Chapter 200
Chapter 200
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 200
Chapter Title: ACT.37 The Unstoppable (5)
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“Ah…?”
Jeong Su-ji stared blankly down.
A single sword protruded from her stomach, having pierced clean through.
For a moment, she looked up, as if unable to comprehend, wondering if she had done it herself.
*Shunk.*
As the sword was pulled out, she swayed and slowly collapsed.
And from behind her, the sword's owner revealed himself.
“Go… Yeong-jun…?”
Jeong Ha-yeon spoke in disjointed disbelief.
“How are you… No, why…”
“I brought him.”
Jun Bo-ra, who had appeared in a flash, smacked Jo Min-woo hard on the head.
“Agh!”
“You need to snap out of it.”
“But does that mean you have to hit me like that!?”
“Still, you’re better now, aren’t you?”
“Huh? Y-Yeah, I am.”
Jo Min-woo touched his head, amazed.
It wasn't just because of the shock; Jun Bo-ra had taken appropriate measures.
An item that you crush to have it absorbed into the target's body.
It was quite expensive, and she hadn't done it because it hadn't seemed necessary.
When I stared at her as if asking why, Jun Bo-ra whipped her head away.
Instead, Go Yeong-jun answered Jeong Ha-yeon's earlier question.
“…A debt must be repaid.”
Go Yeong-jun looked down at Jeong Su-ji with a lonely expression.
When a life is extended through a contract with a devil, it is nullified upon receiving a shock severe enough to endanger that life again.
[No…! Not yet, not yet, I…!]
The silhouette of the succubus clinging to Jeong Su-ji's back scattered and vanished into thin air.
At the same time, the color drained rapidly from Jeong Su-ji's face.
The confident, mature aura she had exuded just moments before was gone, replaced by the frail, small-animal-like demeanor she had when they first met.
Jeong Su-ji, her unfocused eyes nearly closed, barely managed to utter a single word.
“C-cold…”
Her voice was faint and thin, as if it could break at any moment.
Go Yeong-jun watched Jeong Su-ji silently before speaking into the air.
“Malphas. I will now fulfill our previous contract.”
What?
My gaze, which had been fixed on Go Yeong-jun, immediately shifted to Jun Bo-ra.
There was no way Go Yeong-jun could have figured that out on his own.
There was only one person who could have told him.
Jun Bo-ra.
“Don’t tell me you led him to do this?”
“No! What do you take me for!? He said he'd do it himself. I didn't tell him anything. I just moved him so it would be easier to attack that girl.”
“Then Malphas is…”
“He said they’ve had contact for a while.”
Corruption, then.
Damn it. I overlooked that possibility.
Once you acquire the corruption trait, entities of that sort take an interest, for better or worse.
They don't even persistently pester you to make a contract.
They simply offer bait once and wait.
Until the player initiates contact.
[Sooner than I thought. Have you already decided to borrow my power?]
“Go Yeong-jun! Stop…!”
“In exchange for my soul and body, I transfer half of my remaining lifespan to Jeong Su-ji.”
The words flowed naturally, as if rehearsed countless times.
Upon hearing the terms of the contract, Jeong Ha-yeon's face turned deathly pale.
[That offer is accepted.]
A massive, bird-like figure chuckled.
Go Yeong-jun's body began to slowly fade, and in contrast, Jeong Su-ji's body glowed brightly.
A transfer of life itself.
The body paid as a price would vanish, and the soul, forfeit to the devil, would wander hell for eternity.
“Are you really okay with this?”
“…If I hadn't made a deal with the devil, I would have died without being able to say anything anyway. Not much has changed.”
“But still…!”
Jo Min-ah cried out, her voice thick with tears.
“You two liked each other…! How can we just watch an ending like this!”
Those words, about Go Yeong-jun and Jeong Su-ji.
Made everyone present feel a lump in their throats, leaving them speechless.
“…We liked each other?”
