Ch.59Chapter 59 – Skyscraper (1)

New York is often spoken of as a city of light, glamour, and wealth. A city of financial tycoons, youth, and a cradle of diverse races. But even in the most dazzling plays, there are those who live behind the stage to make the protagonists shine. Henry Clark was one such person.

Henry Clark was a manual laborer. A construction worker living day to day. His body ached, and his earnings were meager. A dangerous occupation that involved welding or painting while precariously relying on a single safety belt high up on construction sites.

Despite having a job that most would avoid, he never thought of himself as unfortunate. Rather, he considered himself just as happy as any wealthy person. This was because he had a light in his life that made him forget all of life’s troubles.

Lana, his wife.

Lana was never ashamed of her husband’s profession. Born and raised in New York, she was a woman who loved her hometown more than anyone. She always took pride in her husband who built the tall buildings of New York. And likewise, Lana was Henry’s pride.

She was a kind woman. If her husband forgot to take his lunch box to work, she would personally visit the construction site to deliver it. Henry would occasionally deliberately forget his lunch box to show off his beautiful and gentle wife, and each time, Lana would unfailingly come to the construction site, which became her joy.

That day was no different.

‘I shouldn’t have done that.’

It was an exceptionally hot summer. Henry Clark was, as always, sweating profusely while welding steel beams high up on the construction site. The sun had already risen overhead, and it was time for his wife to come with lunch. Despite being pregnant, his lovely wife never failed to meet his expectations.

Known for his exceptionally good eyesight, earning him the nickname “Hawkeye” among the workers, Henry could see his wife’s face on the ground even from twenty stories high. A smile naturally formed on his lips.

That smile froze when he spotted a strange black hole torn in the air.

He saw bizarre creatures emerging from an unnaturally swollen black sphere. Was someone filming a movie? That’s what he thought until the strange creature tore apart a passing pedestrian, spraying blood everywhere.

The street was instantly filled with panic. So was Henry. Having noticed the anomaly faster than anyone else at the construction site, he screamed for people on the ground to run away. But his voice from the 20th floor was lost in the wind. With his superior vision, Henry could simultaneously see his wife waving happily, thinking her husband was calling to her, and the monstrous creatures approaching the construction site with each passing moment.

The workers on the ground still hadn’t noticed the strange creatures. He needed to warn those below.

Henry dropped a steel beam to the ground. The falling beam crashed into the ground with a loud noise, causing everyone to look up at Henry Clark. People looked in the direction Henry was pointing. Only then did they notice the sudden attack.

But noticing didn’t mean they could escape. In an instant, the construction site became a scene of chaos. The area around the site was enclosed by high soundproof walls, with only one exit. And that exit was now engulfed by a green wave. Escape was impossible…

Like rats trapped in a cage, the workers at the site were caught one by one by the swarm of imps, meeting horrific deaths. Henry grew anxious. No. His wife was in danger. He dropped steel beams to stop the demons heading toward his wife.

But it was impossible to accurately hit targets on the ground from a height of about fifty meters. Even a slight angle deviation would cause the beam to land far from the intended spot, and he was worried about hitting Lana if he dropped it too close to her. Fortunately, she was hiding in a spot not easily visible to the demons. If she could just hold out like this…

‘I shouldn’t have done that.’

Unfortunately, the sound of a steel beam hitting the ground caught the attention of one imp. Beyond the beam, at the edge of its vision, a woman was hiding. Unable to resist the urge to kill, the low-level demon’s eyes rolled back as it rushed toward the human woman as soon as it spotted her.

Henry could see this too. His feelings moved beyond anxiety to desperation. Everyone was frantically running for their lives. There was no one to ask for help, and it was impossible to miraculously hit the creature by dropping a beam. He wanted to rush to protect her, but she was on the first floor while he was on the twentieth. It was too late to run down to the first floor…

What could he do?

There was only one way to reach the ground instantly from the 20th floor. Jump.

But he would surely die. There was no way to survive a fall from twenty stories… A situation where he had to sacrifice either his life or his wife’s. Henry hesitated. Being human, he feared death.

