Book 2: Chapter 499
He could feel the debris crushing his body.
It was about a few hundred tons. Of course, it wasn’t pressing on him directly. He had erected a thin barrier just before it fell.
Lukas pushed the debris aside with nothing but his physical strength. Krrr, the building debris and piles of dirt flowed down like a waterfall.
“Are you okay?”
“Th-, thank you…”
Pale faced, Dok Go-yun expressed his grat.i.tude.
Lukas noticed the wounds he’d suffered. It wasn’t a normal piercing injury. He knew Dok Go-yun’s martial arts. Among the techniques, there was one that was capable of regenerating almost any wound in an instant by pushing his healing factor to the limit.
There was no way he wouldn’t have tried it in a dangerous situation like this one.
In other words, the sniper must have some kind of ability or his bullets must have some component capable of hindering Dok Go-yun’s regenerative abilities.
“Kuk.”
Dok Go-yun stumbled. He reached out to help him, but he shook his head firmly. Perhaps it was because of his pride as a martial artist.
“…this.”
Looking around, Dok Go-yun let out a bewildered voice. Looking at the unfolding scene, this reaction was natural.
Just a moment ago, this place could be called a city. It was a place that had a resident population of about 10,000 individuals, a place where the society was by no means small.
All of that was smashed.
There were no buildings that still retained their shape. High rise buildings were either half smashed or completely in ruins, exposing their framework. Flames and acrid graphite soared high into the sky, covering every direction and painting the landscape blackish red.
It was chaos, a scene from h.e.l.l.
Dok Go-yun paid attention not only to the external scene but also to the deeper places.
There were probably people beneath the rubble. And even though there was enough blood soaking the ground to change its colour, there should still be many people alive.
But he couldn’t sense them.
He couldn’t even hear them.
Even though the city was like this, there was not a single scream.
The reason for that was simple.
It was simply because there was no one left alive.
Crunch.
He ground his teeth roughly.
The first priority target of the beam attacks that poured down from the sky were living beings, and they had achieved their goal perfectly.
There had to have been hundreds of thousands of people in this city, and all of them had become pools of blood.
Dok Go-yun had seen the faces of the citizens in this place.
Although the world was crazy, and the universe was dangerous, there had been no sense of danger on their faces. There were even traces of tranquillity. This was because they had no doubt that the huge island blocking the sun would protect them.
That trust had been betrayed.
The citizens died miserably, their heads crushed by the very shield that protected them.
Crack.
His fists clenched, surprising even himself.
Why was he so upset?
“Calm down. Your wounds are getting worse.”
He heard Lukas’ calm voice. Only then did Dok Go-yun realise that he was biting his lip hard enough to make it bleed.
“The person who made the city like this will pay.”
Just as Dok Go-yun was startled by the voice that felt cold and hot at the same time…
[—Greetings. Survivors.]
Suddenly, a great voice echoed in every direction. It wasn’t Diablo’s.
The voice came from above.
At the bottom of the Next Stage, in the place where the weapons that had destroyed the city had appeared just before, a large holographic screen was displayed.
The being that appeared on the screen had a rather bizarre appearance.
It looked half like a monster and half like a machine.
It was a face that Dok Go-yun knew.
“…Kiel Marlgol.”
“You know them?”
“Everyone does. He’s the leader of the Great Galactic Alliance. The owner of the largest army in the world, and a wielder of absolute power.”
Lukas narrowed his eyes.
That strange being was the leader of the Alliance?
[First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you on your survival of the first wave. However, I’d suggest you hold off on popping the champagne for now. More of you survived than I expected. This makes it hard for me to collect data.]
Did he just call that disaster the first wave?
…The first wave. That connotation was not good. There was a high probability that there would also be a second wave and a third wave.
It was only then that Lukas realised Kiel’s other ident.i.ty.
“That guy… is the founder of VIP.”
“Huh…?”
