Chapter 89
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Overtime
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“No way! If Sesk dies here, our mission fails!
The company's influence shrinks, and the escort division you're in takes a hit too....”
“The escort division's getting replaced anyway. Martunis can't stay as division head anymore, right?”
“Anyway?”
Surprise spread across the section chief's face.
“You knew?”
“I know everything you know. With Martunis gone, you'll step up as vice head. So......”
Ju Gonghyeok tapped ash into the corpse's nostril.
“If you refuse any more, I'll enforce the ‘contract.’ Don't make me say it again. I have a very strong disregard for life.”
“......”
The section chief quietly fetched Sesk from under the straw mat.
“Wake him up.”
“Mm.”
As the section chief gently shook him, Sesk stirred.
“What's the situation? What happened? What about the people?”
The section chief looked troubled and glanced at Gonghyeok.
Gonghyeok silently switched avatars.
“Avatar change. Ancestor. Activate blackout.”
[Avatar changed from Great Sage Equal to Heaven to Ancestor.]
[Ancestor's first ability ‘Blackout’ activated.]
Dark space spread out from Gonghyeok's body.
The darkness swallowed the three of them, then soon turned transparent around them.
They were now inside a blackout where Lilianne or Remiel couldn't interfere.
Inside it, Gonghyeok boredly exhaled smoke.
“Mr. Sesk.”
“Team Leader Ju? Are all the people dead? That masked guy....”
“Did you come from my future?”
“What?”
“To kill me?”
Sesk's face became indescribable.
Specifically, the face of ‘What the hell is this bastard saying?’
Crackle!
Black wings sprang out from behind Ju Gonghyeok like a spring.
[Limited Skill: Severing Demon Wings (A++) activated.]
A ‘pop’ like air escaping sounded.
Thud. Sesk's right arm fell off.
“Huh?”
Blood droplets began beading from the severed muscle cross-section, and blood trickling from vessels soaked the yellow fat.
He braced for the bursting scream.
But Sesk was calmer than expected.
“Urk.”
With just a single groan, he unbuckled his belt and tied off his remaining shoulder joint and armpit to staunch the bleeding.
Jeong Hyeondo, standing beside him, was the one who lost his wits watching Sesk silently stop the bleeding from his right arm.
“Hey, there's a limit to staying calm in a crisis.”
Ju Gonghyeok coolly appraised the severed arm's cross-section.
“No cybernetic parts, not reinforced skeleton either. No coolant or oil mixed in the blood.”
“What does that mean?”
“Hmm.”
After pondering, Ju Gonghyeok grabbed Sesk's left arm.
Rriiiip—
“Gaaahhhh!”
Tearing off the arm with brute strength, Gonghyeok checked the cross-section again.
“No modification traces at all?”
“Uwaaaah—!”
He wouldn't be calm this time if he were human.
Sesk writhed in agony incomparable to the wing-severed right arm.
“Whew. Calm down, calm down. Sorry.”
Gonghyeok infused curse energy into his hand and stroked the left arm's cross-section.
The profusely flowing blood stopped, and the wound dried and twisted like old tree bark.
“Ughhh....”
“Mind's still sharp.”
“Why torture me! What's your goal anyway!”
“I asked earlier.”
Gonghyeok said innocently.
“You're from the future, right?”
“The future?”
“Me, I mean. I've rolled around in this scene for over 300 years, checked every capable, useful kid out there. You're completely new to me.”
“300 years? You bastard, you're a dimensional refugee! Not human, a survivor from a destroyed world! How'd you sneak in as a hunter?”
Sesk brought up dimensional refugees.
Like Ra-Djehuty's people on floor 49, survivors from a ruined world—Gonghyeok vehemently denied it.
“No. No. From a destroyed world, sure. But not a refugee, I'm Earth-born.”
“Destroyed or survived? What's this future crap? What rhythm am I supposed to follow.......”
Sesk vented his injustice and rage.
Naturally, as he ranted, a trembling voice entered Ju Gonghyeok's ears, who was pondering ‘How to torment him into admitting he's from the future?’
- You're not from this world, are you?
“You were awake?”
Looking down, Nathaniele huddled in his inner pocket came into view.
- There were too many odd things about you.
Hiding all those achievements, predicting angels' and demons' every move. Like you know the future....
“Nathaniele. I don't know the future.”
Gonghyeok smiled serenely.
“I know the past.”
He'd tried to hide it longer, kept putting her to sleep often.
But it leaked out early.
With someone like Nathaniele stuck to him 24/7 for decades, it’d be weirder if his regression didn't come out.
Not just her—angels and demons lurking in missions had caught on a few times too.
Once, the floor's manager or whatever tried to kill him the moment they found out, but later he realized even a few knowing his regression secret imposed no restrictions on him.
‘Yeah, as long as I don't broadcast the regression to the world and profit off it, they leave me alone.’
Having Nathaniele as an ally would actually be convenient.
On floor 3, he'd shown his hand a lot because of B, so angels or demons might notice.
But luckily, Poseidon and the heavenly knights were busy fighting, so he slipped by.
‘Angels are fine. Demons, no.’
Regression is cheating to demons.
They won't come kill him outright, but they'll be extremely wary.
