I Became a Disaster-Class Newbie by Stealing Abilities - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 026. The White Reaper (2)
Step.
The master closed the distance with long strides.
“Peculiar fellow. What’s your game, exactly?”
The Dark Obscurity Lord muttered with unconcealed unease.
Despite having three White Ghosts and elite operatives of the Dark Obscurity Unit arrayed before him, his composure seemed excessive.
It suggested he was holding back some hidden advantage.
Anyone capable of spiriting away No. 1 could not be underestimated.
…….
…….
The remaining assassins of the Dark Obscurity Unit maintained their distance, wound tight as springs.
“Why are you all so frightened? From what I saw earlier, that man was barely keeping up with dodging.”
No. 6 moved first.
True to her aggressive nature, she couldn’t abide the tense stalemate a moment longer.
Whoosh!
[Frost Flower Divine Sword ‘Snow Plum Flower’ activates.]
A blade sheathed in frost and crowned with snow flowers bore down in a torrential assault.
Sharp enough that the eye could scarcely track it.
The strikes flowed with such flexibility that if one was blocked, the next would follow seamlessly.
And yet.
Squelch.
The blade sank into the master’s heart.
“Huh?”
No. 6’s expression twisted in shock as she felt the sword drive home.
How could it not.
She had agonized over countless permutations—how her opponent would react, how he would move, what technique she would employ next.
Yet the enemy had fallen on the very first strike.
“Ugh….”
The master’s body convulsed violently.
Torrents of blood gushed forth.
The flow was nothing short of catastrophic.
By any measure, it was a mortal wound.
“M-Master!”
Baek Seol-gi cried out in alarm.
In her shock, she even abandoned her sword and rushed forward.
But it was far too late.
“Gasp….”
Death.
A final breath escaped—the closing whisper of a life’s end.
With that, the master drew no more air.
“Hah. What a joke. He was nothing but empty bluster, wasn’t he?”
No. 6 let out a hollow laugh.
She unsheathed a second blade from her hip.
“Hmm. An overestimation, it seems.”
The Dark Obscurity Lord’s reaction was one of anticlimactic disappointment.
Ideally, they should have taken him alive to extract his method for removing the curse, but now that he was dead, there was nothing to be done.
He’d never imagined the man would fall so pathetically.
“Let’s finish here. Retrieve No. 1.”
“Yes, sir!”
The assassins produced chains forged from eternal iron.
Once No. 1 was secured, this mission would be cleanly concluded.
But then.
There was one fact they had all overlooked.
The assumption that Baek Seol-gi would submit quietly now that the master was dead….
…was how catastrophically miscalculated they were.
“I’ll tear every last one of you to shreds. Not a single one will escape.”
Blood tears streamed from both her eyes.
If hatred itself could take form and be unleashed upon the world, it would wear the face she bore in this moment.
The very breath catches.
Lips dry. Vision locks on a single point.
The feet that touched the ground.
The hand that gripped the sword.
Trembling before the calamity manifested before her eyes, she lost all sense of self.
Crack!
A blizzard erupted around Baek Seol-gi.
A massive and beautiful Snow Plum Flower bloomed from the blade.
As the essence of the Frost Flower Divine Sword manifested, an unimaginable cold descended.
Crash-crash-crash-bang!
“Ack!”
“Ngh—aaaah!”
Two assassins standing nearby froze solid, alive.
Crackle!
Simultaneously, frost began to spread across the walls and floor.
“W-withdraw!”
To draw close was to invite death.
For those whose inner strength had waned, merely narrowing the distance left no room for survival.
Hissss!
Baek Seol-gi’s body, now swollen to at least ten times its original size, blazed with crimson eyes.
The massive form melted into the wind.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Moving as if brushing the ground, she buried her fangs into the bodies of every enemy in sight.
As the frost venom flooded into them, five assassins transformed into ice statues.
There were no screams.
Her movements were far too swift to permit such indulgences.
* * *
“That No. 6, who harbors no emotion, how could she….”
The Dark Obscurity Lord muttered in disbelief.
Raised utterly as a puppet.
Forged solely as a weapon for the singular purpose of slaughter.
All human dimensions—love, affection, sentiment—had been excised from her from the beginning.
And yet.
Even now, with everything concluded, she showed such a reaction.
‘So precious to her, was he?’
A rage of boundless purity.
There was no artifice in it whatsoever.
What had he done in that brief span to remake her so utterly?
