The Regressed SSS-Rank Supporter Who Turned Dark - Chapter 67

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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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#Episode 67
Slaughter’s Reverie.
The crimson blade began to dance.
It was not ornate.
Nor was it fluid.
Simple and linear movements, stripped of all excess.
A dull, weighty sword dance.
Yet the sudden bursts of acceleration were beyond what the Nine-Tail Crew’s members could withstand.
Screech!
Sploooosh!
The heads of crew members flew spinning through the air as blood erupted like a fountain.
Each time, the Slaughter’s Reverie blade burned a deeper crimson.
A blood-red essence shimmering like the blood within the blade itself.
At first it appeared roughly one-third full, but with each enemy Eun-sung felled, the quantity grew bit by bit.
Blooming.
The unlocking of latent potential that becomes possible when a spirit blade reaches five-star rank.
The essence required for that blooming was accumulating steadily.
‘Now I understand Kim Sang-eung’s feelings.’
Eun-sung finally grasped why his instructor had abandoned his own spirit blade, Bloodslayer.
Perhaps because Bloodslayer was among the combination materials, Slaughter’s Reverie possessed a mechanism where it grew stronger only by killing humans and absorbing their blood.
‘If I keep wielding this, I’ll become a murderer without even realizing it. To grow stronger, I’ll keep wanting to kill.’
A blade was not a cursed sword merely by harboring malevolent spirits or dark ether.
A spirit blade with a triggering structure that caused the user to corrupt themselves—like Slaughter’s Reverie—was equally deserving of the name cursed sword.
‘But I’m already rotten to the core.’
A self-deprecating smile played at the corners of Eun-sung’s mouth.
At least I haven’t forgotten what I’ve done.
It was laughable.
I abandoned even humanity for personal vengeance, and now I speak of cursed swords and such.
‘Better to embrace evil than to reek of such nauseating hypocrisy.’
Gritting my teeth, I suppressed the rising self-loathing and swung Slaughter’s Reverie.
Shhwiiing!
Screech!
Sploooosh!
The weighty blade fell upon the enemies’ necks with diligent precision, like a guillotine.
Slurrrp, sluuuurp….
Unlike Eun-sung, whose expression remained blank and indifferent, Slaughter’s Reverie drank the blood with vampiric greed.
Hummm, huuummm!
A dull blade-song resonated through the air.
It was not a sharp, piercing cry.
It sounded like the growl of a blood-starved beast.
Helkiyan, drenched in blood, was reveling in the slaughter.
As if living up to its name, the blade seemed to be savoring every moment of carnage.
Then, at that very moment.
Clang!
The factory door burst open, and workers in white uniforms came pouring out in a desperate rush.
“Oh, heavens!”
“Please, save us!”
“Ahhhhh!”
“Don’t kill us! I’m begging you!”
A woman in her fifties, a young Chicken Shop Owner’s Child with an innocent face, a foreign laborer with dark skin, a disabled person with mobility issues—and more.
They must have approached those struggling to find work, dangling the promise of employment to lure them in.
“Sigh.”
A breath escaped from Eun-sung’s lips.
This was precisely why the Nine-Tail Crew was so vile.
When criminals only preyed upon each other within the organization, one could overlook it.
But to drag ordinary people into their schemes…
The Nine-Tail Crew was like a plague.
A contagion that corrupted both Awakened and non-Awakened, regardless of age or gender, into participating in crime.
Yet Eun-sung knew that most of these people harbored goodwill toward the Nine-Tail Crew.
From their perspective, the Nine-Tail Crew—which at least provided employment—was far more grateful than a government that offered no reconstruction support, no rebuilding assistance, nothing whatsoever.
Perhaps for that reason, some of the workers refused to flee.
“You bastards!”
A worker who had taken Overdrive lunged toward Eun-sung.
Judging by his shabby appearance and poor nutritional state, he was certainly no organization member.
Just a laborer’s desperate struggle to protect his livelihood, his daily bread.
Bzzzzzz!
The hilt of Helkiyan tickled against Eun-sung’s palm.
It seemed to be demanding death, thirsting for blood.
‘Shut up.’
Bzzzzzz!
Helkiyan resisted.
‘Say another word, and I’ll destroy you.’
Eun-sung poured his will into the ether, crushing Helkiyan’s impulses with overwhelming force.
If the blade refused to stop its provocation, he truly would shatter it.
After all, a spirit blade could always be remade.
…Hmmm.
Helkiyan fell silent.
“You goddamn bastard!”
The worker had already closed the distance, now mere inches from Eun-sung’s face.
Whoosh!
Eun-sung swung Slaughter’s Joy through the air.
Thwack!
The laborer flew backward, crashing into the distance.
“Gack!”
No blood spilled.
He hadn’t been cut.
I’d simply struck him with the flat of the blade.
“Don’t lose your lives chasing money. Anyone uninvolved—get out of here. From this moment on, anyone who comes at me dies.”
Eun-sung hurled himself toward the Nine-Tail Crew members.
* * *
With Eun-sung and Choi Yu-ra’s sudden intervention, the battle tilted decisively in Gaksidan’s favor.
The Nine-Tail Crew members guarding the Nine Nutrition Factory and the hastily-summoned outside organization members were no match for Eun-sung and Choi Yu-ra.
“Tae-kwon.”
“Yes, hyung.”
“Get the kids ready to move out. Fast.”
“Huh?”
Oh Tae-kwon didn’t understand Eun-sung’s intention.
They’d already swept away nearly all the Nine-Tail Crew members….
“Did you really think this was the end?”
“What?”