But the moment he saw his wife’s screaming face, he acted as if pushed. Gripping a steel beam, Henry released his safety harness and jumped from the building.

The fierce wind struck his face.

The demon had reached Lana’s vicinity.

Henry let out a battle cry to erase his fear.

With his unnecessarily superior vision, he could see the demon’s claws digging into Lana’s womb.

When the distance was close enough, the steel beam Henry threw during his fall precisely shattered the demon’s green skull.

But it was already too late.

His wife, three months pregnant, had already breathed her last after suffering a fatal wound to her abdomen.

The mental shock made him forget even the pain of his shattered bones. It didn’t feel real. Could this be a dream? If this was a dream, it would be a terrible nightmare…

As if fate was mocking him, a surreal window appeared before his eyes. It was too vivid.

「===

Congratulations.

You have awakened.

All injuries and abnormal effects have been healed.

Infinite blessings upon your path…

===」

His entire body recovered from fatal wounds by an unprecedented power, and the pain subsided. The lethal injuries were healed in an instant, but he felt no joy. None at all.

The strange phenomenon instead awakened his foggy mind, giving him a terrible sense of reality. With a clear mind, Henry Clark fell into terrible self-loathing.

He had as good as killed his wife. Because he deliberately forgot his lunch box, because he hesitated to jump out of fear of death… Despite the unavoidable circumstances, Henry Clark found the cause of the problem in himself.

The human mind is both mysterious and profound, and when a person is under extreme stress, it tries to protect the psyche by overlaying consciousness with something else. His consciousness, trying to escape guilt, was stained with another emotion. Anger.

Anger blinded the superhuman’s eyes and numbed his reason. The grief of losing his most precious person was transformed into anger toward the cause of death. And the Hulk went berserk.

His anger was not appeased even after killing all the demons at the construction site and killing the boss to close the gate. Unable to quell his unquenchable rage, he plunged into countless gates. Only when immersed in life-threatening battles could he momentarily forget his anger and guilt.

Level up, level up, level up…

Even after becoming A-rank, S-rank, he could not return to his previous daily life.

The man who was once the happiest in New York now thinks he is unhappy.

The agony of not being able to forget the departed manifested in another way. He became obsessed with preserving New York’s old appearance. The last connection between her and himself, the hometown she loved. New York.

With the superhuman stamina of a body cultivator, he had no need for rest, so he guarded the city 24/7, 365 days a year. It was mentally taxing, but because it was difficult, it was a fitting punishment to atone for his sins…

Tonight, too, the sentinel’s senses, looking down at the streets from a skyscraper, detected discordant noise in an otherwise peaceful hour. His hawk-like eyes sharply focused on the source of the disturbance. Two awakened individuals were playing a game of tag, breaking the peace.

There was work to be done.

Henry Clark pulled the yaksha mask over his head with a practiced hand. His field of vision narrowed, and only the enemy’s form was visible through the eye holes. His breathing became rough. As oxygen and mana were supplied throughout his body along the veins that writhed with his violent pulse, his muscles swelled unrealistically, creating a giant standing at 2 meters and 50 centimeters.

The giant blindly repeated.

“I must protect the city. New York.”

He took a running start from the runway installed on the Empire State Building’s rooftop just for him. With each step that shattered the floor, his speed increased exponentially. When his speed reached its peak, Skyscraper stomped the ground with all his might. For a moment, his body soared high, then fell in a parabola toward his desired direction. The two criminals were at the end of that parabola.

As he fell toward the ‘enemy,’ Skyscraper, Henry Clark, ruminated.

I never forgive those who break the city’s peace. Never.

***

Lightning struck. Now familiar with the pattern, Kwak Tae-woo held up his lightning-absorbing spear to neutralize the bolt. The attacks that interfered with his running by slipping between his breaths were annoying, but also reassuring.

The Dark Knight enjoyed attacking with dark red lightning. Since Shin Jae-hyuk was using lightning, Kwak Tae-woo was convinced that Shin Jae-hyuk was the Dark Knight.

‘So his awakening skill was holy lightning. It changed color when he fell.’

