Chapter 376: The World’s Fastest Fall (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 376: The World’s Fastest Fall (3)
On the outside, Flash stood tall, facing him with a mask of righteous indignation, but in truth, he was barely suppressing the urge to turn tail and run.
As a superhuman, his intuition was exceptionally sharp, and he took great pride in his ability to recognize opponents stronger than himself.
The last time he had seen Kang So-hyun at the Academy, the boy was already radiating the pressure of a top-tier S-rank.
That pressure hadn’t faded in the slightest; if anything, it felt even more lethally honed. To be honest, Flash had no desire for a head-on confrontation.
If there was one saving grace, it was that they had the advantage in numbers.
“Ah, wait, just hear me out…”
Whether he intended to fight or deceive them with a feigned recruitment, he needed to start a conversation first. Flash opened his mouth.
The other side surely wouldn’t want to jump into a reckless battle with an S-rank either, so they would likely agree to talk.
But as if mocking his expectations—
“I’m not listening, you bastard.”
“Huh?”
“Stop flapping your gums.”
He lunged straight at him.
* * *
Flash, having cleanly dodged my charge, stared at me with a flustered expression.
“I told you to listen for a second!”
“I don’t talk to turncoats. Didn’t they teach you that at the Academy?”
“I didn’t turn…! I just…!”
“Yeah, no. You definitely turned.”
It was obvious he was about to spew some nonsense about how he was actually acting the part of a traitor while waiting for rescue.
Well, maybe that actually was his plan at first.
But unfortunately for him, his condition was plain as day to my eyes.
Whether he had fallen prey to a contract-type talent or something else, I could see his heart was connected to something far away.
Judging by the structure, it was a restriction similar to a geas that would claim his life if he broke the contract.
How did I know?
I could just see it.
Ever since returning from Hell, I hadn’t been able to turn off my Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils. On top of that, things that were previously invisible had started to appear with vivid clarity.
“…How can you be so sure I’ve turned?”
“I just know. I’ve been practicing a bit of mind-reading lately. I can see everything, so stop the pathetic acting. We’re both wasting our time.”
To be honest, I felt like I had a rough idea of how to break the seal, but unfortunately, I had no intention of helping him.
He was a guy I’d been looking for an opening to deal with as quickly as possible; why on earth would I set him free?
Besides, if I freed him now, whoever was on the other end of that contract might get suspicious.
So, for the sake of my personal venting and the greater good, Flash had to die here today.
“…Phew, fine. So you really want to do this? You, your sister, and even your brother—you all seem to think an S-rank is some kind of joke.”
“Oh, wait. Do you know where my sister is?”
“Is that what’s important right now? You’re about to fight me—”
“Yeah, it’s important.”
When I intentionally cut him off, his face contorted.
“Depending on your answer, I might let you live a little longer, you know?”
“…I’m done with you. As your senior, I think I need to take that ego of yours down a notch.”
His tone suggested he was ready to clash with me in earnest at any moment, but his actions were the complete opposite of his words.
“I know you’re impressive for your age, but you need to know your place. There’s always someone higher up.”
He was manipulating his mana to send a signal to the units in the rear.
It looked like he planned to have some of them disrupt our formation with a surprise attack while the rest took hostages to bind my movements.
“Are you ready?”
When someone’s words and actions were that far apart, I suppose that in itself was a talent.
“Yeah, thanks for the hard work with your pathetic little tricks.”
A surprise attack is only a surprise attack when the target doesn’t know when or where it’s coming from. That’s how it remains effective.
“Tricks…?”
The moment he signaled his subordinates, I exposed his scheme, and his face turned pale with panic.
“Wait…! Stand down…!”
At a point where I could ‘see’ their positions, their intentions, and even the breathing of the attackers, what they were attempting wasn’t a surprise attack—it was just making themselves perfect targets for a counter.
The Black Shadow split into dozens of strands, becoming awls that pierced through the assassins as they leaped out in unison.
“Ah, you know it’s not a crime to summarily execute villains, right?”
“You madman…! What if members of the Starlight Team were mixed in there?! Didn’t you come here to rescue them?!”
