Chapter 186

Chapter 186

A man sat on a metal chair connected to countless wires and cables.

The man, whose skin and muscles somehow gave off a metallic feeling, was Kim Hyun-soo, the overlord of West District.

Kim Hyun-soo sat in the chair and looked at City Hall in the distance.

The image of City Hall entered clearly through his mechanical prosthetic eye.

It had been decades since he had made his nest in West District.

During that time, he had developed West District and built an advanced mechanical civilization. Even so, a large gap still existed between it and City Hall.

That fact made Kim Hyun-soo unable to endure it.

“Jin Geum-ho, just what are you thinking? What are you trying to do?”

He knew that Jin Geum-ho, the mayor of Neo Seoul, was plotting something.

That was because information came in through various routes.

Among them, what Kim Hyun-soo trusted especially was the analysis of the Three-Legged Crow, the supercomputer.

The Three-Legged Crow, born from the fusion of an Ancient Golem’s brain and a computer, could process an enormous amount of information in an instant.

It was on a different level from information analyzed by humans.

Even so, it could not uncover much information about Jin Geum-ho and Neo Seoul.

City Hall had a perfect defensive wall, one that even the Three-Legged Crow’s ability could not penetrate.

“Neo Seoul belongs to Koreans. How long are we supposed to stand by and watch nonhuman races and outsiders run rampant?”

He was Korean to the bone.

He took great pride in being of the pure bloodline of this land.

Even though most of his body had been replaced with machines.

It was then.

—Master.

The voice of the Three-Legged Crow rang out.

“What is it?”

—Lord Cha Jin-cheol died a short while ago.

“What?”

Kim Hyun-soo sprang to his feet without realizing it.

That was how shocking the information the Three-Legged Crow had delivered was.

—This is Black Tortoise’s report.

“Cha Jin-cheol really died?”

—It is certain.

“Mm!”

Kim Hyun-soo groaned and sat back down in the chair.

Cha Jin-cheol had Black Tortoise installed in him, an inferior-version AI of the Three-Legged Crow.

The Three-Legged Crow and Black Tortoise were connected through ego.

Thanks to that, even from this far away, he could know Black Tortoise’s information.

Kim Hyun-soo asked,

“How did Cha Jin-cheol die?”

—I cannot determine that much.

“Was Black Tortoise damaged as well?”

—Before Lord Cha Jin-cheol died, Black Tortoise activated the return protocol.

“Does that mean the situation was that dangerous?”

Black Tortoise was not a living creature.

It was an avatar of the Three-Legged Crow operating through the medium of a chip implanted in Cha Jin-cheol’s head.

The Three-Legged Crow could withdraw Black Tortoise at any time.

It was a contingency prepared in case subordinates equipped with inferior-version AIs of the Three-Legged Crow betrayed him or proved unsatisfactory.

Conversely, for an inferior-version AI to return to the Three-Legged Crow by its own judgment, a complex procedure was required.

This was called the return protocol.

Black Tortoise had activated the return protocol to return to the Three-Legged Crow.

The situation was so dangerous that it had cut off all external contact to protect itself and was waiting only for the Three-Legged Crow to recover it.

Until it was fully recovered, even the Three-Legged Crow could not know what had happened to Black Tortoise.

The Three-Legged Crow asked,

—Shall I recover Black Tortoise?

“Yes. Begin at once.”

—I will begin the recovery procedure.

“When will it be finished?”

—It will take at least a day.

Recovering an inferior-version AI was no easy task.

Once the return protocol was authorized, the inferior-version AI loaded all its data into mana particles and released them into the atmosphere.

The Three-Legged Crow then collected them.

Because there was no relay, this process took a long time.

In exchange, once all of Black Tortoise’s information was collected, there was no need for analysis. That was because it would be absorbed into the Three-Legged Crow in the form of data.

—I will report again as soon as Black Tortoise is absorbed.

Kim Hyun-soo nodded and thought,

‘Cha Jin-cheol’s combat power with Black Tortoise installed was by no means weak. And yet he was defeated? Just what the hell defeated him?’

---

“Kraaaak!”

The Knight Commander’s desperate scream echoed through the ancient castle.

