Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: #011 Tech: Necromancer (3)
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1.
Sunming didn’t ask a single question.
As if reasons were irrelevant in a fight between two males.
The bear-like hulking frame closed the distance in an instant.
A hammer swung back with such force it nearly touched his own ankle behind his head, like pounding rice cakes.
A single leap shrinking the 25-meter gap.
In less than a second, Sunming’s special wham-hammer—boosted with a propellant—would compress my cervical spine by about three centimeters.
But.
For all its big motion, his guard was wide open.
My circuits thrummed with taut mana circulation, my hand seals were formed, and the spell was chambered.
“Farewell, Sunming.”
The strongest man I knew.
-Swoosh
Viscous mana like petroleum sliced out in a razor-thin semicircle toward Sunming’s gut.
Death Verdict.
A spell that declares the visualized cause of death upon contact with refined mana.
I pictured Sunming being cleanly bisected.
He only had one hunt left in the heat of summer...
“Fuck this shit.”
I hastily dodged the hammer plummeting toward my head.
-KABOOM!!!!
An explosion erupted.
The mercury lamps flickered in unison from the shock as the hammer embedded where I’d stood.
Tiles shattered like shotgun pellets, and dust from the underground passage walls billowed up all at once.
“Hraaaagh!!!!”
Sunming’s hammer reignited after slamming the floor.
A vertical smash followed by an almost seamless horizontal sweep.
The sequence moved unnaturally fast, like footage sped up.
-Whoooosh!!!
The air-ripping whoosh barely grazed past my nose.
If I hadn’t awakened my mana for level 1 augmentation body enhancement—even with Laplace’s Demon eyes—I couldn’t have reacted.
I used the sway’s momentum for back-to-back backflips, widening the gap.
“Sunming, you’re the real deal.”
An irrepressible grin tugged at my lips.
Yeah, my worthy rival couldn’t go down that easy.
I’ve still got plenty to show.
“You little shit... How’d you shred my protective charm in one hit...”
Sunming clutched his protruding belly, staggering.
The embroidered turtle on his blue changpao faded into obscurity.
“You punk, do you know how much that cost?”
Not just any clothes, huh.
Level 2 augmentation wasn’t enough; he even had an artifact?
Sketchy how a 7th rank had that much cash.
But now he had no item to shield him.
Well, what now?
-Crunch
Sunming pulled out a glass ampule and crunched the whole thing in his mouth.
My eyes bulged.
No fucking way. Look at this asshole?
“You sneaky bastard!!!! Popping drugs in the honorable warrior’s octagon?”
I couldn’t hide my disappointment!
To think the top 7th rank Sunming was a roided-up plaster-caster!
“It pisses me off that I ever called a coward like you my rival!!!!”
“Hoo... What’re you yapping about? You dogshit bastard.”
The drugged Sunming’s steam doubled.
The vapor from his gritted teeth doubled, his reddened eyes doubled in fury.
“I’ll turn you into dog jerky and sell you at the Hongshen market.”
“You cowardly junkie fuck. Like that Jon Jones prick!”
Suppressing my rising rage, I prepared the spell.
Death Verdict, the first spell Ceres had taught me.
Over the next couple days of testing, I’d learned a few things.
One.
It didn’t require routing mana through a fixed circuit.
Like a command-lenient fighting game, as long as the timing was roughly right, it worked fine.
Two.
Ceres the witch hag said routines were key, but hand seals and incantations weren’t really needed.
Three.
And this was the big one.
Death Verdict didn’t have to be fired one by one.
-Boom!
An explosive leap. Sunming charged.
He knew my attacks were ranged, so he pulled the same Sandevistan rush from before.
That beastly charge dodging every bullet.
With the feel of releasing a drawn bowstring, I unleashed the queued Death Verdicts from my mind’s eye all at once.
“Die like the bug you are, Sunming. You’re permanently banned.”
He could dodge bullets and close in, sure.
But not a line attack.
A straight line cleaving from crown to crotch.
A straight line from collarbone to gut.
A diagonal slash splitting shoulder to thigh.
A straight line carving temple to jaw.
A line piercing the waist and severing the spine.
Dense black mana lines of death rained on Sunming.
Just as he’d be cubed like meat in a grinder.
“What the hell’s your bullshit from earlier!!!!”
-Skreeee!!!
Steam burst out, and Sunming blurred into mad afterimages.
Threading the nonexistent gaps between lines and split-second timings with evasion moves.
Acrobatics unbelievable for his burly build.
Even the great Sedric was stunned.
A chill turned to awe at the wondrous footwork.
Fuck, this guy.
Doesn’t look 7th rank at all.
“This prick! You’d crush at dodgeball!”
But my Death Verdict wasn’t done.
Maybe because it was a 0th rank spell, the mana cost was low.
At least for me, barely noticeable.
Meaning.
“I could do this all day.”
-Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh
I poured even more Death Verdicts onto Sunming.
He was too focused on dodging to close in.
Dozens of ‘lines’ barraged him relentlessly.
“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
Sunming’s breaths grew ragged.
Blood droplets scattering amid them.
Whatever drug he took, augmentation was just a knockoff etched into artificial circuits.
Overclocking beyond component limits.
The more he used it, the faster it chewed through his life.
