Sovereign of Judgment Chapter 43:
Episode 3: Age of Ghosts / Chapter 43: Consumables (6)
TL: emptycube
Swoosh .
The Predator’s Blade sucked in Keushisuit’s blood at a rate of 1 liter per second . When he was alive, his karma stopped the blood from flowing out so it wasn’t able to absorb a lot, but, now that the karma had dispersed from his corpse, his blade didn’t have to hold back any longer .
“Hooo…”
Choi Hyuk felt refreshed . The blood drained by the Predator’s Blade’s [Blood Drain] skill returned to him as a recuperative force . His heavy karma that felt as if it had been stretched became taut and his wounds healed . It was the refreshing feeling you felt when you gulped water through your dry, cracked lips .
The Predator’s blade, that was greedily drinking blood, turned red and became silent . There was still blood left in the corpse, however, it seemed to be full .
——————–
[Greedy Predator’s Blade]
Rank: C (Unique, Growth-type)
Sharp and sturdy . The more blood it absorbs of strong foes, the stronger it will get .
Blood Drain: Absorbs the blood of enemies to replenish its owner’s karma and heal their wounds . Able to absorb 1L of blood per second .
Durability: 9,173/10,000
Evolution: 3/100
——————–
Before it needed to eat the whole corpse to grow, but now it only needed to kill . It seemed as though its effectiveness had increased when it went from D rank to C rank . Its current evolution stat was 3 . He had killed 3 individuals up until now, the Wyvern of Destruction, Keholeun, and Keushisuit .
He placed Keushisuit’s corpse and his equipment into his Handy Bag .
Choi Hyuk who was momentarily catching his breath felt a haze-like wave approach him .
“First, Dawn Lightning and now, Deer Antlers . Aren’t you incredible?”
An alien . However, she was fluent in Korean . Her figure was covered by a veil of wavering lights and heat waves so he was unable to see her properly . Yet, somehow, he knew naturally . That her name was ‘Flare-Rain’ and that she was a woman . As if he had always known this fact .
‘… Weird . ’
He didn’t even sense her approach . She was emitting a white light (goodwill), but Choi Hyuk did his best and kept his guard up . He pointed the Predator’s Blade in her direction .
“Your motive?”
“Just~ A greeting . ”
When Choi Hyuk spoke informally, blue flames flared up and she replied informally without reserve .
Flare-Rain’s attitude felt strange to him . All the lowest ranked warriors he met here were hostile, crazy bastards, but she was friendly and there wasn’t a sense of tension .
When he silently stared at her, she uncovered the flames, that were covering her body, to reveal a surprisingly human-like face .
“Don’t be like that . We might even meet again on the next mission . ”
“… We’re going to meet again?”
“Not every time . We usually get transferred to a nearby planet and they have a tendency to send those who are of similar strength together . There are a few friends I see often as well . ”
“I don’t think they are worth being friends with?”
He looked around at the lowest ranked warriors, who were slaughtering others . There were some who had left and others who were spectating, but there were still around 30 warriors crazily running amok .
“They give you a mission score if you take out the target . They are like that so others don’t covet them . ”
She said in a somewhat bitter voice . Her voice contained such human emotion that it was hard to believe she was an alien .
“They give you a higher score if you take out the target? Then why are they attacking me? And what about those who are just observing?”
“They are reading the situation . The ones who go crazy are typically stronger . And you’re a tasty prey . At least, you look like one . First, it seems like you hit 3-star Retribution Points but the rest of your stats seem low . You obtain more karma if you kill someone with a lot of Retribution Points… meaning you look tasty . ”
Specific calculations for the karma system was crazy difficult to calculate but its principle was simple . The higher your opponent’s total stats were or the higher your opponent’s Retribution Points was, the more karma you would receive after killing them . This applied to both monsters and aliens .
Meaning Keushisuit had planned on killing Choi Hyuk for karma points .
“Then there’s no need to be friendly with each other . ”
Just because they were in the same situation didn’t mean they were allies . Instead, it was better to think of them as enemies in this case . You would be devoured the moment you seemed like a pushover .
