CH 32

‘Damn, I really miss Renka.’

I thought as I entered the Spirit Gate and glanced at the basecamp’s central barracks.

Manager Kimitsu.

Manager Kimitsu of the Department of Spirit Gate Development of the Oriental Development Company. I heard the guy name Kimitsu was somewhere inside there, but unfortunately, I had no way to lure him out.

‘If I had Renka with me, I would have been able to call him out by himself…….’

Through Murasaki, someone I barely had been able to get in with, I wouldn’t be able to call out an executive of a company as large as the ODC.

It was impossible to sneak in and dispose of him as well because there were so many Yeopsas and ODC employees surrounding the place. So, unfortunately, I would have to put off getting rid of Manager Kimitsu for another occasion.

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I decided to let go of my regrets and focus on my other goal.

‘First Aoki-shosa.’

It may have been Manager Kimitsu who requested it, but the one who was killing all the Joseon people in the Joseon area was Aoki-shosa.

『Murasaki. Let’s go that way.』

『What? That’s the Joseon people-』

『Ah, you didn’t know?』

I continued.

『Due to the recent disappearances of Joseon people in the Joseon people’s area, the amount of Joseon Yeopsas that visit the place has reduced and there’s not that many people there. So, it would be a better place for a duel.』

『Hmph……! Fair enough.』

Having come into the Joseon people’s area after tricking Murasaki, as soon as we had come a few steps away from the basecamp and there were less people around, I suddenly pointed in a direction and shouted.

『Oh! Look over there! A dinosaur!』

『What? Where? Where is it?』

Murasaki turned his head to the direction I was pointing in and,

Clang-!

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I banged him in the back of the head with the blunt edge of my sword.

『Urgh……』

‘He fell for this.’

I checked Murasaki’s breathing. He had just fainted, nothing else was wrong. I dragged the fainted Murasaki, moved him closer to the basecamp, and headed back into the Joseon people’s area.

As I got deep into the Joseon zone, I thought.

‘There’s definitely less people than yesterday and the day before.’

Had it been due to the rumors of a dangerous monsters, or because Aoki-shosa had actually reduced the number of people,

I could see squads of four or five Joseon Yeopsa every once in a while, but the number was definitely small even thought I had come deep into the Joseon zone.

I went deeper and deeper, avoiding the Joseon Yeopsas I rarely came across and the monsters that I continually ran into.

However, I didn’t see Aoki-shosa anywhere.

‘Did I come the wrong way?’

Could it be that he was in the basecamp barracks? It could have been that he had already hunted enough Joseon Yeopsas and was taking a shower by now, like yesterday……

As soon as I thought that,

“S-Shit! What the fuck is that guy!”

Beyond the narrow cave corridor, I could hear a sudden cry of urgency. I couldn’t hear very well because it was at a distance and the sound echoed around the cave, but it was definitely the sound of Joseon people.

“Mr. Kim, get out of here! Get out-”

“Damn it…… Don’t come close! DON’T!”

“AARGH!”

I went to where I heard the noise coming from. On my way there I could hear the sound of voices screaming and the sound of gunshots. And the sound of bodies falling to the ground with a thud.

Finally, I got close enough to the source of the sound that I could see where it was coming from, hiding behind a protruding rock.

‘Aok-shosa!’

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Inside the wide cavity stood Aoki-shosa, holding that strange gun-sword from last time. And three Yeopsas who were already on the floor, and two that were still standing.

“F-Fuck you! Die!”

Even if people were Awakeneds, they only had one or two abilities, and it wasn’t like they were superior to non-Awakeneds in every single way.

For example, in the case of Lee Yu-ha, her frost ability was amazing, but if you took that out, she was just a frail girl.

Therefore, even if they were Awakeneds, if they were ambushed by the enemy, or they couldn’t accurately hit their enemy and allowed them to get close, or if they didn’t respond properly, they could as easily just end up dead.

The scene in front of my eyes right now was an example of such cases.

“F-Fuck! What the fuck do you want with us! This mother fucker……!”

