Chapter 367
Chapter 367
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 367
Chapter Title: Racial War (6)
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As he took one step forward, all eyes focused on him.
"Isn't this too soon?"
Reaper Johnson urgently tried to speak, but Lee Hyuk-soo raised a hand to silence him.
"It's fine."
Lee Hyuk-soo's gaze was deeper and more resolute than ever.
He remembered the words he had just thrown at the Gremlins.
'Fight without regrets, without shame, with everything you've got.' He, who had said those words, could not turn away from their final moments.
This went beyond mere point accumulation. It might be humanity's first demonstration of 'qualification' on the stage of the Racial War.
What Park Chan-woo had so desperately hoped for.
What had he dreamed of through this Racial War?
Adora silently watched Lee Hyuk-soo's decision.
Complex emotions flickered in her red eyes.
The one carrying on Park Chan-woo's will.
Since it was the path he had chosen, she would simply watch.
Perhaps this was another 'path' that Park Chan-woo had prepared.
The elder Gremlin, seeing Lee Hyuk-soo step forward personally, grinned on his gaunt face.
"Hmph... So the king of humans graces us himself. Good. You're more than worthy to adorn my end."
His voice held no more despair or pleas. Only the will for one final struggle, staking everything, remained.
The elder Gremlin's name was Gornak. His level was lower than the previous Grulrku's, but the aura emanating from him was no less formidable.
He checked the last mechanical devices remaining on his body, radiating killing intent toward Lee Hyuk-soo.
"...!"
The new duel conditions caused not only the humanity team but also the other races watching from afar to stir.
'All external effects and enhancements nullified.'
This meant that special powers like Lee Hyuk-soo's Baal gear, Adora's relic from Park Chan-woo, and Han Shin's Demon God contract would all be sealed.
Only pure physical strength and will.
The most primal and fair condition—and thus, all the more brutal.
"...This is bad."
"Does it mean only pure stats are allowed?"
Lee Hyuk-soo's strength came not just from his swordsmanship but undoubtedly from the transcendent power of Baal's gear.
If all that was sealed...
But Lee Hyuk-soo remained calm.
He slowly drew the sword of Baal from his waist.
The blade still exuded an ominous aura, but whether it could wield that power inside the arena was uncertain.
"Interesting."
A faint smile tugged at Lee Hyuk-soo's lips.
A fight pitting only pure strength and will against each other.
This might be the system's consideration for the last warrior of a fading race—a true test of a warrior's worth.
He raised his sword toward Gornak in salute.
The duel between the old warrior burning his final embers and the hero bearing humanity's hope.
"...!"
As the system's announcement ended, the entire battlefield stirred once more.
This wasn't just removing external effects.
It was stripping everything bare, forcing a fight in the most primal 'naked' state of one's existence.
The ominous aura of the Baal set that had enveloped Lee Hyuk-soo had completely vanished.
Gornak on the opposite side was the same.
The mechanical devices that had clung to his body like his last hope became lifeless scrap metal, clattering to the ground.
Now, only tattered leather clothes and a rusted dagger remained in his hands.
For the last warrior of a tribe that had lost everything, no fairness could be more cruel.
Shuuu—
At that moment, the space beneath Lee Hyuk-soo and Gornak warped again, transforming into an entirely new landscape.
The battlefield vanished, leaving only the two standing face-to-face in an ancient circular stone arena.
The arena, as if built on an endless barren plain, bore the wear of thousands of years, yet felt like a sacred altar for a ritual.
No spectator seats, no ornate decorations.
A stage prepared solely for the pure clash of two warriors.
Only the cold wind swirled through the arena, heightening the tension.
Gornak glanced at the mechanical fragments fallen from his body, then chuckled and kicked them aside.
"...So it comes to this in the end."
He gripped his rusted dagger tighter, glaring at Lee Hyuk-soo like a starving wolf.
Lee Hyuk-soo quietly assessed his own condition.
The explosive power from Baal's gear was gone, but strangely, his body felt lighter and clearer.
The pure sensation of a swordsman he had long forgotten, the faith in his body and mind honed to the limit, welled up from within.
Only one thing mattered.
He slowly raised his sword, pointing it politely at Gornak.
"I salute your final struggle."
His voice was low and calm, yet carried a will like steel.
The image of the hero that Park Chan-woo had seen in him.
The warriors' gazes clashed fiercely in the air.
"Glory to the Gremlins!"
In the absolute silence where even the wind seemed to stop, Gornak finally kicked off the ground and charged first.
Chaeng!
Lee Hyuk-soo did not retreat an inch.
Just before Gornak's dagger reached his throat, Lee Hyuk-soo's sword moved like a living thing, perfectly parrying the attack.
The sharp clash of metal echoed through the ancient arena.
External effects were gone, but Lee Hyuk-soo's swordsmanship had not rusted.
If anything, his movements were more refined and sharp, like a precision machine tolerating no error.
"Kraaah!"
With his first attack blocked, Gornak swung his dagger even more ferociously.
His strikes were unpredictable, each laden with deadly venom.
He seemed to disregard defense entirely, driven solely by the intent to inflict even a single wound on Lee Hyuk-soo.
Chaeng! Chaechaeng! Kakang!
Lee Hyuk-soo deflected or parried every attack with minimal movement, as if dancing.
