Chapter 126
Chapter 126
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: Bug Hunt (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A black silhouette dropped suddenly from the trees.
The moment they realized the being that had appeared with a massive explosion was their prey, Yuri Holland, the eight members of Squad 13 split up to surround him in an instant.
Squad 13 was a hastily assembled unit that hadn’t even properly drilled together.
Yet the way they instinctively knew their roles and responded showed that their three months in the Cradle hadn’t been a waste after all.
A faint smile crept across the faces of the squad members who had successfully encircled Yuri.
“Ha, what’s this? Walking right into our hands?”
“What’s with the confidence?”
“Suits us just fine.”
They tossed out quips as they inched forward bit by bit.
With every step, the space for Yuri to slip through narrowed.
Yet Yuri’s expression didn’t change.
Still utterly relaxed.
He opened his mouth as he watched them slowly closing in.
“I’m a bit busy, so...”
Shring-.
Yuri’s sword slid free.
“Let’s make this quick. I’ve got more bug friends to meet besides you lot.”
With those words, Yuri’s form shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
Boom-!
His first target was at the 1 o’clock position: a girl marked with 13-4.
Slash-!
“...?!”
She managed to barely block the swift swing of Yuri’s blade, but couldn’t fully negate its power.
Crack-.
“Kyaa!”
With a grotesque sound signaling a fracture, the girl went flying.
The sword she’d been gripping soared high into the sky.
By then, Yuri was already upon another foe.
And that was just the beginning.
Of Yuri truly unleashing hell.
Clang- clang!
Every time Yuri swung his sword,
One more went down with a single strike, sent tumbling unconscious.
In the blink of an eye, three more had joined the fallen.
The survivors of Squad 13 were stunned by Yuri’s sudden assault, but only for a moment.
Thud thud!
They moved at different times, but their goal was the same.
Protect the squad leader.
More precisely, protect the armband marked 13-1 that the squad leader wore.
‘Just protect the squad leader’s armband!’
‘Block him!’
The condition for squad annihilation—“combat incapacity”—could be ignored as long as the members willed it.
Who would declare someone combat-ineffective if they were still willing to fight?
But the squad leader’s armband was different.
Once taken, even if the members wanted to keep going, the squad had to disband.
In other words, as long as they held onto the squad leader’s armband, they could regroup no matter how injured the others were and continue the fight.
That’s why the remaining squad members stood to block Yuri’s path.
To defend the squad leader’s armband.
‘He’ll definitely go for the squad leader’s armband. We strike then!’
That’s what they all thought.
Targeting the squad leader was surely the fastest, simplest way to wipe out a squad.
But that assumption was wrong.
Instead of going for the squad leader, Yuri plunged straight into the formation of the three blocking him.
And with that, Yuri’s luck activated.
Slice-!
“Huh?!”
With ghostly movement, Yuri approached without a sound.
Thin streams of blood sprayed each time he brushed past.
Spurt-.
“Urk!”
Just like that, Yuri carved through the three in an S-shape and reached the squad leader.
Seeing Yuri appear before him in an instant, the squad leader’s face drained to a sickly blue.
‘Th-this...?!’
Behind the nonchalantly standing Yuri Holland.
The squad members who had confidently blocked him were only now collapsing one by one.
The squad leader’s eyes shook violently as he stood alone.
‘H-how long... how long has it been?!’
Had they fought for five minutes?
At least long enough for nearby squads to notice and come running, right?
That’s what the squad leader hoped, but it didn’t take long to realize it was futile.
Whirr whirr whirr-.
The sword of the girl who’d been struck first and sent flying.
Whirr whirr whirr whirr-.
Thud-.
It spun in the air before embedding into the ground.
“Ah...”
Seeing it, the squad leader finally realized that less than a minute had passed since they’d encountered Yuri and fallen.
And that was excluding the brief initial exchange.
‘In the time it took for that sword flung into the sky to hit the ground... our squad got wiped out?’
An utterly absurd situation.
The 13th Squad Leader backed away, face taut with fear.
Yuri smiled faintly as he approached with cold eyes.
