Chapter 87
Anyone who’d spent a long time as an adventurer or in a guild knew of Nansan. He was that famous.
And it wasn’t just because he was the commander of the Divine Power Unit, the most elite special forces unit in South Korea.
It was because he had survived two great wars.
The rumor that he had killed the demon monster—the worst of its kind—that had annihilated two U.S. Army platoons in the Australian Desert War.
The rumor that he had been isolated in the desert by a horde of ogres and survived alone for 62 days before returning.
The rumor that he had killed over 300 monsters on his way back.
The rumor that his [Inventory] was filled to the brim with dozens of different kinds of weapons.
And finally, the rumor that there was no existing weapon he couldn’t wield.
Rumors or not, one thing was certain: the achievements he had piled up were all monstrous.
And whatever people said, the unchanging truth was that the man himself was strong.
He was, quite literally, the very definition of a war veteran.
Still, many claimed those rumors about Nansan were fabricated stories meant to establish the Divine Power Unit.
But if they saw the scene unfolding in the bamboo forest now, all such talk would disappear.
The bamboo forest had become such a hellscape that you couldn’t help but think the rumors might be true.
Bloodstains scattered here and there, and patches of ice frozen for unknown reasons.
Craters left by explosions, and embers faintly clinging to life.
And nearly ten corpses—Baeksan Guild and Haeundae Guild members alike—lying dead amid dozens of different weapons strewn across the ground.
“He’s a monster, plain and simple. To think it’s not over even after the sun’s risen.”
“Our assessment of his strength was wrong. The intel was off.”
Yaksha and Knife Rain, who had witnessed the entire spectacle, clicked their tongues at Nansan.
Yet both of their faces carried the certainty of victory.
“Shouldn’t we end this?”
Yaksha, who had transformed into his Werewolf state, pushed himself up.
As he moved, a long gash on his forearm—seemingly from a blade—split open and welled with blood.
“I suppose we should. We haven’t seen any other weapons for a while now. That must be the end of his damned arsenal.”
Knife Rain, who seemed to have gotten more talkative, followed Yaksha in standing up.
He slid his hands into his wide sleeves, then pulled them out—two daggers held ostentatiously in each hand.
The chilling air rolling off them suggested the scattered ice patches were Knife Rain’s doing.
“Let’s go take that great Nansan’s head.”
It was then.
The very moment Yaksha and Knife Rain took their first step—
Poof! Pssshhhhhh—
A sound like something bursting came from beneath the exhausted-looking Nansan, and a smoke bomb—one they thought he’d run out of—spewed green smoke.
“Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.”
Clutching a jackknife and a pistol, Nansan’s ragged breaths were etched into his face.
The jacket of his military uniform had long since been torn to shreds and lay rolling on the ground, and his exposed body was covered in wounds.
A wound on his side, slowly disappearing into the smoke, still had a trace of ice clinging to it—proof he’d been hit by Knife Rain’s attack as well.
“This is getting tedious.”
Unable to stand the sight of Nansan vanishing into the smoke, Knife Rain shot to his feet.
He yanked ten daggers from his sleeves and flung them into the sky.
The ten daggers, radiating a chilling aura, soared high and—true to his name—became a rain of blades plunging into the green smoke.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
Grit.
The sound of teeth grinding followed.
He’d used up more of his precious daggers, but the scream or groan he’d been waiting for never came.
Crrrrack.
Instead, only the sound of the ground freezing from Knife Rain’s Skill echoed out.
“Surround him!”
Yaksha strode up to the smoke and commanded the special strike team.
Knife Rain walked up beside him and, instead of giving an order, merely jerked his chin.
“Yes, sir!”
“….”
The encirclement tightening around the smoke left Nansan nowhere to retreat.
“Grrrrr.”
Sniffing the air like a true Werewolf, Yaksha prepared to enter the smoke.
Just as he was about to step in—
“….!!”
Sensing something, Yaksha flinched and snapped his upper body back.
In that instant, a jackknife grazed past his neck, drawing a thin bead of blood.
