Chapter 293: Fading Time
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 293: Fading Time
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
[A critical hit has been triggered!]
A storm of gunfire followed, and blood sprayed from Murcielago's forehead.
It was the result of the 'Ultra-Precision Shot' effect triggering after accurately striking the exact same spot in rapid succession.
"Aaargh!"
Murcielago let out a rage-filled scream.
The pain was one thing, but she had never imagined she would suffer such humiliation.
This was an insult to a commander who led countless swarms as the Queen's right hand.
"That's why you should've stayed hidden behind your bugs. Why spread your wings and fly around all by yourself? It's like you're begging to be shot."
Jinhyuk clicked his tongue.
They say fools and smoke love high places.
That saying fit this situation perfectly.
"You human... I won't let you get away with this!"
[Murcielago uses 'Yellow Dust'!]
Fzzzt...
With a flutter of the butterfly's wings, thick yellow powder scattered into the air.
To allies, it was a mysterious powder that bestowed intelligence, but to enemies, it was a devilish dust that drove them mad with loss of reason.
The dust spread widely, beginning to envelop Jinhyuk.
"This dust is packed with hallucinogens. Once I thoroughly break you with this, I'll play with you every single night. Even if you beg for more, I won't give it to you easily, so look forward to it. Hehehe."
Hmm. That's a pretty dangerous statement.
Besides...
"You can't do it at that sluggish speed."
No matter how powerful an attack was, it meant nothing if he simply avoided it.
Jinhyuk moved lightly, slipping through the gaps in the dust.
Then.
"Who said that? Me, slow?"
Whoosh!
The speed of the incoming dust accelerated.
It completely cut off his escape routes and tightened the perimeter, leaving absolutely no room to slip through.
However, just before the dust could touch Jinhyuk's body...
Jinhyuk unleashed a storm of gunfire toward the approaching dust.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
"What on earth do you think you can do with a measly gun like that? Don't tell me you're planning to shoot and hit every single speck? No matter how stupid you are, doing something like... Huh? What? Huh?!"
A strange, bewildered tone began to creep into Murcielago's voice as she spoke.
No matter how large the particles of the dust were, its basic form was still powder.
Yet he was neutralizing all of it.
What kind of monster could do something so absurd...
"Uh... Er... Ah."
Murcielago's mouth gaped open.
"I told you. You're slow."
"Aaargh! Kill him! What are you doing? Kill him!"
"Kieee!"
"Kiek!"
The bugs joined the fray upon receiving the command.
A giant centipede burrowed into the sandy ground, vanishing from sight, while dozens of wasps rushed forward with their venomous stingers bared.
Rhinoceros beetles and various man-eating plants also pressed in, forming a dense wall.
"Pushing with quantity because quality failed... That's a very insect-like way of thinking."
Swish, swish, swish!
Before anyone knew it, Jinhyuk had switched to his whip sword, which extended in all directions, scattering blade after blade.
It was a swordsmanship style he had developed independently when climbing the Tower in the past.
No, calling it swordsmanship was too grand, as it lacked any formal stances.
It was merely... a set of movements optimized to wield the whip sword comfortably and efficiently.
It would be more accurate to call it a dance designed primarily to annoy the opponent.
However.
If there was one thing it excelled at, it was digging into the opponent's sore spots.
[Unique Ability 'Grave of Swords' is activated!]
With Aura added to the mix, its power was beyond imagination.
"Kieee!"
"Aaargh!"
Shredded pieces of bugs rolled across the ground.
Slash!
Thrust!
The sword burrowed into the sand as if it were alive.
Simultaneously.
"Groooar!"
"Screeech!"
The centipedes that had been hiding in the sand, waiting for an opening, burst out.
Pierced by the whip sword, they writhed violently.
Crunch!
With another swing of Jinhyuk's sword, the screams fell silent.
"Instead of throwing all your 'precious subordinates of the Queen' into the jaws of death, why don't you come at me yourself, Miss Crumpled Tinkerbell?"
"C-Crumpled Tinkerbell?"
"There's a fairy in a fairy tale from our world. If you got hit by a car... actually, let me rephrase that. If you got hit by a ten-ton truck... wait, once wouldn't be enough. If you got hit about ten times, you'd look just like her."
I tried to wrap it as nicely as possible so as not to hurt her feelings too bluntly.
To be honest, they had absolutely nothing in common except for their gender.
"How dare a mere human like you mock me, a noble of the great Insect Clan? Fine. I will personally crush you with all my might."
[Murcielago attempts 'Cocooning'!]
[All wounds are healed.]
[When completely enveloped in the cocoon, Defense increases by 3,800%.]
Thick white silk threads began to wrap around the giant butterfly's body.
Cocooning.
It was an ability that directly reflected the characteristics of insects that grow through metamorphosis.
"The moment you lay eyes on my true form will be your last... Huh?"
But as she spoke, Murcielago tilted her head.
The opponent, who should have been listening intently, was nowhere to be seen.
Her antennae twitched.
Her entire body's senses moved to locate the enemy.
He appeared in midair.
Specifically, right above Murcielago's head.
By stacking 'Domain of Wind' and 'Sword Demon's Ghost Walk', he was able to move in a way that was almost equivalent to short-range teleportation.
Tap.
Landing on top of the cocoon, Jinhyuk aimed his gun at Murcielago's head.
"Who said I'd wait for you?"
This wasn't some cartoon for twelve-year-olds.
He had no intention of clapping and waiting until her transformation was complete.
"W-Wait."
Murcielago cried out in a panic, but a reddish mana had already gathered at the tip of the gun.
Once 'Cocooning' was fully active, there would be nothing he could do.
But just before that, her movements were restricted, and her vulnerabilities were completely exposed.
