Chapter 84

Chapter 84.

As I transformed into an EX-rank Hunter in front of him in an instant, Richard’s blue eyes flew wide open.

The essence of a surprise attack had not ended yet.

After concentrating the Sword Saint’s Mana at my fingertips…

WHOOSH—!

I stepped with footwork and instantly stood behind Richard.

I stabbed the hollow “Mute Gate Acupoint” at the center of Richard’s twitching nape, right where the hairline began, followed by the deeply sunken “Celestial Spring Acupoint” beneath his jaw, just above his Adam’s apple.

The key was to drive Mana into him at the same time as the strike, momentarily stiffening his blood and energy circulation.

“H-Hurk!!”

Since I had sealed his voice point, he could no longer speak.

…It was a technique from martial arts novels.

I had reinterpreted Acupoint Sealing in my own style.

It was a miscellaneous technique I had obtained after countless clinical experiments, trying to make the greatest possible use of the information in my head about “Acupoint Sealing” and “sealing the voice point to shut someone’s mouth.”

FLASH, FLASH.

Next came the protruding “Great Vertebra Acupoint” below the nape, and the “Shoulder Well Acupoint” midway between the nape and the end of the shoulder.

FLASH-FLASH-FLASH!

The Broken Basin, Highest Spring, Great Palace, Dove Tail, Middle of the Crook, Yang Mound Spring…

I sealed the acupoints located from the back of his neck to his shoulders, brachial plexus, solar plexus, and common peroneal nerve in an instant.

If one did this…

“Huh…! Haa!”

The nerves would be temporarily paralyzed, rendering the target unable to move.

“Mm. Perfect.”

It had been a long time since I last used this technique, but my body remembered it.

It was flawless, without a single mistake.

I admired the work I had created for a moment.

‘When I used it with Internal Energy, it absolutely would not release until I withdrew it.’

Internal Energy was a power only I possessed.

But since I was outside the Tower now, I could not use Internal Energy.

Since I had used Mana to seal his acupoints as a substitute, he would probably be able to release it himself.

‘Well, this is enough to tie him down for now.’

With a light heart, I began thoroughly searching Richard’s clothes.

[Agent. That is a Spatial Expansion Backpack.]

“This thing that looks like a bracelet? Wow, he has something good.”

Mine.

[That is a protective Artifact. According to the database, it has projectile counterattack capabilities.]

“A countermeasure against sniping? I should give this to Min Ji-hee.”

Was this the dignity of the strongest country?

Richard was a golden goblin.

After skillfully stripping Richard of all his Artifacts…

I rummaged through his clothes one last time, and then…

I found something extremely strange.

‘…What is this?’

It was something I knew.

And it was something that should not exist in reality.

On the outside, it looked like a Mana Stone…

But in truth, it was a horrifying tool containing a seed of calamity.

‘An Egg of an Outer God?’

…Why was something that only appeared in the 90s floors here in reality?

‘Fuck.’

My mind went completely blank.

***

The main theme running through the 90s floors of the Tower was “Outer Gods.”

That did not mean the Tower threw you in and made you fight an Outer God the moment you entered the 90th Floor.

Step by step, stage by stage, the Tower kindly taught you in its own way what kind of existences Outer Gods were, what you needed to be careful of, and what was dangerous.

Calling it kind was a little bizarre, considering that if you failed to overcome it, you died.

In any case.

From the 90th Floor to the 93rd Floor, the concept was fighting “those who followed Outer Gods.”

First came the lowest rank one encountered, the followers.

Then the minions who had received fragments of power from Outer Gods.

And finally, there were traitors known as “Apostles,” who actively tried to annihilate humanity in order to obtain even greater power.

Just as the Tower bestowed blessings upon humans and turned them into Awakened…

Outer Gods bestowed “Degradation” upon humans and turned them into twisted Awakened. Those were Apostles.

And when such an Apostle committed terrorism against humanity, what they used was precisely this “Egg of an Outer God.”

I had only seen an Apostle once.

So I had also only seen an Egg of an Outer God once.

The memory of the time I had encountered one in the 90s floors in the past came vividly to mind.

The moment it shattered the egg on the ground.

Black fog burst out and twisted the entire surrounding ecosystem.

The sky was dyed red as blood, the perfectly normal ground rotted away, and the land vomited out grotesque tentacles. That hellish scene.

‘The massacre show carried out by “that monster” that crawled out of the egg was also horrifying.’

What I had experienced then had been so deeply carved into my mind that I still remembered it vividly.

The fact that this thing was now on Earth…

Meant that it contained a crisis that could destroy a nation if not resolved immediately.

***

The most troublesome thing right now was that the “Degraded Entity” sealed inside the Egg of an Outer God was fucking strong!

So strong that if it had been me before unlocking the Sword Saint, I would not have been able to guarantee victory!

Now?

I had unlocked the Sword Saint.

However, the problem was that all the people gathered here at Hanam Fortress would be caught up in the battle that unfolded during that process…

And they would all become corpses.

‘I had thought, “So what if there is terrorism?”’

I had never even imagined that such an insane item would exist on Earth, not in the Tower!

