Chapter 229 — Episode 43 - Breaking the Sky Sword Saint (2)
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[Who is... the industrial complex’s... new master?]
The colossal voice was heard and Yoo Jonghyuk and I simultaneously looked out the window. Judging by the noisy streets, the use of a true voice was quite tough. Yoo Jonghyuk muttered in a small voice, “A constellation of Papyrus.”
“If it is the Last Pharaoh, it is probably that woman?”
A giant mummy with an old, golden crown. Everything was covered with bandages apart from the high nose. It was just like what I read in Ways of Survival. It was clear that the body belonged to Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Egypt.
[Who... is... Yoo Jonghyuk?]
Once again, the true voice rang out through the industrial complex. It was certainly great but neither of us were discouraged. Cleopatra was a great-grade constellation at most. Yoo Jonghyuk and I were no longer nervous regarding great constellations.
“Yoo Jonghyuk. Can you win?”
It was an opponent I couldn’t afford to go against while I currently had story packs hanging from my body. Yoo Jonghyuk shook his head. “It is impossible right now. It will soon be time.”
“Are you talking about the penalty? The one where you disappear for 10 minutes a day?”
Yoo Jonghyuk didn’t answer. I accepted it as agreement and looked at Cleopatra. “Then that person...”
“She won’t do anything.”
“Why?”
“The Demon King Selection hasn’t started yet.”
Naturally, the incarnation bodies of the constellations who weren’t part of the scenario were constrained by probability. As long as the giant story hadn’t opened yet, they couldn’t act freely. Even so...
“Hey, have you already forgotten about Asmodeus?”
“Not everyone can act like Asmodeus.”
I knew that much. It was because the demon kings had much fewer restrictions than the constellations in the Demon World. The problem was the constellations could consume extra probability to overcome these constraints.
“Isn’t Cleopatra a member of Papyrus? If she borrows the probability of the nebula...”
“Kim Dokja. You have already forgotten what they have done.”
“What?”
Before Yoo Jonghyuk could answer, I heard Cleopatra’s voice in the air.
[Tell the... new ruler of the industrial complex. He will surely die... if he participates in the Demon King Selection.]
Cleopatra’s body started to disappear with these words. Like a massive sand castle collapsing, the body returned to dust.
[Keep this in mind... Papyrus will never... warn you twice.]
Then why are you leaving so gently? It was strange. Usually, she would leave after killing hundreds of incarnations.
Yoo Jonghyuk opened his mouth like I was pathetic. “Have you forgotten? They forced fate on you.”
“Ah.”
That reminded me, there was such a thing. Papyrus, Vedas and Olympus used a massive amount of probability to force my fate on me. It was the reason why Cleopatra easily disappeared. They now lacked probability.
Yoo Jonghyuk spoke in his distinctive somber voice, “We’ve bought some time before the Demon King Selection.”
I nodded. At least for now, the constellations wouldn’t attack this side. I checked the message logs.
[The ‘Demon King Selection’ is currently being prepared.]
[Remaining Preparation Time: 28 days, 17 hours and 12 minutes.]
If my prediction was correct, the Demon King Selection would consume the 21st to 24th scenarios. It was a giant story so it was natural to eat the scenarios. I measured the time remaining and said,
“The two of us alone isn’t enough.”
“I know.”
Once the Demon King Selection started, the constellations would start to flock here. A great-grade constellation might be lacking in strength but they were still much stronger than normal incarnations. Moreover, once many of them started to appear, it would be difficult for only Yoo Jonghyuk and I to deal with them.
“Do you have an idea?”
Yoo Jonghyuk shook his head. There was a way to bring colleagues from Earth but Lee Hyunsung and Jung Heewon still lacked the ability to fight against transcendents or constellations. They needed time to become stronger by alternating between personal scenarios and main scenarios. A full-scale power management would be possible when they entered the latter scenarios. I needed to find colleagues I could use right away.
“Have you gathered any colleagues here?”
“Ah, there is...”
Speaking of which, where was Jang Hayoung? I twisted my sore body and looked around. “I told him to search for group members. It is time for some results...”
“Be prepared. I’ll be leaving in a second.”
Before I could ask where he was going, Yoo Jonghyuk disappeared from my view.
***
I worked out my plan and left the treatment room after sorting out my bandages. Aileen said I should rest for two more weeks but my physical condition wasn’t that bad, perhaps because I was relaxed.
[The attribute ‘Lamarck Kirin’ has increased the recovery effect.]
...Ah, it was due to the effect of the attribute. The alarmed Aileen rushed over as I stepped outside and stretched. I interrupted her before she could open her mouth. “Don’t worry. Rather, can you heal this?”
Aileen received the Uriel doll and cocked her head. “...What is this?”
“A constellation’s symbolic body.”
Aileen made the mistake of dropping the doll to the ground. She hurriedly picked up the doll again and asked me, “...Will I be punished for dropping it?”
“Don’t worry, she is a good constellation. Please firmly repair it.”
The constellation was nice. The words were strange to say but I was talking to Uriel, not other constellations.
I said I would go for a short stroll and emerged onto the streets of the industrial complex. The streets of the industrial complex were bathed in a dim light and seemed different from before.
A few people recognized me and nodded lightly. I could see a vigour that I never saw before on their faces. Perhaps this was the expression of those who decided to live.
“Hey Yoo Jonghyuk! Did you wake up?”
