Chapter 170. Queen (1)
Dracar tilted his head. We had discussed most of what we needed to know. Still, there was one thing he didn’t understand.
“…Then, what about me? Why did you catch me? If you had said that from the beginning, we wouldn’t have had to fight, right?”
Of course, he was the first to attack, saying that they were invaders. But on the way, he realized that they were the challengers and tried to have a conversation. However, Cheon-ma and Yoon-seok continued to counterattack silently. All he could think of was that this was a trap aimed at him.
How the hell did it get to this point? Yoon-seok answered as he agonized over it.
“It was an accident.”
“…An accident? You just said it was an accident?”
Dracar suddenly screamed. The armor that had been growing by investing almost all of his assets as he climbed to the 25th floor was destroyed, torn in half. Furthermore, he was threatened with having his toenails pulled out before having his toes cut off.
“Yeah, it must have been an accident! Fuck, you guys are crazy bastards who killed the Guardian Dragon in an accident! It should have been an accident!”
“…We had no choice but to recognize you as an enemy.”
“Damn it!”
The heat was rising. However, Dracar knew that in the current complicated situation, it was difficult to judge from only one side. Dracar showed superhuman patience as he calmed down.
“Anyway, did you just say it was an accident?”
“Yes. It was an accident caused by a misunderstanding.”
“Then you won’t stop me even if I try to leave now, right? It was an accident, and all the misunderstandings were resolved.”
Dracar spat out those words, snorting. Yoon-seok was at a bit of a loss. This guy wanted to leave because the misunderstanding had been resolved? It might be the right way to deal with it, however…
He had no intention of letting his prey go. Dracar must be by his side until the cooldown time of b Predation} was reset. However, if he knew this, he would desperately try to escape.
“Didn’t you say that you were dragged here by chance? Is there any way to go back to where you were?”
“I will activate the return system on my mechanical suit. The Guardian Dragon is dead, and there is no dimensional wall, so it will be easy to return.”
“…I see.”
Yoon-seok smacked his lips again and shook his head. He couldn’t believe there was a way to go back. It was annoying, but there was still room for persuasion. Yoon-seok turned to where the half-shattered suit lay. Cheon-ma, who left because the conversation was boring, was fiddling around with it, looking here and there.
Yoon-seok asked in a worried voice.
“Will it still work even if it’s like that? Even if it brings you back, you wouldn’t be able to fight in that state.”
It was a matter of whether he was confident that he would survive even if the return system worked. However…
“There is an emergency repair kit in the subspace. Well, in that state, it would cost a lot of money, but in this situation, my choice puts me between a rock and a hard place.”
There was a way to repair it. Yoon-seok began to frown without realizing it. He tried to convince Dracar to remain here voluntarily. But, at this rate…
‘In the end, I have no choice but to use force.’
There was only one option left. Yoon-seok gently placed his hand on his sword handle. Although he didn’t feel like resorting to it, this was the surest way. Without the armor, Dracar wasn’t a threat. As long as Yoon-seok maintained him in a coma, he wouldn’t make any noise either. Having decided that, Yoon-seok was about to take action-
“Butchery.”
When in the distance, Cheon-ma chanted a soft command.
* * *
The armor was six meters tall. Yoon-seok still didn’t know what kind of technology was required to make something like this. However, considering that it took thousands of parts to build a single car, it would require tens of thousands to craft precise and powerful armor.
Just like this
Baaaaaaang-! Clank! Thud-thud-thud.
Tens of thousands of parts scattered as the armor was disassembled in seconds. Come to think of it, this scene was quite familiar, just like during the Guardian Dragon accident. It was like when you opened a treasure chest in a game. However, it wasn’t a pleasant response that it evoked.
“…”
Yoon-seok first looked at Dracar’s expression. His lips were trembling with an expression that wondered if this were reality. Yoon-seok turned his gaze to Cheon-ma again. She was smiling brightly, holding several parts up.
