“Combat Team 1 Captain!”
“Y-yes, yes!”
“From now on, you command everyone in the Assault Team at captain and deputy-captain level or below. Take the troops and go in the direction the sound is coming from.”
“......Everyone at deputy-captain level or below, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
Park Sanghyun glared at the Chair and spoke.
“The number of presences I can feel isn’t normal. It’s probably a number that would be hard to hold even if our Assault Team goes all-out.”
“......No way!”
“I won’t tell you to defeat them. But hold out as long as you can.”
That moment.
FWOOM!
The Chair’s greatsword,
swung toward that Combat Team 1 Captain,
KAAANG!
“......Until we subdue the old man and link up!”
Park Sanghyun’s longsword barely knocked the greatsword aside.
“......Yes!”
The Combat Team 1 Captain left with the troops,
and what remained on the battlefield was everyone else at deputy-captain level or above from the other combat teams,
and the five executives.
“Yeah, yeah. With this much, it’ll be manageable.”
“......It’s more than enough, old man!”
More than thirty powerful Awakeners
charged at the Chair.
And.
......GULP.
‘M-me, what do I do.......’
Just staring helplessly at that scene,
there was
one injured man.
*****
“Why aren’t you revealing it.”
Last time, when Jang Ji Han’s interrogation ended,
Yunseong came out of the Interrogation Room and asked me that.
“Unlike me...... ngh...... you can...... reveal it.......”
“Stop.”
The more he tried to force the question out,
the more Yunseong writhed in pain, as if from the curse.
I blocked his question,
and decided to give him an answer to what he was curious about.
“This operation. If the people of Gyeonggi Province are going to survive, it has to succeed no matter what. And for that, the Expedition Force’s morale matters more than anything.”
“......I kept attending those meetings too. I know that much.”
“But watching, I realized you all rely way too much on that man you call the Chair.”
In my view, the reason the people here could survive was nine parts out of ten because of that architect’s power.
But the first thing the Association people looked for was the Chair.
“Anytime something happens, it’s ‘If only the Chair were here,’ ‘If the Chair were here,’ ‘If the Chair were resisting’...... I heard it so much I could’ve gotten calluses in my ears.”
“.......”
“With things like this, you don’t really have a choice.”
An operation where there’s a high probability this side’s power won’t be enough.
To make that operation succeed, you have to drag the Expedition Force’s morale up as high as you possibly can.
But in the middle of that,
“To think that man was a traitor who sold the Assault Team to monsters.......”
How could I reveal that.
“......How can you be so calm.”
At my answer,
Yunseong asked, grinding his teeth.
“He betrayed us. And among the victims from that...... your parents were included too, and you know it!”
“......Mm, yeah. Well, sure.”
“KUH.......”
Yunseong kept writhing in pain.
I wanted to do something about the curse on him, somehow,
but—
‘It doesn’t even show up on my [Ingredient Identification]. Undoing it won’t be easy.’
A curse made by someone as strong as the Chair.
They said there wasn’t anyone among the Association people who could lift that curse.
If it were the Legion, maybe a method would come up,
but with me as I am now, without proper ingredients,
there was no way I could lift that curse.
The one saving grace was that,
“Every time I heard others praising that Chair, I felt like I’d throw up. I was nauseated at myself for not being able to reveal the truth!”
I already knew the secret he was hiding.
The words he spoke to me, someone who already knew everything, cleverly skirted the curse’s condition,
the condition of being [words that threaten the Chair].
‘It seems like the curse still activates in the sense that he’s trying to persuade me.’
But it was only pain.
It didn’t seem like it could drive him to death.
“Didn’t you lose your parents because of him too.”
“.......”
“When you told me the news that your parents went missing, was the anger you showed back then a lie?”
“No, I mean, I’m angry. I am.”
I scratched my head and answered.
“My parents...... they say they’re alive, at least. If they’re alive, isn’t there no need to despair right away.”
“......How can you say something so thoughtless! And besides, what meaning is there in hiding it now. Someday, everyone will encounter that traitor!”
“Mm, I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
Thoughtless.
Everything I said was dead serious.
“I told you, didn’t I? I’m angry.”
“......?”
“So you don’t need to worry.”
Gyeonggi Province, honestly,
might have been a region that could’ve stockpiled power comparable to Gangwon Province, where I used to be.
Because all the monsters had been driven into the Inhuman Demon Realm, humans could build strength relatively safely.
‘And that man drove Gyeonggi Province into this state, and even pushed my parents into a death crisis.’
