Chapter 86: 5th Floor, Psychiatric Ward (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 86: 5th Floor, Psychiatric Ward (2)
A towering height of three meters.
A triangular iron helmet.
And finally, a hammer reminiscent of a wrecking ball.
The monster that burst through the wall exuded an overwhelming sense of intimidation just by existing.
This creature was one of the named monsters: the 'Breaker'.
'Gluttony's Eye' quickly scanned the target.
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Name: Breaker
Gender: None
Age: 1
Level: 45
Strength: 100 | Agility: 15 | Stamina: 30 | Mana: 0
Available Stat Points: 0
Unique Ability: Tenacious Hunter
Skills: Lv12 'Guillotine', Lv11 'Armor Break', Lv11 'Body Charge', Lv10 'Weapon Enhancement'
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[The target cannot be killed.]
Its zero mana stood out in stark contrast to its phenomenally high strength.
However, the most crucial piece of information on the status window was its 'unkillable' nature.
A life force that could not be snuffed out by any attack, combined with a hunter's trait that pursued prey to the ends of hell.
It was precisely because of these factors that the psychiatric ward was rated as having a much higher difficulty than other maps.
Well, even so, all one had to do was dodge and run.
Invincible or not, there was no requirement to actually defeat these things.
"E-Emissary..."
"W-we weren't scared..."
The cultists trembled violently.
They knew better than anyone what was about to happen.
Right then, the Breaker grabbed the head of a kneeling cultist.
"Aaargh!"
With a horrific scream, crimson blood poured out like a waterfall.
Seriously, the monster's strength was brutally absurd.
If I get caught, my spine will be ripped right out.
Frowning, Jinhyuk lowered his stance.
Now that this guy had appeared, it was time for a game of tag.
A one-coin game of tag where getting caught meant logging out of life permanently.
Tap!
He lunged forward, aiming straight between the Breaker's legs.
The Breaker reflexively swung its hammer, but it was already too late.
Jinhyuk had already slipped past the attack by a hair's breadth.
Instead, the stray hammer pulverized an unfortunate cultist.
Whoosh!
Boom!
Crash!
With a single strike, the wall crumbled and the floor cracked like a turtle's shell.
It was overwhelming power—enough to turn a human into literal mush.
But no matter how powerful an attack was, it was useless if it didn't hit.
Jinhyuk slipped past the hammer like an eel.
"Groooar!"
Infuriated, the Breaker began to rampage even more wildly.
"Aaaah!"
"Argh!"
It was the cultists who bore the brunt of the frantically swinging hammer.
Weaving through the mangled corpses, Jinhyuk gradually widened the distance between himself and the Breaker.
Just a little further, and he would reach the open hallway.
But right at that moment—
[Breaker activates Lv12 'Guillotine'!]
Gripping the hammer with both hands, the Breaker leaned far back.
Rumble!
The hammer smashed through the ceiling entirely as it plummeted toward Jinhyuk's head.
A strike packed with immense weight and speed.
Falling debris even obstructed his vision.
This was unavoidable.
But it didn't matter.
"Friend Shield!"
Jinhyuk shoved a cultist in front of him.
"What? Fre... Fre-what?!"
The cultist shrieked at the incomprehensible words.
And those became his last words.
Kabaam!
The hammer slammed all the way into the floor. The poor little lamb had returned to the Lord's embrace.
Meanwhile, Jinhyuk pulled a flashlight out of a desk drawer in the hallway.
Good, no one took it.
Then again, everyone was probably too busy running for their lives to check what was inside the drawers.
Jinhyuk glanced back.
Screeech!
The Breaker was straining to pull its embedded hammer out of the floor.
The cultists had all been reduced to mush.
He wiped out his own allies.
If he wanted to, he had more than enough time to escape.
But Jinhyuk didn't run.
Instead, he repeatedly clicked the flashlight's power button.
Click! Click!
"You'll have to try harder than that. Do you really think you can catch me with a body that slow?"
The bright light flashed directly into the Breaker's eyes, as if openly provoking it.
* * *
The third basement floor of the psychiatric ward.
This was where the key to the ward's main entrance was kept.
It was also where the master of this ward resided.
"What of the humans?"
A man with a completely bloodless face, covered in bulging blue veins, spoke.
This was the master of the ward and the Cult Leader who led the cultists.
A man standing in the shadows replied, "We are capturing them smoothly. A few are still on the run, but it is only a matter of time."
"Are you certain?"
"Of course. You have nothing to worry about, Cult Leader."
With their mana sealed, even Players had no choice but to be utterly helpless.
Everything was going exactly as planned.
The Cult Leader's lips curled into a satisfied smirk.
"When you bastards from the Demonic Human Association first arrived, I intended to throw you into the furnace and burn you alive. To us, Players and your kind are all the same."
However...
"The moment I heard your objective, my mind changed. I never imagined there would be humans who harbored such a noble purpose."
"You flatter us. We are merely doing what must be done."
The man bowed his head.
Seeing this, the Cult Leader looked even more pleased.
"Our God desires more sacrifices. Now that the Tower has opened and the ignorant are pouring in, the promised time for His descent has finally come."
Sacrifices.
Indeed.
Hiding away in this psychiatric ward, brainwashing foolish humans to turn them into cultists—it was all to gather sacrifices to offer to their God.
The Cult Leader looked straight ahead.
Specifically, at the Players who had been captured moments ago.
