Chapter 300
Chapter 300
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 300
Chapter Title: Same Bed, Different Dreams
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We’re heading southwest along the Seocheon-Gongju Expressway.
And at the southwestern end of that road...
Eeeeeeeeeee—
A siren wail drifting faintly from the distance.
Vrooooooom—
A menacing gale whipping up.
“Front! Front! Rock incoming!”
Park Kwang-rim, sitting in the back seat, reaches between me and Jang Hyun-deok and shouts.
Rumble rumble rumble!
“We can dodge it!”
Screeeeech—
A sharp emergency curve.
I’ve fixed my body in place with magic, but Park Kwang-rim slams his head into the car window and screams, “Aaaah!”
It looks painful, but I don’t have time to worry about him right now.
“Hyun-deok, another one’s coming!”
“Can’t dodge that one!”
“It’s fine!”
[Distortion Field]
Ziiiiing!
A hemispherical distortion field envelops the vehicle.
With a whoooosh, the incoming object gets caught in the field and ricochets away...
“That! That’s not a rock!?”
Park Kwang-rim lets out a cry of alarm.
“Yeah! Doesn’t look like a rock to me either!”
What came flying at us with missile-like force was unmistakably a human corpse.
Crunch!
Another one.
No, three, four, five!
Crunch! Splaaat! Graaunch!
Corpses smash into the road.
None hit the car, so I didn’t bother defending, but we had to plow through the blood-red mist spewing from them.
Splat!
The windshield turns crimson in an instant.
Gory innards and flesh chunks stick to the body.
“Huh?!”
Jang Hyun-deok makes a weird noise from his mouth but quickly flips on the wipers with his hands to clear the view.
Eeeeeeeeeee—
The siren grows louder the farther we go.
KABOOOM!
An explosion echoes from afar. Faint screams.
The sickening stench of blood seeps into the car.
“That! That shadow way over there!”
Park Kwang-rim, with the sharp eyes of a detective who specializes in finding people, points at something.
“It’s Yang Seo-ho! Yang Seo-ho!”
A silhouette like a person flickers between the clouds and vanishes.
Right after, a rumbling thunderclap.
Relentless winds racing wildly. Vortices twisting everywhere.
“Do something quick! He’s your wizard friend, right!?”
“Not yet!”
I tense up at the horrific sight of the clouds being shoved aside at tremendous speed, but the siren has stopped. Did we slip out of range?
“Anyway, meeting Yang Seo-ho isn’t our goal right now. Don’t worry.”
“What if Yang Seo-ho shows up again?”
“Tch, Yang Seo-ho’s advance is faster than expected, so we’re a bit late. Hear that? No siren.”
“The siren? Oh, yeah.”
“That’s the one the Foreigner Management Agency left on. No siren means we’re outside Yang Seo-ho’s attack range. Relax.”
“W-Wait. Attack range?”
Park Kwang-rim butts in.
“Yeah. Attack range. Everywhere the siren sounds is Yang Seo-ho’s attack zone.”
“D-Does that even make sense?”
“You saw it earlier! Keep moving, don’t stop. I’ll clear anything in the way from now on. Just push forward.”
“O-Okay!”
[Giant’s Grasp]
I cast the spell to sweep away the trees and said,
“And Kwang-rim. Time to prep [Dowsing].”
“Ready.”
Ziiiiing—
The pendulum dangling from Park Kwang-rim’s fingertip sways on its silver chain and floats into the air.
Excitement and tension on their faces.
‘Well... in a way, bringing them was the right call?’
Either way, there’s a goal to focus on and plenty of danger to keep them sharp. No time for brooding or angst.
“Alright. Let’s go. Oh, and don’t mix this up. I kept saying Buyeo because that’s where the cultists’ base is, but our real destination’s elsewhere.”
“Oh, got it.”
“Yeah. We’ll veer off the road soon and head straight west—see that? Chilgap Mountain. That’s where they’re digging.”
Chilgap Mountain falls under Cheongyang administratively.
