variant
It looks like the soup is going to flow.
Clothes covered in bloodstains and unknown black stains.
A chain that he proudly carries as if it were trophies.
It didn’t sound very good, but it seemed better to listen to the explanation while being recognized as a peer, so I silently nodded my head.
The man continued his explanation while mortifying the chain in his hand.
“I don’t know where you’re from, but here in Shenyang, you can say that this arena dominates. To be precise, the owner of the arena.”
“arena?”
“okay. It added more fun to the original purpose of hunting humans or Awoken.”
As the man said, the impression of looking around this place for a short time so far is that it is similar to an arena or a dog fighting arena.
But the last words were unheard of bullsh*t.
It doesn’t make sense to say that the purpose of humans is to hunt humans or Awokens in the first place.
“You know, since you have received grace, but we always have to live in pursuit of thirst. Right now, if you try, you can catch and kill humans and awakened people, but you don’t know how long it will last. Shenyang Si-do is drying up right now.”
It is a very intuitive and clear explanation compared to the appearance of being an intellectual.
However, there were still a few words that I didn’t understand.
“blessing?”
The man gave a strange look at Ha Yeon-woo, who questioned him.
“Don’t you know grace? you… .”
The suspicious glare was very brief.
After looking around, he continued talking as if that couldn’t be the case.
“I don’t smell, so I’m not a human or an Awakener, but… Are you from another region?”
“… korea.”
“what? There is no one who said that everyone was reluctant to go there. this is crazy Or the great one.”
“Are you reluctant? Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Ha Yeon-woo is there. The strongest among the Awoken. There is even a story that made it a city of awakened people. Is this a rumor?”
A story about yourself that came out naturally.
It seemed to be true that they were reluctant to go to Korea, but most of them were false rumors and rumors.
‘Is that why I didn’t know about their existence until now?’
When you think about it, it was natural. A being that has to kill humans and a being that is the strongest among humans. Naturally, I would have tried to keep my distance.
Until you have the ability to kill.
I naturally shook my head.
“I haven’t been there either.”
“Well, anyway, what do they say about people who have received divine power like us?”
I threw a word that felt moderately similar to the guy who asked as if he was curious.
“blessing.”
“Blessings, that’s a good word. It suits us perfectly.”
A few words exchanged made it clear.
They gained power thanks to a phenomenon that rivaled the natural awakening of the Awoken. And even they don’t know the cause or the situation that goes back.
It’s a world without news or SNS, so you can’t communicate outside of a limited space.
That kind of power is obviously ominous. Ha Yeon-woo’s ability and intuition were enough to infer from the fact that he did not see them as human beings, unlike the Awakened.
“so. next?”
“Oh yeah. As you may have felt, we cannot stand thirst.”
I nodded my head indifferently, engraving each of the man’s words in my head.
“Among those who received grace, a few particularly strong ones built this arena. I heard that the city of Shenyang was destroyed because of them. lets think. How many Awoken and humans he must have killed.”
Shenyang’s population is well into the millions.
Of course, they may not have killed all of them, but even if we assume that they killed only a part of the population that has shrunk through the gate crisis and disaster, it would easily exceed tens of thousands.
“That’s what they thought. It’s gotten stronger, but the thirst still lingers, and the human seed dries up.”
“Is this a stable collection point?”
“okay. It’s kind of like creating a business model.”
The man pointed his chin at Cage.
“A guy like you who came as a brawler will fight here in this cage with Awoken who were captured or sold for gambling. If you win, you can have the opponent Awoken, and if you lose… It’s losing, but since there’s no one left alive, we’ll see it die.”
A cage in front of a large Russian man and a man who feels clearly human are preparing to fight.
According to him, that Russian is what they call the Blessed Variant, and the human on the other side is a captured Awakener.
“Then what is a gambler?”
“You bet on the humans you own. The method is rather simple. If you win by counting the number of heads, double it. Dedication of the ground.”
The reason why only this place was overflowing with energy in the quiet city of Shenyang was roughly drawn.
If the man’s explanation is correct, mutants are destined to hunt humans until they die, and people always flock to values that are in demand.
The gambling house always benefits only the owner.
It was as if the owners of this place were literally running a casino where humans were money.
“The owner. Are you here?”
Most of the information that can be obtained right away by hiding your identity is put in your head. I asked for the most important thing.
“Is there? The guy who manages this place is just a minion. There are many rumors, but they say that there are dozens of these gambling halls, and that each gambling hall periodically supplies humans.”
The man smacked his lips in envy.
“You get stronger from where you sit. The damn rich and the poor are the same even if they receive grace.”
answer as expected.
There are many gambling places like this and the restriction of thirst. If the Awakened become stronger by killing monsters, the variant is a structure that becomes stronger by hunting humans.
Judging by his behavior, he seemed to have the ability to distinguish between beings of the same kind, and one day he suddenly received strength, not something he had realized himself. Suddenly enough to be described as grace.
This was the conclusion I came to after hearing the story.
I don’t know why I didn’t get caught in their discrimination ability, but it’s not that important at this stage. I shook my head.
“Then there’s no one else here.”
“yes. Among those who have received grace, only the lowest life comes and goes here… .”
thud deuk-
Without even realizing it, Ha Yeon-woo’s hand lightly gripped the man’s chin, and when he tapped it, his head turned more than once.
If this is one of the many dens of the gangsters, not the main base, there is no need to politely collect information.
All you have to do is figure out your next destination.
A man whose neck was shattered with an eerie noise due to the rotational force.
As he fell to the floor with a thump, the eyes of those around him focused even in the midst of the noise.
“What, what!”
“guard! There is a murder here!”
“That bastard! That bastard did it!”
