Before attempting teleportation, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
If I put the odds of everything that’s happened over the past two years into percentages, what would they be?
What were the odds that an F-rank Hunter, trudging uphill after being fired from his Guild, would find an old capsule abandoned at a recycling station?
What were the odds that the capsule would turn out to be a passage to another world?
What were the odds that I would begin my second life as the Third Young Master of a frontier martial family—not as a member of the Namgung Family or a direct Disciple of Huashan?
What were the odds that I would survive one war, two bloody massacres, and more brushes with death than I could count…?
After considering all of that, I reached a single conclusion.
“Ten percent is enough after all.”
With that quiet murmur, I reached out.
Seizing an Object Through Empty Space.
Three jiazi1 of internal energy pulled Team Leader Choi and Xiao Shen toward me. The Death Knights and monsters tried to move, but stopped when their leader raised a hand.
Ignoring them, I checked the two men’s condition. Their breathing was faint, and their qi was so precarious it seemed ready to vanish at any moment.
If I had taken a jet instead of teleporting, I might have been too late forever.
“I would’ve tried even with a one-percent chance. I’m not the kind of guy who dies for nothing.”
Of course, I had also taken out some insurance in case the worst happened. I just hadn’t expected to use it so soon, let alone under circumstances like these.
Open Inventory. Summon.
I paid no attention to the monsters watching me.
The leader saw me pull the item I needed from my Inventory and asked in a flat voice,
“An extradimensional space. Have you learned Magic?”
Shut your fucking mouth.
I swallowed the words hovering on the tip of my tongue. Normally, that would have been quite difficult, but right now, it wasn’t.
I did not want anyone to interfere with me. At least not right now.
Pop.
When I removed the magically sealed stopper, a faint fragrance drifted out. Milky liquid sloshed inside the clear glass bottle.
A Top-Grade Potion.
A miraculous medicine said to heal any injury as long as the patient was still breathing.
Right now, I couldn’t have cared less about the rarity or value of the scant hundred milliliters2 in that bottle.
I simply thanked Wu Heixing for being both fabulously wealthy and incredibly stupid, then let the potion trickle between the lips of the patient lying there like a corpse.
Hang on a little longer, Shen.
Team Leader Choi came first. Partly because of all the time we had spent together, but even if we had shared no bond at all, I would still have chosen him first.
That was how serious Team Leader Choi’s injuries were.
This is…
His left arm had been torn away from the shoulder. His right ankle was mangled as if something had chewed and swallowed it, while his left leg had been cleanly amputated. Seven ribs were broken, and his spine was fractured.
And…
His right hand, twisted at an unnatural angle, still clutched the hilt of his sword.
The leather strap he had fastened tightly around it so he wouldn’t lose his grip was soaked through with blood.
“……”
I silently undid the strap, pried the sword from his crushed hand, and set it beside him.
I didn’t forget to scold him in my head.
Why did you do this? It’s a miracle you’re still alive.
Then the real miracle began.
When I carefully tilted the bottle and administered exactly half of it, a sound like something burning filled the air, and the wounds covering Team Leader Choi’s entire body began to heal.
Hissssss, hissssss—
Bones regrew, severed muscles rejoined, and damaged organs and flesh knitted together.
He recovered even faster than a Troll, the very embodiment of regeneration. As if time itself had been reversed, color finally began returning to Team Leader Choi’s face.
His qi has stabilized too. This should be enough.
I couldn’t have asked for a better result.
The others watching, however, were far less pleased.
“Fearless human.”
“Stop at once.”
“They have been granted the destiny—”
“of becoming subservient to our mighty Lord.”
I silently regarded the two Death Knights who stepped forward in place of their leader.
Clad from head to toe in pitch-black armor, they looked almost like twins. They were roughly the same height, and even their voices were difficult to tell apart.
There was only one obvious difference between them: the weapons at their waists.
One has a mace. The other has a sword.
That was enough to give me my answer. I had solved the question; I could write down the answer later.
Right now, I had another problem to deal with.
“You’ve been through hell too, Shen.”
Xiao Shen wasn’t as badly injured as Team Leader Choi, but his wounds were still severe. I was about to pour the remaining half of the potion into his mouth when—
“Wretched human.”
“This is your final warning.”
“Put down those two humans, step back, and beg for mercy.”
“Then our Lord will take you as his servant.”
“A servant?”
“Yes.”
One of the Death Knights stepped toward me, its voice flat and emotionless. The scabbard secured at its waist swayed with every step.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
One step. Two steps. Three.
There wasn’t a trace of hesitation in its approach.
Thousands of monsters and their leader were watching.
The Death Knight spoke with such confidence that it was hard to believe it was an emotionless undead monster.
“You possess a truly great and radiant soul. Become one of us.”
A great and radiant soul…
Without even raising my head, I continued pouring the potion.
Once the last few drops had fallen into Xiao Shen’s mouth, I stoppered the empty bottle and returned it to my Inventory.
Hissssss, hissssss.
A signal that recovery had begun.
I straightened at the welcome sound I had been waiting for, looked at the Death Knight, and finally said what I’d been wanting to say.
“His left leg.”
“Hm?”
“Team Leader Choi’s left leg. Everything below a point one handspan3 beneath the knee was gone. Cut off clean. And Xiao Shen—that young kid lost his right arm.”
