Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Horrific Victory
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“Those guys seem off, don’t they?”
“Their shadows...”
The members of Ju Gonghyeok’s blue team stared at the opposing team in stunned silence.
All ten of them were cloaked in scarlet shadows.
From their gear to their vibe, every one looked like bad news.
Their actual combat prowess and savagery were probably second to none among all hundred teams.
‘This time, they’re the enemy.’
Last time around in the regression, Gonghyeok had been on their team. He gave them a casual wave.
All ten locked eyes on his shadow color, flashed knowing grins, and waved back.
Gonghyeok’s team facing off against them was inevitable.
The matchup rule hinged on the ‘leader’s’ shadow color.
Black leader meant facing another black leader’s team. Red meant red. Order didn’t matter—the opponents were set in stone.
“Those bastards all look sketchy. Not my type.”
“I’ll go. I’ve been dying to put on a disassembly show with this big a crowd.”
“Pfft, cut the crap. We already decided—I’m first up.”
“That last guy on their side looks kinda dangerous, though.”
“Only fight if you wanna risk your neck. I’m bailing on the weaklings. Just leave mine intact.”
A brown-skinned man climbed into the center of the arena.
He wielded a razor-sharp obsidian sword and wore a jaguar mask.
“Ahh. I’m starving for a proper meal.”
Whispers rippled from the blue team. Their predetermined first fighter stepped forward.
“Eek, scary! He’s scary! I don’t wanna fight!”
“Get your ass up there, you punk!”
“You got nothin’ to do—just go out, slap the ground three times, and forfeit!”
A blithering idiot whose mind wasn’t all there. Sato Yuta.
The sacrificial lamb for everyone who didn’t want to go first.
The jaguar-masked man’s face tightened slightly.
“The sacrifice’s freshness is a bit iffy. Still, can’t be picky.”
“Bro! Where are you, bro! Punish these guys!”
The jaguar-masked man approached slowly, obsidian sword in hand.
Sensing something ominous, Sato summoned his avatar.
“Oniguma! Headbutt! Keep headbutting!”
A Japanese oni clad in bearskin with horns materialized in front of Sato.
Just as it moved to obey its master...
“Ocelotl.”
A massive beast swallowed Sato’s Oniguma whole.
Its Aztec name meant jaguar, but this was no ordinary jaguar.
Normal jaguars didn’t have human arms, lion manes, or crystalline transparencies grafted on.
“Guh, blegh!”
Blood poured from Sato’s eyes, nose, ears—every orifice.
The shock of his Oniguma being devoured in one gulp.
Sato collapsed, vomiting blood, but something felt wrong.
The hands he’d planted on the ground were gone.
He lost balance and face-planted into his own puddle of puke.
Cleanly severed stumps of both arms came into view.
“There, no arms means you can’t slap the ground three times, right? Oh, wait—maybe you’d grab it with your feet. Can’t have that.”
The skill that had sliced off Sato’s arms so cleanly, ‘Jaguar Fangs (D-)’, now severed both his legs.
“Gaaah!”
Any normal person would’ve gone into shock and died right there, but a tenacious hunter’s stats kept him clinging to life.
Of course, he’d bleed out in three minutes flat at this rate.
“Sacrifice Mark.”
The jaguar-masked man touched Sato, etching a strange pattern on his chest.
The pattern glowed, staunching the blood from his limbs.
“Now. Honestly, with your brainpower, who knows how long it’ll take you to get it...”
The man reversed his grip on the obsidian sword and aimed at Sato’s groin.
“I don’t mind playing with ‘sacrifices,’ so I’ll indulge you.”
“Gyyyaaah!”
“That’s it. Good boy. What you need to say is...”
“Bro! Save me! Waaah!”
The jaguar-masked man deftly carved with the obsidian sword and continued.
“‘I offer my avatar. Please take it.’ You gotta mean it, fully understand you’re handing it over.
Ha. At your intelligence level, this’ll take a while.”
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
The sickening sound of flesh being dismantled mingled with ear-splitting screams.
The blue team’s remaining eight plunged into a pit of terror and despair.
A mocking snicker echoed in one ear.
‘Forfeit right at the start.’
Babel wasn’t that merciful.
Moments later, below Sato Yuta’s chest dangled nothing but red innards.
Without A-rank endurance, survival was impossible.
But the jaguar-masked man’s Sacrifice Mark (C) skill barely kept him alive.
“Eat the avatar. Eat Oniguma. Kill me quick.”
