Chapter 142
Chapter 142
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 141
Chapter Title: Demon Sword King Hyperion
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Demon Sword King Hyperion.
The final boss of Blade & Magic, hailed as the pinnacle game on the 34th Earth.
'No way I wouldn't know him.'
Blade & Magic featured such meticulous lore on its superpowers that schools even set aside dedicated playtime. As a result, Hyperion's fame as the ultimate boss was immense.
A supreme master who had reached transcendence through the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, with a backstory of overcoming the curse of a demonic sword that destroys the user's mind.
'Replie the Phantom Dragon is the same.'
This one even appeared in textbooks. Showing up in countless games, it was no exaggeration to call it the most famous dragon on Earth!
However, Dark Messiah was a different story.
'What was the game called again? Right, Dark Star.'
According to Lea, the priestess of the Game God, Dark Star was a game that never launched on the 34th Earth. If the game itself wasn't serviced, no one would know about one of its bosses, Dark Messiah.
"Damn it, what genre even is it?"
It didn't matter which game the monster came from. Of course not?
The place we were fighting was reality.
What we had to deal with were the laws of physics in reality, not some game rules.
'No need to look far—I've experienced it myself.'
My status window had things like 'critical hit chance' or 'accuracy rate,' but they might as well not exist. If an enemy dodged my attack but my accuracy was 100%, it hit; if an enemy blocked my sword but a critical triggered, driving the attack into their head—nothing like that, defying the laws of physics, ever happened.
But right now.
Dark Messiah was enforcing its own rules.
'It said 'turn-based.' And mobile... no way.'
I couldn't help but laugh in disbelief.
'No way it's a turn-based CCG?'
Collectible Card Game. In other words, a collectible card game. Turn-based CCGs especially progressed by accumulating mana orbs each turn.
And... once mana built up in the late game, you could unleash powerful conditional spells or summon minions.
Especially for boss monsters instead of players, they often wielded cards with absurd, illogical effects.
Meaning, if it drew the right card on turn 10, it could sacrifice its own life to instantly kill three transcendents!
"No, come on, this is reality!"
It was utter madness. Could an instant-death card even work on a high dragon-level transcendent, let alone a normal human?
'But three dragons got their heads chopped off—that's reality.'
My thoughts reached that point, and my heart turned ice-cold.
I had to move.
Before our transcendents all died!
"Tsk!"
"Don't give me that tsk—everyone, get up!"
I shook my dazed party members awake.
They'd grown as much as they could, so no grievances there.
"Ugh... Jaeyeon?"
"Yeah. Back to your senses now? Go sleep it off in the flower carriage. Eat one plate of this each before bed."
"Ugh... Master... my back hurts..."
"You're totally slim-fit right now. Eat all this and come back."
I handed over four plates of high-grade rice cakes and 60kg of wild boar hindquarters. My heart ached as my pay-to-win points dwindled, but this wasn't the time to skimp.
"What about you?"
"Five Dragons. Or Two Dragons now? Anyway, I have to help them."
"What!? Are you insane? Jumping into a transcendent battle?"
I nodded at Seongjae's horrified words.
"Have to. If I want to live."
"..."
Seongjae looked blank for a moment, but his expression soon turned grave. With his mind clearing, he realized how dire the situation was.
"You sure you're okay without rest?"
"My best feature is stamina."
Theoretically infinite.
"...Be careful."
"Yeah."
Crunch!
The enormously enlarged tree's gap opened. As I emerged through it, the tree closed the gap and lifted its roots.
Thud! Thud!
I watched the massive tree slowly—yet moving dozens of meters at a time—depart, then turned away.
"Ardenia. Heavy Gate. Open."
And I summoned.
"Summon."
[Blessed Bluebird Flurflur (Rare) has been summoned!]
[Flurflur uses Traveler's Blessing!]
[All stats increase by 20 points!]
[Buff duration 4:59]
The little bird appearing from empty air got right to work.
Poro-long~
It began picking up scattered items all around.
'Grab as many as possible. Items obtained in reality can be used on Earth or in Ardenia.'
