Solo Swordmaster - Chapter 11

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 11: I Remembered

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This was a place Rimon had never been, yet had been to.

Logically, that made no sense.

But Rimon did not doubt his own judgment.

There were countless mysteries that made the impossible possible, from bizarre skills to magic that overturned the providence of gods, psionics that transcended perception, and spirit arts that commanded armored monsters.

Rimon knew that much from experience.

Of course, belief without proof could easily become blind faith.

But Rimon had a way to confirm it.

“Team Leader? What are you doing?”

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep.

Normally, it would have been an obstacle Rimon cut down immediately.

Yoo Na-gyeong watched Rimon trudge toward the thick metal door, puzzled. Then, seeing him press the number pad attached to it, she grumbled in disbelief.

“No, what do you know about it? You can't just press random buttons and expect it to open...”

Whirrr!

“...It can?”

Yoo Na-gyeong's jaw dropped.

As the door slowly began to open, she stared blankly at it.

“Team Leader? How did you do that just now?”

“How did I do it?”

Unlike Yoo Na-gyeong, who looked as though she had just watched a royal straight flush hit twice in a row at a casino, Rimon showed no sign of surprise.

He simply answered without a care.

“I just guessed.”

“Does it make any sense to guess a one-in-a-billion chance right on the first try?!”

“What do you want me to say? It worked.”

“No, but, that, so, therefore!”

Maybe the sheer absurdity had broken her.

Even as Yoo Na-gyeong sputtered like a malfunctioning machine, Rimon paid her no mind.

He only looked impassively through the slowly opening door.

“What? Why is this door opening?”

“Didn't they say no one was allowed in until the job was done?”

“Hey, where are you looking? Focus on the front!”

The spacious area had once been a banquet hall, but an entire floor had been hollowed out and remodeled.

Dozens of people filled it, armed with all kinds of items, from armor and stab-proof clothing to staffs, bows, and spears.

The Liberation Brigade members stopped murmuring as they watched the rear door open.

Then their faces went slack.

“Huh? Uh?”

“What the...?”

As though they had seen a flying mole, they could not hide their bewilderment.

Yoo Na-gyeong looked just as stunned.

Even for a hideout, this was excessive.

The sight of fully armed players huddled together as though preparing for a dungeon raid would have horrified even an experienced PAB agent.

But Rimon did not waver.

He had known the others were there before opening the door.

So, while everyone else panicked, Rimon alone walked forward calmly.

One step to close the distance.

One step to slip into the crowd.

One step to spin in place and swing his sword.

Thud! Thud!

“Aaagh!”

“W-What was that? What just happened?”

The Liberation Brigade members were horrified.

They had clearly been watching Rimon.

Yet they had not noticed Rimon's approach at all, even as he slipped among them and struck down four or five of their comrades.

It felt as though they had been possessed by ghosts.

“What are you standing around for? Attack!”

They were players, at least.

At the shout of a man who appeared to be an officer, they finally snapped out of it and hurried to attack Rimon.

But their attempts could only remain attempts.

Even when they swung greatswords wrapped in flame.

Even when they fired arrows guaranteed to hit.

Even when they moved shadows to bind Rimon's feet.

Rimon evaded, cut through, or shattered every attack with just one step.

“This is insane...?!”

Kang Seok, an officer of the Liberation Brigade, could not believe it.

The Liberation Brigade might be seen by the public as a gang of psychos and criminals, but that did not mean they were weak.

Low-level players were not even fit to be errand runners.

Only solid mid-level players of at least level 30 could be accepted as regular members.

And as befitted a group called a brigade, they were skilled at group combat. They prided themselves on being better than most high-ranking guilds in fights against other people.

High-level players might be powerful.

But in the end, they were miners who only killed monsters.

When it came to life-or-death battles between people, no organization could surpass them, with their histories of murder and every kind of crime.

Thwack!

But Kang Seok's pride was cut apart like paper by Rimon's blade.

What the hell is this monster?!

If their attacks simply did not work, he could have accepted that.

Among high-level players, there were plenty with skills like Absolute Defense or Undying Body that rendered attacks meaningless.

He could even overlook someone taking down anyone with a single blow.

It was difficult to combine defensive and offensive skills at that level, but grand duke-class players could manage it.

Even so, there was one reason Kang Seok trembled.

Rimon's eyes.

Eyes he had never once seen, even within the Liberation Brigade, a place full of criminals and psychos.

Even while striking people in the head with a sword, those golden eyes did not waver. They were endlessly quiet, deeply still.

They told him that Rimon only looked ordinary on the surface.

