One Man Army

Chapter 150 [Episode 77] She, not he

@She, not he.

Sang Hyuk’s group worked hard to speed their arrive at the next Sky Island before the Dark Knight departed for South Korea.

The theme of each Sky Island varies, and this Sky Island was a place that was reminiscent of a Sauna. In fact, the average temperature on the island was around 47 degrees Celsius (ED: 117 degrees Fahrenheit), that if it was in the real world, there would be lots of people dying because of heat prostration and dehydration.

However, because they had special abilities in the game, they could endure it. But, their perception of heat remained untouched.

Sang Hyuk whose resistances were significantly higher than the average user, did not feel much of the heat because he had endothermic items and skills (TL Note: the mechanism by which the body temperature is regulated regardless of external temperature.), but Gye Baek and Dark Knight struggled, because their vitality and health was reduced even when they were standing still.

It was clear that it was not unbearable. It was occasionally a breathtakingly painful heat that made one question whether or not the pain control system was working, but when they tried to bear it, they could hold it as much as they wanted.

However, if they moved vigorously in this state, then it could be a little daunting.

The Sky Islands constantly harassed users in this way.

In fact, Gye Baek and Dark Knight have gone through numerous Sky Islands with Sang Hyuk and they were tested to their limits many times, unlike how it was on Treenark.

But, they always managed to break through their limits and grew. All of this was due to Sang Hyuk, who always led the way as if there were no limits.

At least until the middle layer, there were no challenges for Gye Baek and Dark Knight. It merely felt so easy before because Sang Hyuk had such an overwhelming power.

Of course, Sang Hyuk always said that their destination was the hard part. Gye Baek and Dark Knight thought that if everything Sang Hyuk said was true then the ‘Continent of the Sun’ was clearly a nonsensical place.

Not only are there savagely high leveled NPCs, the Sun People also behaved like real users because the level of their “artificial intelligence” was completely different.

Considering the extreme difficulty and the inhabitants that were “monstrously powerful” then it should have been called the “Instant Dungeon of the Sun” not the “Continent of the Sun”.

Sang Hyuk, who knew this very well because of his past experience, was thinking about grinding his level to 80 or higher in the Middle Layer.

Currently, Sang Hyuk has reached level 61 and he is finally out of the level-up congestion zone that was like he11.

Gye Baek and Dark Knight each reached level 59 and 58.

Sang Hyuk, who was level 61, was able to open the awakening slot. The awakening slot was a significant aid in developing his character. There was a big difference between having the awakening slot and not.

And since he is out of the level-up congestion zone, he would be able to speed level.

The next level-up congestion zone appeared at level 99, so there was no need to worry about it right away.

Team Rush who finished the 7th Sky Island called ‘The Island of Blazing Flame’ and decided to stay here for four days for a unity rally (TL Note: a rally to strengthen the unity of a group) and relaxation.

They decided to go to the same VR room and play the Blue Sky Sailing Route quest after Dark Knight arrived in South Korea.

Sang Hyuk, who ended the connection, began editing the large-scale field PvP footage from the  Sky-sea as he had spare time.

The result of the battle that smashed the Reverse One fleet was superb, but unfortunately the video was a mess.

Sang Hyuk had taped most of his battle footage in shadow while he was under Concealment. Somehow he couldn’t get the picture right.

The part where the four legendary NPCs wiped out his enemies and Sang Hyuk using the Ragna Blade to create an immense hole in the Sky-Sea, and causing a gigantic whirlpool obviously were far too controversial and shocking to be released.

In the end, Sang Hyuk cut both parts and just spliced the moderately watchable videos together. And for the finale he showed how the six large Sky-grade ship exploded in turn then sank.

‘What should be the title? Hmmm…. the Ink Black Dragon’s Great Victory. This would be ok, right?’

Sang Hyuk put ‘The Ink Black Dragon’s Great Victory’ as the title to the video and saved it.

This video was intended to be used as content for Channel One.

The popularity of the Live Channel One, which had dropped to fourth place, was on the verge of becoming number one again when it started broadcasting the authentic ‘Middle Layer Q&A’.

