Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Great Sage Equal to Heaven
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In response to Maeng Yeon's declaration that she would use her special perk, Baek Hyun showed no particular reaction, merely bowing his head to reconfirm her intentions.
"...Are you really sure?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. You were planning to use yours if things got bad anyway, right?"
Through their conversations during their second meeting, the two players had exchanged a tremendous amount of information.
Everything from trivial personal trivia to their past experiences and various impressions of this new world.
They had even shared detailed details about the various cards and forces each possessed.
However, amid all that, there was one piece of information they had never shared.
That was the 'special perk' each had received.
Through their discussions, Maeng Yeon and Baek Hyun had confirmed three facts about the special perks.
First, the special perks received by players varied in quality.
Second, each perk consisted of one physique and one powerful item.
Third, this powerful item was the ultimate equipment tailored to the player's characteristics.
Having grasped these facts, they agreed to share only information about their physiques—which couldn't be hidden anyway—and keep the other perk secret.
Regardless of a player's capabilities, the existence of a supreme item possessing immense power in its own right served as a final insurance policy that could become one's lifeline in a pinch.
If forced to use such insurance in a situation where one didn't wish to, it would create massive obstacles to cooperation between players.
Thus, the two mature players agreed that, even as fellow possessors who needed to collaborate, they would not reveal their final special perk to each other.
This would inevitably create some inefficiency, as it meant not sharing one's most crucial ultimate move.
However, it was a mutual respect to ensure that their final resort could be used purely at their own discretion, free from anyone else's interference—even if used selfishly.
It might seem cold at first glance, but Baek Hyun believed that even the closest relationships between people required a minimal barrier.
All the more so with someone he hadn't known for long.
In fact, Baek Hyun's judgment proved correct.
Maeng Yeon felt even greater trust toward him because he drew close in a friendly manner while never encroaching on that most vital domain.
As a result, despite having met only days ago, she became willing to employ perilous tactics that entrusted her life to him.
Paradoxically, the mental barrier between them formed the foundation allowing their complete cooperation.
But at this moment.
Far sooner than expected, Maeng Yeon was the first to tear down that wall.
"You might think it's funny for me to say this when we haven't known each other long, but I trust you. I feel like I can."
At those words, Baek Hyun drew a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and spoke.
"...I won't stop you since it's your choice, but I'll say one thing."
Thank you. For trusting me.
Humans are inherently selfish, so everyone builds a sturdy wall in their heart to protect themselves from others.
This nature never changes.
It merely expands the scope of the 'self' one seeks to protect, depending on relationships formed with others.
Thus, at this moment.
The two possessors truly became a 'party' in every sense.
Companions who shared life and death, caring for each other's safety as their own.
Naturally, the synergy they produced together far surpassed what mere acquaintances could achieve through coordination.
-Shuuu...
Before long, Jimjo's poison mist enveloped them once more.
Before their eyes, elite poison creatures of the Poison Palace Lord—each rivaling peak masters—blocked their path.
The situation remained utterly bleak.
Yet Baek Hyun no longer felt the same sense of hopelessness as before.
"I'll block those poison creatures with my special perk. So, in the meantime, you take out Jimjo."
"Got it. I have to do at least that much to avoid freeloading."
Within the wind barrier created by Har, they swiftly reset their objectives.
Having confirmed their danger, the Poison Palace Lord would undoubtedly widen the distance deliberately, making it nearly impossible to catch and kill him.
The only viable breakthrough now was to slay Jimjo and eliminate his option to flee.
Of course, that path still required breaking through the Poison Palace Lord's elite poison creatures to fell one of the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts—a solution tantamount to impossible.
But they held their strongest trump card, one that turned the impossible possible.
"Hyun, as you know, the special perk I got upon possession is definitely inferior to yours. My physique is utterly insignificant compared to yours."
The physique granted to Maeng Yeon as her special perk was the 'Iron Bone Body'.
The Iron Bone Body endowed the body with sword-and-spear-proof durability innately and could even evolve into an Indestructible Diamond Body through training—a highly useful physique.
However, it paled significantly compared to supreme physiques like the Solar Body.
Through this, Maeng Yeon and Baek Hyun confirmed that the perks granted reflected the differences in their achievements and prestige from the game.
"But my second perk won't lose to yours."
-Kugugugung...!!
As she summoned the item bound to her into reality, the ground shook as if struck by an earthquake, and the earth began to split open.
Beyond the cleft earth lay an 'otherworld' adorned with all manner of dazzling ornaments and treasures of gold and silver.
Its splendor seemed to embody 'wealth and glory' made manifest, yet it exuded a bone-chilling aura of death that sent shivers down the spine.
It was the world's largest tomb, built on the sacrifice of countless lives.
The fruit of near-mad obsession by the first emperor who dreamed of immortality.
-Kyieeeek!!
-Sasasak!!
-Shaaaak-!!
Sensing something ominous as the First Emperor's Mausoleum materialized, the elite poison creatures charged at Maeng Yeon in unison.
Though doomed to perish from Jimjo's poison soon enough, the poison creatures, driven by fury precisely because of that, lunged at the foe before them.
'To live, one must kill.'
That was the sole instinct etched into the poison creatures' consciousness.
The moment the poison creatures unleashed their full power from the start to tear Maeng Yeon and Har apart.
-Kwajik-!!
A massive hand thrust from the split earth instantly crushed one of the Millennial Poison Apes charging at Maeng Yeon.
As simply as a human squashing an ordinary insect.
Even the poison creatures, consumed by extreme venom and battle lust, halted their assault and cowered momentarily at the sight.
They instinctively sensed it.
The being before them was a supreme existence incomparable to themselves.
-Fwoong, tak!
The entity, overwhelming all poison creatures present merely by its presence, leaped from the deep chasm with acrobatic grace, revealing its true form to the world.
And then.
Its roar shook the entire Jeomchang Mountain, instantly scattering the encroaching Jimjo's poison mist in all directions.
A mere roar rivaled the full-powered lion's roar Har had unleashed.
Baek Hyun couldn't help but be stunned.
Not by its overwhelming power, but by the sheer fact of its presence here.
"Ha... I really never imagined I'd see that guy here."
Baek Hyun let out a hollow laugh, rubbing his forehead.
Indeed, if her perk summoned even a fraction of that Monstrous Being's power...
It was no perk to be outdone by his Red Bow White Arrow.
Its appearance alone was enough to utterly reverse the battlefield's atmosphere.
Despite being a Monstrous Being, it conversed with humans without the slightest awkwardness.
A fully mature 'adult' among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts—far beyond immature youngsters like Har or Jimjo.
Unlike other Monstrous Beings of overwhelming size, its height was a mere eight chi, only slightly taller than a human.
Yet its presence felt like facing a towering mountain whose peak vanished into the clouds.
Among Monstrous Beings, it was particularly renowned for its martial prowess in the monkey lineage.
The absolute pinnacle of them all.
In his past life, it had matched mythical realm martial artists evenly and complemented 'Harmful Bird's' lacking close combat with its peerless martial might—the strongest in melee among Monstrous Beings.
In other words, the 'Flower-Fruit Mountain Monkey'.
Yes.
Among the heaven-and-earth-shaking calamity-grade Monstrous Beings that disrupted the world's laws merely by existing, Wuzhiqi was the unprecedented outlier hailed as the strongest ever.
It was of the lineage of the famed 'Fighting Victory Buddha'.