“The ruins you mentioned earlier? The ones with the dangerous artifact.”
“Right. Gotta snag that before Yang Seo-ho shows. Befriending him comes after.”
“What if the cultists already dug it up?”
I stroke my mask for a moment before answering.
“Well, I sent that nasty-tempered bastard to stall them, so don’t worry.”
I told him ahead of time, so he should play ball.
Thinking that, I gaze west.
Chilgap Mountain looms large in the distance.
* * *
Same time.
West of Kim Shin-hwa’s position.
Atop one of Chilgap Mountain’s peaks, in an octagonal pavilion.
“Kehehehe—proof of the broken world rampaging about.”
The [Smiling One], borrowing Cheong-ho’s form, smirks and lifts a large plastic drum beside him.
He gulps down the liquid inside like it’s beer.
“Kehe—good stuff.”
Eeeeeeeeeee—
An eerie siren from the southwest.
KABOOOM!
A horrific boom.
Rumble rumble—
Shockwaves ride the air.
Rocks shattered beyond the ridge, trees ripped from the earth, crumpled trucks— all soar into the sky.
Hundreds of cultists and criminals who don’t know the meaning of self-preservation have banded together beyond that mountain to “delay” Yang Seo-ho’s advance.
“Kahahahaha—”
The [Smiling One] delights at the sight.
Blood Marquess, fidgeting beside him, finally can’t hold back.
“Enough drinking. How can you chug diesel like booze?”
“It’s over anyway.”
The [Smiling One] tosses the empty diesel drum and speaks.
Blood Marquess first thinks he means he finished the diesel, but realizes it means the operation’s wrapping up.
“Over? You sense something?”
“Yeah, I smell it. Time to mess with them again?”
With that, Cheong-ho dons the mask.
An exotic mask with no holes save a thin, half-moon slit at the mouth.
A single mouth smirking at the world.
No eyes, no nose. The [Smiling One] turns north.
Below— a bizarre construction site.
* * *
“Pull! Pull harder!”
“We can do it!”
“Hurry! Faster!”
Cultists move desperately, heads shaking.
This is the very ruin Kim Shin-hwa mentioned earlier.
To rescue those trapped while seeking the [Soul Shackles], the cultists are running a massive excavation.
It was secretive until yesterday. Not anymore.
Yang Seo-ho approaches! Yang Seo-ho approaches!
Harrowing screams from the site where they dig earth and shove boulders.
No time.
While allies buy time, they must find it. The transcendent artifact hidden below! Only then can they slay the monstrous Yang Seo-ho and rescue Dokgo-gyeom!
Dozens of wire ropes connect to the massive hole dug by heavy machinery and abilities.
“Back! Back!”
“Pull! Pull!”
Several large cranes are in play, but some ropes are yanked by human strength.
Graaauuunch!
“Fall back! Get clear!”
“It’s coming!”
A colossal boulder, impossibly huge, is hauled from underground.
Cheers erupt: Ooooh!
Any expert would faint at the shoddy work, but the laborers are all superhuman cultists wielding abilities.
They succeed in an excavation that defies physics.
“I see it!”
“People!”
“We found them! It’s over!”
Joy is short-lived.
Clatter rattle grind— croooak— something flies from the sky.
“What the hell is that!?”
A humanoid shadow kicks aside the boulder they barely extracted.
KABOOOM!
Egg-to-rock size ratio, but the mega-boulder hauled by dozens of superhumans...
Grind grind—
It sways, unable to withstand his power.
“No! No!”
The boulder’s center of gravity shifts, precarious wires screeching eeeeeek.
Ping— a snap, wire breaks.
Slaaaash—!!!
It cleaves a cultist’s head in two, whipping away at horrific speed. Blood sprays skyward. Dust billows.
Ping! Ping! Craaaack!
Chain reactions. Wires snap graaauuunch— the boulder...
“O, no way. You’re kidding?”
...topples onto the site.
Rumble roooaaar!!