Dok Go-yun reacted as if he was dumbfounded for a moment, but soon, he realised that many things would make sense if what Lukas said was true.
Kiel continued in a calm voice.
[About 100 people. I plan to select the strongest characters and make a list. I thought of many ways to do this. I thought it would be fun to rank you according to the order you climb a tower, or hold a martial arts compet.i.tion, or just put many strong characters in the same place. But isn’t strength surprisingly subjective? For example, if the matchup is good, it is possible to win against an enemy even with a severe power difference. I don’t think that would be good.]
Kiel’s voice was very annoying.
This wasn’t because his tone was unpleasant to listen to, but because the voice of a devil who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people was unpleasant to listen to.
[That’s why I decided to inflict impartial disasters. According to my calculations, after a total of seven waves, there should only be around 100 survivors. Plus, the first wave wasn’t just started in ‘that land’ that you are standing on. This video is being broadcasted simultaneously to 1,263 regions.]
“…crazy.”
Even Dok Go-yun, who was familiar with ma.s.sacres, disasters, and living h.e.l.ls couldn’t help but let out such a word.
The 1,263 regions mentioned were probably the regions where the Great Galactic Alliance’s influence was the strongest.
If all of those regions experienced a similar bombardment, then 99 percent of the people living in them were probably dead.
[Please survive to the en-]
Crack!
Kiel’s voice was cut off before it could finish.
Dok Go-yun saw a blue flash cover the sky.
“…!”
At first, he thought it was just a burst of light. As if someone on the ground had used some device to project the light. But it wasn’t.
That was a sword slash.
Crack-
It wasn’t just the holographic image.
The bottom of the [Next Stage], which covered the city, was cut in half.
“…!”
Lukas couldn’t help but lose composure for a moment.
The reason was different from Dok Go-yun.
This was because Lukas knew who had unleashed that devastating slash.
“Pale?”
He could feel it.
Somewhere in the city, an aura was gradually being released. It was Pale.
…No.
The presence had already become that of the Blue Knight, not Pale.
She had revealed her strength now.
‘Why?’
Did the bombardment make her mad? However, it wouldn’t have been able to burn even a single one of Pale’s hairs.
For Pale, the bombardment unleashed by the Next Stage would be nothing more than the buzzing of mosquitoes, which would be annoying at best. But Pale fought back to the extent of even becoming the Blue Knight.
‘…it’s different.’
Something had happened.
Lukas pondered the possibilities for a short time and was soon able to make a guess that was most likely to be right.
‘-b.u.t.terfly.’
Right.
Something must have happened to b.u.t.terfly. That was the only thing it could be.
She was either in a critical condition, or…
“…huu.”
The situation was not good.
The Next Stage had revealed its true colours, there were several absolute level powerhouses in the hotel, and Yang In-hyun’s location was still unknown.
Moreover, the bomb known as Pale had finally exploded, making the situation worse.
‘Everyone might not have died.”
Lukas murmured.
“Huh?”
“Even if only a few, there are still people alive in this city. Those who had the ability to do so, and those who were lucky.”
“…”
Lukas put his hand on Dok Go-yun’s shoulder.
“Save them.”
“Then sir Lukasajin…”
“There’s something I have to do.”
After hesitating for a moment, Dok Go-yun nodded with a determined expression.
“Be careful.”
“You too. Ah, and…”
Looking at Dok Go-yun, who was about to turn around, he said.
“My name is Lukas. It’s not Lukasajin.”
“…understood, sir Lukas.”
Dok Go-yun smiled and disappeared.
Lukas then turned his gaze forward.
In this city where almost every building had collapsed, or crumbled into debris, there was only one building that was in good condition.
The Lake Hotel.
…Diablo’s voice could no longer be heard. The sniper’s presence had disappeared as well.
But Lukas could feel the gazes of strong beings in the hotel looking towards his direction.
Whoosh-
Just as the sound of hot breeze blowing sounded, Lukas realised that two beings had surrounded him.
