Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: The Scammer's Way to Win (6)
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Smack!
“Keuheok!”
Cheon Woo-seong’s body was sent flying as he was struck across the cheek.
The wound, already bleeding profusely, split open, soaking the hallway floor with blood.
“A pathetic… belief, you say?”
Cheon Woo-seong clutched his cheek, staggering to his feet.
Oh-jin clicked his tongue, watching him.
‘His body’s tough as hell.’
Even with a wound like that.
The sensation on his hand was incredibly dull.
“What… what do you know to be spouting such nonsense?!!”
Cheon Woo-seong screamed as if having a seizure.
“You… you don’t know anything…!”
The whining of a child.
The boy wearing the mask of a young man spewed a torrent of overflowing emotions at Oh-jin.
“…”
Oh-jin stared intently into Cheon Woo-seong’s eyes.
An untainted, pure gaze.
Infinitely clear and vivid emotions.
‘Is he stuck in time?’
Nine years ago.
After his mother was murdered by an Awakened.
Cheon Woo-seong’s time had stopped.
His body alone grew while his time stood still.
‘If.’
If I had lost Ha-eun.
If the most precious thing to me had been stolen by another’s hand.
Wouldn’t I have become just like Cheon Woo-seong?
‘Who knows.’
There was no need to speculate about things that hadn’t happened.
‘What I need to do now is.’
He lifted the spear he had stuck in the floor.
“I don’t know. And I don’t want to.”
He aimed his spear.
“But that goes for you too, doesn’t it?”
Just as he didn’t know Cheon Woo-seong.
Cheon Woo-seong didn’t know him either.
“If we don’t know each other.”
Kwoooom!!
He stomped his foot down hard.
“Let’s find out, then. Who’s right.”
“Keuk!!”
The sharp tip of the spear shot toward Cheon Woo-seong’s neck.
Cheon Woo-seong hastily pulled back, creating a sword of Black Wings.
-Kaaaaang!
The spear and sword collided.
A staggering shockwave shook the hallway.
“Hah, hah!”
Panting for breath, Cheon Woo-seong was barely parrying the barrage of spear strikes from Oh-jin.
But that was all.
He began to be pushed back by the spear strikes that precisely targeted his blind spots.
‘This is impossible…!’
How is this the power of a 5-Star Awakened?
No matter how close to a fatal wound he was.
It made no sense to be pushed back so one-sidedly by a mere 5-Star Awakened.
‘It’s not a 1- or 2-Star difference, but a whole 3 Stars!’
And he wasn’t some rookie who had just reached 8-Star, but a skilled individual on the verge of 9-Star.
Normally, he should be able to wipe out a 5-Star Awakened with a single gesture.
-Klang! Kang! Kakakang!
“Keuk! Keok!”
A relentless onslaught of spear strikes that left no room to breathe.
Wires wrapping around his body, mixed with intermittent kicks and punches.
Even if he were in perfect condition.
Could he have properly blocked that relentless assault?
‘Just why.’
Why.
“A guy who was just… lucky…!”
Without facing any hardship.
Without paying any price.
A being who was simply chosen by a constellation out of sheer luck.
-Smack!
“Keuheok!”
Just why.
How could he be this strong?
-Thud! Kukung!
Cheon Woo-seong’s body rolled violently across the floor.
“Hah! Hah!”
Was it because he’d lost too much blood?
Now, even blood wasn’t flowing properly.
“N-no.”
He crawled pathetically on the floor.
“It can’t… end like this.”
He staggered to his feet.
The hallway, shrouded in deep darkness.
“…Mom.”
As if reaching for the night sky.
Cheon Woo-seong mournfully reached his hand toward the hallway ceiling.
“Give me strength… Mom.”
Thump, thump.
The Stigma engraved on his left chest blazed brightly.
-Wooooong!
A brilliantly burning halo of light enveloped Cheon Woo-seong’s body.
Shwdddk!
The great sword-like wings that had been spread behind his back wrapped around Cheon Woo-seong’s body as if to protect him.
“…What?”
Oh-jin distanced himself from Cheon Woo-seong, his eyes narrowing.
‘Another blessing from a constellation?’
He tightened his grip on the spear and observed Cheon Woo-seong, but.
‘…No.’
It was different from what happened with Park Geon-woo and Ashad Khan.
His skin wasn’t shriveling, nor was his back hunching over.
He was just wrapped in a bright halo of light, burning brilliantly.
‘Don’t tell me…’
Oh-jin stared at Cheon Woo-seong in disbelief.
There was only one case where the light of a Stigma enveloped the entire body like that.
‘Is this bastard ascending to 9-Star?’
Like a cliché from a shonen manga.
Was he trying to reach a new level by thinking of his mother in a moment of crisis?
“Damn it.”
What kind of bullshit is this?
Oh-jin frowned and raised his spear.
‘I have to kill him quickly.’
Cheon Woo-seong’s Star was 8-Star.
If he ascended one step higher from here.
He’ll become a high-rank Awakened, a realm beyond human.
‘Then it’s over.’
Even he couldn’t face a high-rank Awakened.
‘Kill him before he finishes awakening!’
He wasn’t stupid enough to stand by and wait for his opponent to transform or awaken, like a villain in a shonen manga.
If he was drawing out power by thinking of his mother in a moment of crisis.
Then I’ll just stab him in the gut and send him to his dead mother’s side.
“Chahat!”
Kwoooom!
He kicked off the ground and rushed toward Cheon Woo-seong, who was enveloped in black wings.
Focusing mana at the tip of his spear.
He thrusts the spear!
-Kagagagak!!!
Sparks flew from the spearhead as it was blocked by the wings.
“Keuk!”
He put more force into it to cut through the wings, but.
The spear bounced back, having failed to penetrate even a third of the way through the wings.
