Chapter 205
Chapter 205
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 205
Chapter Title: Episode 68. Transcender (6)
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In the screen.
As the gray space began to blanket the South American Amazon rainforest.
Outside the screen.
The situation in the Federation's central command center was changing rapidly as well.
Cha-seok's face, which had been slammed down, was half-destroyed, staining the table. The bleeding was considerable. As a superhuman, he wouldn't die immediately from this, but this was the Federation. And the most important command center within it.
And that wasn't all. Christoph was there. And Jeon Hak-yeon and the Chairman. Yoo Ji-tae's actions had gone beyond rudeness that could be tolerated.
Thus, amid the staff busily making calls, a few powerful superhumans furrowed their brows and shouted.
"Is that guy actually insane?!"
"What the hell is he doing! Can't you let go of Cha-seok?!"
"You lot over there! Hurry up and drag that bastard out!"
The next moment, weapons flew toward Yoo Ji-tae from all directions—front, back, left, and right.
Suppression swords and spears.
Two from the front. Three from the rear. All of them high-rankers in the hundreds. The gazes aimed at his forehead and heart numbered even more. Snipers who hadn't released their stealth. Three in total. But thirty-one weapons.
Dozens of weapons were now aimed at Yoo Ji-tae.
In front of the blades closing in on his face, he instead pressed Cha-seok's head down a little harder.
"Guhhh... ughaaak...!"
Even as pained groans echoed, the guards couldn't attack him recklessly.
Then, several high-ranking staff members stood up. One of them was the "Mercenary King" Christoph.
He was originally from the 5th Command Room and had little relation to the central command. The reason he'd bothered to attend this meeting was because of Yoo Ji-tae.
"I warn you, Season. Release that hand."
As they deliberately raised their auras, a subtle tension settled over the command center.
At that moment, an indifferent voice rang out.
"Hey. I get you're pissed. Can't it wait a bit?"
At the far end of the control room, someone was watching the screens with thirty-two holograms displayed.
It was Jeon Hak-yeon, director of the Federation's Command Strategy Office.
Yoo Ji-tae didn't respond.
He was waiting for the right moment.
"Huh? Can't you see what's happening? I'm already stressed out enough. Or go outside and fight it out."
"......"
"What are you guys, kids... Huh?"
The gaze of the one grumbling without tension fixed on one screen.
As if a massive gray balloon had been placed there.
A ashen subspace was spreading over the South American Amazon rainforest area.
"What is... that... Huh?"
As if realizing something, Jeon Hak-yeon's brows narrowed.
In that instant, the superhumans' gazes, which had been on Yoo Ji-tae, turned to the hologram.
In the screen.
A single superhuman.
Was overwhelming an SS+ grade boss monster. A colossal flying-type classified as gigantic.
"What the hell is that?"
"Huh? Who's that guy?"
"No way..."
Everyone there grimaced and focused on the situation.
With their eyes. With the mana waves occurring. With the properties of the mana contained within. Compiling all that information, it was an output not inferior to the Five Transcenders.
That bizarre artifact sword might even produce more.
The weapon was different because the user was different, so the manifested 'dream' form was completely altered. No one recognized it as the Sword that Eats Dreams.
Who the hell?
Faces occasionally appeared sparsely in the gray subspace. But they were faint, unrecognizable.
As questions piled up like mountains.
—It's 'Origin'! The Grade 3 agent participating as a free mercenary!
The report arrived.
The gazes of those who remembered the name turned back.
Half fixed on Yoo Ji-tae. The rest on Antonio Jefferson, who had been looking at Yoo Ji-tae in disbelief since earlier.
"...Situation terminated."
The situation was still ongoing, but those words slipped from Jeon Hak-yeon's mouth after finishing her calculations.
It was taken as a signal. Sighs of "Phew" and exasperated "Haas" escaped. Some straightened their backs. But no one relaxed.
The outside situation had ended.
But the inside situation was still ongoing.
"Guh, Season. For now, let that go..." "Hey—"
As someone broke the command center's silence to try to restrain Yoo Ji-tae.
Christoph cut him off.
"Don't let go of that."
"Then. Should I kill him?"
"No. Killing him won't do. You need to keep holding it. That's your lifeline."
"You old man. How is this piece of shit my lifeline?"
"Heh heh, why? Let go and you die. Cut off and you die. If that's not a lifeline, what do you call it?"
Christoph drew a sword from the subspace.
A silver blade long sword with jagged teeth missing in places.
A level 3 artifact. Among them, a top-tier 'ancient relic' type weapon.
Hungry Father Wolf's Fang
A long sword that burrows into what it pierces and doesn't let go.
