Chapter 166 : Chapter 166

Chapter 166 - Sacrifice (1)

Altair Lancester's immortality ability was actually quite a bit more annoying than one might think.

In fact, aside from her combat power, she was famous for a boss fight that dragged on for a staggering six phases, even when scouring the entire game.

And that was due to a regenerative ability that was described as almost immortal depending on the branching path.

As the phases progressed, her regenerative power increased, so in the final phase, if the character's specs were lacking, the damage couldn't keep up with the speed at which the boss's health bar filled, making it structurally impossible to clear in some cases.

In that sense.

It meant that the scene unfolding here now was something I couldn't help.

“...Wooooow...”

“Wow... This is... really...”

I just shrugged my shoulders at the people around me staring at me with speechless expressions.

Well, I wasn't the type to enjoy bloodshed if I could help it.

But when it came to this one, my reaction was a little different.

“So, it would have been nice if you had just given up when a limb or two was blown off.”

I spoke calmly to the one whose entire body was bound by barbed wire.

If it was suppression using an 'ability', she would gain resistance to it with just one use, but surprisingly, just using barbed wire, which can be commonly found in daily life, could block most of her 'regeneration'.

The sharp points pressing down on all of her flesh had the effect of stopping it with a simple measure.

Well, it wasn't just simply wrapping it around; I had to grasp all of her mana veins and wrap it tightly, but still, this wasn't too difficult.

Because I had the Observation skill.

“You kept resisting so unbelievably that I had to saw everything up and ‘package’ it.”

If I hadn't stopped the bleeding in the middle of the work with a rubber hose, it probably would have been a mess.

In fact, it was used more to ‘package’ them separately.

Just in case, I sprinkled oil on the severed surfaces and carefully seared each one with a Zippo lighter.

Doing this would also prevent them from suddenly being drawn to each other like magnets and reattaching.

As a result, ta-da.

After separating all the limbs and head from the torso and packaging them nicely.

She became Altair in six pieces!

“...”

“...”

I just smiled at the gazes around me that looked at me as if I were a madman, as I had nothing to say.

Ah, it just happened to turn out this way.

I don't want to explain, so just accept it.

“...No, you didn't even use two Chapters' worth of content against the strongest climber in history. Are you kidding me, really?”

I scratched my head and retorted at Seo Ah-in's meta-commentary.

“Well, that can happen, can’t it?”

“Shouldn't you at least explain it properly so people can understand?!”

Man. You're being annoying.

“Alright. Then I’ll show you how I did it.”

I unwound the rubber hose and barbed wire and reattached the severed head to Altair’s torso.

Since this wasn’t enough, I also stuck one arm to her torso.

“...Ugh, guuuh...!”

She was certainly a tenacious life force, seeing as she came to her senses with just that.

Even though they had seen her revive several times, the people around were reacting with astonishment.

“Is that thing, ever going to die?”

“Well... I don't know either.”

I tilted my head and answered.

In the route where she appeared as the final boss, she was dealt with by throwing her into lava and putting a lid on it so she couldn't crawl out.

She was described as a being that was impossible to kill.

“And you packaged her like a six-piece ham.”

Right. So how did I do that?

“You bastard...! I’ll kill you...!”

Perhaps because only her head and arm were attached to her torso, her thinking ability seemed to have degenerated a little, as Altair raised her arm with a more slurred speech than before.

And with just that state, a spell that seemed capable of crushing a city was formed at her fingertips.

Even though I had been clashing with things like that until just now, the monstrousness didn't seem to have diminished in the slightest. I could feel the faces of the people watching it turn a little pale.

“Hup-cha.”

And I shattered it with a punch filled with spirit.

“...”

“...”

I ignored the people around me staring at me with narrowed eyes for now.

Altair staggered from the rebound of the spell being shattered before it was even formed, and in the meantime, I slammed Netherworld's Grasp into her to seal her mana usage.

By disabling her like this beforehand and then cutting her up and packaging her, I could easily suppress her.

See. It’s easy, right?

“...So.”

Seo Ah-in sighed deeply and continued.

“You defeated a climber with at least hundreds of years of combat experience... with just your bare hands and a few skills, without any equipment?”

“Right.”

“And you sealed a person whom no one had ever succeeded in killing until now using 20,000 won worth of items from a hardware store.”

“That’s right.”

“Are you serious, really?!”

“...Why.”

“You're just tired of everything now, aren't you?! Huh?! What was the point of getting stronger all this time if you were going to do this?!”

“...”

Why was she the one getting angry when I was the one who won?

Well, to be honest, this one was on the easier side to deal with because her style was to hand over most of the combat initiative to her Pseudo-Observation skill.

In other words, my very existence was a counter to her.

She wasn't even an opponent I would have a hard-fought victory against from the start.

“...Maybe Kim Gyu-sik-ssi, that, you know. He doesn’t have the ability to consider things like empathy, objectivity, or the sage-like realization people feel when they see a monster...”

