Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: The Sword King's Return
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Clunk.
For a moment, Min Junhyeok felt like his heart had stopped.
"W-What did you just say...?"
"We've confirmed the death of Guild Leader Kim Yujung, who was in charge of the Yoo Baek side. And that power is definitely Go Yohan's."
Clunk.
His heart lurched again.
"B-But."
Hadn't they said Go Yohan was dead?
No, even more than that—why would he, who hadn't shown himself until now, suddenly appear at this point?
Tremble, tremble.
Min Junhyeok couldn't stop shaking.
The apostles who had come looking for him.
And the fall of North Korea.
"Th-Then...?"
If Go Yohan had returned, wouldn't this coup be doomed to fail?
Thud.
In the end, his legs gave out, and Min Junhyeok collapsed to the floor.
"Ah, aaah...."
He clutched his face with both hands.
Just those three letters—Go Yohan—felt like the world was crumbling around him.
The people he had trusted beyond measure now seemed like handfuls of sand.
Flash.
The thought that Go Yohan might appear behind him at any moment made Min Junhyeok stagger.
"Go Yohan...."
Just three letters.
Of course, that name couldn't be explained by fear alone.
In truth, thanks to Go Yohan's existence, South Korea had experienced an indescribable rise in national prestige.
South Korea, which couldn't be called a player powerhouse despite no longer being a weak nation.
With its narrow land and scarce gate resources, the future had seemed nothing but bleak.
"......Aaah."
But one day, things began to change little by little, and when the name Go Yohan surfaced.
"Go Yohan...."
South Korea suddenly felt like the center of the world.
The economy exploded with growth, and the great powers begged, reaching out their hands.
And that was not all.
'North Korea.'
North Korea's land had practically vanished, but the instant destruction of a long-standing enemy nation had even earned evaluations of successful unification in some sense.
And yet.
"President. Please calm down."
At the voice that reached him, Min Junhyeok lifted his face.
"We've accounted for this possibility as well."
"I-Is that really...?"
"Activate the barrier."
At that moment.
Fwaaaah!
Even Min Junhyeok, a mere ordinary person, could feel the change that occurred.
Across South Korea, white pillars shot up—not the ominous black ones from before, but pillars of pure white.
"......What is this now?"
"The barrier has been activated. Go Yohan's forces, whom we've herded together, are now isolated."
"......!"
"And at the same time."
Smirk.
It was a smile.
"Go Yohan has been isolated along with them."
"I-Is that really true?"
He couldn't believe it.
"If it's Go Yohan! If it's those monsters, they'll shatter even the barrier!"
"Maybe."
The woman in the security guard uniform said it as if it were nothing.
"But that's only Go Yohan. There's no way the others could, right?"
"......!"
"Now that the barrier is active, the world inside it will gradually fall into our hands as time passes."
"Time?"
"We have someone prepared to buy us that time as well."
Haa, haa.
Min Junhyeok gasped for breath as he stared at the woman.
"Shin Mingyu."
"......!"
He never imagined that name would come up.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Min Junhyeok's heart began to pound fiercely.
But the heartbeat now carried a different meaning from the anxiety of moments ago.
"Shin Mingyu? That guy...!"
Over the long years since players emerged, there had been three players called legends in South Korea.
Iron Craftsman, Gu Seunghun.
The King, Go Jaehan.
And the last one.
"Sword King Shin Mingyu?"
The man who had been called king even before Go Jaehan.
He was the player described as a one-man guild, one-man legion, one-man nation.
There were even evaluations that without him, modern South Korea might have regressed to the state right after independence, but at some point, he had vanished without a trace.
'South Korea's greatest player.'
That was Shin Mingyu.
"You people... don't tell me...."
The ones who had appeared like angels to help him.
He had a vague idea of their true identities.
"The World Association?"
No answer came to Min Junhyeok's words.
*
*
*
"Hup!"
With the sudden eruption of light pillars, the pitch-black night turned into bright daylight.
Players like Yoo Baek and Kim Cheonseok fiercely resisted the light engulfing their bodies, but it was already too late.
Fwaaah!
The light swallowed everything in the area.
"Wh-Where is this...!"
Regaining their senses soon after, Yoo Baek and the others realized.
"A gate!"
That this was the inside of a gate—one they had raided countless times before.
"This is ridiculous...."
"Youngest! Are you okay!"
Kim Cheonseok rushed over and shouted toward Yoo Baek.
"I-I'm fine. Captain, you...."
He glanced at Go Yohan, who stood with them, but Go Yohan merely stared somewhere with sunken eyes.
"What the hell is this...."
"A gate, huh."
The scenery hadn't changed much—roads, mountain paths, wreckage of shattered cars.
