Chapter 212: Who is the Spy?

Episode 212

At that moment, powerful lasers shot out from Graham’s palms.

They were thicker, faster, and above all,

‘Incredibly strong!’

Even Kim Jinsung, standing behind him, could feel their immense destructive power.

The lasers struck the nearest Death Knight.

The Death Knight immediately raised its shield, channeling Demonic Energy.

The laser hit the shield, which shimmered with a powerful black wave, and

**Crack!**

The shield shattered with a deafening sound, and the Death Knight’s body was pierced through, a hole the size of the laser beam appearing in its chest.

The Death Knight disintegrated into bone fragments, and the laser continued its trajectory, flying towards the next Death Knight.

The second Death Knight also raised its shield, but the result was the same.

**Crack! Crack!**

The laser pierced through three Death Knights and finally reached Kim Jinsung.

But Kim Jinsung was different.

He casually raised a hand and summoned a black Mana shield, blocking the laser.

– You got lucky!

Graham, who had transformed into a divine being, shouted, looking at Kim Jinsung.

– You were able to block it easily because of the Death Knight, but it won’t be the same next time! I can keep firing these attacks…

He suddenly stopped mid-sentence, his confident voice faltering.

His eyes widened as he looked at Kim Jinsung.

– …That form, could it be…!

He exclaimed in shock, his gaze fixed on a giant figure that had appeared behind Kim Jinsung.

It was a creature he had never seen before.

– Mammon…?

A final boss that appeared in demon world dungeons above level 45.

A being so powerful that even Masters of Major Clans couldn’t defeat it alone, requiring a full raid team of elite members to even have a chance.

One of the seven most powerful Demon Lords in demon world dungeons.

Mammon, the black-winged demon with a raven’s head, was standing before him.

“I told you, I can do anything you can do.”

But the voice that came from Mammon’s mouth was unmistakably Kim Jinsung’s.

“You said your transformation was called ‘Dimensionalization’, right? Then wouldn’t a Demon Lord, who rules an entire dungeon, be a worthy opponent?”

As he spoke, the black wave that covered the six walls of the office surged violently.

The surrounding Demonic Energy reacted to the presence of a Demon Lord, who could control all the Demonic Energy within a dimension.

– That bastard…! He wasn’t human after all…!

Graham gritted his teeth, staring at Kim Jinsung, who had transformed into Mammon.

But he wasn’t concerned about Kim Jinsung’s true identity at the moment.

What mattered was that he was facing Mammon.

‘I’ve never fought a Demon Lord alone before…’

He was afraid.

He only had one life, so he instinctively chose the safest option, to protect himself.

Hunters were the same. They didn’t enter dungeons with just enough members for a raid. They always brought more, just in case.

It was a precaution against the worst-case scenario.

Rankers among the top ten were considered strong enough to defeat a Demon Lord in a one-on-one fight.

Graham was one of those top ten Rankers.

It wasn’t a completely hopeless situation.

But he had no experience.

No one, except for Hemingston, the undisputed strongest man on Earth, had ever fought a Demon Lord alone.

‘And he might even be stronger than a Demon Lord.’

The true identity of the Mammon before him was Kim Jinsung.

If Kim Jinsung’s transformation into Mammon didn’t perfectly replicate its full power, he might be able to win.

But what if, just what if, the opposite was true?

What if the Mammon Kim Jinsung had transformed into was even stronger than the real one?

‘…No, that’s impossible!’

He immediately banished the worst-case scenario from his mind.

There were only two possible outcomes: he would win if he was stronger, or he would die if he was weaker.

And it was absurd for him, one of the top ten strongest Rankers in the New Continent, to die so easily!

– It doesn’t matter even if you’re a real Demon Lord! I’m Graham, the Distorter, one of the strongest Rankers! Hyaaaaa!!

He gathered his energy at full power and extended his palms towards Kim Jinsung.

“Strongest, my ass.”

Kim Jinsung said and charged towards him.

Black Mana rapidly gathered on his right fist, and Graham fired even thicker and more powerful lasers from his palms.

Kim Jinsung’s fist collided with the lasers, and

**Boooom!**

The loudest explosion yet echoed through the office.

* * *

Meanwhile,

a group of people was rushing back to the Paladin headquarters at lightning speed.

“Faster! Faster!!”

Lee Sung-choon, the Paladin captain, was leading the group, urging his subordinates.

He had received a call from a Paladin staff member just a minute ago.

