The Crazy Battle God Has Returned - Chapter 199

—————

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

—————

A Mad Swordsman Returns – Chapter 199

Yu Sung-eon, a Sworn Servant of Justice, stared blankly at the spectacle unfolding before him.
His eyes held a mixture of shock and admiration.
It was impossible not to feel that way.

“Wow, this is just… insane, isn’t it?”

A single player was putting on a remarkable display of prowess.
Needless to say, it was Lee Su-ho.
Returning to the Trial after a long absence, Lee Su-ho had swiftly gathered his subordinate Sworn Servants and brought the Sworn Servants of allied Lords into the fold as well.
The force assembled this way numbered roughly eight hundred strong.

Crash! Boom!

Lee Su-ho led the group from the vanguard.
Monsters and players alike blocked his path, yet none could stand against him.
They crumbled utterly beneath his overwhelming power.
Lee Su-ho absorbed the ‘Evolution Factors’ from the enemies he defeated.
And then.

“Go. Hunt the enemies and absorb them all.”
“Yes, yes!”

He distributed the power he had gained to his allies in the form of ‘buffs’.
Strengthened by these powerful buffs, his forces set out to hunt.
They slaughtered enemies at a tremendous pace and evolved the factors they possessed.

[‘Evolution Factor’ has evolved sufficiently.]
[The ‘Lord’s Support’ descends upon the Sworn Servants.]

This Trial permitted Lord intervention.
However, the degree of intervention varied depending on the level of the Evolution Factor.
The Sworn Servants blessed with the Lord’s Support moved with greater speed, and Lee Su-ho and his companions began to grow at a remarkable rate.

‘Lee Su-ho’s skill was always renowned, but…’
‘Was he always this strong? No, he wasn’t this strong before, was he?’
‘No, he wasn’t. Especially not after Han Yu-sung rose to prominence.’

The Sworn Servants whispered among themselves as they watched Lee Su-ho.
It seemed he had made tremendous efforts ever since losing the Lord’s trust.
Both his skill and confidence had returned to what they once were.
Achiros too regarded Lee Su-ho with evident interest.

“Our objective is to achieve victory in the Trial. But there is something far more important than that. The death of Han Yu-sung.”

Lee Su-ho spoke with absolute certainty to the Sworn Servants following behind him.

“Forget all the failures until now. I—no, we will….”

The blade sang out.

A holy-tinged sword cleaved through the monsters’ bodies, splitting them in half.
Through the spray of blood, Lee Su-ho’s eyes gleamed with cold intensity.

“I will surely kill that bastard.”

By any means necessary.
Lee Su-ho turned to face the Sworn Servants who were cheering.
An alien emotion seeped into those cold-seeming eyes.
It was the gaze of a predator stalking prey—not that of a comrade.

“We cannot afford to give Han Yu-sung much time. As I said before, from now on you will track him down. He must be somewhere. The moment you find him, report to me without delay.”
“Yes, understood!”
“Move out.”

The Sworn Servants of Justice began moving with urgency.
As Lee Su-ho directed them, he examined his own evolution factor.

‘It is still insufficient. I must cultivate my evolution factor further.’

I wanted nothing more than to kill Han Yu-sung immediately.
But the time was not yet ripe. To ensure his death, I had to exercise patience until my evolution factor had grown sufficiently.

‘Until this body can bear the power of two transcendents….’

Lee Su-ho clenched his fist tightly.
And that figure—

– Coo-coo-coo….

The small Splinter watched with keen interest.

* * *

Han Yu-sung actively utilized the special factor, ‘Splinter’.
First, I granted speed to five Splinters.
The accelerated Splinters scoured the Twisted Land to locate the ‘Hidden Pieces’.
Once a Hidden Piece was found.

[Consuming ‘Splinter B’.]
[Transferring to the location of that Splinter!]

I transferred there and obtained the Hidden Piece.
The Splinter used for transfer carried a penalty—it couldn’t regenerate for a while.
But that duration wasn’t long. At most, twenty minutes.

“A profitable venture.”
[Hmm! I’ve obtained two Hidden Pieces with this!]

Two Hidden Pieces acquired this way.
One was a unique factor, and the other was a special factor.

[Unique Factor, 【Reinforced Exoskeleton】.]
[Upon use, a ‘Reinforced Exoskeleton’ manifests on the body. The form and effects of this exoskeleton vary depending on the user’s nature.]
[Your possessed ‘Dragon Nature’ has transformed the exoskeleton.]
[Attack power, defense, magical resistance, and physical abilities increase significantly. Additionally, the duration of 【Draconic Transformation】 is greatly extended.]

[Special Factor, 【Efficient Evolution】.]
[Evolution efficiency increases by +100%. Additionally, the effects of all possessed unique and special factors are doubled in potency.]
[When evolution factors grow, ability stats increase further.]

As befitted factors obtained from Hidden Pieces, they possessed excellent effects. Particularly the Reinforced Exoskeleton.
But.

[Consuming ‘Splinter C’.]
[Transferring to the location of that Splinter!]

‘Still not enough….’

I activated Teleportation without hesitation.
I sent Clone C to a Mountain in the South.
At the edge of the Mountain lay a Research Institute buried under snow, and within it was a hidden piece.

“Damn, it’s freezing. Kakasha, fire.”
[This one has grown accustomed to such treatment….]

Kakasha grumbled while igniting flames on a sacred object.
The interior of the Research Institute was a labyrinth. Snow and ice blocked the passages, and monsters erupted from every corner to attack.
For me, possessing the “Arrow,” it held little significance.

“Oh, it seems Clone A has found Lee Su-ho?”
[Hmm, faster than expected.]

