Chapter 61 – Unexpected Event. Portal Explosion. (3)

-CRASH!

“Damn it all to hell…”

“…..”

Joker had received the news that the level 29 portal explosion had succeeded.

His anger had reached its limit, and so his table was smashed apart.

His subordinate who came to make the report was shaking like a leaf.

From behind the curtain, he asked, filled with rage.

“Who was it… Ghost? Dark Lady? Who was the bastard!”

“It was Da.. Dark Lady.”

“AHHH! That bitch was able to make quite the impression….”

Joker’s rage does not subside easily.

All three leaders were to work on this project, as ordered by the head of the radical faction.

Dark Lady had succeeded in the portal explosion before him.

The only female leader in the radical forces, Dark Lady.

Her class was a tanker. And her subclass was an assassin.

Attack and defense. She had the perfect balance without any gaps.

Other than the head of the radical forces, she was the second strongest, following right behind Joker.

“The one…. Where is the location of the sun?”

“Th.. that’s… Supposedly he is at Incheon as of now.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes. We were able to find out from spies that have infiltrated Dark Lady’s forces.”

“I see.”

The leaders fought against one another to obtain even the slightest amount of favoritism.

The group hadn’t moved for a while, but the boss claimed they would be soon. Finally, it was starting.

The boss had always visited Joker, for he had the greatest combat capabilities, but it was different this time.

After the portal exploded, he had headed towards Incehon, where Dark Lady was residing in.

“He went to meet Dark Lady….”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“Come over here.”

“… Yes?”

“Come over here and clean this up.”

“Ah… Yes, leader.”

Joker spoke while pointing at his broken table.

Following his orders, the messenger headed through the curtain towards Joker.

The messenger’s eyes were already adjusted to the dark, but he did not have the courage to look at Joker’s face.

Trying to calm his shaking hands, he was trying to clean the debris when…

Joker’s giant hand grasped his head.

Joker whispered quietly.

“That glory, it should have been mine.”

“…. W-What do you mean….?”

“The glory that the Dark Lady achieved, it should have been mine. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes of course! It should’ve been yours, leader. The Dark Lady…”

Interrupting his rambling, Joker lifted his head to face him at eye level.

The messenger, now pale in color, looked towards Joker.

Almost as if his eyes were going to burst in flames, Joker asked while staring him down.

With a chilling smile plastered on his face to boot.

“What do you think the reason was for this glory that should have been mine being stolen?”

“That’s… All I can think of is that it was due to luck…..”

“Luck?”

“Yes! Dark Lady could have only succeeded on the project because she got lucky.”

Hearing his answer, the smile on his face fell, replaced with killing intent.

“Wrong.”

“T-Then what… KUWAK!”

-CRACK

Joke smashed the head he was holding onto into pieces.

The messenger was an Awakened.

But despite being an Awakened, his head was easily crushed like tofu.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and the air was filled with a metallic odor.

Joke tossed the limp corpse towards the entrance, and wiped the blood from his face.

And then he muttered to himself.

“The reason? That my luck was bad? AHAHA! Not funny in the slightest. I’ll tell you the correct answer.”

Opening his eyes wide in the dark room, Joker was staring at the headless corpse.

With huge lumbering steps, he headed towards it.

“It’s because of fools like you who are so afraid for your lives that you can only care about being tactful. Of course, you would be one of them. Or was.”

Underneath his feet, a darkish red aura began to form.

It was almost as if his rage was taking physical form at his feet.

However, this was a skill that the executioner class had, called Enhance Killing Intent.

Most skills the executioner class had were hand to hand combat oriented.

Out of those skills, Enhance Killing Intent allowed a portion of the body to turn into a weapon.

Almost like tenderizing meat with a hammer, he began to kick at the corpse that started to go cold.

“When you meet Jin in hell, look at him and regret on your existence. You would finally learn how pathetic you were…..”

****

“This is the location where the level 29 portal exploded, Jebu Island. The situation has been handled, and the surrounding area is being investigated. All Awakened guild members who participated in the fight are receiving protection from the association and are being escorted out.”

“Reporter Wang Seok-hyun, has all the monsters been taken care of?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Due to the association’s policy for safety, we were unable to capture any footage on the battle against the monsters. However, we can still see the how intense the battle was from the blood splattered all over the place. There are enormous corpses of monsters sprawled everywhere. These corpses are so disfigured, I’m having a hard time telling what they once looked like.”

“Is that so. I heard that there is much credit to give to general Yoon Jong-sun. How is his condition right now? Are the other Awakened safe?”

“Yes. Thanks to the quick response from the association as well as his brilliant commanding skills, all the structures and residents, as well as the Awakened are all safe and sound.”

“So they are.”

The scene of the battlefield changed to the studio’s desk, and the news anchor spoke while facing the camera.

“Can’t really put it in any other way. The credit goes to the amazing skill the Awakened from the association possesses. Thank you for all your hard work. This was the first time in history that a level 29 portal exploded. It is scheduled that the association will be releasing a statement of the reason for this occurring, what this could mean for the future, as well as their plans to deal with such possibilities should they arise. It’ll be covered at 8 o’clock on the special news report segment. Thank you.”