“Right. Oniguma’s your avatar. You finally get it.”
The jaguar-masked man’s avatar, Ocelotl—the one that devoured Oniguma—had its belly deflate.
Proof it had feasted on an avatar.
Ocelotl’s body rippled.
Its tentacles thrashed wildly, and nearly ten eyes spun in predatory bliss.
Ocelotl meant jaguar in Aztec.
But no part of this monstrous form resembled a jaguar anymore.
Hunters outside the arena buzzed.
“That thing’s gotta have eaten at least twenty avatars.”
“Heard you go weird if you feed ’em too many, but damn, that’s a new level of freakish.”
- Truly repulsive. That jaguar man’s surely next on the menu for his own monster.
Ra-Djehuty peeked out, grimacing as he whispered to Gonghyeok.
Ra-Djehuty spoke true.
The monster Ocelotl had gorged beyond limits.
Avatars tied deeply to a hunter’s soul.
Insane avatars often ousted their hunters, hijacking bodies, or fused into unknown abominations.
Demons tempting hunters especially favored shattering their humanity.
A pole rose in the arena.
The jaguar-masked man skewered the severed parts like shish kebab.
At the top, the head—its mouth clamped around the grotesquely excised groin.
“Today’s first heart! First feast!”
He bit hugely into the freshly extracted heart.
“Mmm, utterly vile. Even a sewer rat’s heart would taste better.”
“He’s lost it.”
“Urp...”
Madness anyone could see. Hunters spat curses or averted eyes, dry-heaving.
Clap clap clap clap.
Then, crisp applause rang out.
The jaguar mask’s gaze snapped toward the sound.
Across the arena, one killer applauded slowly, ignoring stares.
The blue team leader in the hellhound mask.
“You applaud my heart offering?”
Clap clap clap.
“You’re moved by my ritual’s beauty?”
Clap clap clap.
The unflinching masked applause made the jaguar mask glance at his comrades.
“Today, I’ve met a true heart! Brothers! Rejoice!”
“Puhahaha, what a total nutjob.”
“Get outta here, psycho. I wanna kill too! Come down already!”
The enemy team roared with laughter; the blue team wore horrified faces.
“Hey, you! Same blue team! What the hell...”
“Yeah. Teammate. Got it. Go.”
“What!?”
Gonghyeok’s bored tone ended, and a blue mark glowed above the man.
He blinked—and found himself atop the arena.
“!?”
When leader Gonghyeok called him second.
Realizing, the man frantically tried slapping the ground three times...
But his raised hands wouldn’t budge.
“Huh? Hands—my hands!”
That was it. Next, his eyes beheld the maw of the monster Ocelotl.
“So, like this—gnashing with teeth. How’s this offering style?”
Gyyyaaah!
“Ah! Almost killed without taking the avatar.”
“I’ll give it! Take my avatar! It hurts! Hurts!”
“Wait just a bit! Skinning from the neck with such fine teeth for decoration...”
“Grraaaah—!”
A second pole rose in the arena. Impaled with wretched meat chunks.
“Nah, there’s gotta be a more revolutionary... no, ritualistic kill.”
“This one’s the monkey-lizard from Mexico’s Guadalupe! What do you think?”
“Ahh, with two sacrifices at once, I could offer something even more beautiful and creative...”
One by one, one by one, the pale-faced blue team rose blood-red onto poles.
“Urp, bleeech!”
“Haha, hahaha.”
Some puked at the hellscape before them.
Others, overwhelmed by the horror into absurdity, laughed hollowly.
Clap clap clap clap.
The hellhound-masked man’s applause continued even after eight meat chunks adorned poles.
“What do we do! How the hell do we handle that psycho!”
The last one-armed hunter clutched Gonghyeok’s hood. The clapping stopped dead.
“What do you want done? Tell me. I’ll do everything possible.”
Like a ray of salvation, the one-armed man brightened.
“Rip those bastards apart!”
“That’s all?”
“Yeah! Whatever—just go kill ’em quick!”
Gonghyeok eyed the one-armed man impassively.
“Not much I can do for you lot. But one thing’s sure...”
The one-armed man’s mark glowed blue.
“I’ll return exactly tenfold what they did to you. Now go die.”
“Ah, haa, haaa, gaaah!”
The last hope vanished.
The one-armed man wheezed, claws digging into his face with nowhere-to-go terror and rage.
His self-mutilating scratches echoed maniacal laughter through the arena.
“Ehehe! Ehihihi!”
