Chapter 65 (1/2)
Chapter 65 – Tahrakhan Plateau (10)
Mason yelled as he screamed out in pain from losing his arm
“What the fuck! Who the fuck are you?”
The man with the flaming skull mask paused, and pointed at the title above his head with the point of his sword.
‘Adjudicator’
Since he understood speech, he was definitely not a monster. Mason placed his hand over his heart as he said
“Ye…Yes, Adjudicator. I mean, Sir, I just wanted to live. I only did those things so I can survive.”
As he bought himself time, he tried to think as quickly as he could. The boots that he wore were the Boots of Emergency Escape. It could launch him more than ten meters into the sky and help him escape.
‘If I can just get an opening…’
As best as he could,
“Think about it… if I didn’t increase my contribution points from early on…”
He discreetly picked up dirt with his unharmed hand.
“I have a family in the Purgatory.”
He aimed for and sprayed the dirt towards the skull mask, especially towards the eyes. But the Adjudicator knocked the dirt out of the air with unbelievable reflex.
He didn’t have time to be amazed by the Adjudicator’s reflexes. He was about to invoke the ‘Emergency’ function when
“Snake Eye”
The necklace he wore suddenly opened its eye. When Mason’s eyes gazed into the terrifying snake eye staring from within, he found himself petrified.
“Emerg…”
His tongue got stuck in place. The Adjudicator calmly walked forward as he began to speak.
“He, who for his own benefit”
Slowly, very slowly, he raised his blade.
“Steals what is not his”
The Paralysis was over. He immediately cried out
“Emergency!”
But before he could hop away, the ‘Adjudicator’s blade swung down. It cleanly cut him in half. Blood splashed out from his wound. Mason heard, with fading consciousness, last of the Adjudicator’s words.
“You, and everyone like you, are enemies of mankind.”
*
Max watched from afar whilst hugging himself. He had watched the whole thing from beginning to end. At the last possible moment when he had given up hope, the Adjudicator appeared from nowhere.
And, with his superhuman swordsmanship and flashy magic spells, took down two trolls without so much as an injury.
Max had seen countless hunters until now, but this was a whole new level, something beyond what he would believe to be human; His magic and swordplay both. As Max witnessed the spectacle before him, he thought to himself
‘Hear me, God; I fear no death. But I pray that those two sons of bitches die a miserable end.’
He believed that his prayers must have worked and that the Skull-masked man was a messenger of God; a deliverer of Divine Justice. He who befits the name of Adjudicator.
The Adjudicator gave some sort of last words to Mason and then executed him.
Strangely, whenever the Adjudicator killed a hunter, some of the items that the hunters wore copied itself and dropped before him.
The Adjudicator picked up the items and put them into his cube. This was an unnatural course of event; Normally the items owned by another hunter couldn’t be separated from their owner, even in their death. Max felt as if some sort of miracle was in progress.
‘He’s different from the others.’
While Max concluded his thoughts, the Adjudicator finished picking up the items and putting them away. He turned towards Max and approached him. Max looked up to him and asked
“…have…You come to answer my prayers?”
But then the Adjudicator ripped off the mask. Inside was an extremely young Asian man, having an irritated look.
“Why are you so annoying”
Max couldn’t help but shut his mouth.
*
Sungjin had to take off Besgoro’s Helmet. The battle addict had been acting up each time Sungjin killed someone
‘Nice! Kill him!’
‘Yeeaah!’
‘You’re the best, Kei!’
He kept on shouting in his ears. Even when he finished collecting items which appeared as a result of ‘Adjudicator passive’ and made his way towards the last hunter, he asked
‘Who’s that guy? Another prey?’
‘No. He’s a victim.’
‘He’s weak anyway! End his life here!’
He was making unreasonable demands.
“Be quiet”
The lone survivor tried to tell him something when Besgoro interrupted.
‘Why! How can I be quiet?! I haven’t been so riled up in such a long time!’
Besgoro’s elated voice washed out the hunter’s words. So Sungjin took off Besgoro from his head.
“Why are you so annoying”
He was an old man, but he was slightly insane. Sungjin understood how Count Dimitri might have felt.
No matter how much renown his soldier accrued under his service, having a crazy old man demand the hand of his daughter would have driven anyone to order an execution. Once Besgoro was removed from his head, the color and saturation of his vision returned to normal.
Sungjin looked up into the endless sky of the Plateau and took a deep breath.
“Whew…”
But he felt an intense stare on him. The last survivor, the white man, was looking up at him. His eyes were full of wonder.
Sungjin looked down at him. The man was bleeding from his legs.
“Are you alright sir?”
He looked to be 30~40 years old; a much older man than himself. He only nodded without speaking. He was a tank so he should be conscious of his HP level.
“Ah, I’m glad to hear that.”
Sungjin tried smiling after. Once he ‘intervened’ in this raid, he was able to obtain four new items from two trolls. It was a good haul.
Most of the item he received appeared to be at least Heroic Tier. Sungjin estimated his earnings for this round.
‘I should consider each of them to be worth at about 4000~5000 coins… and then if they get bid on during auction….? No wait, I should first check their specs before I decide on their worth.’
But the man interrupted him with a strange question.
“Are you… an angel?”
Sungjin tilted his head. Did he lose his mind from being betrayed by his teammates? Sungjin responded.