Chapter 25
Chapter 25
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: 9. The Barefoot Superman (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“What the hell is this…….”
The moment the golden flash triggered sensory deprivation, Hong Young-tae’s expression twisted.
He felt it too—something strange happening to his own body.
“You… what are you?”
Just as Hong Young-tae asked in a suspicious tone.
*Whoosh!*
A gray trajectory slammed into his face, producing the sound of something breaking.
*Crack!*
“Gah, fuck!”
Young-woo had jammed his shield straight into the guy’s molars.
“What’re you doing? Not even guarding.”
Young-woo pulled the shield away from his mouth, and the molars shattered into seven or eight pieces tumbled to the floor.
*Plop plop.*
“You… you fucking psycho!”
Hong Young-tae covered his collapsed gum with his right hand, his face full of disbelief.
An impossible situation.
He had only ever encountered opponents who couldn’t even trade a proper exchange with him, let alone rivals, so the very idea defied comprehension.
“You, what the hell are you to be this strong…? Aren’t you the ones supposed to get punished? Isn’t this cheating?”
“What?”
Young-woo’s eyebrow twitched as he shifted into another striking stance, and Hong Young-tae instinctively staggered back.
“Who said we’re the ones getting punished? You hear something somewhere?”
“W-Well, he didn’t say ‘punishment’ exactly, but…….”
He mumbled the rest through sniffles, and when Young-woo didn’t press the attack, he slyly extended one foot forward.
“So what I heard was…….”
What the guy did next was all too predictable.
He whipped his right arm—previously held to his mouth—in a swift sneak attack.
“That we could handle the judging with our own power……?”
*Swoooosh!*
The air-cutting whistle alone was sharp enough to raise goosebumps.
If Young-woo hadn’t held the sensory edge, his chest might’ve been ripped open long ago.
Hong Young-tae held the advantage in raw strength and reach by a wide margin.
“……!”
Even having predicted the ambush, Young-woo barely evaded the strike.
*Whoosh!*
The shortened distance gave him ample counterattack opportunities in exchange.
—Break
—Break
—Break
‘You’re done.’
Young-woo’s eyes flashed sharply upon confirming the mark, and Hong Young-tae’s face drained of color at the sight.
And sure enough.
*Boom boom boom!*
A savage barrage of retaliation homed in on him.
“Kek!”
Right elbow, left flank, capped off with a liver shot—Hong Young-tae couldn’t conceal his panic as he stumbled back again.
Mutant or not, he was human once.
Assaults of this intensity were a first for him, so all that bluster about judgment evaporated like a ghost, leaving nothing but primal terror.
“W-Wait……! I can’t even breathe! Time!”
A three-meter-tall beast clutching his side while retreating in erratic steps was a sight to behold.
Even the Kimcheon City heroes fleeing for their lives halted in place to gawk.
Meanwhile, sensing the opponent’s fighting spirit shattered, Young-woo slid Early Bird back into its sheath at his waist.
*Shing.*
He aimed to pummel until not a scrap of pride remained.
“Come here. Got questions.”
Young-woo strode forward holding just the one shield, and Hong Young-tae’s voice rose in even greater terror.
“Why… why come closer? Just ask from there!”
*Step, step.*
“Ask anything, right?”
Even as Hong Young-tae raised both hands in surrender, Young-woo didn’t stop.
*Step, step.*
He closed in until the guy’s ragged breaths brushed his hair.
Then.
*Whoooosh.*
Young-woo leaped four meters into the air and smashed down onto Hong Young-tae’s yellowish crown.
*Smaaash!*
“Urk!”
With the head bowed low, pummeling became far easier for Young-woo.
No need to rely on Gumi Swordsmanship anymore—targets were wide open.
*Thud, smack!*
Fist and shield alternated on Hong Young-tae’s body, and the Kimcheon City heroes watching from afar began inching closer, one or two steps at a time.
“This isn’t… a dream, is it?”
“What the hell is this…….”
Bewilderment overtook any awe.
The scene was too surreal for them.
A barefoot superman had leaped in out of nowhere to thrash a mutant.
“Maybe he’s a mutant too? How does that even work?”
“It says Gumi’s Greatest Swordsman. He’s gotta be… human, right.”
Flee or stay for the once-in-a-lifetime spectacle of a mutant losing one-on-one to a human?
The Kimcheon City heroes dithered, lifting their toes only to plant them again.
By then, Hong Young-tae’s face had turned into complete mush.
*Thud, smack!*
Worried the shield might kill him, Young-woo had switched to fists and feet alone.
His own feet were soaked red in Hong Young-tae’s blood as a result, his fists little different.
“Huff, huff. Tough bastard.”
Only as his own breath grew ragged did Young-woo halt the beating.
Hong Young-tae toppled backward as if fleeing, barely propping himself up as he vomited blood.
