WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Max-Level Swordsman of Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 10
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Name: Kim Hanrim. Unaffiliated player.
Primary weapon: an anti-materiel sniper rifle, plus an assortment of high-powered explosives.
Kim Hanrim knew what kind of bastard Kang Doseok was. An unaffiliated swordsman. A man who killed people for money and wandered around alone, without a guild.
For a player to survive in Netron City without a faction meant more than simply being lucky.
It meant they were strong.
And Kang Doseok’s main weapon was a sword. Kim Hanrim knew very well that anyone who survived for long as a swordsman in this business was never to be underestimated.
Ordinary methods wouldn’t work. Facing him head-on would be suicide. What, then? How could Kim Hanrim recover the star Kang Doseok had snatched away?
That was why Kim Hanrim had chosen to snipe him.
After finding the location of Kang Doseok’s penthouse, Kim Hanrim had set up in the building opposite and pulled the trigger.
No matter how impressive a player was, a .50-caliber round through the temple would finish them. Just like that. At this distance, with the shot perfectly prepared, no one had ever escaped Kim Hanrim’s aim.
But Kang Doseok hadn’t died.
Clang!
Through the scope, a blade flashed. Just after the large-caliber round punched through the window, Kang Doseok’s sword struck it and changed its course. Even after seeing it happen, Kim Hanrim couldn’t immediately understand.
The bullet came back.
It tore backward through the rain, following the exact path it had just traveled.
Straight toward Kim Hanrim.
“What...”
Thwack!
Blood burst from the back of Kim Hanrim’s right shoulder. The impact shoved him backward. The rifle’s stock scraped across the rooftop, and a scream escaped before he could stop it.
“Urgh!”
He grabbed his shoulder on reflex.
A skilled swordsman could knock bullets aside. Kim Hanrim knew that.
He had seen people like that a few times. Monsters who watched the muzzle and dodged, raised their swords at the instant of firing, and, with some luck, deflected the bullet.
But that was only knocking it aside.
Catching a large-caliber round fired from over 400 meters away with a sword, then sending it back along the exact same path, was another matter entirely.
Swordsmanship alone couldn’t explain that feat. It belonged to the realm of skills.
Kim Hanrim’s face twisted.
‘Crazy bastard.’
Rain ran down his cheeks. Blood kept pouring from his right shoulder. His fingers tingled. He tried to grip the rifle again, but couldn’t put enough strength into his hand.
‘He’s got a skill like that?’
At that moment, Kang Doseok moved in the scope.
Beyond the broken window.
Kang Doseok was looking at him. Straight at him. As though he had known where Kim Hanrim was from the start.
Kim Hanrim clenched his teeth.
“Fuck.”
He grabbed his shoulder on reflex. Blood slipped between his fingers. The hot blood washed away in the cold rain and spread across the rooftop.
Holding back a groan, Kim Hanrim rolled away. His shoulder hurt as though it were tearing apart, but he didn’t stop.
If the first shot failed, abandon the position. That was how a sniper stayed alive.
With his left hand, he pulled a small syringe from his waist and plunged it into his shoulder. A foamy blood-clotting agent was forced into the wound. His head spun.
The bleeding stopped for a moment, but searing pain took its place.
“Haah, fuck. This fucking... fuck.”
Swallowing more curses, Kim Hanrim activated his skill.
His skin and clothes faded to the color of rain-soaked concrete. His outline blurred, and the rain running over his body blended into the background. From a distance, the rooftop would look empty.
The skill Camouflage.
It was a concealment utility skill that blurred the body’s color, outline, and even thermal response to match the surroundings.
It wasn’t perfect. He was bleeding too much. His right shoulder was ruined. He would have to abandon the rifle, too.
Kim Hanrim kicked the rifle aside and ran for the edge of the roof. A wire was already secured there. He hooked it to his waist and threw himself over.
As he dropped, the penthouse window came into view.
Beyond the broken glass.
Kang Doseok was watching him.
Through the rain, distance, and darkness, their eyes seemed to meet.
Kim Hanrim ground his teeth.
“You’ve got fucking good eyesight. Bastard.”
The wire pulled tight. His body slid down the building’s wall and behind a billboard on a lower floor.
* * *
Kang Doseok launched himself straight out of the broken window.
The road dozens of floors below came into view. Rain and neon light assaulted his eyes at once. Squinting slightly, Kang Doseok looked ahead.
A flying vehicle was passing between the buildings.
Crash!
Kang Doseok’s foot slammed into its roof. The metal panel caved in, and a scream came from the driver’s seat.
“What the fuck!”
The driver’s curses rang out behind him. Kang Doseok had already leaped toward the next flying vehicle.
Crash! Crash!
He jumped from vehicle to vehicle, using them as stepping stones. The neon sign he landed on last swayed beneath his feet. He kicked off its end and caught a pipe on the opposite building’s outer wall. Then he pulled hard with his arms, launching himself upward.
A moment later, the rooftop railing drew close.
Crunch!
Kang Doseok smashed through the railing and landed on the roof.
The shooter was gone.
