Chapter 51: Suspicious Demonic Sword
Crack-crack!
The frozen monsters shattered into pieces under the hunters’ attacks.
Eun Ji-eun, clad in her flight suit, flew unsteadily through the air, scattering cold air in every direction.
Crackle-crackle-crack—
Each time she did, thousands of monsters froze instantly, only to be bombarded by the hunters’ follow-up attacks.
Meanwhile, high-grade hunters like Yoon Soo-ho dealt with the monsters that hadn’t yet been frozen.
Shwa-kwa-kwa-kwa— Boom-boom-bang!
Mana waves rippled through the air from every corner, and hundreds of monsters exploded in an instant.
The attacks were powerful, as expected from high-grade hunters, but even accounting for that, the contaminated-zone monsters were being swept away far too easily.
“Why are these ones so much weaker than the first wave that came at us?”
“They’ve been out of the Creep for too long—probably weakened down to 1st or 2nd-grade level. The purification of the Gaeseong contaminated zone must have had a huge effect.”
The hunters now had enough breathing room to even chat while hunting.
Yoon Soo-ho stepped back slightly to survey the battlefield.
Most of the hunters gathered here had likely experienced a rank-up during this fight—or were right on the verge of one.
‘So this was the goal—gathering the hunters to trigger their growth.’
Currently, Korea’s official high-grade hunter force consisted of two 1st-grade hunters, six 2nd-grade hunters, and roughly a hundred 3rd-grade hunters.
Even adding in unofficial intelligence agents and villains didn’t change the numbers drastically.
Among the 2nd-grades, Min Hae-joon and Shin Hye-yeon had died, but Yoo Jae-jin had risen to fill the gap, so they were holding on.
Still, compared to other major powers, Korea was undeniably weak.
Especially their immediate neighbors—China and Japan—were superpowers that even possessed Zero-grade hunters.
If national crises like this kept happening, becoming a vassal state was only a matter of time.
Of course, that assumed there were no hidden secret agents.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
Vice Association President Cha Se-hyeon asked after blowing the head off a monster.
“Just random thoughts.”
Yoon Soo-ho gave a vague reply. Cha Se-hyeon smirked, thinking the Association President’s personality hadn’t changed at all.
As Vice President, and more importantly as the Master of the White Tiger Guild, he had genuinely harbored strong resentment toward this operation.
If the Association President had been manipulated by some big-shot politician into doing something foolish, he had even considered rallying the guild masters to collectively withdraw from the Association.
But President Yoon Soo-ho had once again proven his capability.
It seemed he really had come to his senses after the Hongcheon contaminated zone incident.
Cha Se-hyeon realized that what Secretary General Myung Ji-yoon—who was currently protecting Seoul—had said was true.
“By the way, what’s with that flying woman? The mana she’s emitting is ferocious, but it’s not polluted mana.”
Cha Se-hyeon casually changed the subject.
“I only heard she’s some kind of tactical weapon raised by the Intelligence Department.”
That was the extent of Yoon Soo-ho’s knowledge.
According to the secret agent, the moment she appeared, the difficulty of the battle would drop dramatically.
And indeed, it had.
“A monster like that was hidden in the Intelligence Department…? I’m kind of jealous.”
Cha Se-hyeon thought that if he could recruit that human weapon into the White Tiger Guild, it would revolutionize their raids.
“I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Hm?”
Cha Se-hyeon felt a twinge of unease at Yoon Soo-ho’s calm warning.
Leaving that awkward silence hanging, the two refocused on the hunt.
The other hunters, unwilling to miss out on experience, hunted monsters with fervor.
Eun Ji-eun, who had been flying around scattering cold air, eventually reached her limit and withdrew, but she had managed to freeze roughly half of the forward monster horde.
With intermittent potion use and rotations for the injured, the hunters finally cleared out almost the entire horde of hundreds of thousands.
“Wow…”
The hunters stared in awe at the Imjin River basin, now a literal sea of blood and corpses.
