Chapter 8: I can’t say she’s pretty

When I picked up the greatsword, it felt lighter than expected.

It looked incredibly heavy, but in reality, it felt surprisingly nimble.

Of course, that was natural.

If it were truly made with realistic weight, even a game character wouldn’t be able to wield it properly.

It seemed the developers had made some weight adjustments to preserve realism while still allowing for playable gameplay.

It was slightly disappointing.

I wasn’t expecting the true weight of a greatsword, but I wished the feel in my hands was a bit more substantial.

Of course, the current weight was still quite heavy for ‘me.’

Lifting this hulk with a 165cm physique in Reality Mode was no easy feat.

Of course, that was a problem that could be covered with technique.

I slung the greatsword over my shoulder to compensate for its heavy weight and dashed.

By slightly shifting my center of gravity forward, I gained a momentary burst of acceleration.

Arriving in front of the Domagirius in the blink of an eye, I dug the tips of my toes into the ground.

Normally, I would have lost my balance due to inertia, but I used my toes as an axis to convert the inertia into rotational force.

Lowering my body, I swung the greatsword, which had fallen from my shoulder, upwards from below.

Clang!

With a sound like colliding lumps of metal rather than blades, the Domagirius’s head shot up towards the sky.

‘Good feel to it.’

“Sssaaaaaa!!”

The one hit by the greatsword let out a pained scream.

The other one, perhaps displeased by the sight, quickly swung its tail.

My response to that was simple.

Entrusting my body to the rising greatsword, I jumped.

Thanks to the remaining force in the greatsword, my light body easily lifted off the ground.

The one that swung its tail, seemingly not expecting me to dodge its attack like this, stared blankly at me floating in the air.

“Sssaaa…?”

Following the center of gravity of the greatsword felt through my fingertips, I moved my airborne feet.

Triggered by that movement, my body naturally began to rotate.

My target was—

Domagirius A, still caught off guard with its head raised from the impact.

The rotational force that started from my toes passed through my knees, pelvis, waist, shoulders—

And finally, permeated my entire body.

I channeled all that accumulated energy into the greatsword.

The greatsword, accelerated by the accumulated rotational force, plummeted straight towards Domagirius A’s head.

Kuuuung!!

With the sensation of piercing through something hard,

A much heavier impact sound than before echoed throughout the forest.

Thud.

Domagirius A, its head impaled by the greatsword, lost its balance and collapsed.

Lightly landing on top of it, I turned my gaze to Domagirius B.

It was frozen in the same posture it had been in when it swung its tail.

The moment our eyes met, it slowly, very slowly, took a step back.

It seemed like it was thinking of running away.

‘Running away? Not a chance. The fun is just getting started.’

Now that it had entered my sight, it was my prey.

I never allowed escape.

“Tsk.”

Clicking my tongue lightly, I launched myself towards the rapidly fleeing creature.

Thump! Thud!

“Sseeee…!”

It didn’t take long to deal with the creature whose spirit was already broken.

In the end, it paid dearly for the sin of potentially spoiling my fun.

Thunk.

Only after deeply embedding the greatsword into the ground did I dust off my hands and let out a sigh.

“Hoo.”

There was certainly a slight sense of incongruity compared to reality.

The battle was also too easy.

To the point of feeling a slight disappointment.

But this sensation, felt again after a year.

A moderate amount of dopamine dominated my brain as if crushing it.

‘It’s a bit disappointing, but I like it.’

Perhaps because of my lowered physical abilities, the feeling I had when I first awakened also faintly came to mind.

It was a strangely different taste.

Actually, the reason I could catch them so easily was thanks to a special system applied only in WaHeon’s Reality Mode.

Just like a bullet hurts less if shot weakly,

In this mode, the damage varies depending on how much real force is applied.

If you apply strong physical force using rotational power, you can inflict that much more damage.

Of course, the opposite is also true.

A light tap deals no damage at all.

So, the concept itself is different from Baby Mode, where it’s like, ‘I hit it, so damage was dealt.’

While nudging the corpse of the fallen Domagirius,

‘How do I carve this?’

