Chapter 95
Chapter 95
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Aheta's Betrayal
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Hanshin sat slumped against a boulder, breathing raggedly over and over.
After the battle with Ataraxia.
He had barely escaped by exhausting every last drop of his unique mana.
'...I'm gonna die.'
This wasn't just talk from exhaustion.
He was dying, slowly but surely.
He could feel it.
Death creeping closer.
Soon his skin would harden like stone, his muscles would snap one by one, and his heart would stop.
"Damn it..."
Grind!
Hanshin gnashed his teeth.
The root of all this.
...That damned mage.
He had landed a finishing blow, but the price was death.
Suddenly, irritation surged through him.
He had never felt this pissed off in his entire life.
And that made sense.
Hanshin had achieved and obtained everything he ever wanted in life.
He had never once failed.
Anyone who stood in his way, he crushed utterly.
He trampled them mercilessly, so they could never crawl back up.
But ever since the Abyss opened.
Hanshin had been failing repeatedly.
He couldn't crush those who blocked him.
Instead, he was the one facing death.
"You mages...!"
Heave!
Hanshin vomited blood.
Black blood erupted from his mouth.
But his hatred for that mage overshadowed even the hemorrhage.
In truth, everyone who had blocked him was a mage.
Wasn't it ridiculous?
At this point in time, mages were classified as the most useless class.
Beyond useless—they were seen as total garbage, good for nothing.
They couldn't navigate the Abyss alone, didn't contribute much to team fights, and their spells lacked the punch you'd expect.
But the mages he had faced were different.
The one who monopolized Adora's attention, and the one who had driven Hanshin to death's door.
They were nothing like ordinary mages.
They wielded magic in special, extraordinary ways.
'Magic is the ultimate force for creating variables.'
He had no choice but to admit it.
Both mages had controlled and resolved situations he couldn't handle, in ways he never anticipated.
They must possess talent as brilliant as his own.
Hard to believe, but he had to accept it now.
Hanshin looked up at the sky.
'Aheta.'
The crimson sky.
The full moon at its center—Aheta's eye.
But Aheta's eye wasn't watching Hanshin.
It seemed to have lost all interest, gazing elsewhere entirely.
Was it because he had disappointed time and again?
He hadn't accomplished a damn thing—not in the Abyss dungeon, not in the Tower of Pride, not even in this second night.
Sure, there were moments of flashy heroics, but only by human standards.
The Moon Lord Aheta had every reason to be disappointed.
What Aheta wanted wasn't anything that meager.
He had formed the 'incarnation contract' with Hanshin to witness overwhelmingly dominant displays beyond measure.
'You're making a mistake.'
Crunch!
Hanshin clenched his teeth.
Aheta could be disappointed. He could get angry.
But Hanshin's talent was no lie.
Aheta himself had spotted that talent and made the contract.
To discard him after just the 'second night' would be utterly heartless.
His talent hadn't even fully bloomed yet.
And yet, Aheta showed no intention of saving him.
He was just letting Hanshin die after burning through his unique mana.
The problem was, no matter how he thought about it, survival without Aheta's help was impossible.
'I'm not dying here.'
But he couldn't die here.
He couldn't meet a pathetic end in a place like this.
Not when he hadn't even truly begun.
This was only the start...!
'I absolutely will not die.'
Hanshin denied it.
He desperately ignored the approaching death.
Grinding his teeth, he glared at Aheta's eye.
...In that moment.
Swish.
Aheta's pupil moved.
Slowly turning toward Hanshin's direction, as if looking at someone.
Then, sensing the presence, Hanshin turned his head.
"What? No way, is that you, Hanshin?"
A man appeared alongside a doppelganger.
Hanshin didn't know who he was, but the man clearly knew him.
'Why the hell is Hanshin collapsed in a place like this?'
It was none other than Kim Byung-han.
The man who rose again and again like a roly-poly toy, no matter how many times he fell, always eyeing the next chance.
To make up for the humiliation at the Tower of Pride, Kim Byung-han was giving it his all.
With the resolve to conquer this second night by raising his special doppelganger, he kept 'duplicating' without rest.
He focused more on his doppelganger's growth than his own.
The results were astonishing.
The doppelganger's growth speed was absurdly fast.
At this rate, completing it as a 'Doppelganger Lord' seemed possible.
But then the doppelganger suddenly led him here.
As if it knew Hanshin was here.
'...A chance. The perfect chance.'
A glint sparked in Kim Byung-han's eyes.
Hanshin looked half-dead at a glance.
