Chapter 114: Reunion

Episode 114

“How dare you look at me like that, you bastard? Don’t you know your place?!”

Yang Dongju approached Kim Jinsung, glaring at him.

But Kim Jinsung stood still, just staring at Yang Dongju’s face with wide eyes.

As Kim Jinsung continued to meet his gaze directly, Yang Dongju finally exploded.

“Have you lost your mind, you slave?!!”

Yang Dongju swung his fist at Kim Jinsung with all his might.

Kim Jinsung watched the fist until the last moment, then slightly tilted his head to dodge it easily. He then grabbed Yang Dongju’s right arm and twisted it hard.

**Crack!**

“Argh!!”

Yang Dongju screamed, clutching his deformed, twisted arm.

He fell to his knees, unable to bear the pain.

[…Hmm?]

Dantalian’s voice, sounding slightly surprised, was heard.

But Kim Jinsung was too focused on Yang Dongju to hear it.

**Crunch!**

The sound of Yang Dongju’s right knee being crushed was heard. Kim Jinsung had stepped on his kneeling knee with all his might.

“Aaaah! W-wait…!”

**Snap!**

“Aaaaargh!!”

An even louder scream erupted from Yang Dongju’s mouth.

Kim Jinsung had kicked and broken his left arm.

Yang Dongju writhed on the ground, unable to endure the pain.

Kim Jinsung looked at him coldly and spoke.

“I haven’t lived that long, but I do have a few regrets in life.”

“Ugh… ughh…!”

“One of them is that I didn’t kill you as painfully as possible back then.”

Kim Jinsung activated his ‘Versatile Cutter Hand’ trait, transforming both hands into large scythe-like weapons.

He then began to repeatedly stab the fallen Yang Dongju.

**Thud! Thud! Thud!**

“Argh! Aaargh! Stop! I’m sorry… Aaargh!”

Yang Dongju screamed in agony each time Kim Jinsung’s hands pierced his body.

His body quickly became covered in blood, his screams gradually becoming weaker until he finally dropped his head to the side lifelessly.

At the same time, Yang Dongju’s corpse vanished like smoke before Kim Jinsung’s eyes.

“Hah…”

Kim Jinsung let out a deep sigh, as if releasing his anger.

Then, another voice was heard.

“Dongju! No! My son…!”

Kim Jinsung turned his head towards the familiar voice.

Yang Junggeun.

He seemed to wail, looking towards where Yang Dongju had disappeared, then began to glare at Kim Jinsung with murderous intent.

“You bastard, you killed my son…! Boys, get him!”

At his shout, burly young men in suits suddenly emerged from the surrounding smoke, surrounding Kim Jinsung.

They all had ‘Dream Gold’ badges on their lapels.

“Make him wish he was dead!”

Yang Junggeun charged at Kim Jinsung along with his subordinates.

Just as he approached and was about to swing his fist,

Kim Jinsung, who had been watching silently, quickly turned and swung his right hand, transformed into a scythe.

With a clean slicing sound, the heads of all the Dream Gold hunters charging at Kim Jinsung flew off.

Simultaneously, all their bodies turned into gray smoke and disappeared.

Yang Junggeun, the only survivor, groaned as he crawled on the ground.

“…Ugh…”

He trembled, looking at his severed lower body in disbelief.

As Kim Jinsung approached him, Yang Junggeun spoke with an aggrieved expression.

“It’s… unfair…! To die… at the hands of… my son’s… murderer…!”

Kim Jinsung replied without even a twitch of his eyebrow.

“Then you should have raised your son better.”

Kim Jinsung’s left hand then struck Yang Junggeun’s forehead.

As Yang Junggeun’s corpse also turned into gray smoke and disappeared,

[Huh… huh huh huh…!]

Dantalian’s hollow laughter echoed in his mind, but Kim Jinsung ignored it and looked around.

‘Who’s next?’

Then, through the fog ahead, he saw a huge man slowly walking towards him.

The man, nearly 2 meters tall, stood right in front of Kim Jinsung, looking down at him.

‘Go Jun Kyung…’

As Kim Jinsung looked up at him silently, Go Jun Kyung spoke.

“I clearly warned you not to covet the leader position, didn’t I?”

Looking down at Kim Jinsung with an intimidating expression, he continued.

“Now you’ve gone beyond coveting it, acting like a leader all the time? Huh? Do you think someone as introverted and puny as you is suited to be a leader?”

“I’m not sure about that myself.”

Kim Jinsung replied, looking straight into Go Jun Kyung’s eyes.

“But I do know one thing. Go Jun Kyung, you don’t have what it takes to be a leader.”

“What?! You bastard…!”

An enraged Go Jun Kyung immediately raised his hand to swing at Kim Jinsung.

But Kim Jinsung was faster.

**Swoosh.**

Go Jun Kyung’s headless body slowly began to turn into gray smoke.

Watching this, Kim Jinsung muttered,

“Just a muscle-head kid. If you had entered the Colosseum as a contestant, you wouldn’t have even passed the first preliminary.”

Kim Jinsung immediately turned around. He had sensed a presence there.

This time, two figures appeared.

‘Kang Minhyuk, Seol Daun.’

Soon, Kang Minhyuk, the warrior with a strong impression, spoke while looking at Kim Jinsung.

“I was just unlucky then. If we had fought in our right minds, you would have been the one to die.”

He then pointed his greatsword at Kim Jinsung.

“I was careless too!”

Seol Daun, beside him, continued Kang Minhyuk’s words.

