Chapter 80

Chapter 80

The looks directed at me were all over the place. Some were shocked, others furious.

I've always hated dragging things out. I prefer settling things right here and now. In that sense, this gathering of influential figures from around the world was a chance to take care of annoying business all at once.

I was also sick of hearing people scattered in every direction run their mouths about my abilities.

So I laid out the board.

If you've got complaints, speak up.

Let's see how boldly you can talk with the person right in front of you.

"Say it."

Amid the atmosphere of everyone quietly passing the buck, the one who raised a hand was a middle-aged man with typical Germanic features and brown hair.

"I am Schwantner."

Schwantner was a Czech transcendent and a follower of the EU-centered defense system.

He'd been a transcendent for over ten years, and he was a troublemaker who caused incident after incident with his fiery temper and reckless mouth.

I remembered the things he'd been spouting about me. Hadn't he said I was a scarecrow South Korea fabricated to cover up Kim Younghwan's death? He'd ranted that the little peninsula nation was making a reckless move, that the genius-making would be exposed soon enough.

He'd also said that when I hunted Nuri, it was exaggerated as an ordinary Harmful-class Level 8. Then apparently he'd tried hunting a Plus-grade that appeared in the Czech Republic and shit himself bloody.

Small world, this guy. There are always people who judge everything however they please, measuring all the phenomena of the world from their own tiny little bubble. Come to think of it, I'm not so different. The only difference is I have the power to overcome it, and he doesn't.

Thanks to the real-time interpretation, understanding what he said wasn't difficult.

"Speak."

"There's a considerable gap between Iron Mind's testimony and the time you finished hunting Nuri. How do you explain that?"

Iron Mind is the epithet for Lee Chantae, Ironheart.

"Because I didn't kill Nuri right away."

"You didn't kill it?"

"Its use of a gift and its Force manipulation were fascinating, so I captured it and tested how long it could hold out. Then it couldn't take any more, lost its mind, and I killed it."

"......"

The room fell into silence. If you've neutralized a monster anyway, of course you'd want to run a few experiments—what's the problem? Wait, did they somehow find out about the Brainwashing?

Then again, if someone tamed a Harmful-class Level 8 Plus monster and walked it around, that would be pretty terrifying.

"You subdued it, and that wasn't enough—you experimented on it?"

"Yeah."

"...Bullshit."

Schwantner's eyes shook violently. I don't know why these days everyone calls the truth a lie even when you tell it to their face.

"If you're not going to believe me, don't bother asking."

"I can't believe it. Transcendents from every nation went through death's door because of Plus-grade monsters. And you're saying you not only hunted one alone, but experimented on it too?"

"Don't believe it if you don't want to. Or fight me."

"What?"

"You were running your mouth about how my abilities could be verified with a few fingers. You called me a scarecrow—what, are you scared now? Swamper?"

Schwantner's face crumpled at the word "Swamper."

Swamper was a jab at his gift, Mud creation—a term for someone who does grunt work.

"...Fine. I've been curious about your abilities for a while."

"Wait......!"

As killing intent spread in an instant, startled people tried to stop us, but Schwantner moved faster.

He kicked off the ground, lunged, and thrust out a hand. Force swirled as he came at me. Weapons were banned in this venue, but a transcendent can still wield their base martial ability without a weapon.

Saying you couldn't go all out after losing is just the whining of losers.

I stepped forward to meet him, then paused. At some point the ground beneath my feet had turned slick like a swamp, grabbing at my feet and pulling me down.

Even so, it was only a minor hindrance. Normally I would've loaded Arc Mine into my feet and broken free easily.

But I have Immunity to All Poisons. It had malfunctioned briefly before, but in this situation it demonstrated the power befitting a legendary gift. It dispelled the swamp's debuff that was grabbing my feet and freed my movement.

When I moved without any hindrance, Schwantner's eyes went wide.

Fsssh!

The Force Schwantner had deployed shattered, and my Arc Mine reached his face. Even with Force condensed, the power of Arc Mine as a gift held a clear advantage.

