Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Psychokinetic Rampage
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As soon as the partition slammed shut, Sung Si-hoon tore up the metal flooring like he'd been waiting for the moment.
"Ah, taxpayer money."
Ripping out the hard-earned cash that citizens had sweated blood for without a second thought. What would all those people say if they saw this?
Before I could get another word out, the massive metal chunks he'd yanked free hurtled toward me with savage whooshes cutting through the air.
Each hunk of metal was roughly the size of a car.
"If my memory's right, it's psychokinesis."
Psychokinesis. That's Sung Si-hoon's power. Simple, intuitive, overwhelmingly strong, and versatile in ways you wouldn't believe.
But the range where he can wield it freely is limited. At a distance like this between us, my arm won't suddenly twist in some unnatural direction out of nowhere.
Just stay out of the range where Sung Si-hoon can freely manipulate his psychokinesis.
Or prepare countermeasures and step right into his domain.
"You think beating Choi Yeoreum makes you hot shit? I'll show you right now that playground scraps and this fight are worlds apart."
I knew that already. My spar with Choi Yeoreum had been pure skill—no gear involved.
This showdown with Sung Si-hoon standing before me was definitely different from the start. The fundamentals weren't the same.
"You think a high school kid could beat an Olympic gold medalist just because it's street rules instead of a track?"
What to even say? My mind was a mess. Complicated as hell.
I swung my spear at the incoming metal behemoths. A deafening clash of metal on metal rang out, and the chunk froze dead in midair before crashing to the floor with a thud.
I spun the spear lightly a few times, eyeing him as I advanced slowly.
That last attack had told me everything I needed to know.
"Strong."
No way I could call that weak, even if my lips split open trying. Makes sense, though—he's the head of Taebaek LLC, unemployed or not.
But this newly forged spear exceeded every expectation.
So my conclusion was simple.
No need to rush. Paradox Flame coiled around the spear. Sung Si-hoon's expression hardened at the same instant.
"So that's the mana pattern everyone's buzzing about."
"Government's probably scrambling to analyze it right now, huh?"
That's why they lured me here. To figure out exactly what my Paradox Flame is, so they could at least try cooking up some countermeasures.
Go ahead. Analyze it hard. Build your hypotheses, test them desperately, gather data, run experiments.
This flame crawling up my spear is a monster beyond human understanding anyway.
Sung Si-hoon raised both hands in a fluid motion and crossed them. The ground beneath him shredded like it was in a blender.
From that chaos, small, razor-sharp steel shards floated into the air.
"Die."
"Am I the monster here?"
Die, out of nowhere? Harsh words. I said raise your left hand if it hurts—showing some consideration. But this guy's got no such plans. The steel shards surged toward me like a typhoon.
At a glance, it looked impossible to block or dodge—a massive vortex of destruction devouring the air with a guttural roar.
Is he clueless, or are all these famous hunters like this?
"I'll show you what 'beyond understanding' really means, buddy."
I raised my pitch-black flaming spear and charged straight into the steel storm. The blazing Paradox Flame spread into a vortex in an instant.
The spear thrust deep into the storm's flank, and the flames erupted from there.
The raging tempest lost its momentum. As the winds died down, the metal shards it carried rained to the floor in a clatter.
"That can't be all you've got."
Sung Si-hoon shattered the sound barrier with a sonic boom and rocketed toward me. He was closing the distance to pull me into his psychokinetic domain.
As he approached, the scattered sharp metal shards and massive chunks on the floor mashed together like meatballs.
The fused metal mass twisted and compressed like wrung laundry, morphing into a long skewer in seconds.
Its needle-sharp tip closed in on me.
"Anyway."
I thrust out one hand and clamped onto the skewer. It shoved me back along with it, but I twisted my body to slip free.
He couldn't pursue. That attack only worked because the skewer's tip was inside his psychokinetic range.
"Just."
Sung Si-hoon's psychokinesis was like having thousands of incredibly powerful hands within a fixed radius around him.
Grab stuff with them, fling or swing it. Laugh it off as just that... but seriously, that's how he climbed to his position.
His onslaught grew fiercer by the second. Finally, I couldn't hold back a question.
"You planning to dismantle the whole underground lab? Defense Ministry won't be thrilled."
I meant that seriously. Sung Si-hoon had dozens of massive metal chunks hovering around him, fists clenched tight.
What the hell was he building with those...?
"Holy shit."