If the Ink Black Dragon’s Great Victory is released in this situation then it didn’t seem very difficult to reach first place.

Rather, he was more concerned with the offline tournament schedule than the live channel.

With their schedule in the Middle Layer so tight, it was a bigger problem to lose time to participate in LGN’s “EL Tournament’, which was only a month away.

The EL Revolution’s own online preliminaries were easy to break through but it was time-consuming for the offline tournament because he had to take time away and visit the station directly.

‘There is no other way, I have to ask for Gye Baek and Dark Knight’s understanding to take a day or two off the voyage.’

No matter how much he thought, he had to get their permission.

Sang Hyuk, who had finished everything including the video, took a shower and closed his eyes after he satisfied his hunger with a few high-nutrition energy bars.

Although today was an official day off for Team Rush, Sang Hyuk didn’t sleep in. It has now become his habit to have only about two or three hours of sleep per night, so even with this little sleep he didn’t feel tired..

It turns out that accessing the Dream Network from a capsule was somewhat similar to Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, so he didn’t feel tired even with only a few hours of sleep.

Extreme DN users only slept two hours a day, but the results of the study showed that even these atypical users had no significant health problems.

Sang Hyuk, who slept briefly and woke up, as always did some stretching, swung his wooden sword and worked on his forms.

‘After coming back to the past, the three things I’ve changed about my life that worked out the best, learning kendo is one of them.’

Sang Hyuk, who sweated enough, nodded with a refreshed expression. At first, learning kendo started as a simple idea of feeling what it was like to move a sword in real life while raising his health, but as he continued on, he felt as if he was strengthening not only his body but also his mind through the sword-wielding movements.

He felt like he was literally training his body and mind to develop his ‘Center’, so he persistently swung his sword without missing a day.

Sang Hyuk, who completed his morning workout, accessed EL and enjoyed a few games of EL Revolution. EL Revolution which was launched its full service a month ago, was created with the rank system.

However, Sang Hyuk didn’t play ranked games on purpose.

Sang Hyuk knew better than anyone how horribly obsessive he was. He had never been able to find a hobby right for him so he thought to spend the unavoidable downtimes while exploring the Middle Layer by playing the ranking games.

So, he didn’t play for rank and only played the normal game while waiting on Gye Baek and Dark Knight’s schedules.

These days, Sang Hyuk has been obsessed with the limited mode, which he had not enjoyed in his past life.

The limited mode, which made him put away all the advantages he gained from the main server and compete purely with his own skill, gave Sang Hyuk a great deal of enjoyment.

Sang Hyuk thought that the more he played limited mode, the more suitable it was for E-sports.

There was only the unlimited mode in his previous life, so it became a mainstream E-sport, but events this life seemed to have gone totally differently.

This was purely Sang Hyuk’s personal, subjective judgement, but he had fairly high skills in comparison to his previous life.

The funny thing was that in limited mode, Sang Hyuk also suffered defeats. In unlimited mode, he continued his undefeated record as an irresistible invincible dominating force, but in limited mode he had been defeated three times.

Because there were 220 victories, the winning rate was approximately 99%. In fact, it meant that he was almost impossible to beat.

However, these three defeat rather fired Sang Hyuk’s competitive nature.

‘The world is wide and there are a lot of monsters.’

These were the words Sang Hyuk heard the most when he tripped up hard on E-sport competitions in his previous life.

And recently, Sang Hyuk confirmed once again that the words were not wrong.

* * * *

The Dark Knight arrived in South Korea.

Gye baek and Sang Hyuk did not pick him up, but instead they came to meet him in the hotel he stayed on.

There was no Dream Network connection in the three people’s schedule.

It was the first time the three had met, so they were going to eat a delicious meal, grab a drink, and chat, as people do when they meet for the first time in real life.

At least… everything was fine right before Dark Knight, who received Gye Baek’s text, waved his hand.

“Hey…. I’d understand if he came with a mask and sunglasses….am I wrong? I am somehow seeing wrong, right?”

Gye Baek stared at Dark Knight who is waving his hand toward him, and spoke with a blank expression.

