Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Owner of the Ghost Sword (4)
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"If it's that amusing..."
Han Siwoo's voice settled coldly in their ears.
It was a dry tone, as if recited by the Grim Reaper himself.
The hunter holding the camcorder jumped in fright and whipped around.
But all that entered his vision were Siwoo's icy eyes, already right in front of his face.
"Wh-what... guk!"
Siwoo grabbed the nearest man's collar.
His grip was unhesitating and ruthless, handling him like a ragdoll.
"You'll watch from the VIP seats."
With Siwoo's indifferent words, the man's body soared into the air.
He was hurled over the railing before he could even resist.
His flailing legs in midair looked pitiful.
"Aaaahhh!"
The scream faded into the distance as he plummeted endlessly downward.
The cry cut sharply through the factory's chilly night air.
Crash!
"Keurk!"
The hunter smashed into the ground with a deafening thud, foaming at the mouth as he passed out.
The sudden intruder and falling body drew the High Orc's gaze.
The beast stared blankly upward, unable to comprehend prey dropping from the sky.
The remaining two hunters paled and staggered back.
"Y-you're insane? This is the second floor! A person...!"
"Shut up."
Siwoo extended his foot lazily.
His shoe heel dug precisely into the man's solar plexus.
"Argh!"
Thud! Thump!
Dull impacts rang out as the last two tumbled over the railing.
They flailed to grab hold, but Siwoo's hands showed no mercy.
He shoved them off lightly, like sorting trash for recycling.
Crash! Boom!
They hit the ground from the second-story height, passing out without even a scream.
The High Orc roared in confusion at the successive prey plummeting down.
Siwoo leaned against the railing, gazing coldly at the chaos below.
Bathed in moonlight from behind, his figure exuded ruthlessness.
His impeccable suit, neatly combed hair, and spotless shoes stood in stark contrast to the bloody carnage unfolding beneath.
He crossed his arms impassively, his gaze fixed not on the unconscious hunters, but on Kim Ye-eun.
**
"Grrr..."
The High Orc, momentarily stunned by the falling body, roared again.
Three fainted prey lay sprawled before it.
"Haa... haa...!"
Ye-eun seized the moment the orc's attention scattered and mustered her last strength.
'Now or never...'
Her eyes locked on the beast's nape.
The tiny gap between its thick hide, collarbone, and cervical vertebrae.
The only vital spot where a blade might pierce.
"Die!"
She gripped the scalpel in reverse, throwing her full weight into a thrust at its weak point.
Clang!
A crisp, despairing metallic ring echoed.
Ye-eun's eyes widened. The hard rebound vibrating through her fingers spelled doom.
The High Orc turned its gaze back to the prey that had taken its eye.
Its single eye blazed with fury.
"Ah... no..."
Ye-eun gripped the scalpel with trembling hands.
She screamed inwardly to run, but her legs wouldn't obey.
A heavy thud heralded the beast's charge.
Its massive shadow engulfed her.
'Dodge. Dodge it.'
Her mind commanded, but her exhausted body refused.
Her muscles screamed and locked up.
The High Orc's enormous fist descended toward her head.
Instinctively, she raised her scalpel to block.
Shring!
A sharp rupture tore through the open space.
The scalpel in Ye-eun's hand clashed against the beast's iron-hard fist.
It held for a moment, then snapped in half.
Ting, clink.
The broken blade rolled feebly across the ground.
The sound was like her final hope shattering.
"Chiiik!"
The High Orc sneered, twisting its lips.
Its hand snatched Ye-eun's throat in one grip.
"Gurk...!"
Her body lifted into the air, feet dangling off the ground.
She kicked futilely as the crushing force choked her airway.
"Kuh... ugh..."
Her vision blurred.
Her crushed trachea denied her breath.
Death. The cold word became reality, squeezing her throat.
Instinctual will to live clashed with inescapable terror, spilling forth like tears.
I don't want to die.
Yet resignation mingled in, yearning to end this wretched life.
Her nails raked the High Orc's forearm desperately.
Skin peeled and blood welled, but it didn't flinch.
Instead, it tightened its grip, as if savoring the moment.
Then.
Click. Click.
Clear shoe sounds reached her ears.
Rhythmic and composed footsteps, out of place amid the battlefield din.
Beyond her hazy vision, a man in a pristine suit approached.
His demeanor clashed utterly with the hellish scene.
He drew near slowly and met her eyes with an impassive glance upward.
His blue eyes held no tremor.
"Do you want my help?"
A dry voice.
Businesslike, devoid of pity or sympathy.
As if asking whether to buy an item.
Ye-eun glared at him with bloodshot eyes.
She wanted to scream for help.
But her lips wouldn't move.
Her strangled throat made speech impossible, and her pride forbade it.
"If I kill that hideous thing, I can save you. But you'll crawl through the gutter for the rest of your life. Tomorrow, and the day after, slicing meat in a blood-soaked factory, ignored by scum like them. I'll ask once more."
His words stabbed like daggers.
Frail being. Gutter life.
Labels that had tormented her all along.
If salvation meant returning to that hell?
Wouldn't death be better?
'No...'
Ye-eun's eyes gleamed with venom.
She shook her head with all her might.
Not pride, but something writhing inside her rebelled.
She refused to live groveling ever again.
"Do you truly want my help?"
"Ah... y-you..."
Bloody foam leaked from her lips.
"No... grk... Never... no!!"
Her strangled roar grated like metal.
"I'll... kill them all! The ones who mocked me... the bastards who trampled me... I'll kill them all!"
