novelraw Chapter 110
Chapter 110
Chapter 110
Goodness, I had seen some ridiculous things in my life, yet this was absurd even by that standard. I watched the giant mass of fire that burned all the air in the area into nothing and my feelings became complicated.
Had I panicked? Not a chance. I had seen too many things and overcome too many crises.
Something like an enormous fireball floating in the sky and roasting the earth did not frighten me much.
“How much mana is she wasting with that thing?”
Most people would have opened their bladders and soaked their pants like they were spilling lemonade.
There was no way I could devour that entire false sun. The Paradoxical Flame I produced could not chomp on something like that.
“Well then, I should just consider this fortunate.”
Choi Yeoreum stretched her arm toward me and fired a bright red beam as she spoke.
“There is an absurd amount of mana in the air. Looks like it is because of your pitch-black flame, right?”
I did not answer. The Paradoxical Flame gnawed at the heat rising from her fire and diligently spat out mana.
She had noticed that much, yet she did not know what I was doing with that mana. The mana released by the Paradoxical Flame became thicker as it devoured the blazing heat.
And that mana flowed through my body and strengthened my blood vessels. The speed was considerable.
If circumstances allowed, I wanted to maintain this state for months. If I endured a few months like this, I could double the maximum mana capacity my body could accept.
Expecting that much was unreasonable. I could not spend that long, and she would never stay still.
“You dodge well. How irritating.”
She wrinkled her face and crossed her index fingers into a cross. A pair of fiery wings unfolded behind her.
At the same time, a massive cross-shaped blaze surged toward me.
“You really like flashy things huh.”
I charged into the approaching flames and swung my fist. The Paradoxical Flame devoured the cross. In an instant the red cross turned black and vanished.
“…”
She was wasting mana, yet that did not mean she could not fight. Whenever I rushed in, she desperately pulled away.
Our speed had long surpassed what a camera could capture.
At best, the cameras would catch us flashing into view for a split second before disappearing.
Aside from that, only the red flames and the black Paradoxical Flame would be visible.
“A rendezvous of red and black.”
It was a fitting expression.
Time continued to pass. The sun had begun to set. Though the sun dipped, the place where I stood remained as bright as daytime because of her blazing fires.
“Why not curl up and quit around now?”
She looked thoroughly bored.
“If you want that, then try to crush me.”
She could not do it, which was why we were still fighting at sunset. We would watch the sunrise here tomorrow, and naturally watch it set again.
If time continued like this, her mana would eventually reach its limit. That moment would be my victory.
I’ll melt you like candy.
“You have never fought someone like me, right?”
She did not answer. She increased her firepower instead and continued attacking.
What I needed to do was simple. It was what I always did. Find an opening in the storm of attacks, counterattack, maintain focus, and continuously strengthen my blood vessels by absorbing the mana filling the air.
* * *
The commentators spoke with exhausted expressions.
“We have entered day five.”
They had nothing left to say. The commentators broadcasting Yoo Chan-seok and Choi Yeoreum’s fight were professionals among professionals.
Yet even they had run out of words after watching this spectacle for five days.
“Hunter Choi Yeoreum looks very exhausted. On the other hand…”
Yoo Chan-seok looked fine. Fine for someone who had not slept or eaten for five days.
“Her attacks have become much weaker too.”
She no longer kept the sun suspended in the sky. She was saving the mana required for that.
“It was already widely known that Yoo Chan-seok’s mana does not decrease, and it seems that was not a metaphor.”
“He is maintaining a pace that benefits him and continuing the fight consistently.”
Silence followed again. Their feelings were complicated. The viewers watching this historic duel were just as exhausted.
They came home after work and the fight was still going. They rested over the weekend and returned to find the fight still happening.
The spectators were growing weary and the commentators were reaching the point of collapse.
Of course, she, fighting face-to-face with Yoo Chan-seok, was on the verge of losing her mind.
“Enough already!”
Her composure had disappeared days ago. That bastard buzzing around in front of her was like a mosquito whining near her ear on a summer night.
Annoying, persistent, impossible to catch. Her mana was now around thirty percent.
‘If this continues I will lose.’
The word defeat grew clearer in her mind. She had fought for days and still had not subdued him, which meant she would not subdue him going forward.
However, she was not the only one who did not want her to lose.
“Oh jeez, is this really how it ends? So this is happening.”
Kim Chaehyun, leader of Mugunghwa Team 1 contracted with the Korean government, had watched the duel for days with a face rotten from fatigue.
