The Art Of Sword

*Jihu turn*

Just like the Dance&Karaoke section the One Shot section also has the yellow line that covers the top and bottom of the entrance.

When Jihu crosses the yellow line a video game UI appears in front of his face with the text *Choose your Weapon*

He is then presented with two guns a ‘Desert Eagle’ and a ‘Revolver’.

Jihu covers his face with both hands and laughs: Haha… The joke can’t go on for this long… this is so stupid *grab the Degale* but so amazing.

The UI text changed to

*Main Quest: Kill the Demon King*

*Side Quest: Kill 20 Players*

Jihu: And of course, it has daily quest…How about…Map!

After saying that a map of the One Shot section appears in his palm. Currently, it only shows where he is standing, when he zooms out he sees the whole map.

This place is divided into 3 zones.

-1st zone Public

-2nd zone PvP

-3rd zone Throne

Jihu fires his gun at one of the guys in public but nothing happens, no one notices and his Deagle disappears.

Jihu: Guess that you can’t even shoot in here. Let’s move further!

Jihu makes his way into the PvP zone. While he doing that 3 rando follows behind him.

When Jihu enters the PvP zone his Deagle automatically equips to his hand. As he goes in further, the other 3 follow him closely. Then he encounters a familiar situation in the Public zone.

The same machines with the same layout but nothing is displayed on these machines. The atmosphere is intense and quiet. Everyone has their gun out on display either on their body or on the machine. Some people are moving in front of their machine while holding an Invisible Gun? And most are standing still, not looking at the entrance. But everyone here is standing in front of the machine, not to the side or back, just staring straight at the machine’s screen.

…

Then 3 shots were fired at Jihu. The bullets were visible enough for him to dodge but the 3 that were following him did not and they all just lay limp after getting hit.

Jihu then instantly fires his Deagle at the person that shot him 3 times but the bullet apparently hit an invisible wall surrounding the guy. Then Jihu got a *system notice* and a red aura surrounded his body.

*System notice: You’ve attacked a passive Player. 5-minute penalty. You can’t attack anyone and nobody can attack you. Go to the Public zone or rest at a machine in the PvP zone.*

Jihu (What the? He attacked me first.)

The man walks over to Jihu and tells him “Take my spot!” then he carries all three bodies at the same time back to the Public zone.

The guy looks like a mid-20 Korean, he is wearing a police uniform and carrying a Silver card.

Jihu goes to his spot and the machine demands him to swipe his card to rest.

*System notice: Penalty clear. Your time will be drained until you shoot your weapon. You can regain time by winning Duel against other players.*

*Reminder: Swipe your card every 5-minutes!*

After swiping his card onto the machine, a bunch of gamemodes appear on the screen but right before he can choose one, the Player next to him asks him something.

*During Jihu's POV everyone speaks to him in Korean*

Player with a deep and wise voice: Aren’t you supposed to be in school right now, young man?

Jihu quickly scans everyone around him and sees that all of them are at least 20, wearing police uniforms. And for the Player next to him, he looks early 40, has white hair and beard, dressed formally and he has a Red card.

Jihu (Why are there police here? Better choose my words carefully.)

“Actually, I don’t live here. I’m only on a vacation trip.”

Player: Is that so? Hmm… Do you think you have the intelligence to survive our Education System?

Jihu: I’m smart…but not that smart.

Player: Consider yourself lucky… We could use people like you.

Jihu: That’s, you don’t have to worry about. This country still has many backup ‘Hunters’ to build up.

Player: Haha… I read all of those back when I was young and I still read some nowadays. And I tell you only 1 out of 100 has the potential.

Jihu: That still seems like a great odd. You got a ‘Hunter’ out of 99 humans.

Player points his gun at Jihu’s head: And you know why we don’t have more?

Jihu:…Tell me…

Player: Because we don’t want you. We know that you’re guaranteed to become a ‘Hunter’ so we all going to kill you and take that chance for ourselves.

Jihu: So jealousy is the reason why we don’t have as many ‘Hunters’ as we should?

Player put his gun away: To explain this situation will take too much time. So I’ll explain it simply as a ‘Hunter’ three-stage.

“Stage one (Death) the ‘Hunter’ will experience the pressure (Physically and Mentally) from people around them. It’s up to them to see if they can handle it or just take their life.”

