CH 244

“This is so ridiculous. I’ve heard from others that your talents reach the levels of irrationality… but even so, I’ve been feared by my predecessors as being a heavenly existence that couldn’t be touched by anyone else below the heavens… so for me to be so easily dealt with…”

Sungmuk tried to put strength into his body.

Wriggle.

However, all he could do was wriggle parts of his body; there was nothing else he could do.

With both arms and legs turned into pieces of shredded meat, no matter how strong his will was, he was rendered useless. If even a small amount of genuine qi had remained, Sungmuk would have at least taken some emergency measures, but he didn’t even have that small amount of internal energy.

“Heavenly body… and a veteran martial artist… it’s good I came here.”

Sungmuk was a completely different existence from common monsters, which respawned infinitely to fight against users. Monsters like Sungmuk who could use high-level abilities as well as carry proper conversations with users were essentially completely different dimensional existences compared to normal monsters.

Though DIO’s system could recreate normal monsters indefinitely, monsters with high [levels] couldn’t be mass produced.

In other words, these high-level monsters were not originally [created] by DIO’s system.

‘Quiet Heaven once mentioned that these guys are subject to [slave contracts].’

The high-level monsters were contractors that fulfilled duties differently than pets, which were existences that were closely connected with users and helped them grow.

Pets like Quiet Heaven and Ellie signed contracts under their status as Noblesse, so essentially, they signed contracts under relatively equal footing.

Of course, even if they belonged to the Noblesse and were largely considered equals, this was only a superficial equality, as mixed-race species couldn’t be called true Noblesse. Regardless, these lesser Noblesse had a place in DIO’s system, as they sought their own rewards and goals. Quiet Heaven had once explained…

[However, the situation is different for monsters, helpers, and NPCs. They’re… closer to being dead existences. The administrators of DIO lured in the souls who had already died but still possessed lingering desires or unfulfilled feelings and could not go to the Nether World, for whatever reason. The administrators enticed and promised to bring these souls back to life if they fulfilled their duty and contract. Most of the dead souls had no other options or choices, so they signed these slave-like contracts and were treated harshly. It was a bit better for existences that had a good level of ability, but if one didn’t possess such abilities, or if one had a glaring weakness, one’s memories were often sealed.]

The monsters within DIO came from all dimensions and planets. The Noblesse, who were able to roam the entire universe with their transcendent power, collected a large number of eligible souls and made them into components that comprised the current DIO’s system.

“What… are you talking about?”

“Like I said before, I’m not here to fight you.”

Of course, Merlin didn’t come to hunt Sungmuk, but sought Sungmuk for another purpose.

Sungmuk had the strongest [uniqueness] among the non-transcendent monsters, so Merlin judged that Sungmuk was a high-level monster that best suited his purpose.

Despite his ravaged body, Sungmuk smiled and laughed after hearing Merlin’s reply.

“Like I said earlier, I was made to fight with beings like you…”

“Wow. Even in your current condition, you’re still stubborn and unyielding… woah!”

Whoosh!

Merlin sighed as he approached Sungmuk, but then, Merlin cried aloud as he quickly took a few steps back. Merlin’s throat had been half-slit and started spewing out golden smoke.

Luckily, Merlin was a user with a strong body, so he hurriedly applied healing magic onto himself and escaped greater injury. Any normal user would have succumbed to the attack and died.

“Sheesh. You avoided it.”

Merlin, whose neck wound healed in no time, expressed surprise at seeing Sungmuk’s sad appearance while he lay immobile on the ground.

“Heart Sword? No, it can’t be.”

It was impossible for Sungmuk, who wasn’t a transcendent, to complete the Heart Sword.

Developing the Heart Sword was something that could be done at lower levels, but an existence who could bring out the full effect of the Heart Sword in the present world and exert the Heart Sword’s physical force couldn’t be considered an existence from a lower species.

Even if one lacked a physical foundation, the moment one took out the Heart Sword outside of oneself, it became possible to get rid of the physical foundation framework itself.

Hence, logically, it should have been impossible for Sungmuk, who was tied to the DIO system and its restrictions, to use Heart Sword, as it was a physical materialization of sword qi, a hallmark of a Grand Master.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m okay. Sungmuk launched a space leaping sort of attack, but his use of the technique seems to be limited to very close combat. Compared to the actual Heart Sword, his attack seems to have given up quite a bit of its destructive power and ability to reduce recovery.”

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

If Sungmuk had launched a true Heart Sword attack, even Merlin would have lost his life from one blow.

The Heart Sword was an attack that couldn’t be avoided. There were no walls or barriers that protected one’s heart, and since there was no time required for a Heart Sword attack to go after one’s heart, the only way to avoid the Heart Sword strike was for one to foresee the future.