“Aaaah!” “Dodge! It’s falling!” “Run!” “Save me!” “Oh god!” “Damn it! No!” “Bastard!” “Aaaah!” “Nooo!”
KABOOOOOM!
The site turns to pandemonium as the boulder crashes.
“Who is it!” “Yang Seo-ho?!” “What, Yang Seo-ho!?” “He’s already here!?”
“No! That bastard’s back!”
Cheong-ho emerges from the dust.
It’s the [Smiling One].
“Kahahahaha! Yes, that very bastard who loves you all is back!”
In the short time since Kim Shin-hwa sent the [Smiling One] here—
He’s become the site’s nightmare.
Of course, the name they fear and hate isn’t [Smiling One] or Cheong-ho.
“Kim Shin-hwa!” “Kim Shin-hwa’s here!” “That monstrous freak!”
“Ehehehehe—yes. Good. Hate that Kim Shin-hwa. Fear him. Kehehehe—”
The [Smiling One] revels and rampages.
“This time we’ll catch him!” “Grab him!” “Drag that bastard out!”
Some cultists leap to attack the [Smiling One].
“Kehe—yes, hate Kim Shin-hwa.”
The [Smiling One]’s skin splits— horrific bone shards protrude from the gaps.
Craaack! Graaunch!
His body, rebuilt on a death knight golem base, twists bizarrely and embraces the incoming cultists—
“Gaaaaah!”
Impaled on razor bone spikes, the cultists’ bodies shred into minced meat in seconds.
Graunch— craunch— craaack—
Like a monster’s maw devouring prey, the [Smiling One] squeezes and chews the flesh chunks, then reverts to Cheong-ho with the mask.
“Withdraw now!”
Blood Marquess calls from afar.
“Hmm—”
Ignoring it, the [Smiling One] stays put. No, he smiles and looks down.
His gaze falls on the deep pit the cultists dug.
No, farther down.
Deep, deep below.
A ruin untouched for thousands—maybe tens of thousands—of years.
Huddled figures within: the castaways they desperately sought.
Emaciated like seventy-year-olds, hair snow-white, skin blotched—the castaways.
They speak to the [Smiling One] peering down.
“Shyikshak—hweer—cha—k, tra.”
Incomprehensible to humans.
But the [Smiling One] laughs at their words.
“Kehehehehe—shy—k, tra, cha—worg—hwee—come for the [Soul Shackles], have you? You idiots. No clue what it is.”
Muttering that, Cheong-ho recalls his deal with Kim Shin-hwa—er, the restriction?
“Right, [Only Attack Cultists At The Construction Site]?”
Those down in the tunnel pit, holding the [Soul Shackles]—they count as cultists at the site, right?
They were cultists originally? And this is the site?
“Hey, Cheong-ho! Get out now!”
Blood Marquess calls again.
“Kehehehe—if I hit them with the same attack as before—oops? Might accidentally eat the [Soul Shackles] myself? If that happens...”
“Hey! Stop right now! Come back!”
Blood Marquess again.
Hearing that, the [Smiling One]’s face—Cheong-ho’s masked face—twists grotesquely.
Craaackle—
Eyes roll white.
Mouth splits wide, tearing to the sides.
A surreal smile etches onto the masked face.
“Kim Shin-hwa would be in real trouble, huh? Gotta be careful not to slip up.”
The [Smiling One] clutches his belly, laughs loudly, and leaps into the dark pit.
* * *
Cultist fighters rush in late, but it’s too late.
“Ahh...”
Hidden in the shadows between slopes to avoid notice, Blood Marquess sighs and trembles.
“He really went in...”
Crunch! Graaunch! Slaaaash! Noises from the deep, dark pit.
Bones snapping, flesh tearing.
Crunch— craaunch—
Croooak— ehehehe—
Blood Marquess trembles, staring at the horrific pit.
Shaking nonstop.
“Really... truly... just as the Sovereign foretold. The Sovereign’s foresight is vast and profound. Ahh...”
Trembling with awe for Kim Shin-hwa, Blood Marquess turns away.