"I've seen punks like you a few times."
The old man bared his fangs. His lowered voice was threatening.
"There were guys like that. Black blood flowing under peeled skin. Wearing white clothes on the outside, pretending not to be devils."
"You can't read people."
"Shut up. Always the same. Talented. Somehow fooling people. Making everyone think it's not them. So cunningly deceptive. Parasitic bugs trying to hang their bullshit on the Federation's shoulders..."
"Dementia? You forgot who insulted my friend first."
"Is that your prepared excuse? Huh? Season."
Yoo Ji-tae released Cha-seok's hair without responding. The unconscious Cha-seok collapsed to the floor right there.
But no one rushed to aid him recklessly.
The guards had received near-brainwashing training to protect Federation executives even if their own daughters died.
Yet despite so many agents, none dared to save Cha-seok.
The presence of the man standing still was crushing their convictions to death.
Yeah. Like that guy who charged into the forest, you're no ordinary bastard either...
The Mercenary King felt his blood boiling.
"Now. Everyone in the central command, take the Chairman and get out. I'll handle this punk!"
"Ah, yes!"
"Then..."
The Chairman, the other staff, even Jeon Hak-yeon. As they tried to quietly leave to avoid stirring trouble.
The bustling atmosphere. Chairs scraping the floor. Footsteps. Coughs.
"No."
A dry voice flowed out like a sigh.
As if someone had erased the sound, all noises in the control room vanished.
"You can't leave."
Someone's legs stopped.
After stopping, they thought.
Why did I stop?
Most there felt similar emotions.
Yoo Ji-tae opened his eyes and swept his gaze from left to right. While doing so, he sincerely thought about chopping everyone here to pieces and killing them.
Then, something inexpressible began to crush everyone there. Among those who met his eyes, some felt as if their throats were constricting.
Before entering the Federation, Yoo Ji-tae had released the Hell Bindings in advance.
For exactly this moment.
"From now on, no one here can move."
As if thrown thousands of meters deep in the ocean abyss. The aura pressing from all sides sought to crush humans into a single point.
Lower officers unable to endure the unprecedented presence lost consciousness.
But their rigid bodies weren't even allowed to fall. They lost consciousness with eyes open, in sitting or standing positions.
"I'm not forcing or threatening you."
"You have to hear my words."
"But you can judge for yourselves."
The crushed gazes turned to Christoph.
What was the top Transcender doing?
But they only realized Christoph's face was distorted like a ferocious demon.
"You bastard..."
The only difference was that he could still speak.
"Are you a calamity-level demon? Or a new Overlord?"
"No. I'm just one superhuman."
"Fine. Doesn't matter who you are. But do you think you'll get away with this arrogance in the heart of the Federation? Huh—?!"
He bellowed and moved his body.
To move his immovable body, the Transcender squeezed muscles and tendons to rise.
Crack...
Something snapped inside, but he ignored it.
"I am one of the five Transcenders designated by Kaliovan. And this is the Federation! I don't care who you are or what you're doing...!"
His words didn't continue.
Yoo Ji-tae, now within arm's reach, looked into his eyes.
"Old man. You say the strangest things."
Wooooong———
Killing intent's pressure added only to him.
Gasp— Christoph's mouth snapped shut with a sound.
Forcibly closed, his teeth shattered with a crunch.
The unprecedented killing intent that felt like the ocean floor now felt like the universe crushing a single human.
Yoo Ji-tae began crushing him with all his killing intent.
The next moment, the old man's heart stopped.
"...!"
When astronomical levels of killing intent crush existence.
Blood burst from the old man's mouth and nose.
And bloody tears flowed down his wrinkled cheeks to the floor.
A beat later, blood streams burst from his ears too.
"You've been like that since we first met. 'This is the Federation'... 'I'm Kaliovan's Transcender'... As if the authority derived from such notions actually exists."
"Ridiculous, isn't it? What meaning does a 'Federation' crushed by one superhuman have."
The regressor asked the old man.
The old man couldn't dare answer.
Those witnessing Christoph's abnormal symptoms in real time were horrified without exception.
"After the war ended. You climbed here stepping on the hardships of that time. Do you feel rewarded?"
"Trophies of past glories enshrined. Day by day reminiscing only then. That's you now."
"Daring to invoke the 'Federation'. This being the heart of the Federation... Pathetic."
Yoo Ji-tae turned his head left to look at the superhumans.
"If I kill all of you here and replace you with my people. Would it still be the 'Federation'? Well, maybe."
Kuh... Blood trickled from someone's mouth.
Yoo Ji-tae turned his head right to look at the opposite superhumans.
"Then if I kill you all too and fill this place with my people. Would it still be the 'Federation'? Could it?"
