Chapter 117: A Clash Between a King-Kong and a Hybrid Species (5)

Lee Han saw the terrorists glaring at him with crazy—no, rather, fearful eyes.

How should I describe this…?

It’s like I’m terrorizing the terrorists with terrorism, so does that make me a terrorist too?

What a strange feeling…

…Anyway, can I really do this…?

Contrary to his confident outward appearance, Lee Han was secretly nervous. He didn’t know if things would go well or not.

But what could he do?

She said that she doesn’t want to negotiate with terrorists.

Before he left for this mission, that older sister of his told him…

-In the scenario where the tunnel has already fallen into the enemies’ hands, to the point where it’s difficult for you to do anything, you can just wipe it off the Pendragon’s territory. No need to worry about what others think.

That if the tunnel had been ‘taken over’ by [the enemy], he was free to destroy everything, and he didn’t need to worry about the mission or whatever else. The only things that he needed to worry about were his group’s safety and the ‘annihilation’ of their enemies.

However, if he were to do that, too many victims would fall, even though at the end of the day, they were merely convicts.

Lee Han had raised that point to his older sister.

-Most of the criminals who were sent there were murderers, rapists, and conmen who ruined families. They were all irredeemable trash. Most of them are ‘death row inmates’ whom this lady couldn’t care less whether they died or not. Rather than being eaten by monsters and becoming nutrients, it would be more merciful for them to be buried in the ground and die instantly.

…But her answer only made Lee Han dizzy.

Lee Han didn’t want to become a mass murderer, so he made his final argument as his show of rebellion.

He asked her two questions, ‘What about the fertilizer?’, and ‘If I’m not careful, there’ll be great chaos in the kingdom, no?’.

But, despite all his effort to oppose her…

-Huh? Who do you think this lady is? She has prepared the plan thoroughly. About the food loss or whatnot, there’s no need to worry. Do you think this lady would send you there so carelessly? She did that because she already planned through everything! So, throw away your worries and go. You’re representing this lady. No matter what you do, this lady will take full responsibility.

…She gave out that answer. It made him think that if one of his bosses in his previous life was like her, he’d probably have become an ardent supporter and fan of that boss.

And now…

“Instructor, what the hell is…?”

“Don’t worry. The person who assigned me to this operation told me that it’s okay to do this.”

“Really?”

“Yep. She even said that I could bury all the prisoners while I’m at it if need be.”

“…”

“Of course, I’m not that crazy. There’s no way I’m going to bury them alive. I’m just trying to scare them a little.”

“…”

“Although, if it gets too dangerous, I might have to turn a little crazier…”

“T-Then, we…”

“We have to survive ‘well’ and ‘on our own’, what else can we do?”

“…”

“Dude! Don’t curse me with your eyes!”

“I didn’t, it’s just…”

…You look like a fish in water, Instructor…

Lee Han was unaware of it, but he was quite literally making a face that fit a terrorist’s. It was as if terrorism was his innate talent.

Even though he showed a calm and composed attitude to Derrick, he did it just to reassure him. Deep down, he was all tense, and it was apparent from how dry his throat was.

I said all that, but we’re still in a pickle.

Lee Han had said he had buried 100 scrolls in each of the various parts of the tunnel, but that wasn’t true. He’d rather be able to do that, but…

I only have 100 of them… Can’t let them know that… ¹

The number of scrolls he buried weren’t actually that many. It was understandable, though. Each of them were extremely rare, and normally people wouldn’t even hold that many scrolls with them.

Even Lee Han…

-Hey, make me 1,000 flame scrolls in 3 days.

-What!?

-3 days, make them in 3 days.

-W-Wait!

Was only able to obtain it thanks to the Slave.

However, the Magic Slave, Odwal Bernard, was terribly incompetent. Lee Han had given him ‘3 days’, but he could only make 100 scrolls.

Not only that…

-No one in this world can do that kind of work! No one!

He said it as if he was wailing, but to Lee Han it all sounded like excuses. Whatever it was, it was a fact that the guy was useless.

Anyway, because the guy was so useless, the number of scrolls he had was extremely small, and there was nothing he could do about it. But since they were in his hands already, he still installed them in various places in the tunnel, and they actually came in handy.

But, the problem here was, if those guys knew about this, he’d be in a bigger danger than before.

The scrolls don’t have the power to explode the entire Tunnel…

From the explosions he triggered just now, it was clear that the scroll was a little weaker than dynamite.

With the amount that he had, he could make a few areas collapse, but it definitely wasn’t enough to collapse the entire tunnel.

Hence why he couldn’t let his guard down.

…Will I be able to handle all of these guys?

