Chapter 36

A spearman, who had been lying in wait along his escape route, lunged through the wall and attacked Siyoon.

Under normal circumstances, he would have detected the presence beforehand.

However, his focus had been scattered from deflecting the previous barrage of hidden weapons and arrows, delaying his reaction.

‘Damn it.’

The ambush was problematic, but the fact that his movement route had been predicted was far more critical.

It meant their encirclement was tightening.

This presented a very tangible crisis for Siyoon.

A chill ran down his spine.

Kkaang!

Siyoon parried the suddenly thrusting spear blade with his dagger.

His enhanced physique and honed combat instincts translated directly into reaction speed.

In temporal terms, it was a fleeting instant of less than 0.1 seconds.

“You crazy—!”

Did he really not expect the strike to be parried?

The spearman, emerging from the debris, spat out a curse.

It was understandable.

Without his recent growth, Siyoon too would have fallen to such an ambush.

Ppagak.

Siyoon immediately enhanced his hand.

With an attack-power-boosted knife-hand, he snapped the spearman’s neck.

The man’s posture was already broken, and he had closed the distance more than necessary.

Since the spearman couldn’t manage the distance himself, finishing him off was simple.

“Damn it, useless bastard.”

“The ambush failed! Press him before he escapes!”

The pursuit team, having closed the distance without him noticing, shouted orders.

However, there was a high probability this was also a bluff.

Designed to lure him into a false sense of security.

Naturally, he didn’t fall for it, but decided to remain even more vigilant.

Tatatatatat!

Siyoon ran.

Literally sprinting at full power to cover ground.

He employed every available means at his disposal.

He enhanced his legs to boost their strength and speed, then pushed his velocity even further with the Wind of Horus.

Yet, shaking off the pursuit team was no easy task.

‘There are too many of them.’

Behind him, hunters continued to give chase.

But did that mean the other directions were left unguarded?

Not at all.

Archers and Gunners leaped across rooftops, sniping at him from above.

Warriors predicted his path, blocking his way forward or lying in ambush.

The more audacious ones tried to destroy the ground or buildings themselves to obstruct his path.

‘Damn it.’

Siyoon continued to overcome these crises.

He deflected their snipes while returning fire to thin their numbers.

For ambushes, he stayed even more alert, preventing them by detecting them in advance.

When roads or building debris blocked his way, he simply leaped over them.

Even so, some things were unavoidable.

While fleeing and keeping track of all these factors, getting caught off guard from behind was inevitable.

The minor obstacles were what halted his breakthrough momentum.

Pakang!

Siyoon deflected a halberd from a hunter who had closed in unnoticed.

The man had clung to his right diagonal flank while he was dealing with the snipers.

A fierce impact traveled through the flat of his dagger, reverberating through his bones.

A disadvantage in mass stemming from a pure difference in weaponry, not skills.

Dragging this out would be dangerous.

He had long since started calculating time in seconds.

The pursuit team was tightening their noose around him by the second.

He had to keep tracking their positions and calculating possibilities without pause.

A sloppy response meant instant death.

[ Enhancing ‘Arm’. ]

[ Strength additionally increases. ]

[ Enhancing ‘Hand’. ]

[ Attack power increases… ]

Ppudeuddeudeuk!

Siyoon yanked the hunter’s halberd, closing the distance.

Then, he pierced through the man’s neck with a knife-hand strike.

With his strength and attack power elevated by Enhancement, the force he exerted was monstrous.

He tossed aside the corpse of the hunter, who died without even a final death rattle.

Blood pouring from the pierced neck slowly dyed a nearby puddle red.

Without a moment to spare taking in the sight, Siyoon immediately moved his body.

Papapapak!

Arrows and bullets embedded themselves in the ground behind him, carving out a new path.

Even this was achieved by utilizing the Wind of Horus to its absolute limit, deflecting the projectiles.

“Hah.”

Siyoon let out a short, breathless exhale.

This was exhausting.