“It’s the first time I’ve gotten this much from one guy! I don’t know where they are used, but I think there are about twenty of them!”
The name of the skill she just used was Butchery. It referred to the act of obtaining meat or leather from livestock. The description of it in the store wasn’t much different. So how did the skill Butchery disassemble mechanical equipment made of alien alloys? He already guessed the answer.
‘Characteristic.’
Her whopping A-Rank Butchery no longer discriminated against whether the target was a living thing or inorganic material.
“Here, take it. One egg is enough for me.”
Cheon-ma strolled over and handed off the parts she had picked up. Yoon-seok, now holding a handful, put it in his subspace bag first. Even at that moment, the original owner of the dismantled armor kept repeating the same words over and over with blank eyes.
“How much… how much will it cost to…”
Seeing that, Yoon-seok could expect a rough answer, but he thought it best to ask.
“…Can you fix this too?”
Madness exploded out half a beat later.
“…Huahaha! Whoahahahahahah!”
He couldn’t understand what he was saying, but… it seemed like it was impossible.
* * *
After Dracar’s mechanical suit was ‘butchered,’ he laughed like a madman for a while before passing out. Yoon-seok grabbed his aching forehead.
‘Why did this happen again…?’
Since the beginning of the 21st-floor Mission Dimensional War, nothing had gone as expected, and it was the same this time. That armor above SS Rank had been turned into junk. Yoon-seok sighed as he looked to Cheon-ma, who soon lost interest again and left to lead the Expedition.
“Haah.”
There were two things obtained from butchering Dracar’s armor. The first thing was that Dracar wouldn’t leave this Expedition, even without Yoon-seok relying on force. The second was about twenty mechanical parts that had been turned into high-ranked rare materials. Thanks to the considerable quantity, he might receive proper equipment if he used it on b Metallurgy}’s [Crafting], however…
If he had known this would be the case, Yoon-seok would have stopped it. If it wasn’t for Butchery in the first place, he might have been able to take the whole armor instead of just a few parts.
‘She did it with good intention without knowing anything, and I can’t blame her for this…’
This was also an accident. If she had known of b Predation}’s effect, she wouldn’t have done this. Yoon-seok decided to think as positively as possible. No matter how upset he was, he couldn’t change it. Besides, if it hadn’t been for the ticket given to him by Cheon-ma, he wouldn’t have come here anyway, and he wouldn’t have been able to subdue Dracar. The difficulty level had also soared due to Cheon-ma’s unexpected behavior, so something more coveted than Dracar’s abilities might appear.
Holding those expectations, Yoon-seok decided to focus on the mission.
“Sob-sob.”
Dracar didn’t wake up until the eighth day. He continued to weep, and when someone tried to ask a question, he answered back:
“Everyone is going to die anyway. What’s the point?”
As a result, Jin Mu-zhen was furious, saying he would pluck off his limbs, but the threat no longer worked. Rather, he smiled as if he was asking him to try. Because of that, everyone agreed that he must have gone insane.
However, Yoon-seok caught one thing. When Dracar was shouting that everyone would die, he was looking straight into his eyes. That meant he truly thought so.
“Don’t worry too much, young master. Most Pygmies see only what they want to see and believe only what they want to believe.”
Despite Jin Mu-zhen’s advice, Dracar’s words somehow kept bothering him.
The ninth, tenth, and eleventh days passed by. As time flowed on, Yoon-seok changed his mind. It was kind of annoying, but should he say he couldn’t do it? Seeing that Dracar was so desperate, it didn’t seem like there would be any way to push him. So, Yoon-seok decided to focus only on what he could do right away.
“Fufufu. Since your mana and mine have been combined, Chaos Red Devil Dragon will certainly grow strong.”
Except for occasionally taking care of the egg at Cheon-ma’s request, Yoon-seok spent all his time slaughtering the invaders and searching for special challenges. Despite Dracar’s curse, everything proceeded smoothly. Although he did not find a special challenge, he killed many invaders so that he could look forward to the reward afterward.
