The Desert Ambush
The artificial gate was steeped in silence. Only moments ago it had been filled with the clamor of battle and screams, but now every source of that noise lay dead.
—So you have slain a human for the first time.
“I’ve done it thousands of times inside the Tower of Babel.”
—Yet this slaughter is no illusion.
I swallowed a bitter laugh. Nyx’s voice was curt, but heavy with concern. She could have simply offered comfort, yet she chose to worry instead. And truthfully, before my regression I had been driven into situations where this environment would have felt like paradise. This much was nothing.
“Kuh, kuhk.”
A ragged breath shattered the heavy silence.
“Ah, so you were still breathing.”
Abdul Hamad glared up at me with eyes full of resentment.
“Look at you. I’m the one who should feel wronged for falling into a trap, so why are you making that face?”
“M-monster.”
“I’ve heard that line more times than I can count.”
I lifted my right foot slightly. One solid stomp and it would be over. Despair clouded Abdul’s face.
“P-please spare me.”
“What did you just say?”
“I beg you. If you let me live, I’ll give you anything!”
I stared down at him in silence.
“And what exactly can you offer?”
“I’ll become your servant. I can even swear it upon the constellation I serve!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“The Sinister constellations have taken notice of you.”
“How flattering.”
“And furthermore—”
“Not interested.”
“What?”
“Considering the things you’ll do in the future, dying here is the better outcome.”
Doubt flickered across Abdul’s eyes. Right. He would never understand until the end. The Sinister’s pawn who had sown chaos across the world. If Ping Lei moved for his own gain, this man was a dangerous fanatic who worshipped the Sinister’s disorder. Redemption? A zealot like him could never be redeemed. So—
“Let’s end it here.”
Crack!
Abdul Hamad died with his eyes wide open.
—Partner.
“I’ll explain later. Just give me some time.”
—Do not keep Yeo waiting too long.
Nyx spoke quietly, almost scolding. The future had already diverged from what I remembered. The Sinister constellations would not abandon their interference on Earth. They would simply find new pawns to spread chaos. After all, they were sadists who delighted in disorder itself. History from this point onward would differ from what I knew. Even so, I felt no great anxiety. I now possessed the power to dismantle their schemes. If I wished to prevent the age of destruction, the time had come to act more aggressively.
“Come to think of it, twenty minutes have passed.”
—If you mean since we entered this gate, then yes, it has only just passed.
I drew a deep breath. All minor wounds had already healed through Regeneration and Mutation. I had spent a fair amount of mana and internal energy during the fight, yet most of it had recovered thanks to True Essence Orb and Primordial Dragon Heart. I was nearly at full strength.
—Is the battle not over?
“The outside should be starting soon.”
—Starting?
Instead of answering, I stepped toward the gate’s exit. A floating sensation washed over me, and my vision blurred. When I opened my eyes again, I stood once more in the sand-covered desert. The only difference was that, unlike twenty minutes ago, players wearing red armbands now surrounded the gate.
—W-what is this?!
Nyx’s eyes widened as she looked around.
“What else? Turns out there was more than one trap.”
I walked forward. Below the sandy hill stood a man staring at me with cold eyes—Zhang Wufei.
* * *
Zhang Wufei had never deeply trusted Abdul. More precisely, he did not trust the constellations backing him. “Power without cost is the most dangerous kind.” Zhang Wufei always prioritized business above all else. He worshipped money because it was the most reliable way to move people’s hearts. Cause and effect. Constellations would never grant the power to interfere with the world without reason. In that sense, Abdul Hamad’s way of thinking was extremely dangerous. “Fanatics always have their eyes covered. There’s no way he could defeat Yu Jinho.” Even after lending him twenty Platinum-rank guild members, Zhang Wufei had not rated their chances highly. The people sent into the artificial gate were merely the cost of employing Abdul. He had stationed the majority of his guild members near the Dunhuang Desert, waiting for the moment Yu Jinho entered the artificial gate. “The desert wind will bury all evidence.” As the head of the Nine Dragons Syndicate and China’s top player, Zhang Wufei had personally taken part. Many of his guild members who coordinated on the sixtieth floor had also been deployed. One hundred fully armed guild members. Because multiple nations were focused on the Dunhuang gate raid, he had selected only the guild’s core forces. He had been certain this would be enough to erase Yu Jinho and his companions without a trace. Yet—
“Is this all you prepared?”
The moment he saw Jinho step forward, a thread of unease stirred in Zhang Wufei’s heart.
“You speak with quite the bluster for someone from a small nation.”
“I’m genuinely curious.”
“……A mere minor guild from a small country. Why would the Nine Dragons Syndicate need to commit its full strength?”
“Lucky for you. Anything more and things would’ve gotten a little annoying on my end too.”
Jinho sneered.
“How dare you— insolent Korean—!”
