Martial Arts Returnee’s Game Broadcast

Chapter 115

1.
Kim Chang-sik was confident.

“The monsters that spawn in this dungeon are snakes. They're highly venomous and slither around silently, very dangerous. If it were me, I’d be especially wary of the ceiling.”

Dungeon boss, Medusa.
The numerous snakes she controls,
spilling out from every corner of the dungeon,
forming a horrific snake pit.
That was the theme of the Myeongho-dong Gate's core dungeon.
Despite knowing all this, the reason they hadn’t fully raided the dungeon yet was simple.

‘Why would anyone destroy a gate in our territory?’

If they closed the dungeon, the gate would close as well,
and if the gate closed, they wouldn’t make any money.
The guild’s primary income source was the gates.
How much mana stone they could extract from their owned gates directly affected the guild's financial situation.
Even the gates that were closed would eventually reappear nearby,
and if it was in another guild’s jurisdiction in a neighboring district,
it would be like throwing away all their efforts.

“They’ve eaten quite a bit, it seems.”
“They must’ve spun the wheel hundreds of times, judging by their knowledge of where to find them.”
“It’s nice that it’s easy, though.”

The Asan Guild’s raiders took it lightly.
The more familiar they were with the dungeon, the less they cared about the immoral reputation they earned for delaying the raid. They didn’t care about that stigma.

“As expected, the snakes are all huddled together.”
“Can we make snake wine from the mana stones here?”
“This is perfect. It seems even better than our gate.”

The raiders moved forward confidently through the dungeon.
Then, they discovered something that startled them.

“Armor!”
“Is this loot?”
“Move aside. I found it first!”

A high-quality, finely crafted cloth armor, seemingly made by a master artisan, lay there.
The appearance of a finished piece of loot in the dungeon, a rare find, caused the raiders to start fighting each other over it.

“Idiots. Just stand there and watch.”

<Ascension Ability - Paralysis Hand>
<Applied Technique - Paralysis (60 seconds)>

“Ugh!”
“Damn you…”

As they were paralyzed, the raider, Lee Jin-goo, mocked his teammates and grabbed the armor.
He grimaced and opened his palm.

“What’s this sticky feeling? It’s like a spider’s web.”

He didn’t like the armor.
He thought about abandoning it, but as he turned, he saw his paralyzed teammates desperately trying to say something with their eyes wide open, and he couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What are you all so surprised about? It’s not like it’s your first time. It’ll wear off in a minute.”

His teammates weren’t surprised by his ability,
they were shocked by the armor suddenly springing to life and attacking Lee Jin-goo.

Crack!

“Ahhh!”

The armor overwhelmed Lee Jin-goo,
the sticky cloth armor binding him as if it were alive,
forcing him into the "Living Armor."
The armor, controlling his body, moved as though it was alive,
and Lee Jin-goo, still paralyzed, placed his hand on one of his teammate’s heads.

Crunch.
Crack!

As his hand twisted, applying more force to the head,
Lee Jin-goo screamed and shed tears, but his hand didn’t stop.

“No, stop, you bastard!”
“I want to stop too, but I can’t!”
“Tsk. You really made a mess of things.”

With a snap, the sound echoed through the dungeon corridor as the armor’s seams cracked open.

Crack, snap, snap!

Yoo Eun-ho, an ascendant with telekinesis, used his power to break the armor's seams,
freeing Lee Jin-goo, who then hurriedly crawled away from the armor.

“You should’ve reported properly, just like FM. Greed never pays off, huh?”

Yoo Eun-ho spoke with a proud air, aware of the camera,
but the two raiders who had been saved from the armor didn’t argue and just thanked him hastily.

“Kim Chang-sik, you never mentioned this. Can you explain what’s going on?”
“...There was never anything like that before. It seems the dungeon has changed.”
“Well, we can’t proceed like before, can we?”

Yoo Eun-ho grinned, pointing forward.

“Stop standing back and get to the front. Are you going to retreat now after causing all this trouble for Asan Guild?”
“Who do you think you’re calling a coward... Hey, I’m Kim Chang-sik! Do you think I’ll back down this easily?”

Although Kim Chang-sik acted confident in front of the camera, deep down he was terrified.

“Damn it. What’s happening in this cursed dungeon?”

The Living Armor continued to appear.
And it was coming more frequently.

2.
Shin Do-cheol of the Taebaek Guild
couldn’t deny his good fortune.

‘If I hadn’t received A-grade equipment from the guild leader, I definitely would have gotten greedy.’

Though the armor looked expensive,
he didn’t think it would be as good as it seemed.
He reluctantly suppressed his greed and informed everyone about the armor.
The person who stepped forward to wear it
was immediately swallowed by the armor,
then went on a mad rampage, cutting down three of his own teammates before having his neck severed by the raid leader.
Once the host died, the Living Armor continued to fight back aggressively,
but it was soon destroyed by the concentrated attacks of the raid team.
Because of the person inside, they had hesitated to attack, but the Living Armor itself was vulnerable to their combined efforts.

