Chapter 88

Episode 18 – A Reader’s Fight (2)

As I felt the refreshing wind wrap around my body, I recalled the sentences that appeared in Ways of Survival .

Han Sooyoung was summoning avatars when she noticed the skill I was going to use .

“What? I thought you didn’t learn this?”

“Step back . ”

Way of the Wind .

「 There is a gale in the right hand and a storm in the left hand . The Way of the Wind will be opened when the straight lines and the curves meet . 」

The sentence that I couldn’t understand became a reality the moment I felt wind at my toes .

Myung Ilsang’s fist suddenly approached my nose .

The attack that should’ve hit was meaningless . The overwhelming power of this skill filled in my lacking stats . This was the secret technique of the Imyuntar .

Myung Ilsang’s eyes shone .

“…Huh? You sped up?”

I didn’t answer as I focused on enlightenment . From now on, it was a fight against time . The remaining time for Bookmark was 30 minutes .

“Aha, I understand . Is it the skill of those wolves?” Myung Ilsang laughed at me . “Did you receive a great enlightenment that allowed you to use this shitty skill?”

“…”

“Do you know? I killed the king of those guys with my own hands . ”

Of course I knew . I remembered the creatures of Chronos who died .

Prince Lycaon of the Imyuntar, Parasite Queen Antinus…

The fate of those who survived their destroyed world was to be used in the scenarios unfolding on another planet . I would be in the same situation as them if Earth was destroyed .

A Medium Black Fire Cannon shot from Myung Ilsang’s right hand .

「 One wind will meet another wind to form ying and yang . Once again, one wind will meet another wind to form the principles of negative and positive . 」

I used all my imagination to put these words into images .

Hot and cold wind swirled in front of me and the direction of the wind started to twist .

The black fire was deflected once it hit the wind and energy spread in every directions .

All ether attacks were propagated through a medium . If the root of the medium was dispersed, the attack would have no choice but to go back .

Myung Ilsang looked surprised . “…Pretty good . You must have some talent?”

Myung Ilsang once against started to flee .

[The character ‘Myung Ilsang’ has used Blink Lv . 4 . ]

It was another Blink . However, it wasn’t hard for me to pursue him . Once I closed my eyes and concentrated on the wind, I could read everything near me .

I ran along the street at a speed that matched Yoo Jonghyuk’s Red Phoenix Shunpo and found Myung Ilsang . He was grabbing people randomly and asking them questions .

I kicked off the steel frame of a building and flew towards Myung Ilsang . It was a blow that would crush bone but he stood up .

[The twenty-fourth seal of the returnee ‘Myung Ilsang’ has been released . ]

His next seal was released by a hair’s breadth .

“…It was ticklish?”

Myung Ilsang spoke in a playful manner . He believed that he would win anyway . His wounds were healed by the seal being released and as time went by, more of my magic power was being consumed .

“Hahaha, try to stop me!”

In fact, I couldn’t kill him if I used Way of the Wind as a buff skill . If this alone could defeat the Disaster of Questions, Chronos wouldn’t have perished in the first place .

I had to do ‘it . ’ The problem was… someone needed to buy time for me to use this technique .

…Huh? Something suddenly fell from the sky diagonal to me . It looked like a descending hawk as it pierced through the air towards Myung Ilsang .

There was a terrible explosion and a small crater appeared . A familiar person was seen where Myung Ilsang was lying on the ground . I looked at the man with a wide mouth and muttered, “…Yoo Jonghyuk?”

Didn’t this bastard say he would take two days to recover? I looked at the approaching Yoo Jonghyuk and reflexively stepped back . Surely he wasn’t planning to hit me right now?

However, Yoo Jonghyuk stopped a few steps in front of me and turned around .

“Get started . ” Yoo Jonghyuk stood before me as if he knew what I was trying to do . “I’ll block him . ”

Han Sooyoung muttered on my behalf from where she was lying nearby . “Ha, shit . As expected from the protagonist…”

But unlike her words, Yoo Jonghyuk appeared to be in a dangerous state . His body was still unsteady and the blood vessels on his body were still bulging .

Meanwhile, Myung Ilsang stood up from the crater, laughing while coughing up blood .