The moment one of the Nine Dragons Syndicate executives stepped forward and pointed accusingly, Zhang Wufei’s eyes flew wide. Cloud Flow Steps. Kicking off the sand, Jinho shot forward. The soft ground should have reduced the effectiveness of his movement technique, yet his speed was tremendous. Before Zhang Wufei could even stop the rude executive, he clenched his fist. Crimson scales shimmered across his knuckles—his signature art, Reverse Dragon Fist. He released the concentrated fist energy straight ahead. The force was enough to tear away an entire sand dune. Just as the dragon-shaped energy threatened to swallow Jinho, a pitch-black blade materialized in his empty hand and sliced through the energy. Shrrrk! The released energy was cleanly bisected, scattering to both sides. The aftershock carved a massive crater into the desert.
“L-Leader!”
A Nine Dragons Syndicate executive who had belatedly sensed the danger glanced at Zhang Wufei with trembling eyes.
“If you are an executive of the Nine Dragons Syndicate, face him with courage.”
Zhang Wufei ground his teeth as he replied.
“Wow, projecting fist wind from long range? Impressive.”
Jinho’s mocking voice rang in his ears.
“You’re quite bold, relying on such a trivial trick.”
“Aren’t you the one being excessive, China’s top ranker, relying on numbers like this?”
Zhang Wufei’s words caught in his throat. Crack. A chilling sound came from his fist.
“Why? Because you knew you couldn’t win alone, so you brought everyone here?”
“You thunder-brained fool. I simply prefer certainty.”
“If you like certainty so much, why not dismiss everyone and fight me one-on-one?”
“Cheap provocation.”
“Yeah, just like you said—cheap. Whether you take the bait or not is up to you.”
Jinho answered leisurely. There was no trace of fear in his demeanor. The Nine Dragons Syndicate members began murmuring among themselves as they watched.
‘That guy……!’
Zhang Wufei’s eyes twisted with rage. A perfect encirclement. Yet despite having not a single gram of chance at victory, Jinho remained utterly confident. The atmosphere grew restless. Unlike when the encirclement had first formed, the moment Jinho stepped forward, the flow of the battlefield shifted to him. ‘Arrogant bastard.’ Zhang Wufei took a step across the sand.
“Leader! You must not fall for that thunder-brained fool’s provocation!”
“We should maintain the encirclement and—”
“Idiots. Do you truly believe that I, Zhang Wufei, would lose?”
His internal-energy-infused roar echoed across the desert. The whispering voices quickly died down.
“Come at me, Yu Jinho. Today I shall grant you a lesson.”
At that moment, the corner of Jinho’s mouth curved upward.
* * *
As expected. I knew Zhang Wufei would take the bait. I let the smile I had been holding back show. The numerical difference was overwhelming. Even against a hundred elite members of the Nine Dragons Syndicate, winning was not a problem. The issue was the damage my own guild members would suffer in the process. But if I could draw Zhang Wufei into a one-on-one duel, the casualties would be far lower.
—He is truly a fearless man.
“I have my reasons to believe I can win.”
—Hoh, for you to say that……
Reverse Dragon Fist. Just like before my regression, it was the peak martial art that symbolized Zhang Wufei. Its defining trait was that every time he used it, a dragon-shaped energy would manifest. One problem, however, was that the manifested energy was crimson. The master of the blood-red sky—the Blood Demon. An S-rank constellation, not quite on the level of the Heavenly Demon, yet still among the strongest constellations related to martial arts. At one point, even Ping Lei had received an offer from him. Zhang Wufei had contracted with the Blood Demon even before my regression. The crimson internal energy was a characteristic of the Blood Heaven Asura Art. In 2028—two years from now—the contractors of the Blood Demon would go berserk. One of them was this man.
—Then is it not dangerous?
“Even so, he’s no match for me.”
While I chatted with Nyx, crimson light flashed in Zhang Wufei’s eyes. Boom! Kicking off the sand, he leapt into the air. Covered in crimson scales, he extended his fist and descended like lightning. My instincts screamed a warning at the killing intent. The Blood Heaven Asura Art could burn the user’s life force to strengthen internal energy. Intense crimson energy blazed atop his fist. By utilizing the secret of the art, he had temporarily surpassed the realm of fist energy manifestation and realized true gangqi. “A shortcut to produce gangqi.”
—That looks rather dangerous.
“Well, then I’ll just use a shortcut of my own.”
A technique I had not used during my spar with Shin Junseok. But the situation was different now. Body of Darkness. Dark Dominion. Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword. Pitch-black energy manifested atop the ten strands of shadow blades I had created. The realm of sword energy manifestation. This alone was insufficient to counter Zhang Wufei’s attack. In that case— I merged the ten blades into one. Combining the separated Polar Night was simple, but weaving the manifested sword energy atop it into a single form was difficult. The sword energy resisted fiercely. I twisted and bound that energy together like a rope. Shiver shiver shiver! The unified shadow blade trembled like an aspen leaf. If I could not produce gangqi, then I would simply raise the output tenfold to match it. Normally, energy that had merely taken shape could never reach true gangqi, but because it was fused with Polar Night, it became possible. All that remained was the difference in output. The moment twilight clashed with night, the crimson scales shattered and a dry scream rang out.