Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Dungeon Circumstances (4)
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"Found you."
"...!"
-Whirrrrr!
The wildly spinning chainsaw shredded his instinctively outstretched arm clean off.
-Kurrrr!
Chains pierced through his skin, saw teeth and shards ripping into his muscles. Sharp blades churned within.
The sensation of bone separating from muscle.
It didn't take long for the mana he'd forcibly squeezed out to halt the chainsaw's motor.
"!"
The girl's face flushed with panic at the sudden shutdown.
"...You crazy bitch."
Forgetting the pain amid the battle's frenzy, he took in her blank expression with bloodshot eyes.
His wildly surging mana thrashed as if ready to devour the girl at any moment.
Even as she tried to yank the chainsaw free, his blood-soaked hand gripped it tight.
Without a word, he reached out with his remaining hand to snap her neck.
-Whirrrrr!
The motor kicked back on. An artery severed, blood spurting in a stream.
If he let go, he'd die.
He clenched his jaw and gripped the chainsaw handle harder.
Trembling. His eyelids quivered in agony.
-Crunch!
That was when another chainsaw plunged into his back.
He hadn't even noticed the second one approaching in his excitement, oblivious to the fact there were two.
The eyes of the two girls in black outfits flickered with hatred.
"Cough, kuh..."
His body convulsed as he twisted free from his position.
The two similar-faced girls fondled their bloodied chainsaws. At their appearance, the trees stared at him with dazed, entranced eyes.
Embedded in the handle of that chainsaw was a green bead.
It emanated an aura similar to the one Lee Seong-han possessed.
"...What the hell are you?"
"You don't need to know."
The girl with the more youthful face spat her hostility without hesitation.
"Why are you after me?"
"Worthless man. Retard. You don't even know that?"
"How the hell would I, after all the bullshit I've been put through since coming here?"
His vision blurred.
Judging by her mana and physical strength, she was slightly below the unleashed Lee Se-young.
"Die here for the World Tree."
"Beta, too much chatter."
"...Anyway, don't think you'll die easy. You're going to get raped to death here."
His fully activated healing authority barely propped up his body, on the verge of collapse.
Running was impossible. He wrapped his whole body's mana around his frame.
The mana slithered like a snake, coiling into each circuit.
Muscles swelled, bleeding staunched.
More precisely. Far sturdier.
He heightened his focus and assumed a stance.
Puppet Fist Technique's Initial Form.
The supreme martial art he'd forged and Baek Do had refined.
He couldn't yet match Baek Do. But he could at least nip at her heels.
One step further. He burned his circuits to forcibly surpass his limits.
-Sizzle, sizzle!
Accelerated blood flow. Trembling muscles. Blood streamed from the severed stump.
Shaving years off his life, but what did it matter when death loomed?
His mana control at its peak now effortlessly crossed a certain threshold.
-Thump, thump.
He steadied his breathing.
No room to retreat now. They exchanged gazes ready to tear each other apart.
-Drip. Drip.
In the silence, falling blood drops marked the passage of time.
-Vrrr, vrrr.
The chainsaws vibrated anew, mana infusing the chains to boast their menace.
A halo of light burst from the green bead.
-Grrrrrind!
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [―!!!!] As they charged with weapons gripped, dozens of trees surrounding him targeted him all at once.
-Whirrrrr!
Too noisy a weapon for a sneak attack.
Beta swung her chainsaw at his head with skull-splitting force amid the oncoming trees.
He dodged by turning his head. Before the blade reached his trapezius, he smacked her waist with his arm.
-Bang!
In that brief instant, a strike channeling mana to a single point.
A normal hunter's guts would have spilled out on the spot.
"Kyaa!"
A shockwave rippled through the air as Beta flew back.
The deactivated chainsaw failed to pierce even his skin, rolling limply across the ground.
The real issue was the dozens of Wood People glaring at him.
The other girl lurked among the trees, eyeing his neck.
'If I'd fought from the start, maybe I had a chance.'
He sensed defeat.
A branch touching his extended hand crumpled and fell under his strength.
[Kraaaak!]
Now incapable even of human speech.
-Whirrrrr!
The whirring chainsaw targeted his back. He turned, crossing his arms to block.
-Screeech!
A sound like grinding steel.
He spun his leg for a roundhouse kick. Even that glancing blow shattered a rigid tree.
Roots surged from somewhere, binding his shins and arms.
Forcing his way free twisted his organs, spewing blood.
In his accelerated thoughts, no ideas came.
All he could do was block the strikes raining from every direction.
Yet to others, that desperate defense might look like a beast's fury.
"Kuhak, kak."
Was that sound from his mouth or his gut wound?
Ah.
When death actually came, his mouth tasted bitter. Blood.
Never imagined dying like this. Those bastards who'd threatened him with death all this time—they'd get their divine punishment.
-Thud.
Sky and earth flipped. The chainsaw went silent.