“…. I don’t think you are seeing wrong.”

The same happened to Sang Hyuk who was surprised.

“How do you do?”

Dark Knight, no, a woman wearing a hat, sunglasses and a surgical mask, spoke Korean clearly with careful pronunciation. She had mentioned that after she had met Sang Hyuk and Gye Baek in EL, she had started learning Korean in real life, and it seemed that this was not a lie.

The problem was Dark Knight’s gender.

“You, you….are a woman?”

Gye Baek still looked looked like he couldn’t believe it.

“This is why you told us to not be surprised.”

Sang Hyuk could understand now why Dark Knight had said that.

[Sorry, I tried to say it, but I missed the timing.]

Dark Knight’s Korean language skill was very good, so she had noticed most of what Gye Baek and Sang Hyuk said, but she apologized using the translation function of her smartphone because listening and speaking are a little bit different.

“Ah, this is embarrassing. I’ve said a lot of puns and dirty jokes in front of you all this time…….”

Gye Baek looked like he was going to kick his blanket for the rest of his life. (TL Note: Blanket kick refers to a situation when someone lies on the bed to sleep, but suddenly remembers an embarrassing moment so he or she kicks the blanket out of shame.)

This was understandable because Gye Baek had been joking around all the time because he was like that.

[I also like such jokes too.]

Dark Knight tried to comfort Gye Baek, but the more she did, the gloomier Gye Baek’s face became.

“I don’t think gender will affect our relationships, but you should have told us before.”

Sang Hyuk had no intention of scolding her.

He was just a little surprised.

[Sorry. This part is my fault.]

“Hyuu, let aside that you are a girl, but are you a criminal who is on the wanted list? Why are you so tightly wrapped up?”

[I’m not a criminal, but the situation was a bit…..]

Dark Knight, carefully took off her sunglasses, lowered her mask to show her face after looking around.

As soon as she revealed her face, Gye Baek’s face changed dramatically.

His eyes got bigger as if they were popping out of their sockets, and his mouth was half-open. He seemed so surprised that he couldn’t even say anything.

“Le, Le…ah Collin?”

Gye Baek recognized Dark Knight, no, Leah.

Of course, Sang Hyuk had no idea who Leah Collin was.

If Sang Hyuk was a normal person, he would have known who Leah Collin is, but he was a little different from the average person.

His interest was only in the game, so his knowledge of the “other side” (Real Life) was almost non-existent.

“Leah Collin? Who is that?”

Sang Hyuk murmured as he shook his head.

“Hey, you don’t know Leah Collin? The strongest in the world and at the same time the most beautiful babe in the world. Leah Collin A.K.A The Iron Rose! You don’t know her?”

“Yeah, I don’t.”

At Sang Hyuk’s very remarkable reply, Gye Baek had an absurd look on his face and Collin was laughing while holding her stomach finding them very funny.

[Aigoo, I laughed so much I’m hungry. Let’s get some food first.] (TL Note: Aigoo is kind of exclamation. It can be used in a bad situation or funny situation like this.)(ED Note: Using Aigoo also identifies you as a member of the older generation, or you took Korean language classes from someone of that generation.)

Leah wore her sunglasses and mask again then grabbed both of their hands.

“Waa, look at this ogre-like power!”

Gye Baek didn’t forget to joke even at this moment.

And Sang Hyuk still shook his head and wondered who Leah Collin was.

Although her gender and identity were revealed, Gye Baek and Sang Hyuk treated her the same way as before.

For them, Leah was still Dark Knight, Aspice as always, not an SFC(Super Fighting Championship) martial arts champion and a popular media star and world famous beauty.

Leah liked this.

This was exactly what she wanted in the first place.

Dark Knight became a she, not he.

Chapter 150 [Episode 77] She, not he – End

Editor’s Notes:  Leah Collin was first mentioned in chapter 75.  Chamber, the first translator, referred to her as “Reah Collin”.  Both the translator and I agree that “Leah” is a much more likely American name, and since the Machine TransLation uses “Leah”, and we like it better, that’s what we’ll go with.

Editor: Userunfriendly

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