Chapter 183: Instant Kill

Episode 183

‘Why is she in pain? Don’t tell me…?’

Juan’s gaze instinctively shifted towards Alopsky.

His eyes widened as he saw Alopsky’s movements.

‘He swung his sword…?’

Juan, along with everyone else, had assumed that Kim Jinsung would take a defensive stance.

But contrary to their expectations, Alopsky had swung his sword back at Melahel.

‘But how is this possible?’

Hadn’t he been visibly struggling just moments ago after blocking a single attack?

How had he managed to overpower Melahel with sheer strength?

As Juan’s astonishment grew, realizing the absurdity of the situation,

Kim Jinsung himself was also surprised.

‘The Void power works?’

‘Ruler of the Void’.

After defeating the boss Patavina in the first round, Kim Jinsung had acquired skills and traits related to the Void.

The Void laser skill ‘Void Judgment’, the bullet skill ‘Void Bullet’, and the ability to summon ‘Void Eyes’.

In short, he had gained the ability to control the ‘Void’.

‘So I tried infusing my sword with Void power, but I didn’t expect it to work this perfectly.’

He had expected it to work to some extent. It would be strange if a high-level ability obtained from defeating a level 20 boss had no effect at all.

So he had tried swinging his sword back instead of defending…

‘At this rate, I should be able to easily secure first place in the third round.’

His confidence boosted, Kim Jinsung immediately dashed towards Melahel.

Melahel, who had been more surprised than hurt, reacted as soon as he approached.

– You dare to charge at me with just a bit of strength?!

She shouted and raised her sword above her head.

At the same time, the participants saw a surge of light energy gathering at the tip of her sword.

“It’s ‘Judgment of Light’!”

Juan shouted.

“Everyone retreat! ‘Judgment of Light’ is a skill that unleashes a powerful shockwave, dealing damage to enemies within a wide area!

We could be instantly killed if we get hit by it at our current level!”

He quickly retreated, and the other participants followed suit.

“What about Alopsky?!”

Hans from Team 5 asked with a worried expression.

While everyone else was retreating, Alopsky was still charging towards Melahel.

“It’s too late! Give up.”

Juan replied firmly. It was true that it was too late to dodge.

‘You idiot! You’re going to get crushed for being reckless!’

He smirked, watching Alopsky’s back, feeling a sense of schadenfreude.

It had been impressive that Alopsky had blocked Melahel’s sword with pure strength, but Melahel was still Melahel.

She was the ruler of the 30th floor of the Tower of Trials, a being that even the Triunfo Clan had to form a full party to raid.

– Light! Judge these foolish beings!

Melahel shouted, and the sphere of light at the tip of her sword exploded.

A blinding white light engulfed Alopsky, who was still charging forward.

The other participants, who had retreated in time, were safely out of the explosion’s range.

“Ugh…!”

“Holy crap…!”

“That’s too strong… If that hit us…”

They looked at Kim Jinsung with worry.

The explosive power of ‘Judgment of Light’ had been far greater than they had expected, and they were certain that even Alopsky wouldn’t have escaped unscathed.

It was then that,

“…Huh?”

Luca’s eyes widened as he noticed something.

“Isn’t that Alopsky?”

Everyone turned their gazes towards where he was pointing.

They saw something rising above the fading explosion.

“…!”

“What the…!”

Their eyes widened in disbelief.

Alopsky, completely unharmed, was still flying towards Melahel at full speed.

‘How…?!’

Juan stared at the scene in disbelief.

▷ Veil of Blessing: The ‘Veil of Blessing’ will always protect you from enemy attacks and control skills, nullifying them. The Veil of Blessing will then disappear briefly and regenerate after 0.25 seconds.

Unless they knew that Kim Jinsung possessed the ‘Veil of Blessing’ trait, Juan and the other participants would never understand what had just happened.

– …!

Even Melahel was staring at Kim Jinsung, who had appeared right in front of her, with wide eyes.

“Take this!”

Kim Jinsung shouted and swung his sword at Melahel’s right shoulder.

▶ You have used the skill ‘Kill’.

▶ This attack ignores all enemy defense and defensive skills.

His sword, empowered by the ‘Kill’ skill, sliced through Melahel’s shoulder, and

– Aaaargh!

Her right arm, which had been holding the sword, was severed.

“!!”

“Whoa!!”

The other participants gasped as they saw Melahel’s severed arm rapidly disintegrating, emitting light.

But it wasn’t over yet.

“The angels of the Tower of Trials have a jewel on their forehead that acts as their heart, right?”

Kim Jinsung said and used the momentum of his sword swing to launch a series of thrusting attacks towards Melahel’s forehead.

