Chapter 364 (1/2)
Wiggle, wriggle—
The black fog coalesced and transformed into pitch-black skin. Then, gathering in one location, it gradually shrunk down.
Sliiiice—
Pu-haaaaak—!
At the same time, Su-hyeun swung his sword downward, causing the black lump to tear apart and blow up.
Fire and wind jumbled up as the lumps that were transforming into flesh splattered everywhere. However, the bits quickly regrouped back to their original appearance.
“I knew you are quite insolent but to think it’d be on this level,” said a shady voice from the reformed lump.
The lump sped up its transformation and soon took on a more defined silhouette. Before long, a pitch-black-skinned humanoid with a lengthy horn growing out in the space between its forehead and hairline, wearing equally-black clothing, materialized.
To Su-hyeun, the voice that he heard just now was familiar, and that was how he became sure of it. “So, it’s you,” he said.
“You were looking for me?”
“I was. Since from the first game, no less.” The corners of Su-hyeun’s lips curled upward.
This creature’s voice indeed came across as quite familiar. It uncannily resembled the “voice” Su-hyeun kept hearing after the “trial” in this place began.
The predator, it had finally revealed itself.
“So you were a hound of the gods, then?”
“A hound?” Su-hyeun thought. He was inwardly puzzled by that, but he had no other way to explain himself for now.
Besides, they were about to fight, anyway. It didn’t seem likely that the other party would answer him even if he asked what this “hound” was supposed to mean. Also, he got a hunch that maybe he should be asking that to someone else instead.
“Well, let’s say that you’re right for now…”
Clap—
Fwhooosh, rumble—
The moment Su-hyeun clapped his hands, a massive wall of flames suddenly materialized above the arena. The flames descended as a ring of fire to envelop the entirety of the arena itself.
[Flame – Territory Declaration]
Ruuuuumble—
The purple-colored flames quickly enveloped the surroundings. The ground melted down, and the air burned away. The only one not affected was the person activating this ability, Su-hyeun.
“Alright, then. I’m done with my preparations.”
“Could it be that you did this to prevent me from fleeing?”
The predator made a dumbfounded expression while looking around.
It wasn’t being affected all that much despite being trapped inside the territory made out of the divine Flame. It was a noticeably contrasting sight compared to Chun Ha-jin, who was withering away at a visible pace as if he would die at any second now.
The predator quipped, “Hey, that guy will die at this rate. Didn’t you say it earlier? That you’d let him live as long as I showed up.”
“That depends on what you do. I did say it, didn’t I? It’s not me sparing him but you coming to save him.”
Despite the things Su-hyeun said to Chun Ha-jin, the truth was, he was talking to this world’s predator who should’ve been watching him from somewhere.
Su-hyeun was aware of the predator paying close attention to him, but he had no way of tracking the creature down. That’s why he changed his approach. If it was too hard for him to track down his target, then he could make the other side come and find him instead.
And his new approach was none other than Chun Ha-jin.
“After all, this punk is your prey, isn’t it?”
“…!”
When Su-hyeun said that, Chun Ha-jin’s brows shot up high.
The “prey.”
To think that the existence before his eyes boasting such a terrifying aura was treating him as mere prey…
The predator stared at Chun Ha-jin who was looking back at it with disbelieving eyes for a little while before breaking out in a smirk.
Chun Ha-jin became certain from that expression that he was nothing more than a cow fattened up after being fed lots of fodder until now.
“Well, I was planning to take my time and savor him. However, I have never imagined that someone like you would suddenly show up. I thought I could fatten him up just a bit more, you know.”
Fatten him up some more…
Such a description shouldn’t be used to talk about a person, especially more so when the actual meaning wasn’t literally about fattening him up.
By “fattening up,” this creature was talking about Chun Ha-jin’s magical energy reserve, as well as the size of his life force getting larger.
“The position of the emperor was all for this?”
Su-hyeun looked down at Chun Ha-jin.
After arriving in this world, he must have started from a low status just like everyone else and managed to climb up this far. He acquired the position of “emperor” many years ago, and by abusing the authority afforded by that position, he stole away the life force and magical energy of countless people to reach this point.
People naturally desired higher stations in their lives, and to achieve their aim, they thirsted for more power.
“No, wait. This whole system was designed for this purpose,” Su-hyeun thought.
The higher your rank climbed up, the better your lifestyle would get, and the safer you would be.
And for that purpose, you simply had to get stronger.
In a way, this place was like a giant breeding farm.
The predator had been taking its time fattening up all these humans and other similar races trapped inside the breeding farm.
“This punk here, he’s valuable to you, isn’t he?”
Crunch—
Kkeuh-aaaaah—!
The effects of the Dark Psychic’s Curse was still active in Chun Ha-jin, so when Su-hyeun stepped on his ankle, he began screaming tragically once more.
As Su-hyeun wasn’t trying to kill the punk, he deliberately avoided attacking Chun Ha-jin’s vital body parts. Besides, the latter also boasted exceptional vitality, so, despite his whole body resembling a torn rag right now, Chun Ha-jin was still barely hanging on at the moment.
“Of course, he’s valuable. He is one of the very best preys I’ve created so far, after all.”
A long tongue coiled out from the predator’s mouth to lick its lips.
Drool dripped from that snake-like tongue. However, the predator’s avaricious gaze filled with hunger wasn’t locked on Chun Ha-jin but on Su-hyeun.
“The thing is, I’m more curious about how a hound would taste. Well, devouring both of you wouldn’t be a bad idea in itself.”
“I thought that’s why you showed up here.”
“Didn’t you allude to it earlier? The only reason why you didn’t kill him was to provoke me, wasn’t it? You were basically saying that if I appear now, then I might get to devour him and you at the same time. Am I wrong?”
Su-hyeun nodded at what the predator had said.
It was on the money.
Su-hyeun chose not to kill Chun Ha-jin right away in order to drag the predator out in the open.
He was hoping for the predator to feel antsy about Chun Ha-jin’s death and reveal itself from its hiding place somewhere.
However, the predator didn’t show up in the end. The creature was planning to simply devour Su-hyeun after he killed Chun Ha-jin and became the new emperor.
Nonetheless, to such a predator, Su-hyeun said something else. If the creature appeared now, then it wouldn’t have to give up on either one of them.
He said, come and try to rescue Chun Ha-jin if it can.
“And you’ve been quite an insolent punk.”
Such a provocation was directly insulting the predator’s pride.
This creature was a powerful existence that had created the system of this world and abducted many people to create a functioning society.
Meaning, it was no different than a god to these people, and the predator thought of itself in that manner as well.
“So you did all this while thinking that I’d try to flee from here, is that it? You’re going to regret that very soon.”
Pah-sususu—
“Because very soon you’ll come to realize that only by scrounging up even a tiny little bit of power from somewhere, you will have a chance at extending your life by a fraction of a second.”
Jiii-iiii—
Black fog leaked out from the predator to blanket its surroundings. This fog corroded the ground and gradually shoved Su-hyeun’s aura back.