I smiled.
“I’m... not a nice guy who just lets it go when someone makes me angry.”
*****
“You traitorous bastard.”
“Hmm! I kept Yunseong’s mouth tightly shut, but you figured it out anyway.”
The old man’s expression changed sharply,
“Well, I’ve got my own know-how.”
“Heh-heh....... Where did a young man like you even crawl out from.”
I, too,
answered the old man’s words with a grin.
“Heh-heh, is that so. I tried to act a little dignified, but it turns out you weren’t an opponent worth doing that for.”
“Well, that’s how it turned out.”
“I don’t know how you found out, but.......”
The old man’s sharp gaze stabbed into me.
“Knowing that and coming alone means you’re prepared too, doesn’t it.”
“.......”
“If so, there’s no need for a long talk.”
As he said that,
the old man raised his massive greatsword.
[Awakener - Gangsan]
[Primates - Human Species?]
[Cursed Dark Knight Lv. 33]
[Skills]
[Curse – Physical]
[Curse – Binding]
[Curse – Restriction]
[Curse – Torture]
I looked at that old man
as thoroughly as I could.
‘I already knew that old man was a traitor.’
So,
I had made sure to learn some information about him, too.
-“The Chair, you mean?”
-“He’s the first person in Gyeonggi Province to make a party and a clan and a guild, and he’s also the human who formed a party the second-fastest in the Republic of Korea.”
More than that,
he was the one who unified the people of Gyeonggi Province into a single faction.
-“How was that possible? I don’t really know, but....... I did hear a rumor.”
What mattered wasn’t that achievement,
but the driving force that made that achievement possible.
-“He achieved an achievement reward when he formed the first party...... and they said the reward let him grow tremendously.”
-“What was the reward? Well. I’m pretty sure.......”
To my question, Jo Beomseok had answered.
-“I think I heard it was a single blade.”
Recalling that,
I looked at the greatsword in the old man’s hands.
[Black-Ink Greatsword]
[This greatsword was specially manufactured from minerals of another world.]
‘......It doesn’t seem like that amazing of a sword.’
From what I could tell with [Ingredient Identification (Enhanced)], it was a weapon that was usable enough,
but I couldn’t feel any special power.
‘No, even something like that would’ve been pretty useful early in the Doomsday.’
Even I only got my first item-class weapon almost two months after the Doomsday.
If he got a weapon like that in the beginning,
‘Maybe he just grew smoothly on the back of that weapon.’
It felt off,
but with an enemy right in front of me, I couldn’t sink any deeper into thought.
I reached my hand into the shadows,
and the food I had stored inside—
[Force-Feeding]
[Joint Work of an Intermediate Chef and War Cook]
[Yethil of Rage Course Meal]
[Course Name – Rampage]
At this moment, something I could use.
I pulled out my maximum possible power.
CRUNCH.......
BZZZT.......
My body changed rapidly,
and uncontained red magic power leaked out in a sinister stream.
“Hoo.”
“What is that form now?”
Even the old man in armor seemed to feel a bit of tension at that sight.
He spoke in a hardened tone.
“Truly the shape of a demon. Are you really human?”
“You’ve got some nerve to say that.”
KWAANG!
And so,
the battle began.
*****
KWAANG.......
KRAK.
BA-BA-BOOM.......
Red, sinister magic power kept rampaging,
and against that magic power, the armored old man’s greatsword was swung at a terrifying speed.
“That’s an unbelievable strength.”
Every time the daggers in my hands were swung once,
slashes poured out so violently the air around us warped.
“Is this really power a human can produce!”
The old man was aghast.
But.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled with that reaction.
Because while that old man blocked my attacks,
“Where did a man with your skill come from!”
‘He talks too much, damn it!’
He was still talking leisurely!
Unlike him,
I didn’t even have the spare breath to speak properly as I kept pouring attacks into him.
And in the end,
“Kuhuk......!”
SLASH—
The massive greatsword swung,
and cut across my chest.
‘If I still had Lee Sanga’s uniform.’
If I were still in Gyeonggi Province,
I might’ve managed to endure it once, somehow.
“Huff, huff...... you really had tremendous power.”
“......Cough.”
But.
I didn’t have the uniform the Legion made for me now.
“When you decided to face me alone, I thought to myself that you weren’t right in the head. But not anymore.”
“.......”
“You really did have the skill to charge me alone! To think there was an Awakener with strength like yours besides me.”
The effect of [Rampage], which causes terrible aftereffects.
