Chapter 126
Chapter 126
The event had developed so suddenly and resulted in such an outcome that nobody could react properly . Their mouths just opened and closed as if they were fishes . Tim and Emily, who knew Sungyoon’s true skills, broke out of their stupor first .
“O . . . of course!”
Tim still felt shell shocked, but there was conviction in his voice . Louis had drawn his weapon first, but Sungyoon had neutralized his attacker without harming him . It was well under the definition of self-defense .
Everyone slowly started to break out of their shocked state . However, they became gloomy at the reality smacking them in their faces .
“L . . . Louis!”
Even if he had a bad personality, Louis was one of them . Cohen had enough of a character to be worried about his comrade . He subconsciously moved to check up on Louis .
“Please do not come any closer . ”
Sungyoon spoke as he moved the blade of the halberd .
“Heek!”
When the sharp blade of the halberd got closer to his neck, Louis let out a high-pitched scream .
“What are you doing...!”
Cohen was about to protest, but he soon shut his mouth . To be precise, he realized that he had no right to raise his voice in this situation when he was Louis’ comrade .
He bit his lips, and his eyes kept shifting while his brain operated at full capacity . However, no solutions came to his mind . Louis had created too big of a problem . It was absolutely forbidden to activate a Gem in Armstrong, and doubly so when it came to ambushing someone .
His hand had reached his head without him realizing it . He had a headache .
‘Stupid bastard!’
He stared daggers at Louis, who remained pinned underneath Sungoon’s foot . He wondered if his comrade was of sound mind . In the end, the facts remained the same . A Connector contracted to their company had tried to attack another connector inside the company building .
He had no choice but to lower his head . Up until a moment ago, Cohen had ignored this person, yet he now had to do this . It was very humiliating .
On the other hand, he also realized he had to re-evaluate Sungyoon .
‘He stopped the surprise attack . ’
No one could have expected Louis’ unpredictable actions, yet this man had nonchalantly defeated Louis, that too with overwhelming force .
In the company’s eyes, Louis was a prospect on par with the Ross siblings . He had easily graduated from the Beginner’s Labyrinth, and he clearly showed his worth in labyrinth raids hosted by the company . He wasn’t someone that could be subdued by a common 1st Gen .
However, the proof was in the pudding . Louis had ambushed the 1st Gen, yet he lost without being able to do anything .
Cohen looked at the halberd and the battle-ax gripped in Sungyoon’s hands . At a glance, one could tell the blades were sharp and sturdy, and the shafts were smooth and well made . There was no way these were low-rank weapons
‘At the very least, they have to be at the Yellow rank . ’
It meant this man was different from the normal 1st Gens who could barely handle the lower rank Rainbow Gems .
‘Shit! He’s basically someone that won the lottery!’
It really was rare, but sometimes 1st Gens possessing abilities unbefitting a 1st Gen existed . Cohen realized he was able to get a small glimpse of Sungyoon’s true skills .
‘Moreover, his Gem activation speed . . . ’
No one here could have stopped Louis’ ambush, not even him . They couldn’t do it because they couldn’t activate their Gems in time .
However, Sungyoon had neutralized Louis too easily . He summoned and unsummoned multiple Gems . It was like watching an acrobat perform stunts . The man didn’t even concentrate when deploying his magical energy, and his actions were without delays . He literally summoned his weapons in a blink of an eye, and Cohen could only let out a cold sweat when he had seen it all .
Did he predict Louis’ attack? Did he activate his Gems beforehand? Cohen shook his head from side to side . The 1st Gen would have to know how and when Louis would attack . He would also have to supply the Gems with magical energy beforehand so that he could summon them in the order he needed . Was that plausible?
‘No way . ’
Unless he was Laplace’s demon, he couldn’t perfectly predict what would’ve happened like that . It was more plausible to think that the man possessed the ability to activate his Gems at blinding speed .
‘That is also hard to believe, but . . . ’
If his Gem activation speed was really that fast . . .
‘It seems the Ross siblings were right . ’
He had made a big mistake .
His mind went blank when he reached this point in his thoughts . However, he was the most senior employee in this building, and it was his responsibility to salvage the situation .
