Chapter 288: Room 204, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Cinema’ (11)

– Cha Jinchul

“General, I’ve brought your meal.”

“…Leave.”

The “scene” started less than 5 minutes after entering the movie. It was the obvious poisoning event.

Should I eat it? Or not?

Honestly, I didn’t think my body, which could withstand even the Star Fragment of Another World for a while, would easily fall to poison. Rather, if I ate the poison and acted as if nothing happened, couldn’t I find the culprit?

“Still, eating this doesn’t seem right.”

I decided against it.

While the entire hotel party had several more chances, this was my first and last chance, and I didn’t want to take an unnecessary gamble. No matter how I thought about it, knowingly eating something poisoned was idiotic. It could be an incredibly potent poison.

“Hey there!”

The progression after this wasn’t much different from the doctor’s time. The outside became noisy, and after waiting, I just patrolled the wall a bit and had a strategy meeting.

– Neigh!

“This is really shitty, even if I knew it was coming.”

Around the time the meeting ended, I blinked once and suddenly the war had started. It was bewildering even when one knew it was coming, so I could imagine how shocked the doctor must have been experiencing it for the first time.

From here on, I had a plan, so I proceed accordingly.

“Hey!”

“General! Your orders—“

“You, what’s your rank? Next after me, right?”

“T-that’s right—“

“You lead the surrounding army.”

“What?”

“Do I need to say it more impressively? From now on, I transfer my command to you, so fight bravely!”

“What?”

If I’ve said this much, he should understand. I got off the horse, holding a rather stylish guandao.¹

What horse in the first place? None of the lucky bastards among the hotel companions have learned horseback riding!

Even when I asked Eunsol-noona if she had ridden a horse, she shook her head.

Above all, I was confident I could move faster than a horse.

– Boom!

As I kicked off the ground with all my might, my entire body flew forward. I simultaneously felt the coolness of the wind brushing my cheeks and the fishy smell of blood droplets flying everywhere.

The expression of the enemy soldier who saw me flying in like a cannonball instantly distorted. The moment my feet touched the ground, I rotated my body half a turn and swung the guandao.

I didn’t know any polearm techniques for wielding such a long guandao. What use would a 21st-century modern person have for such skills? But a sharp weapon, if swung with enough strength, should be able to cut people.

Sufficient strength itself was a skill!

– Slash!

I felt a heavy resistance in my arm, and with one strike, I cut down two soldiers. The first soldier’s neck to shoulder was severed, and the second soldier’s waist to knee was shattered. Flesh scattered everywhere. I saw something that was no longer human, just chunks of meat.

Strangely, I didn’t feel much “human” emotion like guilt.

Is it because it’s a battlefield, anyway?

A place where people killed each other, and these guys would have cut down others too?

I don’t know. But…

It feels refreshing.

With the sensation of something that had been tightly filling my chest flowing down, my vision cleared.

I cut and cut again.

I split the neck of a soldier charging at me with a demonic expression. Immediately extending my polearm arm backward, I struck someone behind me with the handle. Without looking, I knew someone’s upper body had been pierced.

I was getting more and more used to wielding the guandao.

In the first place, complex polearm techniques were unnecessary for me now. I didn’t need complicated skills like instantly occupying eight directions or gentle parrying.

I swung as fast as possible, efficiently channeling my overflowing strength. No one could withstand my polearm.

Just as I was starting to lose count of how many I had cut down, a general riding a brown horse approached from across, shouting, “You bastard! This Puredan will—“

“You’re not Murtanie.”

“The general will—“

I leaped strongly like before. The opponent, greatly surprised by my body flying in instantaneously, was swept into the trajectory of the lightning-fast crescent blade without even properly taking a stance. With a single strike, I split both the general’s body and the brown horse simultaneously.

Was that a bit too much this time?

My arm felt numb. Not just my arm, but the shaft of the crescent blade was starting to wobble. It seemed the weapon’s durability had reached its limit. I picked up the polearm of the general I had just cut down, which looked in good condition.

