Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Zeon looked at Croker and the Crocodiles charging at him with terrifying momentum.

Croker was a Grade C martial-type Awakened, and all the Crocodiles were made up of Grades D and E.

They were an enormous force capable of wiping out most ordinary districts in the slums in an instant. But before Zeon, they were of no use at all.

Flames rose right in front of Zeon.

He had cast Fire Wall with the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet.

Hellish flames filled the underground space.

“Ghk!”

“Uaaagh!”

The Crocodiles screamed under the tremendous heat.

Because they had adapted to living in the humid underground for many years, they were vulnerable to scorching heat.

Even heat that ordinary people would have merely considered hot felt like hellfire to them. Moreover, the Fire Wall Zeon had cast was several times hotter than ordinary flames.

The bodies of the Crocodiles charging at the front caught fire, and they collapsed.

The Crocodiles rolled across the ground, screaming as they tried to put the fire out, but it was useless.

Once the fire caught, it did not go out easily.

“You son of a bitch!”

Croker launched his unique Skill, Stone Fist.

As the name suggested, it was a Skill that made his fist as hard as a stone before he struck.

It was nothing more than a simple punch, but in terms of destructive power, it surpassed other Skills of the same grade.

CRASH!

His Skill struck Zeon accurately.

But Croker could not be happy.

That was because Zeon had deflected his Skill with the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet.

Zeon’s figure suddenly blurred, then appeared right in front of Croker.

He had approached using Sand Walk.

To Croker, who did not know that, it felt as if Zeon had used a Skill like spatial movement or Blink.

“You?”

CRASH!

At that instant, Zeon’s fist struck Croker’s abdomen.

“Kraagh!”

Croker screamed and was flung backward.

After crashing into the wall and coughing up blood, Croker struggled to rise.

His eyes, as he looked at Zeon, were filled with anger.

He had felt it last time too, but he was no match for Zeon.

To him and the Crocodiles, who lived underground, Zeon was practically their natural counter.

There was no way to defeat Zeon through ordinary methods.

He screamed,

“Fuck! Everyone, inject the drug.”

Croker took a syringe from his chest.

It was a syringe filled with yellow liquid.

Without hesitation, he stabbed the syringe into his heart and injected it.

Seeing that, the Crocodiles also stabbed syringes into their hearts.

The yellow liquid inside the syringe was one of the drugs they manufactured. What made it different from other drugs was that it exploded all of one’s latent power in an instant.

“Kraaaah!”

“Hrrrgh!”

Croker and the Crocodiles straightened their backs, letting out bizarre breaths. Their bodies had become much larger, and their muscles bulged out sharply.

Zeon watched them with an interested expression.

“Looks like a kind of stimulant.”

The world had broken, but humanity had broken even worse.

Countless drugs that seriously affected the human body had been developed, and people who took such drugs as if it were nothing were scattered everywhere.

One thing was certain. No matter what effect a drug had, after taking it, it was accompanied by equally severe side effects.

If it was a drug that amplified a human’s latent power in a short time, like the stimulant they had injected, the side effects could not help being even greater.

“Die!”

“Kraaaah!”

Croker and the Crocodiles roared like beasts and charged at Zeon.

WHOOSH!

Zeon’s hair fluttered from Croker’s punch.

The wind pressure reached Zeon before the fist did. But Zeon leisurely avoided his attack.

Then the Crocodiles attacked Zeon from behind.

Their movements were closer to beasts than humans.

There was no reason in their reddened eyes. The only thing visible was madness.

They were twice as fast as before, and just as much stronger.

CRASH!

The concrete struck by their fists burst apart as if hit by a bomb.

Croker was even worse.

ROAR!

A red heat haze was rippling all over his body.

The drug had drawn out his latent power to the limit and even made him use aura.

“Fuck! Just die. Die!”

Croker squeezed his muscles to the limit and exploded with all his power.

Zeon observed Croker’s movements, his bodily reactions, and even the movement of his eyes.

Croker and the Crocodiles’ maddened attacks lasted almost ten minutes. But the moment exactly ten minutes passed, their movements slowed noticeably.

“The limit is about ten minutes?”

He did not know the true identity of the drug they had injected, but it was clear they could only produce maximum output for about ten minutes.

At this point, he had learned everything he could from them.

At that instant, the sand scattered across the floor rose, writhing like snakes.

Dozens of sand snakes stood with their heads held high and glared at Croker and the Crocodiles.

It was one of Zeon’s Skills, Viper.

At the sight of something he had never seen before, Croker’s eyes widened.

Even in his irrational state, he had sensed danger.

“What is that?”

Instead of answering, Zeon flicked his finger.

SWISH—!

At that instant, the sand snakes flew toward Croker and the Crocodiles like arrows.

Viper instantly pierced holes through Croker and the Crocodiles’ torsos.

No matter how much the drug had exploded their latent power, they could not survive with large holes bored through the middle of their bodies.

The Crocodiles’ bodies collapsed like sand castles.

Croker alone stubbornly remained standing, but he had reached his limit.

Croker’s eyes returned to normal.

“You...... what are you? What the hell is this Skill......?”

He had met countless Awakened until now, but this was his first time seeing someone who controlled sand.

“Then what about the Flame Magic? Don’t tell me...... are you a dual type?”

Zeon smiled and raised the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet.

“It’s just thanks to an item.”

“An...... item?”

Croker’s eyes trembled.

He had never dreamed that such intense flame-type ability was merely thanks to an item.

“You sly bastard. You were hiding your true ability like that.”

“That’s the kind of world you have to live in if you want to survive.”

“Damn...... I was completely played. I shouldn’t have touched your belongings in the first place.”