Pale as a ghost, swollen lips, deep dark circles.
Bloodstains around him—he had clearly puked it up.
He didn't even seem able to stand properly.
But in Korea, Hanshin was ranked among the absolute strongest.
His skills were the real deal.
Movement, strategy, anything combat-related—he was exceptional.
Even the mighty Seoul Alliance had scouted him thoroughly.
As a person of interest.
So why was a powerhouse like that collapsed here?
Plus, Hanshin and Kim Byung-han weren't total strangers.
Normally, he'd try to get friendly.
'If I duplicate him, I'll be one step closer to Doppelganger Lord.'
...Opportunities like this didn't come twice.
Kim Byung-han's mind raced.
Better to win Hanshin over and build rapport? Or duplicate him to strengthen the doppelganger?
'Saving Hanshin... putting him in my debt wouldn't be bad either.'
No need to duplicate with the doppelganger.
If he could build ties with talent like that.
In the countless Abysses ahead, that connection would surely help.
Standing side by side with Hanshin at the top later on? Not a bad picture.
The Abyss wasn't a place you survived alone, after all.
Birds of a feather flock together—powerhouses should stick with powerhouses, right?
"We're both rankers, after all, so a greeting's in order. But who the hell took down a powerhouse like you?"
"Who the hell are you?"
"......"
For a moment, Kim Byung-han furrowed his brow.
...Who are you?
Sure, they hadn't properly greeted, but he'd seen his face up close a couple times.
At the Tower of Pride.
They'd exchanged looks as fellow powerhouses—he figured he'd be remembered.
Rankers who followed the game closely naturally knew each other.
But Hanshin acted like he was seeing him for the first time.
'...This bastard.'
Was he pretending not to know?
His snarky tone grated, like he was scolding him for acting familiar when they weren't close.
Hanshin waved him off dismissively.
"Don't act like you know me. If there's nothing else, get lost."
"......Duplicate him."
Shh-!
It was then.
The doppelganger's form instantly shifted to Hanshin.
Hanshin's expression hardened.
'I've been duplicated?'
He'd never been duplicated before.
No doppelganger had ever managed it.
'Not an ordinary doppelganger.'
A special specimen.
Sure, some doppelgangers were like that occasionally, but this one seemed the best of them.
And the timing was too perfect.
Right when he was dying.
When he couldn't even fight properly, it showed up like it had been waiting.
'No......'
......Hold on.
This couldn't all be coincidence.
It defied common sense.
Hanshin quickly looked up at the sky.
And realized.
'Aheta, you bastard......'
Aheta's eye was fixed on him now.
Gazing as if mocking him.
He knew what the bastard was planning.
Copy his talent with the doppelganger, then make a 'Doppelganger Lord'.
Devour all the second night's challengers and turn it into a real monster.
"...Don't do something you'll regret. That doppelganger doesn't obey you."
Hanshin spoke with utter sincerity.
It might seem like the mark made it obey, but the true master was the Moon Lord Aheta.
It had led him straight to Hanshin.
Who do you think gave that order?
"No idea what you're talking about. This thing only listens to me."
Thud, thud.
Kim Byung-han thumped the doppelganger's chest with his fist.
But no reaction.
Not a budge.
It meant total subjugation.
Hoo.
Hanshin sighed inwardly.
It was lamentable that such an idiot existed in this world.
An ordinary doppelganger would obey the rules, but a 'Lord' wouldn't listen anymore.
It would kill the idiot and act on its own.
"A chance given by the heavens. Can't let it slip."
Kim Byung-han grinned.
......It was indeed a chance from the heavens.
From Aheta up in the sky right now.
'Pathetic fool.'
Ecstatic, oblivious that he was tightening the noose around his own neck.
Hanshin ground his teeth.
Die at the hands of such a moron?
He, Hanshin, bearer of the War God's talent?
......Perhaps.
The most pathetic one might be Hanshin himself.
Unable to resolve even this situation.
He had been too arrogant.
Strutting on Aheta's full backing.
Even knowing he was an Abyss demon.
Even though it was just a relationship of mutual need.
'You don't know me, Aheta.'
But.
Just as he didn't know Aheta, Aheta didn't know him either.
What kind of life Hanshin had lived.
What he was capable of.
How far he could go!
'Emptiness can just be filled back up.'
Hanshin's hollow eyes turned to the doppelganger.
That was his duplicate.
Identical from head to toe.
If the inside was the same too.
......It was his final resort to fill the void within.
'If I have to, I'll devour it to fill the gap.'
Hanshin's eyes sank into deep, abyssal black.