The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 4

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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 4.
Kyieeeek!
The moment the monster rat shrieked.
My hand seized its skull.
Crack!
With a sound like a watermelon shattering, its head burst apart.
Revolting bodily fluids sprayed in all directions, but the golden aura enveloping my body deflected them effortlessly.
‘Light as air.’
Feather-light.
This wasn’t merely a matter of increased strength.
My senses had sharpened dramatically.
My muscles responded faster than thought itself.
‘All stats at 100.’
The average ability scores for ordinary Hunters or Awakened at Level 1 hovered around 10.
Reaching 100 across all stats required at least Level 10—a threshold most never approached.
‘Starting at Level 10.’
Not a bad beginning.
Actually, to be honest.
It was overwhelming.
‘This just proves how insane Rag’s growth potential truly is.’
I chuckled softly, tossed the corpse of the burst rat aside, and stepped outside.
“Kyaaaah!”
“R-run away!”
“It’s a monster! The rats are eating people!”
A hellscape.
The outside was devastation incarnate.
Dozens, hundreds of monster rats poured from the cracks in the Asphalt Street.
They tore into people indiscriminately and clawed up the Buildings.
Watching the pandemonium, I analyzed the situation with cold precision.
‘We were always mistaken.’
In the past, humanity believed monsters appeared, causing buildings to collapse and the earth to split.
But we were wrong.
The order was reversed.
‘Disaster comes first.’
An earthquake—a natural disaster—had occurred, tearing open a rift between dimensions.
The demons merely crawled through that gap.
In other words.
‘Eliminate the disaster, and the monsters vanish naturally.’
Solve the root cause, and the consequences resolve themselves.
We never understood this simple truth until the moment of our extinction.
I was too preoccupied with the monster directly in front of me.
But this time is different.
I know the answer.
Pop!
I kicked off the ground with explosive force.
The Asphalt Street cracked beneath me as my body shot forward like a projectile.
“Squeak?”
The rat creature blocking my path let out a pathetic sound.
I threw my fist forward.
Splat!
Its upper body flew away entirely, crashing into the rats that followed behind it.
I destroy everything that stands in my way.
I swung my fists relentlessly at whatever came next.
I severed necks with knife-hand strikes and crushed three or four creatures with a single kick.
“Please, save us!”
The Mother and Daughter cornered in the alcove screamed.
Five monster rats surrounded them.
I didn’t stop running.
I grabbed a loose stone and hurled it.
Whoosh!
Enhanced by my strength, the projectile moved as fast as a bullet.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Three rats’ heads were punctured in an instant.
The remaining two turned their heads in confusion.
My fist was already buried in their chests.
Crack!
“…Huh? Huh?”
I ran past the dazed people staring up at me.
I had no need for their gratitude.
What mattered now was finding the ‘source.’
That was when it happened.
Hum.
My right palm tingled.
Golden runes glowed faintly.
Like a compass.
My hand pointed of its own accord in a single direction.
‘There it is.’
In the heart of Seoul.
The Sinkhole that yawned open most grotesquely.
That place, belching black smoke, was the epicenter of the earthquake and the core of this catastrophe.
I changed direction.
But there was a problem.
Kieeeeeek!
Kkirik! Kirrrik!
There were far too many.
As I approached the Sinkhole, the number of rats multiplied exponentially.
It wasn’t just the swarms of rodents that blackened the ground beneath my feet.
Buuuuuuung!
An unpleasant sound of wingbeats echoed from above.
I lifted my gaze to see massive dragonflies the size of humans swarming through the sky.
‘Demon Flies.’
The aerial monsters that had slaughtered the most Awakened in the early days.
A pincer movement closing in from both ground and sky.
Breaking through by sheer physical force would consume too much time.
‘Irritating creatures.’
My descent time was limited.
I couldn’t afford to waste it on mere trash mobs.
Just as I clenched my fist.
Ting!
A System Message materialized before my eyes.
[Calamity, ‘Annihilation Typhoon’ usage conditions have been met.]
[Currently implementable with your physical form.]
[Will you use it?]
Conditions met, then.
Likely because of this multitude of enemies and the environment perfectly suited for ‘annihilation’.
I nodded without hesitation.
Huuuung!
A small whirlwind materialized above my left palm.
‘The right hand consumes, the left hand expels?’
Input and output.
The structure itself made sense.
This must be the fundamental principle by which the class ‘Calamity Devourer’ operates.
The wind that had begun the size of a ping-pong ball rapidly swelled to the size of a basketball.
