Chapter 105: Face-to-Face Confrontation (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 105: Face-to-Face Confrontation (6)
Seoul, the hotbed of modern life.
People here never look at one another. They don't look at the scenery passing outside the subway windows. Their eyes are glued solely to their smartphones.
A Seoul citizen, completely absorbed in his phone, suddenly tore his gaze away from the glass screen. It had been a long time since he had done something like this on the subway.
He glanced sideways around the car.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Every single person inside the subway looked as if they were about to be sucked into those little black rectangles.
Some were reading web novels. Others were scrolling through webtoons. A rare few were skimming news articles.
However, the vast majority of passengers were absorbed in a specific game. A single glance was enough to identify it. After all, it was a game he had been playing heavily himself lately.
Blessing of the Apocalypse M 2nd.
It was a mobile game riding a massive wave of popularity these days.
As for why it was such a hit... well, self-proclaimed game critics talked endlessly about that.
None of that really mattered, though.
He surmised the real reason: it was purely because it fulfilled a desire for vicarious satisfaction.
In the game world, the player was a mage. In reality, although all sorts of foul monsters plagued the world, even high-and-mighty heroes relied solely on Blessings. They couldn't use 'Magic'.
Of course, the Heavenly Sword, Kang Geomma, was an exception.
That man was something far beyond a hero.
And that was where the aforementioned vicarious satisfaction came from.
A sense of unity with the Heavenly Sword, who looked down on those arrogant heroes from far above. The players of Blessing of the Apocalypse M were completely hooked on that strange thrill.
At any rate...
Pfft.
He let out a dry smirk. I'm laughing, but am I any different?
He booted up the game again.
However...
"Huh?"
A murmur of confusion leaked from his lips—and from the mouths of other passengers as well.
[Commencing 'Main Story: Gandhara']
"...Main Story: Gandhara?"
He hadn't even known the 'Adarma Festival' was supposed to be a beta test in the first place.
Without him touching the screen, it scrolled down on its own.
The publisher's name was printed in blood-red text. He had never seen it before in all his time playing.
<Presented by Publisher कलियुग.>
It happened in a fraction of a second.
JOLT!
Passengers lurched to one side. Those who were standing slammed their foreheads against the overhead straps and handrails.
Rumble, rumblllle...!
The subway train violently shook.
"Eek! Ahhhh!"
Panicked screams erupted as terror took hold. The subway train was currently crossing the Han River Bridge. If it derailed, every single one of them would end up as fish food...
"O-Outside—!"
A young man wearing headphones pointed his index finger toward the window. Where his fingertip pointed, the cone-shaped Seoul Tower stood in plain view.
Bzz... bzzzt, crackle.
Starting from the peak of the tower, space itself ripped open sideways in a long, clean slice.
The tear parted like a one-eyed giant prying open its eyelid.
The sclera was blood-red; the pupil was pitch-black.
The scene was so surreal that everyone's minds went completely blank.
While everyone was still standing dazed and speechless, a voice echoed out from Seoul Tower.
=Only ■■=
The roar was colossal enough to ripple across the expansive surface of the Han River. Though the echoing voice was impossible to miss, words appeared on their smartphone screens as if transcribing it in real time.
=Knows the end of this world.=
A strange symbol formed inside the pupil above Seoul Tower.
⏀
In the next moment:
FSHHHHHHHHHHH!
The single eye fired a crimson beam of light.
The beam split into tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of rays, blasting down toward every citizen in Seoul.
Those inside the subway were no exception.
Penetrating through everything in their path, the rays unerringly struck the people.
"Ugh...!"
It hurt.
It felt like burning.
Yet it didn't kill them.
=The Stigma of Satya Yuga has been branded upon you.=
=O child blessed by the Counterforce.=
He lowered his gaze.
Wondering what had happened, he looked down to see a mark stamped onto his collarbone.
"Ngh... Nggghhh!"
Passersby began frothing at the mouth, clawing at their throats. They collapsed onto their bellies, writhing in agony.
