Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Bloodbath in the New World
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Kim Hyuk planted his feet on the asphalt pavement, staring intently at the grotesque figures emerging from between the skyscrapers.
They resembled wooden puppets in human form, but their bodies were chaotically studded with razor-sharp metal blades.
Creaking at the joints, they moved in an unnatural gait, as if a troupe of hellish marionettes had descended into reality.
The surroundings were a scene of utter chaos.
People screamed and scattered in all directions, while some collapsed in place, paralyzed by terror.
Only a few watched the unfolding horror with fearful yet cautious eyes.
But there was no fear in Kim Hyuk's gaze.
Instead, a long-dormant instinct for battle began to stir within him.
Charging in barehanded would be foolish. Those blades would slice deep into flesh with even a graze.
He coolly scanned his surroundings. He needed to find something to use as a weapon immediately.
His eyes locked onto a small park nestled between the buildings.
Black iron bars densely embedded atop a stone wall. Those would do.
Without hesitation, Kim Hyuk sprinted toward the park.
Several puppets had already spotted him—the nearest target—and began pursuing with eerie shrieks.
Kim Hyuk kicked off the stone wall and leaped up, gripping the middle of an iron bar with both hands.
He didn't wonder if it would work. If not, he'd just find something else.
"Hup!"
His muscles bulged as if they might burst.
Veins writhed like snakes along his forearms, and the muscles of his back rose sharply beneath his work clothes.
Screeech!
The iron bar screamed in protest.
Yet the bar, firmly embedded in concrete, only budged slightly—no sign of coming loose.
Damn it!
Kim Hyuk spat a curse and quickly shifted to the very end of the bar.
Leverage principle. Brute force alone wouldn't cut it.
He seized the end again, this time throwing his full body weight backward into the pull.
Crack! Thud!
Finally, with the sound of shattering concrete, a hefty iron bar—at least 1.5 meters long—came free into his hands.
Clinging to its end was a chunk of broken concrete, turning it into an excellent bludgeon.
The moment he claimed his weapon, the puppets closed in like a noose.
Kim Hyuk grinned and readjusted his grip on the iron bar.
The first puppet lunged, swinging its blade-studded arm. The blades looked wickedly sharp.
Whoosh!
Kim Hyuk sidestepped the attack effortlessly, then smashed the puppet's head with all his might using the iron bar.
Crunch!
The wooden head splintered, scattering fragments.
Once the headless puppet crumpled motionless, Kim Hyuk turned without pause to the next target.
His movements blended the raw, practical power honed from manual labor with his innate physical prowess in perfect harmony.
The iron bar became both club and spear in his hands.
He swung to shatter joints, thrust to pierce torsos.
The puppets' sharp blades grazed his work clothes, but Kim Hyuk paid them no mind.
If anything, the razor-close sensations boiled his adrenaline higher.
In an instant, five puppets lay as splintered wreckage on the ground.
Only then did Kim Hyuk catch his breath and survey the area.
A few onlookers stared at him in stunned awe after witnessing his overwhelming display.
A few hours passed, and people began to gradually accept the system's words, with many returning to some semblance of normalcy.
Police arrived with sirens blaring, shields at the ready, and brave citizens wielding tools like Kim Hyuk started confronting the puppets one by one.
But none matched his efficiency or destructiveness.
He no longer fought defensively. Instead, he prowled the city streets, actively hunting the puppets.
After hours of slaughter, he noticed a pattern.
The puppets appeared more frequently—and in greater numbers—in areas teeming with people.
Clear proof the system was goading fiercer competition.
And once others began voluntarily slaying puppets, they grew harder to find.
Of course, most people still clung to daily life or cowered in fear.
Kim Hyuk occasionally checked the news on his phone.
The world was plunged into chaos by the puppets, but even stranger phenomena were being reported.
Dozens vanishing without a trace before family or colleagues. And more possibilities besides.
But he paid little heed to such news.
For Kim Hyuk now, only the enemies before him and the invisible points mattered.
Thus, 12 hours passed.
Kim Hyuk fought without rest.
His body was caked in sweat and grime, his muscles screaming in agony.
Yet his eyes burned brighter than ever.
Finally, the system's voice echoed in his mind once more.
Kim Hyuk jammed his battered iron bar into the ground and exhaled ragged breaths toward the sky.
Rank 1. The first overwhelming victory he'd ever claimed in life.
It was guidance only he could hear. The people around showed no sign of having caught it.
After resting at home and opening his eyes again, the world had changed once more.
The puppets disrupted various industrial facilities and dealt economic blows, but society didn't grind to a halt over mere puppets.
After a few hours of panic, people began sorting through the chaos and preparing countermeasures.
By the time I woke up, governments worldwide had issued statements, declared states of emergency, and unleashed a flood of policies.
Public sentiment was shifting from fear to awe and curiosity.
The initial panic soon morphed into strange fervor for a fervent few.
The system's arrival was a catastrophe, but also an opportunity.
People like Kim Hyuk, armed and fighting, became heroes on social media. Debates raged on the situation.
What is the system? What are those monsters?
Can society hold? And so on.
But I, with departure looming, couldn't immerse myself in such talk.
It was time to move to the waiting room.
Not knowing when he'd see Earth again, Kim Hyuk took one last look at the cityscape.
After the promised rest, his body was enveloped in light and transported to a stark white space.
The waiting room. Hundreds of people gathered there.
All were top rankers who had clawed through their zones' competitions.
Their eyes held pride mingled with sharp wariness toward one another.
Kim Hyuk glanced around.
A middle-aged man in a suit failing to hide his bewilderment, a soldier standing rigidly in uniform, an athlete in flashy attire.
