Chapter 410

Has it been over thirty years?

Lee Jungryong muttered to himself.

The stench of countless monsters and the reek of blood drifted in on the wind. It was the smell of a battlefield, stirring memories of long ago.

Yes. It truly has been a long time.

With a shrewd gaze that seemed at odds with his appearance, he watched the fog slowly draw nearer. The pale fog, where thousands of monsters were presumably lurking, radiated an ominous feeling simply by being there.

Most of the troops were shaken, but to Lee Jungryong—a living witness to the Great Cataclysm—it was an all-too-familiar sight.

“How old are you?”

At Lee Jungryong’s sudden question, Go Jun, the Head of Security standing one step behind him, answered.

“Thirty-five.”

“That’s a good age. Looking back, I was the same. Every day brought another brush with death, but I had dreams back then.”

Lee Jungryong gazed into the distance.

For a moment, he seemed to glimpse his younger self somewhere far away—a young man driven by the will to survive and the ambition to become the best.

But more than thirty years later, the man standing here was nearing seventy.

“Sometimes, doubt creeps in. I find myself wondering whether everything I’ve built might come crashing down.”

“I have not the slightest doubt.”

“Why not?”

Go Jun’s lips moved.

“Because you are here, Master.”

Lee Jungryong gave a quiet laugh.

“And what would you do if I fell?”

“I can say with certainty that will never happen.”

“There was a time when I thought the same of someone else. He was stronger than anyone, an insurmountable wall I could never overcome even if I devoted my entire life to trying.”

“……!”

“He was the beginning and end of the Great Cataclysm. He was everything. Humanity’s savior, no different from a new god. But even he was only human.”

The hero who had achieved immortal feats had not shown himself for many years, and only a handful of people knew the secret surrounding him.

As one of those few, Lee Jungryong continued in a low voice.

“Nothing is eternal, and nothing is certain. I’ve found myself thinking that more and more lately.”

“……Is this because of Jin Taekyung?”

“When a crack begins, collapse comes in an instant. That bastard is the crack itself.”

“Then we must seal it before everything collapses.”

Lee Jungryong watched the fog slide across the desolate plain. When he spoke, his voice was gentle, but a blade lay hidden beneath it.

“Are you ready?”

“I will obey.”

Go Jun bowed deeply and drew his sword.

Shing! Clatter!

Hundreds, then thousands, of weapons were drawn behind him at once.

The Ares Guild’s elites, honed through countless raids and training exercises, stood alongside the Chinese Hunters. The light gleaming from their weapons rippled like waves.

“Please give the command.”

Lee Jungryong slowly began to walk.

There was no place here for soldiers or firearms. This was a battle solely between the superhumans known as Hunters and the monsters—and Lee Jungryong would reign as the god of the battlefield.

“Let’s go.”

With that single word, Lee Jungryong shot forward like the wind. The fog filling the plain split apart on both sides along the path of his sword.

Kraaash!

Splurt!

Drenched in horribly foul-smelling green blood, the young man barely managed to keep from gagging.

No, that was not quite right.

It would be more accurate to say he was not even given the chance.

Whoosh! Boom!

The upper section of his Tower Shield shattered, and a sharp fragment grazed the tip of his nose. Blood spurted out, and the scent of it pierced his nostrils.

It helped drown out the terrible stench, but directly before him, an undead ogre that looked freshly dead was raising a massive iron club.

“Grrrraaaaah!”

Whoooooosh.

The terrifying sound of it tearing through the air was enough to make his hair stand on end.

The young man gritted his teeth and bent his knees, shielding his head with his mana-infused Tower Shield.

Boom!

The tremendous impact tore through his entire body. His ears rang, his head reeled, and his arm hurt as though it had been broken.

No. Maybe it’s already broken.

But a broken arm barely even counted as a problem right now.

Not when a ferociously roaring, five-meter-tall monster¹ was swinging an iron club as large as a grown man like a pinwheel.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Under the relentless assault, the young man screamed, his voice edging toward tears.

“You turtle-dicked bastard! Why are you so strong?!”

The young man was a veteran B-rank Hunter. Naturally, he had fought ogres before.

As befitted A-rank monsters, ogres possessed tremendous strength and stamina, but they had never been this strong.

They definitely hadn’t been…

Boom!

The young man stared blankly as the high-strength Tower Shield he had bought for a fortune at the beginning of the year shattered after only five blows.

What the hell… Did all these things take drugs or something?

They were far too strong.

As he watched the iron club rise once more through the pale fog, the young man sensed that his end had come.

At the same time, one name flashed through his mind.

Jin Taekyung.

This was all that bastard’s fault.

If Jin Taekyung had simply pretended not to know him and walked past that day, some big shot would never have kicked him in the shins, and he would not have been drafted as a frontline tank.

Then he would not be about to die like this.

Whoooooosh!

Dodging was unthinkable. He did not even have the courage to look straight at the iron club hurtling toward him, filling his entire field of vision.

The young man squeezed his eyes shut and let out an involuntary scream.

“Jin Taekyung, you bangzi bastard!”²

And then, in the next instant—

Slash! Rattle-rattle-rattle!

His vision went pitch-black. A cool breeze brushed across his entire body, and something poured down like a sudden shower.

Soon, a voice pierced his ears.

“What did you just call me?”

“……Huh?”

The young man’s eyes flew open. Green blood was scattering through the air in droplets. The enormous body of the undead ogre, now missing its head, was slowly toppling over.

And there was the face of a man scowling deeply.

“……Huh?”

“You’re that bastard from last time. Burdian.”

Whoosh! Splurt!

He had not seen it. There had been no way he could.

