Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Unbreakable Wall (2)
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Crunch!
The Fighting Emperor ground his teeth.
He had thought that if he worked hard, it would be enough.
He had believed that if he showcased his skills, everyone would acknowledge him.
But that wasn't the case.
‘It had nothing to do with skill.’
Whether he achieved five consecutive wins or ten in the martial tournament, it didn't matter.
It was impossible to shatter the deep-rooted prejudice that Toin tribesmen abandoned their comrades and fled when things turned disadvantageous.
No, he hadn't even been given a chance to break that prejudice in the first place.
‘Damn it, you have to give someone a chance for revenge.’
He acknowledged that his ancestors from the Toin tribe had committed grave mistakes.
But assuming the descendants would do the same and denying them any opportunity at all was a different matter entirely.
And all because of the simplistic reason that they shared the same blood as their ancestors.
-I think it's better to focus on more productive endeavors than chasing something impossible. You don't have to join the Mulan Kingdom Army to break prejudices against the Toin tribe, do you? Joining a party or guild, making great comrades, growing strong, and making your name known across the world—that's another way to shatter those prejudices.
The words Kang Hyun-soo had said during their first drinking session echoed in the Fighting Emperor's mind.
‘Yeah, it was impossible from the start.’
He had wasted time on something futile up until now.
However, his goal hadn't changed.
‘I’ll definitely shatter the prejudices against the Toin tribe.’
That had been the very reason the Fighting Emperor wanted to enlist in the Mulan Kingdom Army in the first place.
But as Kang Hyun-soo had said, it wasn't necessary to join the Mulan Kingdom Army to achieve that.
‘I won’t back down.’
From now on, he would fight the Demon King's Army as a member of the party.
‘Watch me closely.’
The Fighting Emperor vowed to stand at the forefront in battles against the Demon King's Army.
And even if it meant death, he resolved never to abandon his comrades and flee.
Seeing him like that, they would understand.
That not all Toin tribesmen were cowards who abandoned their comrades and ran.
* * *
“You’re back?”
As the Fighting Emperor entered the lodging, Kang Hyun-soo greeted him warmly.
“The results come out tomorrow, right? If you get into the Mulan Kingdom Army, we might part ways tomorrow, so let’s at least have a farewell party tonight.”
Kang Hyun-soo joked lightly, even though he didn’t mean it.
‘He’s going to get rejected anyway, so I should at least comfort him.’
Kang Hyun-soo knew the Fighting Emperor would be rejected.
Even before his regression, when he had built an even greater reputation, the Mulan Kingdom Army had never allowed him to enlist.
So this rejection was practically a foregone conclusion.
“No need for that.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s head out today.”
Kang Hyun-soo’s expression hardened at the Fighting Emperor’s words.
“Did something happen?”
“I just realized that no matter how skilled I am, I can’t overcome prejudice.”
‘What on earth happened?’
Before his regression, the Fighting Emperor had relentlessly tried to join the Mulan Kingdom Army.
He had been so obsessed that others wondered why he was so fixated on it.
But the current Fighting Emperor...
‘He’s let go of that obsession.’
No, it went beyond that.
“Let’s go quickly. I want to show those damn bastards what we’re made of as soon as possible.”
He even seemed to hate the Mulan Kingdom Army.
‘Well, it’s not bad for me.’
If the Fighting Emperor kept clinging to the Mulan Kingdom Army?
His body would be in Kang Hyun-soo’s party, but his heart would be elsewhere.
But if he shed that attachment faster than before his regression?
He could integrate into Kang Hyun-soo’s party more quickly.
“Alright, let’s do that.”
Preparations to leave had already been made while the Fighting Emperor was in the tournament anyway.
They could depart immediately without issue.
Kang Hyun-soo’s group packed their belongings.
Afterward, they used a spatial transfer gate to move from Gula, the capital of the Mulan Kingdom, to Jorman, the major city at the kingdom’s southernmost tip.
* * *
Step, step.
Kang Hyun-soo’s group, burdened with heavy loads, pressed toward the border region.
‘The coordination between countries is still way too weak.’
The Atlantis Dimension had spatial transfer gates.
