CH 271

Ha Song-Su was unbelievably fast. It was difficult to follow his movement with eyes, let alone defend against him.

Soo-Jung was the first to sense and recognize him. She was about to move when a quiet sound resonated inside Eden.

Whir.

The echo was followed by a deafening noise, loud enough to hurt everyone’s ears.

Kaboom!

Soo-Jung turned to look out the window. Ha Song-Su, who had been speeding toward them, was blocked by an invisible wall.

At the same time, Brunheart, still enveloped in the Sephiroth Tree branches, vomited blood. Her face pale, she wiped her lips with a sad smile and whispered, “I can’t stop him for too long…”

Her voice was bitter and weak, indicating she was utterly exhausted after stopping Ha Song-Su.

“Child…” Lim Hye-Sook gazed at Brunheart with worry. Seeing such a fragile young girl vomiting blood to protect them broke everyone's heart.

“Hurry!” Old Man Hwang screamed. “The child is right! She can’t continue like this!”

And even if Brunheart could, she would have to pay a dire price.

As Ha Song-Su incessantly attacked Brunheart’s wall to create an opening, loud explosions occurred, echoing all over Eden. Everyone could feel his shocking power.

Old Man Hwang turned toward the explosions’ origin and ordered, “We will deal with the enemy army, so Ha Song-Su…”

Old Man Hwang continued, “We need some of you to stop Ha Song-Su.”

They needed to survive until Gi-Gyu returned. The thread-like sync was already gone, telling them that Gi-Gyu wasn’t in good condition and couldn’t return to Eden for a while.

Therefore, they had to last until Gi-Gyu fixed the problem on his side and returned.

‘I have no idea when that will be, but…’ Old Man Hwang knew they had to deal with Ha Song-Su to survive that long.

“Why are you thinking so hard?” Soo-Jung asked bluntly. Baal gave her a worried look, but she ignored him and stepped forward.

“I’ll go. I won’t stop anyone from following me, but don’t get in my way.” Soo-Jung grinned. “Well, I don’t think any of you here are weak enough to be troublesome, so… Do whatever you can.”

Baal stepped toward her as if to stop her, but Soo-Jung left the room. She was ready to fight.

Old Man Hwang watched Soo-Jung leave. ‘She was trembling.’ 

Soo-Jung had never shown any weakness until now.

Lim Hye-Sook announced, “I’ll go too.”

Baal, his head hung low, mumbled, “Please take care of Soo-Jung…”

Baal couldn’t join the fight because he needed to prevent Eden’s barrier from deactivating. Besides, he wouldn’t be of much help to her against Ha Song-Su.

“I’m going too!” Yoo-Bin said confidently, exuding sorcerous energy in anticipation.

“I will too,” El offered as well.

So it appeared that four women were going to fight Ha Song-Su. Choi Chang-Yong and the other players also considered volunteering but ultimately opted out. It wasn’t because they were afraid to die.

Choi Chang-Yong announced with determination, “We will stop the enemy army. We will do whatever it takes.”

Just as Old Man Hwang had mentioned earlier, the enemy army wasn’t weak by any means. Eden’s foot soldiers wouldn’t be enough to fight them because of the severed sync. Therefore, the human players and the foot soldiers had to work in tandem.

Everyone in the control tower rushed toward their destination.

Brunheart vomited blood again and moaned, “I need a break…”

She collapsed, and everyone looked outside the window.

An unreadable look appeared on Ha Song-Su’s face as he faced Soo-Jung.

Soo-Jung greeted him, “Long time no see.”

***

Gi-Gyu and Lou had finally figured out the mysterious toxin’s identity.

-I didn’t recognize it at first because of the excessive mutation.

Lou explained quickly.

Gi-Gyu and Lou compared their theories to figure out a solution. After some discussion, they decided that the toxin was Sloth.

-Actually, it is a mutated mix of all the hell king’s emotions.

The source of the hell kings’ powers was their extreme nature. Someone had taken a fragment of each’s emotion, mixed it, and mutated it up to eleven. This was why it was so hard to recognize it.

And there was another reason it took them so long to identify it.

Gi-Gyu explained, ‘Since you’ve absorbed quite a bit of Belphegor’s power, distinguishing it from the toxin became even harder.’ 

-Am I supposed to apologize for that?

‘You know I’m not saying that.’

-Obviously. Don’t forget about the other thing.

Lou wasn’t responsible for all the pain Gi-Gyu had felt while absorbing the sorcerous energy. The pain stemmed from the fact that he had become one with Jupiter.

-They did this on purpose.

There were pros and cons to Jupiter’s sync ability. The sync helped him pull in his target’s power, but the sync also pulled in the target’s emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and even memories. He had to accept his target’s entire existence, which was why Jupiter had gone mad in the previous world.

