Chapter 239
Chapter 239
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 239
Chapter Title: ACT.47 The Future and the Past (2)
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[The 'Accustomed to Battle' trait evolves to A-rank.]
So the proficiency is finally maxed out.
Growth-type skills, as expected. They're powerful, but a pain to level up.
It's a good thing the battles my Army of Darkness fights count toward my proficiency. If they didn't, who knows how much longer it would have taken.
I glanced around the now-cleared area before shifting my gaze to Himura, who had retreated to a safe distance.
“How can you have Black Flame on top of being the Lord of Darkness...?”
Himura's breathing was heavy.
He asked, his eyes looking at me as if I were a monster.
“Why aren't you getting tired?”
“Because unlike you, I have the stamina to back it up.”
Himura was quite a handful.
The combination of Acceleration, Super Speed, and Rain of Ten Thousand Flowers.
Himura's attack, moving at a speed that was hard to follow with the naked eye while showering daggers from all directions like rain, was certainly impressive.
However, with my total Agility stat having long surpassed 100, I was able to keep up with his attacks.
Deflecting all his daggers and weaving in counterattacks, there was no way Himura could land a significant hit.
“If you're going to stick to that style, you should have invested in stamina, not strength.”
Himura's stat distribution was specialized for short bursts, making him disadvantaged in a prolonged fight.
Repeatedly using skills from the same family drains stamina quickly.
Even more so when they're S-rank.
As I clicked my tongue and spoke, Himura's face twisted further.
‘Well, even without that…’
The most surprising person was Jo Min-ah.
While supporting Jo Min-woo's flames, she also created her own to restrict the Yamato Guild members' movements and blocked every attack that came her way.
On top of that, she occasionally calculated Himura's trajectory and launched fireballs in advance, making it easier for me to catch up to him.
Jo Min-woo might have taken down a double-digit number of Yamato Guild members, but Jo Min-ah's performance was so brilliant it overshadowed his.
Even though Alpha had secretly taken care of a few things beforehand, it was still impressive to see how much she had grown.
“I'll retreat for now. But next time, it won't end like this.”
The character for 'Retreat' (退) appeared behind Himura, and he vanished through space in an instant.
A talisman of retreat.
That was the effect of an item that only S-rank Onmyoji players could create through a complicated process.
It had the effect of teleporting him to a designated return point, so it was highly likely he had returned to Japan.
[Look at him, running away and leaving all his subordinates behind.]
“That's not very important to those Salvatio bastards.”
The major guilds in each country are just stepping stones for them.
Stepping stones to make them move as they please and to build a foundation for their own convenient growth.
They can be discarded or devoured whenever the situation allows.
“Hyung! How was that? We're pretty strong now, right?”
Jo Min-woo had the expression of a child who had just won first place in a race at a school sports day and was running to their parents.
“Yeah. You were a help.”
“Right!”
“This isn't the time! We need to get back to headquarters quickly!”
“What's the rush? All the bad guys are gone. It should be safe.”
“But! Something… feels really unsettling.”
Jo Min-ah's intuition was quite sharp.
Whether it was because of her Detection skill or something else, I didn't know.
However, I still had business here.
“No, there's one more person.”
Someone who had been watching all of this from beginning to end.
I shouted in their direction.
“Hey! Haven't you had enough of a peep show?”
Someone slowly walked out from the shadows.
A player with a sturdy build, wearing a robe.
It was the same person my Extreme Eye had failed on a few days ago, citing a 'system error'.
“What's your purpose? Friend or foe?”
“Foe.”
The man answered immediately.
At that, Jo Min-woo quickly stepped forward.
“You rest, Hyung! I'll take this guy!”
“You don't know how strong he is. Don't be reckless.”
“Min-ah will cover me from behind, so it's fine! Hey, you! I don't know who you are, but if you're so boldly calling yourself a foe, you must have come to fight, right!?”
Jo Min-woo charged, his legs wreathed in flames.
He seemed to execute a fairly clean roundhouse kick, but.
*Clash!*
His opponent countered with a roundhouse kick of his own, nullifying it.
My eyes widened involuntarily.
Aside from the difference in height and build, their posture was so identical it was as if they were mirror images.
“Huh!?”
[Eh!? What the!?]
And the same red flames were wreathed around his legs.
…What is that?
Is this possible?
*Thwack!*
“Ugh!”
The man quickly followed up with another attack, sending the stunned Jo Min-woo flying.
“Min-woo! Are you okay?”
“I was just a little surprised. Damn. I was shocked because it was the same technique. Not anymore!”
Having quickly recovered, Jo Min-woo attacked again.
The man watched Jo Min-woo silently, as if daring him to come at him.
“Hyaaaaah!!”
*Clash!*
Fist met fist.
Flames tried to devour each other, and a shockwave tore through the air.
At a glance, it seemed like Jo Min-woo was keeping up, but the reality was different.
“Wh-what's going on!? This is the exact same power!”
Jo Min-woo was helplessly pushed back.
They used the same power, but there was a vast difference in their proficiency.
The way he casually handled Jo Min-woo, as if he knew his every move, was like a master dealing with his disciple.
‘Impossible.’
Unique abilities are called unique for a reason.
No two players use the exact same power.
There are bound to be differences in the details.
Even when learning the same martial art, there are slight variations depending on the individual's style, but there seemed to be no such difference in how these two used their abilities.
Something systematically impossible was happening right before my eyes.