“First, I would like to apologize for the fact that one of our employees attacked you . I’m sorry . ”
Cohen gave a courteous apology, trying his best to be humble . The disrespectful look in his eyes was nowhere to be seen, and he didn’t hesitate in giving an apology . Everyone was surprised by this . Even Sungyoon was inwardly a bit impressed .
‘He knows what needs to be done, and takes action . ’
He had seen many men in this world who had refused to humble themselves, even though they were in a terrible situation . Their pride wouldn’t allow it, and it inevitably led to worse results for them . Cohen wasn’t like that . He didn’t like Sungyoon . It was more apt to say he hated Sungyoon, yet he had lowered himself in front of him . He knew how to minimize the damage in a bad situation .
‘I’d rather deal with someone like him . ’
Cohen was capable of making decisions in a rational manner . Well, everyone was capable of doing that, but an unusually small number of people actually went through with making rational decisions . A prime example of this was Louis, who was pinned underneath Sungyoon’s foot . He was incapable of acting in such a manner .
“He activated his Gems in Armstrong, and then he attacked me with them . Do you agree?”
“... I agree . ”
“You do realize that Armstrong gives a lot of leeway under the law of self-defense, right?”
‘We really messed with the wrong guy!’
Cohen was breaking out in cold sweat .
If anyone else had experienced what Sungyoon had gone through, the person would be extremely angry and emotional . Usually, they would lash out in violence, or their heightened state of emotion would give Cohen a small advantage . Then he could somehow dig at the small advantage until the damage was minimized .
However, Sungyoon showed no signs of doing anything rash . He remained calm, collected, and cold . His appearance didn’t look like that of someone whose life was threatened not too long ago .
“... However, you were able to subdue this idiot . I agree Louis was at fault, but he is no longer a threat . I would like to believe you wouldn’t cause him any further harm . ”
“You have a good point, but...!”
Kwah-jeek!
Sungyoon’s foot came down on Louis’ arm .
“Ahhhhk!”
Louis screamed .
“What the hell...!”
Cohen yelled out in surprise . However, he shut his mouth soon . The Device equipped on Louis’ arm had Gems that were slowly losing their light .
Louis had tried to activate his Gems once again .
‘That stupid bastard!’
Cohen assessed the situation, and he was almost having a hard time breathing . He had become too frustrated . This dumb bastard had tried to secretly act in order to escape from Sungyoon .
“If he continues to act this way, I’ll have no choice but to take a more forceful action . Please warn him so that it doesn’t develop into something unfortunate . ”
“Hmmph! Do you think I’ll believe your bluff!”
It seemed as time passed, Louis regained his ugly personality . He shouted in a strident manner .
“You don’t have the balls to kill a single ant!”
Even a mutt would bark inside its own house . A sharp ax blade and a spear blade was right next to his neck, yet Louis remained bold . However, he shut his mouth when Sungyoon’s cold gaze landed on him . He had gotten in arguments with others before, and even took part in fistfights, but he had never seen someone look at him like this .
“I have no reason to kill an ant . However, I did kill a talking monkey before . ”
Louis shut his mouth in an instant . Talking monkey, Louis wasn’t dense enough to miss what Sungyoon was alluding to .
“Y . . . you are bluffing...”
He forced his mouth open, yet his voice shook a little bit . While they walked on the edge of life and death, their job was to kill monsters . Killing other humans was an entirely different proposition .
“I’m not bluffing . Some monkey took issue with a trivial matter . He held a grudge and followed me in my labyrinth . Of course, I almost died too, but . . . ”
Louis became speechless at Sungyoon’s extremely calm attitude .
Cohen had an inkling as to what Sungyoon was talking about . He had recently heard in the news that a Connector had tried to ambush another Connector in a labyrinth . The attacker had died in the attempt .
‘Was he the one?’
However, he couldn’t be sure . This man could have heard the same rumor, and he might be bluffing .
But it didn’t matter if his words were the truth or not . It didn’t change what Cohen had to do .
‘They aren’t showing any signs of helping me out . ’
He glanced at the Ross siblings . They weren’t doing anything yet . Cohen would consider himself fortunate if the Ross siblings didn’t take Sungyoon’s side .
“ . . . Louis . Can you just shut up and do nothing for now?”
He stopped his comrade from making things worse . If Louis made the wrong move again, Sungyoon might kill him . Then they would really be at the point of no return .
