[Mission Notice has been activated.]
[Mission Notice]
▼ Reference
▽ Warning
Seol-Hwi was distracted by something new just before he attacked. He couldn’t just ignore it, seeing as it had come up while time was frozen.
<Reference>
○ You will not be able to learn the technique if you do not capture Um Mugi.
○ You will not receive the mission from Ju Sohye [Warrior Training] if you use demonic martial arts.
○ You will not receive the mission from Ju Sohye [Warrior Training] if you kill any people from the Justice sects.
“Reference” seemed to be conditions for this mission. Apparently he needed to capture the man without killing him or anyone from other sects and without using demonic martial arts if he wanted the new mission.
<Warning>
○ You will be penalized if Um Mugi doesn’t use demonic martial arts.
○ Mission fails if Seokdu dies.
So he had to provoke Um Mugi into using the Demonic sect’s martial arts without getting Seokdu killed.
When he’d finished reading, familiar options came up.
▶ Attack
▷ Use Martial Arts
▷ Use Toolbox
▷ Approach the Opponent
This is irritating… He had to be careful of what martial arts he used, since they were in Cheonghae. No one liked the Demonic sect—Ju Sohye’s face had hardened at the mere mention of demonic martial arts. Seol-Hwi wasn’t willing to give up on the next mission or the rewards from this mission, though.
It’ll be fine. I can handle this.
Seol-Hwi picked the most efficient option.
▶ Approach the Opponent
Seol-Hwi was immediately right behind Um Mugi. Before his opponent could react, he stabbed his sword into the man’s stomach.
It would’ve been no surprise if he took him down then and there, but he felt a strange sensation against his hand. He couldn’t thrust with full force, and Um Mugi’s body was somehow far away.
<Critical hit! Seol-Hwi has inflicted over 30,000 damage to Um Mugi.>
Um Mugi [First Disciple of Elder Baekhon]
Health: 330k(↓70k)/400k
Internal Energy: 110k(↓10k)/120k
A success, but only a partial one. That really should have been a lethal blow; perhaps he used some kind of defensive technique.
“Ahhh! A fight!”
“That man pulled a weapon on Young Lord Zheng!”
“Stop him! He might die!”
Um Mugi stood in the middle of the chaotic crowd and glared at Seol-Hwi.
Seol-Hwi casually smiled back as if he didn’t have a worry in the world.
[A great opportunity! Found a weakness in Um Mugi. How will you respond?]
The difference in their skill was giving Seol-Hwi a plethora of opportunities.
<Critical hit! Seol-Hwi has inflicted over 40,000 damage to Um Mugi.>
<Critical hit! Seol-Hwi has inflicted over 30,000 damage to Um Mugi.>
<Critical hit! Seol-Hwi has inflicted over 50,000 damage to Um Mugi.>
The skill gap was blatantly obvious. Seol-Hwi could break through every defense Um Mugi put up, and even the smallest attack was doing huge damage.
Um Mugi [First Disciple of Elder Baekhon]
Health: 210k(↓120k)/400k
Internal Energy: 80k(↓30k)/120k
“S-Stop!”
In the end, Um Mugi dropped to his knees and surrendered, but Seol-Hwi had no intention of stopping. After almost half-killing him, Seol-Hwi wasn’t interested in making him talk anymore.
However, there was a variable.
“Young Lord Zheng! Hurry!”
“Over here!”
Dozens of warriors gathered around him; from the looks of it, they were Ju Wangil’s warriors.
Things went awry from there.
<Mangum Mansion Warrior discovered a weakness in Seol-Hwi.>
<Mangum Mansion Warrior #3 discovered a weakness in Seol-Hwi.>
<Mangum Mansion Warrior #10 discovered a weakness in Seol-Hwi.>
Weaknesses kept popping up because Seol-Hwi didn’t want to fight them. There were so many notifications he couldn’t see anything else.
Seol-Hwi easily dodged their attacks, but they pushed him back through sheer numbers. Unfortunately, the mission would not let him be more active.
Damn it. Where are you hiding? Um Mugi had hidden somewhere while Seol-Hwi was busy. He looked around, but he couldn’t see anything through the endless stacks of notifications.
Unbearable. Seol-Hwi decided it was time to change his Combat Type.
Combat Type: <Simulation>
An analysis window appeared in front of his eyes.
