Chapter 38 – To North Korea 6
TL: Boko
Editor: Frost
Dozens of aura clad illusionary swords aimed for Tae Yong’s body.
“T-This monster..!”
There were thirty one illusionary swords aiming for Tae Yong; his eyes moved busily and was narrowly able to read their trajectory. However, he didn’t think he would be able to dodge them all.
He was only able to utter a few words before he was gruesomely torn apart by the illusionary swords.
“Ugh!”
His arms and legs were severed and the rest of his body was torn apart, so Tae Yong weakly fell. Blood began to gather atop the white marble floor.
“Colonel Park Tae Yong was killed!”
“Are we retreating?”
“It doesn’t seem like he’s been poisoned!”
The Supreme Guard Command, who put their trust in Tae Yong, fell into chaos. They had thought that Sung Joon would be poisoned, but he wasn’t, and Tae Yong, who had been on standby had been killed so quickly that the normal people couldn’t even see it.
“Don’t say something so stupid! Our Leader is still here underground!”
The officer, who was a Colonel just like Park Tae Yong, angrily scolded his subordinate for suggesting a retreat. It was the duty of the Supreme Guard Command to fight if the Leader willed it, even if there was no chance of victory.
With their do-or-die spirit, they continued to fight against Sung Joon.
“They remind me of the Imperial Army and their excessive loyalty to the Empire,” Rishubalt spoke with a sick and tired expression, as hundreds of North Korean soldiers kept coming no matter how many Sung Joon cut down. Though he had once pledged his allegiance to the Empire, his end hadn’t been the best.
“Wouldn’t it be best to use Dragon Fear?”
“They’re mostly weaklings. It’s better to save my mana against weaklings,” Sung Joon replied. There was occasionally an A-rank Hunter mixed in here or there, but aside from them, the rest of them were low-ranked weaklings. Not only was using ‘Dragon Fear’ against them excessive, it was also a waste.
Thud.
At the climax of him cutting down the North Korean soldiers.. The party leader of team one broke the wall and something popped out. Once the dust settled, he was able to see what it was.
“They even brought a tank, huh..”
Sung Joon shook his head looking speechless. What came out of the walls was two tanks.
However, Sung Joon was moving at high speeds, so they couldn’t even aim at him. The speed at which the gun turrets rotated was much too slow to aim at him.
“Slash!”
Sung Joon aimed at the tanks and launched an aura slash at them. Because the tanks were close together, his one aura slash was able to destroy both tanks.
“He’s destroyed the tanks too!”
“Shouldn’t we run away?”
Since even the tanks that they had trusted in were destroyed, the soldiers were shocked. Sung Joon was dominating the battlefield. There would be a fountain of blood anywhere he passed. Because he was so fast, the soldiers couldn’t even aim properly. The majority of the Hunters couldn’t even resist and fell in succession.
From the start, North Korea’s card had been the ‘poison’. Since it didn’t work, it was expected that they would fail.
“At this rate, everyone will die!”
“S-Shut up! Fight for our great Leader! Those who run will be executed!”
The officers pulled out their handguns and shot straight up into the air, trying to create an atmosphere of terror. However, the Supreme Guard Command soldiers were already in a state of panic. Rather than fighting Sung Joon, they would rather fight against the officers blocking their path, so they leveled their guns at the officers.
“Y-You bastards..!”
The moment the officers were about to aim their handguns, the soldiers had already pulled the triggers.
“AH!”
“Ugh!”
As soon as the officers blocking off their retreat fell, half of the surviving Supreme Guard Command escaped. Sung Joon didn’t bother killing the retreating soldiers.
Even the Supreme Guard Command soldiers who had excessive loyalty to Jang Woonhad, at the very least, realized that the situation had worsened to this extent and couldn’t endure.
“I will correct my statement. They’re different from the elites of the Imperial Army.”
Rishubalt fixed his thinking. So long as there wasn’t an order to retreat, the elites of the Imperial Army would never retreat. That was what was so scary about the Empire.
