Chapter 280

〈 Chapter 280 〉 Part 1, Chapter 12, Section 26

After witnessing Suborof’s sense of justice with my own eyes, I took a moment to reflect on my own actions.

And I realized… I wasn’t the type who could stand by and persuade others. Especially when dealing with someone whose mind was being consumed by a Cube, teetering on the brink of madness – I simply couldn’t see the point in trying to reason with them.

Yebongseon is definitely an S-Rank Special Ability user. Not Fire Attribute, but Light Attribute. A highly skilled Villain in her own right. If only she hadn’t been such a rebellious troublemaker, constantly betraying those above her… I might not have considered turning her into a Monster.

‘But killing her is still the cleanest option.’

So I threw Dokbae, now transformed into a stone axe. With my arm turned into a monster limb, I hurled it with Full Strength at Yebongseon’s forehead. She fell backward without even having time to scream.

‘There’s no need for long-winded speeches.’

I pulled Dokbae from Yebongseon’s corpse as it began to be stained with blood. Dokbae slowly consumed her blood while her skull crumbled, absorbing all the Magic Power contained within.

“Looks like A-Rank is still out of reach.”

I had hoped, but it was obviously impossible. If Dokbae’s Fire Attribute affinity had been just a bit higher, I might have been able to turn him into Yeouido’s Flame Flail. Unfortunately, our compatibility is terrible.

‘I should go find Hydra.’

“Let’s recover the Cube first.”

I extended my fingernails and stabbed them into Yebongseon’s heart. Even though her head had shattered, her heart was still faintly beating thanks to the power of the Cube. After rummaging through it with my right hand, I found what I was looking for and kicked the corpse aside.

Crunch.

Yebongseon’s heart came out with it. I ignited flames on my hand and incinerated the heart, retrieving the small, hard Cube fragment inside.

“Alright, Troop Number 2, rise.”

“Gruuuh…”

I revived Dokbae, who immediately screamed upon seeing the corpse in front of him.

“Aaah?!”

“Why are you making such a fuss? You’ve seen this plenty of times before.”

“This is ridiculous!!”

“It’s fine. She’s a Villain after all.”

“What kind of logic is that?!”

“The Phoenix-style logic. Hypocrisy doesn’t exist in this world.”

I shrugged as I tossed the Cube up and down.

“Anyway, let’s hurry up and move. The alternate dimension created by Cubes always has strange time flows. We might step outside and find three years have passed.”

“…Isn’t this better?”

“Of course not.”

In fact, time here flows 300 times faster than outside. Three hours in the outside world equals 900 hours, nearly 37 days here.

“Still, it makes more sense to spend three days here then go out, right?”

The corpse was starting to cool, but time flowed three times slower in the outside world.

“True, in terms of time.”

There’s no better place than here to hone one’s abilities. Since there’s no risk of returning to your previous state when leaving through the Cube, mental and temporal training rooms are proven to be the best training grounds.

“But that’s only necessary if there’s someone here who needs training. Is there anyone here who needs practice?”

“I do!”

“I said ‘person.'”

“Monsters are also ‘people.’ Aren’t we people?”

I didn’t expect him to make a pun about the character for person. His drive for improvement seemed quite strong.

“You’re usually so lazy, but you get enthusiastic at times like this.”

“Why can’t I?”

“No, it’s fine.”

I infused magic power into the Spirit Stone embedded next to Dokbae’s Core. Reading the flow of my magic power, Dokbae smiled slyly.

“Alright. I was originally planning to just blow everything up and leave, but if Troop Number 2 insists…”

“Can I unleash my full power now?”

“Yes. All the monsters here were created by the Cube, so feel free to go all out.”

As long as you don’t have a conscience, the alternate dimension created by the Cube is a heaven-sent training ground. Though it does bother me somewhat to kill monsters that consider themselves people…

“Azuwa!”

Dokbae, as expected, showed no hesitation. Neither did I.

Whoosh.

The moment I kicked Yebongseon’s corpse, it was engulfed in flames and burned fiercely. The human-shaped corpse of Yebongseon quickly reverted to its original form – a Locust Monster – emitting a foul smell as it burned.

