Chapter 78
Late evening.
An uninvited guest appeared before the Great Buddha Temple, where a giant Buddha statue was carved into the cliff.
“Stop!”
Two monks guarding the Great Buddha Temple’s gate moved to block a man in peculiar attire.
The man halted precisely at the foot of the stone steps.
Fluent Chinese flowed from Major Wi Gwakdu.
“Major Wi Gwakdu of the Republic of Korea Army. I’m here to take a man named Bang Hyuk-min.”
At the mention of Bang Hyuk-min, the two gatekeeper monks exchanged glances.
Then, frowning, they shouted at Wi Gwakdu.
“Why are you looking for someone named Bang Hyuk-min here?”
“Because I know he’s here.”
“What is your relationship?”
“Our relationship…? The chaser and the chased.”
With a smirk, Wi Gwakdu confidently started up the stone steps leading to the Great Buddha Temple.
“I told you to stop!”
Despite the monks’ roars, Wi Gwakdu only sneered and kept climbing.
When their warnings had no effect, the monks leveled their wooden staffs at him.
“From now on, we will treat you as an intruder and drive you out!”
Then came Wi Gwakdu’s voice.
“If you can.”
“Hyaaah!”
One of the monks kicked off the ground and brought his wooden staff down on Wi Gwakdu’s head.
The speed and precision of the strike showed just how diligently the gatekeepers had trained.
However…
He had chosen the wrong opponent.
Thwack!
The descending staff was caught far too easily in Wi Gwakdu’s grasp.
It had been a powerful blow backed by internal energy, yet Wi Gwakdu, as if it hadn’t even tickled, met the monk’s eyes with a sneer.
Then, swinging the staff along with the monk holding it, he sent him flying into the temple wall.
Smack!
“Keuk!”
The monk slammed into the wall and clutched his chest.
From that single exchange, the two gatekeepers understood.
The difference between Wi Gwakdu and themselves was like heaven and earth.
The remaining monk hastily pulled a flute from his robes.
At that moment—
Whoosh.
On a fierce gust of wind, Wi Gwakdu appeared before him. The monk had only managed to lift the flute to his lips, not even able to think about blowing it.
“Why’d you stop? Go on. Blow it.”
As if on cue with Wi Gwakdu’s words, the flute screamed.
Peeeeeeeee!!
Thump!!
The Great Buddha Temple’s gates swung wide open, and the monk was sent flying into the vast courtyard.
“An attack!”
“Protect the Great Buddha Temple!”
“Waaaaaah!”
= = =
It was late, well past 10 p.m.
Even so, the flute’s alarm echoing through the Great Buddha Temple drew countless monks from all over.
“Whew~ Quite a lot of them. This must not be an ordinary temple, huh?”
Stepping through the gates into the wide, dirt courtyard, Wi Gwakdu nodded as he took in the monks filling the grounds.
A rough count put them at over sixty, yet Wi Gwakdu’s oppressive presence didn’t waver in the slightest.
“Hm?”
As he scanned the area, three people in attire different from the monks caught his eye, standing before the high stone steps at the center of the courtyard.
The moment he saw the person in the middle, a strange light flashed in Wi Gwakdu’s eyes.
“You knew I was coming? Hahahaha. Well, for a guy who can hide even from a national order, it’s only natural you’d have a skilled informant on your side. Isn’t that right? Bang Hyuk-min?”
At the booming voice that seemed to rattle their eardrums, No Death and Hyun-jung frowned.
“Did he swallow a train horn? My brain is rattling.”
“It feels like he’s yelling right into my ear.”
Hyuk-min looked at them and spoke quietly.
“He’s wrapping his throat in internal energy.”
“Internal energy?”
“It’s a type of mana, but its properties are different.”
“There’s something like that?”
Hyun-jung had suspected it, but hearing it confirmed—Wi Gwakdu was a martial arts user—was anything but welcome.
“Anyone can use mana, but internal energy can’t be used unless you learn martial arts and a breathing method to accumulate it.”
“Then that Wi Gwakdu is…”
“A martial artist.”
That confirmed it.
Wi Gwakdu was a true member of the Karma Unit.
Then—
As if declaring war on everyone present, Wi Gwakdu, still projecting his voice through internal energy like one would in battle, suddenly burst forward at terrifying speed.
“He’s coming.”
No Death tightened his grip on his dagger, and Hyun-jung pulled a large gun from her [Inventory].
“I’ll go alone.”
Hyuk-min patted their shoulders once each, then walked down the stone steps alone.
