Chapter 233
Chapter 233
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 233
Chapter Title: Fragment of the Fighting God (4)
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BOOM, KABOOOM!
“Urk!”
I huddled my body and swung the shield every which way.
Monsters’ fists and feet rained down on it like a carpet bombing.
KABABABAM!
“Guhh!”
It was so fierce.
My internal organs shook, my stomach churned, and a headache throbbed in my temples.
“Master……!”
Kaden layered shields around me, dying dozens of times in the process.
Not just Kaden—even the skeletons he summoned did the same.
On top of me, Dana’s subordinates fired blasts of white light.
Healing.
That light was the reason my crumbling body could stay intact.
“Hmm, you fool.”
The old man looked at me with a worried expression.
“You think you’ll get anywhere just taking hits like that?”
‘What can I do? There’s no way out!’
If I could just deal with that gray monster, it’d all be over.
Maybe taking it down is what’ll open the catalyst dungeon.
The problem is I can’t take it down.
“This is truly hopeless. How do you keep running into the strongest bastards every time?”
The old man shook his head and continued.
“If it’s really no good, just bail. You’ve got the skills for that, don’t you?”
I didn’t respond.
He was right.
It was an insanely tough and grueling situation, but thanks to Kaden and Dana, I could hold out.
The skeletons themselves were made of dragon bones, which made them sturdy too.
‘There has to be.’
A way.
I’d been through countless dungeons and trials.
There was no problem in the world without a solution.
I just hadn’t found it yet.
“My liege, are you all right?”
Taeyang-i, looking far better off than me, swung his spear like a madman as he spoke.
“It’s been ages since I’ve fought this chaotically.”
“Hah, if only I could use the Golden Book’s magic……!”
Arin smacked her lips regretfully from the side.
Golden Book magic incinerates the magic tower.
Meaning there’s a high chance it’d burn that gray monster too.
But as I said last time.
Golden Book magic draws from life force.
Skeletons, who are practically undead, can’t use it.
KABOOM! Bang! Bang!
Damn it.
The fists kept slamming in.
Each one hit the shield, but the impact stabbed into my solar plexus like a punch.
“Grrrh.”
Right.
These guys are battle maniacs.
Why else would it be called the Fighting God?
They’re obsessed with fighting, aren’t they?
Fine, if you’re all crazy.
Then I’ll go crazy too!
Fwoosh!
In a flash of impulse, I swapped the shield for my spear.
Spear in my right hand.
And Eloise’s flames wrapped around my left.
‘Blocking forever won’t cut it anyway.’
I’ll just clash head-on.
If they recover?
I’ll recover too.
This is……
A clash of true men, fighting till one drops from exhaustion!
But.
[Dark Emperor: Dong-hoon!]
A urgent message popped up right then.
Along with blinking green lights and a flood of messages.
[Dark Emperor: Get out of there NOW!]
[Thunderclap: Hey hey hey, you’re insane!]
[Thunderclap: There. Nuke’s dropping!]
[Guide: Hoon, dodge it quick!]
“…….”
What?
Nuke?
The atomic bomb I know?
The one dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II?
KRACKABOOM!
I deflected their attacks and instinctively looked up at the sky.
Screeeee! Screeeee!
Two massive hunks of scrap metal, looking heavy as hell, in freefall.
“Hmm, what’s that? Doesn’t look good.”
The old man blinked.
“No…….”
I gaped.
“Which crazy bastard…….”
[Kim Jin-ah: Guild master, RUN! RUN NOW!]
[Kim Jin-ah: Who the fuck shot that shit?]
[Kim Jin-ah: Guild master! What do we do?]
[Kim Jin-ah: Ah!]
[Kim Jin-ah: The necklace!]
[Kim Jin-ah: Use the necklace you gave Demir!]
Necklace……?
Oh.
Delaila’s dungeon artifact (SS-grade).
Open a gate with it and head to Peach Blossom Paradise?
But.
What happens if the nuke hits the gate?
Will the radiation come through too?
What about our Peach Blossom Paradise then?
“Fuck.”
What now?
* * *
BOOM!
Demir Workshop, Vice Guild Master’s office.
Kim Jin-ah slammed the table.
- Breaking news! Nuclear warhead inbound on Hungary……!
- HNN live: Nuclear warhead detected heading for Hungary……
- Fears of global war rising with this nuclear strike……
The TV blared one breaking news report after another.
└ Fuck, what do we do?
└ This ain’t monsters—it’s nuclear war ending the world, right?
└ I hear stocks crashing. Ha, should’ve shorted.
└ Above, you psycho…… Even if you profit off shorts, nukes kill us all……
└ But who launched the nuke? No word yet?
The hunter forums were in total chaos too.
“This…… fucking.”
Kim Jin-ah’s eyes wavered.
Her hands trembled.
No.
Absolutely not.
She couldn’t lose the guild master like this.
Guild founding, world’s top guild, whatever.
Forget that.
A hero of the world.
Korea’s pride.
Couldn’t be treated like this.
[Kim Jin-ah: Necklace!]
[Kim Jin-ah: Use the necklace, I said!]
She was frustrated.
Why no reply?
Had the nuke already blown?
Was the broadcast just delayed?
Or had something unavoidable happened?
Every worst-case scenario raced through her mind.
‘I don’t know who did it.’
Kim Jin-ah’s eyes darkened coldly.
‘But.’
She’d find the culprit.