“Move now. Every second from here on could determine life or death.”
“But the factory….”
“I’ll handle it. Just get ready to bolt.”
“Understood, hyung.”
Oh Tae-kwon, having received Eun-sung’s orders, began rallying the Gaksidan members in their masks and preparing for evacuation.
“Do we have time to destroy the factory? You can’t burn it down—the sprinklers will activate. Wouldn’t it be better to just get out of here quickly?”
Choi Yu-ra offered a reasonably sound opinion.
“I’m not setting a fire.”
“Then what?”
“I’m going to blow it up.”
“Blow it up…?”
“Follow me.”
Eun-sung led Choi Yu-ra into the factory.
The factory interior appeared to be in the midst of Overdrive production.
Refined Etherium powder, various solutions, and an assortment of drugs from around the world were mixed together in flasks and beakers.
The acrid chemical stench hung thick in the air, while heating devices and stirrers installed throughout emitted a low, constant hum as they worked ceaselessly.
Discarded masks lay scattered across the floor.
“Ugh.”
Choi Yu-ra instinctively covered her mouth.
“This….”
Eun-sung drew a card from his deck and summoned one-kilogram TNT blocks alongside it.
“Place them wherever I tell you to.”
“…Looks like you’re preparing for an actual war.”
Choi Yu-ra clicked her tongue.
Even for a hunter, carrying this many explosives was extraordinary.
Eun-sung didn’t answer.
His gaze swept across the Nine Nutrition Factory.
The steel frame leading to the ceiling, the load-bearing columns, and the central hub where equipment clustered.
“Three on those columns, three below that compressor line. One on that steel frame.”
“Why there?”
“That’s where the load concentrates. Even one detonation would bring it down.”
Eun-sung handed Choi Yu-ra an armful of TNT blocks.
“Press them flush against the columns. I’ll handle the detonating cord.”
“…You know how to do this too?”
This time, Choi Yu-ra was genuinely astonished.
Detonating a bomb was simple.
You just pressed the trigger on the detonator.
But demolishing a building required considerable expertise.
You had to sever the load-bearing points, bind the charges so they wouldn’t scatter, and ensure the explosions detonated simultaneously.
“I just picked it up along the way.”
“Whose way, exactly?”
Choi Yu-ra spoke as though she found it absurd.
“Move faster. We’re running out of time.”
Eun-sung urged her forward instead of answering.
“Exfil, Exfil.”
Eun-sung and Choi Yu-ra, having planted the TNT blocks, swiftly evacuated the factory.
“They’re coming.”
Eun-sung detected the enemies’ approach through the drone feed and spoke.
– Vroom, vroom-vroom!
– Roooaaarrr!
Nine-Tail Crew members wearing Joker masks were pouring in like a dark tide.
There appeared to be roughly two hundred of them.
Still, they were far enough away that there was plenty of time to extract.
“Tell them to scatter. Don’t move as a group. And you follow me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Oh Tae-kwon nodded.
Roooaaarrr!
Vroom-vroom-vroom!
Eun-sung’s group and those belonging to Gaksidan all evacuated the Nine Nutrition Factory at once.
About five minutes later.
“You damn rats!”
“Where the hell did all these bastards go!”
“Shit! Find them!”
It was then that the Nine-Tail Crew members who had arrived late erupted in fury.
“There! Inside!”
Someone pointed toward the interior of the Nine Nutrition Factory.
“Grab him!”
“Catch that bastard!”
The Nine-Tail Crew members surged into the factory in unison, chasing after the unidentified fugitive.
“Greetings, gentlemen.”
Eun-sung flashed them a sinister smile.
In his hand was a detonator.
“Well then, shall we all take a pleasant trip to the afterlife together? By the way, I’d love to join you, but I can’t. I’d really like to go with you, but I’m not human. Hehe. So then… goodbye.”
Click.
Eun-sung—or rather, Helkiyan, the Specter Card’s phantom—pressed the detonator’s button.
BOOOOOOOOOOM―!!!!
A massive explosion erupted, consuming everything in its path.
* * *
Eun-sung and his group raced forward without pause, the enormous explosion at their backs.
Weeeeeeeee―!
Wee-woo, wee-woo―!
The distant wail of fire truck and police sirens pierced the night.
“What do we do now?”
“Rest a bit, then stir up a couple more places.”
“You’re going to keep going here?”
“The night is long.”
Eun-sung glanced at the GARMIN smartwatch on his wrist before speaking.
It was a model favored by special forces operators.
“It’s only midnight. We need to keep moving until at least three or four in the morning.”
“You’re insane, seriously.”
Choi Yu-ra let out a hollow laugh.
“We have to push through. Tomorrow, we won’t be able to do this.”
Eun-sung’s eyes gleamed like those of a predator stalking its prey.
“Yeah, that’s true. Tomorrow, those bastards will be everywhere.”
Choi Yu-ra nodded in agreement with Eun-sung’s assessment.
Right—today would be the first and last chance to strike at multiple locations like this.
Starting tomorrow, the Nine-Tail Crew would shift into full alert, and the entire Urban Area would be in turmoil.
If possible, it was far better to accomplish everything we could tonight.
“Let me know if you get tired. We’ve got an extra pair of hands now anyway.”
Eun-sung glanced at Oh Tae-kwon, who was eagerly pursuing them from behind.
“You want me to back out now?”
“If you’re tired, rest.”
“Just drive. Nobody’s backing out.”
“Understood.”
“I should’ve gotten some sleep before coming out.”
Choi Yu-ra grumbled.
It seemed tonight was going to stretch on longer than expected.

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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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