episode_0034

There was a child.

Parents unknown.

As is the case with children born in District 11.

That child, not even blessed with birth, naturally entered an orphanage.

That place was an assassin training facility for an organization.

A cheap white card received for wielding a dagger.

Received a blue card for killing a homeless person.

Ate a special meal if they stole a passerby’s wallet.

Eliminating all emotions.

Honing skills solely to kill humans.

13 children who broke through all those processes.

They were assigned the numbers of playing cards.

2-10 J, Q K, A.

The number given to her was A, Ace.

The highest position.

She carried out countless missions according to command.

A year after that.

A command was given to her.

‘Punish the traitor.’

But that wasn’t a command given only to her.

The same command given to the other 13 children.

Without knowing why, they ceaselessly killed each other.

By the time she felt doubt about the command, most of her friends were already dead.

She, who had lost even the reason for living.

The heads of the organization, [Father] and [Mother], told her.

‘You will become the strongest assassin and succeed us.’

But on that day, a brand was engraved on her face.

Not long after, she learned their purpose.

Unlike the names Father and Mother, what they wanted was.

A killing machine devoid of emotion.

She ran away.

After washing her identity and changing her name, she joined a guild and became an explorer.

Until now, she thought she had escaped.

But to think even that was part of their plan.

“……You’ve become much stronger. Ace.”

The giant man standing on the body of the fallen Grace, [Father].

“Indeed, you have to be an explorer to become stronger. You’ve become strong enough to be comparable to us.”

The woman sitting on the railing, drinking wine, [Mother].

“Then carry out your mission immediately.”

[Mother] took out a scroll from her embrace.

As soon as the scroll was torn, the tattoo drawn on Grace’s face violently surged.

“Uwaaaaaah……!!!!!”

The sound of pain wasn’t long.

Because soon, the vitality disappeared from Grace’s eyes.

Grace knelt, just as Father and Mother had wanted for a long time.

“…Command.”

*

Out of the blue, Kai’rek asserted.

That the slums could be conquered by the two of us alone.

“Does that even make sense?”

“Yes! Because among the thug bastards, there’s no one who can defeat me!”

“How can you prove that?”

“Those thug bastards did strange experiments on our kind. I broke everything!!”

As expected of his moniker, the Madman, he seems to have caused a scene in the past.

“I tore apart everyone who insulted my kind! No one could stop me!”

“Really?”

“Yes! So don’t worry! They are guys who can be dealt with by me!”

“In any case, you’re saying it’s hard to even find mid-floor explorer level here.”

“Yes! An upper-floor explorer has no reason to be a thug! There are only weak guys in places like this!”

“I see.”

Thump thump.

I kicked the fallen man with my foot.

How long are you going to lie there?

“Why don’t you get up?”

“……Yes.”

The man getting up hurriedly.

His face had long turned into mush.

His room was a mess.

All sorts of furniture were broken. Holes were punched in the walls.

Numerous thugs were lying scattered here and there.

“So where is [Mother]?”

“I-I don’t know! I heard their base of operations is unknown even to their closest subordinates. I just joined recently….”

“That’s enough!”

*Smack!!!*

The man, hit by Kai’rek’s powerful slap, lost consciousness.

Seeing that the status window didn’t pop up, he seems to be alive.

“This seems harder to find out than I thought!”

“In the first place, that gold-haired guy also didn’t know the base, so he gave information about his underlings.”

Mother and Father.

Don’t know what kind of guys they are, but one of the factions dominating this place.

Jay, who fought me once, belonged to this side.

Followed the hole in the building wall and came outside.

“Where next!”

“This way.”

The slums covered in thick fog.

Ignoring the onlookers, we walked the streets.

Then people stealthily avoiding us.

Although it was the street we walked when we fought Jay a few months ago.

The atmosphere is much different from back then.

They were scared looking at us.

Of course, it might be because Kai’rek is beside me.

“Who in the world is attacking our territory?!!”

Thugs pouring out in a rush.

Among them, a guy who looked like the leader was smoking a cigarette.

“Put out the light.”

Kai’rek, who had approached somehow, put out the cigarette light with his bare hand.

“You…?!”

