Chapter 57

Chapter 57

“Infinity.”

Crackle!

A lightning bolt directly struck Sungmuk’s body. There was no way he could avoid this. An individual’s speed and strength didn’t matter; after all, how could anyone avoid a lightning strike? As he prepared himself, Sungmuk temporarily reinforced his body, but a puzzled expression appeared on his face. The strike didn’t injure him at all. He then looked down at his chest to find the image of a lightning bolt stamped across his chest.

“… This!”

He cocked his head up to the sky and saw a mass of dark clouds rolling in.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The thunder and lightning roiling around in the dark clouds was a frightening sight to behold, and after a few moments, lightning started raining down on Sungmuk. Yet, when the third strike fell, Sungmuk used his body lightness technique to jump 30 meters into the air with each step, starting to slash at the amassed storm clouds.

“… Oh my god!”

Jeros couldn’t help but gasp after seeing Sungmuk cancel his spell through sheer brute force. Fifteen lightning strikes should have fallen, but Sungmuk had cut through the gathered magic power system, Lightning Maker. Sungmuk didn’t power through the lightning by strengthening his body with internal energy or redirecting the electricity elsewhere; he had simply leaped toward the source of the lightning and destroyed it with a sword strike.

Brr!!

As Sungmuk fell downward, he was met with a barrage of bullets. Even though he still hadn’t landed yet, Sungmuk swung his blade and countered the incoming projectiles. It was an unbelievable display of sword qi.

“Wow! Hot damn! What kind of existence is he!”

As if he was nearly weightless, Sungmuk gently landed atop a watchtower. The users looked at him in awe, and Sungmuk also gazed at them with a different perspective. The players’ power was beyond what he expected. Individually, they were not too powerful, but by highlighting their strengths and using teamwork to make up for their weaknesses, the users were able to muster tremendous combat power and force. Additionally, Sungmuk felt that he needed to be cautious around the weak-looking little girl.

Click.

Cruze pulled out a different gun and pointed it toward Sungmuk. This gun was 144.8 centimeters long and weighed 12.9 kilograms. It wasn’t the type of weapon that fit a little girl. Furthermore, the gun’s recoil was substantial, so it was generally used with a tripod and placed firmly on the ground. However, despite this, Cruze casually turned around with the gun and set its crosshairs on Sungmuk.

“Barrett M82?!”

Ignoring Hanma’s shock, Cruze calmly pulled on the gun’s trigger.

Bam!

“Hmm…!”

Sungmuk narrowed his eyes after feeling the shot reverberate through his arms. The gun was overwhelmingly powerful, and it was made all the more dangerous by the 12.7, 99-millimeter 50 caliber NATO bullets that were flying out of it. In addition, since the bullets were made of aura, their effects were extraordinarily destructive. Even Sungmuk had to be careful. Also, in between Cruze’s attacks, there were long-range shots raining down on him, so Sungmuk’s self-defense technique was being spread thin.

“There’s another being with the same abilities as her… actually, it would be more accurate to state that she’s making another being shoot me from a distance.”

Sungmuk briefly glanced to his side. He had already located the sniper’s general position, but the sniper was one kilometer away, and there were too many users surrounding the sniper. Despite Sungmuk’s considerable prowess, it wouldn’t be easy to deal with the sniper.

“I need to take care of her first.”

The nearby users had already gathered together into one unit. Moreover, Cruze wasn’t a simple opponent. She had already created an aura shield around her, so it would be challenging for Sungmuk to break through it easily.

“Then!”

Bam!

The Barrett rang out loudly once more, but this time, Sungmuk moved and effortlessly evaded the attack. As she saw his rapid approach, Cruze raised her aura shield. Yet, rather than summon his sword qi and swing toward her, Sungmuk reached out and grabbed Cruze’s wrist.

“Huh?”

Then, he flung her.

Whoosh!

The sound of the wind howling sounded out at Cruze’s body cut through the air, getting flung into the wave of monsters. While the monster corps had taken casualties during the battle, there were still around 7,000 monsters. Regardless of a user’s strength, they’d still find it difficult to escape after being surrounded by so many mobs.

“Ugh! This bastard! So underhanded!”

“Such nonsense.”

Now rid of the most problematic user, Sungmuk’s sword started emanating killing intent.

Whoosh!

“Ugh!”

“Ack!”

Tens of plum blossoms bloomed and instantly made Adol and Hanma collapse, with the two now bearing multiple cuts over their entire bodies. Adol and Hanma had raised their defenses at the last moment, so they had narrowly escaped death. They did this as they fell to the floor, and this was only possible because of DIO’s pain control system. Since they didn’t feel pain and avoided panicking, they could think coolly and logically in these types of situations. To kill them off, someone had to inflict a single deadly attack; just injuring them wouldn’t be enough. However, Sungmuk wasn’t aiming for those two.

Plop.

