The Crazy Villain Regains His Sanity - Chapter 45

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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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Chapter 45

I cast a quick glance at Lee Chan-taek before fixing my attention on Nuri.
In my previous life, Nuri broke through the first Hunting Team, overwhelmed the second, and when the third Hunting Team engaged, it drew such overwhelming aggression that it consumed all of Seoul.
Kim Young-hwan never stepped forward, claiming to protect civilian safety.
Seoul paid the price in devastation—countless lives lost.
Back then, people whispered that Nuri operated on an entirely different level than other Hazard Level 8 Monsters.
It maintained its complete form, preserved its purity, wielded Breath with masterful control, and the power of Blade Storm—officially recognized as a Gift—was devastating.
A ranged attack that shredded everything within a fifty-meter radius: a calamity incarnate.
So I’d tried to exploit a weakness common to raptors—

“That head is incredibly hard.”

Despite landing three consecutive hits, Nuri showed no sign of damage whatsoever.
If anything, it only grew more enraged, radiating killing intent. Hit it and it can’t control itself—genuine anger management issues.

Screeeee!

With that shriek, it launched skyward.
I pushed off the air to close in and engage, but somewhere in that exchange it had adapted—now it spewed Breath and conjured Blade Storm, desperately widening the distance between us.
So even a bird-brained creature learns. As the king among its kind, its adaptive capacity was formidable.
I activated Instinct. This mental-attribute Gift I’d stolen from Jung Da-hyun had infinite applications, and even I couldn’t fathom its depths.
Through Instinct, I searched for the most efficient way to subdue Nuri. Using Mine as I had before? That required closing distance. But it was keeping me at bay with Breath and Blade Storm, so I needed to change tactics.
So not Mine—then Slash, perhaps. The Instinct stirred in response. Yet there was no strong confirmation, meaning that wasn’t the answer either. It just meant Nuri was a particularly difficult Monster to handle.
To say it wasn’t Mine doesn’t automatically make Slash the answer—that’s binary thinking.

“Can’t be helped.”

Seeing that the previous collision had widened the gap between me and Lee Chan-taek, I brought my hands together and activated my Slash Gift.
Crimson Force erupted, colliding headlong with its Blade Storm.

Boom! Crash! Thunderous explosion!

The Slash and Blade Storm met, scattering countless residual waves of Force. The ground within a hundred-meter radius flipped as if caught in a tempest, dust churning upward in thick clouds. I watched Nuri climb higher through the haze and clicked my tongue sharply.
Birds instinctively believe they have the advantage at greater altitude. Judging by my annoyance, I’m beginning to confirm it.

“Troublesome thing.”

I pushed off on Force to ascend, only to meet the inevitable torrent of Blade Storm from above.
The layered Force shield I’d woven thin caught wave after wave of blade-winds. An incredibly frustrating Gift—not only was each individual Force-blade within the storm packed with power, but maintaining my body in the air while advancing forced my Force to drain steadily.
Like bailing out seawater with a basin against the tide.
It was fine for me to burn through Force so recklessly, but another Hunter would’ve been depleted long ago.
Maybe that’s why the standard tactic hardened into using teams to wear down a Monster’s reserves.

Screeeee!

Breaking through the Blade Storm and closing distance, it switched to Fire Breath instead. I countered with Slash, neutralizing the attack, and managed to close to striking range.
The creature fired its Gift the moment I arrived at point-blank.

Crash and crack!

The Force barrier buckled against impact, splintering and shattering, only to regenerate—a cycle it repeated as it tried to create distance through this very mechanism. But I pushed through relentlessly until I was directly in front of it.
I channeled Slash through my fingertips and stabbed at its head.

Boom!

The Slash collided with thick hide and failed to pierce through. The leather was absurdly tough, and he felt an immense Force pushing back against him.
How dense could something be to withstand an Explosive Force and resist even a Slash?
Though the Slash hadn’t torn through the hide, the impact was far from harmless.

Screech!

