God of Control's One-Coin Clear: Street of Murder (6)
“Cough.”
Taeyang swallowed. A bitter metallic taste lingered on the tip of his tongue.
He had not expected the gap in specs to be this overwhelming.
“With all the achievements I’ve stacked up, how can the difference be this big?”
Mute charged without the slightest hesitation. His movements were domineering and explosive.
Taeyang reflexively took a side step.
Whoosh.
Mute’s fist, as large as a human head, grazed Taeyang’s cheek.
‘Fucking fast.’
Still, the moment the bastard extended his arm, the turn belonged to Taeyang.
He immediately drove his knee into Mute’s undefended abdomen.
Perfect counter in both form and timing.
Thud.
“Oh?”
Mute’s eyes flashed. Taeyang’s face twisted in pain.
The impact felt pathetic.
“Friend, your hide is thicker than I expected?”
“Or are you just that weak?”
Had he consumed some kind of physical-defense elixir?
Taeyang was hurled backward. He crossed both arms to shield his abdomen.
Boom!
The punch slamming down on his guard felt like a cannon blast.
Taeyang was smashed into the half-collapsed wall on the opposite side of the factory.
Hyeonhye bit her lip as she watched the chat.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Ptui.”
The saliva Taeyang spat onto the floor was bright red.
Even though he had blocked, the shock must have reached his internal organs; he was coughing up blood.
Taeyang quickly shook himself off and stood back up.
For some reason Mute simply watched in silence.
No, he could guess what the beastman was thinking.
He had already caught his prey, so he was going to savor the entertainment.
Ha.
The clock tower was a hidden stage that could only be entered with keys. If he could just reach it, his safety would be guaranteed.
If he could just reach it.
“Hyeonhye, I can’t run.”
Taeyang cut her off as he stared at Mute.
The beastman was waiting like a boxer standing over a downed opponent, ready for the count.
Run?
He could break away from this spot right now.
But he must not forget.
Yurik had clearly said there were three beastmen.
For whatever reason the others had not appeared yet, but the moment Taeyang started running around and expanding his range of activity, he would end up facing the rest of them. Then it would become a true four-sided siege.
That aside.
“Isn’t it easier to kill him while he’s alone?”
Do you really think that?
Instead of answering out loud, Taeyang steadied his breathing.
Mute grinned.
“Good eyes. The eyes of a true warrior.”
Eyes far too valuable for an inferior human warrior.
Mute decided that after he killed Taeyang he would personally chew those eyes and swallow them.
Taeyang observed Mute with cold eyes.
Ears pulled back, vertical pupils, muscles writhing dynamically even before movement began.
One. Two.
The powerful tiger beastman’s body drew in a breath for action.
‘Now.’
Thud.
Mute hurled himself at Taeyang.
‘Skillization. Or a strike infused with mana.’
Any attack below that would be useless against that body.
Conversely, it meant there was still a way.
The evidence was thin, but for Taeyang it was enough.
Boom.
Taeyang stamped the ground once more.
Crackle.
Electromagnetism raced up his leg.
A duel decided in 0.1-second reactions.
The exhilarating knowledge that a single clean hit would end everything.
Taeyang sharpened his mind to a razor’s edge.
‘This is it. This is right.’
Perhaps the early floors of Dantalion he had experienced had simply been too easy.
If he still possessed the sharp senses he had in King of Fist, he would never have been pushed this far.
Watching Mute’s incoming fist, Taeyang curled his upper body into a tight coil.
At the same time he drove off powerfully with the leg planted on the floor.
Thud.
For an instant the factory furniture in Taeyang’s vision stretched like taffy.
The mangled cabinet, the shattered window, the crumpled door.
At the same moment Mute’s torso closed in at terrifying speed.
The unique stench of a beast filled his nose.
Whoosh.
Mute’s fist once again grazed past Taeyang’s head.
The wind pressure momentarily deafened him.
In other words, an opportunity had arrived.
Unlike before, this was an opportunity after a proper buildup.
Inside Mute’s guard, Taeyang explosively uncoiled his bent waist.
The coiled power exploded upward like a dragon ascending to heaven.
Boooom!
Taeyang’s fist smashed into Mute’s jaw with perfect force.
The blow was so clean that the massive tiger beastman’s body actually lifted off the ground for a moment.
Crash.
Taeyang looked down at the collapsed tiger beastman.
“Urgh…”
Mute pushed himself up with his legs.
He was staggering slightly; the damage from the clean hit to the jaw still lingered.
Taeyang tilted his head with a dissatisfied expression.
“Yoon Taeyang has died way too many times. For real.”
“What?”
“Getting hit by something so trivial.”
Mute’s face hardened.
The mockery coming from prey he had been toying with only moments ago was more than enough to wound a predator’s lofty pride.
“Getting cocky just because one lucky strike happened to land.”
“Lucky strike? I don’t think so.”
Taeyang had analyzed Mute’s movements, kept up with them, and produced a valid result.
The clean knee strike earlier had not dealt damage, but the mechanism had been the same.
A result produced without understanding the process is luck. A result produced after fully understanding the process is achievement.
Taeyang beckoned to Mute.
“Want to test it?”
“GRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAR!”
Mute roared and charged.
Big kitten.
I’ve figured out all your patterns, dumbass.
* * *
The wolf beastman, Balkar, pressed his nose to the floor.
The lingering scent was the strongest he had encountered so far.
It seemed the target had been here until recently before moving to another factory.
“A shame.”
The factory he had headed toward had probably been claimed by Mute or Arin.
Only two factories remained in D Sector.
Switching offense and defense.
Red light and blue light descend upon player Balkar simultaneously.
“GRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAR!”
At the tiger’s roar rolling in from the south, Balkar smirked.
“Lucky bastard, Mute.”
After glancing once toward the opposite side, Balkar examined the factory he had chosen.
It looked as if it had already been swept through once, yet he might still find usable equipment.
Or traces of other players.
If someone had changed gear here, discarded their old equipment and left, Balkar could track that player using it as a lead.
‘Though that’s unlikely.’
Players who had confirmed Balkar’s presence rarely made such mistakes, so he did not hold high expectations.
He was thoroughly searching the factory when—
“GRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAR!”
A second roar.
Balkar’s expression stiffened.
‘Still?’
The first roar must have been one of joy and victory.
But a second roar after this much time meant the prey was no pushover.
Beastmen possessed an exceptionally strong sense of camaraderie.
They were a race that would have gone extinct long ago had they not protected one another.
Hunter’s honor? Warrior’s pride?
Beastmen placed each other’s safety far above such concepts.
“Grrrr!”
Balkar sprinted toward Mute’s factory.
After running for some time, the fox beastman Arin appeared.
It seemed she had come to the same conclusion.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yeah.”
The pair increased their speed and soon reached the factory Mute had been assigned.
“Mute!”
“Are you all right?”
Boom!
The half-destroyed factory door exploded completely, and they found him.
Mute lay sprawled in the center of the factory, his lower jaw utterly shattered, his body miserably beaten.
The two beastmen bristled their fur and bared their fangs.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
They looked at each other.
Bloodshot eyes.
The meaning was obvious.
Revenge for their comrade.
Balkar growled low.
“Mute, just wait a little longer. I’ll pluck every last one of that bastard’s bones, clean them nicely, and scatter them across your grave.”
Whoosh.
Arin said nothing, but the blazing fox fire that scorched the surroundings made her feelings perfectly clear.
* * *
City center. Clock tower.
Click. Click. Click.
Inserting the keys in sequence caused the clock tower door to open.
“Urgh…”
With a deathly pale face, Taeyang stepped inside the clock tower.
Thud.
The moment the door closed, he leaned against it and slid down, collapsing on the spot.
“No. It hurts. It hurts like hell.”
His vision spun.
The tendons in both wrists were torn, and constant pain radiated from his right forearm—whether it was broken or cracked, he couldn’t tell.
The reckless movements had injured the muscles in his back as well; every breath sent fresh agony spreading through him.
Regeneration power.
Regeneration Power
You acquire the regeneration ability of the giant snake Aksharon for 3 seconds. (Cooldown: 1,200 seconds)
Skill is on cooldown. Activation failed.
Damn it, the cooldown still had a long way to go.
Huu.
Taeyang exhaled and steadied his mind.
Pain was something he had to overcome.
“Pain is a natural part of life. Acknowledge the pain and let it be.”
Ah, I’m in pain.
That’s possible.
Just let it be.
After all, this too shall pass.
Huu.
After immersing himself in mental victory for a while, Taeyang eventually spat out a curse.
‘Damn it, that doesn’t mean the pain disappears right now.’
After lying there unable to even control his body for some time, his condition improved slightly.
With trembling hands he wrapped the bandages and drank the recovery potion he had prepared earlier.
“If it wasn’t for the KK seat I would’ve been in real trouble.”
The effects of ‘Goddess’s Mischievous Prank,’ the shield and buffs, had been incredibly useful during the fight against the tiger beastman Mute.
Because the physical spec difference forced him to accept hits, they had been even more critical.
Especially if the shield had not activated at the perfect moments, it might have been Taeyang lying beaten and sprawled in the factory instead of Mute.
“Shit, the bottle broke and everything spilled.”
Taeyang poured the potion from the broken bottle onto his wrists and the rest of his wounds.
‘For my back… I’ll do it later.’
It was too painful to reach right now.
As he sat still, he felt a faint flow of mana moving through the injured areas.
Taeyang flinched for a moment, then realized it was meant to heal the wounds and relaxed his guard.
Soon his condition improved noticeably.
Part of it was thanks to the recovery item, but it was also because Taeyang’s body had long since surpassed ordinary human limits.
In fact, players on the higher floors recovered from mere scrapes just by breathing.
When Taeyang tried to stand, Hyeonhye stopped him.
Floors 4 and 5 had far more content than the tutorial-like floors 1 through 3.
Even though the game accounted for physical fatigue, the mental exhaustion must have piled up heavily by now.
Taeyang lightly shook out his body and answered.
“Let’s clear floor 5 first and rest afterward. The other two are probably powering up their specs even at this very moment.”
The beastmen’s sense of camaraderie was famous.
Since he had already killed one, facing the remaining two was now a foregone conclusion.
Taeyang looked up at the clock tower.
The interior consisted of circular stairs winding upward.
Right now all he could see was the dizzyingly spinning staircase, but at the very top the pocket watch artifact—the Greatest Machinery—would be waiting.
After checking his physical condition, Taeyang began climbing the clock tower without hesitation.
Creak. Creak. Creak.
The sound of turning springs tickled his ears.
“Confirmed.”
It was a wind-up soldier.
The wind-up soldiers popped out from various spots along the stairs to obstruct players climbing the tower.
Individually they were not overwhelmingly strong, but they possessed an absolute recovery trait that rewound their own time to heal.
They were monsters you shook off rather than killed.
“I was told to memorize their positions.”
If he accidentally disturbed an object and they sensed a threat, or the instant he touched the artifact at the top, the soldiers would swarm him like mad.
Taeyang memorized the soldiers’ locations and began ascending the tower with extreme care not to provoke them.