His entire body had been burned black to the point that its shape could no longer be recognized.

Even the armor that had protected him was charred black and crumpled.

It was the trace left behind by Lightning God’s Hammer, Lee Ji-ryeong’s strongest Skill.

He had been struck by Lightning God’s Hammer several times before. But each time, the Knight Commander had endured with his uniquely powerful defense.

If Trigion had not died, he would have withstood Lee Ji-ryeong’s attacks forever.

But with Trigion’s death, his mental strength had been greatly shaken, and at that exact moment, Lee Ji-ryeong’s grade had risen.

He had become a true Grade S.

All the countless battles he had fought until now and the experience he had accumulated to the limit had exploded all at once, raising his grade.

The moment he became a true Grade S, the power of Lightning God’s Hammer changed as well.

It not only shattered the Holy Shield the Knight Commander had unfolded, but dealt damage his main body could not recover from.

Only now had Lee Ji-ryeong truly reached the realm of the Lightning God.

As if to prove that fact, an enormous amount of electric current was flowing out from his entire body.

Even the Awakened of the Pegasus Raid Team stood far away out of fear of being electrocuted.

“Whew!”

Lee Ji-ryeong let out a sigh and gathered back all the electric current being released outside his body.

“Waaaah!”

“The Captain became Grade S.”

“We won.”

Only then did the Awakened of the Pegasus Raid Team burst into cheers.

The Knight Commander had been the last.

The undead knights had already been cleared out earlier.

Now the ancient castle was theirs.

But the time given to them was short.

RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE!

The ancient castle shook precariously.

With the Knight Commander, its core, dead, it was trying to disappear.

Bronson, the clearing team leader, shouted,

“Fuck! There isn’t much time left. Hurry up and recover the bodies, and collect the items. Bring out every by-product and everything worth money.”

Almost four hundred people had been mobilized for this dungeon clearing.

More than two-thirds of them had died.

Only a little over a hundred survived.

Even among them, most were Awakened of the Pegasus Raid Team.

Most of the mercenaries and West District Awakened had died.

It was truly tremendous damage.

The damage was far too great for clearing a single dungeon.

Still, if they sold the items they obtained from this dungeon, they would more than recover their losses.

The greatest gain was that Lee Ji-ryeong, the raid team captain, had become a true Grade S.

That alone made this dungeon clearing a great success.

“Collect all the armor and weapons the undead knights were wearing too. All of that is money.”

“Jackpot. There’s a secret storage room here.”

“A secret storage room?”

At one Awakened’s shout, many people ran over.

Inside the secret storage room the Awakened had found, many items were piled up.

At a glance, most of the items looked far from ordinary.

At this rate, it seemed they would more than make up for every loss they had suffered in this clearing.

“We don’t know when the dungeon will disappear, so hurry up. Bring out everything valuable first.”

“Yes!”

The Awakened moved busily.

They were given neither the time nor the leisure to mourn their comrades’ deaths.

The best mourning was to give the families of the dead generous compensation. To do that, it was important to scrape up every small item and bring it outside.

The Pegasus Raid Team cared for the families of the deceased in this way, and that greatly contributed to the raid team’s reputation.

Lee Ji-ryeong stood still and examined the state of his body.

Vitality was overflowing through his entire body.

It felt as if lightning, not blood, was flowing through his veins.

He had never felt such exhilaration before, as if his whole body were made of lightning.

Right now, he felt as though he could fight and defeat even Jin Geum-ho, the ruler of Neo Seoul.

After fully savoring his power, Lee Ji-ryeong looked at Zeon a moment later.

Zeon did not even glance at the items being brought out of the ancient castle’s secret storage room, as if he had no interest in them.

His gaze was directed at the black ash piled on the floor.

It was the trace left after Trigion had been burned.

Lee Ji-ryeong approached Zeon.

“You worked hard. Thanks to you, we could clear the ancient castle.”

“You...... became Grade S.”

“Yes. I was lucky.”

“Luck follows those who have worked for it.”

Lee Ji-ryeong nodded and said,

“It is thanks to you. You gave me a great deal of stimulation.”

“If so, that’s good.”

