Chapter 79

Chapter 79

Greed blinds people.

Madness robs them of rational judgment.

The people inside the arena were exactly like that now.

The enormous sum of one hundred thousand sol had blinded their eyes, and the madness of the crowd had stolen their reason.

The spectators in the arena forgot that Zeon was strong and charged at him.

Zeon thought they looked just like undead.

“One hundred thousand sol is mine.”

“I’ll kill Zeon.”

“Die!”

The spectators’ madness filled the arena.

At that moment, Zeon moved.

CRASH!

“Keuk!”

His strike landed squarely on the face of the person charging at the front.

The spectator collapsed with a scream.

Even after seeing their companion fall right before their eyes, the spectators paid it no mind and rushed at Zeon.

Zeon threw his fists at them.

THUD, THUD, THUD!

With the sounds of heavy blows, the front line collapsed.

There was no need to use his sand authority or Flame Magic.

Zeon’s martial arts were superior to most martial-type Awakened.

No one could withstand a single strike from Zeon.

In an instant, half the spectators collapsed.

Only then did the spectators regain their reason.

Fear had brought their minds back.

“Wh-what?”

“Ugh!”

“Damn it!”

Half the people who had been laughing and talking with them moments ago were now lying in pools of blood.

No matter how out of their minds they had been, they could not help feeling fear.

Even a Grade F Awakened could face dozens of ordinary people at once.

And Zeon’s grade was above Grade B.

Even if several truckloads of ordinary people were brought before him, he could suppress them easily.

Goran knew that fact too.

Even so, he had driven the spectators toward Zeon. There was a reason for it.

A cruel smile appeared on Goran’s lips.

“Boom!”

BOOOOM!

At that instant, one of the spectators collapsed beneath Zeon’s feet exploded.

Zeon was swept up in the explosion and sent flying.

He flew almost ten meters, and there was another collapsed spectator where he was about to fall.

Even in the chaos, Zeon frowned.

‘Don’t tell me?’

The suspicion became reality.

BOOOOM!

The spectator, who had been perfectly fine, exploded again.

It was no different from a human bomb.

Zeon, caught in the explosion, was flung away again.

THUD!

Zeon slammed into the arena wall.

The debris from the broken wall buried him.

A deep smile appeared on Ava’s lips.

“The boss’s ability really is amazing. With this much, he must have taken serious damage too.”

At that moment, Zeon pushed aside the debris of the broken wall and stood.

Tap, tap!

As he brushed the dust off his robe, not a single trace of damage could be found on him.

The smile vanished from Ava’s face.

In contrast, Goran wore an intrigued expression.

“So even this much isn’t enough.”

The explosive force just now had been powerful enough to blow away even a Grade D Awakened in one shot. The fact that Zeon had not suffered even a single wound inside such explosions meant he was that strong.

“Estimated ability, Grade B or higher...... As expected, troublesome.”

The higher-ranking an Awakened was, the stronger their pride tended to be.

Naturally, they rarely lowered their heads and entered under someone else. But the stronger they were, the more thrilling it was to make them submit and place them beneath one’s feet.

Zeon looked at Goran and said,

“You planted bombs in people’s bodies.”

“Heh-heh!”

Goran neither confirmed nor denied it.

Zeon did not say anything more either.

The time to resolve this with words had already ended.

All that remained was a direct confrontation.

TAP!

Zeon launched himself forward.

There were hundreds of stairs between him and Goran, but that much could be crossed in a single leap.

Just as Zeon was about to reach the top floor, it happened.

BOOM!

A tremendous shock wave struck Zeon.

Dolkan, the bald man standing behind Goran, had fired Shock Wave.

At the maximum output of Shock Wave, all the windows in the arena shattered, and the spectators collapsed as their eardrums burst.

Dolkan was Goran’s field commander.

Until now, he had defeated and wounded countless enemies with Shock Wave.

No opponent had ever remained unharmed before Shock Wave. Dolkan naturally thought this time would be the same.

But as if mocking Goran’s confidence, Zeon landed safely on the upper floor.

Nowhere on him could any sign of damage from Shock Wave be seen.

Dozens of fireballs formed around Zeon.

Seeing that, Ava said to the prostitutes,

“Protect the boss.”

The prostitutes surrounded Goran without hesitation.

At that instant, Zeon swung his hand, and the fireballs poured down like a rainstorm toward Dolkan and Goran.

“Uwooooh!”

Dolkan charged like a bull with his right arm covering his upper body.

Most of the fireballs were blocked by his right arm and bounced away.

His right arm was a mechanical prosthetic arm.

The prosthetic arm, created with Neo Seoul’s concentrated technology, could deflect most Magic and physical attacks.

A few fireballs flew toward Goran, but the prostitutes blocked them with their bodies.

The faces of the prostitutes struck by the fireballs twisted in pain.

But not a single one screamed or tried to dodge.

Instead, their eyes showed that they were honored to sacrifice themselves for Goran.

“You bastard!”

Dolkan swung his mechanical arm and attacked Zeon.

Zeon lowered his head slightly and dodged Dolkan’s fist. As a result, Dolkan’s defenseless flank was exposed.

Zeon wrapped the Superheated Gauntlet in flames and struck Dolkan’s side.

CRASH!

“Ghk!”

With the explosion, Dolkan’s face twisted.

Only his right arm was a mechanical prosthetic arm, while every other part was still human flesh.

Naturally, when he received an impact, he had no choice but to feel pain.

At the unexpected agony, his body curled in on itself.

Zeon did not miss that opening.

