Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: A Matter of Pride
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Would the Chinese Awakeners be of any help in defending the Earth?
This very question had been discussed in the Mad Castle meeting room.
The conclusion?
—For now, they are necessary.
That was the conclusion. But having arrived on the scene, Wang-sik began to think otherwise.
“I’m starting to think you’re actually getting in the way of protecting the Earth.”
—Are you insulting me?
“I’m telling you the truth. Think it over until I get there.”
With those words, Wang-sik hung up.
“Let’s go to the Heavenly Residential District.”
“We can’t go there without permission,” the Guseong Group employee driving the car said.
“We don’t need permission. Just drop us off and get as far away as you can. Nothing will happen to you.”
The Public Security officers would likely not leave the employee alone.
“Just don’t say anything and wait.”
As he spoke, the car left the city center and began cruising along a beautiful riverside road.
Soon, they arrived at a road where soldiers had formed a blockade.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Wang-sik got out of the car first, followed by his companions.
Gong Yeong-ji naturally cast shields on her allies.
Empowered by S-rank buffs, they stopped in front of the soldiers blocking their path and waited for the employee’s car to drive away.
As instructed by Wang-sik, the employee drove as far as he could before being forced to stop by a Public Security vehicle blocking his way.
“That’s far enough.”
Wang-sik said, then cleared the barricade in front of him.
The soldiers stared in disbelief, but Wang-sik’s actions were unhesitating.
“Halt! Move any further and we will open fire!”
Five soldiers aimed their guns at him, but Wang-sik casually removed the barricade as if he were clearing trash from his front yard.
“Let’s go.”
He took a step forward as if completely uninterested, and a vein bulged on the security chief’s forehead.
“Fire!”
They had finally crossed the line.
The muzzles of the guns aimed at Wang-sik’s body spat fire. But no blood splattered.
The bullets that struck Wang-sik at close range fell to the ground, completely crumpled.
As the soldiers, who had held down their triggers until their magazines were empty, stood there dumbfounded, Wang-sik’s hand shot out and grabbed the security chief by the neck.
“You’d better start praying. If I decide E Suo-lin is unnecessary, you’ll all die too.”
The man, choking and struggling, soon went limp. The other soldiers tried to act, but Sa Seon-gi was faster.
They all collapsed, unconscious. Seeing this, a helicopter in the sky lowered its altitude.
And soon, sirens blared.
Sirens echoed throughout the entire residential district.
“Now this is the atmosphere I was hoping for.”
The members of Mad Castle stepped into the residential district.
E Suo-lin was watching the situation unfold on her monitor.
“Isn’t this just as you expected?”
Wang Jin-chun’s question from beside her only irritated E Suo-lin.
‘I knew we’d have to meet eventually.’
But not like this.
Her original plan had been to display her power and mentally exhaust him.
‘Does he intend to make all of China his enemy?’
She hadn’t expected Wang-sik to be afraid of her.
But what about China?
She thought he wouldn’t act so rashly. Yet Wang-sik had shown no hesitation, coming straight for her from the airport.
“I didn’t expect him to be this rough.”
“Rough? He hasn’t killed a single soldier. Looks to me like he’s scared stiff.”
Wang Jin-chun wasn’t wrong.
If their roles were reversed, they would have killed their opponents without mercy.
But his words were no comfort.
‘What on earth is he thinking?’
As complex thoughts swirled in her mind, a subordinate knocked and entered her office.
“What are your orders?”
This was the Heavenly Guild’s residential district.
Though quite a few members were away, over a thousand guild members were always present.
Even now, 500 A-rank Awakeners were on standby, and the moment to give them their orders had come.
‘Can we win?’
She wanted to show them her strength. But doubt crept in.
As she hesitated to give the command, Wang Jin-chun stood up.
“I’ll go teach them a lesson.”
He rose before E Suo-lin could finish her deliberation.
As Wang Jin-chun stood, E Suo-lin naturally prepared to move with him.
“You wait here. I’ll drag him back like a dog.”
E Suo-lin didn’t bother to stop Wang Jin-chun as he left with his men.
‘Will Wang Jin-chun be enough?’
500 A-rank Awakeners and Wang Jin-chun.
If they could subdue Mad Castle’s combatants, the situation might turn in her favor.
“He’s more than capable of that.”
E Suo-lin forced herself to shake off her anxiety and sat back down.
Wang-sik walked confidently toward the 500 people blocking his path.
The Heavenly Guild members, with menacing expressions, were awaiting orders and hadn’t yet responded.
But that didn’t mean they kept their mouths shut.
“How dare you! Crawling in here!”
“I’ll cut off your arms and legs and make you crawl on your chin!”
“I wonder what the witch’s flesh tastes like?”
Vile insults that crossed the line poured out.
“Dust is just dust, no matter how much you gather. And weaklings are just weaklings, no matter how many of them there are.”
“I’ll rip out your tongue!”
“That’s what’s going to happen to you.”
The A-rank hunter who had mentioned Min Ha-na’s flesh.
Wang-sik extended a chain toward him.
“Huh?”
The Chinese hunters were confident.
This was China; they wouldn’t dare attack them.
But Wang-sik unhesitatingly shot out his chain, wrapped it around the neck of the hunter who had taunted Min Ha-na, and yanked him forward.
He slammed his fist into the face of the hunter who was dragged toward him, and the man’s teeth and jaw collapsed at the same time.
“Say that again.”
Wang-sik deliberately took a step back.
Naturally, the fallen hunter couldn’t say a word.
That was the beginning.
The Chinese hunters lost their patience and charged. At that moment, an immense energy was felt from the sky.
