#13 Because That's What Police Do! (Cheon Do-hwa - Standing Split I-Balance, Jack-O' Challenge, Hypnotic Stretching♥)
To the hunters of this world, the dantian and internal energy are essential necessities.
Because without those two, one cannot withstand the contamination of the 'Pollution Zone'.
The internal energy stored in the dantian is different from ordinary energy.
That power is something special; beyond mere physical enhancement, there even exist special weapons that can only be handled by utilizing it.
Above all, the Voids that endlessly surge forth from the 'Pollution Zone'.
In order to completely defeat them, one must absolutely use the power of internal energy.
Because of that, a hunter's level is determined by the size of their dantian and their skill in manipulating internal energy.
It has become no exaggeration to say it is decided by those two things.
And going beyond simply utilizing that internal energy.
Those who not only command it at will but also discharge it outside the body, thereby performing wondrous miracles that should normally be impossible.
People call them mages, or peak masters.
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.
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Kaaang!!
A clanging metallic sound resounds.
The sound of Heukcheol's arm deflecting my sword.
Absorbing the impact, I stepped back.
My arm gripping the sword trembled violently.
'What the hell is that.'
It was clearly a sword imbued with internal energy and clad in sword qi.
Not long ago, even a steel 'Giant' had huge chunks sliced right off when I swung this sword.
Yet it couldn't cut through that arm.
That arm is harder than steel.
"Ugh?!"
An arm like a log, swollen to more than twice its previous size, flew straight at me.
I barely dodged it, but just a slight graze tore off the buttons of my uniform and ripped the fabric to shreds.
Even when I swung my sword to keep him in check, it only managed to leave a tiny scratch before bouncing off with a loud clang.
"It's useless! Heukcheol's very body is a jiangshi made of diamond invulnerability! Now that he's reinforced with true qi, nothing can wound him!"
"Buuwooooooaaargh!!"
A monstrous roar erupted loudly once again.
At the same time, Heukcheol charged forward with his head aimed right at me.
Heukcheol rushed in, turning into a black bullet.
A large, imposing horn that wasn't there just moments ago stood erect on his head.
I clashed against that horn with my sword enveloped in sword qi.
A deafening roar resounded with a Kwaaaang!!
However, I only held out for a brief instant, and unable to overcome Heukcheol's strength, my body was sent flying backward to crash into the wall.
My back slammed hard against the wall, forcing a ragged "Keuheok!" from my lungs.
With an impact feeling as if I'd been hit front and back by a truck, I couldn't catch my breath.
"Woooooorgh――――!!"
"?!"
Heukcheol pounced at me once again.
I reflexively crossed my arms in front of my chest.
A terrifying kick dug straight into the dead center of my arms, which were packed with as much internal energy as I could muster.
Kwaaang!!!
And my body was blown away, smashing right through the wall.
Muk Heonah was watching that spectacle helplessly.
"Eonni?!"
"Noonim! Are you all right?!"
Muk Heonah gasped in shock.
At the same time, the Haomun subordinates who had been waiting outside rushed back in.
Having arrived after hearing the commotion, they.
Took in the scene inside, quickly assessed the situation, and raised their weapons.
The gun muzzles were aimed at the monster Heukcheol, who looked dangerous at a glance, and the seemingly defenseless Rena, who appeared to be controlling him.
"Wait-!?"
"Guys! Noonim is in danger!! Fire!!"
Tutututututatatatatata, bullets fired along with rapid gunshots. Blasts and explosions.
Even in the middle of that, Heukcheol was completely unharmed.
Lead bullets could not pierce his skin, and explosions detonating at point-blank range couldn't even leave a scratch.
"There's no way worthless bullets that don't even carry internal energy could work on our Heukcheol."
In the midst of it all, Rena, who was likewise targeted by bullets, smiled leisurely.
As if she were protected by an invisible barrier, the bullets failed to reach her.
"What annoying gnats. Right, Heukcheol?"
"Kuhuu...!"
"Fuck 'em all up!"
"Guruwooooooaaargh!!"
And Heukcheol shot forward like a bullet once more.
The Haomun members who were aiming their weapons were soon sent flying through the air, vomiting blood as they collapsed onto the floor.
.
.
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I was once called a 『Hero』.
That was back when I was registered at the Midgate police station.
A coup d'état carried out by a group called the 『Demonic Cult』 occurred in the city.
Every single one of the Demonic Cult's members was an elite, but the foremost among them was naturally the person at their vanguard, the one called the Junior Cult Leader.
The Junior Cult Leader was unmistakably a peak master.
Moreover, unlike me at the time who was just a novice who had recently gained abilities, she was a high-level master who was fully matured and confronting the wall beyond.
Naturally, there was no way I could win alone.
