Chapter 3: The Unerring Sword

“Woof, woof, woof, woof~”
The sinister barking, twisted and distorted by excitement and pleasure, echoed through the trees.

Garen’s face remained expressionless as he pulled himself from the trunk bristling with thorns, a terrifying, devouring fire flickering in his eyes.

His digitized body had ensured his physical form was utterly unharmed. When Garen extricated himself from the sea of spikes, neither the pierced skin nor the brain that had been skewered through showed the slightest injury. Even his outer armor and robes were completely unscathed.

But Garen had no mind for these unbelievable phenomena right now.

“Damn it…”

“I almost got careless and lost everything…”

Gritting his teeth, Garen spat out these words, each syllable heavy with blood and tears. In his hand, a gleaming greatsword was already gripped tight.

A murderous aura surged from him.

An ordinary urban youth, thrown into another world and likely to starve to death without any golden finger, had in a single day awakened the killing intent of a hardened bandit and a battle-hardened general.

“Woof, woof, woof, woof!”

The monstrous Teddy Dog, still riding a wave of excitement, failed to sense the looming danger and wagged its pom-pom tail with gusto.

Perhaps it thought Garen was merely turning to strike a different pose.

“A broken-backed cur, how dare you yap so wildly before me?!”

Raising the greatsword high above his head, Garen’s furious roar thundered like a storm:

“Decisive Strike!”

The sword in his hands instantly blazed with golden light, as if a radiant holy fire had fused with the cold metal, elevating the already magnificent blade to a sacred realm.

It was an indescribable feeling.

If one had to put it into words, it was the Sword of Justice!

Garen, the Might of Demacia, the righteous knight, the radiant war god.

Though our Garen was but a counterfeit, when the hero’s skills projected from the game into reality, a trace of the original hero’s aura remained.

Anyone who saw such swordlight would instinctively sense that its wielder was a righteous man, worthy of respect.

But our Garen was, after all, an impostor…

So, he raised the Sword of Justice, and shouted—

“Today I’ll smash your mutt head to bits!”

With that, Garen leaped forward, sword swinging down.

The effect of “Decisive Strike” granted Garen a 30% boost to his movement speed. In the real world, this made his entire body light and swift.

Already physically formidable, now augmented and attacking in anger, Garen’s explosive speed in that instant was astonishing.

He moved like a thunderbolt, tearing through the air with a rending roar—nothing like the clumsy charge of a tin can clad in heavy armor and sword.

Such speed was the best assurance of a successful attack.

But…

The massive Teddy had already reacted.

Not because of its superior physique, nor because Garen’s attack lacked ferocity…

But because, right before he struck, Garen had loudly announced his skill name in the most theatrical way possible.

Shouting so loudly, even a dog could tell it was about to get hit.

So, as Garen’s blade descended, aiming to crush the dog’s skull, the enormous Teddy had already leapt aside on all fours, shifting its body clear.

Dodged?

Even as the strike missed, Garen realized his mistake.

But once a greatsword is swung, it’s nearly impossible to alter its force or direction at will—especially for a Garen with zero swordsmanship. There was no hope of executing any fancy mid-air redirection.

Yet!

Just as the blade was about to miss, it suddenly twisted ninety degrees in mid-air, an utterly unscientific redirection.

It was as if the sword, once swung, took on a will of its own, homing in on its target…

The heavy sword, agile as a guided missile, traced the Teddy’s evasions and crashed down on its flank.

Garen’s sword—a two-handed greatsword, broad and thick with a pointed tip—was a weapon of overwhelming force.

When thrust forward, it pierced armor like an awl; when swung, it crashed down like a siege hammer.

The giant Teddy took the full brunt of this impact.

Its multi-ton frame warped under the blow, stumbling back several paces, unable to control its footing.

The tremendous pressure of the blunt strike reverberated through its flesh and bones, sending shockwaves through its organs.

“Woof… oww…”

Barely managing to steady itself, the Teddy’s whimpers turned pained and pitiful. The glint of excitement in its eyes was instantly replaced by very human-like terror and dread.

It was cowed in an instant.

Though its body could withstand such injuries without losing combat ability, it was still thoroughly intimidated.

The Teddy shut its mouth, reduced to weak whines, shrinking back and watching Garen with frightened eyes—terrified that this ironclad man would swing again.

