Chapter 102
Chapter 102
It was the cry of a person who had suddenly fallen from the high point of his life . The pent-up anger overflowed . Soobin’s words strongly expressed his frustration . When a person complained about their lot in life, usually, the listener expressed pity . On the other hand, it could also lead to negative emotions rising within the listener . Everyone felt a different emotion depending on their mentality on life .
Of course, Sungyoon wasn"t an exception . When he heard Soobin’s words, Sungyoon had a single thought .
‘So what?’
He felt complete apathy .
‘That’s your lot in life . ’
He couldn"t afford to sympathize and feel sorry for Soobin . He couldn’t afford to ridicule him either . It wasn’t as if he couldn’t understand why the man had cried out in anger and frustration . However, Sungyoon wished Soobin would say this in front of someone else other than him .
Soobin was complaining to a person that couldn’t afford to sympathize with him .
Still, Sungyoon didn’t stop Soobin from talking . His rant about his lot in life gave Sungyoon some time to think .
When it seemed Soobin had vented to his heart’s content and was starting to wind down, Sungyoon made an offhand remark .
“Ms . Jimin didn’t look down on you, yet you ignored her . You left . Do you have the right to speak such words?”
Sungyoon wasn’t being sarcastic, nor had he spoken out of moral superiority . He just wanted to extend this conversation .
Fortunately, Soobin fell for his plan .
“Ah! Hahn Jimin!”
He smiled . It didn’t matter how many times one saw his smile . The smile would remain ugly .
“I did receive a lot of help from her . She was a good woman . If she had become my woman, I would have reconsidered my plans to leave her company . ”
As expected, Soobin had made a pa.s.s at Jimin .
“That woman had a large part in why I was able to gather these Gems . She would give me a couple of lower rank Gems, and I would trade them for a higher rank Gem . I used that method to gather a lot of these Gems . ”
When he heard this, Sungyoon’s mood soured a little bit . Soobin spoke as if these low-rank Gems were no big deal, but Jimin had poured a lot of money and effort into acquiring them . She had done it to hold onto a gleam of hope in finding traces of her father . At the very least, he shouldn’t be saying these words since he had backstabbed her .
“If I think about it, those were the good days . My power grew every day, and I made a lot of money . Moreover, a pretty woman like Jimin was giving everything she had to me . Well, she completely blocked me from approaching her in a more personal manner . ”
Soobin’s eyes became a bit unfocused . He started recounting memories from the good old days .
Sungyoon’s hands twitched . He had been about to catch Soobin off his guard, but, unfortunately, Soobin broke out of his reveries in an instant .
“However . It’s fine now . I can return to the past once again . I can return to those good old days . ”
Soobin’s eyes started to see the reality . No, to be precise, he was seeing a delusion overlaid with the label of reality .
“She turned me down from re-entering her company . But what would happen if you disappeared? She would become really discouraged if the Connector, whom she considered her last hope, was no longer there . She’d have a hard time turning me down when I tell her I want to join her company . It is a foregone conclusion . I’ve become amazing now . ”
Soobin let out a creepy laugh .
“This time, I’ll be sure to crush her underneath me!”
Soobin loudly laughed . It seemed he was having a good time just talking about it .
“Let’s end this now . I can see you slowly starting to make your move . It is annoying . ”
‘I got caught . ’
Sungyoon had been giving suitable responses to Soobin’s words as he was about to move towards the Gold Gem . He paused for a moment .
‘What’s the distance?’
It was still far away . Even if he started running right now, before he could grab the Gold Gem, his attacker would catch up to him .
When he came to this conclusion, Sungyoon started to run back deeper into the labyrinth .
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You can’t run away from me!”
Soobin extended his hand towards Sungyoon, who turned around to look when he heard those words .
‘That’s the pose . ’
He started to count inside his head .
Boom!
His body turned heavy once again .
‘It takes him around 5 seconds . ’
The casting of a spell coincided with the time needed to activate a Gem . Basically, Soobin needed over 5 seconds to activate his Gem .
‘Even if he has other Gems, he won’t be able to use them for 5 seconds . ’
He had acquired another piece of information . However, he had to endure a great deal of danger in order to gain this information . The danger came calling .
