Episode 94: An Identity Beyond Imagination
In the heart of Kern, shrouded in sorrow and screams, the hour had crept close to dawn.
How many Resurrection Sect members had I cut down by now? A fleeting regret passed through me, thinking, “If only I’d checked more of the bystanders’ status windows as I passed them.”
“Huff… Huff…”
Of course, I knew the truth.
Even if I had foreknowledge of the Resurrection Sect members beforehand, what justification would I have to kill people who looked no different from ordinary citizens?
Plus, according to Zenon’s offhand comment (?), Kern had a population of 10,000. Trying to memorize everyone’s personal information would be a surefire way to go insane.
“Haa… Haa… Hwek…”
Just staring at the mountainous piles of meat, a mix of Resurrection Sect members and ordinary people, brought the thought to mind.
I hadn’t even been committed to not dwelling on what was past for an hour, yet here I was. Ruci would surely lament my state if she saw this.
“Alright, all of you… Can I assume you’re all Resurrection Sect bastards?”
I glanced around while saying this, roughly shaking the blood-soaked twin blades, and trained my gaze and blade on whoever met my eyes.
Around me, a scrum of dozens of humans had already formed.
“… …”
“… …”
“… …”
Dozens of lifeless eyes silently stared, converging on me from all sides.
In the next moment, every single one of them charged at me in unison. Without any signal.
As if it had been decided from the start, they surrounded me from every direction all at once.
“There’s no way, you bastards!”
But the unnerving coordination didn’t faze me anymore after the first few times.
By now, I hadn’t let my guard down for even a single instant against these enemies.
“Seven Sword Pierce!”
I chanted like a battle cry. Fourteen magical blades surged outward in every direction.
Of course, among them, there were those skilled enough to deflect these blades and others who weren’t.
Though I’d been using “Seven Sword Pierce One-Tool” for most of my recent fights, it didn’t mean I’d forgotten other skills.
“Use it when it’s necessary!”
Exactly. It wasn’t that I didn’t have opportunities to use them—it was simply that situations like this large-scale combat hadn’t come up yet.
I curled the corners of my lips upward and jumped into the air.
“Landmine Formation!!”
Compressing as much mana as I could, I slammed it into my blade and drove it into the ground.
KU-GUUUU! The ground erupted with a deafening roar, violently shaking as if possessed. Even I, the caster, staggered, while the Resurrection Sect members caught in the shockwave were thrown into chaos.
“…!”
“…!!”
Resurrection Sect members, caught off-guard, tripped over each other and fell. Their now defenseless bodies were mercilessly pierced by icy-blue magical blades.
PUH-BUH-BUH! Fourteen magical swords, one for each of the fourteen enemies, aiming for the heart or neck with pinpoint accuracy.
“Hmm. Is my power lacking?”
Some of the targets fell instantly. Others who only staggered, raising their weapons to keep charging at me, must have had higher defense or stamina.
Before they could recover, I quickly transformed my cloak.
“Fatal Thorns.”
PAP-PAK! The extended thorns were swung like a windmill in all directions.
I watched as crimson lines appeared horizontally across the dazed eyes of the Resurrection Sect members.
“…!”
CHEH-JEHRH!
Those lines split their heads cleanly in half, their lifeless bodies collapsing limp to the ground.
[Level Up!]
The death of my enemies was confirmed by the cheerful fanfare.
“Alright. Hurry…!”
Though time was pressing, I allocated the ability points I received rather casually between agility and strength.
Maximizing my stats immediately—this was the most important thing for me right now.
No. Not just for me now, but for my next life as well.
“… ”
I stared numbly at the ground, littered with the bodies I had sliced with my thorns.
I winced at the twitching corpses with half-destroyed faces, but instead of disgust…
“Hmm.”
I burst into a grin, an expression filled with exhilaration.
‘Get a grip. Go crazy if you must, but after the fight.’
I consciously wiped the smile from my face, but the fact that I’d grinned maniacally over such carnage lingered.
I shook my head violently and quickly averted my gaze.
‘Already this many…?’
What startled me first was the noticeable decrease in Kern’s citizens while I dismantled the mob.
Of course, all the fewer citizens were now corpses lying on the ground. As the cliché goes, “blood ran like a river,” and I was witnessing that expression come true before my eyes.
Clutching my teeth, I was about to charge toward another group of Resurrection Sect members massacring innocents when—
BA-RA-ONG! The deafening explosion hit my forehead with enough force to make my skull ring and my vision shake.