“Goddamn it! Living Armor? This wasn’t something the association warned us about!”

Raid leader Bang Bae-deok was furious, throwing a tantrum.
He had quickly applied for the raid leader position after hearing that Shin Do-cheol had received special orders from the guild leader.
But even if Shin Do-cheol earned credit for the raid,
he had applied for the position to solidify his rank, which turned out to be a tactical mistake.
The death of a teammate was the raid leader's fault.
Now, even if they succeeded, it would only cover the loss, and if they failed, he’d face discipline, or worse, be dismissed.

“Shin Do-cheol! You knew from the beginning, didn’t you? You kept quiet, didn’t you?”
“Bullshit. Who could’ve known? Don’t take out your frustration on me just because your promotion path is blocked. It’s the raid leader’s job to take responsibility and lead in tough times.”
“You... I’ll get you back for this. You’re dead if I catch you.”
“Why don’t you try? I can take you down right now.”

Shin Do-cheol and Bang Bae-deok stared each other down.
They hadn’t drawn their swords yet, but the tension was so thick that the conflict was bound to explode at any moment.
A split within the Taebaek Guild raid team was imminent.

3.
While the other two guilds struggled with the Living Armor,
the same armor appeared before Hae Eung-eung and the Haenampa team.

[Stay away. I sense something ominous.]

Hae Eung-eung felt discomfort as she saw the armor, which emitted a dark energy like a living creature.
Just then, a massive dungeon snake, similar to the ones she had seen living under a rural house for decades, appeared.
Without hesitation, Hae Eung-eung reached out.

<Spell> <Golden Stasis>
Without a second thought, Hae Eung-eung grabbed the snake.
It was an insane act, considering how aggressive dungeon snakes were, but there was no hesitation.
The snake immediately flicked its tongue and bared its fangs, but...

“Hisss?”

[Blessing]
[Animal Friends]: Increases the chance to befriend all animal-type creatures.

The snake hesitated when confronted with the 100-level charm and the synergy of the Animal Friends skill, significantly lowering its aggression.

“Hisss (If you offer the delicious-looking women behind you as sacrifices, I’ll be your friend.)”

The dungeon snake seemed to show a friendly gesture.
Hae Eung-eung didn’t recognize the gesture.
She wasn’t a druid or a snake charmer.
Without hesitation, she threw the snake toward the armor.
The armor immediately opened wide and swallowed it.
The dungeon snake, which had shown affection to the human, was tragically consumed by the Living Armor.

“Ugh! Living Armor!”
“It’s a monster disguised as a rare item!”

Once again, Hae Eung-eung’s extraordinary sensory ability detected the danger in advance.
Even when faced with women, children, or the elderly, her carefulness as a martial artist was undeniable—
no matter how convincing the armor looked, it couldn’t escape her senses.

‘In the martial world, concealing one’s energy was fundamental.’

Just as an ordinary person would hide their energy and approach recklessly,
the targets would be swiftly ambushed.
The mercenaries from the Shao Wang Sect, known for their deadly precision,
would hide their will and inner energy so well that they were nearly impossible to detect.
Their ability to blend in was one of the reasons why the Shao Wang Sect assassins were so dangerous.

‘The Shao Wang was capable of even concealing life signs, a terrifying assassin himself.’

When she was forced to flee the martial world,
her head was worth a fortune, and the world’s assassins pursued her relentlessly.
Some, like the Shao Wang Sect, took part in the hunt directly after the news of the Poison King’s death.
She was startled when a body that seemed confirmed dead rose again right after the corpse was turned away.
But compared to that, she knew how inadequate the Living Armor was as an assassin.

‘Also, this energy... there’s a thin thread connecting somewhere.’

At the end of the thin thread of energy,
there would be the creator of the Living Armor.
The creator was, of course, stronger than their creations.

[Shall we do some training before moving on?]

As Hae Eung-eung extended her notebook,
Nina focused more intensely than ever before,
executing her ability enhancement and amplification with a single strike that pierced the Living Armor’s mana stone.
Nana-se, finding more Living Armor in a different passage, destroyed the wall with one hand, blocking the path.

The two of them smiled brightly and asked as the Living Armor’s remains lay in pieces.

“What training?”
“The enemies aren’t visible.”

Before they could be trained, they ended the situation first.
The results of the training were far from what Hae Eung-eung had intended.
She realized that Nina and Nana-se were avoiding the training.

‘If they find regular mobs boring, they’ll probably go straight for the boss.’

Nina and Nana-se, unaware that Hae Eung-eung was leading them directly to the boss, celebrated their escape from the immediate danger.

“Yay!”
“It’s exciting?”

They high-fived in front of the cameraman, pleased with themselves.