These bitches looking down at him with contempt—who the hell sent them? He couldn't figure it out no matter how he racked his brain.
Had he unknowingly earned some curse?
Even setting traps in that dungeon—was there really reason to kill him that badly?
"Hah. Hoo. We did it, Alpha."
"...Yeah."
A voice tinged with accomplishment from somewhere.
Even resentment had faded now.
No emotions left to waste on that.
"...Crazy bitches."
He just sneered.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [……Compulsion Force Activates!] ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Things were going sideways.
Lee Se-young bit her nail. A sharp sting followed as blood trickled from her neat nailbed.
"...Fuck, for real."
A curse laced with grief and lament. She pulled a band-aid from the drawer and wrapped her finger neatly.
"Fucking World Tree bastards."
Three days since Lee Si-heon was kidnapped.
From piecing together the situation, she didn't need to see or hear the scene to know.
For whatever grudge it held, the World Tree had targeted Lee Si-heon.
Forcing crimes on him.
Twisting fate. Warping personality, even going for his life.
Lee Si-heon seemed nonchalant. But he just hadn't grasped the reality yet.
In the end, the idiot had gotten himself caught.
"...Shouldn't have left him alone."
She ground her teeth, swallowing her rage over and over.
She couldn't just let this boiling fury—like molten lava—fester unused.
Regret was useless. Save it for after everything ended.
With double determination in her eyes, she swallowed the blood and made a call.
To the woman who picked up, Se-young growled lowly.
"You ready?"
[Yes. But why go this far over one student getting kidnapped...? If it's for image-making, you don't need to—]
"Shut up with the bullshit. If you're ready, start now."
[Got it.]
She hung up. Exhaling her trembling breath, Lee Se-young stared into the vanity mirror.
Mascara smudges under her eyes. Dark circles down her cheeks. A wretched sight.
She touched her ashen cheeks. Recalled Lee Si-heon's rough hand yanking them once.
"Ha."
Ridiculous. Falling apart over one guy.
Absurd enough to laugh.
'Just don't die.'
If he did, she'd chase him to hell.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Ma-gyeong Forest.
Haven for abandoned trees.
-Rustle.
In the heart of such a forest, inside a well-built wooden house, Alpha wiped her chainsaw with a faded cloth.
-Clunk.
The door opened, and her younger sister entered.
"Sis."
"Yeah."
"Sprayed all the potions."
"Handcuffs?"
"On."
Handcuffs that suppressed mana circuits and nerfed stats.
Worn by the worst criminals, so the man wouldn't rampage anymore.
Alpha set the oiled chainsaw against the wall and looked at her sister.
Her sister's eyes, still holding emotion, shone brighter than her own.
Alpha hugged her sister and stroked her hair.
"Good job. Now the World Tree will guide our path."
"Will she give us names too?"
"Of course. Soon."
For Wood People and trees, a name held value comparable to their entire life.
It defined their very existence.
Not just something born with or earned—prefixes before tree names held immense worth.
Thus, named Wood People were treated as nobility.
Nameless ones, worse than humans.
Too lowly to even keep a name bestowed by the World Tree.
Alpha and Beta were discarded name-lost children.
The World Tree they served was their savior. A being they owed blindly, right or wrong.
Lee Si-heon was the ultimate villain.
That's what had been hammered into Alpha and Beta's heads.
They'd ponder his treatment later.
Torture or drugs. Either way, they'd grant him the worst death they could imagine.
"Everything as the World Tree commands."
Alpha and Beta rose and stepped outside.
Passing the crude door, they headed to the underground shack.
Chilly air permeated the place. Opening the thorn-studded door brought a sharp tang of blood.
Alpha and Beta saw Lee Si-heon bound to the bed.
"All set."
"Yeah."
Acknowledging her sister.
What they'd prepared was nothing special.
Not their idea to begin with, so prep was easy and simple.
Green Dawn was domination magic. The World Tree's incantations to them were vicious, horrific—unspeakable horrors.
"...Cough, cough."
The man awoke, gasping raggedly.
His unfocused eyes fixed on the ceiling and girls, then he muttered in a sigh-mixed voice.
"Why save me?"
Half-accusatory tone.
Beta snapped at him, furious.
"Shut up before I grind your lips off with the saw. Talking to you makes me want to puke. Who gave you the right to speak, you who incurred the World Tree's wrath?"
The man stared quietly at the girl's face.
One word was enough.
"Who'd I piss off?"
Fury-laced voice.
At the cold glare from the mask, Beta felt fear and stepped back, then ashamed, raised her voice higher.
"Hmph. Anyway, you're dying today. In the worst way."
The man said nothing but scanned around thoughtfully.
Emboldened, Beta crossed her arms to retort—
"Nothing there—"
"Beta, quiet."
-Silenced by Alpha.
Alpha gave the man a cursory glance, then turned away. Beta followed her sister.
No point in a stare-down here; the loser was decided.
Lee Si-heon.
Today, he was set to receive four guests.