Martial Arts Returnee’s Game Broadcast

Chapter 69

1.

An old memory.
A thing of the past now.

• "Put down the forbidden book. If you don't, you'll lose your arm."

Driven to the edge of the Cliff of Despair,
she was faced with a deadly blade aimed at her by a high-ranking royal martial artist,
following the orders of the Empress of the Great Empire.
Even with her life hanging by a thread,
she chose the path of revenge rather than a powerless freedom,
and in doing so, lost her right arm.
The price she paid for choosing the forbidden text was the emptiness of her right arm and the relentless pursuit of her enemies.
The long chase that extended even to the outside martial world,
at the time, had been a desperate struggle for her life,
but now, after all that time had passed,
she could look back on those days and see them as valuable sacrifices.

‘If it hadn't been for that, I would never have picked up a left-handed sword.’

Five years wielding a sword with her right arm,
and fifteen years wielding a sword with her left.
Her time spent using her left hand was far longer than that of using her right.
Her strength and skill had become imbalanced,
and her body had developed a clear bias to the left,
so her body reset was
a good opportunity to rebuild her balance.

‘I couldn’t afford to waste the opportunity to correct the imbalance in my hands and body.’

A reset body.
Rebuilding martial arts from the basics.
A habit of using only her left arm, ingrained in memory.
To harmoniously control all of this,
she slowly began to retrace her memories of wielding the sword with her right hand,
both in the game and in reality.

‘Normally, my left-handed sword wouldn’t be strong enough to cause real concern, but my sword was special.’

The reason she could return to the Central Martial World as a top master of the outside world, despite losing her right arm,
was not only thanks to the forbidden book she stole from the royal palace but also because her swordsmanship
was rooted in the Haenam School’s style, which was originally designed for left-handed swordsmen.
Unlike her left-handed swordsmanship, which had reached the level of a Sword Master,
her right-handed sword had reached its growth limit on the cusp of becoming a peak master,
leaving it awkward and incomplete.

‘But it was fine. The enemies I fought until now didn’t care about the difference between left-handed and right-handed swords.’

In that sense, the first person who made her pick up a left-handed sword was B-rank Awakened, Shin Seonggak.
He was special.
Though he was B-rank, he was not weak.
In martial terms, he was comparable to a peak master who reached his level using internal energy.
Unlike the common Awakened, who used slow and predictable abilities,
Shin Seonggak was a true expert, skilled in diverse abilities and deep mastery,
particularly specializing in human combat with remarkable practical abilities,
equally as proficient in battle as any martial artist in the martial world.

‘Against such an opponent, not using my left-handed sword would have been overconfidence.’

Ignoring Ha Eun-eung’s resolve,
Shin Seonggak coldly dismissed her and once again unleashed ten or so layers of walls.

<Awakened Ability - Stone Wall>
<Evolution Trait - Multi-Generation (C)>

"With a body that can’t even lift your right arm, do you think you can withstand this attack?"

Ha Eun-eung answered with actions, not words.
Taking a half-step forward,
she moved just as the walls were unleashed,
but unlike before when they aimed directly at her,
this time, the walls turned in the wrong direction,
flying away following her sword’s trajectory.

‘As expected, he won’t fully fall for it.’

The perfect deception she had used against Seok was impossible against an experienced veteran like Shin Seonggak,
who had retired from the martial world.

A martial technique that had been modified.
After her body reset, it was almost as if she had never wielded a left-handed sword.
The gap between her current state and her past peak in the martial world.
Insufficient internal energy and
an incomplete body that had yet to finish its growth.

There were countless reasons she was at a disadvantage,
and the chances of losing this battle were more than abundant.

The ever-changing nature of Hwasan,
the toughness of the Haebok Paengga,
the cunning of the Hao Sect,
and the meticulousness of the Royal Palace.
She had to turn away from countless tempting options and embrace
the essence of the sword of the Haenam School.

<Haenam School Secondary Martial Art> <Reverse Hand Sword (???)>

When she finally drew the sword of her school,
her sword met the barrage of walls,
striking them in rapid succession as she closed the distance.

Thud, thud, thud!

There was no need to push through the front.
Simply slashing at one wall diagonally
caused the rest of the walls to collide with the first,
distorting their direction and weakening their force.

With the first deflection,
she controlled the speed, force, and direction of the wall with one move.
Ha Eun-eung’s sword speed was already one step ahead of Shin Seonggak’s,
granting her the freedom to advance a step further.

‘Normally, they would retreat to block such a barrage, countering it from a distance.’

