Chapter 98
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: War Terror, War Preparations - Part 3
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So, who in the world was the administrator of Laputa?
That single question focused the world’s attention on this land.
Those who held the answer had arrived at a hotel in Seoul.
A moment later… an unexpected incident occurred there.
KABOOM—!
A thunderous roar and vibration shook the entire room. As every window shattered, Xiao Jun was sent flying, slamming into a wall. The right hand he had extended for a handshake was obliterated, his fingers scattering in every direction.
*Click-clack!*
"You, you son of a—!"
As Lee Hyun-wook racked the pump again, two Chinese men summoned weapons from their ‘tattoos.’ The shorter man drew a shield and sword, while the larger man—an Orc Shaman—waved his hands, manifesting a spell.
Lee Hyun-wook’s gun barrel tilted, aiming first for the man with the shield.
KABOOM—!
“—Urk!”
Even with a shield, the destructive power of the Blackrhino could not be ignored. As if a real rhinoceros had charged and gored him, the small man’s body was launched into the air and smashed against the wall.
"Ugh— you, bastard......."
And while he was still dazed—
*Thwip!*
A silver arrow flew from somewhere and pierced his left eye.
It was the Pale Note, and it was immediately fired toward the Black Orc Shaman.
*Thud!*
But it was blocked by an invisible barrier.
Immediately after, the man ‘manifested’ something.
The tattoo on his thick forearm writhed, and a black shimmer spread out, filling the room like fog over a lake.
Gwoooooh—
"......."
Wary of the strange omen, Lee Hyun-wook took a step back.
Shamanism was inherently bizarre and nasty, often following no set rules. In other words, there was no telling what might happen.
The tale of the Black Orc King Stonox turning China’s 3rd ranked Player into a billy goat was particularly famous.
‘That’s why it’s best not to let my guard down.’
Soon, the afterimages of Black Orcs rose behind the shaman.
‘…Spatial magic?’
Unlike ‘portal’ magic, which created a passage between two spaces, this seemed to be an ancient spell that temporarily overlapped two spaces.
From within that overlapping space, eight Black Orcs emerged. Their forms grew increasingly distinct until they finally ‘existed’ in the hotel room.
Every one of them carried a massive iron axe.
Grrrr—!
- Black Orc Elite Warrior (LV 61)
- Black Orc Elite Warrior (LV 63)
- Black Orc Elite Warrior (LV 64)
.
.
.
Each one was between level s 61 and 64, a considerable threat.
‘…One day, they’ll come in hordes like this.’
When the war with the Black Orcs began, he would have to fend off thousands of monsters, each equivalent to at least a B-rank, 5th-tier Player. That was why he had to start preparing the necessary firepower now.
‘But for now, there are only eight.’
Lee Hyun-wook poured a massive amount of mana into the Blackrhino.
Three red magic circles soon appeared at the muzzle.
‘—Annihilation Spray!’
KA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!
The merciless barrage alone caused the chandelier on the ceiling to snap and fall. The eight Orc executioners charging toward Lee Hyun-wook were swept up in the steel storm, sent flying as if hit by a truck.
*Crumble…*
And the wall that had absorbed the full force of the blast collapsed.
Grrrhh…
And yet, they weren’t dead.
As expected of top-tier warriors, their bodies were shredded, but they managed to rise again, lifting their red eyes toward Lee Hyun-wook.
“Hmm… I suppose I’ll have to get a little more brutal.”
In Lee Hyun-wook’s left hand, the greatsword, Morglay, had appeared.
The two-meter blade, carrying 500kg of mass, swept across the room.
FWOOSH—!
The overwhelming sword wind—unbelievable for a mere swing of a sword—tore the curtains and sent them flying out through the already broken windows.
SPLAT—!
The bodies of the Black Orcs in its path exploded as if detonating, their upper and lower torsos separating as their entrails spilled out with a wet slap.
That was the end.
In a fleeting moment, the business suite was completely demolished. All that remained was a horrific scene of dismembered corpses scattered about.
"......."
Meanwhile, Lee Jeong-jun and the other Players of the Bihyeongnang Team, who had followed Lee Hyun-wook in, could only stare blankly at the scene.
