Chapter 22: 22

Chapter 22

A painful scream echoed in a splendidly decorated suite.

Here, the tattered Namgung Taesu was groaning and bleeding profusely. It wouldn’t be strange if he dies any second now.

Looking at Namgung Taesu who was in such a state, Gomin asked in a cold tone.

“Namgung Taesu. Are you not going to change your mind?”

“Keuheuk…Kill me. Even if I die, I won’t tarnish the honor of the Namgung clan.”

“I see…I’ll see how long that’ll last.”

Gomin said and picked up his sharp dagger again. Then Namgung Taesu glared at him and gave him a frivolous laugh.

“Keukeu…isn’t it your side that is running out of time? I can see that you have been restless since earlier, so what are you trying to hide?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You thought I wouldn’t know? The barrier has disappeared after the death of your important friends a moment ago.”

At Namgung Taesu’s words, Gomin had no choice but to frown.

‘Damn it!’

He had seen it clearly. The scene of his friends’ demise that was broadcasted live on the screen.

At that moment, he had lost his reasons for a second and almost exploded into a rage. A strong impulse to immediately go down and eat the culprit had filled his mind.

But he didn’t go down. Because he still had something to do.

— Hey guys…Even if someone dies during the operation, let’s not think about revenge.

— Vera! Why do you always say such negative things? You’re always so pessimistic.

— I know. But this is also my resolution. If something goes wrong…Each of us might get excited and ruin the operation. So promise me. Let’s just focus on our plan.

The promise he had made with his friends. Having recalled it at that moment, he was able to suppress his anger.

‘I have to endure it…’

He gritted his teeth. Such emotions would be rather detrimental to the success of the operation.

And if he truly thought of them as friends, then it was the right choice to focus on completing the operation they couldn’t finish.

However, it could be said that the current situation was the worst case possible.

Due to the death of his friends, the plan to secure the Heavenly Body has failed. So the means of threatening Namgung Taesu has disappeared.

To make matters worse, the barrier that had been buying them time has also disappeared.

And in a little while, heroes will storm this place. Before that, he had to finish this somehow.

‘Damn, the preparation time was too short.’

In fact, this operation was planned suddenly only a few months ago.

Originally, they were going to take revenge around next year after they had developed their strength a little more, but a great opportunity had come that was hard to pass up.

— Do you want to take revenge against the Namgung clan?

A mysterious person had visited them one day.

The being had told them of an opportunity to aim for Namgung Taesu and how to implement it.

The identity of the being is still unknown, but thanks to him, they were able to advance the time for revenge even further.

‘If we had a little more time…’

Then they would have been able to kidnap more sacrifices and strengthen the barrier.

He adjusted his mind.

‘It’s no use regretting the past. What I have to do now is somehow make him confess to his sins.’

He approached Namgung Taesu.

“I must hear the words of apology from your mouth today.”

“Keukuh…ridiculous. Why don’t you give up now? Heroes will be here soon anyway.”

Namgung Taesu still looked relaxed.

Was it because his torture skills were poor? Or was it because he had such a twisted personality?

He wasn’t an expert when it comes to torture, but now he wasn’t in a position to make excuses.

So he spoke in the most threatening tone he could muster.

“From now on, I’ll pull out your teeth one by one whenever you don’t give me what I want to hear.”

“W-wait…heup!”

Namgung Taesu forcibly covered his mouth. Like an earthquake, there was a turbulent fluctuation in his eyes.

He, who hadn’t budged even after having his skin and toes cut off, why had he suddenly become fretful?

At that moment, a guess passed through Gomin’s mind.

‘Maybe…?’

He immediately fumbled around Namgung Taesu’s mouth. Namgung Taesu shook his body and began to violently rebel.

“Heuk!! Huk!”

And in a little bit. He felt a different sensation from one of the teeth on the tip of his finger. Like so, he pulled out the tooth.

“Keuaak!”

Namgung Taesu screamd.

He looked at the tooth that had been extracted. It contained a small memory card inside.

What the hell was his reason for trying to hide it in this manner?

“G-give it back…”

Namgung Taesu said with a mouth full of blood. His expression looked like that of a very desperate person. Such an appearance had confirmed his guess.

In the past, people from murim would always carry martial arts manuals on their bodies. Has Namgung Taesu not given up such a habit from his times in the murim?

“Haha…This must be the Monarch Sword Art.”

“G-give it back. It’s…an important treasure that’ll bring our family back to life. You, weren’t you once someone from the Namgung clan?”

“Then you know what I want, right? If you’re waiting for the heroes to come, you’d better give up.”