“Ck-HA?!”
Not only did my run stop—I flew backward like a sheet of paper, my neck snapping from the impact, and crashed into a nearby house wall with a thunderous BOOM.
I returned to consciousness from the brink after shaking my head hard to clear the haze, carefully extracting my body from the wall.
“This is…?”
I looked down at the cylindrical piece of iron that lay before me. Examining it more closely, it was a crushed bullet.
“Bullet… Snipe?”
Judging by its considerable size, about a hand-span long, and the lingering heat indicative of gunpowder, it was clear this bullet had struck me directly on the forehead.
I couldn’t help but whistle softly.
‘Crazily… there’s a sniper too?’
Great. In a game where the odds were already stacked against us with only primitive cold weapons, it seemed we’d welcomed someone from a scientifically advanced world equivalent to Earth or beyond.
And worse, a high-level sniper at that. Such a pesky situation.
‘Its power… enough to kill me in one hit…’
I rubbed my forehead. It was drenched in blood.
My adrenaline chilled instantly.
Despite my evolution-enhanced Black Wing defense, which usually matched my already high vitality stat, it had failed completely, penetrating through my flesh.
If I hadn’t been wearing a cloak with inherent defense… Well, that bullet would’ve dug a highway through my skull.
“A sniper ban is non-negotiable, you damn fool.”
My eyes narrowed, locking onto the direction the bullet came from.
The Eye of Mimir doesn’t activate. After all, it only indicates the status of visible targets.
‘Hunt Mark.’
However, the new job skill I’d recently acquired—Hunt Mark—was different.
I internally chanted the activation word while gripping the crumpled bullet in my hand. A dark aura swiftly enshrouded the bullet before shooting off to trace its origin.
[Special Item ‘Dragon-Slaying Sniper Round Model 17’ owner’s residual aura is being tracked.]
[Tracking…]
I sprinted after the dark aura as it zipped through the rooftops, leaping over houses and the bizarre mixture of tiled roofs with Western-style architecture.
Finally, at the chimney of a distant rooftop, the aura halted, materializing into an ominous skull-shaped mark.
“… ”
The sniper concealed in the chimney showed no sign of surprise at being exposed, merely reaching into their coat to draw a dagger and preparing for combat with practiced ease.
Seeing this sniper, I couldn’t help but smirk, a genuine grin that startled even myself.
“Planned on punching a hole in my skull, did you? Thought you’d best prepare for one in your own, huh?”
I dashed toward the sniper with a speed that amazed even me.
It was due to the various skills I possessed that boosted my first attack.
Even with a non-main skill, this speed should be enough. I raised my sword high into the air.
“One Flash!”
A skill I hadn’t used often since acquiring “Seven Sword Pierce,” usually preferring to save my energy.
But with the endless numbers of Resurrection Sect members ahead of me, careful mana management was essential.
“Half-dead bastard!!”
I slashed my sword with azure mana crackling along its edge.
” … !”
The Resurrection Sect sniper remained calm, quickly raising their dagger for defense.
However, my blade had already struck the ground before they could react.
For the first time, an expression flickered across the sniper’s face—bewilderment.
PWHAAACK!
Of course, this expression was cleanly bisected, with their head splitting in two and falling lifelessly to the ground.
I watched silently as visceral organs and blood spattered across the rooftop, eventually settling into warm puddles.
” … ”
I looked at the sky momentarily, catching the faint glow of a crescent moon in the dark.
I glanced down at the Holy Emblem glowing from within my coat, flexing my fingers to feel the dramatically enhanced stats.
Finally, I clicked my tongue in annoyance.
“Too exciting, man.”
Surely, this isn’t the end.
The fact that they could bring a city like Kern, with its relatively high average population level, to the verge of destruction in a single day meant the Resurrection Sect must surely have secret weapons up their sleeves.
And what sort of crazy, unique individuals would they send to further entertain me like this? The anticipation was driving me wild.
“Ah, what a bummer.”
With a weary sigh heavy enough to pierce through the rooftop, I charged straight back toward the epicenter of the chaos. Time was of the essence, every moment critical as the citizens continued to get slaughtered by the second.
‘Hunt Mark!’
I immediately cast it toward my next target, already preparing for the next kill. With my cooldowns refreshed, I deployed my wings and dove like a bullet through the sky, following the airborne marking.
PWAAAP! As it sliced through the air, I followed, transforming into a projectile myself.