As I navigated the maze-like Research Institute, I surveyed what Lee Su-ho and his subordinates were doing through my clones.
Finding them proved simple enough.

“He’s making quite a spectacle of himself.”

Sweeping across the Battlefield, annihilating enemies left and right.
Lee Su-ho had evolved his own factor while slaying countless monsters and players, and had evolved his subordinates’ factors alongside his own.

“His subordinates number quite a lot. Hundreds, at least.”
[Hmm, it appears he intends to cultivate his lackeys and attack you together.]
“Perhaps….”

Lee Su-ho knows nothing of me.
He cannot predict what kind of person I am, nor how I would act.
Because I am a type of person he has never encountered.
But I, who lived a “previous life,” am different.

‘I know Lee Su-ho far too well.’

How many times did we clash in my previous life?
I know the man called Lee Su-ho with nauseating intimacy.
How he moves, how he thinks.

“Rather than that, I suspect he’s trying to cultivate livestock.”
[Livestock? Ah… you mean the Sworn Servants traveling with him.]

Lee Su-ho was moving as a collective with the other Sworn Servants.
It would be far easier to eliminate monsters and enemy players that way.
He would leverage that to maximize both his own and his allies’ ‘evolution factors’.
And then.

[At the most crucial moment, he’ll betray them and absorb all of it for himself. That way, he can greatly amplify his own power.]
“Exactly. That’s so Lee Su-ho.”
[Hmm, it seems he’s done something similar in his previous life as well.]

Lee Su-ho nodded instead of answering.
There was no need to say more—in his previous life, Lee Su-ho had revealed his true nature during the Trial, doing exactly that.
He had eliminated all the players who participated alongside him and stolen their power to emerge victorious.
Han Yu-sung and his companions had been caught up in that very incident.

‘A man who will do anything as long as he can win.’

That is Lee Su-ho.
This Trial was the perfect stage for him.
A Trial where he could gain tremendous power in one stroke by betraying his allies.
Even Geomson, still quiet for now, was surely preparing something.

‘Still, it’s not a bad situation.’

In fact, it worked in my favor.
Lee Su-ho would betray his companions and absorb their ‘evolution factors’. He was probably planning to use that to greatly develop his own evolution factor.
In other words.

[If I just eliminate Lee Su-ho alone…]
“Then I can greatly evolve my evolution factor all at once.”

With luck, enough to reach the very pinnacle of evolution in a single leap.
The problem was it was difficult to gauge just how powerful Lee Su-ho would become after betraying his allies.
And there was still the matter of Geomson, who remained quiet.
To avoid failure, I needed to prepare as thoroughly as possible.

‘I have the Equitas Code, but it’s better to make every preparation I can.’

Han Yu-sung made his judgment.
What he needed now was the power to neutralize any scheme.
A means to dismantle that bastard’s petty machinations.
Han Yu-sung advanced through the labyrinthine Research Institute, following the arrow.

“Phew, so the arrow points to this place…”
[Frozen corpses everywhere. Quite a grim landscape, wouldn’t you say?]
“Yeah. Must’ve been used for some kind of experiment.”

Eventually, I reached the innermost depths of the Research Institute.
It was a place littered with frozen corpses.
And scattered carelessly around them were what appeared to be experimental instruments.

[Hidden Piece discovered: 【Ancient Factor】!]

Among them, there was one corpse that the ‘arrow’ pointed to.
So perfectly frozen that it still appeared alive.
Han Yu-sung exhaled and stood before the corpse.
Then.

Whoooosh!

Red threads burst from Han Yu-sung, piercing through the ice.
And they began absorbing something from the frozen corpse.
Needless to say, it was a ‘Factor’.
But this was a peculiar one, different from what I had absorbed so far.

[The ‘Evolution Factor’ has absorbed 【Ancient Factor】!]
[This is a Factor imbued with special power. As the 【Ancient Factor】 fuses with your Factor, its latent potential is forcibly awakened.]
[Your innate ‘Unique Factor’ grows to its maximum capacity!]

The Unique Factor grows according to the level of the Evolution Factor.
But its maximum capacity remained unknown.
Usually, the Trial ends before the Evolution Factor reaches its maximum level.
The 【Ancient Factor】 was a Hidden Piece that allowed me to see that maximum.

Crack! Crunch!

Terrible sounds emanated from Han Yu-sung’s body.
The sound of bones shattering and fusing back together, flesh tearing and regenerating.
And when all those sounds ceased.

[【Irrepressible Combative Nature】 evolves into 【Plunder】.]

Before Han Yu-sung’s eyes, the fruit of evolution materialized.
A natural smile bloomed across his lips.

[Unique Factor, 【Plunder】.]
[‘Evolution Efficiency’ increases dramatically, and the absorption probability of ‘Unique Factors’ or ‘Special Factors’ increases substantially. In exchange, when combat begins, you will be consumed by an intense combative nature.]
[When an opponent’s evolution factor becomes unstable, you can ‘Plunder’ the Unique Factor or Special Factor they possess.]

“I’ve found a factor that suits me perfectly.”

The factor I had possessed from the very beginning.
The result of 【Irrepressible Combative Nature】 growing to its maximum potential.
It was precisely the factor I needed most right now.
It was obvious that Lee Su-ho would return having absorbed numerous factors.

“With this, I can say I’m fully prepared.”
[Then, now….]
“Yes.”

I closed my eyes.
My vision twisted, and I saw a different place—not here.
The vision of my fragmented self that had been tracking Lee Su-ho.

“Let’s lure Lee Su-ho out.”

To the stage where my final confrontation with him would unfold.
To the place where I would end the karmic debt that had carried over from my past life.
There, Lee Su-ho would meet his end.

—————

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

—————