WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 108: The Marksman of the Magic Bullet (1)
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"Hey! What kind of nonsense is that! You know how much I just donated?"
Choi Suhyun grumbled over Channel 1.
The moment he showed up, he'd thrown in 5,000,000 points.
Considering the raid's cumulative point pool sat at 15,000,000, that was a staggering amount.
What made it scarier was that he still had roughly 7,000,000 points left over even after that.
I'd once asked whether he'd scammed his own god, and he'd muttered something about a mat spread out on the ground. Made me wonder, seriously, if he'd actually pulled some kind of con.
I pulled up Choi Suhyun's status window.
[Choi Suhyun (Soter)]
Strength: S- (31.2%)
Vitality: SS (22.1%)
Mana: Transcendent C+ (82.9%)
Recovery: SS- (71.2%)
No matter how many times I looked at it, it made me want to rub my eyes.
Setting aside skills and talents, this was the highest set of stats I'd seen with my own eyes.
Considering Eunyoung noona's Strength sat at A while she was still growing, Yu Jihan's Strength stat, despite being a Transcendent, actually came out on the low side.
Not that it mattered much.
"What the hell is going on right now? Why is Choi Suhyun even here?"
Jin Sangbyeok vented his frustration over Choi Suhyun's sudden intrusion through Channel 2.
He wasn't the only one.
"I'd like an explanation too, if it's not too much trouble."
"You want to start something?"
Yu Seyeon and Seo Jihoon, positioned diagonally across from Choi Suhyun, both voiced their displeasure.
The one who answered wasn't Park Siyu, but Choi Suhyun himself.
"You people sure talk a lot."
"Excuse me? You're the one who barged in halfway, and you're saying that?"
"That's exactly why I ate the penalty to get in. What's the problem?"
"Are you serious right now?"
Interruptions came with a penalty, half of the reward merit points and nothing else.
Nobody there had any illusions that Choi Suhyun was the type to care about something like that.
When the boss raid opened, thirty tickets had been distributed.
Raids usually didn't run with a full roster from the start. Guilds preferred to leave a few slots open on purpose.
There was a penalty for joining late, sure, but as long as you held a ticket, you could jump in anytime, which functioned as insurance against the unexpected.
Obviously, a Hunter walking in fresh had the advantage over Hunters already worn down from a long fight.
Park Siyu hadn't disclosed the name of whoever held that insurance slot.
Yu Seyeon ground her teeth, and Choi Suhyun landed the finishing blow on her and a few other Hunters.
"Why are you acting like such an amateur about it? You knew there was a chance I'd show up."
"In the worst-case scenario, sure."
"Whoa, are you serious? Why the hell is that guy here! Kang Hangyeol! This is a foul!!"
Choi Jaebyung raised his voice over Channel 1.
What is with this guy...
Whatever. Let's just let it go. Ugh, not even worth arguing.
Yeongno, soaked head to tail in blood, rose back up.
Choi Suhyun's gun barrel swung toward Yeongno's head.
The Hunters standing on the rock all moved at once, each according to their own agenda.
I threw myself off the rock too, Sky Sword gripped tight.
"You...!!"
My attack came out of nowhere, and Seo Jihoon flinched in surprise.
"Can you hold Seo Jihoon down now that Choi Suhyun's jumped in?"
"Why me, specifically, on Seo Jihoon?"
"There's nothing more dangerous than a bomb you can't predict. That skill you showed off earlier should be enough."
Park Siyu told me to use the skill I'd shown before, but that one demanded a level of focus I didn't have room for right now.
Besides, it had failed last time.
The point is I just need to pin Seo Jihoon down, that's all.
I spun my body once and kicked Seo Jihoon square in the torso.
"Seo Ji... ugh!"
My sword shot forward fast, grazing Yu Seyeon's shoulder as it passed.
That was a warning.
"Stick with Choi Suhyun!"
"O, okay!"
I didn't stop Yu Seyeon as she headed toward Choi Suhyun.