Along with the bluebird, I dashed about, collecting every item nearby.
[Inventory weight exceeds 75%!]
[Inventory weight exceeds 75%, reducing movement speed!]
[Inventory weight exceeds 100%!]
[Inventory weight exceeds 100%, drastically reducing movement speed; stamina, health, and mana slowly decrease!]
My inventory filled up fast. In reality, I only had the ring from Hye-young as luck gear, but oddly, the Goddess's Grace stage 3 applied even to monsters from other games, yielding an overflowing amount of items.
"Log in."
I entered Ardenia straightaway.
"Flower."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Flower, reporting at her desk in front of the office as usual, bowed calmly.
A thick stack of documents and pads sat on the desk.
"...Still so much work? I thought we'd mostly dispersed the admin side by now."
"Just sorting reports briefly. Anyway, what brings you here?"
"Prepare for surgery."
With that, I dumped all the items from my inventory, sorting them by type.
I especially piled weapons on the desk for easy grabbing.
"Surgery...? Casualties?"
"About to have some. Log out."
Back on Earth, I hustled with the bluebird to pick up more items.
Fortunately, dropped items in reality didn't vanish over time, so there were plenty.
'Looks like I'll need multiple trips.'
Items picked up on Earth went into Ardenia's inventory, of course. My in-game inventory, now at 90 slots, was only for pulling game items.
'Even that's emptying out since I can't run auto-hunt anymore.'
As I lamented, far off, a massive sword strike clashed with a conical icicle barrage.
Kabu-koowang!
The shockwave from the explosion rushed in.
"Hup!"
I calmly swung my sword to cleave the shockwave. I wasn't so weak as to get swept by mere aftermath.
"Kyaek!"
But the bluebird, in a different situation, let out a short shriek as its summon canceled.
"Uweong!"
A warning sounded too.
"Whoops, Cheda was still here."
The defense system activated, preventing destruction, but it blared warnings as if its embedded mana was nearly depleted.
Urgent as it was, I resummoned my pet first. Regretfully, no bluebird.
'Deactivated. I'd heard it happen often in Ardenia, but first time seeing it.'
Unlike Revenge, where pets never died or targeted, in Ardenia they could perish—and if they did, that card got deleted.
'Even removed from collection, so I'll have to reacquire it later.'
With that thought, I summoned another rare farming pet, Shadow Magpie Shashasha. Meanwhile, Cheda kept wailing.
"Uweong! Uweoong!"
"Man, hate that sound. It's faithfully annoying, as intended."
I lightly dusted off Cheda's body and infused it with internal energy. Conversion efficiency to mana was low, but enough for short-term activity.
"Cheda. Head to that base camp over there..."
"No need."
Crunch.
In an instant, Cheda's filthy dirt-and-dust form transformed. A white body tinged gray overall, with chocolate-brown ears, tail, muzzle, and paw tips—a Siamese cat.
I asked in disbelief.
"PD? Did you just hack my smart pet? Even in an emergency."
"2.5 billion."
"..."
I shut up and listened. A sum worth it—Taeseok PD explained.
"You planned to join the fight anyway, right? If you ride with me, I'll pay 2.5 billion in combat allowance. I can even assist in battle."
Spot-on negotiation, reading my desires perfectly. As expected of Korea's top star PD.
"Feels like yesterday you were shaking over 5 million won."
"No way I'd shake because I lacked 5 million? It was the per-episode appearance fees for dozens per region! If you're rich, do you buy cup ramen for a million won each, Jaeyeon?"
Utterly right.
"So, emergency situation now."
"Variety aside, this incident is a cosmic event. We must record it."
"And still do variety if possible?"
"Naturally!"
Kwa-kwa-kwang—!
As I pondered, earth and debris collapsed around us.
I dodged lightly and asked.
"What if I rack up merits later for extra pay?"
Taeseok answered.
"Separate, of course."
"Deal."
With negotiation done, we bolted. Far off, two dragons battled three transcendent-level monsters.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
The island's center was total ruins. Dragon breaths, dozens of spells exploding per second, heaven-splitting sword beams, bizarre special-effect incantations....
