Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Receiving Won's Request
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Kagagaga! Kagagagang!
Those undergoing special combat training start from bare-handed combat and master dagger techniques as the basics.
These bare-handed combat skills and dagger techniques remain the foundation for evaluating combat prowess even later on.
That was why Geon-woo and Cheon Su-wan were fighting in a style similar to dueling with daggers right now.
Movements that quickly pierced the opponent's vulnerabilities at high speed.
Paths to block those while finding one's own attack routes.
Whenever those paths overlapped, their swords and gauntlets clashed in midair, scattering sparks.
"That seems like some fine armor, huh? Your physical abilities have improved quite a bit too."
Geon-woo had once seen Cheon Su-wan fighting demons at Yulturen's ruins.
Compared to back then, Cheon Su-wan now had practically undergone a complete transformation.
"Kahaha! You think I'd side with the demons for no reason?"
"Is that so? But for something like that, you don't seem all that impressive."
"Today, we'll settle who's the strongest mercenary here."
"Bullshit. You've been getting wrecked by me this whole time—think winning once today makes you the best? That's a conversation for after one of us dies."
"Fine. Die here, die on Earth. Doesn't matter who. Eurararot!"
Spot! Sussuk!
Kagang! Kararararak! Kagagak!
With a shout, Cheon Su-wan transformed the gauntlets on both hands into a greatsword and a longsword.
As Geon-woo's eyes widened slightly at the sudden increase in weapon length, Cheon Su-wan's greatsword and longsword moved even more ferociously.
Kagagak! Kagak! Tsrit! Tsutsut!
Geon-woo's greatsword and Cheon Su-wan's twin swords collided in midair, scattering brilliant flashes of light.
A few times amid the clash, they inflicted small wounds on each other, but both Geon-woo and Cheon Su-wan knew this was just a taste.
The current fight was merely a contest of physical abilities.
"Damn it!"
Cheon Su-wan realized he was gradually being pushed back in both physical power and technique.
"You're no match for me!"
Geon-woo mocked him with a sneer and unleashed even fiercer attacks.
Kagang! Sussuk! Kagagagak! Chijijik!
Kkang! Karddeuk!
In the end, Geon-woo's greatsword began roughly scraping against Cheon Su-wan's armor.
On Earth, wounds would have appeared on Cheon Su-wan's body, blood spurting out.
"See? Told you you're no match."
After scraping Cheon Su-wan's armor several times with his greatsword, Geon-woo laughed provocatively again.
"You lizard bastard!"
Cheon Su-wan flushed red and bellowed.
At that moment, his armor underwent a transformation.
Spikes about a handspan long shot out from his armor.
Pipit! Peobeobeobuk!
"That caught me off guard."
The spikes flew from random spots on the armor without any set positions, so even Geon-woo couldn't fully react.
Cheon Su-wan's forearms, shoulders, fingers gripping the sword, thighs.
The launch points were utterly unpredictable.
"You... what are you? How did you..."
But Cheon Su-wan was more shocked than Geon-woo.
Some of the spikes he fired had hit Geon-woo's bare skin, yet they simply bounced off.
"Why so surprised? Probably because the spikes are weak. Should've shot them harder."
Geon-woo chuckled dismissively, as if it were nothing.
Cheonnoe Bunsim Je-ryeong Gangsi-gong at the 11th Star—among them, the Gangsi-gong's power rendered Geon-woo's body indestructible like diamond.
He might not withstand a master-level expert's aura head-on, but an expert-level sword aura was something he could handle bare-handed.
So could mere spikes relying on surprise pierce a body fortified by Gangsi-gong?
"You punk!"
Unable to bear Geon-woo's mockery, Cheon Su-wan charged again.
He swung his longsword.
But what reached Geon-woo first was the pincer emerging from Cheon Su-wan's chest.
A scissor-like pincer flew toward Geon-woo's neck.
Kwajijijik! Kagang!
"Getting my neck caught in something like this would make me look pathetic, right?"
Geon-woo caught the incoming pincer with his left hand.
With only his right hand, he swung his greatsword to block Cheon Su-wan's longsword.
"Eeeeek! Uwaaaah!"
