Chapter 177
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 177
We live in an era without standards.
For humans—no, for any species—an average exists. If individual differences were abnormally vast and physical structures varied too wildly, a species could never establish itself. Every species has its innate temperament and tendencies, and regardless of effort, their physical limits are clear.
‘Dodging bullets.’
It’s something my kind does with ease.
By nature, however, humans cannot dodge bullets. No matter how much they train, it’s impossible. Perhaps it might happen once through a miracle of luck, but reproducing the feat intentionally is out of the question.
But in this day and age, we humans replace our bodies with machinery, manipulate our hormones and receptors, and chemically treat our nervous systems. We live in an era where artificial modification has become so commonplace that the average value of a species has become meaningless. It is no longer about reaching one’s innate limits; the attributes of individuals now diverge so drastically that they might as well be considered entirely different species.
That was why a fight as absurd as this was possible.
‘Hwagwang weapons must never clash.’
Evade and strike. Blocking had to be excluded from my options.
This was the first time I had been this focused since waking up in Border City. I had to sharpen my senses to predict the enemy’s movements and position my body with absolute precision. While a single mistake leading to death was my daily reality, I had rarely been in a situation this tight. A slight misstep, a tiny shift in the balance of my feet or body, would result in an unsalvageable, instant death.
Zzzzzzt!
A menacing plasma glow radiated from the edge of the Hwagwang Yedo. I could see the air shimmering with heat. With every swing of the blade, a long afterimage lingered, leaving a dizzying trajectory in its wake. The same was true for the two Hwagwang Magnetic Swords Valek wielded.
Whoosh!
At times, Valek held his Hwagwang Magnetic Swords in a reverse grip, launching erratic attacks. Just as I was getting used to his pattern, he would switch his grip and adopt a completely different stance.
‘Valek is experienced.’
We fought a silent battle. Three swords whipped through the air, leaving behind nothing but plasma glows and afterimages. Valek and I performed twisting acrobatics, utilizing every joint in our bodies to dodge the blades by a hair’s breadth each time.
Sizzle!
The hem of my clothes, grazed by a blade, scorched from the heat. A pungent, burnt smell wafted up.
Whoosh!
Valek leaned low, aiming for my legs. I leaped lightly to dodge the attack.
Shhhk!
Immediately after, Valek thrust toward my chest. It was a continuous assault that fully utilized the advantage of dual-wielding.
But I hadn’t jumped for no reason. As I leaped, I had disrupted my center of gravity with my toes, making it easy to spin my body in midair. I had fully anticipated this follow-up.
Slash!
I swung the Hwagwang Yedo, aiming for Valek’s neck. Valek flinched, hesitating for a split second on whether to block.
‘A truly difficult fight.’
If he blocked, we both died. But it was better to take your enemy with you than to die alone. In the worst-case scenario, he would choose to block. Therefore, my attacks had to be cautious. The finishing blow, in particular, had to catch him completely off guard, leaving him no room to react.
In a way, it was a bizarre battle. We dodged as if we had choreographed the moves, occasionally launching awkward, probing strikes.
As the difficult fight dragged on, my focus condensed, drawing into a single point. The blurry world snapped into focus. The gloomy colors around me instantly brightened, as vivid as primary colors.
It was excellent for rehabilitation.
“Ha.”
A short laugh escaped my lips.
Good, Valek. I don't know where you came from or what you learned from Kinuan, but you're a decent fellow—as a sacrifice for my rehabilitation, that is.
I began to draw on my suppressed skills, testing what I could do now and how far ahead I could see. Focus, a wellspring I thought had run dry, gushed forth without end.
Clack!
I deliberately and boldly thrust my Hwagwang Yedo into the trajectory of Valek’s magnetic sword.
Whoosh!
Valek frowned, altering his blade’s path. Watching his reaction was incredibly amusing.
The raw stimulation was waking up my brain, making it run more actively than ever before. My thoughts flowed seamlessly. One part of my mind analyzed Valek from multiple angles while another issued commands to my body.
