episode_0670

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Shushu shuk!

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Kwakwakwakwang!!!

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Crunch!

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“… … .”

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An emergency response room installed at Site-13 in response to the Blade Lord’s containment failure at Site-07.

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There was not a single word exchanged there, except for the sound of the scene being played through the speakers.

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Just listening to the sound, it felt like watching a low-budget fantasy film boasting poor CG. In fact, their impressions, vividly watching the footage on the scene on the screen installed on the wall, were not much different.

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That was because it was difficult to easily believe the current reality.

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“Even if it’s a humanoid abnormality… does it make sense for it to have such powers…?”

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The same was true for Emily, who held the title of Senior Anomaly Interpreter.

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Due to her career and position, she had a considerable amount of information about paranormal phenomena, and had actually come into direct contact with a considerable number of paranormal entities among living humans.

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But even to her, the power that Minho possessed was foreign.

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Scarlett, who had been quietly watching the screen from the side, glanced at Emily.

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“K, the clan master is amazing… I, that weird monster is not even within striking distance… !”

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“… I have no idea what the world you lived in would be like.”

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Emily muttered in despair at Scarlett’s words, clenching her small fists.

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While some researchers at ECHO are certainly interested in other worlds’ cultures and knowledge, Emily wasn’t particularly interested.

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Even though they are said to be from another world via a mirage mirror, there were originally many abnormal entities that did not seem to be of this world.

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Emily was already invested enough in protecting her world.

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But I thought that if it was the home of a human with this much power, wouldn’t it be okay to take a little interest in it?

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‘Most abnormal entities have a very narrow range of abilities. In terms of enforcing certain rules and laws on the world, they have powers that ordinary humans would not dare to resist… but when you go beyond the scope of that concept, there are surprisingly many gaps.’

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And ECHO’s main job was to use that gap to isolate abnormal entities.

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‘but…’

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But I didn’t see any of that weakness in Minho.

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Emily’s gaze, which had been lost in thought, returned to the screen.

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Suddenly, there was a loud noise on the screen, and by the time the noise was gone, the situation was already over.

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Minho stabbed the Blade Lord’s core with a sword he took out from somewhere.

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The Blade Lord, who was stopped in his tracks by that blow, stopped swinging his blade fiercely and fell to the ground in the hallway.

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Minho retrieved his sword looking just as good as before, without even a single cut to his collar, despite having fought the Blade Lord.

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‘I have no idea where that man’s power ends. And his weaknesses…’

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When I fought the facility’s fighters, I thought it was just a simple physical enhancement ability.

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An abnormality of that magnitude wasn’t that rare.

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A similar effect could be achieved by distributing anomalies to combatants, albeit with some minor side effects.

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But what he did after that was incredibly shocking.

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The physical enhancement that I thought was ‘just that level’ was at a level that was difficult to keep up with even if I risked my life due to side effects.

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The ability to surround one’s body with unidentified energy (internal energy), the ability to teleport to a location observed through a surveillance camera…

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Even teleportation is done by opening a door in the air to directly connect two spaces, so I thought that, although it is just a guess, it could allow others to travel along with you.

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And even the ability to nullify the Blade Lord’s mental attacks.

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‘Now that I think about it… I think the strange phenomenon that just occurred on the terminal was also caused by that man.’

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I was flustered when the terminal suddenly turned on by itself and the screen blinked dozens of times, but considering that this happened right after I had a conversation with Minho about sharing information about the abnormal entity and information security, it was a very possible deduction.

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Then, should we assume that in addition to the ability to defend the mind, it has also acquired the characteristics of a type of abnormal entity belonging to the information life form family?

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If one anomaly were to say that it possessed all of these abilities, even Emily, a high-ranking anomaly interpretation expert, would be treated as a joke.

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Maybe you have mental contamination and need to go through a cleansing process.

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‘And last but not least… maybe that guy has the ability to interfere with the laws of other abnormal entities.’

