Chapter 167 – Unintended Luck (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Kang Geom-ma shoved the sashimi knife he had half drawn back into its sheath. He started to count the angels, then shook his head. There were too many, far too many to handle with just two sashimi knives. Kang Geom-ma cursed.

“Is this another hundred-chicken order from Ddo-sik? Why the hell are there so many of these pigeon bastards?”

He was calling them pigeons to put them down, but there was no denying they were formidable enemies. He had not lost his composure so badly that he would deny even that fact.

‘That power those bastards are using. What is it?’

They did not use magic like demonoids. Instead, they wrapped white energy around their arms like bandages.

Had beings like this ever existed in the game’s setting? Kang Geom-ma sank into thought for a moment, then soon gave it up.

‘That’s not what’s important.’

What did it matter what kind of power these pigeon bastards used? He had just witnessed them carrying out a brutal massacre.

Angels? Bullshit. Compared to these things, the pigeons flocking around Seoul Plaza were angels. Kang Geom-ma wet his dry lips with his tongue.

Getting the additional reward was a lost cause. Still, he would obtain the second fragment, which was his original objective, so he would have to take that as a small consolation.

‘It’s a shame, though.’

He could not just stand by and watch a massacre that had gone beyond all bounds. He knew all of this was an illusion. Even so, Kang Geom-ma was genuinely furious.

He had watched a fragment of human history as a third party. That was why the rage inside him swelled all the more.

At them, who massacred people simply because humans pursued lived of their own. And at the higher beings above them. Kang Geom-ma felt outright fury.

“……”

Suddenly, his gaze turned to the side. Some little kid was staring at him as though her soul had left her body. A little girl with mint-colored hair and irises gleaming like fresh greenery. Kang Geom-ma gave her a faint smile.

“Hey, kid.”

“Y-yes?”

Luckily, being a quest, it seemed the Korean patch had been applied. Kang Geom-ma got down on one knee in front of the little girl and sat properly. He deliberately lowered his gaze and patted her head.

“What’s your name?”

“Mester……”

Kang Geom-ma smiled once more.

“Listen carefully, Mester. From now on, do exactly what I tell you to do. Got it?”

At the black-haired mister’s smile, the life that had left her eyes returned.

“Run over there.”

As he said that, Kang Geom-ma gestured with his eyes toward the pile of stones on the hill. The kid’s legs were short, so she would not be able to run far. At least those rocks, with something like a roof over them, would serve as her air-raid shelter.

Mester, whose lips had been twitching, soon nodded without a word. By instinct, she thought it was right to do what this mister said.

‘Ah, right.’

Just before leaving, Mester picked up the flower wreath that had fallen on the ground. Blood had splattered onto it, and it looked shabby. She had originally meant to give it to her father. But it was now a gift that had lost its owner to the winged monsters.

Mester fidgeted with it in her tiny little hands. After hesitating for a moment, she placed the wreath like a crown on the mister’s head.

“You can have this.”

“Uh……”

Kang Geom-ma was taken aback. But right away his face brightened. He smiled.

“Thanks. I’ll use it well.”

“What’s your name, mister?”

At Mester’s words, Kang Geom-ma answered calmly. It was not because he had room to spare. It was only because the enemies still showed no sign of moving.

The pigeons merely stared at him with deeply sunken eyes. As though they were watching a monkey in a zoo.

“I’m Kang Geom-ma. And I’m not a mister. …Strictly speaking, I guess I am, but biologically I’m still a teenager.”

“How old are you, then?”

“Quit asking and run.”

“Everyone but me is dead anyway. I don’t care if I die here too. So I won’t move until you answer me.”

The kid was too young and still had not fully grasped the situation. Kang Geom-ma sighed and answered.

“Seventeen.”

“Huh? Then you’re three years younger than me?!”

“…What?”

A little color returned to Mester’s face, which had been stiff with fear.

“Kang Geom-ma……”

After rolling the name around in her mouth, Mester turned and ran off at once as fast as she could. She understood that any more conversation would only get in the mister’s(?) way.

Mester turned her back one after another on the places where the village elder, the neighbors, and her parents had vanished. She was the only ancient human who had barely escaped original sin.

‘I’ll never forget any of this.’

Mester ran. Even when the soles of her feet split and bled, she did not stop.

‘Because if I remember it, then someday people will know what happened on this day.’

Something forced its way out past her tightly squeezed eyes. Only then did the sobbing she had been holding back burst out.

The angels looked at one another. Since they shared thoughts, they could communicate without using their mouths.

The archangel Uriel opened his mouth as their representative.

「What were you?」

“……”

Kang Geom-ma did not answer. He drew the blade out by a handspan and stared at it. The well-honed piece of steel let out a mournful cry.

At that moment.

[Hidden – Using Crown of flower as a catalyst, the history of the world’s good is being rewritten.]

[Location – Using Code. Ancient as a catalyst, a temporary rise in rank is possible.]

[The program uses suppressive force to carry out recalibration and synchronization of the current location Code. Ancient.]

Jiiiiing-

The archangel Uriel pressed him.

「My question was wrong. Let me ask again.」

“……”

「Who was it that granted you that power? Speak the name of the unclean one who bestowed that utterly evil power upon you. Speak the name of the one who gave you that power which, by its very existence, profanes the stars in the heavens.」

“……”

「If you had no intention of answering, then I shall tear out that brain and learn it anyway.」

“Goo-goo-goo, you’re awfully damn pushy.”

