Chapter 227. < If (5) >
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Translator: Seven ED: Sei
4.
As soon as the martial law was imposed, hunters poured into the streets of Babylon.
-Kill them all!
The Hunters all wore black uniforms. The Black Dragon Guild. Instead of the recon team and attack team, it was the conflict resolution team and assassination team that lined up in the square.
These were all Hunters in the Tower, but they weren’t hunters who [trained to climb the Tower].
-Anyone who fails to present their resident ID will be killed without hesitation! Anyone who was issued a resident ID less than a week ago will also be killed!
-The Guild Leader was attacked!
-This is war!
-Exterminate the rebels!
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out throughout the square.
In the Tower of Babel, the production and storage of firearms was strictly controlled. The private production of guns was a crime punishable by death.
However, the large guilds were an exception, so they were always ready to use guns in their wars.
-You crazy Black Dragons! What are you doing?!
The Civil Militia was also one of them. They drew their guns and aimed them at the Black Dragon’s suppression team.
-Get out of the way! We must carry out our Guild Leader’s orders!
-You mean killing people at random!
-It is a necessary measure to protect the Tower! Your Civil Militia’s Vice Guild Leader was also attacked and killed!
-The Vice Guild Leader still wouldn’t want this!
-Our Guild Leader does! Move!
The Civil Militia didn’t step aside. And the Black Dragons didn’t try to persuade them any more.
As the two guilds faced off, the large guilds who also lost their leaders joined in. In this situation where friend or foe could not be easily distinguished, they bit at each other like hungry dogs.
-…
It was this hell that Kim Gong-ja discovered when he left the ruined Ten Thousand Temple building.
Kim Gong-ja wiped his face.
-Uh…….
A person died.
People died.
More people were dying.
-Shit…
There was no hesitation in the movements of the people aiming at each other. Every time a gun fired, people were injured. Killed. Life was lost so easily.
Kim Gong-ja couldn’t understand.
These were the guilds that supported the Tower.
He’d heard rumors that the big guilds didn’t get along. He didn’t know what had happened in the past, but he heard from time to time that old feelings had accumulated among the guild leaders.
However, he hadn’t expected it to be this bad.
‘They will kill each other if there is an opportunity.’
The top hunters were all so-called heroes who wrote their own legends.
Why hadn’t these heroes been able to resolve their feelings over the years?
Why was there not even one person to mediate between them?
Kim Gong-ja hadn’t been able to understand, but now he understood that it was useless to imagine [in the case of a mediator].
He felt like his insides would explode.
The dam that had been blocking the middle of his heart collapsed.
Just at that moment, the corpse of Ja Soo-jung, which had been tied to his back, fell.
-Uht.
Kim Gong-ja unconsciously looked at the corpse.
-…Deputy.
Ja Soo-jung’s body had been torn apart.
Her left leg, left arm, left torso, and even the left side of her face. In the face of death, no human could accept it, but Ja Soo-jung’s lips were shut tight. Only her purple eyes which had lost their light looked up at the sky like jewels.
-…
Silence.
When he lowered his head again, this time, he saw the body of the Heretic Questioner.
Kim Gong-ja grit his teeth as he looked at the final appearance of the man who had intended to do something at the last minute.
-No. Right, first.
Do what needed to be done.
-Right.
Do what he could.
-What can I do?
He looked at everything that he had on his person.
Idol. It was an item that would allow him to act as the representative of Ten Thousand Temple, but the Ten Thousand Temple had collapsed. Even if he were to meet the priests of Ten Thousand Temple outside, he wasn’t sure if they’d obey the idol.
Black Dragon Mirror. It seemed to be a means to directly communicate with the leaders of the large guilds, including the Black Dragon Master. However, it had been silent since the Black Dragon Master’s declaration of war.
Himself. He was just an E rank Hunter at best. He didn’t have any power.
-Power…
He knew someone who had such power.
Kim Gong-ja turned his head.
Babylon, the 1st floor of the Tower of Babel. There was a three story office building built in the central square of this large city, which boasted the highest land prices.
Regardless of how much mana had been used, it was relatively unharmed despite the explosion in the square.
The face of a man who was probably also fine came to his mind
-Yoo Soo-ha Guild…
Kim Gong-ja ran there.
5.
-Fuck no. Who do you think I am? Some kind of dog?
Yoo Soo-ha said.
He was filled with irritation because his nap had been interrupted.
-…
Kim Gong-ja’s heart stirred again. The death of Ja Soo-jung. The death of the Heretic Questioner. The deaths of many others. He said he’d help, he wanted to help, but the Black Dragon Master had flatly refused.
[You’re young.]
[However, you have no power.]
[I don’t need that.]
If he was like Yoo Soo-ha.
If he was as powerful as the Flame Emperor.
-…
Kim Gong-ja grit his teeth.
