WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 2: Beware the Raging Bull
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At that unexpected question, Yoo Na-gyeong looked startled.
“When did I ever die?”
“Nothing like that ever happened, probably?”
“Then why would you ask something like that?!”
“...
Good question.”
Rimon tilted his head.
Yoo Na-gyeong was clearly human, not some zombie, and he had never once heard a rumor that she had died.
In other words, it was only natural that she was alive.
Yet Rimon felt an intense sense of wrongness at that perfectly natural fact.
As if he had seen Yoo Na-gyeong die with his own eyes.
‘Why did I ask that?’
Unable to understand his own behavior, Rimon fell into thought.
Watching her superior, Yoo Na-gyeong gave him an openly suspicious look.
“Team Leader, have you gone senile?”
Smack!
“Eek! I told you to stop hitting me on the forehead! This is workplace violence too, you know!”
“Want me to show you what real violence looks like?”
“...No.”
Rimon clenched his fist.
Yoo Na-gyeong vigorously shook her head.
From experience, she knew that if this reckless superior actually resorted to violence, it would not end with a mere knuckle rap to the forehead.
Having silenced Yoo Na-gyeong, Rimon put the matter out of his mind.
Instead, he casually asked,
“Who’s the bastard this time?”
“Huh? How did you know we got a report?”
“If you wake me up when it’s not an emergency, I’m planting my Five-Finger Bombardment right in your forehead.”
“Isn’t that too harsh for your only team member?!”
Though Yoo Na-gyeong grumbled, she took out a report.
Then she quickly read out its main points.
“At 9:12 p.m., a violation of the Special Player Administration Act was confirmed at coordinates BVI-52.15. At 9:15 p.m., the suspect fled after shaking off the responding police. At 9:17 p.m., the suspect was identified...”
“Keep it simple.”
“Some crazy bastard is guzzling booze and going on a rampage, and they want someone to catch him.”
“...Fuck. Do I have to go out just to catch one drunk now?”
Rimon frowned.
In the past, he had been called a hero and humanity’s guardian, acting only when matters of national importance arose.
Now, not only had he been shoved into a lowly post with just one subordinate, he was stuck handling things like this too.
No matter how much times had changed.
It was hard not to feel the passage of time.
“No one would say anything if you didn’t go. You’re off duty today anyway.”
Rimon made his irritation obvious.
But Yoo Na-gyeong did not particularly care.
She simply nodded casually, then asked him one question.
“So, are you not going?”
“...”
Looking at his brazen subordinate, Rimon pulled a face.
She was right.
He was off duty today.
Even if a report had come in, he had no obligation to respond.
Even if he were not off duty, it would not matter.
He might have been demoted to mere team leader, but nobody could criticize him for slacking off a little.
“Enough nonsense. Bring me my coat.”
“Yes! Here it is!”
Even so, Rimon sighed and held out a hand.
As though she had known he would do this, Yoo Na-gyeong grinned and handed him the coat she had prepared in advance.
Rimon shot her an annoyed look as he accepted the white coat and put it on.
Then, picking up his sword, he asked,
“So who’s the son of a bitch whose hair I need to grab before shoving him into a barrel of booze?”
* * *
Wheeeeeee!
[Mr. Seo Yong-chan, stop immediately! You are violating the Road Traffic Act!]
“Fuck off! You pigs living off my tax money think you can tell me to stop?”
[What did you say? You little punk, I tried asking nicely! Stop right now! If you don’t, I’ll ram you!]
“Puhahaha! Go ahead and ram me if you can!”
Times changed.
The Golden Age, when life first sprouted.
Humanity, barely different from beasts, communicated with spirits and built civilization. Spiritists and shamans cared for the world with the spirits’ strength and wisdom.
The Silver Age, when incarnations descended.
Peoples who received the gods’ teachings built agricultural societies and prospered. Priests and witches ruled the world through magic granted by the gods.
The Bronze Age, when the Seven Dragons awoke.
When the Seven Dragons, having slept for ages to escape an ancient calamity, awoke and devoured the incarnations, their followers conquered the world with psionics passed down by the dragons.
The Age of Heroes, when humans slew dragons.
After the Sword Emperor, the first Sword Master, cut down the Seven Dragons.
Sword Masters reigned as the symbol of ultimate power, and no one dared challenge their supremacy.
But times changed.
The Iron Age, when the Constellations appeared.
After dungeons and Constellations emerged.