However, while gates within each country were open to one another...
Gates leading to other countries were all sealed off.
It was like operating only domestic flights while blocking all international ones with planes or trains.
That was why traveling from the Mulan Kingdom to the Mightor Kingdom required crossing the border on foot like this.
‘It only improves after they get a huge wake-up call later.’
Before the Demon King's Army appeared.
The nations in the Atlantis Dimension had been hostile toward one another.
Even after the Demon King's Army emerged, that lingering animosity kept the nations wary of each other.
‘It’s only the early stages of the invasion right now.’
When the invasion intensified later?
The nations of the Atlantis Dimension would suffer massive losses due to their sealed spatial transfer gates.
‘This isn’t the time for them to be fighting among themselves, but they don’t realize it.’
Or maybe they did, but couldn’t help it.
Because they didn’t trust one another.
‘It’ll sort itself out with time.’
This was beyond what Kang Hyun-soo could fix.
As time passed and stronger demons appeared...
The nations would be forced to realize they could only survive by uniting their strength.
Roooar!
Monsters occasionally lunged at them during the journey.
Slash!
The monsters were slain the moment they appeared.
Their levels were far too low compared to Kang Hyun-soo’s group to pose any threat.
‘At least it’s good that relations between the Mulan and Mightor Kingdoms aren’t bad.’
If the relationship between the Mulan and Mightor Kingdoms had been as hostile as between Mulan and Terra Kingdoms?
Kang Hyun-soo and Song Ha-na, who held free citizen status in the Rokto Empire, might have been fine, but the Fighting Emperor would have been executed or arrested the instant he entered Mightor territory.
‘But don’t they clear monsters from the border areas?’
Kyaaaooong!
Monsters kept swarming relentlessly during the trek.
He wanted to summon his beasts and wipe them all out...
‘Not much farther now.’
The Mightor Kingdom border was right ahead.
Naturally, Mightor Kingdom soldiers were watching them from the watchtowers.
‘No need to draw unnecessary attention.’
Kang Hyun-soo’s One-Man Army class was highly unusual.
And extremely powerful.
Which meant he needed to conceal that power as much as possible.
A short while later.
Kang Hyun-soo’s group successfully entered the Mightor Kingdom.
Once inside, Kang Hyun-soo led Song Ha-na and the Fighting Emperor straight to the teleport gate.
“What’s Luzabenu like?”
Song Ha-na asked with a face full of curiosity.
The Fighting Emperor perked up his long ears, clearly interested in info about Luzabenu too.
Song Ha-na and the Fighting Emperor knew from Kang Hyun-soo that their destination was Luzabenu in the Mightor Kingdom.
But they’d only heard it was an efficient hunting ground.
They didn’t know what kind of place it actually was.
“It’s a major city at the southernmost tip of the Mightor Kingdom.”
Song Ha-na and the Fighting Emperor’s eyes lit up at Kang Hyun-soo’s answer.
“A major city?”
“Then it won’t be some barren dump like Sok, right?”
“Exactly. It’s a proper city with everything you need.”
Even with Kang Hyun-soo’s reassurance, tension didn’t leave Song Ha-na and the Fighting Emperor’s faces.
“Do they do expeditions there too?”
“Expeditions? Are we really going on another one?”
Song Ha-na and the Fighting Emperor stared at Kang Hyun-soo with blazing eyes.
“No need for expeditions. The area around Luzabenu is crawling with monsters.”
Their faces brightened at Kang Hyun-soo’s words that expeditions weren’t necessary.
“What’s the weather like? Cold?”
Kang Hyun-soo gave the Fighting Emperor a look of disbelief.
“Not cold—hot. Luzabenu has no spring, summer, fall, or winter. Just rainy and dry seasons. You’re a native of Atlantis, and you didn’t know that?”
Despite Kang Hyun-soo’s jab, a bright smile bloomed on the Fighting Emperor’s face.
“Of course! It’s gotta be hot! Hahaha! I knew, but I just wanted to confirm! I’m tough in the heat!”
“I’d take hot over cold any day!”
The Fighting Emperor and Song Ha-na were grinning from ear to ear.
‘Did I push them too hard for those three months?’