‘This is seriously dizzying.’

On top of that, the U.S. Hunter Association President, supposedly the strongest on Earth, had personally brought it all the way here while making the Aggro Radar blare like mad…?

“You bastard. You have a connection to an Apostle of an Outer God, do you not?”

Richard’s eyes, stiffened by the Acupoint Sealing, began to shake violently.

There was no way this man was the Apostle of an Outer God himself.

From experience, when dealing with Apostles, finding them was harder than defeating them in a fight.

They were not the type to personally appear while taking such a risk.

Furthermore, the power Richard possessed…

No matter how I looked at it, it was Mana.

I could not see the distorted energy unique to those who had undergone Degradation.

If so, Richard had to be considered one of the lowest rank, follower-class.

A chess piece for those who served Outer Gods.

That meant an Apostle of an Outer God had already infiltrated Earth.

‘The head of Earth’s strongest country is an Outer God follower? Fuck.’

…That meant they had taken root far more deeply than I had thought.

My head hurt.

…I had finally stopped the Republic of Korea’s crisis of destruction once.

And now, a major accident that might destroy Earth had suddenly erupted?

What the hell was going on?

“Hoo.”

To conserve Nopi’s battery, I turned off Synchronization and headed straight to Incheon by private helicopter.

Of course, I brought Richard along, still paralyzed by Acupoint Sealing.

‘Even though I turned off Synchronization, the Acupoint Sealing is holding.’

Considering it did not interfere with moving immediately, that was fortunate.

THUD-THUD-THUD—!

The place we arrived at was the deserted clearing where I had previously hunted Scathach.

I tossed Richard aside roughly and carefully placed the Egg of an Outer God on the ground.

Then, while I was casually scanning the clearing, I spotted something useful.

“This will do.”

I picked up a moderately long, thin branch.

“From now on, your name is Wood Severance.”

I had only changed the first character of Star Severance to the character for wood.

Once one reached my level, the quality of the weapon honestly stopped mattering much.

‘If I use a little strength, there is not much difference between a branch and an Artifact. Both break.’

The difference was that branches were free, while Artifacts were hard to obtain and expensive.

So it was far more efficient to pick up Wood Severance every time and use that.

‘Now that I am used to Star Severance, I do not want to use any other sword either.’

What if our Star Severance got angry and asked whether I had used another weapon besides it?

Therefore, Wood Severance was enough.

Click.

I turned on Synchronization.

The power of the Sword Saint returned.

“Hoo.”

[Agent, I will assist you.]

With perfect timing, Snowy displayed Nopi’s battery status in the corner of my vision.

[B:98%]

Nopi’s battery had been charged to 100% using the ample power supply of the Mana Stone helicopter.

In other words, simply turning on Synchronization and circulating Mana once had already consumed 2%.

In the end, this was a problem with Nopi’s components.

If combat began, the operating time would probably be less than five minutes.

However.

“Five minutes is enough.”

Before Nopi’s battery cooled.

I only needed to return with the enemy commander’s head.

I lightly swung Wood Severance.

CRACK—

The Mana Stone broke.

***

When the man lightly swung the branch, yet with speed too fast for the eye to follow, the Mana Stone a few steps away split cleanly into two pieces.

‘…That is definitely an ordinary branch, is it not?’

For a moment, Richard saw an illusion, as though the branch had stretched out long.

[ROOOOOOAR!]

As soon as it was split in two, a furious roar rang out.

SQUELCH— SQUELCH-CRACK!

From the cross-section of the Mana Stone split in half, an energy like pitch-black mud began pouring out.

That ominous energy gathered and swelled in an instant, then transformed into a massive abomination covered in dozens of grotesque red eyes and tentacles.

[SCREEEEEECH—!!!]

CRACK! CRUNCH!

When the monster roared, the gravity over the entire clearing pressed down, and the ground split open in cracks.

‘H-Hurk……!’

Richard, who could not move even a single finger because of the Acupoint Sealing, felt the blood vessels in both eyes burst from the pressure of gravity crushing down on him along with that horrifying cry.

His instincts, the survival senses he had honed all his life as an S-rank Hunter, blared alarms like mad.

‘Pandemonium, you crazy bastards! What the hell did you hand me?!’

Although he specialized in rear support and assistance, Richard was still a veteran Hunter who had roamed Tower strategies and countless Break sites as an S-rank Hunter, hunting the Demonic Beasts of the 70th Floor.

But even in Richard’s eyes, that monster was something outside all standards.

A monster that could never be opposed even if all the 70th Floor climbing teams were gathered together…!

Merely facing it broke his spirit.

‘I am going to die. Before a monster like that, both that man and I will be killed!’

At that very moment, when Richard shed tears of despair…

“You are noisy.”

The man’s voice, far too calm, rang out.

FWOOSH—!

At the tip of the shabby branch in the man’s hand, a chillingly blue energy began to gather.

It was definitely Mana.

But its rank and density were completely different from the ordinary Mana Richard had seen all his life.

‘G-Good heavens… What exactly is that……?’

The man stepped forward once, holding the branch upon which chillingly blue Sword Energy had gathered.