Cheon Su-wan struggled desperately to move his sword and pincer, but they ended up in a stalemate, balanced as if in equilibrium.
In truth, Geon-woo was just holding back, conserving his strength while pinning Cheon Su-wan.
Cheon Su-wan knew this too, so he thrashed wildly, but the situation didn't change.
"Take a look around. Doesn't seem like it's wrapping up nicely?"
Geon-woo asked Cheon Su-wan.
Only then did Cheon Su-wan, who had been focused solely on Geon-woo, survey the overall battlefield.
"Th-this... how..."
The battle between the possessed users and the jiangshi was nearly over.
Only about a dozen users remained alive and holding out.
In contrast, over fifty of Geon-woo's jiangshi were still standing.
Moreover, though Cheon Su-wan didn't know, all the fallen jiangshi were merely sa-jiangshi.
The direct subordinate jiangshi and the ten captains—saeng-jiangshi—were all unscathed.
"I told you to stretch your legs only after seeing where you're lying down."
Geon-woo said, looking at Cheon Su-wan.
"What are those things? They don't seem like ordinary native mercenaries."
Cheon Su-wan asked Geon-woo.
"Hmm, elites from the Alliance?"
Geon-woo replied with a joking grin.
"The Alliance?"
Cheon Su-wan eyed Geon-woo suspiciously, but his gaze wavered, thinking it might be possible.
"Why pry so much? We're not the type to share that kind of info with each other, right?"
Kwaddeuk!
"Kuuh!"
Geon-woo exerted force with his left hand, ripping the pincer from Cheon Su-wan's armor.
Cheon Su-wan groaned in agony, retreating with a pained expression.
"As expected, this is some kind of living armor, huh? You're not possessed by a demon—just fused with one?"
"Ridiculous! It's just armor."
"So it can be removed? Completely detached from your body?"
"Of course!"
"Bullshit. It's linked to your soul—how?"
"Th-that..."
"Interesting. So demons can fuse with humans like this and become one?"
Regardless of whether Cheon Su-wan answered, Geon-woo pondered this new method the demons might use to invade Earth.
= Since it's not possession, it won't show on the outside. Hard to detect with a D-Catcher too.
Ilryeong seemed to have assessed Cheon Su-wan's condition as well, unable to hide her worried expression.
"It might be fine now, but eventually, you'll assimilate with the demon. In the end, you'll become a demon, not a human."
Geon-woo warned Cheon Su-wan gravely.
But Cheon Su-wan's reaction differed from what he expected.
"So what? Human or demon—what does it matter? Better to become a demon if I can. Now that I've become humanity's enemy anyway!"
Cheon Su-wan didn't care at all about becoming a demon instead of human.
He even seemed sincere about it being preferable.
"Good. That's a relief."
"What?"
Puoouk! Seogeok!
"......"
Without hesitation, Geon-woo stabbed Cheon Su-wan's heart and withdrew his sword to slash his neck.
Cheon Su-wan, having lost much of his strength after the pincer was ripped out, couldn't respond to the attack.
"Wait for me there. I'll come find you soon."
Geon-woo said, looking down at Cheon Su-wan's fallen avatar.
He turned to check the battle situation.
"Oh, five still alive?"
His expression brightened upon confirming that five of the demon-possessed users he had targeted for jiangshi spirits were still alive.
= My lord, we've left only the usable ones from the others too.
Ilryeong flew to Geon-woo's side, reporting with an expectant look for praise.
"Yeah?"
= Yes. Our standards match, so you won't be disappointed.
"Nice. So those pinned down without being killed are the good ones?"
= Exactly, my lord.
"Perfect. Let's turn them into jiangshi spirits right away. Hope they have some good skills."
Geon-woo's eyes sparkled like a gamer before a gacha pull.
Possessed jiangshi spirits were highly efficient gacha, so his expectations were sky-high.
* * *
"What's the matter? To come so urgently like this."
Geon-woo finished hunting possessed bodies on Onb Road and returned to Earth.
But upon arrival, there was a guest on the island.
It was the awakener from Won whom he had seen during negotiations—one representative each from Cheong, Bu, and Won.