My only goal was pinning down Seo Jihoon. Everyone else wasn't my problem.
Seo Jihoon, standing atop the rock, charged in with his scythe raised.
The reach on that thing was genuinely wide, and given where we were fighting, it made him a pain to deal with.
One of the chains attached to the scythe wrapped around my ankle.
"This..."
Seo Jihoon yanked the chain, and my body lost balance, floating up into the air.
I aimed the tip of my sword at his heart and drove it in.
The blade energy shot out in a straight line, grazing past his chest.
His body slammed down onto the rock and dropped.
I slid my sword under the chain wrapped around me and pushed with force.
Whether he judged it too dangerous or not, the chain unraveled and snapped back to its place.
"That's annoying."
"A counterattack in midair, not bad. Why did you target me?"
I spat out the blood pooling in my mouth and gripped my sword.
Targeting Seo Jihoon wasn't purely because Park Siyu had asked me to.
The blue blade of the Sky Sword reflected Seo Jihoon, standing with his feet planted on a jagged spire of rock.
"Give Eunyoung noona back, you bastard."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
I charged at Seo Jihoon again.
Seo Jihoon currently served as Guardian to the god Beritaas.
The god Beritaas, who'd broken its taboo, had taken Eunyoung noona. There was no way this guy didn't know about it.
My sword clashed against Seo Jihoon's scythe.
Seo Jihoon swung the scythe in a wide arc.
I leaped up slightly, planted my foot on the scythe, and swung my sword.
With Yeongno on the brink of death right in front of everyone, the fighting between me and Seo Jihoon wasn't the only skirmish going on.
Jeong Choa and Choi Jaebyung were holding back the Hunters swarming toward Choi Suhyun, who'd forced his way in.
"A, are you even a Raon Guild Hunter? Why are you protecting that guy!"
"I don't know! Screw the guild, I only follow orders from Representative Kang!!"
"Jaebyung-ssi, don't push in too far!"
At Choa's word, Choi Jaebyung, who'd been busily bashing guild members with his shield, pulled back.
Right below them, Park Siyu and Jin Sangbyeok had their swords locked together.
"What kind of deal did you make with that Kang Moonkook bastard, using Choi Jaebyung as the price?"
"You know how many big guilds are crammed into this narrow strip of land? I proposed an alliance to Representative Kang."
"An alliance? For what purpose... no, the motive doesn't matter. Did you cut me out because I had a hand in killing Yu Chaeyoung? Like I said before, that incident..."
Jin Sangbyeok said something to Park Siyu, and Park Siyu's face twisted.
"You've got the luxury to be distracted right now?"
Seo Jihoon's voice came from right in front of me.
I turned my sword toward him.
Seo Jihoon looked at me like I was pathetic.
"You really think you can beat me?"
"Not impossible."
"By the way, is your body even okay?"
Seo Jihoon's movement broke off course, and the crude blade of the Hundred Beasts Sword dug into his side.
Long chains were driven into the rock walls, scattered here and there.
Standing suspended on the chains strung between the rock walls, Seo Jihoon looked like he was practically flying through the sky.
Seo Jihoon wiped the blood running down his cheek.
"Your sword is strange."
"Strange how?"
"There's depth to it."
An ordinary Hunter might've brushed that off as an empty remark, but I wasn't ordinary.
A hundred years had passed since the First Gate.
Hunters who'd fought with brute force in the early days had, over time, built up accumulated experience into all kinds of fighting styles.
A hundred years was an eternity by modern standards, enough to reshape a whole era, but compared to the stretch of time that had come before, a hundred years wasn't actually that long.
Figures.
I'd learned it secondhand, not through any formal line of teaching, but it was still a sword style with real history behind it.
Seo Jihoon had picked up on that difference.
"But that's not really something you need to worry about, is it?"
I looked up at Seo Jihoon and smirked.
The fallen chains ripped free and flew at me all at once.
Clang.
I used the Falling Petal Flower Sword to knock every incoming chain away.
Seo Jihoon can't use Transcendent skills right now.
