"Hey, did you hear the news?"
In a penthouse overlooking Central Park in New York, a blonde man sitting at his desk spoke while staring at his monitor.
Then,
"Hoo, hoo... What news are you talking about? Every day there's a flood of new stories..."
The bald, muscular man, who had been running on a treadmill by the window with his shirt off, replied, panting heavily.
He seemed more focused on the numbers on the treadmill than on the blonde man's words.
The blonde man shook his head as if there was no helping it, and clicked his tongue, continuing the conversation.
"Tch, with how slow you are to catch up... It's about Ji Wonhoon from Korea. He created an organization called Babylon and was searching for the sin of lust. Apparently, he’s dead."
"Ji Wonhoon...? Ah, that follower of lust. The one whose sins were so insignificant that he couldn't even become a successor, just a follower? You're talking about that guy?"
The blonde man spoke in a low, serious tone, but the bald man responded carelessly, as though it wasn’t a big deal.
However, despite his casual response, the blonde man maintained a serious atmosphere.
"Yeah. He was the only follower of the Seven Deadly Sins, looking for the sin of lust in the infinite dungeon. I had been keeping an eye on him, and recently, he lost his life. But not just that... the Babylon organization itself was annihilated."
"Annihilated? Did the Korean Hunter Bureau catch him?"
"Officially, yes. But from what I’ve heard from our spies in Korea, it seems like it wasn’t the Hunter Bureau or their agents. It was an ordinary hunter who took him down."
"An ordinary hunter? That's interesting."
"The truly interesting part starts now. Ji Wonhoon’s dead, yet Hayuri hasn’t made a single move. No response at all."
Tap—!
"Hayuri, that woman is just sitting idle?"
The bald man, who had been unconcerned up until now, suddenly stopped the treadmill, a strange look crossing his face.
The blonde man finally smiled, satisfied with the reaction, and cupped his chin with both hands.
"Exactly. She’s acting like nothing happened. She hasn’t even gone after the hunter who killed Ji Wonhoon. I wonder if it’s because she split from him...?"
"She rejected his proposal to join forces, huh? A dog would laugh at that."
The blonde man gave his theory, but the bald man just scoffed in response.
"Well, even if she’s split with him, Hayuri, being the kind of woman who can’t resist a handsome man, wouldn’t just sit still."
"At the very least, she should’ve gone after the hunter who killed Ji Wonhoon and retrieved the fragments of lust he had. But the fact that she hasn’t means something else is going on. Perhaps... the hunter who killed Ji Wonhoon is the true successor of lust."
"Ohh... So, the killer is the successor of lust, and they killed the follower to absorb his power? And since they’re a successor of lust, they’re more attractive, so Hayuri couldn’t bring herself to act against them?"
The blonde man responded with interest to this new idea.
The bald man got off the treadmill, wiped the sweat from his face with a towel, and replied.
"That’s just a possibility. It’s not certain."
"No, it makes sense. Well then... how about we go to Korea and check it out? If the sin of lust really has appeared, it could be quite interesting. Besides, we’ll be heading to Korea soon anyway."
The blonde man suggested, his eyes shining as if he had found the answer.
However,
"The successor of lust..."
The bald man walked over to the mat on the floor and started doing sit-ups in response.
"I don’t think there’s any need to rush."
"Hmm? You don’t think we need to interfere?"
"That’s right. Even if they’re the successor of sin, there’s still a huge gap between us. No matter how much they grow..."
Sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the bald man’s muscular frame.
"They won’t even reach our toes."
***
Boom—!!
An explosion erupted in the front yard of a tiled-roof house.
The firepower was immense, sending dust and debris flying high enough to obscure the surrounding scenery.
Amidst the rising dust, a figure shot out.
Kang Hyunsoo.
Dressed in slacks, a plain black t-shirt, and a navy and beige checkered shirt layered over it, he emerged from the explosion.
His appearance was so stylish it almost seemed unbelievable for someone in the middle of a fierce battle.
But as soon as he was free of the dust cloud, the first thing Kang Hyunsoo did was...
"Damn, this is getting irritating."
He dusted off the dirt that had gotten on his clothes with a hand.
Normally, when dust like that rose, he would have quickly assessed the location of the Sword Demon and launched a ranged attack, but...
[Your clothes have accumulated a significant amount of dust.]
[Your fashion sense has diminished.]
[Appearance Power decreased by –2.]
[Appearance Power: +88]
As the dust settled on him, his Appearance Power dropped, forcing him to retreat temporarily.
If it were any other time, he would have ignored it and continued fighting, but now, due to the Beauty Quest, he couldn’t afford to let his Appearance Power fall below 80.
With his twin swords still in hand, he wiped off as much dust as he could.
[You have removed some dust from your outfit.]
[Your fashion sense has been partially restored.]
[Appearance Power increased by +1.]
[Appearance Power: +89]
It wasn’t fully restored.
There was just too much dust to get rid of.
It seemed like he would need to put down the twin swords and remove his clothes to clean them properly, but there was no time for that.
Just as he took a breath,
"It's above, Master!"
Shiiiiing—!
From the billowing dust, a new figure in dark armor emerged, swinging a massive sword with both hands.
The clash of the swords resounded throughout the yard.
It was just a simple sword clash, but the shockwave was so powerful that it shook the ground.
And then,
"Ugh...!"
Sizz—!
The bandages around his hands and sword handles tore slightly.
Kang Hyunsoo gritted his teeth at the pain in his hands, but he didn’t retreat.
Despite the Sword Demon applying weight and pressure to their locked blades, he stood his ground.