And then I saw it—the act this Sung Si-hoon bastard had been aiming for all along.
"What a lunatic."
The floating metal masses split and shaped themselves. Screws, armor plates, joints and seams, ropes twisted from metal wire with harpoons at the ends...
Even as he crafted this madness, he kept ripping up everything around him, forming fist-sized lumps and hurling them at me nonstop.
"Damn it, am I the protagonist who just walked in on a naked girl showering in some manga?"
Why toss random crap like that? The only difference was the speed—rivaling rifle bullets.
Why not just scream like kyaaah! while you're at it?
The projectiles flew at rifle-bullet velocity, with a firing rate of at least fifteen per second.
The rate varied slightly depending on how focused he was on his crafting, but never less than fifteen a second.
"Let's see how long you can keep this up."
And I had the ability to deflect every single one, with a spear tough enough to handle my full power without a scratch.
"Different from Choi Yeoreum, right? Yeah, it is."
The lumps he fired ricocheted everywhere. In the gaps, I skillfully redirected some back at him.
Of course, once they entered his domain, they halted dead and flew right back at me.
"Faster. You can do it."
Sparks flew in every direction. While he focused on building, I reached the very edge of his psychokinetic range.
"Now it gets real."
Sung Si-hoon glared at me with bulging eyes. I wiped the mocking smile from my face.
The speed of his metal barrages ramped up. So did mine in batting them back.
To put it absurdly, it was like a table tennis rally with dozens of balls.
"Ha."
Was his mana-fueled launch speed faster?
Or my spear swings redirecting them?
"Watch closely. This is what'll beat you..."
I exploited a split-second gap to leave a blue trajectory hanging in the air.
Strike by strike, I poured max mana into body reinforcement.
Sung Si-hoon did the same, maxing out his mana to hurl the metal chunks.
"Now."
In that instant, I stepped into his domain. But no psychokinetic pressure hit me.
Blocking our mutual metal volley was already pushing Sung Si-hoon to his limit.
The moment he tried directly attacking me inside his range,
One of my redirected chunks would smash straight into him.
At this exchange rate, wherever it hit, he'd either die or that part of him would explode.
Bit by bit, I closed in. But he couldn't retreat. One step back would spell danger.
As the distance shrank, our volleys inevitably sped up in those fleeting instants. Shorter range meant faster trades.
And closer range? Sung Si-hoon eyed the blue trajectory near me with bloodshot eyes. Blood streamed from his nose now.
"Told you. That's your end."
This trajectory would punch a hole right through him. At that moment, Sung Si-hoon squeezed out a retort.
"You're no... normal either."
True enough. While he bled from eyes and nose, I wasn't unscathed.
Overworked muscles, bones, and joints screamed for mercy. My body teetered on the cliff of its limits.
"Measure the distance between us yourself."
We'd thrown everything we had into this. If Sung Si-hoon outclassed me, I'd be slowly pushed back.
But we were drawing closer. In a slugfest like this, I was stronger. Fixing my entire nervous system back then was paying off now. I saw and reacted first.
Short version?
I was stronger.
The blue trajectory reached striking range.
"Guh...!"
A thunderous boom sent Sung Si-hoon flying backward. I took a breath, muttering softly.
"Damn, didn't land it."
A flash of regret. A little more time, and I'd have ended it.
I refocused instantly. Miss means the fight's on. Fight's on means no room for personal gripes.
"That insane build was for this?"
Using the surrounding metal, he'd sculpted a monstrously huge, heavy suit of armor. Not something you wear—more like pilot.
Sung Si-hoon raised the helmet's visor, grinning at me.
"You're dead. You can't even imagine what's coming next..."
"Enchantment transfer, right? Planning to use that necklace ability."
He flinched at my words. Thought I wouldn't know? I can appraise Erosion Core rewards on the spot too.
"Pathetic, thinking you'd hidden it. All that suffering for one tin can."
"Shut up. Knowing changes nothing."
The silver armor encasing him gradually took on a dark red hue. More like dark red waves rippling across it.
Mana resistance, durability boosts, impact absorption... every ability from his gear had transferred to that armor.
Obviously way more effective than buffing fragile human flesh and blood.
"Now..."
He muttered, swinging a red-glowing fist. I slammed my spear into the ground to brace against the storm it unleashed.
"What a waste."
That near-miss from before stung even more now.
With that tin can complete, the fight was about to get a whole lot messier.