The myth of Sword Masters faded.
Players took their place.
Through Constellation Contracts, they acquired power called Skills and became society’s mainstream in an instant.
They built skyscrapers with a gesture.
Created machines beyond their time.
Easily cured incurable diseases.
With Players’ Skills making every impossibility possible, the world advanced rapidly.
That was why Players became objects of admiration.
A Sword Master was someone even a person born with talent might never become despite a lifetime of effort.
On the other hand, Players could obtain definite power without any training at all. They were irresistibly alluring.
High-level Players with unique Skills, especially, gained immense wealth and fame.
But Sergeant Hwang believed the appearance of Players had not brought only positive effects to society.
Why?
Because if Players did not exist, Sergeant Hwang would not need to conduct this insane chase through the middle of the city.
Thudthudthudthudthud!
“Yeeeeeha!”
“That son of a bitch!”
A young man raced down the road like a colt with its reins cut loose.
Sergeant Hwang ground their teeth while driving the police car after Seo Yong-chan.
When working as a police officer, you often encountered more people who ran harder when told to stop than people who actually stopped.
But Seo Yong-chan was not some ordinary street racer.
“If you got drunk, just sleep it off! What kind of lunatic goes on a rampage riding a summoned creature?!”
A body larger than a truck.
A body made entirely of brass.
Two spear-like horns.
And sulfurous smoke pouring from its nostrils.
Watching Seo Yong-chan rampage atop the Brass Bull, a monster in all but name, Sergeant Hwang cursed.
‘Fucking Players!’
If it had been a sports car, Sergeant Hwang might have considered gritting their teeth and ramming it.
But Sergeant Hwang could not do that against the Brass Bull.
Even summoned creatures belonging to Players in the level 20s could knock away an ordinary truck with a body slam.
And Seo Yong-chan, who controlled that Brass Bull, was a high-level Player at level 80-something.
There was no way a police car could stop that monster, which might not fall even if hit by a missile.
That was why Sergeant Hwang hated Players.
If their level was even slightly high, they treated the police like background decorations, and the police had no means to deal with them.
“Hey, where’s the PAB?”
“They say they’re on the way!”
“Damn it, when did we call them? Why are they still on the way?”
Sergeant Hwang was growing anxious.
If PAB agents arrived, they could capture even Seo Yong-chan.
That was what the PAB was for.
The problem was the damage that might occur before then.
Crash! Crash! Craaash!
“Ahahaha! I’m a free man!”
“Th-that...!”
Perhaps simply running was too boring.
Though it was not even a car, the Brass Bull drifted, crushing parked cars with its rear.
Sergeant Hwang was horrified as Seo Yong-chan spread his arms and shouted in delight.
A few wrecked cars?
That did not matter.
The problem was that Seo Yong-chan had left the route.
“Stop, you bastard! Traffic hasn’t been blocked off over there!”
The reason no casualties had occurred despite this commotion was that people had been evacuated in advance from the broad main roads where the Brass Bull could run.
But that also meant traffic control was still incomplete anywhere outside the main roads.
What would happen if that thing rushed into such a place?
Sergeant Hwang could not even imagine how many people might die.
“Eek?!”
“W-What is that?!”
“Fuck!”
That ominous feeling became reality.
The Brass Bull, charging ahead like mad, rushed into a road where cars and people remained.
Fortunately, the Brass Bull approached with such a tremendous roar that the people crossing at the intersection fled to either side in terror.
But not everyone was fortunate enough to escape.
“Eek!”
“Waaaaah!”
“N-No!”
Perhaps she had twisted her ankle after being shoved by the fleeing crowd.
A woman had fallen in the middle of the crosswalk and could not rise. Beside her, a little girl had fallen too, clutching the woman’s hand and sobbing.
Sergeant Hwang’s eyes widened.
Gripping the loudspeaker microphone, Sergeant Hwang shouted at the top of their lungs.
[Seo Yong-chan, you bastard! Can’t you see there are people in front of you?! Stop! Stop right now!]
“Huh?”
Perhaps he was so drunk his eyes had gone unfocused.
Seo Yong-chan looked startled, as though he had only just noticed the mother and daughter lying in the crosswalk.
But that was all.
Seo Yong-chan could neither stop the Brass Bull nor cancel its summoning.
The Brass Bull was too fast for him to take action, and Seo Yong-chan’s alcohol-clouded brain could not even make the judgment that he needed to stop.
‘It’s over!’
