Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Necromancer of the Sword Clan
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Boom!
The impact shook the spacious room like an open clearing, and Sasaki Shiro's body slammed into the ground back-first, burrowing into the earth.
"Gahhh!"
Sasaki Shiro spat blood from his mouth and lay utterly still amid the tremors rippling through the ground.
He'd taken quite the hit.
He wouldn't be moving for a while.
With that, Shin Yu-hyun had swiftly neutralized Sasaki Shiro.
Thanks to his experience fighting the man in his previous life, he knew the bastard's combat patterns inside out.
And the matchup wasn't in his favor, either.
Shin Yu-hyun's black flames were a natural predator to Sasaki Shiro's swarms of bacteria.
'Pathetic.'
Turning away from Sasaki Shiro, Shin Yu-hyun frowned as he looked toward Choi Seung-hyun.
The young man had already endured torture at the doctor's hands, leaving him in a wretched state.
Shin Yu-hyun approached him quietly and spoke.
"It's okay now. No one will lay a hand on you."
"H-Hic... Uwaaaah!"
At those words, Choi Seung-hyun broke down, tears he'd been holding back flooding out uncontrollably.
Choi Seung-hyun had been singled out and tortured alone, separated from the rest of the Black Tortoise Sword Division.
Sasaki Shiro's methods were relentless and cruel—he'd ripped out fingernails before running electric currents through them.
The agony had been so excruciating that all Seung-hyun could do was scream.
Worse still, amid that hellish torment, the realization that no one was coming to save him filled him with profound despair.
He had no idea how long the suffering would last.
Death would have been a mercy.
But even that was denied by the mad doctor, Sasaki Shiro.
The bastard just watched him writhe in pain and reveled in it.
Hope shattered, dreams crushed—Choi Seung-hyun felt his sanity slipping away.
Then, out of nowhere, someone had come to rescue him.
Shin Yu-hyun, no less—the guy infamous in the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan for being useless.
"Th-Thank... Hic... you... Hic..."
Choi Seung-hyun could barely get the words out.
Yet he felt immense gratitude toward the man who had freed him from that infernal hell.
'Thank goodness.'
Looking at him, Shin Yu-hyun's heart ached with mixed emotions.
He understood Choi Seung-hyun's feelings better than anyone.
They were the same raw emotions he'd felt, bone-deep, under the Getia worshippers' torment in his previous life.
"Wh-What about... the seniors...?"
After sobbing for a while, Choi Seung-hyun calmed enough to ask about the other Black Tortoise Sword Division members who'd been captured with him.
"They're all fine. They escaped the prison. By now, they're probably mopping up the Iron Blood Gang thugs."
After shattering their mana-sealing handcuffs, Shin Yu-hyun had handed them the weapons he'd prepared in advance.
They were stunned when six long swords—including the magic sword Ignis—emerged from the supposedly empty-handed Shin Yu-hyun.
But with escaping the prison and rescuing the youngest member as the priority, they brushed it off without much fuss.
If anything, they showed gratitude toward him.
At first, they'd thought he'd been captured cluelessly and were disappointed.
But the reality was different.
In the end, they'd been saved thanks to him—and right now, they were likely purging the Iron Blood Gang villains alongside Acting Vice Clan Leader Choi Jung-hoon.
"Then..."
Shin Yu-hyun glared at Sasaki Shiro, still embedded in the floor, motionless.
There was something he needed to extract from the bastard.
'In my previous life, we never figured out why this scum came to Arachne's Nest.'
By the time Shin Cheol-ho arrived with the rescue team in his previous life, it was too late.
Only two survivors remained, and Sasaki Shiro had tossed his minions at the rescuers before fleeing.
The surviving underlings all committed suicide, and the rest were driven mad by torture.
So Shin Cheol-ho's team couldn't uncover Sasaki Shiro's objectives.
'But this time is different.'
Thanks to Shin Yu-hyun's swift rescue, everyone except Choi Seung-hyun—the first one tortured—was unharmed.
And now, they'd even captured Sasaki Shiro alive.
"I told you, didn't I? You'd pay dearly."
Shin Yu-hyun picked up the pliers Sasaki Shiro had used moments ago in his frenzy to torment Choi Seung-hyun.
They were connected through various electric devices and a portable generator powered by mana stones in the corner of the wall.
Crackle!
Flipping the switch on the insulated pliers sent blue sparks dancing along the current.
Shin Yu-hyun advanced on Sasaki Shiro.
The man, unable to steady himself, looked up at him.
"Filthy Chosun dog. I won't let you die easy. I'll make you beg for death."
"Still haven't grasped the situation? What makes you think you can pull that off?"
"We never forget a debt. You'll suffer eternally. I'll make sure of it."
"Haven't come to your senses, huh? Ever think you'd end up like that before me?"
"You? Torturing me? A greenhorn who's never killed, talking big."
Sasaki Shiro sneered.
As he'd said, Shin Yu-hyun was a twenty-year-old youth with no blood on his hands.
Knowing that, Sasaki Shiro was convinced the kid wouldn't dare touch him further.
But it was a grave miscalculation.
This life's Shin Yu-hyun carried memories of the past.
