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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 67
While Baekya was picking up the Dragon Scale Armor and putting it in his inventory, chaos erupted on Fengyun's yacht.
["Wooooooah!"]
From the sea, the remaining Aquatics crawled up.
It was an Aquatic with the lower body of a crab, the upper body of a human, anemone tentacles hanging from its back, and the size of a five-story building.
"Shoot those bastards!"
From the city, Awakened gangsters swarmed.
They were the artificial Awakened with half-formed halos.
Every single one of them was armed with firearms, and they were throwing white phosphorus grenades, which were illegal under international treaties.
It was a large yacht with armor plating, so it wouldn't sink easily.
However, it was obvious that if bullets hit the radar, GPS, or other equipment, it would cause a serious problem.
On a snowy winter night.
As white snow fell softly over the entire dock...
"How dare you attack the ship my senior is on!"
"You bastards don't recognize me? From now on, this city will be a city of statues!"
The 'Heavenly Demon' and the 'Gorgon' dashed out in different directions, filled with rage.
Ryu Haneul stood on the front deck of the yacht.
Fwoosh!
A blackish-purple sword energy flickered menacingly from his outstretched longsword.
The Aquatics, clad in shells, cut the ships at the dock with their pincers.
Crack!
It was like a child breaking a toy with scissors.
The Aquatics approached Fengyun's yacht.
"I'll sink them all. All of them!"
The halo above Ryu Haneul's head, confronting them, hummed.
["Do you know who I am?"]
Purple flames flickered in his eyes, and his voice was imbued with an irresistible force.
["No one can bring me to my knees, no one can raise their head before me."]
Ryu Haneul manifested his Dark Heavenly Sword Energy externally.
["I am the king of the Sixth Heaven!"]
The blackish-purple sword energy shot out in the shape of a crescent moon.
When it first left the sword, the sword energy was the same length as the sword.
As it flew, it became twice, three times as long.
By the time it clashed with the Aquatic, it was already longer than a streetlamp.
Crack!
The Aquatic's sturdy shell shattered like an eggshell struck with a hammer.
Ryu Haneul let out a bright laugh and swung his sword again.
'Reach for the sun!'
It was the sword he wielded towards the top of the Tower.
A mere monster that crawled out from the lowest depths.
If he couldn't crush it in one blow, it would be an insult to his senior.
"Hahahaha!"
Choi Gimin jumped off the yacht and leaped into the midst of the enemies.
"Petrification! Petrification! Petrification!"
A milky white light flashed from his vertically slitted eyes in a narrow fan shape, and countless artificial Awakened were petrified.
Choi Gimin's fists flew towards the hardened gangsters.
It was a fist covered in bronze scales, imbued with green fighting energy.
Crack!
The gangsters' bodies shattered like ice hit with a sledgehammer.
"Your organization is finished! Revolution!"
It was a sight that made one wonder who the real gangsters were.
However, the tide of the battle only worsened.
"Choi Gimin!"
"What?!"
"That bastard is about to fire his magic wand!"
"Magic wand? What's tha— Is that Aladdin's magic wand?!"
In Sinpo City, weapons from the former North Korea, Russia, Japan, and Chinese warlords were also traded illegally.
Anti-tank rockets and military grenades flew towards the deck.
"Petrification!"
Choi Gimin turned them all into stones, but...
In the meantime, the artificial Awakened swung their weapons at Choi Gimin.
"Ack, agh! These bastards!"
Choi Gimin was one thing, but the damage to the ship was a bigger problem.
No matter how sturdy the mega yacht was, it couldn't withstand anti-tank rockets.
"If even one gets through, we'll have to swim back!"
"I know that, kid!"
"Kid? I've lived 300 years longer than you!"
"Not counting time in the Tower!"
In the end, Choi Gimin climbed back onto the deck, and Ryu Haneul, unable to finish off the Aquatics, joined in the defense.
"Raise the bridge!"
"Yes, sir!"
Fengyun's subordinates raised the bridge, but...
"Set the ladders!"
"Just jump! We're Awakened now too!"
The artificial Awakened jumped from the pier or set up nearby ladders to climb onto the ship.
"Get off the ship my senior is going to board!"
The first five who boarded were bisected at the waist and legs by Ryu Haneul's longsword.
Slash!
"Get lost!"
