The Eye of Surveillance (3)
“You have no idea what price I paid!”
“I do now, don’t I?”
“Shut up!”
Crack—!
Kim Yoon-seok drove Kim Jun back without giving him a second to breathe.
To Kim Jun, he was nothing more than one more villain among countless monsters.
“You’ve become the purpose of my life, Kim Jun!”
But to Kim Yoon-seok, Kim Jun was now the one and only reason to live.
To Kim Jun, this was merely one floor among the hundred. To Kim Yoon-seok, it was everything he had.
So he fought with everything he had left.
“Scatter!”
From every direction, male and female insects gleaming with blinding flashes poured down.
“Ignition.”
Flames steeped in darkness rose up and blocked them.
“This is for our comrades!”
“…This is getting stranger by the minute.”
Crack—!
Divine Surveillance Count: 05:40!
The count kept climbing, and Kim Yoon-seok’s power only grew stronger.
That wasn’t all.
Kieeeee—!
The swarm of Lumina Worms shared vision with Kim Yoon-seok.
Through that shared sight, they spat slime at Kim Jun.
Splatter—
High above, hideous eyeballs glared down at Kim Jun.
“Die!!”
Kim Yoon-seok charged like a man possessed, swinging the male and female insects in a frenzy.
Kieeeee—!
All around him, Lumina Worms swarmed and raged as they encircled Kim Jun.
Most of the monsters were dealt with by Dragon Scale Counter, which automatically reflected fire damage upon being hit, but at some point they started surviving with slivers of health instead of dying in a single blow.
How annoying.
Kim Jun frowned.
Until a moment ago, they’d burned to death just from brushing past him. Now they were writhing on with just barely enough blood left in them to keep going.
Which meant he had no choice but to clean them up one by one himself.
There definitely wasn’t any debuff.
He didn’t know why.
And he didn’t have time to analyze it.
The skills currently in Kim Jun’s possession were:
[Skills Owned]
- Explode: Causes a fire explosion at the tip of the sword upon a sword strike
- Slash: Wide horizontal cleaving attack
- Ragna Explosion: The greatsword pierces the ground and triggers a massive explosion
- Dragon Scale Counter: Automatically reflects fire damage when hit
- Dragon Claw Enhancement: Ignores 10% of defense on attack
- Dragon Tail Flash: Cuts enemies down instantly with lightning-fast swordsmanship
- Dragon Slash: Releases a blade aura imbued with flames straight ahead
- Acceleration: Charges forward while cutting down everything in a straight line
- Detection: Senses everything in the surrounding area
- Dragon Blood Awakening: Temporarily removes all status ailments; temporarily increases attack power by 30%
- Berserk: Upon reaching a state of rage, attack power and agility increase by 2.5% per stage
- Brand: Places an indelible dragon brand
- Deus Ex Machina: Temporarily uses the power of a transcendent being
- Black Flame: A permanent black-flame attribute that never goes out
- Dragon Tongue: Controls the actions of beings of a lower dimension than himself
Among them, the strongest by far were Ragna Explosion and Deus Ex Machina.
But he had already burned through a huge amount of mana while assaulting Lavia, and Deus Ex Machina had a full seven-day cooldown.
I was too arrogant.
The original clear condition for the twelfth floor was clearly to slip past without being caught by Opa-nim’s surveillance.
The reason he’d challenged it head-on was simple.
Because he had Embrace of Shadow.
Was I trying to get away with too much?
To become a monster himself just for revenge.
His brain had clearly gone off the rails.
“Hahahaha! Die!”
Kieeeee—!
The enemies never stopped.
No matter how many Lumina Worms he killed, more kept coming, and Kim Yoon-seok only grew stronger and stronger.
Of the thirty thousand mana he’d started with, only a thousand remained.
At that point, simply maintaining Black Flame for five minutes was already a struggle.
Divine Surveillance Count: 06:02!
Divine Surveillance Count: 06:06!
Divine Surveillance Count: 06:09!
Bee—bee—bee—!
