Chapter 379
Chapter 379
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 379
Chapter Title: The Sleeping City Awakens
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The sleeping city had awakened.
The first thing to rouse the city was the roar of the Red Dragon echoing through the sky. It was so loud and deafening that everyone who had been asleep jolted awake.
"What the hell is that noise?"
"Is the Archmage fighting someone?"
"If you're gonna fight, do it quietly somewhere else. Why make such a racket?"
Of course, up until then, they just thought it was one of those minor incidents that always cropped up during the Great War period.
Whenever strong, hot-blooded rankers gathered, fights were bound to break out. The only difference this time was that it involved the Archmage—it was nothing out of the ordinary.
But that wasn't the problem.
"Demons!"
The guild leaders woke the sleeping rankers.
"Everyone, wake up!"
They explained the situation to the guild executives: Demons were hiding in the city, trying to awaken the septic flowers.
The news spread quickly.
This wasn't just any event—it was a demon invasion. It was tantamount to war.
To players, demons were more dangerous and something to be on guard against than even the Heavenly Demon. They existed solely to kill humans—to kill players. Nothing took precedence over fighting demons.
And among them, Elfrado took charge of tracking the hallucination bugs.
"There are people implanted with hallucination bugs all over the place."
"What are hallucination bugs?"
"They're bugs the demons plant in human heads. They distort memories and make people move as they desire."
The reason Kim Il-su had made a special request to them was because of two people.
They were the two high rankers representing Elfrado this time: Ripley and Emily.
"Ripley. I'm counting on you."
Ripley, who had been asleep hugging her doll tightly at Emily's plea, nodded groggily.
Her face still showed traces of sleepiness, but she knew better than anyone what needed to be done.
Buzzzzz—
A swarm of black bees rose outside the window. They were thumb-sized hornets, in numbers so vast it was hard to imagine where they had all been hiding.
"You said they're implanted in heads?"
Ripley said, looking out the window.
"Devour every single one of those bugs on people's heads."
Buzzzzzz—
The bees flapped their wings and scattered throughout the city. With their keen senses, the bees began searching for the hallucination bugs hidden all over the city.
The bugs had been implanted in completely unexpected people.
And at the same time.
The seeds scattered throughout the city began to bloom. The septic flowers opened their petals, revealing massive maws.
"Over there!"
"That damn flower... we can't even sleep because of it..."
Players who spotted the septic flowers charged toward them fearlessly. But it was already too late.
Whoosh—
Red pollen burst from the flowers, spreading everywhere. The players charging in froze and vomited blood.
"Cough, ack!"
"Ben!"
"This crazy..."
The red pollen invaded their lungs in an instant, churning their insides.
Blood began to spread across the ground where the septic flower had bloomed. It wasn't ordinary blood. It was blood of death that devoured anything it touched.
Centered on the septic flower, the surroundings began transforming into a land of death.
Just as the blood was spreading.
Crackkkk—
A blast of frigid cold froze the blood solid, turning it black. Ice flowers bloomed atop it, and soon the septic flower itself was encased in pure white ice.
In mere seconds, the area turned entirely white. The only ones unchanged were those poisoned by the septic flower's toxin.
"Don't breathe when dealing with septic flowers. And don't let it touch your skin."
Si-woo approached them.
"It wasn't inhaled for long, so there won't be any life-threatening effects. Take this simple antidote—it'll help."
"Th-thank you."
The rescued rankers were stunned. Everything around them was frozen solid, yet they were unharmed. This was several times harder than freezing everything indiscriminately.
Before leaving, Si-woo glanced back at the frozen septic flower.
"You guys smash that thing."
Flash—
As if every second counted, Si-woo vanished with those words.
Not as fast as Ye-ryeong, but Si-woo pushed to full speed. Amid the cityscapes blurring past his vision, his eyes blazed an electric blue.
Septic flowers bloomed all over the city.
Rankers and high rankers from each guild awoke from sleep and moved to stop them.
Some prevented them from blooming at all, while others neutralized the poison before the fully bloomed flowers could damage the city. The septic flowers' harm was minimal.
The biggest contributor was Hails.
With her dozens of eyes scanning the city, she intercepted every septic flower just as it tried to bloom, striking from the sky. Her magic was both powerful and precise.
In the city's darkness, a demon surrounded by flowers flashed its eyes.
"Because of those guys?"
The demon recalled Soo-hyuk and Hails as seen through its clones.
They were skilled enough to render the clones helpless. But he hadn't expected them to be such a hindrance.
Before the night was over, all the city's rankers were awake. The demon hurriedly awakened the septic flowers planted everywhere, but they were being eradicated before they could even spread their poison.
At the demon's feet knelt several humans with gouged-out eyes. Hallucination bugs were implanted in their heads—they were completely mind-controlled by the demon.
"Lee Soo-hyuk and Hails."
