Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Captured Savior
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"...?!"
Because of that, Lee Jin-gyu looked at Kim Hyun-seok with a startled expression.
Seeing this, Kim Hyun-seok pressed a finger to his lips, signaling for silence.
Thud. Thud.
Right after, the sound of someone approaching, shaking the cave floor, echoed through.
At the noise, the group tensed up, glaring beyond the iron bars blocking the entrance.
A moment later, the owner of the footsteps emerged from the darkness beyond the iron bars.
"Hall Leader...?"
"No way, why is the Hall Leader here?"
Lee Dae-young and the other sword squad members all wore shocked expressions.
Shockingly, the one who appeared before them was none other than Shin Yu-hyun.
"Did you come to rescue us?"
"The Hall Leader came to save us!"
"We're saved now!"
At Shin Yu-hyun's appearance, hope bloomed on the Black Tortoise Sword Squad members' faces.
Hope was finally dawning.
Lately, Shin Yu-hyun's reputation in the Black Tortoise Hall had been soaring.
The tale of him single-handedly taking down a 2-star boss while still a 1-star superhuman, and crushing the 3-star superhumans from Vermilion Bird Hall, had become near-legendary.
So rumors swirled that he'd been hiding his true power until turning twenty, then started revealing it.
But who would've thought he'd personally venture into the dungeon to save them!
The Black Tortoise Sword Squad members gazed at Shin Yu-hyun with moved expressions.
To them, Shin Yu-hyun said in a low voice,
"No, I got captured too."
"Pardon?"
The squad members stared blankly at his words.
He got captured too?
What kind of nonsense was this?
"Don't go imagining I came to rescue you."
"You really think this punk came to save you?"
At that moment, figures snickering from the shadows behind Shin Yu-hyun stepped forward.
They were Iron Flower villains, superhumans.
Clang!
"Get in there, you useless Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan trash."
One of the Iron Flower villains unlocked the iron bars at the entrance and shoved Shin Yu-hyun inside.
They looked down at him, sneering.
"This guy's a Hall Leader?"
"Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan has really hit rock bottom."
The Iron Flower group had been monitoring their arch-enemies, the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan, so they knew about Shin Yu-hyun.
A trash who couldn't even open his energy circuits by age twenty.
Yet he was given Hall Leader position just because he was direct lineage.
Of course, they didn't have his latest intel.
"Rest up while you can."
"Hell's about to start soon."
"Well, one guy's probably already tasting it."
After tossing Shin Yu-hyun into the room, the Iron Flower villains sneered and re-barred the entrance before leaving.
But they'd return to interrogate him.
Starting with when the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan's rescue team would arrive, they'd pry out everything he knew.
For now, they'd just locked him up and gone to report to their executives.
As the villains departed, an awkward silence fell between Shin Yu-hyun and the Black Tortoise Sword Squad members.
Disappointment and disbelief mixed in—they'd thought he came to save them, only to learn he was captured too.
But to them, Shin Yu-hyun smiled calmly and spoke.
"Is everyone alright?"
"Yes. Fortunately, no one's hurt."
Lee Dae-young, the squad leader, nodded in response to Shin Yu-hyun.
He was the first to regain his composure and fired off a question.
"But Hall Leader, you didn't really come alone, did you? The rescue team...?"
Lee Dae-young couldn't believe Shin Yu-hyun had come solo.
"Sorry, but I didn't come with the rescue team."
"Ah..."
"No way..."
The Black Tortoise Sword Squad members deflated at his words. Their last sliver of hope vanished, leaving despair and helplessness.
But Shin Yu-hyun wasn't done.
"Instead, the Vice Hall Leader came with me."
"Pardon?"
"The Vice Hall Leader?"
"I knew it!"
Their faces lit up brighter than when they'd thought Shin Yu-hyun came to save them.
"And I didn't just get captured."
Shin Yu-hyun smiled at the Black Tortoise Sword Squad members.
The villains had made one mistake.
Thinking he was trash who couldn't even open his energy circuits, they hadn't bound him with mana-sealing stone cuffs.
They'd merely chained his wrists and arms to his torso with iron links.
"Hup!"
Crack! Crack-crack-crack!
Activating Body Strengthening Technique and flexing his arms tore the chains apart.
"Gasp!"
"The chains..."
"So the rumors were true..."
The squad members gaped at Shin Yu-hyun in astonishment.
They never imagined he'd snap iron chains barehanded.
Moreover, these were superhuman-grade chains—minimum 3-star low-rank to break.
'Good. Right on plan.'
