardrobe had truly been there, it would’ve been crushed in an instant and sent tumbling down the heap.

The ambush has failed.

From the space hidden beneath the garbage atop the wardrobe, the Silent Swordsman leaped out.

She swung her blade, slicing through the airborne debris.

CLAAANG!

A single horizontal strike sent the flying trash hurtling away

Gouging out at least thirty meters of earth in the process.

Both the force carried by the incoming debris

And the technique used to deflect it

Were on a level far beyond that of an ordinary yokai or player.

“…Yes. This is exactly what I was hoping for.”

A footprint, 30 cm deep, was left where she had stood.

A technique that deflected a force a hundred times greater than her own

The principle of softness overcoming strength.

The Crocodile Merchant, having witnessed its value firsthand, raised his vertically slit reptilian eyes, a cruel smirk curling on his lips.

“You… are worth eating.”

The event boss <Crocodile Merchant> twirled his spear in a diagonal flourish

And took his stance for battle.

6.

 We are so screwed, aren’t we?

 Go, Crocodile Merchant! Crush the Silent Swordsman and make way for Mark II’s moment of glory!

 LOL, the professor has completely lost it now that he can’t deploy Mark II.

 To be fair, Mark I has had a pretty long run.

 I swear, I must’ve gone through over a thousand attempts before clearing Hanyou’s Requiem. Getting a first-try ending is infuriating.

 If you cleared it in under a thousand tries, you’re already in the top 30% of players.

 Just seeing the ending puts you in the top 20%.

Fact: According to the official Simiral website, only 4.7% of all players have completed the ending of Hanyou’s Requiem.

 …Wait, what? Only 5% of people even saw the ending?!

 Even marathons have a higher completion rate.

Hanyou’s Requiem ending vs. finishing a marathon.

Hanyou’s Requiem ending vs. getting married.

Hanyou’s Requiem ending vs. deploying Silent Swordsman Mark II.

The Unyielding Silent Swordsman.

Even among the captivated viewers, there were always those who predicted her defeat.

But this time, the atmosphere was different.

<2DaHye has donated 10,000 won!>

Crocodile Merchant? Ugh. My head…

<Nationalist Prosecutor Lee Haechan has donated 10,000 won!>

He’s reliable as an ally, but when he’s an enemy… yeah, he’s a complete bastard.

<Um Gil-dong’s Libido has donated 10,000 won!>

I died to that guy a hundred times. f*ck my life.

The infamous Crocodile Merchant so fearsome that even the most seasoned players shuddered at his name.

LMAO, why is “Um Gil-dong’s Libido” casually standing alongside actual legendary names?

For a second, I thought the real Um Gil-dong showed up.

But seriously, if you’ve faced him, you know how much of a nightmare he is.

He just hisses, and the next thing you know, your neck is gone.

“Hey, where the f*ck did you go?”

[Revives] “Ah, f*ck—”

Fact: The Crocodile Merchant’s attack speed is so fast that even SpeedMaster admitted struggling to keep up.

<SpeedMaster has donated 100,000 won!>

Nope. Didn’t struggle at all.

<BreakingNewsJournalist has donated 10,000 won!>

Yeah, you did.

– Damn, this place is full of snipers.

– At this point, that guy’s basically a war correspondent.

The donations and chat messages flooded in.

But she pushed all the distractions out of her mind.

Because at that very moment

The Crocodile Merchant’s spear clashed against the Silent Swordsman’s blade.

Dududududu

Like ripples spreading across a lake, the trash heap beneath their feet trembled violently.

It was hard to believe they weren’t even using yokai energy

The sheer impact alone was overwhelming.

Every thrust of his spear carried the force of a speeding car at full throttle.

Shu-shu-shuk!

Shu-shu-shu-shu-shuk!

Each attack came at supersonic speed

And as soon as she parried one, another came, accelerating in a relentless chain.

As if mocking her ability to keep up.

CLAAANG!

The spear wove seamlessly between high and low strikes,

Moving unpredictably while the red thread tied to its shaft left ghostly afterimages.

A technique designed to deceive the eyes.

None of the weaknesses I exploited in previous yokai are present in this one.

Strength, technique, speed

Every single attribute was at an absurdly high level.

If one were to create a radar chart measuring his capabilities,

It would be a perfect hexagon, excelling in every category.

Flawless.

He is the kind of opponent martial artists fear the most.

With no exploitable weaknesses, the only way to defeat him

Was to match him in pure skill and break through by force.

That was what made the Crocodile Merchant such a formidable enemy.

But on the other hand

“…This is strange. No matter how I look at it, something isn’t right.”

The flawless Crocodile Merchant was being countered blow for blow.

Meaning the Silent Swordsman

Was also a flawless warrior.