It was a window of only a few seconds.
This was the absolute best timing to kill this butterfly.
"Don't feel too bad. There isn't a single monster that doesn't fall for my taunts."
"Wa-a-ait...!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Crimson Magic Bullets shattered the outer shell and pierced straight through to her brain.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[You have obtained Murcielago's Wing (Material).]
[You have obtained 500mg of 'Yellow Dust'.]
"Kieee!"
"Kieee!"
It was then that the bugs began to run wild.
Normally, the moment they lost their commander, they should have broken free of control and either torn each other apart or scattered.
But the fact that they were showing such abnormal behavior meant...
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
A vibration felt along the ground.
"Saves me the trouble of having to go look for her."
It meant the 16th Floor Boss, who had helplessly lost her right arm, was moving personally.
Crash!
The ground flipped over, and a giant insect with a dark, obsidian-colored carapace burst out.
It was about five meters tall.
Its appearance was similar to a Hercules Beetle, but its caliber was on an entirely different level from the other bugs.
This was the Queen.
And the highlight of this raid.
"My children..."
The Queen scanned the carcasses scattered across the ground.
Her eyes held emptiness, rage, and an emotion that went far beyond that.
"If you offended the being above, you should have died quietly. Do you think struggling all the way here will change your fate?"
"...Oh? So you even know what's happening outside the Tower?"
"Do not look down on a ruler of a floor. I know far more than your meager knowledge and information."
The Queen's gaze locked onto Jinhyuk.
"It seems you plan to kill me and obtain an artifact to oppose them, but it is futile. While you spend hours here, the thoughtforms outside the Tower will turn the world you live in into ashes."
"Wow. To think you calculated all that. You're a much smarter bug than I thought."
Jinhyuk let out a soft chuckle.
But, you know what?
"Even without me, it's not like our world lacks strong people."
Unless Shub-Niggurath herself came down.
There were plenty of people capable of handling the thoughtforms beneath her.
To prepare for a situation like this, he had already placed a Plan B card without needing to be told.
And.
"Why do you think I'll be here for hours?"
[‘Memory of the World’ is activated.]
Jinhyuk waved his hand in the air.
At that, a library storing countless skills appeared behind his back.
[Unique Ability 'Sanctuary of the Sun' is activated!]
Flutter, flutter!
The pages turned.
The stage of the Egyptian Deities was recreated, and the Queen's world, which had commanded the swarm, vanished.
A space of desert, sphinxes, and giant pyramids.
Golden beams of light descended from the sky, becoming pillars that supported the barrier of the sanctuary.
"W-What is this place...?"
A look of astonishment colored the Queen's eyes.
'Daylight' manifested in the gun held in his left hand.
'Blood Demon Qi' infused the sword held in his right hand.
There was no need to drag this out for hours.
"I'll finish this in three minutes."
The smile vanished from Jinhyuk's face.
* * *
After the Gate opened, major cities around the world were plunged into darkness.
Burnt buildings, abandoned cars.
A city center completely devoid of human presence.
In a scene reminiscent of the apocalypse, survivors who had failed to escape this hell trembled in hiding.
"Mom, I'm scared..."
A young child's whimpering echoed in the underground parking lot.
"T-They won't find us if we stay here, right?"
A woman who appeared to be the child's mother spoke cautiously.
"I've surrounded us with flames that disrupt mana detection, so they won't easily find us."
"I've also set up chess pieces as decoys. Fighting back is out of the question, but they should buy us enough time to escape."
Min Jung-woo and Lee Yu-ri reassured the people.
Only after distributing their remaining water and food did they finally have a moment to catch their breath.
"Whew. I talked big, but this is really trouble. We're completely isolated, aren't we?"
"Haha. What can we do? Since things have turned out this way, we just have to hold out somehow."
"You always talk so easy, old man. No joke, if that guy Kang Jinhyuk doesn't get here fast, we might all die."
"Hmm. To me, it feels like inviting a tiger to chase away a wolf."
"So the goat outside is the wolf, and Kang Jinhyuk is the tiger?"
"Could it be the other way around?"
"Well... that's true."
The two shivered slightly as they recalled the ill-fated relationship that had begun when they met Jinhyuk at the National Museum of Korea.
Lee Yu-ri, in particular, had memories of staying up all night making chess pieces while playing work songs in the background.
"Do you two also know Player Kang Jinhyuk personally?"
Kim Gi-tae of the Ssaulabi Guild reacted to Jinhyuk's name.
He, too, had come to Daejeon as part of the vanguard and was currently isolated here.
"Oh? You know him too, mister?"
"Yes. We've worked together a few times."
"Everything went wrong from the start because of that jerk. We could have started with a massive advantage. Sigh... my head still hurts just thinking about it."
"It was rather absurd when he burned the entire Daedongyeojido. He really got me too."
"A national treasure... To be honest, I've also been tricked by him several times. Haha."
A strange sense of camaraderie formed among the three.
It was a camaraderie that mostly tasted bitter, but still.
One thing was certain.
"He will definitely come."
"Of course he will. He might work people to the bone, but he's not bad at heart."
"You're right. If it's Player Kang Jinhyuk, he'll find a way."
The three believed.
They believed that Jinhyuk would never abandon the people.
And that no matter how hellish the current situation was, things would change if Jinhyuk arrived.
But right then.
Boom!
Along with a heavy impact, a roaring sound pierced their eardrums.
Dust showered down from the ceiling.
"What...! Miss Lee Yu-ri, could it be them?"
"The... the chess pieces... Damn it. It's not just one. Not just the decoys, but even the chess pieces I placed along the escape route have all been smashed!"
Lee Yu-ri screamed, her face turning pale.