Chapter 88
Chapter 88
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 88
Chapter Title: ACT.16 Virus (6)
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The floor within her attack range was mercilessly torn apart.
The destructive force sliced through the marble floor as if it were tofu.
Just the kind of brute strength you'd expect from a physical enhancement ability.
‘Choi Seo-hee.’
A B-rank player from the Geumeumdal Guild, and one of the top B-ranks in all of Korea.
The lore is that she's originally S-rank, but a significant portion of her power was sealed because she's difficult to control even within the unofficial guild, so she usually maintains a B-rank state.
In the original game, there was a line where Lee Seon-yul complained about how hard it was to beat her even when she was sealed.
Naturally fond of fighting and cruel, she's a figure who murdered countless people during her time in the unofficial guild.
Hence her nickname, 'The Hunter'.
She's not supposed to be here. Why is she here?
"Those things, did you summon them?"
Choi Seo-hee growled, gesturing toward the Soldiers of Darkness with her eyes.
Following my orders, the Soldiers of Darkness skillfully avoided the B-ranks and ambushed the C-ranks, steadily reducing the enemy's numbers.
"What if I did?"
"A summoner who dares show his face deserves to die."
I dodged the roundhouse kick that came in the blink of an eye and widened the distance.
Because of her mindset—that as long as she can fight, nothing else matters—Choi Seo-hee sometimes temporarily sides with the protagonist.
Which means she could become an enemy at any moment.
And sure enough, after becoming an ally, Choi Seo-hee eventually turns into an enemy again.
And with much greater power, at that.
"You'd better give up any thought of running from me!"
While she's on your team, her combat prowess makes her very helpful.
However, she later betrays you, causing severe damage.
And even if you accept her as an ally, you can never let your guard down, not knowing when she might suddenly backstab you.
A simple conclusion was reached.
"Die!"
"Your third move is always a feint."
The claw seems to aim for my face, but there's not much power behind it.
The real attack is the dagger throw that follows, and then the combo.
*Shwick!*
Instead of dodging, I lunged forward and counterattacked.
Even for a feint, it takes time to recover from the motion.
Choi Seo-hee hurriedly tried to defend herself, but darkness had already bound her legs tightly.
"Keuk!"
A fist dug into her abdomen, and Choi Seo-hee let out a short scream as she collapsed.
I was about to swing my sword and send her off peacefully when a plan suddenly occurred to me.
My mind had changed.
If I played my cards right, I could make very good use of this unpredictable woman.
"How... can a summoner have this kind of power..."
"Because summoning isn't my main ability."
With Choi Seo-hee so easily subdued, the situation changed.
Sensing the crisis, two B-ranks came at me, leaving an opening for the Soldiers of Darkness to wreak even more havoc.
There was no reason to keep anyone alive except for Choi Seo-hee.
"Kuaaack!"
Spikes erupted not just from the floor, but from the walls and ceiling, turning them into honeycombs.
The higher-ranked ones barely managed to dodge before the spikes shot up, but getting close to me was completely impossible.
The Soldiers of Darkness relentlessly clung to and attacked those whose movements were restricted.
"You, you bastard...! Die!"
*Bang!*
The sound of a gunshot struck my ears.
Just as you'd expect from guys who commit illegal acts without hesitation, they were even carrying guns.
"H-hahaha! No matter how great a player you are, it's hard to block a bullet coming from a blind spot! A bullet through the head kills a player just the same as a civilian!"
"That's only if it goes through."
"Huh!?"
The man who had been laughing triumphantly gasped.
He stubbornly pulled the trigger a few more times, but as expected, the bullets vanished before reaching me.
One of the functions of darkness: annihilation.
The unofficial guilds tend to use guns a lot, so there's no trait more convenient for dealing with them than Lord of Darkness.
Besides, only low-rank players or those whose powers are weak against that kind of defense would find it hard to block a bullet.
He must have thought that just because he couldn't do it, no one else could either.
*Click, click.*
The magazine must have been empty; he could no longer shoot, only pulling the useless trigger again and again.
"I-insane... How in the world...!?"
*Shwick!*
The man died before he could finish his sentence.
The metallic scent of blood lingered at the tip of my nose.
Perhaps it's the effect of 'Watcher Beyond the Screen', but I feel nothing despite the mass slaughter.
This is reality.
But I'm acting as if I'm playing a game with only one life.
The resulting dissonance kept unsettling my mind.
I deliberately shook my head hard.
‘Four left.’
The one who can give me the information I want is the leader here.
I have to catch him before he escapes.
Three B-rank players tried to stop me with a coordinated attack, but they were repelled without delaying me for long.
"Kang Dong-woon-nim! Some guy broke in and started attacking without warning... Keuk!"
The B-rank player who had hurriedly opened the door to report collapsed with a hole in his stomach.
And with that, only one remained.
"Are you the leader here?"
"Hmm..."
He was a younger man than I expected.
Around my age, or slightly older.
Despite having allowed an intruder to reach his room so easily, Kang Dong-woon didn't seem tense.
The A-rank player in charge of this place.
In the game, he was killed by the five major guilds while I was busy suppressing gates, so I'd never encountered him directly.
"I can't contact the other branches. Is this your doing too?"
"I taught them a little lesson beforehand."
"Tsk, tsk. You should have just stuck to hunting monsters like you usually do. Why meddle in this? You're just shortening your lifespan. This kind of impulsive action isn't good for either of us..."
"How were you able to control the dimension stones as you pleased?"