It was a waste of time to dwell in self pity.
He managed to squeeze out.
-It’s an emergency… President Yoo Soo-ha.
-Martial law was declared. I know that. However, I also have the ability to not give a shit. Gong-ja, why are you running around like a beggar instead of doing work for the guild? What about Soo-jung? Vice President Ja Soo-jung?
-Here…
Kim Gong-ja laid Ja Soo-jung’s corpse down. The Heretic Questioner’s corpse as well.
Yoo Soo-ha was silent.
-When?
Yoo Soo-ha’s eyes were calm.
Kim Gong-ja had a hard time guessing what that calmness meant.
-Right after we went to the Ten Thousand Temple… There was a traitor in the Ten Thousand Temple. They set off a bomb. The Heretic Questioner died, and big sister Soo-jung…
-Why are you alright?
-Big sister Soo-jung covered me with her body.
Puk!
Kim Gong-ja fell to his knees. Yoo Soo-ha had kicked his shin.
-Ugh.
Enduring the pain, he lifted his head to find Yoo Soo-ha looking down at his subordinate with the calm expression still on his face.
-Bastard man.
-…
-Big sister Soo-jung? Since when did the two of you get so close? Hey, Mr. Gong-ja. Soo-jung is much younger than you. She just appears older because of her manner of speech and attitude, but she’s much younger than you. Now what…
-…
-No, enough of that. So what? Did Soo-jung give you a will? Please do your best to fix this situation, or something like that? Huh? Did she say something about needing to save people…
-Secretary Soo-jung… would have wished for that.
-Of course she would. That’s the only reason I’m still taking care of trash like you.
Kim Gong-ja couldn’t bear to look up at Yoo Soo-ha.
He had lost Ja Soo-jung because he had no power.
On the other hand, Ja Soo-jung had power. She had the power to save the life of another human, even at the cost of her own life.
He didn’t know if it was because of her innate reflexes, or because she just happened to notice the presence of the culprit before Kim Gong-ja, but the result was simple.
Kim Gong-ja hadn’t been able to do it, Ja Soo-jung had.
-…
Kim Gong-ja couldn’t bear to look at Yoo Soo-ha because he was angry and resentful, because it was unfair and disgusting, because he was sad and pathetic.
He kept his gaze on the air.
Thanks to that, he was able to see something.
-In any case, bitch. I know what kind of personality you have. So we’ll get along well. It’s very-
A flash of light.
Very fast.
-Watch out!!
Kim Gong-ja interrupted Yoo Soo-ha.
At the same time, a blue spear flew through the air.
Chwaaaa-
The aura wrapped around the spear was powerful. The Flame Emperor called upon his aura to protect his body in an instant, but it seemed that he missed the timing. The curtains of fire made by the Flame Emperor were torn apart by the spear of blue flames .
-Ah.
This was seen by Kim Gong-ja, who was the closest to the Flame Emperor.
Then.
-Ugh!
With his feet on the ground, he stretched his knees, arched his back, and reached out— striking the spear of blue flames.
Blue aura swirled within the spear of blue flames. When the human fist approached the storm of aura, it shredded it like a blender.
-Aaaaaak!!
With a scream, Kim Gong-ja, who lost his arm, fell to his knees again. A few pieces of bleached flesh fell to the ground with soft tap tap sounds.
The things that seemed to also fall to the ground like snow should have been Kim Gong-ja’s bones.
-Dammit! You avoided it!
A Hunter landed from the sky.
After a brief glance at the kneeling Kim Gong-ja, Yoo Soo-ha looked at the Hunter.
-Who are you?
-I am the Saintess!
Yoo Soo-ha looked at the profusely bleeding Kim Gong-ja.
Then he looked back at the hunter who identified herself as the Saintess.
-Bullshit. Fuck. What kind of bullshit Saintess almost cracks a person in half.
-The Tower gave me that title.
-The Tower has a bad naming sense. So? Why did Ms. Saintess come here?
The Saintess took a deep breath.
Then she shouted as if she had been waiting to say those words for a long time.
-Yoo Soo-ha! You killed my only Grandfather!
The Saintess boasted brilliant blonde hair. He’d never seen such a blonde before. And even if he did know a blonde, there weren’t any in the age range for this Hunter to call [Grandfather].
-I can’t tell since there are more than one or two people who lost their grandparents because of me… Who was your grandfather?
-Marcus Calenbury!
The eyes of the Hunter who called herself the Saintess were blazing.
Yoo Soo-ha’s eyebrows rose slightly at that.
-The Sword Saint?
-That’s right! That is my Grandfather’s name!
-Wow. It’s been a while since I heard that name. So you’re his granddaughter? Ah, well. That guy was an aristocrat, so I guess he could have a granddaughter like this.
-You devil…!
-Right. I’m kind of like that. Speaking of devils.
