Chapter 45
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Am I?
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Am I?
Blink, blink―
At my command to undress, Ha Chae-jeong just blinked quietly for a moment before her face lit up with understanding.
"Ah, you mean some kind of full-body treatment? There's no way an S-grade just appears with a few words."
Seeing her twist it to suit herself like that, it seemed the healing had influenced her quite a bit.
But misunderstandings were best cleared up quickly, so I gave Ha Chae-jeong—who was rambling incoherently—a straightforward answer.
"I plan to embrace both of you."
"······."
"······."
Ha Chae-jeong and Ga Se-yeon both stared at me in silence.
After a long stretch of quiet, Ha Chae-jeong's face twisted with irritation as she started grilling me.
"Fine. Putting aside the slave thing, you're also my lifesaver. I could humor you once if you want. But what does that have to do with S-grade?"
Ha Chae-jeong, Ga Se-yeon, and even Lee Seojun all looked at me with curiosity.
I'd brought up S-grade out of nowhere and then said I wouldn't do it, so yeah, there was room for misunderstanding.
'The problem is, even explaining it won't clear things up.'
Even so, I'd decided from the start that laying it all out was best, so I told them about my ability.
"The more we do it, the more your stats go up."
"······What the hell does that mean?"
"It's called [Limit Breakthrough]."
The ten healer abilities and one unique trait from the 8th world.
The [Limit Breakthrough] I mentioned was that one unique trait from the 8th world.
"Limit Breakthrough?"
"It's an ability that gradually raises a woman's stats the more she has sex with me."
"An ability like that exists in this world?"
Ha Chae-jeong's eyes were full of disbelief.
For reference, [Limit Breakthrough] raises stats by 1 to 3 each time, eventually reaching 1,000.
Once it hits 1,000, it triggers a phenomenon called [Body Transcendence], adding about 200 more.
That made for roughly 1,200 total.
'They said S-grade stats are at 1,280 before.'
Meaning [Limit Breakthrough] alone could make someone S-grade.
'And if she becomes my ally.'
I could grant a class and a fitting Skill Stone.
Even if she refused, no one could rampage solo as an S-grade in this world, so that was my decision.
"If you don't want to, refuse. I don't mind."
"Huh? For real?"
"I can just work you like the underlings downstairs."
Now that her limbs were fine, I'd treat her like the grunts below.
"······Working me like the underlings means I'd be at the bottom?"
"Pretty much."
At that, Ha Chae-jeong fell into serious thought.
Separately, Ga Se-yeon slowly reached for her clothes and stripped without hesitation.
Swish―
The clothes slid down her curvaceous body, revealing her pristine bare skin.
"You······ You're actually going to him?"
"He can embrace us even without something like this."
It was the first time I'd heard Ga Se-yeon's voice.
For reference, her voice was as clear and pure as the word "limpid" evoked.
"So? You're volunteering?"
"It means the S-grade talk isn't a lie."
As Ga Se-yeon said, if I wanted to embrace them, I could just order it.
Ha Chae-jeong seemed to grasp what Ga Se-yeon meant and snapped irritably again.
"Hah. How many times do we have to do it?"
"Just shy of a thousand, probably."
"You're insane. We'd wear ourselves out."
With that, Ha Chae-jeong stripped like Ga Se-yeon.
A secret hideout nestled in the heart of the city.
"······."
"······."
The Villain Alliance members who'd ambushed Shin-hwang Corporation heroes in the B-grade gate were holed up like mice, dead silent.
Attacking the heroes inside the gate and snatching their artifacts had gone well, but what followed was a total disaster.
"Those crazy cult fanatics. What the hell are they doing barging into our country all of a sudden?"
The Geneva Cult's holy knights had shown up immediately, interrogating and rounding up Villain Alliance members on sight.
Sure enough, after a dozen or so got nabbed by the holy knights, orders came down from above to lay low.
"Just kill them all."
At that moment, Jake Pitt—the Villain Alliance's 34th-ranked—fidgeted with his dagger as he spoke.
He enjoyed killing so much that hiding like this grated on him; he looked ready to charge out any second.
"Didn't you hear the boss? Stay quiet and wait."
Someone chided him like that.
It was Della Miller, a woman with dark green hair sitting primly across from him.
"Look at you, the loyalist. No idea what those captured guys are going through."
"······."
The public saw the Geneva Cult as a prestigious healer-training outfit, but that was just the facade.
The higher-ups in the Villain Alliance knew it was far dirtier than imagined.
