The Man Who Beat Him 583 Times

The battlefield had fallen completely silent. It was not the silence of a great victory or the quietness of death. It was the heavy silence that came when everything was simply used up.

No more monsters crawled from the cracked earth. No warning sirens echoed across the empty sky. Seo-Jun stood alone in a wasteland scarred by endless battles.

His breathing was perfectly calm, and his body was relaxed. Only the wooden sword in his hand told the bloody story of what had happened here. The blade was covered in deep cracks.

He looked at the battered weapon for a moment. Then, with surprising care, he brushed away the dust on its surface.

"...You held on longer than I expected."

A faint smile appeared, but it faded almost as quickly as it came. A glowing blue screen silently unfolded in the air. No dramatic sound came with it; it simply existed.

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[Combat Dome]

Training Status :

▸ Adaptive Combat Domain — Completed

▸ Environmental Evolution Protocol — Completed

▸ Extreme Survival Simulation — Completed

▸ Collective Combat Analysis — Completed

Evaluation :

All available combat programs have reached their optimization threshold.

Additional repetitions are unlikely to produce meaningful growth.

Recommendation:

Seek combat beyond simulation parameters.

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Seo-Jun stared at the floating words for a few seconds. "...I figured." There was no disappointment in his voice, only a cold truth he already knew.

He knew this long before the room told him. The training ground had done its job, but every fake battle had become entirely predictable to his eyes.

Every monster eventually followed a strict pattern. Even the wild disasters repeated themselves. The room could learn, but only up to a certain limit.

The machine could fake chaos, but it could never become truly wild. Seo-Jun slowly closed his eyes. A very different kind of battlefield floated up from his memories.

There were no blue windows there, and no fake monsters. There were only real, breathing people. He remembered an old swordsman whose simple stance showed decades of blood.

He remembered a killer who smiled while dying because her job was done. He remembered a spear master who forced a bloody draw with one last, desperate strike.

Winning, losing, regret, and wild joy. The faces of those people had grown blurry over the years, and some names had completely vanished from his mind.

But the deadly battles remained carved deep into his very soul. His grip naturally tightened around the cracked wooden sword.

"...Experience," he whispered softly.

That was exactly what this fake room lacked. A machine could copy a sword swing and measure raw power. It could even fake instincts through cold math.

But true experience was something else entirely. It was the hidden fear inside a final strike. It was the countless painful mistakes a person made until they became perfect.

No machine could ever truly copy that heavy weight, because no machine had ever lived a real life. Seo-Jun slowly raised his hand toward the light.

His finger gently touched the floating blue screen. Soft ripples spread across the light, and a hidden menu with locked choices slowly revealed itself.

Most of the choices were dark and locked away. But his eyes settled firmly on the very last option on the list. It was a choice he had ignored until now.

Not because he was afraid of it, but because he had no reason to use it before. Now, he finally did.

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Experimental Combat Protocol

"Memory Reconstruction"

Classification: Experimental

Authorization Level: Restricted

Warning: Cognitive Interference Possible

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Without a single drop of fear, Seo-Jun selected it. The room answered him instantly, and a calm voice echoed throughout the empty wasteland.

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[Experimental Protocol Confirmed.]

[Initiating Memory Reconstruction Sequence.]

Unlike conventional combat simulations, this protocol will not generate opponents from archived combat data. Instead, combat entities will be reconstructed from the user's own memories and combat experiences.

They will be reconstructed from you.

■ Conscious memories

■ Subconscious impressions

■ Emotional resonance

■ Instinctive combat responses

The reconstruction process will analyze these factors to recreate opponents based on how they were perceived, remembered, and experienced by the user.

[Simulation fidelity will depend on memory integrity.]

A second notification appeared, its letters noticeably darker than before.

[Warning: Human memory is inherently imperfect.]

This text was taken from NovelPhoenix. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Memory does not preserve events with absolute accuracy. It can be altered by emotion, trauma, admiration, fear, regret, and the passage of time.