“That’s an S-Rank. Aren’t you sad about losing it? You could have turned her into a monster.”

“Not really. This one kept trying to bring Xiao Lin into my bedroom.”

“Okay. No more questions. Hehe.”

Dokbae jabbed his finger at me mockingly. It definitely felt like he was mocking me.

“Oh, Troop Number 2.”

“What?”

“Since time is important, I’ll give you exactly three minutes for your Flame Giant transformation.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!”

I infused magic power into Dokbae, forcibly enlarging his body. Dokbae broke through the tent ceiling and stretched, then immediately dashed outside.

“Hmph.”

I set the alarm on the Magical Gear and sat down in a chair.

“Three minutes by outside standards equals 900 minutes here.”

He’ll probably start worrying around the two-minute mark, thinking “Only one minute left!” But when the three minutes pass and the transformation doesn’t end, he’ll likely rejoice.

‘Until he starts panicking about when it will finally wear off.’

“That’s the punishment for messing with your superior.”

Will Dokbae be able to reach A-Rank in this world?

* * *

“Fire arrows! Stop their advance!”

The officers threatened their soldiers with swords to force them to draw their bows. However, the soldiers wanted nothing more than to flee from the shaking battlefield.

“Fool! If we run, we’ll all die! Shoot!”

Even the officer wanted to escape. But the enemy would crush all the troops before they could even mount their horses and flee.

Boom, Boom, BOOOOM!!

A giant is charging. The monster that shattered the Horogwan gate with a single kick is running toward us, trailing flames. Its speed far exceeds that of warhorses, resembling the legendary Emperor Yan appearing and rampaging.

“Ugh, ugh, aaaagh!!”

Finally, the officer lost his nerve first and turned his horse around. The horse he had been gripping the reins of had already been frightened and started galloping away madly.

“What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t want to die! Uaaaah!!”

The soldiers also threw away their weapons and scattered to flee. They were merely farmers conscripted during the agricultural season, lacking the strength to face a monster over a hundred chi tall.

“Ho ho ho.”

With all the troops gone, the lone remaining officer knelt helplessly. Paralyzed by fear, yet he didn’t flee, maintaining the last shred of dignity as the commander-in-chief.

“My kingdom…. keh keh.”

Crrack.

The Flame Giant took a mighty step forward, leaping over the fleeing soldiers. Beneath where the Flame Giant’s large foot landed lay the crushed corpse of a Locust Monster.

* * *

“Really ruthless. They still think of these as their people until the very end.”

I gathered the people crushed by Dokbae’s kick against the city wall and burned them with fire. The blue flames rose like beacon fires, and news of the fall of Horogwan would soon reach Luoyang.

Squeal, screech….

The monster let out a final scream before disappearing. Though its lower half appeared human while trapped under the city wall rocks, it revealed its true form as a monster just before death.

‘Since I can see the true form through magical power, perhaps that makes it meaningless.’

Crunch.

The locust-like monster thrashed as it burned, its body charred. The soldiers who hadn’t managed to flee yet screamed in shock upon seeing their former colleague transform into a monster.

“Grrr, gyaahhh!!”

“Wow, a monster outing!”

Finally, the monsters began revealing their true identities. Though currently weak, as time passes they will grow stronger and eventually open a portal to Earth, flooding it with monsters.

“Feels awkward saying this after telling Dokbae, but…”

Jo Deokbae is Dong Zhuo’s army, and I am part of the anti-Dong Zhuo coalition. Somehow, we’ve ended up doing gangster-like deeds in a world from two thousand years ago, but there’s no other way to escape this world.

‘In the original story, Yebongseon ate everyone, so we only needed to kill Yebongseon…’

“Now that they’re scattered across the country, we’ll have to kill them all individually.”

We have approximately 37 days left.

Plenty of time to kill all the monsters scattered across the continent. I extended my hand toward the swarm of locusts charging at me.

‘Bug extermination is done with fire.’

“Also, let’s collect some Cores!”

