Chapter 160
Chapter 160
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 160
Chapter Title: Soul Extractor Acquired
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Jang Jojun used Do-hwang's master key. He had Liam carefully open the steel door.
Creaaak...
Even though the lock was released, the door was so heavy that the Awakened Liam had to put all his strength into just opening it.
"Don't just stand there gawking—help out a little. You guys have zero awareness."
"Ah, sorry."
As Jojun scowled and grumbled, Mei-ling and Jack finally rushed over to help open the door. Soon, it swung wide open, revealing the interior to all.
"What the hell are all these...?"
Beyond the door was some kind of laboratory.
Whether it was experiments on humans or for creating something for them, Jojun couldn't tell. But the room's scene gave off a sense of madness.
It was the obsession of one man. An obsession to resurrect a single woman. The room embodied that madness.
"They look like... people?"
A massive, transparent tank filled with some unidentified liquid.
Floating inside were things that unmistakably resembled humans.
Jojun took it as evidence of failed attempts to create a specific someone.
Blue hair... identical faces... clones?
Most of the specimens in the tank looked similar or identical. Nearby tanks held what seemed to be stored or discarded ones—their forms badly mangled, as if the shaping had failed.
Like dumping failed batches into a trash bin.
Jojun figured those had been disposed of.
Whatever it was, some unimaginable experiments definitely happened here.
Jojun approached a skeleton buried amid complex machinery in the room's center. All the devices were powerless. Left abandoned for so long, they were as broken as the dead skeleton.
"Ikari John...?"
The skeleton wore a tattered white gown. Jojun checked the English name tag on it.
The skeleton's name was Ikari John. No other info on the tag—just a photo of a bespectacled black-haired East Asian man.
What the hell was this guy trying to create...?
Jojun thought the limited info revealed too little. Nothing clear. But he noticed the item clutched in the skeleton's hand.
It was an item. Not some ordinary object—an actual item.
"Hmm... Don't touch anything, you guys. You might trigger some nasty trap."
Seeing his group poking around the lab, Jojun warned them preemptively to avoid any screw-ups, then took the item Ikari John had left behind.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[Soul Extractor]
It was a large syringe-shaped mechanical device.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[Can extract and store souls. Can also reinject into a suitable body for spirits.]
No other details. Simple, but insanely powerful. Storing and reinjecting souls was basically divine power.
A thing that stores souls... and puts them back... It's like it's screaming to shove a soul into a new body. Old man Hellus would love this.
The moment Jojun saw the Soul Extractor, he knew it was perfect for Hellus. Just as he thought, it was essential for Hellus's cyberization project to get a new body.
Moreover, Hellus was currently developing something with the exact same function: extracting, storing, and reinjecting souls. The Soul Extractor was what someone in the future had already made—essentially perfecting Hellus's invention.
If Jojun delivered it safely, Hellus's research time would shorten dramatically.
Perfect timing.
He was glad he hadn't returned to the modern era right away. If the Ebony Cockroaches had found this room first, he'd have missed this treasure forever.
"Huh?"
While examining the Soul Extractor, Jojun noticed the cylinder inside was filled with blue liquid.
Like it had sucked up someone's soul—the syringe's barrel was full. To check, he dripped a few drops onto Ikari John's skeleton.
Sticky blue liquid... No way, is this ectoplasm? If it's ectoplasm, it's top-grade. Hellus would go nuts.
Last time Lee Eun-ha spewed solitude and yielded massive ectoplasm, Jojun had overheard Hellus lecturing his disciple Hwang Su-min about it. He recognized the sticky, chilling liquid instantly.
This might be the soul of whoever dead Ikari John was trying to revive... Probably that half-made woman in the glass tank full of 'em...
Probably some cliché like resurrecting his beloved. Jojun brushed it off.
As he figured, Ikari John mass-produced clones for the hackneyed reason of reviving his dead lover. He'd developed soul extraction with the lizardfolk's knowledge, but failed to create a body worthy of her soul's high potential.
That was his limit—he'd killed himself.
Anyway, Jojun wasn't one to care about others' sob stories. Ikari John and that nameless woman meant nothing to him.
