WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 140

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Perfect Calculation

With screams, the enemy force steadily thinned out. Roars and muzzle flashes kept erupting, but the Black Knights barely took any losses.

The mismatch between offense and damage puzzled even Tyrkanzyaka.

"...Hm? What's going on?"

Instead of swinging recklessly, she had ordered them to throw themselves in, if only to grab ankles.

Yet the enemy couldn't even shake them off and just rolled on the ground. Soldiers who had been firing threatening volleys only moments ago hit the dirt the instant close combat began.

"They can't even handle one dirt grunt, no, one Black Knight...?"

How could Tyrkanzyaka know? Even in the military state, regular troops were still just regular troops. They were given training, yes, but only officer-class personnel could handle energy in any meaningful way.

In any case, Tyrkanzyaka clenched and opened her fist a few times, then gave the order.

"...Overrun them."

Now the Black Knights sprinted without hesitation and pounced on the soldiers. A few were shredded in the fire net, but Black Knights were the Progenitor's most basic power, endlessly summonable.

Sheer numbers crushed the line. The soldiers' space kept shrinking.

At this rate, they would be overrun. After reading the battlefield, the commander stepped forward in his war-suit with a massive battle axe in hand.

"Cover me! I'll take down the main body!"

Fearless, the commander charged straight at Tyrkanzyaka. Black Knights rushed to stop him, but they fell to a brief concentrated burst of gunfire and his axe.

Some stray rounds flew into his back and lodged there. That was exactly what his energy and war-suit were for. The commander didn't even react. He only surged forward harder.

A steel giant with a heavy frame came barreling in. The momentum alone was imposing.

Tyrkanzyaka raised her fist to meet him, then, as a thought crossed her mind, kept it raised without swinging.

"Take this! My axe!"

His giant axe came crashing down. Tyrkanzyaka received it with her bare fist.

Pop.

It stopped after tearing only a little skin.

"..."

"..."

An awkward silence fell.

The axe blade was wedged perfectly between her fingers. Digging about half an inch between her index and middle finger, that was the commander's achievement. He hurriedly drew up his energy to yank it free, but..."Hm. I wondered with what confidence you challenged me. So it was only a common brute's recklessness."

Crack. Tyrkanzyaka twisted her fist, crumpling the axe head, then reached for his neck. The huge man in full war-suit was lifted high in a girl's hand.

"...You were useful, at least. But elite... no. I take that back."

Tyrkanzyaka flung him away. The giant steel-armored body flew through the air, crashed onto a motor carriage, and caved in the roof.

"Kgh...!"

"Major! Aaaah!"

What swept through after him was a legion of shadows. Countless Black Knights folded soldiers up one by one and tossed them aside.

Not long later, a small mountain of soldiers had piled up. Like a miniature of the mountain inside the Abyss, a groaning mountain of men.

Finished with her work, Tyrkanzyaka dusted off her hands.

"...Nothing special after all."

"Ohh! You wrapped it all up!"

Right then, Rashy came out of the pit with Callis, looked around, and shouted. Behind them, Rallion appeared with Shei on his back, snorting tiredly.

Except for Jiseon, everyone who had been inside was now present. Tyrkanzyaka scanned the area again.

The more she looked, the darker her expression became.

"Where is Hyu? Did you not see him?"

"Didn't see him! He wasn't here?"

"He is nowhere to be seen... Where in the world did he go? Don't tell me..."

By this point, she had no choice but to realize it. A very, very ominous thought flashed through Tyrkanzyaka's head.

What if he had left by his own will?

Everyone had been strangely excited, but he alone had stayed as calm as ever.

When she proposed they move together, he had answered in a roundabout way instead of nodding.

When he asked whether she could protect him, hadn't that been his subtle refusal?

Seeing her darkening expression, Rashy looked at Callis. Callis gave a firm nod. Rashy opened his mouth wide, waved both hands, and called out.

"Come on, no way! He must be running from something somewhere!"

"...You think so? Then where?"

"Let's circle the area first! If we still can't find him, we'll light a fire and call for teacher! Once daytime comes, it'll be much easier to find him!"

