Chapter 165
Chapter 165
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: Unbreakable Dawn, Holy Flame Cemetery (4)
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5.
“The apostle of Ikilas, a man called Choi Sin-yul, wields a sword known as the Dull Blade.”
The First Apostle, [Knight of the Mirror], Liam, said.
“Dull Blade……?”
“If the sword of one who has pushed their physical abilities to the limit is called the Swift Blade.”
At that moment.
Liam’s sword became so fast it was nearly impossible to track with the eyes.
Chaeng…… chaengchaengchaeng…… chaengchaengchaeng!
Strong…… incredibly strong.
Each strike…… was so overwhelming that merely not dropping my sword was all I could manage.
“The sword of one whose reflexes have reached their peak is called the Dull Blade.”
Liam’s momentum slackened.
No, it wasn’t slackening…… it was just like Choi Sin-yul’s.
Kaaang! Kaaaang! Kaaaaang!
He moved his sword slowly, yet.
He effortlessly deflected all my strikes, instantly exposing my openings.
I need to regain my momentum.
In that instant.
Liam extended his foot, tripping my ankle as I staggered back.
“……Kuh!”
No sooner had I sprawled onto the ground.
Than the tip of Dawn’s blade thrust ferociously toward me, stopping right before my eyes.
“101 strikes. Under the assumption of equal talent, the Dull Blade’s superiority comes from the difference in combat experience.”
“Such……?”
“It’s possible because he knows exactly how the opponent will attack and how to block each sword path.”
“How the hell does he know all that?”
“Probably from countless experiences slicing through humans.”
Countless experiences slicing through humans?
Does that mean he was originally a serial killer?
“In my judgment, this Choi Sin-yul was someone who had been cutting down humans with a blade since before your world became a playground…… no, since childhood.”
“……!”
“One of my comrades…… a man named Sharilion wielded a similar sword.”
Liam momentarily sheathed his blade.
How…… even the motion of sheathing his sword carried such precision. Liam extended a hand to me.
“If your friend wielded it…… you should know how to overcome it, right?”
As I grasped that hand and rose, Liam shook his head.
“The gap in experience isn’t so easily bridged.”
“……!”
“Experience accumulated from childhood is truly priceless…… because it’s honed into instinct.”
No way…….
Does that mean Choi Sin-yul’s sword is one embedded deep in his instincts?
“That gap is probably impossible to close completely.”
“…….”
“It might change once you complete your succession from Berkenxia…… but we should view the situation as pessimistically as possible.”
Damn it…….
My hand gripping Dawn Sword trembled. Had there ever been a moment when I felt this powerless?
“There’s a way to win.”
It was then that Tersia’s gentle voice echoed.
“You just need to make Ikilas’s apostle unable to read your momentum at all.”
Unable to read my momentum?
“The reason for having the 101 strikes master five weapons is exactly for that.”
Tersia modestly adjusted her mourning clothes and arduously rose from the graveyard.
“You must be able to wield those weapons as perfectly as a single one.”
“Will that let me win?”
At my question, Tersia gave a subtle smile.
“That depends on your mastery of the 101 strikes.”
“……!”
“Now…… watch closely. I’ll show you what kind of miracle becomes possible.”
6.
“But there are two conditions.”
Of course.
That figured.
“One. You must rescue that kid, Do Ye-jin, from Ikilas and take her all the way to the end of the Nightmare.”
“Do Ye-jin? Wait. Why……?”
The question slipped out involuntarily.
But surprisingly, Shallyuan answered.
“That kid is now the only clue. To figure out what ‘that bastard’ is really up to…….”
At that moment, the mental world began to shake as if it were collapsing. Shallyuan giggled.
“It’s probably starting now. Chat time’s over.”
The instant Shallyuan removed her umbrella.
The crushing pressure that had borne down on my body vanished. Jeong Ha-kyeong blankly stood up.
“You said there were two conditions?”
“I was just about to tell you, you little shit.”