"Lee Soo-hyuk?"
The demon's eyes twitched. It was because of that name.
Just as players feared the name Demon King, the name Lee Soo-hyuk held special meaning to demons.
For a very long time, he had been the one leading players against the demons.
"That name again."
The demon touched its chest. A deep burn scar marred its exposed red skin.
A scar that even a demon's regeneration couldn't heal.
Lee Soo-hyuk was the one who had inflicted it in the past.
"Several guilds are saying he might be the real Lee Soo-hyuk."
"Didn't that guy die?"
"Yes. They even held a funeral in Blue Zone 21 years ago."
"A dead guy came back to life?"
The demon, who had smirked, thrust out its fist.
Boom—!
The head of the human delivering the news exploded instantly and flew backward. Watermelon-like chunks scattered across the floor.
"You sure have a knack for spouting nonsense."
He had used him well for a long time, but there was no more need for him now—that was why he killed him today.
The demon was now thinking of leaving. What a stroke of bad luck.
Hiss—
Crimson energy flowed from the demon's hand. The demonic energy spread through the ground to every corner of the city.
There was no need to conserve seeds anymore. All the septic flowers crouched for hatching would bloom, and now it was time to hide.
Just as he prepared to kill the other two and stand.
Kaboom—!
The ceiling shattered, pouring rocks and moonlight downward. Light entered the pitch-black underground for the first time.
The demon's eyes widened at the identity of the one who had smashed through the ceiling.
"Lee Soo-hyuk?"
Soo-hyuk was wearing a mask. It was a mask familiar even to demons, not just humans.
Was he alive? Or had the dead truly returned?
Though rumored dead, the demon didn't think the Lee Soo-hyuk before him was fake.
"So you were here."
The demon's expression twisted oddly at Soo-hyuk's words. The tone was too polite for the situation.
Of course, Soo-hyuk wasn't addressing the demon.
Now, there were set times when Soo-hyuk wore his mask.
If Kim Il-su had used the guild communication channels, Soo-hyuk turned on his stream to broadcast the situation to everyone.
By now, Soo-hyuk's streams wielded considerable influence—far beyond what a mere streamer could command. That influence proved useful even for urgent news like this.
Among the hundreds of thousands of viewers were not just ordinary ones, but many rankers participating in the Great War alongside him.
"Must be frustrating. Hiding in a space like this underground."
The demon shot to its feet and shouted.
"How did you find this place?!"
Squeak—
At that moment.
Something with twitching whiskers lifted its head from beneath the demon's feet.
'Rats?'
A few rats. Things he wouldn't normally spare a thought for.
But looking closely now, they weren't ordinary rats.
"You tracked me with these things?"
"There's a guy who has the love of every animal in the world."
'Burim' was one of Hyo-min's abilities. From small creatures to massive monsters, she could command all kinds of life forms at will.
How many places in the world lacked even one such tiny lifeform? In that sense, tracking was Hyo-min's domain.
"Belzerk."
The demon Belzerk's expression twitched.
"You know me?"
"Of course. You're a demon legion commander."
In that instant, Belzerk felt the Soo-hyuk before him was an entirely different person from moments ago.
The Soo-hyuk chatting with viewers on stream was a streamer; the one facing a demon was a player. Same person, completely different.
"You're abandoned."
Soo-hyuk approached Belzerk.
"When they sent you this far, did the one who sent you not foresee this outcome? Hardly. Even if things went as planned and you inflicted damage on us, your end was sealed from the start."
"What do you know about me?!"
Belzerk thrust his hands forward. They writhed and transformed into massive vines and flowers.
Shwoooosh—!
Enormous vines filled the underground, engulfing Soo-hyuk. Not just septic flowers, but all manner of demonic realm creatures poured out at once.
In that moment, flash!
The dark underground lit up brilliantly. With a single flash, the thorny vines and flowers Belzerk summoned burned away and crumbled.
Rumble—
Thunder echoed through the underground. As the vines and flowers incinerated, burns appeared on Belzerk's hands, returned to normal.
"Grr..."
"I'm not curious about you. I'm curious which of the three Demon Kings sent you. You're not worth the curiosity."
Right after the Dragon Lord's death, a demon legion commander infiltrated human ranks. The timing was too perfect for coincidence.
Soo-hyuk suspected the Demon King who sent Belzerk was directly involved in the Dragon Lord's death.
"Now, tell me. Who sent you here to die?"
Belzerk fell silent at Soo-hyuk's question.
He hadn't expected him to talk easily.
A demon legion commander's power wasn't just this level. Above all, demons' loyalty to the Demon King outweighed their lives.
The silence dragged on. He didn't seem to be plotting anything. It was as if he were deep in thought.
Finally, the words Soo-hyuk had been waiting for spilled from Belzerk's mouth.
"...You really are Lee Soo-hyuk."