“Human. What are you trying to say?”
“What am I trying to say?”
I gave it a faint smile.
“If you cut off perfectly good limbs, you should’ve been prepared for what came next.”
And in the next instant—
In the sliver of time left after an instant had been split in half, then split again, the creature was suddenly right in front of me.
No.
It was the other way around.
It hadn’t come to me.
I had gone to it.
“Let’s see that vaunted skill of yours.”
“……!”
Everything happened at once. The Death Knight tried to draw its sword, and I reached out with my left hand and pressed firmly against the back of its hand.
That was both the beginning and the end.
Shing. Click!
The dark blade had barely cleared its scabbard before it was forced back inside.
By then, my fist had already punched through the creature’s chest.
Crunch!
The Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist, charged with the Scorching Yang Qi of three jiazi1, vaporized even the fistful of blood remaining inside the undead monster and blazed up using its long-dead body as kindling.
Whoosh! Rooooar!
Engulfed in flames that refused to die, the Death Knight flailed its arms and turned toward its kin.
It staggered back along the path it had strode down so confidently, then crumbled into ash.
“……!”
“……!”
Though thousands of monsters were gathered there, everything went silent as if someone had pressed a mute button.
I took White Flame from my Inventory and slowly began to walk.
Splash. Splash.
Everywhere I looked and everywhere I stepped, there were corpses and blood.
Countless rifles caught against my feet. A soldier in a crooked combat helmet stared at the sky with lifeless eyes.
At least his corpse was still intact.
In what appeared to have been the fiercest part of the battlefield, Hunters from the Public Security Armed Forces Department lay dead, their bodies mangled beyond recognition.
I had spent a full week with the 1st Regiment under Xiao Shen. Among the corpses were several faces I recognized.
So many died. So damn many.
At least three thousand humans had died here today alone.
How many would that number become if I added the dead from all five fronts? If I included the civilians killed in this Monster Wave?
Thud!
I borrowed an unknown Hunter’s spear and drove it deep into the ground. Team Leader Choi’s leather strap, tied securely to the end of the shaft, fluttered in the wind.
Beyond it stood an army of thousands of monsters—and him.
System
Lv. 135 Death Knight Lord
Death Knight Lord.
What a grand name. Then again, the monster possessed enough power to live up to it.
The circumstances are different, but I do have another one like him.
I called out to the creature currently setting a new record for silence.
“Let me ask you a favor.”
I expected him to pretend he hadn’t heard, but after a brief hesitation, the Skeleton Warlord answered.
“……A favor? You’re not asking me to fight beside you, are you?”
“Of course not.”
I had never expected that of him, and I didn’t now. The favor I wanted had nothing to do with fighting.
It was about protecting someone.
“Protect the two people behind me. No matter what it takes.”
With my permission, the Skeleton Warlord had been absorbing death qi whenever possible, growing stronger in the process.
As a Named Monster, he should have been capable of handling several ordinary A-rank monsters by himself.
“When this battle is over, I’ll grant you any wish.”
“In that case, there’s nothing I can’t do. But how long am I supposed to protect them?”
“That’s obvious…”
I raised White Flame and pointed it at the Death Knight Lord.
“Until every last one of those bastards is dead.”
“You lunatic…!”
“Too late.”
I pulled the Skeleton Warlord’s skull from my Inventory and tossed it behind me.
Crack. Pop.
As he hurriedly regenerated his body, I stroked the leather strap fluttering from the spear shaft.
How had he felt?
How had they all felt?
What had gone through their minds as they charged toward their deaths?
I couldn’t begin to imagine.
There was only one thing I knew for certain.
“Any bastard who comes past this spear is going to fucking die.”
The fire dragon coiled within my dantian raised its head.
CRUNCH!
Flesh and bone shattered, spraying in every direction.
An ogre’s limbs went flying, while a Troll was engulfed in unquenchable flames before it had a chance to regenerate.
Boom! Slash!
The head of a Lycanthrope baring its fangs exploded.
A Dullahan charged through the spray of foul-smelling brain matter, only to be cleaved in half with a single blow. Its halberd found a new master and shot away with tremendous force, tearing through a Wyvern’s wing.
CRACKLE!
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
Thud-thud-thud!
Blood rained from the sky.
At the same moment, a streak of blue flame cut through the downpour.
Whoooooosh! Slash!
A storm of blood erupted. Whenever the flames streaked through the air, dozens of monsters fell and hundreds recoiled.
And the thousands of monsters…
At some point, they began to be overwhelmed.
They had grown afraid of a single human—and of the line of death he had drawn with a single spear.
“L-Lord.”
For the first time, the Death Knight’s flat, unwavering voice trembled with emotion.
The Black Knight knew perfectly well what his subordinate’s desperate plea meant.
“Make way.”
Between the slits of the deeply lowered helmet, red eyes flickered.
As he advanced, immense magical power rolling off him, he tried to ignore the strange words and scenes that kept surfacing in his mind.
Nothing could take precedence over his creator, his eternal lord.
“Are you listening, my servant?”
At his lord’s voice echoing like a hallucination, the Black Knight quietly replied,
“Yes, my lord.”
Until the very end, he failed to realize one thing.
That his hand was groping somewhere between the plates of his armor.
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