Chapter 67
Chapter 67 – Trap(4)
The meeting room was enveloped in silence.
No one dared to speak first.
“Say that again,” President Han Seung-hoon said in a heavy voice.
The colonel giving the report cleared his trembling throat.
“We’ve lost contact with all deployed personnel.”
“What about the director?”
“The same.”
“Haa…”
In an instant, over 50 elite soldiers had perished.
The fact that they couldn’t even report suggested the situation had deteriorated too quickly for them to react.
“We don’t know for sure yet. If they’re using equipment to jam our signals…”
“No. That’s enough.”
President Han Seung-hoon cut off the general trying to view the situation positively.
“Team Leader Shin Tae-gil.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Can the Special Ability Management Team mobilize?”
“About that…”
Cold sweat ran down Shin Tae-gil’s back as he answered.
‘What the hell are they doing?!’
In truth, Shin Tae-gil had judged from the start that the military would fail.
That’s why he had already contacted ability users like Han Se-yeon, Choi Dong-woo, and Kang Hyeon.
‘Please, just answer the phone!’
Han Se-yeon said she couldn’t come out recklessly.
Choi Dong-woo was in a dungeon.
Other ability users weren’t up to the task.
The only hope was Kang Hyeon, but he wasn’t answering despite multiple calls.
-Guild Leader Kang Hyeon is having dinner with an executive of the Ability Users Union after clearing a dungeon.
He hurriedly called Han Jae-moon, but even he didn’t know Kang Hyeon’s exact whereabouts.
“Mr. President. I’m sorry, but the situation isn’t favorable right now.”
“Not favorable? What do you mean?”
“Contacting the ability users is…”
Just then.
-Buzz buzz
Shin Tae-gil’s smartphone vibrated.
“Hey, what are you doing during an important meeting?!”
“That fellow, he lacks basic manners!”
The military generals, sensing an opportunity, took turns criticizing Shin Tae-gil.
[Bastard]
However, seeing the name on the screen, Shin Tae-gil ignored their reactions and stood up abruptly.
“He’s here!”
“What’s here?”
“Mr. President. I’ve just made contact with an ability user. I’m sorry, but I need to take this call.”
“Huh, go ahead.”
With President Han’s permission, Shin Tae-gil quickly pressed the call button.
“Kang Hyeon! What took you so long to answer?!”
-I was busy. Are you always this obsessive? I have over ten missed calls.
“This is no time for jokes. Kang Hyeon. It’s an emergency.”
Kang Hyeon frowned at Shin Tae-gil’s words.
-I was in a pretty damn urgent situation myself until just now, you know?
***
Ippotranslation
***
Kang Hyeon quickly grabbed Seon Yeon-ho’s arm as it flew towards his neck.
“Are you squeamish about taking a life?”
“What…?!”
“Stop this bullshit!”
Simultaneously, he threw a punch into Seon Yeon-ho’s empty abdomen.
“Kuhek!”
“Face massage coming up. Get ready!”
Seon Yeon-ho was bent over after being hit in the stomach.
Kang Hyeon grabbed the back of his head and drove it straight towards the hot charcoal.
“Magic explosion.”
-Kwaaang!
And then the magic explosion erupted.
With the powerful explosive force, flames rose instantly, and ash flew into the air.
The time it took for all this to happen was less than 3 seconds.
“Damn it! Everyone attack!”
The employees who witnessed this quickly drew their weapons.
“I knew this would happen. Come in, you bastards!”
[Roar of the Enraged Lion has been activated]
[All enemies’ morale and stats have decreased]
Kang Hyeon, who used ‘Roar of the Enraged Lion’, activated all buff skills.
“Good.”
His condition was at its best due to leveling up.
He felt his body was a bit sluggish due to the poison, but considering the magic level he sensed from them, he thought it was sufficient to fight.
-Woooong
At that moment, he felt his smartphone vibrate in his pocket.
“Who is it when I’m so busy?”
-Chaeng!
As he forcefully deflected an incoming sword, the opponent’s grip that couldn’t withstand it was torn away.
The guy who lost his weapon in an instant had a dumbfounded expression.
Kang Hyeon used One Slash to blow off the guy’s neck and rushed towards the enemies.
-Cheng, Kwadang!
“Aaaagh!”
As Kang Hyeon had expected, the enemies weren’t that strong.
No, they were sufficiently capable, but they were no match for Kang Hyeon.
-Puk!
A sword strike that came from a blind spot that he hadn’t noticed struck Kang Hyeon’s shoulder.
It was clearly an attack on bare skin, but only a scratch appeared on Kang Hyeon’s shoulder.
