20 Squad. An Unbroken Chain of Bad Fate.
"Has even the mind technique of my sect been leaked in this damned world?"
He wasn't really asking Seowoon.
It was more of a lament to himself.
Watching him, Seowoon shook his head.
"I didn't learn it from an item, if that's what you're thinking."
At that single sentence, the man's eyes widened.
If it wasn't learned through an item, how could this complete stranger possess the same energy as him? He couldn't understand it at all.
"I was personally taught by Master Jang Docheon."
At those words, it wasn't just the man who was surprised.
Every player in the squad who hailed from the martial world widened their eyes and stared at Seowoon.
Under the weight of all those gazes, Seowoon spoke calmly.
"When I first arrived in this world, I had the fortune of crossing paths with the Master. Out of kindness, he bestowed his inner technique upon me."
"Why?!"
Again, the question wasn't truly directed at Seowoon.
It was a primal response, triggered by witnessing something that shouldn't have been possible.
"Well, who knows."
Of course, he could explain the situation at the time—the strange bond that had formed, the Master's appreciation of his talents, and the Master's regret over wasting them. But he had no intention of explaining all that in detail.
The martial artist, who had briefly let his confusion show on his face, suddenly grew serious.
"It may be brazen to say this under such circumstances, but with my Master's name on the line, I swear I have no ulterior motives."
The players' gazes flicked between Seowoon and the man, as if watching a gripping drama unfold.
Just as everyone held their breath, wondering what he would say next, the man continued.
"Fellow disciple. Since Master passed on his true techniques to you, whether you cut me down or not, we are now disciples of the same sect. That makes us martial brothers. It's the rule of our world—so even if you kill me, I'll hold no grudge."
No one noticed the slight twitch at the corner of Seowoon's lips.
"Come now. I'm not that foolish. May I call you senior brother?"
His exaggerated tone was obvious, almost theatrical—but only Kichan caught on.
The other players watched with awe, as if they were witnessing a heartfelt reunion.
Well—except for Kaite and a few of the knights.
Most of the team wanted this relationship to flourish—for one very practical reason.
Squad strength.
Now that they had solidified as a fixed team, they all knew from experience how crucial good synergy could be in countless games.
And now, before them, stood a disciple of Jang Docheon.
There were said to be only four disciples of that legendary martial master—and none of the martial players could forget that there was only one disciple as young as this man.
The Jade Valley Prodigy, Jinryung.
Always overshadowed by Yeo Haoran, the strongest late-stage expert of all time, but still the most promising among the late bloomers aside from her. Jinrong was the last disciple taken by the Jade Valley Immortal in his twilight years.
Having such a person on their side could only mean higher survival chances.
The fantasy-world-origin players also instinctively knew that this man was no weakling, and so they too hoped the two would join forces.
"If Master taught you, then like it or not, you're my martial brother. Call me whatever you like."
As soon as Jinryung gave his answer, a perceptive wizard among them began casting healing magic on him.
When the other two mages followed suit, the significant wounds Jinryung had sustained healed quickly.
"Now that you've joined us, let's finish looting and catch up."
Juriel casually confirmed his integration into the team.
Nodding at her words, Jinryung stepped into the village.
Once the looting and item distribution were complete, Seowoon, Jinryung, and Juriel sat face to face in a small house.
"What about the rest of your team…?"
"They were all wiped out."
At Jinryung's downcast words, Juriel's and Seowoon's expressions shifted in opposite directions.
Regret passed over Juliel's face, while a flicker of satisfaction crossed Seowoon's.
But the moment Jinryung lifted his head again, their expressions once more aligned.
"You must've faced a powerful enemy."
"Don't even get me started. He wasn't known in our world—not even of age, possibly just in his teens—and yet he cut through us like butter. I never imagined a teenage master could be hiding out there."
Seowoon's expression hardened at those words.
A teenage expert who could cut through ranks—that brought one person to mind.
No way…
"They were operating like guerrillas. Just four of them—and they wiped out our entire squad in an instant. I've faced many players in this game, but rarely have I met someone with that level of power disparity."
"I-I see. Do you remember where you encountered them?"
Jinryung opened the map and pointed to a forest not far from their location.
"Valley of Tribulation. Right here."
Juriel quickly activated her map and calculated the distance.
"Half a day's travel…"
Ignoring her muttering, Seowoon asked again.
"You managed to escape alive, though."
"The moment I sensed the gap in power, my team focused all their efforts on giving me a chance to escape…"
Even as he spoke, Jinryung's voice trailed off, clearly ashamed that he'd survived alone.
"I see."
After a brief silence, Seowoon tried to shift the mood.
"How is the Master doing?"
"Master… entered closed-door cultivation not long ago."
Did he really attain enlightenment in this world?
Once the conversation ended, the players decided to spend the first night of the game in the mountain village, with sentries posted.
