Chapter 6

Sword King Lee Hyuk-soo

Suddenly, the world Park Chan-woo perceived began to change.

A giant eye floated within the full moon, its gaze sweeping across the Earth.

Rifts ran dangerously through buildings, as if they might collapse at any moment, and vines and plants had taken root in the cement ground.

Dust-covered cars were scattered everywhere, with shattered windows and deflated tires—there wasn’t a single functioning vehicle in sight.

If there was a hell, it might look something like this.

‘This Abyss is in surprisingly good condition.’

But Park Chan-woo admired it in a pure sense. The state of the Abyss was exceptionally good—better than any ‘Night Abyss’ he could remember.

It was probably because it was still the first night.

…Is this a joke?

They ‘should be able to succeed’?

This Abyss was designed with failure in mind from the start. A survival rate set precisely at 1% meant that they were certain the hunt for the Twelve Divine Generals would fail and that 1.98 million people would die.

That was the bet all the creators had placed.

‘It won’t go the way you think.’

There were no exceptions. Miracles never happen.

…At least, that’s what the creators believed.

But Park Chan-woo was determined to be a complete irregularity.

Even if it meant making enemies of all the creators, he had no intention of letting things go according to their plans.

Besides, if the situation became truly dire, he could just use an escape coin. Even this Night Abyss could be escaped with an escape coin.

In any case, the Dragon General had appeared in Seoul, and it was one of the Twelve Divine Generals. The one that all 20,000 survivors of the ‘First Night’s Abyss’ unanimously agreed was the strongest General.

Of course, among those 20,000 survivors was Sword King Lee Hyuk-soo.

There was no time to waste if he was going to kill the Dragon General, who had driven everyone to the brink of despair.

‘First, I need to farm.’

Park Chan-woo burst out of his house.

***

Farming in the Night Abyss is surprisingly simple.

‘You just need to find things that shouldn’t be in this Abyss.’

What kinds of things shouldn’t be here?

The answer was simpler than expected.

Park Chan-woo started by searching the cars parked nearby. Before long, he found a skeleton strapped in with a seatbelt inside one of the cars.

Thunk!

Screech!

He immediately smashed the window with his World Tree Staff. Reaching through the broken window, he unlocked the door. Then, he unbuckled the seatbelt around the skeleton’s waist.

Poof!

With a puff of smoke, the skeleton transformed into an iron shield.

‘Corpses don’t remain in the Abyss.’

It had seemed natural for the skeleton to be sitting there, but by the Abyss’s nature, there shouldn’t have been a skeleton at all. And certainly not one strapped in with a seatbelt.

You just had to find these ‘anomalies’.

Things that didn’t belong in the Abyss, that shouldn’t be there.

The more pronounced the anomaly, the higher the grade of equipment or tools it provided.

For about 30 minutes, Park Chan-woo continued searching through vehicles.

“Huu…”

But the results were less fruitful than he’d hoped.

Of course, the real farming hadn’t even started yet.

Still, just this little bit of activity left his whole body aching.

His entire body felt drained of strength.

Park Chan-woo got into an empty car, closed the door, and sat down.

“…My physical condition is pathetic.”

At Level -98, this situation would keep repeating until he returned to a normal level.

Every second counted, but pushing himself further would only lead to disaster.

It was better to rest when he could.

‘If I can raise my strength and stamina, I should be able to improve.’

Physical power is directly proportional to strength and stamina.

If even a little movement makes you tired and exhausted, increasing your stats is the way to fix it.

Though he could somewhat manage by relying on the unique options of his equipment, it still wasn’t enough.

The stats he could gain from unique options alone had clear limits. Even the Eternal-grade ‘World Tree Staff’ only increased his magic power by 10.

‘If things go as I expect, I can overcome this.’

But it was doable.

The countless possibilities in his mind—if he could just bring a few of them to reality, overcoming his physical condition would be entirely possible.

The question was whether he could survive until then.

“Help! Somebody help!”

It was about 15 minutes after he had started resting when he heard a scream nearby.

A man holding a sword was running, shouting in terror. But his posture was awkward, more of a stumbling walk than a run, using the sword sheath as a crutch.

An arrow had pierced his right leg.

“Why… Why are you doing this to me…?”

Swish!

Thud!

An arrow flew from behind and pierced the man’s neck. He fell to the ground, dead on the spot.

…Not long after, a man with a black scarf covering his mouth stood beside the corpse. Only his eyes were visible as he reached for the sword sheath in the dead man’s hand.

But then—

Whoosh!

The sheath disintegrated into dust.

