The Crazy Battle God Has Returned - Chapter 36

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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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A Mad Swordsman Returns – Chapter 36

I rested in my small studio apartment.
And the moment I opened my eyes in the morning.

[You, I require coins.]

Kakasha whined like it was a morning greeting.
A rather welcome morning greeting indeed. I closed my eyes again.

[Do not ignore me! I require coins!]
“I’m listening. Why, do you think you’ll be able to appoint an Apostle soon?”
[Hmm, whenever I speak with you, it feels as though my thoughts are laid bare… It is unsettling. But yes, you speak truly.]
“Well, it does seem about time.”

Among the ranks of Sworn Ones, the highest rank was the ‘Apostle’.
To be precise, there was one rank higher than this.
The rank of ‘Regent’.
But the Regent rank could not be reached through ordinary means, and since the Lords themselves had no intention of appointing Regents, it was fair to say that Apostle was effectively the highest rank.

[As you well know, I have lost most of the power I once possessed. I have lost all of the ‘Blessings’ I originally held. By appointing you as an Apostle, I wish to rebuild the power I once had.]
“You’ve been consuming coins like a pig, and now the results are finally showing?”
[Kyaak! I am no pig!]

A Sworn One who contracts with a Lord receives blessings.
But the benefits do not end there. Each time a Lord accumulates a certain level of power, they may select something called a ‘Blessing’.
There are many types of Blessings. One can strengthen the blessing itself, enhance the abilities of Sworn Ones, or unlock special skills.

[I will entrust you with the authority to choose those Blessings. As I have said before, you and I are bound by a shared destiny.]
“You’re being long-winded. So how many more coins do you need?”
[…Sixty thousand to appoint an Apostle, and twenty thousand more to select a Blessing.]
“I feel like I’ve contracted with a coin-devouring hippopotamus, not a Lord.”

Kakasha groaned dejectedly.
This was the reason the Star Lords had gained a reputation for being so obsessed with coins.
Everything consumed coins no matter what you did.

‘I currently have thirty thousand coins, if I recall correctly.’

Coins earned as a reward from God’s Trial.
It meant I needed fifty thousand more coins.

“It’s about time an event opened up.”

I checked the Player Community.
The community was ideal for gathering light information—a perfect place to gauge current trends and what was happening recently.
Sure enough, the posts I was looking for appeared.

[An event is scheduled to begin on the Star Battlefield targeting Bronze rank. According to a certain Lord, this event will likely be of the ‘Dungeon’ type.]
[Promising players from various nations are expected to participate.]
[There’s even a rumor that exceptional prospects from the United States and Japan will compete?]
[Korea’s promising prospect, ‘Kim Jeong-hui’, will participate!]

The first piece of news concerned the Star Battlefield.
Rumors circulated that a Dungeon-type event would begin, and promising players from various nations would compete in it.
All of it was true.
After all, a promising player from Japan had competed and earned rewards.

‘That prospect was Achiros’s Apostle, wasn’t he.’

Lords didn’t operate within a single nation.
They operated across multiple nations and gathered Apostles. While nations mattered to players, they didn’t matter to Lords.
What truly mattered to a Lord was coins.
And it was irrelevant which nation the Apostle who earned those coins belonged to—only how many coins they brought in.

“That Japanese player’s name was… Maezato Oju, wasn’t it?”

That was probably it.
I wasn’t certain. In my past life, he’d been dead for quite some time.
Conversely, it meant that despite the years that had passed, he was talented and skilled enough that I still remembered his name.
And.

‘His personality was absolutely rotten.’

Arrogant, or perhaps just unhinged.
In any case, Maezato Oju was merely a prospect now, but in the future, he would grow into one of Japan’s representative players.
That was the problem.
When considering inter-nation competitions.

“I’ll need to break their spirit beforehand.”

Gain coins, hinder Achiros, crush a promising talent’s morale.
It was an event with no downside.

“This time, let’s make sure we get our cut.”
[Kufufu, war! I can smell the scent of heated warfare!]

Kakasha was utterly thrilled.
Han Yu-sung scrolled through the Player Community feed.
He was checking if there was anything else worth seeing. Then something caught his eye.
He reread the post’s title in disbelief.

[Lord of the Dead in conflict with the Shadow Lord.]
[The Shadow Lord allegedly invaded his territory. Enraged by the Shadow Lord’s dismissal, he plans to open a ‘war-class Difficult Realm’ soon.]
[All eyes are on who will emerge victorious between the two….]

