WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 85

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Of course, Kang Jin-ho putting on a bluff did not dramatically turn the tide of the battle.

The sky still flashed. The shockwaves reached him late, stirring his bangs. And whenever a beam of light occasionally aimed his way, the darkness blocked it on its own. From Kang Jin-ho's perspective, nothing had changed from before.

‘That doesn't mean I can hesitate.’

Still, Kang Jin-ho had no intention of stopping. Even if all this was nothing more than pointless nonsense, continuing to press on gave it a better chance of working.

And bluntly put, monsters like Eun-yeong and Bitna had to be watching him.

“Hmm.”

Kang Jin-ho casually raised his phone and checked the time. It was 10:05. A completely meaningless time.

“...Five minutes left.”

He muttered that in a slightly louder voice, as though talking to himself.

What was in five minutes? It would be 10:10. What else would there be? Absolutely nothing.

Next came the ground. Using the toe of his shoe, Kang Jin-ho drew a long line across the burnt dirt. He did it exactly five times, then finished by drawing a triangle.

What did that mean? Kang Jin-ho himself had no idea.

Lastly, he looked toward Light Tower and gave a meaningful nod. First, he held up two fingers. Then five. Finally, he clenched his fist tight.

There was nobody over there. Kang Jin-ho knew that too.

‘...Is this really right?’

None of those actions meant anything.

But it was the best Kang Jin-ho could do right now.

* * *

At the same time.

“Hmm.”

Bitna had watched every one of Kang Jin-ho's actions from start to finish. So long as she willed it, all the light in this city became her eyes. That was why Bitna could see all of Light City as clearly as the palm of her hand.

And perhaps because she could see everything, it all felt even stranger.

First, the call. Bitna had personally destroyed every nearby cell tower earlier. That meant his phone could not connect to anything.

Yet Kang Jin-ho had just made a call. Although no sound had come from the phone, he had answered, “No,” as if he were holding a conversation.

‘Did he create some means of communicating without radio waves?’

She did not know whether he had foreseen a situation like this or merely prepared for every possibility. But it seemed destroying the communications towers was not enough to stop Kang Jin-ho's schemes.

Next, the messages. Bitna already knew whom Kang Jin-ho had messaged. She split her power over light into three streams and spread them throughout the city.

Trace. The office lights were on. A map of Light City lay spread across the desk, and Trace was marking something on it around this park.

Tienrang. Tienrang was leaping across rooftops, sniffing the air as they ran this way.

The chief of the Eastern District 7 Police Substation. They were still at the substation despite the late hour. Other officers had gathered there too, checking the time, and there was a cake on the desk. But the writing on it was oddly suggestive.

“...Congratulations on Success?”

Bitna had only just ambushed Kang Jin-ho... and those police officers were already talking about success? Were they that certain of victory? But Trace and Tienrang did not seem likely to become variables.

Bitna tilted her head slightly to the left. She could find no meaning in the lines Kang Jin-ho had drawn in the dirt either. Nothing seemed poised to happen five minutes later. Nor did anyone at Light Tower show any suspicious signs.

As Bitna saw it... most of Kang Jin-ho's actions had no meaning at all.

KRAAASH!!!

While she was lost in thought, a massive lump of darkness struck Bitna head-on. The light wrapped around her body completely negated the physical impact, but a large chunk of her ether was still shaved away.

“Something on your mind?”

Eun-yeong gave a mocking smile, lifting only the corner of her mouth. Bitna paid it no heed and asked,

“Kang Jin-ho. What is he doing right now?”

“I don't know.”

Even as she answered, Eun-yeong drove out spikes of shadow. Bitna blocked them effortlessly and counterattacked at the same time.

“You don't know?”

“Yeah. He didn't tell me either. Hehe.”

Bitna unconsciously furrowed her brow. Eun-yeong did not seem to be lying. Did that mean even Eun-yeong did not know the plan...?

She could not understand either of them. Neither Eun-yeong nor Kang Jin-ho.

“We don't have to fight.”

Bitna spoke as she unleashed a ray of light.