“Stage two (Worth) is when the ‘Hunter’ train themselves to be worthy of the power they are holding.”

“Stage three (Path). Will they choose to be a ‘Hunter’ or ‘Killer’… Either path will kill them anyway.”

Jihu: Ain’t all of these just real-life stuff. This is what I’d expect to hear from those ‘Heroes’ and not from an Old guy in an arcade…

“So what is your role in this world?”

Player: My role? Just a Principal working part-time to keep you students in school. And in here my name is ‘HeadMaster’.

Jihu: I thought it fixed to Demon King or Shadow Monarch.

HeadMaster: The color reflects the type of person. The title is for marketing.

Jihu: “HeadMaster”? You choose that because you head-shot everyone you fight?

HeadMaster: That is true…but look at the time. It’s High Noon!

“I’ll wait for you ‘Hunter’!”

HeadMaster walks out of the PvP zone and the other 20 cops point their gun at Jihu.

Jihu (Side quest before Main quest.): Let’s roll.

Throughout the whole battle, none of the cops can land a shot on Jihu. And he didn’t even break a sweat. But after the shootout, no cop was to be found. Except for…

Silver card: Yo kid, you take them out faster than expected. Still, I was able to drag each of them out faster than you eliminated them.

Jihu: You were the one dragging the cop out.

Silver card: Indeed! Need to make room for the visitors to play.

Jihu: Who are you?

Silver card: Just a cop doing cop stuff… Now you, your hair color looks familiar... Are you related to Han Jun?

Jihu:…How did you know that name?

Silver card: Jackpot! I know it because I’m dating her…Shocking right?

Jihu: Not really, it is expected of her to have one since she got asked out too many times. I just didn’t expect to meet you here…

Silver card: First time meeting her other relative too…But you better get going, don’t want to let that man wait.

Jihu: Can I know your name?

Silver card: Let’s both keep our names hidden from each other for now… But you can ask Jun if you want to… See you next time then.

Jihu: Yeah, see you…

The two men part way. Jihu goes to the Royal zone while Silver card groups up with the other police officer.

When Jihu entered the Throne zone, his whole outfit got changed to a cowboy outfit. And the whole place looks like a shootout scene in movies. No one is around, all of the buildings are empty. Only Jihu in a cowboy outfit and HeadMaster in his original outfit.

HeadMaster: Looks like that challenge was too easy for you!

Jihu: I thought police officers were supposed to be better than that.

HeadMaster: They were all still in training so don’t expect much.

Jihu: By the way, can I get rid of this outfit?

HeadMaster: Ah right! Just click on the *Disable custom outfit* icon then you’re good.

Jihu did what he was told and the outfit is gone.

Jihu questions the man: What type of Principal are you? You work at an Arcade as a Boss and have connection with the police.

HeadMaster: The Fictional type! Now we should get right to business, I can only give you 5 minutes before my guest arrives.

HeadMaster made some gestures then Jihu received an invite.

*Duel invitation from Demon King 1v1*

*Modification. Starting bullet 1. Increase the bullet by 1 when both Players empty their mag. (Max bullet 6)*

Jihu accepts the invitation, and then a holographic screen displays above them with the title ‘Challenger Vs Demon King’ while slowly counting down from 30 seconds.

Jihu (Did I rank up?) then he asked: I thought your name was HeadMaster.

HeadMaster: That the fixed Title in the system to avoid false Title. Can’t change that.

Jihu: Make sense…Are we allowed to move or do anything?

HeadMaster: You can warm up if you like but I think you already did. You can get physical but the system won’t score that.

Jihu: Like actual punch and kick?

HeadMaster: I won’t advise those, but if you believe in yourself then you… Can!

*Duel*

The announcement starts at the same time as HeadMaster’s sentence ends. And a bullet immediately flew out of HeadMaster’s revolver and flew straight at Jihu.

When Jihu heard the gun sound, he immediately fired his gun. And a message gets broadcast around the whole zone.

*Bullet collide. No Hit. Reload!*

Jihu: I didn’t expect you would play dirty.

HeadMaster: We only pull dirty tricks when we know we gonna lose. And I know that this is nothing compared to what you have experienced.

Jihu: You can’t *Shoot* make assumption like that *Shoot*.

All the bullets that Jihu shot got deflected by HeadMaster using his Revolver.

Jihu: The battle hasn’t even over yet.