The question only deepened, but it was not the matter at hand.
Before the destruction spread further, he had to end this.
“No. 6! Suppress her at once!”
“Roger. Understood. If I just stand here watching, we’ll all really die.”
The White Ghosts felt it too—that something had gone terribly wrong.
[Three White Ghosts activate the Frost Flower Limitless Sword!]
Crack!
An alien force rippled along the blades.
The defining characteristic of the Frost Flower Limitless Sword was the erasure of the sword’s path itself.
Without a path, the beginning and end of an attack could not be predicted.
Without prediction, no counterattack was possible.
Thus, limitless.
Bound by no constraint, she could only be swallowed whole by the blooming snow flowers.
Slice!
A crimson wound appeared on her snow-white cheek.
…….
Baek Seol-gi’s movements ceased for the first time.
Struck by sword strikes pouring from unseen quarters, her body bore wounds in many places.
Beads of blood welled up and soon fell in an arc.
“Aha! It worked! It worked!”
“Mm-hmm. So you bleed red inside too. What a lovely color.”
Still crude, unrefined.
Yet even fragments of the Frost Flower Limitless Sword sufficed to overwhelm the Frost Flower Divine Sword.
“Indeed, bringing her along was the right call. Had we prepared so haphazardly, we would be the ones falling.”
The Dark Obscurity Lord exhaled a breath of relief.
But it was short-lived.
Something felt wrong—a discordant note in the rhythm of combat.
Clang-clang-clang!
At first, she had continued to carve and overwhelm, but from a certain moment onward, the sound of flesh being cut ceased.
Only the clash of blades rang through the empty air.
She was adapting.
No.
Beyond that—she was gradually absorbing the forms of the Frost Flower Limitless Sword itself.
Her blade sang, composing new melodies.
That possessed, almost transcendent movement.
Her eyes losing focus.
There was no doubt.
‘State of No-Self. She’s entering it.’
She was pushing beyond the threshold.
If this continued, an uncontrollable monster would be born.
“Stop!”
The Dark Obscurity Lord drew from his robes a talisman inscribed with black characters.
[Sacred relic ‘Dark Obscurity Curse Talisman’ activates!]
Rip!
The moment the talisman tore to shreds—
Whoosh!
A necklace adorned with a black gemstone appeared around Baek Seol-gi’s neck.
[The ‘Dark Frost Stone’ releases ‘Black Chill’!]
The Dark Frost Stone was cursed ice.
A mass of bitter, overwhelming cold so potent that even the White Ghosts could not endure its power, falling into demonic possession.
It was, in effect, the last resort they had left.
Fortunately, its effect was outstanding.
“Aah…ah….”
Baek Seol-gi’s face twisted in agony.
Black capillaries spread from her neck, and the chill of dark frost permeated every corner of her body.
With that, engaging her became far easier.
The White Ghosts deployed a perfect wheel formation, pressing in on Baek Seol-gi, and finally succeeded in capturing her.
“Thank goodness it worked.”
“No. 1 wasn’t No. 1 for nothing. She’s seriously a monster, isn’t she?”
The White Ghosts shook their heads as if exhausted.
Just as they said—if not for the Dark Frost Stone, the outcome would have been entirely different.
“This one will be of great use in times to come. Transport her carefully.”
Despite the dramatic turning point, the battle was, at last, concluded.
At least everyone gathered here believed so.
Ding!
Until a status window appeared in the air.
* * *
Twitch.
Ju Sang’s finger moved.
[Trait ‘666’ activates!]
Normally, he would gain a chance at resurrection with a 6.66% probability.
But there was one exception.
Just one.
[On the first death alone, resurrection is guaranteed at 100% probability!]
[Upon resurrection from death, you may wield the power of the greatest Clown for ten minutes.]
A lottery ticket that wins outright exactly once.
That was right.
It existed precisely for a moment like this.
Thump!
Ju Sang’s completely stilled heart beat once more.
Light returned to his eyes.
Life coursed through his limbs.
His hand rose slowly.
Crack—grackle—
The Lord rose to his feet and slowly drew the blade embedded in his chest.
His ribs heaved; blood gushed forth in torrents.
“What? You’re not dead? You’re not some zombie or something.”
“Wow. Should’ve gone for the neck? Interesting, though. That brother of ours.”
The White Ghosts widened their eyes in surprise.
Certainly he was far removed from the ordinary, but that was all there was to it.
