Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: 29. In the Pitch-Black Night (6)
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The Five Heroes of Xian.
Swordmaster London.
Milan's Guardian Sword.
Tokyo's Sword Emperor.
Chicago's Butcher.
After memorizing the faces and names of the five powerhouses shown on television, Youngwoo took a rare shower to wash the blood from his body.
Even as he did, he kept replaying that bizarre experience from earlier.
‘So, somewhere out there, someone might have seen me on TV?’
Even if there were such people, there wouldn't be many.
To use a television required access to an outrageously expensive day room.
That meant at least someone who had unified a major district like this place, or a rich person who could burn through tens of thousands of karma in a single night.
‘Normally, you can only watch TV in day rooms... so maybe my shower got broadcast too.’
Youngwoo thought this as he stepped out of the bathroom and equipped his gear one by one.
Then, finally.
Click.
He donned the black cloak, recalling the final task of the day.
「Black Raincoat」 - Hero's Cloak
【Nullifies obsidian rain.】
Soon, it would be 11 p.m., and he would have to head out into the streets where the body-shattering obsidian rain would fall and spend the night there.
‘The achievement said to spend the night outside... but exactly until what time?’
[Nightwalker]
|Spend the night outside your residence.
He didn't know if it meant until the day room expired at 10 a.m., or just until sunrise.
Perhaps the achievement would complete the moment the rain stopped, regardless of the time.
The reason spending the night outside one's residence qualified as an ‘achievement’ was none other than the danger of the abnormal weather.
‘Whatever it is, I'll find out once I go out.’
Current time: 10:54 p.m.
In about six minutes, the long-awaited obsidian rain would start, so Youngwoo prepared to head out in earnest.
He turned off the problematic television and double-checked his gear.
Then he fastened Dragon's Legacy and Underdog to his belt and gripped the Dullahan's sword in his hand.
If he encountered something outside in the rain, the odds were higher it would be a monster than a person.
In that case, the black sword was the most versatile.
Now that he had grown taller, its maximum extension range had increased too.
Clunk.
As Youngwoo opened the room door with the golden goblin and stepped into the hallway, Im Sun-ah, who had been waiting for the elevator at the far end, turned around with a startled look.
“Uh... where are you going, Youngwoo-ssi?”
She glanced at her wristwatch, as if questioning if she had the right idea.
Current time: 10:56 p.m.
Four minutes until being outside meant flesh tearing off.
Youngwoo gave an awkward smile and walked slowly down the hallway.
“Looks like you're heading home, Manager.”
“Yeah... that's right.”
Im Sun-ah eyed him suspiciously.
So Youngwoo came clean.
“I'm going out for a bit. I'll be back at dawn.”
“Out... outside?”
Im Sun-ah's mouth fell open.
In this world, going ‘outside’ after the sun fully set was synonymous with impossibility.
An inviolable realm where nothing was known except that the abnormal weather killed people.
“Isn't it dangerous to go outside?”
“Normally, yeah...”
Ding!
The elevator Im Sun-ah had been waiting for arrived just then, so Youngwoo cut off and saw her off.
“Go on down first. I'll take the stairs.”
“No, wait...!”
As Im Sun-ah tried to say something, Youngwoo's figure shot sideways like an arrow.
* * *
10:58 p.m.
Youngwoo arrived in the hotel lobby and glanced at the elevator Im Sun-ah had taken, which was still descending.
Then he crossed the spacious lobby and headed out the front entrance where Neguig was parked.
Clank, clank.
As Youngwoo emerged from the hotel with metallic sounds, Neguig uncurled its body and let out its signature screech.
-Kreeee...!
Youngwoo lightly mounted its back and gripped the black reins.
The golden goblin followed suit, climbing up behind him.
-Keek!
“Oh, you okay? Rain's coming soon.”
Youngwoo asked the goblin, which somehow understood and looked up at the sky.
And right on cue.
Rumble...
An ominous sound echoed from high in the sky.
Probably thunder.
Then, sure enough.
Crack boom!
A much louder thunderclap split the sky with a jagged blue bolt of lightning.
“...!”
And in that moment, Youngwoo saw it.
For a split second, the lightning-illuminated sky dotted with countless specks.
Rooooar...
A sound like cars racing through a long tunnel followed.
“...It's coming.”
The abnormal weathers that had erased the concept of ‘night’ from this world.
Youngwoo was witnessing the start of one for the first time.
「00:00:00」
The abnormal weather timer ticked down to zero and vanished from before his eyes, and at the same time, his vision began fracturing vertically into countless shards.
Rattle-rattle-crack!
“My god.”
Obsidian rain.
It was literal.
Obsidian shards shaped like icicles poured from the sky, shattering on impact with the ground before melting away into the air.
Crack smash!
‘At this rate, it's not body damage—it's getting turned into mincemeat.’
Youngwoo raised his arm slightly and watched an obsidian shard touching his forearm dissolve on contact.
This was the effect of the ‘Black Raincoat.’
For Neguig and the golden goblin, however, the laws of physics applied normally.
Even Neguig's hide was constantly pelted by obsidian shards that shattered on impact, creating a racket.
Clang, kang! Kang!
The golden goblin was dazed by the relentless hits to its forehead, but the lack of even a scratch suggested the rain's lethality only affected Earth-born creatures.
“Hide under the cloak. It'll be better that way.”
Youngwoo offered the goblin the edge of his cloak, then slowly tugged the reins to urge Neguig forward.
Where to?
He didn't know yet.
The achievement system's only instruction was to spend the night outside.
He had half-hoped for a night-exclusive quest, but nothing like that existed.
Just the obsidian rain slashing wildly across his vision and the city submerged in darkness.