“Gabriel! Take Ernest Borel and get out of here. Don’t kill him, we still have things to pry out of him!” I shouted without turning around. I could tell Gabriel had arrived without even looking.
I briefly heard Gabriel and Ernest bickering, but I had no time to pay them any mind. Valek’s narrow eyes gleamed as he accelerated his movements.
“Phew.”
I exhaled a short breath. My brain and body were warmed up just right. I could do it now. I felt like I could push myself without losing my reason and consciousness.
…Just like the old me.
My light, smooth thoughts suddenly shifted heavily, as if changing gears. My consciousness grew dense, dragging down on time itself with immense force.
As if I’d been injected with Jin Gau’s drug, everything slowed to a crawl before stopping completely. Until moments ago, I could only perceive parts of Valek—his sword, his arms, his legs—but now, I could see him in his entirety, as well as everything around him.
Bzzzt.
Let’s stop here before my brain breaks. The hyper-focus was only for an instant, but it was enough to seize the upper hand. Even a fleeting moment was fine, as long as my cognitive speed was vastly superior to my opponent’s.
Whoosh!
I swung my sword lightly. It looked as though I was swinging at empty air, but Valek’s right arm intercepted the trajectory of my blade with perfect precision. To an onlooker, it would have seemed as if Valek had offered his arm to me of his own accord. It was a feat made possible by identifying the gap in his perception and moving through it.
Ssssshhk!
The Hwagwang Yedo cleanly severed Valek’s right arm. The exposed mechanical components sizzled, glowing bright red on the severed surface.
What a magnificent sword. It was my first time cutting something with it, and the experience was mesmerizingly beautiful. Generally, weapons enhanced for cutting power are less satisfying to use. But the moment this one sliced through, a pleasant resistance met my grip, making it feel incredible.
Valek hastily retreated. From his perspective, this must have been completely beyond his predictions. My skill level had suddenly spiked to an absurd degree. To be precise, I had moved within a realm that even an Akies Victima adept couldn't calculate.
This was a pure Akies Victima advantage.
Whoosh!
I thrust the Hwagwang Yedo forward, holding it upright.
Sssss!
Valek looked back and forth between his charred stump and me.
Clack!
Somehow, he managed to catch the Hwagwang Magnetic Sword from his severed right hand with his foot and slide it into his belt. Hmph, he recovered it well amidst the chaos. Quite resourceful. This must be how people felt when they watched me.
“…How?” Valek’s single word was a mix of bewilderment and admiration.
Drip.
Feeling blood trickle from my nose, I wiped it with my sleeve.
A sharp, tingling sensation, the precursor to a headache, was creeping in from deep within my head. Even though I had only entered the hyper-focus state for a brief moment, it had already taken this much of a toll. It was no wonder my brain had broken down in the past.
“Turns out, when you die and wake up, you can do things like this.”
I had once replaced my cerebrospinal fluid with coolant just to maintain the hyper-focus state for an extended period. The unique neural connections formed back then had left a permanent scar on my brain.
I called it a ‘hyper-focus state’ to sound grand, but it was simply the maximization of Akies Victima and Imperial Guardsman abilities. For example, if a natural human runs a hundred meters in ten seconds, they’re just a good runner. But if they run that same distance in one second, that’s worthy of being called a superpower.
Similarly, thought acceleration is something any Imperial Guardsman who has undergone chemical nervous system treatment can do, and multi-angle reasoning is a basic skill for any Akies Victima adept. But going beyond merely slowing down perceived time to actually stopping it, branching out countless thoughts within that frozen moment—that was indeed worthy of being called a special ability.
Thanks to the dangerous and unfamiliar stimulus that was Valek, I was able to push my latent abilities to their absolute limits. This is why real combat is so important.
“I heard you were Mysta-class, but you are far beyond that.”
Mysta—a term for an Akies Victima adept who has reached a level where they can teach others. I remembered Kinuan mentioning it in passing.
“You’re not bad either. As a rehab partner, that is.”