The Brass Bull charged toward them madly.
As though trying to protect her daughter from its hooves.
The woman wrapped both arms around the girl and covered her with her body.
It was useless.
If they were touched by that huge body, human flesh would become chunks of meat in an instant.
As Sergeant Hwang grimaced at the horrific sight about to unfold.
Flash!
They appeared.
‘...What?’
For a moment, Sergeant Hwang doubted their eyes.
There had been only the mother and daughter in the crosswalk moments ago.
Now, a man and woman stood there.
The shock lasted only a moment.
When Sergeant Hwang saw the white coats they wore, adorned with ornate patterns, Sergeant Hwang’s face brightened without them realizing it.
There was only one group these days that wore such outdated clothing.
‘The PAB! They finally came!’
If they were PAB agents, it made sense that they had appeared from nowhere.
The Player Administration Bureau.
Known as the PAB, it was an organization specially formed to regulate high-level Players.
Naturally, most of its agents were high-level Players as well.
In particular, if they were space-type Players capable of using Spatial Movement, they might not be able to stop the Brass Bull, but saving the mother and daughter would be easy.
The immediate tragedy had been avoided.
Relieved by that fact, Sergeant Hwang was soon confused.
The PAB agents, whom Sergeant Hwang had thought would flee with the mother and daughter, remained firmly where they stood.
‘What? Why aren’t they moving?’
Shing.
Startled by their unexpected behavior, Sergeant Hwang soon understood their intent when the man in a white cloak drew his sword and stepped forward.
“Crazy bastard! He’s going to stop it head-on?!”
He must be crazy enough to want to die.
That was what Sergeant Hwang thought as they watched the man.
Seo Yong-chan might only be level 80-something, but that placed him in the top 0.01 percent of Players worldwide.
The Brass Bull was also a combat summon.
Yet this man intended to stop that monster’s charge alone, with nothing but that pathetic sword.
It was madness by any measure.
Only the ten great Monarchs, or a few Grand Dukes comparable to them, could do something like that.
But the moment he moved.
Sergeant Hwang could only gape, their mouth open wide after all their cursing.
Slaaash! Crash!
One step as he severed its thick neck.
One step as he cut off its four legs, still moving despite its death.
One step as he spun around and kicked its flank.
In just three steps, the man slaughtered the Brass Bull and sent even its remaining body crashing onto the roadside.
Then he sheathed his sword.
And complained to the woman standing behind him.
“Hey, you said we only had to catch a drunk. What’s with the bull head?”
“Looks like he kept it around as something to snack on.”
“Is there some bastard who snacks on brass?”
“Any Player with a Skill that lets them consume and use metal should be registered, probably.”
“...Fuck. There really isn’t a single decent Player in this world.”
“I’m a Player too.”
“That’s why I said there isn’t a single decent person.”
“What exactly do you think I am, Team Leader?!”
For a long while, Sergeant Hwang stared blankly at the man, who had destroyed a bull as large as a house yet chatted as casually as though he had swatted a fly.
The dazed Sergeant Hwang came back to their senses at Officer Kim’s vacant voice from the passenger seat.
“Sergeant Hwang, what did we just see?”
“A level 80-something summoned creature get destroyed by one person in less than a second.”
“Does that even make sense?”
“...Maybe if it were a Monarch-class Player?”
“But I’ve never heard of a Monarch like that.”
“Of course you haven’t.”
Sergeant Hwang agreed without thinking.
Among the countless Players in the world, only ten possessed the right to be called Monarchs.
Only those who had contracted with Monarch-class Constellations and reached level 100, the ultimate realm, were Monarchs.
But as far as Sergeant Hwang knew, none of the ten Monarchs, nor any Grand Duke-class Player ranked in the top hundred, was a white-haired man like that.
‘No, wait. White hair?’
Sergeant Hwang’s eyes widened.
Then Sergeant Hwang examined the man closely.
That flawless white hair reminded Sergeant Hwang of someone.
A moment later, after spotting a small scar near the white-haired man’s eye, Sergeant Hwang unconsciously murmured a name.
“Could it be... Aspelder?”
“What? Aspelder? You mean Rimon Aspelder?”
“Yes. I’m certain.”
Sergeant Hwang spoke with conviction.
Few people mentioned him now, but he had once been the most famous man in the world.
Before the Iron Age began and Players appeared, he had even been called humanity’s guardian.
“The last Sword Master of humanity.”
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