Yoo Soo-ha glanced at his subordinate’s corpse, and at his subordinate who was becoming a corpse.
-Is the smell of burning dog coming from outside your fault?
The Saintess clenched her fists.
She wanted to tell him. About the wealth of the Calenbury family. About the power that came with that wealth. About the fools who worshiped the Tower as a mystical phenomenon. About how she’d manipulated and controlled them.
And she wanted to tell him. How easy it was to predict and use the Ten Thousand Temple because anyone could be persuaded as long as certain rules were followed. About how she knew the leader of the Black Dragon Guild hated the outside world but still wanted to have a relationship with it. About how she had stabbed the opening and pried it open.
But she didn’t.
With the Tower burning behind her, the Saintess said only these words.
-My Grandfather was killed by you in this Tower.
-…
-So I will kill you, and I will kill this Tower.
Yoo Soo-ha gave a slight smile.
-In that case, it’s your grandfather’s fault. Did you know I was killed by that old man without even knowing anything? He saw the number of kills in his eyes and freaked out. Phew. So in fact, the killer wasn’t me, it was that aristocrat.
-Bullshit!
-What is bullshit is everything you did until now. Blood can’t be fooled. The granddaughter of a killer is a killer.
-You, Flame Emperor, are the killer. No, it’s no use talking about it. Go to hell!
Blonde hair fluttering, the Saintess rushed in.
-Hah.
Yoo Soo-ha looked down at a few white spots that had landed on his palm. Yoo Soo-ha wasn’t sure if it was dust from a collapsed building or if it was from Kim Gong-ja’s bone fragments from when he was cut.
However.
-I feel dirty.
He felt dirty.
When something happened that Yoo Soo-ha didn’t know about, it made him feel dirty.
-I don’t need to waste time here. So I’m just gonna kill you.
The blue aura exploded and the red aura swept.
Moments later, a scream could be heard through the smoke of red and blue.
-Kyaaaak!
-Right. Now I remember. Your eyes look alike.
Yoo Soo-ha closed his eyes then opened them.
-As soon as he looks at a person, he has the eyes of a trash killer. Is that sucky look hereditary? Huh? Did your grandfather teach you to unconditionally kill people you decide are killers in a family class or something like that?
-Ee-, eet, ah, ugh…!
-This world teaches you how to hate people, teaches you how to look down on people, teaches you how to kill people. It’s a great school. What is strange is that after teaching you that, it expects you to love each other, cherish each other and just grow up well.
Within the smoke, Yoo Soo-ha’s words mixed with the ear piercing screams.
-I never quite understood. And I can’t understand even more while looking in your eyes.
Yoo Soo-ha.
He was currently looking at the Hunter who had become charcoal.
He bent over and looked her in the eyes.
-How can a person like a person like that? Right?
The last remaining part was burned as well.
The Hunter, who had proclaimed her grandfather’s revenge and spent years desperately preparing for it, died just like that.
Yoo Soo-ha slowly straightened his back.
-Gosh. I’m tired.
After stretching his back a few times, he looked around at the scene.
-This is a mess.
The exterior of the residence was burning. The ruins that were caught in his eyes looked like a large ruined city. Screams and gunfire could be heard on occasion in this world filled with ashes and smoke.
-It’s really a mess. Don’t you think so, part timer?
Yoo Soo-ha looked down at Kim Gong-ja.
Because he’d lost an arm and was bleeding too much, Kim Gong-ja’s consciousness was fading. Yoo Soo-ha also didn’t ask for Kim Gong-ja’s gaze.
-I don’t know.
Yoo Soo-ha murmured.
-Both you and Ja Soo-jung. I don’t know how people can be like that.
Yoo Soo-ha looked up at the sky for a moment.
-Well I guess it’s because they’re such idiots that they’re working for me.
-President, I…
-Ah, it’s fine. Don’t talk anymore.
Kim Gong-ja’s weak murmur was stopped by Yoo Soo-hand’s hand.
In an annoyed tone.
But more importantly, a familiar tone.
-You just, don’t worry about anything. This big brother will take care of everything.
In the hazy mist of consciousness that came with the excessive blood loss, Kim Gong-ja murmured blankly.
-How…?
-I have my ways.
Flame Emperor.
Yoo Soo-ha made the shape of a gun with his hand.
Then he wrapped red aura around his hand, creating a spherical bullet.
-You wouldn’t know even if I told you
-Huh…?
-My skill is a bit dog-like.
Paak!
A bullet of flame pierced Yoo Soo-ha’s brain.
Kim Gong-ja looked in amazement at Yoo Soo-ha, who had taken his own life.
Until the very end, Kim Gong-ja wouldn’t understand the meaning of his death.
[You have died.]
However.
‘I’ knew.
[You are regressing to 24 hours ago.]
The world shattered.
.
.
.
.
.
.
And like that.
‘I’ opened my eyes.