Kang Dong-woon's lips twisted for a moment.
As I thought, Kang Dong-woon knows.
"Aha. So that's why you came? If you're curious, I suppose I should tell you. Then."
Small guns suddenly appeared in his outstretched hands.
They were MV guns, loaded with the virus.
Surely he's not going to just fire them here?
"If you can defeat me."
*Crash!*
Faster than I could bind him with darkness, he sprayed the virus and escaped through the window behind him.
A strong gust of wind caused the toxic gas containing the virus to spread throughout the room in an instant, obscuring my vision and preventing me from giving immediate chase.
It's impossible for a virus sprayed from an MV gun to spread over such a wide area so quickly.
‘A wind-type ability.’
A user with a wind-type trait, who can manipulate the movement of air and the virus spreading through it.
From an opponent's perspective, few things are more troublesome.
Fortunately, I have a dimension stone, and I know that it repels this virus.
I was confident I could win a straight fight against Kang Dong-woon.
The problem lay elsewhere.
‘If he spreads the virus in the residential area, it'll be a disaster.’
I broke through the viral smokescreen and jumped out the window.
If he deliberately spreads the virus in a densely populated area, it will spread like wildfire.
If that happens, it'll be irreversible.
Contrary to my worries, Kang Dong-woon was waiting not far away, a grin on his face.
The moment I saw the citizens screaming about someone jumping from a window, a strong sense of unease washed over me.
"To pass right through that virus, you're either crazy or have guts of steel. But what to do? You're one step too late."
"...What did you do?"
"Several ordinary citizens are already carrying virus samples. Though they themselves don't know that's what they are, of course!"
He shouted this in the middle of a crowd.
In an instant, silence dominated the space.
People's movements ceased, as if time had stopped.
They stood frozen in place, checking everyone but themselves.
*It can't be me. Maybe it's the person next to me? That person looks suspicious.*
Their restlessly darting eyes seemed to say as much.
"I-isn't that...?"
Someone pointed a finger, singling out a young man.
The young man, startled, reached into his pocket, where the finger was pointing.
Feeling a long, stick-like object, he flinched and glanced around before pulling it out to check.
A rectangular glass tube containing something purple.
"Uh...?"
The young man stared blankly at the glass tube.
His reaction was one of *why is this in my pocket?*
With the rumor spreading that 'the virus spreads with purple smoke,' a glass tube containing an unidentifiable purple substance was more than suspicious enough.
Now I understood.
As soon as he jumped out the window, Kang Dong-woon had used his ability to move quickly through the crowd, randomly slipping those tubes into people's pockets.
People began to slowly back away, forming a circle around the man.
"W-wait a minute, everyone. I-is this really that virus?"
"St-stay away, you crazy bastard!!"
When the young man took a step forward, the people took several steps back.
The young man froze, unable to move, his face contorting as if he were about to cry.
"H-hey...? Wh-what am I supposed to do...?"
His voice trembled faintly.
His shaking hand looked as if it would drop the glass tube at any moment.
I narrowed my eyes and stared at the tube.
At first, I thought he was lying just to create chaos, but that thing is real.
The only explanation was that he had anticipated something like this and prepared them for this exact purpose.
"Oh, and that thing. It's set to explode automatically after a certain amount of time. *Boom*, you know. The virus goes *boom* too."
Kang Dong-woon's lips curled into a long, nasty smile.
A moment of silence passed.
Immediately after.
"Uwaaaaah!"
"Kyaaaaaah!!"
The people, finally thrown into a full-blown panic, fled without looking back.
Damned bastard. He's got a twistedly clever mind.
There are still others among them who have the virus.
If they scatter in all directions like this and even one of those tubes breaks, the virus will spread throughout the residential area.
But if I leave this spot, he could escape and spread the virus anywhere using the MV gun.
Letting either one go would lead to a catastrophe.
‘I can't let that happen.’
[Using skill, 'Extreme Eye'.]
Several tendrils of darkness rose from the ground and plucked the virus-filled glass tubes from the pockets of some of the fleeing people.
"Hm?"
Seeing this, Kang Dong-woon frowned and moved his finger.
*Kwang!*
The glass tubes exploded.
The virus inside the tubes was released at the same time, but.
*Swaaah...*
Before it could spread, it was enveloped by darkness and swallowed, vanishing completely.
Without Extreme Eye, that would have been dangerous.
Kang Dong-woon, with his arms crossed, tapped his fingers.
"Hmm. So you can stop the virus. Why didn't you do that from the start?"
"If I had done this the moment I saw the first tube, you would have definitely detonated the others."
I could have enveloped the first tube with darkness and stopped the virus right away.
But I didn't. I watched the situation unfold a little longer.
Because something was strange.
The virus wasn't leaking out of the tightly sealed glass tubes at all.
Handing out tubes like that to people would be pointless unless they were broken.
That could only mean one thing.
‘Kang Dong-woon has a way to detonate the tubes remotely.’
His claim that they would explode after a certain amount of time was a lie.
He was planning to press the switch at a time of his choosing.
Saying that was just a way to make people scatter in all directions.
If I had used darkness to envelop the first tube right away, Kang Dong-woon would have realized I could easily stop the virus and would have immediately detonated the other tubes.
Given how densely packed the crowd was, the infection would have spread in an instant.
"If you hadn't mentioned there were multiple tubes, things might have gone your way."
"..."
For the first time, the smile vanished from Kang Dong-woon's face.