Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: My Fault
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It's my fault.
The wave of self-blame hit right after I realized Kim Il-su had betrayed us.
Why hadn't I noticed his betrayal sooner?
Why had I pushed my comrades into the jaws of death with my pointless certainty?
And why, out of everyone, had this opportunity come only to me?
I channeled lightning through my body, breaking through the blocked meridians.
Soo-hyuk bit down on his lip, repeating the simple yet excruciatingly painful process.
'Do you resent me?'
Min-jae. Su-hun. Ji-young. Si-woo. Ye-ryeong...
The faces of his friends, bound together under the name Blue Eyes, floated in his mind.
He couldn't see their expressions.
No, he lacked the courage to face them.
Did they resent him? Or were they missing him just as he was missing them?
'I wouldn't blame you if you did. It's a fact that I drove you into danger.'
Kim Il-su had killed his comrades, but it was Soo-hyuk who had lured them straight into his jaws.
'So, I'll atone in hell.'
But.
Not just by going quietly.
'With Kim Il-su's head in my grasp.'
Fatigue high enough that passing out wouldn't be surprising.
But what drove Soo-hyuk onward was the memory of failing to behead Kim Il-su in that final moment.
Chi-ji-ji-!
The lightning grew fiercer.
The end was almost in sight.
'Just one more time.'
He clung to his fading consciousness by thinking of his comrades.
Thanks to them, he held his focus and kept his mind sharp.
The meridian ignition was nearing its finale.
Just one more left.
And the grand finale for that last push was right before his eyes.
Wooong, woo-.
A small cluster of yellow light floated lazily at arm's reach.
The message confirmed it too.
The goal of this trial was to brave the lightning and claim that light.
'I don't know what it is, but...'
Stagger-.
Dragging his precarious body on the verge of collapse.
Thud-.
Soo-hyuk took his final step toward it.
'This is the key to this trial.'
The giant from the cutscene.
Even if he gained the lightning and cleared his meridians, no plan came to mind for dealing with that thing.
It was an out-of-spec existence that shouldn't appear in this section.
This light cluster was surely the key to defeating that giant.
'And for me too.'
The key to piercing the last blocked meridian.
Soo-hyuk reached out toward it.
In the lodging.
Unhyang sat with an uncharacteristically stony face, devoid of any smile.
Her posture was so straight it bordered on reverent.
What she watched was, of course, Soo-hyuk's stream.
"Guh... Urghhh...!"
Pah-ji-ji-!
Crunch-.
The sound of grinding teeth leaked out. Blood dripped from under the mask in a way that hurt anyone watching.
Every step sent him staggering wildly, as if he might collapse at any moment.
It was unnerving.
Yet he pressed on.
Pushing himself to the absolute limit, even though he didn't have to.
'Ignition of the full-body meridians. And he's doing it here.'
She was a Murim World player.
Full-body meridian ignition using magic power originated from Murim World.
As such, she knew exactly how grueling it was.
Especially if it involved not pure magic power, but high-density lightning?
'Is this even possible?'
She had been called a genius her whole life.
By the time she made her name in the tower, "genius" preceded her name like a title.
Full-body meridian ignition?
She had achieved it long ago. But what truly shocked her wasn't just that.
Doing it while moving, using an external massive force that wasn't even his own.
That level of control was still beyond even her current self.
And moreover.
"Ugh...!"
Crunch-crunch-.
The sound from under the mask.
It was the noise of biting his lower lip with his teeth.
"That must hurt..."
Having long since completed her own meridian ignition, Unhyang couldn't fathom it.
Even sitting still to clear the meridians was so painful that nine out of ten passed out. Some even fell into qi deviation.
Yet Soo-hyuk was doing it not seated, but walking—and with that scorching electric magic power.
Was this humanly possible?
No matter that deaths in the trial didn't carry over to reality, the pain inside was identical.
'How is he enduring it?'
There was only one way to endure pain.
Mental fortitude.
The mental strength to withstand agony was harder to forge than tempering the body.
A tough body could be honed through training and levels, but steel-like will came solely from one's own resolve.
'Why...'
That's why Unhyang was puzzled.
"Why go this far?"
Streaming was for making money. No matter how noble the excuse, that didn't change.
But why?
In those wide-open eyes enduring the torment, there was no trace of a 'streamer.'
For a moment, she forgot it was a broadcast, forgot she was Soo-hyuk's manager.
She had no choice.
Right now.
The gaze of streamer Lee Soo-hyuk peeking from behind the mask burned just like the Soo-hyuk she knew.
Pelius and the knights had gathered.
No.
Everyone in the village capable of fighting had assembled.
Refugees from other villages were there too. Over twenty knights and nearly a thousand soldiers.
It was an unavoidable battle, so they steeled their resolve.
To fight the giants.
