Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Dead Zone (5)
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His vision blurred. Everyone's minds were growing hazy. And that's when it happened.
The flickering flames roaring to life brought focus back to the dazed eyes of the hunters and helpers.
Someone was standing there. Right in front of the chieftain.
It was a familiar sight to the 5th Branch hunters. A lone man standing before a boss-grade monster. And flame chains coiling around him protectively.
Clark's eyes trembled. As if he'd seen something impossible.
"J-Jin Seong-hyeok?"
The name Jin Seong-hyeok sent ripples of shock through everyone.
"I'm..."
Su-ho slowly turned his head, flashing a smile toward Clark hovering in the air.
"Cha Su-ho."
The flame chains undulating fluidly above Su-ho's head sliced through the muscle fibers binding the hunters in an instant.
Slash-.
Su-ho continued as he watched the hunters and helpers tumble to the ground unharmed, cocooned by the chieftain's muscle fibers.
"I'll take it from here."
Take it on?
"A mere helper, what could you possibly...!"
Clark flinched, his words slipping out unconsciously.
A helper couldn't even wield hunter abilities in the first place. And the technique enveloping Su-ho's body now was the one everyone coveted—Jin Seong-hyeok's.
"H-How do you have Jin Seong-hyeok's technique...?"
The hunters weren't the only ones stunned. The chieftain's remaining head shook as it stared at Su-ho.
"Who are you."
Su-ho's gaze slowly shifted toward the chieftain.
"You... who are you."
Su-ho cocked his head at the chieftain's repeated question.
"Me? I told you. Cha Su-ho."
The flame chains roared back to life, writhing as if ready to devour the chieftain at any moment.
'Cha Su-ho.'
Jin Seong-hyeok spoke.
'Cut straight from head to body in one line. Severing just the head won't work. It'll regenerate.'
'Got it.'
Su-ho locked eyes on the chieftain's head. From head to torso. Splitting this massive beast in half with one strike...
'You can do it.'
Su-ho let out a low chuckle at Jin Seong-hyeok's words.
'Of course I can.'
Su-ho raised his hand. At the gesture, the flame chains reared up like serpents. Sensing the danger instinctively, muscle fibers erupted from the chieftain's body.
"No chance!!"
The ground quaked with the chieftain's roar. Muscle fibers lashed out at Su-ho, fast enough to pierce straight through him. Su-ho dodged effortlessly and twisted his body.
Sizzle-.
A blue whip extended from Su-ho's index finger, sparks flying from it. With a flick of his wrist, the whip severed the muscle fibers in one go.
Was it just his imagination, or was the whip stronger than usual?
'Not your imagination.'
Jin Seong-hyeok continued, reading Su-ho's thoughts.
'You've gotten stronger.'
A thrill raced through Su-ho's body at the words.
'Then I can handle the chieftain too.'
'I told you already.'
Jin Seong-hyeok chuckled.
'It's your turn.'
Su-ho's eyes flashed. Blood surged through his veins. His chest burned hot, goosebumps prickling from toes to scalp.
And that's when it happened. Su-ho looked up at the heat gathering above his head. His pupils froze in place for a split second.
The other hunters and helpers did the same. Some helpers staggered back at the sight of the flame chain above Su-ho—every bit as massive as the chieftain.
"...I've seen it before."
Clark muttered blankly.
"That flame chain."
It was a similar situation. Back when he'd blindly stormed Pubkill's base and fled, Jin Seong-hyeok had remained alone. The flame chains above his head then were identical to those above Su-ho now.
How—why—could Su-ho wield the exact same technique?
Just in case, he'd practiced every day. Could he use Jin Seong-hyeok's techniques too?
If flames could forge chains, then psychokinesis could shape them too, he'd thought.
But he couldn't. Maintaining power as a persistent weapon rather than a one-shot tool didn't even make sense.
And the flame chains moved with lifelike freedom. Like living beings.
Ji-young muttered beside Clark, who stared at Su-ho in a daze.
"...No hiding it anymore."
The Association, the government, the whole world would flip.
"Ji-young... You knew?"
Scarlett asked, and Ji-young nodded slowly.
"Why the hell... hide it?!"
"It'd cause chaos."
A being with both hunter and helper powers.
And it wasn't just any two powers. Su-ho wielded SSS-grade Jin Seong-hyeok's techniques and the ability to clean berserk hunters. He defied logic entirely.
"They won't leave him be."
Everyone would rush to collar him.
"But Cha Su-ho doesn't want that."
Quite the opposite. He'd firmly declared he wouldn't join the government or Association.
Naturally, they'd resent a Su-ho outside their control.
"Ha, he's just like him, huh?"
Ji-young glanced at Scarlett.
