Chapter 122
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: How to Survive in Fusion Punk
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Thump... Thump...
It was a majestic pulsation.
A tremor that quietly dominated the entire space.
From Jin's jaw, which hung slack, ripples spread across the shallow pool of blood on the floor.
His eyes naturally sought the source of the sound.
And there it was. The heart.
Encircled by an intricately crafted metal structure, it connected to massive pipes corresponding to arteries, branching out across the walls and ceiling. With each beat, a red glow flashed through the pipes and faded, repeating endlessly.
What the hell is that thing so huge?
Jin's lower jaw slowly dropped.
Didn't Poh say something about this?
That the thing powering Apophis was a dragon's heart.
He'd honestly dismissed it as half bullshit.
In fiction, a dragon heart—Dragonheart, right?—was basically a symbol of omnipotence.
He'd thought it was just urban legend-level nonsense, zero realism.
But in this moment, Jin realized his judgment was dead wrong.
If that's not a dragon heart, what the hell is it?
The size. The presence.
Nothing was lacking. And feeling that explosive life force surging through his entire body, conviction was inevitable.
Of course, Jin didn't keep gawking like an idiot forever.
He shuddered.
Shaking off the shock with his face, he pushed off the floor and stood. A few steps away, Bagmar knelt, still muttering to himself.
The dwarf, who always gave answers that were 2% short no matter what you asked, kept repeating the same words.
Confirming this, Jin approached and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, snap out of it."
"We are here. We are here. We..."
Like a broken cassette tape repeating the same line, Jin smacked the back of the dwarf's head.
The dwarf turned, wincing in pain.
"You have to hit 'em to get through."
"Ow! Jin? Wait... where the hell are we? Ack?! Agh?! Aaaah—!"
For reference, the 'Ack?!', 'Agh?!', and 'Aaaah—!' were reactions to the dragon heart, his own battered body everywhere, and finally spotting the limp Cloy.
"Clooooy!!"
The dwarf belatedly scooped up his girlfriend—who'd lost both arms—and wailed. Predictably, Jin's iron palm met the back of his head again.
"Gahk!"
Bagmar's head jerked up so hard his mechanical eyes nearly popped out.
"S-stop hitting me, you psycho!"
"Do I look like I'm done? Do you even know how many people died getting us here?"
"What?"
Bagmar's face went blank for a moment.
As if asking what that meant, he slowly turned, cradling the back of his head.
And saw.
"......"
His mechanical eyes blinked, focusing on the blood-soaked man.
"Ah."
Bagmar let out an involuntary choke.
Jin's appearance was beyond human endurance.
No unmarred spot from head to toe.
His right eye squeezed shut like it'd stared into blinding light. Through his shredded left cheek, bloodied teeth flashed up to the molars.
And that wasn't all.
From the gash where heat rays had exposed his ribs, blood trickled down ruined obliques. Meanwhile, his left pinky—god knows where—was MIA.
"Y-you... okay?"
"Nope. That's why I'm telling you to snap out of it. Don't you remember? You guided us here."
"I did?"
"Yeah, you, dumbass."
Jin licked his swollen lips with his tongue.
Maybe he'd bled too much protecting the trance-walking guide.
Even standing still, his vision spun slowly, and his throat burned like fire.
But fumbling at his waist yielded only Gravis's holster, no canteen.
Swallowing the blood pooled in his mouth, Jin continued.
"So what now? Smash that thing?"
His finger pointed at the heart. Bagmar muttered low.
"Yeah... I felt something... so..."
A face like he almost remembered.
But Jin didn't wait.
He drew Gravis and fired at the heart without a word.
Bang—!!
The target was so huge, no aim needed. Despite recoil shaking his arm, Jin emptied the mag steadily. Click, click. Feeling resistance on his trigger finger, he lowered the gun.
And tsked.
A golden barrier had risen around the heart, blocking every bullet.
"Trouble."
Muttering, he swapped the last mag and racked the slide.
Clack.
The barrel aimed at the heart again, just as it brimmed with holy power.
[Intruder.]
Words flashed in his mind.
Reflexively swinging his arm, Jin fired into empty air.
The barrel, not fully infused with divinity, didn't imbue the bullet with attributes. Still, the self-propelled round was enough to pierce the reforming Apophis's skull.
Boom!
The remaining propellant exploded, snapping Apophis's head back with its waist.
But only for a moment.
Suddenly, with a crackle!, it raised its torso.
Apophis surveyed the ground from midair, hole in its forehead closing visibly fast.
No eyes, but the gaze was felt.
Maybe that's why.
Jin sensed something twisted in Apophis's piercing stare.
If that smooth face had eye sockets filled with expression, it'd be blazing madness.
But Jin's eyes rolled back with faint purple sparks too.
"What're you staring at?"
Purple lightning crackled in his ashen eyes looking up!
His body knew the fight wasn't over better than anyone. Time to invest that freakish regen in mana, not flesh.