A sniper rifle lay abandoned on the ground. Its scope was shattered, and its barrel was wet with rain. Blood was scattered across the rooftop.
Kim Hanrim’s blood.
Kang Doseok crouched and dipped his fingertip into it.
Still warm. In that case...
Kang Doseok murmured, “Blood Tracking.”
Sssss.
A thin red line rose above his palm. Beginning at the rooftop floor, it led over the railing and down behind a billboard on a lower floor.
He stood up.
Just then, static came from an old maintenance speaker mounted in a corner of the roof.
[Hey.]
Kang Doseok looked up.
[Didn’t think you’d come flying over using cars as stepping stones. You crazy bastard. You’re really something.]
“Kim Hanrim?”
[You’ve already dug up my details? Fuck. If I’d stayed put, I’d have been dead.]
“Nice of you to come to me. Saved me the time of hunting you down.”
Kim Hanrim’s voice carried a smile through the speaker. But his breathing was rough. Perhaps because of the shoulder wound, his voice wavered at the ends of sentences.
[Let me ask you one thing, though. What was that?]
“What?”
[Knocking a bullet aside with your sword, fine. You’re a swordsman. But how the hell did you send it back at me? Was that a skill?]
Kang Doseok chuckled.
“You think human reflexes could do that? Of course it was a skill.”
[Fuck, what kind of bullshit skill is that? You crazy bastard.]
“I don’t think you have time to stand around chatting.”
The speaker went quiet for a moment.
[Yeah. You’re right. I don’t.]
Then, a moment later...
Tick.
A small sound came from beneath Kang Doseok’s foot. He immediately pulled it back.
Boooom!
The rooftop exploded. Chunks of concrete and rebar shot upward. Kang Doseok swung his sword, cutting through the debris. Smoke mixed with rain and covered the rooftop.
Even through it all, the red line remained clear.
Kang Doseok vaulted over the railing.
A narrow passage along the wall led behind the billboard below. It was the route Kim Hanrim had taken.
Kang Doseok stepped on a pipe and dropped down. One floor, two floors, three floors. Rain struck his face, and empty offices flashed past beyond the windows.
The moment his feet touched the passage behind the billboard, three small ceiling-mounted turrets turned toward him.
Ratatatat!
Kang Doseok ducked. His blade flashed three times. Two turrets were cut down, and the last spat out a grenade.
Kang Doseok knocked it upward with the back of his blade.
Boom!
The explosion tore away the passage ceiling. Metal fragments rained down.
[You just won’t die.]
The speaker came on again.
Kang Doseok followed the red line.
“You’re not some five-year-old brat. What’s with all the toys?”
[That’s my style. Shoot from far away, blow things up, then get out.]
At the end of the corridor, the smell of blood suddenly grew strong.
The left wall, the right wall, the ceiling pipes, the cracks in the floor.
Blood covered the entire corridor. This wasn’t just a few splashes. Someone had burst several blood bags to overwhelm the scent.
An attempt to throw off pursuit.
But the blood Kang Doseok had collected at the firing position was definitely Kim Hanrim’s. Once he had obtained a pure sample, there was no risk of confusing it with someone else’s blood.
Blood Tracking was a skill that tracked the blood’s owner, their living body.
A blood vessel beneath the back of Kang Doseok’s hand slowly writhed. The thin red line above his palm never wavered. It ignored the blood on the walls, the pools on the floor, and the blood running along the ceiling pipes.
The line pointed straight ahead.
Not toward spilled blood, but toward flowing blood.
Toward a body that was still alive.
Kang Doseok walked down the passage ahead.
He headed for the elevator shaft in front of him.
The breathing through the speaker faltered slightly.
[Why are you going that way?]
“Because that’s where you are.”
[There’s plenty of blood elsewhere, too. Sniff. How did you know? Fuck.]
Kang Doseok kicked the shaft door. It buckled inward and fell.
The red line led down into the darkness.
Bzzzt. The speaker cut out.
Kim Hanrim was hiding in a maintenance passage inside the elevator shaft.
He was gasping for breath. His right shoulder was going numb. The clotting agent wasn’t holding. His fingertips kept trembling.
“Fuck.”
Kim Hanrim used Camouflage again. His outline faded to match the maintenance passage wall. His body blended into the rusted metal, black oil stains, and wet concrete.
This one skill had kept Kim Hanrim alive for a long time.
If no one could see you, you wouldn’t die.
See first, shoot first, get out first. That was all it took.
Kim Hanrim clenched his teeth. He took four small discs from his waist and tossed them up the shaft. The discs stuck to the walls, quietly blinking red.
A moment later, Kang Doseok jumped down.
Gritting his teeth, Kim Hanrim pressed the remote.
Beep.
The discs on the shaft walls glowed red at the same time.
Kaboom!
The explosion shook the inside of the elevator shaft. Chains and cables snapped, and an entire section of rail broke free. Flames, dust, and metal filings poured into the darkness.
Kim Hanrim didn’t look toward the exit. If that swordsman had survived, sticking his neck out to check would only get it cut off.