Tyrkanzyaka turned around. A huge pit, and Tantalus sprawled across the earth as if the pit itself had been lifted out and laid down. It was so massive it barely felt real.

If he was hiding behind that concrete structure, or inside it, that would almost be a relief.

If he had left...

Gripping her throbbing chest under that ominous thought, Tyrkanzyaka turned her gaze forward.

"...It truly was a farce."

After finishing her words, Jiseon sprinkled liquor around the Grand Master's corpse. The strong Hundred-Flower Red Wine flew exactly in my direction.

Damn. It got in my nose. Cough, cough.

"Why did you try to shake them off?"

Licking wine from my lips, I pushed myself up from under the pile of corpses. I brushed my clothes off with a few pats, then sat down near the Grand Master.

"Because if this kept up, I'd end up following them."

"And what of that?"

"I'm no cowardly prophet, but I can still make ordinary inferences."

I could feel their thoughts drifting farther away.

Sensing their presences scattering into the distance, I muttered,

"If I follow them, I definitely die."

This was a fight to stop the end of the world, no less.

That battle with Jiseon. Honestly, if she had come at me with one pure intention, to kill me?

I would have died. In the moments when Tyr or the regressor couldn't protect me, I could have died even with Jizan in my hand.

The ability to read thoughts helped a lot in combat, sure, but it couldn't erase a firm gap that already existed.

I couldn't stop a charging steel body. Even if I dodged, if she stuck to me, that was it. If she grabbed my clothes and threw me, or blasted energy in all directions, I couldn't endure it.

Mind reading could only stretch what I was already capable of. Real superhumans lived in a different world from mine.

Spinning the card in my hand, I said,

"I was born in the back alleys. What suits me is slipping quietly through crowds, hidden among them. Standing head-on against a powerful enemy like this... that isn't my role."

If Jiseon had not made taking back Jizan her goal.

If she had attacked me with real hostility.

That would have killed me.

"Huh. Yet someone like that blocked my path?"

Drip, drip.

Like I had done, Jiseon splashed liquor around, then refilled her cup in three pours.

"You did not seem that afraid of dying."

"Who in the world isn't? Humans are animals too. We fear death."

"And still, even if you held Jizan, you stood before someone like me?"

I let out a short laugh.

"Because it was right. For people like you, Jiseon-nim."

Like Azzy and Nabi, like the immortal and Callis, I should have shoved myself into some corner over there and hidden my breath. That was the duty of any life that wanted to survive, and it was what I should have done for myself too.

But how was I supposed to endure that?

Wishes worth staking lives on were colliding and swirling right in front of me.

It was worse than someone trying to kill me.

It made me walk myself to death.

Feelings heavier than life, duties people wanted to fulfill even by spending their lives, even those bound by chains tighter than life itself.

These people were far too numb to death, and at the same time, they changed me too.

"If this wasn't the Abyss, if we just crossed paths once in a while, maybe it'd be different. But I picked up a really bad habit. For a long time."

I had finished calculating.

Tyr was pure in a good way, and stubborn in a bad way. If I showed that I intended to distance myself, she'd be sad, but she'd still accept it.

The regressor would be curious about me. But she still had things more important than my identity, so for that reason too she couldn't chase me. She would push her questions to the next turn and move forward in this one.

Azzy? Nabi? The Beast Kings would go their own way like beasts do.

The immortal was not the type to fuss over little things, and Callis would leave the military state with him.

The regressor would keep doubting my identity, and maybe pry in the next turn, but that was all. The me of that next turn could handle it then.

On top of that, the regressor was soft toward allies. Her attitude toward Tyr, who had been an ally in the previous turn, made that obvious. Since they had shared goodwill in this turn, she might smooth this over.

"They'll be fine without me. It's a reasonably beautiful goodbye."

"Huh. Were you a prophet too, Hughes-nim?"

"As if. If I were, I wouldn't have been dragged in here in chains."

I wasn't a prophet. I couldn't resist fate when it suddenly crashed right in front of me. Just like that arrest back then.

But I was a mind reader. I had exceptional ability when it came to reading psychology and inferring how people would act.

"I just understand people's hearts a little well."

It would be regretful, but it would still be a clean farewell.

Now it was time to return to the original track.

"It was a perfect calculation."

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