Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Night Stroll (3)
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Whoosh─!
Blood sprayed from his abdomen,
"Keheok!"
The blood spewing from his mouth plummeted straight to the floor.
Ascent and descent.
In the space between, Yu Kyung-su's face was filled with an uncontrollable tremor.
"Wh-what..."
A small arm had pierced through his abdomen.
Yet the power dwelling within it rivaled that of a mid-tier entity.
"It's the Boss's command. You will offer up your neck."
The dry voice that followed.
It was clearly a child's, yet for some reason, chills raced up his spine.
"Hup!"
Yu Kyung-su urgently stomped the ground.
Ziiing─!
This place was a laboratory Yu Kyung-su had created separately.
An area where, after experimenting on and subjugating monstrosities, the space itself had become a monstrosity.
Yu Kyung-su was currently the master of that space.
Flick!
Dweok-i realized the sensation in his arm had vanished and immediately honed his senses.
A little farther away.
There, he sensed the presence clutching its abdomen.
"There you are."
Bam!
The moment Dweok-i's fist struck empty air, a fierce whoosh pierced the distance as fist power surged forth.
Kaboom!
Cracks spiderwebbed across the spot where the fist power collided, forming a massive crater.
That was the power of close-quarters combat worthy of a mid-tier.
"Kuhuk..."
From there, Yu Kyung-su staggered into view.
One arm dangled limply as if ruined, while the other pressed against the wound in his abdomen.
One leg dragged with a limp, and his darkened face showed signs of internal injuries.
Anyone could see it was his defeat.
"Kuh... What the hell are you bastards?"
Yet Yu Kyung-su's eyes hadn't dimmed. Instead, as he glared at Bi-hyeong and Dweok-i, excitement filled his expression.
"Monstrosities? No. No monstrosity has that form, let alone one that communicates with its master like that. Shikigami...? No, not that either."
His mutterings weren't meant for them.
He was questioning and answering himself, indulging his scholarly thirst even now.
A sleazy voyeur,
who turned out to be a pervert by nature.
"What are you mumbling about?"
Dweok-i wasn't about to just stand there and watch.
He simply kicked off the ground and launched himself forward.
The spot where he'd stood cracked like a spiderweb and caved in.
"Stop dying and hand over that neck."
As if seizing the air, Dweok-i's clenched fist had swollen thicker than a grown man's torso—no longer a child's.
...What the hell is that? Gear Third?
Even Bi-hyeong was seeing this attack for the first time.
Still, he could guess the might behind that fist.
Dweok sini (Head-Suppressing Divine Seat).
A being akin to cosmic horror from Korean folklore, leader of the weak goblins and head of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
His fist came crashing down like divine retribution.
Kwaaaang!
The ferocious punch struck Yu Kyung-su.
'...No.'
To be precise, it had tried to.
But the moment Yu Kyung-su thrust his hand into the air, a black curtain enveloped him.
Splash!
The black curtain swallowed Dweok-i's power whole.
He'd used a subjugated monstrosity as a shield.
"This... you lowly wretch dare!"
With Dweok-i's roar, the monstrosity that had blocked the fist could only shrink and vanish.
But by then, Yu Kyung-su had already slipped away.
"...Sorry, Boss. He got away."
"It's fine. Inflicting a fatal wound is achievement enough."
As mentioned before, the Gui Ryeong Yu Clan's specialty lay in arts and formations for commanding subjugated monstrosities.
This space was both a domain of subjugated monstrosities and an ironclad fortress woven from his formations.
'To reach this far unscathed and even wound him internally—that's a major win.'
The attack had all but pierced his abdomen.
A normal human would die instantly, but regrettably, his foe was a sixth-rank superhuman villain.
He wouldn't drop dead from this.
'Still, with those internal injuries—especially to the abdomen near his dantian—he can't muster his full rank power.'
Highball it, early fifth-rank at best?
Going all-out, maybe mid-fifth-rank.
But at that level, he couldn't handle the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
"Exactly! The Elder's Night Parade has grown tremendously stronger!"
See?
Even Eoduk-i was bouncing around, vouching for it.
"To buy enough time, we need to catch him fast."
"Yes!"
"Got it!"
"But don't let your guard down. A cornered rat will bite even a cat."
Boosting morale was good, but he said it lest they grow complacent.
Mi-na, resolute since entering, and battle-hardened Dweok-i already knew better.
"Let's go."
It was the moment Bi-hyeong moved to take the lead.
"Kuhk... Damn bastards...!"
Suddenly, a section of the wall cracked, and Yu Kyung-su's face materialized on each shattered fragment.
'Dream in the Mirror?'
It was the power of that monstrosity he'd entered with Mi-na before.
The academy was a subjugated monstrosity, but it seemed Yu Kyung-su had secretly siphoned its origin power.
The Yu Kyung-su in the mirror twisted his face in ferocious rage and bellowed.
"Because of you... because of you... my great undertaking is crumbling!"
Bullshit has its limits.
...The words rose to the tip of his tongue, but Bi-hyeong swallowed them down.