In other words, it was impossible to contend against such an attack unless one could prevent the attack itself.

“Wow, you’re great. I never would have thought that a kid like you, who couldn’t even survive one of my middling blows a while back, could defeat me so overwhelmingly now.”

“There’s nothing to be so depressed about; the uniqueness of the martial arts I have learned has allowed me to develop beyond anyone’s expectation. Moreover, I knew that if I didn’t subdue you with one blow, the battle between us would have extended for a long period of time.”

The Golden Pill Immortal Technique was basically a style of martial arts that poured everything into one strike.

Moreover, the main output process of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique, the No Living World, was efficient beyond imagination, as it could amplify internal energy and produce an overwhelmingly greater internal energy force than what was originally inputted into the system.

Considering that in general martial arts, the ratio between the internal energy consumed and the internal energy that could be exerted was only one-to-one at best, the Golden Pill Immortal Technique’s input to output ratio was absurd, as it could output tremendously more power compared to how much was inputted at the start.

But, of course, with such enormous advantages, there were also considerable disadvantages. Actually, the more power that could be used in one blow, the more serious the disadvantages became.

Unlike Mercury, which didn’t have a cooldown period and could be used at any time, the second system, Venus, required a cooldown time of 0.5 seconds, and in the case of Earth, a cooldown time of 30 seconds was required, and a cooldown time of about 15 minutes was required for Mars.

This was because No Living World entered a kind of discharge state in order to amplify internal energy once more.

Even if No Living World re-entered a stable state after activation and cooldown, the subsequent cooldown times would gradually get longer if one used No Living World repeatedly within a short period of time.

Of course, the disadvantage wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it was just the extended cooldown times.

If it was just a matter of waiting a little bit before reuse, wouldn’t a practitioner of No Living World still be able to use Mercury and Venus?

Practitioners who possessed two planets would already have an ample capacity of internal energy, so, in theory, they’d be able to utilize both planets without much lag time due to cooldowns.

‘However, one’s blood vessels are the main problem. Plus, the physical body itself presents a problem. One miscalculated use and one’s body would most likely explode from the overwhelming strength and power that’s exerted all at once.’

Basically, Merlin’s hand skill strike was a surprise attack, or a one-hit kill form of attack; it was not developed to be used multiple times during a single battle. Once the tremendously amplified energy passed through his blood vessels, his physical body was burdened and handicapped, a physical state that couldn’t be ignored.

This was the reason why Merlin, who was able to exert 100 years of internal energy into his No Living World system to deliver one amplified blow, refrained from utilizing his maximum capacity and only inputted 50 years of internal energy into No Living World.

If he had gone all out and inputted 100 years of internal energy into No Living World, then his 100 years would have amplified to 1,600 years after passing through Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

1,600 years meant 26 cycles of internal energy.

Yes, Merlin could shoot off a 26-cycle internal energy strike. However, the 26-cycle output would destroy Merlin’s body just by [passing through] his blood vessels.

“Ugh. It doesn’t seem like you used some sort of magic martial arts, perhaps you’ve learned and developed an extreme form of martial arts. However, such extreme forms of martial arts are not a good way to reach the pinnacle…”

“It’s fine. I’m not just an internal energy user… I’m also a mage.”

If Merlin had been a pure martial artist, the Golden Pill Immortal Technique’s unique characteristic would have been a huge weakness, but he wasn’t just a simple martial arts user.

No, on the contrary, he was able to succeed in perfecting his combat skills with superior magic abilities.

“Well, since I managed to subdue you, I should get to work before you die.”

“Work? What work? I was curious from the beginning, but what kind of bullshit are you spewing…”

Bam!

Merlin’s dagger was driven into Sungmuk’s heart while Sungmuk was still speaking. Merlin’s dagger, made from a jewel, emanated soft light.

“Operate Editor Blade.”

When Merlin triggered his Editor Blade with his trigger voice, the power contained in the jeweled sword was activated. Soon, Merlin’s thoughts were shot into the [inside] of Sungmuk through his Anyform blade dagger.

Merlin was able to interpret the overarching system that governed Sungmuk and acquired further information.

In Merlin’s opinion, the Editor Dlade was a power that should never exist in DIO.

If the Empress of Magic, who created DIO, or the Noblesse knew of the Editor Blade’s existence, they would probably try to kill Merlin, the creator of the Editor Blade, or place a penalty equivalent to the blade’s power.

Few, if any, developers liked having editors who modified their games.

‘But, if I have a chance to use it to my advantage, of course, I should use it.’

With a smile, Merlin [corrected] Sungmuk’s existence.

“Data patch.”