Chapter 74: vs. Yang Junggeun and the Aces (2)

Episode 74

Kim Jin-sung silently surveyed the hunters.

The skinny man to the immediate right of Yang Junggeun was Jang Hyung-tae, who used the ice tornado ability. Next to him was a massive fat man, Han Minsu, who had a vacuum absorption ability and was known as King Dumpling. To the immediate left was Hwang Bo-Gyeong, who could rapidly fire powerful lasers.

These were the hunters whose identities he already knew through the Eye of Surveillance.

Kim Jin-sung’s gaze then shifted to the last person.

The muscular man at the far left was…

‘…I’ve never seen this guy before.’

He hadn’t appeared in the Eye of Surveillance or in the first round of preliminary videos on Itube.

‘So, he must be a replacement.’

Replacements were not to be underestimated. They were typically much stronger than those who passed the first round of preliminaries.

‘Come to think of it, aren’t all these guys replacements?’

Kim Jin-sung realized that all the hunters present were not seen in the preliminaries. Yang Junggeun had specifically selected them for their powerful abilities.

That meant he had to regard them all as formidable opponents.

Even if they weren’t, Kim Jin-sung intended to fight as if they were.

‘That way, I won’t be careless.’

Kim Jin-sung activated his demonic energy, covering his entire body and moved lightly. The debuff effect of the subspace magic circle made moving difficult, like carrying heavy weights on his limbs.

In this state, it was nearly impossible to take down five people at once as he usually did.

‘But I anticipated this.’

From the moment he planned to teleport Yang Junggeun here, Kim Jin-sung had expected to fight in the subspace magic circle.

‘Let’s warm up.’

Without hesitation, Kim Jin-sung took a step forward from where he stood.

“……!”

Yang Junggeun and the hunters flinched.

Despite the favorable environment of the subspace, they were extremely wary of Kim Jin-sung’s prowess.

‘Let’s start with Yang Junggeun.’

Kim Jin-sung’s figure vanished from the hunters’ view, using his stealth skill. In that state, he approached Yang Junggeun as slowly as possible to activate his ‘Stealthy Approach’ trait, which allowed him to avoid detection by weaker enemies.

But then,

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

Yang Junggeun shouted and swung his fist precisely at Kim Jin-sung’s position. Kim Jin-sung instinctively raised an arm to block the attack.

Boom! The collision of their mana created an explosive sound.

‘Ugh.’

The force was stronger than expected, making Kim Jin-sung grimace. The pain in his arm was significant due to the subspace environment, but it wasn’t unbearable, so he immediately counterattacked.

Using the rebounding force, he launched a spinning kick.

Boom!

“Ugh…!”

Yang Junggeun, surprised, blocked the kick with his arm and had to take a step back, feeling an unbelievable shock even within his own subspace.

Kim Jin-sung, seeing Yang Junggeun clutching his tingling arm, thought,

‘Stealthy Approach didn’t work.’

He didn’t believe Yang Junggeun detected him because he was stronger. He had already gauged Yang Junggeun’s level when they met in the training room.

‘It must be this magic circle.’

Kim Jin-sung had suspected his ‘Stealth’ and ‘Shadow Concealment’ skills wouldn’t work in Yang Junggeun’s subspace, but he didn’t expect even his mana-detecting ‘Stealthy Approach’ trait to fail.

He concluded that Yang Junggeun could observe all enemy movements within his subspace.

‘Not a bad ability, that subspace…’

Even in the middle of battle, Kim Jin-sung’s eyes sparkled with interest.

Whirr!

Jang Hyung-tae, standing nearby, extended his hands toward Kim Jin-sung. A massive ice tornado engulfed the entire subspace, targeting Kim Jin-sung.

But Kim Jin-sung stood there unfazed.

“……!!”

Jang Hyung-tae’s eyes widened in shock as his skill had no effect. The black mana covering Kim Jin-sung’s body had transformed into blazing flames, melting and evaporating the ice tornado upon contact.

“Ice is weak against fire.”

Kim Jin-sung muttered, looking at Jang Hyung-tae. He swung his hand, creating a blazing black fireball.

“Eek…!”

Jang Hyung-tae quickly leapt backward to dodge, but he was slightly too slow.

Boom!

“Ugh…!”