When a villain rages, you listen to every word, true or not.
Ah, you know—they always spill key info in moments like these.
Right now, for instance.
"One thing, Shin Bi-hyeong. Seeing you and your companion sparked many ideas! Emerging from the shadows... you must be storing monstrosities inside your body, right!?"
Yu Kyung-su's expression in the mirror shifted rapidly.
Sometimes rage, other times ecstatic joy like nothing could be better.
When it finally settled into calm,
one corner of his mouth crooked upward.
"Be grateful! You've given me a new perspective! Ah...! Monstrosities—beyond mere subjugation by humans, the possibility of becoming one with them!"
Uh... um...
'Important info, sure, but it feels like it's veering in a bad direction...?'
In the game, Yu Kyung-su's breakdown involved unleashing his researched monstrosities for indiscriminate terror.
Suppress it early or late, and the story branched slightly,
but he'd never seen this flow before.
'Damn. Another change because of me.'
Could be, or not.
His mere existence hadn't changed Yu Kyung-su,
but the Night Parade meeting his thirst for knowledge had opened a new path.
'This... is bad.'
Bi-hyeong reacted instantly to the half-demon instincts sending chills down his spine.
He summoned the Goblin Club and signaled Dweok-i.
'Hit me with your big one.'
'...You sure?'
'I'll make it fine. Don't worry, fire away.'
Dweok-i read the resolve in his eyes and unleashed fist power immediately.
Bi-hyeong stored him in the club.
Simultaneously decomposing him, he felt the club's yok energy swell and stomped the ground.
He didn't draw the Gui-ok Sword.
The goal was to shatter the glass walls without a trace.
A strike would be more effective than a slash.
'Fighting Joy Spirit.'
A spirit that delighted in battle.
True to its name, with its master in peril, it sharpened the battle trance even further.
Bi-hyeong followed the trajectory presented by the Fighting Joy Spirit and thrust his fist.
Kwaaang! Crackle-crackle-crash!
A simple punch surged with immense yok energy, erupting into fist wind that shook the surroundings.
The cracked glass walls shattered into fine powder under the sudden gale.
'All broken.'
But why?
The scattering glass powder suddenly coalesced, forming a gigantic face of Yu Kyung-su.
He was smiling.
"To you, I grant the honor of witnessing the dawn of my grand experiment!"
With those words, he crunched and swallowed a capsule containing a monstrosity.
Kyaaaak─!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ After swallowing the capsule, the glass shards lost their worth and crashed back to the ground.
Yu Kyung-su's presence had vanished.
Bi-hyeong and the Night Parade stared in silence.
A chilling quiet descended.
"......"
"......"
Not because of Yu Kyung-su's words or him swallowing the capsule.
Just that final cry of the little girl.
And...
"Boss. Did you see?"
"...A crying girl? More than enough."
The soul of a young girl glimpsed amid the capsule he'd crunched.
'What the hell... did he create?'
In the game, they were simply labeled "monstrosities born from experiments."
Bi-hyeong had never questioned them.
No—he had, but not what they were. Just curiosity about what if he prevented their creation.
And now,
he learned for the first time about the part he'd ignored.
...Through a truly rotten spectacle.
"He sacrificed young mountain maidens to the monstrosities to amplify their power. And the victims were likely children—the purest age, where death leaves the deepest regrets."
"...Yeah."
"When he swallowed the monstrosity, I felt the energy. Not from the reflection, but from afar. The scale... it wasn't just one or two people..."
Gasp!
Dweok-i faltered mid-sentence.
The Boss's eyes had sunk into icy calm.
Ghostfire blazed fiercely between those blue irises, roiling intensely.
He was enraged.
The young Boss—this supreme goblin.
"Damn... what a shitty feeling."
His head burned hot.
His teeth ground together on their own, and his fists clenched with excessive force.
Drip.
Blood from his pierced palms trickled down his knuckles to the floor.
Every sensation was vividly sharp.
Yet strangely, his brain grew numbingly insensitive to the danger signals.
'The energy even Dweok-i mentioned. It'll be strong.'
The "alarm bell" tolling amid life-threatening peril.
'Still... humans have a bottom line.'
He knew all sorts of villains in this world.
Claimed to know their deeds, their evils, even their twisted psyches.
But now, he wasn't so sure.
The real villain he'd met was far uglier, more twisted, more repulsive than imagined.
Nausea rose unbidden.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Derived Storyline, 'Of the Dead......'] Bi-hyeong swatted it away with his hand.
'Beat it.'
He could guess the gist.
Probably something like honoring the departed souls or resolving their grudges.
Yet even knowing that, Bi-hyeong dismissed the system message.
No grand reason.
'Not because you told me to. Because I choose to.'
Not the system, not the storyline's nudge—
Shin Bi-hyeong's own decision.
Stern-faced, Bi-hyeong took a step forward.
Thud.
─Thud.
With each of his steps, the footfalls of those following behind layered in.
"...Let's go."
The goblins' fury turned toward one man.