Go Yeong-jun turned his dazed eyes to Jeong Su-ji.
Still not fully recovered, she remained unconscious.
Go Yeong-jun wore a stunned expression for a long moment, then gave a small smile.
He reached out to brush back Jeong Su-ji's hair, but his hand vanished the moment it touched a few strands, so he couldn't even do that.
He glanced at his own vanished hand for a moment, then let his arm fall limply.
“I'm sorry I couldn't save you then.”
Was it his imagination, or did Jeong Su-ji's ear twitch?
Before he knew it, everything but Go Yeong-jun's head and torso had disappeared.
It meant the life transfer was almost complete.
Jo Min-woo was choking back sobs, desperately trying not to cry, while Jo Min-ah kept wiping away her tears.
Jun Bo-ra pressed her robe tightly to her face, hiding it.
Go Yeong-jun looked at me one last time and gave a faint smile.
“With this, my debt is repaid.”
I answered with a slight nod.
Finally, when only Go Yeong-jun's head remained.
“Yeong-jun…?”
Jeong Su-ji slowly opened her eyes.
Was he relieved to see it?
With a final, gentle smile, as if to say it was all for the best, Go Yeong-jun vanished as if he had never been there at all.
“Yeong-jun, wait…”
Jeong Su-ji reached out urgently, but there was already nothing there.
“H-Huh?”
“What was I just doing…?”
The people, freed from the bewitchment, looked around in confusion and hurried on their way.
In the midst of it all, Jeong Su-ji stared blankly at the spot where Go Yeong-jun had disappeared.
Jeong Su-ji quietly touched her own hair.
The spot where Go Yeong-jun had tried to brush it back.
Where Go Yeong-jun had vanished, his clothes and a single sword remained.
The blood-soaked sword Go Yeong-jun always used.
Jeong Su-ji slowly stood up and picked up the sword.
“Ugh…”
Jeong Su-ji staggered, the sword apparently quite heavy for her.
Even for a player, it was a natural result, as she had barely grown since the incident began.
Still, she clenched her teeth, cradled the sword in both arms, and turned her head toward us.
Jun Bo-ra spoke.
“What are you going to do now?”
“…I think I'll travel alone for a while.”
Surprised by Jeong Su-ji's answer, Jo Min-woo tried to dissuade her.
“Don't do that. Why don't you come with us instead…”
“Mm. No. I feel like this is what I have to do.”
Her hands, cradling the sword, tightened.
What it meant to have picked up that sword.
Jo Min-ah seemed to understand immediately, grabbing Jo Min-woo's arm and signaling him to stop.
“It will be dangerous.”
“I know.”
“You're still weak.”
“I know.”
“You could die the moment you leave this place.”
“…I know.”
Jeong Su-ji put on Go Yeong-jun's hoodie over her clothes and tilted her head back.
The clear sky, without a single cloud, as if nothing had happened.
“Still, I have to go.”
Immediately after, Jeong Su-ji walked away down the road with a determined stride.
“…She's gone.”
Jo Min-ah murmured, her voice tinged with bitterness.
Aside from the slight mess, the residential area had instantly returned to normal.
The fact that all the bodies were gone was probably because Jun Bo-ra had cleaned them up while running around.
“Se-hyeon-ssi.”
“Yes.”
“…Was I wrong?”
“…”
“I don't know anymore. Anything. I've always walked the path I believed was right.”
Jeong Ha-yeon wore a look of utter confusion.
“Is it… impossible to do anything with justice alone?”
Jeong Ha-yeon had already experienced frustration and anguish several times.
She had even found answers for some of them.
But when you start to question if even the answers you've found were wrong?
That's when a person feels endlessly empty.
“…It's hard for me to give you an answer to that.”
Jeong Ha-yeon's image overlapped with one of my many past selves from the game.
*Let's play like a good, righteous hero.*
That playthrough also ended in failure, but in its own way, it became a great experience for me.
“But one thing is certain.”
“What… is that?”
