Chapter 169 : Clean-up

Looking at the monster, Ho-cheol muttered as if dumbfounded.

“What a brutally shaped face.”

Bright red tentacles wriggled out from under the eyeball like a beard.

So that's its true form.

A few of the limp tentacles shot towards Ho-cheol.

Shiiik—!

Their threatening speed easily broke the sound barrier and aimed for Ho-cheol's forehead.

He twisted his body to dodge the tentacles.

But there was no possibility of dodging the attacks that followed from three directions.

Ho-cheol swung his hand wide.

A sharp sword cut through the tentacles.

The single sword in Ho-cheol's hand.

The long, extended sword had the same shape and color as the Purple Glass Sword.

Of course, even in Ho-cheol's mental world, he couldn't act like a god.

And it was naturally impossible to create something out of nothing like this.

However, for him, this sword was already no different from a part of his body.

Rather than saying he had materialized a sword, it was more correct to say that it had appeared in his hand when he needed it.

He cut through the tentacles and jumped up, closing the distance to the monster.

He swung his sword, but the monster flapped its wings once and flew higher, retreating to a place his sword could not reach.

At the same time, it shot out tentacles to attack Ho-cheol.

“Tsk.”

He felt it instinctively.

Death here was not much different from death in reality.

It was just a matter of whether it was the body or the mind that died.

No, in fact, it was clear that it would be a more miserable fate than the death of the body.

Since his brain would be completely empty, he would become that monster's puppet.

The monster's tentacle attacks continued.

When Ho-cheol cut one tentacle, two new ones sprouted.

He was blocking the tentacle attacks with a near-perfect movement, but it was not perfect.

He was narrowly dodging attacks that he would normally have easily blocked and dodged, and small wounds were being carved into his body one by one.

The physical and mental burden from the continuous battles was considerable, and most importantly, there was a sense of unease in his body from fighting in this mental world.

The monster, who had momentarily slowed its attack, spoke again.

Are you afraid?

Even the monster had to acknowledge Ho-cheol.

Although it was one-sidedly pushing him to think that a human, who it had only considered a mere creature, a tool, could show this much ability.

Just talking to him like this was a compliment that Ho-cheol could not even imagine.

And it made a proposal again.

Accept this power.

Power and wisdom, and furthermore, a twisted fate and a reality of only pain.

I will let you change them as you wish.

“Nonsense. But let me ask you one thing.”

Ho-cheol, who had gained some breathing room, wiped the blood flowing down his cheek and asked.

“What the hell is your goal? Honestly, your body outside is a bit ugly. Can't you just transfer to another monster? Do you have to turn a person into a monster, or single me out to be your apostle?”

The bright red tentacles under the eyeball wriggled.

The existence of humans is like a cancer to this earth.

What is needed now is a rapture.

“Ah, and here I thought it was something great.”

Ho-cheol clicked his tongue and cut the monster off.

“You're a great global leader, aren't you? Why is it that the dreams of bad guys are all the same, as if they all got them from the same menu, either world conquest or human extermination?”

Ho-cheol swung his sword at the monster with a taunt.

Even though it was a monster made of only an eyeball, wings, and tentacles, its annoyance was palpable.

Indeed, a mere creature.

Do you not understand the great cause?

“The great cause is bullshit.”

Twice as many tentacles as before shot out at Ho-cheol.

Even if he cut through the tentacles and tried to quickly close the distance, the monster would just flap its wings once and retreat to a place Ho-cheol could not reach.

No matter how strong Ho-cheol was, he couldn't fly, so it was a matter of course.

Every time the one-sided battle continued, only dull impacts and minor injuries increased.

“Ssseup.”

Ho-cheol rolled his eyes as if in trouble.

Long-range, high-mobility, with recovery ability and excellent attack output.

Most importantly, its head was working quite well.

Its combat sense was greater than that of most S-rank villains.

In just five or six exchanges, it had perfectly grasped the distance this side could close in one jump.

Thanks to that, the monster was maintaining that safe distance just barely and inducing this side's attacks.

Ho-cheol let out a sigh and stabbed his sword into the ground.

“Alright. I admit it. You’re the strongest of all the enemies I’ve ever met.”

Eclipse, the Sword Demon, and even Ji-an were difficult to compare to that thing.