Today was Sunday. A day I did not go to hunt.

I had Jong Ho come over for a meal. We were snacking as we watched the TV.

The portal explosion incident that started at 9PM had finally settled down by daybreak.

After that, due to the association’s influence, reports started pouring in as early as 7AM.

Without much concern, Jong Ho and I watched the news.

“Guess they stopped it somehow.”

“Of course. Even if they are monsters from the level 29 dungeon, if the association arrives, they can stop it. 3 rankers were deployed as well.”

“Well, I guess there wasn’t anything for me to do there.”

“But I wonder why the level 29 portal exploded. It never happened before.”

“That’s true. I was thinking about it, and I couldn’t help but suspect that the reason is related to what I saw recently.”

“The thing you showed me before?”

“Yes. Well, the association will be briefing about the reason of the explosion soon enough, so let’s listen in.”

“Jeez. Are you still believing everything that idiot box is telling you? Out of everything they say, you can’t even trust 10% of what they are saying.”

“I know that as well. Just wondering if they have any information on them.”

“That’s that but, how are you doing as of late?”

“About what?”

To my question, Jong Ho lowered his voice and whispered to me.

It was because he was worried that my mother would hear it from the kitchen.

“What do you think. Talking about the radical faction.”

To his question, I responded by casting Silent.

Now this conversation between Jong Ho and I could not be overheard.

No reason to cause pointless worry for my mother.

“Ah. Nothing at all.”

“After their last move, there hasn’t been anything else?”

“Yes. It’s so quiet, I wonder if I really took out Jin in the first place.”

“That just makes me worry more, you know?”

“That’s why I’m trying to get stronger as if my life depends on it. Because it does.”

“Of course. What’s your level now?”

“Going to be level 280 soon.”

“What? That’s insane. Weren’t you level 80 about 2 months ago?”

“Hyung. Isn’t this the difference between being determined and not? Difference due to how determined you are!”

“You sure it isn’t due to the difference in the ability we possess?”

“Well, that could be a part of it too.”

“Oh you. Ah! I forgot that I was going to give you this.”

Jong Ho began to dig through his pockets.

I was wondering what kind of new information he was going to give me.

“Surprise!”

“Huh?”

Going beyond my expectations, Jong Ho was holding out an Awakened essence.

On his palm it lay sparkling, as big as a thumb.

Raising his chin proudly, he continued.

“You know my personality doesn’t let me have a debt go unpaid.”

“But how did you get this? You hunt in a group. Did you kill them all and stole it from them?”

“Hey! Don’t say that nonsense. Thanks to you, I was able to hunt like never before at a time where I wasn’t even in a position to hunt, so I had a lot of time leftover. Lending amazing weapons such as Banwol Jincheon, the interest should at least be worth this.”

“You really killed them all, didn’t you?”

“To level up my skills that were falling behind, I ran the level 10 dungeon! You little shit!”

“Oh? Like how you explained before, you were farming for an essence?”

“Yeah. I did it for a whole week, but only one dropped.”

Since I used the last essence on the Mass Stealth Jutsu, I was at a situation where I had none left.

To heal all the fatigue I accumulated from the continuous hunting, I had used Heal to the point where it had reached level 100.

Other than Glacial Field and Formless Weapon Aura that I acquired recently, all skills had hit at least level 100.

What I needed now was to improve my defensive capabilities, so the correct choice seemed to be to invest my essence on a shield spell.

Lich King’s armor set as well as the Lizardman’s Gauntlet.

The reason why I obtained them was to increase my defensive capabilities after all.

However, compared to my amazing defensive equipment, all the shields I had other than my Mana Shield ranked only at a C rank.

The Reflect Shield that reflects attack at a certain % chance was already Awakened at this point.

It was too wasteful to use an essence on a C ranking shield.

“Hyung, can I really use this?”

“Yeah. I think at least until next year, none of my skills will hit level 100.”

“Ah, that’s right. You told me that you don’t have any skills leveled high enough to Awaken, right?”

“Yeah. I have a long way to go.”

“Then, even if it is very shameless of me, I’ll be using it.”

“You’re trying to be modest even after lending me 2 Banwol Jincheons? Don’t make me feel worse.”

I quickly took the essence off his hands.

Once again, I learned just how much of a bro he was.

I desperately needed not just the essence, but his capabilities as well.

I shoved the essence into my pocket, and asked him.

“Hyung. I’m trying to learn a new shield skill. What do you think would be good?”

“You already have Mana Shield, right?”

“This one isn’t for hunting.”

“Ah. Okay. Okay. Hmm…. It doesn’t matter if the skill is from a different class, right?”

“Of course. Doesn’t matter what the class is, I need a powerful shield.”

“Alright. A powerful shield is great. But you don’t have many essences to trade with, right? You could buy essences with money, but even with your stamina, you’ll probably find one or two more who are willing to sell at best.”

“Ah… Right. Darn it…..”

I wondered if it was time again to visit the midget’s office again to borrow some.

I could just repay them later.

Then, an idea came to me all of a sudden.

“Hyung!”

television