Chapter 30

Whoosh.

The instant Jopil’s red-hot palm struck my chest, lava-hot qi swept through me. My breath caught, and my internal energy surged backward.

What is this?

The question crossed my mind as I went flying. I bounced and rolled for more than ten zhang¹ before finally coming to a stop.

“Cough.”

Blood trickled down my chin. Every so often, unidentified chunks came up with it. They were… fuck. Pieces of my organs.

He got me good.

Through my blurred vision, I saw Jopil walking toward me. His unhurried stride carried the ease of a victor.

I have to get up.

I groped beside me until my hand closed around a cool spear shaft. Using the spear as a cane, I barely managed to stand—and found Jopil staring at me with narrowed eyes.

“You can still stand after taking a Flame Divine Palm at seventy percent power… What a troublesome junior.”

Wham!

Another palm strike slammed into me.

The Flame Divine Palm was every bit as powerful as its name. My shirt burned away, and my flesh melted and sloughed off. The heat that invaded my body tore through my meridians one after another.

“Guh.”

Horrific pain crashed over me. Instead of writhing in agony, I thrust my spear at Jopil’s vital point.

Thunk.

“You’re like a fighting dog.”

Jopil snatched the spear shaft and clicked his tongue.

“Someone at your level can’t do anything to me.”

“Go… fuck yourself!”

The next instant, I let go of the spear and threw myself into his chest.

This was my last chance. I focused every bit of internal energy into a single point. If I could strike one of his vital points, I could turn the tables.

But…

“Gasp.”

The result was disastrous.

I had forced up my internal energy without regard for my internal injuries. I collapsed on the spot, trembling as if I’d been struck by lightning.

Drool ran from the corner of my mouth.

“Pfft. Puhahaha! Have you ever seen such a stupid bastard!”

Jopil howled with laughter and snapped off the spearhead.

“Well? What now? Huh? Youngest Young Master of the Jin Family of Taiyuan?”

Now I didn’t even have a weapon. Despair darkened my vision.

Am I going to die like this?

In the past seven years, death had never felt this close. I had fought more than a thousand times and survived. Was I really going to die here, of all places?

This pointlessly?

No. I can’t die like this…

I reached out, but that was as far as I got.

“Captain!”

A shout crackling with static was the last thing I heard before all light vanished.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in neither heaven nor hell. I was drenched in sweat and panting, my whole body as heavy as waterlogged cotton.

A dream? Or my life flashing before my eyes?

Whatever it was, one thing was certain. This was the past—a memory from seven years ago. The familiar face of the training instructor was proof enough.

“You… What did you…”

The instructor couldn’t finish. He was staring at a steel training dummy modeled after a monster.

Now it looked more like scrap metal, bent and split all over.

“Was that a skill just now?”

My younger self answered in an exhausted voice.

“Thrust with All My Might.”

“Thrust with All My Might?”

“Yes. I just thrust as hard as I could.”

“You don’t know how you’re doing it, but you started using it naturally after you Awakened?”

“Uh, yes. That’s right.”

“That’s a skill, you idiot.”

Looking dumbfounded, the instructor turned to the file in his hand.

“Jin Taekyung. Twenty years old. Lives in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. F-rank Awakened. Is this you?”

“Yes. So, my full-power thrust—no, my skill. It’s good, right?”

“You’re asking if it’s good?”

The instructor let out a hollow laugh.

“I’ve been at this training center for fifteen years, and I’ve never seen anything like it. That kind of destructive power shouldn’t appear below D-rank.”

“Fuck, I knew it. Instructor, I’m leaving.”

“What?”

“I’m going to get reassessed. Honestly, that should be enough for E-rank, at least.”

“No. I think they assessed you correctly.”

“What?”

“The skill itself is incredible. It’s far beyond anything an F-rank should be capable of. But…”

The instructor scratched the back of his head.

“You can’t use it.”

“Why? Why not?”

“Your body can’t keep up. That skill is beyond what F-rank mana and physical ability can handle. That’s why you collapse after using it once.”

“But I’m fine.”

“Are you?”

Before I could even nod, the instructor’s hand shot out like lightning and tapped me on the chest.

Literally just a tap. But I’d used up all my strength, so I toppled flat onto my back.

My whole body throbbed. I could barely move a finger.

“You’re already putting out more power than your body can handle. Eventually, it won’t end with a little soreness.”

“…Is there another way?”

“Solid fundamentals. Excellent technique. And your own combat sense. If you want to live a long life, don’t use that skill. Ah, except under special circumstances.”

“Special circumstances?”

The instructor grinned and added,

“When your life is in danger. That skill might save you once.”

The next instant, I opened my eyes on the cold snowfield.

“Captain!”

The last shout I’d heard now rang clear. So did the sharp pain from my mangled body.

I’m still alive.

My life had flashed before my eyes in a mere instant. Jopil had turned to look behind him, close enough for me to touch if I reached out.

“They’re certainly loyal. Their skills are pathetic, though.”

The reconnaissance squad was charging toward us in a cluster.

“I’m thinking of tearing them apart. What do you say?”

“…been fighting…”

“What?”

“Like an idiot… fighting…”

I mumbled again. Jopil bent down, irritation on his face.

“Can’t you even speak properly?”

“I said I’ve been fighting like an idiot this whole time.”

Ptoo!

The moment I’d been waiting for.

I spat the blood I’d gathered into his face. At the same time, my hand—already moving half a beat ahead—slammed down toward his foot.

Inventory Open.

Jopil didn’t know.

I was a Hunter, a man of Murim, and a player who could use the System!

Equip Dagger.

A solid weight filled my empty hand. His face covered in blood, Jopil tried to jerk back, but the dagger had already punched through the top of his foot.