As a result, reconstructed entities may differ from their original counterparts in appearance, personality, abilities, combat behavior, and overall strength.

Memories that have been forgotten, suppressed, or distorted may also produce unpredictable variations within the reconstruction.

[Unexpected variables may occur during the simulation.]

[The Combat Dome cannot guarantee that reconstructed entities will accurately reflect their original selves.]

[Do you wish to continue?]

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Perfect practice had never forged a true master, but painful failure did. Every old scar carried a harsh lesson, and every bitter loss exposed a hidden flaw.

Even forgotten memories held great value. Sometimes, the tiny detail a warrior forgot was the exact thing that killed them. If his mind twisted the truth, he would just cut the lie apart.

That deadly unknown was exactly what he wanted right now. "Proceed." For a brief moment, absolutely nothing happened. The system fell silent, and the wasteland remained dead.

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Authorization Accepted.

Initializing Memory Reconstruction...

Synchronizing Cognitive Archive...

Reconstructing Emotional Layer...

Accessing Deep Combat Memory...

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The fake world suddenly trembled. It was not a violent earthquake, but felt more like an ancient giant was finally opening its eyes.

The cracked earth stopped moving entirely. The dark clouds above froze in place, and the harsh wind vanished. Dust hung frozen in the air, as if time had simply stopped.

Everything became perfectly, unnervingly still. Even the glowing system fell silent. Seconds passed by, or maybe just a single heartbeat.

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Memory Interpretation Complete.

Primary Battlefield Selected.

Generating Environment...

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The world split wide open. It did not shatter like glass, but peeled away like old paint to reveal a completely different reality hidden underneath.

The dark wasteland melted away from his feet. The angry storm clouds turned into a soft, red sunset. A cool, gentle mountain breeze brushed lightly against his face.

It carried no ugly scent of blood or burning flesh. Instead, it smelled of fresh earth, wild grass, and sweet plum blossoms. Seo-Jun slowly opened his eyes.

The world had changed completely. A giant, ancient mountain stretched out before him under a dying red sun. Stone stairs led up to hidden resting places in the clouds.

Thousands of old swords rested all over the mountain. Some were buried in the dirt, leaving only their handles. Others were snapped cleanly in half by past battles.

A few swords still stood tall and proud, waiting for masters who would never come back. Every blade bore deep scars. This was a graveyard for forgotten swords.

The evening breeze blew gently once again. White plum blossoms drifted slowly through the air, painting the red sky. Seo-Jun did not move a single muscle.

His dark eyes slowly looked across the beautiful mountain. There was no shock on his face, because his body remembered this place long before his mind did.

He had stood right here a very long time ago. It was back when he thought he could get strong just by copying others.

Back then, every loss made him chase another man's sword instead of trusting his own. A quiet breath escaped his lips. "...So this is where it begins."

As if answering his soft words, a shadow moved on the mountain path. A lonely figure appeared against the red sky. Step. Step. Step.

His walking pace was slow and totally relaxed. Each step fit the mountain perfectly, as if the earth itself was happy to welcome him back home.

The wind grew much gentler around him, and the white flowers danced naturally around his body. Seo-Jun watched him in absolute silence.

For the first time in days, real emotion stirred in his dark eyes. It was not fear or anger, but pure expectation.

Out of all the monsters he had killed, this fake room had never been able to create the man walking toward him right now.

The figure drew closer and closer. He was unhurried, and his steps were neither heavy nor light. They simply belonged there.

Only when he was a few dozen steps away did Seo-Jun see him clearly. He looked like a man in his thirties. He was tall, lean, and wore plain white clothes.

His silver hair was tied back loosely, with a few messy strands falling over his eyes. An ordinary wine bottle hung from his waist, and a plain sword rested lazily on his shoulder.

Nothing about him looked godly or powerful. He looked more like a wandering drunk who had climbed the wrong mountain by mistake. Yet, Seo-Jun could not look away.

The whole world felt different. The mountain was no longer the main piece of art. He was. It wasn't because he ruled the world with fear, but because the world simply accepted him.