"Kgh!"

With a short groan, he barely managed to block by crossing his arms. Sure enough, against a transcendent, Arc Mine couldn't dig in properly.

But compared to his defense, his offense was clumsy. That awkwardness came from his main weapon being a greatsword.

If he died here, he'd lament in the afterlife that he died because he had no weapon.

So what?

If he was going to get into a fight like this, he should've learned bare-handed combat too. There's no grave without an excuse, anyway.

I'm facing him bare-handed too, applying the same penalty to myself.

"When a weakling runs his mouth, he's just hastening his own death."

"Uaaaaah!"

Schwantner gathered Force while resisting my Arc Mine and detonated it.

Boom!

With a sound like a balloon popping, a terrifying wave of Force swept out. In an instant the venue turned into chaos, but there were no casualties. The transcendents who had stepped forward had already moved to protect the VIPs and dissipated the aftermath.

The momentary burst of full power pushed me back briefly, but that was all. My hand pursued Schwantner relentlessly, and at last I grabbed him by the collar.

"Keuk!"

Unable to breathe, he let out a stifled groan. He wrapped himself in Force and resisted fiercely, but my grip didn't budge.

Just as I was about to mercilessly twist his neck with my left hand, I saw a figure charging in from the side and had no choice but to let go of Schwantner's collar.

Crack!

Deformed tree roots tried to entangle my leg but broke apart. Rather than causing a status effect, I felt a force persistently trying to burrow into my body like Arc Mine.

I shifted my gaze and saw a beautiful blonde woman with a long, curvy figure watching me.

It was Laura Anne, Germany's transcendent. At thirty-four, she was Europe's greatest prospect upon becoming a transcendent, and she'd been registered around the same time as me.

She'd never made negative comments about me—if anything, she'd praised me as a prospect. I had no idea why she was intervening now.

"Why are you butting in?"

"Schwantner is a precious asset of the European Union. I can't just let him die. If he dies, the ones who benefit are the League and the monsters."

"You don't get to decide that. I do."

"But I can interfere. If it comes to it, I can even inflict fatal damage on you."

"I'll take that to mean you want to die together."

Without another word, I charged at Laura. In an instant I felt tree roots entangling my legs, but I easily kicked them apart.

Yet even as they shattered to pieces, the fragments clung to my legs and tried to burrow inside.

It was so unexpected that I was genuinely surprised. This was similar to the principle behind Arc Mine.

Come to think of it, I'd heard that Laura Anne was a disciple of Franz, the master of Arc Mine. So she'd grafted that principle onto her own gift. As befitting someone who became a transcendent at a young age, her talent was outstanding.

But against me—someone who dispels status effects with Immunity to All Poisons and wields the principles of Arc Mine throughout my entire body—Laura's gift wasn't much of a threat.

How much blood have these hands shed? If anything, I've used Arc Mine longer than Franz and killed more people with it. I dispelled the status effects with Immunity to All Poisons and shattered every force trying to burrow in with Arc Mine.

My hand, having cleared every obstacle, reached Laura.

Crack!

"Euk!"

When the tree roots sprouting from her fingertips broke too, a stifled sound burst from Laura's lips. I pushed aside her clawing hand and reached for Schwantner. In the meantime, having recovered his strength, he generated a Force blade from a ballpoint pen and blocked my Arc Mine.

Alternating between Schwantner and Laura from left and right, I pressed them hard.

"Kgh!"

"Ugh!"

The Force blade and the ballpoint pen shattered to pieces, and Schwantner, his chest caved in, coughed up blood and was pushed back. I broke Laura's arm with Arc Mine and planted Arc Mine into her shoulder. As expected of a transcendent, it didn't break immediately and resisted stubbornly.

But the moment she allowed me to land an attack, it was already over. While Laura couldn't use her strength, Schwantner's shins and thighs, then his hands, wrists, and elbows were broken.

The very foundation for properly exerting his power had been destroyed.