He slightly cut his palm and inserted the memory card inside. Then, with the regenerative ability of a troll, his skin began to heal completely.

“?!”

“I’ll hold onto this Monarch Sword Art. If you run away from here, I’ll destroy it.”

“Keuk…”

Gomin beamed a smile.

‘It seems the plan will finish smoothly.’

As soon as Namgung Taesu was about to give in, suddenly, a large woman jumped into the area where they were.

“Don’t move!”

Gomin quickly observed the woman.

Muscular body that was strong enough to show through the thick clothes. Looking at the shape of the muscles, she appeared to be closer to a hand-to-hand martial artist than a swordsman, but she didn’t seem to have been trained in martial arts professionally either.

‘But…What is that black thing?’

And his gaze fell to the red sword resting from the woman’s waist. Was it a bluff? But to say that, the quality of the weapon seemed too good to be an ornament.

“Counterterrorism forces currently have this place surrounded. Quit the meaningless resistance and quietly surrender!”

The woman took out a pair of handcuffs and began to slowly approach him. He had to make a decision.

Whether to push ahead with the plan as it was or run away with Namgung Taesu.

‘Let’s quickly clean this up.’

Fortunately, the woman seemed to be alone. If there were reinforcements, they would have come in together.

He raised his hands and pretended to surrender. Then, the moment the woman entered his range, he pulled out his sword.

A swift attack aimed at her abdomen. It was a quick and accurate stab. He was convinced of his success. But…

Boom–!

The sword bounced off with the sound of tapping dull iron. At the same time, he stepped back far away.

Looking at the woman, she was suddenly wrapped in jagged black armor. The appearance was like looking at a sea urchin.

‘A troublesome ability.’

He clicked his tongue. He wanted to clean this up before others arrived, but of all things, it had to be a defensive hero.

In such a state, the woman began charging at him. Furniture around her broke like toys. Certainly, that level of power and defense couldn’t be looked down on.

‘But, if that’s all…’

The flow of the woman’s simple attack was clearly visible in his eyes. He slipped to the side and avoided her incoming attack.

Boom–

Unable to overcome the inertia, the woman stuck deeply into the hotel walls. With her like that, he raised his sword.

‘If she’s wearing armor, I just have to cut it down.’

With all the experience he has accumulated, a faint sword intent gathered on the blade of his sword. Even among those who have mastered the sword, it was a technique that only few can do.

The moment he raised his sword.

Wuung–

Something like a red fog came out of the woman’s body, and suddenly her sword flew.

‘?!’

He quickly turned his body to the side. However, due to the late response, a deep wound had appeared on his chest.

“Kueaaak!”

He screamed loudly.

This level of pain was enough to shake his mind. He didn’t know why, but it was more painful than any other attacks he had ever experienced.

Swiik–

The attack came again. He managed to hold onto his consciousness and quickly roll away.

As he raised his head, he saw a naked boy covered in blood.

“So close.”

The boy smiled and looked at him. It was a face that he could never forget.

Anger that seems to lose its reason rose again. But charging at the boy now would only lead to the worst outcome.

Catching his breath, he carefully looked at the boy.

He wasn’t sure what the boy had done, but the attacks just now were very dangerous.

Because his tough skin had been cut by a sword that didn’t even carry mana…

‘First, I have to stall until the wound on my chest heals.’

Thud–

At that moment, the woman who had been stuck in the wall walked out, shaking off the cement powder. Like her thick armor, she looked fine without any wounds.

“Fuck! I’m going to lose face in front of a kid!”

The woman immediately rushed at him again. The boy followed closely behind her.

However, he only ran away in a circle and didn’t fight them. The wound on his chest was healing with tremendous difficulty.

After a short time. The boy put the sword he was holding on the floor and asked.

“Is your name Gomin?”

He didn’t know what the boy was trying to do, but it was rather advantageous to him if he could buy time to recover.

So he decided to play along with the conversation.

“That’s right. My name is Gomin. Where did you hear that?”

“A nuna said it while dying. By chance, was she hyung’s friend?”

“?!”

Again, the monster inside him was about to explode, but he calmly controlled his mind.

The boy was probably trying to provoke him to make the first move. And as long as he had noticed that, he would never do so.

Sure enough, the boy continued to provoke him.

“But hyung, you’re really ugly.”

“That’s a trifling provocation.”

He snorted. However, he had no choice but to frown at the boy’s next words.

“Ah! Is that so? The guys I had killed earlier looked especially ugly. Do birds of a feather flock together?”