They had come to fight alongside him, but there had been no need.
"Whoa—"
“…Seriously, the more I see, the more absurd it gets.”
They were, by all accounts, an elite Player unit. Yet, whenever they were with Lee Hyun-wook, they felt an inexplicable sense of deprivation.
At some point, they had become mere extras.
‘Every time, he sees through everything from start to finish and takes the lead.’
This time was no different. Even with the government mobilizing all its intelligence networks, they hadn't noticed the Hongdo Guild's plot, yet he had provided the clue.
‘And no matter how strong the enemy, he attacks with precision and audacity.’
The 4th Wave, Abaddon, the incarnation of Molech, the wyverns, and even this very moment… everything he did was beyond common sense, beyond any standard.
He left Morglay floating in the air and walked forward.
“—Cough!”
Surprisingly, Xiao Jun was still alive.
And something lay on the floor beneath his right arm.
‘…A rope?’
It was a thin, silver cord that looked like a bracelet.
Lee Hyun-wook picked it up.
[Item Information]
- Name: Gleipnir (Legendary)
- Effect: Binds a specific target when infused with mana. (The bound target cannot break free on their own for 10 minutes.)
“Ah, so you were planning to capture me with this.”
This was an unexpected gain.
No, it was a jackpot.
Gleipnir was the magical fetter from Norse mythology that the gods used to bind the monstrous wolf Fenrir, a chain that could never be broken.
‘A legendary-grade utility item, no less.’
This would be extremely useful in many ways.
Lee Hyun-wook pocketed it and looked down at the groaning Xiao Jun.
“Xiao Jun, I have no intention of killing you.”
“Cough—ugh—why—”
Lee Hyun-wook had intentionally aimed slightly off when he shot Xiao Jun.
Because…
“Wow… what is all this? Korean hotels are certainly unique.”
A blonde woman said as she entered the room.
She was, surprisingly, the Saintess, Emilia Müller.
"Here, he's ready for you."
Lee Hyun-wook said, gesturing to Xiao Jun.
Just before this incident, Lee Hyun-wook had contacted her, telling her an opportunity to catch a Villain’s tail had come. She had immediately borrowed the power of the World Tree and used a ‘Super-Wide Area Teleport’ to come to this land.
“Is this man the… Villain?”
She whispered the word ‘Villain’ very quietly.
“Yes, he is.”
“Alright, let’s begin.”
She placed a hand on Xiao Jun’s head. A powder of light flowed out, seeping into his entire body. It was a heal.
“Huh!”
In an instant, Xiao Jun’s wounds vanished as if washed away. Even his severed fingers were slowly regenerating… This was truly the power of an S-rank Priest.
“Wh-what, why…”
Xiao Jun looked as if he couldn’t comprehend any of this. Being suddenly shot with a shotgun and turned to pulp was baffling enough, but for the Saintess herself to appear and heal him—what irony was this?
Then, Lee Hyun-wook uttered an even more shocking statement.
“There’s a certain ‘latent magic’ inscribed in your head, isn’t there?”
“—Wh-what? No, what are you…”
“So that when a plan like this fails, your brain fries, right?”
Xiao Jun stared blankly for a moment before shaking his head.
"…I-I don't know what you're talking about. W-why did you suddenly shoot me! And those orcs, I-I don't know anything about them!”
Xiao Jun naturally began to feign ignorance.
‘Damn it, how does he know? For now, I have to play dumb!’
He hadn’t attacked Lee Hyun-wook in the first place. If he could pass off the appearance of the orcs as something he knew nothing about, he might just survive.
“Emilia, please cast the ‘Purification Magic’ we prepared.”
Purification magic. As the name suggested, it washed away malevolent magic like curses, and the Saintess’s purification was second to none.
The light spreading from her hand enveloped Xiao Jun.
In that moment, a line of system messages appeared before Xiao Jun’s eyes.
- (!) The 'Latent Magic' cast on you has been purified.
Xiao Jun felt his mind go blank.
‘…Do they really know about the Villains?’
Just then, Lee Hyun-wook bent his knees, meeting Xiao Jun’s gaze.
His emotionless eyes felt like they were piercing through his entire body.
“…Now, you won’t die.”
