"What the hell."
The knight muttered.
The gravitas and charisma in his voice caused the gangsters to shrink back.
The gang leader's brow furrowed at the sight.
"You bastards, what are you doing? Just shoot him!"
"Ha, but he just parried a bullet with a knife......."
"Of course it's a coincidence, all of you shoot him at once!"
The boss shouted at the top of his lungs, and his terrified subordinates changed their stance.
They didn't know what this armored knight was doing, but he didn’t look like an ally to them.
If so, they must kill him. It was their employer's wish that there be no witnesses around here.Whatever it is, they're 40 armed men against 1 knight.
Apparently, the factory workers have hired a fixer but they could easily deal with one person.
The men who were about to back down at the boss's command swallowed hard and pointed their guns at him.
They glared at the knight with murderous intent, and the knight read it in their eyes.
At that moment, the knight's figure vanished from the room like a candle being extinguished.
"What, what, where did he go?"
"He just disappeared!"
As the gangsters panicked and looked around, the knight suddenly appeared in the midst of their gathering.
Before they could register his arrival, the knight's sword moved first.
The sharp longsword sliced through the air and a silver trajectory glinted in the moonlight as it sliced through five gang members.
It was almost simultaneous with the five men falling to the ground in a spray of blood that the knight's figure vanished again, like a phantom.
The gangsters, realizing what had happened, turned to point their guns at the knight, but all they saw was empty space.
"Where the hell did he go.......?"
-Bam!
A fist flew out and landed under the chin of the gang member muttering the words.
The knight, crouching low to the ground, quickly approached and punched him in the jaw.
The man who had been struck in the jaw by a bare fist spun around and flew through the air.
During the short time he was flying and fell to the ground, the knight threw punches and kicks one by one.
They were punched and sent flying, kicked and bounced, or sprawled out on the ground.
Some of them, including the burly captain, took the brunt of it.
"Aaaaah!"
The gangsters, realizing the situation too late, opened fire on the knight.
They were so panicked that they couldn't even aim properly, but the distance was so short and the bullets flew past the knight's forehead.
The knight stared at the figure, then flicked his upper torso lightly.
The bullet didn't even hit him, instead hitting the other gang member beyond him.
"What the..."
The gang member was speechless as he saw the knight dodge the bullet that was almost under his nose and the fist clamped over his mouth made it impossible for him to speak, even if he wanted to.
"Assholes surround him and shoot!"
The leader gave the order, and the gangsters surrounded the knight in a circle.
When the knight couldn't see a way out, he lifted one foot and stamped on the ground.
-Boom!
With a single stomp of his foot, his body flew more than five meters into the air, leaving a footprint on the ground.
It was a simple leap, but it was so high that they thought he was flying.
The gangsters were stunned by his physical ability to leap over the encirclement with a single stomp, even though he wore heavy armor all over his body.
His silver-gray armor glistened in the moonlight as the leaping knight landed in the center of the gang's gathering.
As he landed, he stomped his foot on the head of one of them, crushing it as he stared up at him. At the same time, he didn't stop swinging the sword in his hand.
One after another, the sword light flashed as silver flashes and red solid lines intersected.
Each stroke resulted in death.
The gangsters fell in a spray of blood, five dead in the blink of an eye but the knight moved on, seemingly untiring, to find his next prey.
It was ironic that forty men with guns were overwhelmed by a single man with a sword.
He was like a tiger in a sheepfold.
"Aah! My arm!"
"What the fuck is this!"
"We didn't talk about this!"
Gang members screamed and died. Some of the gangsters fought back with gunfire, but it was futile.
The knight swung his sword like a ghost, slicing through the bullets as they flew through the air. Sparks flew and severed bullets littered the floor.
Then he lunged at the man who had fired at him and swung his sword at him.
"Aaaaah! Run away! I don't want to die!"
At the horrifying sight, the gangsters dropped their guns and fled in all directions.
"......!"
The boss didn't even think about the workers he was hired to kill as he was scared too.
In fact, he wanted to get out of here more than anyone else.
Ever since he'd seen the mad knight slicing up his men, he'd sensed something was amiss.
Even with the money from the client, it's not enough to pay for his life, so he should flee immediately.
‘Kuo, I can't move!’
The boss quickly realized why his body wouldn't listen to him.
The knight who had caused all this was now looking at him.
This must be what it's like to face a giant beast in the mountains.
He couldn't move a finger or an eyelid.
At that moment, the knight moved.
They were more than 20 meters apart, but the distance was meaningless to the knight.
The knight took a step forward and appeared in front of him.
The boss, who had somehow managed to twist himself around until then, managed to open his trembling lips and shout something.
