Chapter 198
Chapter 198
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 198
Chapter Title: That Which Cannot Be Stopped (3)
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Park Tae-min had already completed his transformation.
The form of a monster, standing supported by bones resembling a spine.
A form that had completely shed its human shape.
[He looks like a real devil.]
“You’re the devil.”
[It’s just an expression.]
He was slightly different from the Extreme Demon that appeared during the war with Paradise.
Unlike the Extreme Demon, which had lost its reason in its extreme pursuit of only attack power, Park Tae-min was the result of pursuing ‘stability’.
In the system, it was called a True Demon.
Drunk on power, Park Tae-min laughed loudly.
“This power! With this immense power, defeating you will be…!”
*CRASH!*
Before he could finish his sentence, Park Tae-min was sent flying into a wall.
He managed to react.
He barely defended, reducing the impact.
“I blocked… it… but what is this impact…?”
“You should have moved immediately.”
“…!?”
The sword, which had been swinging diagonally, stopped.
Right beside him.
Another Park Tae-min had suddenly appeared, gripping my right arm tightly with both of his.
It was Park Tae-min’s avatar.
“You let your guard down, Kim Se-hyeon!”
Park Tae-min’s gaze changed, and he opened his mouth wide.
A murky energy swirled and gathered inside his mouth.
This was why the True Demon was the culmination of the research.
The fact that it was a Demon that could even use the player’s own powers.
If an S-rank player were to become a True Demon, they would become a formidable foe.
However, Park Tae-min was not.
*Pshuk!*
Darkness shot out from the floor and ceiling, piercing Park Tae-min’s avatar, and at the same time, I reached out with my left hand and covered Park Tae-min’s mouth.
Park Tae-min wore a look of disbelief, as if he couldn’t process the change in the situation.
“It wasn’t that I let my guard down. You just weren’t threatening enough for me to care.”
Through the hand holding Park Tae-min’s mouth, I poured in a large amount of darkness.
*KABOOOM!!*
The two different energies collided, causing an explosion.
Black smoke billowed from the mouth of Park Tae-min, whose eyes had rolled halfway back.
He hadn’t died due to the Demon’s durability, but he must have suffered severe damage.
‘I can’t kill him just yet.’
*Thud.*
When I let go, Park Tae-min, with nothing to support him, collapsed forward.
A trigger is also the key to eliminating the madness.
I couldn’t kill him before achieving that goal.
“Impossible… To gain this power and still be so helpless…”
“Because it’s a false power.”
I placed a hand on Park Tae-min’s back and injected the energy of darkness into his body.
Demonization is fundamentally based on something called the ‘Demon Factor’.
The outcome varies depending on how well one reacts with the Demon Factor.
Most cases, which aren’t very good, become ordinary Demons, while those who are relatively superior have the potential to become Extreme or True Demons.
“Kugh…!?”
His trembling body slowly reverted to its human form.
It was a natural consequence, as I had eliminated a significant portion of the Demon Factor with the darkness injected into his body.
‘The Extreme Demon was just a byproduct of the abyss’s power growing too strong, so it wasn’t anything special.’
The True Demon is different.
The ‘drug circulating among players in Busan’ that Cha Eun-ha had mentioned before.
That was necessary, and the researchers of the Demon experiment weren’t supposed to have figured that out at this point in time.
Sure enough, substances matching that drug were scattered throughout Park Tae-min’s body.
Those L-Team bastards. It seems they came to Korea fully prepared.
“Keuk, keuhu. Huhuhu…”
Park Tae-min began to laugh as if he had lost his mind.
“I… I endured so much pain to get this power for my revenge… How could a chance for vengeance, obtained with such difficulty, be taken away so easily?”
“No, Ada didn’t help you get revenge. She just used you to buy time.”
Someone else denied Park Tae-min’s words faster than I could.
It was Jeong Ha-yeon.
Sweat was trickling down her forehead, as if she had run here.
The twins were no exception.
-Well, I told you, now’s not the time to deal with me.
-Fools are perfect for buying time. That kid, Go Yeong-jun, probably believes the lies I told him without a doubt.
Park Tae-min’s and Go Yeong-jun’s eyes turned to Jeong Ha-yeon simultaneously.
I pointed to the square, white cube Jeong Ha-yeon was holding out and asked.
“What’s that?”
“What do you think? It’s a recorder.”
“It doesn’t look like one.”
“Judgment must be based on precise evidence. If I ask Zadkiel, I can get a transcript of any conversation within the last 24 hours. Convenient, right?”
I wondered if it was okay to treat an archangel like an automatic recorder.
I almost let out a dry laugh, but it wasn’t a bad thing at all.
After all, I had intended to solve this with force.
Thanks to Jeong Ha-yeon, things had become easier.
Jeong Ha-yeon shouted at Park Tae-min.
“This is what Ada said just a little while ago as she fled from this place. Surely you can grasp the meaning of her words, can’t you?”
“…Ha, that damn vixen.”
After a long moment, Park Tae-min let out a low laugh, the sound of air escaping his lungs.
Go Yeong-jun wasn’t much different.
The suggestion that had become the trigger for his madness was already starting to break because of what I’d said earlier.
Added to that was Ada’s own admission of it being a ‘lie’, and the resulting mental shock from the constant clash of thoughts in his head was visible on his face.
“Hey, moron.”
“Don’t call me with that filthy mouth.”
“Do you really believe that lie just because a few words were mixed in with the truth?”
As Park Tae-min chided him scornfully, Go Yeong-jun’s face twisted.
“…I can’t believe it.”
“It’s not that you can’t believe it, you just won’t. So stubborn. Hey, righteous lady over there. You got a Crystal of Truth?”
Instead of Jeong Ha-yeon, I threw him the Crystal of Truth I had.
