Chapter 161
Chapter 161
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: Chapter 30: Perception (4)
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‘I wondered what that was all about.’
The moment the word "Britain" came up, all of Jang Ryun's inexplicable behavior suddenly made sense.
‘Ethan’s been hunting bounties on non-beta players lately.’
And the ones he’d killed were all players infamous for PK.
Because of that, the community feedback was mostly positive—people saying it felt refreshing—rather than negative.
‘He thinks I’m Ethan.’
That’s why he’d hesitated to touch me, worried it might cause trouble with the British government.
After all, it was well-known that Ethan was affiliated with British intelligence.
“As I thought, that’s you, right? You’re that bastard who’s been taking out our guys lately.”
Unlike me, who’d reached the correct conclusion, Jang Ryun’s misunderstanding only deepened.
“Damn it, this is a hassle…”
He scratched his head vigorously and scanned me up and down.
“Can’t kill you, can’t let you go.”
Then, out of nowhere, he let out a deep sigh and snapped at me irritably.
“Why the hell do you have to stick your nose into pointless crap and make things annoying?”
His tone made it sound like I was the one in the wrong.
As he spoke, the scenes I’d witnessed on my way here flashed through my mind.
The pit piled high with corpses, the people trembling in the prison cells.
By my standards, at least, there was no way I could’ve just stood by after seeing that.
But clearly, that wasn’t Jang Ryun’s standard.
So, in his eyes, what had those scenes looked like?
“I’ve got a question too.”
I couldn’t hold back the doubt that suddenly welled up, blurting it out because I genuinely wondered.
“Doesn’t it bother you at all?”
“What’re you talking about?”
“The people locked up in there, and the ones your group killed.”
Did he really feel nothing upon seeing their corpses and blood?
When I posed the question out of pure curiosity, an unexpectedly straightforward answer came back.
“Do you feel guilty when you eat meat?”
“…”
“No, right? You just eat it without a second thought! It’s no different for the guys who slaughter it. It’s just meat. Meat.”
It wasn’t particularly shocking. I just thought, *Oh, okay.*
That allowed me to calmly move on to the next question without any real agitation.
“What about genetic compatibility? Organ transplants can cause rejection reactions… Do you check if it’s fine before using them?”
After all, these were beings from a completely different dimension—their evolutionary speed or direction could be entirely different, right?
In fact, among the corpses in the pit, there were non-human sub-species.
When I pointed that out and pressed him, Jang Ryun looked utterly baffled.
“I’ve seen all kinds of weirdos. I’m just the supplier. I hand over chunks to people who need meat, that’s it.”
Hospitals needed them anyway.
Did he think they could solve all transplant patients with organs from proper donors following legal procedures?
“Hospitals are the ones using illegally obtained organs in the first place, aren’t they? So if someone’s gonna die, it’s on the hospitals to handle it.”
Each word that followed only made me feel lighter.
‘He’s saying he just grabbed and sold them because there was demand, without even confirming transplant viability or side effects.’
If the Bihar people’s evolution differed from Earthlings’, making organ transplants incompatible…
Then what about those corpses left rotting in the pit?
“Man, why live life so complicated? Just keep it simple. Don’t get all fired up with pointless justice and butt into useless stuff. Live moderately, yeah?”
“…”
“If you quietly leave today, I’ll hook you up nice and proper. How’s that?”
As the conversation reached that point, I clearly understood why dealing with people like this made my guilt or aversion feel lighter and lighter each time.
These guys didn’t possess the humanity I knew.
That’s why, to me, they didn’t look human.
‘You can’t exchange opinions with beasts or persuade them.’
Conversation was impossible from the start, let alone persuasion.
By the same logic, treating them like humans just because they looked the part would be foolish.
Just because they wore the same skin didn’t make them the same beings.
“Think it over carefully. Opportunities like this don’t come easy, you know?”
Having reached that firm conclusion, I no longer felt any need to humor Jang Ryun.
‘This is a waste of time.’
No backup seemed to be coming, and talking to him had been a total waste of time with zero meaning.
“Thanks for being honest. As thanks, I’ll be straight with you too.”
“What?”
I decided to give Jang Ryun’s hesitant back a little push.
“I’m not British.”
Jang Ryun’s shocked, wide eyes gradually brightened.
He even blatantly licked his lips.
“Killing me won’t cause the kind of problems you’re imagining.”
As he did, the corners of my mouth curled up.
“So let’s end the chit-chat and get to business.”
Whoosh.
‘Flame Storm.’
The flames blooming before my eyes spread out in all directions in an instant.
Defensive barriers popped up simultaneously in various spots.
But they were almost all conjured from magic stones bought in shops.
Against higher-grade mana, a Rank 2 barrier was useless before a Rank 3 spell.
‘I’ll finish the bronze-tags with this.’
The silver-tags would be harder to wipe out in one go.
Some would surely have inherent resistance thanks to attribute mana.
For now, I’d pin down the silver-tags with spells while taking out the gold-tag as fast as possible.
“Arghhh!”
I averted my gaze from the bronze-tag players burning alive.
Jang Ryun, who’d been hesitating and smacking his lips the whole time, had leaped toward me.
‘Kim Yul said that guy has Rank 3 mana.’
Indeed, the scent I picked up was Rank 3 intensity.
A couple types mixed together—earthy smell and fishy water odor.
‘I need to watch out for trap spells or defensive magic.’
I roughly mapped out the battle in my head.
At the same time, gauging his landing spot, I took half a step back and swung my spear horizontally.
Clang—!
Jang Ryun’s sword met my spear, producing the sharp screech unique to clashing blades.
Right after, the ground beneath my feet suddenly sank.
Before I could even assess, I’d already shattered a barrier and spread it underfoot.