‘Wayne’s secret technique. It’s just one level increase, but… It feels like a whole different dimension from before.’
A health stat of 60.
Now it seemed difficult to even pierce Kang Hyeon’s body with ordinary blades.
“This bastard! What kind of monster is he?!”
“Kraaah!”
It was when the guys were flustered by Kang Hyeon’s unexpectedly strong force.
Seon Yeon-ho, who had gotten up from his spot, let out a bizarre cry.
“What? You’re not dead?”
Seon Yeon-ho’s body looking at Kang Hyeon was no longer that of a human.
His skin, which had taken on a strange color, looked as hard as steel, and blade-like protrusions were visible all over his body.
“You guys. Were you drug addicts?”
“Everyone, enter full awakening state.”
Seon Yeon-ho’s voice was distorted as grotesquely as his appearance.
However, unlike the previous Monster Power users, he seemed to maintain his sanity.
“Kruk, krwik!”
“Kraaah!”
The other enemies also started to change one by one, letting out bizarre cries.
Looking at this scene, Kang Hyeon quickly rushed forward.
“Giving time for transformation is stupid!”
The number of guys was about 20.
Considering that the number of guys they fought with An Yu-seong before was about 10, this was a tremendous crisis.
‘Even though I’ve gotten stronger since then, it’s too much to handle this many people alone. I need to reduce their numbers as much as possible!’
Kang Hyeon reached a guy who hadn’t finished transforming and swung Bilgein’s Longsword with all his might.
“Huh…?”
However, the sword that should have cut the guy’s body in half in an instant got stuck on the guy’s bone and stopped.
“Kwick, die.”
A gap created by Kang Hyeon’s surprise.
The guy didn’t miss that brief moment.
The guy’s extended foot struck Kang Hyeon’s side, and Kang Hyeon quickly flew and crashed into the wall.
“Ssseup… That hurts?”
The guys’ strength was not ordinary.
It was lower than Kang Hyeon’s, but it seemed to surpass other top-tier ability users.
-Woooong
At that moment, the smartphone rang again.
“This might break if I’m not careful.”
Worried that it might break in the intensifying fight, Kang Hyeon threw the smartphone away, sliding it far.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“What is it?”
Just as he was about to prepare for the real fight, Seon Yeon-ho spoke to him.
“Do you still have no intention of cooperating with us?”
“Why would I cooperate with the likes of you?”
“We are not simply a terrorist group as you know.”
“Your actions certainly look like a simple terrorist group.”
“All of that is for the sake of humanity.”
“What?”
Kang Hyeon made a bewildered expression at this unexpected declaration of love for humanity.
“What nonsense is that?”
“How long do you think humanity can last like this? 3 years? 4 years?”
“How would I know that?”
“Within 3 years at most, countries will start to collapse. Even if they endure, it’s a problem. Do you think this chaos will end if we endure for 5 years?”
“…”
Seon Yeon-ho’s voice, resonating like a beast’s, added to the sinisterness of his words.
“The world will surely perish after 5 years.”
Hearing Seon Yeon-ho’s words, Kang Hyeon was reminded of what Han Se-yeon of Dangun had said before.
-I’m not talking about 5 years from now. Within the next 3 years. Countries will start facing existential crises.
Kang Hyeon couldn’t know what information these two based their conclusions on.
However, they wouldn’t be speaking based on groundless evidence.
“So?”
“What do you mean ‘so’? It means the whole world will perish if things continue like this.”
“And you guys who say you’ll prevent that are causing dungeon breaks and spreading weird drugs?”
“You may not understand now. But if you join our organization, you’ll understand. And you’ll also gain powerful strength.”
As if to show off his power to Kang Hyeon, Seon Yeon-ho picked up a sword that had fallen on the ground.
-Chaeeeng!
The blade shattered into pieces in Seon Yeon-ho’s hand and scattered on the floor.
Kang Hyeon had been doing this trick for quite a long time, but seeing it performed by another ability user was quite fresh.
“This is just child’s play.”
“Indeed, it is.”
Seon Yeon-ho’s fist trembled at Kang Hyeon’s sarcastic response.
“You… You refuse to listen seriously until the end!”
“Would you seriously listen to what a monster bastard has to say if you were me?”
“This drug is the result of countless sacrifices for humanity! We are finally the product! We are saints sacrificing ourselves for humanity!”
“You’re insane.”
It didn’t seem like he had completely lost his mind like the previous drug side effects.
But Seon Yeon-ho was ranting excitedly, suggesting there were some side effects.
“For humanity, for humanity, for humanity! All of this is for humanity!”
Seon Yeon-ho, gradually sinking into madness, now looked completely insane.