“…Systematically impossible?”
Why was it?
That I was reminded of how Extreme Eye had failed with a 'system error'.
*Thwump!*
A fist slammed into Jo Min-woo's solar plexus, and he collapsed with a silent scream.
Struggling to breathe, he clutched his stomach with one hand and his throat with the other, gasping.
I have to step in.
Just as I thought that and was about to move, the man suddenly threw off his robe, revealing his hidden face.
“Ah…!”
Jo Min-ah, who saw it.
Besial, who had been watching the fight while eating popcorn.
Even I couldn't move, just staring blankly at the sight.
“What… is this…”
Finally, Jo Min-woo struggled to lift his head, saw the face, and barely managed to speak.
“Why… is that… me…?”
The man had Jo Min-woo's face.
[The 'Follower of Wise Light' is astonished!]
[The 'Lurking Shadow' watches the situation with interest.]
“My name is Jo Min-woo.”
The man looked down at Jo Min-woo with cold eyes and said,
“I am you, from the future.”
***
“Ugh…!”
Cha Eun-ha groaned from the sudden rush of pain.
“Hah, hah…”
The metallic stench of blood stung her nose.
The area was filled with corpses and pools of blood.
It had happened in an instant.
A large number of Pentagon Eagle members had attacked and turned this place into what it was now.
‘The other areas…’
The faces of the others scattered throughout the headquarters came to mind, but it was hard to reach a hopeful conclusion.
Because among those who had attacked this place, there were several S-ranks.
Proof of that was Kim Ji-hyeon, who lay critically wounded not far away.
She had fought to the end but ultimately couldn't withstand the combined attack of two S-ranks and had fallen.
‘Fortunately, one of them went elsewhere… but even so, beating this guy by myself is.’
Cha Eun-ha bit her lip, glaring at the man in front of her.
“See, you should've only interfered with our plans a little. Why'd you have to bring this on yourself, huh?”
The man's long hair covered his eyes to the point where it was questionable if he could see.
Cha Eun-ha's face contorted in pain that wracked her entire body, but the man seemed displeased by it.
“Why are you glaring? We're the victims here. Do you have any idea how much damage we've suffered because of you people? Smile. Come on, a big smile. That's right.”
As if his words were an order, the corners of Cha Eun-ha's mouth turned up.
Upon closer inspection, thin, thread-like strings were pulling at the corners of her mouth.
The man's identity was one of the members of L-Team, 'Marker', who had the ability to control threads.
‘I should finish this quickly and go find the others who lost contact. Tsk.’
Ada and Dwayne.
The rest of L-Team, besides those two, had returned to the US mainland, but when contact with them was lost, they came back to investigate the cause and ended up helping A-Team.
The enticement was that if they helped drive out the Korean players, the organization's scale would grow, and they would receive a lot of support.
It was a pain, but they judged it would be more convenient in the long run.
Marker fumbled for a Ziploc bag.
“Now, look. They say empathy is important in society these days, right? So I thought about it. Why do people do drugs? Shouldn't we try to understand that first? And what's the best way to understand it?”
“…I don't know.”
“It's simple! You just have to try the drugs yourself!”
Marker grinned brightly and shoved the Red Eye under Cha Eun-ha's nose.
So close that she would inhale it if she took even a slightly deep breath.
Cha Eun-ha knew all too well what happened to people who took that stuff, so she tensed up, breathing as shallowly as possible.
Marker's face showed blatant disappointment.
“Looks like you don't want to empathize. Well, can't be helped.”
Marker's hand moved away.
Thank goodness. It was just a joke.
Cha Eun-ha thought so, but she realized her mistake immediately after.
“I'll just have to force you to take it.”
“…!?”
*KRA-KOOM!!*
At that moment, a streak of light shot forward.
The lightning bolt, which looked like it could destroy everything in its path, seemed to catch on something and stopped in mid-air before exploding, but it was enough to halt Marker's actions.
‘Lightning…!’
Cha Eun-ha's face gradually brightened.
Because there was only one person in the country who could wield the power of lightning to this extent.
“What are you doing.”
Jeon Do-jin slowly emerged from beyond the smoke.
Behind him lay dozens of people, their bodies charred black.
He had reached this place by felling everyone who stood in his way with a single strike.
Jeon Do-jin's eyes first landed on Cha Eun-ha, then scanned the surroundings.
Seeing the horrific, hell-like scene, anger slowly began to surface in his eyes.
“Are these the guys who left for the warp gate? Sigh. They talked as if they could handle everything on their end, but it looks like they got breached. They're not automatic doors, so why'd they get broken through so fast?”
“I asked what you are doing.”
‘This is getting annoying.’
Hearing the voice dripping with killing intent, Marker stretched his lips into a wide grin.
Jeon Do-jin almost never appears in the story of EOA like this.
In other words, Marker had no idea how much power he possessed at this point in time.
“What's the big deal~? She's not your real daughter, you know. I know that much.”
Marker said this, then used the communicator in his ear to quietly request backup.
However, that was a mistake.
*BOOM!!*
“Ugh!?”
Because even if it was an item that used mana, someone of Jeon Do-jin's caliber was sensitive enough to the flow of mana to immediately know what he had done.
Marker quickly removed the destroyed communicator.
As if Jeon Do-jin's anger had taken physical form, a powerful electric current flowed through the area, causing the indoor lights to flicker ceaselessly.