*Spurt!*
“N-Now stop. Th-That’s plenty…….”
No anger or fear this time—just weary resignation.
‘Good enough.’
Young-woo finally deemed it time for talk.
“That judgment you mentioned. Who told you? Where’ve you been?”
Hong Young-tae instinctively glanced skyward.
“D-Don’t know, for real. Just waited… in some super dark place.”
“Waited?”
“Yeah… the voice said so. When the time comes, we’ll return in order.”
The red pillar transforming him into a mutant to reenter the world.
“So whose voice? It managing you guys?”
“…Don’t know that either. Just a voice. Only heard the sound.”
He eyed Young-woo with dread.
Likely figuring a lame answer meant more beatings.
‘Doesn’t seem like a lie. Matches what Jang Sun-bok said pretty well.’
Gumi’s Jang Sun-bok had said something similar before dying.
—What year is it now? No clue how long I was locked up.
—First day? So I’m the earliest? Ah, got it.
Mutants were quarantined somewhere beyond this world, returning in some predetermined sequence.
“Anything else? Like a return function.”
“Return……?”
Hong Young-tae looked baffled, his half-ruined muzzle quivering.
“…Ah!”
His right hand suddenly glowed blue.
“You fuck……!”
Young-woo assumed self-destruct and yanked his sword free in a flash.
*Shing!*
Hong Young-tae shook his head in greater alarm.
“N-No! Not that! I mean this……!”
*Flash!*
The blue glow in his right hand took shape.
It was.
“……!”
A door.
The icon of an opening door, arched at the top, shining blue.
“Won’t believe it, but someone else has to grab this. Bare right hand, no weapon.”
“Then you return just like that?”
“D-Don’t know for sure. Just heard to use it if no more business here… or regret picking mutant.”
“…….”
Circumstantially, it screamed return button.
But that hinged on one thing.
‘This psycho not lying.’
Door-shaped icon—could just as easily warp the target instead.
Which was it?
‘Fuck… scum in life, gonna play straight now?’
Distrust surged instinctively in Young-woo.
Yet deeper thought flipped it: maybe that’s exactly why it was real.
Returning meant betraying mutant duty, slinking away quietly.
‘So they made betrayal a hassle.’
Like requiring your mortal enemy—who’d been clawing and slashing moments ago—to assist.
Plus.
[Special Grade Social Worker]
|Send the mutant back alive.
Asking a mutant for return instructions wasn’t for just anyone.
Only possible if ‘Special Grade Social Worker’ hovered in your recommended achievements.
‘Dilemma time again.’
No quest spell it out, either.
As Young-woo hesitated, Hong Young-tae slyly curled his splayed right hand.
“Uh… so what? Anyway, no lie. Can’t help if you don’t trust me, but don’t beat me more.”
Hand not fully clenched, the blue door lingered.
‘Devious bastard.’
Young-woo nearly mulled longer but surrendered to gut instinct once more.
“Fuck it.”
He sheathed Early Bird anew and extended his right hand. Hong Young-tae flinched.
No retreat or tricks, though.
He knew his outlook stayed grim otherwise.
“You… it’s not some function to screw you. Trust me.”
“Not trusting you. Trusting the situation.”
With that, Young-woo thrust his hand forward boldly.
*Thud!*
Human and ogre right hands overlapped, enveloping the ‘blue door’.
Young-woo realized then.
It was just like a handshake.
“…Huh?”
Hong Young-tae, hand in hand, stared into empty air with bulging eyes.
“What? What’s up?”
No reply came.
*Shiii.*
Already fading from view.
The three-meter ogre’s body.
“Huh.”
Hong Young-tae’s vacant expression lingered as his elongated muzzle vanished from sight, soon followed by the fluffy texture in Young-woo’s grip.
“Hong Young-tae? You really gone?”
Young-woo asked thin air, and a golden orb materialized where he’d stood.
“Ha.”
The exact same orb from slaying Jang Sun-bok.
「Mutant eliminated.」
「Select reward to complete procedure.」
Follow-up prompts appeared.
Choosing karma dispersal for all again would shatter the ‘Golden Foundation’ achievement.
*Ping!*
Proof then arrived that he’d sent Hong Young-tae back alive.
[Achievement Unlocked: Special Grade Social Worker]
|Achievement Grade: Legend
|Achievement Rank: First
‘Knew it.’
Young-woo clenched his sweat-slick right hand, foreseeing his achievement bent veer stubbornly further into ‘hardliner’ territory.
「Recommended achievement list updated.」
‘Lose one, gain a new one.’
Young-woo adapted swiftly to this world.
But even he hadn’t anticipated one thing.
*Flash!*
Amid bright light, another prompt.
[New title available.]
“Huh?”
Young-woo voiced his surprise aloud, scanning the text below.
-Overwhelming! Countless First Sword candidates witnessed your might. None will contest you as ‘Kimcheon First Sword’.