At that moment, the thug who saw Kai’rek’s face fell over just like that.

As if he had seen something shocking.

“T-The Madman?!!”

“It’s Kai’rek?! R-Run away!!”

The flustered thugs ran away shamefully.

They ran so fast they already disappeared into the fog.

To think thugs who would charge at anyone, regardless of who they were, would run away so shamefully.

As they said, Kai’rek caused a scene here.

“What in the world have you been doing?”

“People only listen when they’re beaten.”

“…That’s true.”

As I walked, agreeing with Kai’rek’s philosophy, I somehow arrived at the place where the next contact was.

Two thugs guarding the entrance.

“Who are you…”.

*KWA-AAANG!!!*

Before they could even open their mouths, Kai’rek broke through the building’s entrance with a body blow and went inside.

“Come in!!!”

Passing by the thugs who had already lost consciousness and fallen, I entered the courtyard.

The building was shaped like a ‘ㄷ’.

“I’m going to the right!”

Seeing Kai’rek running off, breaking through the wall on the right, I opened the door on the left.

“What in the world is going on?!!”

At that moment, flustered workers came rushing out.

My eyes met with them.

The status window reacted immediately.

『Combat Start. Draw 3 cards.』

[Ignition (0)] [Psychokinesis (1)] [Freeze (2)]

“Take them down!!!”

Three workers running towards me.

The weapons they held were giant hammers.

“Shield.”

A defense golem that appeared from subspace cast a shield.

*CHA-ENG!!!*

The large hammers were blocked by the shield.

“W-What? What’s blocking it?”

They kept swinging their hammers, but.

*CHAENG!!*

*CHAENG!!*

The workers couldn’t even break through the shield created by the defense golem.

Completely ordinary people.

An ordinary person in Labyrinth City means a human densely packed with 7 white cards.

The cards they might have would only be ordinary ones like [Strength Enhancement] [Stamina Enhancement].

Stomp stomp.

Even though I was walking slowly, they just retreated backward.

They couldn’t inflict any damage.

In the end, the workers put down their hammers and raised both hands.

“J-Just spare us!”

“Where is your boss?”

“Ah, he’s inside!”

“Alright. Then do you know the names [Father] or [Mother]?”

“I-I don’t know!!”

Looking at the faces of the three, they had expressions of not knowing anything.

As expected, I didn’t even think a mere worker would know.

When I signaled them to scram, the three workers ran away.

Watching them, I went inside.

“Who are you?”

As soon as I entered, I met 5 thugs.

1 archer, 1 swordsman, 3 with bludgeons.

Just looking at the state of their weapons, they were above average for thugs.

I immediately threw one card.

[Ignition]

I immediately extended my hand.

*TAK!!!*

Strong flames erupted in mid-air.

The flames engulfed the bow.

The change in their expressions upon seeing the burnt bow was worth seeing.

“Huh, huh?!”

“It’s a magician!!!”

“Run away!!”

Guys who ran away dishearteningly.

Leaving them behind, I advanced down the hallway.

An empty hallway with no one.

But it was noisy.

Because the destructive sounds Kai’rek was making could be heard even here.

*KWA-AAANG!!!*

Uwaaak!!!

Screams and the sound of the building being destroyed.

Since he was drawing aggro like that, everyone had no choice but to go that way.

Thanks to that, I was walking comfortably, but.

A man appeared before me.

“Ivan?!”

A man holding two swords.

Just by his equipment, he was on a different level from other thugs.

Even after extending my senses and reading his mana, it wasn’t bad.

Roughly compared, skill similar to Luca.

You could say he’s about a 3rd-floor explorer level.

“Have you forgotten that when you defeated Jay, we quietly let it slide?”

“Things in the world don’t always go as you wish, right?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“Do you know Mother’s base of operations?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then won’t you back down? I’m not the type who can control my strength enough to go easy.”

“……You bastard!!!”

The man holding two swords rushed forward.

『Until next draw 21…』

*TAK!!*

Flames erupting before the man’s eyes.

But he dodged lightly.

“……?”

He continued attacking without stopping.

*TAK!!*

*TAK!!*

But he kept dodging my Ignition.

The man, who had approached right in front of me somehow, swung his swords.

