Chapter 383

The Imperial Palace Sword Method was learned under Marquis Bastion, but the person who best utilized it in the Empire was undoubtedly the Emperor’s knight Berstaphen.

When the Emperor passed away, he sided with the Second Princess Josephine Floria and officially participated in the battle for the throne.

The outcome is a well-known sad ending.

Caught in a scheme, Josephine entered a forest contaminated by erosion and became a monstrous creature.

The ruler, who became a being worse than death.

In despair, Berstaphen himself became a host for the erosion and plunged the entire Empire into chaos.

[Fever Dream – UnderSoftware Inc.]

[Galactic Noble – Delphoi]

I stared at the enemy in front of me, recalling the events of my past life.

My stiffened body revealed that he was not a living person, but an artificial intelligence.

Though his name and body had changed, I vividly remembered what had happened back then.

Thanks to the help of virtual reality, I stood before the male figure with the same body as in my past life.

That person could be described as the embodiment of the Imperial Palace Sword Method.

Having incorporated all 496 sword principles, the combat style of ASI would be endlessly close to Berstaphen.

“I’ve won against him once. I might as well win again.”

In the temple bathed in moonlight, the vampire Delphoi walked in, his cloak billowing between the ornate Corinthian stone columns.

I rummaged through my inventory to find a weapon to use.

My usual favorite, the Schiavona, was indeed there.

However, I gripped a larger and heavier claymore instead.

This was to show the many gamers who would face Berstaphen’s derived bosses in the future how to combat the Imperial Palace Sword Method that would bring them despair.

“Ah, should I use this again after a long time?”

[Black Leather Hair Tie × 2]

I gathered my hair in large handfuls and tied the left half with a hair tie.

I did the same neatly with the remaining right half.

The twin tails tied relatively high cascaded down from my shoulders to my chest.

I lightly shook my blonde hair left and right.

“I’m ready.”

No sooner had I spoken aloud to the empty air than the vampire Delphoi’s eyes gleamed red.

A green health bar appeared beneath his name.

It begins.

The tall man started charging at me with a great sword over his shoulder.

Thud thud thud thud—

The sound of his footsteps resonated rhythmically.

But I couldn’t let my guard down.

Those enchanted by that sound would fall to the great sword in an instant.

Thud thud

In the blink of an eye, Delphoi closed the distance and swung the great sword horizontally with force.

‘The first move is, as expected, predictable.’

Swoosh—!

The mass of metal sliced through the air.

I leaned my upper body back, narrowly avoiding the tip of the blade.

A few strands of my blonde hair were sharply cut by the keen edge.

‘This isn’t going to end here.’

I reinforced my grip on the handle with my left hand, which had just been supporting it with my right.

Delphoi grabbed the sword with both hands and brought it down with his weight.

Boom—!

A person runs faster when going forward than when running backward.

If I had blindly tried to retreat, he would have taken advantage of the momentum and cleaved me in two.

Thus, I dodged the sword with minimal movement.

Instead, I dove into the vampire’s embrace and slashed at his side.

Swoosh—

Bright red blood gushed from the spot my claymore had swept across.

Even before the blood could scatter on the ground, Delphoi’s sword sought my waist again.

This was the terrifying aspect of the Imperial Palace Sword Method.

While enemies who took effective hits would fall into grogginess, Delphoi kept attacking.

A sword style seeking perfection finds the best strike even considering that it might be struck by its foe.

It’s a sword meant not for survival, but for killing.

Clang—!

Drawing the claymore close to my body, I defended against the fierce blow.

I summoned my sharp senses to the utmost, desperately maintaining a narrow gap between us.

When swinging a sword, one paradoxically becomes most vulnerable, so I endured the barrage of strikes and waited until I could seize the initiative.

Once I found an opening,

‘Right thigh, head, waist, left side, then head again.’

I pressed forward aggressively, just as he had done.

Swoosh—

Taking advantage of Delphoi’s slightly loosened guard, I thrust my body forward with all my might.

It was an endless cycle.

My sword found and struck at Delphoi’s openings time and again.

Artificial intelligence does not make mistakes.

It simply falls into its own labyrinth.

Clash—!

The swords clashed in a test of strength in the air.

An unpleasant metallic sound that could tear one’s ears.

The sword slid across the blade surface.

I led the judgments I thought were best at each moment to act unfavorably,

‘After a grapple in a bull stance, it’s either a downward cut or a retreat. It has to be one of those two.’

The trajectory of the sword became predictable.

When the enemy retreated, there was no risk for me.

That is, I hypothesized that he would go for the downward cut and dangerously thrust my head into the path of the sword.

“…”

I confronted Delphoi’s lifeless eyes.

Starting from the concept of swinging a sword, hundreds of sword principles and thousands of roots merged back into one.

Clang—!

The trajectory was disrupted, and the heavy sword was deflected.

Dealing with a predetermined future is not difficult.

The claymore held in my hands twisted and made contact with Delphoi’s nape.

Immediately, I twisted my wrist and spun the sword forcefully.