The moment Shallyuan struck the ground with her umbrella, her expression serious.
“The second condition is to endure for three days in this mental world’s time.”
Endure what?
“In real-world time, it’ll be about half a day?”
At that moment, from across from Jeong Ha-kyeong.
Eerie dark bluish vapors rose…… and in an instant, coalesced into a human form.
“Fuck, what the hell is that……?”
That…… isn’t me?
The emaciated frame draped in rags was similar to Jeong Ha-kyeong himself, but the abyss dripping steadily from it was different.
“No. The weapons are different too.”
Just as Shallyuan said.
Two blades at the left waist…… a short sword and a dagger, respectively.
And at the right waist, a long-barreled large-caliber triple-shot revolver.
“You asked how to use my power, right?”
Thud, as she struck the umbrella down again.
This time, Jeong Ha-kyeong was armed. Exactly as in reality.
Shotgun.
Grenade launcher. Large-caliber rifle.
The instant Jeong Ha-kyeong flinched and looked up, Shallyuan grinned wickedly.
“Endure without dying against a version of you properly using my power! How about it? Sounds super easy, right?”
7.
“About that god of Surak Mountain you mentioned earlier…….”
Shin Tae-yeop said.
The carriage raced through the rainy road at considerable speed.
“Sis?”
Gong Min-young was staring blankly out the carriage window, letting out an exclamation.
“Wow…… so this is what a normal paradise looks like…….”
“It’s not exactly normal.”
Lee Seong-mi put a slight brake on Gong Min-young’s delusions.
“We distributed the soul stones. For the citizens’ welfare…….”
“What? No way. Why would you do that?”
“It was the Association President’s decision. We paid a heavy price for it…… this time.”
It had indeed been heavy.
The number of soul stones required for level-ups increases exponentially as levels rise.
That was why the <Association> executives were stuck in the 160s and 170s.
Despite such demands.
Even Song Chan-un, Nowon-gu’s third-in-command, had been around the same level as Lead Hunter Kim Baek-jun.
“But that’s not what’s important right now. The soul stones are already spilled water; no taking them back.”
Shin Tae-yeop decided to steer the conversation to the crucial topic.
“About the god. Have you seen it yourself?”
“Yeah. Once, when escorting Song Chan-un. Never want to see it again. It was that horrific…….”
Gong Min-young opened the carriage window and caressed the pouring rain outside.
“You’ll see it soon. Just head to central Nowon-gu, and it’s there.”
“……?!”
“When it’s awake, it peers intently down at Nowon-gu.”
Shin Tae-yeop felt cold sweat trickling down his back.
“That big?”
“It’s big, but…… like 2 or 3 meters? Looks like a slug.”
“Wait, hold on. 2 or 3 meters? That’s it?”
At Shin Tae-yeop’s doubt, Lee Seong-mi, listening from the side, raised one eyebrow.
“Smaller than I thought?”
“Right? Song Chan-un said the space-time around Surak Mountain is distorted. That’s why it looks that way.”
Gong Min-young let out a deflating breath and shrugged.
“Sounds totally insane, so I don’t know if you’ll believe it.”
“I believe you.”
As Lee Seong-mi met her eyes and nodded, Gong Min-young awkwardly averted her gaze.
A god…… a god…….
Shin Tae-yeop swallowed dryly, his throat parched.
“How strong is it……?”
“Never seen it fight, so…… hard to say exactly. But a god is a god.”
Gong Min-young pondered for a moment, stroking her chin.
“You’ve obviously fought ‘Exalted Ones,’ right?”
“Of course.”
“Its presence is beyond that…… just being near it feels like your mind will crumble?”
She snapped her fingers, adding.
“Among the executives who attacked you in Dongdaemun-gu, there was this psychopath named Im Ga-hee.”
“The one who froze Choi Uk……?”
“Yeah. She was actually a regular person like me at first? But got chosen by that god and became a hunter.”
Lee Seong-mi felt her mind go blank for a moment.