Seeing the hundreds of people surrounding him, Lee Han let out a bitter smile. The prisoners all seemed to have learned Combat Technique, and among them, some were quite capable, just like Roy Bant, while others weren’t so good, just like the guys in the Silver Lion.

Overall, their skill level was not equally spread.

However, there was a difference between them and the guys in Silver Lion.

They could cooperate well with each other…

Even though they were just Half-Demonic Humans, they were able to form a large formation with orderly discipline. This made Lee Han realize that they weren’t a disorderly bunch, but an organization that was properly trained like an ‘army’.

He was fully aware about just how scary the combined strength of those with tactics and cooperation combined on the battlefield. It was something he came to know after facing the Red Eagle.

Although their individual prowess was nothing compared to the Red Eagle, the fact that hundreds of them all learned the Combat Technique was already threatening enough.

In front of the power of numbers, there was no such thing as a winner.

I think I can take more than half of them to the afterlife, but I’m not sure about the rest…

The men who were wrapped in black clothes especially, worried him. Their numbers seemed to be a little over thirty, but he could tell just by looking at the momentum they gave off. Each of them had the power of a vice commander.

If he were to face them, he would have to sacrifice his arms and legs to take care of them.

Moreover…

Myself aside, the status window guy could just die here.

Indeed. The status window guy—who was still clumsy in a lot of ways—would have a hard time surviving this battle. Their situation was precarious no matter how one looked at it.

This won’t be easy…

After realizing that there was nothing easy in life, Lee Han looked at the priest. Though he was among the weaker ones here, he had the most say in this place.

Moreover…

“Hey, you.”

“W-What?”

“What’s with that tone? You still dare to talk rudely with me?”

“I-Is there something I can help you with?”

“Ha… Who do you think you are? Spoiled Brat Number 2?”

“…”

“Forget it. What’s the point of setting the likes of you to the right path? Let me just ask you one thing. What’s your relationship with [The Blood Cross]?”

“!!?”

“I see, so you’re related to them.”

“H-How could you guys know our na—! Gasp! A traitor—!”

“…Hmm.”

His sense that allowed him to distinguish lies and truth. Thanks to that, Lee Han was able to extract four pieces of information from that short conversation. Two of them were the fact that the Blood Cross really existed, and that they were confident that their existence wouldn’t be discovered. Since they were so confident with the latter, it meant that they had a means to avoid being discovered.

What did that imply, exactly?

They either have mystics, or a powerful collaborator behind them…

It was just his guess, but they might have mystics, a great noble, or someone whose authority was comparable to royalty that let them hide their secrets. In other words, there was a traitor to the kingdom.

And the last piece of information he obtained was…

These guys aren’t fully cooperating with each other…

As soon as the name of the Blood Cross was mentioned, the priest mentioned ‘traitor’ without hesitation. It gave the possibility that there were conflicting opinions within the organization, or that they were divided by factions.

“Haa….”

Maybe it was because he had been using his brain too much—something he didn’t normally do—but his head was burning hot to the point that it was throbbing. However, at the very least, the information he obtained was meaningful.

Therefore…

‘Timid.’

‘Huh?’

‘Get ready to leave.’

‘R-Right now?’

‘I’ve found out everything I needed to find out. Well, I still need concrete evidence, but we can just take that priest with us.’

‘…’

‘Hurry up!’

‘Ah, yes!’

At Lee Han’s urging, Derrick tried to take out a smoke bomb from his bosom. Historically, there was nothing better to use to run away than that, but…

Clench-!

Bang-!

“What kind of trick are you trying to use? Are you trying to kill yourself?”

“That’s also what we wanted to ask.”

“…”

“Are you looking down on us?”

“Yeah. More than you do to us.”

“…!”

…It was hard to fool these guys who had considerable sense, or rather, skills.

The moment Lee Han and Derrick were ready to take a step, the black-clad man swung a blade at Derrick, and Lee Han blocked it head-on.

Throb-!

“That hurts…”

Even though he blocked the blade with Vajra Body, the impact didn’t completely go away. It made Lee Han suspect that the guy might be the most skilled among the black-clad men.

And that black-clad man…

“While it’s true that you have buried that scroll around this area, it’s hard to believe that you did it to the point where you could bury the entire tunnel. Unless, you know of a secret passage like us.

“Oh, so there’s a secret passage. What about telling me about it?”

“It doesn’t matter. You won’t get out of here alive anyway.”

“Wow, so confident, aren’t you?”

“It’s not confidence, it’s just facts. You’ll never get out of here alive.”

Wooong-!

An ominous spirit spread around the place.

Even though the priest hadn’t given an order yet, the black-clad man had already entered an attacking stance, while the prisoners were also emitting murderous intent. As if to show that they were prisoners for a reason, the fact that they had hurt someone before was reflected on that murderous intent.