Choi Hyuk took a step away from Flare-Rain . He had basically heard all the information he needed . He felt that her friendliness was dangerous .
“Don’t be like that . It’s because everyone has it tough . ”
Her expression looked sad as she said those words . However, the white light and the soft flames covered her face like a wedding veil .
“Anyways, let’s meet again . It’s about time monster start flooding in . ”
As if her words were a signal, the ground started to shake . The sounds of flapping wings itched their ears . They were in the middle of the enemy headquarters . Monsters were coming from all directions to take out the intruders . When you looked around, the original targets, the cocoons, had all been destroyed . It was time to return .
Flare-Rain shook her hand to activate the return code and disappeared . Crunch . Crunch . She disappeared in a gruesome fashion as if she was devoured into the void .
Choi Hyuk looked around for his followers . They were still fighting Keken . They looked like they had the advantage, but they seemed to lack the firepower to finish him off and were progressing at a snail’s pace . Keken kept enduring as he believed he could end this once his eyes healed .
However, the sounds of monsters coming from everywhere were loud . Eventually, the first to give up was Keken .
[You, insect bastards! I’ll kill you all next time!]
He lashed out in rage, however, Lee Jinhee lashed out in return .
“You, don’t appear in front of me again!”
Keken retreated and activated his return code . It seemed Lee Jinhee was out of stamina as she didn’t give chase .
The gazes of Lee Jinhee, Baek Seoin, and Chu Youngjin, who were all catching their breaths, turned towards Choi Hyuk who was walking towards them . As soon as their eyes met, Choi Hyuk nodded his head .
‘Everyone’s alive . ’
He felt a strange sense of relief .
Like an endless nightmare, missions would continue and their level of danger would increase . If they couldn’t keep up, they would die .
It was a world where the ones who shouldn’t die died
And where ones who no one thought would die died .
A world where yesterday’s enemies could be today’s friends and today’s friends could be dead tomorrow .
Choi Hyuk recalled one of the criteria he had for someone to become his comrade .
‘People who won’t die easily . ’
He saw his followers who shook their hands to activate their return codes . He felt happy .
It was now time for him to return as well . He had stolen Keushisuit’s return code and his timer had ended before the fight .
“Return!”
He shouted in a low voice and his stomach felt like it was flipping over . Crunch . Crunch . His body crumbled into the void .
——————–
[Calculating Mission Score]
Base Score: 100
Killed over 50 monsters: 100
Total 200 points .
——————–
It was something he learned later, but Baek Seoin, Lee Jinhee, and Chu Youngjin earned another 100 points for as a reward for ‘Killed Target’ . A total of 300 points . Only Choi Hyuk, who was busy fighting monsters and didn’t kill a target, earned 200 points .
When he learned this fact .
“Deer Antlers… Damn bastard…”
He ground his teeth .
**
Captain Lee Kangjin escaped when Choi Hyuk and Keushisuit started to fight . It was because he thought that even a stray blade could kill him . His crushed arm was starting to heal with the power of the Recovery potion . He pressed his arm against his chest and desperately wandering around the battlefield . To find an undestroyed cocoon .
“I will live…”
He wanted to live with sincerity . He wanted to live and become stronger .
Choi Hyuk was a shock to him . No matter how he looked at him, he was a human like himself . However, Choi Hyuk was pretty even with Keushisuit, who was a nightmare to him .
‘Though it was the same in the previous mission…’
The strong were really strong . Even if they had all received karma, at some point, there was a difference of heaven and earth between them . Some were so strong it was unbelievable that they were humans . He had even believed they were simply from another world previously .
However, it was different now .
“You **** bastard…”
He hated himself . He hated himself so much that he wanted to gnaw on his heart and stab it repeatedly .
He hated his powerlessness and incompetence . He wanted to kill himself who could only bark at First Sergeant Jang Sudong .
“I will live… and get stronger…”
His eyes caught sight of a cocoon that seemed to be ready to hatch . It was in a deep crater in the basin so it hadn’t been destroyed yet .