One of the Yeopsas cursed as he released his flames, but Aoki-shosa immediately got himself behind a nearby rock to avoid them. And then, in just a moment’s time, when the Yeopsa was taking a breather and had stopped releasing his flames, Aoki-shosa ran like a bolt and thrust his knife into the Yeopsa’s neck.

“Ugh……”

“Mr. Bae!…… D-Damn it, what are you, a ghost or……!”

The other Yeopsa, having seen this whole scene, lifted his revolver firing mana bullets, but Aoki-shosa grabbed a corpse wearing a bulletproof vest to block the bullets, and rushed at the gunman, throwing the corpse at him.

Eventually, the shooter, having allowed Aoki to close this distance, gave up on reloading and hurriedly pulled his sword from his waist, but he didn’t have the ability to face Aoki with a sword in the first place.

‘What the hell……’

Despite being a non-Awakened, Aoki had probably been “hunting” Awakeneds by using the speed he gained from the sword and his own swordsmanship, skills and combat know-how.

“J-Just let me live! Please let me live! Oh, Yeopsa sir, please!”

Aoki-shosa slowly approached the Joseon Yeopsa who, having lost all his peers in the end, was on the ground by himself.

‘I can’t just stay here and watch.’

Then, should I start. I took the Jeokseok out of my pocket and wrapped it in my hands.

Although building a magic spell was hard, destroying it was easy. All I had to do was inject mana into the most vulnerable part of the mana circuit and make it flow in reverse.

The same way I infused mana into swords, I infused mana into the weakest point in the mana circuit carved in the Jeokseok. Not long after,

Bzzzzzzzt…… Bang!

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It wasn’t something I could hear with my ears, but I could feel a kind of mana noise that was almost the same as when a fuse blew up.

‘It’s done.’

At the same time,

Rumble……

The whole cave started shaking. As the space created by the Jeokseok started to distort, the topography set on top of the space also began to collapse.

‘It will probably take about 30 minutes for a Spirit Gate of this size to collapse completely.’

That would be enough for me to dispose of Aoki and get out of the Spirit Gate. And not a trace of Aoki getting killed inside the Spirit Gate would remain.

Aoki, who had already killed the other four and had raised his sword to cut the last Joseon Yeopsa, stopped after feeling stone dust dropping from the ceiling and the shaking of the floor.

『……What is this?』

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—Weeee-woooo……

And a siren went off in the distance. There was also the faint sound of a loudspeaker alerting people to hurry and get out as the Spirit Gate was collapsing.

『Tsk. Manager Kimitus, how did you take care of the Akashi……』

Aoki murmured,

『But still, I have to finish what I already started.』

And he raised his sword against the Joseon Yeopsa who had already given up.

“Eeeek! Please, just let me live! Just allow me-”

But, without a single hint of mercy, Aoki’s blade flung down, about to slash the Joseon Yeopsa when,

Clang-!

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Another blade had blocked his blade. Aoki-shosa looked at the stainless blade that had suddenly appeared, squirming his eyebrows, and then raised his eyes to look at the intruder holding the sword, and said.

『……You?』

I lifted my practice sword blocking Aoki’s sword, and said to the Yeopsa that was still sitting on the ground.

“This place is going to collapse in a bit. Hurry up and get out.”

“T-Thank you……!”

The Yeopsa hurriedly ran off in the direction the siren was coming from. The siren and emergency broadcasts had been blaring for minutes now, and the entire terrain was collapsing, so all the other Yeopsas and ODC employees had probably escaped themselves.

Everyone except for this guy in front of me. I looked at him and say.

“I almost lost to you because I only defended last time.”

『What are you saying, you Joseon-jin!』

“But it worked out.”

I changed my posture holding my practice sword slightly and continued.

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“This time, I can do my best.”

『What are you…… Huh? AAAARGH!』

His left hand went flying off.

“I mean, although you’re pretty good with a sword yourself, as well.”

Aoki-shosa, if we were talking about experience with swinging a sword, he probably had quite a lot of it himself. He would have probably cut down quite a large number of people or monsters to build up that kind of experience.

But, you know, I was a C-class Hunter in the 21st century.

