Chapter 64: Déjà Vu (8)
The sudden attack from an unknown assailant.
At first, he didn’t seem human.
A fat man with a gut so huge it looked like it might burst just from breathing.
His face was covered with strange black tattoos, but they couldn’t hide his menacing expression.
He appeared to be wearing nothing but underwear, which was so swallowed up by his belly that it looked more like a string.
He shouted angrily,
“What have you done? Just a little longer, and the Dark Phoenix would have been complete!!”
As expected, the reason they had spread Aphos's remnants here was to corrupt the Phoenix.
The Dark Phoenix.
Just as the name implies, a Phoenix with black feathers.
While its appearance might not differ, its nature was entirely different.
In contrast to the Phoenix, which symbolizes life, healing, and resurrection, the Dark Phoenix embodies extinction, destruction, and collapse.
According to legend, even a mere flap of its wings could bring about the end of the world.
Even if only a fraction of that legend were true, Seoul, which is nearby, would have been laid to waste.
Initially, he thought the monster Aphos had created was the problem, but compared to the aftermath of the Dark Phoenix, it was nothing.
This was the true meaning behind the Hidden Epic Quest, "Seed of Destruction."
And the man before him was a member of the organization orchestrating all of this.
‘Did he say Reus Knights?’
[There is no mention of them in any of the information we have.]
Akula had mentioned the knights, and they had investigated every knight order, but this was a name they had never encountered before.
However, Hyun Suho instinctively knew.
This was the very knight order that even Akula had feared.
[Reus means ‘the accused’ or ‘criminal’ in Latin.]
‘A criminal knight order? Who would name themselves that?’
Typically, a knight order would choose a name that sounds grand, noble, and venerable.
But these people called themselves criminals.
And they truly had committed terrible crimes.
“Everyone, step back. This person is dangerous.”
Just from a single strike, he could tell.
This man was highly skilled.
Hyun Suho warned the Cheonrima Guild members to avoid getting caught up in the fight.
The man scoffed at Hyun Suho, as if he was being absurd.
“Step back? You think you can take me on by yourself?”
He snorted and strode forward.
Thud! Thud!
He was so heavy that the ground shook with each step.
His body was so fat it looked like it was melting and sliding downwards.
“You damn brat! It was almost complete!! And you had to interfere while Lord Gula was away?!!”
The man who called himself Gula.
In Latin, "Gula" means gluttony.
Gula scratched his head furiously with his nails, as if he was stressed out.
Then, with bloodshot eyes, he shouted,
“I will not forgive you!”
When he lifted his shoulder and stretched his arm out horizontally, something strange happened.
His arm extended like rubber, stretching out, then hardened and sharpened.
His arm had turned into a long, sharp blade.
A meat blade (육도).
Under the light, it even reflected a terrifying, sinister gleam.
Gula swung his meat blade.
Whoosh!
As the extended arm and meat blade came flying, Hyun Suho quickly raised his sword.
‘Is this some kind of "Gomu Gomu no Mi" ability?!’
The meat blade was a long weapon, difficult to use in a confined space.
In a place like this, with dense trees, rocks, and hills, it should have been cumbersome and hard to wield.
But Gula didn’t care whether there were obstacles or not.
Slash!
Everything the meat blade touched was sliced cleanly.
Thick trees, rocks, even the cliffside, were all cut as if by a precision laser.
A moment later, the half-cut cliff lost its support and crumbled.
Rumble!
An attack with an enormous range and tremendous destructive power.
But Hyun Suho still stood in place.
“You blocked that again?”
Hyun Suho had angled his sword just right to deflect the attack.
It was an attack so fast it was almost impossible to see.
Until now, there had been very few who had not only blocked but even evaded Gula’s attacks.
But Hyun Suho had managed to block the attack multiple times in succession.
Gula frowned, clearly displeased that his attack had been thwarted.
His face, so layered with fat that even frowning made his features ripple like waves, twisted in anger.
“So you have the skills to ruin my plans?”
Before Gula could make his next move, Hyun Suho quickly drew out the Genocide in Magnum mode.