He had come to the uninhabited island and waited at the dock until Geon-woo appeared.
"The situation is urgent, so I've come to request your help."
His expression was truly desperate.
"What's going on?"
"Large numbers of the demon race's minions are flooding into the country."
"Minions?"
"Pure humans who can't be caught by D-Catchers, but they cooperate with demon-possessed bodies."
"There are that many of them?"
"Most don't want to, but they have no choice but to obey orders."
"Don't want to, but no choice?"
"Most cases involve family members held hostage. Plus, they're under special restraints—if they disobey orders, they die."
"Hostages and restraints, huh."
"Yes."
"Are they all awakeners?"
"No. Some are awakeners, some ordinary people."
"They're illegal immigrants, then. Can't you just catch and deport them? If Won puts their mind to it, tracking them shouldn't be hard."
"Of course, we've located many. But subduing or deporting them is nearly impossible."
"Hm?"
"If it looks like they're about to be caught, they self-destruct."
"Self-destruct?"
"Exactly as it sounds. Not overwhelmingly powerful, but equivalent to a small explosive. Enough to raze a small shop."
"So what do you want from me? For me to deal with these illegal immigrants?"
Geon-woo's tone soured as he asked.
He understood there was a problem, but he didn't see it as his to solve.
"No. We want you to uproot the source."
"The source? You mean the demon race's independent zone in China?"
If they were demon minions, they had to come from there.
"Yes. At least clean up the faction targeting Korea."
"The faction targeting Korea?"
"Yes. A portion of the demon-possessed bodies there."
"So you want me to take out that portion? By going into China's demon-possessed independent zone?"
"Without eliminating the source, resolving this won't be easy."
Won's staff opened a laptop and turned the screen toward Geon-woo.
The screen played a series of damages caused by the demon minions entering the country.
"Hmm. I don't much care for appeals to patriotism or emotions."
Geon-woo turned the laptop screen back toward the staff.
"Ah, th-that..."
"If you're here to hire me, you brought compensation, right? What are you offering?"
Geon-woo cut off the staff's excuses.
He waited indifferently for an answer.
"What do you want? We'll do anything within our power."
But the response handed the choice to Geon-woo.
"Hm?"
"Honestly, we have nothing to offer Kang Geon-woo. You already have more money than you could spend, and your personal strength is beyond estimation. We couldn't come up with suitable compensation."
"So you're telling me to name my price?"
"Yes."
"Hmm, unexpected. Well, honestly, I don't need much anyway."
Geon-woo recognized this as Won's way of showing sincerity.
It felt better than bringing some paltry reward, even if it was calculated.
Of course, it probably was.
"Hmm. Let's hear it, then. What info does Won have?"
Geon-woo decided to hold off on compensation since nothing was urgent.
He could claim it later when needed.
What if they reneged?
No way they would.
Geon-woo chuckled inwardly.
His confidence stemmed from his power.
"The place called the demon race independent zone is in China's southwestern region."
"A painful location for China. It blocks borders with most neighboring countries."
China shared borders north with Russia and Mongolia, east with Korea, southeast with Japan, west with Taiwan and various Southeast Asian nations.
The demon independent zone had sealed off borders with Southeast Asia, India, and others.
"Yes, that's why countries bordering China are voicing opinions to just watch and wait."
"That demons might be better than China?"
"Yes, China's image is that poor in those places. Of course, pro-China voices are louder there too."
"Fine. Assuming that's the situation, where's the group messing with our country?"
"Fujian Province."
"The easternmost part of the demon independent zone. So they're swarming from Fuzhou?"
Fuzhou was Fujian Province's capital.
"Yes. Most of the infiltrating minions originate from there. They may pass through Hong Kong, Shanghai, Qingdao, etc., but their home base is Fujian."
"Got it. I'll take the request. Investigation and subjugation of demons in Fujian targeting our country. Right?"
"If you can at least stop their schemes, that would be great, but subjugation would be even better."
"Might as well do it thoroughly."
"Thank you."
Won's staff bowed toward Geon-woo.
‘Anyway, I have to take care of that Cheon Su-wan bastard—might as well do it in passing.’
Geon-woo thought, summoning Paeng for more precise information.