The wind and the flowers did not worship him. They just danced beside him like they always had. There was no crushing pressure coming from his body.

His mere existence was entirely natural. And somehow, that scared Seo-Jun much more than any giant monster ever could. The man's sleepy eyes slowly met Seo-Jun's gaze.

He blinked once, and then again. He looked Seo-Jun up and down for a long time without saying a single word. Finally, he scratched his cheek.

"...Huh."

He frowned deeply.

"You got uglier."

Seo-Jun did not answer the insult. The man crossed his arms and tilted his head, looking at Seo-Jun like a piece of meat.

"No, wait." He narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue.

"It's not just uglier... You look incredibly tired." He stared for another moment before his face relaxed.

"...Ah." A slow, wide grin spread across his face.

"So that is it." He pointed a lazy finger right at Seo-Jun.

"It is the face that is completely different."

His finger moved up to point at Seo-Jun's eyes.

"But those damn eyes... I would know those stubborn eyes anywhere in the world."

For the first time today, Seo-Jun actually smiled. It was a very faint, tiny smile.

"You still have a terrible way of saying hello."

The man barked out a loud laugh.

"Hahaha!" His laughter echoed freely across the quiet mountain. It was not polite or neat; it was loud, free, and totally shameless.

"And why should I ever change?" He easily opened his wine bottle and took a long, deep drink. He let out a happy sigh and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"If your sword had been even half as sharp as your tongue back then... I wouldn't have had to beat you into the dirt every other day."

Seo-Jun answered without missing a single beat.

"It wasn't every other day."

The man raised an eyebrow in question.

"Oh?"

Seo-Jun looked right at him.

"It was every single day."

The man blinked in surprise.

"...Are you actually admitting that?"

Seo-Jun nodded slowly with a straight face.

"You beat me five hundred and eighty-three times."

A heavy silence fell over them, and the swordsman's smiling face slowly froze. He slowly lowered his wine bottle.

"...You actually counted them?"

"I had plenty of time while lying flat on the ground." For a brief heartbeat, the mountain became perfectly quiet. Then, the man tried to hold back a snort, but completely failed.

"Hahahahahaha!" His laughter exploded across the deep valley, scaring birds into the red sky. He laughed so hard he had to lean on his sword to keep from falling over.

"Damn it..." He wiped a tear from his eye.

"You actually counted every single beating?"

Seo-Jun answered with total seriousness.

"They were very good lessons."

That only made the drunk man laugh even harder.

"You hopeless fool..." He shook his head slowly.

"Only you could treat getting your teeth kicked in like taking school notes."

Seo-Jun shrugged his shoulders naturally.

"You kept repeating the lessons."

The man grinned back at him.

"Because you kept failing them."

Seo-Jun replied calmly, "I got better."

"Barely," the man snorted.

"I survived," Seo-Jun added smoothly.

"Mostly by being too stubborn to just die," the man shot back.

"I will take that as a nice compliment," Seo-Jun said.

The swordsman stared at him for a long moment. Then another soft laugh escaped him.

"...You really have changed."

Seo-Jun looked back at him.

"So have you." The man waved his hand like brushing away a fly.

"Nah. I am still devastatingly handsome."

Seo-Jun gave him a flat look.

"You have just become completely shameless."

The man looked truly hurt.

"Become? I have always been completely shameless."

Seo-Jun nodded slowly in agreement.

"...Fair point."

The man grinned widely.

"Hah! There is the brat I remember."

For a little while, neither of them spoke a word. The silence was not awkward at all. The gentle mountain breeze carried white flowers between the two warriors.

One had crossed endless bloody wars. The other was just a ghost made from old memories. Yet, standing there together, the long years separating them felt entirely meaningless.

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Scanning Combat Entity...

Analyzing Sword Intent...

Analyzing Martial Foundation...

...

...

...

Error. Analysis Failed.

Reason: Combat Principles exceed current analytical framework. Unable to establish complete combat profile.

Assigning temporary designation...

『Sword Saint』

Threat Assessment: UNKNOWN

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