“It wounds my pride deeply, but I cannot deny that you are my superior. Just now… I was truly astonished.”
“You’ll have plenty more to be astonished about. You’re about to learn what kind of novel tortures exist in this world.”
I was about to step toward Valek when I flinched. He gave a faint smile and pointed behind me.
“But you have impurities and dead weight with you. To capture me alive, you would have to use that ability multiple times, and the engagement would drag on.”
The ‘dead weight’ was Gabriel.
“I don’t care about what’s behind me. He’s a grown man; he can take care of himself. My only interest is finding Kinuan.”
“The source of the chaos you create is precisely that contradiction,” Valek said. “The contradiction of pushing others away while simultaneously embracing them.”
He must have heard that from Kinuan. He really was his disciple.
“Well, that’s enough talking…” I detested attempts to analyze me.
“Right now, you probably fully intend to leave that big guy to his own devices and capture me. But when something actually happens, you will run to his side. That misalignment is what allows the chaos to ripen so deeply.”
I shouldn’t talk to him anymore. Let’s just fight.
Bang!
But my senses, already focused on where Gabriel and Ernest had disappeared, caught the sharp report of a gunshot. Something must have gone wrong.
Valek was an Akies Victima user. I felt this every time, but they were always a bunch of annoying bastards. Myself included.
I wanted to act contrary to Valek’s arrogant prediction just to knock him down a peg. If it were a matter of my own life, I gladly would have. Even if it meant a higher chance of dying, I loathed acting according to someone else’s expectations.
‘This is troublesome.’
Between Akies Victima users, the one whose behavioral principles are figured out first is at a disadvantage. The reason I was repeatedly bested by Kinuan was that I never understood his. I didn’t know Valek’s principles either, which made it difficult to gain the upper hand in our psychological warfare.
My thoughts were taking too long, but for once, I knew myself. I knew how I would act. It was a pathetic excuse, but Gabriel’s survival was important to my own interests. He was currently the only one who could kindly fill in the blanks of my past.
Slide.
Valek was backing away, slowly stepping backward while keeping his eyes locked on me.
“I’m not letting you go just for Gabriel’s safety. If you’re this naive next time, you’ll suffer a truly horrific fate.”
“Of course. I know that complex interests played a part in your choice. I am not saying this merely to escape. If you were absolutely certain you could subdue me, you would have continued the fight, even at the risk of your companion’s life.”
And Valek was saving my pride. If he provoked me unnecessarily, a pissed-off me might just chase after him regardless. He was clever. Perhaps, by nature, he was even better suited for Akies Victima than I was. A person who could throw away their pride would always have more options.
Valek slipped around a corner and vanished. Once I confirmed his presence was gone, I followed the path Gabriel and Ernest had taken.
Thud, thud.
They hadn't gone far. They hadn’t even made it to the road where the car was waiting. In a dark alley where not even a sliver of sunlight reached, the fresh stench of blood hung heavy in the air.
Bang!
Another gunshot rang out. I leaned my shoulder against the wall, staring down the alley.
I heard Gabriel cursing and saw his blood-splattered face. His eyes rolled back wildly as he repeatedly pulled the trigger at Ernest’s corpse.
“Lu, Lu, Luka… I-I’m sorry,” Gabriel stammered upon spotting me. He tried to smile, but his lips twitched uncontrollably. It was a bizarre expression, neither a smile nor a sob.
“I c-couldn’t hold back. I just couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t tolerate this motherfucker breathing for even one more second. Siren and Lunia’s faces kept flashing before my eyes… I felt like I was going to die from how unbearable it was.”
I had expected this. This was why I hadn’t wanted to leave them alone together. But Valek’s sudden appearance had left me with no choice.
Sighing, I pushed myself off the wall and walked over to Gabriel.
“I’ll clean up the body. Wipe off the blood and wait at Gaya’s Hospital.”
Gabriel nodded, then stomped his foot down hard on Ernest’s already mangled face. Ernest’s head was a messy heap, looking like ground meat scattered on the pavement.