So that’s why.
Her skills specialized in creating [Frozen Mountain Sacrifices]…….
“But I heard from Hyun-ji that Min-young sis is the only success story that way……?”
As Shin Tae-yeop muttered, Lee Seong-mi suddenly clamped his mouth shut.
Gong Min-young smiled reassuringly.
“I’m the only one via that method.”
Shin Tae-yeop blankly smiled.
Now it wasn’t a sigh but a hollow laugh.
“What can I say…… Nowon-gu isn’t a city of hunters; it’s a city of monsters…….”
Lee Seong-mi checked her pocket watch and sighed.
“The only one who can beat those monsters…… is Ye-jin, who can become a monster herself. We don’t have much time.”
According to Gong Min-young.
The mountain sacrifice ritual was set for August 8th at 10 PM.
“We have less than three days. And we still have to get to Nowon-gu…….”
8.
“Endure without dying against a version of you properly using my power! How about it? Sounds super easy, right?”
No sooner had those words ended than the fake Jeong Ha-kyeong charged at Jeong Ha-kyeong.
《Super Acceleration》……?
“Fuck this shit.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong instinctively backpedaled while unloading the shotgun.
“Is this really my doppelganger?!”
Then.
The fake Jeong Ha-kyeong stabbed a rusty short sword and dagger into its own sides.
And yanked them out.
Blood erupted, writhing as dark bluish abyss and splattering everywhere.
“What the…… fuck is that? Melting?”
……Pssshhhhhh……
The ground. The buildings.
Even the flying bullets.
Everything the blood touched…… melted away pathetically.
“Melting? Your observation skills are pathetically lacking.”
The silver-haired suit girl.
Shallyuan wagged her finger proudly, unable to contain her boasting.
“It’s not melting. It’s decaying in an instant. That blood is the catalyst.”
“Catalyst……?”
Jeong Ha-kyeong dodged the fake’s fiercely swinging blade and shouted.
“A catalyst that amplifies the target’s personal time upon contact.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong sullenly fired at the fake, and Shallyuan added exasperatedly.
“That’s why non-elites like you scraps…… Imagine your body’s time accelerating by 100 years in an instant.”
Such……?
Such overwhelming power……?
He could tell just from hearing how insanely powerful it was.
The problem was…….
Fwoooosh────!
This time, the fake Jeong Ha-kyeong slashed its own arm with the dagger, splattering blood toward him.
《Super Acceleration》.
He barely evaded by accelerating only his internal time, then coughed and asked.
“Do I have to pull that shit every time I use the power? Fuck, it hurts so much I’d die from self-harm before fighting!”
“What the fuck, you little shit?”
“It hurts too much to even fight properly, you little shit!”
Shallyuan seemed about to flare up, then ground her teeth while panting.
“It’ll be like that at first. But the more you use it, the more you’ll get used to it. It’s a highly symbolic act.”
“Self-harm? That’s a symbol of suicide.”
“You fucking…… It’s the act of offering your humanity as sacrifice.”
Humanity……?
What the hell does that mean.
A word he’d only heard in morality class. Something that makes humans human?
“Whether physical pain or spiritual agony…… pain is the remnant of humanity. The abyss’s power grows stronger the more humanity you offer.”
Shieeeek────!
A blade flying toward his throat.
Jeong Ha-kyeong jerked his head back, then kicked the fake’s stomach with his combat boot.
“Seriously fucking brutal.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong caught his breath, then drew the greatsword from his waist.
He stared at the blade for a brief moment.
Self-harm with this?
Like that kid Park Ji-won…… Something felt off, so he glared at Shallyuan.
“That’s the only cost? Just get used to the pain?”
He expected Shallyuan to say simply yes.
“Who knows. When you offer humanity, various things come along with it. The components that constitute humanity.”
But Shallyuan.
This utterly inscrutable madwoman…… murmured with a chilling smile.
“Human emotions, or…… memories, perhaps.”