But the pitch-black night had turned to day in an instant, and at the same time.
"...That."
Far away, space was severed as if cleanly cut off.
This was a first for them, but there was reason to be certain it was a gate.
Rumble, rumble.
The chilling sensation piercing their bodies was the mana reaction felt only upon entering a high-grade gate.
And the evidence didn't end there.
Zzzt, zzzt.
Noise echoing in their heads.
Humm.
A cracked blue window appearing before their eyes.
All of it was the changes felt only when entering a gate.
"I-I can't believe this."
Yoo Baek muttered in bewilderment.
"I've never entered a gate like this before...."
There had been rare cases of being forcibly pulled into a gate that merged with reality.
Like when Go Minji was swept into a black gate.
But never had the world been sliced off like this and dragged into a gate.
Nor had it been confined to such a limited space.
"Kuh!"
The gate's pressure was also growing stronger bit by bit.
It was literal.
'Is the gate's pressure intensifying?'
Their bodies grew heavy, vision blurring.
As if a colossal force sought to crush them.
If the status window had been intact.
'Debuff!'
He even thought a notification of a debuff being applied might appear at this moment.
It was then.
Fwaaah.
With a gust of wind, the pressure squeezing Kim Cheonseok, Yoo Baek, and the others vanished as if washed away.
"Captain."
It was Go Yohan.
"It would be best if you fell back."
At Go Yohan's words, Yoo Baek and Kim Cheonseok retreated without hesitation.
They had devoted everything to Go Yohan.
"I understand."
But they knew better than anyone that they couldn't protect him.
"......"
As they fell back, Yoo Baek could see Go Yohan's face.
A face sunken without emotion.
But in one corner of it.
'What the.'
An indescribable displeasure and anger revealed on Go Yohan's face.
Boom.
The space began to resound.
*
*
*
The place they stood was undoubtedly a gate.
'Artificially created, yet not artificial at all.'
Such a gate.
Boom.
The gate was resounding.
And.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The gate's pressure was intensifying, and Go Yohan alone was bearing it all.
If he hadn't, not just Yoo Baek-level players.
Kwaaang!
They might have burst apart like those vehicles over there that couldn't withstand it.
"Finally."
Go Yohan spoke.
"Finally, it's starting to move."
He had awakened and grasped the situation.
In the mere three weeks he had been away, and during that short time the apostles had halted their activities, he had detected the movements infiltrating everything the church had built.
Boom.
And only then.
"......!"
They began to move.
Shadows walking from afar, within the white light.
Yoo Baek and Kim Cheonseok recognized it and cried out as if screaming.
"Th-This can't be...."
"Why....?"
The shadow approaching slowly was gradually taking form.
"How...!"
It was a person.
And in his late twenties, perhaps?
Sharp eyes, sturdy muscles.
A man with piercing eyes beneath unkempt black hair—that was his defining feature.
"Captain!"
A face no South Korean player could be unaware of—no, not even ordinary citizens.
Kwaaaah!
"Shin Mingyu!"
The legendary player appeared here after a long absence since vanishing.
"Gu Seunghun."
His voice boomed like thunder.
"You killed that failure, didn't you?"
"......!"
"He was trash who couldn't even Awaken Grace, but to think he couldn't even withstand a proper strike."
He still looked like a dot in the distance, yet the rippling aura made him seem.
'Giant.'
Like a giant.
Kwaaaah!
Now the gate's pressure poured down on Go Yohan like a waterfall.
"So you're Go Yohan."
Swoosh.
The thing he thought was a mere dot had closed the distance faster than expected.
"Go Jaehan's son."
It was then.
Crack!
The sound of something being torn.
Craaaack!
And in an instant, everything before Go Yohan's eyes was ripped apart.
What Yoo Baek and Kim Cheonseok could see was that Go Yohan's dangling hand had suddenly clawed at the air.
Craaaack!
But as if that weren't enough, another part of the world was sliced away.
"Impressive."
It was a voice.
"A power that can't even be described as monstrous."
By the time Kim Cheonseok and Yoo Baek sensed it behind them, it was too late.
Shrieeeek!
It was a sword strike that seemed to cleave the world.
Aiming for Go Yohan's back to tear him apart—it felt like it had already been swung not just a few times, but dozens.
Kwaaaaaah!
It rent and destroyed everything in sight.
Fwaaah.
Even as the pouring smoke filled their vision, Kim Cheonseok and Yoo Baek couldn't move, as if nailed in place.
In this absolute domain, movement was permitted only to.
"Go Yohan, I've come to convey the words of the gods."
Shin Mingyu.
Crack.
And Go Yohan.
As the smoke cleared, revealing the scene, Go Yohan stood gripping Shin Mingyu's blade with one hand.