Chapter 51
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Best Actor in a Leading Role: Bergoglio
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‘B’ shouted, his bright red bandages fluttering in the wind.
“You won’t escape this place!”
He had arrived.
The 3001st actor to barge into the third floor, which had room for 3,000.
‘Impressive.’
‘X’ praised him inwardly.
He was an actor not in the original script, but to Gonghyeok, he showed the talent to make the ending even more dramatic.
The ability to elevate Omer Ashk, who was fated to die, and the conviction to sacrifice everything to kill Ju Gonghyeok.
Someone with such ability and conviction would take the optimal action to kill Ju Gonghyeok.
With that in mind, he had deliberately let him go, waiting for him to take the only option left.
The collapsing third floor under Poseidon, the dangers closing in moment by moment, and the certainty that Ju Gonghyeok was alive and heading to the fourth floor.
For ‘B’, who recognized these three things, the chance to kill Ju Gonghyeok was right at this moment.
Ambushing the ark heading to the fourth floor while avoiding the crumbling third floor.
Even in this improvisation, he had performed his role brilliantly.
He had come here to shoot down the ark at the very last moment, living up to director Ju Gonghyeok’s expectations.
‘If he’d stolen a pirate ship and fled alone, I would’ve been really disappointed.’
Of course, he had been monitoring him under the GM’s guidance.
If signs of him fleeing alone had appeared, he would have gone and severed his neck.
“What the hell is that!”
“Don’t just stand there gawking! Attack now!”
“Hum! Vajraaa!”
Starting with Soma Sangai firing a bolt of lightning, a hundred skills struck home.
Flames and smoke rose as one-fifth of the pirate ship blew away, but its speed and direction didn’t change much.
“Ju Gonghyeok! Ju Gonghyeok! Ju Gonghyeeeeuk! I, I live only to kill youuuu!”
‘B’ let out an inhuman screech.
The hunters were gripped by fear at the sight of him ignoring his bandages catching fire from lightning or his face melting from acid.
‘Cool. But who the hell are you?’
Only Gonghyeok watched with thrilled curiosity as he pulled an item from his inventory.
Ha Yeonsi’s mana recovery item, ‘Flesh Mending Flower’.
Feeling it absorb into his body, he drew all his power and control to the clone inside the ark, then knocked it out.
‘Great Sage Equal to Heaven secondary ability activated.’
- Whoooong….
He felt Mihuwang stirring in her sleep, but like a beauty who loved to sleep, she drifted off again.
[Great Sage Equal to Heaven primary ability ‘Kinto’un Brew’ activated.]
[Kinto’un in primary form generated. Size and speed vary with mana amount.]
‘Summon location….’
The bottom of the massive pirate ship.
The summoned cloud lifted the underside of the ship, gripping the keel and rudder tightly.
‘B’, who had been about to ram the ship, panicked.
‘The helm won’t move! Control…!’
Adjusting Kinto’un while shifting ‘X’s’ position, he changed the pirate ship’s direction.
The pirate ship, launched like a ballista bolt, headed toward the ark’s stern.
“Dodge, you fuckers!”
“Forward! Keep going forward!”
Crunch!
The pirate ship smashed through the ark’s stern deck and skimmed upward.
Boom!
The pirate ship, missing its target, unexpectedly slammed into ‘X’, who had been flying outside, and shot like an arrow into the fog on the opposite side.
“What? What happened!”
“No idea. Looks like the pirate bastard accidentally hit that Omer kid on his way out!”
“They’re screwing each other up! Serves those bastards right!”
“This isn’t the time to gloat. They’ll turn around and come back soon! Everyone with shields or disruption skills, get ready! Ranged attackers, start casting now!”
Grateful for the invaders colliding with each other, they regrouped.
“Hey, anyone hurt!”
“More like twenty guys fell from the stern!”
“No choice. Leave ’em! The ship’s still working fine, right?”
Inside the now even more chaotic ark, the pirate ship under ‘B’s’ control was receding farther away.
“Ooh, oooooh!?”
