Chapter 58: Chapter 58
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
“Seriously? This girl is the only person capable of protecting this puny little country? God can be so cruel at times,” Ace said. Paying no attention to his sarcastic remark, Ji Yoo, glaring at him with ice-cold eyes, charged at him. Reaching the terrorist in the blink of an eye, she thrust her rapier toward his forehead. Then, just as the edge of the rapier was about to touch Ace’s forehead, the terrorist said quietly, “Your Director of investigations…” and the rapier stopped midair. Ace kept on, “… is wearing a bomb powerful enough to take out Seoul in its entirety.”
Hearing that, Ji Yoo froze in place. At which point, Ace, chuckling ominously with his fist glowing with aura, took the opportunity to deliver a powerful blow to Ji Yoo’s stomach. Caught off guard, Ji Yoo took the blow, which sent her flying about thirty meters away. Seeing her rolling across the ground, Ace snickered and chucked a bomb in her direction. With the loud explosion, came a thick cloud of dust through which Ji Yoo staggered out of, her eyes gleaming and deadly.
“Why, of course! They wouldn’t call you a miscellaneous type for no reason, would they?” Ace said, looking at Ji Yoo, whose eyes were burning blue, and at her rapier surrounded by a thick layer of aura. Staring into her eyes exuding inconceivable energy, Ace started to chuckle as if he found it all too funny.
“Heeheehee! Heehee… ah… I’ll just cut to the chase and tell you. I met him when all the inmates started escaping after I blew up the Villains’ Detention Center.”
“…”
“Ji Yoo Kim, if you wanna save Seoul and all the innocent lives within it, drop your weapon,” Ace said, taking a phone out of his chest pocket. Then, he pulled up a video on and tossed the phone at Ji Yoo’s feet. The screen was showing Tae Gyum, bound and covered in blood, breathing laboriously. Seeing that, Ji Yoo, teary-eyed, dropped the rapier in her hand, and a metallic sound echoed through the streets as the sword hit the ground.
“Now that I think about it, I don’t see any of your soldiers. Where’d they go?” Ace asked, sniffling. Then, looking at Ji Yoo, he sneered and said, “Oh, I get it. You pulled them out in case there were innocent casualties. Am I right?”
Ji Yoo was frozen in place, and her eyes were fixed on the phone at her feet.
“How tragic. This country’s only hope, but completely incapable of fighting back. Heeheehee!”
Then, he threw another bomb at Ji Yoo. The blast sent Ji Yoo flying, wounding her internally.
“Hm, hm. Who should I start with first?” Ace said, humming while his gaze darted back and forth between Ji Yoo, who was on the ground vomiting blood, and Ho Sung. When he fixed his gaze on one of them, he grinned and said, “I know.”
—
“Ugh! Cough!” Ho Sung coughed, swallowing blood, which smelled like iron.
‘Damn it… This is bad,’ he thought, furrowing his brow at the sight of Ace walking toward him. Ho Sung’s injury had left him with no strength to fight back.
‘I was cocky… I should’ve kept it at stalling him. I shouldn’t have depended on my weapon so much when I’m just over level 200,’ Ho Sung thought. As impressive as Ji Yoo’s power had been, she was being swayed by the terrorist.
‘… I guess this is it,’ Ho Sung thought.
“Now, where were we? Oh, right. Torture. Exciting, isn’t it?” Ace said, spinning the hammer in his hand. Meanwhile, Ho Sung felt his body growing stiffer by the minute.
“Mark my words. I will bring hell to this little country you call home. Soon, there will be nothing left on this land but chaos, darkness, blood and death.”
Although Ho Sung’s couldn’t move a muscle, the fact that he was about to get tortured by a psychopath overwhelmed him with fear.
“All right, Ho Sung Lee. Soon, your bones will look like a boxful of jigsaw puzzles. There are plenty of potions to go around, so there should be plenty of time for you to savor the pain. All right! Here we go! I hope you’re ready!” Ace said ecstatically. Then, just as the hammer was about to come down on Ho Sung’s foot, Ho Sung started to laugh out loud.
“Ha! Haha! Hahahahahaha!”
Looking at Ho Sung, who was laughing almost maniacally by that point, Ace tilted his head while furrowing his brow.
Looking up at the terrorist with teary eyes, Ho Sung said, “Hey, Bomberman! You’re done for.”
“…?”