Some had been injured during the fight; a few had even come within inches of death.
The barrier itself was so damaged that a light tap might bring it down.
Yet no one had fled, and not a single fatality had occurred.
They had successfully defended Korea.
“We… actually did it.”
“It’s thanks to the Association President.”
“If that Flying Snow Woman hadn’t shown up, we’d have retreated all the way to Seoul, right?”
Without Beijing Command, the Snow Woman Eun Ji-eun, and Association President Yoon Soo-ho, this victory would have been impossible.
They could have fled at any time, but seeing Yoon Soo-ho, Kwon Hyeok-gyu, and the others charge fearlessly toward the monsters had steeled their resolve.
The joy of victory mingled with sorrow for their wounded comrades; the emotional afterglow lingered heavily.
Some even felt ashamed for having doubted the Association President’s plan and wanted to apologize.
After speaking briefly with Commander Kwon Hyeok-gyu, Yoon Soo-ho stepped forward in front of the hunters and addressed them.
“I want to thank every hunter who trusted me and came here to fight together. The byproducts collected from this operation will be distributed fairly among Beijing Command, the Intelligence Department, and all participating guilds.”
“Waaaaah!”
The hunters erupted in cheers.
Byproducts from hundreds of thousands of monsters.
Even though most were low-grade, the sheer volume meant rank hardly mattered anymore.
And since they had hunted up to 3rd-grade monsters as well, there were plenty of high-quality parts too.
Guilds that wouldn’t lift a finger without compensation were, naturally, the happiest about the rewards.
Meanwhile, Choi Hee-yeon was speaking with Chae So-young.
“Still no contact?”
“Yeah. He’s not picking up the phone either.”
Chae So-young fiddled with her smartphone.
Telepathy with her brother Chae Jin-young had been cut off for hours now.
It probably meant the distance had grown too great, but the fact that even calls weren’t going through was strange.
“Deep inside a contaminated zone, radio waves often don’t reach.”
“Nothing bad has happened to him… right…?”
Chae So-young told herself it was impossible, yet worry still crept in.
Seeing her like that, Choi Hee-yeon offered comforting words.
“He will be fine. If anything happens, it’ll be to the villains who run into him.”
***
“Why are you trying to handle something way beyond your level?”
Jin-young began freely manipulating the Demonic Sword that had been under Zhu Yinchang’s control.
Tzzzt…
In an instant, the massively enlarged Demonic Sword turned Brachio into hundreds of chunks of shredded flesh.
It was the ‘Enlargement’ ability he had absorbed from Ma Du-hwan.
While it normally only applied to objects held in the hand, it worked just fine on something grasped with psychokinesis.
After releasing the enlargement—
Shwaaaaa—
Jin-young hurled the Demonic Sword straight toward the Ogre King’s neck.
The monster hurriedly crossed its twin axes in an X-shape to block the blade.
Squelch—
The sturdy axe edges were sliced through as cleanly and smoothly as if cutting tofu.
Tz-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The moment the blade touched the neck, black mana burst outward in dozens of lightning-like strands, shredding the surrounding flesh into rags.
Thud.
Black blood gushed like a fountain as the Ogre King collapsed.
For a 1st-grade boss monster, it had died far too pathetically.
‘No. It’s probably because this suspicious Demonic Sword is just too powerful.’
Jin-young thought as he looked at the Demonic Sword, which was radiating ferocious black mana.
It was strange for an inanimate object to be classified as a boss monster, but not impossible.
Dungeons were full of all kinds of bizarre phenomena.
More than that, another question arose.
The most prosperous and powerful empire in Renard—Sindra.
The holy sword ‘Kalim,’ passed down since ancient times in that place, bore a striking resemblance to this one.
Of course, unlike this Demonic Sword’s black mana, Kalim carried sacred mana befitting its name as a holy sword.
Legend said it wasn’t forged by any craftsman, but bestowed by a god from the heavens.
Perhaps this Demonic Sword belonged to a similar lineage.