Someone's eye burst. Yet they couldn't raise a hand to cover it. They were overwhelmed.
"Then if everyone here is dead and only my people remain. Would this still be your 'Federation'?"
"Conversely, if I don't kill you but drive you out, would the exiled you gather and claim that place is the Federation to me?"
"Then there would be two Federations under the sky. Right?"
"Absurd."
Among listeners, those unaware of the paradox couldn't understand what Yoo Ji-tae was saying.
Even those who knew the paradox felt their solid beliefs shatter when the abstract notion changed from ancient Greece's ship to their organization.
As he said...
"The Federation doesn't exist. It's an illusion."
"The Federation doesn't really exist. Only you cling to meaningless notions with grand significance."
"Look at reality. Without the fancy Federation shell, what's left? You."
Yoo Ji-tae turned to face the Chairman.
He sat calmly with legs crossed, but couldn't answer.
"A group of weak superhumans crushed by one superhuman, no?"
He turned back to Christoph.
The old man bleeding all over trembled like an aspen tree, trying to endure Yoo Ji-tae's pressure.
"What of a Transcender? If Kaliovan names you 'Transcender', do you transcend something from that moment? Does the title change your existence, making you different, wielding extra power, leading people?"
"Answer. You half-assedly aged thing. Are you truly a 'Transcender'?"
Christoph realized the pressure suppressing his body vanished in an instant.
The man before him asked a question.
And gave him a chance to answer.
Christoph could only answer within the chance he granted.
In this moment, he couldn't dare call himself a Transcender.
When the belief of 'Transcender' he'd leaned on his whole life shattered.
The old soldier felt endlessly pathetic.
Those watching the two felt similar to Christoph.
No one had acknowledged it.
No one had been acknowledged by.
But just by existing, it proved transcending something.
The true Transcender was before their eyes.
"Yes. I heard the story well."
At that time. The one person here not suppressed by Yoo Ji-tae's presence spoke.
Yoo Ji-tae turned to him.
He was the owner of the World Superhuman Organization (WOO).
The top contributor who founded the Federation. Once the Witch's owner.
The one who righted the fractured world martial order.
The Chairman of the World Superhuman Federation.
Kaliovan Greenrain asked him.
"You are truly a strong human."
Kaliovan continued with an expressionless face.
"Perhaps as much as our Overlord... or more. It's absurd, but that's the feeling. Even a calamity-level demon wouldn't match you. I didn't feel this even facing the monster god of the East Asia Great War up close."
This wasn't flattery.
If such a strong being existed. He could do anything desired. Yet staging this here meant what?
"Even you can't do it alone, it seems. Can't even imagine. What must be coming. That you're revealing yourself to prove the danger of the great event approaching, here."
This transcendent being appearing at this time, this place, implied something itself.
Chairman Kaliovan pierced the unexpected point.
"What is coming in the future."
"What do you want from the Federation."
Yoo Ji-tae was silent for a moment.
The next instant, the killing intent crushing the entire command center vanished.
Gasp, haa... Sounds of held breaths bursting out. Suppressed hearts began beating. But the superhumans couldn't tear their eyes from Yoo Ji-tae.
"You must prepare for the future."
Kaliovan's eyes narrowed.
"You will face war again."
The assertion felt like fact.
"You will face armies incomparable to the East Asia Great War."
Breaths quickened.
"You will watch humanity dragged to ruin before that violent power."
He looked like a prophet.
"You will be engulfed in endless night. A night that doesn't end unless ended. For example, without precursors like today, one moment the world dyes in darkness. Waiting won't bring day."
His words sounded like revelation.
"Snap out of it and prepare for war. Somehow end the half-hearted truce with demons delayed for profit."
"Make superhumans satisfied under illusions like Transcender, Ranker compete to grow. Under the Federation roof, weed out soldiers useless in the ruin era beforehand. Shed notions—you're humanity's greatest shield, no?"
The 7th round had the power shaking the 'evil' world.
The regressor always assumed the worst to move.
To bring the best future, he stood here now.
"So you must protect the world."
What remained after illusions vanished.
Was still the organization of the strongest superhumans.
Its beginning stemmed from saving and protecting humanity.
Before Federation or Transcender, they were 'soldiers'.
Those who fought to protect humanity.
In the place shattered beliefs left, were soldiers from when they purely wanted to save people.
The soldiers' hearts grew complicated.
But all this was what he demanded of the Federation.
Not yet verified true or false. But as he said, just what the 'Federation must do' before the coming era.
Kaliovan, brows furrowed, asked him.
"Then what will you do?"
The Transcender answered.
"I will stand with you."