Level Up Machine

Chapter 147 Hero Lucia (7)

“Ugh, ah…

In the half-ruined royal palace, a faint voice came out from the rubble as if it might break off.

-Thud.

Pushing aside the massive concrete debris,

A man crawled out. Dark red blood dripped from his shredded chin, and heavy breaths came from his twisted nose.

It was Kim Jae-hyun, who had suffered fatal injuries to the extent that most of his face had been brutally torn off.

“Ah, ah…

With trembling hands, Kim Jae-hyun opened his inventory. A red bottle with a luminous glow was grasped in his hand.

Kim Jae-hyun poured the highest-grade health recovery potion over his face. Sizzle. White smoke rose from the wound as his injuries began to heal rapidly.

-Creak. Creak.

Dozens of grasshoppers emerged from his body. The grasshoppers crawled toward the corpse of the guard he had killed and left behind when he invaded the royal palace.

-Crunch. Crunch.

The grasshoppers clung to the corpse of the guard and began to eat it. The more they devoured the half-rotten corpse, the faster Kim Jae-hyun’s body began to regenerate.

“Huff, huff…!”

Having recovered to some extent, Kim Jae-hyun staggered to his feet. Harsh breaths escaped from his mouth.

“That bastard…!”

With clenched teeth, Kim Jae-hyun’s face contorted in anger. The face of a young man with sharp features flashed in his mind. Yeong-sik. The young man who used an unknown power.

“Lucia! Bring me that bastard’s corpse!”

He pulled a controller from his pocket and shouted in a rough voice. But no matter how much he yelled into the controller, there was no response.

Kim Jae-hyun’s expression began to harden.

“What, what? Could it be that Lucia was defeated?”

He shouted with a pale, shocked expression.

“That can’t be!”

Lucia was the most powerful being he knew. No matter how strange that Yeong-sik’s suit was, there was no way he could defeat her.

“Damn, damn! Damn it all!”

– Thud!

Kim Jae-hyun stomped his foot in frustration. The debris of the collapsed palace was kicked by his foot.

“Aagh!”

A scream burst from Kim Jae-hyun’s mouth as he kicked the solid marble. His body, not yet fully recovered, did not have the same strength as before.

“I need to escape quickly…

If the Eastern Alliance found him in this state, he wouldn’t be able to avoid death. With a terrified expression, he tried to move his steps.

It was then.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

A familiar young man’s voice echoed in his ears.

“You, you…!”

“I wondered if you might be alive, and you really are. I have to give it to you; your life force is like that of a bug.”

Yeong-sik chuckled as he walked towards Kim Jae-hyun. Kim Jae-hyun turned desperately and started running away from Yeong-sik.

-Clack. Bang!

“Aaaahhh!”

The shotgun blast turned Kim Jae-hyun’s fleeing foot into mush. He screamed and rolled on the ground, writhing in pain.

“Seeing you thrash around like that, it seems you still have some strength left. Good. There’s something I need to ask you.”

Yeong-sik leisurely walked towards the fallen Kim Jae-hyun. Kim Jae-hyun looked up at Yeong-sik with a terrified expression.

“A-ask me something?”

“Yes. I have a few questions.”

Yeong-sik said, stomping down roughly on Kim Jae-hyun’s already mangled foot. Squish! The already pulverized foot was further crushed, spewing dark red blood.

“Aaaahhh! Stop! Stop it!”

Kim Jae-hyun’s eyes widened in immense pain shooting up his leg.

With a calm expression, Yeong-sik twisted his foot. Kim Jae-hyun’s hysterical screams echoed through the room again.

“Huff, huff! Stop… I’ll tell you anything, just, please, stop.”

“Good. It seems you’re finally ready to talk.”

Yeong-sik nodded and sat on the rubble next to Kim Jae-hyun.

“Where did you get that controller?”

“I found it at the site of the Great War!”

“Hmm. Was that when you succeeded in the Central Region expedition? The controller wasn’t the only thing there, was it… Was it next to Lucia?”

“Yes! It was next to that woman!”

-Smash!

Yeong-sik got up and kicked Kim Jae-hyun’s head as if he were kicking a ball. The force shattered Kim Jae-hyun’s teeth, sending them flying out of his mouth.

“Ugh, ugh!”

“Using foul language, huh? Try to speak a bit more decently.”

“Cough! What does that have to do with you?”

“Because Lucia is now mine.”

Yeong-sik answered calmly. Kim Jae-hyun’s eyes widened in shock.

“Lucia is yours? How? She can’t be controlled without the controller…”

“Oh? Are you asking me questions? In your current situation?”

Yeong-sik’s mouth twisted into a smirk. He raised his foot and pressed it down on Kim Jae-hyun’s elbow. The pressure on his left arm turned Kim Jae-hyun’s face pale.

“Ugh! Stop it!”

-Crunch!

“Aaahhhh!”

A chilling sound of bones being crushed came from his arm. Kim Jae-hyun’s screams echoed through the room once again.

“Pl-please, forgive me…”

“That’s better.”

Yeong-sik looked down at Kim Jae-hyun, who had started using formal language, and nodded in satisfaction.

“Where exactly did you find Lucia and this controller?”

“In, in a place known as the ‘Grave of Heroes,’ said to be the epicenter of the Great War.”

“The Grave of Heroes…”

Yeong-sik frowned slightly at the name of a place he had heard a few times before.

The location where they discovered the machine monsters during the last expedition was not precisely the Grave of Heroes.

