Chapter 52
Lee Seong-jun takes a deep breath, his eyes turning red. The sudden crimson glow is an alluring light at the center of the darkest part of the building.
As all eyes naturally turn to him, Seong-jun slowly raises his head and stares at Eliourus before him.
No, Seong-jun no longer exists here.
The warrior before them now is the Blood Demon, ruler of the Blood Sect that conquered the Thousand Continents.
As he clearly recognizes his own existence, a fierce blood energy begins to rapidly circulate within his body.
Power fills his flesh, even overflowing beyond its limits as a red aura blooms across his entire body.
The Blood Demon's power has truly begun to take root in his physical form.
However, it's still incomplete.
The true power of the Blood Demon was far beyond this.
Stronger! Even stronger!
Pouring out all his internal energy, he transcends his mortal flesh to the next level.
The blood energy racing through his veins accelerates even further.
It feels as though his blood vessels might burst at any moment.
Yet Seong-jun fully embraces this sensation, containing the rising power within his body.
Of course, Eliourus wouldn't just stand by and watch this unfold.
"Aaaaargh!"
Eliourus lets out a roar as he barely manages to raise his tattered body, gripping the last remaining dagger.
Instinctively, he knew.
If the technique this human was about to unleash was completed, he would die.
He must end this before then.
So he throws everything he has into it.
Boom!
As the world turns red, the darkness nestled in between rises up.
At its center, Eliourus' black eyes flash, his entire body wrapped in deep darkness.
Crack!
A streak of darkness cuts through the red world.
The price of wielding power beyond his limits causes his leg bones to crumble with a cracking sound and his muscles to scream in agony.
But Eliourus' steps do not falter.
There's no turning back anyway.
All he can do is draw out the forbidden power of innate true qi - what people commonly call life force - and pour it into one final strike. This is the only path to victory.
"Aaaaargh!!"
Eliourus, having summoned the last of his darkness, thrusts his dagger towards Seong-jun's heart.
Watching Eliourus charge straight for victory, a deep smile forms on Seong-jun's lips.
"...Admirable resolve."
But he chose the wrong opponent.
"Let's end this."
The moment Seong-jun's arm moves after pronouncing his sentence, the rising red aura suddenly vanishes.
It's as if it had never existed in the first place.
But it was still clearly present.
It had merely condensed into a single point.
'Heaven-Slaying Blood Earth Fist.'
The Blood Demon's martial art that slays the heavens and dyes the earth red with blood.
The condensed blood energy that is the source of this power collides with Eliourus' dagger as it meets Seong-jun's fist.
Boom!
With a thunderous sound that seems to shake the earth, cracks appear throughout the building as it crumbles, unable to withstand the impact of the collision.
At the same time, the black dagger rushing towards his heart shatters.
Clang!
But it wasn't just the dagger.
Eliourus, who had collided head-on with the Heaven-Slaying Blood Earth Fist, vanished completely along with the darkness enveloping him, not even leaving a corpse behind.
Ding!
[You have defeated the A+ rank named boss monster, Knight Commander Eliourus.]
[Experience will be distributed according to hunting contribution. Analyzing contribution now.]
[User 'Lee Seong-jun' has acquired 91% contribution.]
[This is an overwhelming figure.]
[A large amount of bonus experience will be awarded.]
[Experience is rising sharply.]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 68 as you've met the required experience.]
[As the raid gate has been cleared by defeating the named boss monster Eliourus, final contribution calculations will be made based on a total score of 100 points.]
[1st place Lee Seong-jun 87 points, 2nd place Song Seung-jun 5 points, 3rd place...]
An absolutely dominant first place.
Yet no one could raise any complaints.
To be precise, they weren't even looking at the contribution scores.
"Good Lord."
"This battle happened in a Green Gate...?"
Kim Hye-young and Jung Yun-ho, standing amidst the ruins of the collapsed building, couldn't hide their shock as they stared with wide eyes.
It seemed like some rather troublesome questions would be asked if left alone, but fortunately, such a situation didn't arise.
Whoosh-
With a resonating sound, a bright light enveloped the hunters' bodies, guiding them outside.
* * *
At the entrance of the raid gate.
"Yawn..."
Boredom was evident on the faces of the reporters guarding the gate entrance during this indefinite wait.
As idle chatter is the best way to pass such monotonous time, Park Jin-soo of the Daehan Daily opened his mouth.
"Who do you think will win this raid gate?"
In response to Park Jin-soo's question, his colleague Lee Hak-sung casually replied.
"Obviously Song Seung-jun. What kind of question is that for a reporter? They're on completely different levels to begin with."
"Well, you never know. I heard the Death God side was particularly determined this time..."
As Park Jin-soo was shrugging his shoulders and continuing to speak in response to Lee Hak-sung's rebuke...