Thanks to that, I kept my balance and thrust the spear—still locked with his sword—forward.
“What…!”
As the spear slid along his blade toward the hilt…
Jang Ryun hurriedly pulled back and deflected my spear upward.
The moment my spear bounced up, I shifted my grip on it. Left hand, right hand—tap tap.
In just two adjustments, my grip slid from near the butt to close to the tip.
In that interval, the spear rotated 180 degrees, the blunt tail now surging toward Jang Ryun’s chin instead of the sharp point.
If my opponent had been a silver-tag, he wouldn’t have dodged.
It wasn’t a standard exchange; I’d slipped in half a beat faster using his own move against him.
But Jang Ryun was a gold-tag like me—his reflexes were incomparably faster than a silver-tag’s.
“Hup!”
Sure enough, he twisted his left shoulder to avoid the spear’s blow.
Of course, I hadn’t just let him off.
The moment he started twisting, I’d already slightly loosened my grip.
The spear naturally slid forward, extending farther.
The tail aimed at his chin dug in about a palm’s depth deeper.
As a result, the blunt end reached near his temple on the side of his face.
Before Jang Ryun’s sword, now redirected at me, could move.
Crack—!
The spear tail smashed into the side of Jang Ryun’s face.
“Guh!”
From the impact, it was definitely a solid hit.
In fact, as he tumbled sideways for a moment, all the tension drained from his muscles, leaving him limp.
Likely a momentary concussion.
But it wasn’t quite enough to turn it into a finishing blow. He was a gold-tag, after all.
In the brief window as I reversed my grip to deal a decisive injury, he regained his senses and rolled across the ground.
My downward stab ended up piercing the spot he’d just vacated.
I couldn’t let him get away that easily.
‘Acceleration.’
My explosively quickened movements began pursuing Jang Ryun as he rolled to evade my spear.
“Kraaak!”
My pursuit, a beat faster than he’d anticipated, exploited his opening and inflicted a wound.
The spear blade successfully gashed his side deeply, staining it red with blood.
At the same time, I sensed two presences closing in from behind.
Silver-tags targeting the opening created while I dealt with Jang Ryun.
Reflexively, I deployed a barrier, but it soon shattered with a crunch.
Rank 2 magic versus Rank 3—the latter won.
Ice pierced through the broken barrier.
‘Too late to dodge.’
No sooner had I wrapped my body in attribute mana than the ice touched me.
By then, I’d already activated a teleport spell.
“Aaaagh!”
In the end, my left arm got encased in ice, but the two silver-tags targeting me lost both eyes.
Jang Ryun, who’d leaped back, was spraying a potion on his side.
‘Why isn’t he using more magic?’
The ground collapsing earlier was definitely his spell.
Beyond that, he hadn’t cast any others.
It was odd that he wasn’t concentrating mana when swinging his weapon either.
While keeping an eye on his movements, I slit the throats of the two silver-tags screaming with daggers in their eyes.
Then, taking a large step forward, I aimed for Jang Ryun’s back.
I used acceleration again, but failed to land a hit.
He must’ve realized how dangerous I was; he threw himself aside desperately to evade.
I could follow anytime if I wanted… but.
Checking my left arm, I halted my offense momentarily.
With my entire left arm frozen solid, continuing the fight like this wasn’t ideal.
‘Even with the advantage in mana affinity, it’s different from defensive spells.’
I’d wrapped attribute mana in a rush, so no major injury.
But even with Rank 5 mana, the ice had frozen up to my arm.
‘If I had time, breaking it wouldn’t be hard.’
Having my mobility restricted mid-battle was no good.
‘I need to boost my magic defense.’
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I poured more attribute mana into my arm.
Crackle, fizz.
The sparks I could now wield as freely as my own body swirled around the ice.
They began dismantling the structure composing the ice.
Soon, cracks spiderwebbed across the ice covering my arm—crack, crack.
After shaking off the fully shattered ice, Jang Ryun had also stanched his bleeding with potion.
But I felt no impatience or regret.
‘His weapon handling isn’t that impressive.’
Jang Ryun’s reaction speed was only slightly faster than the Bennet family knights.
Overall difficulty-wise, comparing him to them felt unfair to the knights—it was too easy.
His offense lacked sharpness.
‘Honestly, it’s not just him.’
This was a flaw most players shared, not just Jang Ryun.
Compared to Bihar people who’d trained with weapons for a decade or even decades at shortest, players’ proficiency was sorely lacking.
Most relied on overwhelming physical prowess to crush foes, which made sense.
Against regular monsters, that trait wasn’t a big issue.
Even silver-tags could toy with Rank 1-2 evolved species like playthings.
But when facing the next tier up?
‘Generals and above have high intelligence.’
They dug traps, exploited openings—number games inevitably followed.
If players stuck to their current style, the outcomes wouldn’t be good.
Palau players I occasionally met had somewhat more PvP experience, but…
‘Not consistent, regular sparring like me.’
Even during main scenarios, I’d ask the barracks knights for spars.
Some shunned me as a foreigner, but about half saw it as a good opportunity and obliged.
Other players weren’t that proactive about gaining experience.
‘If this continues, casualty rates against general-class entities will skyrocket…’
Swallowing a sigh after spotting yet another problem out of nowhere, I spun my spear with a whoosh and said,
“You coming or not?”
It was blatant provocation, and given Jang Ryun’s predatory view of me, he should’ve charged.
But instead of charging, Jang Ryun swallowed hard.
Glancing down, I saw his toes pointed not at me, but elsewhere.
‘He’s thinking of running.’
Just moments ago he’d been licking his lips at me, but the second he saw the clear skill gap, he switched attitudes. A strange certainty dawned on me.
‘His mana wasn’t accumulated through his own efforts.’
Damn system