Cohen worried Louis would object, but he obediently listened to his words . It seemed he had become afraid of Sungyoon .
“Let me say this again . I would like to apologize . ”
His voice became warier than before .
“I’m sorry for asking this of you . Could you forget everything that happened between us?”
“What did you just say?”
Tim’s hackles rose .
“Louis attacked a person, yet you want us to just forget about it?”
Tim really hated Louis, and the man had attacked Sungyoon, whom he respected . It couldn’t be helped . Tim exploded in anger .
However, Cohen didn’t even look toward Tim . His gaze remained on Sungyoon .
“We’ll give you adequate compensation . If you want something, just say it . Also, Louis isn’t a bad guy . He just has a bad temper . In truth, he was not attacking you, but just trying to scare you . ”
“That is true . ”
Although the skill gap between the two of them was large, Sungyoon wouldn’t have been able to easily subdue Louis if the latter had used his full power . He knew Louis had been holding back .
When Sungyoon conceded that point, Cohen inwardly let out a sigh of relief . At the same time, he felt a shock to his system .
The sigh of relief came because Sungyoon had acknowledged that there was no killing intent behind Louis’ attack . The shock appeared because . . .
‘He knew . He knows that Louis had attacked with reduced strength . ’
It meant Sungyoon was skilled enough to notice that . It seemed they really had made an error in judgment when it came to Sungyoon . Cohen felt his mistake to the bone .
“Do you have enough authority to grant me what I want?”
“Not really, but this is a big incident . Even if you overshoot in your request, I can make it happen . ”
This was beyond rectifying Louis’ sin . Their company’s image was on the line . He knew the company would go through great lengths to bury this incident .
Sungyoon pointed towards the Ross siblings .
“I want you to make sure no negative consequences occur from them breaking their contract . ”
“... is that all you want?”
It was unexpectedly a small request . However, Sungyoon shook his head from side to side .
“You can discuss the rest with my company’s president . ”
Sungyoon really had no idea what to ask for . So he decided to rely on Jimin .
Cohen frowned at the idea that someone else outside this group would learn about this incident . But in the end, he let out a sigh as he nodded . The one holding the handle of the knife wasn’t him but Sungyoon . He also thought the agreement would be a bit more binding if the contract was made at the company level . Of course, he could pass on the role of negotiator to someone else, so there was a bit of selfishness in his thoughts too .
“... Understood . Will you let go of Louis now?”
However, Sungyoon just stroked his chin and didn’t let Louis go .
“Mmm . How can I trust you guys will keep your word?”
“You don’t have to worry about that . ”
Tim’s face had been red with anger as he was watching what happened . However, he grasped this opportunity to step forward and took out a video camera from his bag .
“I had brought it to record the scenery on the moon, but it can be repurposed for other uses . ”
Sugyoon nodded . But Cohen let out a sigh as he wiped the frown off his face .
“So, you’ll have proof now . May you let go of Louis now?”
However, Sungyoon didn’t listen to Cohen’s words once again .
“First, let Mr . Tim outside . He can film all of this from there . ”
“... you are very cautious . ”
“I experienced something very bitter when I failed in life . ”
While Sungyoon and Cohen conversed, Tim followed Sungyoon’s directions . He went outside the building and pointed the camera inward . Only then did Sungyoon let go of Louis .
Hoo-da-dahk!
Louis quickly moved to the side of the Connectors of his company . It seemed he had regained his confidence after being back amongst his comrades . He turned a death glare at Sungyoon . However, Sungyoon didn’t even bother looking back at him .
Sungyoon walked up to Emily’s side . When he received her permission, he put the possessions of the Ross siblings into his storage Gem . Everyone once again became shocked at his Gem activation speed .
He paid no attention to them and walked toward the entrance of the building with Emily . The company employees did not dare to block their way .
“Let us meet again in better circumstances . ”
After he spoke those words, Sungyoon exited .
Emily had been about to follow Sungyoon, but hesitation appeared on her face .
Did she perhaps change her mind? Hope appeared in the eyes of the company employees .
However, the words that came out of her words shocked everyone . It especially shocked Cohen .
“You were a close comrade of my mother, Mr . Cohen . I think it is right to tell you this . ”
Her eyes were clear as she spoke .
“We found our mother’s corpse . ”
This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eewebn(o)vel.com