…Not ‘you will die,’ but ‘you won’t die.’
But strangely, those words felt utterly chilling.
“Even if your superiors find out this operation failed, and no matter how much I torture you, the Saintess here will heal you completely, so you will absolutely not die.”
Lee Hyun-wook gave a slight smile.
"But even she can't take away the pain..."
“That’s true. And actually, I’m better at inflicting pain.”
At the Saintess’s reply, a shiver ran down Xiao Jun’s spine.
The famous rumor that she tortured followers of darkness… and unless one was a demon worshipper, she would supposedly heal them with the highest-level healing magic he had just witnessed, all while continuously pulling out their fingernails and searing their skin with fire.
Lee Hyun-wook pried his mouth open and forced something down his throat.
“Gack—choke! What the hell are you doing!”
It was a steel bead.
“You’d better just swallow it. I can always tear open your stomach and put it in there.”
“Hic! D-damn it! Call the Chinese embassy right now!”
Instead of answering, Lee Hyun-wook snapped his fingers.
*Snap.*
Something began to squirm inside his stomach. He didn’t know it, but the steel bead was ‘transforming,’ turning into the shape of a sea urchin.
“Ugh! Ack! Wh-what is this!”
And then, it began to spin.
GRRRRIND—!
More violently than usual, Lee Hyun-wook ground the man’s insides.
“Gyaaaah—!”
And beside them, the Saintess intermittently cast ‘Heal.’
“Wow—we make a great team, don’t we?”
It was a brief comment from the Saintess, who had considerable experience in torture.
As she said, they were nothing short of a perfect torture duo.
“Now, I’d like you to tell me everything, one by one.”
“Grrr… what, what—cough—am I supposed to say!”
At that question, Lee Hyun-wook grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck and spoke softly.
"Everything you know… about the Villains."
***
It didn’t take long for Xiao Jun to give up.
“…Hah, ugh! Gack! F-fine!”
He was already spewing red clumps of blood from every orifice; he should have died five or six times over. But with the Saintess present, that was impossible, and he finally broke before the endlessly repeating, horrific pain.
*Wooooo—*
The first thing Lee Hyun-wook asked for was the ‘escape route.’ Xiao Jun, his will completely shattered, began to spill everything while trembling uncontrollably.
But he was stammering, so Lee Hyun-wook summarized and repeated the question.
“So—a backup team is on standby at an abandoned factory in Eunpyeong-gu, and they’re preparing a two-way portal to a ship on the West Sea?”
The ‘two-way portal,’ a wide-area magic Lee Hyun-wook himself had often used, was the easiest and most efficient way to connect distant locations.
But even so, it couldn’t cross the entire West Sea. For that, one would need something on the level of a ‘Super-Wide Area Teleport’ that borrowed the World Tree’s power.
That was why these people were using a ship on the West Sea as a ‘midpoint’ to escape via a series of chained teleports.
“But a ship… could it be the ‘Muwangpaljun’?”
Lee Hyun-wook asked suddenly.
“Uh… y-yes! How did you know?”
The Muwangpaljun, the eight legendary horses that pulled the chariot of King Mu of Zhou. Each of the eight was said to have a unique ability.
‘I can’t believe they’d mobilize even that.’
Muwangpaljun wasn’t the name of the ship, but the name of the ‘engine.’
Meaning, its performance varied wildly depending on what it was attached to.
‘Right now, it’s probably just attached to an ordinary ship…’
But in the future, it would become the heart of an airship greater than the Gate Sentinel.
‘And the fact that it’s a growth-type engine is what makes it so special.’
As the name Paljun (Eight Steeds) suggested, it could grow through eight stages.
Just then, Xiao Jun uttered a rather shocking statement.
“And at that escape point… there’s a ‘scroll bomb.’”
He mumbled the words, his head hanging low. It seemed he was now trying to save his own skin by revealing every detail.
“What? Are you saying there’s a bomb planted in Seoul right now?”
At the word ‘bomb,’ not only Lee Hyun-wook and Emilia Müller, but also Lee Jeong-jun, who was standing behind them, had their eyes go wide.
“…Yes. The plan was to set it off as we escaped.”
