The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 32

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#032. Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

“Is he insane?”

The first reaction that emerged was ‘wariness.’

Unless someone was truly mad with a death wish, there was no way a person would exist who would make a bet that offered them absolutely no benefit, especially one that wagered their own life.

Therefore, the numerous Awakened gathered in the casino thought that Sung-jun had hidden some kind of trick behind his wager.

“He must be an Awakened.”

“Is he a durability enhancement type Awakened? Won’t the blade break if you stab him with a knife?”

“He must have something he’s counting on to make such a bet, right?”

Then Sung-jun, seeing the wary reactions of the audience, proposed additional conditions.

“By the way, I won’t attack.”

This guaranteed the challenger’s safety.

“And you may use your awakening abilities when attacking me.”

This greatly improved the challenger’s odds of winning.

“I’ll do it!”

“Hey, I was first!”

The Awakened in the casino began rushing forward like a swarm of bees in an instant.

In their eyes, the conditions Sung-jun had set were no different from those of someone with a death wish.

“I’ll limit the time to 3 minutes for other challengers.”

“Ridiculous. Do you think there will even be a chance for other challengers?”

The first to leap into the cage was a giant man wielding an axe.

The moment the bell rang, he charged at the unarmed Sung-jun, fiercely swinging his axe.

He executed moves that clearly aimed for his opponent’s life, radiating vicious killing intent.

However, the unarmed Sung-jun glanced once at the axe swinging at lightning speed as if it were weightless, then moved one step to the side with leisurely steps as if he had come out for a stroll.

-Whoosh!-

“Huh?!”

The man was flustered but continued swinging his axe to follow up with the next move.

While missing the first attack was unexpected, techniques were originally created with the assumption that opponents would dodge or block, so Sung-jun’s evasion didn’t hold much significance.

‘He seems confident in his reflexes, but let’s see how far he can dodge with such slow movements.’

However, such thoughts from the man didn’t last long.

As the techniques continued, Sung-jun was moving his body exquisitely to blind spots where the axe blade couldn’t reach, as if he perfectly understood the strengths and weaknesses of his techniques.

This gave the man an unpleasant sensation he had never experienced since picking up an axe – the feeling of ‘seeming like he could hit but being unable to hit.’

“What? Why are you deliberately swinging at empty air? Are you toying with your opponent right now!”

“If you’re going to do that, pass it to me!”

“No, why can’t you hit something that slow?”

“Idiot! Stop wasting time and give your turn to me!”

Sung-jun’s strategy was brutally simple.

Intentionally create a situation where ‘you die if you can’t dodge,’ then throw his body along the single survival path the coin revealed.

Repeating actions reminiscent of his fight with Chusalja, Sung-jun was forcibly accumulating his misfortune through precarious tightrope walking that crossed the threshold of death.

“Graaaah!”

Realizing that the techniques he had learned through blood and sweat had become useless, the man forcibly twisted his set movements to vary his attacks.

He thought that if his opponent could dodge attacks because they had figured out all his techniques, they wouldn’t be able to respond to this kind of irregular attack.

However, Sung-jun stepped back half a step as if he knew the man would attempt such a variation, making the opponent’s axe graze past right in front of his nose.

-Ding!-

“3 minutes elapsed! Next challenger!”

“What the hell, what just happened!”

The giant man who couldn’t land a single effective hit during the 3 minutes retreated outside the ring, panting heavily.

Then an assassin-type Awakened with a dagger entered the ring.

“The axe from before is quite a slow weapon among the eighteen traditional weapons. But my techniques won’t be easy to dodge with such slow movements.”

The moment he finished speaking, the bell rang and the man moved like a shadow at speeds that left afterimages, targeting Sung-jun’s blind spots.

But all his surprise attacks sliced through empty air, thanks to Sung-jun’s movements that were half a beat faster, as if he had known in advance that shadows would appear in those spots.

“…He dodged even that?”

“Don’t tell me they’re working together on this?”

The suddenly quieted cheers indicated that the audience had begun watching the ring with suspicious eyes.

However, Sung-jun paid no attention to such reactions from the audience and focused solely on dodging his opponent’s attacks.

-Ding!-

“3 minutes elapsed! Next challenger!”

Third, fourth… challengers stepped into the cage one after another.

A martial artist from Tianwu Guan who shattered the floor with his bare hands after channeling energy into his fists, an Awakened using a long whip that could cover the entire ring, and even an Awakened who attacked by throwing concealed weapons without approaching.

But the results were all the same.

From the side, it looked like it should be easy to hit.

But when actually attacking, it absolutely wouldn’t connect.

This terrible contradiction planted a strange sense of unease in the audience.

Now no one in the casino was making noise.

Everyone held their breath, witnessing an incomprehensible phenomenon.

“Am I watching a fight right now, or am I watching magic…?”

At someone’s muttering, as everyone nodded, Hyeon-jo realized the identity of the strange unease he felt from Sung-jun’s movements.

It was such a terrifying memory that he had forcibly buried it, but the more he watched Sung-jun’s movements, the more intensely that memory surfaced.

He muttered with a trembling voice.

“…Yejigwi.”

Sung-jun’s movements were reminiscent of Yejigwi’s movements.