“Ah, it is a bit annoying…”

He wasn’t badly damaged despite the impact . It was unbelievable that he was on the weak side of the ‘returnees’ who would appear .

Myung Ilsang ran forward and Yoo Jonghyuk met him .

Then I invoked Way of the Wind .

「 Four winds meet and form a defense . Then another four winds are added, making it the Eight Trigrams . Therefore, wind is everywhere yet exists nowhere . ’ 」

It was my turn to use the verse that gave Lycaon enlightenment . The mysterious air wall in the shape of an octagon started to swirl .

It was a small dome of space . The tight seal choked me .

From now on, it was a fight against time . Yoo Jonghyuk flew back from a blow while Myung Ilsang’s expression hardened . He finally realized that this wasn’t a game .

“What…?!”

The next moment, all the air in the dome was removed . My ears became blocked and all sound disappeared . The wind blew terribly but the dome was as calm as the eye of a storm .

Myung Ilsang opened his mouth .

“…!”

“…?”

He moved his mouth several times but his voice wasn’t heard . Sound wasn’t possible because there was no medium .

He was in a complete vacuum . Due to the difference in air pressure, the air in my lungs momentarily escaped . I quickly sucked it back in .

Outside the dome, Han Sooyoung was shouting something .

[Exclusive skill, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint stage 2 has been activated!]

「 What is this? 」

I could hear Myung Ilsang’s thoughts .

「 Why don’t I have a voice? Magic? 」

Myung Ilsang was shouting with confusion . It was natural . All returnees had a penalty . This was especially true for returnees who could quickly recover their original strength under certain conditions .

[The penalty of the Disaster of Questions is activated . ]

[The power of the returnee ‘Myung Ilsang’ has been weakened . ]

[The twenty-fourth seal of the returnee ‘Myung Ilsang’ has been locked . ]

「 Uwaaah, no! 」

They had the condition of being ‘weakened’ as easily as they were ‘strengthened . ’

[The twenty-third seal of the returnee ‘Myung Ilsang’ has been locked . ]

Why did the Disaster of Questions keep asking questions? It was simple . His abilities would weaken if he didn’t ask questions .

「 Shit! Release this! Quickly release it! 」

His fist hit the wall of air many times but the wall didn’t break easily . In a space without a medium, the black flames didn’t burn .

[The twenty-second seal of the returnee ‘Myung Ilsang’ has been locked . ]

A vacuum prison that could be made using Way of the Wind . This was the optimum strategy against the Disaster of Questions that I knew .

「 Uwaaaaah! 」

Myung Ilsang belatedly rushed towards me . He thought that the vacuum prison would be broken if I died but it wasn’t the case . This was a place that I made .

I used Way of the Wind to avoid his attack and quickly reduced the area of the prison .

Once the wall shrank, I made a narrow passage and escaped outside the dome with Yoo Jonghyuk . Now Myung Ilsang was the only one left inside the dome .

「 …You jerk! 」

A returnee wasn’t a returnee for nothing . The dome cracked a little bit under his power . I raised my hand and the wind filled in the weak spot . Then the size of the dome started to shrink rapidly .

Blood flowed from my nose due to my excessive concentration . My ultimate goal was to limit the vacuum prison to his body .

However, it wasn’t easy to control . Shit, Yoo Jonghyuk had managed it easily . Why was this so difficult?

“Don’t try to control it . You must lead the wind . ” Yoo Jonghyuk’s voice was heard .

At that moment, I received enlightenment . Maybe it was my mistake to make a ‘wall . ’ The important thing was to remove the medium around his body .

「 U-Uwaaah, uwaaaaah! I’m choking! 」

Myung Ilsang frantically scratched at his neck, causing himself to bleed .

“…Pretty good . Although you still aren’t very talented . ” Yoo Jonghyuk’s voice was heard again .

Then Myung Ilsang attempted his last hurrah .

[The character ‘Myung Ilsang’ has used Great Black Fire Cannon Lv . 3 . ]

Myung Ilsang’s right arm was surrounded by dark flames . To my surprise, the great flames shot through the dome of wind .

I fell down while protecting Yoo Jonghyuk’s body . A dull impact filled my head . Myung Ilsang seemed to be squeezing out his remaining magic power as the black fire cannon continued .