News that the Lord of the Dead and the Shadow Lord were in conflict.
Han Yu-sung tilted his head in confusion.

‘This didn’t happen in my previous life.’

These two clashing at this point in time.
I don’t recall them having any entanglement to begin with.
Yet here we are.

[It must be because of you.]
“It must be because of me.”

Han Yu-sung had utilized shadow when escaping Yeoju City.
In particular, the effect of the Legendary item Shadow Bane—【Abyss Boundary】—was perfectly designed to create misunderstandings.

[You eliminated nearly half of the necromancers gathered there before departing. It would be difficult to attribute that to a single player.]
“The Shadow Lord would have thought he was being sabotaged.”
[That’s likely the case. Especially that damned woman, the Lord of the Dead—she has a massive ego, so she wouldn’t let it slide.]

A situation born from misunderstanding piled upon misunderstanding.
The Shadow Lord would dismiss it since he didn’t do it, and the Lord of the Dead, regardless of the truth, had grown furious at his attitude.

[Hmm, it seems you’re not quite ready to stake your lives against each other. Are you thinking of opening a separate Difficult Realm to settle this with a victory condition?]
“The loser pays compensation to the winner. That’s how we’ll end it.”
[So, are you interested in this?]

Han Yu-sung fell into thought for a moment.
The Lords typically created separate war Difficult Realms to resolve disputes like this. It wouldn’t open immediately, so there would be some time to spare.
I could finish the event and still make it in time.

“I heard the Lord of Shadows is short on Oath-bearers.”
[That’s right. They’re a small but elite force. Given the structure of a war Difficult Realm, they’ll likely hire mercenaries from outside. Hmm, and…]
“Mercenaries get paid according to their performance.”

The Lord of Shadows had high credibility among players.
You could say the rewards were as certain as those from the Lord of Pleasure.
But beyond that consideration.

‘The fact that I attacked Yeoju City will come to light eventually.’

I had no intention of hiding my identity for the rest of my life.
There would come a time when I’d need to leverage my reputation. The fact that I resolved the Night of Hunting would have to be revealed eventually.
When that happened, the existence of the reward Dungeon would become known, and the Lord of the Dead would certainly deduce that I was the one who conquered it.

‘I need to sort out the traffic situation beforehand.’

There was no need to make two Lords my enemies simultaneously.
I already knew what kind of disposition the Lord of Shadows had. If I used that well, I could extract maximum benefit from this tangled situation.
But that was a matter for later.

“First, let’s earn some coins.”
[Yes, that’s the priority! Coins! Coins!]

First, I needed to deal with that tantrum.
Han Yu-sung left his studio apartment, recalling the event details.

* * *

Japan.
A nation counted among the two greatest Player powers alongside the United States.
In its capital, Tokyo, countless buildings had been erected for the Lords.
A scale utterly incomparable to any other nation.
As a Player superpower, it naturally drew the Lords in abundance.
And among such buildings, there was one.

Zangetsu.

A Guild house bearing that name.
A structure that resembled the corporate headquarters of a major enterprise far more than a typical Guild house.
A woman in formal attire descended into its depths.
Deep underground, in the Execution Chamber—a place forbidden to the unauthorized.

—Guh, ahhhhh!
—P-please. Spare me, I beg you, damn it…!

“…Already started, then.”

Anguished moans filled the air.
The woman sighed and opened the door, revealing the scene within.
A chamber stained with blood that would never wash clean.
Restrained figures knelt with terror-stricken eyes fixed upon a single man.
A man gripping a blade that dripped crimson.

“Sharp, and…”

Slice!
A blade shot forth at tremendous speed, severing the neck of the bound victim.
The man reversed his grip and drew his sword in a flash of light.

“Light.”

The blade pierced another’s heart.
Two fell instantly, their blood further defiling the Execution Chamber.
The terrified prisoners shrieked in despair.
The man drew his finger along the blade’s edge, a faint smile crossing his face.

“Not bad. A decent blade.”
“I’m glad it pleases you, young master.”

His name was Maezato Oju.
Oju swept back his blood-soaked hair and turned his head.
Eyes cold as frozen ice pierced through the woman.

“Ran. The executions aren’t finished yet.”
“They were traitors and failures, if my memory serves. I believed someone else was assigned to handle their disposal.”
“I decided to do it myself. I wanted to test out this new blade.”
“I see.”