I could see the will to fight vanish from his eyes, replaced by terror.

This is the end.

That was when I felt a massive force rushing at me with ferocious momentum.

I turned and clasped my hands together, unleashing blade storm. With a rumble, a giant boulder shattered to pieces.

The broken rock fragments stuck to each other like magnets, then transformed into the form of a huge black man.

It was Traore, the French transcendent of Malian origin. Having risen to the pinnacle of France from an immigrant background, he was a symbol of immigrant success and a fixer who handled Europe's dirty work. His internationally recognized epithet was Stone Golem.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop. Those two are precious teammates of mine."

"I applaud the friendship that treasures one's teammates."

At my words, Traore's expression brightened. He seemed to have misunderstood my meaning.

If someone else saw this, how would they judge it? If you're taking on three transcendents, wouldn't they call you insane?

Who cares. I'm not insane.

Back when I was the Blood Lord, I survived situations far harsher and more hopeless than this.

Three transcendents stood in my way, but I didn't care.

"As the price of that friendship, I'll kill all three of you."

*

'What the fuck! Motherfucker!'

James Reed screamed inwardly. He couldn't tell whether what he was seeing was a dream or reality.

Having recently started learning Korean, he'd picked up the habit of cursing, and he rattled off every profanity that came to mind without taking his eyes off the fight.

'This is some seriously crazy shit!'

He knew Choi Junho was remarkable. He also knew that in this confined space, the transcendents facing him couldn't go all out.

But this was a bit much, wasn't it!

Schwantner, who dragged his opponents into an endless swamp; Laura Anne, Germany's rising star; and Traore, France's fixer.

Every one of them was a flawless transcendent.

Yet Choi Junho was overwhelming all three of them.

At this level, Choi Junho had already proven his skill. When the common wisdom was that it took at least two transcendents to hunt a Plus-grade monster, overwhelming three was the same as proving he'd hunted Nuri alone.

Schwantner's debuffs, Laura's creative applications, and Traore's weight and power were all helpless before Choi Junho.

'He's like Blackhound and Hell Master combined.'

James Reed thought of the two legendary villains who'd founded the League, and flinched when a hand tapped his shoulder. He turned his head to find Guillermo, unable to tear his eyes from the battle.

"I survived thanks to you. If I'd jumped in, I'd be dead."

At their first meeting, Guillermo had been ready to clash with Choi Junho.

But he could guess what the outcome would have been if he had.

Relieved that someone finally understood what he'd been through, he asked for help.

"That's not the problem. We have to stop him."

"I'll step in."

"I'll help too. We're only going to stop him."

James Reed, who'd been watching the situation, jumped into the fight alongside Guillermo.

The power of the blade storm unleashed through a knife hand was beyond what the word "monstrous" could convey.

It was a fierce momentum that seemed bent on shattering the opponent to pieces. Each and every blade carried thick killing intent.

'It's no joke! It's optimized solely for annihilating the enemy!'

Though it was a single strike, James Reed shuddered at the killing intent embedded within it.

"......"

Guillermo felt the same, his expression hardening.

Once the two of them dissipated the aftermath of Choi Junho's blade storm, the three transcendents retreated.

Schwantner's injuries looked severe, but fortunately his life didn't seem to be in danger.

James Reed shouted.

"Junho! Stop!"

"You want to die too?"

"Just calm the fuck down!"

"Why should I?"

"This whole thing happened because we didn't know you! So give us time to get to know you! Then the misunderstandings will be cleared up! Killing isn't the answer to everything! That's the kind of thing villains do!"

Though his behavior already seemed worse than a villain's.

James Reed knew that the words capable of restraining Choi Junho were "villain" and "soybean paste stew," so he deliberately brought up "villain."

And there was a reaction.

"......"

James Reed watched Choi Junho's silence anxiously. He'd crossed a line and intervened, but if the man tried to go further here, he had no justification to stop him.

So he pulled out his second trump card: soybean paste stew.