“If I hadn’t been trapped in that subspace, I wouldn’t have died so easily!”

Seol Daun then slowly began to float in the air. He had activated the ‘Mana Controller’ trait.

In that state, he grinned at Kim Jinsung and continued.

“This time will be different! I’ll face you seriously!”

Seol Daun then extended both hands towards Kim Jinsung.

Simultaneously, a fiery whirlwind began to swirl around Kim Jinsung.

Lightning struck from the sky with a thunderous boom, and the ground beneath Kim Jinsung began to shake visibly.

“Hyaaaah!”

At that moment, Kang Minhyuk charged towards Kim Jinsung with a battle cry.

Kang Minhyuk swung his greatsword at Kim Jinsung with all his might.

—

▶ Activated ‘Union of Body and Demon’ state.

—

Kim Jinsung, in his ‘Union of Body and Demon’ state, swung his scythe-transformed hands towards Kang Minhyuk and Seol Daun respectively.

**Swoosh!**

With a deep slicing sound, both Kang Minhyuk and Seol Daun’s heads flew off.

Their bodies then began to dissipate into smoke.

“Back then, I thought you guys were really strong. But now I see you were nothing.”

Kang Minhyuk and Seol Daun had been the two individuals Kim Jinsung was most wary of during the preliminaries.

However, in the end, both lost their lives to Kim Jinsung.

“Looking back, I don’t think either of you would have made it to the finals.”

Kim Jinsung asked Dantalian,

‘By the way, how long does this go on? Do I have to meet and kill all my past enemies one by one?’

Dantalian replied with a surprised voice,

[…You’ve noticed?]

‘Of course. It doesn’t make sense for dead people to appear alive before my eyes.’

Kim Jinsung looked around and continued,

‘Anyone can see this is an illusion. Or something similar to an illusion. These scenes often appear in novels or comics.’

Soon, Dantalian’s voice, sounding impressed, was heard.

[Impressive. That’s correct! The name of the place you’re standing in is the ‘Mist of Illusions’.]

* * *

At that time,

Baek Jun was standing almost shoulder to shoulder with Yong Hangil, watching the broadcast together on a smartphone.

“Hmm…”

Yong Hangil made a thoughtful sound as he looked at Kim Jinsung on the smartphone screen.

In the passage right in front of the exit, shrouded in gray mist,

Kim Jinsung stood in the center, muttering incomprehensible words to himself while swinging his scythe-like hands repeatedly.

To anyone unaware of the situation, he would have appeared insane.

Watching this, Yong Hangil glanced at Baek Jun and spoke.

“…As expected, it seems certain that he’s trapped in the ‘Mist of Illusions’.”

He then began to explain in detail.

“When one enters that mist, a phenomenon similar to a magic circle that causes mental status abnormalities occurs. Kim Jinsung is currently in that state.”

“……”

“The problem is that this mist doesn’t have a focal point like typical magic circles. So it’s impossible to dispel the mist by destroying a core or something similar. The only way out is for the individual to overcome the mental status abnormality on their own.”

“Are potions ineffective?”

“If such things worked, would this be the New Continent?”

In response to Yong Hangil’s answer, Baek Jun, who had been looking at the smartphone with a serious expression, asked him again.

“At what dungeon level does this rift typically appear?”

“Hmm… It’s about the same level as the Void rift.”

Baek Jun, looking at Kim Jinsung on the smartphone screen, spoke.

“…Then he might be able to escape if he does well.”

Kim Jinsung had overcome even the ‘Void space’, which was thought to be impossible, with an unbelievable supernatural phenomenon.

If it was him, Baek Jun had a positive feeling that he could overcome this ‘Mist of Illusions’ of a similar level.

“……”

Yong Hangil didn’t respond to those words.

He was thinking along similar lines as Baek Jun. He had an ominous feeling that Kim Jinsung might overcome even this ‘Mist of Illusions’ and escape.

Soon, Baek Jun turned on his microphone and began issuing instructions to his staff.

“It’s me. For now, we’ll maintain the current situation and continue to observe. So keep focusing on filming Kim Jinsung until the situation ends.”

[Yes, President.]

“And from now on, I’m going to explain about the ‘Mist of Illusions’. As soon as you organize the information you hear, show it to the viewers and commentators immediately.”

[Understood.]

Baek Jun relayed the information about the ‘Mist of Illusions’ that he had heard from Yong Hangil to the production team.

After explaining for a while, Baek Jun turned off his microphone.

At that moment, sensing multiple presences behind him, he immediately turned his head.

“……!”

His eyes widened.

A large number of people wearing cutting-edge equipment with the Daehan Clan hunter mark were walking towards them from the direction of the airfield.

It was clear that all the reserve personnel who had remained at the airfield were approaching.

Baek Jun immediately turned to Yong Hangil.

“Why did you call them here? I don’t remember requesting additional support.”

Yong Hangil didn’t answer.

He just looked into Baek Jun’s eyes with a determined expression.

* * *

**Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!**

Inside the ‘Mist of Illusions’ where Kim Jinsung was trapped, the sharp sound of swords clashing echoed.

**Clang!**

‘Ugh…!’

Kim Jinsung barely blocked another sharp attack from his opponent, stepping back.

He gritted his teeth, feeling the numbness in his scythe-transformed hands, and looked ahead.

‘This bastard is still strong even as an illusion.’

In Kim Jinsung’s view was a man.

A man standing there, looking at Kim Jinsung with sharp eyes. It was Shin Woong.

—