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Emily’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the screen.

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In fact, the document that the Blade Lord provided to Minho was not a perfect document.

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Should we consider this as an older version of the document before the content was further revised?

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A separate test report revealed information about another ability possessed by the Blade Lord, formally known as X-134.

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As befitting the name of the Blade Lord, it has the ability to control the bladed creatures around it.

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‘In the experiment at the time, the Blade Lord absorbed external swords made by humans and made them part of his body.’

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The swords absorbed in this way became new blades that made up the guy’s body, with the same strength as the Blade Lord’s main body.

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If there had not been an unspoken rule that said that abnormal entities could not be arbitrarily nicknamed ‘god’, the Blade Lord might have been called by a nickname like Sword God.

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The superiority of the Blade Lord over the Blade-wielding was absolute.

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In fact, I didn’t mention it because it was nonsense to think of fighting an abnormal entity with a cold weapon.

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But Minho took up his sword and struck down the blade lord.

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Aside from the question of how she could have stabbed a body that boasted a strength 100 times that of steel, what was most concerning to Emily was that she had ignored the Blade Lord’s dominance over the blade.

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Because Minho had achieved the union of the sword and the mind through his internal energy and mental image, the sword was considered identical to his body and was not affected by the Blade Lord, but to Emily, who knew nothing about martial arts, the meaning was different.

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‘What if that ability works on other abnormal entities too?’

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If so, it was clear that Minho’s cooperation would be of unimaginable help in managing the abnormal entity.

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Of course, for that to happen, the prerequisite is that Minho actively responds to ECHO’s request.

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‘We’re looking at at least an Umbra… or maybe an Eidolon-class humanoid anomaly.’

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Emily looked at the screen with as much concern as she was glad that she had dealt with the Blade Lord more easily than expected.

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As the Blade Lord fell, a sound like iron pipes crashing to the floor was heard at the construction site.

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I muttered, pretending to cover my ears.

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“Oh my, be quiet.”

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It was only natural that the Blade Lord, who also had a metal body, would collapse on the metal floor.

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Although it was unpleasant to hear, I had no intention of making him lie down gently, so I just left him alone.

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“… … .”

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Actually, there was another reason why I just watched the guy fall.

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‘After all, it’s an abnormal entity. Who knows, it might die and come back to life.’

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I watched with that thought in mind, but the guy never got up again and let out a terrifying metallic scream.

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“… Is it really just dead?”

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It was a more absurd ending than I thought.

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“Even if you’re a monarch, if you get stabbed by a sword, you die in the end.”

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If this is the case, I might have to inherit the title of Blade Lord.

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As I was thinking about such a strange thought, Emily’s voice echoed through the hallway, which had been quiet for a while, perhaps to avoid interfering with the fight.

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-… An abnormal entity without immortality is finished once it dies. Surprisingly, immortality is common among abnormal entities, but it seems that the Blade Lord, despite having a strong body and strong weapons, did not have immortality.

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“Isn’t that right? You didn’t even try to kill me?”

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After isolating the original abnormal entity, wasn’t it supposed to be chewed, torn, tasted, and enjoyed through various experiments?

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So, as soon as I saw Scarlett, I was worried that she might have been tortured or experimented on.

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Fortunately, not too much time passed and nothing happened.

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– In order to investigate like that, you would have to try to kill them first, but whether they are immortal or not is a completely separate issue.

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Emily said as she explained how difficult it would be to test the immortality attribute against the Blade Lord.

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Because of its durability, a tactical nuke would have to be detonated to deal with it properly, but it would be very difficult to secure a space here to detonate it without damaging the surrounding area.

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And there was talk that if the attempt goes wrong, the quarantine could be lifted and an escape could occur, like in this incident, causing civilian casualties.

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“That’s not exactly wrong.”

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I nodded.

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“But it seems like the people at this facility didn’t think that way.”

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-yes?

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