“That the mindset of pursuing justice is not, in itself, wrong.”
There was no reply from Jeong Ha-yeon.
I wasn't particularly expecting one, so the conversation ended there.
[You've got some nerve saying that.]
Besial said sarcastically.
[You say that, but you're not pursuing justice yourself, are you?]
“Because justice without leeway is nothing more than a delusion.”
Just because it isn't wrong doesn't make it the right answer, nor does it make it the wrong one.
It's simply one of many methods.
Just not the best one.
‘How many people are there who have never yearned for justice?’
I shook my head slightly and changed the subject.
“It seems the succubus is grinding her teeth quite a bit over this.”
[…Right?]
“I have a job for you.”
Trying to accuse her right now would be useless without solid proof, but proof is something that can be secured one way or another.
Just as the enemies were trying to interfere in various ways, I also planned to expand my means and methods.
[Give me coins.]
“What?”
[I'm an intermediate-level devil now. When I take action, the backlash is that much greater. I'll be at too much of a loss if I keep working for free!]
…Is this punk getting cocky just because he became an intermediate devil?
“Besial. You know you're already in the same boat as me, right?”
As I pinched the bridge of my nose and spoke in annoyance, Besial flinched.
But he struggled to maintain his composure and came on strong.
[S-So what. Your threats won't work this time…]
“This is about the succubus. If you want to have that power taken away and get demoted back to a low-level devil, then go right ahead.”
[Damn it, you're doing it again! You coward! You coward, Kim Se-hyeon!]
Besial started rolling around me like a child throwing a tantrum.
I immediately grabbed his face and squeezed, and he instantly put on a business smile.
[Heh, heheh. Alright, alright. What do I have to do?]
“How nice it would've been if you'd just said that from the start. Dig into the devil currently managing the area around Shanghai in China. I'm sure you'll find something.”
[How do you know that?]
“Because that guy is the succubus's best friend.”
Given how the succubus attached to Jeong Su-ji acted, she must have asked him for something too.
Even to the point of making him abuse his administrator authority.
***
‘Something's wrong.’
A cold sweat trickled down Seong Woo-hyeon's neck.
The scene before him was something he had never seen before, an event that defied common sense.
‘I came to investigate a strange gate that was said to resemble an Ark Gate.’
Seong Woo-hyeon had received reports on the Disaster of Verdure and the Disaster of Defiance, and he had even personally experienced the King of Disease.
Knowing the dangers of Ark Gates, he had brought the elite of the Jamryong Guild, intending to clear it quickly if it really was one.
But the reality was completely different.
‘This resembles the prelude from back then…!’
The dead were rising.
Staggering on blackened bodies that still bore their wounds.
After repeating strange movements, their eyes suddenly lit up.
“Heok…!”
Despite there being no signal, all the dead fixed their gazes on the living at the exact same moment.
That bizarre atmosphere and the shock of the dead coming back to life.
All of it became a pressure that constricted the players.
“Don't panic, maintain formation! Just because they're undead doesn't mean we can't defeat them!”
Seong Woo-hyeon took the lead and cut down a zombie.
Even though its head was half-severed, its mouth was clearly smiling.
The moment Seong Woo-hyeon felt his hair stand on end, he crossed his arms to block his front.
*Kwang!*
“Kgh!?”
It acted as if losing its head was nothing.
Seong Woo-hyeon's eyes widened in disbelief.
*Bubble, bubble.*
That wasn't all.
The severed body parts were regenerating.
Undead.
Already dead, they were the undying who could not die again.
True undead, shattering all conventional fantasy knowledge, were relentlessly swarming in, as if mocking the Jamryong Guild's offensive.
Only those B-rank or higher remained.
Most of the others had already fallen and were rising again as undead.
The moment they died, they turned into undead and became enemies.
Meanwhile, the enemy would not die, no matter what they tried.
‘How can such enemies…’
Watching the undead charge again, Seong Woo-hyeon bit his lip hard.