But.
Even before it started, their will was already crumbling.
Thud, thud-.
The ground trembled closer.
A colossal body twice the size of the other giants, followed by dozens more.
The village froze in terror at their approach.
Gulp-.
Pelius swallowed hard.
'On a whole different level.'
Human and giant.
He knew racial differences existed. They weren't true legendary giants, but monsters of another species entirely.
Yet even knowing that, before this behemoth, Pelius doubted a lifetime of honed swordsmanship.
No matter how flashy or powerful the technique, could it pierce that thick hide?
Before that giant, they seemed like...
'Ants.'
Clang-.
His sword slipped from numb fingers.
No matter how many ants, they couldn't defeat a human.
No way to fight such a thing came to mind.
Thud-.
It drew nearer.
Sluggish movements.
It didn't see them as enemies.
Just vermin it could crush anytime.
"This is our grave."
One knight's words drew agreement from others.
"He never came back."
"Legends are just legends."
"He probably ran."
Pelius thought of Soo-hyuk at their words.
The outsider who felled the giant leader.
He had left chasing an ancient legend of slaying giants.
For a village unrelated to him.
"...He'll return for sure."
The knights' eyes turned to Pelius.
Curryman, a knight from another village, asked,
"What makes you so certain?"
"It's not certainty."
"Then?"
"I don't doubt him."
One by one, puzzled looks formed. Same difference, their faces said.
Pelius raised his drooping sword and scanned the knights.
"We're entrusting the village's fate to an outsider whose name we barely know. Think doubting him will help?"
The knights averted their eyes one by one at Pelius's changed tone and expression.
He was right.
They doubted the tale of him slaying the giant leader, but he had still acted for a village unrelated to him.
Pelius had consistently called that outsider his 'benefactor.'
"Have some shame, you lot calling yourselves knights."
Thud-.
As Pelius spat the words and stepped toward the giants.
"He's right. Spot on."
Grab-.
A hand stopped Pelius mid-step.
Dale passed him, advancing on the giants.
"Protecting the village is our duty from the start. No one to blame but ourselves."
He took point, raising his sword sharply. Magic power surged from Dale's body, cloaking the blade in blue light.
"A knight protects, doesn't get protected."
The desperate resolve ignited the knights' flames.
His actions and spirit lifted the knights' and soldiers' morale.
Thud-.
The giant approached.
The overwhelming pressure from its size was their last respite.
"Today, we die as knights."
Grip-.
Clenching his sword with both hands for all he was worth.
"Charge-!"
Whoosh-.
Dale led the vanguard.
Human and giant.
The two races clashed.
Kwaaak-!
Dale kicked off the giant's body and leaped. Far from his prime, but his movements stood out among the knights.
"Hah-!"
Squeal-.
His blue-magic-infused sword sliced the tough hide.
A gash opened under its chin. As the giant screamed, Pelius charged and swung at its ankle with full force.
Splat-.
Groooar-!
The giant staggered back, wounded at the ankle's rear, and toppled.
As it swung its massive wooden club, nearby soldiers were swept away.
Craaack-!
"Gaaack-!"
" Coil!"
Its sheer physical power crumpled knights' armor effortlessly.
But there was no time to mourn comrades.
"Now! Stab-!"
Dale shouted urgently.
Mourning the fallen was a luxury for after victory.
Priority: finish the downed giant.
Stab, stab-stab-.
Groooaaar-!!!
Swords from waiting soldiers and knights pierced the giant everywhere. Pelius focused relentlessly on its eyes.
Even tiny needles become deadly in dozens or hundreds.
And among them.
One potent awl mixed in?
Kwa-duk-!
The blade pierced bone.
Dale's sword tip ruptured the giant's throat.
Gurgle, guh...
For a moment.
As the convulsing giant slumped lifelessly.
"Huff, haa-."
Panting heavily, Dale roared in triumph.
"We- got itttt-!"
"Yaaaahhh-!"
"We won, we-!"
The surrounding giants were cleared.
Many soldiers sacrificed, but...
We won this fight.
That's when they thought it.
"Th-this... bastard..."
A survivor from a giant-ravaged village.
Staring at the fallen giant, he muttered in a trembling voice.
"This isn't him..."
That instant.
Bwoooong-.
With a heavy thud, something crashed into the battlefield's center.
Kwaaaang-!
All eyes turned. A massive shadow intruded against the setting sun.
Smoke billowed thickly.
Grrrrowl-.
For a split second, the battlefield froze.
Its bulk dwarfed the fallen giant pathetically. Even Dale, full of desperate resolve, froze at its arrival.
Overwhelming.
Against the downed one, he had will to fight; against this, not even that.
The giant that fell from the sky.
"You..."
Human words spilled from the lips glaring at Dale.
"Did you... kill my son?"