‘B’, who had blacked out from the impact, opened his eyes wide the moment he came to.
At the ship’s sharp prow was ‘X’ with his black wings impaled there.
“What in the world…!”
B forgot to secure the helm and rushed to the prow.
“Lord X! Lord Omer Ashk! I’m sorry! Because of my stupidity…”
B knelt and wept apologies before him.
Tears dripping from B’s rapidly regenerating face looked bizarre.
Gonghyeok raised one hand.
A clenched fist, and then…
He gave a thumbs-up.
“Cut.”
B stopped crying and looked at X.
“Filming’s over. What’s your name?”
“My name is, my name is…”
Clutching his head in agony, he suddenly looked up.
“Bergoglio. Bergoglio.”
“Right, Bergoglio. Congrats on winning Best Actor in a Leading Role for your improvisation in the third-floor film awards.”
“Huh?”
Despite the out-of-context remark, Gonghyeok continued regardless.
“You lived up to my expectations fully, Bergoglio. And…”
[Magic Wing Transformation – Severing Axe (A)]
Gonghyeok’s wings transformed into the shape of an axe.
But not to cleave Bergoglio.
He swiftly swung around it, snapping the pirate ship’s lifeline—the rudder—in two with a crack.
“From now on… it’s unfilmed footage. Scene title…”
The pirate ship lurched violently, plummeting sharply downward.
“Duel on the Beach. No female lead.”
Roooooar—
The ship cleaved through the air, falling endlessly.
＊＊＊
The ship crashed onto the beach and shattered, sending the two men flying through the air.
Bergoglio’s body slammed disgracefully into the sand, while Gonghyeok spread his wings and landed slowly.
Crunch, crunch.
Gonghyeok approached Bergoglio, stepping on the sand.
Behind them, the now 10,000-strong demon horde clashed with the giant god Poseidon.
Bergoglio shook off the sand and stood.
Shing!
Twin swords gleamed in his hands.
“Greatest Murderer. Laplace’s Demon Hound ‘X’. You’re not Omer Ashk.”
“Right.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Curious?”
“…”
Ju Gonghyeok shrugged playfully.
“Then mind if I ask something too? Are you one of the ‘Scavengers’?”
“Scavengers? What’s that?”
“Oh, nothing. Just some ghosts who pop up now and then.”
Gonghyeok assumed a fighting stance and spoke.
“From what you’re saying, you don’t remember much and your head’s messed up, right? Killing you won’t help then, so I’ll off you and figure it out myself.”
“W-wait a moment!”
Bergoglio gestured that he didn’t want to fight and continued.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re not Omer Ashk. Please, hear me out.”
“Warning you upfront, it won’t make a difference.”
A dry sneer came from behind the mask.
“No. If you wish, I’ll be your servant—no, your slave. I’ll become your subordinate and devote myself to any task. I’m not your enemy. If anything, I’m an ally.”
He pleaded earnestly with ‘X’ in a desperate tone.
“If things continue like this, you’ll meet a meaningless death. Save this world, great murderer! Only you—only you can save all the hunters!”
“Whoa, damn. You scared me there. You’re hilarious. Gotta analyze your logs quick.”
‘X’ laughed lightly and slightly lifted the lower part of his mask.
“But hey. Can you still say that looking like this?”
Another wing unfurled over ‘X’s’ shoulder.
An angel’s wing atop the demon’s.
The trademarks of murderer and savior.
Gonghyeok removed the demon hound’s mask.
“Ta-da! The big twist from the late Babel, revealed here first!”
Bergoglio’s expression vanished.
Not shock, panic, or anger.
His mind had simply blanked out from the impact his brain couldn’t process.
“Ah…”
Moments later, a storm of emotions swept his face.
“You… no way. Could it be…”
“Now that you know…”
Liang Family Five Elements Extreme: Thunderclap sword.
The blade of the magic sword (A) shrouded in red mist slashed toward Bergoglio’s neck like lightning.
Light flashed in Bergoglio’s eyes, the Flash Fairy’s eyes.
His twin swords crossed, blocking Gonghyeok’s magic sword.
