chapter 65
Episode 65
Seeing Kang Tae-min, Vernon let out a deeper smile.
“Oh, is it a transformation?”
Instead of answering, Kang Tae-min took action. The serrated blade rotated fiercely and flew.
Vernon’s shoulder and waist were cut off intact. However, Kang Tae-min was not happy.
‘I didn’t avoid it on purpose.’
Even if it was a surprise attack, wouldn’t he be able to speed up enough to react a beat late?
Kang Tae-min eventually found out the reason.
‘Is it like this?’
There wasn’t a single drop of blood on the rip and tear. The blood and flesh ejected from Vernon’s body remained connected to his body like a net.
In time, the red net quickly returned to its place. It was astonishingly regenerative.
“Um, that’s about it.”
Vernon turned around casually. Considering that even the leather jacket had been restored, it would have been more correct to assume that he was also part of the body.
“Not bad to play with.”
Vernon licked his lips with his long tongue and went straight into action. A crack appeared on the floor with a dull bang.
Vernon’s body, which was shot like a bullet, immediately hit Kang Tae-min.
‘It’s as good as Sword Master or Changwang.’
Judging by its speed and power, it was comparable to Pyo Ji-hoon or Joo Tae-ji.
However, Kang Tae-min did not just watch.
“What is this again?”
Iron spikes protruding from the ground pierced his body, and chains flew in and bound him.
Vernon grinned.
“Are you talented?”
Vernon, who wanted to slow down for a moment, ran forward. Chains and iron thorns tore away like mud.
“I don’t know magic, but I have confidence in my body!”
Among the apostles of Lunatic Don, Vernon had superior physical abilities.
Kang Tae-min ignored his boast and engaged in a close fight. Even if I tried to increase the distance, it was not a level of speed that could be followed.
A clash of strength and power.
Each blow was powerful enough to take the lives of many Awoken people.
The shockwave generated by the two battles hit the cliff, and shattered boulders rained down.
However, even the fallen rocks were pulverized by the waves and scattered into powder.
“It’s worth it!”
Vernon let out a satisfied exclamation through his gaping mouth. Both of them didn’t look normal because they exchanged such strong power.
But neither side backed down.
Kang Tae-min’s body was crushed and exploded, but it was immediately restored with metal molding, and Vernon’s scattered body parts returned to their original places.
‘It is visible.’
There was a reason Kang Tae-min endured so much pain. It was to understand and acquire Vernon’s habits through shape memory.
Thanks to this, as time passed, Kang Tae-min became dominant in the workshop.
‘But this regenerative ability is a problem.’
However, no matter how much he tore and cut, it was useless if Vernon’s regenerative ability could not be resolved.
“Oh, I’m tired of it.”
Those were the words Vernon’s head, which had been decapitated and bounced off, pulled me in. There was boredom in his face and voice.
“It’s not that you’re bad, it’s just that I’m the type who gets bored easily.”
While Kang Tae-min was recovering, Vernon smiled and said. Then he crouched forward.
Before long, a black leather jacket wrapped around his skin, and his long hair covered his entire body.
Then, the protruding snout and protruding fingernails and toenails were unmistakably the appearance of a beast.
‘Lycanthrope?’
Kang Tae-min saw it and thought of a familiar monster. But the transformation did not stop there.
Vernon’s pupils parted and called out, and his mouth with sharp teeth opened all over his body. In addition to that, tentacles protruding from between the mane hairs.
It was unusual to describe it as a lycanthrope.
“It’s only for a moment, but it made me happy as an Undead.”
“I will give you the honor of becoming one.”
“Be willing to accept it.”
Different voices came out of the gaping mouth. But the laughter that followed was always terrible.
“Not dying and not dying have different meanings.”
Kang Tae-min couldn’t help but say a word at that displeasure. Vernon wouldn’t know how much he dealt with the self-proclaimed immortal villains before returning.
‘I’ll have to find out how far the playback limit is.’
Kang Tae-min showed his ability. While Vernon was transforming, clones wearing suits were created behind Kang Tae-min.
“Were there still more left?”
“This, I’m looking forward to it again.”
“Take them all out now.”
Vernon waited for more clones to form. It was an expression of confidence that he would not die no matter what.
‘I’m sure I can afford it.’
It’s not just a simple clone, it’s even cloned its consciousness. Still, the feeling of exhaustion was not great.
It was thanks to the mana absorbed from Leviathan’s soul. Taemin Kang attacked Vernon with his clones.