He immediately shoved open the door inside the maintenance passage with his shoulder and escaped. Beyond it lay a shuttered shopping floor. A food court that had gone out of business long ago. The signs were dark, and counters and automatic cooking machines stood in rows in the gloom.
Kim Hanrim slipped inside. Staggering onward, he planted sticky bombs everywhere his hand could reach.
With Camouflage active, his body had taken on the rusty colors of the cooking machines. Kim Hanrim pressed hard against his shoulder to keep blood from dripping.
He even quieted his breathing.
Just once more.
One more explosion would kill him.
Screeech! Crrrunch!
The entire entrance door tore apart. Kang Doseok stepped inside.
A rain-soaked coat. A sword in his hand. A red line extending above his palm.
Kim Hanrim clenched his teeth.
‘That fucking red line. Don’t tell me...’
Kang Doseok walked slowly. He wasn’t in a hurry. With his sword tip lowered, he came between the counters.
Kim Hanrim pressed against the back of an automatic cooking machine and eased a gun muzzle out just a little.
Kang Doseok stopped.
His head slowly turned.
Straight toward Kim Hanrim’s hiding place.
“Give up. You’re dead either way.”
“Fuck you!”
Kim Hanrim pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet punched through the cooking machine. Kang Doseok twisted his head aside. The round skimmed past his cheek and shattered the glass door behind him.
Kim Hanrim immediately threw himself toward the emergency railing at the back.
He vaulted over it and jumped down. At the same time, he pressed the small bomb in his left hand beneath the railing.
Clack.
The bomb stuck fast. Kim Hanrim kicked off the railing and dropped. As he fell, he turned and pulled the remote from inside his coat.
“Get buried under the whole fucking building and die!”
His thumb pressed the remote.
Beep.
The explosives beneath the railing went off in a chain.
Kabababoom!
The sticky bombs planted during his escape all flashed red at once.
Even as he fell, Kim Hanrim grinned, baring his teeth.
No matter how fast that swordsman was, he couldn’t survive an explosion like this.
With this much explosive going off inside that cramped shopping floor, there wouldn’t be a body left. Deflecting bullets with a sword, following blood, moving insanely fast, none of it mattered.
When the building collapsed, he would be crushed with it.
That was the end.
Kabababoom!
The explosion erupted.
The shopping floor’s entire outer wall tore away. Steel beams bent, and all the windows shattered at once. The concrete floor buckled downward and collapsed.
The shock wave hurled Kim Hanrim away.
He spun once in midair. His view flipped upside down, neon lights mixing with rain and the collapsing shopping floor.
Still, laughter came first. A fall from this height wouldn’t kill him. Once he landed, he only needed to get his bearings, stand up, and head back.
“Ha, you dumb motherfu...”
Then, a moment later...
“Got you.”
Along with the familiar voice, a burning sensation spread through Kim Hanrim’s neck.
“Huh...?”
Tup-tup, tup.
Skrrrk.
Shraaak!
* * *
Kang Doseok hit the ground, along with Kim Hanrim’s headless body and severed head.
Kang Doseok slowly looked over Kim Hanrim’s corpse.
“...Camouflage.”
Killing a player allowed you to obtain one of the stars they had absorbed during their life.
Small stars rose above Kim Hanrim’s body.
One red.
One orange.
And one translucent.
Kang Doseok looked at the translucent star. It was the color of a stealth utility skill.
That meant it was the skill that had concealed Kim Hanrim’s body until moments ago.
Kang Doseok reached out.
The translucent star was drawn into his palm. Watching it, he murmured, “Camouflage.”
The color of the back of his hand immediately faded.
The color of wet concrete spread across his skin, and the outlines of his fingers disappeared into the darkness.
The hem of his coat blended with the shadows behind him, its edges growing indistinct.
Kang Doseok looked down at his hand.
“So that’s how you use it.”
Just then, a vehicle passed on the road.
Its headlights shone on Kang Doseok.
His wet coat looked gray, much like the asphalt. His face and hands darkened to match the alley behind him. Even with light shining straight on him, no human shadow fell across the alley.
The vehicle passed straight by without its occupants noticing Kang Doseok.
Watching it go, he made a brief comment.
“...Not bad.”
Kang Doseok turned.
His figure slowly disappeared into the darkness.
Before long, his terminal rang. It was Kabel.
[I dug into Kim Hanrim’s background, like you asked.]
Kang Doseok looked down at the screen as he walked through the rain.
[The Cheongmyeong guild hired Kim Hanrim. From what I could piece together, it looks like they wanted to get rid of you before the contamination storm arrived. Talk to Amy for the details. She’s the one who did the digging.]
The Cheongmyeong guild.
The bastards he had run into over a Skill Star a few days earlier.
A lousy-looking mage, a stinking dog, and an idiot shouting with a gun in hand. The emblems on their shoulders came back to him.
“I thought they’d backed off...”
Kang Doseok raised a finger and tapped his terminal. An electronic business card appeared on the screen. It was plastered with pink hearts.
He looked down at it for a moment. Just as he raised his hand to contact Amy...
[Really, really♡?]
[Were you about to reach out to me♡?]
[That makes me happy♡♡♡♡♡♡]
Messages streamed across his terminal.
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