Though it feels like opening our lunchbox too early, we have no choice if we want to obtain Cubes. Lunchboxes left uneaten for too long spoil anyway.

Whoosh.

Before Dong Zhuo could set Luoyang ablaze, I ascended into the Luoyang sky and rained down fire.

* * *

BOOM! KONG!

A beam collapsed. Simultaneously, a locust monster swung its leg at us.

“Intercept.”

“Tch.”

Dokbae lazily suppressed the pitiful locust monster. The world no longer believes it can deceive us with human appearances, so all humans have become locusts trying to bite us.

“There are too many. Hey, why isn’t this working?”

At first, Dokbae joyfully wreaked havoc as a Flame Giant, but now he seems bored after seven days of nothing but locust hunting.

“What?”

“Can’t we destroy them all at once? How long do we have to keep hitting them?”

“You wanted to reach A-Rank, right? Are you giving up already?”

“It seems utterly hopeless.”

Dokbae pointed to the mountain of E-Rank Cores piled behind us. There were so many E-Rank Cores that we could fill a swimming pool with them.

“Why didn’t you tell me beforehand that they’d all be these tiny ones?”

All we’ve collected are E-Rank Cores. In seven days of monster hunting as both a Flame Giant and a monster, Dokbae alone killed over a million locusts. Including those I killed, we’ve slaughtered millions of locust monsters and obtained only tens of thousands of intact Cores.

“Think efficiently. Where do you think you can easily find a million E-Rank monsters?”

Dokbae’s shoulders slumped as he joked.

“Considering efficiency, right? Do you know how hard it is to find a million E-Rank monsters?”

In seven days, Dokbae killed over a million locust monsters. Including those I killed, we’ve slaughtered millions of locust monsters and obtained only tens of thousands of intact Cores.

“Time increases twofold, but the rewards we can take back to reality are minimal. Roughly 1%.”

“Even if we gather all these, we won’t even get one S-Rank.”

“Yes. Just considering Cores, it would be faster for a Black Death to lay one egg. Hehe.”

I patted Dokbae’s back. Having grown tired of locust hunting, he transformed into a stone axe appropriate to the era, and I grabbed him with both hands and snapped his neck.

“It’s about time they appeared.”

It’s been exactly a week since I killed Yebongseon. Any moment now…

“Kyaahhh!!”

“So they say even tigers come when called.”

A girl with gray hair suddenly appeared close to me and swung her Heaven-Piercing Halberd. I blocked it with Dokbae and she growled angrily, baring her teeth.

“You, who are you?!”

“Sun!”

After deflecting the Heaven-Piercing Halberd, I kicked off the ground and grabbed the girl by her collar. Her seemingly torn heart had fully regenerated, and I kicked her stomach, sending her flying high into the sky.

Kyaahhh!!

Yebongseon, now known as Callipera, revealed her true form. Whether to call her a locust in human form or a Chimera mixing locust and human remains ambiguous, displaying grotesque features.

“Black Deaths are actually prettier.”

Keeeee!!

Callipera screamed and gnashed her teeth side to side. Not only did I steal her Cube, but I killed her once, and now she’s determined to kill me at all costs.

“Respawns every seven days as an S-Rank monster…”

We have about 30 days left until the agreed meeting time with Hydra. I decided to extract Callipera’s ‘S-Rank Light Attribute Core’ during this period.

“If it appears by the fifth attempt, that would be ideal.”

Since Jo Deokbae suggested staying in this world until the end, I resolved to fight as Jo Deokbae for his sake. I’m a kind superior who creates a good environment for my subordinates’ growth.

“Then,”

I adjusted Dokbae’s Core to create a slightly larger pistol. It resembled a crude gun carved from marble, but the grip felt excellent.

“Shall we test its performance?”

Kyaahhhh!!

Callipera charged at me, waving her two long gray antennae. Holding the stone pistol,

“Throw!”

Just like my first greeting to Yebongseon with a stone axe, I hurled Dokbae at Callipera’s head.

Plop.

Keee….

Second attempt.

Unfortunately, Callipera’s Core still hasn’t appeared.