His sword lacked flashiness, but each trajectory carried the weight of experience.
This was the moment his pure swordsmanship shone.
While blocking all of Gornak's assaults, he read the final resolve in his opponent's eyes.
A worthy foe. Enemy or not.
"Is this... all you've got?"
In the breathless exchange, Lee Hyuk-soo asked softly.
His voice was serene, but the pressure within drove Gornak further into a corner.
Gornak answered not with words but by gathering his remaining strength and raising his dagger high.
His eyes turned bloodshot.
"Defeat... is not for us!"
As his body surged toward Lee Hyuk-soo in a final charge, Lee Hyuk-soo's sword moved quietly.
It was neither a storm of slashes nor flashy technique.
Just one point.
A thrust extending toward the opponent's most fatal opening—utterly simple and perfect.
The pinnacle of pure swordsmanship.
The tip of Lee Hyuk-soo's sword pierced precisely into the gap of Gornak, who had lunged with his last strength, straight to the heart.
Kuhuk!
Blood erupted from Gornak's mouth with a short groan.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
He could never have imagined his all-out final assault ending so futilely.
The rusted dagger fell limply to the ground.
Lee Hyuk-soo did not withdraw his sword.
He stood with sword still gripped, calmly facing the fading old warrior.
Life force drained rapidly from Gornak's body.
His gaunt frame staggered, knees buckling onto the cold stone floor.
"...Kuh, kuhk..."
A self-mocking smile formed on his lips.
"A splendid resolve. Warrior of the Gremlins."
Hearing Lee Hyuk-soo's words, Gornak lifted his head amid ragged breaths.
His eyes held no anger or despair anymore, but an eerie peace.
"...No regrets. At least... I fought like a warrior in the end... They'll remember... as you said..."
His gaze drifted to the empty air.
As if reminiscing.
And then.
Srururu.
He turned to dust and vanished.
Humanity's third victory.
But this win left a heavier aftertaste than the previous two.
"I won't beg for my life anymore."
One of the remaining seven Gremlins finally spoke.
His voice was hoarse, but carried a firmness utterly different from prior desperate pleas.
"Let's fight."
Another Gremlin bolstered his words.
His gaunt hand gripped the worn weapon at his waist.
"For our glory."
With the last Gremlin's words, their eyes changed.
No more fear of defeat or dread of annihilation.
Only the final pride of a dying race, burning to fight with everything they had.
Lee Hyuk-soo's words had reignited their last embers.
No chance of victory, yet they resolved to etch the existence of the Gremlin tribe into the humans and this cruel Abyss.
A faint fighting spirit began to rise from their bodies.
Not the broken mechanical weaponry of before, but the pure aura of warriors.
Adriana looked at Lee Hyuk-soo with a complex expression.
"Was there really need to revive their killing intent, Hyuk-soo?"
Her question mixed worry with a hint of reproach.
Lee Hyuk-soo did not answer, silently gazing at the Gremlins.
"A warrior has the right to die as one."
His brief words left Adriana speechless.
The war continued.
Victory after victory.
Humanity did not lose a single time.
No, not once.
Not even the 'forfeit loss' anticipated due to Park Chan-woo's absence.
"...Just me left, huh."
The last Gremlin warrior gave a wistful smile.
No will to fight remained in his eyes.
The brutal final moments of his kin flashed through his mind. His tribesmen falling before overwhelming power.
And himself, forced to witness their ends.
"No more point in fighting. I surrender. At least... I need to etch everyone's last moments in my eyes."
His voice was hollow, devoid of any resistance.
Ten victories.
The humanity team achieved perfect victory in their first tribal matchup.
Sighs of relief and cautious joy leaked from the team members.
The representatives who had fought consecutively exhaled roughly as tension eased.
But the joy was short-lived.
The system's next message froze everyone in the battlefield—and all Earthlings watching through screens once more.
"...".
Lee Hyuk-soo gazed at the Gremlin tribe's last warrior with a hardened expression.
Was this the result of urging them to fight?
An honorable warrior's death. But if it led to the entire tribe's annihilation... complex emotions swirled.
Only Adora remained expressionless, though her red eyes were deeper than ever.
This was the essence of the Racial War.
The cruel law of the Abyss that Park Chan-woo had so desperately tried to escape.
Shuuuuwuu...
Strange black mist began rising from beneath the last remaining Gremlin warrior's feet.
An absolute 'nothingness' that seemed to erase existence itself.
"Ah... Aaa..."
The Gremlin looked up at the Abyss sky in terror.
Soon, above the Abyss sky.
Like a mirage, a planet revealed itself.
A small, pathetic planet faintly glowing blue and green.
Its surface was scarred with deep cracks like wounds and blackened burns everywhere, its atmosphere shrouded in ashen dust, devoid of any warmth of life.
The planet where Gremlins lived. Their final home.
All tribal representatives in the battlefield held their breath, looking skyward.
With the system's merciless decree, horrific changes began on the Gremlin planet in the sky.
Jjejeok!
Black cracks spiderwebbed from the surface, soon covering the entire planet.
From those cracks, faint light streams leaked from within, then it spewed a desperate death throe like a star at the end of its life.
Kuwaaaaaang—!
As if it had never existed from the beginning.
From the sky, and from all records and memories of the Abyss, the Gremlin planet was cleanly 'erased'.