That terrible monster who had instantly shattered the combined attacks of Tianwu Guan’s masters, said to be the strongest of their time, with seemingly casual, light movements.

Sung-jun didn’t allow a single attack until the last challenger gave up, using those distinctive movements.

‘This should be enough.’

Having spent enough luck to win the lottery dozens of times in a row on this confrontation, Sung-jun looked at the massive amount of misfortune accumulated as penalty and judged that this would be enough to sufficiently draw Yejigwi’s attention.

Moreover, perhaps disgusted by Sung-jun’s movements, none of the Awakened in the casino wanted to challenge Sung-jun additionally.

Having finished all the bets and heading toward the cage door, Sung-jun discovered a young boy looking at the prizes he had accumulated with yearning eyes.

A gaunt face that made one wonder when he had last eaten, with eyes full of desperation.

However, the child’s eyes, which looked like they could collapse at any moment, burned fiercely with earnest desire.

‘Doesn’t seem like it’s because he’s hungry… He must be interested in medicine. Is a family member sick?’

After pondering briefly, Sung-jun turned his steps back toward the center of the cage.

Then he spoke to the audience gathered around the ring.

“Let’s change the conditions. If you succeed in even grazing my body with a weapon or hand, I’ll give you all the victory rewards.”

The casino stirred again, but no one readily stepped forward.

Since they couldn’t even graze his clothes when charging to kill him, it didn’t seem like the results would change just because the conditions had changed.

That’s when it happened.

“I’ll do it.”

A small hand shot up.

It was that very kid who had been staring at Sung-jun.

People laughed at the boy challenging a bet that even Awakened couldn’t succeed at, but the child climbed onto the ring with a resolute expression without being intimidated.

“You’re really going to do it?”

“My mother is… sick. I need… medicine.”

Sung-jun couldn’t read any expectation in the boy’s eyes that a sympathetic opponent might just give him the medicine for free.

A feeling that he truly believed he could succeed in the challenge, as if he had something in mind.

Liking the boy’s gaze, Sung-jun smiled and said to the boy.

“I see. If you’re thinking of getting free medicine through sympathy, you’d better give up. In this harsh world, to protect precious things, you need the ability to fight and obtain them yourself.”

‘Well, I should still give him a slight advantage.’

Sung-jun canceled the Coin of Fate spell and waited for the child to attack.

Then the child, who had been hesitating briefly, seemed to steel his resolve and charged toward Sung-jun with his right fist extended.

In a defenseless posture that seemed to have no strategy or plan.

‘Even a non-Awakened could just dodge this much…’

The moment Sung-jun lightly moved his feet to shift his body, the boy’s left hand came into Sung-jun’s view.

A small left fist clenched tightly, as if gripping something firmly.

And at that moment, the child quickly spun his body and scattered the sand clutched in his left fist in a wide fan shape toward Sung-jun’s entire body.

‘Interesting.’

Honestly, it was an attack Sung-jun could have avoided if he had wanted to.

However, Sung-jun didn’t try to dodge the sand the boy scattered.

At least the boy before him had done his best effort to obtain what he wanted.

‘Well, a reward for effort would be better than just giving it away for free.’

Brushing off the sand on his cheek with the back of his hand, Sung-jun looked down at the boy.

Then, toward the boy who was cautiously watching him, he spoke with a faint smile.

“The conditions said hands or weapons, but there was nothing about sand?”

“It’s a matter of interpretation. I chose sand as my weapon.”

Seeing the boy’s response that pleased him to the end, Sung-jun grinned.

Then he placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder and said.

“That’s a logical interpretation. You won. All of that is yours.”

“…Really? Are you really giving me everything?”

“I’m not giving it to you, you earned it. I just made a bet with stakes. Sand as a weapon. That was a good idea.”

Sung-jun came down from the ring without regret.

There, three people with different expressions were waiting for him.

“Hmph. You didn’t have to give away everything else though, right? You should have kept some. At least some food.”

To the grumbling Shirasaki Miyu, Sung-jun said.

“You could sweep up everything here just by gambling, as long as you don’t lose on purpose.”

“Huh? Now that I think about it, that’s true? I’ll go play a few more games!”

Seoa just smiled silently while watching Miyu’s retreating figure as she ran off.

It seemed she was pleased to see her respected master give away the wealth he had gained from gambling to help a poor child.

And Hyeon-jo approached Sung-jun’s side and quietly asked in a small voice that Seoa couldn’t hear.

“What if that child hadn’t thrown sand and just charged straight at you? Would you have intentionally lost then too?”

Then Sung-jun smiled and answered.

“If that had happened, the child would have gone back with a lesson instead of a reward.”

“What kind of lesson?”

“The lesson that to win the lottery, you need to at least make the effort to buy a lottery ticket.”

Hyeon-jo grinned as if pleased with Sung-jun’s answer and stepped back.

Sung-jun looked at Hyeon-jo and declared in a low voice.

“The accumulated misfortune seems sufficient, so let’s begin in earnest once Shirasaki returns.”

“Begin what?”

“Preparations to fight against the worst disaster that has descended from the Otherworld to the surface, while minimizing harm to civilians.”

Thus, Sung-jun’s group, having accumulated fortune and misfortune in their own ways, was finally about to commence a full-scale subjugation operation to defeat the Yeojiggwi.

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