*CHAE-AENG!!!*

The shield blocked the dual swords, but a slight crack appeared.

*TAK!!*

I made flames erupt again. But the man easily dodged.

As expected, does it not work on strong individuals above a certain level?

I swear I’ll never pick up a 0-cost attack card again.

Retreating backward, I threw a card.

[Freeze]

“Oh no?!!”

The dual swordsman hastily retreated, seeing the freezing cold mist around me.

As it was a card I had from the start.

Anyone who knows me deals with it easily.

*SHWA-AAAA!!*

The man, having created distance, wildly slashed his two swords in the air.

Numerous sword strikes flying along that trajectory.

It seems difficult to block them easily with a shield.

With the power of [Freeze], I created an ice wall.

*PA-AAT!!*

The sword strikes couldn’t penetrate the ice wall and disappeared.

But it’s not over yet.

The man seemed to be preparing something big.

The two swords were emitting light.

Of course, I had no intention of just watching that.

[Psychokinesis]

A newly acquired card that he couldn’t possibly know.

A purple aura swirled around, but he couldn’t even fathom what it was.

When I extended my hand upward.

Psychokinesis lifted his body just like that.

“W-What?!!”

I wouldn’t give the flustered guy any time.

I slammed his head into the ceiling just like that.

And moved him wildly.

*WADADADADA!!*

Moving ceaselessly, breaking the ceiling made of wooden boards.

Wooden fragments falling to the floor.

And his dual swords fell between them.

I threw him outside the building just like that.

*KWA-AAANG!!!*

Leaving behind the guy who had slammed his head into the dirt floor and fallen in a strange posture.

I continued walking forward.

A large hole was punched in the boss room.

Roughly looking, it seemed Kai’rek had made it.

But something was strange.

Because Kai’rek’s expression was serious.

“What’s wrong.”

“Look at this.”

The boss was dead.

Kai’rek didn’t kill him.

The cause of death was a penetrating wound to the heart.

But the left chest, where it was penetrated, was frozen.

It was clear who had done this.

“It must be Grace’s doing, right?”

“How did this happen?!!”

“You heard from the manager earlier. That there’s some magic that controls humans.”

“Then are you saying they used a stray cat to kill their subordinates?”

“Probably. Like eliminating the guys who know their base of operations.”

“Then where’s next?!!”

We headed to the place where the next contact, told by the manager, was.

But there, too, Grace had already passed through.

This time, the clean-cut surface of the severed neck was frozen.

“We’re late! What should we do?”

“…Let’s go back to the first place.”

We returned to the place we had visited first.

We caught that guy who had somehow woken up and was trying to secretly escape with medicine.

“Why, have you come again?”

“Mother is eliminating all of you.”

“Th-That can’t be.”

Although he said he couldn’t believe it.

Holding onto the guy, we waited for a long time.

Eventually, Grace arrived not long after.

Her hair was messy, so wild that her eyes were barely visible.

There were wounds all over her body, and blood was flowing little by little.

More than anything, her unfocused eyes and blank face made it possible to guess her state.

“Grace. Can you hear me?”

“……”

Grace, who didn’t react even when I spoke to her.

At that moment, her surroundings began to freeze.

*Ding!*

『Killing intent detected. Draw 3 cards.』

[Temporal Stop (1)] [Fireball (1)] [Strike (1)]

The moment 3 cards were drawn.

Kai’rek body-checked Grace.

*Shhhk.*

Grace, who dodged easily.

But she couldn’t dodge the second attack.

[Temporal Stop]

Because I had stopped her.

“……?!!”

Kai’rek’s huge body accurately slammed into Grace’s stopped body.

Grace flew straight through the wall and out of the building.

“……”

Grace, watching me and Kai’rek alternately.

Kai’rek broke the ice on his frozen thigh and said.

“She’s different. It seems she’s equipped other cards, taking out the guiding card!”

“Well, that’s natural. Cards can be exchanged freely at the guild anytime.”

“So, be careful! She might be much stronger than the Grace we know.”

“…I know. What’s more, we can’t even kill her.”

At that moment, Grace, having grasped the situation, ran towards us.

Watching Kai’rek running forward first, I also threw one card.