Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Tournament (5)
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Shin Noda dodged the laser whip and extended his hand toward Zhang Yi-chen at the perfect timing.
"Overload."
A glowing red tattoo shone on Shin Noda's body.
He unleashed telekinesis on Zhang Yi-chen floating in the sky, pulling him toward himself.
《Ahh! Zhang Yi-chen is being dragged straight in by Shin Noda's telekinesis!》
《The power of that telekinesis is impressive. From the way he moves, you'd think he's focused on strength or agility, but his intelligence must be high too. That's not a skill that normally outputs that kind of force!》
Zhang Yi-chen's confident expression shattered.
He twisted his body and resisted with the power of his wings, but he was steadily being pulled in.
"Hup."
Shin Noda let out a shout as he twisted his waist into a javelin-throwing stance.
‘If this keeps up, he won't be able to dodge the javelin throw!’
In that split second, Zhang Yi-chen decided to switch to a defensive tactic.
The best defense is a good offense.
Beyond infinite gliding, his wings had the function to dive at a target and deal damage.
He would charge first before the spear could be thrown.
That was Zhang Yi-chen's scheme.
“Lanxiao Burning.”
Zhang Yi-chen habitually chanted his skill name as he reverted the whip back into a sword.
Crimson flames wrapped around his twin blades.
The firepower was so intense it looked like flame swords forged from fire itself.
《No way, Zhang Yi-chen! Is that three skills?! This is veteran hunter level!》
《Just when it looked like Shin Noda had seized control, he flips the table with a new skill!》
Zhang Yi-chen dove from the air like a bird snatching prey from the ground.
Shin Noda flashed a victorious smile.
This was exactly the situation he had induced.
‘He swings the laser whip from the sky, and when attacked, switches to flame swords and dives. I know this pattern.’
This match was a point that had to be passed no matter which branch you took after winning the tournament.
Shin Noda had Zhang Yi-chen all figured out.
Even in what you'd call a "must-lose battle," he just kept repeating the above pattern.
In the game, Zhang Yi-chen's HP didn't drop, and his damage was ridiculously high, making victory impossible, but reality was different.
Shin Noda had feigned a spear throw on purpose to draw out his next pattern.
‘Lady Laura. Now. The moment he fully commits to close range, please use it.’
[Got it.]
The announcers gasped in admiration at Zhang Yi-chen charging toward the ground with his flame swords.
Deep down, they had already concluded this was over.
《Unbelievable! As expected of China's strongest student! Even in defeat, he fought well. What a high-level match.》
《There's nothing Shin Noda can do. Who would've thought we'd see three skills in a first-year match.》
The members of the Hero Culture Research Club who had come to watch since Shin Noda made it to the quarterfinals murmured with worried faces.
"Noda, he won't get hurt like that, will he?"
"Yeah. And he's not even wearing a sparring suit."
"That Chinese guy is no joke."
Even Lee Chan-hyuk, who had briefly trained Shin Noda, shook his head from the stands and blamed himself.
‘If I'd had a little more time, I could've taught him how to counter the twin blades.’
He felt regretful too, but at this point, he judged that Shin Noda had no chance of winning.
Everyone instinctively sensed Shin Noda's defeat.
.
.
.
And in that moment, the upset happened.
Shin Noda seamlessly shifted from his javelin stance to a thrusting posture, as if he had been waiting for it.
At the same time, he deployed telekinesis to impale the charging Zhang Yi-chen straight onto the spear.
Normally, since Zhang Yi-chen was the one charging with a skill, his skill damage should have landed first.
But Laura had twisted and disrupted the already-activated skill in that split second.
It was possible because Zhang Yi-chen, as a New Humanity, had eaten power raw and thus had minimal "karma."
"Urk."
Shin Noda's spear pierced through both Zhang Yi-chen's greaves and sparring suit.
The spear tip protruded from his back.
Thanks to Laura's interference, Zhang Yi-chen's massive kinetic energy simply became propulsion for Shin Noda.
The synergy of Shin Noda's S-rank strength and the incoming kinetic energy was tremendous.
Murmur murmur—
The stands erupted in chaos at the sudden accident.
《Wha— Zhang Yi-chen takes a sudden blow from Shin Noda...》
《Th-the sparring suit is pierced? That's rare... Something's off....》
Even the announcers fumbled their words in shock.
Tweet, tweeeet.
The referee blew his whistle and rushed in to stop any potential follow-up attack from Shin Noda.
He declared the match over upon seeing Zhang Yi-chen impaled on the spear, spewing blood.
Medics rushed over, feeding Zhang Yi-chen a potion to keep him conscious.