Nuri’s body tilted from the blow, dropping toward the ground before barely managing to take flight again.
He could feel the creature’s fury rising. Its form deepened to a more vivid red, steam rising from its skin.
One more complication had been added to the fight.
The Force riding the Blade Storm now carried heat with it.
If the Inferno itself had a dwelling place, it would be here. The very air shimmered and warped, the temperature climbing without end.
Was this what Phase Two meant? Filthy irritating. All he wanted now was to finish this quickly.

Crash!

He struck with an Explosive Force from point-blank range. The resistance remained powerful, but it didn’t feel stronger than before. The creature’s defense wouldn’t hold forever.
Even running Instinct, neither the Explosive Force nor the Slash offered a clear path to victory. That meant relying on Gifts alone would drain him endlessly without resolution. Burning through his mental reserves like this would accomplish nothing, so he dropped his Instinct.
No—there had always been only one way.
No matter how resilient and unyielding, Nuri was still a monster of flesh and blood. Keep hammering away, and it would shatter. So he folded away his Slash and began pummeling the creature’s head with his fists wreathed in Explosive Force.
By the time Nuri thrashed free of his striking range, more than thirty blows had rained down on its skull.

Shriek!

Unable to endure any longer, Nuri wailed and plummeted.
With a thunderous crash, the creature’s body collided with the ground. That it was still writhing told him exactly how stubborn its hold on life truly was.

“Really is relentless.”

More than thirty Explosive Force strikes and it was still standing. No other Hazard Level 8 monster had been like this.
One thing was certain: armor forged from this creature’s hide—the same hide that had withstood his own Explosive Force—would command a fair price.
After burning through considerable Force, he stood before Nuri, feeling the familiar hollowness in his chest. This was his first Hazard Level 8 monster faced with his mind fully present. He’d need to study it if he was going to handle the next Level 8 efficiently.
Next time another monster of that tier appeared, he’d need a better strategy.

“Good that you’re still alive.”

Nuri shuddered as if understanding his sincere words.

* * *

“Interesting.”

He ran various experiments on the downed creature. The hide was impossibly dense, and he wondered at the principle behind it—but as suspected, it was tied to Force.
Primitive as it was, Nuri instinctively wielded Force. When his attacks came, the creature would reflexively gather Force in front of the impact point to absorb the blow.
But that Force reserve wasn’t infinite. After capture and repeated experiments, it had clearly exhausted itself; the hide was no longer as impenetrable as before.
Once the Force ran dry, the Explosive Force in his strikes finally began to cause meaningful damage.

Screech!

Nuri convulsed.

“Did I hit it too many times?”

Watching the trembling creature, he felt nothing in particular. If it had enjoyed killing humans, it should’ve been ready for the consequences of its own actions.
He’d tested the Explosive Force, probed the hide’s durability with Slash techniques, and by the time Nuri was foaming at the mouth, he moved on to the next question.
Could he Tame this creature?
The desire to dominate a monster and use it as a pet was something anyone could understand.
There were documented cases of both Taming and Brainwashing being used to subdue Hazard Level 1 and 2 monsters as companions.
Though far more often, these two Gifts were inflicted upon humans, creating serious social problems.
While it had been proven that monsters could be subdued, the consensus was that only the lower tiers could be managed. Level 1 and 2 monsters were essentially just slightly vicious wild beasts.
Since there had never been a case of successfully taming the Level 3 and 4 monsters that posed genuine threats to humans, the prospect of subduing such creatures seemed practically impossible.
The higher a monster’s rank, the stronger its hostility toward humanity—and the more rigid its mental defenses become. Experts claim that if you can shatter this mental barrier, taming becomes possible.
I believed Brainwashing could break through that barrier.
Though I risked turning into a vegetable in the process.

“Not that there’s much difference between an idiot and a vegetable anyway.”