But the wind wasn’t still . Once the black fire cannon was fired through the dome, wind instantly filled up the spot again .

The last hurrah didn’t change anything . The problem was that people were dying from the black flames .

Yoo Jonghyuk saw my face and said, “Kim Dokja, don’t think about it . They wouldn’t care if you died . ”

“There are people like that . ’

But not everyone was like that . I got up and confronted the black flames .

The black flames were scattered and twisted by the power of the strongly rotating dome . A terrible pain followed . It was because I intercepted the majority of the black flames .

The black flames burned mu skin and the sensation in my bones faded little by little .

I could do it . He wasn’t strong right now . At this moment, I reached an area beyond my limits . As my senses became faint, my body was like the wind .

[A constellation who loves effort enjoys your pain . ]

[A touch of talent sleeping in your soul has blossomed . ]

I controlled the vacuum prison with my left hand while moving the wind with my right hand to dissipate the energy of the black flames . In a complete trance, I tasted new heights in Way of the Wind . The wind at my fingertips was creating a landscape I had never known before .

[The thickness of the exclusive skill ‘Fourth Wall’ has temporarily thinned . ]

It was a strange feeling . This was how the ‘characters’ saw the world .

No matter how hard I read the text, I didn’t know what to feel . I felt that a part of the narrative that was felt through the pages touching my fingertip, which I could never full reach, was now completely understood .

Reading was different from understanding . Maybe I still didn’t understand one percentage of this world yet .

Soon afterwards, I felt the power of Myung Ilsang’s black flames weaken .

「 Shit! Scum! Die! Diee!! 」

The momentum of the black flames was rapidly declining . In addition, my magic power was still full .

It was a strange feeling . Even if I was in a trance, how could I have this much magic power left?

Behind me, Yoo Jonghyuk said, “…I will kill you . ”

…Somehow I had absorbed Yoo Jonghyuk’s magic power .

Then after a while, Myung Ilsang’s attacks ceased .

[All seals of the returnee ‘Myung Ilsang’ have been locked . ]

Yoo Jonghyuk and I looked at each other .

[The exclusive skill ‘Way of the Wind Lv . 8’ has been released . ]

The fear-stricken Myung Ilsang stared at us .

“C-Cough, cough…!”

I threw Unbroken Faith towards the man who was gasping for air and trying to run away .

“Kuheeok!”

He fell down with the blade in his back . He wouldn’t be able to escape with Blink anymore . I ran over and grabbed his neck .

“…Hah, it is really frustrating not being able to speak . Have your questions finished?”

“Keeeok…”

“I will kill you if you ask me a question right now . Don’t ask anything . ”

Returnees . The most arrogant and brutal existences in Ways of Survival . Among the returnees, Myung Ilsang was one of the worst .

“Now I don’t want to hear one sound from you . ”

Peeok! Peeeok-!

“Kuaaack!”

Myung Ilsang looked up at me like it was unfair . I hit him again and again until that fear was completely crushed . The beaten up Myung Ilsang barely managed to say, “I-It can’t be like this…”

I looked at this guy and remembered when he was a warrior .

「 “I-I am a warrior? I am a real warrior? Really?” 」

The 17 year old high school student, Myung Ilsang . The innocent boy who was chosen as a warrior to save the world and fell onto Chronos .

He obviously didn’t want to become like this . He didn’t want to be a murderer that wiped out life on a continent . But he did so .

“It is you who chose to become a disaster . ”

Now he couldn’t change that fact .

[Your understanding of the character ‘Myung Ilsang’ has increased . ]

Myung Ilsang’s face distorted . “I, obviously, p-protagonist, this, world…”

The man who wanted to become a protagonist but failed in the end . The real protagonist soon approached and slammed a blade into his head .

I looked into the eyes of the man killed by Yoo Jonghyuk . It was a futile death for the disaster that destroyed a world .

[You have won against a ‘returnee’ for the first time in the scenario!]

[Contributor: Kim Dokja, Yoo Jonghyuk]

[You have earned 40,000 coins as an achievement reward . ]

[A new item will be added to your story . ]

[The narrative ‘Person who Opposes the Miracle’ has been added . ]

[You have obtained the possibility of a new stigma . ]