An eclectic mix, but they shared one trait.
They had triumphed in brutal competition.
Soon, the system bestowed basic info on the Transcendence World—along with the most vital gift.
Unique Ability.
At last, true supernatural power.
According to the system, only each zone's rank 1 received one.
Once my headache subsided somewhat, I activated my unique ability.
The unique ability granted by the system writhed in my palm.
Hurling that power at the world unleashed something astonishing.
Kim Hyuk envisioned himself as the ruler of this new realm while beholding the scene he'd conjured.
Mana consumption was nil in the waiting room. Fewer than five, including me, tested their abilities right away.
Most chatted with others or stayed silent.
Then, a silver-haired white woman approached and spoke to him.
But to Kim Hyuk's ears, it sounded like perfectly natural Korean.
"You too... rank 1? Impressive. I'm from London. Name's Elizabeth."
"Kim Hyuk. From Korea."
Kim Hyuk replied curtly.
Just as conversation might continue—
His gaze shifted beyond Elizabeth to a black man rallying the crowd with fervent speech.
"Everyone! We've been chosen! In this new world, we'll be humanity's pioneers! United, no trial can defeat us!"
A few nodded, but most regarded him with cynical smirks.
Elizabeth whispered with a wry smile.
"Typical American. Not many here would buy that. We're all wolves eyeing each other's backs, right?"
"Wolves, huh..."
Kim Hyuk mulled her frank words. Not wrong.
Everyone here had risen through cutthroat competition.
The world divided into 100 zones meant just 100 rank 1s out of 8 billion—with few hundred others close behind.
All were likely too selfish for real cooperation.
Then, an elderly Asian man meditating quietly in the corner opened his eyes and addressed Kim Hyuk and Elizabeth.
"This is merely the beginning. The system said it'll scatter us across 100 dimensions. Wherever we go, others arrived before us. Our relations with them will decide life or death."
A few nearby perked up at his words.
"Those who came first... Will they welcome us? Or see us as intruders stealing their rice bowl?"
Elizabeth asked sharply.
"We know nothing about them. Guess we'll find out when we get there."
Kim Hyuk replied indifferently, floating intangible energy in his palm.
"But either way, without power, survival's impossible."
A brief silence fell—universal agreement.
Everyone here knew power's worth better than anyone.
"Fuck this. I took down those puppets with my gun... Didn't know it'd vanish on transport!!"
A distant man muttered angrily to himself.
For some, plans had already crumbled in this waiting room.
People were starting to test abilities, while others pushed for camaraderie.
System info said they'd spawn in a medieval-era village, randomly grouped at one point.
'Time's up.'
Elizabeth beside him offered final words to Kim Hyuk.
"Hope we end up together. See you again someday... Kim Hyuk."
I gave only a wry smile, no reply.
Finally, with the twist of space, Kim Hyuk felt himself heading to the Transcendence World.
'Here we go.'
Ambition for this new stage and cold realism coexisted in his eyes.
The light faded, leaving him in a village square evoking medieval Europe.
A piercing headache flooded his mind with system info.
'This is... the Transcendence World!'
Expectation, excitement, a touch of tension gripped him. Pride as rank 1 swelled his chest.
I planned to assess the situation first and rally potential allies.
Relations with the vanguard here would be priority one.
That thought shattered amid a gruesome explosion from the corner of my vision.
Splat!
A watermelon bursting.
The man standing beside me a second ago—his head was gone.
Red and white chunks splattered my cheek. A foul, fishy stench assaulted my nose.
His eyes widened in horror.
'What...?'
Before he could process, something too fast for vision slammed his gut.
"Guh!"
The bullet-like impact hurled his body like paper.
He rolled several times across the stone pavement before stopping. Crushing pain surged as if every bone shattered.
Forcing his head up, he saw it.
A lone man, unarmed and bare-bodied.
The man had just pierced the hearts of two others summoned alongside him—one after the other—with his fingertips.
A one-sided massacre, no time even for screams.
All plans for this world dissolved into a bloody nightmare.
'I expected some conflict. But... this...'
This wasn't competition. It was hunting.
The man finished the last corpse and approached slowly.
His eyes were ice-cold, devoid of emotion.
Like gazing at an insect.
Standing before him, the man spoke.
"Got a unique ability?"
Blood froze in his veins at the question. No threat.
Verification. Like a researcher querying a lab specimen's traits.
Instead of answering, I endured the pain, hand to the ground. All my rage and will to survive in one strike.
Earth's Fury
A head-sized boulder erupts from the stone pavement toward the enemy.
The stone pavement cracked, a man-sized boulder erupting toward the man.
A short-range attack I'd practiced in the waiting room.
But the man didn't blink.
As the boulder neared, he punched.
Boom!
The solid rock shattered like tofu, fragments scattering harmlessly aside.
Seeing the debris, his heart sank.
"Please... spare... me...!"
Pleading escaped my lips. But simultaneously, I launched a sneaky second strike.
A vile feint while begging for life.
Same result. The man didn't even raise a hand; the boulder crumbled powerlessly on impact.
Overwhelming gap. An insurmountable wall.
All pride and resolve crumbled to dust like the pavement shards.
The light faded from his eyes.
Attacks continued, but his spirit was broken.
Before this despair, no words came.
The man wordlessly took his final step toward him.
Staring up at approaching death with vacant eyes.
'This... is the opportunity given to me...?'
I'd staked everything to escape that wretched reality.
Claimed the glory of rank 1 with my own strength. Vowed to be the best there too.
But it all turned to ash mere minutes after arrival.