Engulfed in the explosion, Jang Hyung-tae gritted his teeth as his left arm caught fire. He tried to extinguish it with ice mana, but Kim Jin-sung was about to launch another attack.

He stopped and quickly generated a mana shield.

Whirr-!

Hwang Bo-Gyeong’s laser beam came at high speed.

‘Fast!’

The laser felt incredibly fast within the subspace. Kim Jin-sung instinctively knew he couldn’t completely dodge it, so he generated a demonic shield to block it.

From that moment, Hwang Bo-Gyeong’s laser continuously tried to penetrate the shield.

‘…Troublesome.’

Kim Jin-sung sensed his demonic shield wouldn’t hold up against the laser for long.

‘It seems the demonic power is weakened in the subspace.’

He summoned a demonic arrow and shot it rapidly at Hwang Bo-Gyeong.

“Eek?!”

Hwang Bo-Gyeong dodged to the side, halting the laser attack. Kim Jin-sung dispelled the shield and prepared another attack.

“Huff…!”

Suddenly, a loud inhaling sound was heard as the air around Kim Jin-sung moved toward one spot. King Dumpling, Han Minsu, used his vacuum absorption ability.

‘……!’

Kim Jin-sung found himself involuntarily taking several steps toward Han Minsu due to the immense suction power.

‘He’s no ordinary replacement.’

Experiencing it firsthand, Kim Jin-sung realized that an ordinary participant would have been sucked in and become a meal.

‘In this situation, rather…’

Quickly formulating a plan, Kim Jin-sung jumped and let his body be carried by Han Minsu’s suction. Flying toward Han Minsu, Kim Jin-sung attempted a powerful kick to his face.

The kick landed on Han Minsu’s face. However,

Boing!

‘……?’

A completely unexpected sound reached Kim Jin-sung’s ears. Han Minsu rolled like a giant rubber ball but seemed unharmed, soon standing up unscathed.

Kim Jin-sung chuckled internally.

‘So, he absorbs attacks like that?’

It reminded him of recent encounters where Quagmire rolled around similarly when struck by blunt force.

‘Then I should cut him with a sword…. Oh!’

Kim Jin-sung sensed a threat from the side and immediately took a defensive stance.

Boom!

“Ugh!”

With the sound of mana bursting forth, Kim Jin-sung retreated backward for a moment.

The man who delivered a powerful blow strong enough to numb both arms was a muscular man whose name Kim Jin-sung didn’t even know.

“Hah!”

With a shout, the man dashed forward again, accompanied by a burst of energy.

Even considering the enclosed space, his speed was incredibly fast. It was comparable to Yang Junggeun’s speed, with not much difference.

From Kim Jin-sung’s perspective, whose movements had slowed by more than twice, the speed was unavoidable.

However, despite this, Kim Jin-sung chose to evade rather than defend this time.

▶ Used the skill ‘Steal’.

Using the ‘Steal’ skill, which instantly increased his agility by 100%, Kim Jin-sung managed to narrowly dodge the muscular man’s attack by twisting his body to the side.

Then, Kim Jin-sung immediately counterattacked.

He conjured a giant magical bead and hurled it at the muscular man.

Bang!

The sound of the magical explosion resounded immediately.

However…

“…What?”

As if nothing had happened, the muscular man resumed his posture and rushed towards Kim Jin-sung again.

It was the first time Kim Jin-sung had encountered an opponent who remained unscathed after being hit by a magical bead.

‘Just how strong is his defense…?’

Kim Jin-sung cautiously used an attacking skill again.

This time, he drew the dagger from his waist and leaped over the approaching muscular man’s head, swinging the blade towards his neck.

▶ Used the skill ‘Neck Cutter’.

As soon as the dagger using the assassination skill, ‘Neck Cutter’, touched the back of the man’s neck,

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing echoed.

“Clang?”

Glancing over, there wasn’t even a scratch on the man’s neck.

Kim Jin-sung looked bewildered.

‘Does this mean he doesn’t take any visible damage whatsoever?’

The owner of an unbelievable defense, impervious not only to physical attacks but also to mana-based attacks.

Dealing with him was proving to be quite a headache.

“Hey!! Stop attacking separately and combine your attacks!”