“A toy that doesn’t break?”
“When it gets boring, it’s over.”
“Get excited!”
The mutated Vernon was even stronger. His swinging tentacles cut through the clones in one fell swoop, his fingernails and claws crushing them like tofu.
However, the clones immediately recovered and tore Vernon’s body apart. A battle ensued between the two near-immortal beings.
“It’s fun!”
“Nice to be here!”
“This much… Kkeuk!”
Vernon, who had been relaxing to the fullest, gradually reduced his words. In contrast, the number of clones continued to grow.
‘How far can I make this?’
Suddenly, everywhere was full of clones. Even after tearing and crushing, the momentary gap closed in an instant.
‘My regeneration… ?’
Before the separated flesh and blood could return, it was torn apart again. The clones blocked the path before their bodies could even return.
Even so, I somehow squeezed it back, but it gradually became difficult to reproduce.
‘no way… ?’
Vernon felt the threat of death at this moment. It was very brief, but it was a clear sense of crisis. Vernon’s face distorted at that fact.
‘I? Me, Vernon?!’
Shame and anger soared.
The baptismal name given to him by God, ‘transcendence’, meant the crescent moon. A symbol of the beginning, the overflowing life to be filled in the future.
‘Death is suitable only for Zhao Guang… !’
It was impossible for him to think of death. There is a separate apostle who received the power related to death.
As a result, he tore and brushed off the iron more violently, but the situation did not change.
‘What is this… !’
Endless steel pressed against him. An undisappearing metal imprisoned him. An unstoppable blade tore through him.
Vernon had to admit that he couldn’t handle them.
‘dare… !’
In the end, he decided to accept death. However, it was only physical death, not true death.
As Vernon became an apostle, God blessed him with immortality.
Maybe that’s why he accepted the current situation more easily.
‘Next time I will return with a stronger body… !’
He gave up playing.
His soul will return to the other world, devour a new body, more sacrifices, and return to seek revenge.
“… Are you dead?”
Escaped from the torn body, Vernon’s soul descended as if being led. There was the ‘Luna Gate’, the culprit of this incident.
It was a gate made with the magic of Lunatic Money, created by the magic circuit hidden in Havensmith’s engineering device.
‘This disgrace is inevitable… .’
It was the moment Vernon once again vowed to take revenge. His consciousness suddenly stopped before the gate.
‘What?’
In the soul state, you cannot move according to your will. Vernon’s soul is dedicated to God, and his God has no influence on Earth yet.
So what now?
‘What about him?!’
It was Taemin Kang.
Her soul was being guided by the red crystal embedded in the center of the suit. Vernon couldn’t stay conscious any longer.
It was because the soul was absorbed by the blood-soul and the consciousness began to disintegrate.
‘… Would you rather get rid of it than take it away?’
However, the decomposition of consciousness was not only due to Kang Tae-min’s intention. As he absorbed the soul and replaced it with mana, the soul began to disintegrate itself.
It was clear that the magic of Lunatic Money had worked. However, the amount absorbed was significant.
“after… .”
Kang Tae-min exhaled briefly as the mana he had exhausted was replenished. But there was no time to be intoxicated by it.
Vernon disappeared, but the fog still remained. He fell straight into the co.
‘This is it.’
A cloudy gate formed between the supports, where fog was emerging.
Kang Tae-min immediately smashed the support. When the magic circuit was cut off, the gate lost its light and the density of the fog began to fade.
‘I see, this was the dungeon break.’
Kang Tae-min removed the suit and recalled the memories before returning. The dungeon break that occurred after the terror must have been a trick of Lunatic Money.
‘Did the plan go awry due to the Ubermensch terror?’
Obviously, Lunatic Don also conducted the ceremony aiming for the tournament. It must have been the intention to secure believers by making sacrifices for the people gathered here.
“Sir Kang! Mr. Kang, are you there?!”
Then I heard a familiar voice in my ears. He looked up and saw Rosalyn looking down at him.
“I heard from Mr. Park Hyeon-ah that he went this way! Are you okay!?”
“Yes, it is fine.”
“Wait a minute! I’ll be down soon!”
Rosalyn replied, tilting her head and looking around.
‘Is this all Mr. Kang?’
After the fog disappeared, the surrounding situation was Poongbibaksan.
In the aftermath of the collision between Vernon and Kang Tae-min, it was normal for the cliff to collapse, and the fallen debris was also crushed and turned into stone dust.