I had actually butchered monsters before.

But there was no guarantee it would apply the same way in a game, so I looked at Ppatppat-i 2 to ask for the method.

“This, how do I carve it?”

“……”

She didn’t answer my question.

She just stared blankly at me with her mouth agape.

‘Why is she like that?’

As I looked at Ppatppat-i 2 with a puzzled expression,

Something rapidly scrolling up in the corner of my vision caught my eye.

It was the chat window that I had pushed aside because it was distracting.

I moved my hand to pull it back in front of me.

Slowly looking over what had been said.

-????

-Sh*t, what did I just see?

-Ah, suddenly I’m hit with reality…

-What was the game I’ve been playing until now…

-Even if Reality Mode doesn’t have separate monster health, this isn’t right.

-This is Baby Mode, right? This is Baby Mode, right?

-So you’re saying this is the same kind of person as me?

-Doesn’t seem like it lol.

-Are you perhaps human?

-Eheheheh…

Only the already broken chat window greeted me.

‘What’s wrong with these guys again.’

I haven’t even shown them anything proper yet.

---

WaHeon Gallery.

Originally, it was a gallery for exchanging information about Wilds Hunter and for users to interact.

But now, long after the series came out, it had completely stagnated.

Now, except for when a fresh newbie occasionally appeared to ask a question, it was mostly just useless chatter related to the game.

———–WaHeon Gallery———-

Title) Why the fck does the Hammer even have sharpness?

It’s a blunt weapon, not a cutting weapon, does it need to be sharpened?

This is so f*cking ridiculous.

– Grip.

– You have to hit with the edges.

– They say you have to scrape off the caked monster blood.

Title) What’s the monster you want to f*ck the most?

For me, it’s Red Dragon.

– Brangaur

– Gomauga

– Iberushin

– Valahalla

– Sht, this bstard changed the title (Pic of someone holding a bamboo spear)

-Author: (You’veOpenedYourEyes.jpg)

– I haven’t, you son of a btch.

-Author: (DontDenyYourInstincts.jpg)

– Argh, so fcking annoying.

Amidst the usual useless chatter.

A title that caught the attention of WaHeon Gallery users appeared.

Title) Sht, I’m quitting this game. The reality check is fcking hitting hard…

[Author]

So far, if you combine all the WaHeon series I’ve played, it’s over 3000 hours.

I thought I was a veteran who had shed my newbie skin…

Today, I just hit a wall, sh*t…

There’s this streamer named Haerang, and she plays on Reality Mode? Lol.

(Clip)

Watch this clip.

What I was doing was no different from a baby’s antics.

I was planning to rush the Baby Mode story as fast as possible and move to Reality Mode, but I have no confidence.

I should just quit or something.

– (Pic saying the game will be ruined if you quit)

– (Pic begging you to come back)

– Wow, but what’s with the clip? Is that real?

-Author: Yeah, it’s real.

– I’ve never seen anyone use a greatsword like that…

– Could it even be used like that in the first place? Lol.

-Author: FR lol… Ah, the reality check is hitting so hard.

– You’re quitting?

-Author: I don’t know. For now, I’m just going to watch Haerang’s stream…

– But that is… Wow… I’m speechless.

– Has there ever been anyone who showed that level of performance in Reality Mode?

– Nope.

– No way lol.

– If there was, the gallery would have been on fire already.

– Wasn’t Bulramyeon the streamer with the best physicals among them?

(TL Note: Bulramyeon (불라면) – Spicy Ramen, likely another streamer’s name.)

– Bulramyeon is top-tier not just among streamers but among all users.

– No link?

-Author: (Link)

-Author: She’s still streaming, so go watch. I came here right after seeing her catch the lizards because of the reality check, so it hasn’t been long since she started.

– Thanks thanks, I’ll go watch right away.

– I should watch too.

---

The discussion, which started from one user’s lament posted on the gallery, quickly caught fire, and the gallery once again heated up passionately.

Meanwhile, Kim Yeonwoo, who was asking Ppatppat-i 2 (who had regained her senses) how to carve materials, couldn’t help but tilt her head at the sudden surge in viewers.

