Chapter 78

by lion

Jun-sang clicked his tongue lightly and instinctively turned his head towards the collapsed city wall. Two rockets, like a scene from a movie, shot out flashes of light as they soared from the wall. Without time to wonder why there were weapons like rockets here, the two rockets exploded near the collapsed wall with a deafening roar. Then, intense gunfire followed.

Jun-sang frowned and first unsummoned the bewildered wolves, then immediately used a Seeker Potion. “Open Seeker Potion.” Even before the potion’s effects could fully manifest, Jun-sang quickly pulled out his cloak of invisibility and draped it over himself. The moment the black cloak settled on his shoulders, his head suddenly throbbed, and a ringing began in his ears. “Ugh…” But that was only for a moment. Jun-sang suddenly felt as if his surroundings embraced him, plunging him into a new world of sensation.

Normally, human senses unconsciously filter out many stimuli from their surroundings. Jun-sang realized, amidst the rush of sensations, that “Supersense” was a state where he could perceive even the most minor details he had unconsciously filtered out before, seeing, hearing, and feeling them more acutely. Like a radar, Jun-sang calmly began to absorb all the information around him. Then, Ashdal, appearing from the darkness as if opening a door and stepping out, was caught within his enhanced senses.

Instantly, streams of red light burst from Jun-sang’s eyes. Both “Gaze of Pain” and “Evil Eye” began to unfold simultaneously. Ashdal, who had just passed through the door of darkness to find his next target, froze at the incomprehensible phenomenon. –Kek? But that too was brief. Ashdal began to stagger, feeling as if the surrounding scenery was distorting. It was “Confusion,” one of the effects of “Evil Eye.”

As Ashdal fell victim to the Evil Eye, Jun-sang immediately launched himself from the rooftop, soaring towards Ashdal’s back. Pulling two iron orbs from his inventory in mid-air, Jun-sang brought them down on Ashdal, who was clutching his head and stumbling. Ashdal, startled, turned his head and saw something dark, emitting red light, falling upon him. But he couldn’t comprehend anything more. The giant iron orb, as large as his own body, ruthlessly smashed down on his diminutive form.

CRUNCH!

Just one blow! Like Grunwal, Ashdal’s physical abilities were utterly pathetic. Within Ashdal’s shattered corpse, Jun-sang found a sturdy-looking pair of boots and a Seed, subtly glowing with an ominous aura, stained with bodily fluids and flesh. Jun-sang removed Ashdal’s foot from inside the boot, shook off the clinging bits of flesh, and quietly spoke. “Morning Dew.” A small water spirit quietly flew over and washed the boots clean with water. Jun-sang then slowly checked the item information.

Item Information

Name: Ashdal’s Boots
Level Requirement: 20
Type: Boots
Grade: Rare
Effect: Allows Phase Shift into shadows within a 10-meter radius when worn.
Seed Slots: 3
Description: The boots of Reconnaissance Captain Ashdal.

“Phase Shift?” Jun-sang discovered the unfamiliar term and immediately checked its details.

Phase Shift: The moment you gain this astonishing ability, you can create arbitrary entrances and exits between spaces, moving freely between them. Unlike teleportation, which has some inherent risks and limitations due to conceptual issues, this is one of the safest methods of movement.

“Huh…” In other words, this could be seen as a technique to create a type of wormhole-like passage within space. A wormhole! Although there was a restriction that it was only possible within shadows up to 10 meters, even considering that, this was an incredible ability. Furthermore, if Jun-sang, who was already wearing Grunwal’s Cloak, also wore these boots, he would be able to move with speed comparable to teleportation when using invisibility.

Jun-sang quickly took off his combat boots and put on Ashdal’s Boots. The boots, which had seemed a bit small, expanded themselves to accommodate their new owner’s feet. Even the size was freely adjustable! Jun-sang again marveled at the astounding performance of these boots. Next, he checked the Seed.

Item Information

Name: Critical Seed
Level Requirement: 20
Type: Seed
Grade: Uncommon
Effect: Critical hit chance increased by 7%.
Description: A seed that increases critical hit chance. It can be equipped into items or cards with Seed slots to enhance their abilities. To remove an equipped Seed, the special function ‘Detach’ is required.
[Click here to equip this Seed to an item or card.]

It wasn’t a Rare Seed like those from other bosses, but a Critical Hit Chance Seed was still one of the very rare ones. Jun-sang first put the Seed away, then looked towards the destroyed city wall. Intense gunfire still echoed, but somehow, its intensity seemed to have diminished from before.

Jun-sang used the cloak to activate invisibility again, then used the boots’ Phase Shift ability. A brief message appeared in Jun-sang’s vision, asking him to designate an exit. As he designated the exit’s location through the interface, a dark entrance immediately appeared in the shadow of the building next to Jun-sang. Jun-sang walked through it without hesitation. He then immediately emerged at the designated exit point.

“Impressive.” In his invisible state, Jun-sang began to move quickly towards the wall where the gunfight was taking place, using his Phase Shift ability. At first, the sequence of designating an exit and moving to it felt a bit cumbersome, but as he got used to the rapid input via the interface, he soon gained speed comparable to teleportation.

As he approached the city wall, the first thing he saw were people dressed in Earth attire, hiding behind the wall and fiercely firing their weapons. “Why won’t they die!” “Those bastards are reviving again! What are you doing! Shoot!” “Damn it! I’m out of bullets!” Hearing the screams of one blond Westerner and a black man, Jun-sang could roughly tell where they were from. “America, perhaps.” For some reason, their words, which should have been in English, were clearly heard in Korean, but given that he could converse with Heness, a person from another world, without any difficulty, this might actually be a natural occurrence.

Even amidst the chaos, zombies were steadily pouring through the collapsed city wall. The zombies, shattered and knocked down by the relentless gunfire, would soon regenerate and rise again. Jun-sang had experienced this phenomenon before. The Americans continuously poured bullets into the zombies swarming through the broken wall, but their ammunition was limited, so the fierce gunfire gradually began to subside.

“I-it’s over now…” “Damn it… Is this how I die?” As the gunfire completely ceased, Jun-sang finally summoned his Pocket Squirrel and slowly stepped forward. He then activated Dual Storm towards the zombies rushing forward with grotesque screams.

CRUSHING ROAR!

The despairing Americans trembled at the sudden appearance of a man who manifested from thin air. As he emitted streams of red light and danced a “Dance of Destruction” with a large iron orb about a meter in diameter, the zombies were pulverized and scattered everywhere like debris caught in a storm.

Jun-sang instantly crushed the zombies that had entered the city wall, then activated his invisibility again and used his Phase Shift ability to move outside the wall. The zombies attempted to regenerate again, but they had been so thoroughly destroyed that it would take much longer for them to reform. The Americans were dumbfounded, watching Jun-sang appear out of nowhere, shred the zombies, and then vanish again.

“W-what was that just now?” “W-well… it happened so fast.” While they were exchanging bewildered words, Jun-sang slowly got up, recovering from the after-effects of using Blood Sucker. Smoke was still billowing profusely from his body, but perhaps thanks to the increased regeneration rate and life-drain ratio, the duration and intensity of the after-effects had significantly decreased. As he slowly stood up, he saw the squirrel that had somehow scurried over, retrieving a Seed emanating a faint aura from Amungan’s head.

“Hmph.” Jun-sang chuckled at the sight, then put Amungan’s corpse into his inventory. He figured that skin tough enough to withstand even rocket fire would be useful in some way later.

“Whew…” Jun-sang turned his gaze to the mini-map to find his next target. Soon, he confirmed eleven quest markers hidden beyond the forest.