“I thought I wouldn’t be able to stay alive long enough to keep you distracted, but who would’ve thought you’d be such a chatterbox?”
“What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?”
“He’s here. He’s finally here,” Ho Sung said with a smile.
“Who?”
“I told you. The most unreasonable existence of this world.”
At that point, realizing that there was somebody standing behind him, Ace felt a chill run down his spine.
—
“Is this the man who’s been causing the ruckus?”
Sensing a presence behind him with some delay, Ace looked back and jumped back, startled.
“You. Ho Sung Lee. You had one job. All you had to do was give me a location, and you couldn’t do that right?” the champion said, looking down at Ho Sung, who was still on the ground, smiling wearily.
“I apologize, sir. I couldn’t get a hold of you and I couldn’t find the time to message you.”
“I was napping.”
“…”
Then, looking toward Ace, Min Sung kept on, “Forget it. Is this the man?”
“Yes, that’s him. Paul Ace. Cough! He’s the psychopath behind all the recent bombings in Seoul,” Ho Sung said laboriously while coughing. At that point, Min Sung, annoyed, glared piercingly at the terrorist.
“Are you the man who ruined my fried chicken experience?” Min Sung asked.
“Heehee… You… just don’t get it, do you?”
“Just answer the damn question,” Min Sung said, his face twisting into a scowl. When Ace blinked, the champion appeared right in front of his nose. Bending his knees slightly, Min Sung punched Ace on the thigh, sending the terrorist flying and spinning in the air like a squirrel on a wheel. Falling flat on the ground, Ace, with his mouth agape, groaned in pain, his teeth covered in blood.
“Ughhh…”
Looking down at him with cruel, ruthless eyes, Min Sung took his Orichalcon Dagger out of his inventory. Then, just as he was about to stab the terrorist, Ji Yoo screamed, “No!” At which point, Min Sung lowered his dagger and looked toward her.
“Why are you here?”
“… You can’t kill him,” Ji Yoo said laboriously, getting up to her feet.
“And why is that?”
“He put a bomb on our Director of investigations, a bomb powerful enough to take out Seoul as we know it.”
Darting back and forth between Ji Yoo and Ace, Min Sung turned toward Ho Sung, who had crawled toward the bottles of Ace’s healing potions and was drinking them.
“What are you doing?” Min Sung asked as Ho Sung rose to his feet after being healed of his wounds.
“Whew… Sir. I’ll go find the Director of Investigations.”
“You? What for?” Min Sung said, looking away from Ho Sung and glaring piercingly toward Ji Yoo instead.
“Sir…?”
“He’s your responsibility. You go get him yourself. I’ll keep this man alive in the meantime,” Min Sung said, kicking Ace on the butt while he was still groaning in pain.
“But I don’t have his location…” Ji Yoo hesitated, her expression growing darker. At that point, Min Sung grabbed Ace by the collar and picked him up. Despite groaning in pain, Ace looked down at the champion, chuckling.
“Wow! That really, really hurt. I didn’t even see it coming. You were standing pretty far away from me too.”
“The director. Where is he?”
Hearing that, Ace snorted as if overjoyed and said, “You are unbelievably strong. In fact, I almost don’t even wanna fight you. The thing is… I’m not afraid to die. Heeheehee! Let go of me this instance. Otherwise, I will set off that bom…” Before Ace finished his sentence, Min Sung slammed him on the ground and stomped on his wrist, shattering it and the asphalt underneath it.
“Aghhhhhhhh!” Ace let out in excruciating pain. Getting down to one knee, Min Sung grabbed Ace by the hair, brought him up to eye level and asked in a low voice, “The director. Where is he?”
“Ehehehe! Hehehe! You can beat me to a pulp, but it won’t change a thing. But, if you let me go…” Ace said, chuckling as if groaning in pain, his face covered in blood.
To which, the champion replied, “Why should I trust you?” and drove the Orichalcon Dagger into the back of Ace’s hand. The blade pierced and pinned the terrorist’s hand to the ground.
“Aghhhhh! Kehehe! Hehehehe! Ehehe!”
After that, Min Sung rose to his feet slowly, looked toward Ji Yoo and said, “Ji Yoo Kim, was it?”
At the sound of Min Sung’s voice, Ji Yoo looked at the champion with apprehension.
“I will settle this myself. You go back to the Institute and do what you need to do.”