“So you too, die for humanity…”
Kang Hyeon grinned as he watched Seon Yeon-ho muttering with his eyes rolled back.
“You gonna kill me with your mouth? Just come at me already, bastard.”
“Kwaaaaa!”
***
Ippotranslation
***
Kang Hyeon’s talent for combat can be defined in one word.
Slow learner.
The reason Kang Hyeon, who was naturally weak, could come this far was due to effort, experience, and the awakenings achieved through numerous deaths.
But as he became intimate with death, Kang Hyeon’s mind gradually became twisted, rough,
“Die prettily, you bastard!”
and changed into that of a beast.
-Puaak!
Kang Hyeon grabbed the man’s arm and twisted it off with all his might.
In an instant, the man’s shoulder was torn off, and a fountain show of purple blood unfolded in the air.
“Kraaak!”
Leaving the suffering man behind, Kang Hyeon swung the torn-off arm with all his strength.
-Wujikeun!
The sound of bones twisting came from the neck of a woman who was hit in the face with her comrade’s arm.
But the woman immediately raised her arm and turned her jaw to put the bone back in place.
“Haa, haa…”
Was this how the enemies who had faced him felt until now?
Kang Hyeon felt like he was fighting a zombie horde.
And these were very fast, powerful, and sturdy zombies.
‘Damn, I’m starting to run out of magic power.’
Bilgein’s Longsword wasn’t very effective against their sturdy bodies.
Even when he managed to wound them, they recovered instantly.
In the end, Kang Hyeon had no choice but to abandon the sword and resort to hand-to-hand combat to tear apart their bodies.
“Just die already. Please!”
“Kaaak!”
The fight was intensely fierce and ugly.
With their defense abnormally stronger than their offense, the only vulnerable spots were weak points like vital organs.
“Kaak!”
The woman who had just set her bone back in place.
When Kang Hyeon struck her jaw again, her head turned a full 180 degrees.
As Kang Hyeon kicked and sent her flying, another man rushed at him.
He swung his arm, which had transformed into a blade, in a quick attack.
Kang Hyeon lowered his stance to avoid the attack and grabbed the man’s groin.
“Ah, no!”
“Magic explosion!”
Those were the man’s last words.
Everyone hesitated at the shocking scene of the man losing his manhood.
“I… I didn’t want to go this far, damn it! But I have no choice.”
That’s how serious Kang Hyeon’s situation was.
He had only managed to take down nine of them so far.
Although all of them were injured and tired, the same was true for Kang Hyeon.
Moreover, once his magic power ran out, he wouldn’t be able to use ‘Advanced Bodily Regeneration’, and naturally, he wouldn’t be able to use ‘Wayne’s Secret Technique’ either.
‘When that happens, it’s really over.’
As if knowing Kang Hyeon’s condition, they started attacking again.
‘Think, think! I’ll really die at this rate.’
It was too risky to use Berserker.
He didn’t know what enemies might be behind these guys, and there was no one to take care of him after Berserker’s time ran out.
Even if he took out Ogre’s giant hammer, he wouldn’t even be able to reach these quick bastards.
-Bang, bang, kwang!
A thunderous sound that was hard to believe came from flesh hitting flesh.
In a situation where dozens of swords and fists were flying at him every second, wounds were constantly appearing and healing on Kang Hyeon’s body.
However, gradually, the rate at which wounds appeared was becoming faster than the rate of healing, and the damage was accumulating.
‘Do I have no choice but to use Berserker?’
It seemed better to take down a few more bastards than to die stupidly like this.
‘Damn, but I don’t have Bilgein’s Longsword!’
Realizing that the sword wasn’t effective, he had thrown Bilgein’s Longsword at them during the battle.
‘There it is.’
He saw the red Longsword lying behind them.
But even at this moment, they were fiercely pressuring Kang Hyeon.
“Kheulleok!”
Was it because his concentration was scattered for a moment?
Seon Yeon-ho’s hand blade hit Kang Hyeon’s stomach.
That attack instantly pierced through Kang Hyeon’s skills and skin, embedding itself in his stomach.
“Tough bastard. It’s over now.”
“Damn… Next time, I must remember to put it in the inventory…”
“There won’t be a next time, so don’t worry.”
Just as Seon Yeon-ho smiled and swung his arm towards Kang Hyeon’s neck,
-Sswaeeaek!
A blue light flew in from somewhere and embedded itself in Seon Yeon-ho’s temple.
“Kuheok!”
Hit by the arrow, Seon Yeon-ho crashed into the floor at tremendous speed.
Seeing this, Kang Hyeon let out a laugh along with a sigh of relief.
“There’s no law saying I have to die… Haha!”