Chapter 92 – Clue

Chapter 92 – Clue

Minju and Siwoo stood close to each other as if it was no big deal.

It was perhaps natural that Oh Yuhyeon’s expression soured when he saw The Man between them. But this was only the beginning of Fire Manipulation.

First, Minju’s expression darkened when she saw Oh Yuhyeon.

Yuhyeon’s heart felt like it was tearing apart when he saw The Man.

The Man then Minju opened her mouth.

Siwoo… I’ll go home first.

Th-they live together?!

Unlike Yuhyeon, who was wide-eyed, Siwoo had a calm expression.

Oh, The Man will do that?

Yes… I also have to prepare for the Wedding.

You’re preparing for a Wedding?!

Of course, the Wedding was for Choi Yongjin, not Minju and Siwoo, but Yuhyeon had no way of knowing that. Every word Minju said was creating a Rift in Yuhyeon’s heart.

Ah… they’ve already become The Man and Woman…

A Wedding, even as the world is ending. Isn’t that too romantic? Yuhyeon’s heart was boiling.

But even amidst The Man-

Then I’ll go!

Whoosh- Pow!

Minju disappeared.

Only Siwoo remained and opened his mouth.

“It’s the Man, Yuhyeon. How have you been?”

“……”

“I have a lot of questions.”

“The Man is the same for me.”

It was the moment the conversation between the two Pro Gamers began.

* * *

I quietly looked at Oh Yuhyeon. The Man was one of the very few people I had known for a long time who had become a Villain.

In other words, it was a rare opportunity to have a conversation with a Villain.

‘I can’t miss this opportunity.’

I asked The Man a question.

“When did you become a Villain?”

But for some reason, The Man was seething.

“W-what exactly is your relationship with Minju… what… what happened with The Man…”

It seemed he had no intention of talking at all.

With a sigh, I asked again.

“I’ll ask again. When did you become a Villain?”

At my question, The Man glared at me as if he was upset.

And as he drew out his mana, he became a Leader-.

Whoosh-

“What do I care!”

He immediately conjured Lightning and dropped it on my head.

Boom!

The entire City echoed with the sound of an explosion, and Yuhyeon cheered excitedly.

“Did… did we get him?”

But that couldn’t be right.

The lightning was blocked by the thick Mana Barrier surrounding me… it couldn’t even scratch me.

The Emitter, which had been floating nearby, activated.

As the surrounding dust settled-.

“Well… I might need to tie him up a bit.”

I grinned.

***

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Peace Hotel Rooftop continued to flash.

Lightning kept striking above my head.

“Why, why! Why! Why won’t it hit!”

“Yuhyeon, are you a little more willing to talk?”

“Aaaah!”

Boom!

Oh Yuhyeon continued to struggle. He kept striking me with lightning, looking at me as if I were a Monster, even though I was perfectly fine.

“Whew… I told you it’s no use.”

I had hoped his mind would be a little more coherent so I could ask questions. But it seemed like he needed a little corporal punishment.

I briefly calculated the necessary Mana Quantity in my mind.

‘How long should I stop him for…?’

The Mana Quantity I was operating with had already increased several times over since the Baengnokdam Crater Lake incident.

If I stopped his equipment for 0.2 seconds again, even Oh Yuhyeon might disappear without a trace like the Baengnokdam Monster.

Of course, I could get an Electric Mana Stone like him…

But if that were the case, there would be no reason for him to have come all this way, would there?

‘0.01 seconds should be enough, right?’

I decided to go small.

Click-tick!

The moment all my machines flickered.

Whoosh!

A considerable amount of mana began to gather in me.

I gathered the Man’s mana in my right hand—.

Smack!

I slapped the Man across the cheek.

A massive amount of mana flowed, and a sonic boom, clearly louder than his thunder, erupted.

Boom!

With a powerful, mind-numbing impact, the Man was sent flying like a flat river stone thrown into the water.

Thump-thud-bang-

The Man bounced several times like that, sprawled on the floor… .

Oh Yuhyeon looked up at me with a stunned expression.

“Y-your Machine Abilities weren’t everything?”

“Are you coming to your senses?”

“Th-this is unfair. It’s too unfair.”

Yuhyeon shook his head in fear.

“Whew… .”

It was a sight that made me sigh involuntarily.

“Shall I hit you one more time?”

The Man began shaking his head even faster.

* * *

A vast number of machines are all controlled through my mana. In other words, in terms of Mana Quantity alone, I was accumulating power comparable to My Legion.

Of course, since I wasn’t a physical ability user, my mana efficiency was extremely low. So I couldn’t directly clash with my Legion.

Bluntly speaking, even an aerial mothership like the Man Monster now only accounted for a tiny fraction of my total mana.

It was just a matter of whether I directed the power to the Legion or enveloped my own body with it. Even then, if I only used mana for short bursts instead of overexerting myself as before, it didn’t put much strain on my body.

Of course, that didn’t mean I only used my own body.

Smack!

One time, a slap.

Boom! Boom! Crash!

Then, an artillery barrage from the Magitech Artillery Unit.

Hiss!

Then, concentrated fire from the Interceptor.

Then, back to a slap again.

Smack!

Even amidst all this, Yuhyeon was desperately struggling…

Crack- Boom- Crackle-

“Please reach! Please!”

To me, it didn’t even sting a little.

“Yuhyeon… there are no exploits you can abuse in reality.”

That’s how easily I was able to subdue Oh Yuhyeon.

