WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 47: Fragments of Truth (6)
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Mumu's unexpected transformation.
At the sight, Neung Man-ha's separately moving pupils converged, and Neung Man-ha's gaze sharpened.
The thoughts within Neung Man-ha did not belong to the body itself, but to the ‘being’ that had entered it.
The ‘being’ quickly analyzed Mumu's transformation.
‘Forced manipulation of the body? No, this is different.’
-Shooooooo!
His skin had blackened from the heat, steam rising from it. There was no doubt that this phenomenon had occurred because both Mumu's body and blood circulation, pushed beyond their limits, far surpassed those of an ordinary human.
For a heart to endure such circulation, it would need capabilities no ordinary human could attain, no matter how much they trained.
The corner of Neung Man-ha's mouth rose.
“I thought you were Nothing, but that wench Hae Ha-rang bore a fine child.”
“Hae Ha-rang?”
Mumu's expression hardened at Neung Man-ha's abrupt words.
Neung Man-ha had clearly used the expression “given birth.”
At that very moment,
“How innocent.”
-Bang!
Before the words had even faded, Neung Man-ha's grotesquely swollen leg shot out and struck Mumu squarely in the jaw.
Yet,
‘This bastard...’
Despite taking the blow squarely, Mumu calmly looked down at Neung Man-ha.
There was not the slightest sign that he had been hurt.
Neung Man-ha's lips twitched at the sight. Neung Man-ha did not look surprised. If anything, they looked pleased.
“What a body. It would not fall short even compared to Extreme.”
“Stop talking nonsense. What did you mean earlier? Is Hae Ha-rang my mother?”
“Mother?”
“Yes.”
At Mumu's words, Neung Man-ha suddenly burst out laughing.
“Mother? Khahahahahaha!”
It was unmistakably mocking laughter.
“You find that funny?”
Mumu drove his fist into Neung Man-ha's abdomen.
-Thud! Bang!
Neung Man-ha's body blasted through the wall and buried itself within it.
Mumu had held back, but the force of his punch still shook the entire cavern.
As the cave seemed ready to collapse, Kang Mu-i shouted in alarm.
“Are you trying to bring this place down?”
“I held back.”
Mumu looked at Neung Man-ha embedded in the wall.
“If you don't answer my questions properly from now on, you'll regret...”
-Crumble!
Before he could finish, Neung Man-ha walked out of the shattered wall.
-Crack! Crrrrack!
Their muscles swelled even more than before, then began to condense.
Kang Mu-i's eyes narrowed.
He knew the power of condensed muscle was far more destructive than that of merely enlarged muscles.
-Swish!
It resembled Mumu's body, except that Neung Man-ha's dented abdomen was rapidly recovering from Mumu's punch.
Yang Mu-o bit down hard on the lower lip.
‘Did they finally complete it?’
There had been countless experiments.
Countless arts and bodily modifications, all meant to create a perfect body.
Countless sacrifices had been made for that purpose.
Even after all those sacrifices, they had failed to complete it. Yang Mu-o could not begin to imagine how many more sacrifices had been made over the past seventeen years.
Then Neung Man-ha spoke.
“Mother... How foolish. To be fixated on something as insignificant as a womb. It was nothing more than a means to give birth to a vessel for ‘me.’”
“...”
“To cling to something so trivial is disappointing, my vessel.”
-Bang!
As soon as the words left their mouth, Neung Man-ha kicked off the ground and shot toward Mumu.
The movement greatly resembled Mumu's own, and they reached him in an instant.
Then,
-Boom!
Neung Man-ha thrust out a palm toward Mumu's heart.
It looked like a simple strike, but the instant their palm connected, Mumu's muscles rippled as though a droplet had fallen into water.
Then,
-Crash! Rumble!
Mumu was flung away in an instant, smashing through the cavern wall.
The crashing continued from deep within the wall, so far in that it was impossible to tell how deeply he had been driven.
Kang Mu-i could not hide his shock.
‘W-what was that? How did they send that monster flying like that?’
It resembled an internal force strike, yet it was a more advanced technique.
The attack was immensely powerful and frighteningly precise.