It was a place deeper than the area where the Salvator Guild had retreated.

The Grave of Heroes.

As Kim Jae-hyun explained, it was the heart of the ‘Great War’ between the Ingrim Empire and the Creators of the monsters.

The battleground where the Eight Heroes and the Creators clashed.

“So you found Lucia and the controller there.”

Since Lucia was one of the Eight Heroes, it wasn’t surprising that she was found in that battleground.

Listening to Kim Jae-hyun, it seemed he hadn’t personally implanted the Black Cube in her head.

Someone else had implanted the Black Cube in her head and abandoned her there.

The question was who had placed the Black Cube in her head.

‘The most likely candidate is that guy, Lenos.’

There were various possibilities.

He might have merely created the Black Cube, and someone else might have been responsible for actually implanting it in her head.

“What was around the controller?”

“There was nothing else!”

“Hmm. How did you learn to use the controller?”

“The moment I grabbed the controller, a message window popped up, indicating that I was set as her master. After that, I just had to hold the controller and give her commands.”

Hearing Kim Jae-hyun’s answer, Yeong-sik’s expression twisted slightly as he fell into thought.

‘In the end, this guy doesn’t know who implanted the Black Cube in her either.’

Although he hadn’t expected much from the start, hearing Kim Jae-hyun’s admission of ignorance still annoyed him.

-Whack!

“Ugh!”

Yeong-sik kicked Kim Jae-hyun’s head once more out of frustration and continued his thoughts.

‘Come to think of it, the place where the Lacteon Type 2 was found was also the Grave of Heroes.’

He recalled the information he had gathered while interrogating Hendrick. The ominous name, Grave of Heroes, made Yeong-sik’s mind churn with complexity.

“Cough, cough! That’s all I know! I don’t know much about her either! I just found her by luck!”

Kim Jae-hyun shouted desperately. Yeong-sik glared at him with a deep, sinking gaze as he flailed about.

“Then there’s no reason to keep you alive any longer.”

“Pl-please, wait a moment!”

Kim Jae-hyun shook his head with a pale face. Click. The blade that sprang from Yeong-sik’s hand gleamed sharply.

Yeong-sik brought the blade to Kim Jae-hyun’s forehead and spoke in a low voice.

“Octopus head.”

Kim Jae-hyun’s face twisted at the insult. It was a jab at his complex about losing hair rapidly since his mid-twenties.

Looking down at the trembling Kim Jae-hyun, Yeong-sik chuckled as if he had thought of something amusing.

“I’ll spare you if you say ‘I’m bald’ twenty times.”

“You… you bastard!”

Hearing the humiliating order from a popular game back on Earth, Kim Jae-hyun turned red and tried to get up.

-Whack! Thud! Thud!

“Ugh! Ah! Aaaah! Stop it!”

The price of trying to stand was a merciless beating. Kim Jae-hyun screamed as his ribs broke from the pain.

“Still not willing to talk?”

“Well, if you want to die like this, I won’t stop you.”

Yeong-sik smirked and aimed the shotgun between Kim Jae-hyun’s legs. Seeing the direction of the gun, Kim Jae-hyun shouted urgently.

“W-wait! What are you doing?”

“Hmm? I said I was going to kill you.”

“Then, usually, you would aim for the head or chest…”

“Shooting here will kill you too. It might just take a bit longer.”

Yeong-sik spoke as if he enjoyed seeing Kim Jae-hyun’s panicked reaction. Kim Jae-hyun’s face turned deathly pale.

The thought of slowly dying after having his groin blown off filled him with immense fear. Kim Jae-hyun bit his lip roughly and spoke in a crawling voice.

“I… I am… bald…”

“Hmm? What did you say? I can’t hear you well.”

Yeong-sik raised a hand to his ear and asked in a feigned tone.

Kim Jae-hyun’s face turned crimson as unbearable shame spread through his entire body.

“I am bald! I am bald!”

“Hahaha! See, you have to shout it with energy for it to be heard properly.”

Yeong-sik burst into laughter. Transparent tears flowed down Kim Jae-hyun’s face as he repeated the humiliating phrase.

“I am bald…”

After he shouted it twenty times, Yeong-sik smiled with satisfaction and, without hesitation, shot the shotgun between Kim Jae-hyun’s legs.

-Bang!

“Aaaahhhhh!”

His piercing scream echoed through the room. Kim Jae-hyun, foaming at the mouth, shouted at Yeong-sik.

“You said you’d spare me if I talked, you bastard!”

“Aren’t you a level 107 summoner? You won’t die just from getting hit between the legs. And I never intended to kill you from the start.”

Yeong-sik got up and turned his body. A woman, who had been quietly observing from a corner, slowly walked out.

“Lucia will be the one to kill you.”

Yeong-sik said, placing a hand on Lucia’s shoulder. Lucia looked at him with trembling eyes.

“Thank you, master. I will never forget this favor for as long as I live.”

“I’ll wait outside, so stay here until your anger is quelled.”

Yeong-sik handed her a bottle of the highest-grade recovery potion as he spoke.

Lucia took the potion bottle and nodded silently.

-Crunch!

“Aaaahhhhh!”

Kim Jae-hyun’s screams echoed through the room. Yeong-sik walked away, leaving the screams behind.

‘Lucia and the mechanical monsters…

Yeong-sik’s eyes gleamed sharply.

‘I’ll need to visit the Grave of Heroes myself to find some clues.’