Chapter 6: The Sword King Lee Hyuk-soo
Before long, the world as Park Chan-woo knew it had changed.
In the sky, a giant eye hovered in the center of the full moon. The eye moved from side to side, scanning the earth below.
Buildings were riddled with cracks, as if they could collapse at any moment, and vines and plants grew wildly across the cement ground.
Cars left on the streets were covered in dust. Some had shattered windows, while others had their tires flattened, making none of the vehicles usable.
If there was a hell, this might be what it looked like.
‘This is quite a well-maintained Abyss.’
However, Park Chanwoo was impressed in a more literal sense.
The state of the Abyss was exceptional.
Among the “Abyss of the Night” instances he had experienced, this one was the best.
Perhaps it was because it was the first night.
- “The Twelve Divine Generals have appeared throughout the Abyss.”
- “You must join forces and kill all of them within 10 hours.”
- “Hidden quests or weapons and tools necessary to kill the Twelve Divine Generals are scattered throughout, so search carefully.”
- “There is also a ‘warp’ that can take you to other Divine Generals.”
- “If you steadily work together and eliminate them one by one, success is possible.”
- “Estimated survival rate: 1%”
- “The higher your survival rate, the better the ‘box’ you will receive when clearing the Abyss.”
- “If you fail to kill all the Divine Generals, any participant ranked below 20,000 in contribution will die.”
..Is this a joke?
Success is possible?
It was clear that failure was assumed from the start.
The exact 1% survival rate meant the creators were confident that 1.98 million people would die if they failed to hunt the Twelve Divine Generals.
All the creators who had bet on this Abyss believed that.
‘Things won’t go as you expect.’
There were no exceptions. Miracles did not happen.
That was the belief of the creators.
But Park Chanwoo intended to be a complete irregularity.
Even if he had to go against every creator, he wouldn’t let things go their way.
Besides, if things got too dangerous, he could just use the escape coin.
Even this Abyss of the Night could be escaped with an escape coin.
In any case, one of the Twelve Divine Generals, the Dragon General, appeared in Seoul.
The one that all 20,000 survivors of the “First Night of the Abyss” had unanimously agreed was the strongest general.
Of course, among those 20,000 survivors was none other than the Sword King, Lee Hyuksoo.
There was no time to waste if they were to kill the Dragon General, who had plunged everyone into the depths of despair.
‘First, I need to start farming.’
Park Chan-woo left his house and stepped outside.
Farming in the “Abyss of the Night” was surprisingly simple.
‘You just need to find things that shouldn’t be here.’
What shouldn’t exist in the Abyss?
The answer was surprisingly straightforward.
Park Chan-woo first searched through the cars parked around him.
Soon, he found a skeleton strapped into a seatbelt, sitting inside one of the vehicles.
Thud!
Smash!
Without hesitation, he shattered the window with his World Tree Staff.
He reached inside the window to unlock the door.
Next, he unbuckled the seatbelt around the skeleton’s waist.
- “You have found the ‘Iron Shield (-98Lv, Rare)’!”
With a puff of smoke, the skeleton transformed into an iron shield.
‘No corpses remain in the Abyss.’
Though it seemed natural for a skeleton to be sitting in the car, the rules of the Abyss stated otherwise—there couldn’t be any skeletons.
A skeleton strapped into a seatbelt? That was even more absurd.
By finding such ‘anomalies,’ he could farm.
The more pronounced the anomaly, the higher the grade of the equipment or tools he could obtain.
For about 30 minutes, Park Chan-woo searched through the cars.
“Phew…”
The results were less fruitful than expected.
Of course, the real farming hadn’t even begun yet.
But even after moving around just a little, his entire body ached.
- “You are low on stamina.”
- “Your body feels heavy.”
- “Your entire body feels hot.”
- “Your vision blurs.”
- “You are experiencing muscle pain.”
- “Take immediate rest. Overworking your body may result in serious harm.”
He felt completely drained of energy.
Park Chan-woo entered an empty vehicle, closed the door, and slumped into the seat.
“…My body is in terrible condition.”
At minus level 98, such conditions would continue until he returned to a normal level.
Though every second counted, overexerting himself would only lead to disaster.
It was wiser to rest when he could.
‘If I raise my strength and stamina, it should get a bit better.’
Physical power was proportional to strength and stamina.
If moving even a little left him exhausted, he simply needed to raise his stats to improve it.
The unique options from his equipment provided some extra stats, but it still wasn’t enough.
For instance, the ‘World Tree Staff,’ which was of the Eternal grade, only gave a measly boost of 10 magic points.
‘If everything goes according to my plan, I can overcome this.’
It was manageable.
In his mind, he held countless possibilities.
If even a few of those could be realized, overcoming his current condition would be easy enough.
The question was whether he could survive until then.
“Help, someone help me!”
After resting for about 15 minutes, a man with a sword came running from a short distance away, screaming.
But his posture was off.
Using the sword sheath as a walking stick, he was barely managing to limp away.
An arrow had pierced through his right leg.
“Why… why is this happening to me…?!”
Whoosh!
Thunk!
An arrow shot from behind pierced the man’s neck.
He collapsed instantly, dead.