"Oh? Over there!"
"The raid gate is...!"
Park Jin-soo, who quickly turned his head, could also see the change in the raid gate with his own eyes.
"It's been cleared!"
Despite the earlier commotion, the reporters' movements weren't very organized.
Unlike regular gates where hunters walk out on their own, raid gates have a clear order for exiting.
They appear in reverse order of contribution, from last place to first.
This meant that the hunter who took first place, who would be the main story, would come out last.
Moreover, in the case of this gate, clear data already existed.
So there was no need to rush.
However, this composure of the reporters didn't last long.
Whoosh-
As the white light dissipated, revealing the hunter, it was someone no one had expected.
"Kim Hye-young?!"
"What? Kim Hye-young came in last?"
As most of those gathered here had considerable experience as reporters, their surprise didn't last long.
Rumble-
The reporters immediately rushed to the gate entrance.
"Master Hye-young of the Phoenix Guild said in a pre-interview that she expected to come in third. What variable caused such a drop in ranking?"
"Was Master Ye-rin Lee's expectation too high?"
All attention focused on Kim Hye-young at once.
However, this interest from the reporters didn't even last a minute.
Whoosh!
Once again, a bright white light flashed, revealing the rookie from Death God who was expected to place at least second.
"Jung Yun-ho has come out!"
"W-wait, if that's the case, then Radiant Star and White Tiger...?!"
"Did those two beat Jung Yun-ho?!"
The rookies from Phoenix and Death God, who were expected to be in the upper ranks, had all fallen to the lower ranks.
The previous expectations had been completely overturned.
This situation was bound to attract people's attention.
As issues directly translate to performance in their profession, the reporters' eyes began to sparkle.
"The previous expectations have been completely overturned. What exactly happened inside?"
"Please share your current feelings!"
Although the reporters fired questions non-stop, there were no answers in return.
Kim Hye-young and Jung Yun-ho just let out hollow laughs with expressions like those of people who had lost their minds.
Meanwhile.
Whoosh-
The white light flashes again.
Naturally, the reporters' gazes focus on the light.
The emotion contained within was the same for everyone.
Expectation and excitement.
'A delightful rebellion by White Tiger and Radiant Star, surpassing Phoenix and Death God... This will make for a great article!'
Most of the reporters were smiling as they thought up article titles.
But they soon had to erase all the story ideas they had come up with in their minds.
The reason was simple.
An even bigger issue had arisen.
"W-what?"
The third hunter to appear was none other than Song Seung-jun!
The person everyone thought would be the top candidate had appeared third.
"S-Song Seung-jun...?!"
"What on earth happened?"
"Song Seung-jun came in third?"
Earlier, Kim Hye-young and Jung Yun-ho's rankings might have dropped due to variables like terrain or monster characteristics.
But Song Seung-jun was on a different level entirely.
It wasn't for nothing that the public had picked Song Seung-jun as the top candidate.
Song Seung-jun's actions and records so far showed overwhelmingly superior skills that could be described as being on a completely different level.
This wasn't just empty praise. Song Seung-jun was a monstrous rookie who had even surpassed the records of his master, Yoon Min-soo, South Korea's only SSS-rank hunter.
Yet this Song Seung-jun had placed third.
This was absolutely impossible.
It was clear that some tremendous variable that couldn't be understood by conventional wisdom had intervened.
Unexpected terrain, tricky monsters... many hypotheses flashed through their minds, but the most probable one was:
'An accident occurred during the gate conquest!'
The reporters, sensing a scoop, rushed towards Song Seung-jun.
"Please explain in detail what happened!"
"Were there any casualties inside the raid gate?"
Amidst the flood of questions, Song Seung-jun's gaze fixed on one reporter, and he slowly moved his lips.
"Yes, unfortunately, there were casualties during the conquest."
A human casualty had occurred for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Given the situation, they had somewhat expected this in their minds, but hearing it directly had a completely different impact.
"You mean, the hunters from Radiant Star and White Tiger..."
As the face of the reporter conducting the interview was becoming rigid, it happened.
Whoosh!
Once again, a light flickered in the air above.
Naturally, the reporters' eyes widened.
They had clearly said someone had died.
Yet the light was flickering again.
"H-how?"
"What's going on here?"
As commotion arose among the reporters, the light finally faded.
Upon seeing the face of the hunter who appeared, the reporters' eyes filled with shock.
"...This is impossible."
It was a natural reaction.
The hunter who appeared last was none other than Lee Seong-jun, the rookie deployed from the White Tiger Guild.
The person they thought had died had come back alive.
It was a shocking situation.
But the truly surprising point was something else.
"T-this means White Tiger's Lee Seong-jun beat World Tree's Song Seung-jun."
"This can't be..."