Chapter 181
Chapter 181
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 181
Chapter Title: ACT.33 L Team (1)
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“I told him to try it only when there was no other choice, even if it meant risking everything...”
The words that escaped felt like they were clawing at my skin.
It was the power of a Disaster, even if only a fraction of it.
Having absorbed such a thing, it was only natural for him to become incomparably stronger than before.
“This is quite a satisfying power.”
[Using the skill, ‘Extreme Eye’.]
[Character Information]
Name: Kang Dae-ho???
Gender: ???
Strength: 68(+??) Stamina: 65(+??) Agility: 71(+??) Mana: 72(+??)
Unique Ability: Guide of the Abyss(???)
(The energy of the abyss scatters mana.)
(Unable to accurately grasp the opponent's information.)
I couldn't tell exactly how much his stats had increased, but I could make a rough guess from the energy he was emitting.
If I were to classify him by monster rank, he'd be among the top-tier S-rank monsters that have ever appeared.
‘To hunt an S-rank monster, you need at least three or four players of the same rank.’
Considering that, the current Kang Dae-ho was strong enough to fight all the guild masters by himself.
*Clang.* The Sa-jin-cham-sa-geom, fallen on the ground, made a dull sound.
[Dangerous. That thing is really dangerous.]
Besial appeared and muttered in a grave voice.
“Kang Dae-ho?”
[That guy himself isn't the problem! I don't know what the hell those madmen did, but a mere human absorbed the power of a Disaster! Even if it's just a fraction, the fact that he absorbed it is absurd!]
It was the opposite.
It might have been impossible for others, but for Kang Dae-ho, the probability was high.
Because of the abyss's absorbent nature, it could readily accept the power of a Disaster.
“It's not you holding me here, but me holding you. In the meantime, those hypocrites will all be reduced to a handful of ashes. It's impossible for them to block the assault of so many Demonoids.”
Each of the guild masters was dealing with one Extreme Demonoid, but the remaining three were literally slaughtering the other players.
Fortunately, Hwang Yu-jin was healing the injured, keeping the casualties low, and the A-rank players were fighting in rotations to minimize the damage.
If the other S-rank players scattered across the country were all here, the situation would be different, but they each had their own duties.
The twins and Jeong Ha-yeon, who went to get their 'equipment', would be a great help when they returned, but they wouldn't be back this soon.
“Kim Se-hyeon. You need to decide quickly. One of us has to go help over there.”
Hwang Chan-jin said in a serious tone.
One person joins the fight against the Demonoids, while the other stays behind to stop Kang Dae-ho alone.
They say 'stop', but it's really a sacrifice to buy time.
‘He says we should decide together.’
But his eyes were already threatening me, telling me to stay because he was going.
He must be unable to bear the thought of Hwang Yu-jin getting hurt.
I scoffed and said.
“What's the point? You wouldn't stay even if I told you to. Just go to your sister.”
“Understood.”
Look at him.
Answering sharp as a knife.
“Take this with you.”
I manipulated the darkness to retrieve the Sa-jin-cham-sa-geom from the ground and tossed it to Hwang Chan-jin.
Its light had faded somewhat, likely due to the abyss's influence, but it would return to normal after a little time.
Hwang Chan-jin caught the sword lightly and sheathed Baekseol.
“...Kim Se-hyeon.”
Hwang Chan-jin, who looked like he would leave without a backward glance, turned his head just before taking a step.
“What.”
“If you had said you would go, I was planning to stay.”
Is he crazy?
“Isn't it a bit pathetic to say that now...?”
“I'm serious.”
“Yeah, yeah. Of course, you were.”
Hwang Chan-jin frowned, but he didn't have time to argue with me and quickly ran off.
I should have taken a picture of the face he was making earlier and shown it to him.
I let out a light sigh and closed the distance with Kang Dae-ho.
Kang Dae-ho showed no signs of trying to stop Hwang Chan-jin.
“The tables have turned. Even if that guy goes over to help, with six Extreme Demonoids, the outcome won't change. In fact, it just means I'll be held here for less time. There's no way you can stop me alone.”
As long as he had the Sa-jin-cham-sa-geom, Hwang Chan-jin would defeat an Extreme Demonoid without much difficulty.
The problem was that while Hwang Chan-jin was taking down one Extreme Demonoid, the damage to the other players would be immense.
The battlefield over there didn't just have Extreme Demonoids.
When I thought about it, Kang Dae-ho was right.
“...Why are you smiling? Have you not grasped the situation yet?”
“The Extreme Demonoids. They are powerful. The guild masters are struggling. The other Demonoids are running rampant too.”
