**Chapter 1: The Eccentric of the Dream Pavilion**
“Come on, come on! What are you doing? Hurry up and roll the dice!”
In the darkness, where an oil-stained lamp cast a faint, flickering presence, the air in the enclosed room was thick with the stench of stale tobacco smoke and sour alcohol.
“Argh! Damn it! How did that come up?”
“Hahahaha! Jackpot!”
To some, despair; to others, ecstasy.
Whether in my past life or this one, in such confined spaces, filthy greed and despair always mingled like slop for dogs.
“Hey, Iron Sword. You’re really betting it all, right?”
I looked at the one-eyed man grinning before me and nodded.
“Just roll.”
“Heh heh. Your luck ends here.”
*Clack. Clack. Clack.*
It had already been five years since I was cast into this world.
I had tried playing the hero and even earned money honestly, but I had eventually ended up in a shady back-alley gambling den.
“Alright! Here goes!”
*Thwack!*
The one-eyed man let out a shout and slammed the dice cup onto the table.
The onlookers were in a frenzy, urging him to open it as if they were anticipating the sight of a woman’s bare skin.
“Whoa! Eleven!”
“It’s an eleven!”
“Looks like Iron Sword is going to lose this one!”
They called me Iron Sword instead of my name.
It was a nickname given to me because I always carried an old iron sword strapped to my waist.
Suddenly, I found it hard to remember what my name had been in my original world.
*What was it… Kim Dong….*
I received the dice cup, staring blankly at the swaying lamp.
“Heh heh. Is the legendary Iron Sword scared? Hurry up and roll.”
“…….”
*Tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap.*
I rolled the dice cup in a steady rhythm.
The one-eyed man glared at my hand with his remaining eye, sharp as a hawk’s, and the surrounding onlookers held their breath, mouths shut tight, swallowing hard as if the stakes were their own lives.
“Asura Balbalta. Asura Balbalta.”
The one-eyed man furrowed his brow and looked up.
“What kind of dog shit is that? Just open it!”
“It’s a prayer to the God of Gambling. Why are you making such a fuss?”
“You son of a bitch! Open it now, or I’ll chop your hand off!”
*Thwack!*
How much had that guy lost to me?
He was the type to resort to all sorts of rigged gambling and draw his blade the moment things didn’t go his way.
Naturally, such gambling dens attracted all kinds of lunatics, but he was truly the craziest of the lot.
Since he had been repeatedly beaten by me, his one remaining eye was bloodshot and gleaming with madness.
“Ooh!”
“What is it! What’s the number! What!”
I injected a sliver of internal energy into my fingertips and clicked the dice cup.
It was half a year’s worth of internal energy, accumulated through five years of training.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
He had cheated too, so he couldn’t complain.
“You son of a bitch! You rigged it!”
The one-eyed man’s eye bulged as if it were about to pop out.
It seemed he did have a slight complaint.
I feigned ignorance and admonished him gently.
“You saw it with your own eyes, so why the fuss? Rigged, you say?”
“Open it, you bastard! Hurry up and open it!”
“As you wish.”
I slowly lifted the cup.
Two dirt-stained dice revealed themselves beneath.
Six and six.
“Whoa! Twelve!”
“Iron Sword won again! Iron Sword won again!”
“Damn it!”
*Crash!*
The one-eyed man flipped the gambling table.
The silver coins that had been piled up flew into the air.
I stared blankly for a moment at the silver coins, which sparkled like stars in the lamplight.
And in that moment.
The one-eyed man’s dagger tickled my chin.
“You son of a bitch! I’m not letting this slide today! How dare you cheat me!”
I pushed the tip of his dagger away with my finger and said,
“Don’t get excited. I’ll give you a consolation cut.”
“Consolation cut, my ass! That’s it! I’m going to see some of your blood today! Argh!”
Even in a martial world where blood and flesh flew freely, one was easily branded a demonic villain for carelessly slitting throats.
Yet this idiot was trying to stab my neck just because he’d lost a bit of money.
Gambling was truly a terrifying thing.
“Oops.”
“Ugh!”
I leaned my body backward from my seated position, dodging his dagger.
At the same time, I kicked my knee upward.
It wasn’t intentional, but a crisp sound of breaking eggs echoed from his crotch.
“Gueeeek!”
The one-eyed man’s mouth flew open as he let out a sound like a slaughtered pig.
I grabbed his wrist with my left hand and struck the floor with my right to pivot my body.
*Thud!*
Before I knew it, his dagger was in my left hand.
“Pain is best forgotten through greater pain.”
To ease his suffering, I plunged the dagger into his right hand.
“Kuaaaaaaah!!”
The pain from his crushed testicles must have faded away entirely.
Was this not a form of philanthropy offered to the dog-eat-dog world of the martial arts?
“You son of a bitch!”
“Boss!”
Naturally, guys like this always traveled in packs.
His two lackeys lunged at me from behind.
I grabbed the iron sword I had left on the floor and quickly rose to my feet.
“You bastard!”
He was a rather bulky lackey.
I bent my body at an angle to dodge his punch, then slammed the pommel of my sword into his chin.
*Pow!*
Red blood and yellow teeth flew out beautifully.
“You piece of—!”
Realizing they were outmatched, the other one drew his sword.
I vaulted off the bulky man’s back, spinning my body to draw my iron sword.
*Shing!*
“Ugh!”