『I don’t know much about Renard, and even less about swords, but this one is definitely extraordinary.』
‘You say you don’t know, yet you’re commenting like that.’
『The power dwelling within the sword. Right now it’s shrouded in black mana, but deep inside, I can sense a mysterious force.』
‘Hm, really? I’ll look into it after cleaning up here.’
Shwaak! Pu-hwaaaak—
Jin-young casually sliced through the GODS members who had been acting as mere screens with the Demonic Sword.
Controlling the sword with psychokinesis brought back faint memories from Renard.
Back when his psionic energy wasn’t as strong, he often resorted to weapon manipulation because pure psychokinesis alone wasn’t enough to neutralize enemies.
Later, snapping necks became easier, so he rarely bothered with weapons.
“You three are the ringleaders, right?”
Jin-young pulled the blood-dripping Demonic Sword to his side and asked.
Zhu Yinchang and Sandesh Singh, unable to understand Korean, simply stared blankly.
Kwak Jeong-min understood but kept his mouth shut.
The three of them, restrained by psychokinesis, couldn’t even attempt to flee or counterattack.
Especially Zhu Yinchang—having watched all his carefully prepared cards get destroyed so effortlessly—seemed to have lost even the will to resist.
“Damn it… so this is it.”
He severed the connection with the monsters he had prepared for the Monster Wave.
The now-uncontrolled monsters would die off quickly.
But right now, conserving even the tiny bit of strength he had left was the best he could do.
“Hey, Kwak Jeong-min. Why aren’t you answering?”
“……”
“Why do all you GODS bastards love getting beaten so much?”
Crack!
“……!”
Kwak Jeong-min’s shin bone snapped and bent backward in an instant.
He couldn’t even scream from the shock.
But the pain was vivid—his face contorted grotesquely.
“Kwak Jeong-min. What’s that thing in front of you?”
At Jin-young’s question, Kwak Jeong-min glanced at the staff and finally spoke.
“An artifact…”
“I know that. What kind of artifact?”
“…Demon Spawn. When used in a contaminated zone, it produces monsters.”
“Oh, so this is what you used to send extra monsters.”
Jin-young looked at Demon Spawn with interest before yanking it toward him with psychokinesis.
『Its power is almost depleted. From the looks of it, it’ll break soon.』
According to the tentacle, Demon Spawn’s durability had reached its limit.
‘Still means it can be used a little longer, right?’
Jin-young stored Demon Spawn in his subspace and was about to resume interrogating Kwak Jeong-min.
Just then—
Shwaaa—
Sandesh Singh’s eyes glowed red, and black mana surged upward from the spot where Jin-young stood.
It was a trap he had been secretly preparing ever since being caught by psychokinesis.
Before the black mana could fully transform into a massive net and envelop Jin-young—
Fssssss…
The black net was shredded into powder by psychokinesis and scattered harmlessly.
Of course—Jin-young had already detected Sandesh’s scheme with psionic energy.
The moment the plot failed, Sandesh seemed to immediately start thinking of another move.
Tzzzt—
A subspace portal opened, and black tentacles shot out, instantly wrapping around Sandesh Singh’s body.
Shwaaaaa—
In the blink of an eye, the tentacles drained all of his black mana.
Jin-young spoke with an utterly emotionless gaze.
“I don’t want to be interrupted today.”
Crack-crack-crack—
Sandesh Singh’s head twisted 360 degrees and snapped. He died instantly.
“……”
Kwak Jeong-min and Zhu Yinchang stared at the scene.
A 1st-grade hunter—Sandesh Singh—had been killed without even managing a proper resistance.
Already stripped of their will to fight once before, the two now felt utter helplessness in the face of this overwhelming gap in power.
Even in GODS, only a handful possessed this level of strength.
The Godfather. And perhaps his seven prophets under him.
They even wondered if even those seven prophets could stand against this man.
“Kwak Jeong-min. Translate exactly what I say to Zhu Yinchang.”