Heavy beads of sweat rolled down his skin, and his breath grew ragged.

It was a natural physiological response.

Hours of continuous combat and pursuit since morning.

This level of exertion would drain the stamina of any ordinary hunter.

He was sprinting at full speed without rest, simultaneously fighting and keeping watch of his surroundings.

Under normal circumstances, his stamina should have given out long ago.

Yet, Siyoon was still holding on.

This was possible thanks to the effects of one of his equipment pieces, the Patience of Nature.

Healing of minor injuries. An increase in maximum stamina.

But its truly overpowered feature was that the more exhausted he became, the faster his stamina recovered.

This was what allowed Siyoon to endure the fierce combat and pursuit.

However, he couldn’t run like this forever.

Even if his stamina was being restored by the equipment’s effects, there was still a net consumption.

More importantly, he was also quite mentally fatigued.

Sseaeeaek!

Arrows and flying daggers crisscrossed through the air, aiming for his neck.

Siyoon swung his dagger to block them while simultaneously enhancing his feet.

[ Enhancing ‘Feet’. ]

[ Jumping power increases. ]

[ You can move greater distances in a single bound. ]

Pushing off the ground, Siyoon’s body shot forward.

Whether it was rainwater or sweat trailing down his cheeks, he could no longer tell.

But his mind was actually sharper than ever.

Chwak!

Siyoon splashed violently through a puddle as he rounded a corner.

At that moment, his eyes met with a man standing in the rain.

The man wore a matte leather jacket and black pants.

With a sword sheathed at his waist, he gave the approaching Siyoon a fleeting glance.

‘Another pursuer?’

Naturally, his first assumption was that the man was a pursuer.

He had been on the run from them all morning, after all.

In fact, the majority of the enemies had been waiting in alleys just like this one.

Siyoon braced himself to react to an attack at any moment.

But the man’s gaze soon shifted past Siyoon, looking behind him.

“One, two, three… there’s a lot of annoying pests.”

The man, who had been counting, pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against.

Then, he drew the sword from his waist.

Seureung—

The blade emitted a cold ring as it left the sheath.

It was a slow movement, yet it radiated an undeniable, formidable presence.

“Duck.”

The man said.

A single, brief word: duck.

But Siyoon instinctively lowered his head.

That very moment.

* * *

In the split second Siyoon ducked, the man’s feet had already left the ground.

He had kicked off the rain-soaked earth to propel himself forward.

Sarak.

The man, having already leaped, brushed past Siyoon.

A pale, glowing blade flashed immediately after.

Jjeojeojeojeojeojeok!

Amidst the falling rain, the relentlessly flashing blade sliced through the empty air.

With his enhanced eyes, Siyoon could read the man’s attacks with perfect clarity.

‘Fast.’

The man’s sword strikes were like a storm.

He would slash one hunter’s neck and instantly move on to the next target.

The penetrating blade never severed its momentum; it flowed continuously.

As a result, a blue sword aura lingered like a spider’s web wherever the man passed.

Chwaaaaak!

The hunters caught in the web formed solely of sword lines were dismembered into pieces.

Dozens of hunters met their deaths before the raindrops even had a chance to hit the ground.

“You crazy bastard…!”

The archers watching from the rooftops were horrified.

Two steps.

That was the number of steps the man took while slaughtering dozens of hunters.

Realizing they were completely out of their league, they tried to flee.

But the blue sword aura had already reached their necks as well.

Hutududuk.

The archers’ bodies, devoid of heads, tilted and crashed onto the ground.

The pursuit team that had surrounded him was wiped out in an instant.

Witnessing this exact scene, Siyoon felt a shiver run through him.

The man’s attacks were, naturally, the result of using a skill.

But their speed and accuracy were monstrous.

So much so that it felt like he was splitting the equally given single second into multiple uses.

“W-what! Who the hell is this guy!”

“Where did this monster pop out from…”

The surviving hunters in the rear flinched.

But their sentences didn’t finish, nor did they manage to flee.