I turned around and saw someone running over here. Jang Hayoung walked up to me and gave me a clumsy headlock. I tried to pull Jang Hayoung off me. “My name isn’t Yoo Jonghyuk.”
“Oh, now you want to reveal your real name?”
“...You know?”
“Well, I’m not the only one using a pseudonym.”
I stared at Jang Hayoung for a while before speaking in a meaningful manner. “My name is Kim Dokja.”
I spoke nice words but Jang Hayoung had a dazed expression. “It is a strange name. I seem to have heard it before...”
“...It’s fine. What were you doing?”
“Oh, I was chatting to a few people and got a tip about this area.”
“A tip?”
“You don’t know because you have been sleeping? Interesting things have happened in the industrial complex in the meantime.”
I heard from Jang Hayoung about what happened in the past week. Of course, the most interesting thing was about Yoo Jonghyuk.
“He rejected the ruling rights?”
“That’s right. He said he would become the duke but he wouldn’t rule here. Thus, everyone was in an uproar.”
The situation was clear. Maybe Yoo Jonghyuk was practicing his motto of ‘dominate but don’t rule.’ That’s what he said. The idea was good. However, the situation was bad.
“The order of the industrial complex must be out of control. If the situation isn’t organized, that declaration would just create a security problem.”
“That’s why the citizens are excited right now.”
A powerful dictator had the power to control people’s desires. Since a dictator gave up his power,
the piled up desires of the citizens would burst out at once.
「 “Do you think the darkness of the industrial complex will disappear if I die?” 」
These were the words of Duke Syswitz in Ways of Survival. I once again thought he was right. The industrial complex wouldn’t suddenly change just because the ruler changed. Rather, the oppressive dictatorship had vanished and the people’s hidden desires would become even more exposed.
“Hey, give me that fragment!”
“I-I don’t want to. I picked it up.”
Voices burst out like they had been waiting and Jang Hayoung and I simultaneously turned our heads. A large number of people were lynching an incarnation in an alley. The situation was obvious. They were fighting over a story fragment that came from the Factory. I was about to move when
Jang Hayoung restrained me. “Wait. Just watch.”
“...What?”
“I told you, there was a tip.”
“What is the tip?”
“The ‘Punisher’ will show up here.”
“Punisher?”
I had never heard of such a position. There was no such position in the Revolutionary scenario or Ways of Survival. Jang Hayoung noticed my doubts and added. “It’s a nickname created by the citizens. A great beauty appeared a few days ago and has been maintaining the peace...”
At this moment, a man’s shout was heard from inside the alley.
“Kill him and steal it!”
The men pulled out their weapons and it seemed to be a full-fledged lynching. I would rather move first instead of waiting for the punisher. The moment I moved my hand to the sword at my waist, a slender shadow appeared in the alley.
“Stop.”
A woman with a black cape covering her body was standing on the wall. I wasn’t sure about her equipment because of the cape but her face was very clear. It was a face that seemed to be on a different dimension from the world around it. I watched the woman’s waist-long hair flapping in the wind and moved slowly in great shock.
...Was there such a figure in Ways of Survival? All of a sudden, the meaning of every praise word became clear.
Deep sultry eyes were set beneath neat eyebrows. All the standards that determined beauty in the world were collapsed at the same time. It was a face that couldn’t be described using the modifiers of a constellation. To my chagrin, there was only one way to express this face.
「 There was no doubt it was a beauty that would slap Yoo Jonghyuk on the cheeks three times. 」 (Tl: In other words, put Yoo Jonghyuk’s beauty to shame by three times)
There wasn’t such an expression in Ways of Survival. In Ways of Survival, Jang Hayoung was at most described as ‘two slaps on the cheeks.’ I was stunned with shock while the person who would slap Yoo Jonghyuk twice whispered, “She came. That person is the punisher.”
The men were overwhelmed by the woman’s beauty and belatedly woke up. Their lips moved and I knew what would emerge. Before their mouths could open, something moved. Then something fell. It was a little bit later that a man screamed. “U-Uwaaaack!”
The man who had his arm cut off screamed terrible while the other people identified the situation and started fleeing. They noticed it was an enemy that couldn’t deal with. Even the rescued man was terrified and ran out of the alley. In an instant, only the man’s fallen arm and the woman remained in the alley.
Jang Hayoung watched the woman silently holding the sword and let out a burst of admiration. “Look, isn’t she really amazing? You told me to look for some useful people. I tried to talk to her yesterday but she just disappeared―”
The swordsmanship was brutal but moved along a fixed course. The amazing thing was the speed of the swordsmanship. I murmured, “An incarnation can’t have that level of swordsmanship.”
“What?”
Jang Hayoung might’ve missed it but I definitely noticed. At this point in time, this speed was only possible for transcendents. My heart thumped loudly.
I didn’t know the identity of this woman but if I could make her my colleague, she would surely be a great power in the Demon King Selection. The moment the woman in the black cape turned around, I jumped into the alley without hesitation. “Hey!”
I was planning to use Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint to get information while talking to her. It would be easier to persuade her if I could see her Attributes Window. Then if I was lucky―
“Kuek...”
Before I could approach the woman and use the skill, I had to stop in place. The woman’s eyes were looking at me. I trembled from the terrible emotions that were transmitted to me. Tremendous resentment and anger shot towards me. I was struck dumb by the sheer waterfall of emotions.
...What was this girl? Did I know her?
...Rather, why did she hate me so much?