But Garen was too absorbed in the strangeness of it all:

His blade had clearly missed, so how had it suddenly changed course and struck the Teddy?

Could it be…

Garen thought of his digitized state and glanced at his sword.

Was this… a targeted attack?

Without hesitation, Garen set the Teddy as his target in his mind, then swung the sword—this time, backward.

The enemy was before him, yet he swung his sword behind. It was an absurd move, utterly at odds with his goal.

Yet, in the instant the sword left his hands…

The greatsword once again executed a 180-degree turn in mid-air and flew straight towards the Teddy.

The Teddy tried, instinctively, to dodge. It was useless.

Boom!

The sword crashed down on the great dog once more, leaving it too unsteady to stand.

It wanted to run.

But the Teddy, far more intelligent than any Earthly beast, knew well: with the speed Garen had just displayed, escape was impossible.

So, the Teddy maintained a posture of forced confrontation, whimpering pitifully in hopes of mercy.

Garen, paying no mind to its small gestures, shouted internally in disbelief:

It really was a targeted attack!

In game terms, this meant an attack that, once released, cannot miss—only special abilities could evade it.

A hero’s basic attack falls into this category.

For Garen, swinging his greatsword was a “basic attack.”

It sounded impressive, but this was only a fundamental game mechanic. After all, you couldn’t have a MOBA hero missing last hits to a minion’s dodge, could you?

But, if realized in the real world…

It meant every heavy sword strike was guaranteed to hit.

So long as the enemy was within range, the only options were to block, defend, or take the hit head-on.

This was nothing short of a causality weapon.

“Hahaha…”

Garen, a novice with the sword, could not suppress his laughter upon discovering he had become an “unerring swordmaster.”

His laughter echoed through the forest, growing ever more dangerous as it merged with the sighing wind.

At the very least, the Teddy could feel the threat, and trembled in fear.

“Teddy the Invincible!”

Garen leveled his sword across his chest, wearing a wicked grin.

“Kneel and beg me now, and I might spare your dog life.”

A thoroughly malicious threat.

Garen had no expectation that this overgrown, anything-goes Teddy could possibly understand his “mercy.”

And then…

Thud—

The giant Teddy bent its forelegs and knelt, utterly bereft of dignity.

“What?”

Garen was so stunned he nearly dropped his sword.

“You can understand me?”

He asked in disbelief.

“Woof… woof…”

The Teddy whimpered pitifully, shrinking further and nodding its head.

……

Garen now saw this giant dog in a whole new light.

Clearly, a Teddy as tall as an elephant from another world was something else entirely—its intelligence was nearly human.

Wait a minute…

He was speaking Chinese, wasn’t he? How could a dog from another world understand Chinese?

Garen was even more baffled.

At that moment, the cold, mechanical voice of the system sounded:

“System provides passive skill: Universal Language.”

“The host’s spoken words will automatically be translated into the common tongue of this world, and the host will also understand its script.”

So that was it…

Garen understood now: everything he said was being automatically translated into the local language.

And this Teddy truly was intelligent enough to understand human speech…

He found himself even more eager to explore this otherworld, the tip of its iceberg only just revealed.

Meanwhile, the Teddy did its best to display all the pitiable charm of a fluffy animal: eyes wide and gentle, tail raised and wagging, soft whimpers escaping its mouth…

Despite its elephantine size, it perfectly imitated the friendliness and gentleness of a pet dog.

“This…”

Garen felt his heart soften.

His sword hovered in mid-air, hesitant and unmoving.

The Teddy edged back two steps…

Garen did nothing.

It retreated another two steps, quietly.

Still no response from Garen, as if he were ready to let it go.

Gurgle—gurgle—

His stomach rumbled again.

The digitized state gave him boundless stamina, but did nothing to ease his hunger.

The bizarre contrast of a fully charged body and gnawing, unrelenting hunger made Garen feel even more ravenous.

The Teddy tried to retreat another two steps.

“Stop!”

Garen gripped his greatsword tightly, his eyes blazing with righteous indignation:

“You wicked, lustful cur! Who knows how many innocent lives you’ve ruined in your depravity!”

“I, Garen the Lone Ranger, shall enforce justice on behalf of the heavens today!”