A lava spear of incredible size.
“Shields!”
“Block it!”
The tankers and healers moved swiftly, stacking layers of shields in the sky.
The lava spear fell upon the completed defensive barrier.
*Cra-cra-cra-crack!*
The sound of shields shattering echoed as the lava spear struck precisely in their center.
*Rumble!*
A circular shockwave engulfed the surroundings, and all 500 guild members collapsed.
Thanks to the layered shields, there were no fatalities, but more than half of them were down on the ground, unable to get up.
“What the…”
But it wasn’t over.
Another flame spear materialized above the fallen hunters.
The hunters’ eyes widened at the sight.
It was, quite literally, a catastrophe.
“You bastards. Keep talking.”
Just then, someone streaked past the fallen hunters like the wind and lunged at Min Ha-na.
“You foolish fools!”
*Fwoosh!*
The massive afterimage of a sword, wreathed in flames, sliced through the air and struck Min Ha-na.
It was Wang Jin-chun’s Fire Dragon Sword.
Seeing this, the Chinese hunters staggered to their feet.
But what they saw when they came to their senses was not what they had expected.
Wang Jin-chun’s signature Fire Dragon Sword was bound in layers of chains, and Gong Yeong-ji had her hand extended, having created a Great Shield.
The shield created by the combined power of A-rank hunters had been pierced by the flame spear, but Wang Jin-chun was completely blocked by a shield created by a single healer.
“Your skills don’t justify that confidence.”
At Gong Yeong-ji’s words, Wang Jin-chun’s eyes widened, and he tried to retreat.
As an S-rank hunter himself, he had instinctively sensed the danger.
But by the time he realized it, it was already too late.
Just as he felt a cool breeze brush past his back, the strength drained from both of his heels.
“Huh?”
Only after the strength left his ankles did he see the man with a dagger who had brushed past him.
Sa Seon-gi.
The man he had dismissed as a decent assassin.
That man had not only severed both of his Achilles tendons but had also plunged two awls into his shoulders.
His body naturally collapsed, and he dropped his sword.
A single clash.
And his body was bound by Wang-sik’s chains.
The chains, binding his ankles and wrists where the pain had not yet subsided, forced his body to stretch out and began to pull as if to tear his limbs off.
“Kuaaaargh!”
Wang Jin-chun abandoned his pride and screamed.
At the sight, the guild members didn’t know what to do.
“Move.”
Wang-sik dragged the screaming Wang Jin-chun and approached the guild members.
The man at the front couldn’t face his momentum and unconsciously stepped aside. He didn’t forget to make an excuse, though.
“The Vice Guild Leader is in danger! Stand back!”
At his words, the guild members parted, creating a path, and Wang-sik’s party walked through it with dignity.
The guild members clearly saw their Vice Guild Leader being dragged like a dog, screaming.
And Wang Jin-chun’s eyes took in the miserable sight of his subordinates who had lost their will to fight and the injured who were hovering on the brink of death.
It had all happened so fast that it didn’t feel real.
But the chains tightening around his body brought him back to the vivid present.
The fear that he might never be able to walk again.
“St-stop! You bastards! I’ll kill you all!”
Hearing this, Wang-sik stopped walking.
He was in the middle of the parted guild members.
Wang-sik tightened the chains for all to see, and Wang Jin-chun let out a piercing scream.
“Stop it!”
One of the guild members couldn’t take it anymore and rushed forward.
But Sa Seon-gi suddenly vanished, then reappeared to slash the man’s ankle and shove an awl into his shoulder.
“If you feel so bad for him, you can experience it together. Not that the pain will be shared.”
Seeing the tragic state of their comrade who had rushed out, the other guild members didn’t dare to move.
Because of the Vice Guild Leader?
No.
‘I’m scared.’
What filled their hearts was fear.
The tanker who felt like a colossal wall, the flame spear that seemed like a catastrophe, still hovered in the sky.
And then there was the man of shadows, impossible to follow with the eye.
On top of that, there was a healer who could block an S-rank hunter’s attack.
‘We can’t win.’
It didn’t take much thought to realize that.
And as if to prove that reality, different words began to flow from Wang Jin-chun’s mouth.
“Pl-please…”
The chains had dug halfway into his legs and were beginning to grate against the bone.
Wang Jin-chun begged.
“Please, stop!”
Only after hearing those words did Wang-sik start walking again.
His destination was E Suo-lin’s mansion.
Wang Jin-chun’s blood created a red path where he walked.
When they arrived, E Suo-lin’s mansion was silent.
The Heavenly Guild members followed hesitantly from behind, but no one dared to approach.
Wang-sik ignored them and was about to go to the mansion’s door when Min Ha-na spoke.
“Wang-sik, leave this to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’ll probably make excuses, saying she was ganged up on. I’ll go and take care of it cleanly.”
The fire mage and the ice mage.
The two were always subjects of comparison.
Both were exceptionally beautiful, but their completely different auras had sharply divided their fan bases.
“Not all S-ranks are on the same level.”
Wang-sik was confident that Min Ha-na could easily overpower E Suo-lin.
While E Suo-lin had been playing politics, Min Ha-na had been striving to surpass her limits.
Her combat experience alone was on a different level.
“It won’t take long.”
Min Ha-na stepped forward to open the door, but Wang-sik grabbed her wrist.
“That’s not a good enough reason.”
To eliminate a future excuse? It wasn’t enough to persuade Wang-sik.
“You’re always like this.”
Min Ha-na had no choice but to speak her true feelings.
“I’ve fucking hated that bitch for a long time.”
Seeing the fire in her eyes, Wang-sik smiled and let go of her hand.