“This is the guy. The one that was spying on us.”
“What do you know, it’s a human.”
They were two monsters with huge bodies.
One of them looked like an orc, and the other looked like a goblin. Of course, the power that he could feel from them was not enough to rank them among true monsters.
It was ridiculous.
Absolute level beings that looked like this.
“Is this the guy [Headhunter] took aim at?”
“It should be this guy’s companion. With the power this guy is showing, he wouldn’t be able to take a shot from Headhunter. He would have died long ago.”
“That’s true.”
“Ay, human. Are all your companions dead?”
It was pitiful. Although he didn’t have any prejudices based on their appearances, their tone and att.i.tude were so crude that he didn’t even want to mix words with them.
Their voices reeked like rotten pus.
“I will spare one of you. Choose who will die.”
So he didn’t want to carry on the conversation for too long.
“What? Hahaha.”
“Crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”
Just as they began to sneer.
“…huh?”
The orc suddenly had a strange feeling. With a strange expression, he groped his face.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Something feels strange…”
He couldn’t continue.
A faint line formed from the orc monster’s forehead to his groyne, then, he split into two pieces along that line.
Blood, guts and pieces of flesh scattered haphazardly on the city rubble.
“Huh? Jumbo?”
The goblin monster made a dumb sound. It seemed that he still hadn’t understood the situation. Then, all of his limbs were crushed at the same time. The goblin monster’s screams blended with the terrifying sound of its muscles and bones being smashed.
“Shut it.”
Lukas walked over to the goblin as he spoke.
“Huk, huk… wh-, what’s going on… I didn’t feel anything…”
“That’s right. It happened in a world that you don’t even know about and that you’ll never be able to step into.”
He scrutinised the monster’s face.
Then, clearly seeing the fear in his eyes, Lukas opened his mouth.
“Spill all the details about the people in the hotel.”
* * *
[It’s started.]
The Demon King muttered.
In the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Lake Hotel.
At the long rectangular table sat not only the Demon King, but also Diablo, whom he’d had a conversation with last time.
Apart from them were also more people.
Members of VIP.
Every one of them was an absolute level being who could be counted among the strongest in this universe.
“The wave started earlier than he said. Was this Kiel’s arbitrary decision?”
The speaker was a small man with a single eye. Although he was only about 1 metre tall, this dwarf was also a member of VIP. In other words, he was also one of the beings who had the ‘voting right to determine the 100 strongest beings’.
“We should go [up] instead.”
A beautiful woman with uncommon pink hair smiled as she said that.
“I heard there are hundreds of monitors there. I feel like my skin will rot if there is no sunlight.”
“Shut up about your skin problems. I care more about those guys.”
“Who? Ah. You mean the ones from the ones from the [dumpsite]?”
The beauty put her hand on her chin with a sullen expression.
“I honestly don’t know, Archlich. The kids are needlessly scared because of you.”
“Who’s scared? It just bothers me… One of the 12 Void Lords and one of the Four Knights. To be honest, I don’t know why you rate them so highly.”
The eyes of those sitting at the table turned to Diablo, but he remained silent.
“They defeated the [Seven Fanged Dragon G.o.d]. But what about that? The Dragon G.o.d didn’t become weaker because they lost in the World of Void. They lost because they were already weak. To put it bluntly, it wouldn’t be hard for any of us to defeat the Dragon G.o.d of that time.”
“Still, didn’t one of them kill [Jumbo and Manbo] that you just sent?”
“If they couldn’t even kill those guys, I wouldn’t have brought them up in the first place.”
[…]
“Why haven’t you said anything? It’s not like not having a tongue means you can’t talk.”
“That’s enough.”
A dragonman with crystal-like scales tapped his finger on the table as he spoke.
Three images appeared in the dark s.p.a.ce, displaying Lukas, Yang In-hyun, and Pale.
“How about this? We will go see how strong they are.”