The same thing was happening right now. Belphegor’s Sloth was mixed into the sorcerous energy. This sin affected Gi-Gyu negatively because it was mutated to target Jupiter.

Gi-Gyu asked, ‘So what’s the solution?’

He was trying to find an answer quickly, but it wasn’t easy. And discussing with Lou like this was draining Gi-Gyu’s mental energy.

He was still in agony from having to expand his shell and absorbing the hell kings’ sins. Gi-Gyu felt dizzy, finally understanding why Jupiter had gone insane in his previous life.

‘I don’t want to do anything right now. I want to sleep…’ 

Belphegor’s sin and main emotion was Sloth. Perhaps this was why Gi-Gyu was feeling so drowsy. It was getting worse, and because so many emotions were mixed into the sorcerous energy, Gi-Gyu’s mood fluctuated wildly.

-...

Gi-Gyu waited for Lou’s answer.

‘Hurry up!’ He tried his best not to lose consciousness. The only thing keeping him awake was his worries for Eden.

‘Eden and my Egos are in danger.’ 

Because he couldn’t tell what was happening to them, Gi-Gyu was becoming impatient. Sensing the flow of time was also becoming harder.

If his guess was right and Ha Song-Su was heading toward Eden, the situation would have a tragic end.

‘So hurry!’ Gi-Gyu urged impatiently.

The sorcerous energy orb, which had been thinning rapidly, suddenly thickened again.

‘...!’ Gi-Gyu was now completely isolated from the outside. He could no longer see Paimon or sense the flow of time.

-There is one way.

Lou finally offered a solution.

Gi-Gyu yelled, ‘Hurry!’

-For now… Just absorb everything here. I will take care of the rest.

Normally, Gi-Gyu wouldn’t have followed Lou’s instructions, especially if Lou offered to take all the risks. But right now, he had no other choice. The situation was too dire.

‘Thank you.’ With that, Gi-Gyu removed the last of the protective barrier around his shell.

Dun dun dun dun dun!

There was nothing between the giant amount of sorcerous energy and Gi-Gyu’s shell. Gi-Gyu absorbed the toxic energy like a black hole, thinning the orb again.

However, it was also making remaining awake harder than ever for Gi-Gyu.

The pain was gone, so nothing was helping him stay awake. Still, he didn’t faint.

‘Ah…’ It was because he felt a familiar presence outside the quickly-thinning orb.

It felt warm yet destructive. Even as he wondered who it was, his shell continued to absorb the sorcerous energy.

Just then.

[You have obtained a new skill: Energy Control.]

Gi-Gyu’s shell had finally expanded enough, so he obtained Bodhidharma’s ability completely.

Bodhidharma was an expert in utilizing all kinds of energies. This was the skill Gi-Gyu needed desperately right now. His mind became clearer, and Gi-Gyu absorbed the sorcerous energy even more rapidly.

***

‘I let my guard down.’ Tao Chen was disappointed in himself, calculating the number of players he had lost on their way here.

“Are you okay?!” Sun Won asked in panic as he helped Tao Chen stand. Corpses of both enemies and allies surrounded them.

“I’m all right…” Tao Chen staggered but managed to stand up with Sun Won’s help. Their enemies were more powerful than he had anticipated. If not for his new ability, he might have also died.

But he was much stronger now and believed he could do this.

“We better hurry up,” Tao Chen announced. Because the structure of the presidential palace had changed, they had wasted a lot of time.

But he could feel that their target, the president, waited for them not too far away. Tao Chen was about to step forward when he stopped and turned around.

He had begun with 1,000 players; now, the group was visibly smaller.

Tao Chen bit his lips, resenting his old arrogant self. Just because Gi-Gyu was with them and they had a legitimate reason for the coup, he shouldn’t have let his guard down.

Their enemies were unexpectedly brave, powerful, and evil.

Sun Won stood by Tao Chen’s side. “This isn’t your fault, Tao Chen.”

Tao Chen looked away without a word. It was too late to go back now. Many had been sacrificed so far; if they turned back now, more would die for nothing. Whatever happened, they had to finish the mission.

Gi-Gyu was doing his job, and it was now Tao Chen’s turn to demonstrate his capability. With this thought, he moved, surprisingly uninterrupted by more enemies. But the emptiness and lack of enemies only made the place look more ominous.

Tao Chen and his players stood in front of a door. Behind it was their target.

“Are you ready?” Tao Chen looked grim as he stared at the closed door.

When no one answered, Tao Chen murmured, “I want to thank you all.”

He didn’t speak further. Sun Won took a step forward to open the door.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

Inside, the president of China, who had become Andras’ servant and turned his country into a human laboratory, stood.

Tao Chen swung his Green Dragon Crescent Blade toward him and whispered, “Space Slash.”