[......]
Apophis's gaze shifted from Jin to Bagmar.
[Fragment. Variable. Retrieve.]
The voice followed, and it raised a finger.
A light like the golem's heat ray—but far more destructive—poured toward Bagmar.
That instant, Cloy kicked Bagmar away.
The best a machine without arms could do.
She kicked so hard they flew in opposite directions.
But that's what saved them both.
As the floor touching the ray shaved away.
Apophis's finger swept diagonally.
Chasing the tumbling dwarf. But before it could tag him, Jin blinked right in front of Apophis's face.
Fist already cocked.
Vision flipped—his punch slammed home.
Using the rebound, he spun big!
His leg whipped an arc, cracking Apophis's jaw upward.
Meanwhile, the now-aimless ray scorched floor, wall, and ceiling.
Jin frowned at the red crevasse it carved.
Grazed by that? Instant amputation.
And the wound would cauterize sizzling. Even he couldn't regen cleanly.
Decision made, Jin blinked again.
His spinning body landed naturally.
Precisely at Bagmar's nose as he staggered up.
"...Jin, something's wrong. Ever since underground, my head's been... I'm, I'm..."
Here we go again.
Jin jammed the temple-rubbing, grimacing dwarf under his arm.
"Cut the crap! How long you gonna keep this up?!"
You wanna drive me insane watching this?
—the unspoken end swallowed by the incoming ray.
Dodging the shadowing beam like mad, a trembling voice pierced his ear.
"I was wrong. Apophis... isn't my creator."
"What?!"
"It's right. I'm a fragment. Broken off from it..."
Jin kicked off, ear cocked to Bagmar's glitching voice—like a lagging computer.
Another blink.
Mana drain hit with vertigo.
Blinking with company cost extra, and he wasn't flush anyway.
Game terms: MP regen was fast, but spending as fast as it filled—no breathing room.
Apophis? Near-infinite power source. No holding back.
Glance.
The beam at his feet now. Jin's eyes gleamed.
Then he yelled.
"You call yourself a god?! With that bald shiny dome?!"
Sudden taunt—he zigzagged short blinks.
Left right left right left.
Three honest turns, then slammed the ground.
Left again.
Did it read the pattern?
Apophis moved its finger first.
[Extinction.]
Short phrase—the ray scraped the floor.
But it sliced Jin's golden barrier, not him.
Jin whooped inwardly.
Yes!
Shallow mind game—won't land twice. But so what? Fall for it, get hit. Iron Fist rule!
The heart's shield took the hit without melting, but its glow dimmed noticeably. Big damage.
Now Jin flipped it off at Apophis, barrier-backed.
"Eat this, asshole!"
Bagmar, dangling at his side, spoke.
"Jin... now I remember. Shattered pieces, not clear... but vaguely..."
"Spit it out. Quick."
"Dwarves—no, we, they—needed something to control me."
Weird shifting pronouns.
No time to question.
Apophis charging.
Jin met the god-thing's blurring fist with his own swing.
Shockwave boomed. Bagmar's words rang weirdly clear.
"They were isolated. Fearing change, we wanted stasis. So the king... I sacrificed..."
Then it hit.
Jin felt Bagmar's mutter under his arm seep into him.
No longer voice.
Visions flashed naturally before his eyes.
A towering dwarf.
Small, but mountain-mighty.
Behind him, countless dwarves stood.
Many wept at their king's resolute back. Some bowed heads. Others cried to take his place.
The king halted.
Before a bubbling lava furnace.
He shouted something—too far to hear.
Lip-read? Beard hid his mouth.
But what followed burned clear.
King dove into lava without hesitation. Dwarves forged the blaze-born mighty soul.
Their hammering birthed the race's masterpiece, enshrined in the kingdom's depths.
Earth quaked. The stronghold rose with vast bedrock.
Choppy like low-FPS vid—matching Bagmar's fragmented memory.
Apophis.
The ark carrying dwarves bore their kingdom, sailing endless horizons.
Brief blackout.
Scene returned.
Another dove into lava.
Sacrifices periodic to sustain the ark's core.
Martyrs multiplied in time's flow.
Forbidden realm denied by departed gods.
Soul-cluster forged in flame.
Unforeseen singularity.
It thought one day:
[Am I not enough alone?]
Blackout.
World lit again.
No dwarves left.
Just "It," coiled, devouring all.
[It] learned.
Slowly, steadily.
Intruders sometimes breached the sanctuary uninvited.
None claimed their desire.
[Not yet.]
[A little more.]
[It] observed the wasteland.
Lost things untouched by man. Coming something.
And shuddered.
[I am Apophis.]
[God of the dwarves.]
A race's grotesque evolution. Twisted legacy.
One day.
[It] built machines like itself from long ago.
Unaware a tiny fragment slipped into one.
Blackout again.
[(Complete!)]
Simultaneously, "(Complete!)" floated in the darkness.
With massive lightning striking his mind.