Just looking at the stage where both sides of the cliff were split like peaks, you could guess its power.
‘No, what the hell… .’
Besides, even though it was torn to pieces, what about that lump of blood that Kang Tae-min seems to have dealt with?
It was a monster of a kind that Rosalyn had never seen before. Standing unscathed against such an unknown monster?
‘I knew it was unusual, but this one is different… .’
Rosalyn again felt Kang Tae-min was out of the scope of her understanding.
“How is the situation outside?”
Then Kang Tae-min’s voice was heard from below. Startled, she quickly descended the cavity.
“The fog suddenly disappeared. Those blood clots wouldn’t be much without the fog!”
“Is that so.”
“Instead, there were a lot of casualties… However, further damage was prevented… .”
Taemin Kang shook his head and pointed at the broken device.
“This device created a gate.”
“Guyop ‘made’ the gate?”
“Please contact the general manager. You may need to investigate.”
“Ah, okay! Then let’s go back quickly!”
Despite those words, Kang Tae-min did not move his feet. Rosalind looked back and wondered why.
“I will light a cigarette.”
Kang Tae-min took out a cigarette and lit it.
* * *
<I would like to express my sincere condolences to the victims and their bereaved families in this dungeon break incident. This situation… >
The Hunter Association announced the fog avalanche that occurred on Crown Island as a Dungeon Break. It is not known to the public that ‘artificial’ gates exist.
The Youth Hunter Championship was immediately decided to be canceled, and only the individual competition remained as a record. The association decided to provide mental care to everyone caught up in the situation.
[-You should have canceled it when the deep sea monster came out.]
[-Is it because the association is incompetent?]
[-Why does the association exist?]
[-Why doesn’t the dungeon forecast technology come out when money is so bad?]
[-Aren’t you a King Boo just by looking at it? You have to search for people, because the bowl gets bigger.]
[- ㅋ ㅋ ㅋ]
The public reaction was cold. Even so, the association did not reveal the truth.
After a few days like that, the Hunter Association headquarters conference room.
“If we can stop the panic by swearing, it’s cheap.”
Bae Seung-ju revealed his true feelings to the people who came to visit him.
“I heard the story from my son. Even that brave guy had nightmares… .”
Geomju and Pyo Ji-hoon answered with serious faces. He felt a deeper sense of responsibility than others.
“Even if I was greedy, if I had stayed one more day, the number of casualties would have been reduced… .”
“Hey, don’t worry too much about it. If I had to blame it, I would have to blame the guys who created that gate.”
At those words, Changhwang and Ju Taiji, who were by his side, offered words of comfort. He, too, had heard an explanation of the situation from Ju Da-hyun.
“I can’t stay still when you dare to lay a hand on my granddaughter. Fortunately, Mr. Kang was there, so it’s a shame… .”
“Yes, you took the lead in resolving the situation.”
Bae Seung-ju also shook his head as if he was right.
“… Who the hell is that teacher?”
The silver-haired beauty across from me asked. Curiously, his eyes were also colored silver, just like his hair.
When she opened her mouth, white smoke flowed out. Between the fingers of the garda, the source of the smoke, the pipe tobacco was squeezed.
“Yohanna-sama, I warned you to stop smoking indoors… .”
“I’m controlling the airflow, so it’s fine.”
Johanna, who immediately responded to Bae Seung-joo’s words, was the maze. She was the only person here who did not know Kang Tae-min.
“Well, okay. What I’m curious about is the magic that made the gate. What happened to Havensmith, who is said to have built the device?”
Bae Seung-joo cleared his throat at Johanna’s question.
“Kuhmm, I was going to explain anyway. But it’s cumbersome to explain twice, so I’ll start when everyone gets together.”
“The courtier and Kwon Seong aren’t coming?”
Johanna asked, frowning her sweet armie. Bae Seung-ju invited the guild leaders and the strongest of the five guilds to ask for help in resolving this situation.
However, the courtiers and Kwon Seong declined the invitation, and only the three of them arrived.
“Is anyone coming later than us?”
Johanna tilted her head.
It was a question I asked because it was a genuine question. She was far from being authoritative.
“The person who needed it most didn’t come. To proceed with the story without him… .”
It was before Bae Seung-joo finished talking. A smart knocking sound reached the meeting room.
“Ah, it looks like you’re here.”
Then the conference room door opened and the person who entered.
“That is Teacher Kang Tae-min.”
It was Taemin Kang.