‘What’s going on this time?’

Where was this word-of-mouth constantly coming from?

An increase in viewers was a good thing, but this continuous, abrupt increase was just bewildering.

Ppatppat-i 2, having witnessed the swift dispatch of the two Domagirius, trailed off, flustered.

“What in the world are you…”

After staring at me speechlessly for a while, she shook her head and picked up the bag she had dropped on the ground.

Then, she took out a dagger strapped to her thigh and stood before the Domagirius corpses.

“The outpost is just ahead, so let’s quickly carve the materials first.”

Saying so, she knelt down and began to skin the Domagirius with skillful hands.

I was slightly surprised by her ability to immediately display a professional demeanor despite seeming flustered.

‘So she does fulfill her role as a senior, huh?’

Watching from the side, I also took out a dagger from my bag and helped with the carving.

Soon, we had obtained the tough hides and sharp claws of the Domagirius as materials.

“The materials you get can be used later for crafting armor or weapons. Originally, it’s a system only Hunters can use, but…”

Holding the materials in one hand, she glanced at me and nodded.

“Since you caught them, go talk to the blacksmith later. I’ll put in a word with Old Man Tom.”

Saying so, she even placed her share of the carved materials into my hand.

“Thank you.”

“For what, I would have died if it weren’t for you…”

She said calmly, shaking her head.

Was it because such an appearance was unfamiliar?

The broken chat window began to stir and come back to life.

-Troll-shichi Ppatppat-i is saying something like this? Will the sun rise in the west tomorrow?

-The sense of incongruity is insane…

-Sign here if you agree that a calm Ppatppat-i’s incongruity is on par with an Elder Dragon.

-Signed.

-On par, signed.

-This kind of Ppatppat-i is too awkward, please go back to normal…

-Do you miss Ppat-hwang? For you, a collection of Ppat-hwang’s flags…

-On second thought, maybe not.

-Viewer normalization is indeed Ppat-hwang!!

Watching the viewers’ reactions, a question arose in my mind too.

“Is she not normally like this?”

-Nope!

-If she were like this all the time, she wouldn’t have gotten the nickname Ppat-troll lol.

-FR lol.

It seemed the viewers were also seeing this side of Ppatppat-i 2 for the first time.

Seeing most of them confused and saying it was awkward, it appeared to be a completely different demeanor from her usual self.

While I was chatting with the chat window like that, Ppatppat-i 2, having finished organizing her luggage, approached me.

“Let’s go now.”

“Okay.”

Following behind her as she walked ahead, a massive barrier soon came into view.

A wooden rampart easily appearing to be 30 meters high.

The barrier, constructed by weaving together massive logs, each with a diameter comparable to a person’s waist, exuded a heavy sense of pressure just by looking at it.

Iron nails embedded here and there, reinforced iron cores, and tightly woven, tough ropes proved that this was no simple wooden fence.

Beyond the wall, faint lights flickered, and a mixture of sounds—something being hammered, the murmur of people, and the occasional cry of an animal—could be heard.

On the watchtowers above, armed soldiers stood guard with spears at the ready.

The air was mixed with the smell of straw and oil.

And even a hint of soot, as if from freshly lit firewood.

‘So this is the outpost.’

Being in the middle of an island teeming with monsters, the atmosphere was somewhat grim, but strangely, along with the tension, there was a sense of vitality.

As I quietly smiled at the dynamic atmosphere, Ppatppat-i 2, who was walking ahead, turned around.

“First time at an outpost, right? Welcome, to the 1st Outpost.”

She spread her arms, proudly introducing the base.

And at that moment—

Kugugugung.

The massive wooden gate slowly split open to both sides.

Under the already dimming sky, the sunset descending upon the rampart illuminated her face.

Ppatppat-i 2’s face, dyed orange by the sunset glow, how should I put it…

The atmosphere suggested I should say she looked exceedingly pretty, but honestly, my conscience wouldn’t allow it.

‘She’s ugly…’

I really couldn’t bring myself to say she was pretty.