“Oh, it has been a long time!”
Yoon-seok, reminiscing, turned his head to the voice he heard beside him: Jeffrey Vetra. He looked at Yoon-seok with an awkward smile.
“Do you have anything to say?”
Even the words ‘the worst’ weren’t enough to describe the first impressions of Cheon-ma and Yoon-seok, who cut off the Expedition Leader’s head on the first day and had them democratically vote (?). Of course, thanks to Cheon-ma’s efforts, the expedition members were following her well, overshadowing that first impression.
Yet Jeffrey still couldn’t deal with the two easily. That was why Yoon-seok was quite curious why he suddenly approached him first.
“It’s about the time! Isn’t it already the thirtieth day…?”
It had been quite some time since they entered this dark zone where all light was sucked away. They would be on the thirtieth day in the next three or four hours, at which point they would be moved to the space where the final boss, the Queen, was.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Yoon-seok decided to cut to the chase. Jeffrey hesitated a moment.
“I took the liberty because I thought we wouldn’t have time to talk if it wasn’t now. I have a suggestion for you.”
“What is it?”
“I am from the Freden Kingdom. Ah, Freden is a magic-oriented country in Seheranbad…”
“That’s enough; speak comfortably.”
Jeffrey gulped but complied, speaking quickly.
“If possible, I’d like to invite you there.”
In short, he wanted to scout Yoon-seok as the Kartan Empire had. Jeffrey then tried to mention the benefits they could offer, but Yoon-seok stopped him.
“I have no intention of going anywhere else, so let’s end this here.”
“B-but…”
“Even if I did, wouldn’t it be better to go to Moorim than somewhere else?”
First of all, Yoon-seok was known there as a co-sect leader. And no matter what the size of the Freden Kingdom was, it was unlikely they could rival the Demon Cult in power. Above all, unlike this kingdom he didn’t know of, there was little risk of being betrayed.
“Oh, yes, yes! Indeed. I’m sorry. I’ll leave now.”
Jeffrey stepped down. Once he was gone, Yoon-seok placed the back of his left hand against Dracar’s cheek, who was now lying limp. A message appeared, marking that the cooldown time for the duel function was still 8 hours away.
“I’ll have to ask Cheon-ma a favor too. Please don’t finish early.”
After the 30th day started, he would need a few more hours to use b Predation}. However, if she killed the Queen before that, his efforts would be in vain.
Yoon-seok approached Cheon-ma.
“I have a favor to ask of you if you don’t mind.”
“What is it?”
“If the Queen appears, please don’t kill her right away. She needs to stay alive until I tell you…”
Yoon-seok stopped speaking. The dark space around them shook violently, and even though no one ordered it, the Expedition members drew their weapons and fanned out.
That moment.
—Kyaahahaha, kyahahahahahahaha!
A woman’s laughter rang out.
—…Did you say don’t kill me right away?
A frightening voice reached Yoon-seok’s ears. He knew who the owner of this voice was right away.
—As expected, you’re a funny kid to watch
It was the final boss of this mission, the Queen. Even though he could only hear her voice from afar, he felt it instinctively.
“Is it because of this?”
Why did Dracar say everyone would die? How important were the Guardian Dragon and the former Expedition Leader on this Mission?
—Heheheh, I can’t stand it anymore…!
Darkness crept all over him. That was all.
But what was this?
[You died.]
[The Old Pocket Watch (Rank S+) returns the owner to 5 minutes ago.]
Yoon-seok doubted his eyes. Even though he read and re-read the message that appeared, at some point, he had begun to look down on his body from a third person’s point of view. Time was rewinding around him.
He didn’t understand any of it.
‘I’m dead…?’
Really? Far from doing anything, he didn’t feel anything. Did he lose one life just like this? Even the ability of b Immortal} wasn’t triggered.
However, there was something else that he couldn’t understand.
—Go ahead and die. You’ll come back to life anyway. There are so many stories to tell you when you wake up.
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