The blood-soaked silence shattered like glass.

“Who gave it to me? I don’t know either, fuck. If I knew, do you think I’d be going through all this trouble running around looking for artifacts?”

「……!」

“Yeah, but I’ll tell you what kind of person it is. Up until recently, he used to catch fish. But now he’s changed professions.”

The human tools strewn everywhere rose into the air. Swords with chipped edges like saw teeth, clumsy shapes that hardly seemed worthy of being called swords. But in number, they were no fewer than the angels.

Kang Geom-ma said.

“He’s a fried-chicken shop owner, you bird bastards.”

[The Blessing of the Sword God’s False Call is released.]

Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!

With the sound of thunder, the swords swept through the air at invisible speed.

The scattered blades tore into the angels’ living flesh. Limbs were severed. Golden blood sprayed through the air like batter from inside a vat of oil.

Kuaaaaaaaaaaagh……!

Unending screams, a stench billowing everywhere, filled the wasteland.

The angels tried to run away. Even so, they could not avoid the steel that awaited them. The tips of the blades meant death for the angels.

…And so, for one minute, humanity’s tools crushed the beings of heaven.

Corpses stripped of their wings were falling like a drizzle.

The bizarre sight of an unknown being alone overwhelming a host of angels.

If this scene were handed down orally into the distant future, it would be called this.

Divine punishment.

* * *

[Obtained the second fragment of 【???】, ‘The Surviving Child.’ Total obtained (2/7).]

-Paaat!

== ==

『Within the divine punishment that drenched the earth in blood, one child survived.

A cursed child. A human not chosen by the stars. Countless disgraces by which she was called.

Yet her bloodline made an immense contribution to human history, and in truth continued to do so.

Later, the child recorded the day of judgment as drawings upon a giant stone.

To leave behind the false judgment. Together with a wish to one day look again upon the grudge and grace of that day, she carved it there as well.

And that became the foothold for the birth of humanity’s true sword, the beginning of writing.』

== ==

[Sudden Quest: Ancient One’s Memory Complete!]

Bbeep!

[※However, you failed to obtain the additional reward. (……)]

[……]

[……]

♪♬♩♫♪

[NEW! By completing the hidden quest ‘The Only Survivor,’ a true reward is bestowed.]

[▷ You have become able to manifest the Blessing of Charyeok.]

[……]

[……]

[Well done.]

* * *

The Spear Saint set the stack of documents upright and smacked them against the desk.

“Looks like the story has more or less been tied up. Good work, Media.”

“This is fine. It’s not really that different from the academy’s usual workload. …I am tired because I haven’t gotten much sleep, but one burden is off my shoulders now, so I should go get some sleep.”

Media massaged the area around her eyes. The expression with which the Spear Saint looked at her was somehow bittersweet.

“Even at your age, you’ve still got it rough. When we were young, we worried about dying at the hands of the demon race, but these days disease scares me more. Ah, though unlike me, you’ll live much longer still, kuhahaha! By human standards, aren’t you still only about twenty?”

“Could you stop treating me like some weirdo? I just live longer than other people. I’m still an ordinary human too, you know?”

“Can something that lives several hundred years more really be called ordinary……”

Wrinkles formed between Media’s brows. The Spear Saint hurriedly changed the subject.

“That aside, can you tell me how your ancestor survived the divine punishment? Guiding Kang Geom-ma to the Monolith made me suddenly curious.”

“Didn’t you hear it at least once from Dad? He’s your direct superior, so it seems like he would’ve told you that much.”

“It has been quite a while since I exchanged personal talk with the Association President.”

“Why? You used to follow my dad around just fine.”

“He is currently in seclusion. It’s been about three years now.”

“Again? After getting past three hundred, has he finally gone senile?”

“It’s been fifty years now, so it’s about time for him to craft a new identity. Isn’t that the Poison family’s tradition? And by ancient-human standards, the Association President has only just entered middle age.”

“Even so, couldn’t he at least give his daughter a heads-up? He always just disappears without a word whenever he feels like it. My older sister vanished ages ago too after dumping the headmaster position on me, and now Dad as well? Ugh, this damn family.”

Media’s sigh sank low. She spoke again.

“Anyway, I don’t know the details about Poison’s progenitor either. The story’s been handed down too fragmentarily. The one thing that’s stayed unchanged in oral tradition, at least, is that some human suddenly appeared and stopped the divine punishment.”

“Some human…… It’s hard to imagine there being a human who could block divine punishment so easily.”

“It varies depending on the record, but the most plausible theory is that it was simply a disaster in human form. Myths and legends are usually like that, aren’t they? Something suddenly appears and smashes everything apart, then suddenly someone appears and saves the day. Then people deify them as a matter of course. It’s probably that same sort of thing.”

“Myth or legend, either way, thanks to that the bloodline of the ancient humans was preserved.”

Media shrugged as though it were someone else’s business.

“If the tradition is true, then my ancestor was born under absurdly lucky stars.”

Bbeebeeik-

The internal phone rang. After asking Media’s leave, the Spear Saint picked up the receiver.

“It’s me. What is it?”

[It seems Lord Geom-ma has finished what he came to do.]

Still holding the receiver, the Spear Saint turned his head. He met her drowsy eyes. Media gave a small nod.

The Spear Saint brought the receiver back to his mouth.

“I’ll head down at once.”