Chapter 80: But I Refuse
Black Dragon Negrodeller.
Among the Black Dragon-type monsters, it was considered relatively weak, but it was still quite a difficult one to deal with.
Its appearance resembled a giant salamander, with a body length of about 6 meters.
Since a curse-like poison was secreted from its claws, teeth, and scales, wounds inflicted by it didn’t heal well even with healing magic.
However, the creature’s true strength wasn’t its poison.
Extreme flexibility and the mobility that capitalized on it.
That was the truly terrifying aspect of the Negrodeller.
It could slip through gaps much narrower than its own body thickness like flowing water, and evade Hunters’ attacks with all sorts of bizarre movements.
Therefore, just landing a hit was a challenge.
“What the h*ll is that? Is that even a dragon?! Isn’t it a slime?”
“It’s okay if you can’t hit it, just don’t lose sight of it! If that thing hides somewhere, it’ll be a big problem!!”
The Hunters who arrived at the scene long before Sa-hyeok were struggling against the Negrodeller.
If the monster had just rampaged openly, dealing with it would have been simple.
However, this Negrodeller utilized its physical characteristics to hide in all sorts of nooks and crannies, then ambush and attack, dragging out the battle.
The so-called hit-and-run, the main tactic of guerrilla warfare.
It was a tactic that endlessly increased the fatigue of the opponent.
“There it is!”
Still, their tightly woven encirclement wasn’t in vain.
The fleeing monster came face-to-face with a martial-type Hunter at close range.
“You’re not getting past here!”
The Hunter threw a punch with his knuckle-duster clad fist.
The knuckle-duster was menacingly studded with crimson thorns.
However, just before the fist reached it, the monster twisted its body.
“Huh?!”
Whirr!
The monster stretched its body and coiled around the Hunter.
It was as if a black wave engulfed him.
And then—
Crack!
“Kyaaaak!”
The Negrodeller instantly coiled around the Hunter’s limbs and broke them.
Thud!
The Hunter was thrown to the ground.
The injuries he sustained weren’t just fractures.
Its poisonous scales had scraped against his body, inflicting poison damage all over.
“Ugh……!”
The Hunter groaned, lying on the ground.
Completely incapacitated.
The Negrodeller extended its hidden claws to completely finish him off.
At that moment—
Crack!
Sa-hyeok, who had jumped out from a side alley, landed a punch on the Negrodeller’s flank.
For a moment, the Hunter thought he’d been hit by a truck.
A perfect surprise attack.
Without any time to react or dodge, the fist plunged directly into the monster.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The Negrodeller went flying.
But its flexibility remained intact, and it mitigated the damage even in that situation.
It had softened its body at the moment Sa-hyeok’s fist connected, diverting the impact.
Perhaps due to this, its posture recovery was also quick.
Swish-
Thud!
It straightened its body and immediately showed signs of escape.
But Sa-hyeok just watched it silently.
The fallen Hunter spoke urgently.
“If that thing hides, we’re done for! We need to track it quickly……!”
“Don’t worry. It can’t escape from me now.”
“Yes……?”
There was one thing that both the fallen Hunter and the Negrodeller itself hadn’t noticed.
A Thunderbolt Needle was embedded in the Negrodeller’s flank.
It wasn’t just a fist that Sa-hyeok had plunged into its side.
Rustle-
The monster climbed up the wall of a building.
Sa-hyeok muttered.
“Hurry up and run. That way, it’ll be easier to test.”
Sa-hyeok channeled mana into the ring on his left hand.
The Lightning Ring, an artifact that converted mana into lightning and discharged it.
However, it was a weapon with poor damage efficiency, scattering lightning in all directions.
But that was a thing of the past.
Because Sa-hyeok had the Thunderbolt Needles.
“New weapon test, commence.”
Crackle!
Sa-hyeok drastically increased the output of the Lightning Ring.
A massive amount of lightning erupted.
If it were like before, the lightning would have scattered everywhere, indiscriminately scorching everything around.
But a Thunderbolt Needle was embedded in the Negrodeller’s flank.
A metal needle that was extremely conductive.
The Thunderbolt Needle instantly absorbed the scattered lightning.
The very lightning that Sa-hyeok had unleashed.