They were people who had fought the gazes of hatred all their lives. So they’ve come across such insults more than greetings in their lives.

However, he felt a rising anger when the person who had killed his friends insulted them.

He didn’t want to get drawn into the boy’s words so he stopped talking. He ignored the boy’s words and focused on recovering.

But the boy spoke again.

“Ah, but hyung, did you know?”

“…”

“Vera, was it? The taste I felt from my hands was so soft and tender.”

Saying so, the boy pretended to cut the air. Scenes he had seen on the screen a while ago appeared in his mind.

“But it’s too bad I couldn’t enjoy it for long. Because I had killed her too quickly. Heuheuh.”

The boy was smiling brightly and teasing him. And in the end, his last string of reason was cut.

“I’m going to kill you!!!”

He roared as his eyes turned red.

* * *

The angered Gomin pulled out his sword and ran at me.

Since our team’s tank couldn’t even provoke properly, I had no choice but to pull aggro myself.

For now, I had grabbed aggro again.

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I hid myself behind Kim Taehee who had a distorted look on her face. Then a voice came over her thick armor that seemed to be extremely shocked.

“Y-you…Such wicked words…”

“More than that ajumma, look in front of you!”

Boom–!

“Keuheuk!”

The sword aimed at me struck her armor in the nick of time. I took advantage of the gap and slashed my sword at Gomin’s arm.

“I’ll kill you! I’m definitely going to kill you!”

However, perhaps because he was enraged, he didn’t even react properly to the light wound.

Boom–!

Boom–!

“Keuk!”

Gomin’s sword struck Kim Taehee’s armor nonstop. It seemed that he lacked the concentration to use sword intent like before.

Nevertheless, perhaps because of muscle memory, his attacks naturally contained martial arts.

[ level of understanding has increased.]

[You’ve reached a certain level of understanding.]

[While the battle continues, you can imitate the skill based on your understanding.]

Thanks to this, it was easy to predict where his attacks would land. I informed Kim Taehee of Gomin’s attack pattern.

“Ajumma, left!”

Boom–!

She raised her arm to block his blade.

And with the gaps that occurred each time, I chipped at his body little by little. With the growing wounds on his body, Red Velvet Curse became sharper and sharper.

His movements were gradually slowing down. And finally.

Swish–!

I cut off his arm. The thick muscular arm spun and slid far away.

“Kuaak!”

I tried to finish him off in such a state, but at that moment, he stepped back as if he had come back to his senses.

“Keuheuk…”

He stumbled, clutching his arm. This was our chance.

“Ajumma, now!”

Kim Taehee exploded her saved mana and shot straight at him. The way she banged and smashed all the objects around her was like a speeding train.

But at that moment.

“W-wait! No! You can’t step on it!”

In a straight line toward Gomin, a wheelchair suddenly stormed in like an arrow. Namgung Taesu reached for Gomin’s arm that had been cut off.

“What the fuck?!!”

As a result, Kim Taehee forcefully twisted her trajectory. And there, Gomin was waiting like a batter on a baseball team.

He used the wide side of the sword like a blunt weapon and struck her head.

Boom–!

Along with a huge explosive sound, Kim Taehee’s head became bent. And then she collapsed on the spot.

Her outer armor scattered, and a stream of blood was flowing from her head. Seeing her chest move, it seems that she was still alive.

Our team tanker suddenly retires out of the blue. Against a boss who was in our grasp no less.

I became dumbfounded by the sudden situation.

But he’s almost defeated anyway, so I’ll be able to handle it by myself.

At that moment, Gomin suddenly screamed.

— Graaawr!!

A voice closer to that of a monster than a person. And soon his body began to twist.

He, who was around 2m, grew into a giant nearly 4m tall. His back became bent, and his arms grew long enough to touch the floor.

His skin turned a darker emerald, and the black spots embedded in several places made him look like mint chocolate.

— Kueuru…I’m full of energy.

Looking at the body that had turned even more hideous, I saw a familiar ominous purple haze slowly rising.

Wuung–

On top of that, the sword intent from his sword was surging. Even though it was still unstable, compared to before, it had a clear light.

“H-how, this level of harmony…”

Seeing such a scene, Namgung Taesu was shocked with his mouth open. I could see that he was having a hard time breathing under the pressure of Gomin.

I’m in trouble…

A-class, the true breaking point in human capability.

B and A were only one letter apart in terms of classification, but the difference was like that of a child and an adult.

And now he was showing a power close to A-class.

This was unexpected.

A sigh almost leaked out.

The pressure I felt was close to what I had felt when the Savage God possessed Yifret’s body.