A scroll bomb was a scroll containing an explosion spell, an item that allowed even non-mages to manifest magic by infusing it with mana.
“…Why would they go to such lengths?”
Lee Hyun-wook exerted his metal control inside Xiao Jun’s stomach.
“Gak! I don’t know! They ordered me from above! I really don’t know!”
But he didn't need to ask to know the reason.
‘It’s just… terrorism.’
Its purpose was literally to spread fear and cause chaos.
War terror—seizing Laputa—a bomb attack…
‘…They’re trying everything to shake this country to its core.’
Originally, if their plans had succeeded, the country would have already been thrown into chaos, giving the Villain faction an opening to take root. But since Lee Hyun-wook had thwarted them at every turn, they were resorting to other methods.
“Ha, these crazy bastards, really…”
Team Leader Lee Jeong-jun swore, breaking out in a cold sweat.
The thought that a bomb could go off in Seoul right now was enough to make him, a government official and the person in charge here, feel dizzy.
“I need to dispatch troops there immediately.”
However…
“No, we’ll go ourselves.”
Lee Jeong-jun looked dumbfounded at Lee Hyun-wook’s response.
“What? We don’t have time! We don’t know when the bomb might go off!”
Lee Hyun-wook ignored him and threw his shield out the broken window.
*Woooooosh—!*
Immediately, the airship Prydwen rose between the buildings.
“No, even with an airship, right now, the time…”
Even flying through the air, it was quite a distance.
But Lee Hyun-wook shook his head.
“Team Leader Lee, it might sound strange for me to say this, but…”
A system message appeared before his eyes.
[Laputa: Master Authority]
1) Emergency Return: Return to Laputa’s ‘Order Tower.’
* The ‘Prydwen’ is required to use this function. (Cooldown: 24 hours)
“…Seoul is in the palm of my hand.”
After saying that, he raised his mana messenger.
“Yeo Sang-min, can you hear me?”
- Yes, I hear you!
“Prepare the <Wide-Area Deployment Device> immediately.”
It was a function that allowed teleportation to anywhere in Seoul.
Using those two things,
his claim that Seoul was in the palm of his hand was no exaggeration.
***
An abandoned factory in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul.
Thirteen Players were gathered there.
“…Hey, still no contact?”
“I know, didn’t they say they’d handle it right away?”
These were agents of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, operating covertly within Korea. Their mission was to facilitate the escape of the Hongdo Guild members.
Followed by an indiscriminate ‘magic terror’ attack on downtown Seoul.
But the operation was proceeding slower than expected.
“Ah, this… this doesn’t feel right…”
It was then.
SCREEE—CRUNCH—!
With a deafening roar, the factory ceiling was peeled back and sent flying.
“What the fuck!”
“—Get, get ready for battle!”
They were flustered by the unexpected situation and raised their weapons.
But the moment they looked up—
“…Nobody move.”
—they all froze solid.
In the sky they were looking up at,
hundreds of swords and spears were floating.
They were positioned vertically, their blades pointed toward the ground.
In other words, the famous ‘Steel Rain’ was about to fall.
And at its center, a single man floated serenely.
“…I know everything.”
He slowly descended toward the abandoned factory.
“…The magic scrolls. Take them all out and put them on the ground.”
They didn’t dare think of resisting. Besides Lee Hyun-wook, an enormous number of ROK A.M.T. troops were swarming in from all directions.
“You are surrounded! Drop your weapons and surrender!”
They eventually took out the ‘magic scrolls’ and placed them on the ground.
- You have obtained Hellfire Scroll (Grade 2).
This was an item powerful enough to incinerate an entire apartment building.
There were three of them in total.
‘This… it seems a mage on the level of an Archmage is involved…’
Lee Hyun-wook fastened ‘restraints’ around their necks.
He then called over the one who appeared to be the leader and gave an order.
“Now, open the two-way portal immediately.”
The man’s eyes widened.
“I told you I know everything, didn’t I?”
At this, he hesitated, then asked without thinking.
“Wh-what… are you trying to do?”
To that question, Lee Hyun-wook raised a magic scroll and answered.
“I’m returning your merchandise.”
The price for coveting what wasn’t yours was never small.