Chapter 130
Chapter 130
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 130
Chapter Title: Resolution in Pyongyang
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130
Bullets had clear limitations.
They couldn't pierce a player's defense, not against those of a certain level or higher.
Whoosh.
The incoming bullets looked sluggish by comparison.
Unless it was something like Cheol Jung-bae's Rune Breaker.
Plop, plop.
Against players or high-grade monsters, bullets meant little.
“……!”
Gasps of surprise rose from here and there.
“Shoot 'em?”
A voice came from somewhere.
“Our top brass says no chance.”
Another voice, likely from a commander, followed.
“Anyway….”
Bang!
A noise tore through the air.
“Time for the weapons to step up.”
At the same moment, pressures incomparable to bullets rained down from all sides.
In truth, Go Yohan had no particular thoughts about a place called North Korea.
His sense of belonging to the nation of South Korea was faint at best, and even the news of their provocations had left him indifferent.
Screeech!
To Go Yohan, who had experienced Travania, North Korea was.
Boom!
Nothing more than a pitiful minor kingdom on the continent's outskirts.
Swoosh!
Amid the explosion from the clash and the billowing smoke.
Pffft!
A sharp sound rang out.
It was like a lightning strike.
Boom—!
Soon enough, a flash confirmed it, thunder crashing.
Whoosh!
A fierce wind scattered the smoke in an instant.
Emerging from within was a man with silver-white hair, gripping the nape of one of North Korea's famed weapons.
Step, step.
Silver-white hair flowing, Go Yohan walked on, one hand clutching the neck of the player called a weapon.
Clang! Claaang!
Players charging to stop him swung their weapons wildly, but only sparks flew—no wound marked Go Yohan.
“To think it's this serious.”
Boom!
Go Yohan spoke as he hurled the player he'd grabbed by the neck.
“Gahk!”
The player crashed into the ground, vomiting a mouthful of blood, and seemed to pass out.
Hesitate, hesitate.
The players swarming toward Go Yohan like moths to a flame began to retreat.
Fortunately, they judged situations quickly.
That they were still alive and breathing.
Gulp.
Was thanks to Go Yohan's mercy toward them.
It had been the same in the past.
If South Korean players had charged him, he would have snapped their necks without hesitation.
But these ones.
“I hear the language is the same, so I assume you understand.”
Weren't acting on their own will.
They couldn't even compare to the minor kingdoms he'd seen in Travania.
More like tribesmen controlled by shamans, perhaps.
Forbidden from seeing or hearing properly, they lived as puppets of the shamans.
—For the Red Falcon!
So he gave them a chance.
Unless their blades turned toward his family, friends, or ordinary folk.
Thud.
Since they were aimed at him.
He couldn't slaughter humans over the petty malice of mayflies flapping their wings.
“What the hell are you?”
One player, who seemed the strongest, cautiously asked Go Yohan.
They had rushed out in haste to a sudden intruder in central Pyongyang, clueless about who he was or his purpose.
“……!”
Then, under the moonlight pouring down, the silver-white hair sparked realization.
“…White Ghost!”
“White Ghost?”
Go Yohan tilted his head.
Whoosh.
They quickly backed away.
“Why's the South's monster here!”
It seemed tales of him had spread to North Korea too.
*
*
*
No surprise—even in North Korea, they couldn't have missed stories of Go Yohan shaking the world.
Backward as they were, they still communicated.
Zzzt.
Noise crackled in Go Yohan's mind.
Zzzzt.
The barrier over all of North Korea was even disrupting communication with the Apostles.
It was remarkable.
He knew North Korea's barrier was strong, but not to this extent.
Murmur, murmur.
In the meantime, soldiers and players whispered among themselves about Go Yohan.
“White Ghost?”
“The real White Ghost?”
“With a monster like that, look at the hair! Who else but the White Ghost!”
They were terrified.
Zzzt.
The noise worsened.
Pop!
Finally, a voice broke through.
—Captain, Captain! Can you hear me?
It was Yi Ha-yeon's voice.
With Yun Seung-ah away, Yi Ha-yeon handled control tower duties.
“Loud and clear.”
At Go Yohan's words, those around him flinched and stepped back.
“What's the Party saying?”
They seemed at a loss on how to handle him too.
A player in central Pyongyang meant instant kill or capture for the leader comrade's safety—but after witnessing his power, that was deemed impossible.