At the same time, another flash of sword light gleamed.
Slice-.
A strip of cloth that had been the squad leader’s armband fluttered down from his arm.
“Aah...”
As the 13th Squad Leader stared dazedly, a low voice slipped into his ear.
“Didn’t I tell you? Bugs banding together are still just bugs.”
Since entering the Cradle, Yuri had put on quite a few impressive shows.
But most who’d been awed by his strength were Black Sword troops or seniors.
His fellow 50th Cohort members didn’t truly know his real power or capabilities.
But now, in this moment!
Yuri revealed his true strength against the 50th Cohort for the first time.
The last survivor of Squad 13, the first victim of that reveal, had a simple reaction.
‘This bastard... he’s a monster?!’
The fight just now made it clear.
This Yuri Holland standing before him was on a whole different level, someone he couldn’t touch.
‘Damn it!’
He should’ve thought deeper about how Yuri Holland had claimed first place in monthly evaluations twice.
That regret was the 13th Squad Leader’s final thought.
Thwack-.
Yuri’s sword flat struck the back of his head again, and he crumpled.
Yuri picked up the fallen armband scrap beside him.
His eyes gleamed sharply.
“That’s one.”
Twenty-three squads left.
Thud thud-!
Yuri moved again, now fully unleashing his power.
Aaaargh!
Boom!
Soon, the nearby forest began to rumble in spots.
* * *
The nine members of Squad 7 followed Gunter, who wore the 7-1 armband.
All of them, like Nelly Blanc, Ivan Baskin, and Pana Taylor, had some degree of acquaintance with Gunter.
Of course, they all knew Gunter, but that didn’t mean the other nine were all close to each other.
Still, with Gunter as the center, unlike most squads that felt stiff and distant, they started the quest in a relatively warm atmosphere.
But that didn’t last.
The easygoing vibe vanished quickly, replaced by mounting tension as they delved deeper into the forest.
More precisely, Gunter, Nelly, Ivan, and Pana were the ones with rigid faces stirring up the tension.
Gunter especially kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, never relaxing for a second.
The other squad members voiced their confusion at their reactions.
“Why the heavy mood?”
“Something happen?”
“We just started the quest. No need to tense up this much. It could turn into a long war of attrition, you know?”
The others tried to lighten the mood, but it had little effect.
Instead, the tension only thickened.
One of them, Philip Shell, who’d tried to ease things, frowned slightly and asked,
“Aren’t you guys overdoing the tension? What’s got you like this?”
Ivan shot back with sharp eyes.
“Squad 1 is up ahead.”
Philip snorted at the overly simple answer.
“No way you’re this worked up over just those three, right? Ha? And here I thought it was something big.”
Nelly shook her head and interjected.
“To be precise, it’s not three people... it’s one.”
“One? Who?”
“Yuri Holland.”
The others’ confusion grew at Nelly’s response.
Philip blinked.
“The black-haired guy?”
“Yeah.”
“Why him? Sure, I know this Yuri guy took first in the monthly evals twice, but is that worth freaking out over?”
“......”
“No matter how much he topped the charts, we’ve got three of the top ten right here?”
He glanced at Gunter and a few others as he spoke.
Gunter, Nelly, Ivan.
They’d all proudly ranked in the top ten last monthly eval.
Plus Pana, who’d narrowly missed at 11th.
Gunter’s squad was stacked with top performers.
But Pana scoffed at Philip’s take.
“By that logic, Squad 1’s three are all top ranks too? They’ve even got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.”
“Yeah, sure, but... rankings aren’t exactly skill levels, right? They just show who hoarded the most points.”
Pana immediately shot back incredulously.
“What’d you rank in the last monthly eval?”
“Me? 43rd this time.”
Pride flickered on Philip’s face as he answered.
Pana frowned at him.
“So you know.”
“Know what?”
“You said 43rd with this super confident look.”
“...So?”
“That’s because you know how hard it is to rack up enough points for a top rank.”
“Well...”
“Sure, rankings don’t perfectly match skill... but scraping together tens of thousands of points in a month for top ranks proves real ability.”