That night, as fate would have it, Seowoon and Juriel ended up on watch together.
Seowoon, who had secretly hoped to be paired with Kichan or Jinryung, glanced at Juriel with a hint of disappointment.
"What do you think about the guerrillas who wiped out Jinryung's squad?"
Seowoon followed her gaze up to the sky, where the stars looked as if they might tumble down at any moment. Without a moment's hesitation, he answered.
"That's someone we definitely have to avoid."
The immediacy of his response—almost as if it didn't require thought—made her nod.
"Survivors."
1893–2000
***
Tanaka Yukio → Mark Leonard (Killed with swordsmanship)
Once Seowoon confirmed the survivor, he scrolled through the list, checking the names one by one.
Namsagwang → Cowen Hartlen (Killed with internal energy technique)
He came across the name he had hoped not to see. A name that had floated, unwanted, into his mind. Lifting his head again, he looked up at the bright stars above.
Just then, Lilingwei, who wasn't on watch duty that night, stepped out quietly and approached them.
"Liling! You're not on night watch tonight, are you?"
"Just couldn't sleep."
As Juriel addressed her with a nickname, Seowoon used the moment to gather his thoughts and open up a little.
"You two seem to go back a ways."
"We were together in the previous game. We ranked up together too. After that, we formed a fixed squad and kept in touch even after returning to the real world. We live in different countries, but strangely, our environments are quite similar. We just click."
He nodded at that.
'They're both daughters from wealthy families.'
It was obvious. From the way they dressed—refined and well-kept, unlike most martial artists—and how even Kaite had been deferential upon hearing their names, there was no doubt both Juriel and Lilingwei came from prestigious backgrounds.
Watching the two of them, Seowoon shifted the topic.
"Let me ask you something. This game, Cloyd… it's a place where people who were once enemies can end up as allies the next day, right?"
The two women paused, considering the intent behind the question, then nodded.
"That's generally true. Unless there's a real grudge, people don't bring in-game conflicts into the real world—or even into the next game."
"Then let me ask another question. If, in the middle of the game, someone is wounded so badly they can't even move a finger… and another player kills them—would they remember that player?"
The two nodded simultaneously.
"Even if it's just a game, it's hard to forget the face of someone who killed you."
"Alright. One last question. Let's say that player had pretty much secured the TOP1 rank… and then went through that. Would they hold a grudge against the one who killed them?"
This time, the two answered very differently.
Juriel looked genuinely thoughtful, while Lilingwei frowned, clearly displeased.
Their answers followed suit.
"I don't think I'd hold a grudge. I've died plenty of times in this game—and killed just as many. In the end, it's just a game."
"If it were me, I'd carry that grudge for life. I'd live only to get revenge."
Now it was Seowoon who fell into deep thought.
'If it's Namsagwang… he's probably more in line with the martial artist types. The odds are high he'd feel the same way.'
"We should probably start moving early tomorrow."
Juriel nodded, sensing there must have been some bad history between Seowoon and that young martial master.
Lilingwei leaned slightly against the fence next to Seowoon, prompting a twitch in Juriel's eye—she'd been mentally redrawing their route for the next day and clearly didn't like the sudden closeness.
"Ahem."
With a deliberate cough, she too moved in and stood next to Seowoon.
"Here."
Lilingwei held out a small vial that fit neatly in one hand, taken from her subspace.
Seowoon accepted it immediately. He'd already experienced the power of the blood toxin she'd given him last time.
"It's the same blood toxin as before."
She turned her gaze away after saying that—her face completely flushed red, though the dark night sky concealed it well.
Still, Juriel caught the slight tremble in her voice and the weakness it tried to hide.
As the players assigned to the next watch emerged from the barracks, the three of them returned to their respective rooms, each deep in thought.
Thus came to an end the long, eventful first day of Squad 20.
***
A boy dressed in a blue noble's robe swung a massive sugang blade—well over three spans long—in a wide arc. As he passed by, the tree concealing a player with a bow split in two, and the player's waist was severed clean off.
The player died without even screaming, without even knowing how it happened. Blood poured out—and then the body vanished without a trace.
"Elder, I think we've wiped out the players in this area."
"That's why I said we should've moved toward the main castle."
The boy sounded annoyed, while the knight—who'd just been called 'Elder'—only shrugged.
"Didn't think you'd be this strong, Elder."
A man in a blue tracksuit and sneakers chimed in from beside them.
"Yeah. I didn't expect this kind of power ride either."
"Let's wrap it up here for today. Tomorrow… hmm. We should head toward Jugang Castle. Clean out the nearby players and move straight for the boss monster."
"With Elder here, we could probably even take down an epic monster this run."
"We'll wipe the floor with all the good ones."
The man in the tracksuit tossed a small cube from his subspace. It expanded into a sizable tent—cozy and well-furnished.