“Dammit. That Skill again? Don’t go into the smoke! Wait for it to clear!”
He scowled, wiping the drop of blood away.
“Who does he think he is, Hong Gildong or something?”
However, perhaps too much time had passed.
One of Baeksan’s Shadows, positioned a fair distance from Yaksha, failed to escape the expanding smoke in time.
“Gack!”
They didn’t even know what hit him.
They only realized when they saw blood spreading like red paint across the white canvas of the Shadow’s clothes as he clutched his throat.
Thump.
As the Shadow fell limp, everyone—on edge—stepped away from the spreading smoke.
Gulp.
In the knife-edge silence, the sound of a dry swallow rang out.
Even in this inscrutable tension, there was a winner.
Yaksha and Knife Rain waited for the green smoke to be carried away by the wind blowing from all directions.
If he was out of smoke bombs, it was an undeniable victory for the Baeksan Guild and Haeundae Guild alliance.
‘Dammit.’
Inside the smoke, where the green haze made it impossible to see an inch ahead, the one growing frustrated—just as Yaksha and Knife Rain expected—was Wi Gwakdu, slowly being dyed green.
He really had nothing left in his [Inventory].
The smoke bomb he’d just set off was his last.
Vzzt. Vzzt. Vzzt.
As if his [Inventory] were linked to it, the moment that last smoke bomb was used, a vibration hummed against the skin of Wi Gwakdu’s neck—where there was nothing.
[You have activated the emergency contact network. What is the matter.]
Wi Gwakdu whispered so quietly that even someone right beside him would struggle to hear.
Then, through some unknown device, the voice of Minister of National Defense Jang Man-deok reached his ear.
[Retreat.]
“If I retreat, that kid will die.”
[That’s an order. Choose priority one.]
Priority one: Divine Power Unit Commander Wi Gwakdu must return alive at all costs.
Normally, Wi Gwakdu would have moved the instant the order came down.
But this time, he scowled deeply, his movement hesitant.
“We can’t do this without him, can we?”
[We can come up with a countermeasure for him, but if you’re gone, Wi Gwakdu, it will be irreversible.]
He checked the few remaining slots in his [Inventory].
Even now, their attacks showed no sign of stopping.
Wi Gwakdu bit his lip. His eyes flared open, and he raised his pistol and fired.
Bang! Thump.
A man who looked like a special strike team member—hiding near Wi Gwakdu’s feet—collapsed with a hole blown through his head.
“A dual command, is it.”
Wi Gwakdu spat.
“We need that kid, Bang Hyuk-min, to protect the unit. I request that you reconsider.”
[There is no reconsideration. Return at once. I repeat. This is an order. Return.]
The smoke was thinning.
His vision cleared only a little, but to Wi Gwakdu, it felt like the house he was hiding in was collapsing around him.
It was a situation where he had to make a real choice.
Once the smoke cleared, it wasn’t even certain he could survive long enough to carry out the Minister’s order.
‘What should I do?’
But he couldn’t back down easily.
If Bang Hyuk-min died here, it could become a danger not just to the unit, but to the nation itself.
Retreat?
Or the nation’s peril?
“Minister.”
[I told you to retreat. Why haven’t you done so!]
“May I use it?”
At the word it, the Minister fell silent for a moment.
But the hesitation didn’t last, and he answered firmly.
[Denied. The only times I have authorized its use are when your life is in danger, the nation is in peril, or upon my direct order. Retreat immediately and cease use of the weapon!]
Shlick.
Wi Gwakdu removed the magazine from his pistol and checked his remaining ammunition.
Two rounds.
Bang!
‘No. One.’
Thump.
There were still about ten enemies left.
If he didn’t decide now, he would die.
He bit his lip and made his choice.
Retreat.
‘Right. If I die too, that would be the real disaster. I’m retreating.’
With no other option, Wi Gwakdu swallowed his regret and began to turn.
A decision he knew would leave him with regret.
It felt like another line was about to be written onto the “regret” shelf in the library of his war-torn life.
Ssk.