Both states seem equally mindless.
I turned my thoughts to Brainwashing.
The principle of this Gift is embedding my will into the target’s consciousness—breaking their own will and injecting keywords I choose, what amounts to gaslighting at its core.
I couldn’t execute it with the finesse the Cult Leader once displayed. That creature used environmental conditioning, atmosphere, eloquence—turning followers into fanatics.
The Brainwashing was so thorough that eventually a single word from the Cult Leader could drive the entire congregation to mass suicide.
Since I couldn’t manage such refined Brainwashing, I’d have to do it my own way.
I injected the keyword “obey” into Nuri through Brainwashing.

Shriek!

The creature still possessed enough consciousness to resist. The innate hostility toward humanity and the enmity toward me—both hardwired into its psyche—fueled that defiance.
Stubborn thing.
I had to break that driving force first.
Ignoring Nuri’s resistance, I deployed Brainwashing again, this time layering the keyword repeatedly.

“Obey obey obey!”

Wail!

Nuri, who had been mounting only sporadic resistance, began thrashing in desperation.
A final stand? It was fierce.

Crack!

I planted a burst of Mines in its skull to slow its movements.
As it collapsed weakly, I pumped the Brainwashing keyword into its mind several more times—but it endured.
This thing’s got a stubborn streak that gets under my skin.
I poured the keyword in without end.

“Obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey.”

My Force drained away relentlessly, but I didn’t care. Most creatures would’ve given up and submitted by now. But this one was just as stubborn.
Whenever it thrashed, I’d hammer it with Mines and inject the Brainwashing keyword again.
After three rounds of trying, having injected the keyword roughly three hundred times, Nuri finally broke.

Soft whimper.

Spasms that began intermittently spread across its whole body, and then its eyes rolled back as all movement ceased.

“Dead?”

I tapped its head lightly and felt the brain inside had turned to mush. I’d been a bit too thorough with the Brainwashing.

“Taming’s not easy work.”

With a quiet click of my tongue, I reached toward where Nuri’s heart lay.
The skin, now stripped of its Force barrier, resisted my Slash, but after a few attempts it tore open.
I clenched Nuri’s heart in my palm. Fresh green blood, still warm despite the creature’s death moments ago, clung stickily to my skin. Where it touched, a stinging sensation spread—poison. Without hesitation, I brought the blood to my lips.

“Potent stuff.”

Numbness began, followed by confusion, hallucinations, and addictive symptoms.
The sensations were familiar enough that I suppressed them with Force. These are the side effects I endure every time I try to glimpse a monster’s Gift.
Immunity to All Poisons suddenly came to mind. With that Gift, I wouldn’t have to suffer these effects. The Berserker would throw a fit if I asked for it, so I’ll need to find another way to copy the Gift without killing him.
In the meantime, Nuri’s Gift information began copying. Blade Storm, Fire Breath, High-Speed Flight—they were all there. Since I’d anticipated this, there was neither hope nor disappointment.
Fire Breath and High-Speed Flight were Gifts beyond the species’ limits—impossible to select.
That left Blade Storm. The moment I chose it, the Gift began copying, and something strange happened.

“Huh?”

I should’ve had to choose a Gift to delete, but Slash vanished without warning. And Blade Storm took its place.

“…Could it be?”

This wasn’t common. But it wasn’t rare either.
A phenomenon more frequent than Dual Gift—Gift Mixing.
Two Gifts combined into one, their power intensified. That’s what the theory said.
Just now, Slash had been absorbed by Blade Storm.
I hadn’t anticipated this outcome.

“I need to test it.”

I pulled a Short Sword from my clothes. For Slash to work properly, a weapon channeling Force was essential.
When I unleashed Blade Storm, a Force Blade erupted—distinctly different from what Slash alone produced. The Force Blade, spinning with messy violence, shredded the target rock to pieces.
The rotation of Blade Storm had fused into the existing Force Blade, destroying everything it touched.
Ravaged inside and out.
A Skill that tore apart both surface and core—perfect for ending an opponent.
Through Gift Mixing, the strengths of Slash and Blade Storm had merged seamlessly.

“Keeping them alive is always the hardest part.”

After confirming Nuri was dead, helicopters and vehicles began pouring in like a flood moments later.

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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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