That inference surprised Kwak Tae-woo quite a bit. The insane regenerative ability that could even create a missing head wasn’t a skill? It was common knowledge that holy power awakeners could self-heal simply by manipulating holy power, but usually they could only heal minor wounds. As far as he knew, even A-rank holy power awakeners couldn’t achieve that level of recovery.

‘Come to think of it, during the Incheon Disaster, they said a new S-rank who uses holy power appeared…’

An entity that doesn’t exist in the official history. Could it really be Shin Jae-hyuk? …Impossible. Why would a Dark Knight, a ma-in, be at odds with the Four Heavenly Kings? But he doesn’t seem to be a ma-in yet…

Various questions that Kwak Tae-woo’s mind couldn’t resolve became entangled. The final question woven by the grand flow was this:

Is Shin Jae-hyuk really S-rank?

Ignorance about the opponent’s exact power level bred hesitation at the final moment. Could I win if I caught up to him? He hesitated to take a step forward.

That hesitation saved him.

A great sword fell, tearing through the sky.

“Kuk-?!”

Barely noticing the shadow cast over his head just before the attack, Kwak Tae-woo quickly rolled to the side.

KWAAAAAAANG-!!!!!

A bone greatsword not only shattered but exploded the concrete floor as it struck down. With a sound and vibration like an earthquake, the road cracked, and rock fragments the size of heads flew in all directions. The boom and vibration from behind were felt even by Shin Jae-hyuk, who was fleeing.

‘A second attack! What’s happening?’

Shin Jae-hyuk also noticed the intruder’s presence and was bewildered. He wondered if it was Kwak Tae-woo’s ally. One pursuer was troublesome enough; reinforcements would be dreadful.

‘Fortunately, he attacked Kwak Tae-woo, so they don’t seem to be on the same side…! If not reinforcements, then who could it be?’

Seeking an answer, Shin Jae-hyuk used his skill. Insight shone.

「===

《Name》 Henry Clark

《Level》 605

《Achievements》

– Love your neighbor as yourself.

– A man who sees nothing is fearsome.

– Even a worm writhes when stepped on. But which one was the worm?

===」

It was a simple status window, but its meaning was far from simple. Those few short lines showed that the owner of the status window was among the world’s strongest.

“S-rank-! Skyscraper!”

Kwak Tae-woo, who had also deduced the giant’s identity, twisted his expression inside his armor. It was a disaster. He had expected to successfully assassinate Shin Jae-hyuk at the hotel and hadn’t factored in Skyscraper’s existence… He never thought Skyscraper would attack while he was chasing Shin Jae-hyuk.

‘Korean?’

While Shin Jae-hyuk and Kwak Tae-woo were shocked by the unexpected situation, Skyscraper could tell that the two were Korean. Having heard Kim Jae-min speak Korean during the S-rank meeting, he recognized the language even if he couldn’t understand the meaning.

Skyscraper momentarily paused at the possibility that one of them might be Kim Jae-min. One was wearing a helmet, and the other was in full armor, making it impossible to see their faces. What if the face beneath was Kim Jae-min’s? He couldn’t attack the benefactor who had cleared the gates threatening New York.

So Skyscraper extended his ki sense to detect their energy. An S-rank superhuman’s ki sense could detect most energies…

‘The one with just a helmet is B-rank, the armored one is an A-rank mana awakener.’

This meant neither was Kim Jae-min. Having confirmed that his opponents were not Kim Jae-min, hesitation vanished from Skyscraper’s mind. The unleashed superhuman tensed his muscles.

Even the Foreign Ministry’s request to please stay quiet for a few days because of Kim Jae-min’s welcoming ceremony couldn’t stop the enraged superhuman. Whether they were Korean or American, if they disturbed the city’s peace, he would mercilessly eradicate them… His obsession with New York had reached the level of mania.

‘Which one should I subdue first?’

Henry Clark recalled the game of tag he had witnessed while leaping in. The helmeted one was running away, and the armored one was chasing. Whether drunk or for some other reason, judging by the murderous intent in the pursuer’s eyes, this was no ordinary chase.

As is often the case with those confident in their strength, the superhuman’s choice was simple. Let’s knock them both down first and think later.

The giant swung his greatsword.