=I shall grant you the Golden Age.=
It was the beginning of Gandhara गान्धरः.
Episode. Face-to-Face Confrontation
Immediately after the anomaly erupted:
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The moment my companions and I burst out of the hotel, we were confronted by it.
"An eye..."
It was an eye. A crimson-and-black eye pushed back the clouds, occupying a vast swath in the center of the sky.
Atmospheric pressure crushed down. Everyone, including us, stared up at that single eye. From a distance, it must have looked like a standoff between a giant and humanity.
"Satya Yuga."
Yoo Se-in, who had sidled up next to me before I noticed, muttered the words.
I asked back, "Satya Yuga? Isn't that the Season 1 boss of Blessing of the Apocalypse M?"
"Yeah." Yoo Se-in nodded, her jaw set with utter seriousness. "You're a noob, so you probably haven't even crossed the threshold of Season 1 to know, but..."
"Do you really have to mess around even at a time like this?"
"I'm not messing around."
"..."
"Anyway, unlike a noob like you, I saw it yesterday with the frontrunners. It looked exactly like that."
Blessing of the Apocalypse was a newly released game, but what kind of people were Koreans?
The nation of gaming and speed. With extraordinary efficiency, Koreans carved through game content at a terrifying pace—the so-called "frontrunners." And Yoo Se-in, a hardcore gaming addict, was at the very tip of that spear.
"So you know all its attack patterns?"
"Nope. We got wiped out before we could even see the final pattern properly."
"Dammit."
You're no help at all!
"I do know what kind of 'debuff' it casts at the beginning, though." She let out a dry smirk. "Though I'm not sure if it's a debuff or a buff."
"What does that mean?"
An alarmed voice cut in.
"Se-in!" Medea snapped her head toward Yoo Se-in. "Are you talking about that game that's popular these days?"
"Yes. Geomma and I had already guessed that the Second Apocalypse would take the form of that game."
Rachel furrowed her brows. "Then why didn't you tell us earlier?!"
"Because I didn't expect it to show up this early."
A drop of sweat rolled down from Yoo Se-in's temple and dripped off her chin. It was the first time I'd ever seen her look nervous.
"...Though it seems they were quite impatient, seeing how they graced us with their presence so soon."
"I understand the situation is urgent." Ryozo neatly folded her glasses and took a step forward. "Let's evacuate the civilians first. Countermeasures come after."
"I agree."
Appearing without making a sound, Abel drew her sword, Nothung. Judging by her attire and damp hair, she seemed to have run over straight from a swim in the ocean.
"First, the people."
"I'll contact Weapon right away." Ryozo placed a call. "Yeah, Weapon. You're with the Gehenna standby personnel right now, right? The details? We'll talk after this is over. Anyway, yeah. Start evacuating civilians with those people first. Further instructions will come from my secretarial staff..."
Finishing her call, Ryozo immediately pulled weapons from her subspace pouch and laid them on the ground—including her own Red Bow, White Arrow, as well as Rachel's Sky-Piercing Halberd.
Watching this, I felt a strange emotion. Whether they were the Golden Generation or matchless heroes, to possess such composure in a crisis...
My eyes met Abel's. She forced the trembling corners of her mouth upward into a smile.
"Compared to the courage training we did the other day, this is nothing. Thanks to you."
"..."
She was talking about 'that incident' on Avallon Island.
I could swear Abel had no intention of being sarcastic. I was just suffering a pang of conscience because I felt guilty...
However, the Second Apocalypse gave me no time to get sentimental. Rachel shouted, pointing the tip of her Sky-Piercing Halberd toward the eye in the sky as if trying to impale it.
"Something's coming! No, it's about to come!"
Rachel possessed eyes that saw secrets. Now that she had already come out with it, there was nothing left to hide anyway.
Ryozo nocked an arrow to her string. She pulled back with all her strength until the rigid longbow formed an arc.
WHOOSH.
She released. The arrow tore through the air, hurtling toward the eye. Just then, as expected, a symbol shimmered inside the pupil—the 'something' Rachel had warned about.