No, he actually overcame it.
With his command sword, he swept the demon's great sword aside, and with his Avatar Sword, he aimed for the demon’s neck and thrust.
At the same time.
【Activation】
[Black Spot Explosion (SS)]
A small sun formed at the tip of his Avatar Sword, adding strength to his counterattack.
But just as the Black Spot Explosion was about to activate, the situation changed dramatically.
The dark great sword ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the Sword Demon held transformed into the same shape as Kang Hyunsoo’s twin swords, and then it struck both his command sword and Avatar Sword at the same time.
And as the Sword Demon’s sword made contact with the Avatar Sword...
【Activation Cancelled】
The small sun that had manifested at the tip of his sword disappeared.
The skill was instantly cancelled.
However, instead of panicking, Kang Hyunsoo quickly stepped back and used Sky Cleaver.
At that moment, the Sword Demon copied him.
The timing was almost simultaneous as the Sword Demon also used Sky Cleaver.
Boom—!!
Another powerful shockwave exploded.
Kang Hyunsoo, watching the dust rise again, cursed under his breath while wrapping his hands and swords with bandages.
"Tch, even with the Beauty Talent, things are still going just like my past life."
Hours had passed since the fight began.
Though he had anticipated it somewhat before starting the quest, it was still proving to be a difficult challenge.
Despite his improved stats and items compared to his past life, the Sword Demon’s unique traits made it incredibly difficult to fight.
[You have entered the Sword Demon’s domain.]
[The Curse of the Sword Demon is continuously affecting you.]
[1. Sword Demon’s Authority]
[If the Sword Demon’s sword touches you, any active skills will be cancelled.]
[2. Sword Demon’s Imitation]
[The Sword Demon mimics the challenger’s sword techniques.]
[3. Sword Demon’s Indestructibility]
[The sword-obsessed ghost can only be harmed by the blade of a sword.]
The three unique traits of the Sword Demon were displayed in Kang Hyunsoo’s field of vision.
Because of these traits, the Sword Demon Title Quest was known to have a success rate below 1% among those with swordsmanship talent.
You could level up and improve your stats to beat the Sword King, but the Sword Demon was a different beast entirely—level 450 with such tricky characteristics, making it incredibly hard to clear.
In his previous life, Kang Hyunsoo had leveled past 500 and fought for over a week, barely managing to clear the quest.
In the midst of that prolonged battle, nearly losing his mind, he had swung his sword mindlessly and eventually defeated the Sword Demon.
At one point, he had even lost some swordsmanship mastery and stats from a defeat.
Painful memories from his previous life.
This time, Kang Hyunsoo swore he would succeed without failure.
Recalling the patterns he had observed in his past life, he carefully conserved his stamina while pressing the Sword Demon hard.
Although it had been an even match until recently, as soon as he focused on the dust, he had dealt some solid damage, cutting the demon’s shoulder and ankle.
The problem was...
‘At this rate, I’m definitely going to fail the Beauty Quest.’
[Absolute Beauty Quest 11]
[Do not allow your Appearance Power to drop by more than 10 points for the next 15 days (1/10)]
[Remaining time – 14 days 10 hours]
[Failure will require restarting the quest from the beginning.]
It was the Absolute Beauty Quest.
Right now, the drop in Appearance Power was minimal, but over the next few days, with sweat, torn clothes, and dust covering him, the chance of his Appearance Power dropping more than 10 points was high.
And if the drop continued and his Appearance Power effect fell from +3 to +2 or even +1...
There was a real risk of failure, just like in his previous life.
Despite having the Beauty Talent, it wouldn't work against the Sword Demon, and there was a 100-level difference now.
That’s why Kang Hyunsoo tried to find a way to clear the quest faster than in his past life. Swallow seemed to be thinking the same way.
While Kang Hyunsoo paused to catch his breath, Swallow, flying above the dust, used his skill, looking for an advantage.
“I’ll find a way to finish this quickly, Master!”
[The Beauty Helper uses Weakness Detection.]
[Consumes 10% of Charm Charge.]
[Remaining Charm Charge: 33%]
[Attempting to detect the enemy’s weakness.]
[Searching....]
However...
“...You’ve already failed a few times. If it fails again, just put up the shield when things get dangerous.”
Kang Hyunsoo responded with a sigh.
After all, Swallow’s feather-shaking hadn’t worked on the Sword Demon before.
Now, all Swallow could do was put up a beautiful shield to block the Sword Demon’s attacks when they came.
[Weakness Detected.]
[Lv 450. The Sword Demon: More Swords]
[The weak spots are highlighted in red within your field of view.]
Fortunately, it was a success.
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Swallow, with his sunglasses gleaming, shouted.
“I found the weak spot, Master!”
Indeed, as the dust cleared, the Sword Demon’s figure was revealed, with faint red light emanating from its entire body.
If he could strike with a sword, any part of the demon's body other than the sword itself was a weak spot.
It seemed like the weakness was exactly as described in the trait.
But it wasn’t completely irrelevant.
As soon as Kang Hyunsoo saw the weak spots through Swallow’s skill...
More swords appeared...
“......!!”
A skill he had almost forgotten suddenly came to mind.
Normally, it wouldn’t cause significant damage to the Sword Demon since it wasn’t a sword, but this skill was different.
"Right, the sword you really go crazy over..."
Kang Hyunsoo raised his command sword high.
And then...
【Activation】
[Summon the Ghost Knight Legion (C)]
With a smirk, he continued.
“I’ll feed you all you want.”