Chapter 25: The Superhuman with Bare Feet (3)
As the Golden Flash emitted a sensory displacement, Hong Youngtae’s expression twisted.
He felt it too, something strange happening to his body.
In a moment of suspicion, Hong Youngtae asked with a doubtful tone.
A gray trail pierced the guy’s face, making a creaking sound.
Yeongwoo thrust the shield into the guy’s teeth without raising his guard.
“What are you doing? Without raising your guard.”
As Yeongwoo withdrew the shield from the guy’s mouth, broken teeth fell to the ground.
「This… this is insane!」
Hong Youngtae, with an expression of disbelief, covered his collapsed gums with his right hand.
An unbelievable situation.
So far, he had only encountered opponents who couldn’t even properly compete with him, let alone match his skills.
「Who are you to be this strong…? Aren’t you in a position to be punished? Isn’t this cheating?」
As Yeongwoo blinked his eyebrows and took another striking posture, Hong Youngtae instinctively took a step back.
“Who said we’re the ones being punished? Where did you hear that?”
「Well, he didn’t exactly say it was punishment, but…」
The guy mumbled, then, when Yeongwoo didn’t follow up with another attack, he subtly extended one foot forward.
「So what I heard was…?」
Next, what the guy did was too obvious.
Swinging his right arm, which had been in front of his mouth, in a swift attempt at a surprise attack.
「We should be able to judge with our own strength, right…?」
It was an attack so fierce that the sound alone sent shivers down the spine.
If Yeongwoo hadn’t had the upper hand in senses, his chest might have been torn open immediately.
In terms of strength and arm length, Hong Youngtae had the advantage, so two hits were enough.
Yeongwoo, predicting the surprise attack, barely managed to avoid it.
But as a result, the distance between him and his opponent decreased, allowing for many counterattack opportunities.
As Yeongwoo confirmed the sign, Hong Youngtae, who had seen it, had a fearful expression for a moment.
A brutal retaliatory beating found its way to the guy.
Having been hit with a right elbow and a left sidekick, and finishing with a kidney shot, Hong Youngtae couldn’t hide his bewildered expression as he retreated again.
Before being a mutant, he was a person too.
Since he had never experienced such a level of assault before, the momentum of the judgment and all that vanished like a ghost, leaving only instinctive fear.
「Wait a moment…! I really can’t breathe! Timeout!」
It was truly a rare sight to see a three-meter tall giant struggling irregularly, clutching his side.
Even the Gimcheon City warriors who had been fleeing with all their might stopped in their tracks to watch.
Meanwhile, Yeongwoo, sensing the guy’s spirit had been broken, sheathed the early bird at his waist.
It was to show determination until even a trace of the opponent’s pride was left.
“Come here. I have something to ask.”
As Yeongwoo approached with only one shield in hand, Hong Youngtae’s voice trembled even more than before.
「Why… why are you ? Ask from right there!」
“What did I tell you to ask anything?”
Even though Hong Youngtae raised both hands to show, Yeongwoo didn’t stop walking.
Continuing to approach until his rough breath touched the strands of the guy’s hair.
Leaping about four meters into the air, Yeongwoo struck down on Hong Youngtae’s yellowish forehead.
With the head lowered, it was much easier for Yeongwoo to strike with full force.
From this point on, it was clear that there were too many exposed weak points, and Yeongwoo didn’t need to rely on Gumi Sword Technique.
The right fist and the shield alternated, pounding Hong Youngtae’s body.
At this point, the Gimcheon City warriors, who had been watching from a distance, began to approach step by step.
“Is this a dre… dream?”
“What in the world is this…?”
Rather than admiration, they expressed confusion.
It was such an unreal sight for them.
A barefoot superhuman who had jumped in from somewhere was beating up a mutant right in front of them.
“Could that person also be a mutant? Does that make sense?”
“It does say Gumi Sword Technique. Anyway, he’s… human, right?”
Should they continue to flee, or should they witness the century’s spectacle of a mutant losing in a one-on-one duel with a human?
The Gimcheon City warriors hesitated, debating whether to run away or stick around.
Meanwhile, Hong Youngtae’s face was becoming a complete mess.
To avoid a potential fatal blow with the shield, Yeongwoo had been using only his fists and feet for some time now.
As a result, his both feet were soaked in Hong Youngtae’s blood, stained red, and the fists were not much different.
“Huuk, hukk. It’s really sturdy.”
Yeongwoo stopped the beating only when his breath began to calm down.
In response, Hong Youngtae fell backward as if fleeing from Yeongwoo, barely touching the ground and spitting out blood.
「Stop now. Yo… you’ve done enough.」
Unlike the first time, his voice lacked both anger and fear, sounding resigned.
Yeongwoo thought it was finally time to have a conversation after hearing this.
“The judgment you mentioned earlier. Who told you about it? Where were you before you came here?”
At this, Hong Youngtae instinctively looked up at the sky.
「I, I don’t know, really. I just waited in a very dark place.」
「Yeah… the voice said so. That when the time comes, we’ll return in order.」
He must be talking about becoming a mutant again with the red pillar of light and returning to the world.
