Chapter 79
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Future Man 'D'
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ju Gonghyeok. Think.
'What should I do to resolve this situation?'
Kane, Schumacher. Two of Ju Gonghyeok's team members were dead.
Soma and Ha Yeonsi were there, but they wouldn't last long against D.
If it was Ju Gonghyeok, who had easily killed B, then D wouldn't be a problem either.
But the clone in the underground waterway right now only had about 1% of his power left.
On top of that, D had firearms.
In a straight-line passage like this underground waterway just one meter wide, if firepower pushed through, there was no answer.
The conclusion was.
'Defeating "D" is impossible.
'Then I need to escape this place.'
How?
Ju Gonghyeok's advantage was his knowledge of the future.
D knew the future too, but it was limited knowledge full of holes.
'What does he know?'
That Ju Gonghyeok had come underground to absorb the angel's power.
And that X would defeat the Pureblood Lord and confront Ju Gonghyeok.
D didn't know, but one of the two futures had definitely gone off track.
Because of D's actions.
Bang! Bang!
The corner of the passage curving to the left crumbled away again.
No time.
With the time he'd bought so far, Gonghyeok had pulled 5% of his power from his main body.
[Great Sage of Heaven (SS) First Ability 'Art of Cloning']
[Divides 5% of power to create five additional clones.]
Soma asked Gonghyeok, who had increased his clones.
"What do you plan to do?"
"Fall back. I'm going to lure him out."
Gonghyeok took a deep breath and peeked his face around the corner.
"Damo. Let's talk for a moment..."
Pewk!
The moment he stuck his head out, a bullet pierced his skull.
The sensation of a projectile accelerating at 6 km per second shattering his cranium was one he hadn't felt in a long time.
'No mercy, huh.'
Four lives left.
He'd sent one clone to a certain place.
Gonghyeok needed to deceive D.
The guy thought he could pin Gonghyeok down and stop him from moving.
But what if he thought it was himself who couldn't move?
Gonghyeok swallowed and shouted.
"Listen! I'm not going to fight you!"
"You're not going to fight me?"
D walked toward where the voice came from.
With the gunshot, another clone's head vanished.
"I'll say it again. I'm not going to fight you."
"Is that so? What does that change? It has nothing to do with me."
D replied indifferently.
"Ju Gonghyeok. As long as you don't get the angel's power from this underground waterway, that's enough. That alone will help X kill you plenty."
Bang!
Gunfire echoed through the underground waterway again.
The bullet that pierced the wall blew away the third clone's abdomen.
"You can keep dealing with me like this. It'll just split your power against X. And X isn't easy enough to handle even after splitting your power."
Click.
D swapped magazines and asked.
"So, Ju Gonghyeok. What are you going to do now?"
"What am I going to do?"
Cigarette smoke drifted from somewhere.
It meant someone who couldn't live without smokes had found some leisure.
"Let me give you one piece of advice, D."
"What is it?"
"A fool who learned history from books and clumsily steps up to fix the past..."
A message appeared before everyone's eyes.
[The Progenitor Blood Weapon appearance conditions have been met.]
[The Pureblood Lord Gradiut converts to a Progenitor Blood Weapon.]
[The Progenitor Blood Weapon appears in the skies above the fortress.]
"That's how things get messed up."
"What the..."
At Gonghyeok's words, D recalled hazy memories.
According to the records, the Progenitor Blood Weapon shouldn't have appeared.
The Pureblood Lord Gradiut was supposed to be one-shot by X before becoming a Blood Weapon in the fixed past.
Yet the Progenitor Blood Weapon had appeared, meaning X had failed to hunt Gradiut.
"Unlike the past you know, the Pureblood Lord raid failed. Because of you."
"The past. You know about us? Who told you?"
"It wouldn't be fun if I told you, would it? Terminator."
The fourth Ju Gonghyeok peeked out.
"I'm not going to fight you. I don't even need the angel's power. Instead, I'll kill X along with the Blood Weapon."
"You think I'll let you?"
"No. I won't let you."
Thud!
The Gauss Pistol, with output doubled, turned Ju Gonghyeok's upper body to dust.
But Ju Gonghyeok chuckled silently from a hidden spot.
"Soma, Yeonsi. From now on, buy time against him. We're not the ones in a hurry."
[The Holy War Army inside the fortress has mostly been wiped out.]
[The last Holy War soldier begins the Angel Descent ritual.]
[Sephirim will appear in the skies above the fortress in 5 minutes.]
"Understood."
Soma stood, gripping his prayer beads and Vajra Staff.
"I'll buy time, even if it costs my life."
"If Oppa says so, then I'll do it."
"Damn it, Leader. This is really gonna work, right?"
The team members prepared to intercept D one by one.
A signature smirk spread across Ju Gonghyeok's face.
"Well? What are you going to do now? The Progenitor Weapon is targeting X. I'm targeting X. And the Descending Angel will target X too."
"The Descending Angel won't just target X..."
"You gonna bet on the gamble that the Descending Angel only goes after the Progenitor Weapon and bails X out? Either way, I'll survive. X dies."
D thought.
'Trouble.'
Whether it was his fault or not, X being in danger was now fact.
If Ju Gonghyeok attacked X with the Progenitor Weapon, and the Descending Angel showed up too, X would be surrounded on all sides.
Dealing with Ju Gonghyeok here had become trivial.
'The threats here are only Soma Sangai and Ha Yeonsi.'
Soma Sangai's counterattack and Ha Yeonsi's regeneration frenzy could deal massive damage regardless of rank, making them dangerous.
But if he watched out for that, 20 minutes.