Just maintaining this stalemate meant I’d win eventually.
But then.
-Bang!
Mid-flashy evasion, Sunming’s hammer variably smashed the floor tiles.
Like a golfer rearing back for a full swing.
Fragments hazily floated in my vision.
Tile shards scattering like a Claymore.
-Crunch
My head snapped.
One side of my vision blacked out like a power cut.
My focus broke, Death Verdicts scattering toward Sunming.
Impact like half my head was gone.
Tile shard. Hit my eye. Eyeball burst? This counter in that state? That’s Sunming’s real combat skill?
No, not the time.
“You fucking bastard!!!!”
Sunming roared and lunged without missing a beat.
I righted my half-turned neck.
Forced my closing eye open, burning his form into my good eye.
Sunming stopped evading.
Charging straight, aiming to end it in one clash.
His bull-like snout and mouth were caked in dark red blood.
Even as a junkie, traces of desperate life-burning struggle.
“Dieeeee!!!!!”
Sunming’s rocket hammer spewed fire.
I barely raised my hand, aiming fingertips at his bearish torso.
Now it was who was faster.
But I had the edge, microscopically.
My spell activation outpaced his leap.
Just before black mana touched Sunming.
I saw the desperate resolve in his eyes.
Even if his limbs were severed, he’d smash my skull—pure venomous determination.
“You fall alone.”
-Krunch!
Sunming’s body didn’t sever.
Instead, he slammed into the ground with terrifying force.
Cracks spiderwebbed the floor like a human dropped from hundreds of meters up.
His hammer’s savage arc toward my head veered off, embedding in the floor.
“This fucker! Scary bastard for real!”
In that final Death Verdict moment.
I’d read his kamikaze play and visualized a different death in my mind’s eye.
Sunming’s verdict: not slashing, but plummeting to death.
No mutual destruction allowed.
“Guh... Khek... Hack...”
Sunming’s limbs crumpled like bugs under combat boots. Pink innards leaked from his side.
His eyes, staring up in disbelief, grew hazy.
Round two: perfect victory for me.
“Eeeee....”
He curled up briefly...
“You motherfucker!!!! I’m stronger!!!! I’m the top 7th rank!!!”
Dopamine surged through me.
A sport beyond any extreme.
Life-or-death duel on the line.
Beating junkie Sunming fair and square had adrenaline and Red Bull exploding in my brain vessels.
The euphoria was fleeting.
I clutched my eye and slumped.
“Ow, fuck! Why’s it gotta be this brutal!”
Ceres the witch hag! Death Verdict alone should paste any 7th rank!
Fuck the power balance in scrub fights; it doesn’t matter to you?
“Hah, shit... Sunming’s cursing me. The coward.”
Ever since this isekai, no day without eye trouble.
Feels like my eyeball burst again. Won’t open right.
Not the time.
Before anyone sees, I dragged Sunming’s corpse to a secluded corner.
I’d scouted a body disposal spot beforehand.
Of course, I stripped him clean first for fight money.
Gotta claim what’s mine, no matter how rough.
One 100,000 BIOS gold coin, plus about 50,000 BIOS in loose change.
One ampule like the drug he’d crunched.
“Fucking robbed blind?”
Barely worth the ordeal.
Well, wasn’t the main goal anyway.
-Clunk
Pried open the manhole cover; virulent green liquid oozed inside.
Hated dumping the hammer and changpao that screamed cash...
But clean cover-up first.
-Splash
Shoved Sunming and hammer in whole.
Sizzling sounds and toxic fumes rose.
No witnesses.
Sunming: vaporized.
Now if Ceres pulls strings from the shadows...
Sunming’s ass-wiper gig for Eiming falls to me, Rowen.
Reminded me of my first-run James Bond alias days.
Never thought I’d actually spy.
“Ah...”
Tension eased, wounds throbbed worse.
Am I gonna go blind?
“No way!”
Can’t miss Arbel’s bunny girl look with both eyes!
Ceres poked my eye with a fork and fixed it last time, right?
“Gotta ask for a hoo-hoo.”
Perfect timing anyway—head to the rowhouse at dawn tomorrow for data. Early bird.
She’d have to admit it.
Demand better intel next time.
Nearly died.
Picked a discreet route to the rowhouse, avoiding eyes.
“Don’t freak. It’s me.”
Elevator doors opened; I stepped into the lavish foyer.
“My eye’s messed up—can you check it quick...”
Blood dripping on marble as I entered the living room.
“......?”
Words caught in my throat.
“......”
A stranger stood in the rowhouse’s spacious living room.
Female, for starters.
But not Ceres.
Shorter, around 170 cm.
Long silver hair, unlike Ceres’s artifact-like silver eyes on black base.
Here’s the issue.
As you know, Ceres hates outsiders in her space.
Last run, ‘someone else’ was here only when...
Ceres died.
From the info at hand, this girl could be extremely dangerous!
But.
“Who’re you?”
“Who’re you?”
Didn’t feel that scary.
“...Ah, you’re Sedric, right?”
Felt kinda familiar.
Like we’d met.
“Hmm, Mother said minimize contact. Anyway, this way. I’ll treat you.”
“Y-Yeah.”
I blankly followed, then snapped to.
“Mother?!”
Ceres the witch hag! You have a daughter?!?!?!