HeadMaster shoots his two bullets at Jihu and he dodges them effortlessly.

*Stray Bullet. No Hit. Reload!*

HeadMaster: It was never an assumption. If I hadn’t experienced this before. 5 Years ago I was defeated by a rookie cop in this room with the same format. We made it to 6 bullets…but it should have ended in the first round.

Both Jihu and HeadMaster shoot all three bullets at the same time after that sentence ends.

*Bullet collide. No Hit. Reload!*

HeadMaster: He got in my head. He copied all of my actions, making me think that I was the better shooter.

Both empty all 4 bullets out of their gun without dodging until they hear the broadcast.

*Draw. 4 hits. Reload!*

The 4 shots all aim at each other body parts, two arms and two legs. When the bullet hit, it made that part of their body feel paralyzed. Until they hear the word ‘Reload!’, that is when everything returns to normal.

HeadMaster: With 5 bullets in the chamber and after the result in the fourth round. I felt confident that I was better than him…So I shoot first.

*Bang*.*Bang*.*Bang*.*Bang*.*Bang*.

…

All five shots were coming out of Jihu’s Deagle and not HeadMaster’s Revolver. And just like in round 2, this time it's HeadMaster who dodges all five bullets effortlessly.

Jihu grips his gun tightly and prepares to dodge the next 5 shots.

HeadMaster: But I wasn’t better. He was just holding his action, waiting for me to execute mine. My speed and accuracy were good but he was even better.

*Bang*.*Bang*.*Bang*.*Bang*.*Bang*.

Five shots were fired but not at Jihu, but it was at the ground in front of him. Making dust fly all over the place and cover his vision.

*Stray Bullet. No Hit. Reload!*

HeadMaster: This Round 5 was the same as the one from 5 years ago. But the role has changed.

“When the dust clears up, what you’re going to see will confuse you for a moment and you will be the Winner.”, this is not HeadMaster’s voice. A different voice but a familiar voice.

…

As the dust slowly cleared up what was in front of Jihu was ‘Silver card’ holding the Revolver to his own head and he said one last sentence.

“Well Play!”

*Bang*

…

*Time up! 11 bullets left. Draw!*

Silver card: That was unexpected!

Jihu: I ain’t winning like that.

Silver card: You didn’t even let me speak and shot the gun out of my hand as soon as the dust cleared up.

“You know how hard it is to time the ending!”

Jihu: I don’t know. I just can’t let you summon your inner Demon. And why are you here, where is HeadMaster?

The whole wild west atmosphere disappears to reveal a field with rows of bleachers around it. And HeadMaster is sitting on one of those bleachers.

Then a flood of 50-100 kids storms into the place.

Jihu: What is going on?

Silver card: It’s kindergarten time. Let’s get out.

Silver card grabs Jihu and walks him out while maneuvering through the children storming at HeadMaster.

*After fleeing to the PvP zone. They both stop and talk.*

Jihu: What is going on? Is HeadMaster going to be eaten alive?

Silver card: Same old weekday stuff that's all.

Jihu: And what was the switcheroo stuff you two just did?

Silver card: Just something we haven’t got to do for 5 years.

Jihu: 5 years? Are you saying all of that was just an act to experience your moment from 5 years ago?

Silver card: Close enough… you should have seen his face when I shot myself. Totally baffle!

Jihu: Is this some grown-up stuff I don’t understand?

Silver card: Nah! It's just my stuff.

Jihu: So what is the purpose of that whole thing?

Silver card: I have my fun. HeadMaster got to test his skill and you got to hear a good story.

Jihu: So all of the things HeadMaster said were just a script.

Silver card: Nah, all of that was from his own voice and no one else. Because he knows that we are both better than him.

Jihu: Ok then, if all of that was true then… Why did this place just got turned into a kindergarten?

Silver card: This area acts differently from the rest. It has a time system. At 12 pm during weekdays, that place turns into a daycare until 5 pm. Then at 7 pm across the whole week, it turns into a battlefield till 12 am.

Jihu: Then why the police are here?

Silver card: Training of course, mostly for aim training. From 8 am to 12 pm during weekdays.

Jihu: This whole place is so confusing.

Silver card: It is…Well, it was nice meeting you, kid. I hope to see you again in a different outfit.

Jihu: Uh yeah, it was nice meeting you.

Silver card walks away while Jihu stands there thinking of what to do next.