In the first place, it was a matter of course.

There was no way a mere human could be compared to a top-tier monster.

But.

“There was someone stronger than that.”

A person so strong that a monster like you, and a half-baked villain like me, could not even dare to compare.

He drew his sword again and took a deep breath.

“Let’s see which one of us gets tired and falls first. Let’s go for a battle of wills.”

Ho-cheol, who had entered a defensive stance, had not even the slightest opening.

The monster, forgetting even that it had to take over Ho-cheol's body, was impressed.

Was that really a human?

In fact, he was more persistent and meticulous than the monster itself.

And he even felt a deep sense of regret.

If he had dominated such a powerful human from the start, he wouldn't have fallen into such a miserable state.

He had wanted to swallow the body as whole as possible, but if he were to be so defensive, he couldn't estimate how many more hours it would take.

Is there no choice?

With that judgment, the monster opened its eyes wide.

Its giant pupil split vertically.

In fact, this tentacle attack was just a small part of this body's power.

Its real power, just like outside, was in its mental attacks.

Ho-cheol's body swayed greatly.

He frowned as if in pain.

Terrible memories washed over him like a tsunami, rummaging through his head.

The death of his parents, the hero who tried to kill him, himself becoming an enemy of the world, and the precious person who had died in his arms.

A memory that would be enough to break him with just one occurrence was repeated dozens of times a second.

Ho-cheol's body swayed greatly at the sensation of his brain being completely fried.

The monster did not miss that fatal opening.

Dozens of tentacles shot towards Ho-cheol.

Sweeeek—!

The space was torn along the trajectory of the swung tentacles.

Ho-cheol, in the middle of his falling posture, stabbed his sword into the ground.

The sword, which drew a semi-circle, cut through both the ground and the tentacles.

His gaze, visible through his disheveled hair, was by no means that of a broken man.

He muttered softly.

“That was close.”

An attack that would have been more than enough to break him just ten minutes ago.

But not now.

Everything can change with a small trigger.

Until now, what had supported Ho-cheol was a will and a belief borrowed from others.

That belief had been precariously shaken several times in the face of his karma and reality since his release.

But through the monster's mental attack, he had instead realized his own beginning, his essence.

As a result, Ho-cheol had obtained a new pillar.

Not someone else's, but a pillar of his mind, firmer than anything else, that had sprung from his own complete roots.

So he would not be broken.

A great human.

The monster sent its sincere praise.

This was also an attack that contained the monster's full power.

His ego should have completely evaporated.

But at a glance, Ho-cheol's condition was much worse than before.

The monster, which had decided to end it with this blow, gathered hundreds of tentacles and created one giant whip.

It swung it.

Ho-cheol lowered his body and dug under the tentacles.

And at that moment, Ho-cheol's figure disappeared.

The monster quickly pulled its body back.

The safe distance from Ho-cheol that it had perfectly obtained after a fierce battle.

Where is he?

The monster's eyes moved left and right more urgently than ever before.

But what had noticed Ho-cheol's presence was not its eyes, but another sense.

Ho-cheol was now standing behind the monster, on its wing.

How?

The monster, which had always been emotionless, muttered for the first time with a feeling of astonishment.

Of course, Ho-cheol's instantaneous speed when he activated his Trait had exceeded the monster's expectations.

But that was all.

It had definitely calculated the distance so that he could not physically reach it with his physical ability.

It was absolutely impossible unless he had the ability to jump again in mid-air.

It was an unbelievable thing.

“Haa. As expected, moving at this speed is a lot of pressure.”

Looking at his tattered body, Ho-cheol swept his hair back.

His gray hair was stained red with blood.

“1m and 20cm. It was good to maintain that at my maximum jump distance, but that was on the ground.”

At those words, the monster belatedly realized.

The place where Ho-cheol had been standing just now, the tentacle he had cut was stuck firmly in the ground.

A gap of just over 1m.

In other words, if he had a 1m stepping stone, he could reach it easily.

“You shouldn't be careless.”

With those words, Ho-cheol immediately plunged his sword into the monster's eye.

The sharp sword pierced through the eye.

The monster's wings and tentacles trembled as if in a seizure.

And as if it could no longer hold on, its form twisted and collapsed.

