Chapter 183
Chapter 183
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 183
Chapter Title: Gotham (1)
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“Now that you mention it, that’s right! Ever since that guy joined, it felt like information was leaking somehow!”
“We had our youngest go missing recently, didn’t we? That guy was the only one who came back alive from that. Ha! Now it all fits perfectly!”
“Were you a lackey for Gotham?”
“All those people were spies...?”
The members of Idam buzzed around them.
Including Fortune Chunk, Gold Chunk, and Silver Chunk.
The fifty hunters were surrounded as the Idam members chattered.
For quite a long time.
Some cursed, while others began recalling the odd incidents from the past.
Step.
Vladimir stood at the center of it all.
The representative of “Idam.”
The one who desired the destruction of the mafia more than anyone else in the world.
The one who chose to become mafia in order to kill mafia.
A surge of emotion welled up inside him!
Vladimir swallowed it down.
“......”
He bowed his head politely.
“I apologize. This is my failure as the leader of the Idam organization, however lacking.”
“......”
It was because he’d become a ranker.
He’d been recommended as a good opportunity.
He’d been striving for a better situation.
Too many organizations had merged in too short a time, making management difficult.
And so on.
There were plenty of excuses, but there was no need to list them here.
To be precise, he didn’t have the capacity to do so.
Grinding his teeth!
He was angrier than anyone else present.
“Boss! No!”
“......It’s true, one of the Gotham rankers threatened me. Sob! He said he’d kill my only little brother!”
“M-Me too! Those guys are the bad ones! We’re victims too!”
Had they realized there was no way out?
Fortune, Gold, and Silver.
The Chunk brothers finally admitted to being spies.
“Brothers, huh......”
Vladimir let out a scoff.
Did they even have brothers to begin with?
He’d never heard such a thing.
When they joined the organization.
They’d said all their family had been killed by the mafia.
They’d said they wanted revenge, fueled by that anger.
“Well.”
If their goal had been to be spies from the start.
Then even that circumstance might have been fabricated.
“I-I had my reasons too!”
“We didn’t want to do it either! You all know what happens if you defy Gotham in Russia!”
One by one.
The spies began offering their own defenses.
“......”
Vladimir clenched his fist.
Suddenly.
A thought crossed his mind.
What if what they were saying was true?
What if it really had been an unavoidable situation?
What if it wasn’t his own greed, but an act to protect someone else?
Would he still have to hate them?
No.
Did he even have the right to judge them in the first place?
“It’s all lies.”
Whoosh!
That was when Judgment Spear stepped forward, extending his spear.
“Vladimir. We didn’t even recruit people who defected with that kind of intent in the first place.”
“......!”
Did that mean there were other defectors?
That Judgment Spear had sorted them out by his own standards?
Zhang Wei turned his head to look at them.
“In my eyes, your intentions for defection are crystal clear. From petty greed to arson, drugs, gambling, murder, abandonment, confinement, molestation, and other such greedy criminal intents......”
Zhang Wei recited firmly.
“All the people gathered here are indeed human scum who deserve judgment. I only picked those with intentions so irredeemable they can’t even be seen as human.”
“Don’t make me laugh!”
“Who do you think you are!”
“Yeah! What, you think you’re some god now?”
Their backlash was, of course, fierce.
Well.
Some random spear-wielder who popped up was calling them out one by one and branding them human scum.
Who wouldn’t rebel?
“I’m not a god, but I am Judgment Spear. And in my record, I’ve never failed to judge those I’ve chosen.”
“......!”
It was the Idam members who were shocked by the name Judgment Spear.
“......Judgment Spear?”
“The hunter who only picks off villains, right? They say crime rates in China dropped a bit because of him?”
“Yeah! He just became a ranker! Wait...... yeah, 654th!”
First, they recalled who he was.
“A ranker...... and not just any ranker, but Judgment Spear? That’s trustworthy.”
“Plus, he’s the Spear King’s disciple?”
“Yeah, no reason for the Spear King’s disciple to come all the way here and lie.”
“Phew, and that ability seems legit? How does he nail it so perfectly?”
The atmosphere had already shifted beyond repair.
Everyone here.
Even the defectors themselves had tacitly admitted it.
Step.
Vladimir stepped forward, muttering unwittingly.
“......Why did you do it?”
His gaze was fixed on Fortune Chunk.
“......”
Fortune Chunk, who had already given up, hanging his head.
Vladimir continued.
“Because of you, precious families died miserable deaths. Sure, you’re human too...... but you just sold information? And with malicious intent?”
“......”
Fortune Chunk’s shoulders twitched.
They shook repeatedly, up and down.
Was he about to cry?
“Kh, heh, heheheh, kh.”
No.
Fortune Chunk was laughing instead.
“What a load of bullshit.”
“What?”
“What did we even do that was so wrong?”
Smack!
Fortune Chunk gripped the staff at his waist like a madman.
“You think the world is full of people like you? You think everyone wants to fight!”
“......”
“We just adapted. Fourteen years ago, the world started running on the logic of power, so we followed the stronger power! Morality? Screw it!”
Fortune Chunk slammed his staff into the ground.
He shouted at all the hunters surrounding him.
“The crimes you scream about have already become the new morality! Is adapting to survive really that bad? Fuck, what do you want me to do!”
“What do we want? Simple.”
Vladimir shot back immediately.
There was no anger or sorrow left in his eyes.
It felt like looking at actual bugs.
He’d just purged the last remnants of any lingering emotions.
“If an enemy spy gets caught, they die. That’s it.”
Whoosh! Thud!
The spatial door Fortune Chunk had been trying to open slammed shut at Vladimir’s casual gesture.
Both spatial sorcerers.
But the gap in their levels was stark.