"They're probably getting tortured to the brink of insanity dozens of times over. Those bastards use the power of regeneration, after all. When you're about to die, they revive you with it and start over."
"Jake. Enough."
As Jake blabbed openly, a low voice cut him off from the other side.
A nearly two-meter-tall black giant—leaning against the wall with arms crossed—fixed Jake with a steady gaze.
"The boss is looking into what happened. We'll hear back soon."
"It's for their image. They pretend to be the good guys on the outside."
Jake shot back like that, then pushed his point again.
"Anyway, I hate skulking around like this. We're not weaker than those fanatics, right?"
"I hear not just the Geneva Cult—the Hero Association's stepping in too."
Jake scowled hard at the mention of the Hero Association.
"Speaking of, what the hell is that guy?"
The "guy" here was the "Destroyer," who'd caused trillions in damage with a single appearance.
"That bastard's got the Hero Association out hunting us too."
"Probably a lone villain."
The black man answered simply.
"Makes sense with that kind of power."
"What, scared? Yeah, he was bigger than even you."
Jake's words were almost a taunt, but even he had no confidence against the Destroyer.
Ignoring Jake, Della recalled the Destroyer's movements and mused.
"But I heard the Destroyer hasn't killed a single person. Maybe he'll join the Hero Association instead of us."
"A coward who can't even kill fits right in with the heroes."
"Of course, if he joined our alliance, he'd snag second rank easy."
Della said the Destroyer could claim second place purely on skill.
Naturally, as current 34th, Jake felt prickly about it, but recalling the Destroyer's rampage, he grudgingly agreed inwardly.
'Even if he's amazing, he couldn't take first.'
That was how exceptional the Villain Alliance boss—the number one—was.
Beep beep―
Then a mechanical chime rang out, and Della pulled an item from her pocket and set it on the table.
It was a phone. Touching the screen brought up a woman with cold eyes.
-The boss has figured out what happened.
"Ivy. Where's the boss? Why're you there?"
Della asked, and the woman called Ivy replied curtly.
-Negotiating with the Geneva Cult's archbishop.
"Negotiating? What bullshit is that? They attacked us first out of nowhere!"
Jake exploded at the word "negotiating."
Ivy just stared at him quietly before pulling up another screen.
-See why the Geneva Cult attacked first.
The screen soon showed someone with a familiar build hurling a dagger cleanly into a throat.
Nothing special yet, but the dagger's shape—and it flying back to the hand—was distinctive.
"Huh?"
"Eh?"
Della and the black man... Brian's eyes naturally turned to Jake.
"Why're you looking at me? You think that's me or something?"
"Just watch."
The man onscreen smashed all visible cameras and moved at high speed.
Unfortunately, he missed the hidden ones, which is how this footage survived—but no one mentioned it.
Bam!―
He kicked down the door and strode in, facing off against 20 Geneva Cult priests.
-Kill him.
After a brief standoff, the man threw his dagger first and charged; 18 cultists rushed him.
Slash!―
But the man sliced the first one's throat with movements anyone would admire.
He did the same to the next two, then someone behind finished a spell and fired.
-Die, infidel!
The man ignored the magic, kicked a corpse to block it, and continued the slaughter.
"······."
"······."
Della and Brian, watching, immediately thought of Jake right beside them.
'No matter how you look, it's Jake.'
'Disguised? Nah, doesn't seem like it.'
From throat-slitting with the dagger to tiny habits, they were 90% sure it was Jake.
-Behold the power of our god!
Once all cultists were dead, the last bishop—an old man—spread his arms and shouted.
Flash―
Red energy shot from his hands, but the man instantly teleported behind and finished him.
Slash!―
After slitting the last throat, the blood-soaked masked man removed his mask.
As if it were the most natural thing, the unmasked face belonged to Jake—well-known to Della and Brian.
"What're you staring at? You don't seriously think that's me, right?"
Jake, having seen it too, spoke first, sensing the mood sour.
Della eyed his flustered reaction with more suspicion.
"Not you? Sure, someone disguised themselves with your exact ability, habits, and even grabbed an identical dagger."
"······Habits?"
"Look here. Ivy, rewind the screen."
Della pointed out a habit even Jake didn't know about.
"When you throw the dagger and it returns, you rub your thumb once, right? That's your tell."
"I do that?"
Jake threw his dagger at an empty wall and called it back.
Sure enough, his thumb moved instinctively, hardening his expression without realizing.
'Wha...?'
Throat-slitting attack style.
Unconscious thumb habit.
Plus his innate short-range spatial leap.
All together, even Jake started thinking it.
'Is it really me?'