He tightened his grip on his pistol, forced into retreat despite everything.
Just as he was about to slip through the small gap in the encirclement created by the deaths of two men—
BOOM!!!
Stagger!
A shockwave strong enough to steal his balance rippled through the ground and struck Wi Gwakdu.
The impact, like an artillery shell landing, made his eyes fly open.
His body instinctively ducked, and his pistol snapped up.
Whoosh!
As a strong gust of wind blew away the last of the smoke, a familiar face appeared.
“Bang Hyuk-min…?”
= = =
With Hyuk-min’s arrival, the tide of battle turned.
Unlike his enemies, who had been fighting for over ten hours, Hyuk-min was fresh—practically overflowing.
And having perfectly adapted to his strengthened body, the [Cloud Flow Sword Method] he unleashed through the [Immortal Demon Sword] needed no more than three techniques to kill a Baeksan Shadow or a special strike team member.
Swish!
Just after he lopped off three heads—
Swoosh.
Hearing something slice through the air right beside him, Hyuk-min reflexively turned the [Immortal Demon Sword] sideways.
CLANG!!!
Sparks burst as a heavy impact collided with the blade.
Hyuk-min raised his head.
‘Yaksha.’
It was Yaksha in his Werewolf state—the representative of the Haeundae Guild.
True to his reputation as Park Chung-ho’s prized monster of strength, the impact carried through the [Immortal Demon Sword] with more force than anything Hyuk-min had felt before.
But that was all.
Despite the label “monstrous strength,” Hyuk-min’s legs didn’t shift an inch as he blocked the strike.
“Grrrrr.”
Perhaps sensing something was wrong, Yaksha leaped back before Hyuk-min could swing, opening distance.
The wound on his arm.
The exhaustion in his face.
And an attack so underwhelming Hyuk-min couldn’t tell whether he’d grown stronger, or Yaksha had grown weaker.
Ssk.
Hyuk-min lowered his stance and thought.
‘This is my chance.’
This was the perfect opportunity to kill Yaksha and remove him from Park Chung-ho’s side.
“Grrrrr.”
Was it because he remembered [Regression Mode]?
Perhaps because Hyuk-min wasn’t in [Regression Mode], Yaksha radiated killing intent as if he could charge at any moment—yet he even smiled, as if to say, come and get me.
Hyuk-min couldn’t have been more grateful.
“Here I come.”
“In that state, you’ll die.”
Yaksha was clearly wary of [Regression Mode].
“Preconceptions. That will be the reason you die.”
Hyuk-min’s legs, brimming with power, boomed like a gunshot.
In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of Yaksha.
“Huk!”
Completely caught off guard by the speed, Yaksha belatedly tried to coat his hard claws in mana—but it was too late.
A fully prepared strike, saturated with mana, swung down with the intent to sever Yaksha’s neck.
BOOM!!!
The mana bomb detonated with enough force to distort the air, sending Yaksha’s body flying backward like a cannonball.
Thud! Thud-thud! R-r-rumble!
Yaksha slammed into the ground, rolled brutally, and finally stopped with his head driven into the earth, his body flipped upside down.
Patter-patter.
At the sound of something dropping, Hyuk-min shifted only his eyes toward the ground.
A half-severed left palm, and what looked like four fingers from the right hand, lay there—dripping blood.
“A m-monster….”
A voice full of horror came from right beside him.
A special strike team member, who had reflexively moved to attack, dropped his pistol with a trembling hand.
Swish!
The man’s head fell, and his body crumpled.
And in that moment, everyone thought the same thing.
‘The intel on the [Legendary Title Holder] was completely wrong.’
‘They said he was a rookie… He’s no rookie. That guy is….’
‘A monster….’
‘A monster on Nansan’s level.’
Ssk.
Hyuk-min lowered into his stance once more.
“R-Retreat! Run!!”
“No!! He’s coming! He’s coming!!!”
Then, with a smirk, a streak of light shot off the ground toward the retreating figures.
BANG!!
(T/N : What a refreshing sight to beholdddd)