Park Tae-min placed his hand on the crystal with a familiarity that suggested he had encountered it many times before.
“The memory you have right now was manipulated by Ada’s suggestion. Got it? That guy even pointed out exactly why it’s a lie, and you still don’t believe it? Does that make any sense?”
“…”
Go Yeong-jun’s eyes slowly returned to normal.
Through Extreme Eye, I could see the two characters for ‘Madness’ in his traits section gradually fading, about to disappear.
“I…”
Go Yeong-jun staggered to his feet.
He looked at me, then at the twins.
Finally, after looking at Park Tae-min and Jeong Ha-yeon, he left the place with an unsteady gait.
Jo Min-woo watched Go Yeong-jun’s back with a worried expression, unable to look away.
“Hyung, will Yeong-jun be okay? He still doesn’t look so good…”
“Sometimes, people need time alone.”
Consolation and sympathy aren’t always the answer.
Especially for someone like Go Yeong-jun.
‘The madness has completely vanished.’
I deactivated Extreme Eye and relaxed slightly.
I can finally breathe a little.
I wondered if this happened because I hadn’t expected them to go this far to create a Guide of Madness, or if it was just a perfect storm of circumstances.
“*Cough.*”
Park Tae-min coughed up blood.
As thick blood coated the hand he had used to cover his mouth, Park Tae-min gave a dry smile.
“…How… empty.”
A body that should have died long ago.
Thanks to Cheon Jin-ha’s modification surgery, he had survived until now, but that was merely a temporary measure.
On top of that, he had even transformed into a Demon once.
Now that the Demon Factor had been completely removed, it wouldn’t be strange if Park Tae-min died at any moment.
Park Tae-min blankly looked up at Jo Min-ah and Jo Min-woo.
“I’m sorry.”
Those were Park Tae-min’s last words.
His body, unable to withstand the overload from the forced modification, had broken down.
His face looked relieved.
The twins were speechless for a long time before Jo Min-ah finally spoke.
“…Bury him, Oppa.”
“Are you okay with that?”
“What can we do? He’s already dead. He apologized at the end, so we should just… accept it.”
They must have had so much they wanted to say.
But the twins chose to swallow their words.
It was a harsh experience for them all, but they were maturing mentally.
I smiled faintly without realizing it.
I was about to do it, but Jo Min-woo stepped forward and lifted Park Tae-min’s body.
“If we’re going to do it, cremation would be better than burial.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind.”
The act of burying itself has its own meaning.
I refrained from saying anything more.
Jeong Ha-yeon, who had been standing quietly, spoke cautiously.
“Let’s find those two and bury them in a sunny spot. We still have to find Jun Bo-ra-ssi, anyway…”
Come to think of it, the brainwashing issue hadn’t been resolved.
With Ada, the one who cast the suggestion, now far away, its effect would naturally weaken, but that didn’t mean things would return to normal.
Still, their aggression has lessened significantly, so Jun Bo-ra should be able to return, but there’s no news yet.
“Is this deep enough?”
“A little deeper. And pack the dirt down tight. So he can’t crawl out.”
“Come on, Hyung. How can a dead person crawl out?”
I wish that were true.
As long as the outcome known as the Advent of Disaster cannot be stopped, it’s bound to happen.
‘Looks like things are mostly settled here.’
Ada has probably gone to rendezvous with Tarwi again.
This side was just a diversion to buy time.
A feint to give Tarwi time to act.
Knowing this, Hwang Chan-jin went with the Hongryeon Guild to stop it in advance, so things shouldn’t have progressed that far.
Now, I just need to join them and finish this completely.
“…Se-hyeon-ssi. Look over there for a second.”
While I was watching the twins stack stones on Park Tae-min’s grave, Jeong Ha-yeon called to me in a tense voice.
“What is it?”
“Something’s wrong.”
Where Jeong Ha-yeon pointed, there were still players who weren’t in their right minds.
It was natural for them to be abnormal since the brainwashing hadn’t fully worn off.
However, just as Jeong Ha-yeon said, something was strange.
They looked different from how they had before.
It didn’t take long to realize the source of this wrongness.
Bewitchment.
Those people were all under the influence of someone’s Bewitchment.
[That’s… Bewitchment, isn’t it?]
“What a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing.”
[Impossible. Bewitchment isn’t a power a normal player can obtain through regular means, is it?]
Just as Besial said, Bewitchment cannot be obtained through ordinary means.
As far as I know, there’s only one way.
‘A contract with a succubus.’
Just as I won a bet with the succubus and borrowed the Eyes of Bewitchment skill for a day, one can obtain the Bewitchment skill as a reward for making a full contract with a succubus through some process.
However, it’s a contract no ordinary human would make.
That’s because it’s a contract where one sacrifices their everything.
‘The succubus lost her administrator authority long ago, and it should take a long time to restore her power as a mid-tier devil.’
To make a contract with someone in that state, the person would need to have an incredibly strong desire and also be highly compatible with the succubus’s power.
The fact that such a person happened to be here didn’t sit well with me.
“Th-they’re coming this way?”
Jo Min-woo stuttered, taking an awkward stance in his panic.
But his expression changed in an instant at the voice he heard next.
“Oh my, it’s been a while.”
The twins and Jeong Ha-yeon stared straight ahead, their faces frozen and speechless.
Because it was a voice that ‘should not have been heard’.
“Min-ah and Min-woo… Ha-yeon unni.”
Just by walking, the aura of Bewitchment spread around, captivating people.
Jo Min-woo’s eyes kept trying to glaze over, but Jo Min-ah slapped his cheek, forcing him awake.
“Se-hyeon oppa.”
“…”
Her atmosphere had changed a lot, but it was unmistakably Jeong Su-ji.