Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: The Skyscraper Twins (5)
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《The Skyscraper Twins》- (5)
01.
"Fuck, what the hell is this…."
Kim Dae-hoon of the Cemetery Guild felt his legs trembling uncontrollably.
Even facing Kim Arin, the world's top mercenary pirate ranked number one, and Lee Min-jun, the former vice guild master of Ace Guild, hadn't fazed him at all. But now his heart began to quiver.
"Why the hell is Selverion here…."
There was only one reason.
Standing right before his eyes was Selverion, the Frost of Ruin, the God of Ruin—the absolute strongest being in the world of Season Off Fantasy.
No one had ever defeated her. At the appearance of this unbeatable entity, Kim Dae-hoon could do nothing but stagger backward.
"Se-Selverion…."
A quick glance to the side revealed his comrade Cha Ha-neul reacting much the same way.
The Cemetery Guild prioritized indulging their desires on corpses over stage boss raids, so they had never directly fought Selverion. But her legendary reputation alone was enough to flood him with dread he couldn't suppress.
'Why the hell is Selverion hanging around with players?!'
And amid the fear came questions. Selverion, who despised players more than anyone, why was she acting alongside them?
Some kind of deal?
Or had they hypnotized her somehow?
Or forced her into submission with sheer power…?
But Kim Dae-hoon had no way of knowing the truth. He had heard that Ace Guild was annihilated by Selverion, but was this connected somehow?
……It was a moment of deep regret for his ignorance—he never bothered checking news or communities.
His mind was a chaotic mess; he couldn't make sense of it or grasp the situation.
At first, he thought SPR had sent in their elites undercover. But seeing Selverion made him doubt if SPR was truly behind it all.
He still couldn't get a handle on things,
but one thing Dae-hoon was certain of:
He needed to run right now.
"Cut the escalator!"
The moment he sorted his thoughts, Dae-hoon shouted at Cha Ha-neul beside him.
"Huh? Oh!"
Ha-neul snapped out of her daze at his words and swiftly summoned shadow blades, severing the escalator—the only link between them and Selverion.
Crash!
The escalator wreckage tumbled to the floor below with a thunderous roar. It would buy them some time before Selverion could reach their third floor.
Plenty of time for Dae-hoon and Ha-neul to escape.
"Run, run!"
After destroying the escalator, Dae-hoon bolted. His plan was to head to Building B, where guild master Kang Du-il was, and urgently hold a strategy meeting.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Ice Temptation "……!!"
But the chilling voice from behind told them she wouldn't let them escape so easily.
At the same time, a bone-chilling cold swept up Dae-hoon's spine, freezing his body. Then, against his will, his frantically moving legs locked in place.
"M-my legs…?!"
"Wh-why won't they move…?!!"
Their bodies refused to obey, as if control had been seized. Cha Ha-neul wore the same panicked expression beside him.
"A heart…?"
And above her head floated an ice-formed heart emblem—the mark of the 'Charm' status effect.
Given it was made of ice, it seemed Selverion had cast 'Temptation,' the skill restricting their movement.
"Selverion uses Temptation…?"
Yet in eight years of playing Season Off Fantasy, Dae-hoon had never heard of Selverion using any charm-type skills.
What the hell was going on?
Was there so much he didn't know?
"Huh? Wh-what…?"
But Dae-hoon had no time to think. Under the presumed charm from Selverion, his feet turned of their own accord, slowly walking toward her against his will.
"W-wait, that's…?!!"
Dae-hoon and Ha-neul unhesitatingly approached the escalator they had just destroyed. It lay in ruins, having already plummeted to the first floor.
In other words, they were marching straight toward a cliff.
"N-no, no!!"
He desperately resisted the temptation, trying to slam on the brakes, but this was Selverion's doing. There was no way a mere player like Dae-hoon could break free.
Disgusting. Was it because they had eaten human flesh? Selverion glared at them with utter contempt, more loathsome than anything in the world.
"Huh? Huh? Wh-wh-what?!?"
"Kyaaaaah!!"
That was their last sight before plummeting from the third floor to the first. Yet amid the fall, a glimmer of hope flashed in Dae-hoon's eyes.
'Maybe…?'
Players' bodies were far stronger than any civilian's. A fall from just three stories wouldn't kill them—it'd be minor bruises at worst.
With luck, they might even escape.
…But Selverion's following whisper shattered that hope completely.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Ice Blade "……!!"
As Selverion activated her skill, the first-floor ground froze over, and massive ice spikes began erupting upward.
"Ah……."
Then came the heavy pain in his solar plexus. Looking down, he saw one of Selverion's summoned ice spikes piercing straight through him.
Just five minutes ago, he had been chewing on human flesh skewered on a spit. Now he was the one skewered.
"Ha."
There was so much he wanted to say about this absurd, impossible situation that unfolded in an instant, but the surging pain and drowsiness gave him no more time.
"Ugh, uh…."
Turning his head with effort, he saw Cha Ha-neul whimpering as she touched the ice spear through her chest.
"This is ridiculous…."
What a pathetic end.
He had only just begun unleashing the desires he could fulfill only in the game, only to meet such a hollow, absurd death.
Who could have predicted Selverion's appearance?
'…Still.'
In his fading vision, Dae-hoon pictured one man in his mind. An utter weirdo, but their guild master Kang Du-il, who always overcame crises with outlandish strategies.
He might avenge this pathetic death.
"…Should've eaten the left arm too."
……With that brief lament for his cannibalistic urges, Dae-hoon's world went black.
02.
"Phew…."
After catching the two fleeing necromancers with Ice Temptation and dealing with them, I hoped skewering them in turn offered some small comfort to the victims.
"God, cannibalism…."
Kim Arin muttered while staring at the necromancers' corpses on the first floor. Her face was deathly pale—even the top-ranked pirate was clearly shaken.
It made sense; few could brush off cannibalism lightly.
"This is worse than I thought. They weren't just holding hostages for threats—they did it for eating…."
Lee Min-jun adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses and let out a deep sigh, his face showing utter confusion over where to even start.
"W-we need to go public with this, make it huge news! How can we let this slide?!"
Kim Arin clenched her fists and yelled. Lee Min-jun nodded in agreement.
"Of course. This is no small matter—never. The whole nation needs to know, and they have to pay the price."
This wasn't in a game; it was real life. Cannibalism, purely for their own desires and pleasure.
"…Going public will tank public perception of players, making it easier to establish oversight organizations—just as Lady Selverion planned."
"Yeah."
The horrific situation was gruesome, but as Lee Min-jun said, it could be an opportunity. I nodded.
Players cannibalizing civilians? No one would see that positively. If we rode the wave of shock and fear sweeping Korea, my goals would sail smoothly.
……This Jamsil Tower incident might be the first step in SPR's downfall.
"…Let's keep heading up."
I said to Kim Arin and Lee Min-jun.
There might be horrors worse than cannibalism waiting above.
No time to dawdle.