That moment .
Whiiiing!!
The cocoon started to rip and a piercing wind swooshed out from within .
Pashashasha!
An alien closest to it was sliced into four pieces before falling to the ground .
Jjijijik!
Its long razor-sharp legs ripped the cocoon apart and its figure emerged .
‘It’s evolution is about to be complete . ’
He instinctively understood the situation . He felt a mighty aura that was incomparable to the others just inside the cocoon . All the aliens who had gathered to destroy it fled in the other direction . The warrior aliens, who were still in the middle of their slaughter, revealed a tense expression as they kept their guard against the cocoon . Even they didn’t think to recklessly approach it . This just showed how powerful the monster, that was about to complete its evolution, felt .
Nonetheless, Captain Lee Kangjin didn’t back down .
“Kelokok! Shih!”
He passed by the screaming aliens .
Thump! Thump!
And ran towards the pulsating cocoon . Luckily, it seemed the piercing wind only came out at the start as he avoided getting sliced and was able to get close to it .
Instead, a razor-sharp leg, that was stretched outside the cocoon, targeted him and swung down . He ducked and slid his left foot away to avoid the attack .
Clash!
The long leg pierced into the ground in vain . He rolled on the ground .
Bang! Bang! Slash!
It was a continuous attack this time . Another leg stabbed at him twice as the first one sliced above his head . He was able to avoid them by rolling due to luck, but, either way, he had ended up really close to the cocoon . Lee Kangjin jumped forward with all his strength . He erased all his fears . Only forward . Forward .
Swish!
He was able to dodge three attacks with that jump .
As he avoided the third, the dangerously swinging legs were unable to block him right away .
On the other hand, his concentration had reached its peak .
[Unique Skill ‘Weakness Detection’ awakened!]
He saw a brightly shining point .
The monster was still partially wrapped in the cocoon . It was just about to complete its evolution .
Thump!
An explosive energy that was necessary to evolve was gathered in the center of the cocoon, constantly expanding and contracting . Lee Kangjin instinctively knew that he had to stab that center exactly where the brightly shining point was located .
He jumped into the cocoon . Its legs and antennas sliced open his shoulders in desperation .
“Kirak! Kirararah!”
The monster’s whole body squirmed and despaired . Even in this mess, even though his skin was peeling off and blood was flowing out, he didn’t stop . He finally reached his target .
Crack!
He stabbed the nucleus of evolution .
“Kiyaaaah!!!”
The monster collapsed along with a horrible scream . Lee Kangjin collapsed as well . He fell, exhausted, inside its corpse, covered in its mucus .
[Cleared target . Transforming the corpse into return energy . Remaining Time: 5 minutes]
The moment he confirmed the message, he was lying down as if he was dead, counting the seconds as they passed by . The aliens, who were madly searching for return codes, didn’t approach Lee Kangjin, perhaps thinking he was dead or because they had already fled far away .
‘4 minutes . ’
‘3 minutes . ’
While he was counting the time pass, the ground suddenly started to shake . The noisy screams of aliens, who hadn’t been able to return, were like bees in a hive . It seemed like monsters were incoming from every direction . As this was their headquarters .
‘Whatever . ’
He continued to count .
‘1 minute . ’
‘30 seconds . ’
’10 seconds . ’
Just when there were only 5 seconds left .
Jjijijik!
The cocoon split apart .
“Grrrr…”
A monster he had never seen before stuck its head in . It was a beast whose head was double the size of Lee Kangjin .
However, he remained calm and swung his sword .
“Get lost!”
Kakang!!
His sword didn’t slice into its face but the monster flinched and lifted its head back out . That moment,
[Activation of the return code complete . ]
It was time .
“Return! You, fuck!”
Lee Kangjin was devoured into the void .
“Krahlahlak!!”
Crunch!
The monster swung its human-sized foot, crushing the cocoon, but Lee Kangjin had already disappeared .
**
That day and a few days after, people returned to earth . The military and police, who had disappeared, were among them .
It was an event that brought the world together .