-Shushushushuk!
Pwook! Pwook! Puk!
Black feathers shot from the wings he couldn’t cut through, riddling Oh-jin’s body.
“Kuuuuh!!”
Black feathers were embedded in his shoulder, thigh, and side.
Oh-jin gritted his teeth and thrust his spear at the same spot again.
-Kaaaang!
The spearhead bounced back with strong repulsion.
Shwreuk.
The wings, which had been dented by the successive spear strikes, even returned to their original state in the blink of an eye.
“Damn it!”
It was ridiculously tough and even regenerated automatically.
A rough curse escaped Oh-jin’s lips.
‘I can’t break through with my current strength.’
If I couldn’t break through even using Exceed and Lightning Flame.
There was no chance of breaking through even if I used Thunderclap or other skills.
‘I have no choice but to attack by bypassing those wings.’
But that wasn’t easy either, as the black wings completely enveloped Cheon Woo-seong’s body without a single gap.
-Shushushushuk!!
“Keuk!”
It would be one thing if it just stayed still.
But with feathers constantly shooting from the black wings, it was difficult to even attack.
‘Dammit.’
The halo of light grew brighter.
There was no time.
Oh-jin gritted his teeth and unleashed a flurry of attacks on the black wings enveloping Cheon Woo-seong.
-Klang! Kang! Kakakang!!
But no matter how many times he stabbed, the spear was repeatedly blocked by the wings and bounced off.
“Keuk!!”
Feathers shot from the wings and dug deep into Oh-jin’s body.
‘Damn it.’
Oh-jin bit his lip with an anxious expression.
He had attacked the wings relentlessly, prepared to be injured, but in the end, they didn’t break.
It felt like facing an impregnable fortress.
‘Attacking like this is pointless.’
The wings’ regeneration speed was too fast, so unleashing a continuous barrage of attacks had no effect.
‘I have to break through in one shot.’
But how?
“…”
He was fighting on equal footing with an 8-Star Awakened using the power of Black Heaven and the Lyra Stigma, but…
Oh-jin was still just a 5-Star Awakened.
As for mana, he still had plenty thanks to absorbing it through Black Heaven.
‘In the end… there’s a limit to what I can do with narrow mana circuits.’
The mana circuits that were inevitably narrow due to being 5-Star.
That was what held Oh-jin back.
‘I’ve already used Exceed.’
Exceed only compressed the mana circuits to forcefully eject mana.
It wasn’t something that could release a large amount of mana at once.
‘In that case.’
Oh-jin’s eyes gleamed sharply.
He briefly stopped attacking.
He lowered his spear.
‘If there’s a limit to the mana I can release at once.’
Then I’ll build it up without releasing it.
Condense it, compress it.
-Kkigik! Kadeuk! Kwajik!
The spear, infused with mana beyond its limit, twisted like a pig’s tail.
‘No.’
The spear couldn’t handle any more than this.
‘If the spear won’t work—.’
Oh-jin glanced down at the hand holding the spear.
Not in the spear, but in his hand.
He condensed the mana.
“Keuk!”
Dddddl.
The hand Oh-jin held the spear with trembled violently.
-Tiring!
[Warning! Mana has been condensed beyond its limit!]
[If the mana is not released, you will enter the ‘Qi Deviation’ state!]
A red warning window popped up, trying to stop his action.
‘Qi Deviation… is that the thing that killed Lee Shin-hyeok.’
Psst.
He smirked, condensing even more mana into his circuits.
“Keuk! Kuaah, eugh.”
Capillaries burst, and red tears of blood flowed from his eyes.
From his nose, his mouth, and his ears.
Red blood flowed down, soaking his body.
-Tiring!
[Warning! Mana has been condensed beyond its limit!]
“Shut up.”
He dismissed the warning window in front of him and tightened his grip on the spear.
Udeuk! Udeudeuk!
Was it because it couldn’t withstand the condensed mana?
His hand twisted with the sound of bones crushing.
His fingers bent randomly, and his wrist turned at an impossible angle.
-Twang!
He used his wire to tightly bind his crushed hand to the spear.
‘One more time.’
He forced more mana in.
Kwadeudeuk!!
Bone fragments tore through his flesh and burst out.
But.
Nevertheless.
“—Hah.”
One more time.
He condensed the mana.
One more time.
He compressed the mana.
One more time. One more time. One more time.
-Tiring! Tiring! Tiring!
Red warning windows filled his vision.
A staggering, excruciating pain.
A horrific pain, like his flesh was being torn apart by sharp hooks, ravaged his entire body.
“Pu, huhu!”
Oh-jin smiled brightly amidst the banquet of overwhelming pain.
-Tiring!
[You have succeeded in handling Lightning in an extreme situation!]
[You have learned the skills 《Charge Lv1》 and 《Discharge Lv1》!]
[Due to the influence of the skill 《Lightning Lv9》, the levels of 《Charge Lv1》 and 《Discharge Lv1》 will increase to Level 6.]
Charge and Discharge.
The methods for using the newly acquired skills flowed into his mind.
‘I’ve already charged more than enough.’
In that case.
“Hah.”
Hiding his body within the black wings.
He looked at Cheon Woo-seong, standing on the threshold of becoming 9-Star.
“Ahh, Mom… thank you.”
Was he seeing a vision of his mother?
The sound of Cheon Woo-seong sobbing could be heard from within the wings.
“Don’t you worry, you punk.”
Oh-jin’s lips curled into a grin.
-Pajijijijijik!!!!
To the limit.
No, the blue lightning, condensed beyond the limit, blazed ferociously.
“I’ll let you see that mother you miss so much real soon!!”
Discharge.
A torrent of blue lightning poured out toward Cheon Woo-seong, hidden within the wings.