The compressed air shrieked.
Wiiiiiing!
The rats around me instinctively recoiled in primal terror.
But it was too late.
I hurled that ‘calamity’ toward the densest concentration of monsters.
“Sweep them all away.”
Thwack!
The moment the wind left my hand and touched the ground.
Kuoooooooooooo!
The atmosphere twisted with a catastrophic roar.
That incomparably massive typhoon I had witnessed in Asgard.
Descended upon the heart of Seoul.
Kyieek!
Kyieeeek!
They couldn’t even scream properly.
Rats on the ground were swept upward like fallen leaves.
Dragonflies flying through the sky had their wings torn to shreds as they were sucked into the eye of the typhoon.
Building debris, automobiles, and thousands of monsters were ground together like a massive blender.
Overwhelming destructive force.
Truly, the Annihilation Typhoon.
“Clean work.”
Pat, pat.
I brushed off my palms.
The cleanup was complete.
I donned the Spirit’s Wings and dove beneath the Sinkhole.
* * *
There was no end in sight.
The depth of the Sinkhole transcended imagination.
Without the Spirit’s Wings, I wouldn’t have dared descend at all.
Shwooooong.
I descended for quite some time, cutting through the wind.
The surroundings were pitch-black darkness.
But there was no problem.
Uuuwoong.
Golden light pouring from my right palm served as natural illumination.
‘I’ve arrived.’
How far had I descended?
A hard sensation touched my feet.
A space carved artificially rather than a natural Underground Cavern.
I folded my wings and moved toward where the golden light pointed.
At the end of it.
“…A person?”
An unexpected presence existed.
Neither a monster’s egg nor a naturally formed mana stone.
An ordinary human man sat cross-legged atop a rock.
He must have sensed my presence, for his eyes snapped open.
“Who the hell are you.”
Panic was written all over his face.
“How did you make it this far? I blocked the entrance with rat creatures.”
“There was a path, so I followed it.”
“…Impossible. There’s no way you could break through that many and descend all the way here.”
The man furrowed his brow, his gaze sweeping across my entire form.
Then he looked up at the ceiling and muttered to himself.
“Wait. This aura I’m sensing from outside… Is it the Annihilation Typhoon?”
He looked at me again.
His eyes had changed.
“Don’t tell me you’re an ‘avatar’?”
“….”
“That’s strange. Territories shouldn’t overlap. Did the administrators mess up the design?”
Avatar.
Territory.
Administrators.
The words he uttered clicked together in my mind like puzzle pieces.
Even disasters possess territories.
And the entity that generates those disasters wears the form of a ‘human’, not a monster.
Most of all.
‘That face looks familiar.’
That visage.
I knew his face.
“Kim Yu-hwan?”
At my question, the man flinched.
“What? How do you know my username?”
It was confirmed.
Steel Kim Yu-hwan.
A hero who had burst onto the scene like a comet in Korea, in the past.
A being who wielded his iron body as a weapon, saving countless lives and earning their reverence.
Yet here he sat before my eyes, the very source of the earthquake.
‘…Was that it?’
A chilling hypothesis flashed through my mind.
Heroes whose growth was unusually rapid and whose power was extraordinary.
What was their true nature?
‘Collaborators of the Tower Gods?’
Collaborators felt too awkward a term.
This word—avatar.
Perhaps.
‘The Tower Gods’ game?’
Was Kim Yu-hwan before my eyes a ‘character’ and ‘avatar’ created by the Tower Gods on Earth?
Just as I had created the character Rag in Asgard.
The difference between them and me.
…Those bastards triggered catastrophes to summon monsters, slaughtered people, and leveled up through the carnage.
Then at an opportune moment, they would appear and pretend to hunt down the monsters, playing the role of ‘heroes’.
“Ha.”
A bitter laugh escaped me.
And we, ignorant of the truth, revered them as saviors.
We thanked those disease-dealers who sold us the cure, claiming we owed them our very lives!
“How amusing.”
Murderous intent surged through me.
Kim Yu-hwan tilted his head in confusion.
“What’s so funny? More importantly, where do you belong? What kind of god are you?”
“It matters not.”
There was no point in further conversation.
Death would reveal all.
I kicked off the ground.
Boom!
The earth caved in as my body shot forward.
Kim Yu-hwan’s eyes widened.
“Insane!”
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble!
As he swung his hand down, the earth convulsed.
Massive boulders erupted upward, blocking my path.
The authority to trigger earthquakes.
But it was futile.
Flutter!