"Only 140 kills to go."
The boy's eyes gleamed with confidence.
***
Juriel's decision to completely overhaul the original route they'd planned back in the lobby left no room for disagreement.
Especially among the players from the martial world—they all nodded in agreement.
When they heard someone was out there swinging a sugang three spans long and slaughtering players, a cold sweat trickled down their backs.
"There are plenty of experts in the martial world, but I've never heard of anyone like that," someone muttered.
It wasn't that they didn't believe Jinryung.
"I couldn't have imagined it myself until I saw it," Jinryung replied.
Everyone nodded in grim agreement.
By the second day of detouring around the map's outer perimeter, their item farming was limited to a few scattered slash-and-burn villages. Naturally, Kaite's expression was getting worse by the hour.
'That greedy bastard's gonna throw a tantrum soon,' Seowoon thought.
One thing he'd learned from playing AOS games: a guy who shows his colors once keeps showing them. The ones who play politics and stir up drama usually make it obvious from the start—talking sharply, exaggerating everything, and acting like victims by default.
And Seowoon had already seen all those traits in Kaite. His assessment wasn't wrong.
Kaite hadn't said anything yet because of the team atmosphere, but he was burning inside. Why the hell were they giving up farming and going in circles just to avoid an enemy they might not even meet?
And why did they have to accept a guy like Seowoon—someone all these players kept backing?
Still, if there was one key difference between Kaite and the AOS players Seowoon had faced before, it was this:
Trolling wasn't an option here.
That's exactly why Seowoon was waiting for him to make a move.
'Go ahead and try something. I'll grind you into dust.'
-BANG!
-CLANG!
A familiar gunshot rang out, and the shield around Kaien—who was leading the group—shattered instantly.
Kaien twisted his body and fell back just in time as multiple layers of barriers sprang up to shield him.
"Hyung!"
Kichan's voice rang out. Seowoon gave a nod in response.
As the players scanned the area in alarm, Hamit spoke up.
"One o'clock. Mid-slope of the mountain."
They turned their eyes quickly. About a kilometer away, the glint of sunlight off something metallic caught their attention.
Hamit had already transformed into a ballista. Seowoon loaded a long, piercing arrow and drew the bowstring, channeling his inner energy into both bow and bolt until the drawstring felt heavy with power.
Bang!
Another gunshot rang out, and at the same time, an arrow flew from the bow.
As a crack spread across the barrier right in front of Seowoon's face and the bullet clattered to the ground, one of the mages shouted,
"An arrow hit the eye of the guy using that weird weapon!"
Hearing this from a mage who had cast a spell to zoom in and scout from afar, Seowoon pulled out a high-powered monocular he had brought from the real world.
The moment he saw the blood-smeared, shattered scope, a rush of indescribable satisfaction surged through him.
"A lucky shot like this… unreal."
They had at least ten mages on their side.
Since they could maintain barriers all day long, Seowoon had fired an unenchanted armor-piercing arrow just to test the waters—and it had hit perfectly.
"This must be what they call a critical hit."
But the other players, unaware of the details, looked at Seowoon with eyes full of admiration.
Especially the players from the martial arts world— their gazes burned even hotter.
"Master, your archery is amazing. Did you learn archery skills too?"
"I didn't actually learn this through an item or anything."
Hearing that, the players once again couldn't hide their astonishment and looked up to Seowoon with awe.
Just as some players were about to open their mouths and shower him with praise, Seowoon raised a finger to his lips and notched another arrow.
Beside him, Kichan also pulled out his monocular and scanned in the direction Seowoon was aiming.
"Come on… show yourself."
"They're here."
"They appeared."
With confirmation from the mages using zoom spells and from Kichan, Seowoon was able to spot the faint figure of the enemy.
"Not yet."
After waiting about five minutes, the player cautiously scanned the surroundings and finally reached out toward his fallen comrade.
That's when Seowoon released the arrow.
Swooosh! Crack!
The shield shattered in one shot, and the startled player immediately dropped to the ground, abandoning his attempt to help his comrade.
Seowoon pulled another arrow from his subspace quiver and loosed it again.
Kichan, watching through his monocular, saw a small explosion burst in the distance.
"He's running!"
Seowoon also spotted the enemy zigzagging across the field and fired another armor-piercing arrow.
But when it was blocked again by the shield, he put the bow back into subspace without hesitation.
"Confirmed kill."
1814/2000
***
Jin Seowoon → Kim Youngtae (Killed with magic arrow.)
After confirming one solid kill, Seowoon tilted his head slightly.
"Was he Korean?"
That's when Kichan spoke up.
"They were wearing something like military gear. Looked like those black uniforms SWAT teams wear."
Kichan's words confirmed it for Seowoon.
"Yeah… definitely Koreans."
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]