It should be about time for Murtanie to appear…

“Hey! Have you seen Murtanie?”

I asked a friendly soldier behind me if he had seen Murtanie.

“Huerk!”

Instead of answering, the soldier suddenly fell backward and started running away screaming.

Can’t this idiot even recognize an allied general?

– Neigh!

The sound of a huge horse neighing was heard from afar. Cutting through the battlefield filled with dust, a horse of clearly extraordinary size approached.

“Hahaha! General of the Empire. No need to search for me so hastily. I’ve come to cut you down.”

“So you’ve come.”

“I saw you from afar. Your spirit was impressive. I didn’t know the Empire had such a warrior.”

“Man, if you saw me from afar, shouldn’t you have come earlier?”

“Hoho! Your manner of speaking is more like a thug from the marketplace than a general of a country. How could I help being late when I rushed as soon as I discovered you?”

Armor covered in chunks of flesh. Corpses scattered everywhere.

Even I would probably find my current appearance chilling. Seeing the enemy general approach with a relaxed attitude despite claiming to have seen me from afar, I started to feel tension rising.

At the same time, I raised my polearm and met his gaze. Neither of us rushed in recklessly, just maintaining eye contact. As we faced off like this, I suddenly felt the difference in “height”. Murtanie must have felt it too, as he smirked.

“You, did you lose your horse during battle? The old saying goes that a general without a horse is no general at all.”

“Don’t worry. Your horse will die soon, anyway.”

“Hahaha!”

The moment Murtanie’s horse moved, I lowered my stance and readjusted my grip on my polearm.

The vibration shaking the ground was terrifyingly intense. Just as I extended my gaundao halfway, aiming it towards the horse to signal “I’m focusing on your horse”—Murtanie’s polearm sliced through the air.

Now’s the time!

I immediately moved two steps to the side, and a pitch-black vortex swept through where I had been standing. I already knew he could launch something like an energy blade, but I’d be an idiot to let myself get hit!

I believed. No matter how monstrous he was, he shouldn’t be able to use such magic-like techniques consecutively. After using it once, wouldn’t he need some charging time before using it again? That would make sense balance-wise.

Murtanie’s left hand slowly extended and clenched into a fist in mid-air. I had to accept the fact that I was wrong to look for balance in this stupid hotel.

I felt a pressure threatening to crush my entire body. It was like being in a giant compressor, squeezing my body like an orange with a vicious force! This one move had miserably crushed the doctor.

“Uwaaaaah!”

I endured with a shout. This was not a joke, it was real. I just shouted, expanding all the muscles in my body and releasing all my strength outwards.

I endured with sheer willpower and stubbornness!

– Bang!

With a loud noise, as if a bomb had exploded, the force pressing down on my body melted away like ice under the sun. At the same time, blood spurted from Murtanie’s left hand.

This was “recoil”.

Is this the principle where if the opponent withstands or deflects the supernatural force he wields, the user suffers recoil?

“Kuuugh!”

“Is that all? Not much, huh?”

Honestly, it was something. My whole body was still trembling so I couldn’t continue the offensive, I was just putting up a front with words.

“How… How!? Is your body made of iron? How can a human!?”

“Wow… Hey, you bastard! That’s really unfair. Of all people, should I have to hear ‘How can a human’ from someone like you? From a guy using Force Grip?”

“Poshu gurap?”²

“You fucking bastard, really! Don’t poorly imitate the pronunciation!”

I forcibly moved my trembling body. Perhaps because the recoil was still lingering, Murtanie couldn’t counterattack even while watching my movements.

The power that rose from my toes passed through my waist and into my arms. As my whole body rotated, the immense force generated was loaded into the polearm, which vibrated violently as it advanced, splitting the air.

Until the moment his head exploded from the polearm that flew in like lightning, Murtanie’s horse didn’t realize what had happened. It was somewhat fortunate that it died instantly.

The rider’s the bastard, what sin does the horse have?

Meanwhile, Murtanie, who reacted belatedly, kicked off his horse and used that momentum to jump high, avoiding the path of my polearm.