Hmm? Wait a minute…

Somehow, I felt a sense of deja vu. The fact that this was also a Challenge meant that this wasn’t an impossible situation.

I quickly thought of my skills and items. But…

No matter how hard I thought about it, wasn’t this impossible?

Of course, it would be possible to kill him with the effect of and Red Velvet Curse’s offensive power, but…

There was absolutely no way to approach this guy who has such a long reach. It’s over in an instant if I get cut by that sword.

Perhaps this boss doesn’t have a key item and it had to be caught before its awakening.

Damn! He was already caught if that old man didn’t screw things up.

I stared at Namgung Taesu. He was begging Gomin.

“D-don’t kill him! I need him. That’s the Heavenly Body!”

— I’ll chew that little bastard.

“N-no! K-kill me instead!”

And with a determined look, he opened his arms. It was an action as if to protect me.

Then Gomin spoke.

— If you really want to die, I’ll kill you after you issue an apology. Until then, obediently shut up.

Hmm…

And I, who was watching that, suddenly came up with a way.

I see! The old man was the key item.

As expected, there’s no way the Challenge would issue an impossible task. There’s always a way if you look for it.

I approached Namgung Taesu and stood behind his wheelchair. Then in a trembling voice, I spoke.

“D-don’t worry grandpa. T-the heroes will come soon, so I’ll stall for time until then.”

“Are you trying to protect this old man?”

“Y-yes. Trust me.”

I looked around. There was no camera.

Good.

I held the handles of the wheelchair.

“My grandpa. Then, hold tight.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

I ignored his question and activated the skill attached to Red Velvet Curse.

*One use has been deducted.

*Charges remaining [1/3].

The world turned red as my heart beats like crazy. I charged at Gomin while pushing the wheelchair in the slowed world.

“Aaahhh!!”

Namgung Taesu’s long scream was heard. Beyond that, I can also see Gomin’s shocked face.

The speeding wheelchair rammed into his body. And,

Puk–

“Keuk!!”

My sword penetrated the wheelchair and Namgung Taesu before stabbing Gomin in the abdomen. Time then returned to normal.

“Grwaaar!! How dare you! My plans!!!”

Recognizing the death of Namgung Taesu, he no longer hesitated and swung his sword at me.

Ominous mana gathered around his blade.

I could even see that he had squeezed out his own vitality. The surging light was thicker than ever before.

Looking at the attack that was coming towards me like the wind, I used the last remaining .

The world slowed. Nevertheless, his sword was still fast.

I threw myself at the blade as it was. And right before the blade touched my body,

The other skill attached to the item was activated. His attack was nullified, and the sword intent disappeared.

His shocked expression was still slowed.

Wuung–

An eerie cry was released from the Red Velvet Curse. Thick blood could be seen scattered along the edge of the sword.

And just like that, the blade slid across his neck and it was cut off.

* * *

[Level has risen.]

[Level has risen.]

.

.

.

[You’ve reached level 25.]

[Gained a Fragment of Growth.]

[Completed Challenge ‘Wipe Out the Terrorists.’]

[Gained 3x Skill Selection (Low).]

[You’ve eliminated an existence that meets the standard of ‘evil.’]

[You’ve saved those who were in despair.]

[Warrior’s Journey grade has increased.]

[A new effect has been added.]

Countless messages appeared before my eyes. Only then did I breathe out a long sigh of relief.

Hu…a close finish.

Gomin’s severed head came into view. He had returned to his original form from the monster-like appearance a moment ago.

The Elf King and now this guy…

What was that mysterious purple haze? Maybe there was a link between the two.

And of course, the dead Namgung Taesu.

I was a little disappointed because for a while I thought I would go to the Namgung clan at this sponsorship event.

For his sacrifice, I approached him to express my gratitude.

As if to protect me until the very end, his eyes were wide open.

In fact, it was something that could have been completed earlier if it weren’t for this old man.

Hmm…Come to think of it, why did this guy suddenly interfere?

I lifted the cut arm that he had cherished. Near the palm of the hand I could see a protrusion.

When I split the skin and took it out, I realized that it was a small memory card. It was even designated as an ‘item.’

So I slowly read the description of the item.

T-this…

And I had no choice but to widen my eyes.

Classification: Manual

Grade: S

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Description: Definitive Monarch Sword Art Manual.txt.

*The interpretation of this martial is currently missing. In order to understand the content, you’ll need the .

In my hand was an S-grade martial art manual.

== Translator’s Note ==

1. Please report any typos, grammatical/spelling errors, sentences you find weird, and other etc…in the comment section.

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