Swoosh—

At that moment, once again, Delphoi’s body, which had been sliced to pieces, collapsed backward.

A brief headache throbbed.

It felt like my brain was signaling pain instead of breathlessness since it was a virtual reality.

“Is this the beginning?”

The fingers of the still motionless corpse twitched before it stood upright.

Boom—!

A blue line appeared on the handle, connecting to Delphoi’s wrist.

He forcefully threw the sword down on the spot.

Whoosh—!

I stepped sideways and lightly evaded the sword.

This was the pattern that Adella had instilled.

It was a predictable attack, but at the same time, dangerous.

If I were hit by that, I’d definitely feel miserable.

‘If I had let my guard down, I could’ve been done in right there.’

Delphoi retrieved his sword again, his spine bent like a bow.

Now, Delphoi would not make the best choice.

He would engage in an even more chaotic battle with unrefined movements.

Delphoi dragged the sword along the ground and charged like a hunting dog.

He discarded the claymore and reached for the Schiavona he usually used.

“Now it’s going to be somewhat interesting.”

A puzzle where you already know the answer is far less entertaining than you’d expect.

* * *

If one thinks the fight looks exciting, it isn’t a proper fight.

One should feel a deep anxiety that makes the heart pound, limbs curl, and the body flinch.

Like when a ghost suddenly jumps out in a movie or when a baseball flies toward the screen in a video that was once fun,

as reality reaches its extremes, the body naturally immerses itself.

‘This is fucking insane…’

The ASI developer was so absorbed in the moment that he forgot he was broadcasting, and swearing slipped out.

Every time Delphoi’s sword grazed past a woman’s face, I tightened my fists.

Relentlessly pursuing with no pause for varied strikes.

The destination of the blade was always the sword held by Name.

Clang—!

For an instant, it felt as though the sword had gained free will and was flying on its own.

Especially, Delphoi’s sword deviated from human posture and was both alien yet rational.

The grip’s position varied from very low on the ground to heights unreachable by Name’s hands.

Delphoi, lying flat on the ground, swung his shoulder widely.

As he attempted to slice through an ankle, Name lightly jumped, like skipping rope, and delivered a powerful kick to the beast’s head.

Standing tall on two feet, Delphoi again swung his sword with a refined human form.

He transcended the boundaries of being human, yet the sword’s craftsmanship was too intricate to be merely beastly.

‘Got it. This AI has no timing for its attacks!’

Delphoi now had no wasted time between movements.

The former bosses would always assume a fixed stance after jump attacks or horizontal strikes.

In contrast, this AI flowed seamlessly from one action to the next.

No matter how difficult patterns had been showcased by game companies, players had merely awaited until the patterns concluded from a safe distance.

So forcing ideas ultimately resulted in players expressing a persistent lack of freshness.

Of course, I understood the players’ perspective.

Bosses throw attacks that are impossible to graze and brazenly pretend to invite hits.

With choices only to evade or strike, the game inevitably becomes monotonous.

Over ten years have passed since the advent of virtual reality games, yet we realized we had not escaped the notions of console gaming from thirty years ago.

‘What matters is when, where, and how to evade, and when, where, and how to strike.’

Wishki realized that merely increasing the boss difficulty was not the solution.

If the powerful strikes had driven gamers to flee like cowards, it would instead be advisable to lower the attack power and encourage fighting back.

The first participant of that ASI would undoubtedly be Berstaphen.

“His health is so high that it just won’t end. I’ll call it quits on the sparring here.”

Name said lazily, releasing one of her twin tails.

She had just turned the handsome vampire noble into a bloody mess.

* * *

The last Wednesday of August.

The sound of the wind and the eerie patter of rain announced the end of the heat wave and the arrival of the rainy season.

The large games within Resonance simultaneously entered a 30-minute maintenance.

A hardcore difficulty remaster due to the release of a new combat algorithm.

The higher the clearing difficulty of the campaign, the more PP (Performance Point) it rewards, consequently drawing more users, so the update was anticipated.

As the Leaqis endured daily content shortages, they rejoiced.

[Resonance Gallery]

[Nona Mae mk.2 Am I the only one looking forward to this?]

[13 minutes until the update ends…]

[Big Brother will take care of everything, whether it’s Jansol or idle chats!]

[Look at everyone clamoring for more content lol, but with Hari, all guides will be out anyway.]

[But wasn’t the beast knight concept already widely used?]

[I’d praise all day if Resonance provided a Nona Mae World of Aqua skin.]

[Real-time Insert: LeTerBox’s boss has also gone live for the update lol.]

[What should we tackle first, Moonlight Soul? Fever Dream? RE4 Dead?]

The calm before the storm.

An hour later, the game community was in chaos.

[Did you seriously make this to clear? Developers are insane!!!]

[But I always end up getting wrecked…]

[If the developers have any conscience, they should’ve gone to America lol.]

[Real-time Insert: Over 50 Delphoi patterns discovered so far.]

[Demigod) Dark Sword Erebus was annihilated – dead movie.]

[I promise I won’t mess around againㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]