Chapter 105
Before I could even mull over the abilities of the individual said to be the original Sloth, a string of messages appeared.
[Divine Achievement! You are the first person in human history to learn of Chronos, the God of Time.]
[As a reward, you have received ‘Time Fragment (One Piece).’]
[Time Fragment (One Piece)]
Grade: Creation-grade item
Description: A fragment containing a minuscule amount of the power of Chronos, the god said to have created the concept of time at the beginning of creation.
Details: With this fragment, you can turn back time by 10 seconds. This power is limited to a single world.
Ten seconds into the past, huh...
It looked like nothing special, but it was a crazy item with tremendous potential.
I should save it and use it wisely.
But...
Didn't it say that something would happen if the original Sloth gained the power of time?
On a hunch, I held it up to Pride.
[An individual in a mimicked state cannot evolve to a higher rank.]
Figures.
Looks like I need to find the original, not a mimic.
Still, that's a relief.
It means I can raise its rank with this fragment, as long as I find the original.
Besides, its abilities should be useful enough even as a mimic.
I wasn't sure what it meant to manipulate the time center by a factor of ten, though...
Did that mean it could move ten times faster?
I attached the mimicked Pride to Zephyros for the time being.
Zephyros suddenly looked at me in surprise, then whispered through his Ansible Earring.
─What did you do?
‘Something nice.’
─... This feels like cheating.
‘What does it matter? You should be grateful I'm not joining in.’
Besides, the other side would also be coming in with buffs from the Saint Emperor and Demon Emperor.
They just hadn't mentioned it, but they weren't idiots.
─Got it. Then I won't block it with mana.
‘Okay.’
Zephyros unblocked the mana channels to his brain, which he had sealed off.
[Pride is interfering with the target's time center.]
[The maximum multiplier the target can currently withstand is 2.2.]
[Applying a greater multiplier may cause permanent brain damage.]
It could go up to ten times, but...
I couldn't do that if it meant permanently damaging his brain.
Let's just make it about twice as fast.
I waited until Zephyros slowly stepped forward to face the Sword Emperor.
Just before the battle began.
[Accelerating the time center by a factor of 2.]
Click.
I flipped the switch.
**
Sword Emperor Namgung Mujun.
His class was Myriad Sword User.
Ordinary swordsman classes had distinct class-based affinities.
For example, Zephyros's class, ‘Azure Wind Swordsman,’ couldn't learn heavy-sword techniques.
Even the famous Kaiser had a limited range of sword techniques he could learn.
By contrast, Namgung Mujun could learn every kind and style of sword technique.
That was why he always held an overwhelming advantage when facing swordsmen.
Unless they had powerful abilities that could ignore compatibility, like Kaiser.
If their strength was equal, Namgung Mujun could confidently claim to stand at the pinnacle of all swordsmen.
But now.
He felt as if he were having a nightmare.
“This is...”
Zephyros's swordsmanship had the attributes of speed and illusion.
Simply put, it was fast and full of feints and variations.
The Myriad Sword User, already aware of that, had brought out a counter: a shield.
It was a small buckler, but even that was enough to rob swordsmanship of the speed-and-illusion type of many of its advantages.
And yet.
It should have worked.
‘I-I can't react.’
Zephyros was responding to his attacks twice as fast as he'd expected.
Zephyros's sword aura grazed the spots his shield couldn't block in an instant.
“Gah!”
The Sword Emperor furrowed his brow at the pain of his flesh being seared.
His attention was drawn to the pain, making it even harder to react properly... a vicious cycle.
Finally, after taking hits in several more places, the Sword Emperor cried out in desperation.
“I-I yield! I yield!”
The strongest on the continent...
had been defeated by South Korea's former strongest.
And he had practically begged for his life...
in a pitiful state.
**
With even the strongest, the Sword Emperor, defeated, China had lost three matches and had no chance to send out its remaining two fighters.
“If you want, come at me.”