Swish, swish.
Even now, Pyongyang Guard players were gathering, a presence he felt.
“But can we even catch that monster?”
He doubted any could match Go Yohan.
—Captain.
The noise lingered; his words weren't reaching Yi Ha-yeon fully.
Meanwhile.
Hum, hum.
Go Yohan activated his Divine Eye, tracking the vanished plane's trail.
Then.
Swish.
Seeing players inching closer.
Whoosh.
Go Yohan swung his hand.
[Black Sapling's Blessing]
Rumble rumble rumble!
In an instant, roots burst from cracks in the earth, wrapping around the players.
“Eek!”
“What the—!”
It took little time for every one nearby to be ensnared by the black roots.
Black Lava's Blessing excelled at killing, while Black Sapling's Blessing was for restraint.
And these powers.
Squeeze.
Felt strangely novel to Go Yohan.
Mikael, unable to use magic, had only swung swords and fists.
“…So this is how convenient life is for mages?”
The convenience was almost deflating.
Crunch! Crunch!
Roots still sprouting bound everyone approaching.
North Korea had long been a topic in church discussions.
Their conclusion.
'Not yet.'
Leave them be for now.
Primarily political entanglements, chaos there hitting South Korea—where Go Yohan and the church stood—hardest.
And one more reason.
“Kill him!”
North Korea.
“Party orders: kill the White Ghost now!”
Posed no threat.
The ones shouting and rampaging.
“In the end…”
They'd squandered their one chance.
Rumble rumble crunch!
The black roots bound soldiers and players even tighter.
“Same choice.”
Crack!
From between the black roots flowed only blood.
Black Sapling's Blessing might lag in lethality compared to Black Lava's, but that assessment needed revision.
In Go Yohan's hands, lethality was identical.
—Ca… Ca…
Yi Ha-yeon's voice came through the barrier.
—The Party leadership rejected negotiations.
Now fully free of the barrier's influence.
“Sigh.”
Likely just cooperation to track the plane Go Yunsu rode.
That alone was hoped for.
With generous compensation promised in return.
Boom! Boom!
They'd rejected it and rolled the dice.
“Judgment?”
Go Yohan asked, sensing approaching presences.
—As the Captain wishes. Until then, we stood by to keep you hidden.
The presences drew nearer.
—Also.
Crunch!
Surging tree roots began binding everything that moved.
—We just didn't want needless blood on your hands.
Thump, thump.
Linked to the black roots, Go Yohan felt hundreds of hearts pounding in his grip.
—Do as you wish, Captain.
“Right. That's the way.”
Go Yohan moved again.
His Divine Eye, deepened via the World Tree's Spirit Contractor.
It.
Hum.
Could even track past traces, successfully locating the vanished plane's trail.
“Finding brother comes first.”
Bang!
Go Yohan vanished with a sonic boom.
He reappeared in Pyongyang's sky.
Panicked folk scrambled to find him, to no avail.
“North Korea…”
Go Yohan said.
“Time to clean it up this time.”
*
*
*
'I am the villain.'
Go Yohan reaffirmed.
'I am…'
Pyongyang's sight stirred unique emotions.
'Not the savior.'
Perhaps from Mikael's memories.
A faint guilt welled.
Guilt for not saving those he could have.
He had essentially turned a blind eye to North Korea's suffering.
“……”
He felt a certain debt too.
“Prepare. Ha-yeon.”
—Understood, Captain.
The gates in the church basement, endlessly generated to aid believers' growth—where from?
Not all, but most pulled from North Korea.
Because of that.
'Serious.'
North Korea's players hadn't grown properly.
Though at Yi Ha-yeon's request, it felt like theft.
“Now…”
Go Yohan opened his closed eyes and said.
“Time to get used to it.”
—No need, Captain.
Yi Ha-yeon spoke, filling Yun Seung-ah's role.
—You've done everything you could.
“Yeah. We'll talk later.”
He'd promised Mother to bring brother home.
For tomorrow's meal too.
Focus on that now.
Screeech!
A missile streaked toward Go Yohan overlooking Pyongyang.
Boom!
He swung it away, detonating it.
Flames and heat poured out instantly, but not a hair on Go Yohan singed.
From within.
Crunch!
At last, he grasped the thread he'd sought.