His movements were flawless and incredibly fast, leaving Melahel, who was writhing in pain, unable to react.

It was clear that his sword was about to pierce the jewel on her forehead.

– ?

– Whoa

– Huh?

– OMG

[Whoa?!]

[Don’t tell me?!]

The viewers and even the commentators jumped to their feet in surprise, and

“!”

“Huh?!”

“Whoa?!”

Even the Master and the other executives, who were watching together in the meeting room, sat up straight with shocked expressions.

The match could end right here!

The same thought crossed everyone’s mind, when

‘No!’

Juan shouted inwardly and instinctively used a skill on Kim Jinsung.

As the Heavenly Energy within him surged,

Kim Jinsung’s speed suddenly decreased noticeably.

“!”

Kim Jinsung looked at his body in surprise.

He saw a thin, white shell of light covering him.

‘Who did that?’

He tried to turn his head to find the one who had cast the skill on him.

But Melahel reacted first.

– Haaaaah!

She barely managed to dodge his attack by turning her head and thrust her remaining left hand towards him.

A massive laser beam shot out from her palm.

**Bzzzt!**

The laser beam, with a sound that seemed to tear through the air, flew towards Chano, the Team 10 member, at incredible speed.

“Whoa!”

Chano barely dodged the laser beam by jumping to the side.

If even Chano, who was far away, had barely dodged it, there was no way Kim Jinsung, who was right in front of it, could dodge.

Especially since he was currently under the effect of a speed reduction skill.

“Phew…”

But to everyone’s surprise, Kim Jinsung was unharmed.

He had instinctively used his Shadow Clone skill and narrowly escaped the laser beam’s path.

‘No one noticed I used Shadow Clone, right?’

The small scarecrow, the only evidence of his Shadow Clone, had been engulfed by the laser beam and vanished without a trace the moment it was created. It wouldn’t have been captured by the wireless cameras embedded in their armor.

‘The shell disappeared.’

He confirmed that the shell of light that had been covering him was gone and turned around.

His gaze landed on Juan.

‘Out of the remaining nine, the only one who could use light-based abilities is Juan…’

As he was suspecting Juan,

– You are quite skilled, challengers!

Melahel’s voice made him look at her again.

Her right arm had regenerated, and she was staring directly at him.

– Very well! I accept your challenge! Defeat all my ‘Guardians’ and reach the arena!

She said, and her body emitted a bright light, vanishing from their sight.

“Phew…! That’s the end of the first encounter.”

Juan let out a sigh of relief, for some reason.

“Now we have to defeat the Guardians scattered throughout this dungeon and reach the temple where the arena is located. That’s the only way to fight Melahel again.”

He stepped forward and shouted to everyone,

“Follow me! I know a shortcut to the arena.”

He continued walking and passed by Kim Jinsung.

He didn’t even glance at Kim Jinsung, who was staring at him, and kept walking forward.

“…”

Kim Jinsung stared at his back with a hardened expression, then started following him.

* * *

[…And so, Alopsky narrowly fails to defeat Melahel.]

[What a shame! I thought we were going to see a rare instant kill at their first encounter, instead of at the arena.]

[If he had pulled off an instant kill, it would have been an unprecedented event in the history of the newbie showdown. No participant has ever instantly killed a boss in the ‘Tower of Trials’ before.]

[Anyway, Alopsky unfortunately failed, and now they have to travel to the temple where the arena is located, as usual.]

[That’s right. And it’s a long way to the temple. There are also countless Guardians along the way.

Who will perform the best on their journey to the arena? Will anyone be able to make a comeback in the third round? Please stay tuned and find out.]

As Thomas finished speaking,

the TV screen, which had been showing the participants’ movements, suddenly changed.

Daniel, looking at the new scene, said,

[This is… near the exit portal.]

[That’s right. There’s already a huge crowd gathered!]

The TV screen showed a stage and packed audience seats on both sides.

[As you can see, podiums for the top three ranks have been prepared. After the third round, the final rankings will be calculated and announced on the spot.]

[But… isn’t that Yoo Jun-ho in the building behind the podium?]

The caster looked at the building behind the podium on the TV screen.

He saw a familiar face through the window of a small coffee shop on the second floor.

[…It is! It’s Yoo Jun-ho, the Vice Master of the Korean Clan!]

Daniel asked the question on everyone’s mind.

[What is Yoo Jun-ho doing here?]

* * *

Esteban, the Master, who was watching from the executive meeting room, was just as surprised.

“Why is Yoo Jun-ho sitting there?”

He hadn’t imagined that Yoo Jun-ho would be in such a prominent position, where the TV cameras could easily film him.