This mode sacrificed firing rate for increased power and penetration.
He aimed the gun so quickly that he could feel the blood rushing to his fingertips.
Gula couldn’t react to Hyun Suho’s speed.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Even back when he was just a porter, Hyun Suho had demonstrated perfect marksmanship, never missing a shot.
Even in a life-or-death situation, Hyun Suho's shooting skills never betrayed him.
All three bullets he fired hit the enemy's head.
The bullets pierced straight through the back of his skull.
Thud!
He could vividly see the brain matter spraying out from the back.
“Did I get him?”
Hyun Suho momentarily hesitated, thinking he'd achieved an unexpectedly easy victory.
But something felt off.
With the destructive power of the Genocide, the enemy's head should have exploded like a watermelon.
But all that was left on Gula's head was a swirling round hole.
These Magnum rounds could crumple thick steel like paper.
But even that quickly healed, returning his head to its original state.
Gula gave a disgusting smile, as if he hadn’t taken any damage at all.
“Khehehe! You’re using an interesting toy.”
Gula, whose appearance and abilities were far from human, showed his true power.
Nova also issued a stern warning.
[A strong presence, at least of ranker level. You need to be careful.]
A ranker would be at least level 8.
Among currently registered hunters, only about 1,000 had surpassed level 8.
This wasn’t just about experience; one also needed the corresponding insight to reach that level.
The strong presence was an issue, but his abnormal regenerative ability was even more troubling.
“Die!”
Gula swung his meat blade again.
Hyun Suho swung his sword with one hand while firing bullets with the other.
Bang! Bang bang!
In this exchange, Hyun Suho had the overwhelming advantage.
He deflected all the incoming meat blade strikes and landed every shot in the vital spots.
But Gula quickly regenerated, healing all his wounds.
Though Gula remained unharmed after several attacks, his pride seemed wounded.
“Alright! I’ve changed my mind. I’ll make you part of my nourishment too.”
With that, Gula lifted his other arm, which had remained normal, and transformed it as well.
Crack! Crackle!
His arm grotesquely elongated, just like before.
But this time, it didn’t turn into a sharp blade—it retained the shape of a hand.
Though it would be more accurate to call it a net rather than a hand, considering its size had increased many times over and it now had twenty fingers.
Gula swung this net-like hand at Hyun Suho.
“Kahaha! Let’s see you struggle some more!”
One hand was a meat blade (육도), and the other was a meat net (육망).
This instantly multiplied the number of attacks and patterns he could use.
Hyun Suho had just leveled up to 6, while his opponent was at least level 8.
Considering stats roughly doubled with each level, the difference in stats alone was fourfold.
Factoring in skills and additional abilities, the gap was even wider.
Yet, Hyun Suho remained surprisingly calm.
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
He effortlessly blocked several more attacks, then tilted his head slightly.
“That’s strange. It seemed much harder in the video.”
“What?! Huff, huff!”
Gula, startled by Hyun Suho’s sudden remark, stopped his attacks and squinted his eyes.
He looked visibly exhausted.
Normally, most opponents would have been cut in half by just one of his attacks, but Hyun Suho had perfectly blocked several of them already.
No matter how relentlessly he attacked, it felt like hitting a wall.
Finally, Gula realized something was wrong.
“Who... Who the hell are you? I’ve never heard of someone like you in Korea.”
Gula knew all the high-rankers and rankers in Korea.
But none of them matched Hyun Suho.
Even though he was confident he could easily defeat any ranker, Gula couldn’t believe the situation he was in.
While Gula was pondering, Hyun Suho suddenly clapped his hands together as if he had an epiphany.
“I see. It wasn’t just the future. It showed me a changed destiny.”
Now, he finally understood.
When Lakshmi used her power, Hyun Suho’s fate had shifted dramatically.
If it hadn’t been for her guidance, he would never have met Heavenly Demon (Cheonma).
The video Hyun Suho had seen was a glimpse of a world where Lakshmi’s power had not intervened.
It was the fate of a misaligned world.
In that world, Hyun Suho couldn’t handle Gula.