Now there were no horses here.

There were just two warriors, each holding a spear, who could crush rocks like tofu and twist steel like taffy.

We momentarily paused as we both caught our breath. I glanced around slightly. At some point, the soldiers around me and Murtanie had stopped fighting and were standing in a wide circle, watching us.

They must have realized it, too.

This battle wouldn’t be decided by the bloody fight of thousands of soldiers. They were merely supporting actors, weaklings accepting their fate. The outcome depended on the duel between the two people standing here. Therefore, the rest didn’t need to waste their energy unnecessarily.

“I said it earlier, didn’t I?”

“…”

“I said your horse would die soon, too. I’m pretty good at reading these flows, you know.”

“My body.”

“What?”

“My body feels a bit lighter now. Indeed, the Empire has a general, too. Today, in this place, only one will survive…”

“Stop posturing and just come at me already.”

“Hyaaah!”

With a rough shout, Murtanie extended his spear in a straight line and charged. From the start of his offensive, the dark energy loaded in his spear rotated in a spiral, flying with the momentum to grind everything.

Taking half a step back, I swung my spear horizontally, and the two spears collided. At that moment, a smile crept onto Murtanie’s face. The rotating dark energy instantly shattered my spear, turning it from blade to shaft into wooden pieces.

Ha! I never expected such an ordinary spear to block that unidentified energy, anyway!

What I believed in was the physical laws of the universe. Once a spear collided with another spear, no matter how unidentified the mysterious energy was that destroyed my spear, Murtanie’s spear must also deviate from its trajectory.

As I approached the inside, avoiding the spear whose path had been twisted, the surprised opponent immediately extended his spear backward. Indeed, his level of weapon skill was a dimension different from mine!

Originally, I planned to dive into his embrace and throw a punch, but as he recovered his weapon faster than expected, that opening wasn’t easily visible.

What should I do—

“…”

I recalled the characteristics of the unidentifiable black energy. If the opponent withstood and endured that power, recoil returned to the user. So…

I reached out and grabbed Murtanie’s spear shaft. For this moment, I wondered if this was really right? If I had gone crazy.

“Kuuugh!”

It was painful. Incomparable to the Force Grip from earlier. In a flash, my vision turned red and five or six teeth burst out of my mouth. From my mouth, ears, nose, chest, arms, legs.

All the blood vessels in my body burst, and in an instant, I became a red demon.

But still…

I didn’t die. My hand didn’t let go of the opponent’s spear.

– Snap!

The moment Murtanie’s spear shaft broke, the sound of an explosion due to recoil was heard throughout his body.

“H-hup!”

In the silent battlefield, dazed soldiers who had forgotten even to fight appeared hazily in my vision.

Blood flowed from all over the body. From my body, and from the opponent’s body.

Every moment felt like lightning striking my whole body and being burned alive. I just bit back and swallowed the scream trying to burst out of my mouth. I just felt like I should. After all, Murtanie didn’t scream, either.

I couldn’t scream first. That would be losing, right?

For a moment, thinking about the current situation, I couldn’t help but laugh.

Unless you’re an idiot, isn’t this situation obviously one where both me and that bastard would die if someone just touched us? Yet there’s not a single person shooting an arrow?

Is it like, no outsider will interfere before the fight between two men is settled?

Keu! Even if it’s a movie, this development is really fucking stupid! Childish, pathetic, and ridiculous. People often call this kind of idiotic situation…

It was unfortunate for my opponent, but at this point where we were both in this state, the match was over. Unlike Murtanie, who had no way to survive without immediate treatment, I had Regeneration.

Gradually, my vision returned, my bleeding stopped, and the intense pain invading my body subsided. Slowly, but with all my might, I approached the enemy.

“Speak your last words.”

A villain of your caliber should at least say something before you go, right?

“O’ Heavenly God… I return to the embrace of the father.”

A lightly extended hand knife pierced the enemy general’s neck. The outcome of the grueling rotation was decided.