Hmm... This might be essential for recovering Cheshire's soul fragment too...
Captured by the idea he'd found a way to save Cheshire, he shoved the Soul Extractor into his large magic bag without properly checking around.
"Let's go. Got everything worth taking."
Jojun pulled out his pocket watch and gathered the rest. To use it and return to their time.
"Alright, press this button and..."
Click.
"Ooh... Huh?"
The pocket watch didn't activate when Jojun pressed the button. He peered inside, smacked it a few times—machines listen when you hit 'em. Nothing.
Worse, the group he'd called over wasn't approaching. Sensing something off, Mei-ling grabbed his arm tight.
"What? What's up?"
Her voice trembled as she pointed one way.
"Th-there... that thing..."
"What? Uh...? Why are they...?"
Jojun looked where she pointed and froze solid.
"Sh-shit..."
The blue-haired women floating in the tanks all glared at him with bulging eyes.
Precisely, at his back.
The Soul Extractor in his large magic bag.
What the... I aggro'd them... The ectoplasm?
Jojun instinctively knew he was screwed. Despite warning the group not to touch anything, he'd triggered the trap.
After Ikari John's death, the abandoned clones reacted sharply to the soul inside the extractor and awoke from their long slumber.
The moment they opened their eyes, hunger and soul-craving hit them.
BOOM!!
Cracks spiderwebbed the tanks. They screamed in unison, smashing out to escape.
To hunt the prey before them and seize the ectoplasm in its bag.
Can I take them...?
Jojun calmly prepared skills, unfazed by their aura. Then part of a tank sliced off, a sharp energy—like sword ki—grazing his cheek and hair. A clone's psychic power from inside.
Psychokinesis...?
Jojun realized the clones had skills or similar powers. And output beyond imagination. On instinct, he activated Warped Scales for a barrier.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Crash!!
After three defenses, Warped Scales shattered instantly. Jojun now knew they weren't pushovers.
If there were five or so, maybe... but
There were countless. Fighting meant death. Outnumbered bad.
"Run!! RUN!!!"
Jojun spammed barriers and bolted without looking back. Mei-ling and the other two followed. But Liam, at the rear, couldn't escape the room.
Splat!!
"Gaaahhh!!!"
Liam's legs severed. He screamed, tumbling forward, then torn apart by pursuing clones before he could fight back.
They crushed his skull, yanked out his brain, and devoured it like beasts. Soulless clones acting on instinct. And they were starving.
"Kieeeh!!"
"Aaaah!!"
Devouring Liam in seconds, the clones chased Jojun's group.
"Kwaaah!!"
"Fuck this!! Jack!! You idiot!! Run faster!!! Hey!! Mei-ling!! You bitch!!! Stick with me!!!"
Jojun called the Ebony Cockroach swarm searching the mansion. Then a grating sound from behind.
Whoosh!!
"Grahhh!!"
Jack's right arm partially sliced by a psychic blade. Clutching the gushing stump, he desperately followed Jojun. He knew stopping meant death.
"Kee-shat!!"
Perfectly timed, the Ebony Cockroaches appeared. This bought Jojun's group some time as the roaches and offspring got eaten.
"Damn..."
The pursuit quieted. Jojun and Mei-ling hid in a three-door room, catching breath. Jojun gagged Jack, then used Rising Flesh.
"Grrruuuhh!!"
"Hang in there..."
He attached a lizardfolk tentacle from the floor to Jack's arm. With Jack's consent, of course.
"Huff... huff..."
"How's it feel? Movin' right?"
"Y-yeah... It's... different from my arm... Too natural... Makes it creepier..."
Jack now had a tentacle from the elbow down. Gripping his sword with the wriggling thing, he wiped cold sweat, calling it weird.
"Phew... Watch is working again."
"Can we... get out with that...?"
"Obviously, Mei-ling. Let's bail from this shithole now."
Distanced from the psychics, the pocket watch reactivated naturally.
Jojun activated it without delay. Ticking filled the room, light bursting from the watch.
Soon, Jojun's group transmitted to modern times where Nick waited.
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