Lee Seong-hyeok beckoned to the Demon Emperor and Saint Emperor with a confident expression, but...
The Saint Emperor saw the immense divine power rising from Lee Seong-hyeok's body and shook his head, his face paling.
The Saint Emperor was a holy knight, too.
The hierarchy among holy knights was clearer than in any other class.
He could immediately tell that Lee Seong-hyeok was on an entirely different level from him.
With even the Saint Emperor giving up on fighting, the Demon Emperor had little choice but to withdraw, more or less by force.
“Do you intend to continue?”
If they broke their promise and wanted to keep going...
well, all that would be left of the Five Emperors would be powder.
Would that make them the Five Emperor Powder?
While I was entertaining that pointless thought,
their leader, the Sword Emperor, came forward after coming to his senses and saluted me with cupped fists.
You could tell we were dealing with a country steeped in wuxia sensibilities.
“... From the moment Mr. Kim came here, our plan was already derailed. Thank you for indulging us.”
“Think nothing of it.”
“As promised, we will withdraw.”
Pretty cool about it, actually.
I was about to shrug and let them go when...
I heard Zephyros whisper.
─Hey, those bastards...
‘What is it? Something wrong?’
─Come take a look at this.
I raised my hand to ask the Sword Emperor to wait, then went over to Zephyros...
─So... is everyone in agreement?
─Heh heh. We can't run away with our tails between our legs without even fighting, like cowards.
─You never know... If we capture Kim Segyun and get that incredible item, we might become even stronger.
What was this?
“It's a conversation intercepted by satellite. The signal was bad, so it only just came through.”
They'd been talking behind my back like that, and then offered me something about a diary and whatever?
“... If the top-ranking Hunters who left you out had thought you were easy pickings, they would've all come at you together. That was our assessment.”
“To hell with wuxia sensibilities.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
If I just sat there after seeing this, I'd be a gullible idiot.
Right?
“Give me that.”
I took the tablet from Zephyros and walked over to the Sword Emperor, who was waiting patiently.
Then, when I played the same video...
His face turned pale in an instant.
“Th-this is...”
“Well, I don't expect much. You know that famous saying we've had since ancient times, right?”
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Didn't Mr. Hammurabi teach you that?
“Just leave one relic-grade item apiece. No more, no less.”
“D-do you think we'd put up with such humiliation?”
“Humiliation?”
I couldn't believe this.
Hey, Greed.
─ W h y . d i d . y o u . c a l l . m e.
Let's give them something to be in awe of.
And at my command...
Rrrrumbllll!
The earth trembled, then rose up into a massive hill.
Think that was all?
Of course not.
“It may take a long time to make a mountain, but even some old geezer named Yu in China managed it, right?”
But...
“Are there stories in China about making mountains disappear, too?”
At the same time.
From the spot I pointed at...
a small peak rising in Chinese territory behind them
crumbled into dust. The sight was burned into everyone's minds.
Both the Koreans and the Chinese.
For a while, no one could say a word.
**
“You could at least give us something good before you go.”
The relic-grade items I extorted... ahem, took one each from the Five Emperors didn't have particularly satisfying effects.
They probably hadn't given me anything good.
Still, as relic-grade items, they were decent enough.
I gave the helmet I'd gotten from the Saint Emperor to Lee Seong-hyeok.
The sword from the Sword Emperor and the gloves from the Saber Emperor went to Zephyros.
The Fist Emperor's shoes went to Senior Choi.
Finally, the Demon Emperor's necklace went to me.
It was a rather bizarre item.
[Immortal's Idleness]
Grade: Relic-grade necklace
Description: With no thoughts or worries, you forgot the mortal world and simply wandered about—thus you became an immortal.
Details: Reflexes –90%, Immortal Physique (仙人之體) activated.
[Divine Immortal Physique (神仙之體) (Usable Item Skill)]
Description: Having become an immortal, you have grasped the principles of nature.
Details: Maximum mana increased by +1,000%.