“Hahhhhhhht!”
Soobin swung his halberd towards the sluggish Sungyoon . Sungyoon had been prepared for this, and he gritted his teeth as he raised his s.h.i.+eld . He had known his weight would increase, so he made adjustments for it . This was why he was barely able to raise his s.h.i.+eld in front of the halberd .
Kwahhhhng!
A violent force hit him .
‘s.h.i.+t!’
Sungyoon cursed . Even though he had expected it, he didn’t feel good seeing his s.h.i.+eld shatter . This s.h.i.+eld had saved his life multiple times .
‘I’ll have to apologize to Ms . Emily . ’
His optimistic thoughts felt out of place right now . Sungyoon was sent flying backward again, and he rolled across the floor .
Ssssk!
The gravity went away . Sungyoon immediately stood up .
‘It takes about 6 seconds for the hypergravity to disappear . ’
He gained another piece of information and put it away inside his brain .
Since he had always fought with a s.h.i.+eld in hand, his hand felt empty . Sungyoon prepared for the worst by grabbing the mace with both hands as he raised his guard against Soobin, who slowly walked towards him .
‘As expected, he is playing with me . ’
It was as he had thought . Soobin didn’t plan on just ending this fight . The fact that Soobin completely dismissed him as a threat should have been insulting . However, Sungyoon preferred this . Soobin playing with his prey meant that he would make mistakes . Sungyoon would be able to take advantage of it .
‘If that is true . . . ’
Sungyoon extended his hand to the side, acting as if he was trying to concentrate on activating his Gem . However, his eyes remained on Soobin .
It seemed Soobin looked amused by his gesture . He didn’t move to stop Sungyoon .
‘Good . ’
Sungyoon was fortunate . He had been worried the man would just rush him .
After several dozen seconds . . .
Hoo-oong!
A spear appeared in Sungyoon’s hand . He unsummoned his mace and aimed the spear at Soobin .
Soobin ridiculed him .
“What the h.e.l.l? It took you this much time to summon a single spear? It seems you can only activate a Gem slowly . Pathetic! I only need 5 seconds to activate a Gem!”
Sungyoon furrowed his brows . He hadn’t taken offense at Soobin’s words .
‘I gambled and lost my s.h.i.+eld in order to find out his Gem activation time . . . ’
Soobin didn’t hold back the information . He had just given the information to Sungyoon . By the look of Soobin’s att.i.tude, Sungyoon would only need to ask whatever he wanted to know, and Soobin would have proudly revealed everything to him .
‘Should I consider it fortunate that he has a big mouth?’
However, carelessness was his greatest enemy . Soobin was capable of dispensing information like a dandelion seed dispersing into the air . But although he had revealed favorable information to Sungyoon, their power difference was too large for Sungyoon to take advantage . The information blathered out by Soobin could only close the gap between the two of them by a bit .
Sungyoon gulped . He couldn’t run away since Soobin possessed the Gem containing the gravity spell . He had to somehow win through a frontal attack .
Of course, considering the quality of Gems he possessed, it was a ludicrous idea .
‘I have to be ready . ’
He had laid out his overall plan . It wasn’t much of a plan . If luck and circ.u.mstances didn’t roll in his favor, he would be slaughtered before he could do anything . It was a plan that wasn’t really a plan . It was a gamble .
However, he couldn’t die like this .
‘I have to go see s.h.i.+nhae no matter what!’
He thought about his lovely daughter’s face as he made the resolve .
“Finally, it seems you are ready to fight . ”
Soobin sounded very satisfied with this .
Soobin didn’t consider this to be a fight or a battle . His opponent has grown quickly, but he was only a Connector that had just graduated the Beginner’s Labyrinth . In terms of battle experience and the rank of his Gems, Sungyoon couldn’t touch Soobin . It might have been a different story if Soobin was like his previous self, who wept at his own limitations . However, he had acquired ma.s.sive power now .
‘If I kill this b.a.s.t.a.r.d, he said he’d give me more Blood Gems . ’
It really was a fantastical power . Everything changed from having this one Gem .