At that moment, Yang Junggeun’s voice rang out towards the seekers.

“I’ve noticed that he can’t use much power within the enclosed space! If we combine our attacks, we can definitely handle him!”

Following his instructions, the seekers all nodded.

None of them had gained the upper hand against Kim Jin-sung individually. However, they all agreed that cooperating to attack was a viable strategy.

“For now, Jang Hyung-tae, step back and use your ice skill!”

Yang Junggeun instructed Jang Hyung-tae first.

Jang Hyung-tae promptly stepped back and summoned an ice whirlwind towards Kim Jin-sung.

As soon as the sound of swirling wind was heard, Kim Jin-sung converted his mana into flames.

“Fire the laser now!”

Yang Junggeun shouted.

Hwang Bo-Gyeong immediately fired the laser towards Kim Jin-sung within the ice whirlwind.

“Oh no!”

Kim Jin-sung urgently used the ‘Steal’ skill again to dart away.

Escaping the range of the ice whirlwind, he immediately transformed his mana into magical arrows and summoned a shield shape.

At the moment when the laser was about to attack, the shield summoned just in time blocked the attack. Kim Jin-sung then summoned magical arrows and fired them back at Hwang Bo-Gyeong.

“Wang Mandu!”

At that moment, Yang Junggeun shouted.

Upon hearing the sound, Han Minsu immediately used his vacuum suction ability. As a result, the magical arrows naturally changed direction and flew towards Han Minsu.

Although all the magical arrows were embedded in Han Minsu’s body,

Ting! Ting! Tingtting!

None of them pierced him and bounced off to fall on the ground.

“Damn.”

Failing in his counterattack, Kim Jin-sung eventually used the ‘Steal’ skill again to dart to the opposite side.

As a result, just before the shield was shattered by the laser attack, Kim Jin-sung managed to barely escape within the range of the laser attack.

“Now, Im Sang-hoon!”

“Ha!”

In response to Kim Jin-sung, Im Sang-hoon, the muscular man, rushed forward with all his might.

Unable to avoid it again because his body was floating in the air, Kim Jin-sung used the ‘Disguise Clone skill’.

He used the ‘Disguise Clone skill’ skill right away.

Im Sang-hoon narrowly covered Kim Jin-sung’s shadow. Soon, the scarecrow popped and exploded, scattering straw everywhere.

Kim Jin-sung escaped from the crisis like that.

But Yang Junggeun was still there.

“He’s not fooled, this guy!!”

Yang Junggeun swung his fist towards Kim Jin-sung’s position right next to where the shadow was.

Bang!

“Ugh.”

“Kuk…!”

With the sound of mana bursting forth, both Kim Jin-sung and Yang Junggeun groaned and flew backwards.

Yang Junggeun was the first to rise.

Having been hit squarely in the jaw, he wiped the blood flowing from his mouth with one hand.

“…Ha! Hahaha!”

With a triumphant expression, he burst into laughter upon seeing Kim Jin-sung, who had belatedly risen.

It was because Kim Jin-sung’s left arm had been torn apart from his elbow.

It was undoubtedly blown away by Yang Junggeun’s punch attack just now.

“I told you, You’ll regret having teleported all five of us at once!”

Yang Junggeun shouted exuberantly towards Kim Jin-sung.

“Now the real fun begins! Next, I’ll blow up your right arm! Then your left leg! Then your right leg! After cutting off all your limbs like that…!!”

“…Huh? Huh?”

Continuing to shout, Yang Junggeun abruptly stopped at the sound of Han Minsu’s surprise.

Turning around to shout, Yang Junggeun couldn’t help but stop because of Han Minsu’s voice.

“What’s happening all of a sudden?”

But he quickly heard voices from the other seekers who were staring at Kim Jin-sung.

“And…!”

Even before Yang Junggeun could turn his gaze away, he discovered it.

“Ah, no!”

The left arm of Kim Jin-sung, which had burst and disappeared, was regenerating at a speed as fast as a green slime walking around earlier.

It took less than 10 seconds for Kim Jin-sung’s left arm to return perfectly to its original state.

“I guess this is enough of a warm-up.”

Kim Jin-sung said as he confirmed his senses by clenching and releasing his left hand.

“Now it’s time to use the new abilities I learned in the training room.”