Jin-young stepped closer to Zhu Yinchang and spoke.
“Understood……”
Overwhelmed by the sheer charisma, Kwak Jeong-min answered immediately without thinking.
Splash—
Just like with Sandesh, tentacles erupted from the portal, wrapped around Zhu Yinchang’s body, and began sucking out his black mana.
Zhu Yinchang, who had been in a daze, widened his eyes the moment the tentacles touched him.
But bound by psychokinesis, he couldn’t resist at all. The scant amount of black mana he had left was stripped away.
Barely a handful remained.
‘At this rate, I can’t even absorb the ability.’
『Still, absorbing the source of his mana will help us evolve.』
‘I don’t really like the sound of that creepy hand thing.’
Jin-young pushed the thought aside and asked Zhu Yinchang,
“Besides the Monster Wave, did you have any other plans prepared? If this failed, what were you going to do next?”
The words were translated and conveyed to Zhu Yinchang.
The humiliation of being defeated by a hunter from a small country paled in comparison to the crushing sense of powerlessness from being completely subdued. He no longer even tried to resist.
But after having his mana drained by the tentacles, he seemed mentally broken—barely capable of responding.
“What the hell. Already broken? Fine then. Kwak Jeong-min, you answer from now on.”
“Understood.”
Kwak Jeong-min nodded without hesitation.
True to form for someone who had betrayed Yoon Soo-ho and defected to the Godfather.
To Jin-young, opportunists like this were actually welcome. They spilled information easily.
“Do you have any guess what Zhu Yinchang’s next move would have been?”
“If the Monster Wave had succeeded, China would have sent ‘support’ under the pretext of aid and turned Korea into a vassal state.”
“And since it failed like this?”
“He even mentioned visiting Korea together with Minister of National Defense Liu Qinglong to kill Yoon Soo-ho.”
Kwak Jeong-min recalled a casual remark Zhu Yinchang had made in passing.
Even midway through the operation, failure hadn’t crossed his mind at all. But after repeated blunders, Zhu Yinchang had started thinking about borrowing power from the homeland.
“Liu Qinglong—the Zero-grade hunter?”
“Yes.”
Jin-young didn’t know much about the Zero-grade hunter Liu Qinglong.
Only that he ranked third in the world hunter rankings.
If someone like that decided to rampage in Korea with intent, the damage would be catastrophic.
Of course, if Jin-young were present, the story would be very different.
“Is Liu Qinglong part of GODS too?”
“No. He doesn’t step into the front lines in China either—he’s just quietly building strength from the shadows. Probably aiming to become the world’s number one hunter.”
“And what’s he planning to do once he gets there? World domination? Even for Liu Qinglong to climb that high, a hundred years wouldn’t be enough.”
At that moment, Zhu Yinchang spoke with half-crazed eyes.
“Heh heh heh… Minister Liu Qinglong becoming world rank one is only a matter of time. Once that happens, the International Awakener Federation’s gaze won’t matter at all.”
If it were revealed that Zero-grade Liu Qinglong was attacking Korea, the International Awakener Federation would have justification to intervene against China.
That was why Liu Qinglong had withdrawn from the front lines and focused solely on training—to become an untouchable world’s strongest hunter.
“If Liu Qinglong makes a move, I won’t just sit still.”
“……”
At Jin-young’s words, a chill ran down Zhu Yinchang’s spine.
It was enough to momentarily snap his fractured mind back to clarity.
“Then China will end up split into several pieces. Just like you.”
“Wha—”
Pu-hwaaaak!
“Kwaaaaaah!”
Zhu Yinchang’s limbs tore away from his torso in an instant as he screamed.
Pu-kwak!
After feeling every ounce of agony, his head was ripped off, and he died.
Gulp.
Kwak Jeong-min, the only one left, swallowed hard.
Jin-young looked at him, contemplating what to do.
Maybe there was still something more to squeeze out before killing him.
Then a good idea came to mind.
“Want to see Yoon Soo-ho for the first time in a while?”
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