The man reached out, and a streak of light—probably a dagger—pierced three or four monsters. They crumpled like puppets with their strings cut.

An answer escaped the young man’s lips before he could think.

“Uh, no, I’m not.”

“No, my ass, you fucking bastard.”

Slash! Bang!

“You looked like you were in danger, so I saved you, and you call me a bangzi?² You’d better survive. I’m going to make you run bread for me until you die of old age.”

Slash! Sssshk!

Is this a dream?

Every time the young man blinked, the monsters around him fell like bundles of straw.

Blue flames erupted, and whenever the air split with a shriek, an area that had been so densely packed there was nowhere to step was swept clean.

It all began at one man’s fingertips, and none of it looked like something a human being could have done.

The young man stared at him in a daze.

“Are you… perhaps a god?”

After a moment of silence, Jin Taekyung asked in return,

“Are you perhaps… a fucking idiot?”

Rrrrummmble!

Blue flames swept across the earth. Steel melted, and monsters engulfed in the blaze screamed in agony.

After wiping out dozens of monsters with a single sweep, Jin Taekyung glanced at the young man.

“Hey.”

“Yes? Yes?”

“Survive. I’m going to make you run bread for me.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m not joking. If you die, I’ll kill you myself.”

“……!”

“Oh, and take this.”

Whoosh! Crack!

Something shot toward the young man like a ray of light, struck him in the forehead, and shattered.

Before he could react, translucent liquid drenched him, and Jin Taekyung’s low voice reached his ears.

“You’ll be fine now, so get back to fighting. Don’t go picking fights with ogres unless you want to get yourself killed. Stick to the weaker ones. Got it?”

Hissss.

The liquid—no, the potion—seeped into him with a faint warmth.

The young man felt the wounds covering his body close and his broken arm mend. He nodded blankly.

“Yes. Yes.”

“Then I’m off.”

“P-Please be careful, sir.”

Forgetting that he was in the middle of a battlefield, the young man bowed deeply at the waist.

When he raised his head again, Jin Taekyung was gone, and a group was rushing past him.

Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! Slash!

More than two hundred Hunters raced forward without hesitation along the path Jin Taekyung had opened, swinging their weapons.

Two figures at the forefront stood out above all the rest.

“&*^%!”

“Their formation has collapsed! Charge!”

One was a handsome man spouting incomprehensible Korean. The other was a remarkably young-looking Hunter.

They moved like the wind, their blades wreathed in dazzling aura as they cut the monsters apart.

The suicide squad.

He had heard about them. A number of S-rank Hunters, including Jin Taekyung, would lead the suicide squads from each front in a charge against the Arch Lich.

Only yesterday, he had thought it was impossible nonsense…

Amazing.

Could I become like that too?

As the young man gazed blankly at the scene, his chest suddenly grew hot. Some unknown strength surged up from within him, and he could not contain it.

He raised his half-destroyed Tower Shield and charged toward the nearest monster.

“Yaaaaaaaah!”

“Grrrraaaaah!”

Whoosh! Boom!

“……”

Damn it. It was an ogre.

The young man stared at his now completely shattered Tower Shield, turned on his heel, and ran.

Orcs. Where are the orcs?!

Thud!

That did it.

The impact against my knuckles told me all I needed to know. As certainty flashed through my mind, the head of the Lycanthrope lunging teeth-first for the back of my neck exploded.

System

Ding!

• You defeated Lv. 92 Darkened Lycanthrope!
• You gained a small amount of EXP!

A Lycanthrope at level ninety-something?

I already knew Level was not an absolute measure, but the monsters gathered on this battlefield were clearly different from the ones I had encountered in Gates.

They’re stronger.

Their Levels were slightly higher, and they were superior in Agility and raw strength as well.

If it had been one or two monsters, I might have brushed it off. But everything from F-rank goblins to A-rank monsters was like this. You would have to be an idiot not to realize something was wrong.

“Mr. Jin Taekyung!”

“Hyung!”³

I turned at the urgent shouts behind me and saw monsters packing the path I had opened, leaving no gaps between them.

The suicide squad was fighting desperately against them.

“Get the hell out of here. All of you.”

Boom-boom-boom-boom!

To the monsters, I was something they could neither stop nor evade.

Dozens of fist shadows shot out like cannonballs and rained down upon their heads.

Some were reduced to bloody pulp and hurled into the distance. Others simply crumpled where they stood.

I charged into the space that had momentarily been emptied.

Slash-slash-slash!

A spearhead wreathed in Force tore through bone and flesh, carving through everything around me. As the monsters fell, System notifications rang out without pause.

System

Ding! Ding! Ding!

• You defeated Lv. 55 Darkened Orc Warrior!
• You gained an extremely small amount of EXP!
• You defeated Lv. 83 Darkened Lizard Mage!
• You gained an extremely small amount of EXP…

Then came a cheerful chime I had not heard in a long time.

System

Ding!

• Level Up!
• The effects of leveling up relieve fatigue and heal some injuries!
• You obtained 10 points!
• Your physical condition is at its peak!

I could feel it.

My steadily draining internal energy filled to the brim, and the fatigue accumulated throughout my body vanished as if it had been washed away.

But there was something more important.

“Team Leader Choi! Xiao Shen!”

“Yes!”

“What is it?”

I shouted loudly enough for my voice to shake the entire battlefield.

“The fog! Get as far outside its range as you can!”

This was not merely unpleasant, clammy fog. It was a kind of Magic wielded by the Arch Lich.

It strengthened the monsters within its range—or rather, made them Darkened.

Damn Magic.

At that very moment, as I glared at the mysterious fog filling the area around me—

Kraaaa-boom!

A thunderous roar, as if the sky itself had split apart, echoed across heaven and earth.