Most would have no choice but to wait,
unable to move forward and counter so quickly.
But she was not ordinary,
and with the time to move one step forward,
she had the certainty that this step was the right one.

Thud!

"!!"

Ha Eun-eung deflected all of his attacks,
and Shin Seonggak’s carefully honed strike against her was shattered by her left-handed sword.

Shin Seonggak shuddered.
The thought that this young one might one day grow as strong as him
vanished completely.
The sword speed and responsiveness of Ha Eun-eung with her left hand
was already on par with B-rank Awakened,
even surpassing them.

‘You brought this upon yourself!’

This was a power too dangerous to end with a mere exchange of blows.

<Awakened Ability - Stone Wall>
<Special Technique - Sharpness Wall>

Shin Seonggak, desperate to end the fight,
unleashed a sharp-edged wall, designed to cleave through any who approached.
A practical killing technique,
able to slice through anyone foolish enough to close in.

Crash!

Ha Eun-eung blocked it.

‘If I couldn’t read that kind of energy movement, I would be unqualified as a martial artist.’

By standing her ground and blocking with her sword,
she shifted her weight to her right leg,
and with a counterattack boosted by five years of experience,
she unleashed a retaliation.

‘Just as you showed the potential of an Awakened, I’ll show you the potential of a true martial artist.’

Using the technique from the Haebok Paengga,
she directed her energy toward Shin Seonggak’s attack,
surging through at the speed of a flawless strike.

Her sword pierced through the technique like an unstoppable force.

Crash!

The mansion was obliterated as the two forces collided,
and the shockwave shattered everything.

Crash!

The incredible strike, faster than the speed of sound,
broke through Shin Seonggak’s defenses,
piercing his right shoulder and arm,
and sending a massive part of the mansion’s structure into ruin.

Shin Seonggak collapsed to one knee,
his shoulder now a mangled mess.
With his sword raised before him,
he looked at Ha Eun-eung, her long hair waving in the air.

"I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. To think a young one could defeat a B-rank top-tier like me with just their own skill."

"..."

"Why did you change your sword path at the end? That strike, if it had been aimed at my heart or head, would have certainly killed me."

Ha Eun-eung, looking down at the fallen Shin Seonggak,
took out a notebook.

Scratch, scratch

Amidst the destruction,
she wrote in her notebook as the cold morning wind blew through the shattered mansion.
Without a sword, she used a brush pen,
producing an otherworldly sight.
As Shin Seonggak watched in pain,
she tore the completed page from her notebook
and swiftly tossed it in the air.

Thwip!

Shin Seonggak caught the page,
and as he carefully examined the words,
the clouds parted above him and the moonlight illuminated the writing.

[???? ????]

Staring at the words for a long time,
he couldn’t help but sigh.

"In this day and age, who still writes something like this in Chinese characters?"

As the sirens of a late-arriving police car echoed in the distance,
Shin Seonggak collapsed to the ground.
The one who had left the notebook and vanished,
had already disappeared.

2.

"Are you alright, sir? The ambulance is on its way, just hold on a little longer."

"I don’t need that. Just let me borrow your screen phone for a second."

"Huh?"

"I can’t breathe properly unless I figure out what this means."

After borrowing the police officer’s screen phone and using a Chinese character recognition app,
he was able to decipher the phrase "???? ????,"
meaning:
‘The child’s sin brings shame to the parents, and the one who tied the knot must untie it.’

• ‘You paid for your child’s wrongs, now you must correct it yourself.’

Having no children of his own,
the only person he could consider as his "child"
was one person.

"The young ones who inherited the Myungho Guild… they’ve left a grudge with a ridiculous strongman."

Retiring from the frontlines,
having just worn the title of "Executive Director" like a medal,
he was waiting quietly for death.
But an assassin with incredible skill, having defeated a top B-rank Awakened,
came to him.
His mansion, once his peaceful sanctuary,
was now split in half, with a huge hole torn through one side.
All of this was the work of the new generation of Awakened from Myungho Guild.

"I can’t stand it anymore."

If the child of an enemy he had killed had come seeking justice,
he would have accepted the responsibility with conviction,
but this... no matter how he thought about it,
it wasn’t his fault.

"Doctor, I already know I won’t get my arm back, just make sure I can move around."

"That’s difficult, sir! What are you planning to do in this condition?"

"I have people to meet. I’ll do whatever it takes."

Crack
As anger surged within him,
the surrounding energy trembled and shook like an earthquake in the hospital room.

"Make me mobile. Can you do that?"

"We’ll start the surgery right away."

A new dark cloud had descended upon the Myungho Guild.