The only reason I was able to defeat her back then was purely because she was exhausted, and thanks to a few masters who jumped into the fight to assist me.
'And probably... I think she went easy on me.'
I couldn't be sure, but.
I had that feeling.
Like that, although I came to be called a 『Hero』 from that career achievement,
I knew the truth: my actual skills fell completely short of that reputation.
Furthermore, because the high-ranking officials in Midgate showed such high expectations toward me,
Those gazes were truly hard to bear.
So when I was exiled under the guise of a transfer to Rustfall, I was actually relieved, thinking this suited my level much better.
'I'm weak, aren't I.'
Maybe this level is just right for me.
Straining desperately with teeth clenched to become stronger isn't really my style anyway.
Rather than painfully pushing past my limits through grueling hardship,
If possible, I prefer living leisurely in accordance with my station.
'Should I just run away like this?'
Even if I'm a cop, my life is important.
In the first place, dealing with monsters isn't, how should I put it, really supposed to be included in a police officer's job description.
What should I do after running away?
Should I nonchalantly come back and continue working as a cop?
Or will I finally get fired this time and look for another job?
'Maybe I could manage being a hunter. The low-level brackets are pretty laid-back, and even that should be enough to put food on the table.'
Good Points are... well, I don't know.
If I earn a lot of money working as a hunter and donate some of it,
Wouldn't the points pile up to some extent?
'I really don't know.'
Sighing,
I brought up the [Status Window] before my eyes.
Just two minutes.
A mere two minutes.
Was all the time it took for dozens of Haomun members to be wiped out.
"......."
"Where are the other cops? Are you the only one left?"
"Ugh...."
At Rena's question, Muk Heonah drew the sword at her waist.
She possessed a dantian as well.
She also had the internal energy of a level 20 hunter.
A level that could endure solo even in a Depth 3 'Pollution Zone'.
Yet even with that kind of strength, she couldn't hold a candle to Dohwa, a peak master.
Needless to say, against that Heukcheol who overpowered Dohwa in an instant, she stood even less of a chance.
"Finish her, Heukcheol. We need to extract her energy, so don't kill her."
"Kureuk...!"
Heukcheol took his stance once more.
Lowering his body, he aimed the horn on his head this way.
The stance of the black rush―the very one that had blown away Dohwa and dozens of Haomun members in a single breath just moments ago.
In a moment, that horn would blast a massive gaping hole through Heonah's body.
She had to run.
―But where to?
She couldn't just stand still.
―Yet her legs wouldn't move.
Muk Heonah froze stiff in tension.
Her vision slowed down as if in slow motion.
Inside a world where everything slowed down amid sheer tension.
Heukcheol kicked off the ground.
A heavy, tingling pressure pricked Heonah's skin, and
'......Eonni!'
Squeezing her eyes shut, she braced for the impending pain.
..........
.........?
".........Huh?"
However, even after waiting for a long time, the expected impact never arrived.
Carefully, Heonah opened her eyes.
In her line of sight, she saw the back of someone wearing a torn uniform.
Slender, yet.
An immensely reassuring back.
"That's what I think. Every person should respect their own occupation. No matter what job you have, society can only function properly if you take responsibility and fulfill your assigned role."
It was Dohwa.
Without even holding a sword in her hands, she was blocking the monster with nothing but her bare arms.
The monster―Heukcheol was blocked by Dohwa, unable to move.
Though he had pushed Dohwa back several meters when she suddenly intervened,
He ultimately failed to reach Heonah, halting completely in his rushing stance.
"...Heukcheol?"
At that sight,
Rena muttered in utter disbelief.
"I'm a police officer."
Peach-colored true qi billowed from all over Dohwa's body.
Veins bulged across the hands and arms holding Heukcheol back.
"If a cop runs away in front of a villain――who the hell is going to protect the people!!"
Kuung!
One step forward.
Dohwa stepped forward.
Heukcheol, who was locked in a contest of strength against her, was pushed back with a Kkuguk-.
"Kkeuuuek-?!"
Just like that, step by step.
Every time Dohwa advanced, Heukcheol was pushed back continuously.
Diamond invulnerability.
A monster harder than steel, smashing walls and shattering the ground,
Was now being pushed backward, unable to overcome the strength of a mere slender female patrol officer.
"...What... Heukcheol?! What are you doing?!"
At that spectacle, Rena, who was controlling the Black Jiangshi, shrieked in horror.
This shouldn't be happening.
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
"Heukcheol! Don't lose! Don't lose to a woman like that!!"
As if responding to that cry, Heukcheol's body ceased being pushed back.
Heukcheol roared. Along with it, his pitch-black body swelled up even more grotesquely.
The Innate True Qi harvested from hundreds of people that he received from Rena just moments ago.
He consumed it for physical reinforcement with the momentum to burn it all up at once.
"Kaaaaaaargh!!"