By drawing on that effect, I, a non-combat job, could exert power beyond most combat jobs.
Even the Association’s people had said again and again that I would be a strong one at a level similar to the Chair.
“Unfortunately.”
......But, well.
Of course.
“Looks like I’m the winner.”
“.......”
The loser of that battle
was me.
*****
‘Ha, damn it.’
I thought with a bitter smile.
‘I figured this might be enough to at least scrape against him, but.’
My stats with [Rampage] were beyond imagination.
Even though a penalty came with it.
I even had a record of capturing one of those executives, too.
But.
That was all it was.
“That was a truly beautiful sword path.”
“Don’t.......”
“It’s not mockery.”
The eyes hidden behind the thick helmet.
Those eyes glittered as if he truly admired it.
“Let me be honest. At first, I thought you were nothing more than a beast charging in with only brute strength.”
“.......”
“That you were nothing but an ordinary beast forcing things through with strength alone.”
Maybe that was what you’d expect of a high-level Awakener.
It seemed he’d quickly grasped what kind of combat method I used.
‘A combat method without any combat Skills is just forcing it through with strong stats.’
And,
to put it bluntly, if the opponent is a monster whose only strength is strength,
there are countless ways to deal with it.
“Yeah...... if it were truly just a beast’s way of fighting, it would be only natural to put you down quickly.”
Of course,
that didn’t mean that was what my case was.
“Movements that beautiful...... it was my first time seeing them.”
“.......”
“It’s clearly not a Skill. But it seemed stronger than any Skill.”
[Martial Art – Cuisine]
“What was that movement, exactly? Did you create it? Creating such impossible movement in such a short time... are you some kind of combat genius.”
The martial art I learned might not be complete yet,
but it is the essence of martial learning completed through the long history of a world
that has now been destroyed.
No matter how much I inflate my stats as a non-combat job,
there’s bound to be a limit.
But.
This martial art was widening that limit beyond reach.
“You wouldn’t know. You wouldn’t know what an incredible thing you’ve done.”
And.
Because of that, at least,
“Do you know what it means to put a hole in my armor alone!”
My blade pierced his armor,
and succeeded in putting a large hole in his stomach.
“That’s still mockery, you bastard.......”
The problem was,
even with a hole in his stomach, that old man had swung his weapon at me like nothing was wrong.
‘My stats are probably superior.’
And in martial skill, too,
the side that learned a martial art—me—was clearly ahead.
Even so.
‘That old bastard is disgustingly strong.’
My martial art is, ultimately, incomplete.
And besides.
The effect of the martial art I learned, [Cuisine], was to support the effect of the dish I ate.
‘The dish I ate right now is only Rampage.’
Right now, when I could only eat a single dish,
it still wasn’t enough to bring down that old man alone.
‘Didn’t they say he barely hit level 30 before he disappeared?’
According to Park Junggu,
I heard he had barely managed to reach level 30 right before he went missing, but—
[Species: Primates - Human Species?]
[Cursed Dark Knight Lv.33]
‘It’s way higher, damn it.’
That old man’s level was 33, at least three higher than that.
It wasn’t hard to guess why.
“You...... you were hiding your strength from the people of the other branches.”
“I wasn’t deliberately hiding it. Between Awakeners, isn’t it rude to ask about levels.”
In the first place,
he had been hiding his strength from others.
And.
“After that...... you must’ve kept building strength steadily.”
“An old man doesn’t sleep much. While I’m awake, what else would I do.”
Even after that disappearance,
it meant the old man had kept raising his level.
I could feel cold sweat running down my back.
‘That old man...... he’s a strong one at a level similar to Gwangil when he fully unleashed Madness.’
There was a time when I could pull [Absolute Palate] to the max and have moments stronger than Gwangil,
but that was a long time ago now.
‘After I learned a martial art, that bastard Gwangil’s strength became something beyond imagination.’
With my still-incomplete martial art,
it was hard to catch up to the strength of that bastard Gwangil, who trained a completed martial art.
‘A warrior far higher level than Gwangil, even if he doesn’t have a martial art like Gwangil.’
That wall I felt from Gwangil,
I was feeling it from this old man too.
The last time I saw Gwangil before leaving the Wall, his level was 29.
And.
An Awakener’s # Nоvеlight # power grows explosively each time their level crosses a ten-level threshold.
‘Because that’s the point where all Skills and Traits grow from [Intermediate] to [Advanced].’