“What the… So I can’t take something that someone else already possesses?”

The man tilted his head in confusion. He quickly scanned the area before leaving the scene.

‘The Apostles are already on the move.’

Park Chan-woo slowly raised his body and watched the direction the man had disappeared into.

…If he had been resting outside, it would have been him struck by that arrow. He didn’t have the stamina to dodge it.

Moreover, the man who fired the fatal arrow was undoubtedly an Apostle.

There were several reasons why Park Chan-woo was certain of that.

‘The Black Lion Bow. It’s an Epic-grade bow with a homing option for the arrows. Only high-level archers can use it, so if someone is already wielding it, they must have a contract with a creator as an Apostle.’

Apostles were puppets of the creators they contracted with. In other words, they were enemies of humanity.

Even if they didn’t contract with the intention of harming humanity, they inevitably ended up acting against it—just like that guy a moment ago.

They become intoxicated with power and learn to trample others.

So there was no way Park Chan-woo could think favorably of the Apostles.

They were a hindrance to the unification of humanity.

The higher you climbed in rank, the more suspicion grew. If you accidentally became comrades with an Apostle, you could never be sure when they might stab you in the back.

The problem was, if they didn’t reveal themselves, there was no way to identify them.

‘Damn Apostles.’

Of course, Park Chan-woo knew. He knew about a few Apostles who would later cause major incidents.

For instance… no one ever imagined that the first human to reach level 99—the one hailed as a hero and leader of humanity—was actually an Apostle.

Park Chan-woo caught his breath and stepped out of the vehicle.

To take on people like that, he needed to farm more effectively.

‘Found it. The anomaly.’

As soon as he got out of the car, Park Chan-woo approached the corpse that had been shot by the arrow.

That corpse was the anomaly.

‘Corpses don’t remain in the Abyss.’

Normally, they vanish upon death. Just like the sheath and sword had disappeared, the corpse should have vanished as well. But the man’s body remained.

Park Chan-woo spoke to the corpse beside him.

“Stop pretending to be dead, demon.”

Because, in truth, it wasn’t dead.

If it had drawn its last breath but hadn’t vanished, that meant the corpse wasn’t human.

Flash!

As soon as Park Chan-woo finished speaking, the man who was presumed dead opened his eyes.

But his eyes weren’t human.

They were narrow, like a lizard’s pupils.

The man spoke.

“…How did you figure out who I am?”

“The stench was too strong.”

Park Chan-woo replied, pinching his nose.

He had found it.

From the beginning, Park Chan-woo had been searching for demons in this Abyss. Demons in the form of humans—anomalies that should never exist in the Abyss.

Demons in the Abyss never take on human forms.

The demon scowled.

“Damn it…!”

Poof!

The demon transformed into smoke.

Whistle.

Park Chan-woo let out a low whistle.

The demon left behind a set of equipment upon its death.

As Park Chan-woo put on the gear, he checked his reflection in the car window and let out a small laugh.

‘I look just like a demon priest.’

Holding a staff in his hand, he indeed looked every bit the part of a demon priest. It would surely have startled anyone who saw him.

Just then—

—“Come on down to the ‘Great Water’ nightclub!”
—“Look for manager ‘Andariel’!”
—“100% booking success!”

A promotional vehicle drove by, making a noisy ruckus.

Park Chan-woo’s ears perked up.

‘…There it is.’

An enormous anomaly. Something that clearly had no place in the Abyss.

That was it.

‘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 could even obtain a class there.

He quickly moved toward the source of the sound.

After walking for some time, he found the ‘Great Water Nightclub’ illuminated by bright neon signs.

“What am I supposed to do here?”

“Wow, there are a lot of people…”

The entrance was buzzing with noise. Roughly two hundred people were gathered.

Even the man with the scarf covering his mouth—the one who had fired the arrow—was there.

In a way, Park Chan-woo was grateful to him. The corpse he had left behind had helped him identify the demon.

But it wasn’t just that guy present.

‘Why is Team Leader Kim Byung-han here?’

Team Leader Kim Byung-han, clad in armor and holding a sword, was there as well.

Why had that coward crawled into the Abyss?

But Chan-woo’s attention didn’t linger on that guy for long.

There was another figure in sight, someone who made Kim Byung-han seem insignificant by comparison.

‘…Sword King Lee Hyuk-soo.’

The third human to reach level 99, a genius who had glimpsed the ultimate truth of the sword.

The man who had once made Park Chan-woo despair with his overwhelming swordsmanship.

Lee Hyuk-soo was now standing right in front of him.

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