“Hey, bastard. I’ve got it handled. I’ve already confirmed there are only villains here, so mind your own business. More importantly, I’ve made the first move, so our fight has officially started, right?”
I honestly thought he might try to run, but he wasn’t a complete fool. He seemed to realize that right now—immediately after I had unleashed a large-scale attack—was his only real chance.
S-rank Hero, Flash.
His talent was ‘Super Acceleration,’ a name that suited his alias perfectly.
It was incredibly simple, but original talents were often more powerful the simpler they were.
His simple power of speed was bolstered by powerful artifacts, allowing him to reach the S-rank rank.
Against sub-par enemies, it was a desperate, unavoidable strike.
Even heroes of a certain caliber often failed to grasp his exact movements upon first seeing them. But to me, now, everything was visible.
However, if he moved that fast, catching him might be a bit of a chore.
‘I’m counting on you.’
— Hmph, very well. It is not a bad idea to gain some experience against small fry before entering a real battle.
As I made my request to Sun Wukong, the restriction of the choker—the Golden Hoop—which had been tightening around my neck to a suffocating degree, began to loosen. The first seal enveloping my vessel was released.
And then, I felt the illusion that the very flow of the world around me had changed.
The world was vivid.
It was a sensation of perceiving everything within my field of vision through sight alone, without relying on any other sense.
The flow of the air, the breathing of others, even a falling leaf or a swaying blade of grass entered my eyes with such clarity.
I almost fell into the illusion that the world had stopped.
If it weren’t for Flash, who was moving—albeit very slowly—I might have truly believed it.
And as I looked at Flash’s face, which was changing at a glacial pace, I realized with surprise that I could clearly tell what he was thinking.
It wasn’t a prediction based on his expression; it was a sensation as if I could simply see his thoughts.
‘…The neck!’
The man, aiming for my neck first in a surprise maneuver, coated his silver-glowing arm in mana and struck at me.
‘What the hell, he dodged it? You monster. How did he…?! First, I have to fluster him and find an opening…!’
I tilted my head slightly to dodge, and as he was overcome with shock, he accelerated further to attempt a feint.
To an observer, he would likely be moving at a speed that left afterimages, but in this slowed-down world, such things were meaningless.
Predicting his path, I extended Ruyi.
I didn’t even need to be fast. His path was as simple as it was quick; I just had to hold it out.
“Gah…!?”
Tripping over Ruyi, he tumbled across the ground before performing a breakfall.
‘This can’t be happening. This makes no sense. He wasn’t this strong…? There’s no way the gap is this huge! This isn’t the level of a top-tier S-rank! Top 10? No, Top 5…? Maybe even more than that…?’
“Why the long face, you bastard?”
‘Was he hiding his strength? He was that strong even while holding back…? I picked the wrong fight.’
Well, I wasn’t exactly hiding my strength; I just got stronger in the meantime.
To be honest, I was a bit amazed myself.
I had only released the first seal, but it wasn’t just a feeling of becoming stronger.
If I had to categorize it, it was like a superior version of Seo Ye-hwa’s short-term future sight or the power held by that eyeball monster I fought in Hell.
At the same time I could see what the opponent was thinking and what move they were trying to make, I could read their muscle movements and predict the resulting action with near-perfect accuracy.
‘If speed won’t work, then with an artifact…!’
As he accelerated, he injected mana into the artifact covering his arm.
Myth-grade artifact, Airgetlám.
The prosthetic arm used by Nuada of the Silver Arm, the legendary king of Ireland often depicted as the king of gods.
In the original legends, it didn’t possess any specific special power, but because it was a holy arm made of silver, it possessed anti-magic properties. It was also an artifact imbued with powerful divinity, likely due to being part of a god for so long.
Flash typically used it by condensing his mana within the artifact and firing it as spears of light.
Spears of mana possessing both divinity and anti-magic properties.
Combined with Flash’s talent for acceleration, it was undoubtedly a formidable attack, but honestly, it didn’t scare me at all.
— A myth-grade artifact. It is quite impressive, but the level of the child using it is low, so he cannot draw out its full potential.