"Don't lose consciousness!"
"What do we do? Should we speak Chinese?"
"This is driving me crazy."
Shin Noda awkwardly milled about, pretending to worry over Zhang Yi-chen.
"Kuhak."
Zhang Yi-chen regained consciousness, vomiting blood.
He screamed as he yanked out Shin Noda's spear from his gut.
His entrails caught on the spear tip and spilled out.
"Gasp."
"We'll take care of it, so please stay still!"
The medics freaked out, stuffing the entrails back in and providing emergency treatment to the torn area.
‘As expected of an A-rank.’
A huge hole in his stomach, yet he came to with just one potion.
No low-rank awakener could have done that.
Zhang Yi-chen collapsed in the arena, covered in blood.
He fixed his gaze on Shin Noda.
"You... what the hell did you do? I definitely used my skill, but it just vanished."
Zhang Yi-chen protested with an indignant expression.
"Oh, that? When spear arts reach mastery, you see things differently. Disrupting a weakling's skill is no big deal."
Shin Noda lied calmly with a smirk playing on his lips.
"Hey, weakling...? Me, a weakling...?"
Zhang Yi-chen squeezed his eyes shut in disbelief, muttering to himself.
Being from China, the origin of wuxia, he inwardly thought that perhaps such feats were possible at the pinnacle of martial arts.
《Yes, the match got intense and a minor accident occurred, but Zhang Yi-chen's life is not in danger.》
《Whew~ That's a relief. I got scared thinking it might blow up into an international incident.》
《By the way, that final thrust from Shin Noda was perfect. I thought he was going for the throw, but it was a feint.》
《Yes, excellent psychological warfare. Zhang Yi-chen probably charged thinking Shin Noda was about to throw, and that became his downfall!》
The announcers chattered excitedly.
What Shin Noda did wasn't just a simple feint, but they had no way of knowing.
In any case, the Korea-China match ended in Korea's victory.
The VIP section where the Chinese delegates sat was like a funeral home.
"Why did that opponent use such a dangerous attack! My son nearly died!"
Zhang Haoran turned beet red and picked a fight with the Korean protocol officer for no reason.
‘Damn it— why vent at me.’
The protocol officer inwardly cursed him but bowed with a smile on the outside.
"We're truly sorry. We'll sternly convey this to the relevant departments."
"Hmph! Those barbaric stingray bastards are all the same. I'm leaving today, but I won't forget this—mark my words!"
Koreans who understood Chinese ground their teeth, but as civil servants, they could only listen.
At that moment, a young man leaving the stands overheard and pointed accusingly as he stepped forward.
"You chink bastard, who you calling stingray! Take that loser with the hole in his gut and get the hell back to your country!"
"Gasp!"
The Korean protocol officers panicked at the young man's unfiltered rough words.
The Chinese entourage felt the same.
It was one thing to be insulted directly, but if Zhang Haoran heard this, it would be a major incident.
"What's that guy saying?"
Zhang Haoran sensed the odd atmosphere and asked his interpreter.
"Ah, that was... a courteous expression wishing you a safe journey."
The interpreter sanitized it as much as possible to avoid trouble.
"Hmph. Safe? With my son injured like this."
Zhang Haoran huffed and stomped out of the arena, his entourage following behind.
***
National Assembly Building, conference room.
Masked thugs wearing Kodori (K Group mascot) masks had seized the area and were controlling access.
Numerous lawmakers lay collapsed around the room, bleeding.
"D-do you know what you're doing?! This isn't just villainy! We can charge you with rebellion too!"
One lawmaker yelled with veins bulging in his neck, and the thugs swarmed him, beating him mercilessly.
These thugs were Kang Yu-jin's gang.
Kang Yu-jin had gathered necromancy-type awakeners in similar straits to himself.
They all harbored massive grudges against society and sympathized with Kang Yu-jin's call to go out in a blaze of glory.
Kang Yu-jin drew his sword and slit the throat of the lawmaker whose face was swollen from the beating.
His head rolled across the conference room floor.
"Eek."
"Huh-uhk."
Elderly lawmakers were so shocked some pissed themselves or fainted.
"You should've made proper laws. You feast every day and pass useless bills, that's why guys like us exist."
Kang Yu-jin, fused with the ghost "Shin-gak" via necromancy, felt the tremendous power surging through his body.
The hero of the past summoned by necromancy wasn't an awakener, but with buffs, he grew stronger proportional to the "karma" he bore.
In the shadow of a fallen nation, Shin-gak's karma from his first victory was on par with an S-rank awakener.