My old iron sword stopped right in front of the swordsman’s throat.
*Clatter.*
Gone was his heroic, Guan Yu-like valor; he dropped his sword to the floor and trembled violently.
“P-please, spare me.”
“Spare you?”
“Please spare me! Iron Sword! My elderly mother is waiting at ho—”
*Pow!*
I flipped the sword and gave him a taste of the pommel to his chin as well.
As expected, he dripped blood and collapsed to his knees.
*Clap. Clap. Clap.*
The gambling den had turned into a scene of chaos in an instant.
In the darkness, where the scent of blood was spreading, came the sound of applause that felt entirely out of place.
Everyone turned their heads toward the source of the sound.
“Iron Sword. Is this another disturbance?”
Standing there was a woman as beautiful as a fairy descended into hell, carrying herself with a haughty air.
Behind her followed a guard covered from head to toe in black martial attire.
“I-it’s the Dream Pavilion Mistress!”
“It’s the Mistress!”
The Dream Pavilion, where the desires of lost men writhed like dreams.
That beautiful woman was the owner of this place.
I clicked my iron sword back into its scabbard and shrugged my shoulders slightly.
“It was self-defense.”
“If you use self-defense twice, you’ll end up killing several people.”
“I didn’t kill anyone. They’re all perfectly fine.”
“Hmm….”
The Mistress looked down at the man writhing on the floor as if he were a bug, then turned her body away.
“Let’s have a word in private.”
“As you wish.”
I pushed through the foul-smelling crowd and followed the Mistress.
* * *
Inside the Mistress’s quarters within the Dream Pavilion.
Perhaps because it was a woman’s domain, the air was filled with a pleasant fragrance, a stark contrast to the musty gambling den outside.
As I stepped inside, the Mistress, who had been standing with her back to me, turned around with a bright smile.
“Another clean job, as expected.”
“I’m glad you’re satisfied.”
“Because of that bastard, business has been abysmal these past few months. Not to mention how he kept tormenting the girls. I should have just finished him off myself.”
I watched the Mistress’s furrowed brow and slumped into a chair beside the tea table.
A fine silk pouch sat on the table.
“If you kill people so recklessly, ghosts will haunt you.”
“If you would take care of the killing for me, my work would be much easier.”
“I told you. Ghosts will haunt you.”
“Yes, yes.”
In truth, the Dream Pavilion was not the ordinary gambling den it appeared to be.
It was, in fact, the Hubei branch of the Beggar Sect.
Just as a beautiful flower has thorns, the Mistress before me was, in reality, the branch leader of the Beggar Sect.
“Still, thanks to you, the Dream Pavilion will be quiet for a while. I’ll be sure to call on you again if more trash like that shows up.”
“As long as the pay is right.”
“Ho ho ho! I’ve been generous.”
I checked the silk pouch on the tea table.
It felt heavy, so I had high hopes, but it was silver, not gold.
Well, I suppose gold would be excessive for taking care of a few small-time thugs.
“Any decent work available?”
“Oh my! To what do I owe the pleasure of you asking for a contract first?”
“I’ve been doing nothing but chores, and I’m getting restless.”
It has already been five years since I was dropped into this godforsaken world.
To think that I, a regular office worker, would end up inside a martial arts game.
It was enough to drive a person mad.
A world where you never know when a blade or poison might come flying at you.
That was why I had struggled through the raw, visceral pain, prioritizing survival above all else until now.
‘I have to stay alive if I want to find a way back.’
In those five years, I had achieved a total of nine level-ups.
But now, I couldn’t gain any more experience points by dealing with small-fry.
Should I be content with being a top-tier fixer for the Beggar Sect and settle into this life?
Or should I seek a new path?
It was time for a change.
“Let’s see. Something suitable….”
The Mistress picked up a few documents from her desk and flipped through them.
“There’s a request to escort the eldest son of the Jin family from Hunan. They’re heading to the Imperial Capital.”
Escorting the child of a wealthy family.
It sounded tedious, and I didn’t see any opportunity to gain experience.
“Too simple. Anything else?”
The Mistress glanced at me with a look of surprise before turning her gaze back to the documents in her hand.
“Simple, you say? Then….”
She flipped through a few more pages before holding one up.
“Ah. Here’s a decent one. It’s a bounty request.”
“A bounty?”
My interest was piqued.
If there was a bounty on someone’s head, they couldn’t be a mere nobody.
If the target was worthy, I could secure both the bounty and the experience points.
“A lecherous rogue is running wild. The bounty is high, too. Ten gold pieces.”
“Oh!”
In this world, a single gold piece could feed a family of four for a month.
Ten gold pieces meant the target was no ordinary criminal.
“That’s a high bounty for a lecher. Did the pursuit team fail?”
“No. It seems he’s quite skilled at running away. The bounty keeps increasing because the families he’s victimized are desperate for someone to catch him.”
“Hmm. It doesn’t sound too dangerous, yet the pay is good….”
“Will you take it?”
“Who could refuse an offer like that?”
“Ho ho ho! You speak as if you’ve ever listened to my advice.”
The business was concluded.
I rose from my seat and walked toward the door.
The Mistress’s languid voice drifted from behind me.
“I’ll have the wanted poster and the map sent to your lodging. The commission fee is ten percent.”
I raised my right hand slightly without a word and exited her quarters.
It was time to go on a hunt for the first time in a while.
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