Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: Hero's Death
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[Chapter 98 - Hero's Death]
The leader of the future folk.
Z said.
“We oppose your opinion.”
“Why!”
Sesque-C protested loudly.
Z’s telepathy rang in his ears.
The ability to encompass all comrades.
He had been designated as the leader of the comrades alongside A.
“We’ve almost cornered him! If we just catch Ju Gonghyeok coming to assassinate the Director of External Affairs amid the chaos...”
“Your plan is far too risky. And you’ve even hastily revealed our identities to others. That’s not right.”
“That’s a trivial matter! In the end, we just need to prevent the Company’s downfall and catch Ju Gonghyeok!”
Z’s sigh echoed.
“Your actions have changed the future. Where is X, Ju Gonghyeok’s nemesis? He was supposed to appear at the Company as the ninth apostle.”
“The ninth?”
C expressed doubt.
“Your memories are incomplete, as expected. We have memories you lack. Based on those memories, the timing and strategy to confront Ju Gonghyeok have already been set.
Your actions only twist the future we know.”
Under Z’s interrogation, C lowered his voice.
“‘S’ and ‘R’ have already entered the Company. We can’t stop now.”
C slowly rose to his feet.
“Besides, your memories are incomplete too. Even if we fail, our deaths will awaken the memories of our other comrades.
Conversely, if we succeed, we’ll achieve our first goal: ‘eliminate Ju Gonghyeok.’”
C focused his mind.
[Mosaic Organ activated]
[‘Legion Lord’s Consciousness Sharing’ manifested]
The five puppets he controlled stood up.
“You don’t have to help. I can’t forgive myself for standing by oblivious to D’s death.
If I fail, lead the awakened comrades in my stead and save the world.”
Z, who had been silent, quietly spoke.
“I wish you good luck.”
The final communication cut off, and C left the room.
C’s senses caught a single rat.
The place he was staying was the Director of External Affairs’ safe house.
It had to be Ju Gonghyeok, who had slipped in to assassinate the Director amid the chaos.
“You’re a rat in a trap.”
Right now, he was outside fighting.
Having divided his power, it wouldn’t be easy to face the Director’s 100 guards and C at the same time.
Clack, clack.
The mansion’s ornate central entrance hall.
The puppets and C surrounded the intruder from the second floor like a noose.
The shadow hiding in the darkness had nowhere to escape.
“Show yourself, intruder. Your plot has completely collapsed.”
C’s declaration.
= Grrr—
A beastly growl echoed from somewhere.
The intruder hiding in the curtain’s shadow revealed himself.
“Found me, huh.”
Sanchez, wearing a hunter’s hat, stepped into view.
C was rather taken aback by how readily he appeared.
According to the records he knew, the one who should be here was not Sanchez, but Ju Gonghyeok.
‘No, wait. Sanchez was originally fated to die to Isaac Jerolbine.’
The future had changed, and the assassin coming here had switched from Ju Gonghyeok to Sanchez.
“Where is the Director of External Affairs?”
Sanchez’s avatar, Baskerville, swelled to an abnormal size.
[Demon Power ‘Avatar Gluttony,’ ‘Avatar Integration’ manifested]
[Avatar ‘Hell Hound Baskerville’ evolves into ‘Cerberus (S+).’]
[Cerberus devours Sanchez.]
[Avatar ability amplification rate rises to 150%.]
[All attacks are imbued with the avatar’s power.]
The gigantified Cerberus bared its fangs ferociously.
“Where’s Ju Gonghyeok? Why are you here!”
“I’ll use you and the Director of External Affairs as scapegoats to let the world know the terror of the apostles.”
The conversation wasn’t getting through at all.
The massive beast pounced on one of the puppets.
＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊
Grrr...
A feeble whimper leaked from the beast impaled on the wall.
“Hup!”
C slashed his blade diagonally upward from the beast’s belly.
The avatar’s form split open, revealing Sanchez’s tattered body.
Six weapons pierced his form.
‘Four puppets smashed, huh.’
Only C himself and Puppet No. 3, Yao Chen, stood straight.
Puppets though they were, they were based on living hunters.
The puppets’ fragments created a gruesome scene scattered everywhere.
‘But why haven’t any guards shown up?’
The mansion remained eerily quiet despite this mess.
The Director of External Affairs had promised to join forces with C to deal with the assassin.
Yet no one was stepping forward now, which was suspicious.
C grabbed the barely breathing Sanchez by the head.
“Where’s Ju Gonghyeok? Did you come here on his orders?”