“Then who is the voice? Does it control you guys?”
「…I don’t know. It’s just a voice. I only hear the sound.」
Saying this, Hong Youngtae looked at Yeongwoo with fearful eyes.
It seemed he thought that if the answer wasn’t satisfactory, Yeongwoo would hit him again.
‘It doesn’t seem like a lie. It’s quite similar to what Jang Seonbok said.’
Jang Seonbok from Gumi had said something similar before he died.
– What year is it now? I don’t know how long I’ve been captured.
– The first day? Then did I come first? Oh, is that so?
In other words, mutants were isolated somewhere other than this world and returned according to some kind of order.
“Anything else? Like a teleportation ability or something.”
Hong Youngtae made a puzzled expression, then, with his half-broken jaw, shook his head.
Suddenly, he raised his right hand, glowing blue.
Thinking that he might be initiating a self-destruct attack, Yeongwoo hastily drew his sword.
However, Hong Youngtae was more surprised and shook his head.
「N-no! Something strange! So, this is…!」
Eventually, the blue light in Hong Youngtae’s right hand took on a certain form.
A door with an arched top that glowed blue, and an icon of a door opening and closing was shining.
「I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but someone else has to catch this. Without weapons, with your right hand.」
“Then can you teleport ?”
「I… I really don’t know about that. I haven’t heard anything about it. If there’s nothing left to do here or if you regret choosing to be a mutant, I was just told to use this method.」
From the situation, it seemed like that was indeed the teleportation button.
But that was only up to a point.
‘Assuming that crazy guy didn’t lie.’
Since it was a door-shaped icon, there was also the possibility that it was something to warp the opponent, not a teleportation button.
Which one could it be?
‘Damn… Would this guy, who was a mess even in his previous life, speak the truth now?’
Unconsciously, Yeongwoo began to harbor doubts.
However, upon further thought, he realized that, strangely, this might be the real method of teleportation.
Teleportation was a kind of betrayal, abandoning the duty of a mutant and quietly returning.
‘So maybe they made it not easy to betray even if they wanted to.’
For example, a method that couldn’t be executed without the help of the opponent who had been fighting with weapons just a while ago.
[Special Social Worker]
|Return the mutant alive.
In the first place, asking a mutant about a teleportation method wasn’t something anyone could do.
It had to be someone listed in the recommended achievements as a ‘Special Social Worker’ for such an idea to arise.
‘Once again, it’s a choice between two extremes.’
Moreover, this time it wasn’t even officially recognized as a quest.
As Yeongwoo seemed to be in dilemma, Hong Youngtae, with a wide smile, slyly bent his raised right hand and said,
「Ho… how does it work? Anyway, I didn’t lie. If you can’t trust me, that’s your problem, but if you won’t let me go, don’t beat me up anymore.」
Since he didn’t completely fold his hand, the ‘Blue Door’ still existed.
‘Really, so many complications.’
Without thinking about it more, Yeongwoo entrusted his fate to his intuition once again.
As Yeongwoo put the early bird back in its sheath and reached out his right hand, Hong Youngtae flinched for a moment.
However, he neither stepped back nor prepared for another move.
If it wasn’t this, he knew that his future wouldn’t be optimistic.
Yeongwoo, without further hesitation, reached out his hand.
Finally, the hand of an ordinary person and the mutated right hand clasped the ‘Blue Door.’
And Yeongwoo realized.
This act was just like a handshake.
Hong Youngtae, who held Yeongwoo’s hand, looked at the empty space with wide eyes.
“Why? What’s going on?”
Yeongwoo asked, but there was no answer from the other side.
Because it was already fading away.
The body of the three-meter-tall mutant, Hong Youngtae.
Soon, even the long face of Hong Youngtae, which was making a futile expression, was disappearing from view, and the fluffy texture that Yeongwoo felt in his hand vanished.
“Hong Youngtae? Did he really leave?”
Yeongwoo asked this while facing the empty space.
At that moment, a golden sphere appeared where Youngtae had been.
It was the same sphere that Yeongwoo had seen when he killed Jang Sunbok.
「You have defeated the mutant.」
「Please choose a reward to complete the process.」
Following that, an instruction message appeared.
If Yeongwoo chose to spread karma to everyone again this time, he could achieve the ‘Golden Horde’ achievement.
Then, evidence appeared showing that Yeongwoo had indeed spared Hong Youngtae.
[Achievement Accomplished: Special Social Worker]
|Achievement Grade: Legend
|Achievement Rank: First
Holding his right hand, which was covered in cold sweat, Yeongwoo felt that his achievement orientation had become even more robust, forming a sturdy ‘stubborn’ quality.
「The recommended achievement list has been updated.」
‘If one achievement is removed, a new one comes in.’
Yeongwoo, who was quickly learning about this world, sensed that even though he had achieved a lot, there was still something unexpected.
With a bright light, another message appeared.
[You can acquire a new title.]
Surprised, Yeongwoo read the characters that were lined up one after another below.
-Overwhelming! Many candidates for the ‘Strongest Sword’ have witnessed your prowess. No one will object to the fact that you are ‘Gimcheon’s Strongest Sword.’