Basically, it increased my maximum mana tenfold.
A crazy effect.
It certainly was.
The problem was...
my reflexes plummeted to 10%.
What did reflexes matter if I wasn't a class that fought with my body?
Ah, an ordinary person might think that.
But anyone who'd spent even a little time in the Hunter industry would know how important reflexes were, even for mages.
“Ugh, this is unusable. I told them to hand over relic-grade items, and they left me nothing but trash.”
Well, it couldn't be helped.
I would've done the same in their shoes.
I tried it on for a moment, then took it off immediately.
Gluttony or no Gluttony, my body simply wouldn't move the way I wanted.
If maximum mana and recovery affected the number of individuals I could control,
and control affected the performance of each individual,
then the ability to control them with precision was affected by reflexes.
But with that down to 10%...
It felt like I'd aged by nearly sixty years.
No matter what command I gave, I could see them responding a beat too late.
“... I'll save it for when I need to pump up the number of individuals.”
As I muttered to myself, Zephyros appeared, having belatedly finished giving instructions after a long conversation with a government official who'd just arrived.
“What are you muttering to yourself about now?”
“Nothing. Are you done handling things?”
“More or less. Now I'm going to send Seong-hyeok... along with the rankers and Hunters, to Pyongyang.”
“Will it be all right?”
I was worried, but Zephyros's response was surprisingly nonchalant.
“The Chinese were the problem. There's basically nothing to worry about inside North Korea. We shouldn't let our guard down, of course. That guy knows the internal situation better than anyone... and he was incredibly well regarded in the North. I don't think it'll be hard for him to take control of the government.”
“What about the general who staged the coup?”
“China was his only lifeline, and now that's gone. He's like a kite with its string cut.”
“So is this really reunification?”
“... What are you talking about?”
“That's what people are saying online.”
That we might be reunifying.
More precisely, I think about ninety percent of the comments were from men who hadn't served in the military, wondering if it meant they wouldn't have to enlist.
“... It's possible.”
“Oh, really?”
“We'll start with exchanges between North and South, but... I don't think it'll take long.”
“You don't think Mr. Seong-hyeok will become a new dictator or anything...”
“Weren't you the one who had him wrapped around your finger? He practically worships you like you're the leader of the North.”
“What are you talking about...”
I did my best to ignore Zephyros's suspicious look and changed the subject.
“So, how does it feel to defeat China's strongest Hunter?”
“Would I even be human if I lost with a cheat code? What the hell did you do to my body?”
“I was asking because I wanted to hear how it felt.”
I haven't tried it myself yet, either.
“It literally felt like time was moving twice as slowly. But it wasn't just a feeling. Once I started moving, my muscles started aching. My body was so well trained that even pretty intense activity wouldn't tear my muscle fibers anymore...”
Zephyros rolled up his sleeve and showed me his arm.
“Whoa.”
His burst capillaries showed through like a spiderweb, looking almost gruesome.
“Are you sure you're all right?”
“Actually, this is good. Strength grows through the breakdown and recovery of muscle fibers, but my muscles had become so durable they wouldn't break down anymore.”
That was one of the factors behind the growth plateau for warrior-type classes.
Even though he looked like an ordinary middle-aged guy...
packed inside that body was ‘combat-compressed muscle.’
And he'd pushed himself so hard that even that ‘combat-compressed muscle’ had torn apart.
“My strength stat went up a little. My reflexes went up a lot. So... I broke through my plateau.”
Both were essential stats for a swordsman class.
Our teacher really hit the jackpot.
Hm? But...
“Reflexes?”
“Yeah, that buff you gave me... Wasn't it a buff to my reflexes? They nearly doubled.”
... How had I not thought of that?
Reflexes affected every mental and physical activity involved in responding to and judging a situation.
But if time was moving twice as slowly for me...
then my perception, reactions, and judgment, relatively speaking...
were practically twice as good.
Wait... hadn't it said up to ten times?