– Captain! The entire Director’s office is surrounded by a black dimension, and we can’t get in!

“What? What about the Director?!”

– There’s no record of him leaving the office!

He felt a surge of anxiety and immediately decided to return with his subordinates.

He was so impatient that he and some of his elite troops were running at full speed, leaving their task force vehicles behind.

‘We’ve been tricked! We thought we had set the perfect trap, but Kim Jinsung outsmarted us!’

He gritted his teeth, feeling a bitter taste in his mouth.

When they arrived at the Weapon Science Research Institute with the entire task force, all they found were Kim Jinsung’s ‘clones’.

Most of the clones self-destructed as soon as they saw them, and the few they captured all transformed into straw dolls.

All the clones vanished in an instant, and he was initially confused.

‘Why did they only destroy the outer buildings?’

He had wondered why they stopped the attack without even touching the main building, but he understood as soon as he received the call.

The clones at the Weapon Science Research Institute were just ‘bait’ to lure the task force.

‘But the Director… even if he’s losing to Kim Jinsung, he won’t go down easily.’

He clung to a sliver of hope.

He believed that Graham was strong enough to withstand the crisis.

‘He’s one of the top ten strongest Rankers in the New Continent. If even he can’t handle this, then no one is safe…’

At that moment,

**Boooom!**

A deafening explosion echoed from afar.

It came from the direction of the Paladin headquarters.

His enhanced vision, a result of his high power level, allowed him to see the Paladin headquarters collapsing rapidly.

“No!!”

He desperately pushed himself to his limits, running faster than he ever had before.

He reached the collapsed Paladin headquarters in seconds.

He saw something, and

“Ah…!”

He collapsed to his knees, his face filled with despair.

He saw a spear, embedded in the ground at the center of the rubble, with Graham’s head impaled on its tip.

The spear’s blade was engraved with the burning skull mark, the symbol of Ukobachi.

* * *

A few hours later,

Hemingston sat alone behind his desk in his spacious office at the Alpha Clan headquarters, his face grim as he stared at the monitor.

[…It was a brilliant move to lure the Ukobachi teams into targeting key facilities in the capital.]

Kim Jinsung’s voice came from the speakers.

He was watching the footage of the battle between Kim Jinsung and Graham, recorded by the CCTV camera in the Paladin Director’s office.

[If I hadn’t known about your plan from start to finish, it would have gone down as one of the greatest operations in history.]

His face hardened at Kim Jinsung’s words.

[But I saw through your plan and turned it against you. And now, we’re in this one-on-one…]

He paused the video and rested his chin on his hands, lost in thought.

‘This means one of two things. Either Jackson, who provided the armor, is the spy, or one of the Masters who attended the Emergency Meeting is the spy.’

Both were terrible news for him.

The best-case scenario was that Jackson was the spy. He could just cut him loose and be done with it.

Of course, the Alpha Clan would be under suspicion, but it wouldn’t last long.

The Alpha Clan was simply too powerful.

Even if all the other clans united against them, victory wouldn’t be guaranteed.

And in the dog-eat-dog world of the New Continent, there were very few who would dare to make an enemy of the Alpha Clan.

‘If it’s Jackson, I can use the Alpha Clan’s power to cover it up. The problem is if it’s someone else.’

He couldn’t even summon an Emergency Meeting because he was afraid of which Master might be the spy.

They should be gathered here, watching this video on a large screen.

‘We’ve been played. This is a huge blow to us.’

He glared at Kim Jinsung on the screen, his eyes cold.

It was already difficult enough to deal with Kim Jinsung and Ukobachi even with all the clans in the Center Zone united. And now, Ukobachi had created a rift in their alliance.

* * *

Meanwhile,

Kim Jinsung was celebrating with Park Do-joon in a hotel room.

“Cheers!”

“Cheers.”

They clinked their glasses, filled with expensive Abyss whiskey, their faces beaming with joy.

“Ahh~! That was amazing, Kim Jinsung. Perfect! I never thought I’d see the day that the impenetrable Paladin headquarters would crumble. Hahaha…!”

Park Do-joon laughed heartily, his face radiating happiness.

Kim Jinsung replied with a smile,

“It’s all thanks to you. If you hadn’t planted the spy, I wouldn’t have been able to turn Graham’s plan against him.”

“Speaking of which…”

Park Do-joon put down his glass and said in a low voice,

“Actually, there is no spy.”

“…What?”

Kim Jinsung asked, his face filled with confusion.

—