Not long after, a man wearing a black scarf over his mouth appeared next to the fallen body.
The scarfed man picked up the sword the dead man had been holding.
And then—
Shhhhh.
The sheath crumbled into dust and disappeared.
“What the? I can’t take what’s already in someone else’s possession?”
The man tilted his head in confusion.
After glancing around, he quickly left the scene.
‘The Incarnates are already running amok.’
Park Chan-woo slowly sat up, watching the direction in which the man had disappeared.
If he had been resting outside, he might have been shot and killed by those arrows.
He didn’t even have the stamina to dodge them.
Also, the man who fired the arrows was undoubtedly an ‘Incarnate.’
Park Chan-woo was certain of it for several reasons.
‘The Black Lion Bow. It’s an epic-grade bow with a homing option attached to the arrows. Only upper-tier archers or higher classes can use it, so that guy must have made a contract with a creator and became an Incarnate.’
Incarnates were puppets of their contracted creators.
In short, they were enemies of humanity.
Even if they didn’t mean to, they would inevitably act against humanity’s interests.
Just like the man who had just killed someone for fun.
Those drunk on power inevitably trampled on others.
So there was no way Park Chan-woo would ever think kindly of the Incarnates.
They were obstacles to humanity’s unity.
The higher one climbed in the ranks, the more suspicious others became.
If you accidentally allied with an Incarnate, you could never be sure when they would stab you in the back.
The problem was that there was no way to tell if someone was an Incarnate unless they revealed it themselves.
‘Damn Incarnates.’
Of course, Park Chan-woo knew.
He knew a few of the Incarnates who would cause big problems later on.
For example… that guy who would become the first human to reach level 99.
No one imagined that the man hailed as a hero, who had led humanity, was actually an Incarnate.
Park Chan-woo took a deep breath and stepped out of the car.
To take on foes like that, he would need more solid farming.
‘Found it. An anomaly.’
As soon as he stepped out of the vehicle, he approached the corpse that had been shot with an arrow.
That body was the anomaly.
‘No corpses remain in the Abyss.’
Normally, bodies vanished when someone died.
Just as the sword sheath and sword had disappeared, the man’s body should have disappeared as well.
But this body hadn’t vanished.
Park Chan-woo stood next to the corpse and spoke.
“Stop pretending to be dead, demon.”
Because the man wasn’t actually dead.
If he had died but his body didn’t disappear, it meant the corpse wasn’t human.
Suddenly!
The “dead” man’s eyes snapped open.
His eyes weren’t human—they had slit pupils like a lizard’s.
Then the man spoke.
“How… how did you figure me out?”
“Because you stink.”
Park Chan-woo pinched his nose as he answered.
He had been looking for this from the start—demons hiding in the Abyss in human form, an impossible anomaly.
Demons in the Abyss never took on human shapes.
The demon scowled.
“Damn it…!”
Poof!
The demon turned into smoke.
- “You have acquired ‘Demonic Helmet (-98Lv, Epic)’!”
- “You have acquired ‘Demonic Armor (-98Lv, Epic)’!”
- “You have acquired ‘Demonic Boots (-98Lv, Epic)’!”
- “You have acquired ‘Demonic Gauntlets (-98Lv, Epic)’!”
- “The set effect ‘Demonic Heart (Epic)’ is activated!”
Whew.
Park Chan-woo let out a small whistle.
The demon had left behind a set of equipment upon its death.
As he slowly equipped the gear, Park Chan-woo glanced at his reflection in the car window and smirked.
‘Looks like a demon priest.’
With a staff in hand, he was the spitting image of a demon priest.
If anyone saw him, they’d likely be terrified.
At that moment…
― “Welcome to the ‘Good Water’ nightclub!”
― “Ask for Manager ‘Andariel’!”
― “Guaranteed 100% successful bookings!”
A promotional vehicle passed by, making a ruckus.
Park Chanwoo’s ears perked up.
‘…There it is.’
A strange anomaly.
It was something that clearly should not exist in the Abyss.
That’s the place.
‘The anomaly where the Philosopher’s Stone was found.’
Just as he had heard.
Surely, the Philosopher’s Stone would be in that nightclub.
Perhaps he might even gain a class.
He quickly moved toward the source of the noise.
After walking for a while, he spotted the flashy neon lights of the “Good Water Nightclub.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do here?”
“Wow, so many people…”
The bustling entrance.
By his rough estimate, there were about two hundred people gathered.
Even that guy, the one who fought with a bow, had his face hidden under a muffler.
Thanks to the corpse the guy had left behind, Park Chan-woo had been able to identify the demon, so in a way, he was grateful to him.
But that guy wasn’t the only one here.
‘Why is Team Leader Kim Byeong-han here?’
He saw Kim Byeong-han, dressed in armor and holding a sword.
Why had this coward ventured into the Abyss?
But his gaze didn’t linger long.
That’s because he had spotted someone else, far more significant than Team Leader Kim Byeong-han.
‘…Sword King Lee Hyuk-soo.’
The third human to reach level 99, a genius among geniuses who had glimpsed the ultimate mastery of the sword.
The one who had left him in despair with his overwhelming swordsmanship was now standing right in front of his eyes.
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