Because in the next moment, accompanied by a brief gust of wind, the man had already moved behind them.

Jjeojeojeojeojeok!!

The walls of the buildings crumbled along the trajectory of his sword swings.

After a few flashes of sword aura, the living collapsed right where they stood.

“Ghk…”

“Kuh!”

“Keuheok!”

Just like that, the remaining few hunters met their end.

The man was an incredible powerhouse.

He first dealt with the vanguard and the swift archers, then immediately cleaned up the rear.

Even setting his skills aside, his swordsmanship and judgment exuded profound experience.

The man shook the blood off his sword and took a step forward.

Accelerating instantly, he was soon standing right in front of Siyoon.

“Is it you?”

A question that implied a multitude of information.

Siyoon observed him calmly.

A thick scent of blood wafted from the man who had approached like the wind.

His pale, glowing eyes radiated killing intent.

It felt as though one wrong answer would result in being slashed on the spot.

But Siyoon didn’t even flinch.

Instead, he threw a question right back.

“Where did you come from?”

“What?”

At the composed question, the man’s brow twitched.

He was undeniably threatening.

But there was no need to be intimidated or afraid.

This man was likely sent by one of the pharmaceutical companies he had contacted.

‘They sent him at the right time.’

Siyoon had anticipated that he would be ambushed.

He didn’t know the exact timing, which was exactly why he had prepared for it.

The question was which pharmaceutical company had sent him.

“Hah, you’re asking me that?”

“It would be better for you to tell me.”

The man’s aura grew even more hostile.

He looked ready to swing his sword at any moment.

“Serpa. I came from there.”

Contrary to his concerns, the man answered readily.

‘Serpa… a bit larger in scale than Haind.’

The pharmaceutical company Serpa.

It was a pharmaceutical company like Haind and Onwol, but a tier above them.

It was a company in the perfect position for Siyoon to make contact with right now.

The only concerning factor was the man’s attitude.

‘Is he trying to assert dominance?’

Siyoon thought as he looked at the man.

He had been glaring at him like he wanted to kill him, leaking killing intent since earlier.

It seemed his intention was to break Siyoon’s spirit right from the start.

It could also be a way to avoid being manipulated, considering he came because Siyoon requested it.

However, seeing Siyoon’s lack of reaction, the man made a deflated expression.

“As expected, threats of this level don’t work on you.”

“…”

“You certainly have the audacity to pull off crazy stunts all by yourself.”

As if his earlier ferocity had been a lie, the man’s attitude softened considerably.

For someone who had just demonstrated such overwhelming combat prowess, he was quite lighthearted.

But Siyoon did not let his guard down.

‘This man is a formidable expert. I can’t let my guard down.’

He had already witnessed his peerless combat power firsthand.

The man was a powerhouse capable of unilaterally slaughtering dozens of pursuers.

He had to stay vigilant in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

“Anyway, you’re the one who spread the drug to Onwol?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm… honestly, seeing you fight, you don’t really look the part.”

He said, scanning Siyoon from bottom to top.

“How can you make a drug like that?”

“Why should I explain anything about my abilities to you?”

“If you don’t tell me, you’ll die.”

“Kill me then. But you won’t be able to get the drug.”

“Hah.”

The man let out a laugh of disbelief at Siyoon’s response.

He realized Siyoon was not an opponent to be trifled with.

‘Is he testing me?’

The pharmaceutical company that sent the man, Serpa, was probably certain.

Of the fact that Siyoon could enhance potions.

As evidence, Onwol’s Embertrick had been upgraded shortly after its release.

This was a situation generally impossible for a pharmaceutical company.

If the performance of an existing doping agent could be easily boosted, why would development take so long?

Serpa had likely been guessing by observing Onwol’s movements.

That there was an Awakened capable of enhancing a potion’s effects.

And Siyoon had reached out, targeting this very blind spot.

Ultimately, this entire situation had unfolded exactly as Siyoon had planned.

From start to finish.

Perfectly.