“That's right.”

“...”

While a strange consensus was forming in the outfield, I casually packed Altair’s remains into the now-empty plastic bag, having used all the items inside.

The expressions of the people around me turned a little uncomfortable as they saw me stacking a human body as if I were grocery shopping, but I paid them no mind.

“...Why are you taking that too?”

“Why am I taking it?”

I answered indifferently.

Well, her immortality was the main culprit that skyrocketed the clear difficulty.

But if used well, it was a trait that could also become an explosive ‘catalyst’ in other ways.

“Now I have to go reduce the clear time with this.”

It meant that I could use it to greatly shorten something that would have originally taken a very long time.

***

It could be said that absorbing the life force of a healthy human being was a very long-standing cliché when it came to demon summoning rituals.

It wasn't for nothing that kidnapping people and using them in strange rituals was the representative image of a demon worshipper.

“So, as far as I know, doesn't it take about 200 million human life forces to summon the King of Flies, probably?”

“...”

A look of ‘Why do you know that in more detail than I do?’ appeared on Raven’s face.

“What are you staring at.”

“No. I’ve been researching for hundreds of years, but to see you casually spit out a detail that I haven’t even finished calculating yet is a bit...”

So what.

I’m not generous enough to care about your feelings.

“It should be fine to extract 200 million people's worth of life force from this one. I don't think she'll die even if it goes that far.”

I said that and grinned as I held out Altair, who was disassembled like Lego parts, ‘in the bag’.

At this, Raven took it with a reluctant expression and looked back and forth between me and the bag.

“What.”

“No. It seems certain now.”

“What is.”

“Even by my standards as a demon follower, you are a demon yourself.”

What nonsense.

“Yes. I agree.”

“Agreed.”

“I agree with that.”

“...”

The women in the outfield.

Why are you guys agreeing with that?

“Wouldn't it be better to put your hand on your heart and ask yourself that...?”

Hearing a dejected voice from nearby, I turned my head to see Kim Kang-in looking this way with a dumbfounded expression.

No, why you too.

“You told me to warm up because I’d be useful soon, so I warmed up diligently, but there’s nothing for me to even put a spoon on.”

“It’s not necessary to deploy someone like you, sunbae-nim, on such an easy task. It’s something I can handle on my own.”

“...”

No, it’s really like that.

In the first place, deploying Kim Kang-in on something I could handle on my own like this was an over-investment like no other.

He was a card that could only be used once.

“Then where on earth are you planning to use me?”

“Why are you asking something so obvious.”

I pointed at Raven, who was drawing a formation on the floor with a blank expression.

“I’m going to use you against the thing that’s going to pop out of there.”

Kim Kang-in looked at the formation, then at me, and then up at the sky.

A deep sigh scattered billowed.

“...I have a mountain of questions I want to ask, but for now, just one.”

“Go ahead.”

“The thing you’re summoning, isn’t it the King of Flies?”

“That’s right?”

“...The great demon whose release is said to be the end of the world. Right?”

“So?”

“Then why is no one around even trying to stop you, even though they know that?”

As Kim Kang-in spoke in a dumbfounded voice, an awkward smile of understanding appeared on everyone’s faces.

Meanwhile, Seo Ah-in patted Kim Kang-in’s shoulder with a gentle smile.

“It’s okay. Everyone’s like that at first.”

“...”

That one, I think she’s gotten a little taste of acting like a senior like that lately.

‘But…’

Even Kim Kang-in, who was in the strongest ranks, seemed a little intimidated by the name King of Flies.

It was understandable.

In the game, the King of Flies was, so to speak, the ‘bad ending’ itself.

Depending on how many people the player ‘failed to save’ while playing the game, this one’s seal release meter would gradually rise, and when that number exceeded 200 billion, this one’s seal would be released.

Considering that tens of millions to a hundred million people could easily be wiped out depending on the results of the tower's ordeal, this one could be seen as being in charge of the ‘game over’ systemically.

“...”

Well.

This one itself was treated like that.

Fighting was impossible.

The moment you encountered its existence, it was certain death.

Even in Conqueror, where the player's autonomy was guaranteed as much as possible, as it was a character put in such a role by the system, it meant that a ton of terrifying gimmicks had been packed in.

I couldn't even remember how many times I had seen the ending where this one was released and the world was shattered before I awakened as a true top-tier veteran.

“So. What on earth are you planning to do against such a terrifying opponent.”

I just shrugged my shoulders at Kim Kang-in’s question as he glared at me.

Well, in the first place.

The fact that I was beaten like a dog until I awakened as a top-tier veteran also meant that after I awakened, I had reached a state where I could, in turn, beat this one like a dog.

So.

“I’m going to kill it.”

Phew, it’s scary just to have such a creature exist in the same world as me.

I have to go and deal with it somehow, quickly.

Tip: Tap/click the left or right side of the screen to go to previous/next chapter.