‘I’ll use this to distract him and strike at a gap!’
Multiple streaks of light surged toward me, but they approached so slowly that I didn’t even feel like dodging.
How should I put it? It just looked… pathetic?
— This is what it means to possess the perfected Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils.
I reached out and interfered with his mana, easily manipulating the spears of light.
— From now on, all techniques that have not reached the level of Taoist Arts will lose their meaning before you.
Where it was weak, where it was strong, even its very structure.
Following the structure I had grasped, I flowed my mana into the weak points. The spears of light flying toward me all at once scattered back into mana, and at the same time, despair washed over Flash’s face as he watched.
…This is seriously no joke.
— Your eyes can no longer be considered those of a human. How could a mere, slightly exceptional human child evade the eyes of a god? How could the crude techniques created by a human child hold any meaning before a god?
“D-Don’t come any closer!”
‘D-Don’t come any closer!’
— To perfectly grasp the essence of a thing is the same as seeing the very bottom of your opponent. You have now gained the power to look down upon all existences of a lower rank than yourself.
‘I have to run. If I don’t wrap myself in maximum acceleration and escape, I’ll die…!’
“Planning to run?”
‘…He read my thoughts? No, maybe he’s just guessing…!’
It was amusing to see him try to deny that his thoughts were being read, so I decided to shut that down.
“Isn’t it a bit of a waste? You haven’t even used your favorite weapon yet. Even if you run at full speed, you might die from a contract violation anyway. Why not just use your weapon and go out with a bang?”
With a look of pure horror, he turned around and tried to flee into the forest.
“If you’re going to run, it’s better to go in a straight line for the shortest distance, don’t you think?”
Reinforcement.
“If you run in zig-zags like that and I catch you, you’ll just regret that you didn’t even get to show off your best asset—your speed.”
‘You crazy monster. I shouldn’t have touched him. King of Villains? Fuck, he’s way more of a monster than that guy…!’
Was he so consumed by fear that he couldn’t even hear my voice?
‘Where did it all go wrong? Should I have not surrendered to the villains? No, I would have died anyway. Should I have not made an enemy of this guy? If not that, then what? What was it?!’
It was truly a pity.
‘I can’t die like this yet…! I’ve only just started making money and haven’t even spent much of it! There are so many things I couldn’t do because I had to manage my image! Yes, I’m too precious to die yet!’
When I see him running into the forest so slowly like that, I couldn’t let him go even if I wanted to.
‘I am Flash. I’m an S-rank hero, one of fewer than a hundred in the world, and a popular one at that! If I can just find a chance to escape this time…! Then I can make a comeback…!’
“Pierce through.”
‘I have to survive and escape somehow, and if I can just break the contract… yes, if I can just get away from his talent, I can make an excuse…!’
Well, of course.
‘Then everything will go back to the way it was…!’
“Ruyi.”
I never had any intention of letting him go in the first place.
Fired like an arrow, Ruyi caught up to the fleeing Flash in an instant, and I felt the sensation of the weapon piercing through something at its tip.
‘Huh? What is this? Blood…? It… hurts?’
He did manage to run quite a distance, though.
I guess the alias ‘Flash’ wasn’t just for show when it came to running away.
“Tear him apart.”
Thanks to that, no one would have to see a messy corpse. And there wouldn’t be any screaming.
As soon as the battle ended, the Golden Hoop tightened around my neck again. When I looked back, everyone was staring at me with dumbfounded expressions.
“Ah, sorry. Did that take a while?”
“…I think about a minute has passed?”
“…I didn’t even see what happened.”
“…Is it normal for the strength gained during Qi Deviation to stay even after the deviation is over…?”
Oh, I guess not much time had passed. It felt like a long time because the world was moving so slowly.
By the way, everyone’s reaction is a bit much.
Wiping out an S-rank hero and a unit of villains by myself in one minute.
— Did I not tell you that there would be no one in the Human World stronger than you? Do you feel it now?
Do I feel it?
One thing seemed certain.
I had somehow managed to avoid Enlightenment, but I hadn’t exactly managed to remain human.