WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 46: A Miracle Happens
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One by one, shaving away chunks of flesh.
Severing nerves strand by strand.
Forcing all the blood in the body to flow backward.
Turning the entire set of organs inside out.
Even if someone suffered pain beyond death itself, they would not actually die.
Such were the torture arts that the Seven Dragons Society, wielders of psionics more suited than any supernatural power to studying the human body and mind, had elevated beyond mere technique into an art form.
Rimon spoke lazily.
Th-this bastard...
Even as Park Hyeon-gun foamed at the mouth in pain, they trembled.
It was not because False God’s Prestige, the Unique Skill specialized in lies, let them know Rimon was telling the truth.
The moment they saw those sleepy golden eyes, as though he were watching a bug pinned down and struggling, they simply understood.
The true nature of that lethargy.
It was neither fatigue nor boredom.
It was the weariness only someone who had killed, and killed, and killed again could possess.
The weariness of someone who found murder not merely tiresome, but bothersome.
That was why Park Hyeon-gun miraculously realized the truth.
The true nature of the Sword Master concealed behind the title of hero.
Thud!
“Gurk?!”
“Who told you to get distracted?”
A sudden kick to the anus sent a shock through Park Hyeon-gun like lightning striking their head, making them forget everything.
As Rimon stirred their spine with his sword, he spoke.
“Remember this.”
It was less a warning than advice.
A declaration intended to erase whatever hope might remain.
“You no longer have time to escape reality.”
Regret, reflection, atonement, worry, unconsciousness, madness.
None of it would be allowed to Park Hyeon-gun. From now on, there was only one thing they would be able to feel.
“Begging me to kill you will be all you can do for the next four days.”
Rimon moved his sword as he spoke lazily.
As the blade churned through their body, Park Hyeon-gun tried to think. To believe. To give up.
This was all a dream.
When they opened their eyes, reality would be waiting.
Even if they had to let their mind go and detach their consciousness, they tried to flee the pain consuming their body and mind.
But as Rimon had declared, he did not even give Park Hyeon-gun the chance to go mad.
With precise movements of his sword, he stimulated their pain receptors and forcibly kept them conscious while slicing their body apart, cell by cell.
Park Hyeon-gun despaired in that agony.
And they yearned.
For anyone, please, to save them...
No, if someone would at least let them die peacefully, that would be enough.
If only someone would do that, it did not matter who they were or what they wanted. Park Hyeon-gun would pay any price.
At that very moment.
A miracle happened.
[The Constellation contracted to you responds to your earnest wish.]
[The Constellation contracted to you proposes a contract renewal. If you agree, you can gain the power to escape your current crisis.]
[Will you accept the contract renewal?]
This is...!
It was an utterly strange System message.
Park Hyeon-gun had seen System messages many times as a high-level player, yet this was the first time a Constellation had proposed renewing a contract.
Even among all the information gathered while running the Infinity Guild, they had never heard so much as a rumor of anything similar.
Normally, they would have been suspicious.
Having deceived countless people to reach this position, Park Hyeon-gun was not the sort to easily believe in unexpected good fortune.
But now, with everything lost and only a horrible death before them.
Park Hyeon-gun had already lost their ability to judge calmly to pain, despair, and fear. They had no room to doubt that System message.
Like a drowning person grasping at even a straw, they hurriedly answered.
“I-I accept! I’ll renew the contract!”
Thump.
The moment they cried out.
Park Hyeon-gun felt it clearly.
A hole opened in the laws of the world.
A dazzling star fell toward them.
And as that star drew closer, tremendous power wrapped around them.
Even when they had stolen Lee Cheon-gi’s power and used dozens of Skills at once, Park Hyeon-gun had never felt anything like this immense storm of power.
They realized that even Monarchs worshipped as absolutes were ultimately only human, nothing before a truly transcendent being.
And that great being was now approaching to lend them its power without reserve.
The Constellation never ignored my efforts after all!
Park Hyeon-gun rejoiced.
Their prayer had been answered.
With this immense power, they could not only escape death, but kill Lee Cheon-gi and Rimon and seize the Infinity Guild.
Most of all, despite the nonsense that filthy old monster had spouted, their efforts had finally been rewarded.
Those beliefs made Park Hyeon-gun’s heart, once filled with despair, pound with joy.
Wearing an ecstatic smile, Park Hyeon-gun received the Constellation’s light while offering worship filled with the deepest respect and reverence.
Crunch.
Creak, creak.
Gulp.
The star swallowed them.
* * *
What is this?
When Park Hyeon-gun suddenly shouted about renewing their contract, Lee Cheon-gi thought they had finally gone mad.
It was not uncommon for people driven into a corner to lose their minds.
But at this moment.
Lee Cheon-gi had no choice but to admit that he had been wrong.
Thud!
It was not merely because Park Hyeon-gun, who moments ago could only writhe like a bug impaled on a sword and could not even control their own body due to the aftereffects of Overheat, suddenly sprang up and kicked Rimon.
Nor was it because their waist, nearly split in half from forcibly moving while impaled, healed in the blink of an eye.
Nor was it because of the suddenly explosive increase in their presence, which made his whole body tingle just from being in the same space.