“We've known of each other, but we've never fought until now. We can go on that way. Just hand that man over.”

“No.”

“Why are you protecting him? Even I can't read that man with my ability. He's a complete mass of variables. Wouldn't it be better to remove him now?”

“I find that fun. The fact that I don't know.”

Wrapping another layer of shadow around herself, Eun-yeong glanced down. Kang Jin-ho was still staring at Light Tower across from him with a dignified air.

“And there's something I'm supposed to hear.”

“Something you're supposed to hear?”

“Yeah. He said he had something to tell me, but I haven't heard it yet.”

“...That's all?”

“Yeah.”

Eun-yeong smiled, while Bitna's face went blank.

“I can't stand being curious.”

At this point, Bitna realized it too. Eun-yeong and she would never understand each other for as long as they lived. Keeping something unknown beside her and smiling because she liked it? What a stupid woman.

That was simply the relationship between light and darkness.

They could touch, but they could never mix. Even now, amid their fierce battle, the boundary where their powers collided was clear enough to see. That was how opposing powers worked.

And if their opinions clashed so sharply...

‘...I just have to wait.’

Bitna had not the slightest intention of changing her mind.

There was no need to hurry anyway. She only needed to drag things out.

It was nighttime now. The light Bitna was using came entirely from what she had stored inside herself and the light within this city. That alone had been enough to finish most opponents in a single blow, so she had never needed to distinguish between night and day.

But Bitna became truly powerful after the sun rose.

As long as the sun was overhead, Bitna's power became nearly infinite. She could take in all the light the sun emitted and become an incarnation of light itself. No matter how much power she spent, it would replenish in the blink of an eye, and its output would become incomparably stronger.

Her claim that she could fight the whole Earth, except herself, and win was no bluff. Compared to Bitna during the day, nuclear bombs were no more than children's toys.

‘...Eun-yeong. This woman is strong.’

Bitna admitted it honestly. The woman before her was far stronger than Bitna had expected. It was nighttime, admittedly, but Eun-yeong was the first human since Hermit who could exchange blows with her like this. No, Hermit was in such an ambiguous state that it was hard to call them human. So Eun-yeong could be considered the first.

But that was only true at night.

Once the sun rose. Once enough time passed. Bitna's victory would be certain. So all she had to do now was turn this into the same tedious battle of attrition.

There was only one variable.

‘Kang Jin-ho.’

She did not know what that man might do.

‘I'll have to watch him more closely.’

As she traded attacks, Bitna slowly lowered her altitude. Since Kang Jin-ho was the only possible source of her defeat, she intended to monitor him more carefully.

“Where do you think you're going?”

Eun-yeong immediately followed. As Bitna descended, Eun-yeong drew darkness up from the ground and reinforced the barrier between Bitna and Kang Jin-ho.

RUMBLE!

FLASH!!!

The battle that had been taking place high in the air gradually moved lower. Kang Jin-ho noticed it too.

“...Hmm.”

He still could not see anything, but the deafening sounds of air splitting and explosions of light were drawing closer.

At this distance... his voice would definitely reach them.

Having made up his mind, Kang Jin-ho took a deep breath and shouted toward the sky.

“Senior! A little to the left!”

There was nothing to the left. He had just said it.

Yet Eun-yeong's shadows truly slid to the left without a moment's hesitation.

“?!”

The curtain of light that had been guarding against them hurried left as well. That briefly opened a gap directly ahead.

KRAAASH!!!

“Hehe.”

Seizing the opportunity, Eun-yeong landed a clean hit on Bitna.

Watching it, Kang Jin-ho clenched his fist. It worked. All his pointless antics had definitely worked.

But Bitna would be suspicious from now on. She would try to tell whether Kang Jin-ho's actions truly had meaning, or whether they were just idiotic antics meant to distract her.

So he had to land a decisive blow now. Before his bluff was exposed, and before daylight came.

Kang Jin-ho urgently searched through his memories. He had played HiCiSi so much. Surely there was at least one thing he could use in a situation like this.

After thinking for a moment...

“...There is one thing.”

He remembered.

The best bait he could use in this situation.

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