Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: ACT.17 The Strategy That Didn't Exist (8)
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*Kwang!*
A single clash.
That was all it took for Lee Chan-ho to be unable to fully deflect my attack, getting pushed far back.
“Wh-what is this!?”
Lee Chan-ho, reacting with disbelief, attacked again.
The result was the same.
After just three exchanges, Lee Chan-ho took a direct hit from me and was sent flying a considerable distance.
Just because he was a first-generation S-rank didn't mean there were droves of people stronger than me.
‘First-generation players received less money from the settlements, so their growth was slower.’
The fact that they could operate so covertly that ordinary people were completely unaware of the existence of monsters meant that there were fewer incidents.
In other words, the risk was low.
Since settlement rewards were proportional to risk, first-generation players, despite having awakened long ago, didn't have many coins, so their growth potential was limited.
‘Although, there are some monsters with overwhelming talent who don't give a damn about coins.’
There were definitely those with higher stats than me right now. They would surely appear as enemies one day.
But at the very least, they weren't the ones who would show up right now.
I amplified my power further, pressing down on him.
I scattered darkness to obscure his vision, and as I swung my sword, thorns shot out from all directions.
Whatever he wanted to do, there was nothing Lee Chan-ho could do.
His movement was restricted. Every attack was countered.
The number of wounds on Lee Chan-ho's body steadily increased.
“You’re getting faster…! Do you have some kind of combat focus-related trait!?”
“Something similar.”
As the battle continued, the effect of ‘Wind and Moon’ activated, increasing my agility.
From Lee Chan-ho's perspective, it was understandable that I would appear to be getting faster.
*Schwing!*
“Kugh!”
Lee Chan-ho finally failed to block an attack and shed blood.
A thorn he hadn't managed to deal with had pierced his thigh.
An injury to the leg can easily lead to death.
It severely restricts movement, making evasion difficult.
However, Lee Chan-ho paid it no mind and instead attempted a counterattack.
*Rat-tat-tat-tat!*
Although the muzzle of his gun seemed to waver, the volley of bullets flew precisely toward my vital points.
The darkness shimmered and swallowed the bullets.
Seeing this, Lee Chan-ho wore a displeased expression.
“Damn, it’s always one of you bastards that guns don’t work on.”
He grumbled as he stuck a syringe into his own arm.
A doping potion, perhaps.
I had seen plenty of unofficial guild members inject themselves with drug-laced concoctions to forget their pain and go berserk.
Especially those like Lee Chan-ho with physical enhancement abilities.
“I’m done going easy on you.”
Lee Chan-ho crossed his gun and sword.
That was the stance he took when using ‘that skill.’
I immediately shouted out loud.
“Jeong Ha-yeon-ssi! Move back!”
“What?”
[Character, Lee Chan-ho, uses the skill ‘Massacre’.]
*Fwoosh.*
In an instant, Lee Chan-ho's form vanished.
Immediately after.
*Schwing!*
*Rat-tat-tat-tat!*
Bullets scattered randomly in all directions, and his sword swung wildly.
He must have been using special bullets, as explosions erupted where they hit, and his sword, now infused with mana, swept away everything in its path, be it buildings or roads.
Jeong Ha-yeon had moved immediately upon hearing my words, narrowly escaping the range of Massacre, but the other person was not so lucky.
“W-wait! You crazy bastard! If you use that now, I’ll be caught in the range!”
Ji-hwi-seong cried out in alarm and tried to flee, but he was cut down by a stray attack and collapsed, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
“You… damned… bastard….”
The Massacre skill did not distinguish between friend and foe.
It was a skill that indiscriminately attacked everything within its range, one that was virtually never used in party play.
And yet, Lee Chan-ho had used it without a second thought.
‘It’s a convenient skill for mob hunting, but it has more drawbacks than advantages.’
Although I was right in the middle of the skill's range, I didn't feel particularly threatened.
The bullets were absorbed by the darkness and vanished, while I parried the sword strikes.
Even though the attacks were random, I could follow them with my eyes, which made it possible.
“Se-hyeon-ssi! Are you alright!?”
“I’m fine.”
It would be easier if Jeong Ha-yeon used Judgment on Lee Chan-ho, but having just awakened it, she couldn't use it consecutively.
More importantly, it was more advantageous for the settlement to defeat him without help.
I calmly focused solely on defense until the Massacre skill ended.
About twenty seconds passed.
The skill must have ended, as the surroundings suddenly fell silent.
The sight of the utter chaos came into view.
Even a monster invasion wouldn't have caused this much damage.
“No one has ever survived a direct hit from this skill. This is the price for getting on my bad side.”
“Then I guess I’m the first exception.”
Lee Chan-ho's expression, which had seemed relieved after his rampage, gradually froze.
How are you still alive?
As his eyes asked the question, I answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“I blocked it all.”
“…You blocked it all? That?”
I shifted my gaze to his thigh.
Using a skill that required so much movement without treating the wound had only worsened the bleeding.
He must have intended to take the risk, finish me with that skill, and then treat himself quickly, but it had backfired, killing his teammate and only aggravating his own condition.
I, on the other hand, was perfectly fine, having sustained no significant damage.
If I pressed the attack again, Lee Chan-ho wouldn't be able to defend properly and would likely fall helplessly.
He seemed to realize this himself, as his face hardened and he pulled out another trick.
“I’m not going down alone.”
A glint appeared in Lee Chan-ho's eyes.
Suddenly, something the size of a soccer ball was in his hand.
…Don't tell me that's.
“It’s a virus bomb. When this goes off, a 500-meter radius will be completely blanketed by the virus.”
“A bomb!?”
Jeong Ha-yeon's reaction seemed to please him immensely, as the corners of Lee Chan-ho's mouth curled into a wide grin.
