Chapter 145. Overclocking (4)
Chapter 145. Overclocking (4)
As soon as he was caught in the Isekai Battlefield, Seo Jun-Ho’s heart started to beat faster.
“Contractor. Stay alert.” The Frost Queen didn’t need to warn him. He was facing fiends. Their power couldn’t even begin to compare with the whip wolves. As such, Seo Jun-Ho immediately activated Overclocking.
“...” He was speechless as Overclocking’s true power flowed through his veins. It would be the first time he used it on proper opponents, and he felt wary of the overflowing power.
‘Can I… Really use it properly?’
His entire body was hot, but it wasn’t because he was overheating from the technique. It was already being offset by frost energy.
‘So this is what Overclocking’s true power feels like, without limits.’
The abundance of power made him feel like he could cross the entire land with a single step, and he wondered if he could, or if he was even allowed to use this much power. He felt like an adventurer who had discovered a forbidden, sacred ground.
But he didn’t ponder for long.
‘I have to use it.’
He couldn’t let the fear of the unknown stop him. As soon as he finished sorting his thoughts, Seo Jun-Ho slowly opened his eyes and looked to his side. A fiend was running toward him in slow-motion.
‘He’s fast.’
He understood in his head that the man was moving extremely fast, but his eyes saw him approaching like a caterpillar crawling on a leaf.
Seo Jun-Ho held out his hand, planning to grab the fiend’s neck.
Crack!
But he failed. Instead, a bloodcurdling sound rang through the air as the fiend’s head buckled backward—instant death.
“...!”
One of the fiends cried out, presumably the other twin. At the sound, Seo Jun-Ho was pulled out of his trance.
“Nooooo! Shiso! Shisooo!” Nino hugged Shiso’s corpse with trembling hands. As soon as he sensed that his younger brother was in danger, he tried to pull his brother’s body back. But he was a moment too late. His brother’s neck was already broken.
“...I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!” Bloodlust poured out from Nino’s deep red eyes. He opened his inventory, summoning dozens of large sacks.
Shhhh!
Their contents filled out, gathering in a black mass. It was magnetic sand that he had spent years gathering as a child whilst digging through dirt with a magnet.
“Die!” Nino seemed to have lost himself to the rage.
Gouf quickly ran over. “Calm down, Nino!”
“Shut the fuck up! Do I look calm?!” As he yelled, the sand formed into dozens of spears in the air. It was hard for him to control so many of them at once, even with his own magnetic field. This was something he usually did with Shiso by combining their powers.
“You bastard…You bastard… You bastard!” Nino exploded with rage at his brother’s death. Seo Jun-Ho held a similar resentment for his family’s death.
He stared and nodded slowly. “Good.”
“...What?” Nino squinted at his sudden words.
“Recently, I’ve been worried about young fiends like you. I wonder if they had been forced to become fiends when they’re actually good kids.” Seo Jun-Ho never would have thought this way in the past, but his perspective had changed after seeing the children at Paradise go through these things. “But I’m glad. You guys are scum, just as I thought.”
He looked up at the iron spears, muttering to himself, “You people don’t feel anything when you kill, yet you claim to fight for your comrades and family. Doesn't that disgust you?”
“Are you asking me to apologize for the hunter?”
“No.” Seo Jun-Ho shook his head. “Don’t. Just keep acting like the scum you are.”
That way, he would have no reservations about killing them.
White Armor sensed Seo Jun-Ho’s magic as it pushed outward and unfolded, covering his entire body with hundreds of armor plates in an instant. Gouf squinted as he watched.
‘What is that? It’s different from what we were told.’
From what he remembered, Seo Jun-Ho was using black armor from the Kwon Workshop, but it had been destroyed during the kobold hunting competition.
‘I didn’t think he’d be able to get a replacement set of that level…’
But somehow, Seo Jun-Ho was using a sleek set of full-body armor that was far superior to his old one. Gouf could tell how sturdy it was, even from his current distance.