Faced with this extraordinary monster, Hyun-jung—tense for the first time in a while—shouted.
“Uncle! Old Man Mode! Use Old Man Mode!”
When there was no answer, she was about to shout again, but No Death shook his head.
“He doesn’t have that anymore. [Regression Mode] is gone.”
“What…!?”
As Hyun-jung recoiled in shock, No Death continued in a grave voice.
“He’s become more of a monster instead. More than when he had [Regression Mode].”
Thud!
Hyuk-min kicked off the ground.
The deep, wide footprint left behind showed just how much stronger he’d become.
[Doo-roong.]
[Killing intent detected.]
As the distance to Wi Gwakdu closed, the [UNLIMIT System Window] sent a warning with an alert sound.
Hyuk-min’s eyebrow twitched.
‘It can even detect killing intent?’
That wasn’t something his current white System supported.
Yet this unknown [UNLIMIT System Window] could do even that?
Just as his attention was about to get pulled deeper into [UNLIMIT]—which only grew more curious the more he learned—
Pang!
“…?!”
The distance vanished in an instant.
Wi Gwakdu’s footwork, as if he were folding the ground itself, was enough to surprise Hyuk-min—if only for a moment.
But the surprises didn’t end there.
“Hup!”
Tang!!
‘What? What just happened?’
The attack was so strange he couldn’t even grasp it, and he was forced to take the blow without being able to properly defend.
He threw up a minimal guard, but it still wasn’t enough to stop his body from being blasted backward.
Whoosh—
Screeeech.
His feet carved two long trenches as he dragged himself to a stop at the base of the stone steps.
‘What was that?’
He was stunned.
A moment ago there had been distance—then, in the blink of an eye, Wi Gwakdu’s face was right in front of him.
Hyuk-min looked down at the palm he’d raised.
Sizzle.
Smoke still curled off it, proof of how brutal Wi Gwakdu’s strike had been.
But there was one thing.
He’d learned something from that hit.
Swish, swish.
“This is doable.”
Brushing off his palm as if swatting away a fly, Hyuk-min’s lips curled upward.
It was the moment the stat boost from [UNLIMIT]—the one that had swallowed his [Regression Mode]—truly shone.
Seeing Hyuk-min completely unscathed, Wi Gwakdu’s smile deepened.
“So you’re not a Legendary Title Holder for nothing, huh? The Title’s effect must be incredible. For a kid who looks barely in his early twenties to take my attack and be fine.”
To be sure, the nearly forty percent damage reduction and nearly forty percent additional damage granted by the Legendary Title were absurd.
His growth rate itself could be called absurd.
But Hyuk-min hadn’t gotten strong just because the Legendary Title was absurd.
It was the stat boost from the unexpected boon of [UNLIMIT].
That was all.
“I understand now why the country sent me personally just to catch one young kid.”
As Wi Gwakdu casually loosened up, Hyuk-min opened his [Inventory].
Then he took out the Death Knight’s Helmet and put it on.
“You said you were Wi Gwakdu?”
“The only conversation we’ll be having is after you’re on the ground.”
Pang!
A faint burst of air sounded from Wi Gwakdu as he sprang in place.
Then, another strange phenomenon occurred.
Whoosh!
He reappeared in front of Hyuk-min in a blink and swung his fist with all his might.
Pang!
His fist struck empty air—yet it sounded as if the air itself had exploded.
In the space where Hyuk-min had vanished, Wi Gwakdu’s eyebrow twitched.
“Very soldier-like.”
The voice came from directly behind him.
Wi Gwakdu moved on reflex, bypassing thought.
His body twisted a full 180 degrees, and the elbow he swung was caught precisely in Hyuk-min’s palm.
Pak!
Their gazes met mid-air.
Or rather—
The sky-blue haze rising from Wi Gwakdu’s entire body, and the dark red haze flaring like fire from Hyuk-min’s.
Both startled by the other’s haze, their eyes locked.
The realm of a martial artist.
Internal energy.
Pang!!
Without either clearly claiming the first move, their fists shot out at the same time, colliding and kicking up a violent gust.
Tak, tak.
They separated and stared at each other in silence.
“Head Monk! That is!”
At a monk’s shout, Chang-kyung, watching from afar, nodded.
“They are both martial artists.”
His sharp gaze traced the internal energy flowing from their bodies, and Chang-kyung clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. But one is mighty and firm, while the other is an empty, noisy cart.”
All the monks guarding Chang-kyung nodded.
To the eyes of martial artists who studied martial arts and walked the warrior’s path, it was obvious.