"Ee...yaaaaaaaaarrrrgh-!!!"
And an ensemble rang out.
Dohwa's resounding battle cry.
Heukcheol's roar shouting in tandem with it.
Under their full-powered clash of strength against each other, the floor beneath their feet cracked and fractured with loud snaps.
'He got... even stronger...!'
Gritting her teeth, Dohwa endured the contest of strength against Heukcheol.
Her current strength came from the skill [Instant Reinforcement] she had acquired moments ago.
Essentially, doping.
A power that consumes massive amounts of internal energy to reinforce the physical body for a short period.
Thanks to that, her internal energy was rapidly draining by the second.
If things continued like this, the one who would collapse first would be Dohwa.
"Eonni!"
"Heukcheol! Crush her!!"
Muk Heonah's voice coming from behind. Rena's voice barking orders to Heukcheol.
To both voices, Dohwa gritted her teeth, and.
Kicked Heukcheol right in the crotch.
"Kkiik?!"
Heukcheol is a jiangshi. He feels no pain.
It didn't matter if his crotch and balls were crushed.
However, in the very next instant, Heukcheol was flying through the air.
Like a soccer ball, he had been kicked in the groin and launched sky-high.
High enough to almost hit the towering ceiling of the police station!
"Here's your sword!!"
Beneath Heukcheol soaring through the air.
In that fleeting instant, what he saw was Muk Heonah throwing the sword over.
Catching the sword handed to her, Dohwa assumed a stance without delay.
'I couldn't cut through him with my sword qi.'
Held in my hand was the sword I received as a reward for a [Quest] some time ago, 『Cheonyeop (Thousand Leaves)』.
It was a peerless masterpiece of a blade, but even so, it fell short of cutting through a body of diamond invulnerability.
'However, that Junior Cult Leader's sword would have cut through him.'
I channeled internal energy into the sword.
Peach-blossom colored sword qi enveloped the blade.
Yet it didn't just stop at energy flowing along the sword; starlight sword gangqi coalesced over the blade like a shroud.
That was the ultimate secret technique the Junior Cult Leader had once displayed.
A level of sword qi surpassing sword qi that only a fully matured peak master wielded—I reproduced it through the power of the [Status Window] and [Skill].
[ Skill Acquired: Sword Gangqi Creation A ]
The coalesced sword gangqi could only be maintained for a single instant.
However, that single instant was enough.
"【Heavenly Maiden Sword Second Form】"
The sword pulled back.
Putting strength into firmly planted feet, I swung not with the power of the arm, but from the hips.
"【―Wolha Biseon (Flying Celestial Under the Moon)】"
What was drawn was a crescent moon ascending from below to above.
On the moon floating high in that sky, family resides.
Beloved father, mother, and beloved sisters, both older and younger.
Countless beautiful minerals and scenery spread across the golden earth.
Small and large living beings who loved me.
Above all, back then in that place.
The fluttering excitement when looking down at the earth beneath this sky.
―All of those things were left behind up there.
That was the imagery landscape depicting the yearning of a celestial maiden who descended to earth toward the heavens.
Coincidentally, that might perhaps be similar to Cheon Dohwa's own state of mind.
Because she too was a foreigner who came to live in a distant, alien land.
Even so, the celestial maiden speaks.
That she has never once regretted coming to this land.
That she is thoroughly enjoying life beneath this moon and sky.
Sseogeok-!
A beautiful solid line drawn by peach-blossom starlight.
By the cluster of swung starlight, the bright, radiant moon rising in the sky was cleaved.
"――――"
And.
The faintly surfaced landscape of the mind scattered away.
The scenery of reality entered her sight.
What the sword cleaved was not the moon, but Heukcheol's falling massive frame.
When Dohwa came to her senses,
The Black Jiangshi's body, harder than steel, was rolling on the floor sliced cleanly in two, scattering rotten blood and entrails.
"No way."
Rena had watched the entire spectacle.
"No fucking way!! That's impossible... There's no way Heukcheol could lose?!"
Heukcheol was Master's greatest masterpiece.
He was a Black Jiangshi said to be capable of taking on three peak masters single-handedly.
Even if he wasn't in perfect condition right now, he was a precious asset who should never have lost to some mere cop in the boondocks.
"...Ah...?!"
Suddenly, strength drained from Rena, and she collapsed in a stumble.
She had to stand up, but no strength would enter her limbs.
Was it simply because she was in shock?
To say that, she felt a slight sense of dissonance.
"Looks like it's pretty much settled."
"What... Who the hell are... you...!"
A new voice came from the second floor.
Rena raised her head and looked.
Above the stairs leading to the second floor, a man stood on the railing.
"That should be enough for now, kin-nim of the Lust Demon?"
The Mad Demon, who had finally revealed himself, was looking down at her.