If Nathaniele became his ally, she could warn him when demon presences were near.
- Ju Gonghyeok. Or are you even the original Ju Gonghyeok?
She asked with a sad face.
- Are you really from this world?
Ju Gonghyeok gave a wry smile.
“Nathaniele. No one in this world can claim to belong more than me.”
He spread his arms like embracing the sky.
“This world revolves for my convenience. Rewinds for me, remakes itself for me. Only I stand there.”
- No, it's not like that. The world isn't....
“Yeah, I get what you wanna say. Don't strut like a hamster in a cage?
The cage is made for the hamster, but the real purpose is for the hamster's owner.”
- No, that's not it.
“Anyway. I'm busy right now?”
Sesk, ranting about futures and madness, watched Ju Gonghyeok slice off both his arms then mutter like a lunatic, filled with terror.
“J-Ju Gonghyeok. Calm down and hear me out. I don't know what past issue you're carrying, but I'm not from the future or here to harm you.
Some bad memory must be distorting your judgment. Take a breath, get rational. No one's here to threaten you.”
Crack.
A bloodstained steel boot gently brushed past Sesk's earnestly counseling jaw.
“Talk's over. Show me your avatar.”
“Cough, avatar?”
Sesk spat bloody phlegm and asked back.
“I've been watching. Damo, Bergo—you guys never go all-out with avatars?
So conclusion: maybe you don't have one.”
“Avatar....”
Sesk hesitated.
Ju Gonghyeok's sharp eyes didn't miss it.
“Show it, and I'll believe you.”
“If you put it that way, fine.”
Anyone not in the GM's database couldn't have their avatar or deep info grasped.
That's why he couldn't know B or D's info beforehand, and Sesk here was the same—absent from the database.
Time to check if he's a real future man.
Sesk closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“El Cid. Answer my call.”
Behind Sesk, the figure of an armored knight materialized.
Spain's hero, symbol of the Reconquista. El Cid (B).
An undeniable, bona fide avatar.
“Hm, you have one.”
Ju Gonghyeok stroked his chin looking at the avatar.
Sesk shouted joyfully.
“Yes! I'm not some future person you're looking for....”
“Nope.”
Swoosh—
The black wings sliced the throat mid-joyous shout.
The head detached from the body, spinning through the air.
Sesk's vision flipped sky and earth.
Splurt— splurt splurt—
The black wings slashed Sesk's body at supersonic speed.
The human form crumbled into dozens of meat chunks.
“Urp, urgh!”
Jeong Hyeondo, who'd watched the mad spectacle, retched.
‘Psycho.’
Excessive cruelty.
Illogical speech and thinking.
Victim complex and delusions.
Cognitive dissonance.
Every action of Ju Gonghyeok led to the conclusion he was a complete lunatic.
Dozens, hundreds dying to the rampage of a merely powerful psycho.
Jeong Hyeondo despaired realizing he couldn't escape that scope either.
His own face overlapped the fallen Sesk's head.
“Anyway, job's roughly done. Let's go.”
Ju Gonghyeok dispelled the blackout.
Outside, Soma and the group emerging from underground were visible.
“Gonghyeok-nim, no way. Everyone dead this time too?”
To Soma's question, Gonghyeok smiled affirmatively.
“Yeah, not by me. Mostly him.”
“Huh?”
Ju Gonghyeok's finger pointed at Section Chief Jeong.
All team members stared at Jeong in disbelief.
“No, wait! I didn't want to! It was orders!”
“You planned to kill them all anyway, right?”
“Well, yeah, but.”
His desperate excuse fell flat.
Thud thud.
Ha Yeonsi walked weakly from behind.
Out of Ju Gonghyeok's sight, she sat before Sesk's corpse.
Gonghyeok knew but ignored it.
‘Weak heart's disappointing. But she knows she can't do anything.’
Dead anyway.
No matter how regrettable, she couldn't have intervened.
Ha Yeonsi said nothing.
She just quietly stroked Sesk's head with her hand.
And from her hand.
A pure white flower poked its head out.
Hummm.
[Bari Princess (SS) third ability – ‘Field of Flowers of the Other Shore’ manifested.]
[Flesh Mending Flower, Blood Mending Flower, Bone Mending Flower, Soul Mending Flower generated.]
[Physical reconstruction and residual soul amplification initiated.]
[Avatar ‘Angel □□□(?)’ summoned.]
[Angel-type avatar assists all processes per Ha Yeonsi's will.]
[Merit: Incarnation of the Angel (Unique SSS) manifested.
- Divine power increased, resurrection process assistance initiated.
- Angel system intervention. Regenerating info erased from system.]
Radiance spread around.
Bari Princess and an angel's form appeared beside Ha Yeonsi.
Sesk's severed body reconnected, heart beating, life returning to his face.
Ju Gonghyeok slowly turned to her.
“Ha Yeonsi. What are you doing?”
She stood, having lain over Sesk's fully regenerated body.
“Oppa. You can't do this.”
Her teary eyes met Ju Gonghyeok's.
“Oppa, you'll regret it someday.”
Floor 10.
‘Gradius Castle’ mission.
Time until dawn.
4 minutes left.