Before entering the dungeon, Shin Yu-hyun had proposed a strategy to Vice Hall Leader Choi Jung-hoon.
He'd let the base camp raiders capture him willingly.
To find out where the captured Black Tortoise Sword Squad was held.
'If I can't find them, I'll just take down the villains anyway.'
Even without knowing their location, he was confident against the Iron Flower villains.
Sturdy allies waited in the shadows.
Cute Ka-mang-i and Dia.
Especially, Skeleton Soldiers were prepped inside Ka-mang-i's body.
He'd unleash them if needed.
Crunch!
Now free, Shin Yu-hyun kept Body Strengthening Technique active and crushed the mana-sealing stone cuffs binding the squad members.
Mana-sealing stones blocked magic and energy but weren't that tough.
With Body Strengthening Technique, they shattered easily.
"Whoa."
"Thank you!"
Their faces brightened as the cuffs crumbled.
To them, Shin Yu-hyun asked,
"By the way, where's the last one?"
"Gaaahhh!"
A pained scream erupted in a cave room emitting faint light from the walls.
In the center of the small clearing-like room, a man in his early twenties was forcibly seated on a makeshift chair, bound with iron chains.
"S-stop!"
The man writhed in agony, sobbing out.
A man in a white doctor's coat, holding bloodied pliers, smirked and replied,
"Noisy Korean mongrel vermin."
Zzzzt!
Suddenly, blue sparks crackled from the bloodied pliers.
Crunch! Zzzzzzt!
"Gaaaaahhh!"
As his right hand's fourth fingernail was yanked out with a gruesome sound, Choi Seung-hyun—the Black Tortoise Sword Squad's lowest 3-star swordsman—let out a agonized shriek.
The electric current's torment raced through his body from the nail-pulling pain.
"Why are you doing this...? What do you even want?!"
Trembling, Choi Seung-hyun screamed in rage.
The white-coated man had dragged him here from the cave room holding the raid party captives.
Strapped him to the chair, and without a single question, ripped out his fourth nail.
Choi Seung-hyun couldn't fathom why he was being tortured.
"If it's info you want, I'll tell you anything. Just stop!"
Tears streaming, he begged in a whimpering voice.
He was the youngest in Black Tortoise Hall's sword squad, barely twenty.
The horror of four nails torn out broke his spirit.
Zzt! Zzt!
"Eek!"
Seeing the blue sparks, Choi Seung-hyun paled in terror.
"N-no, please don't. I beg you, stop."
He pleaded desperately.
The man just grinned.
"Nah, I don't think so."
Crunch! Zzzzzzt!
"Gaaaaahhhh!"
Choi Seung-hyun convulsed in excruciating pain, screaming wretchedly.
He wondered,
'Why me? What did I do wrong?'
"Hic..."
Grievance and fear from the endless agony brought tears.
To him, the man sneered unpleasantly,
"Alright, right hand's done. Time for the left? Then toenails next."
"What?"
Choi Seung-hyun's mind went blank. The right hand alone was unbearable.
Left hand and toenails too?
"P-please stop. Just kill me..."
The endless unknown torment bred utter despair.
His will shattered completely.
Better death than this.
But.
"Yes! That's the face! I can't get enough."
The man cackled maniacally, face flushed. Victims broken in despair thrilled him uncontrollably.
"But not enough yet."
Excited but unsatisfied, he grinned.
This was mere foreplay.
Time for the climax.
Zzzzt!
"H-hic!"
Blue lightning arced from the pliers; tears flowed as Choi Seung-hyun's face twisted in dread.
But the man, thrilled at what was coming, slowly advanced the insulated-handled pliers toward him.
Choi Seung-hyun's face contorted horribly.
"N-no... guh..."
Zzzzzzzzzzt!
His face warped in agony.
And the horrific scream.
Electricity scorched through his body; he shuddered violently.
The man watched, face alight with excitement.
"Guh..."
Moments later, Choi Seung-hyun slumped limply.
He was a wreck.
Eyes half-rolled, drool dribbling from his mouth.
"Already out?"
The man smiled in post-climax satisfaction, savoring the convulsing victim drowned in despair and pain.
"Don't think it's over."
The man—Sasaki Shiro, one of Iron Flower's executives—eyed Choi Seung-hyun with feverish intensity.
Others' suffering was his irresistible ecstasy, affirming his life through their torment.
And he hadn't even started properly.
His personality-reflecting unique skill, Bacterium Creation, inflicted myriad pains.
"Heh heh heh."
Sasaki Shiro chuckled excitedly, anticipating Choi Seung-hyun's screams from his created bacteria infection.