It was a Gem that defied common sense . It allowed him to escape his normal rank . He could activate it just from equipping it . The number and the rank of the Gems he could activate increased by a lot, and his activation time had tremendously shortened . Moreover, as the Gem absorbed more blood from monsters, his abilities would increase .
‘If I can acquire more of these . . . !’
Just the thought of it made him happy . If it would allow him to acquire a b.l.o.o.d.y Gem, he was willing to kill a human that he felt jealous of .
Boom!
Soobin’s halberd and Sungyoon’s overclocked spear clashed . However, Soobin’s halberd was capable of destroying an overclocked Blue s.h.i.+eld with several blows . The spear had just risen to its Indigo rank, so it couldn’t contend with the halberd .
After clas.h.i.+ng twice against the halberd, a crack started to form on the spear blade . Moreover, Soobin’s enormous strength meant Sungyoon’s spear could be deflected from a distance . To make things worse, the halberd’s reach was similar to the reach of the spear .
Kwah-jeek!
“Ahhhhhk!”
The halberd’s blade embedded itself in Sungyoon’s left shoulder . Sungyoon screamed .
Grin!
Sungyoon’s scream sounded like the sweet music from a beautiful woman . Soobin grinned . He let out a bright smile of satisfaction .
“What? You are screaming at a wound of this size? A promising 1st Gen Connector shouldn’t scream like that . ”
Soobin retracted the halberd and blood dripped from its blade .
Sungyoon gripped his wound as he fell to his knee . The area around his wound felt hot as if he had suffered a burn . Blood flowed past his fingers .
‘It’s fine . This is fine . It is a much shallower wound than what I had expected . ’
Sungyoon desperately tried to give himself a pep talk . He knew he couldn’t get out of this situation without taking any damage . He even thought about purposefully getting injured . It would make Soobin underestimate him even more .
He was doing much better than the worst-case scenario he had imagined . If he had been unlucky, he would have received an injury that would have rendered him unable to fight . When he put it in context, he had received just the right amount of damage .
Sungyoon didn’t look away from Soobin as he placed the spear on the floor . However, he kept it within his reach .
In that state, he acted as if he was focusing for several dozen seconds . As expected, Soobin waited for him .
Sssk!
A mace appeared in Sungyoon’s hand, and he immediately unsummoned his spear .
“You are using a mace this time? I guess you can’t handle the spear with just one hand .
When Sungyoon got up with his mace in his hand, Soobin got into his battle stance . He looked like a cat playing with an already captured mouse . He playfully swung his halberd as he approached Sungyoon .
Sungyoon endured the pain as he glared at his enemy .
‘The pieces have been set to the best of my abilities . ’
By receiving an injury, Sungyoon had tricked Soobin into thinking that he was a prey, along with planting the false information about himself .
He had only a single moment to turn the tables on Soobin . Sungyoon made his resolve .
“Ha-aht!”
He purposely let out a loud roar as he ran towards Soobin . Unlike him, Soobin still moved in a leisurely manner .
He swung his mace with all his might, but . . .
Kah-ahng!
His prey could only use one arm, and he was suffering under the pain from the wound . There was no way his attack would be effective . Soobin’s halberd easily deflected Sungyoon’s mace .
A cruel smile appeared on Soobin’s lips .
However, this was the moment . Sungyoon had been aiming for it .
His weapon had been deflected, and he was suffering under a wound . But, his enemy had completely taken him lightly .
‘Now!’
A spear appeared in Sungyoon’s hand . It was an instant summon with no delay . Shock appeared on Soobin’s face . However, Sungyoon didn’t even bother checking Soobin’s face . He stabbed with his spear .
Poo-oohk!
The spear blade pierced into Soobin"s right forearm where his armor didn’t offer any protection .
“Ggoo-oohk!”
Until now, Soobin had been letting out a cruel and coa.r.s.e laugh . But now, his face crumpled from the pain he felt . Sungyoon didn’t hesitate to take over the reins of the current situation .
He forcefully moved his injured left arm so that he could grab the spear shaft with both hands . He put more strength into the attack .
Koo-jeek!
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhk!”
The spear blade moved deeper, and it completely pierced through Soobin’s arm . Blood sprayed out from the wound .