Disaster-Level Player Is Too Good at Broadcasting-Chapter 50: « Kang Min Of The Mercenary Corp. [4] »
「"Move that barrel over there! You call that a picket line? My grandmother can dig a trench faster than you lot, and she’s been dead since the Abyss cracked the sky!"」
「"Oh, shut it, Gurn. Your grandmother was a mountain troll, of course she could dig faster. Hey, look who it is! The Commander’s new pet!"」
「"Quiet, you idiot. That’s the guy who nearly took the Commander’s head off in the courtyard. Show some respect before he decides your face needs a redesign too."」
Kang Min walked into the center of the mercenary camp, his boots crunching on the dry earth.
The sun had finally dipped below the horizon, and the camp was alive with the flickering orange glow of dozens of communal fires.
The smell of roasting mutton and cheap, yeasty ale filled the air, mixing with the metallic scent of whetstones on steel.
He didn’t say anything as he approached the main fire.
He just looked at them.
The men and women of the Mercenary Knights Corp.
They were a diverse lot.
Some were humans in battered plate, others were beastkin with fur matted by sweat, and a few were mages with staves leaning against their stools.
In the Old World, these people would have been his comrades, or at least his subordinates.
「"Sit down, Kang Min,"」
A female mercenary said, sliding a wooden bench over with her boot.
She was a tall woman with a mess of red hair and a scar that ran from her temple to her jaw.
「"I’m Jaya. I lead the third scout squad. You’re the talk of the camp, you know. Not many people can make Commander Kaelen draw his sword with both hands."」
Kang Min sat, his movements economical.
He didn’t see much point in a long introduction.
They were in a simulation... their lives were set on a loop until he cleared the fable.
Still, ignoring them entirely would make navigating the camp more difficult.
"He’s a good swordsman."
Min said shortly, his voice neutral.
「"A ’good swordsman’?"」
A dwarf laughed from across the fire, holding up a massive tankard.
「"Lad, he’s the best blade in the Duchy! If he’s just ’good,’ then I’m a dainty forest sprite. Here, drink this. It’ll wash the dust of that mountain out of your throat."」
He handed Min a heavy ceramic mug.
Min took it, feeling the cold condensation on the outside.
He looked at the liquid.
It was a dark, amber brew with a thick head of foam.
He took a long, slow sip.
’Tastes like watered-down beer.’
He thought, his eyes staring into the flames.
’But the kick... the way it burns the back of the throat... it almost reminds me of soju. Just a bit more bitter.’
He lowered the mug, his expression unchanged.
「"Is it to your liking?"」
Jaaya asked, leaning back.
「"It’s brewed right here in the capital. The Duke says it keeps the men’s spirits up, though I think it just keeps them too drunk to realize they’re fighting demons."」
"It’s fine."
Min replied.
「"He really doesn’t talk much, does he?"」 the dwarf chuckled.
「"Hey, Min. Where are you really from? You don’t look like you’ve spent a day in the slums, and you certainly don’t fight like a noble.
You move like someone who’s been to the end of the world and back."」
Kang Min took another drink, letting the silence hang.
He wasn’t being rude...he just didn’t see the utility in lying to a character.
As the mercenaries continued to chatter around him...sharing stories of past battles, complaining about the rations, and joking about their chances of surviving the next night Min found his thoughts drifting.
The weight of the mug in his hand was real.
Even the way the dwarf’s breath smelled of onions and ale felt disturbingly authentic.
’Is this really just a simulation?’
He wondered, his gaze shifting to the high walls of the capital in the distance.
Floor 48 was massive.
In the Old World, it was one of the "settlement floors."
It was so vast, so filled with life and resources, that many climbers simply stopped here.
The Tower was a harsh mistress, but Floor 48 was a paradise compared to the floors that came before it.
After seeing what awaited them on the 49th, thousands of climbers had simply turned around and declared that they were done.
They abandoned Earth.
They abandoned their families, their missions, and their worlds.
They chose to live here, in this medieval capital, under the protection of the Duchy.
Men who had wives and children back home remarried here, fathering new families in a world that followed different rules.
They built houses, opened shops, and grew old while watching the younger climbers head up to 49, knowing most of them would never return.
In the Old World, Floor 48 was a graveyard of ambition, but it was also a cradle of new life.
Everything was here.
Food, shelter, wine, love.
Why go through the hell of the higher floors when you could just choose to live and die in a world that felt more real than the one you left behind?
Min looked at Jaaya, who was currently laughing at a joke the dwarf had made.
She seemed so vibrant.
Her laughter felt spontaneous.
But then he remembered the view from the Mount of Eternal Cinder.
When he had stood at the very peak, looking out toward the furthest horizon past the limits of the Valeria Duchy and the surrounding he had seen nothingness.
There were no distant lands or unexplored continents.
At the very edge of the simulation’s render distance, there was only blackness.
And if you looked closely enough, you could see the pixels shimmering like static on an old television screen, the fabric of the world fraying where the narrative energy ran thin.
The horizon didn’t lead to another kbottom... it led to the end of the nothingness.
’It’s an illusion.’
Min reminded himself, the cold logic of an old world climber cutting through the warmth of the alcohol.
’No matter how realistic the beer tastes or how loud the laughter is, these people are just fragments of a stored memory.
They don’t exist outside of my skill.’
He realized he was holding the mug so tightly that the ceramic was beginning to groan.
He relaxed his grip, feeling the condensation slip between his fingers.
He didn’t want to get attached.
He couldn’t afford to.
In the Old World, the tragedy of Floor 48 was that people forgot they were in a Tower.
They mistook the cage for a home.
He wouldn’t make that mistake.
He was here for the Left Hand of Varkas, and once he had it, he would burn this simulation to the ground and leave with the item he owned back then. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
「"Hey, you okay there?"」
Jaaya asked, her voice cutting through his internal monologue.
「"You’ve been staring at that fire like you’re trying to find a secret message in the coals."」
Kang Min snapped out of it.
He looked at her, his eyes cold and focused once again.
The blue mana trail from his earlier fight was gone, but the intensity remained.
"I’m fine."
He lifted the heavy ceramic mug, looking at the last few inches of amber liquid at the bottom.