On top of that, once the five-minute mark passed, the warning alarm grew louder, scraping at his nerves over and over.
Stay calm.
Kim Jun steadied his breathing and closed his eyes.
The world around him was still pure chaos.
Thrown knives, the Lumina Worms’ slime attacks, and Opa-nim watching him like a sun blazing down from above.
Right in the middle of it all, Kim Jun shut his eyes and drew his consciousness inward, into silence.
Before the regression.
Back then, he had reached the ninety-ninth floor while much weaker than he was now.
He’d had no equipment, no companions, and nowhere near as many skills as he did now.
He hadn’t had a plan.
Every moment had been a cliff edge, and every time he fell, he had learned how to flap his wings on the way down and kept on pushing through the tower.
“He closed his eyes! Is he giving up? Bwahahaha!”
Kim Yoon-seok’s madness rang in his ears.
“Bwahahaha! Die, Kim Jun!”
But Kim Jun ignored it as though he couldn’t hear a thing.
He drew in a quiet breath.
“Hoo.”
The most efficient, and the only, method he’d found in that instant of contemplation.
Plunge—
“…W-what did you do?”
Blood sprayed.
Without hesitation, Kim Jun stabbed himself through the heart.
Thud.
Deep within that heart, two alien, essential powers long asleep began to pour out.
Thump.
Thump-thump!
The fury of the dragon.
The madness of the demon.
The two powers, opposite in nature, burst from his heart and devoured one another, bit and tore at one another, and fused.
Fwoosh—!
Black flame rose.
Behind him, crimson-black fire spread like wings and scorched the ground.
Heat that seemed capable of burning even light itself.
I’m leaving the rest to you.
The look in his eyes steadily lost its reason, and a crimson dragon’s gaze began to flicker across his face.
Then his lips parted heavily.
“Berserk.”
[Status change detected: extraordinary mana surge detected]
[Skill evolution conditions met!]
[Current status update!]
- Berserk D → Berserk B!
- Berserk B special skill released!
[Infinite Mana acquired!]
[This is abnormal growth caused by a drastic mana release.]
[Risk of self-collapse detected!]
[Berserk B activated.]
[Current rage level: 20/20 stages.]
[Current effects: Attack Power +100% / Agility +100% / Infinite Mana activated]
[Warning: Rage threshold reached! Disable berserk immediately, or attempt “mental regression” through external stimulus!]
[Current status: entering uncontrollable state]
- The boundary between self and instinct has grown hazy!
- Half-human, Half-demon, Half-dragon activated!
Kwaaaaaaa—!!
With a blast, the floor buckled and black flames spread like ripples from the ground beneath Kim Jun’s feet.
Up in the sky, Opa-nim’s thousands of eyes all trembled at once.
The Lumina Worms threw their heads back and began to shake, unable even to scream.
In the center of it all, Kim Jun raised his head.
His face was smeared with blood and fire.
Horns rose from above it, rune patterns carved around his eyes, and eyes so red and empty they seemed to have lost every trace of reason.
“Th-that’s a demon.”
His lips quivered.
He was half right. But only half.
He was unquestionably human, but he was also unquestionably a dragon, and unquestionably a demon as well.
Half-human, Half-demon, Half-dragon.
“Sh-shit. Shit!”
He instinctively staggered backward.
This wasn’t right.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to look.
The revenge story he’d been drawing in his head—the one where the one to be driven to despair should have been Kim Jun.
The one who should have fallen, crumbled, howled, and begged to be saved had to be him.
But the one running now was—
“Huff! Huff!”
—Kim Yoon-seok.
*
Kwaaaaaaa—!!
Kim Jun’s explosive aura swept across the entire twelfth floor. Black flames spread like rolling waves, twisting space itself.
Rumble—!
The cry of Opa-nim in the sky changed. It was no longer the sound of surveillance. It was the sound of caution.
No, the sound of fear.
Whiiii—
All of Opa-nim’s thousands of eyes focused on Kim Jun. And for the first time, it launched a direct attack.