It was the atmosphere.
It was clearly Park Hyeon-gun.
Yet there was an alien feeling, as though he were looking at something else wearing only the same appearance.
A horrifying sense of separation, as though he had glimpsed an abyss that should never be seen.
A nauseating revulsion that felt as though his soul were being scraped away merely by facing it.
Even Lee Cheon-gi, who had remained calm when his abilities were stolen by False God’s Prestige, could not stop his face from twisting.
What in the world is this...?
Perhaps sensing his gaze, Park Hyeon-gun suddenly turned their head at a ninety-degree angle to look back at Lee Cheon-gi.
The moment their eyes met, Lee Cheon-gi unknowingly stepped back.
What he felt then was a fear he had never experienced even when facing death.
Beyond strength or danger, a primal terror gripped his heart, as though something made of bugs, filth, and innards were licking his cheek.
Riiip.
Looking at Lee Cheon-gi like that.
Park Hyeon-gun smiled.
Their lips stretched wide to either side until the corners of their mouth tore and blood seeped out. They slowly extended their tongue, licked away the blood, and sneered.
It was a disgusting smile that clouded the mind just from looking at it.
He wanted to look away immediately. To erase that dreadful smile from his memory. To flee this place and pretend none of it had happened.
But it was useless.
Whether he shut his eyes or fled, he would never forget that dreadful sight already branded upon his retinas.
Then understanding came to him.
Ah. Yes, that was it.
If it was imprinted on his eyes, he could tear them out.
If his brain remembered it, he could dig it out.
If his insides turned over, he could pull them out.
That was the perfect answer.
To put into practice the only way to escape this terrible feeling, Lee Cheon-gi...
“『Wave Cannon』.”
Boom!
He fired an invisible wave.
The Skill was pitifully weaker than normal, perhaps because the abilities stolen by False God’s Prestige had not yet returned.
Still, Park Hyeon-gun seemed not to have expected Lee Cheon-gi’s attack. Defenseless, they were swept up by the wave and flung backward.
Perhaps because he had sent Park Hyeon-gun flying, the thoughts invading his mind faded, and only then did he regain the ability to think normally.
Yet amid the lingering discomfort, as though his brain had been dipped in pork fat and pulled back out, Lee Cheon-gi gritted his teeth.
“What did you do?”
It was not some kind of mental Skill.
Just as something fell to the ground when drawn by gravity.
The horrific sensation that he fell into chaos merely by facing Park Hyeon-gun, a sensation that could only be called corruption, gave Lee Cheon-gi certainty.
“No, what have you become?”
Park Hyeon-gun only wore a human shape.
They had already become something other than human.
But what had once been Park Hyeon-gun did not answer Lee Cheon-gi’s question.
It merely stared at him with gleaming eyes, apparently displeased that a mere human had defied it, then held out one hand.
“『Wave. Cannon.』”
Booooooooom!
“...!”
Lee Cheon-gi’s eyes widened.
It was not simply because his own Skill had been returned to him, nor because its power surpassed his original.
Seeing Park Hyeon-gun stretch out their hand, he had instinctively used 『Space Transfer』.
But when his eyes met Park Hyeon-gun’s, the Skill failed. Instead of crossing space, his movement froze where he stood.
As though an invisible snake had bound his whole body.
Because of that, Lee Cheon-gi missed his chance to evade and was about to be swept up in an invisible wave powerful enough to easily crush a human body.
Slice.
A flash of sword light cut through the air.
The invisible wave split apart.
And the restraint binding Lee Cheon-gi was released.
He had escaped the crisis, yet Lee Cheon-gi could not relax.
No, his expression became even more chilled.
It was not merely because Rimon, who had stepped back after catching Park Hyeon-gun’s sudden attack with his sword, had somehow appeared before him.
Nor was it because of the overwhelming pressure, like a blade held to his throat, that he had never felt even while fighting Rimon to the death.
Rimon wore a smile as bright as though he had received a surprise gift.
Or won the lottery.
Yet unlike that smiling face, Rimon’s eyes were coldly frozen without a trace of warmth, black radiance flickering within them. The sight made goosebumps rise all over Lee Cheon-gi’s body.
“Well... I guess living right brings this kind of luck too.”
Lee Cheon-gi could not understand.
No, nobody could have understood.
Why Rimon was so delighted even though collecting the blood debt he had eagerly awaited had been delayed.
“I was wondering whether I should wrap up this blood debt as it was.”
Normally, Rimon would have been furious.
It was obvious that some Constellation had interfered with Park Hyeon-gun, despite his warning not to meddle with his revenge.
Yet there was only one reason Rimon was pleased rather than angry.
He had seen it.
The moment Park Hyeon-gun accepted the contract.
The unmistakable form of the Constellation that had fallen from the sky and swallowed them.
“Thanks so fucking much for popping up right in front of me, you snake bastard.”
The Constellation that had contracted with Yoo Na-gyeong.
The being that had laughed at her death and tried to steal something like an orb of light from Yoo Na-gyeong’s corpse the moment she died.
The culprit that had first made him wary of Constellations.
Looking at the Serpent That Joins the Ends, Rimon smiled coldly.
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