So what if a stab to the heart didn’t kill him?
What was the big deal about that?
Even a novice who fumbled at a light attack wasn’t frightening if he came back to life a hundred times over.
Rather, the question of how to play with this durable toy weighed more heavily on their minds.
But then, at what came next….
“Eh…?”
“What?”
The White Ghosts’ laughter vanished completely.
A shudder ran through the air.
An indescribable aura erupted from the Lord’s body.
It surpassed even Baek Seol-gi’s level by a vast margin.
“What have you done to our child?”
Such a calamity, so carefully nurtured. And you made tears of blood flow?
At the sight of the black veins spreading from his neck and his complete exhaustion, her fists clenched of their own accord.
“Huh? No. You…?”
“That, that’s….”
The White Ghosts stammered.
Faced with a power of a different dimension, they lost all will to resist.
“Enough talking. Time to take some hits.”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The erupting aura became a single pillar of power, shooting skyward.
[The blessing of the Clown ‘Kah-Lahng-Zhor Pennywise’ descends upon you.]
[Remaining time: 0H:9M:59S]
The estimated power of a ranker from the pinnacle of Rank 13 Tier, long ago.
The magic of a top-ranked player who once stood at the zenith of his class devoured the entire area.
* * *
A tingling sensation swept across the skin.
It stung.
This was no mere figure of speech—the magical power flowing through the air had crossed a certain threshold, manifesting as a physical phenomenon.
Crack!
With each step the Lord took, black sparks erupted around him.
As the blessing of the great Clown settled upon him, enormous Trump Cards appeared at the Lord’s back.
[Blue Heart temporarily grants +3,500 additional Magic Power stat.]
He replenished his magical reserves.
Enough to manifest the majesty of Kah-Lahng-Zhor Pennywise.
[Black Spade summons the ‘Guardian of the Great Clown’.]
A shadow towering dozens of meters tall materialized in the void.
The Reaper, scythe in hand, danced the waltz of death.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Aaaaugh!”
“Screeeee!”
Blood rained down like a tempest.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of the Dark Obscurity Unit’s elite were slaughtered.
The next targets were the White Ghosts.
“It’s coming!”
“Block it!”
In an instant, the defensive sword formation of the Frost Flower Limitless Sword unfurled.
The black scythe collided head-on with the formation.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Crack!
True to its status as one of the supreme blades, even the Reaper’s scythe couldn’t shatter it in a single blow.
But that was precisely what the Lord had hoped for.
In that fleeting gap, he’d gotten behind them.
“Let you all taste even a fraction of the pain Seol-gi felt.”
He wouldn’t kill them.
At least not right now.
Instead, he would come to understand what it meant that death would be preferable.
[Clown Pennywise’s power, Nightmare, activates!]
A force that infinitely loops and replays the target’s most horrific memories.
“Aaaaagh!”
“Hyiiiii!”
The White Ghosts crumpled to the ground, clutching their heads.
His proficiency was still too low to extract even 10% of Nightmare’s true power.
Yet even this was enough to dispose of three young White Ghosts with ease.
As the White Ghosts were neutralized, the Sovereign’s gaze shifted to the elderly man wearing the mask.
The sole survivor of the Dark Obscurity Unit.
“It was you. You used the Dark Frost Stone on Seol-gi?”
“…Who exactly are you?”
“I’m the one asking the questions. Not you.”
“You’re right. I used it. Of course, it wasn’t my desire. I held that child dear as well.”
Held her dear….
He couldn’t fathom what he was hearing now.
“You know what happens when something becomes so loathsome that it transcends even disgust?”
“You fed and raised the illegitimate children of an extinct clan. You gave them reasons and purposes to live. If that isn’t the role of a protector, then what is?”
Those who should have died—he had taken them in.
He had given them new lives, as if that were reason enough.
The Sovereign looked at Baek Seol-gi lying motionless on the cold floor.
Raised on memory and rote, empty of nostalgia and emotion.
Such a life could never have been happy.
At best, a small snack here and there.
A life marveling and grateful for warm sunlight and a soft blanket—such a life could harbor no reason or purpose.
How could hope remain in a reality that wrested a child away from her only sibling?
And yet.
The one who created that tragedy called himself a protector?
“Not in my view.”
The Sovereign moved his index finger.
From left to right.
He cleaved the empty air in two.
Whish!
In the same moment, the Reaper’s scythe swept across the Dark Obscurity Lord’s throat.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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