“......”
“And Yuri Holland... gathered over a million points twice.”
“Th-that... maybe he just emptied his own stash to fake it?”
“What about you? How much you got if you empty yours?”
“......”
“Over 200,000?”
Pana shook her head at the tight-lipped Philip.
“I just don’t get it. Why do you keep downplaying Yuri Holland? You’ve never even talked to him.”
“Well...”
Philip thought briefly before murmuring softly.
“His vibe’s just like that.”
“What vibe?”
“Like some sloppy, delinquent punk...”
“What about this guy?”
Pana pointed at Ivan.
Ivan bristled for a second, but Philip’s follow-up defused it.
“No, it’s different. Ivan’s just prickly, but Yuri Holland... he looks uncultured, lacking any class or whatever.”
“......”
Pana was speechless for the first time.
She agreed with Philip, after all.
‘Yeah, it kinda is...’
Honestly, if Yuri didn’t show his face, you could easily mistake him for some local thug.
The problem was he still gave off that vibe even with his looks.
Pana cleared her throat awkwardly.
“Ahem, still, Yuri Holland...”
The name at the top of the organ breakthrough quest flashed in her mind.
“...isn’t someone to dismiss like that.”
Ivan and Nelly nodded faintly in agreement.
Gunter said nothing, but his eyes showed he shared Pana’s view.
Philip let out a small sigh.
“Fine, I get you’re wary of that Yuri guy. But getting this tense is kinda ridiculous, right?”
He pointed straight ahead.
“How many squads have already gone after them ahead of us?”
Gunter’s squad was the last to enter the forest battlefield.
Meaning every other participating squad had passed them.
“It might already be over. If you’re worried about alliances breaking and other squads attacking, that’d make sense, but tensing up over a squad of just three? That’s overkill.”
Nelly countered.
“Even though those three made all the other squads form a temporary alliance?”
“That’s just the top three ranks teaming up so everyone else can knock ’em out at once and check them in next month’s eval, right?”
Gunter spoke for the first time.
“No.”
“...?”
“I accepted this temporary alliance between squads for more than that.”
“Wh-what? Then?”
“Because those three all walked more than six steps in the Hundred Steps Ritual.”
“...Huh?”
Philip and everyone else gaped.
Ivan spoke for them.
“That true...?”
In the Hundred Steps Ritual, Ivan had lost his memory at the third step.
Six people had gone ahead of him then.
And from what he’d heard, Gunter Ironside had made six steps...
‘Arin Helga, Bovikurtankapurtabi, Yuri Holland... on Gunter’s level at minimum?’
As Ivan stared in shock,
Shring-.
Gunter suddenly halted and drew his sword.
The others spotted the approaching group ahead without needing explanation and readied for combat.
‘What? Why are they coming this way?’
As everyone stared tensely ahead, Pana muttered softly.
“Looks like one squad?”
The number approaching head-on barely topped ten.
But their silhouettes looked off somehow.
Ivan, with the sharpest eyes, noticed first and murmured,
“...They’re hurt?”
Limping figures.
Ones supporting comrades.
Even some being carried.
Their condition was clearly far from normal at a glance.
Moments later.
When the approaching squad was about 3 meters away, their ragged state became starkly clear.
They looked like defeated remnants.
Gunter’s eyes flashed.
‘Squad 13? But... no squad leader armband.’
The others still wore theirs, but the 13-1 leader’s band was missing.
Meaning they were already wiped out.
Shocked, Philip grabbed one of the relatively intact ones passing by.
It was Squad 13’s leader.
“What happened? Already wiped? Did... another squad betray you?”
Rubbing his stiff neck, the 13th Squad Leader turned.
He stared silently at Philip for a moment.
His gaze held faint fear and regret.
“Be careful. There’s... a monster bastard up ahead.”
With that, the 13th Squad Leader shook off Philip’s hand and moved on.
Philip tilted his head in confusion.
But...
‘A monster, huh...’
Gunter glared ahead with eyes that seemed to know exactly who he meant.