“Try killing me, punk.”
An inhuman smile, stripped of any trace of humanity, spread across his face.
Gonghyeok shifted his mana state, metal energy turning to water.
Liang Family Five Elements Extreme: Metal Generates Water.
The magic sword carried amplified water energy, targeting Bergoglio’s weakness.
Gonghyeok’s other hand drew a flail from his inventory.
Water Generates Wood.
Water energy nurtured wood energy, infusing the flail.
Wood Generates Fire.
Wood energy kindled fire energy, flowing into the sword.
Fire Generates Earth, Earth Generates Metal, Metal Generates Water, Water Generates Wood…
The energies cycled dozens of times between sword and flail, growing ever stronger.
A storm of lethal consecutive attacks poured down, but Bergoglio dodged every one with eyes wide open.
‘Not bad. Flash Fairy’s eyes.’
Probably not just that—he likely had ‘Swift Evasion (A)’ trait and ‘Heavenly Talent (A+)’ as basics.
To counter Gonghyeok’s ‘Master of All Martial Arts (S++)’, he must possess ‘Twin Sword Master (S)’ as well.
Gonghyeok slipped in feints here and there to fool his eyes, but the guy was getting used to it, starting to exploit openings with his twin swords.
‘Let’s see some tricks.’
A minute of perilous sword exchanges.
Bergoglio’s body began to grow.
The flesh enhancement from the Twin Head Ogre’s liver.
Plus the moonlight troll’s regeneration.
Sharp forelegs of the shredding mantis equipped on his body parts.
Rock-hard crocodile hide that occasionally turned to stone.
Devil mushroom roots embedded in his nervous system, boosting reflexes.
Including the Flash Fairy’s eyes, all were organs from powerful monsters between floors 10 and 20.
‘This guy’s abilities are mostly melee-focused.’
The counter was simple.
Clang!
He slammed down hard on the twin swords and widened the distance as much as possible.
“Avatar switch: Ra-Djehuty. Using Omniscience Magic Tome.”
[Avatar switched from Great Sage Equal to Heaven (SS) to Ra-Djehuty (SS).]
[Ra-Djehuty (SS) secondary ability ‘Omniscience Magic Tome’ activated.]
[All mana consumption reduced by 49 percent. Power and efficiency of all mana attacks doubled!]
- It’s been a while.
“Sorry. Forgot about you since there was no need.”
Careful not to let the clone on the ark heading to the fourth floor vanish, he prepared the explosion magic Ignite (D).
Blade-like feathers sprouted on Gonghyeok’s black bat wings.
[Magic Wing Transformation – Black Feather Flying Blades (A)]
A form converting the wings into ranged mana attack mode.
Seeing it, Bergoglio sweated and charged forward.
“For a melee grunt, just bomb him from afar.”
Whoosh!
Black feathers screamed through the air, bombarding the ground.
Gonghyeok’s mana stat, boosted by Ra-Djehuty’s bonuses, exceeded 500 now.
The A-grade black feather flying blades, empowered by vast mana, and explosion magic turned the beach to wasteland.
- Indeed. Crushing foes without lifting a finger with overwhelming mana. This is the ruler’s poise, the true aesthetic of battle.
Ra-Djehuty, who rarely got a chance due to Gonghyeok’s preference for close-quarters slaughter, puffed up proudly.
Gonghyeok ignored him, diligently attacking while monitoring Bergoglio’s movements.
The guy had hardened his hide maximally, activated a barrier skill, and crouched low.
‘He could dodge if he wanted.’
No need to carpet-bomb widely if he just stayed put like that.
Just concentrate on one spot and melt him.
‘Gotta recycle his corpse as a spirit, so let’s smash him moderately.’
Just as Gonghyeok was about to deliver the finishing blow to the armadillo-curled Bergoglio.
A chilling premonition, an ill omen, crawled up his neck.
A razor-sharp intuition honed over centuries of experience.
As Gonghyeok frowned in displeasure.
A metal cylinder protruded from Bergoglio’s elbow.