They were thrilled even though he’d said it was hot, not just warm.
Camping in bone-chilling cold.
They’d suffered so much from the cold that just the thought of heading north made them freak out.
‘We’ll see if they say that after we get there.’
Once in Luzabenu...
They’d learn that hot and humid was just as torturous as freezing cold.
* * *
Kang Hyun-soo’s group arrived in Luzabenu.
The spatial transfer gate fee wasn’t cheap, but they weren’t so poor as to quibble over pocket change.
‘Thanks to the Fighting Emperor, we made a killing this time too.’
The Fighting Emperor’s victory had netted them a huge sum.
How huge?
‘The Guardian Ring, stuck at D-Rank, jumped straight to B-Rank.’
Not only that, but he’d fed plenty to the Gluttony Sword as well.
As a result, the Gluttony Sword’s performance had risen to top-tier B-Rank.
It was extravagant spending, truthfully.
He’d scooped up all the B-Rank items with bad options and less desirable defensive B-Rank skillbooks and fed them to the Gluttony Sword and Guardian Ring.
But Kang Hyun-soo was satisfied.
‘How great is it that money can solve this.’
Luzabenu, the southernmost city in the Mightor Kingdom.
They had come here for three reasons total.
First: hunting.
There was no better hunting ground for their current growth level.
Second: money.
Luzabenu was a region where all sorts of toxic and medicinal herbs grew wild.
Among them, guopi was a common herb with detoxifying properties that neutralized poisons.
‘It reproduces so well it’s underfoot everywhere.’
That kept its price low.
But...
About a year from now, its price would skyrocket hundreds of times over.
‘Because the Venomous Insect Legion appears.’
The Venomous Insect Legion that crossed through dimensional gates didn’t have high levels.
Aside from their creepy insectoid appearance, they were similar to existing mid-to-low-level monsters.
‘But they’re venomous.’
The poison wasn’t instantly lethal.
It caused persistent high fever and abdominal pain, steadily draining the victim’s stamina.
Without detoxification?
Over 90% of mid-to-low-level players died within three months.
‘Guopi prices surged right after the Venomous Insect Legion showed up.’
It wasn’t that guopi had no competitors.
But other antidotes were more effective yet far too expensive.
Like treating a disease curable with a few-hundred-won Tylenol by buying million-won wonder drugs.
In simple terms, the cost-performance didn’t match.
At first, people bought the million-won drugs just to survive.
But to hunt, they needed to continuously detox the Venomous Insect Legion’s poison.
Daily earnings of tens of thousands, but drugs costing millions?
Better to give up hunting.
Other antidotes had finicky growth conditions, making mass production impossible.
No mass production meant prices couldn’t drop.
Guopi, on the other hand, could be mass-produced.
Hence its low price.
The only drawback: it only grew in the tropical Luzabenu region.
‘Even if it’s everywhere, it couldn’t cover the entire dimension’s demand.’
Moreover, because it was so cheap, almost no herbalists farmed guopi back then.
Naturally, prices exploded.
‘Though even hundreds of times higher, it was still way cheaper than other antidotes.’
A Tylenol jumping to tens of thousands was still cheaper than million-won drugs.
‘Before my regression, no antidote matched guopi’s cost-performance.’
Probably the same this time.
‘Running a guopi herb farm will be a steady cash cow.’
Antidotes were essential for hunting.
Eating million-won drugs daily for hunts was a massive loss.
But tens of thousands? Affordable.
Every player in the Atlantis Dimension would be Kang Hyun-soo’s customer.
The final third reason.
‘Sword Sovereign.’
A figure who always came up when discussing the Atlantis Dimension’s strongest swordsmen.
‘A guy with a lot of controversy.’
Sword God, Sword Emperor, Sword Saint, Sword Sovereign.
The four swordsmen representing the Atlantis Dimension.
Sword God Lee Kwang-ho was truly the god of all swordsmen.
The Sword Emperor and Sword Saint were revered by every swordsman.
But not the Sword Sovereign.
The reason?
‘His swordsmanship was way below mine, probably.’
For someone with the title of Sword Sovereign...
His sword skills were utterly abysmal.