Still, black veins bulged across Neung Man-ha's hand, convulsing violently after they sent Mumu flying.
It resembled Ki Rampage.
“As expected, this vessel has its limits.”
Neung Man-ha looked at Kang Mu-i and Yang Mu-o.
-Flinch!
‘Damn it!’
Feeling something ominous in that gaze, Kang Mu-i and Yang Mu-o raised their life energy at the same time and took fighting stances.
-Bang!
Neung Man-ha instantly closed the distance.
Kang Mu-i released thunder ki like a net to keep them at bay.
But,
-Crackle-crackle!
‘What?’
Neung Man-ha passed straight through the thunder ki as if it were nothing.
Thunder ki should have shocked their muscles into stiffness, but perhaps because of their recovery ability, it had no effect at all.
‘Then!’
This time, Kang Mu-i simultaneously raised flame ki and cold ki as he unleashed his techniques.
He believed it would be difficult to deal with two different energies at once.
‘Flame ki in the Overlord's Moon-Heaven Palm with my right hand, cold ki in the Gate Meridian Bright Ring Finger Art with my left!’
As befitted the sharpest mind among those granted the title Martial, he precisely combined two techniques using different forms of life energy at once.
But,
-Bang! Rumble!
“Huh?”
When Neung Man-ha stomped the ground, the cavern floor surged upward and blocked both the flame ki and cold ki.
In that brief moment, Neung Man-ha leaped into the air, dropped rapidly, and tried to subdue Kang Mu-i in an instant.
Yang Mu-o kicked Kang Mu-i away.
-Thud!
‘You!’
At the same time, Yang Mu-o unleashed an Ultimate Technique toward Neung Man-ha's vital acupoints.
‘Wave-Forged Peak Strike!’
Wave-Forged Peak Strike.
It was the greatest secret art available to Yang Mu-o barehanded.
Yang Mu-o concentrated ki manifestation solely at the fingertips and struck the five vital acupoints along the central line at once. The combination was a lethal move capable of killing someone instantly.
Yang Mu-o knew Neung Man-ha was a monster impossible to handle in a fair fight, but had been looking for even the slightest opening.
And when Neung Man-ha targeted Kang Mu-i, that opening appeared.
-Rat-tat-tat!
The ki manifestation concentrated at Yang Mu-o's fingertips struck four of Neung Man-ha's vital acupoints along the central line first.
Then, at that very moment,
-Thud!
Neung Man-ha seized Yang Mu-o's head with both hands.
Yang Mu-o was startled but knew that stopping the technique now would accomplish nothing.
Ignoring it, Yang Mu-o tried to complete the final movement.
But,
“You will join me first.”
‘!?’
Yang Mu-o reeled as though the mind had been turned upside down, pupils trembling.
Then strange, incomprehensible sounds flowed from Neung Man-ha's mouth.
“Nuimanukasranu aranyawuma...”
“Urk!”
Yang Mu-o's trembling pupils suddenly rolled back.
Red veins surfaced in both eyes, and soon his pupils began moving separately.
He looked exactly like Neung Man-ha had earlier.
Horrified, Kang Mu-i shot toward Neung Man-ha.
“Stoooop!”
“Your turn is next.”
-Thud!
“Argh!”
-Crash!
With a light kick from Neung Man-ha, Kang Mu-i let out an agonized scream and crashed into the cavern wall.
The pain was not the worst of it. Kang Mu-i fell into despair so deep he could not see its end.
Could he truly never escape the shackles of fate?
Yang Mu-o's eyes moved strangely as tears of blood streamed down his face. He looked as though he would stop breathing at any moment.
Yet Yang Mu-o was saying something.
Even in agony, he kept repeating the same words, as though trying to convey something.
-Drip. Drip.
At last, he closed his mouth and lowered his head.
‘Mu-o!’
Kang Mu-i clenched his teeth.
Had Yang Mu-o lost his life like this?
Just as he thought so, Neung Man-ha grinned.
“There’s another ‘me’ now.”
As soon as they spoke, Yang Mu-o, whom Kang Mu-i had thought dead, raised his head.
“Mu-o!”