That he was anything but an ordinary human.

That he was a true monster, one before whom the Liberation Brigade did not even deserve to present a calling card.

But that realization had come too late.

From the moment Rimon invaded this place, there had been no way for them to escape, whether by choice or force.

“Kill him! If you don't want to die, kill him somehow!”

Like a cornered rat biting a cat.

Unable to bear the despair any longer, Kang Seok screamed in desperation.

Then he charged Rimon, wildly swung his crescent blade, and activated his skill, Blade Storm.

Blade Storm was the combat skill that had made Kang Seok an officer of the Liberation Brigade.

It unleashed thirty-six slashes in an instant, a finishing move capable of turning even a block of steel into dozens of pieces in the blink of an eye.

Clink!

But after he unleashed Blade Storm, Kang Seok's eyes went wide.

Rimon's sword perfectly met the tip of his crescent blade, just as it was about to launch with the power of the skill. Before he could complete the swing, its force was dispersed.

That was only the beginning.

Clink, clink-clink, clinkclinkclinkclink...!

Thirty-six consecutive strikes, rising, falling, driving away, turning, pulling.

Rimon's sword clung to the tip of his blade each time, cleverly dispersing its force. Until the skill ended, Kang Seok could not execute even a single slash.

His mouth fell open.

“H-How?”

The explanation was long, but it had taken Kang Seok only an instant to unleash thirty-six slashes.

Not even 0.1 seconds.

No matter how agile a player was, it was impossible to launch dozens of attacks in such a brief moment.

It had been a supersonic onslaught possible only through the skill's power. Even Kang Seok could not control it, and could only swing indiscriminately.

So how had Rimon blocked every one of those completely random attacks before they could even unfold?

Kang Seok asked blankly. Rimon answered calmly.

“You showed me the same swordplay twice. Only an idiot couldn't block it.”

“...Twice? When did you see my skill again?”

“I just saw it for the first time.”

“What does that...!”

Kang Seok was speechless.

Not because he could not understand what Rimon meant by saying he had seen Blade Storm twice.

It was because Rimon's attitude, treating it as natural to block supersonic slashes after seeing them only once, was so utterly absurd.

Whack!

“Urk!”

“Are you my disciple? Why the fuck do you keep asking questions in the middle of a fight?”

Rimon knocked Kang Seok unconscious by striking the back of his head with the sword hilt.

Then, as he knocked down the Liberation Brigade members who looked ready to die after losing even their officer, Rimon thought:

More and more is coming back to me.

Blocking each blade of Blade Storm individually was something Rimon normally would not have done.

One swing would have ended it. There was no need to add another thirty-six on purpose.

Yet there was one reason he had done it.

The moment Rimon saw Kang Seok's Blade Storm, the path of those blades had naturally come to mind.

As though recalling forgotten memories.

The same was true of the other members.

Whenever Rimon crossed swords with them, he could tell how they would attack. The fragments of memory gathered that way became clearer and clearer, awakening other memories.

“M-Monster...”

Crunch!

After taking down the last member, Rimon froze.

It was not merely because there was no longer any need to swing his sword.

As though defeating the entire Liberation Brigade had flipped a switch, the memories drifting through his mind fell into place, forming a single scene.

A scene he had never seen, could never have seen, and never wanted to see.

Yet the moment that unforgettable scene came back to him, Rimon murmured quietly.

“...I remembered.”

“Remembered what?”

Maybe she had gotten bored just watching.

The moment the Liberation Brigade had all fallen, Yoo Na-gyeong came over, hopping over the bodies. Rimon answered her question evenly.

“Everything.”

“Do you have dementia or something? Are you going to forget everything?”

As though she had heard the strangest joke, Yoo Na-gyeong snorted.

Then she pulled out her smartphone and checked the faces of the fallen Liberation Brigade members one by one.

“It looks like all their core members were gathered here. It's a shame the boss wasn't present, but at this point, I'd say the Liberation Brigade is basically finished.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It would be best to bring the Director and another team to handle the cleanup. That'll make it easier to count this as a PAB achievement.”

“Yeah. I suppose so.”

Rimon nodded without any spirit.

For a moment, Yoo Na-gyeong wondered at his strangely languid appearance.

Then she muttered to herself, “Post-nut clarity?” and seemed to accept that explanation. She held out one hand to Rimon.

“Come on, then. Let's go.”

“...”

“...Team Leader? What are you doing? Aren't you going to take my hand?”

“Do I have to?”

“Of course. Aren't you going to report to the Director?”

Rimon only stared at her hand without moving.