Both of his arms seized Dolkan’s mechanical prosthetic arm. Then he ripped it out as it was.

CRUNCH!

“Kraaaagh!”

Dolkan screamed at the pain of his mechanical prosthetic arm being torn away.

Bundles of nerves and pieces of muscle were attached to the arm as it came loose.

“To think Dolkan would be taken down so easily.”

Goran’s expression, protected by the prostitutes, changed completely.

Dolkan was one of the sturdy pillars supporting him, along with Taeo, Eaton, and Ava.

He possessed such tremendous martial power that he was always deployed wherever armed conflict broke out.

That same Dolkan had been defeated by Zeon so helplessly that it was almost absurd.

Dolkan was not weak.

Zeon’s martial power was simply far beyond Goran’s imagination.

“Damn it! This has become troublesome.”

Goran blamed his own haste.

If he had known Zeon was this strong, he would have changed his method of persuasion. But regret always came too late.

Now was not the time for regret, but the time to find a breakthrough.

Goran knew an easy method.

He shouted,

“Dolkan! Die for me.”

At that instant, Dolkan’s eyes changed.

His eyes rolled back like a fanatic’s, and he charged toward Zeon.

He wrapped his remaining arm around Zeon.

Zeon tried to pry his arm loose and escape, but Dolkan’s monstrous strength was beyond imagination.

Spittle flew from Dolkan’s mouth as he said,

“We die together, Zeon!”

Zeon saw Dolkan’s maddened eyes turn red.

He knew what that meant.

‘Self-destruction?’

His judgment was swift, and his action was even swifter.

Zeon released Exion to the front.

WHOOSH!

The pressure of Exion’s release created a gap in Dolkan’s arm.

Zeon slipped through that gap and curled his body as tightly as possible.

At that instant, Dolkan’s body exploded.

BOOOOM!

It was an explosion with power incomparable to the spectators’ explosions.

Pillars burst apart, walls collapsed, and the entire arena caved in completely.

“Damn it! What is this?”

Zeon stood, clearing the rubble away.

Today alone, he had already been buried under rubble twice and swept up in explosions three times.

If not for the robe made from Leviathan’s hide, Zeon would also have suffered considerable injuries.

Zeon looked around.

Goran was nowhere to be seen.

He had clearly left the arena before the explosion occurred.

“It’s been a while since I got properly pissed off.”

Zeon swept his tousled hair back with his hand.

He had never dreamed that Dolkan would self-destruct at a single word from Goran.

Whether human or monster, the most important thing was one’s own life.

That someone could give up their life so easily at another person’s word was something Zeon could not understand by his common sense.

“A fanatic? Or maybe a geas?”

This was a world that had already ended once.

A new humanity called Awakened had appeared, and countless abilities had been developed.

There were mainstream types like martial types, magic types, curse types, and those who fused with machinery, but there were also people like Zeon who used non-mainstream abilities.

Goran was clearly someone who used a non-mainstream ability like Zeon.

“A mental geas, and an ability related to explosions?”

During the brief moment he had been held by Dolkan, Zeon had confirmed that there were no explosives on his body.

Even so, Dolkan had exploded.

That meant Dolkan’s body itself had been the explosive.

Zeon did not know how a human body could be turned into an explosive, but if that truly was Goran’s ability, then it was definitely a major threat.

“If I let him go, he’ll keep aiming for me. I have to deal with him today.”

Zeon immediately began the pursuit.

Goran was the king of the slums.

He knew the geography of Shinchon inside and out.

The same was true of Zeon.

It might have seemed as if he had done nothing after returning to the slums, but he had grasped every part of the terrain as clearly as the lines of his palm.

No matter where Goran hid, Zeon was confident he could find him.

---

The Black Lion flung open the door to Yu Se-hee’s room and shouted,

“We have a major problem.”

“What happened?”

Yu Se-hee glared at the Black Lion for disturbing her peaceful time.

She was thinking that if he had interrupted her peace over something trivial, she would not let it slide. But at the Black Lion’s next words, that thought disappeared completely.

“The arena exploded.”

“The arena? You mean Goran’s establishment?”

“That is correct.”

“Why?”

“It seems to be related to Zeon.”

“Zeon?”

“Yes! Someone saw Zeon entering the arena.”

Yu Se-hee’s expression hardened.

She was one of the few people who knew Goran’s true ability.

Because she knew Goran well, she could sufficiently guess why the explosion had occurred.

“Did that terrorist use his ability against Zeon?”

Among those who lived in the shadows, Goran’s nickname was Terrorist.

By using his blood and mana, he could make the talents of an Awakened bloom.

If one looked only at that, it was certainly a blessed ability.

But on the other side of that blessing, a curse also existed.

Goran could make the mana of an Awakened he had awakened run wild and explode.

That was Goran’s true ability.

Decades ago, Goran had used his ability to seize Shinchon.

His ability did not apply only to Awakened.

He could also cause ordinary people into whom he had secretly injected his blood and mana to explode.

Ordinary people who became his victims died in explosions without even knowing they were going to die. That was what made it terrifying.

It was impossible to know who Goran’s victim was.

Goran used his ability to turn the target’s acquaintances into explosives, then made them explode when they approached closest.

It created a situation where no one could trust anyone.

Goran had used his ability to turn the family members and acquaintances of his competitors into explosives. Then he eliminated those competitors.

The number of people who died then alone exceeded several thousand.

After killing so many people, Goran became the ruler of Shinchon.

Yu Se-hee hurriedly said,

“Track Goran and Zeon immediately. If this goes wrong, all of Shinchon could collapse.”