The Spirit’s Wings unfurled.
Using the surging boulders as stepping stones, I soared through the air and closed the distance to his face in an instant.
“What, what is this?!”
Panicked, Kim Yu-hwan quickly crossed his arms.
His skin transformed into black steel.
Steel Transformation.
The very ability that had made him a hero in his past life.
Absolute defense that nullified physical impact.
But.
‘That standard applies only to humans.’
My strength is 100.
From the start, I transcended all limitations.
Crash!
My fist drove through his crossed arms.
“Krraaaagh!”
Steel crumpled with a deafening screech as Kim Yu-hwan was hurled backward.
The boulder behind him shattered into fragments, and he crashed into a pit of churning dust.
“Cough! Hack!”
Kim Yu-hwan staggered upright, blood streaming from his lips.
Both his arm bones were shattered, dangling uselessly at his sides.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
“This… this can’t be…”
“…”
“How did you grow so strong already? The tutorial just started!”
Fear and shock mingled in his voice.
“Your initial stats shouldn’t be like this! Are you… a high-ranking Deity?”
Thud, thud.
I advanced toward him without answering.
Kim Yu-hwan backpedaled, his face twisted in dread.
“S-stay back! Why would you do this to a fellow Deity? You’re violating the pact!”
So they’d even established rules among themselves.
Now it was certain.
These creatures were Asgard’s Deities.
More precisely.
‘Tower Gods.’
Now I understood.
They had deceived humanity from beginning to end.
“Stop! Even if you kill me, it’s just one avatar disappearing!”
Kim Yu-hwan thrashed and screamed.
Terror flooded his eyes, yet his voice still carried a thread of confidence.
“My true body is in Asgard! Kill me here and I’ll simply regenerate!”
He snarled, his face flushed with rage.
“This is a blatant territorial violation! I’m bringing this before the Divine Council. You’ve broken the pact. You know what the price is!”
Pact. Divine Council. Price.
Such absurdly hollow words.
I smiled faintly and placed my hand upon his chest.
“Do as you wish.”
“…What?”
“Try if you can.”
Whooooom!
The golden rune inscribed on my right palm vibrated with frenzied intensity.
The primal instinct of a predator before its prey.
Golden light pierced through his heart.
“Krraaaagh! What… what is this?!”
Kim Yu-hwan’s body convulsed violently.
His face drained of all color.
Then he screamed desperately.
“Logout! Logout!”
Kim Yu-hwan shrieked into the void.
He barked system commands in rapid succession.
“Force shutdown! Disconnect now! Immediately!”
But.
“…Ah, it won’t work? Why?”
His pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
This couldn’t be.
The system was absolute.
An inviolable law that even the Tower Gods could not defy.
Yet logout was being blocked by mere interference from another player?
Only then did Kim Yu-hwan comprehend the true nature of the golden light devouring his chest.
“No, surely not….”
It wasn’t merely the avatar’s mana.
Even the power of his true body existing far away in Asgard.
His very essence—his ‘Divine Essence’—was being consumed entirely.
“How, how are you absorbing my Divine Essence!”
This was impossible.
A power capable of slaying gods!
“What are you! Stop!!”
Kim Yu-hwan seized my arm and struggled with all his might to tear it away.
But the moment his steel-hardened fingers touched me, they crumbled to dust.
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
The scream could not sustain itself.
Whoooosh.
From his legs upward through his torso, then to his head.
Kim Yu-hwan’s body transformed into golden particles, drawn into my right hand.
“Save me….”
With his final, fading words.
Pop!
His existence was completely erased from the world.
At the same moment.
Rumble, rumble, rumble… thud.
The endless tremors of the earth ceased.
The ominous aura filling the Sinkhole vanished without a trace.
Ding!
A message materialized in the air.
[Calamity has devoured Kartal, the Lesser Earthquake Deity.]
[Divine essence absorbed.]
[Authority, ‘Lesser Earthquake,’ can now be used permanently.]
[Earthquake intensity scales proportionally with the user’s mana reserves.]
[Episode 1, ‘Invasion,’ has concluded.]
[Catastrophic contribution.]
[Survival rate far exceeds projections.]
[Ranked 1st in Episode 1, ‘Invasion.’]
[Register your name in the Hall of Honor.]
[Roll the die (1~15) to determine reward magnitude.]
[15! The fortune die indicates maximum value.]
[Reward (1): Dragon’s Egg]
[Reward (2): 15 Fragments of Shattered Golden Ratio]
[Level increased!]

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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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