The next four had their heads smashed by Choi Gimin's fists.
From the tenth person onwards, they couldn't be dealt with in one breath, and...
From the twentieth person onwards, even Fengyun's subordinates had to draw their sashimi knives.
Choi Gimin punched a young artificial Awakened in the solar plexus, knocking him unconscious, and shouted,
"Hey! Get the ship moving! Let's get out of the harbor first!"
Ryu Haneul swung his longsword, severing the limbs of a dozen artificial Awakened in the vicinity.
Covered in blood, he truly looked like the Heavenly Demon.
"Are you crazy? Senior hasn't come back yet!"
"You think that amazing person can't jump that far?!"
"Are you arguing with me? Have you forgotten that you were fed Loneliness?"
"You're openly threatening me because senior isn't here? I have no allies?! This is fucking lonely!"
In the distance, fifteen artificial Awakened simultaneously aimed their anti-tank rockets.
...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang!
They fired their rockets at two-second intervals.
"We're screwed."
Choi Gimin muttered in despair, raising both hands.
"I'm on cooldown."
"You have those too?"
"How can I shoot all of those down?! Even if I solidify one, the second one will hit!"
Ryu Haneul swore and clung to the deck.
He spun the longsword he held in both hands, creating a defensive perimeter.
'Senior, I'll never let you swim!'
【Celestial Barrier】
Clank!
Blackish-purple sword energy shimmered in a hemispherical shape.
The translucent hemisphere gradually became opaque, then completely turned blackish-purple and swelled.
It was large enough to completely envelop the luxurious mega yacht.
Bang! Bang!
Even Aladdin's magic wand couldn't penetrate the Heavenly Demon's defense.
However, even Ryu Haneul couldn't expand a 'protective' technique into an area-of-effect skill.
"Cough!"
Blood vessels burst in his eyes from the immense mana consumption.
It felt like an icy hand was gripping his heart.
Blood trickled from his nose.
The fifteen artificial Awakened continued to fire their anti-tank rockets.
Ryu Haneul felt wronged.
Even a thousand of those guys couldn't defeat him.
Even a direct hit from an anti-tank rocket would only sting a little.
Yet, here he was, struggling to block them.
Was it because his concentration was broken?
The Celestial Barrier started to flicker.
"Ryu Haneul! Master Ryu Haneul! Oh, Ryu Haneul!"
Choi Gimin completely changed his attitude, kneeling and shouting.
Ryu Haneul couldn't even bring himself to scoff.
'Senior, I miss you.'
The moment the sun's smile that illuminated the world came to mind...
'Senior would have handled this easily, right?'
Bang! Bang...
As if by magic, the explosions stopped.
Ryu Haneul opened his eyes wide and looked ahead.
"Haneul!"
'Senior?'
A thin heat ray flickered from the darkened pier.
"Kgh!"
"Ack!"
"Gasp!"
Every time the white light flashed, the waists of the artificial Awakened were cut, and their hearts were pierced.
The fifteen rocket launchers were already left with only their lower bodies.
Ryu Haneul shouted with a smile as bright as the sky,
"Senior!"
From one side of the pier, Baekya was running towards them as if flying.
Behind him, Fengyun's subordinates were helping Fengyun walk.
Ryu Haneul immediately shouted—
"Senior! Choi Gimin said to leave without you!"
Choi Gimin jumped up in alarm.
"W-when did I?!"
Baekya shouted with a bright smile that lit up the night—
"That's why I left you behind!"
Baekya leaped and landed on the deck.
He hugged Ryu Haneul tightly and patted his back.
"You did well. Thank you."
Ryu Haneul felt like he was going out of his mind.
In the middle of the night, there was the unexpected scent of sunshine.
* * *
The lights of Sinpo City faded below the horizon.
Fengyun sat on a long chair, grinding his teeth.
"Just you wait. I'll bring my boys and wipe that city off the map."
Baekya stood beside him, nodding.
"Yes. Do that."
It was dawn, and the eastern sky was gradually brightening.
The thick sea fog was slowly receding.
Fengyun, cautiously gauging Baekya's mood, asked,
"Did you... eat that thing?"
"The Irregular Polyhedron?"
"Yeah, that."
"It's not quite eating, more like absorbing."
Baekya nodded with satisfaction.
The control and output of Law of Light had increased several times over.