Wi Gwakdu’s internal energy was like a solid horn, while Hyuk-min’s was large in volume but pale in color.
“Should we not help?”
Mantae, the Right Dharma Protector who had been quietly guarding Chang-kyung from behind, bowed his head.
At this rate, that cloud-like internal energy would be torn apart by the solid horn.
But Chang-kyung shook his head at Mantae’s concern.
“Unless that turtle reveals everything inside its hard shell, I do not think he will lose.”
“A turtle… sir?”
Mantae asked again, but Chang-kyung only smiled without answering.
And soon, a deafening roar erupted from the center of the Great Buddha Temple’s wide courtyard, shattering the silence.
Kaboom!!!
= = =
A whirlwind and shockwave exploded outward from the courtyard’s center.
Whoooosh—
The blue flail in Wi Gwakdu’s hand and the dark red Immortal Demon Sword in Hyuk-min’s were locked together.
Wi Gwakdu spoke first.
“You’re not young, are you?”
He wasn’t a seasoned veteran for nothing.
The sudden acceleration into a bizarre opening strike, the reflexive surge of internal energy for a killing blow, hiding the act of drawing the flail from his [Inventory] with his body before unleashing a full-force strike—
None of it had been light. All of it had been killing techniques.
“At your age, you can’t block this kind of variation. Not with the life you’ve lived.”
But Hyuk-min had seen through every one of Wi Gwakdu’s killing techniques and blocked them without issue.
From that alone, Wi Gwakdu concluded Hyuk-min’s profile on paper was fake.
“Who in the world are you?”
Wi Gwakdu’s tone made it clear he’d already decided.
Instead of answering, Hyuk-min smiled.
“What happens if I beat you?”
“Hahaha! You talk like you’ve already beaten me.”
“If I defeat you, will you give me time?”
Wi Gwakdu’s eyebrow twitched.
“Give you time? Not asking me to back off?”
“No matter what anyone says, I am a citizen of the Republic of Korea. I am my family’s son.”
“And a guy like that reveals he’s a Legendary Title Holder and runs to China?”
“It wasn’t running. It was a plan.”
“A plan, you say… Who would believe that?”
It seemed he’d dug deep into Hyuk-min’s past actions.
At Wi Gwakdu’s outright disbelief, Hyuk-min silently turned his eyes to where Chang-kyung stood.
‘The reason I chose the Great Buddha Temple for the showdown with Wi Gwakdu.’
Just then, a shout—imbued with internal energy just like Wi Gwakdu’s—rang out.
“I will vouch for him.”
With that horn-like voice, Chang-kyung appeared between Hyuk-min and Wi Gwakdu.
Wi Gwakdu’s gaze swept over Chang-kyung.
He didn’t sneer like before.
From that one shout alone, Wi Gwakdu had instinctively realized Chang-kyung was no ordinary person.
「”No, Wi Gwakdu is coming? Why the Great Buddha Temple of all places!”」
Before coming to the Great Buddha Temple, that had been Hyuk-min’s answer to No Death’s question.
“Chang-kyung is…”
Because he was part of the Karma Unit.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve met a member of the Karma Unit in civilian society.”
At the fluent Korean from Chang-kyung’s lips, Wi Gwakdu replied in equally fluent Chinese.
“Prove that you are a member of the Karma Unit.”
“Proof, you say.”
With a snort, Chang-kyung lifted the staff he always carried and showed it to Wi Gwakdu.
And on that staff was a badge shaped like a blue Earth.
Their insignia—something any Karma Unit member would recognize at a glance.
The reason Hyuk-min had been shocked to hear the Divine Power Unit had originally been the Karma Unit…
The reason he’d been so composed even after hearing Wi Gwakdu himself was coming to capture him…
The reason he had chosen the Great Buddha Temple…
“How about it? Will you believe it if I vouch for him?”
It was all because Chang-kyung was a member of the Karma Unit.
Wi Gwakdu frowned deeply, his gaze boring into Hyuk-min.
Then, like a man, he gave a firm nod.
“I will believe you. In that case…”
He raised his blue flail toward Hyuk-min.
“First, defeat me. Then I will take responsibility and give you the time you want.”
No Death and Hyun-jung probably felt relieved, thinking it had been settled smoothly.
But they hadn’t crossed every mountain yet.
A soldier to the bone, Wi Gwakdu had thrown down a proposal like a mountain.
Smirk.
Facing that mountain, Hyuk-min smiled, as if he’d been waiting for it.