A ninth pole rose.
[The blue team is eliminated except for the leader. Enemy team remains at full 10 members.]
[1:10 overwhelming disadvantage unlocks special achievement conditions.]
[Achievement ‘Blue Team’s Last Survivor’ acquired. Reward: 2 indigo coins.]
Blue team’s final survivor, leader ‘Ju Gonghyeok,’ stepped up.
“Huhuhu, hahahaha!”
The jaguar-masked man laughed through tears.
“You who grasp my beautiful rite are perfect to crown this grand finale!
But no matter your strength, you can’t beat me after nine wins!”
The jaguar-masked man’s stats ranged 150-220.
Low D to E-grade.
But this 10:10 bout blessed winners with 5% stat boosts per victory.
Nine stacks compounded like interest. His buffed stats:
Strength 319 C-grade, Agility 344 C-grade, Endurance 300 C-grade, Mana 300 C-grade, Will 300 C-grade.
Coins from slain sacrifices pushed nearly everything to C-grade.
“I’m 2nd-floor limited, but I could take a boss 1v1 now! Plus Ocelotl’s grown stronger!”
The jaguar mask’s avatar writhed in even more grotesque form.
“You’ll be offered more beautifully than them! Ocelotl! Make this one beau—...”
As he ranted excitedly, Gonghyeok scratched his ear.
‘Can’t use it flashy or they’ll notice later. Subtly.’
[Sephirot 1st, Malkhut (MALKHUT) temporarily unlocked.]
[All flesh and weapons gain holy attribute.]
[Suppresses light and divine rings.]
[Malkhut’s archangel, Sandalphon’s power enables ‘Gigantification.’]
[Sandalphon’s angel legion, Ishim’s power enables holy flames.]
Screeech!
Above Gonghyeok loomed Ocelotl’s massive maw.
Dozens of human arms lined it horrifically, enfolding him.
“Ignition Booster.”
[Ignition Booster (D) activated.]
[Influenced by holy flames. Adds lethal damage to undead, chaos, dark attributes, and impurities.]
Crunch-crunch-crunch!
Ocelotl’s maw split into four quadrants—east, west, south, north.
Squeee—
The filthy severed cross-section blazed with unfamiliar flames.
Malkhut’s holy fire engulfed the corrupted avatar’s body.
Ocelotl shrieked, a fireball wailing.
Gonghyeok brushed axe-spear remnants off and approached slowly.
“Ahh, eaten by Ocelotl now, and you’d have joined me...”
The jaguar mask sighed, glaring thinly at Gonghyeok.
The reason prior victims couldn’t even forfeit: his Sacrifice Bind (D) skill.
It bound parts of flesh touched by sacrifice blood.
Seeing his burning avatar, sensing danger, he bound Gonghyeok’s legs.
‘Sacrifice blood, bind that man’s legs with Sacrifice Bind.’
Blood pooling the arena shimmered oddly.
[‘Sacrifice Bind’ ineffective.]
[Blood dominion shifts to opponent.]
[Opponent forces submission via sacrifice blood.]
“What!?”
Shock brief—the jaguar mask’s nose gushed blood.
“Guh! W-what!?”
[Insufficient resistance to opponent’s vampiric dominion.]
[Requires Will C-grade or higher!]
[In 15 seconds, body falls under opponent’s control.]
The masked man approached steadily, step by step.
“Huh. First try here, and instant submission.”
Gonghyeok peered at the Vampire Princess Ring.
“Hmm... Since you’re submitted, maybe take you as a minion.”
“I won’t submit...”
The jaguar-masked man panicked but squeezed out words.
“Sigh. Fine. Achievements matter more than some half-baked demon contractor.”
He raised a hand, slowly recalling details.
“So, first guy—arms, legs off, then groin muscles sliced, yanked the whole package?”
Gonghyeok hefted the sharply honed axe-spear.
“Lie down? Let’s start with limbs.”
[Enemy team’s first foe ‘Telakpotl’ deceased.]
[Acquired 262 purple coins, ‘Cursed Obsidian Sword.’]
[Achievement ‘Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth’ 1/9. 8 foes remain.]
[Achievement ‘Impossible Comeback’ 1/10. 9 foes remain.]
[Achievement ‘Double the Kindness, Tenfold the Grudge’ 1/9. Remaining...]
A tenth pole rose.
More wretched and filthy than any corpse before.
Gonghyeok slowly surveyed the enemy team and beckoned.
“You murderer scum, come at me one by one.”
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