With those words, Croker collapsed to the ground.

His breath had stopped.

Zeon looked at Croker with an indifferent expression, then moved on.

The place he headed toward was a secret passage behind Croker.

He had seen Goran and Ava enter there.

Everything had been part of Goran’s larger picture.

He had turned Croker’s plan to make Goran and Zeon destroy each other back against him.

It was the cruel mind of Shinchon’s ruler.

Zeon was curious what Goran had been after by making him and Croker kill each other.

The reason was probably inside there.

Zeon entered the secret passage Goran had gone into.

The passage was narrow and damp, and not a single point of light existed. But that was no problem for Zeon.

He had eyes that could see through deep darkness.

Zeon followed the traces of Goran and Ava, descending the stairs.

After going down for a long while, he arrived at a very large underground space.

In the space, which seemed over a hundred meters wide and long, countless beds were arranged. On the beds lay hundreds of people with faces as pale as corpses.

Thin tubes were inserted into their forearms, and red blood flowed through them.

The blood that flowed out like that gathered in a large tank in the center. And in front of the tank stood Goran and Ava.

They were staring intently at the tank and did not even realize Zeon had arrived.

Zeon quietly approached the tank.

“Huh?”

Ava, who belatedly noticed Zeon’s approach, looked flustered. But Goran was too focused on the tank to notice Zeon’s presence.

Zeon naturally looked at the place where Goran was focused.

A girl was sitting in front of the tank.

She had messy blond hair, dark circles under her eyes, and a somewhat cynical expression.

The girl was wearing a pointed hat that looked like something witches from long ago would have worn, along with a loose black robe.

But iron chains were fastened around the girl’s ankles. They looked like restraints meant to prevent her escape.

Goran looked at the girl and said,

“So it was you. You were the one making the drugs the Crocodiles supplied.”

“Shut up, human.”

“Human?”

“You’d better look away before I gouge out those eyes. How dare a mere human look at a noble elf with those eyes?”

“You weren’t human. An elf? I see.”

Her ears had been hidden by the pointed hat, so he had not recognized her at first. But judging from the way she spoke, she was definitely an elf.

Goran laughed.

“Heh-heh! This is funny. I wondered what kind of technician was making such good drugs, but to think it was an elf.”

“You bastards are worse than monsters! Do you think I’ll leave you alone if I get free? I’ll kill you all. I’ll kill every last human bastard without leaving a single one alive.”

The girl glared straight at Goran and spat venomous words.

When people commonly thought of elves, they imagined nobility or quietness, but this girl was not like that.

The elf girl’s name was Briel.

She had originally lived outside Neo Seoul.

The disaster came suddenly one day.

She had encountered human Awakened passing nearby.

She had fought with all her strength, but in the end, she was subdued by the humans.

From then on, her miserable life began.

After being sold from human to human several times, she ended up drifting all the way to the slums of Neo Seoul, far from the place where she had originally lived.

Croker discovered her true talent.

It was her talent for alchemy.

As befitted an elf born with keen senses, her talent for alchemy was outstanding.

Croker came up with a way to use Briel’s talent.

It was to develop a new kind of drug.

Just as Croker had thought, Briel displayed outstanding ability in manufacturing drugs.

She created several new drugs that had never existed before. Thanks to that, Croker was able to become an emerging powerhouse in the drug market.

All the drugs supplied to Goran’s organization were made by Briel.

All the drugs Briel made used human blood as a medium.

Because they used blood, the most important substance in the human body, as their raw material, the drugs Briel made had far fewer side effects than other drugs.

The problem was Briel herself.

A pure elf who loved nature was making drugs harmful to all living beings.

In her heart, anger and resentment toward humans grew larger day by day.

In the end, she came to hate and resent everything in the world.

Goran said to Briel,

“From now on, you’ll work for me. I’m your master now.”

“Fine! I’ll make them for you. Croker and you are the same kind of bastards anyway. It’s all the same no matter which bastard I make drugs for.”

“Heh-heh! That’s a good mindset. That’s how you live long.”

Just as Goran smiled in satisfaction, it happened.

“An elf drug manufacturer, huh? This really is an interesting neighborhood.”

At Zeon’s voice from behind him, Goran’s blood ran cold.

When he turned around, Zeon was looking at Briel with an interested expression.

Goran glared at Zeon and said,

“What the hell? What happened to Croker?”

“You’ll see if you go outside. Ah! Even if you ask him, he won’t be able to answer. He’s dead.”

“You dealt with him already?”

“It wasn’t that hard.”

“Instead of fighting like this, just come under me. If you and I join hands, we can seize the slums in no time.”

“I refuse. Working under someone doesn’t suit me.”

“So you really want to see this through to the end.”

Goran’s expression hardened terribly.

Originally, his plan had been to make Zeon and Croker destroy each other, then secretly steal away Briel, the drug manufacturer.

After that, he would reorganize the slums and deal with Zeon, and everything would be perfect. But Zeon had dealt with Croker and the Crocodiles faster than expected, throwing the entire plan off course.

Zeon looked at Briel and said,

“It’s not as if I have any particular feelings for elves, but this is a bit much. Humans really are the most dangerous, after all.”

“You’re talking as if you aren’t one yourself. You’re all the same hypocritical bastards......”

Briel’s venomous words immediately poured out. But Zeon’s expression did not change at all.

“Hey, elf kid. If you want to get out of here, you’d better shut that mouth. Among the people here, I’m still the only one who even has a chance of freeing you.”

At that instant, Briel pressed her mouth shut without realizing it.

Zeon’s gaze turned to Goran.

“Go ahead. Try running away again.”