Sung Joon plunged his sword into the chest of the lastly resisting Hunter; the Hunter spewed blood from his mouth and collapsed.
“Absorb.”
“Your synchronization rate is at 47%.”
By using absorption, his synchronization rate increased. Sung Joon felt that it was indeed easier to increase his synchronization rate by killing his fellow Hunters, and smiled faintly.
“Have we pretty much taken care of them?”
Sung Joon raised his head and surveyed his surroundings. The party area, which was as wide as a soccer field, was filled with corpses. The only one living and breathing was Sung Joon.
He checked himself, his body dyed with the blood of his enemies, and looked to an Asura who came down to mete out punishment.
“Heal.”
Sung Joon used his mana and cast Heal. After fighting against several Hunters and being rained down by bullets, he ended up being injured.
He wasn’t hit by the guns, but his left thigh was deeply cut; however, an S-rank Hunter’s overwhelming ‘Heal’ allowed him to recover quickly.
“Someone is coming,” Rishubalt said.
“Yeah. Seems like an A-rank Hunter.” Sung Joon also grasped the presence, replied and nodded his head. Eventually, a man appeared who turned out to be the man who alerted him of Jang Woon’s plan, Colonel Lee Jung Soo.
“You neatly slaughtered them all.”
“Were you close to any of them?” Sung Joon asked. When he thought about it, he could’ve killed some of Jung Soo’s comrades as they were all North Koreans. However, Jung Soo shook his head and opened his mouth.
“I’m part of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, and these people were part of the Supreme Guard Command. The two organizations are completely divided, so there wasn’t anyone I was close to here.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
Sung Joon roughly brushed off the blood on his clothes. Because his priest vestments were an item, when he tried to brush off the blood that seemed to have seeped into the clothes, the blood quickly came out.
“It’s good that you’re here. Where is that asshole Kim Jang Woon?” Sung Joon asked. The moment he said his name, his anger surged. How dare Jang Woon try to kill him? He wouldn’t let him survive.
“I came here to tell you that. Leader Kim Jang Woon is hiding in the final restricted area.”
“Final restricted area?”
“Yes. It’s the bunker that’s the deepest in this underground facility. There are several soldiers stationed along the way, but you should be able to break through them quite easily, Hunter Kang Sung Joon,” Jung Soo said. From the head of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, Lee Hae Sung’s point of view, Sung Joon had to kill Kim Jang Woon. That way, the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces will be able to take control of the leaderless North Korea.
“You’re not asking me to take him out for free, are you? This should be helpful to you guys, too,” Sung Joon said. He was the type of person to get all that he could even while he was proceeding with his revenge.
“The head of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces has promised to pay you the magic stones exactly like Kim Jang Woon did.”
“That’ll be enough.”
Sung Joon smiled. Now that his relationship with Jang Woon was messed up, he wouldn’t be able to obtain the magic stones; but since the head of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, Lee Hae Sung, had promised him the magic stones, he felt relieved.
“Please take me there. I’m catching a pig today.”
After Jung Soo nodded his head, he took point and led Sung Joon to the final restricted area. There were Supreme Guard Command soldiers stationed along the way, but none of them could stand up to Sung Joon.
“Is it here?”
There was a giant concrete wall in front of Sung Joon.
“Yes. There’s a code squad coming to release the lock.”
The concrete wall was so thick that he couldn’t even imagine how thick it was and it wouldn’t be an easy task opening it. Therefore, Jung Soo had called a code squad, but Sung Joon shook his head and opened his mouth.
“That’s not necessary. I’ll take care of it.”
Sung Joon extracted ‘Anvel’s Master Key’ from ‘Waltger’s Dimensional Pouch’.
“Is it an item?”
Jung Soo looked curious. Sung Joon just nodded his head and brought the master key to the recognition device. As soon as he infused mana into it, the master key began covering the recognition device in blue light.