His memory was already hazy, but come to think of it, something similar seemed to have happened a few times before.
He had vague memories of absorbing some kind of fragment with Sunny's help and becoming drastically stronger in a short period.
"Give me your right hand."
"My right hand?"
Baekya took Fengyun's hand.
He unleashed a white light.
Fwaaaaaaat!
"H-hold on!"
Fengyun was startled, but Baekya instantly found and reached the root of the curse that he couldn't remove before.
'Back then, it felt like pulling out my beard with pliers, but now it feels like using tweezers.'
He accurately fired the light of Law of Light at the root of the curse.
The green mist that was embedded deep within Fengyun's blood vessels burned cleanly and disappeared.
"Done."
"Done? It's gone?"
"Yeah."
Fengyun asked in bewilderment—
"You're saying it's really gone? It was that easy?"
The nightmare that had tormented him for the past few months was over in less than three seconds.
Baekya nodded.
"You know who I am, right?"
Fengyun felt a strange sense of emptiness and deep relief at the same time.
"Yeah, I know."
His face, looking up against the backdrop of the sky, was not clearly visible.
Whether it was because of his severe injuries or the backlight from the sun that had just risen above the horizon, he couldn't tell.
But he could tell that Baekya was smiling calmly, just as he had when they met through the bars.
It was the sun that had transformed him from ice, through water and steam, into a cloud.
Fengyun nodded awkwardly.
He wanted to change the subject.
"Did you, uh, bring the coral branch?"
Baekya noticed it but didn't let on.
"I even got the Dragon Scale Armor. The armor's pretty good."
"Wear it well. I sold it, but it's really good."
"I can't thank you enough."
There was something urgent to discuss.
"And those bastards..."
"Yeah, we need to do something."
"Can they even enter the Tower?"
It seemed Fengyun knew for sure.
Research on artificial Awakened had been going on for 15 years.
South Korea had also secretly conducted it, but they only figured out 'how to fail.'
"It would be nice if they could enter."
Baekya said with a sigh.
Only Awakened could enter the Tower.
Even though there were far more mana stones, artifacts, and elixirs inside, ordinary people, who made up most of the workforce, were systematically barred from entering.
If artificial Awakened could also enter the Tower, the amount of mana stone mining would increase significantly.
They might even be able to install protective barriers in every school, kindergarten, hospital, and government office in the country.
Fengyun said—
"It might turn out the way you wanted, right? If you want, everyone can become Awakened, enjoy rights and responsibilities, and challenge the Tower with you."
Baekya sincerely hoped that would be the case.
"On the other hand, the number of people under you could increase dramatically. Right now, it's divided into Awakened and ordinary people, but from then on, it'll be divided into Awakened, artificial Awakened, and ordinary people."
That's why he had been thinking about it even before it happened.
Fengyun smacked his lips as if in regret.
"Should've captured a few. I threw them all into the sea."
Just then, a youthful voice came from the front of the deck.
"Where have you brought me?!"
Baekya and Fengyun exchanged glances.
* * *
"He was caught on the bow line. We thought we threw him into the sea, but he must have gotten snagged."
One of Fengyun's subordinates bowed his head apologetically.
Baekya, Fengyun, Haneul, and Gimin all went out to the front deck and looked at the artificial Awakened.
The halo above his head was a half-ring, and the intensity of the light was about a third of that of Fengyun's subordinates.
He was definitely an artificial Awakened.
He appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties.
He was skinny, but his clear eyes had a long, gentle, oriental beauty.
Choi Gimin clapped his hands twice to get everyone's attention.
"Now, now. No one's interested in human smuggling, right? Doesn't look like there's any money to be made? Let's release him back into the sea so he can return to the North."
Surprisingly, no one paid any attention.
Baekya and Fengyun exchanged smiles.
"This is good."
"What a stroke of luck!"
Ryu Haneul walked up to him and checked his face.
"H-he looks like a girl even though he's a guy!"
The boy blushed but still yelled, and Ryu Haneul tilted his head.
"You."
"What?"
"What's your relationship with the Re-allocation department head?"
The boy tried to bite Ryu Haneul's nose.
"I don't have a brother like that! That bastard betrayed the Republic and fled to South Korea!"
Baekya and Fengyun exchanged smiles once again.
"Even better."
"We hit the jackpot!"
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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