“You think I’ll let you detonate something like that!!”
Her face turning pale, Jeong Ha-yeon was about to attack when Lee Chan-ho held up a hand to stop her.
“Stop. This bomb is connected to me by a bio-link. If I die, it explodes immediately.”
“What a pathetic trick. You plan to set it off anyway.”
“I don’t understand how you second-generation brats got so strong so quickly, but I have to accept the facts. Especially you. You’re stronger than me. Isn’t it natural to use a few tricks against a stronger opponent?”
Lee Chan-ho burst into laughter.
Right. Now I remembered.
This was the kind of man Lee Chan-ho was.
His own victory wasn't what was important.
He derived more pleasure from preventing his opponent from winning.
“Well, I’m going to set it off anyway.”
*Boom!*
The bomb exploded.
The same reddish smoke that had spread throughout the residential area erupted with a whoosh, spreading rapidly.
Simultaneously, Lee Chan-ho's figure leaped through the smoke, practically flying onto the roof of a building.
“I’ve destroyed all the cylinders, and the virus is spreading everywhere, diffusing quickly. You can’t stop the virus anymore! Just die!”
Lee Chan-ho cackled loudly as if he had landed a decisive blow and fled.
Jeong Ha-yeon, her face urgent, started to chase him but stopped, biting her lip, seemingly unable to bring herself to pass through the rapidly spreading virus.
“Infuse your mana into this and think about gathering the virus in one place.”
“What?”
“Then the virus will stop spreading.”
I pressed the dimension stone into Jeong Ha-yeon's hand and launched myself after Lee Chan-ho.
The difference in our agility stats was about 20.
At his speed, Lee Chan-ho couldn't escape me.
“Huk!?”
I cut off Lee Chan-ho, who had been fleeing across the rooftops without looking back, and kicked him in the side with a mana-infused strike.
With the sound of ribs cracking, Lee Chan-ho tumbled over and over, coughing up blood.
I grabbed him by the hair and lifted his head.
“Did you really think you could get away after doing something like this?”
“Kugh… Heh, hehe. Aren’t your priorities mixed up? Even if you catch me here, it’s not like the virus bomb will un-explode!”
“See for yourself.”
I turned his head in that direction.
At that, Lee Chan-ho's maniacal laughter gradually died down.
*Swoosh…*
The spreading smoke began to gather back into one spot.
Orderly, it collected in one place, preventing it from spreading elsewhere.
Lee Chan-ho's expression began to change.
In the end, he looked as if he had seen something he should never have seen.
“Why… do you have that?”
Lee Chan-ho's gaze was fixed on Jeong Ha-yeon's hand.
Emitting a dreamlike blue light, it was something that shouldn't exist on Earth.
As I thought, this guy knew about dimension stones.
I smiled lightly and replied.
“It was a mistake to think you were the only ones with dimension stones.”
I extended my hand toward the collected virus, and the darkness churned, devouring it all.
The massive amount of virus that Lee Chan-ho had confidently proclaimed would cover the entire area was powerless before the annihilating force of the darkness.
“Ha.”
Lee Chan-ho let out a sound, as if in disbelief.
“Where did a crazy bastard like you come from….”
“Do you have anything else to show me?”
His silence was the answer.
Lee Chan-ho had no more tricks up his sleeve.
*Stab.*
The dark soldier, who had been silently awaiting my command, pierced its sword through Lee Chan-ho's back.
[The ‘Judge of Consecration’ claps with fervent excitement.]
[You have been sponsored 500 coins.]
[The ‘Angel of Benevolence’ lets out a deep sigh.]
Using Extreme Eye, I searched Lee Chan-ho's pockets.
Just as I expected, he possessed a cylinder with an effect far superior to any I had found so far.
The reason I could tell was simple.
The fragment of dimension stone inside the cylinder was much larger.
‘I knew it.’
If there were mass-produced cylinders, there had to be high-grade ones as well.
I figured an executive like Lee Chan-ho would naturally carry a better cylinder.
Especially if he was going around committing virus terrorism in the residential area himself.
My prediction had been spot on.
‘He has no idea that we have a dimension stone too.’
Thanks to that, I gained some valuable information.
The Geumeumdal Guild believed they were the only ones using dimension stones.
If they had used a dimension stone to enhance a gate, one would think they could also predict that someone might clear that gate and obtain the stone.
‘It’s safe to assume they don’t know that a dimension stone drops again upon clearing.’
They didn't have a perfect understanding either, only knowing and utilizing some of its effects.
That was the gist of it.
“Congratulations. You’ve acquired such a fine power.”
I approached Jeong Ha-yeon with a smile.
She replied with an awkward smile of her own.
“Yes. It just sort of happened… More importantly, is this the end of it?”
“No. There’s still more.”
Jeong Ha-yeon blinked, asking for an explanation.
It wasn't completely resolved.
I recalled Lee Chan-ho's silence when I asked if he had anything else to show.
He may have kept his mouth shut, but he couldn't hide the look in his eyes.
It was clearly the look of someone who still had something left.
The look of someone trying to make their opponent believe it was over, only to strike from an unexpected angle.
“He probably planted a time bomb or something somewhere. To ensure their terror objective is achieved even if they are taken down.”
“Th-then we have to find the bomb quickly!”
“It’s fine. I saw where he put it.”
It just so happened that I found him at the very moment he was moving to hide the time bomb.
I immediately started digging through a pile of trash in an alley.
A newly made wooden box was revealed.
Inside the box were several bombs.
They were nothing compared to the one Lee Chan-ho had detonated earlier, but they still packed a considerable punch.
“Another operative, disguised as a civilian, was probably supposed to take these bombs and plant them throughout the base. Thanks to that, this actually turned out for the best.”
“For the best?”
“Because we’re going to turn these bombs against them.”