Her anguished scream rang out desperately.
Hatred unbroken even before death.
That was the answer Siwoo had awaited.
The corner of his mouth twitched upward faintly.
"Then."
Siwoo's eyes glowed blue.
He made a devilishly sweet and cruel offer.
"What if I could turn you into a monster? Into a being stronger than anyone, never to be ignored again... Would you take my hand?"
Ye-eun stared blankly at him.
Who was this man, spouting such nonsense?
Human? Monster? On the brink of death, did it matter?
In this moment, even the devil's whisper held no consequence.
For power, she'd sell her soul.
"If that's... what it takes."
Bloody tears streamed from Ye-eun's eyes.
"I'd lick your shoes for life. If I could cut down every bastard who looked down on me...!"
Siwoo nodded.
"You might cease to be human."
Ye-eun coughed up surging blood and reached a trembling hand toward him.
"...Give it."
Her bloodshot eyes fixed on Siwoo unwaveringly.
No hesitation.
"...Yes, understood."
Siwoo tossed the black object in his hand—the Ghost Sword Star Blade—toward her.
The sword traced a red arc and embedded at her feet.
The asphalt cracked, revealing its jet-black blade in all its menace.
Vrrrrm!
The sword called for its master.
Ye-eun extended a trembling hand.
Just as her fingertips brushed the hilt.
Crack.
A gruesome snap echoed across the lot.
"......"
Her hand fell limp before reaching the hilt.
The High Orc had irritably snapped her neck completely.
Her unfocused eyes stared into the void.
Her head lolled at an unnatural angle, body slumping like a marionette with cut strings.
Undeniably dead.
"Chiiik."
The High Orc smacked its lips at the corpse in its grasp.
It gaped wide to devour the tastiest part—the head—its yellowed teeth dripping foul saliva onto her face.
Then.
Whoosh!
A ferocious black aura erupted from the sword at the dead Ye-eun's feet like a storm.
As if awaiting its master's death, the blade resonated.
The sword yanked itself free and flew into her hand.
"Kuoo?!"
Tremendous wind pressure battered the High Orc, sending it stumbling back in panic.
It dropped Ye-eun and recoiled.
Thud!
Her limp body hovered in midair, defying gravity.
Like a puppet suspended by invisible strings.
What followed was a sight not meant for the living.
Crack. Crackle.
Eerie bone-grinding sounds shattered the silence.
Her grotesquely twisted neck vertebrae rotated back into place on their own.
Bones clashed and ground audibly beneath her flesh.
Her left arm, crushed by the orc, clicked as bones realigned.
Torn skin and muscle wove back like black threads, regenerating in seconds.
Crunch. Snap.
"......!"
The hunters, stirring from unconsciousness, cracked their eyes open and swallowed screams at the sight.
It resembled not resurrection, but a necromantic rite.
Her skin paled corpse-like, but crimson-black veins spiderwebbed across it.
Thump.
Her stopped heart pumped forcibly.
A slow, heavy, powerful beat echoed through the lot.
Thump. Thump.
Like a dead heart coerced into motion—heavy and murky.
Jet-black mana from the Ghost Sword Star Blade coiled around her like thousands of serpents, seeping into her pores.
The viscous mana coursed through her veins.
Her mana circuits, empty since birth, filled forcibly with the dead's power—not the living's.
The eerie aura repelled everything around her, then sucked it back in.
Repel and absorb, repeating.
After several cycles, her body convulsed and jerked upward.
Shhh...
The black whirlwind around Ye-eun subsided, silence descending.
Her floating body descended slowly to the ground.
Her bare feet touched the blood-soaked earth gently.
Swish.
Her closed eyes opened.
Greyish pupils shook without focus, as if devouring all they saw.
Within the black irises, red glows flickered at the centers.
For a moment, those eyes fixed on the High Orc.
"Chii, chiik...?"
The High Orc recoiled in primal terror.
Instinct told it the being before it had become something utterly different—far more dangerous.
Predator and prey had swapped places.
Ye-eun silently regarded the sword in her hand.
A heavy sensation filled her palm.
Not cold metal, but a hot oneness, like veins connected.
The sword was her, and she was the sword.
She raised it slowly, then swung lightly.
A simple horizontal slash, devoid of technique or wind-up.
Swish—
The blade arced through the air.
In that instant.
Kaboom!!
A massive black sword beam, compressed mana, shot along the trajectory.
A black crescent tore across the lot, rending space.
Only then came the delayed, chilling sound of space tearing.
"Kuweeeek!"
The High Orc screamed, raising its arm to block.
A blue mana barrier formed over its skin.
Crackle—
The black sword beam erased the mana on contact.
As if denying and annihilating it.
Slice.
The sound was unnervingly clean.
The High Orc's thick arm and upper body sheared off diagonally.
Neither its tough hide nor sturdy bones offered resistance.
Moments later, gravity pulled the torso sliding to the ground.
Blood fountained from the remaining lower half.
Thud.
A single strike felled the B-rank High Orc without reprisal.
Silence blanketed the area.
No blood stench—only the chilling, fishy reek of demonic energy.
Amid the raining blood, Ye-eun quietly looked at her hand.
Black haze rose from her pale skin.
Her once-empty body brimmed with alien, eerie power.
An aura impossible from the living.
Unsettling and gooseflesh-inducing, yet comforting like a mother's embrace.
She blinked and murmured.
"This is... my mana."
Her voice was cold and dry.
Siwoo watched, a satisfied smile on his lips.