“Why do you keep looking for Ju Gonghyeok?”
“Answer the question. Where is Ju Gonghyeok?”
The battered Sanchez smirked.
“Why look for Ju Gonghyeok? I’m the one here, not him.”
“That’s why I’m asking why you’re here!”
C still hadn’t grasped the situation.
Click. Lights flicked on above him.
“Surround them!”
Guards poured out through the entrance doors on the first and second floors.
The Director’s boasted 99 elite guards encircled C and Sanchez in a ring.
“You’ve finally arrived.”
C stood and said.
“Director. There’s no assassin Ju Gonghyeok here. He must have taken another route...”
“Sanchez—!”
A tearing scream rang out.
At the familiar voice, C turned his head.
Beside the Director of External Affairs.
Ju Gonghyeok, the one he’d been seeking, stood there.
“Ju Gonghyeok? Why are you there?”
He had already informed the Director that Ju Gonghyeok was the assassin.
Yet Ju Gonghyeok was brazenly standing next to the Director.
C’s mind froze, unable to comprehend.
“Sanchez has already been taken down!”
“Attack preparations complete!”
“We’ll repel the assassin on your command!”
At the guards’ shouts, the Director nodded.
“The target is holding Sanchez hostage. Make sure to kill the assassin without wasting his sacrifice.”
‘Sanchez as a hostage.’
At that moment, C realized.
No matter the circumstances, Sanchez was a renowned hunter.
In contrast, C was a hunter of unknown origins.
Which one looked more suspicious was obvious.
‘A trap?’
He had thought he was cooperating with the Director to repel the Necromancer King and call in reinforcements from other cities.
But if the Director was already in league with Ju Gonghyeok...
Then he had merely been dancing in the palm of Ju Gonghyeok’s hand.
“Everyone! Attack!”
The 99 elite hunters charged at C.
The real C could have dodged, but...
His body was wrecked from the fight with the apostle, Sanchez.
Soon, he was bound and forced to his knees.
“Since when?”
C, with his head pressed to the floor, glared up.
“You confirmed Sesque died in the Goseong mission. How did you know I was alive?”
C rambled incoherently.
The guards exchanged glances.
Only Ju Gonghyeok quietly smiled.
“Yeah. Real Sesque. Did you think I killed Sesque on the tenth floor for no reason?”
“Even after I showed you the avatar. You just killed Sesque.”
“That avatar was suspicious. I’d seen that guy before.”
The avatar Sesque had shown.
Hero El Cid.
It was originally another hunter’s avatar.
“I knew it was Fabregas’s avatar. So why did you have it?”
“You noticed that, huh.”
C’s monster organ. ‘Legion Lord’s Egg.’
The ability to completely remodel living hunters into entirely new people.
The hunters turned into his puppets became different people, but their avatars remained the same.
“But... you saw the avatar El Cid?”
Doubt flickered in C’s eyes.
“I took care of him before he even reached the fifth floor?”
“Yes. Sesque. Let’s wrap up this tedious story here.”
Slash.
The sword embedded in C’s skull twisted to the side.
His body shuddered.
[Future folk ‘C’ has died.]
[White coin reward: 1 granted.]
[Remaining: 9/13]
‘Remaining nine?’
The future folk Gonghyeok had killed: B, C, D.
Three in total.
One was missing.
‘Eliminated in Babel, I guess.’
Dismissing it like that, he stood.
“Keep vigilant, everyone. Assassins could target the Director again anytime, just like now.”
“By any chance, was Sesque also an assassin?”
One guard boldly asked.
“The Director won’t like you prying too deep. Guards should just stay vigilant without asking questions.”
The guards awkwardly withdrew.
With the Necromancer King and Necropolis invading now.
It was wise to stay alert for any possibilities, as he said.
“Alright, time for me to head back to the fight.”
Just as he erased the clone dispatched to the Director’s side to focus on the Necromancer King battle.
He sensed an eerie presence behind him.
Turning, he saw a pale blue translucent spirit.
It was Ha Yeonsi’s soul, separated from her body.
“What now. Trying to revive C this time?”
“No.”
Ha Yeonsi shook her head.
Her eyes turned to Sanchez’s corpse, tidied by the guards.
She could still save Sanchez.
Ha Yeonsi’s hand rose above Sanchez’s head.
“Stop it, Ha Yeonsi.”
Ju Gonghyeok mocked her.
“A greenhorn gets life-saving powers and thinks she can use them anywhere.”