“Damn it!”
“Whether you’re right or wrong, or whatever you think, doesn’t matter. Idam was made to stop Gotham. What we’re doing now is facing our main enemy.”
Vladimir nodded.
“You’re our main enemies. That’s all.”
At his signal to fight.
Idam’s executives drew their weapons and charged.
* * *
“Wow, that’s brutal.”
Asura Im Soo-jin grimaced in disgust.
The other classmates, Gi So-yul, and Kwon So-ye were settling into positions, preparing for battle.
“No choice. It’s war.”
I muttered.
Vladimir had dealt with the defectors quite cruelly.
He killed those who resisted fiercely in gruesome ways.
For the rest who survived, he took the time to torture information out of them.
They were all low-level, apparently.
Or maybe Andrey really had the info locked down.
No one spat out anything useful.
In the process.
Some bit their own tongues and died.
Others perished during the torture.
Vladimir made sure no defectors survived.
[Spacian: Thanks for the time.]
[Spacian: Ready to prepare now?]
Anyway.
I’d declared I’d smash it all anyway.
So info from that process didn’t matter.
The old man sticking by my side gave far more valuable and precious intelligence.
[Spacian: Got it.]
[Spacian: Then I’ll get right to preparations.]
Thud......
Thud thud!
The ground shook as quite a large group moved.
I roughly counted Idam’s combat personnel.
“About 7,000......”
Almost on par with my skeleton legion.
Vladimir commanded each organization’s leaders, organizing the forces in perfect order.
“Wooooaaah!”
“We’ll chew up all those Gotham bastards! Let’s avenge the wronged citizens!”
“Fight. Fighting is how we protect our families!”
“Uwaa! Uwaaaaaah!”
He boosted morale with speeches in the process.
He also explained which rankers would assist.
[Spacian: What now?]
[Spacian: Charge right in?]
[Skeleton King: Yes, that’s the plan.]
I grinned.
They were done, so now it was my turn?
“Normally.”
Before a battle starts, there needs to be a show.
Bones might not care.
But people get fired up by this stuff.
Thud!
I dropped my staff to the ground.
Simultaneous bone summon skills!
“Boneil, Sun, Kaden, Boneoh, Dana, Bonepal. Come forth.”
Crackle crackle!
Along with rising dust, six sturdy bones rose up.
“My lord.”
“We obey.”
“Master......”
As if sealing a kiss, they immediately slammed their weapons into the ground.
Thud! Crackle crackle!
At the same time.
Their subordinates’ subordinates began appearing in chain.
S-ranks summoning A-ranks.
A-ranks summoning B-ranks.
A total skeleton legion of 6,666.
[Absolute Invincible: Kyaa, they’re out?]
[Spring Apostle: Goosebumps every time. A skeleton legion, seriously.]
[Water Witch: And they’re not even regular skeletons. Every single one is boss-level.]
[Absolute Invincible: Funniest part is the summoner who called them is the strongest.]
My classmates marveled in the chat.
“Holy...”
“......Insane.”
Kwon So-ye and Im Soo-jin watched the scene with stunned expressions.
“Ooooooh!”
“W-What the hell is all that?”
“It’s the skill of that guy called Skeleton King!”
“Waaah! Our forces just doubled!”
“But aren’t those just skeletons? Will they really help?”
“Insane, can’t you see? Do those look like regular skeletons with that grandeur? And look at those leaders. Aura’s pouring off them!”
“......Yeah. And he’s our highest ranker. We should be grateful, not suspicious.”
As expected.
The Idam members cheered fervently.
I enjoyed their reactions as I summoned the old man beside me.
[Skill, ‘Teachings of the Myriad Arts Master’ (SS Grade) used.]
[20 stamina used.]
[‘Myriad Arts Master’ appears.]
“Keh keh, ready?”
I summoned him now at the elder’s request.
He wanted to watch the King of Insects’ bragging war as long as possible?
“Yes, elder.”
“Then what’re you waiting for? Let’s go watch, keh keh.”
Somehow, the elder.
Seemed a bit excited.
* * *
Dungeon center.
In a corner of the formation Andrey had set up.
Poakja and Jima came looking for Andrey.
“Andrey.”
“Yeah, how’s Iron Fist?”
“That guy? His will’s pretty much broken. He’ll fall soon.”
“No surprise. He’s been fighting non-stop for three days.”
Andrey nodded.
“What about the others?”
“Those big groups that came in? Nearly 50% wiped out. Some melted in the mountain fortress poison while fleeing, some suicided. Heh heh, idiots.”
The reason he wasn’t wiping out Iron Fist’s survivors.
Simple.
To fully control them with the scattered Evil Poison Gu.
“Then they’ll fall soon too.”
For Evil Poison Gu to take hold, their will to fight had to be completely crushed.
Gu fed more on negative emotions like fear, despair, and rage than endurance or grit.
“Heh heh heh.”
Poakja laughed as if amused.
“Still, good haul this time. Saw a few rankers. Oh, and that Skeleton King guy. Looks like he gathered more rankers? Gonna be a headache?”
“......It’s fine. As long as we don’t go outside the formation.”
“You sure it’s really fine?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry, just prep the kids and forces well. Put Iron Fist in the ranks once he’s dosed.”
Iron Fist was a ranker.
And dosing a ranker with Evil Poison Gu created something truly monstrous.
“......Yeah, that’s not the issue.”
“Then we’re good. The ones outside? Nothing to worry about. Handle like always.”
Andrey lowered his voice, unconcerned.
“No matter who they are, they’ll end up as Gu fodder......”
His eyes flicked slyly to the old man floating cross-legged in the air.
“Dang Hwi-pyeong.”
He was.
A monster among monsters that could really create such things.