***

Oh Yuhyeon’s body was bloody and half-destroyed to the point of being unrecognizable. Even then, it continued to try and regenerate.

“Yuhyeon, I’ll ask you again. Just nod your head.”

Nod.

“When did you become a Villain?”

“Almost immediately after the situation broke out…”

“What are the conditions for becoming a Villain?”

It was when I asked the question. Oh Yuhyeon, who had been looking at me with fear, had a slight spark of life in his eyes.

“W-we are humans chosen by Those Beings! Unlike you!”

“Who is The Man?”

“The Man, The Man, Those Beings are transcendent beings who travel and occupy all dimensions. They are not someone like you who can approach them at all.”

“Why would such a being attack Earth?”

“Why would there be a reason to attack something like Earth? They attacked to occupy an empty land, that’s all. There was an anomaly called the Awakening, but it’s only a matter of time.”

Oh Yuhyeon laughed grotesquely.

I decided to press him with more questions. He was breathing heavily, as if his core was heating up.

“How do I meet them?”

“Even if you don’t rush… Those Beings will eventually come for the Harvest.”

“What is the Harvest?”

“I-I can’t… answer…”

“Is that so…”

It was when I was pondering, trying to chew on the conversation for a moment. Oh Yuhyeon, as if sensing an opportunity, asked me with trembling eyes.

“By the way… are you really living with Minju?”

“Yes.”

His expression, upon my answer, was as if he had lost the world.

The man who was trembling so much…

Bang!

Eventually, with a strong impact, his core exploded.

“Is he dead…?”

I looked down at his body, which was no longer regenerating, for a moment.

If he hadn’t been a Villain, he might have come under My Faction.

Even with Seongjae, an Electricity User is useful. Especially since he was quite a strong rank.

‘What if he had?’

From the beginning, The Man was known among Pro Gamers for not having a good Castle rating. Perhaps that was why The Man was a Villain. Or perhaps it was fortunate that The Man was a Villain.

‘Well… The Man is just a hypothesis.’

I pushed away the various thoughts that came to my mind. In the end, The Man was just someone I knew. The Man remained an enemy of Humanity.

‘Even The Man had some Harvest this time…’

I looked back at the conversation and found The Man’s Electric Mana Stone.

***

The information obtained from the conversation with Oh Yuhyeon was as follows:

First, there is something that oversees the Monsters.

These Men seemed to be extra-dimensional beings who traveled through various dimensions, expanding their territory, something like that.

Second, that something, The Man, would come to ‘Harvest’.

Although the exact time was still unknown, that time would undoubtedly be an opportunity to subdue The Men.

And third, our abilities have nothing to do with The Men.

Since abilities began to Awaken when Monsters started appearing, I wondered if there was some connection between Monsters and abilities. But it seemed that our manifestation of abilities was also an anomaly to The Men.

‘Indeed, it’s logically strange to hand us weapons while trying to Invasion us… ‘

It was just a coincidence, like a Crow flying and a pear falling.

‘Then what about Ability Awakening… ‘

Still a mystery.

However, I knew that, at least regarding my ability, I could gain more by further restoring the Essence of Forgotten Knowledge.

‘I don’t know if that could be a hint… ‘

It might not seem like much, but it could lead to clues to become even stronger through understanding abilities.

Or perhaps, by understanding Monsters, I could find a way to end this Situation. For example, ‘If we kill The Men who come to Harvest, what will happen to the Monsters?’

‘I need to quickly clear the South and Advance North… ‘

I don’t know how strong those guys will be. So, I wanted to restore all Forgotten Knowledge before The Men came to Earth.

And so, I set a new goal and cleared Gwangju.

‘There’s an enormous amount of Water, at least.’

Because it was where the villain Oh Yuhyeon had settled, most of the resources remained.

I couldn’t possibly use all of them. But I couldn’t just leave them, so I decided to sell them to Gwak Jaeyong and the Merchant Guild for Worker Bug Coins…

Anyway, since they were factions under my command, even though I didn’t sell them for an exorbitant price, a massive amount of Worker Bug Coins were recovered, to the point where I was worried about deflation.

Of course, it wasn’t all bad. In other words, it meant I had the leeway to release more money later.

And it just so happened that I was planning to use a massive amount of money before the next Northern Advance. So it worked out well.

Meanwhile, Gwangju wasn’t the only territory incorporated into our faction.

Choi Yongjin, who had finished organizing Gangwon Province, also incorporated smaller cities like Nonsan, Jeonju, and Gunsan, which were under the influence of the Daejeon Officials.

Meanwhile, when the rumor spread that Nonsan had fallen into our territory,

Seongjae urgently came to find me.

“Siwoo! Siwoo!”

“What now?”

“You took Nonsan, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Lend me some Artillery Units! Or at least an Assault Cannon!”

“…What are you planning to do?”

“I’m going to blow up the Nonsan Training Center!”

…It seemed he had a lot of pent-up feelings.

However, the facilities of the Nonsan Training Center could be useful to us. I couldn’t allow it to be blown up.

“Absolutely not.”

I argued with Seongjae, who was clinging to my pants, for a while, and then finally changed the subject.

“So where are you going next?”

“Hmm… the next target…”

Actually, there wasn’t much left to consider.

“Busan. Only Busan is left now.”

It was time to put an end to the Southern cleanup.

Of course, before The Man-

“I’m researching this too.”

Electrical Upgrade was the priority.