Chapter 343
Chapter 343
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 343
Chapter Title: Today's Mission
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The executive with the crocodile head couldn't hold back any longer and shouted.
“Looks like you're as crazy as a wizard should be. Is that really important right now? We're surrounding you! One hundred men! Exactly one hundred armed soldiers have this place surrounded!”
“Ah, thanks for your concern, but is that a mask?”
“......It's a mask.”
“Aha, I knew it! I figured it was a mask!”
As expected, people who wear masks just get each other.
Just to be sure, I asked again.
“Hey, but your mouth opens, drool drips, eyeballs roll, and you can make expressions—it's still a mask, right?”
“Yeah! It's a mask! A mask!”
“You do know what kind of mask that is before putting it on, don't you?”
“Argh! Enough! Shut up! You lunatic! What are you all doing? Shut that bastard up!”
Ah, this is important stuff.
It's not because of Mask Obsession.
That crocodile mask is aesthetically superb and super casual for everyday wear—it's a great mask that's also highly useful in connection with this incident.
But it looks like chit-chat time is over.
“Hah!”
“Grab him!”
The Blue Tiger Gang thugs charged forward with generic battle cries. In their hands were some rather unusual weapons.
Strange swords with S-shaped curved blades.
“Khopesh? They're wielding stuff they don't normally use.”
Blue Tiger is a character designed with a romanticized 1960s gangster vibe—no, hoodlum motif.
That's why his underlings are mostly fist-fighters based on brawlers—and they use guns when fists won't cut it.
“Alright. Let's see how much Hyeon-ah prepared.”
I raised my left hand, inscribed with complex runes, high and slammed it into the ground, activating the spell.
[Earthquake Strike]
[Spell Enhancement: Maximized]
[Spell Enhancement: Power Boost]
BOOM!!
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!
The concrete floor shattered in an instant and rippled like waves.
“Uwaaak!”
“Hyaaap!”
Even as the ground shook like pudding, the Blue Tiger Gang minions kept charging. Not bad moves.
But these guys are small fry. More importantly...
I quickly formed hand seals and fired a spell at Chae Tae-won, who was hesitating in the back line.
[Curse Dispel]
ZZZAP!
Chae Tae-won convulsed like he'd been electrocuted.
Did they not notice?
“Don't panic! Stick close!”
“Stick to him! Don't give him time to cast!”
Hmm, they're all fired up and focused. To draw their attention, I yelled and unleashed a spell.
“Why are you sweaty old guys trying to stick to me? Stay back!”
[Thunderbolt]
ZZZAP! ZZZAP!!
A dazzling white bolt of lightning spread out in a swastika pattern in all directions.
“Kaaack!”
“Uwaaak!”
In this hazardous back alley—where these violence-for-profit types operate—they're naturally tougher than average.
While the front line took the lightning head-on and held...
“Hah!”
The gangsters came flying in with their khopeshes.
Chae Tae-won realized his body was free. He gave me a quick nod, then retreated out of sight.
Good. First mission cleared.
Now, let's keep going.
[Withering Rage]
[Spell Enhancement: Multicast]
VRRRRRM—
A massive array of magic circles bloomed in an instant.
Whirrrrl—
Hundreds of pitch-black mana bolts condensed and whipped through the air in all directions.
KABOOM!
I was holding back to avoid fatalities, thinking ahead... but these mass-produced minion NPCs are tougher than expected.
They look like the usual Blue Tiger Gang thugs, but their stats and traits are completely different. Did they get power from an abyssal being?
And these random khopeshes?
In [Cthulhu World], guys wielding weird weapons like that are usually—
[System: Penalty trait 'Feast's Offering' effect activates.]
Yeah, exactly.
Gray mana rippled from the thugs' shoulders.
Just as I thought. They're less Blue Tiger Gang members now and more cultists through and through.
“Hiiieeee!!????????????????!”
A bizarre battle cry suddenly from behind.
It's that friendly crocodile mask guy from earlier. He puffed out his chest, inhaled deeply, then spewed a storm laced with vicious mana at the ground.
I could block it if I wanted—but let's see what he does.
Shrrrrr!!
[The breath infused with abyssal mana twists a familiar scene into something alien. Dry sand dances in ripples. The solidly paved concrete floor turns into a desert in an instant.]
Oh, that's shocking news.
Shrrrr!
Not just the floor. The entire massive abandoned factory, exposing its skeletal frame, crumbled into sand.
“Yeah, now I get what's attached here.”
[Protection Circle]
I wrapped myself in a protection circle and summoned mana.
[L-Grade Robe 'Night Veil Robe' unique function, 'Heavenly Demon's Wings' activates.
// Heavenly Demon's Wings: Automatically casts 'Flight' spell.]
Fwoosh—
I soared through the pouring sand like rain, thinking.
Khopesh originates from Egypt. Not something for Blue Tiger Gang's brawler-based minions.
And crocodile plus sand. No, desert?
Egypt theme this time.
Doesn't fit Hyeon-ah at all.
In [Cthulhu World]—or the original [Cthulhu Mythos]—Egypt was depicted as a bizarre land full of mystical occult and cosmic madness, reflecting American biases of the era.
That's why Great Old Ones based on real Egyptian gods exist there—in [Cthulhu World] terms, abyssal beings.
Looks like one latched on.
Which one?
Shrrrrr—
“Ah. Damn it.”
Mythos, name a beast that comes to mind with desert.
Uh? Camel?