A falling eye.

Ho-cheol put his weight into it and delivered the final blow.

Ho-cheol opened his eyes.

Not the wilderness from before, but the laboratory from just a moment ago.

In his mental world, he had fought for hours, but in reality, only a few seconds had passed.

Ho-cheol, whose wounds had all disappeared, clenched and unclenched his hands as if awkward.

The last, maximum output of his Trait was a time so compressed that even Ho-cheol could not move carelessly.

In fact, in the end, all he could do was stand.

A risky gamble that could only be thrown in a mental world.

And it was effective.

Ho-cheol looked down at the fragments of the monster.

The lump of meat that had seemed like it would never die until just a moment ago was melting into a puddle.

The monster said, as if resentful.

No strength could be felt in its dying voice.

Damn it.

If only my real body were intact, to a mere human…

“Right. The way you make excuses when you lose, you’re kind of like a person. You were the most human-like monster I’ve ever seen. And the reason you lost is because you’re like a person.”

Ho-cheol gripped his purple sword.

The monster had no skill or heart to toy with its opponent.

It just pursued maximum efficiency and aimed for a perfect victory.

But this monster was not like that.

In fact, it had just been teasing Ho-cheol, maintaining a distance just at the edge of his attack range.

If it had been an ordinary monster, it would not have even given him that chance.

It would have maintained a distance more than twice as far, and with its overwhelming regeneration ability and firepower, it would have steadily worn this side down for hours.

And if it had been such an opponent, even Ho-cheol would not have been able to deal with it so easily.

No, this wasn't easy either.

Ho-cheol squatted down and rested his chin on his hand.

“Are there more monsters like you? In the first place, looking at how you ended up like this, it seems you have some kind of story.”

A red-winged prophet will descend.

Witness that end.

But the monster, with those incomprehensible words, its body melted away.

“Good grief.”

Ho-cheol scratched the back of his head.

It seemed that even while heroes and villains were bickering, there were other great dangers in this world.

Of course, it was not a topic that interested him at all.

He was already overwhelmed with teaching kids.

Most importantly, although it was a great monster, it was not something that could not be solved if they mobilized the military power of a country.

In fact, if Black Oskopf had brought out their real war weapons, that monster would have been turned to mush.

In fact, it was because it was small that it was able to pull off such tricks.

Ho-cheol took out a pager from his pocket and pressed the button.

Not long after, Wolf Fang appeared.

“Woah. What’s that?”

Wolf Fang, who had a good nose, reacted to the smell before the hideous form.

“A monster.”

“Judging by its appearance, it doesn’t look very strong…”

“Well, the standard of strength is different for everyone. It was a mind-control type monster.”

Ho-cheol let out a groan and stood up.

Has he ever had such a hard time, both physically and mentally?

Wolf Fang looked back at the path he had come and asked.

The dozens of capsules, and the human-monster hybrids inside them.

“Then are these monsters too?”

“No. I don’t know.”

Unfortunately, they too could not withstand the monster's mental attack.

There was not even the slightest movement from the vital sensors attached to each capsule.

It was a complete declaration of death.

All dozens of capsules were the same.

Ho-cheol's expression was complicated.

“I can only hope that they died as humans.”

Muttering, he lightly clasped his hands and closed his eyes.

He just felt sorry for them.

The monster's mental wave attack had been maximized after being taken out of the capsule and culture medium.

Until then, the test subjects had been holding on somehow, but that was probably the fatal cause.

Even Ho-cheol could not block a mental attack on their behalf.

It was a necessary sacrifice to deal with the monster.

That's why he felt no guilt for this result, but he did feel a sense of responsibility.

Wolf Fang, who had been watching him, seemed to be thinking for a moment, but he soon closed his eyes like Ho-cheol and offered a silent prayer to the test subjects.

Wolf Fang, who had opened his eyes first, asked in a suggestive tone.

“Boss, you seem to have changed a lot.”

Wolf Fang, who had said so, suddenly changed his expression and raised his claws.

A mind-controlling monster.

Ho-cheol, who had completely changed in just a dozen minutes.

Don't tell me?

An ominous hypothesis flashed through his mind.

“Did a monster eat your brain or something?”

“……Wanna die?”

