Chapter 14. Ruler of the Harbor (2)
Chapter 14. Ruler of the Harbor (2)
People formed a circle around us. In the very center, I stood face-to-face with the giant man. Hundreds of eyes watched us.
"I'll at least let you know the name of the one who defeats you. It's Dogo. Remember it well. Because it's the name of the guy who's going to kill you."
He was now openly showing his murderous intent.
Before he could even finish his sentence, I raised my right hand.
Zzzzt—!
I had no intention of yielding the first strike.
I fired the compressed Blue Lightning from my fingertips in a straight line.
I just needed to quickly subdue the guy and take the ship.
However, since I didn't know what cards he was hiding, I sent out the lightning, adjusting the power so it wouldn't kill him, just to test the waters.
Kwarung—!
A bright blue flash swallowed Dogo.
For a normal Awakened, it would have been normal for their limbs to be torn apart or for them to collapse into a pile of charcoal from a direct hit like this.
But beyond the clearing dust, the guy was standing there without even a twitch.
Pajijik, jijik....
The powerful current flowed smoothly over Dogo's body, then passed through the soles of his feet and completely dissipated deep into the earth.
The dirt floor was just scorched black and smoking, but Dogo himself was perfectly fine, not even a single hair or piece of clothing singed.
"...What kind of ability is that?"
"Heh heh heh... Surprised, aren't you? The great Slaughterer-nim attacked without even knowing what my ability was."
Dogo stomped his right foot roughly on the ground, and Kugu-gu-gu! The earth vibrated, and a massive amount of soil and rock surged up over his entire body, adhering tightly.
A flawless rock armor that was incredibly hard.
"It's Earth! My body, made of the salt-filled stones and dirt of this port, channels all the current into the ground. Ever heard of a human lightning rod? Your pathetic lightning doesn't work on me at all. In front of me, your lightning is nothing more than a slightly dazzling firework. Hahahaha!"
My mind went blank for a moment.
This was the basis for his confidence.
A hard counter to Electric Shock. The reason he challenged the Slaughterer to a duel himself.
He had been certain from the start that he could win, or at least that he wouldn't lose.
I had thought there might be such a compatibility.
There could be something like a rubber man, and I thought there would definitely be an Awakened with the same Electric Shock ability as me.
Even so, I hadn't thought of a countermeasure yet.
A belated regret and self-reproach washed over me for being too complacent in a world where human life was worth less than a fly.
Those empty times when I was wandering around, my mentality shattered after losing So-hee.
Regardless of the reason, the thought that while others were studying their abilities and racking their brains to adapt and survive in this damn system, I alone was escaping reality and wasting time so complacently, hit me hard.
I shot it again, stronger.
The result was the same.
The lightning wrapped around his body and then escaped entirely into the ground.
No matter how much I increased the power, it was useless.
As long as Dogo was in contact with the ground, my lightning couldn't land a single effective hit on him.
'Status Window.'
In my haste, I brought up the status window.
The thing I hadn't looked at properly even once while living like I was dead appeared before my eyes.
[ Name: Seo Ji-han ]
[ Attribute: Electric Shock ]
[ Lv. 124 ]
...124. I had a moment of cognitive dissonance.
I didn't know what kind of level this was.
Of course, that wasn't important right now.
But in this situation, the level number was just a decoration.
What was the point of a high number when my attack mechanism itself was perfectly countered?
Dogo kicked off the ground and flew at me with explosive propulsion.
It was an incredibly fast agility that belied his massive appearance.
In a split second, the guy filled my vision and threw a rock-like fist.
Pang—!
As I barely dodged it at an angle that snapped my head back, a roar erupted as the air where the fist passed by burst.
If I were hit directly by that immense strength, it wouldn't just end with my bones turning to powder.
It's instant death.
However, in the midst of the crisis, a strange sense of incongruity flashed through my mind.
'Slow.'
That was it. Dogo's charge, and the trajectory of his destructive fist, looked strangely slow to my eyes.
No, it wasn't that he was slow, but my physical reaction speed was far exceeding his attack speed.
The trajectory of the incoming fist was read clearly, like slow motion.
Right, I wasn't some two-bit mage who just shot lightning.
I might not have known how to use my head, but I was a person who was more confident than anyone else when it came to brawling with my body.
The senses and fighting instincts I had learned from rolling around since my school days were engraved in my body.
A chuckle burst out.
'Since when did I start relying on just a single bolt of lightning to fight....'
I lowered my gaze to the detailed stats of the status window.
'Strength 113, Agility 98.'
I can't be sure since I don't know the stats of other Awakened, but I'm sure it's not a low number.
It was clear that my pure physical stats had reached a superhuman realm, befitting level 124.
I think the reason Dogo's fist felt slow also lies in those stats.
If the ability doesn't work, then so be it.
'From now on, I'm going into close combat.'
I lightly parried Dogo's second punch and dove inside.
I closed the distance, shifted my center of gravity to my lower body, and drove my fist into his chin.
Puck—!
Along with a heavy impact, the giant figure staggered.
"You bastard...!"
Huge shock flashed in Dogo's eyes.
He must be dumbfounded that the guy he thought was a mage just shooting electricity like Pikachu from a distance was now coming in for infighting.
He couldn't know, even if he died and came back to life, what my close-combat stats were, how strong I was, or what kind of person I originally was.
He must have believed that if he just blocked the lightning, I would be a helpless mage.
'I'm originally a melee dealer, you bastard.'
Kwaang—!
It wasn't the sound of flesh colliding with flesh, but a roar that echoed through the port like two giant rocks colliding head-on and shattering.
It was a perfect uppercut.
But the tanker wearing earth armor was indeed tough.