No, not that. You know, the one without legs, scaly, venomous.
Uh...... pufferfish?
Shrrrrr—
Pufferfish would be nice, but it has nothing to do with deserts.
Something crawls beneath the sand. Legless beast. Cold skin. Scales! No, it's not real.
It's just a phenomenon from an abyssal being projecting influence here. That crocodile-headed cultist—
“[Scaled Schemer]! Show them the desert's fury!”
[Scaled Schemer]?
[Sebek (Egyptian god, depicted with a crocodile head)]?
A minor abyssal being I can barely recall the abilities of.
No, minor enough that I can't remember? Right? That's it? This guy doesn't have some weird sub-theme besides the crocodile, does he? Please say no!
GRRRUMBLE! RUMMMMBLE!
A sandstorm of sand, lightning, and horrific gales surged to smash into me.
“Ah, whatever. Anyway, I have no business with you lot!”
Kim Shin-hwa's missions for today.
One. Get Chae Tae-won out.
Two. Confirm what's behind Jeong Hyeon-ah.
And now three—smash every cultist-looking freak besides the Blue Tiger Gang thugs.
I drew [Sword of the Flesh] and swung it at the oncoming vortex, activating a spell.
[L-Grade Weapon 'Sword of the Flesh' unique function, 'Blade that Cuts Barriers' activates.
// Blade that Cuts Barriers: Slashes through space.]
SHLASH!
The space between me and the vortex distorted strangely, inverting the laws of space in all directions.
[Sword Realm]
Spiraling force? Dangerous natural phenomenon?
No, that's my enemy.
So go cut the enemy. Sever the necks of those who show hostility toward me. Strike, wound, draw blood.
Shrrrrlash!!
From the warped space, the concept and image of [Sword] extended into tens of thousands of geometrically repeating slashes, pummeling the vortex. No, cutting it. Slicing it.
Shrrrrlash—
It didn't stop, surging on to envelop the crocodile-headed cultist. Did I hear a scream of “Uwaaak”? Begging in a god's name?
[Sword Realm] lasted mere moments—
But when the spell ended, nothing stood intact within a 1km radius.
“Hmm, a natural disaster in several senses.”
Stone-based stuff—like concrete—had all turned to sand, and the metallic things that didn't were all sliced by me.
Blue Tiger Gang minions clutching their heads, faces buried in the sand, collapsed.
“Hey.”
“H-Hiiik!”
“Uwaaak!”
The gangsters flailed, drool and tears mixing as they struggled to get away from me on the sand.
Did the [Sword] concept sever their reason and faith?
Or maybe too much? Well, it had some [Fear Induction] effect mixed in, so yeah, terrifying. Enough to blow away the control [Scaled Schemer] implanted.
“Where are you?”
Ah, here.
The crocodile-headed cultist's corpse.
Unlike the others, the one hit directly by Sword Realm was chopped into dozens of pieces, rolling across the sand.
“Hmm. I get the thematic consistency.”
I didn't kill him.
Can't kill the already dead.
‘Besides, not quite right to call it crocodile head anymore.’
The moment the crocodile mask came off, the cultist instantly withered into a dark brown mummy and collapsed.
“Anyway, not a theme that fits Cheongho or Hyeon-ah. Who the hell mixed Egypt into the Blue Tiger crew on their own?”
As a [Cthulhu World] gamer... I know the game doesn't care much about consistency—but it still bugs me.
Anyway, I picked up the unknown cultist's crocodile mask and made a call.
“What was that earlier? Cheongho hyung, you killed him, right?”
- Hah, too much? But it wasn't nonsense. We were close originally. Couldn't have formed the Triad otherwise.
Jeokdu brazenly chuckled.
“Just to avoid misunderstanding, I didn't kill Cheongho.”
- Sure. Anyway, like you said, a bunch poured in here too.
“Sounds like you handled it casually.”
- Yeah, the monsters you sent took care of them all.
“Good. I'll wrap up here and head your way.”
* * *
“It's over.”
“......Thank you for your hard work.”
Chae Tae-won, standing with a grim expression, bowed to me. Whoa, almost 90 degrees.
“About my men...”
I turned to look at the desert-ified site again.
Clear as day. The gangsters thrashing in the sand, lost in delirium.
“No deaths. But they'll all be hospitalized for a while.”
“Thank you.”
Chae Tae-won's voice was somber. He's taking it hard.
“Yeah. I'll handle the aftermath, so hide out somewhere safe for now.”
“No. I can't just leave everything to you, Kim Shin-hwa. Can't I come with you?”
Hmm—nothing wrong with company, but honestly, he'd just be baggage.
The gap between Chae Tae-won and me is huge now. If he's around, it'd be me protecting him, not the other way around.
Like most people who've stuck by me so far.
So I refused.
“I'm heading to meet Jeokdu next. Things might get awkward, so if I need backup, I'll call.”
“But—”
Chae Tae-won opened his mouth again, face full of regret and desperation, but I raised my right hand, pointing at the desert site.
“Shouldn't you handle your friends there, Director? The organization needs you intact to rebuild.”
Reading between the lines, Chae Tae-won's face paled as he stepped back half a pace.
“Kim Shin-hwa. Please, the young lady—”
In a similar situation before, I gave the wrong answer.
Learned my lesson not to make firm promises like that. And yet, here I go repeating it.
“If I can save her, I will.”
“Thank you. Thank you.”
Chae Tae-won grabbed my left hand—with its strange runes—and repeated his thanks over and over.