“You know all that and still act so composed. I'll see for myself whether that's a bluff or not.”
Kang Dae-ho drew a massive greatsword.
A sword nearly two meters long, formed from a mass of abyss—it could easily be called a demonic sword.
A tremendous energy poured out, making it hard to breathe.
Kang Dae-ho is strong.
That fact hasn't changed.
But.
“The Disaster of Solitude, even while being suppressed, was much stronger.”
If I hadn't fought it with a near-guaranteed winning strategy like Aira's swordsmanship, I would have lost.
Kang Dae-ho is weaker than that.
Moreover, no matter how much stronger he's become, the nature of the power he wields hasn't changed.
In other words, the strategy to defeat him still exists.
“If this was your last resort, there will be no comeback.”
[Using ‘Army of Darkness’.]
Soldiers emerged from the darkness.
A darkness similar to, yet different from, the abyss Kang Dae-ho uses.
[We greet you, Lord.]
Alpha, whom I hadn't seen in a long time since summoning Zeta, knelt and bowed his head.
*Thud.*
Following Alpha, all the soldiers bowed in perfect unison.
‘The Army of Darkness is influenced by purely invested stats, so bonus stats don't make a huge difference, but...’
If there was one thing that even bonus stats affected...
It was the number of soldiers I could summon.
About twenty soldiers revealed a restrained killing intent.
Among them, I could see three new types of units I hadn't seen before.
‘Knight-class.’
While I had only been able to summon the lowest-rank soldiers until now, I was finally starting to summon units one rank higher.
“What... is that...?”
Kang Dae-ho muttered in a tense voice, as if sensing something was off.
“What do you think?”
I raised the Black Moon Divine Sword and took my stance.
As if that were the signal, the Army of Darkness turned into shadows and flew towards the Demonoids all at once.
“It's just me using one of the tricks I had up my sleeve.”
***
*Swish!*
There were several reasons why the Demonoids had the upper hand against the players.
They ignored pain and charged forward, moved with monstrous regenerative abilities, and attacked with erratic movements impossible for humans.
However, the soldiers of darkness could be called an upgraded version of all that.
“Kaaack!?”
They feel no pain, they can be revived indefinitely as long as I don't die, and since they have no physical form, there are no limits to their methods of attack.
On top of that, there was Alpha's special ability.
The effect of raising the power of the other soldiers by one level was bound to show overwhelming performance in a melee like this.
“Keuk!?”
Unable to fully block the Extreme Demonoid's attack, Kim Hyo-jong was sent flying.
“Kim Hyo-jong-nim! Are you alright!?”
“Damn. What kind of power is this?”
Kim Hyo-jong grumbled but moved out of the way.
Because the Extreme Demonoid was rushing in to finish him off.
Seong Woo-hyeon, who was fighting nearby, was in a similar situation.
Seong Woo-hyeon had a slight advantage over his Extreme Demonoid, but it was a very narrow margin.
“Kraaaah!!”
A massive storm of fire swallowed an entire Extreme Demonoid.
It was a tremendous flame befitting Lee Min-hwa's nickname, Flame Lord, but the Extreme Demonoid, charred black, only paused for a moment.
In an instant, its skin began to regenerate as it let out a shriek and threw a punch.
Lee Min-hwa frowned and erected a wall of fire, but the monster paid it no mind and jumped right through it.
The flames also served to obscure its vision, so Lee Min-hwa easily dodged the attack.
“This is unbelievable, such a monster. I've burned its entire body several times, but it recovers as if nothing happened, and now it just ignores my flames and charges.”
“...They truly are monstrous. I wonder where such things came from.”
“From my perspective, the Flame Giant was an easier fight.”
Lee Min-hwa shook her head.
The Flame Giant was an S-rank monster that was practically immune to all fire-based attacks.
An enemy formidable enough for Lee Min-hwa, who exclusively wields fire, to say such a thing.
“It can't be invincible. There must be a weak point somewhere.”
“I have no choice.”
Seong Woo-hyeon wiped the sweat from his forehead.
The reason Seong Woo-hyeon was always mentioned when discussing Korea's strongest players, a skill he wouldn't use unless it was truly dangerous due to its severe backlash.
*Crack.*
Seong Woo-hyeon's skin began to be covered in scales.
At the same moment a horn started to grow on his forehead.
“Wait a minute. Something's coming this way.”
Kim Hyo-jong, who had been continuing his difficult fight, turned his head in the direction of the Guide of the Abyss.
In that instant, a wave of darkness rushed past Kim Hyo-jong.
