Chapter 185: 185

Everyone sometimes felt like they were all alone in the world, that everybody else was some kind of machine or a doll . That was how Su-hyeun felt at the moment, feeling disconnected from the world .

He felt like everyone here was a doll . At first, he had only thought this about the hosts . But everyone seemed like that now . They were normal usually, but when Su-hyeun tried to ask them about their homes or their pasts, they started to have issues—

“Umm… This game? Why do I want to win?”

—like at that moment .

“Well…that is…”

“…It’s okay . ” Su-hyeun shook his head .

Each time was the same . Su-hyeun had asked the man, named Conrad, who Su-hyeun would fight in the quarterfinals . He was the strongest man Su-hyeun had to deal with to pass the goal of the trial .

“Thank you anyway . Then, see you at the game . ”

“Oh? Ok, yes . Let’s have a good game . ”

“Yes . Then…”

It was the time when Su-hyeun tried to turn and walk away .

“But what are you trying to figure out?” Conrad asked, tossing his green hair back . “I heard about you last night when I drank with some other people . You go around and ask people about this and that, right? Why? What are you so curious about?”

“Even if I tell you what I am wondering,” Su-hyeun said, turning his head back and looking Conrad, “you won’t be able to answer my questions anyway . ”

“…What?”

“I’m leaving . See you tomorrow,” Su-hyeun said and left .

He had already talked with quite a few other players . And he learned all the players, except Luslec, had the same reaction when he asked about their pasts .

The quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals were supposed to be held in one day because there weren’t many games left . He had had a lot on his mind, but he started to organize his thoughts now . And the next day would be the day that he could confirm his hypothesis . Su-hyeun’s steps that went back to his room became quicker .

***

Hooooray—!

The loud cheer filled up the whole stadium . Eight players, including Su-hyeun, were all preparing at the edge of the stadium . Miru was standing next to Su-hyeun, fluttering his wings as if he was excited by the mood of the stadium . One host went up to the stage and started some sort of opening speech . But, of course, Su-hyeun didn’t care about that .

“Are you nervous?” Luslec was standing next to Su-hyeun, again .

Luslec was the one who had been cozying up to Su-hyeun and had answered the question that no one else could . But that made him all the more suspicious . Su-hyeun stared at Luslec .

At his gaze, Luslec asked as if he was puzzled, “Why? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“We’ll see in the finals . ”

“What? Finals?”

Su-hyeun never thought Luslec would lose the game before the finals . Su-hyeun could tell that from Luslec’s atmosphere or his concentration of the magic . He would get into the finals even if he met Chun Ha-jin in the semifinals .

“I guess you won’t stop at the quarterfinals, obviously?”

At Luslec’s words, Su-hyeun was startled . He looked back at him . And, at that moment, the host called Luslec .

“Well . See you later . I will look forward to it,” Luslec said and walked toward the stage .

His opponent was already waiting for him . He was a muscular man, named Hercules . He was wearing a skin of a lion on his head, holding a thick club, breathing heavily .

“I look forward to your kind cooperation . ” Luslec walked toward Hercules and reached his hand .

Hercules looked at Luslec calmly and extended his hand . He grabbed Luslec’s hand very tightly as if he would break his hand at once .

“I will consider any further action to be a foul,” the host said .

Hercules frowned at the host’s interruption . “Damn . ”

He let go of Luslec’s hand and turned away . Luslec made a fuss about his hand being hurt . The host glanced at his hand to check, and he confirmed Luslec was fine . Then, he announced the beginning of the match .

“Let’s start the first game of the quarterfinals . ”

Whiz—

With the host’s announcement, Hercules rushed at Luslec .

Whoosh—

He lifted his club and slammed it down .

Boom—!

The ground shattered . And that was an attack without any magic in it .

Su-hyeun thought .

Hercules . He was a hero from myth that was said to be as strong as a god . At first, Su-hyeun thought this would be a different man with the same name . But as he watched the game, he realized he had been wrong .

He had a muscular body and a lion mask on his head . He even carried club and bow on his back . He was clearly the mythical hero, Hercules, in appearance . But he was missing too many things to think he was the real Hercules .

Whether or not he was the real Hercules, he was certainly strong . He was fighting well against Luslec, using his strong power and hard body . His body couldn’t be cut by a sword . His club was powerful enough to break the hard floor of the stadium . He had the best condition for close combat .

Stab—

Luslec, who stabbed his sword at the shoulder of Hercules, looked stunned . The sword was stopped abruptly . Luslec’s attack looked like a fatal blow, but the sword only went in about the width of a finger .

Swish—

Crack—!

At the same time, Hercules’s club smashed Luslec’s face .

Swiiiiiiish—

Wham, boom, thud—!

Luslec’s body flew far and rolled along the ground . He quickly raised himself up on one hand . He swept his face with the other hand .

“Haack, spit!” Luslec’s spit was tinged with blood . “God damn . That hurt . ”

Crack, crack—

Luslec snapped his twisted wrist to set the bone . Hercules, who had been watching Luslec from a distance, looked down at his shoulder .