Even after taking the unexpected blow, he quickly exerted his restorative power and regained his balance.
It wasn't easy to penetrate that thick rock layer and accumulate actual damage to the inside with pure physical strikes alone.
Every time my fist made contact, only stone dust would break off.
'There must be a way to break through...'
Dogo left his defense to his stone armor and unleashed an indiscriminate onslaught, neglecting everything else.
I dodged all of his attacks and landed all of mine, but there was no sign of damage being dealt.
Furthermore, my 'Durability' stat, which I had glanced at earlier, was relatively low compared to my attack power.
It seemed my stats were skewed because I had never really been hit properly.
If I allowed even a single effective hit from that ignorant fist, the tide of battle could turn in an instant.
A long fight was absolutely disadvantageous to me.
Then I had to end it in one go.
As I was agonizing while looking at his rock-hardened body.
'If that guy can turn his body into stone, can't I turn my body into electricity...?'
Suddenly, that sensation from earlier.
The flow of that bright blue current that was coursing through my blood vessels while I was walking.
'There's no time to practice now. I just have to try it.'
I channeled the current inside my body into myself.
I filled every cell, every corner of my peripheral nerves, along my nervous system and muscles, with 100% pure lightning.
With the thought of turning my body into electrical energy itself.
Zzzzzzt—!
In an instant, my whole body burned bright blue.
And soon, the world in my vision stopped perfectly.
Dogo's frozen face, even a single speck of dust floating in the air, was fixed like a still image.
My body had entered the realm of super-acceleration, equivalent to the speed of electricity, i.e., the 'speed of light'.
My heart was pounding like crazy, unable to withstand the intracranial pressure, and my head felt like it was going to split from the overload of incoming information.
My muscles were also screaming as if they were tearing, but my senses were extremely sharp.
A transcendental speed that could never be perceived by human dynamic vision.
E=mc².
It's a formula I picked up somewhere a long time ago, and I think it might be the most famous formula in the world.
Energy is proportional to mass and speed... I'm not sure if this is the right formula to use in this situation.
Anyway, the speed of electricity is fast enough to be mistaken for the speed of light.
I drove my fist into Dogo's solar plexus just like that. Just once.
To me, it was just throwing a punch, but to the eyes of third parties, it must have looked like my fist disappeared at the speed of light along with a blue afterimage from where I was standing.
'Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?'
A meme that used to be popular on the internet suddenly came to mind.
The moment I chuckled, thinking I should have kicked instead of punched, the state of electrification in my body cut off abruptly, along with the extreme pain of the backlash that felt like it would cause a heart attack.
Kwaaaaaang—!!!!!
A tremendous shockwave that made a sonic boom feel trivial engulfed the entire port.
Dogo, who was hit directly in the solar plexus by a light-speed straight punch, couldn't even let out a single scream and flew off like a railgun, smashing through dozens of layers of barricades behind him like paper, and crashed.
Perhaps because the physical energy hadn't dissipated even with that, his massive body rolled to the end of the pier and plunged violently into the sea.
Splash—!
'Oh dear... Since he's a rock, he'll sink....'
Just as I was relieved that he didn't fly into the docked passenger ship and damage it, a severe pain twisted my organs, and a mouthful of red blood surged up.
"Cough...! Argh...."
Using an unverified ability overload was definitely poison.
The price of forcibly turning my human body into electricity was more painful than I could have imagined.
I felt Han-byeol, who had noticed my condition from afar, running over with a pale face.
A heavy silence settled over the pier.
While receiving Han-byeol's healing, I gasped for breath and stared quietly at the surface of the sea where Dogo had sunk.
The hundreds of gang members surrounding the area were all frozen in place, pale, staring at me like I was a monster.
Because the invincible leader, who was the pinnacle of their group and boasted of being the Slaughterer's counter, had evaporated with a single punch without being able to use his hands properly.
Even with pure physical combat, not the existing Blue Lightning.
Now there was no one in this port who could stop me.
"...The ship."
When I spat out a short, low voice with a slightly drained tone, the people flinched.
"Hand over the ship as promised. The captain, the navigator, the engineer, all of them. If you comply obediently... there will be no further slaughter."
Having witnessed Dogo's miserable end, they finally managed to grasp the thread of reason amidst uncontrollable fear.
They seemed relieved by the fact that the 'Slaughterer', unlike the ghost stories, did not carry out indiscriminate slaughter but only demanded the fulfillment of the contract.
No one could argue.
Trembling hands began to move busily.
Someone went to call the captain, and someone went to fill the ship with fuel.
Han-byeol carefully approached and placed her hand on my arm.
My right arm was charred black.
Even if it wasn't a backlash of damage equal to the action, should I call it electrification... anyway, it seems like I take some damage when I'm in that state.
A warm light spread.
"...Are you okay? Didn't you overdo it?"
"I'm fine."
It wasn't a lie. My whole body was aching and my stomach was churning, but strangely, my mind was clearer than ever.
In this hellish world, the fact that there was warmth beside me, genuinely worrying about my injuries.
Just that fact alone was enough for me to easily chew up and swallow this level of pain.
[ Level has increased. ]
...Now I'm really fine.
Along with the system message ringing in my head, the pain that was eating away at my whole body and the burnt skin tissue of my right arm began to regenerate at a terrifying speed.
'But why did the level-up notification come so late...?'
A question crossed my mind for a moment, but I soon reached a conclusion. It wasn't that he died instantly from my punch, but that Dogo, who had sunk into the sea, had just been judged as drowned, so the experience points were calculated late.
A cold sweat ran down my spine at the thought that if I had sent him flying onto solid ground instead of the sea, and he had absorbed the shock with his stone armor and survived... I might have been the one to lose.