"Like who?"
"Jin Seong-hyeok. Using his techniques and thinking like him."
When Jin Seong-hyeok was alive, everyone knew he'd distanced himself from the Association and government, acting solo.
"That guy."
Scarlett continued with a meaningful look.
"What if Jin Seong-hyeok's soul possessed him?"
She clicked her tongue, realizing how absurd it sounded.
"I know it's ridiculous, but this situation is too much, Ji-young. Cleaning berserk hunters wasn't enough—now he's using Jin Seong-hyeok's techniques?"
Scarlett shook her head in disbelief, her gaze turning to Su-ho.
From arriving in the Dead Zone, Su-ho had been eerily calm. Standing alone before the chieftain, there was no trace of fear in him.
Instead, his eyes radiated leisure and confidence. The certainty he could kill the chieftain right now.
"Ji-young."
Scarlett warned.
"He might be stronger than we think. Maybe... even more than Jin Seong-hyeok."
"More than Jin Seong-hyeok?"
"...Several times stronger."
Ji-young's trembling gaze shifted with a massive roar.
The chieftain was thrashing like a madman.
"Get lost... Get out!!"
It wasn't madness. It was terror. Its eyes darted wildly as its back split open, massive bones protruding. As Su-ho narrowed his eyes at the gushing blood—
Red muscle fibers hurtled toward him again. Every fiber from the chieftain's body, blotting out Su-ho's vision like a final strike.
The flame chains moved. Whoosh-. They cleaved through the obscuring fibers.
"Guh."
It was a split second. Through the cleared view, something bone-white flashed and embedded in Su-ho's abdomen.
Overwhelming pain choked his breath as Su-ho's gaze drifted downward. A bone the size of his torso pierced his gut precisely.
The one that had burst from the chieftain's back earlier. Seeing others embedded around him, it was clear—it had feinted with the fibers to draw his eyes.
"Guh..."
Blood he'd barely contained erupted from Su-ho's mouth, the strike flawlessly piercing him.
"Cha Su-ho!!!"
"Su-ho!!"
Ji-young and Kwon Oh's voices echoed from afar. As footsteps rushed toward him, Su-ho raised a hand to stop them.
He turned his head slightly, smirking with one corner of his mouth.
"Don't... come closer."
'Filming a movie?'
Su-ho huffed in disbelief at Jin Seong-hyeok's quip.
'You always get pierced in fights.'
'Not the time for jokes... My gut's skewered. Can't move...'
'Pull it out.'
Su-ho stared incredulously at the casual command.
'How the hell... do I pull this out?'
It wasn't handheld size. One wrong move, and his body would split in two.
'Psychokinesis.'
'...Huh?'
'Extract it with psychokinesis.'
Jin Seong-hyeok pressed.
'Hurry. Unless you want to die.'
No time to argue. He was right. Delay meant death.
Su-ho focused his mind swiftly. Even accustomed, concentrating with a gut wound was hell.
"Ugh..."
Gritting his teeth against the pain, he began.
Twitch. The bone shifted, unleashing agony.
Blackout-level pain. As Su-ho gasped, Jin Seong-hyeok shouted.
'Cha Su-ho, stay with me!'
He clenched so hard his inner lips shredded. Brushing off the pain, Su-ho wrung out his focus.
Squelch-!
The psychokinetically extracted bone clattered to the ground, discarded.
"Ha."
Su-ho staggered. Blood gushed from his punctured abdomen the instant the bone-size obstruction vanished. He pressed a hand to it.
'Ha...'
A gaping hole through his gut. Even with great regeneration, patching that was impossible.
'At this rate... I'll bleed out? Haha. Thanks for everything, Jin Seong-hyeok...'
Jin Seong-hyeok chuckled incredulously at Su-ho's delirious mutter.
'Didn't I mention?'
'What...'
'Your insane regeneration speeds up every time you're pierced.'
It sounded nonsense. Until he felt the air-drafting hole in his gut begin to knit closed.
The watching hunters and helpers stared in horror from afar.
Jacob spoke as the massive abdominal cavity shrank.
"Th-That... helper? No, hunter? Whatever... a phoenix? Even top regeneration can't heal like that instantly... Impossible."
Ronnie agreed, denying reality.
"Whoa... Not human. Definitely not human. A human would've...!"
Died.
Regardless of their shock, Su-ho inhaled deeply, his wound now pristine.
"Hoo."
He swept a hand over his abdomen. Smooth as ever, no scar.
He huffed in disbelief at himself, then snapped his gaze to the chieftain.
The chieftain flinched, staring blankly.
"No way."
Whoosh-. Red chains coiled around Su-ho. He patted them like a pet and delivered his final words.
"This isn't the end, is it?"