Bzzzt!
The scattered lightning converged on the Thunderbolt Needle embedded in the monster’s body.
It was the same principle as lightning being attracted to an umbrella in a lightning-filled field.
The lightning that had been dispersed like fog instantly became a single bolt of lightning and struck the monster.
And, a direct hit.
Crackle!
The massive amount of lightning that had always dissipated into the air was now focused entirely on the monster’s body.
Damage on a completely different level.
The monster felt an intense pain that contorted its muscles and joints.
“Kyaaaaaak!”
Thud!
The monster writhed and fell from the building wall.
However, it wasn’t dead.
Because Sa-hyeok had stopped the lightning discharge.
The monster didn’t know why the attack had suddenly stopped, but this was an opportunity.
It immediately started to flee.
[Why did you let it go, Hyung-nim?!]
“To see the lightning guidance performance and range.”
The moment the monster turned sharply into a side alley, Sa-hyeok discharged lightning from the ring again.
The lightning once again stretched towards the monster.
The extending lightning, like a guided missile, suddenly changed its trajectory in mid-air and flew towards the monster.
Crackle!
Another direct hit.
When it seemed like the monster was about to d*e, Sa-hyeok stopped the discharge again.
And the fleeing Negrodeller again, and Sa-hyeok discharging lightning once more.
The lightning continued to chase and electrocute the monster.
Even with streetlights, scrap metal, and other metallic objects nearby, the lightning only followed the Thunderbolt Needle.
As long as the Thunderbolt Needle was embedded in its body, the monster could never escape the lightning that pursued it.
“Kya…… Kak……”
The monster, half-charred, crawled out onto the main road.
Scales burnt by the lightning fell off, scattering on the ground.
Citizens who hadn’t yet evacuated screamed in terror at the sight.
“Kyaaak!”
“Where are the Hunters?!”
Crack!
Lightning shot from inside an alley struck the monster’s body again.
Soon after, Sa-hyeok walked out of that alley.
People murmured.
“I-Isn’t that the Hunter who was on NewTube recently……?”
“Right, the one who uses that strange power, telekinesis or something……”
“Min Sa-hyeok!”
To be recognized so quickly.
After being featured on a popular NewTuber’s channel, the ripple effect was quite significant.
People immediately took out their phones and started filming Sa-hyeok.
“Kyahaak……!”
Meanwhile, the monster growled towards Sa-hyeok as if in defiance.
Sa-hyeok didn’t even pay attention.
“Thunderbolt Needle test complete.”
Range, lightning tracking speed, guidance performance, he had grasped them all.
“Your purpose ends here.”
Now was the time for disposal.
The Lightning Ring flashed, and the final bolt of lightning struck the monster.
Bzzzzzt!
The citizens and the Hunters who had gathered belatedly witnessed it.
The spectacle of blue sparks scorching and frying the giant black lizard.
“……Didn’t they say he was a telekinetic?”
“He’s using lightning magic now?”
“In other videos, he was using flame magic too, what is he?”
Those with even a little knowledge of magic sensed something strange about the scene Sa-hyeok had displayed.
Not only was he using two attribute magics, which a typical mage could only use one of, but he was also using a power called telekinesis, which couldn’t be explained by existing magic systems.
He was full of peculiarities.
In this way, Sa-hyeok’s presence slowly but surely grew among the people.
And at that very moment, there was a woman observing Sa-hyeok’s battle from the sky, her eyes gleaming.
Gray hair and deep blue eyes.
It was Polar Greyney.
“I knew it was a good idea to take a helicopter straight here.”
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-
She was in a helicopter with the large man who had entered the country with her.
After contacting Kwonmu-mun and finding out Sa-hyeok’s whereabouts, they had come directly from Incheon International Airport by helicopter.
The man was clinging to his seat with his seatbelt tightly fastened, while Polar had the helicopter door open, peering through a telescope.
What she was looking at through the telescope was Sa-hyeok, or rather, Sa-hyeok’s wrist.
Clang!
The moment Sa-hyeok restored the Iron Arms of the Bone King he had deployed back into bracelets.
Polar’s eyes sparkled as she muttered.