Shwaaaaa—!
Dozens of beams crashed down from the sky at once. Spears of light poured toward Kim Jun.
That was when it happened.
As though the whole celestial realm had decided this could not continue.
Or as if it were the will of someone trying to interfere with this “anomaly.”
Thud-thud-thud-
Crash!
The ceiling exploded and collapsed.
The sky split open. Through the rift, countless wings of light poured down.
Shaaaaa—!
Seraphim with pale faces and emotionless eyes, each bearing six wings, descended in packs.
Behind them came the golden-armored knight order of angels.
Oparons, siege weapons filled with light, spun ominously as they followed.
Cherubim wielding flaming swords with six arms landed with crushing pressure.
And then there were the inhuman, grotesque beasts beyond description.
From the eleventh floor to the fifteenth.
All the beings of the celestial realm were converging on a single target.
That target was one human alone.
Kim Jun.
Step, step—
They did not rush in blindly.
The seraphim finished forming their aerial positions overhead.
The angelic knights formed a wall of shields on the ground, tightening the encirclement.
The Oparons completed their firing preparations from every direction.
The cherubim prepared to launch sword strikes from mid-range.
In the gaps between them, Lumina Worms crawled in and aimed for his ankles, while newly appeared Winged Lions circled through the sky.
Crystal golems pounded closer with heavy steps, and the Seraph Vipers, serpent-shaped beings of light, completed the surrounding ring from every side.
Flap—
Shwaaaaaaa—!
The volley began.
The seraphim’s holy beams, the knights’ light spears, the Oparons’ bombardment, and the cherubim’s blade auras all rained down on Kim Jun at once.
Sky and ground were filled with light.
Explosions roared one after another.
Kwa-wa-wa-wa—!
Smoke and dust billowed up thickly.
Swish—
The seraphim spread their wings and began to rise.
The angel knights withdrew their weapons.
The cherubim were already preparing to turn away.
That amount of firepower was enough.
No matter how powerful a being might be, there was no way it could survive that.
But then—
Berserk B evolved into Berserk A!
[Current rage level: 21/30 stages.]
[Current effects: Attack Power +125% / Agility +125% / Infinite Mana activated]
[Warning: Rage value has exceeded design limits!]
Flap, flap—
Crimson-black wings cleaved through the smoke and emerged.
Kim Jun slowly rose into the sky.
Without a single scratch on him.
No, he looked even more dangerous now.
His red eyes slowly swept over the surroundings.
It was a cold gaze, like that of a predator searching for prey.
Click—
Kim Jun casually snapped his fingers.
Fwoof-fwoof-BOOM!
Black flames spiraled violently.
Seraphim vanished in ashes, and the Oparons burst apart with sharp detonations.
And through the gap left by the flames, a shadow lunged upward as though crawling out of the inferno itself.
“H-haha….”
Kim Yoon-seok.
He staggered toward Kim Jun, holding a broken pair of male and female insects, his whole body burned black.
“See… I finally…!”
With lips smeared in blood and spit, he muttered as though trying to write the ending of his revenge with his own hands.
“Kim Jun!!”
But Kim Jun didn’t look at him.
Not even once.
“D-don’t ignore me!!”
Kim Jun turned his head.
His eyes met Kim Yoon-seok’s.
But there was nothing in them. No emotion, no rage, not even contempt.
Just utter indifference, as though he were looking at a pebble in the road.
“You arrogant bastard, even now!”
Kim Yoon-seok shrieked and swung the insects wildly.
Desperately. For the last time.
But Kim Jun merely lifted a hand slightly.
Like he was about to crush a bug underfoot.
“No! I’m Kim Yoon-seok! I’m your enemy!”
Fwoooosh—
“Aaaaaaaah—!”
Kim Yoon-seok’s scream tore free.
But Kim Jun’s expression didn’t change.
It was the same look he’d wear if he happened to step on a bug while walking down the street.
Indifference. Total indifference.
For Kim Yoon-seok, that was the most humiliating death of all.
19
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