“W-what is this now!?”
A flustered Kim Hyo-jong raised his sword to cut through the darkness.
But just before he swung his sword, Kim Hyo-jong's 'instinct' told him.
That it wasn't an enemy.
And.
‘If I attack, I'll lose.’
“Kaaah!!”
The Extreme Demonoid exploited the opening created when Kim Hyo-jong paused.
Kim Hyo-jong reacted, but he was a step too late.
‘Damn it all.’
Five claws, no different from swords, flew towards his head.
Realizing he couldn't dodge, Kim Hyo-jong squeezed his eyes shut.
*Swish!!*
The sound of something being cleanly sliced rang in Kim Hyo-jong's ears.
Realizing he felt no pain, he slowly opened his eyes to an incomprehensible scene.
The Extreme Demonoid's head had flown off into the distance.
The headless body fumbled around, searching for its head, before finally collapsing onto the cold ground.
Kim Hyo-jong's jaw dropped.
‘This thing had regeneration so fast it would reattach the moment it was cut...?’
It wasn't that they hadn't tried to cut off its head.
But no matter which part they attacked, nothing was ever 'severed'.
It possessed that level of regeneration and a defense that wasn't easily pierced.
Yet, the fact that the black knight before him had sent the Extreme Demonoid's head flying in a single blow left Kim Hyo-jong speechless.
The black knight's eyes flashed, and he immediately rushed towards another Extreme Demonoid.
[The sin of daring to defy the Lord. Even dismemberment is not enough.]
After a few exchanges of blows, another head flew off without fail.
After finishing one, it moved to the next.
Alpha alone was pushing back the Extreme Demonoids that had been relentlessly attacking the guild masters.
‘This is the power of a single summon?’
Seong Woo-hyeon's face contorted in astonishment.
The scales that had covered his skin were gone without a trace.
‘Just what... Kim Se-hyeon-ssi, who are you.’
*Swish!*
Purple blood splattered along the path of Hwang Chan-jin's sword.
Having subjugated one Extreme Demonoid, Hwang Chan-jin caught his breath and turned his eyes toward the other Extreme Demonoids.
The black knight and the insane performance of the soldiers following him.
Army of Darkness.
The additional effect of Lord of Darkness, the power wielded by Kim Se-hyeon.
“...”
A top-tier trait that Hwang Chan-jin had also wanted, but had to give up on because he had already acquired a unique ability and trait upon awakening as a player.
As Hwang Chan-jin frowned with complex thoughts, Hwang Yu-jin approached him.
“Oppa, are you okay?”
“It's dangerous, why did you come out?”
“...Do you still not trust him?”
When Hwang Yu-jin asked cautiously, Hwang Chan-jin's expression hardened for a moment.
Hwang Chan-jin turned his head away and shook the blood off his sword.
“Yu-jin. I told you before.”
Then, in a low voice, Hwang Chan-jin spoke.
“In this world, the only people we can trust are you and me.”
***
I didn't necessarily have to send Hwang Chan-jin, but I had no reason to stop him either.
Hwang Chan-jin had willingly given up the contribution points.
This meant I could claim the reward for subjugating the Guide of the Abyss.
That's how worried Hwang Chan-jin was about his one and only sister.
“Keuheuk!?”
*Kwaang!*
Even though the attack hit his armor, the damage seemed significant, as Kang Dae-ho staggered backward.
A perfectly timed counter.
When that condition is met, the power of the abyss works in reverse.
Kang Dae-ho shouted in a voice that seemed to boil with rage.
“Why... after coming this far, am I still being pushed back...!?”
“I told you. There's a strategy.”
His motions were wide, as if he's not used to wielding such a large sword.
In fact, this transformation made it even easier to use the existing strategy.
*Kwaang!*
I rushed towards the staggering, off-balance Kang Dae-ho.
The gaps in his armor, created from taking too much damage.
The moment my attack was about to strike those unprotected spots.
*Flinch.*
An uneasy feeling shot through my head like an electric current.
*Kwagwagwang!!*
The surroundings were engulfed in an explosion.
A bombardment, even greater than forcibly detonating multiple Stigmas.
If I had gone through with the attack, I would have been caught in that explosion and taken considerable damage.
Kang Dae-ho doesn't have an ability like this.
‘This is.’
A third party, just as I'd suspected.
I hurriedly turned my gaze to where I felt the presence.
I saw five people.
Among them, the one standing at the front, who seemed to have caused the explosion.
A man with an androgynous appearance and snow-white hair that captured the eye spoke.
“L Team. Commence the operation.”