“Jeros!”

Sungmuk’s sword sank into Jeros’ heart, and since the player never trained his defensive stats, he couldn’t dodge or endure the attack.

“Ah, fuck! I’m going to lose some magic power points….”

Jeros complained as his body transformed into particles of shimmering light.

“Man, he’s a formidable, underhanded monster.”

“I hope you can see it as being suave.”

Saying this, Sungmuk turned and swung towards Adol and Hanma. The two looked around to see if there was anyone who could help them, but alas, the other players had their hands full with the 7,000 other monsters.

Bam!

As if he had used a Blink skill to teleport, Sungmuk swiftly appeared behind Adol and slashed down. Seemingly anticipating this, Adol rotated on his left leg and swung around to meet Sungmuk’s strike with his sword. Yet, the force was too much for him, and he was sent flying back ten meters. Adol felt like he had hit a dump truck.

“Oof! Ugh.”

Adol started coughing up blood. Of course, it wasn’t the typical red liquid; it was golden gas that dissipated into the air. In any case, this alone proved the direness of Adol’s situation. He wasn’t in pain due to DIO’s system, but his sharpened senses showed significant internal damage.

“Ha!”

“I’ll take care of you soon enough, so just wait your turn.”

Bam!

With one swing, Sungmuk smashed Hanma to the ground as if he had hammered a nail into him. Then, Sungmuk began sending blooming plum blossoms toward Adol.

Ring!

Sungmuk was utilizing sword scent, allowing his sword to emit the smell of plum blossoms and send it wafting through the air. This was an ability that all Flower Mountain practitioners dreamed of mastering: Power of Sword Scent. It wasn’t possible to accomplish this technique unless one had reached the pinnacle of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique. Yet, as he witnessed this, Adol’s mind was elsewhere.

‘It smells nice. The fragrance would probably sell well.’

The blooming plum blossoms instantly rushed towards Adol.

Whoosh!

“Huh?”

“What?”

At that moment, a mysterious silver light with divine properties covered Adol’s body, leaving the player to stare blankly as the pendant around his neck started hovering.

“Divine power?”

Sungmuk narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t sensed any priest-like qualities from Adol earlier, and although he was caught off guard, the strength of the light was inconsequential. If he cut down once more, he’d be able to take his opponent’s head with ease. However, just then, he felt a significant attack approaching from behind.

Boom!

Having been blindsided, Sungmuk wildly swung his sword to deflect the oncoming attack. Yet, the impact of the strike was so forceful and devastating that it broke his right arm.

‘This is…?’

The heavy cannon shell was instantly flattened after Sungmuk parried it, and shortly after, the APFSDS metal cannon shell rose into the air and dispersed into particles of light. The attack had come from the horde of monsters outside the village, and obviously, it wasn’t from any monster.

Brr!

“Huh? Wait, what?”

“A tank? She constructed a tank?!”

“A tank! A freaking tank!”

Brr!!

The tank mowed down the monsters blocking its approach to Sungmuk, with the two automatic MG3s that were on the tank continually firing 7.62-millimeter rounds.

“Ha! You thought you could contain me by throwing me into your minions?!”

This tank was one of the most recognizable and formidable modern warfare machines: the Leopard 2A6. The intimidating-looking tank crushed any monsters that blocked its forward advance, and the tank’s cannon fired shells non-stop.

“Oh my gosh! A Leopard 2A6!”

“Oh! The godly Leopard!”

“It’s the most powerful tank around!”

The few users who recognized the tank exclaimed in awe, but there were some who replied angrily.

“Shut up! The best tank is completely black, and it’s called XK-2!”

“If you’re judging modern tanks, the XK-2 is far better than any other! It can shoot missiles and bring down helicopters. Why did she choose to construct a Leopard? Even a T-95 makes more sense, right?!”

Hearing these comments, Cruze shouted out.

“I chose the Leopard because I’m German!”

“Ack! So that’s why! Fuck! Why can’t there be someone from my homeland who can construct such a tank! Useless!”

“What? You try constructing something like that! See if you can even make a basic Caterpillar bulldozer!”

Nevertheless, Cruze never stopped marching forward as her tank crushed the smaller monsters, opting to use the automatic guns and cannon shells to deal with any larger ones. After arriving at the village wall, she deconstructed the tank and took advantage of the monsters that were attempting to climb up, stepping on their heads and rejoining her fellow users at the top.

“Woah! That’s so cool! A Master-level user is so strong!”

“Constructing a freaking tank!”

The sudden cannon shell that Sungmuk faced had done its damage. Even he couldn’t avoid any damage, and he’d broken his arm while deflecting the exploding shell. Of course, Sungmuk had total control over his body, so he could still effortlessly swing his sword, but his attack speed would be drastically reduced.

“Fire in the hole!”