A glance down showed seawater filling a pit over dozens of meters deep.
"First..."
I drew a black longsword from inventory and took stance.
"Log in."
Into Ardenia to empty inventory first.
"Your Majesty?"
"Oh, call three more healers."
"...Yes, Your Majesty."
After glancing at retreating Flower, I formed seals.
Light. Sage Gate. Single Strike. Change Gate. Open.
Light Slash Strike.
Against dark-attribute monster hordes, I'd used ice over superior light for a reason. Not ignorance of light's efficacy.
'Focused on secondary effects over damage.'
Light ended on use, but fallen temperature lingered in the air, freezing undead flesh without warmth.
But current foes didn't warrant such tactics.
"Now... Throw. Giant Gate..."
I slowly formed seals with both hands. Simplified seals vital to chakra users meant nothing to me. I completed them with extreme calm precision.
"Log out."
Back to Earth, I circulated internal energy.
Gruuududuk!
Rooted like Land Breaker, twisting all muscles. My body emitted a savage roar as it loaded.
And finally.
'Sword aura...'
Tried infusing sword aura, but it overburdened me.
Two chakra spells, Land Breaker, gathering full-body strength—too much to channel aura atop that.
But a way existed.
[Sword Aura Manifestation (Hero).]
The skill forcibly drew internal energy.
I hurled the aura-infused sword.
—!
No sound. But definitely, all five right-hand fingernails exploded on throw.
Actually, not just tips—fingertip bones shattered, visible through split flesh.
"Log in."
Calmly, muttering inaudibly, into Ardenia.
"Your Majesty!?"
To horrified rushing Flower, I extended my right hand while left chewed prepped rice cake.
[Consumed Radiant Jade Rabbit Moonlight Rice Cake (Legendary)! Recovery and mana recovery +300 points for 4 hours! Special resource recovery x5!]
[Defends against one enemy attack every 10 minutes!]
[Removes random status ailment every 20 minutes!]
My near-death body rapidly mended from one throw. Flower expertly fixed my right arm and activated skill.
"Great Heal!"
Exposed finger bones covered in flesh. Nails wouldn't regrow soon—irrelevant, as they'd burst again.
"Whew. Good. Top priest indeed."
"Your Majesty!"
Flower snapped unusually at my joke. Her reddened eyes full of worry drew a wry smile.
"Had to be done. No choice."
"...Apologies. You must have a plan."
I rested briefly. Right hand not fully healed? Fine—left hand next.
Same as before: Light Slash Strike and Throw seals on a longsword into inventory.
"Log out."
Back to Earth, mid-stance as my first thrown sword neared cleaving Dark Messiah.
But astonishingly... Replie reacted. It whipped its massive tail to swat the sword!
Unbelievable reflexes, yet the sword's power exceeded even its expectation.
Chieeeeng—!
Shockwave flung Replie's tail—and hips—skyward, ruining its stance. Perfect opening for facing White Dragon Snow.
Kwaduk!
Mouth agape, it bit the neck—pure white frost erupted from Replie's throat. I moved to hurl the second sword, but.
Pat!
A black-sword man appeared from nowhere, charging me. His assault too swift—I retargeted the sword at him.
Swish!
But his form blurred, effortlessly dodging the throw and closing in.
Incoming combat foresight!
The outcome:
'Oh no! I'm gonna di—'
[Moonlight Defense!]
[9:59]
Crash!
The shield before my eyes shattered, altering the death premonition. I spasmed, unleashing all strength and energy, swinging backup sword.
Not just that.
"Adamant Realm!"
Boram's scream-like shout rang out.
"Twist!"
Taeseok, clinging to my back, yelled.
Kwa-bang!
Explosion hurled me back. Body ached like shattering, but I lived.
"Meant to kill... not bad."
The black-haired man twirled his black sword lightly, smirking.
"Ah, fuck."
The curse slipped out.
[Level 22]
Demon Sword King Hyperion.
Blade & Magic's final boss stood there.