<Analyzing Seol-Hwi’s martial arts.>
<Analyzing Seol-Hwi’s internal energy.>
…
<Analysis complete.>
Oh, wait! It occurred to Seol-Hwi that it might be okay if Seokdu attacked them instead. There were no warnings about him, so the mission wouldn’t be affected even if Seokdu killed someone.
When he looked back, Seokdu was staring at him blankly.
“What do we do, squad leader? Is that guy Um Mugi…?”
“Shut up. You take care of these people.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Seokdu dived in. With his skills, he’d have no problem taking care of a normal warrior.
“Don’t kill them if possible.”
Seol-Hwi took a few steps back and looked around for Um Mugi but ran into an unexpected problem.
[Impossible! Turn-Based Combat has already been used and cannot be reversed.]
He couldn’t use his techniques in Simulation mode, but it turned out he couldn’t switch back to Turn-Based.
“Hmph.” Now that he thought about it, he’d already been told this.
This is getting messy.
He’d have to search this place the hard way.
“This is the worst…”
“Kuaaaak—Agghhh!”
Seol-Hwi’s head snapped around at the sudden scream and saw the crowd scattering in all directions.
In the meantime, two warriors emerged and rushed at him.
“Where are you going?”
“You won’t go any further!”
Seol-Hwi lightly struck them with the hilt of his sword and then ran over to the disturbance.
Hm… He found a corpse that looked like its life had been sucked out.
Is this an internal energy siphoning technique?
Only the Demonic sect used techniques like this. It was Um Mugi’s doing, no doubt; he was trying to recover his internal energy. Where is he hiding? Seol-Hwi couldn’t find any traces of Um Mugi. The crowd was making it difficult.
“Ahhhh!”
“People are dead here, too!”
Seol-Hwi heard more screams nearby and quickly ran over to find two more corpses in similar condition.
“Warrior, he went over there.” An old man with a bent back pointed.
“Where?”
“There, that way…”
Seol-Hwi craned his head to look.
But then, suddenly, the simulation came to life. Dozens of illusions leapt out.
[Jump! Jump!]
Why…?
Seol-Hwi felt a burning sensation on his waist and spun around, clapping his hand over his torso.
“Damn it…”
The old man had done a surprise attack. Um Mugi had almost seriously wounded Seol-Hwi in his carelessness. Fortunately, his armor and constant vigilance had saved him from a fatal wound.
Once again, Um Mugi had disappeared from sight.
“I will catch you!”
Um Mugi could transform into anyone and blend into the people. There were so many still wandering around and watching the situation. It couldn’t get worse than this.
There was another scream, not far away, and Seol-Hwi hurried over. Once again, there was a drained corpse, but there was a woman and child standing nearby.
“Did you see him?”
“I didn’t,” she said, waving her hand. But Seol-Hwi didn’t trust her and snatched her hand.
No demonic martial arts. All he felt was her rapid pulse—she hadn’t been trained in any martial arts.
He looked around, this time sweeping his gaze over the entire area.
He felt something from behind.
“Hah!” Reflexively, Seol-Hwi swung his sword at the woman—however, she was already a withered corpse… and the child was gone.
“Damn it! His transfiguration skill could do that?” Changing his face was one thing, but changing his body shape was too much!
“Fuck this…” Seol-Hwi touched his waist and scowled. The injury was quite serious this time. If he was a little slower, it could’ve been fatal.
“Everyone, stop fighting!”
“Stand down! The servants, too, not just the warriors!”
Ju Wangil appeared as if he realized something was wrong and stopped the warriors, then went over to the middle-aged man who appeared to be in charge of the warriors.
“Did a demon appear?”
“Right. Women and children’s lives are being drained.”
Ju Wangil turned to Sohye.
“Did he really say he was after a demon who could change his face?”
“Yes, father. He told me when we first met.”
He turned back to the middle-aged man.
“Where is Young Lord Zheng?”
“He disappeared from the fight. When I think about it, Young Lord Zheng seems…” He trailed off.
He saw something so absurd that he had no words. Neither did Seol-Hwi.
“Who are you?”
“Who are you ?!”
Two men were fighting. They growled at each other murderously. One of them caught sight of Seol-Hwi and turned.
“Squad leader, this man is fake.”
“No, squad leader. I’m Seokdu.”
Seokdu was pointing at Seokdu.
One of them was fake.1