Cruze yelled this, and she threw something. Any user around instantly scattered or took up defensive positions, as they knew what the phrase meant, but since Sungmuk had never heard this before, he reacted belatedly.

Boom!

A grenade exploded and violently sent powerful shards throughout the area. This wasn’t a normal grenade. It was more powerful and explosive by many times. Similar to how she made the handgun rounds more impactful by creating aura bullets, Cruze had also used her construction ability to recreate a powerful grenade.

Boom!

However, Sungmuk swung his sword and created a sword qi barrier to block the incoming shards. The previous abrupt attack had damaged him somewhat, but he was still at a far higher level than Cruze, and while he was unknowledgeable about modern weapons, he knew that they were used to attack, so he could still defend against them.

“Wow… you’re really something. It’s hard to believe that you started just two months ago.”

Sungmuk swallowed the blood that was rushing up his throat and surveyed his surroundings. The fighting was fierce. The 10,000-strong monster army had been reduced to 5,000, but in turn, the users had taken casualties as well. However, the players had been prepared this time, so their defenses were vastly improved.

“Hmm.”

Sungmuk scanned his own body, finding a broken arm and significant internal injuries. Of course, he could continue fighting if necessary, but the best choice was to step down from the wall and rejoin his monster corps to recover. Once he was healed, he could launch another attack. Since the users didn’t have anyone that could fight him one-on-one, he’d be able to massacre them. If this occurred, the players would face an uphill battle. However…

“To even consider retreating….”

Sungmuk smiled and lifted his sword waist-high. Soon, a tremendous amount of killing intent filled the area around him.

Whoosh.

A scent permeated the surrounding air. It was so potent and concentrated that it made the users feel dizzy. Then, thin slivers of sword qi wisped around Sungmuk’s sword and turned into plum blossoms. This was one of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique’s ultimate moves, a sword skill called Thousand Plum Blossom Scent.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Adol lifted his shield above his head to block the incoming attack, and the plum blossoms’ sword qi rained down as if a sudden squall was passing by. It didn’t even take a second before his shield became a useless hunk of metal.

“Argh…!”

Adol tried to use the sword qi to fling himself to safety, but in contrast to his wandering thoughts, Adol felt himself get sucked into the rainstorm.

Brr!

Instinctively, Cruze materialized an FN P90 and started firing out round after round, but her bullets were only able to make the plum blossoms momentarily pause before continuing. Cruze cursed aloud.

“Your freaking attack affects everything within 100 square meters?!”

The plum blossoms flew toward her rear, her flanks, and directly in front of her. A bystander would have been awed by the beautiful scenery, but the destructiveness of the plum blossoms was like tofu being splattered by a metal bat. The 100-square-meter area had essentially become a killing field.

“Ack!”

“Ugh?”

The users within the area were instantly killed off and forcefully logged out, leaving only a few users remaining. Adol was using all his strength and internal force to maintain a defensive position with his shredded shield, Hanma was curled in a ball and halfway sunk into the ground, and Cruze was incessantly shooting at the approaching plum blossoms. It seemed like everyone would inevitably die soon. Sungmuk had decided to use his total internal energy capacity to maintain this skill, so he could last around a minute, but the battered users could only survive for a few more seconds at best.

Yet, at that moment, a sword fell from the sky.

Crack!

A sword lightning strike flashed. The newcomer atop a sword dove down and landed on the central plum blossom, which had been releasing its petals and sending out attacks. Clearly, the plum blossom petals instantly changed direction and charged toward the early twenty-year-old man, but he lifted the sword in his left hand and easily scattered the attacks.

“Dispersing Light Sword Technique? With only one hand?”

Tens of light beams circled the young man’s body. While he had just defended with his left hand, the movement of the sword lightning from his shoulder to the tip of his blade was so fast that it couldn’t be seen. To everyone else, it appeared as if he had stopped the attacks with his bare hand.

“Recalibrate your size, Dustin.”

[Fine.]

The sword that the young man was standing on promptly transformed. From a surface that anyone could easily sit on while cross-legged, the blade quickly became ultra-thin. It was about 1.3 meters long, and despite looking somewhat small in the user’s hands, this was the size he was comfortable using.

Psh! Psh!

As befitting the sword skill’s name, the newcomer’s sword strikes had diffused the oncoming attacks with light dispersion. This was already impressive, but the young man then walked forward with the summoned sword held firmly in his right hand.

Feeling a sense of pressure from the young man, Sungmuk switched his plum blossom attack from circulating within a designated area to sending concentrated strikes, focusing on the young man.

“A sword is one, and a heart is also one. However, one can become a hundred, and this could send ten thousand attacks or just a single strike….”

The summoned sword in the newcomer’s right hand spoke aloud, becoming audible to Sungmuk. While it didn’t possess much sword qi, when he heard the summoned being's voice, Sungmuk could detect unexplored wells of strength and a power that was as firm as a mountain.