Hercules thought,

It was a sharp sword . Hercules never imagined that there would be a sword that could penetrate his item . He had lashed out with his club in embarrassment, so his hit missed its target . If not for that, he would have hit Luslec’s skull in .

Hercules thought .

His opponent had several wounds . It would take quite a long time for him to recover from that . From now on, Hercules thought, he had the upper hand .

“This guy is stronger than I expected . I guess fighting in close combat against him who specializes in hand-to-hand battle will be hard…” Luslec mumbled .

“What are you muttering?”

Whiz—

To finish the battle quickly, Hercules rushed to Luslec again . His raised club stretched above Luslec’s head . It hung in the air . It looked like Hercules was going to cave Luslec’s head in, but…

Grab—

A giant hand stretched out from behind Luslec and grabbed Hercules’s club .

“What the…?”

Rumble, rumble—

The thing that grabbed the club wasn’t the only hand . Unidentified spirits rose from all sides . At the faceless shadows, Hercules was embarrassed .

Hercules couldn’t draw his club back from the giant hand . He held it more tightly and began to struggle mightily with that huge hand . He finally managed to get his club back . But the relief at getting his weapon back didn’t last long . He looked around .

The faceless, ghost-like shadows surrounded him . They were all different shapes and wore different types of clothing . If they were monsters like zombies or skeletons, they would all look similar . But they all looked different, except the fact that their clothes and skin were dark . That made it even creepier . It was as if the dead had come back to life .

“There’s a lot of them, isn’t there?” Luslec said .

Hercules looked at Luslec, who was surrounded by shadows . He didn’t even raise his sword again . He looked perfectly at ease .

“How many will you able to pass? Pass through them and come to me . ” Luslec bobbed his finger .

At his provocation, Hercules, with his bad temper began to rush forward .

“All right! I’ll break them all!”

Roar—!

He shouted like a lion .

Boom, boom—!

Crack—!

Hercules started to smash at the shadows blocking his way .

Act 5

Drip, drip—

The man, who never seemed to lose, lost . His arms were held, and he was bleeding from wounds all over his body . The dark shadows surrounding Luslec grabbed Hercules’s body tightly . They kept him from getting closer to Luslec .

“Stop . ”

At Luslec’s order, the dark shadows let go of Hercules’s arms .

Thud—

And his body fell to the ground .

“Winner, Luslec!” The host declared the winner .

Roar, roar—

The first round of the quarterfinal was over . People shouted and cheered . Luslec waved his hands with exaggerated gestures and came down from the stage . Throughout the game, Su-hyeun’s attention was fixed on the dark shadows that Luslec had made .

Su-hyeun thought .

Luslec had said to pass through them and come to him . That wasn’t a vain provocation . He had placed the stronger shadows closer to him, as if he was testing how far Hercules could break through . He controlled the level of difficulty like level one, level two, just like a game .

The second game of the quarterfinal was Chun Ha-jin’s turn . He played the game like he always had, a one-sided beat-down . With overwhelming power, he penetrated his opponent’s defenses and took his neck in hand . And he used his Force Absorption skill to take his opponent’s magic and even life . After his game, Chun Ha-jin looked down at Su-hyeun as if to tell him his turn would be next . Su-hyeun looked back calmly . He wasn’t scared .

Stomp—

Su-hyeun saw Chun Ha-jin, too . But he didn’t say anything, just stepped onto the stage .

“Ha-ha . ” Chun Ha-jin, who was still standing on the stage, burst into laughter when Su-hyeun came up the arena .

Su-hyeun looked at the dried-up body who had been Chun Ha-jin’s opponent . So far, Su-hyeun had not been killing anyone, unlike other players, and Chun Ha-jin was laughing at it .

“Just wait for a moment,” Su-hyeun said quietly when he passed next to Chun Ha-jin . “I am going to kill you . ”

“Don’t lose this fight,” said Chun Ha-jin .

Su-hyeun nodded at his word and looked at his opponent in front of him . The stadium, which had been destroyed a lot, returned to its original form already . Su-hyeun’s opponent wasn’t an ordinary person . The man, named Ifrit, had a blurry body . He was like red smoke in the shape of a person . Su-hyeun had seen his fighting several times .

“Give up,” Ifrit said, “I’ll make an allowance . ”

He was so confident, and there was a reason for that . The whole tournament, all the way up to the quarterfinals . Ifrit and Su-hyeun stood still, facing each other .

Whoosh, whoosh—

Ifrit’s body turned to red flame . The body, blurry like smoke before, now sizzled like a fiery devil . Once he had changed like that, nobody was able to attack Ifrit at all . Not only did physical attacks fail but no skills worked against him either . Ifrit, once he had finished his transformation, smiled like a devil .

“You won’t be able to even touch me—”

Wham—!

Ifrit’s face twisted .

“…!”

And, at the same time, his real body was revealed and flew away .

“I touched you,” Su-hyeun muttered quietly while looking at Ifrit who was flying far, far away .