Now he realized what his ability was.
‘An error in the Akashic Records.’
The Akashic Records—an extra-dimensional repository containing all the records of the universe and humanity.
A world memory documenting every event and thought from the past, present, and future.
The clockwork of the grand universe, which should never deviate.
But Lakshmi's power had twisted it.
Hyun Suho had been able to witness the broken fragments of the Akashic Records.
He couldn’t explain how he had gained this power.
It had come to him suddenly.
An image of an unarrived future appeared in Hyun Suho's mind.
“Aha~ I see now. You were a terrifying opponent.”
In the altered future, Hyun Suho had charged the Genocide to 120% and fired at Gula.
He believed that by annihilating every one of Gula's cells, he could prevent regeneration.
The surprise attack was a huge success.
The vast amount of plasma poured down like a waterfall, completely engulfing Gula.
But shockingly, even with all his cells completely erased, Gula restored himself to his original state.
This was Gula's divine power: eternal and immortal life.
Even when his cells disappeared entirely from the physical realm, his divine power remained active.
“You were the avatar of Aphos.”
The reason Aphos's remnant could exist here was because Gula had worshipped him and become his disciple.
In exchange for offering human sacrifices to Aphos, Gula gained immense power and a mysterious regenerative ability.
Gula did not deny it.
“By gaining Lord Aphos's power, I obtained eternal and immortal life. No matter how many tricks you try, it’s useless!”
Swords, spears, magic, divine power—none of them could leave even a scratch on Gula.
His powers defied the law of conservation of mass.
“Kekeke! No matter how much you struggle, you’ll soon collapse from exhaustion.”
Gula was confident in his victory.
The humiliation of having his attacks blocked would be redeemed by devouring Hyun Suho.
At that moment, the members of the Cheonrima Guild, who had been evacuating the fallen, returned.
“We'll help you!”
The Cheonrima Guild members immediately assumed combat stances.
In fact, they could have been a great help.
In the video, they were wiped out in one go, but that was because of a surprise attack.
However, Hyun Suho shook his head and said, “It’s fine. I can handle this alone.”
His mind was calm.
The fear and anxiety he felt earlier hadn’t originally been his own.
They were the emotions of a Hyun Suho from a world that no longer existed, a world where he had lost people he had barely begun to care about in a senseless manner.
In that timeline, Hyun Suho couldn’t defeat Gula without the teachings of Heavenly Demon (Cheonma).
Would he have been killed without resistance?
Would escaping have been his best option?
Even if he somehow won, the dead would not have come back to life.
But the current Hyun Suho was different.
Gula began to feel anxious due to Hyun Suho’s composure.
“What have you been muttering about since earlier?! All of you, die!!”
Was it fear?
This time, Gula transformed both his hands into meat blades, abandoning the meat net entirely, and swung them wildly.
He intended to kill Hyun Suho first and figure things out later.
In contrast, Hyun Suho moved calmly.
“Over Technology.”
When he activated his skill, his chainsaw sword transformed into a sonic blade.
Whirrr!
Until now, even when his sword clashed with Gula’s meat blades, they remained intact.
In fact, the chain sword’s saw would often get damaged, forcing him to repeatedly use repair skills.
But the sonic blade was different.
With its resonance effect, it didn’t just cut—it pulverized. It was a pinnacle of technology.
As Hyun Suho swung the sonic blade in a semicircle, it sliced through both of Gula’s meat blades at once.
Slash!
The severed meat blades continued flying in the direction they were swung, eventually crashing to the side.
Boom!
In an instant, Gula lost both his hands.
But he didn’t care.
With Aphos's borrowed power, regenerating hands would be easy.
...Or so he thought, but something went wrong.
“Wh-Why isn’t it regenerating?”
No matter how hard Gula tried, his severed hands remained as they were.
The power of Aphos, which could regenerate even when all his cells were destroyed, had been rendered useless.
Hyun Suho recalled the words Heavenly Demon (Cheonma) had once spoken.
“Even the immortal can be killed, and the invincible can be nullified.”
Now, he finally understood Heavenly Demon’s teachings.