Seo Jihoon had become a Transcendent through abnormal means.
The risk of using a Transcendent skill in his condition definitely wasn't ordinary.
Even if he tried, his body wouldn't hold up.
I moved, using a falling chain as a foothold, and grabbed the space above Seo Jihoon's head.
He couldn't use that skill, but that wasn't my only option.
Strength gathered in my wrist, weight settling into the sword.
The blue blade took the shape of a small dragon.
[Tier 6 Protection activates.]
The blue dragon formed around the sword bore down hard on Seo Jihoon's body.
Seo Jihoon tried to block the descending dragon with his scythe, but it wasn't enough.
The rock beneath his feet crumbled, and his body dropped.
I planted my feet on a section of rock that hadn't collapsed and shook out my wrist.
The Heavenly Dragon's Peerless Sword Style was a technique built on the foundation of heavy blade work.
I glanced up.
Choi Suhyun's magic bullets kept pounding into Yeongno without pause.
"Having the time of his life."
Even Choi Suhyun couldn't use skills without becoming a follower.
Using his position at the Association as cover, he'd apparently kept up target practice on the side, but practice and the real thing were different animals.
Firing a gun for the first time in nearly three years, Choi Suhyun looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself.
I glanced at the god Soter's status window.
[The god Soter proposes gifting a skill for 724,000 merit points.]
"What? Is this bastard for real?"
Choi Suhyun cursed over Channel 1.
A few Hunters on the channel tilted their heads in confusion.
No matter how you look at it, that sounded aimed at me.
If you don't like it, forget it!
Am I the one who's desperate here? He's the desperate one.
Well... I'm a little desperate too, honestly.
I dodged an attack from a Hunter charging in with a sword and drove my fist into his gut.
The Hunter went flying.
[Choi Suhyun accepts the proposal.]
"It better be good! Or I swear to god!"
Choa, who'd just blocked a spell aimed at Choi Suhyun with her bare hands, tilted her head.
"Who are you even talking to?"
"Just, someone."
Choi Suhyun cleared his throat with dignity.
I'd expected as much, but this guy really would eat his own god alive. Unbelievable.
[Gifting 'Black Inferno Spiraling Bullets' to Guardian 'Choi Suhyun'.]
Choi Suhyun rose above Yeongno's head and aimed his gun.
Between the barrel and Yeongno's head, a set of intricate magic circles stacked layer upon layer.
Black mana bled out and swallowed the hand gripping the gun in darkness.
"Wh, what the hell is that?"
Choi Jaebyung swung his shield up over his head.
Not just Choi Jaebyung, everyone had their eyes on Choi Suhyun now.
He kept a bit of distance and pulled the trigger. A single black bullet shot out in a straight line and punched clean through Yeongno's skull.
Its head blown through, Yeongno's massive body finally collapsed.
[The boss raid will end in 1 minute.]
"Hey, this..."
Hovering in the air, Choi Suhyun swayed unsteadily.
A ranged attack flew at him from the side.
He swung his gun like a club and knocked it aside.
"Smoke?"
White smoke spread fast, centered on Choi Suhyun.
"I'm not handing over anything else, but the Dragon Orb stays with me!"
"You want to start something? Fine!"
The smoke was Yu Seyeon's doing.
Hunters dove into the smoke one after another.
Yeongno's corpse vanished, and the mana that remained gathered together, taking shape.
The purest concentration of mana that Yeongno the imugi had stored up in its bid to become a dragon, that was the Dragon Orb.
Someone must've figured that hiding it behind a mana-fueled smokescreen would work. Bad call.
Piece of cake.
To me, master of Mana Detection, visibility meant nothing.
I dove into the smoke and used the Hundred Beasts Sword to shove Yu Seyeon back.
"Damn it!!"
"Good, got it..."
The instant the Dragon Orb landed in my hand, a chilling presence washed over me.
I lost my grip on the orb I'd just claimed, and blood sprayed from my body.
"You, you little..."
"Hangyeol-ssi!!"
Footnotes:
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