The 21st century, after The Catastrophe, was a really crazy world where Swordmasters flew through the sky and cut through the ocean.

And the monsters that are classified as intermediate monsters in this era were treated as low-class monsters in the 21st century.

I lived as a Hunter in that world for over ten years, with my sword, and I experienced things in a completely different level of difficulty to you.

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『What are you! How did you do that! You’re just a Joseon porter……! How can a fucker as young as you!』

I took a step closer to Aoki, who was wailing, clutching the amputation of his left hand. I didn’t plan on cutting his throat right away. That would be giving him the easy way out.

Indeed. In the history I lived through, there had probably been other trash like him. The scum of the Earth that slaughtered Joseon people while wearing a Japanese military badge, not feeling a drop of guilt while they did so.

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I had no intention to keep something like that alive, and I didn’t plan on letting him die peacefully either.

“Should I give your right hand independence now?”

『W-What are you saying! You Joseon-jin! Speak in Japanese!』

“Or should I cut your stomach and liberate your guts?”

I lifted the practice sword again. But at that moment, I heard a cry calling for me from afar.

『Shirabayashi! So you were here!』

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Murasaki was running towards me, his sword drawn.

『How dare you trick me, the son of the Jongno Police Station chief, and run away? I will not put up with it this time! Let’s settle it!』

I was planning on finishing off Aoki and grabbing him on the way back, but he had woken up way earlier than I expected. But I couldn’t fight him right now.

‘Let’s start with Aoki first!’

I looked in front of me again, but in the split second I was distracted by Murasaki, Aoki had run away. I could see Aoki running away in the distance already.

‘Fuck!’

I started running after Aoki.

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I ignored Murasaki who was shouting from behind, and ran through the increasingly shaky volcanic cave.

‘I can’t let him go like this!’

If Aoki-shosa managed to get out, all of this would have been for nothing. No, not for nothing but even worse, I’d be in deep shit.

However, it was very strenuous to run through this rough terrain, which was not only shaking wildly but had pools of lava boiling over.

‘Huff, puff…… Damn it……!’

I had felt this before, but this guy Baek Cheol-yeon, that I had possessed, didn’t have good stamina. His nutritional status was okay, but even in the 21st century, at best he would be an average high school student in terms of fitness.

So, it was difficult to keep up with a strong, elite soldier who was using a haste ability and was at least a head bigger than me.

Aoki had already made his way far, and was near the entrance to the basecamp.

‘This can’t be!’

The basecamp was collapsing.

The ground was splitting as lava rose, and the warped and fragmented floor rocked back and forth like a boat on waves. Built on top of it, the fence surrounding the basecamp and the numerous tents and barracks inside it, were also collapsing.

In the midst of all this chaos, the Spirit Gate leading outside was twisting and distorting unsteadily. The last Yeopsas and ODC employees left had already gone through it and,

Aoki began to run in a straight line towards it, jumping over the lava spewing from the cracks everywhere.

『There…… There is no way I will be killed by a Joseon-jin in here!』

The distance between Aoki-shosa and the Spirit Gate was just a few dozen meters. As I was chasing Aoki-shosa from behind, I had no way to stop him, and I had no choice but to look at the back of him as he kept running and screaming.

『I have to live up to the will of the “Chairman” and the cause of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere!』

But then,

Far in front of him, just in front of the Spirit Gate, at the end of Aoki-shosa’s escape route, there was someone standing, pointing the tip of their sword toward him.

In the dark, a flame flared all over the long sword.

『Tomari nasai(Stop)!』

In the glow of the lava, her black hair fluttered with an even darker and redder energy, and she stretched out her sword to the front,

Her burning eyes glared at Aoki as she cried out.

『Shosa!』

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Author’s note (author’s review)

TMI. Aoki-shosa’s weapon is the same as the one pictured above, and I have attached an IRL picture to help your imagination. (I’m sorry to everyone who expected an illustration T.T)

As you can see, the Japanese military-style pistol, the Type 14 Nambu pistol, was equipped with a Japanese sword. This was not practical in history, so it was only used as a prototype.

However…… This is a world where Gates exist and monsters are defeated with swords, right? hihi……