"I'll talk to Guillermo and get him to teach you a Mexican-style soybean paste stew recipe!"

"......!"

"And I'll try grafting Nordic and Mediterranean styles onto it too! How about it?"

To think this was his trump card. Was this really the extent of the improvisation that a Stanford doctorate could produce?

James Reed felt ashamed that this was all he could come up with.

Then a miracle happened.

Choi Junho withdrew his killing intent.

"...I was going to quit anyway since it ruins the taste. Keep that promise."

"Trust me! I'll get you a fucking delicious recipe."

Was this real?

James Reed let out a sigh of relief as he watched Choi Junho walk away.

*

After that, the event concluded in a somewhat unsettled atmosphere.

Throughout the event, I felt stinging gazes directed at me.

What a nuisance.

I hadn't managed to kill all three, but I wasn't too disappointed. If I'd been the Blood Lord, I would've killed them by any means necessary, but I'm a transcendent who thinks normally now. I decided to be satisfied with having knocked a bit of sense into them.

And if they still don't learn, I can just kill them then.

Everyone makes mistakes, after all.

I really have gotten generous.

"Schwantner's going to have a rough time."

Since I'd run Arc Mine all over his body, it would take quite a while to recover.

Laura and Traore were lightly injured, but they wouldn't be running their mouths again either.

Come to think of it, had I made sure they wouldn't run their mouths again?

"What's this?"

As I was about to rest in my room, I sensed a gloomy, sticky aura.

It was an aura I'd felt somewhere before. It was calling me.

I followed the aura out of the hotel. On the well-landscaped walking path, a short black man who looked about 165 centimeters tall was waving at me.

It was a face I'd committed to memory in advance. Diawara, the transcendent from Guinea.

"Good to see you, Junho."

Surprisingly, he spoke fluent Korean.

"You called for me."

"That's right."

"Why?"

"The duel today was a shame. If Macho Man had stepped in just a little later, I could have killed them all."

"......"

I just listened quietly to what he had to say.

He glanced around, checking that no one was nearby, then lowered his voice.

"I know everything. You're with the League, aren't you?"

What the hell was this all of a sudden?

He must have taken my silence as agreement, because he started rattling off information.

"You're also posing as a national-affiliated transcendent. I know all about it."

Do these transcendents leave their brains at home these days? One thing was clear—this guy had some connection to the League. Quietly, I turned on the recorder on the smartphone in my hand.

"I've met Blackhound before."

"Oh! Impressive, as expected. I've never even seen the Twelve Zodiac. You asked why I called you, right? How about an alliance with me? At this event, we pick fights and take out a few transcendents. Then the League will treat you and me like valuable assets. The League's developed a technique that artificially amplifies your power, you see."

"How did you find out about my connection to the League?"

"Argos told me. Said you're the real deal, a villain born to be a villain."

...Argos, you bastard. One of these days I swear I'll wring your neck.

Listening to Diawara chatter on excitedly, one thing became certain.

There was a reason the League hadn't brought this guy along, and being a branch organization, their information sharing wasn't exactly smooth.

So he was judging based on old intel and spilling everything to me.

But why was he so certain I belonged to the League?

I'd shown the whole world my generous forcefulness, not killing a single transcendent.

Shouldn't he be thinking of me as some righteous transcendent instead?

"Argos must have been running his mouth again."

"Haha! The guy's a smooth talker, isn't he? It's kind of cool, honestly."

The guy, who'd been chattering away excitedly, finally let slip the decisive piece of information.

"I'm posing as a national-affiliated transcendent too, just like you. That's why the League holds me in pretty high regard as a spy."

"I see. A spy."

"Why play dumb? You're in the same boat as me."

"......"

Same boat, my ass.

The rice cake had rolled right to my feet on its own.

What was the saying for this again?

I was so busy racking my brain that I let it go in one ear and out the other, and the guy gave me a puzzled look.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Ah, I just remembered."

"Hm?"

"Golden goblin."

I reached my hand out toward him.