"Help......!"
Before he could utter the words, there was a flash of light and the severed head rolled helplessly across the floor.
The workers watching from afar gulped.
Far from rejoicing, they found it hard to accept what was happening.
The gangsters had attacked, leaving several dead and wounded, and the factory they had barely managed to hold was about to be taken from them.
Then a knight appeared out of the ground, and with one swipe of his sword, he sliced through the gangsters, killing them all.
It is said that God sends saviors down from the sky to help people but what do you call a knight in armor who comes out of the ground?
An angel? A demon?
Of course it doesn't make sense.
At that moment, the knight turned around.
The workers sucked in their breaths as his gaze met theirs, a ghastly gaze that was the aftermath of battle.
They wondered if he would suddenly swing his sword at them.
Given the merciless way he had killed the gangsters, it was not out of the question.
While the workers were still on edge, the knight spoke up.
"Where am I?"
*
"Where am I?"
Even as I asked the workers, I was deeply perplexed.
I have many questions so I calmly organized it in my head.
First of all, my ridiculous physical abilities.
I can understand breaking down a stone door with my bare hands and climbing through the ground, but to see an incoming bullet and cut it down with a sword?
I've never even practiced kendo, so there's no way I could perform such a neat swordplay.
This must be due to the influence of my current physical body, the Wandering Knight character I was developing.
That leads directly to the second question.
I've killed people, dozens of them at least, even serial killers don't kill like this.
Sure, it was technically self-defense because they attacked me first but self-defense is one thing, killing someone is another.
And yet, I was fine. No panic, no shock, just calm, like I did what I had to do.
This is where I realized one thing.
I was me, but I was not me.
Or, more accurately, I had assimilated into the wandering knight character I've developed in the game.
And the third and final question was this.
"I ask you once again. Where am I?"
What I was going to say was, "Where am I?”
But this body was speaking in an arrogant tone, like something out of an old historical drama.
What kind of language is this?’
I asked in amazement.
"Can't you hear me?"
When I tried to force myself to correct my tone, my body rebelled.
At that moment, I remembered the characteristics of the [Wandering Knight] birth.
Every birth has its own characteristics. Thieves are given [Meanness], barbarian warriors are given [Simplicity], and priests are given [Faithful].
Among them, the wandering knight has [chivalry], [nobility], and [high-mindedness].
[Chivalry] is, of course, the romanticized version of knights in the Middle Ages.
[Nobility] is a background setting that comes from being born a wandering knight, but in general, only nobles could become knights, which is the background setting.
And in the case of [High-mindedness], it meant the personality of this wandering knight.
It was just a basic setting in the game, but now that it's a reality, it's something that applies to me.
"That, that......."
One of the people who had been watching me from afar slowly approached me nervously.
He was a man with a face covered in dirt, looked to be in his 40s, and had a haggard complexion as if he had been through a lot.
But his eyes were bright, and it was clear that he was the leader of the group.
The middle-aged man inclined his head toward me first.
"First of all, thank you for helping us. My name is Bill."
"My name is Osian."
Osian was the nickname of the playable character I was playing.
"I wasn't really trying to help you, I just drew my sword because they attacked me first. It was my knightly duty."
"......?"
There's that tone again.
As if I wasn't the only one who felt strange, the middle-aged laborer was also looking at me in a strange way.
I tried a few more times to correct his tone and gave up.
It won't change if I force it, and I'll work on it slowly later.
What matters now is where I am.
"I'll ask a third time. I hope you won't try my patience any further. Where am I?"
"......Is this your first time in Tirna?"
"Tirna?"
No matter how much I think about it, no name comes to mind.
When I asked because I really didn't know, the man had a strange look on his face.
He looked at me in disbelief, as if to say, "You really don't know this?”
The stare was quite painful, but at this point, I decided to be brazen.
"Talk to me."
I step forward, and he looks confused, but explains everything he knows.
Tirna is the name of the city I'm standing in now, and it's called the City of Gold.
He even said that it was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and the future direction where the most steam machines were developed.
"Wait a minute. The Industrial Revolution? Steam engines?"
"Yes. Is there any problem......?"
The confused look on the laborer's face made me feel dizzy.
At first, I thought this was the world of the game I was playing.
In fact, I still think that today. But the world as I knew it had changed so much.
The same is true of the current location that came up through the stone room elevator.
What should have been a vast expanse of nature is now a smog-filled factory zone.
'Gun-toting gangs. Workers covered in grease. Towering factories and chimneys.’
At that moment, I couldn't help but realize.
I had entered the world of the game I was playing but one thing was different.
This world was hundreds of years in the future, hundreds of years after the game I was playing.