Shunk!

“Guh.”

Even a Peak master was still human.

His body froze at the sudden pain. I released the dagger and reached for his ankle.

Equip Dagger.

My Inventory was piled with weapons taken from the enemies I’d killed since the Tutorial. Swords, spears, axes, daggers… more than twenty in all.

Jopil’s men had been walking armories.

Slice.

“Gaaah!”

His Achilles tendon.

The instant I severed the tendon at his ankle, a scream burst from him. As his stance collapsed, I rolled aside, slashing and stabbing until his remaining left leg was soaked in blood as well.

Slice. Thrust. Thrust. Stab-stab-stab!

Jopil’s mouth opened wide in rage and pain.

“Gaaaaah! You son of a bitch!”

Both his legs were useless, but Jopil was still a Peak master. He spun like lightning, slipped past my dagger, caught my wrist, and twisted.

Crack.

“Gah!”

His attack didn’t end there.

A red-hot palm.

The Flame Divine Palm.

Boom.

My chest caved in. My vision went white as powerful fire qi tore through my body.

Boom.

The strength drained from me.

I heard the bones in my neck grind out of place under Jopil’s grip. His chilling voice slid into my ear.

“Now you understand, don’t you? Who you dared lay a hand on.”

“…Cough.”

“If King Yama² asks, tell him I sent you.”

As I hung limp as a corpse, Jopil declared with rapture written across his face,

“Die.”

His final Flame Divine Palm shot toward my chest. Lava-hot power capable of swallowing my life whole burned within that crimson palm.

And at last…

Tap.

The world stopped.

There was no lava. No heat of any kind.

Only his battered, callused palm resting against my chest.

A ripple ran through Jopil’s eyes.

“You…”

The grip around my throat went slack. As Jopil staggered backward, I saw the dagger below his navel, buried deep in his dantian.

“What… What the hell is this?”

The next instant, blood ran down his chin.

That was only the beginning.

Blood began pouring from his eyes, nose, and ears as well—a waterfall streaming from all seven orifices.

The reconnaissance squad stopped in their tracks at the horrifying sight. Someone muttered as if groaning.

“Qi deviation…”

Internal energy was a double-edged sword.

I had waited for the moment Jopil drew his internal energy to its peak, then driven a dagger summoned from my Inventory into his dantian.

The result was a violent reversal of internal energy.

Qi deviation.

“You were definitely empty-handed.”

I answered wearily.

“Live long enough, and all sorts of things happen.”

“I can’t die like this. This makes no sense.”

Jopil muttered like a man who had lost his mind, stumbling forward one step at a time.

Pools of blood formed wherever he passed.

“I am Jopil. Jopil, One Question, One Kill. The nineteenth-generation successor of the Fire Gate Clan. I am not someone who should die at the hands of a nobody like you!”

A chilling, ghostly aura radiated from him as he screamed, drenched in blood. Even the reconnaissance squad members who had charged in ready to die trembled in fear.

“Then why? Why, at the likes of you, would I—!”

That was when the ember I’d thought extinguished burst into flame.

The change began in Jopil’s body. His bleeding stopped, and blue veins bulged all over him. He looked as if he could no longer feel the pain of his severed tendons—or even the qi deviation.

Terrible heat poured from every breath.

What is this?

A literal resurrection?

No. This was Jopil’s last desperate struggle.

Everyone around me screamed in terror, but I could see it clearly. His hair was turning white by the second. His skin was shriveling.

Right now, he was…

Burning away his life.

He means to kill me, at least, before he goes.

This was power gained by sacrificing the most precious thing he had, and every bit of it was aimed at me. I knew instinctively that I couldn’t dodge.

Can I do this? Me?

I picked up the fallen spear.

The Sharp Spear I’d used ever since the Tutorial.

Its spearhead had been broken off. Now it was nothing more than a pointed iron rod.

I’ll end up looking like this soon enough.

I had only one option left.

Even if it worked, there was no guarantee I’d survive. But I had no time to hesitate.

“Jin Taekyung!”

“Yeah. Let’s finish this.”

Me and Jopil.

Jopil and me.

We shot toward each other. The heat pouring off him melted the piled snow and dried my lips. I drew a long breath.

Sss. Hoo.

The noise around me receded. My heartbeat and breathing thundered in my ears.

Thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump-thump.

My heartbeat reached its peak. My breathing fell into place with mechanical precision.

I knew.

Now.

At that instant, I awakened the internal energy in my dantian. Inside my body, where my qi and blood pathways lay twisted and ruined, only one source of internal energy remained.

The third, hardened like rock.

My only option—and the last piece that would fill my Skill.

Run wild as you please.

The awakened energy went berserk. It forced its way through my ruined pathways and surged throughout my body. Mind-numbing pain struck me.

But the new strength flooding through me soon made me forget it.

Go!

Every muscle in my body pulled taut. From my calves and thighs, through my waist and along my thrusting arm, every last bit of my strength and internal energy surged forward.

Condensed air burst from the broken spear tip.

Matching it, Jopil thrust out his Flame Divine Palm.

“Dieeeee!”

Whoooosh.

A mound of snow erupted with the wind. Through the flakes drifting gently back down, Jopil came into view.

His right arm, the one that had unleashed the Flame Divine Palm, was gone. So were his shoulder and side.

Half his upper body had evaporated.

“What kind of martial art…?”

I dropped the spear and answered.

“Thrust with All My Might.”

The next instant, heaven and earth flipped.

Beyond my blurring vision, Jopil’s already lifeless head shot high into the sky.

Socheon was crying out loud, holding a sword as tall as he was.