No, 15 minutes to take them out.
The problem was...
'Is it right to kill Soma Sangai and Ha Yeonsi?'
In the original future, they were just Ju Gonghyeok's victims, contributing to saving the world.
Moreover, the ones who made them and sent them here revered Soma and Ha Yeonsi as great figures in history and urged protecting such hero-level people unless absolutely necessary.
Not sure how many comrades remembered that, though.
'Can't kill them here.'
After agonizing, D called his weapon's name.
"Engulfer Kohjion. Raising output."
Whiiiiiing—!
The Gauss Pistol hummed and glowed.
[Mana injection increased by 250%]
[Special ammo 'Bleeding Fangs', 14 rounds loaded.]
[Skill activated 'Lancaster Marksmanship (A-))']
[Skill activated 'Barrel Alchemy Transmutation (B)']
Soma felt his Crisis Detection (B+) trait awaken.
"Everyone! Get down!"
Flash.
An impossible roar erupted where bullet met wall.
As team members stifled groans looking at the wall etched with clear spiral marks, Ha Yeonsi's gaze turned rearward.
'Oppa?'
Click.
A fresh magazine slammed into the steaming gun.
D's weapon, Engulfer Kohjion, was already aimed at Ju Gonghyeok's forehead right in front of him.
"Knew it."
Gonghyeok shrugged.
Gunfire rang out, and the headless corpse bounced across the floor like a basketball.
"No!"
D thought as he heard Yeonsi's scream.
'I've killed all visible Ju Gonghyeoks. Primary objective achieved. Time to retreat...'
[Vajra Guardian (S) First Ability activated 'Benevolent King's Divine Aura']
[Skill activated 'Iron Arm Charge (B)']
Kwaaaang!
A tackle like a freight truck dug into D's waist.
Slamming into the wall, D looked down at his opponent.
Soma was crushing him with solid shoulders.
'Dhritarashtra, Soma Sangai.'
Looking at the future monster who was still a fledgling, D sighed.
D felt the need to awaken Soma just a little.
"Soma Sangai. Listen carefully."
"..."
"We're not your enemies. Just Ju Gonghyeok's."
Soma didn't reply, silently binding D.
"Ju Gonghyeok is no hope. He's just a ruinous breed. He'll destroy you all for his own goals."
"Die..."
Ha Yeonsi's low, sunken voice rang out.
"Don't block Oppa."
Kiiiiik.
The underground waterway's steel beams tore free under Ha Yeonsi's psychokinesis.
Twisted dozens of times like laundry, the beams sharpened like horns and flew at D's eyes and mouth.
"See what he's destroyed."
The steel spears Ha Yeonsi launched didn't target only D.
They randomly stabbed Soma's back too.
Only then did Soma speak.
"The Buddha walked the thorny path to enter Nirvana."
"Some sacrifices are inevitable to save humanity?"
D smiled bitterly.
"Just like always, Ju Gonghyeok will twist purposes to suit his taste. Don't forget. He reverses his own decisions. Only for his own gain."
Kwaaaang!
A technique combining four avatars' power struck D's chest.
Silver reinforced skeleton showed through the charred white sternum.
"Talked too much."
Stroking his own bones once, D aimed his gun behind the wall.
Pulling the trigger unleashed 18 bullets.
Recoil flung Soma back.
He looked up at D, but beyond the collapsed wall, he was gone.
'Invisibility, or teleportation?'
Checking the rubble, only a vast cavity remained—no trace of him.
"Oppa's right. Oppa always finds a way, no matter the situation. He never abandons me."
Ha Yeonsi kept muttering endlessly toward where D vanished.
She wasn't normal.
Soma averted his eyes from her.
She was broken.
The girl who saved him dying on the first floor and forced smiles in tough times was gone.
Because his power was lacking.
Or because someone looked away.
'I didn't understand him, the one who turns away from people.'
Soma raised his own arms.
Scars had increased on the bandaged arms.
As many as the people he failed to save on the third floor.
'I thought his actions of ignoring people had some meaning I didn't know.'
But was that really true?
In hindsight, Ju Gonghyeok passed by countless people he could have saved.
Was there hidden meaning? Or did it let him gain more rewards?
Maybe some of it.
But before that, he seemed utterly uninterested in saving people.
Unwilling to think it, but.
He even seemed to want people to die.
'You...'
Doubt grew within Soma.
'Do you really want to save people?'
* * * * *
Chiiiiiik—
Brown liquid poured from the hole in D's chest.
From eyes to ears, every orifice in his body regurgitated fluid.
'Did I talk too much?'
This wasn't damage from Ha Yeonsi.
Unknown damage afflicted his entire body.
Time Paradox.
The punishment inflicted on those who try to change the future.
'I get it now. Why the memories are incomplete.'
The reason their memories were incomplete was because some higher-dimensional entity restrained them.
His recent mistake had erased much from his mind.
'Must kill Ju Gonghyeok before I forget more. But...'
He suddenly realized one fact.
'What was my name?'
His name wouldn't come to mind.
Soon, he forgot the name of the gun he held.
Next, he forgot the concept of a gun.
'Must kill Ju Gonghyeok.'
He knew what he had to do.
But not why he had to do it.
'I am one bullet among twenty-four □□.
'We kill Ju□hyeok.'
He looked up.
Instinctively, he knew.
His target, bearer of immense power, was above.
And his comrades too.
"Have to go."
He muttered.
Comrades in danger.
Must help him.
From the past, he raised what he once knew as a 'gun'—a stick.
A massive arc discharge flame erupted.
"Have to go."
The five bullets crawled up the collapsed ceiling.