“Seriously, what kind of bastard is he?”
He had once seen Yoo Chan-seok fight in Seoul. Back then, Yoo Chan-seok was nowhere near this strong.
Not long after that, he destroyed another Grade 1 Erosion Core and became a monster capable of securing victory against her.
“He is relentless. Absolutely relentless.”
What suffocated people even more was the way he secured that advantage. From the beginning to now, his condition barely changed.
It was no longer a fight. She was prey and the great serpent named Yoo Chan-seok had already swallowed her and was digesting her. Kim Chaehyun contacted someone.
“This is Kim Chaehyun. It seems we have to proceed. At this rate we will lose Choi Yeoreum.”
Everyone watching the duel sensed her impending loss.
From the Korean government’s standpoint, this situation must not result in her actual defeat.
Naturally, they also could not allow Yoo Chan-seok to lose.
This fight had to end without a conclusion. And the measure for that was already prepared.
It was the reason this duel had been allowed to take place at all.
“Is this really the right thing to do?”
But that measure weighed heavily on him. It was not beautiful.
— The preparations are already complete. If she collapses like that, cleaning up afterward will become extremely difficult.
“They are civilians though.”
Agents disguised as charity workers had delivered crystalline capsules into the meals of the foreign resident district near Anseong before the fight began.
Research progressed until the crystals could be put into dormancy and activated on command. Only real-world testing remained.
And the expected outcome was the total rampage of every person who consumed the crystals.
They would reduce the foreign population, stop the duel, and gather data. A great many results from one operation.
He was bound by contract. He could not refuse. A government contract was not something he could simply walk away from. He had learned too much.
If he tried to withdraw now, he knew what would happen.
“Understood.”
The dormant crystals could be activated with special equipment. The device required a large amount of mana.
Only a Hunter of his level could activate it. He placed his hand on the device and poured mana inside.
The machine glowed dark green and vibrated steadily. Green was supposedly calming, yet this shade felt ominous.
It was not the fresh green of a forest, but the murky moss color floating in stagnant water.
“I’m still not sure.”
He looked at the foreign resident district from afar. It was full of crude 3D-printed huts with no plumbing or wiring.
The vibration stopped. He rose and immediately left the place.
“Ah… h-huhhh?!”
Then the exhausted people walking the area trembled violently and vomited sticky black liquid while moaning in pain.
Their bodies lifted slightly from the ground and emitted grotesque noises.
Their joints twisted with cracking sounds. Some had bones punching through flesh. Others screamed with bulging veins.
In an instant, the place where exhausted, sick and starving foreigners gathered turned into a living hell.
The screams of over a thousand people quieted almost at once. No humans remained. Their bones were crushed, their muscles torn, and their bodies entirely reconstructed.
They became hairy monsters with the heads of black goats and batlike wings. They stank of sulfur, and their eyes burned like fire.
Their backs writhed and they spread their black wings.
— This is an emergency. Repeating, this is an emergency. Hostile lifeforms have been detected at the Anseong foreign resident district.
A loud siren rang and an emergency broadcast began.
They responded as if they had been waiting. In truth, they had been waiting.
The Korean government had fed crystals to fifteen hundred people. They expected at least twelve hundred to go berserk.
But fifteen hundred mutated.
One hundred percent success. Every participant rampaged and transformed into a winged black goat monster.
“…”
The incident was immediately relayed to Yoo Chan-seok and Choi Yeoreum on the plains.
It was the moment she stepped back after taking a punch to the stomach.
“Stop the duel?”
She instantly pulled out her smartphone and called someone.
“This is your doing, right?”
— I do not know what you are talking about, Hunter Choi Yeoreum.
“These bastards must think I am an idiot. The mana from that district was that balisong bastard’s mana.”
She knew Kim Chaehyun of Mugunghwa Team 1 worked with the government. Feeling his mana meant the government had done something vile.
As always.
Her words made the person on the other end fall silent.
— Still, is this not fortunate that things were handled this way?
“Fortunate… ha. Did you seriously call this fortunate?”
— You were about to lose. We assisted you.
Her face flushed red and she shouted.
“Hey, you bastard! If I lose, it is me who loses! Who are you to make me dance to your chopstick tune?!”
That was exactly why she was furious. It was not about interference in a fair duel.
She had been the one who manipulated Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon during the matches.
Admitting she received help meant she owed them.
She would need to pay. She had no intention of paying.
She did owe them, yet strictly speaking, this was help she had never asked for.