Was Yang Mu-o still alive?
But Yang Mu-o's condition was strange.
Just like Neung Man-ha at first, his two pupils moved separately.
“Mu-o! Are you all right?”
Kang Mu-i shouted.
Yang Mu-o's wandering pupils focused on Kang Mu-i.
That gaze was chilling.
“Y-you... What are you?”
At Kang Mu-i's words, Yang Mu-o smiled.
Then he clenched and unclenched his fist, examining his own body as he muttered,
“Not bad. As expected, this is better than the failed products.”
‘!?’
Kang Mu-i's expression hardened at the changed voice and manner of speech.
Yang Mu-o's voice and way of speaking were no different from Neung Man-ha's.
Even his expression was almost identical.
“Looks like it's a good one.”
Neung Man-ha addressed Yang Mu-o as if familiar with him.
Yang Mu-o nodded.
‘What in the world...’
Something was wrong.
Kang Mu-i had believed that taking over someone's body meant a soul literally moving into another body.
But this situation was like...
-Swish!
At that moment, Neung Man-ha shot toward Kang Mu-i, who was embedded in the wall.
“You will join me too.”
They reached both hands toward Kang Mu-i's head.
They were so fast that Kang Mu-i, trapped in the wall, could not avoid them.
Then,
-Crash! Crash!
With a thunderous crash, something burst out and grabbed Neung Man-ha's wrist.
-Clench!
“Hoo.”
-Crack! Crack!
The one gripping Neung Man-ha's wrist and rolling his neck as though loosening stiffness was Mumu.
The Skin Masks had torn away, revealing Mumu's original face.
The usual innocence was gone from his expression, replaced by irritation.
“Oh.”
Neung Man-ha let out an exclamation.
Their earlier strike had been a technique beyond an internal force strike, one that damaged the body inside and out at once. They had intended to use it to burst Mumu's heart.
Neung Man-ha had not expected Mumu to be standing there completely unharmed.
Neung Man-ha smiled.
“What an enticing vessel...”
-Crack!
Before they could finish, the arm Mumu held twisted, and bone tore through the skin.
Neung Man-ha frowned. Apparently, they could feel pain.
Mumu spoke.
“I think it'd be better to just kill you.”
Neung Man-ha sneered.
“Kill me?”
“Yes.”
“Join me first.”
“Join you?”
As the words left their mouth, Neung Man-ha grabbed Mumu's wrist with their other hand, using all their strength.
At that moment, someone attacked Mumu from behind.
It was Yang Mu-o.
Yang Mu-o tried to seize Mumu's head with both hands.
Then,
-Crunch!
Mumu moved his arm, and the arm gripping him was torn off.
‘What!?’
It was unbelievable brute strength.
That was not all. After ripping off Neung Man-ha's arm, Mumu seized Yang Mu-o's head as Yang Mu-o came for him.
“What are you trying to do?”
Mumu frowned at Yang Mu-o.
Yang Mu-o's strangely moving pupils disturbed Mumu.
Kang Mu-i shouted at him.
“Mu-o's body has been taken over too!”
“His body was taken over?”
The one who answered was Yang Mu-o, whose head Mumu held.
“That's right. So you should join us too!”
-Swish!
Yang Mu-o tried to grab Mumu's head.
Before he could, Mumu slammed Yang Mu-o into the ground.
-Crack! Crash!
Yang Mu-o's spine broke, and his lower body drove straight into the cavern floor.
At that very moment,
-Thud!
Neung Man-ha's previously broken elbow had already recovered, and they struck Mumu's crown with that hand.
“Nooooo!”
Kang Mu-i cried out in alarm.
‘Too late.’
Neung Man-ha grinned and chanted the same strange words they had used on Yang Mu-o.
“Nuimanukasranu aranyawuma...”
This fellow's strength had exceeded expectations and proved quite troublesome, but since he had been born to become their vessel, he could never resist...
-Thud!
Mumu grabbed Neung Man-ha's wrist.
Mumu should have been consumed by the soul-shifting art and unable to move, yet he looked completely unaffected.
“What were you trying to do just now?”
‘!?’
Footnotes:
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