[GRRRAAAAH!!!]

BANG!

The Degraded Entity, enraged by the provocation of that tiny human, fired hundreds of pitch-black tentacles like a tidal wave.

It was an attack that even surpassed the speed of sound.

The sound of air being torn apart exploded in midair.

When the sharp wave that made his breath catch swept over him, Richard’s body trembled reflexively.

‘Ghk…!’

However, the man did not dodge.

He merely shook the branch he had aimed, slightly, very lightly.

SLASH—!

The result was astonishing.

The hundreds of black tentacles that had poured down, filling the space, seemed to touch a gigantic invisible line…

And were all cleanly bisected.

‘……?!’

Richard doubted his own eyes.

The severed tentacles turned into black ash and scattered in midair before they even touched the ground.

[SKREE-SKREE-SKREE-SKREE!!!]

The Degraded Entity screamed grotesquely in panic.

The monster, which had been flinching and backing away, condensed all of its remaining energy into one mass as if making a desperate final struggle.

A destructive sphere, as though it would swallow the entire clearing, gathered into being.

‘This really is the end.’

Just as Richard was about to close his eyes tightly in resignation…

A languid smile instead hung on the man’s lips.

“This will not even take five minutes.”

The man lightly twisted the wrist holding Wood Severance and lowered his stance.

For a moment, Richard could not breathe.

The Mana explosively surging from the man’s entire body pressed down on him.

“Die.”

A calm sentence.

And then a lightning-like slash split the air.

Immediately after, a dazzling cluster of light exploded, as though it would burn his mind white.

Richard’s vision turned pure white in an instant.

FLASH…

Instead of an ear-splitting roar, a deep silence descended, as though every sound in the world had been erased for a moment.

When Richard, who had lost his sight and stood frozen in a daze, regained focus in his eyes…

“Ah……”

Richard’s jaw trembled violently.

The monster that had been in front of him had evaporated without a trace.

And it was not only the ground of the clearing where the monster had stood. Even the endlessly high sky…

Along the trajectory where the man had swung the branch, the world had been split in a straight line.

Through the split, sunlight poured down over the man’s shoulders.

CRUMBLE……

Unable to withstand the aftermath of the power, the branch the Apostle had been holding scattered into fine ash.

“Wood Severance No. 1, you did well.”

The man turned around.

The moment Richard met those indifferent eyes, he felt the common sense he had built over his entire life collapse like a sandcastle.

‘…He is a powerhouse beyond all standards.’

An S-rank Hunter? The capital of the superpower America? Pandemonium’s power?

Richard realized it.

Compared to that man, all of it was as meaningless as a speck of dust.

That man was a walking calamity who could bisect the world with a single branch.

Richard’s entire body became soaked with cold sweat.

At the same time, Richard’s mind spun rapidly.

Faced with a crisis of life and death, his thoughts accelerated faster than ever before.

‘I have to attach myself to this man.’

When the man who approached him tapped near the nape of his neck a few times, his stiffened tongue loosened, and he became able to speak.

“Now, then…”

“I will become your stepping stone!!!”

Thus, Richard shouted loudly.

The man closed his mouth and began staring fixedly at Richard.

…It was a distant terror, as though he were facing the bottom of an abyss.

Under the pressure that felt like an invisible hand roughly gripping his windpipe, Richard swallowed a gasp.

But if he remained silent here, his head would clearly fly off right then and there.

“W-We will…”

Richard barely managed to make his voice come out.

“We will hand over part of our stake in the 40th Floor Mana Stone mines. We will also open our Artifact warehouses, so satellites? Intelligence networks? Points or Gold? What do you need? We will offer everything you desire!”

And he absolutely had to survive.

Richard strained his neck and raised his voice.

“Please, if only you spare my life, I will be useful in many ways from now on. Please take me in!”

Instead of his immobile body, Richard lowered his eyes to show his intent to submit.

‘Hoo. That should do it.’

Handing over part of the interests in the Mana Stone mines was essentially a declaration that the Republic of Korea would be treated as the top-priority ally.

—The Republic of Korea is under the protection of the United States.

If this promise were publicly announced, other countries would no longer be able to ignore this small country either, and they would lower their heads.

It was something the tiny Republic of Korea would never dare attempt.

A display of power and wealth that only the superpower United States could achieve.

Although Richard wore a servile expression on the outside, inwardly, he swallowed an arrogant sneer.

‘This is my America…!’

Even that monstrous man would surely bite at this offer.

“No.”

“Now then, the contract…?”

‘Did I hear that wrong?’

Just now…

It sounded like he had said no.

“Haha, Mister. It seems you have not understood properly… How about this? We will dispatch America’s professional farming teams. Free of charge, we will train your country’s Hunter teams…”

“No.”

“…I-I will offer all the Points I possess…”

“No.”

“…”

Richard shut his mouth.

As if he had been struck by some mysterious method again, his voice would not come out.

An ominous feeling, as though his neck would be severed at any moment, made his heart pound madly, and tears welled in his eyes.

“P-Please… spare me.”

The man answered expressionlessly.

“No.”