“Why are you looking at the ash that burned Cha Jin-cheol like that? Are you perhaps afraid Kim Hyun-soo will bear a grudge? If so, there’s no need to worry. We all saw Cha Jin-cheol turn into something else. I will explain that to him properly.”

“That does not especially worry me.”

“Then why?”

Instead of answering, Zeon bent down and took out a small metal box from the ash pile.

It was the chip that had been implanted in Cha Jin-cheol’s head.

When Zeon applied a little strength, the chip broke powerlessly.

“Do you know what this is?”

“No.”

Lee Ji-ryeong shook his head.

He did not think it was especially strange either.

Cha Jin-cheol had been a mechanized Awakened.

They were people who had awakened the unusual ability to replace human bodies with machines.

Even if metal came out from inside his body, it was not strange at all.

“Does that bother you?”

“A little.”

“You think too much for someone with that much power.”

“I’ve heard that before too, but it’s my nature, so I can’t fix it.”

“The strong do not need to think too much. You simply set a goal and run toward it with all your strength. Then other people will take care of the minor worries and plans on their own.”

“I don’t have as much ambition as you.”

“Is that truly so?”

Lee Ji-ryeong looked at Zeon with a meaningful expression.

His gaze was burdensome, but Zeon did not avoid it.

The two exchanged looks for a long while.

It was then.

RUMBLE—!

With a powerful vibration, a large portal formed inside the ancient castle.

A passage leading outside had opened.

“It’s the exit.”

“Waaaah!”

People cheered.

Only then did Lee Ji-ryeong take his gaze away from Zeon.

He said to the Pegasus Raid Team,

“You have all worked hard. If you have gathered everything, let’s go outside.”

“Yes!”

The Awakened answered and entered the portal one after another.

Lee Ji-ryeong remained in place until all the Awakened had left.

That was what it meant to be the captain of a raid team.

A position where one stayed until the very end and prepared for any possible incident.

All the Awakened left the ancient castle, and only Lee Ji-ryeong and Zeon’s group remained.

Zeon said to his group,

“Now we should leave too.”

“Yes, Brother.”

“Mm!”

“Let’s get out already. I’m sick of this place.”

Levin, Briel, and Eloy replied as if they had been waiting.

They had grown tired of waiting for their turn to leave.

It was when they were about to enter the portal.

“By the way.”

Lee Ji-ryeong’s voice suddenly rang out.

Zeon and his group turned their heads to look at him.

FLASH!

At that instant, enormous lightning engulfed them.

Lightning God’s Hammer.

Lee Ji-ryeong’s strongest Skill had been unleashed.

‘Damn it!’

There was no room to dodge, and if he dodged, Briel and the others behind him would take a direct hit.

Zeon crossed his arms and took Lightning God’s Hammer head-on.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

With explosive roars, Zeon was flung to the side of the portal.

Lee Ji-ryeong’s lightning Skill, now that he had reached Grade S, boasted power on an entirely different level from before.

Lightning God’s Hammer electrocuted not only Zeon, but also Briel, Levin, and Eloy.

Zeon gasped for breath and barely raised his head.

Lee Ji-ryeong looked down at Zeon and said,

“Now that I think about it, he was still my little brother. I felt I should avenge him.”

His words were nothing more than an excuse.

The moment he saw Zeon kill the Knight King, the inferiority complex in his heart had exploded.

The sense of danger that, if he left Zeon alive, he might be devoured by him, had made him launch a surprise attack.

“Still, you contributed to clearing the dungeon, so I will not kill you myself. Meet your end together with the dungeon.”

With those final words, he entered the portal.

The portal closed, and the entire space began breaking apart.

The cleared dungeon was disappearing.

When a dungeon disappeared, the living creatures inside it disappeared with it.

Knowing that fact, Lee Ji-ryeong had deliberately attacked Zeon and left him behind.

Zeon wiped away the blood flowing from the corner of his mouth and struggled to stand.

He felt pain as if his entire body were burning, but his eyes alone shone sharply.

“As expected, there isn’t a single bastard in the world worth trusting. But you thought wrong. If you decided to kill me, you should’ve stopped my breathing yourself.”