At Ho-cheol's sharp reaction, Wolf Fang stealthily put his claws away.

It's the boss alright.

He added, as if making an excuse.

“The atmosphere had changed so much, it was worth suspecting.”

“Well, I do feel like I’ve pulled out a bad tooth. It was worth the trouble.”

Ho-cheol looked around.

“So how do I wipe out the server and information here?”

“Ah. That.”

Wolf Fang took out a USB from his pocket.

The hand holding the USB trembled.

“You have to pay me back for this. It’s the first time I’ve spent so much money in the black market.”

Ho-cheol ignored his words and snatched the USB.

“You’re saying there’s a data-related trait in here?”

“Yes. It’s impossible to steal or hack data. It’s purely for screwing with the other party, it’s supposed to forcibly pull data from a closed server and jumble it up. I don’t know the exact principle either.”

“Good grief. The times have really gotten better.”

A technology that was out of the question just 10 years ago.

Ho-cheol, who was once again impressed by the development of technology, plugged the USB into a nearby computer.

“Agh, it’s the wrong way again.”

Why does it never go in on the first try?

Ho-cheol flipped the USB.

Not long after, a bright red exclamation mark repeatedly appeared on the monitor.

Of course, even if he used this hacking trait, it wasn't complete destruction.

Conversely, there was also a Trait that could restore destroyed data.

That's why Ho-cheol raised his sword.

Data destruction, and even physical server destruction.

No matter how much they struggled to recover it, it would take years.

And after that, the monster, which was the core of this experiment, was gone anyway.

He swung his sword and smashed all the mechanical devices in sight.

“Are you going back right away?”

“I’m tired and want to go home, but I have to clean up.”

By now, the core forces of The Top and Black Oskopf would be fighting hard over a side dish that wasn't very important.

Although it was a fight that Ho-cheol had created, it would still look bad if he just left irresponsibly.

And most importantly, he had made a promise.

“Ah. By the way, my stomach has been screaming from running around all morning. What are we eating?”

Ho-cheol looked blankly at the remains of the monster and said.

“Boiled octopus?”

It wasn't a food he usually sought out, but suddenly he was craving tentacles…

“Oh, I like that. But come to think of it, I don’t think seafood was served much in the past.”

“Back then, raw food wasn’t served much. What if you got food poisoning?”

“That’s true, but since beef and pork were served often, everyone ate without complaint.”

“That wasn’t pork and beef.”

“Pardon?”

“Ah.”

The moment Ho-cheol said it, he clamped his mouth shut with a ‘whoops’.

Even if they were subordinates, they were just criminals.

Why would he go to the trouble of buying expensive real meat to feed them?

The menu that came out of the common dining hall under the executives was all monster meat.

“Boss?”

Ignoring Wolf Fang, Ho-cheol left the laboratory.

Kwang—!

Kwang—!

The battle of a 1st-class hunter was already no different from a natural disaster.

And with six such 1st-class hunters on one battlefield, the surrounding area was already a mess.

The balance of power was so taut it was on the verge of snapping.

The weapons of The Top, the combat androids of Black Oskopf.

They were madly pouring out high-powered weapons, turning the battlefield into a sea of fire.

In the midst of the fierce battle, a 1st-class hunter looked up.

It was a fatal opening where a momentary mistake could cost him his life, but no one could take advantage of it.

Because the enemy who should have taken advantage of it was also looking up at the sky at almost the same time.

A very short lull in the battle came.

Of course, that was not what they had intended.

Not just a 1st-class hunter, but any human who had ever committed themselves to a struggle could clearly feel it.

The ferocious aura, the powerful pressure felt from afar, was not something that a single individual could produce.

“Is it a monster?”

It was not surprising for someone to mutter so.

Although this was a safe zone, it was an outskirt close to the border.

It was not uncommon for a monster to wander in.

A star twinkled in the sky.

Then it fell straight into the middle of the battlefield.

Kwang—!

Everyone lowered their bodies at the shock that shook the ground.

Everyone waited, tense, for the owner of that aura.

And Ho-cheol, who walked out from between the huge crater, lightly dusted himself off.

He looked around and asked with an expression as if he had lost his steam.

“What. Why is it so quiet? Did the fight end already?”

Did I come for nothing?