“W-What are you doing! I-I haven’t given you an order!”

Of course, the priest got angry at the sudden situation, or rather, angry at the black-clad man who dared to challenge his authority.

“You dare to challenge the authority given to me by God!?”

“That’s not the case.”

“So why—”

Bang-!

“Keuuuk!?”

“But you’re not God. There’s no reason to listen to the orders of a useless person like you. What an idiot. To be fooled by the enemy’s lies so easily like that…”

A dagger struck the priest’s back and he fell down.

The black-clad man’s firm had thrown that without hesitation..

“What is this? An internal conflict?”

“Just dealing with a useless person.”

“Hmm.”

Lee Han could tell at a glance that it was an arbitrary action.

So…

“As expected. [Black Moon] has joined the Blood Cross not too long ago.”

“!!?!”

“Was it because of a merger? Or were you guys originally equals, but ended up like this after you guys were beaten once?”

“Y-You—!”

As the man in black was thrown into a fluster and started to stammer, Lee Han…

“Forget it. I’ll just ask you later.”

Bang-!

Kicked the handle of the dagger that had been flying at him.

Utilizing his extremely delicate control and power transfer, he…

Since it wasn’t a spear or log, its power was ridiculously lacking, but still…

Bang-!

It was more than enough to pierce the stomachs of those guys.

The two black-clad men who had blocked the way to protect the black-clad man who seemed to be their leader, died in an instant.

Clank-!

“…”

Seeing his comrades falling, the black-clad man…

“I’ll kill you!!”

Became unable to contain his anger, and rushed at him.

I was curious about his identity, so it’s Number 4, huh?

The first time he saw the black-clad man, he felt a sense of familiarity. He knew that he had seen him somewhere. And now, after seeing his cruelty, ignorance, and body movements when he killed the priest, he managed to recall who he was.

Number 4.

Just like him who was dubbed as Number 8 in the past, the guy was also one of the 12 candidates for the Black Moon executives.

Does that mean he’s an executive now?

He was strong back then.

In the past, Number 4 was a simple-minded, fiery-tempered guy who was underestimated in many ways, but he still had great potential. Lee Han had heard that he was a half-barbarian, and that he was a test subject who had ogre tendons transplanted into his body to further modify the characteristics of the barbarian race.

Giving ogre tendons to a half-barbarian was like giving wings to a tiger. Hence why his strength and potential were greater than anyone else’s. When he was young, Lee Han was reluctant to fight Number 4 in many ways.

But, that was only ‘when he was young’.

Bang-!

“!”

“Your strength is so ignorantly good.”

Number 4 who bumped his body into Lee Han’s made a bewildered expression. Because he didn’t even budge. It made him feel like he was a fool who bumped into a rock, and this was the first time he had lost a fight of strength.

However, Lee Han didn’t really stop him with purely his strength either. It was simply the result of the effort and skills he had learned while uprooting two hundred trees.

But…

Wooong-!

“If I lose to someone like you, all the days I’ve worked hard on would be meaningless.”

Lee Han lifted him up into the air.

After uprooting so many trees, lifting a single person into the air wasn’t a hard feat to achieve.

And just like that…

Bang-!

Number 4 was thrown to the ground without even being able to fight back.

“Keeeuuk?!”

However, as expected of a modified human, he didn’t seem to be injured. A normal human would have at least got a concussion, but it wasn’t enough to injure this guy.

Lee Han was about to give him a stronger blow, but unfortunately…

“Instructor!”

“Alright, time to run.”

He could see the other guys rushing towards them, and so he judged that there was no need for them to engage in a difficult battle for nothing.

“You bastard! Don’t run away!”

“What are you saying?”

At that moment, he realized that there was one thing that made this bunch different from the Red Eagle.

Though they were enemies back then, in a way, the Red Eagle were worthy of respect. They were great warriors who’d be worth fighting fairly.

“But you guys aren’t worth it.”

Rustle-!

Lee Han took out the two last scrolls that were sleeping in depth of his pocket and threw them away.

“You guys won’t die, but it’ll be crazy hot down here.”

Crush-!

Then, he blew up the medium without hesitation.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-!

With a scorching explosion, a huge flame engulfed the surroundings, engulfing the hundreds of prisoners in raging flames.

Seeing that…

“Firepower is just the best.”

“…”

“Don’t you think so too?”

“…Ahaha.”

The descendant of Hwanung, who could not escape the charm of firepower even after he was reincarnated, confirmed once again that one’s root wouldn’t disappear no matter which world they went to. At the same time, he also realized that powerful enough firepower was the truth of the world.