The moment you reach level 30,
an Awakener’s ability that had stayed at [Intermediate] surpasses [High] and reaches [Advanced].
Even without the power of a martial art like Gwangil,
the strength from that level alone was something comparable.
In the end.
The reason I lost was—
“You’ve got a pretty diverse set of Skills!”
“That’s right, and on the other hand, you.......”
He shouted as he swung the greatsword again.
“Do you even have something you can call combat Skills!”
It was, ultimately, a difference of jobs.
A difference between pure combat jobs and non-combat jobs.
KREEK.
As I moved to dodge the old man’s greatsword,
I felt my body creak in a strange way.
It might’ve been the aftereffects of [Rampage],
but that wasn’t all.
[Curse of Decline]
[For a single enemy, greatly decreases the target’s stats.]
‘Damn curse.’
That was this.
The Chair.
‘Gangsan’ was a warrior who handled curses.
And.
‘I’ve never heard anything like this from other people.’
I only found that out after seeing the old man in person.
I had a guess why.
‘Because the name “curse” is an ominous power people shy away from the moment they hear it.’
Just like I hide [Special Sauce] from people,
he must have hidden the fact that he handled curses from others.
And.
Just like [Special Sauce],
‘My body feels heavy.’
The curse he placed on me.
The stat drop from it was substantial.
And that wasn’t all.
[Dark Fighting Spirit]
[Phantomization]
[Boiling Blood]
[Earth Devour]
[Black Knight’s Strike]
[Ground Roll]
[Strike Enhancement]
[.......]
[.......]
‘Damn, there are so many.’
A combat job’s power doesn’t come from its stats.
What really matters is Skills and Traits.
If I, a non-combat job, use 10 stats to produce 10 combat power,
combat jobs can produce over 20 combat power with only half that, 5 stats.
What makes that possible are those combat Skills.
Even Seo Hwan and Miho, who trained [Martial Art],
had acknowledged that combat Skills might be somewhat simple,
but their power was tremendous.
‘More combat Skills than any Awakeners I’ve seen.’
Maybe if I’d had the leisure to meet him beforehand and read all that information,
but right now, when we met for the first time and immediately entered battle,
countering that enormous quantity of Skills was close to impossible.
‘In the end, he’s the same kind of high-level Awakener as me.’
[Rampage] and even [Martial Art].
‘Just like Gang Jaeho the druid, no matter how hard he tried, still had shortcomings compared to a true producer.’
No matter how hard I try and build strength as a producer,
facing the power a pure combat job has stacked up at the same level, I can’t help but feel a wall.
“If this is all the power you have, then I guarantee it.”
“.......”
The old man raised the greatsword,
pointed it at me, and said.
“You won’t be able to beat me even if you live your whole life.”
*****
‘Even if you live your whole life.’
Hearing that, I thought,
well, sure.
No matter how strong I get,
if a producer like me just casually beats a combat job like that, that’s a problem in its own way.
From the combat jobs’ perspective, wouldn’t that be unfair.
But.......
I smirked.
“Honestly, I figured it’d be like this.”
“What did you say?”
At the very moment his greatsword was about to swing toward my body,
I smirked and said,
‘I’ve been thinking I got a bit stronger lately, so maybe I could just win by fighting him.’
As I steadied my ragged breathing,
I shook my head.
“Yeah, something like that is a luxury for someone like me.”
This producer’s limit
is annoying no matter how many times I think about it.
“If this is all the power I have, I won’t be able to beat you even if I live my whole life?”
“.......”
“Sure, it’s not wrong. But.”
Well, still.
The lucky part is.......
“I never said this was the end, did I?”
“.......”
“Look forward to it. What I prepared to deal with you...... I’ve got quite a lot.”
It’s been a long time since I awakened.
The time to whine that I’m not a combat job.......
That already passed a long time ago.
‘Let me show you.’
Up until now, I just tried fighting like combat jobs do.
But I’m a mess hall soldier in the first place.
‘A mess hall soldier’s...... a producer’s way of fighting.’
A mess hall soldier’s way of fighting
exists separately.
“......Don’t tell me!”
When I reached into my chest and pulled out an object,
the old man who saw it cried out in shock.
If only it had been a cry born from fear.
Unfortunately,
“You’re going to face me with a toy like that?”
“......Ahem.”
That cry was
the kind you make when something is too ridiculous.
As he said,
what came out of my chest was—
CLICK.
“Even if you’re strong, if you get a bullet hole in your body, you die the same.”
“That’s a tasteless joke.”
Because it was
a handgun.