When it came to combat, the surest path to victory was striking first. Flown just before the giant's eye could fully activate, the arrow struck dead center in the pupil.
CRACK!
A rift fractured the symbol. The giant's eye cracked like glass. Ryozo's arrow was effective even against an apocalypse.
Yet if it ended so easily, it wouldn't be the apocalypse everyone feared. Indeed, even that gigantic eye was likely just a localized phenomenon. Identical eyes were surely manifesting simultaneously all over the world.
Crrack, c-crrrack.
Cracks spread like a spiderweb. Reddish shafts of light bled out. Warning bells blared in my head. A bundle of sinister light burst through the fractures, pouring down toward the ground.
It resembled the desperate reaching of sinners in hell pleading for salvation. Not a single entity, but a swarm—like tens of thousands of vipers flicking their tongues, reaching down to lick the earth.
It was my turn to step up.
I unwrapped the cord around Murasame. With a snap of my wrist, I unsheathed the EX-rank Sashimi knife.
[The Blessing of the Sword God manifests.]
I lowered two Sashimi knives to my sides. The falling light beams, laden with sinister energy, slammed into the ground. The remaining rays continued to plunge earthward.
I braced my lower body, solidifying my center of gravity.
I poured killing intent into Murasame. I thrust lightning into it. Dark murderous intent and yellow sparks spiraled in a streamlined vortex around the blade.
I slashed upward.
From the earth to the sky.
"Mad Dragon Quaking Sword."
───────────!
Murasame's sword strike unfurled an umbrella that blanketed the entire island. Colliding with the curtain of killing intent and lightning, the light beams shattered into bright red grains.
The unprecedented light beams emitted by the single eye crumbled. Their remnants scattered down profusely, red as severe frost.
It was too early to call it over. The eye of the apocalypse remained intact, and even this was merely a local disaster. The burden on my shoulders wasn't just this single island.
The single eye narrowed its eyelid, clearly displeased that its plan had gone awry. It unleashed another barrage of light rays. They battered against the barrier created by Murasame even harder than before.
"Geomma."
Ryozo looked at me and nodded, her gaze resolute. It was a clear declaration of her intent to join the fight.
I had no intention of ignoring her.
The Apocalypse was a different entity from the Corps Commanders. Everyone had to stand together and fight.
"Mad Dragon Lightning Fang."
A Thunder Dragon crested behind everyone. Tucking them securely under its wings, it soared into the sky like a waterspout.
A long trail of lightning stretched into the heavens.
The southerly wind tapped indifferently against my cheeks. Slicing through the gaps between the cascading light beams, we surged straight toward the single eye.
Defying Heaven.
+++++++++++++++++++++
《May the Blessing of God be with you.》
+++++++++++++++++++++
Today, humanity defies fate.
* * *
Meanwhile, in Gehenna.
"...What is this...?"
Choi Seol-ah, who had been walking for a while, turned around. A chill like a phantom hand had just stroked her spine.
"Is it because this is the Demon Realm?"
Brushing it off as nothing, she kept walking. After all, this was the Demon Realm. Even if a real ghost popped out, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
"I came here drawn by something, but..."
How long had she been walking?
Rustle.
The faded bushes rustled and trembled. Choi Seol-ah whipped her gaze toward the sound.
"H-Huh?"
It was a squirrel.
Not just one, either—there were several.
Poking their tiny heads out, they stared at her, tilting their heads with puzzled looks.
"They look like squirrels from the Human Realm..."
Just as she was about to step closer:
Rustle!
The bush shook violently, and a pitch-black figure shot out from within. Choi Seol-ah lost her footing and tumbled onto her rear.
"Y-You are..."
A black-eyed man stood looking down at her intently, one hand resting on his hip. Choi Seol-ah stared at his face, then lowered her gaze.
Huh?
Choi Seol-ah drew a sharp breath and screamed at the top of her lungs:
"PERVERTTTTTT!"