“But Sanchez...”
“You’ve figured it out by now, right? That Sanchez is an ‘apostle’ too.”
Ju Gonghyeok looked down at Sanchez’s bloodied face.
“You think he’d be happy waking up again here? If he revives, he’ll just be one of the ‘apostles.’
The worst apostle who set up beast-summoning arrays across the city and tried to assassinate the Director.”
“If he revives, won’t he give up?”
“No, he’ll try to kill the Director.”
He draped a cloth over Sanchez’s face.
“He’s come too far to live normally now. How many innocents do you think he killed to spread the fear of necromancers?
It was for some greater cause, but it was never right. Only madmen fueled by hatred do such things.”
‘Just like me.’
Gonghyeok continued beside the silent Ha Yeonsi.
“He’s lost too much, killed too much. He won’t stop.”
He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and quietly lit it.
He placed the cigarette beside his ear like incense.
“If he dies like this, he’ll die as the world’s hero. If he revives, he’ll die as a mad apostle wearing a hero’s mask.
Still want to save him?”
She opened her heavy mouth.
“Oppa could have stopped him.”
“Who knows.”
“You knew from the start. That he’d set up the summoning arrays, that he’d act like this.”
Gonghyeok laughed.
“Why should I stop him from doing what he wants?”
“She said if you let this go, you’ll regret it. That I need to stay by your side. But I don’t really get it.”
Ha Yeonsi’s blue eyes met Ju Gonghyeok’s.
“What exactly am I supposed to do.”
“I don’t know what your angel’s blabbing to you about either.”
Gonghyeok’s form began to fade.
“But you decide. Whether to raise him again, or let him rest in peace.
You’re the only one who can, after all.”
In the entrance hall after Ju Gonghyeok vanished.
Ha Yeonsi quietly looked back at Sanchez wrapped in cloth.
He had burned his life in hatred.
Having dragged others into that flame.
His revived life would never know peace.
Ha Yeonsi’s spirit gave a small nod and vanished.
Peace came to Sanchez’s death.
＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊
Raa—Djehuty—
The Necromancer King’s thought waves shook everything.
The underground sector was complete pandemonium.
“Ahh, I just died but I’m alive again?”
“We are Urben’s limbs, the immortal legion!”
20,000 against 11,000.
Nearly double the numbers, yet...
The Necromancer King overcame the disparity by raising the dead.
Even the already dead apostles rose again, further strengthened.
“Ah. Fuckin’ strong.”
Ju Gonghyeok caught his breath from the sky above.
The Necromancer King was transcendentally empowered by 10,000 followers and the unique city Necropolis’s magic power.
His stats fell short of a heavenly knight, but some spells rivaled them.
Reaper Urben’s skull.
The Necromancer King’s head glowed dangerously purple.
[Skill activated! ‘Reaper’s Guillotine (S+).’]
The dark energy morphed into massive parallelogram blades.
Ten of them, no less.
Guillotine blades dozens of meters long swept through everywhere.
Dodging the incoming massive blades, Gonghyeok shouted.
“Ra-Djehuty! Put out more power! If you keep this up, I’ll have to switch to my combat-type Great Sage Equal to Heaven!”
Ra-Djehuty wasn’t falling behind in battle.
But it was primarily a magic-focused rear support avatar.
It felt somewhat lacking for Ju Gonghyeok, who had grown focused on close combat.
= I have pondered.
Ra-Djehuty gazed at Urben from behind.
= Whether I have the right to speak to him.
“So.”
Ra-Djehuty’s form gradually grew.
Invisible to others, it doubled, tripled.
Soon becoming a giant filling the ceiling.
= I have decided.
[Ra-Djehuty acknowledges you.]
[Avatar Ra-Djehuty’s final potential sprouts.]
= You are worthy.
First ability ‘365 Days Oath’
The power to impose new laws of promises on the opponent.
Second ability ‘Omniscience Magic Tome’
Consumes 10% of total magic power upon activation, halves all magic power costs, and doubles power up to twice.
Third ability ‘Wisdom of Time’
Once a month, consumes 20% of total magic power to stretch 1 second of time by 60 times.
And the final one remaining...
[SS-grade Avatar ‘Ra-Djehuty’s’ ultimate ability is unlocked.]
[Ultimate ability ‘Lord Deification’ authority is opened!]
Among the three lord-god grade avatars Ju Gonghyeok possessed.
Ra-Djehuty’s ultimate ability revealed itself first.
[Chapter 98 - Hero's Death] End