Naturally, attention was drawn to Ha Yeon-woo, who was the only man next to him, and the Awakener, who was standing on the fighting board, also looked puzzled, perhaps as if he was dumbfounded.
Ha Yeon-woo met his eyes as he stood blankly.
“How long have you been here?”
“Eh, yes?”
“How long have you been there? I am human.”
While we were talking, a large figure, presumably the guard we encountered at the entrance, was charging at us from behind.
How did I know, there was only one guy that big in and out of this building.
“Joe, watch out!”
“know.”
Something that stood on the day when I was caught in the spirit along with the energy of a giant that rushed at me without saying a word.
I turned my back and grabbed it.
“This… .”
It was the first thing I saw. No, it’s connected to his shoulder, so what did you do to say it was an object?
What was expected to be a sword was an unidentified body part connected to the body of a giant. To put it bluntly, it is close to tentacles.
“Only these bastards are human! You can turn into a monster at any time!”
“okay?”
It was new information. I thought he didn’t feel like a human because the nature of his power was dirty, but he was a monster wearing only a real human shell.
“this… baby… !”
It must have been a blow of conversion in its own way, but the giant, who saw the leisurely chat, reached out his opposite hand with a puzzled look on his face.
The human arm split open, revealing a form similar to the tentacle that first stretched out.
The tentacles stretched out to a distance of nearly 3 meters beyond the originally long reach of the large body, and immediately flew towards Ha Yeon-woo’s chest.
“Anyway, there are a lot of strange things, so I need to do some experiments here.”
damn-
“Quaaagh!”
When mana was blown into the left hand that was holding the tentacle and it was bent, the posture of the giant was disturbed by the pain.
A giant screaming and getting down on one knee.
The tentacle, which had been attacking courageously, missed the right shoulder of Ha Yeon-woo with a difference of about one fist, not the chest of Ha Yeon-woo, which was targeted.
The situation where both arms were turned into tentacles and stretched out. Naturally, a situation was created in which the man’s chest was empty.
“First, the heart.”
Indeed, the monster raised its hand to see if it would die if its heart were destroyed, like a human.
A small blue thing that immediately gathers at your fingertips.
It was nothing more than lightly gathering the mana around him.
However, in terms of the amount of energy, it was never light.
push-
With a small gong sound, it pierced a hole in the guy’s heart.
“big… omg… .”
cooong-
It’s just like going forward. The sound was loud as well.
The scene where there was a commotion when the first dirty-looking man was killed is now enveloped in silence.
Soon after, the tension in the silence turned into speculation.
“Joe, you’re so damn strong… ?”
“f*ck… That’s tier 6. must.”
“If you just kill me… .”
Mutants secretly gather around Ha Yeon-woo, who is standing still without letting go of her guard.
It was an unexpected reaction. Usually, if you show this level of skill or power gap, most people are busy looking for a way to live.
Of course, these were monsters whose shells were only human, and this was an arena where humans were used like dogs or money, so it was difficult to put them in the normal category in the first place.
Around that time, the Awoken, who were preparing for a fight, escaped through the open cage door. Immediately after, he took advantage of the confusion and got down next to Ha Yeon-woo.
“Were you able to come and go at will?”
“If it was originally, it would have been hunted the moment it got out of the cage.”
Well, in the first place, he was a guy who repeatedly fought as a commodity and a fighter.
If they had noticed, they would have been turned into prey long ago.
“You must have a lot of patience.”
“It can’t be. I couldn’t see a way to survive, so I thought I would kill at least one more guy and die.”
Saying that I didn’t look for an opportunity, I gave up on life.
Maybe this is the reason why the awakened person in front of me can afford to relax even in such an unexpected situation.
“A returnee? Or a natural awakener?”
“I lived for about 7 years and returned.”
7 years is about 8 to 9 months in the time here.
He was one of the few talents who lived quite a long time to join the ranks of successful Awakeners.
The statistics that more than 90% of returnees returned to Earth within half a year are well known.
So, the 5th tier was equipped with the ability to look good and the sense of battle to survive against monsters they had never seen before.
It was not an environment where the monsters that came out of the gate or the Awoken who grabbed them could live.
I turned my gaze around.
Variants that are vigilant with greedy eyes wanting others to come forward and peel off the skin and poison, just like looking at the blessings before being trimmed that can only be eaten after cooking because they have all kinds of poison.
“These guys. It’s strangely strong. Obviously, since they were born as humans, they must have appeared only a few months ago, but most of them have powers of 4th tier or higher.”
4th tier. It was similar to the average inactivity of the Awoken who had accumulated over the past ten years.
Besides, it was right to assume that this place was stronger because there was no center, no center, and no major personnel.
In a few months, most of them are around 4th rank. With that fact alone, humans would never be able to overcome it.
Right now, even though the ingredients were perfectly prepared for his father, and he had his help in transcending the hierarchy, climbing to the 4th hierarchy was the limit.
I had faith that it wouldn’t fail, but it was a dangerous job that would cost me at least a life if things went wrong.
The power equivalent is pretty clear.
It was because he had the nature of being able to acquire something only by sacrificing something or risking something in return for what he gained.
“Looks like thirst or something was the price.”
“Are you thirsty? ah… those cubs If you don’t kill humans, you’ll go crazy. Killing them makes you stronger. When he goes completely mad, he turns into a monster even his true appearance.”
“Did you see it?”
“I’ve seen it a few times.”
Probably those madmen are usually gamblers who lose everything and have no prey.
Thanks to the scene seen with the eyes, the words of the variant, the ability of the giant, and the words of the Awakener standing next to it, the arrangement was completed quickly.
“I have to kill all but a few for now.”