“Yes, those bracelets,
The reason she called the Iron Arms of the Bone King by the codename PT-37 was simple.
You could only find out information about an artifact by activating it, but she had no way to activate junk artifacts.
Meanwhile, the large man spoke in a trembling voice.
“Can you please close the door? It’s scary!”
“I’ll close it when I get off.”
“What?!”
Thud-
Polar jumped down from the helicopter.
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Meanwhile, Sa-hyeok was finishing up after killing the monster.
First, he extracted the Thunderbolt Needle he had embedded in the Negrodeller’s flank using telekinesis.
Whoosh-
The Thunderbolt Needle flew right into Sa-hyeok’s hand.
A long, jet-black metal needle.
Sa-hyeok held the Thunderbolt Needle still, levitating it just above his palm.
He simply kept it floating like that.
He didn’t manipulate it in any other way.
But then……
Spin-
The Thunderbolt Needle started to rotate.
Just like a drill.
And its speed began to increase crazily.
Whiiiiing!
This was the gimmick Gwan-ho had incorporated into the Thunderbolt Needle.
Absorbing the surrounding mana and converting it into rotational force.
If the Mubuchamdo’s gimmick was vibration, the Thunderbolt Needle’s gimmick was rotation.
If the Mubuchamdo was a weapon that maximized cutting power through vibration, the Thunderbolt Needle was a weapon that maximized penetration power through rotation.
Whirr, whirr, whizz, whiiiiing-
The rotation became uncontrollably fast.
It was so tremendous that the surrounding air was being drawn in.
The needle soon began to shake violently, becoming increasingly difficult to control.
This was the risk of the Thunderbolt Needle.
While its penetration power became exceptional through rotation, the difficulty of controlling it also increased exponentially.
“Haa!”
Sa-hyeok applied reverse rotation with his telekinesis to slow down the rotation speed.
After stabilizing it, he inserted the needle into the sheath on his back.
Then, Sa-hyeok plunged his hand into the charred body of the Negrodeller and rummaged around.
He soon pulled out two magic stones.
“Nice.”
Sometimes, more than two magic stones could be found within a monster’s body, and this was one such case.
Immediately after, the Hunters who had been fighting the Negrodeller gathered.
“Good work, everyone.”
“We finally caught this crazy lizard b*stard.”
“Oh, double magic stones.”
“Let’s convert the magic stones into cash at the exchange and split it evenly, everyone.”
“Sounds good.”
“Everyone, please share your account numbers……”
After the discussion about profit distribution was concluded.
Sa-hyeok left the scene and climbed to a nearby rooftop.
To return.
Whoosh-
Thud!
The moment he landed on the rooftop.
“Mr. Min?”
An unfamiliar female voice called from behind him.
‘Not Hunter Min, not Sa-hyeok-ssi, but Mr. Min?’
Sa-hyeok looked towards the direction of the voice.
A young woman was standing there.
Long, straight gray hair, white skin, a sharp nose, and deep blue eyes.
It was definitely not a Korean appearance.
Sa-hyeok asked.
“Who are you?”
“I am Polar Greyney, Combat Supervisor of the
“It’s an international organization whose purpose is to secure and contain forbidden artifacts, isn’t it?”
Not all artifacts in the world could be traded or used.
Some artifacts were too dangerous and harmful by their very existence.
Because the potential damage from their misuse was too great, an international organization was established to secure and contain such artifacts.
That was the
The so-called group of ‘those who manage the most dangerous powers in the world.’
Therefore, it was customary for executives of the Quarantine Organization to be treated as high-ranking VIPs wherever they went.
That was why Incheon International Airport had prepared a VIP immigration route for them.
Polar said with a slightly proud smile.
“Since you know about the Quarantine Organization, this will be quick.”
“How could I not know, being a Hunter? So, what’s your business?”
Polar thought with an intrigued expression.
‘He’s quite bold, isn’t he?’
Knowing what the Quarantine Organization was, knowing its status well, yet being so nonchalant and confident.
Polar said.
“Mr. Min, I’m here to scout you as a Combat Officer for our Quarantine Organization.”
“I refuse.”
“What?”
A rejection that took less than a second.
For the first time since her arrival, Polar’s usually confident eyes wavered.