‘At least seven more hours... Let's head out of Seoul first.’
Like the monster hunters who couldn't gain a foothold in Seoul and went to Gyeonggi Province or farther, Youngwoo decided to leave Seoul this time.
And if he was going...
‘North.’
Toward the nearest ‘foreign country,’ North Korea.
As Youngwoo directed Neguig north, it let out a sharp screech from the heart of Gangnam.
-Kreeeek!
Then it bolted in the specified direction at high speed.
Clang!
Nearby residences, lit up in day-room mode, had their windows flung open one after another.
They thought a night-only monster had appeared.
Of course, Youngwoo dashing through the flesh-tearing obsidian rain on an iron steed with a black cloak billowing looked monstrous to anyone.
Clang, crack!
Youngwoo crossed Seoul northward, alternating between the thunderous iron hooves and Neguig's screeches.
Starting from Gangnam, he crossed the Han River through Jung-gu, Seodaemun, and Eunpyeong, eventually reaching Goyang City in Gyeonggi Province.
Whoosh!
|You are currently in ‘Goyang.’
|This area's Greatest Swordsman is ‘Park Jung-jin02.’ 1st gen, 42 defenses.
‘Park Jung-jin...02. Goyang's still holding strong.’
No surprise—Goyang City's population was about double that of a typical Seoul district.
So how strong must the top dog here be?
A whopping 42 defenses, and ‘1st gen’ meant they'd monopolized all growth factors since reset day one.
The ID number 02 even hinted at their tenacity.
But even so, they couldn't fend off abnormal weather, so they were likely hunkered down inside their residence right now.
Clang!
Youngwoo sped through Goyang just like before, spreading nighttime ghost stories across Gyeonggi too.
From reset day four onward, a monster prowling through the abnormal weather.
Crack, clang!
Blazing through Goyang like lightning, Youngwoo finally reached Paju City, bordering North Korea's Kaesong Special City.
And.
Flash!
|You are currently in ‘Paju.’
|This area has no Greatest Swordsman.
Paju had no Greatest Swordsman.
‘No way the Goyang Greatest Swordsman absorbed it?’
A strong possibility.
Because.
“Ah.”
A bit farther north, a blazing red pillar of light came into view in the distance.
Proof that Paju hadn't dealt with its mutant.
The Paju Greatest Swordsman slot had probably been vacant all along.
Rooooar...!
Darkness made the marker seem larger and more vivid than usual.
Clang!
As Youngwoo steered Neguig straight for the red pillar, the hitherto stationary mutant marker twitched for a moment.
It had likely caught this side's ‘stench.’
Distance to the mutant: about 2 kilometers.
Judging by the marker's position, it wasn't in the city center but a nearby mountain.
‘Hiding from the rain?’
The golden goblin's misery under the constant forehead barrages suggested even mutants didn't enjoy the abnormal weather.
Clang!
The distance to the red pillar embedded in the mountain shrank to a few hundred meters, and around then, a chilling mutant voice pierced the darkness.
「Must you seek alms on such an inclement night?」
“...?”
Strange manner of speech.
Anyway, confirming a mutant in the mountain, Youngwoo leaped off Neguig.
Thud!
“I'm not here to fight. If you're amenable, let's talk.”
In all of South Korea, Youngwoo was likely the only one who could open like this to a mutant.
But the mutant in the mountain, unaware of this, replied incredulously.
「Ha! Your stench reeks to high heaven, yet the fourth of the Ten Evils is False Speech.」
Then the trees on the mountain rustled.
‘Here it comes.’
What kind was this mutant? Or rather...
‘Who the hell talks like that?’
Guessing it was huge, Youngwoo drew Underdog instead of the black sword.
Swoooosh!
Right on cue.
Boom!
A massive silhouette burst from the mountainside where the voice had emanated.
「Take thiiiis!」
Its identity was none other than.
[Monk-Jo Seung-tae]
The defrocked monk Jo Seung-tae, also known as the lecherous priest.
A human scum who'd committed nearly every bodily sin from drunk driving to rape to aggravated assault.
Youngwoo had even heard the infamous name on the news.
Which was why he was now a half-dragon with a chicken head—a cockatrice—charging at Youngwoo.
Thud, thud, boom!
As the distance closed, Dragon's Legacy on Youngwoo's belt glowed red.
Meaning the foe was Grade 2 or lower.
Youngwoo drew it with his left hand and snapped sharply.
“For a bastard like you to trigger this sword... I'll erase you from the world.”
Jo Seung-tae bulged his protruding eyes and gaped his massive beak.
「This monk has atoned for all karma! Silence your mouth and repent too!」
Rooooar...!
He thought the beak gape was just for talking, but no sooner had the line ended than a sinister energy gathered inside.
‘What the—’
「Diiiie!」
Gray breath blasted from the wide-open beak, but Youngwoo had already rolled sideways in evasion.
「You...!」
While Jo Seung-tae reeled from the unexpectedly nimble move, Youngwoo swung Dragon's Legacy and Underdog in both hands.
Shiiiing!
In the pitch darkness, the swords traced an X, light flashing along their paths, and soon Dogo's wedge logo appeared there.
[Grade 2 Billboard Utilization]
-Company logo prints along weapon's trajectory.
And at the overlapping point of the Dogo logos projected from both blade tips.
「Guh...!」
Was the head of Paju's third mutant, Jo Seung-tae.
Youngwoo had decapitated it in one stroke. Into quarters, even.
Splat!
The massive head split into four chunks and hit the ground, and from where it had been, a white beam shot skyward.
Then.
“Huh...?”
Instead of the usual golden orb, a black one appeared.