With those words, Oju cut down another figure and cast them aside.
The people bound here were those who had gravely failed missions entrusted to the Zangetsu Guild, or those guilty of conspiring with rival guilds and corporations.
The guild’s internal audit team was supposed to handle their disposition.
Naturally, no one had intended to kill them all like this.

‘…I was only supposed to deal with the traitors.’

Yet he was slaughtering the failures as well.
Ran felt a sharp pain throb through her skull.
She had been careful to keep this possibility from reaching Oju’s ears, thinking it might happen.
But it seemed the blood-drunk maniac had heard of it anyway.

“But it’s not enough. Still not enough, Ran. This isn’t….”

Crack! Snap! Pop!

Oju began swinging his blade with frenzied abandon. Blood drenched the Execution Chamber, and screams—no longer human but utterly ghastly—echoed from every direction.
Confronted with a sight too horrible to witness, Ran turned away her gaze.

“I cannot satisfy my hunger. Ran, how much longer does the old man intend to keep me confined here? Haven’t I been punished enough by now?”
“Calling your father, the chairman, an old man… Sigh. You know as well as I do—this is a period of self-reflection. In the last trial, you nearly killed your fellow team members simply because they didn’t align with your views….”
“They lacked both the will and the ability to follow my orders.”
“I’m sure that’s so.”

Ran exhaled a sigh—she’d lost count of how many she’d released.
Maezato Oju was arrogant, and moreover, conceited. He treated others like insects, and showed no mercy to those who refused to obey his commands.
There was no helping it. He was born the heir to one of Japan’s largest conglomerates.
Raised since childhood like a prince, lavished with every privilege.

‘And then he awakened as a Player and gained a unique ability on top of it all.’

He could only see himself as someone chosen, someone special.
Born into power and now wielding strength—it was a dangerous combination. Because of it, he’d caused countless incidents, and the chairman, unable to bear it any longer, had confined him here.

“Please show some consideration for public perception. This place, Zangetsu, is a Guild the chairman created for you. Someday….”
“Enough of that. Just answer my question, Ran.”
“….”

Ran’s eyes trembled slightly.
She suppressed the emotions welling up inside and continued speaking.

“…As it happens, the chairman has given you an opportunity. An event is being held on the Star Battlefield. The chairman and the Lord of Justice wish for you to participate and clear the event there.”
“Why? Are they trying to bury my scandal with this?”

Oju laughed derisively.
Ran kept her head bowed and offered no response.

“Fine. Explain what kind of event it is.”
“It’s a Dungeon conquest. I don’t know the details, but it involves defeating monsters and clearing the Dungeon. Whoever clears it fastest wins.”
“A tedious event. Killing monsters isn’t even entertaining.”

Anyone listening would have called it the response of a psychopath.
And they would have been right. Oju showed no interest. But Ran, who had observed him for so long, knew exactly how to capture his attention.

“Players will participate as well. From your country and others. Won’t you inevitably clash with them during the competition?”
“Are you saying I can kill them?”
“Players from your own country would be problematic. But foreign players….”

It could be written off as an accident that occurred during competition.
Especially since death on the Star Battlefield wasn’t truly death.
All that mattered was the prestige of having cleared a difficult event alone.
Oju seemed to catch her meaning, and he smirked.

“Public opinion is boiling over because the rewards from the recently held trial were stolen by a foreign nation. Though I doubt the Lords concern themselves greatly with such matters.”
“So I’ve heard. Was that Korea?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”

Ordinarily, it was the United States or Japan that resolved the trials most swiftly.
That’s why Japan had produced numerous articles this time. What had happened? It was incomprehensible. Their pride was wounded—such were the reactions.
Maezato Oju rarely concerned himself with neighboring nations.
They simply weren’t worth his attention.
But this time was different.

“Hunting down those who appear to be Korean players would please the masses even more. Not bad. I quite like this proposal, Ran.”
“Then….”
“Tell the old man I’ll participate.”

A smile played across my lips.
A smile reeking of blood—savagely cruel.
I raised my blade toward the last remaining failure before me.

“In exchange, I’ll do as I please on the battlefield.”
“Yes, I’ll convey that to him.”

Ran trembled as she bowed her head.
She had a premonition. A feeling that this madman would hunt down countless players across the Star Battlefield.
And perhaps.

‘…it will come to pass.’

That premonition would not be wrong.

Scrape!

Ran was certain of it.

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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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