Beep.
A mechanical sound was emitted and the recognition device responded. The recognition device was electronic equipment, but as he had expected, the master key worked. The thick concrete wall gradually started to open and he could see what was inside.
Inside lay a vast and long passageway. And as soon as the door opened, twenty two soldiers, including three Hunters shot at Sung Joon and Jung Soo.
“Ha!”
Jung Soo threw his body to the side and avoided the bullets while Sung Joon quickly swung his sword, cutting apart all the bullets, and used high-speed movement forward.
He instantly closed the distance and their guns weren’t able to keep up with Sung Joon’s movements.
The Hunters tried to intervene, but by the time they’d channeled their mana, Sung Joon had already plowed into the center of their ranks and had swung his sword.
“AH!”
“Ugh!”
He cut off the Hunters’ heads first. Next, the soldiers armed with automatic rifles spurted blood and collapsed.
“How impressive. I couldn’t see what had happened at all.”
Jung Soo was an A-rank Combat Hunter, but he couldn’t even estimate Sung Joon’s level. He had already passed a 45% synchronization rate and he could overpower most S-rank Hunters. If his rating had been higher, he would’ve already been in the top ten of S-rank Hunters.
“I’m counting on you to keep guiding me,” Sung Joon requested, and Jung Soo nodded his head and took point. There were soldiers stationed at every corner, and there was even a trap set up, but those couldn’t stop him.
Finally, he ended up in front of a reinforced iron gate.
“Leader Kim Jang Woon is hiding within,” Jung Soo said. Sung Joon approached the reinforced iron gate. He wanted to use ‘Anvel’s Master Key’, but the built in mana was used up opening the previous concrete wall.
“It’s not as thick as I expected. You can break through it if you use aura.”
After Rishubalt had inspected the door, he spoke. Sung Joon swung his aura clad blade to cut through the iron gate, and went inside.
Jang Woon was shaking inside.
“Protect our Leader!”
The four soldiers guarding Jang Woon, who appeared to be Hunters, moved. Considering the mana he sensed from them, they were A-rank Hunters.
“Fire Spear!”
There was a Mage Hunter mixed in. The sharp flaming spear aimed for Sung Joon’s chest, but Sung Joon cleaved through it with his Spell Breaking Sword.
The Fire Spear, which had been cleaved in twain by the Spell Breaking Sword, futilely dispersed into the air and disappeared.
“He cut through the spell?”
“Gale Sword.”
He didn’t even give them a chance to be surprised. Sung Joon calmly spoke the activation words and used his Gale Sword. He charged forward, and as soon as the sword winds spread, one A-rank Hunter weakly fell.
“Shield!”
The other Hunters were able to survive due to the Mage Hunter’s Shield. They attacked Sung Joon together but it didn’t work.
“Ugh!”
One of the Hunters lost their left arm and both legs, and fell. It would be difficult even for an S-rank Hunter to continue the fight if he didn’t advance forward.
“Wind Cutter!”
The other Hunter sprayed sharp aura shards together with the Mage’s wind blades.
“Aura Spray?”
However, Sung Joon didn’t panic. It wasn’t a common ability on Earth, but he had experienced it several times in his past life. He swung his sword and decapitated the remaining two Hunters. Then, he stood in front of Jang Woon.
“L-Let me live..”
Seeing Jang Woon, who was quivering in fear, Sung Joon opened his mouth with a cold expression.
“It seems like you gathered info on me through the General Reconnaissance Bureau.. Then, you should know already.”
Sung Joon didn’t show him any respect any longer. Jang Woon was merely an ‘enemy’ that tried to kill him. He raised his sword.
“I don’t have any plans on giving an ‘enemy’ that tried to kill me a peaceful death.”
And for five hours, Jang Woon’s tortured screams didn’t cease. When Jang Woon was unable to even utter a scream, Sung Joon cold-heartedly swung his sword and beheaded him.