"Think I can't do it?"
Shin Yu-hyun gazed down at him with cold eyes.
"What? What do you m—"
Sasaki Shiro didn't finish his retort.
In an instant, Shin Yu-hyun clamped his mouth shut.
Forcing it open, he probed inside with his fingers along the molars.
'There it is.'
The suicide explosive.
In his previous life, Sasaki Shiro—the Getia worshipper—had hidden a micro-detonator in his molar.
He'd checked just in case, never expecting the bastard to have it even in this era.
Crunch!
With Body Strengthening Technique active, Shin Yu-hyun effortlessly yanked out the molar, removing the suicide device.
"H-How...?"
Sasaki Shiro spat out the blood pooling in his mouth, his face etched with shock.
He hadn't imagined Shin Yu-hyun knew about the suicide bomb.
"That's not the point."
Shin Yu-hyun picked up the insulated pliers again.
"Wh-What are you planning?"
Sasaki Shiro's expression tensed slightly at the action.
He'd assumed the kid would just hand him over to the authorities.
And if so, he could wriggle free easily enough.
The Iron Blood Gang had plenty of influence in Korea's institutions.
"Scum like you need to feel it firsthand. That's the only way you learn."
Why did tormentors like Sasaki Shiro do it?
Why derive pleasure from inflicting pain on others?
The reason was simple.
They believed they were untouchable.
"Ever considered that while torturing others, you might end up on the receiving end?"
"Who the hell would touch an Iron Blood Gang executive like me? You think you can mess with me and walk away unscathed?"
Sasaki Shiro scowled as he spat back.
Shin Yu-hyun's face grew icy.
"Exactly. You lot think you're always protected, no matter what crimes you commit. That's why trash like you exists."
The belief that they could harm others with impunity.
Sasaki Shiro clung to it, too.
But.
"Forget that delusion."
Crackle!
Blue sparks erupted from the pliers in Shin Yu-hyun's grip.
He pressed them close, his voice frigid.
"You'll pay the full price."
Exact revenge measure for measure.
Only then could it truly be called vengeance.
After Sasaki Shiro was subdued, the situation resolved swiftly.
The Black Tortoise Sword Division members who'd escaped the makeshift prison the Iron Blood Gang had built joined up with Acting Vice Clan Leader Choi Jung-hoon.
They then took down the remaining villains lurking in the spider lair.
They showed no mercy.
After all, Iron Blood Gang thugs had slaughtered members of the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan.
Besides, the Iron Blood Gang was a terrorist criminal organization designated by the International Hunter Association.
They received no protection under international superhuman protection laws—and since they'd started the fight, the Sword Clan could claim self-defense.
"What about the rest of the stragglers?"
"All eliminated."
Choi Jung-hoon nodded at Shin Yu-hyun's question.
The Iron Blood Gang villains left in the lair were wiped out, and Sasaki Shiro had been bound with mana-sealing handcuffs.
Before that, Shin Yu-hyun had interrogated him post-subdual.
Ripping out four fingernails with the electrified pliers, just as the doctor had done to Choi Seung-hyun.
But even writhing in agony, Sasaki Shiro refused to reveal why they'd come to Arachne's Nest.
They could handle the full interrogation back at the clan.
Still, one task remained.
"That leaves the boss."
Shin Yu-hyun eyed the space ahead.
There lay the boss room of Arachne's Nest Dungeon, its entrance sealed by a massive steel door.
And some Iron Blood Gang villains had entered to challenge it.
By now, the fight inside was probably reaching its climax.
The moment Shin Yu-hyun's group arrived at the boss room door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Something slammed against the steel door from the other side.
"Wh-What's that?"
"What the...?"
Caught off guard, Black Tortoise Sword Division Leader Lee Dae-young and Kim Hyun-seok flinched and stared at the door.
The sturdy, enormous steel door was denting inward.
Screeech!
Soon, a gap pried open, spilling eerie red light through.
Shrieeeeeek!
Air quivered as a monstrous roar echoed from beyond.
"A-Arachne?"
"Why is Arachne at the entrance...?"
Lee Dae-young and Kim Hyun-seok jumped back from the steel door in alarm.
Dungeons came in all shapes.
Some were open fields like Goblin Forest; others, cave types like Arachne's Nest.
In most cave dungeons, bosses waited in isolated chambers behind massive steel doors that kept them contained.
Yet here was Arachne smashing through to crawl out?
"Could it be... a dungeon stampede?"
Choi Jung-hoon widened his eyes in shock, face taut with tension.
If a stampede had triggered, the boss would burst out leading hordes of minions.
Screeech!
No time to ponder.
The steel door's gap yawned wide as the 3-star boss Arachne half-emerged.
"Let's block it here for now."
Shin Yu-hyun drew his magic sword Ignis.
'Can't let it out of the boss room.'
Arachne was larger than expected.
Its body alone stretched over five meters.
The main tunnel connected to the boss room was wide, but against something that size, it'd be a nightmare to fight.
Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship.
Third Form: Strike Annihilation.
Whoosh!
Black flames surged from the magic sword Ignis, weaving crimson sword light through the air.