And smash them to pieces.
By any means necessary.
* * *
At that moment.
“…….”
Vladimir’s ever-bright expression hardened.
“Ha?”
A hollow laugh escaped.
“Fired a nuke?”
Firing one near the homeland was insane enough.
But at the place where his benefactor—and his country’s—was?
‘Skeleton Emperor.’
The one man he truly acknowledged.
Stronger than anyone.
He didn’t think he’d die.
The breath of Aranballon from the trial was dozens of times scarier than a nuke.
“Yeah.”
Vladimir nodded.
“That guy won’t die even from thousands of nukes. He’ll survive like a cockroach. Hell, he’d outlast Earth’s end.”
The issue was.
He couldn’t forgive the one who fired it.
“Well now.”
Snap.
A smirk slipped from Russian President Vladimir’s lips.
“For once, I agree with America?”
Hunt down the nuke’s launcher.
Rustle, rustle!
Vladimir buttoned his shirt.
People saw him as a lazy puppet president till now.
But.
It was time to move for real.
* * *
“Oh my.”
A woman boarding a flight to Hungary looked intrigued.
“Nuke? A real nuke in this day and age?”
Her name: Sophia Silversone.
Earth’s strongest mage, owner of the world’s mightiest group, the Magic Tower.
“Yes, Tower Master. Breaking news just now. Your trip to Hungary might be…….”
A professor-level mage muttered beside her.
“No, no. More importantly.”
“Yes?”
“Who’s the psycho that fired it?”
Sophia’s lips curved up.
But her eyes were murderously cold.
Rumble rumble……
Her mana surged so fiercely the ground pebbles shook.
“Which psycho attacked our Magic Tower’s treasure? Huh?”
Ju Dong-hoon.
The man handling translations for the Magic Tower library.
To Sophia, he was her second greatest treasure after the tower itself.
‘Hope for the Magic Tower’s growth.’
The magic world’s towers far outpaced Earth’s because of their long history.
They’d operated so long they’d had four generations of Tower Masters.
But.
Earth had just ten years.
She was still a rookie Tower Master by universal standards.
‘And now the man to bridge that gap appears.’
Fires a nuke?
Sophia’s eyes blazed.
Unforgivable.
“I-it hasn’t been identified yet.”
The professor-level mage flinched.
In years of service, he’d never seen the Tower Master this furious.
“Cancel the Hungary trip. Gather all the tower’s professors.”
“Yes?”
“Gather them, and find the nuke launcher. By any means. Got it?”
Groooowl!
The shaking pebbles began floating into the air.
Void Grasping.
A realm from wuxia tales.
“We’ll show anyone who touches Ju Dong-hoon the terror of our Magic Tower.”
Her voice echoed chillingly through the airport.
* * *
About one minute.
In one minute, the warhead hits Hungarian soil.
Detonator triggers, explosion device blows.
Instant nuclear fission reaction.
Over 100 million degrees of energy erupts everywhere, turning surroundings to dust.
‘Fuck.’
“Demir!”
“Yeah, boss! Here.”
Demir, reading my thoughts, tossed the necklace right away.
I snatched it midair.
‘Peach Blossom Paradise might take some damage.’
As you know, it’s huge.
Vast enough to call a world.
But anyway.
If I don’t survive, what’s the point of Peach Blossom Paradise?
Squeeze.
I gripped the necklace, about to infuse energy and open the ‘portal.’
“Professor!”
Arin shouted.
“Huh?”
“I just realized!”
“Yeah?”
Shrieeeee!
The warhead’s approach roared closer.
The missile tearing through the sky.
Not much time left.
“When we used the Magic Tower as catalyst! I was Bon-o then, in the secret room!”
Right, that’s how it was.
“We didn’t break the Magic Tower to enter the dungeon, right?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded.
“Then maybe we don’t need to catch that gray fragment after all!”
“……Then?”
“Try summoning Bon-pal!”
Arin knew.
This catalyst dungeon was tied to Bon-pal.
Lately, I’d been consulting her first whenever I hit a snag.
Her book held vast knowledge—I wanted that wisdom.
“Bon-pal…….”
Right.
Come to think of it, back then too.
When Bon-o was in the secret room, the catalyst dungeon activated.
And inside the dungeon, I couldn’t summon Bon-o.
‘No way.’
If that’s it, chills.
No time for deep thought anyway.
Screeeee!
Nuke explosion imminent.
“Bon-pal!”
[Using skill, ‘Lord & King Summon’ (S-grade).]
[Using 10 stamina.]
[‘Bone8’ appears.]
Bon-pal was still a Lord, not King.
Whoosh!
He burst from thin air with a sound.
And that instant.
Flash!
Light exploded from the training robe I wore.
[‘Fragment of the Fighting God’ (SS-grade) touches the catalyst.]
[Conditions met!]
[Item activates.]
Whoa.
For real?
Goosebumps.
Arin could set up a fortune stall at this rate.
Bzzz!
Light kept pouring from the robe.
Soon.
[‘Soul of the Martial Artist’ activates.]
[Dungeon, ‘Fist and Corner Clash,’ opening soon.]
[Warning!]
[This is a solo dungeon.]
Flash!
Blinding light filled my vision.
One thought hit me.
‘Oh right, didn’t tell Kim Jin-ah……?’
Too hectic, forgot.
‘Damn.’
A sigh escaped as my mind faded.
This is bad.
Right?