"Sob... hic..."
"P-please spare me."
"Please... I'll do whatever you want. Just spare my life...!"
These were the Players who had been in the same room as Jinhyuk.
Though they had escaped through the vent, they had all been captured by the cultists before long.
"Do not be so afraid, wretched servants. I shall give you a choice."
The Cult Leader caressed an Asian woman's cheek with his ice-cold hand.
His touch was chilling enough to send shivers down her spine.
"A... a choice?"
"If you convert and follow me, I will spare you from being burned alive."
A chance to survive.
At the mention of escaping the most horrific death imaginable, the eyes of the four Players wavered.
"However, as proof of your conversion, you must kill someone else."
Only two of the four could live.
Only those who abandoned their humanity and truly repented would be granted a new life.
The Cult Leader dropped a black dagger onto the floor, forcing them to decide who would live and who would die.
The four of them stared at the dagger and then at each other, frozen in place.
But right at that moment—
"C-Cult Leader, you need to see this."
One of the believers monitoring the ward's CCTV urgently called out to the Cult Leader.
"What is it?"
The Cult Leader looked at the screen.
An unbelievable sight unfolded before his eyes.
"What in the world..."
On the screen was a single Player and the God's emissary, the 'Breaker'.
While chasing Players was a common occurrence here, the problem was that the Player was utterly playing with the God's emissary.
Even though he could easily escape, he kept maintaining just enough distance to keep the Breaker in pursuit.
In particular, the way he narrowly dodged attacks to make the hammer get stuck in the walls or floor, and then repeatedly clicked his flashlight on and off, was infuriating even to watch.
His nimble movements, his ability to read the trajectory of attacks, and the sheer composure he displayed in a life-or-death situation...
Who on earth could look at that and believe his abilities were sealed?
"How... how can a mere human do that against the God's emissary?!"
The Cult Leader shrieked, gripping the monitor with both hands.
Screeech!
His fingernails left long scratches across the screen.
The man standing beside him also stared at the screen.
Before long, he uttered the Player's name in a trembling voice.
"K-Kang Jinhyuk? How is he here?"
"Kang Jinhyuk? You know him?"
"Yes. He is an S-rank ranker in South Korea..."
The man knew.
"He is the most dangerous obstacle to our plans."
He knew that even with his unique abilities and skills sealed, taking this man lightly would come at a devastating cost.
* * *
Whoosh!
Once again, the hammer sliced through the empty air.
For nearly twenty minutes, the Breaker had unleashed hundreds of attacks, but Jinhyuk effortlessly dodged every single one.
It's been a while since I've done this. It's actually pretty fun.
Running circles around a single pillar to tease his opponent, or using the terrain and obstacles to restrict the enemy's movements.
Even the things he used to find tedious felt fresh after all this time.
And the most thrilling part of all was, of course, watching his opponent get so worked up that they practically exploded with rage.
The sheer pleasure of watching the monster claw at its own body and throw a wild tantrum was the driving force that made this game of tag so enjoyable.
Of course, this was all just a game he used to play back in the day.
"Groooar!"
The Breaker began to go absolutely berserk.
Rumble!
Now, completely disregarding its own safety, it smashed the ceiling and floor to pieces with its hammer.
Jinhyuk subtly adjusted his distance.
He wasn't doing this because he had time to kill, and certainly not just for the cheap thrill of playing with his opponent.
It's almost time.
The God worshipped by the Cult Leader and the cultists on the 5th floor... If he pushed the Breaker past a certain point, he would be able to draw that entity's attention.
At that exact moment—
[The 'Rotting Heart' takes an interest in your actions.]
A crimson status window appeared before his eyes.
Just as I expected.
Jinhyuk smirked, as if he had been waiting for this.
The alias 'Rotting Heart'.
Like Alice, it was one of the absolute beings residing in the upper floors of the Tower.
Though it had been called by many names... people commonly referred to them as 'Demon Kings'.
Twitch.
Braham's Ring trembled.
Alice must have also felt the mana radiating from the entity's message.
But there was no need to worry.
Whether the opponent was a Demon King or a Demon God... in the end, it was merely a divinity residing on the 40-something floors of the Tower.
Above all, since he knew everything about the entity, he held an overwhelming advantage in this situation.
"Well, well. What brings such an illustrious guest to a humble place like this?" Jinhyuk smiled brightly.
[The 'Rotting Heart' proposes that you become its sword.]
[Conditions for the Second Class Advancement have been met.]
[If you accept the divinity's proposal, you can advance to the 'Black Apostle' class.]
I knew it would turn out like this.
The Second Class Advancement, 'Black Apostle'.
If Teresa was a Holy Knight receiving the Blessing of the Stars, then a Black Apostle was a Black Knight receiving the protection of a Demon King.
While it boasted a completely different caliber of power, it came with the fatal drawback of having to live the rest of one's life as the Demon King's servant.
The biggest issue is that if I refuse, I'll be hit with the Demon King's Curse.
From the moment the curse was cast, a kill order would be issued by all demons.
Naturally, back when playing the [Tower of Trials], no player had ever refused a Demon King's offer and taken the curse.
No one wanted to shoulder such an unbearable penalty.
Let alone now, when the game had become reality—it went without saying.
And so...
"I'm sorry, but I'll have to pass. You know how it is. A tiger cub can't exactly serve under a chihuahua, can it?"
Once again, Jinhyuk chose the path less traveled.