“...Nino,” he said. Two of his comrades had already died. It didn’t matter if it was pure luck or skill; the result was the same.
It was time to go all out. “How long can you use those spears?”
“...About 10 minutes, if I use my full power.”
“10 minutes it is.” It was a tight window, but Gouf nodded slowly. “We’ll have to win before then.”
“Do you have a plan?” Nino asked.
“I am a god here. I can distract him in all sorts of ways. I’ll support you.”
“...Alright. Only support, though. I’ll kill him myself,” Nino coldly spat. He sounded sure of himself. As he spoke, the black spears started to fall from the sky, aiming at Seo Jun-Ho.
“Hmmm.” Seo Jun-Ho looked down at his hand. Under his helmet, his eyes were conflicted.
‘The only way to test it out is to use it.’
He still didn’t have perfect control over Overclocking. He had to admit that he was nervous about using it in a real battle. It made him hesitate for a second, and Seo Jun-Ho started to consider whether he should only use Booster like he used to, or test out his new power.
‘Booster alone probably won’t cut it.’
From what he knew, Gouf was a level 100 fiend. As the notorious Kal Signer’s former right-hand man, he also had the skills to prove it. He was a cut above compared to even the old fiend that Seo Jun-Ho had fought recently.
‘Alright, one step forward.’
Seo Jun-Ho took a step forward, the effects of Overclocking flowing through his body. The wind whistled past his ears as he flung forward.
Crash!
He broke through a red rock formation.
“Cough! Cough!” He spat out the sand and rock before furrowing his eyebrows.
“Contractor, are you alright? You accelerated too quickly.”
“I’m uninjured… But I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.” It was a good thing that Overclocking was far stronger than he thought. But Seo Jun-Ho himself was the problem.
‘I got myself some amazing hardware… But the software isn’t at the same level.’
In other words, his mind couldn’t keep up with his body. He had actually spent a few days getting his body used to Booster, and the reason he planned to walk all the way to the Canal Mountains was that he wanted time to get used to Overclocking.
‘Even with my skills, I won’t be able to use Overclocking perfectly the first time around.’
All he could do at the moment was to take the reins and try to ride it out.
“...Ptoo! Well, that should be enough for today.” Seo Jun-Ho spat the rest of the sand out and took off once again.
Shoooooo!
He could hear the spears flying behind him.
‘Let’s get used to this speed first.’
The world around him changed in the time that it took to blink. He was moving close to the speed of sound.
“You rat!” Nino cursed. He didn’t expect that Seo Jun-Ho could move this fast. Even though his spears could attack at the speed of sound from all different directions in all different shapes, they were clearly being outrun by his opponent.
‘Does that mean he’s running faster than the speed of sound? Impossible.’
They hadn’t seen anything like that in Seo Jun-Ho’s profile, which meant that he hadn’t been investigated properly.
“Why is he so fast…?!”
Shoooo!
The air screamed as the spears chased after Seo Jun-Ho. He glanced behind him and turned at a 90-degree angle, which meant that he had started to adjust to his current speed.
“How long will you keep running?!” Nino roared. Blood started to spill from his nose. He was pushing himself to his limits by controlling so many spears at once.
‘His movements are unstable. I don’t think he’s used to his speed yet.’
Gouf carefully observed Seo Jun-Ho. He clapped his hands together, and the ground beneath Seo Jun-Ho caved in. Space bent around him, like in Inception.
“Shoot.” In an instant, the open land contorted to a rectangular box. Seo Jun-Ho looked up and saw Gouf and Nino looking up to meet his eyes.
‘He directly got rid of the landscape. My speed must’ve been annoying him.’
Seo Jun-Ho sucked his teeth and scowled. Even the solid ground beneath him had turned to sand, and he felt his body sinking.
“Didn’t I tell you? I am a god here,” Gouf said triumphantly. He gestured with his finger, and the walls started to close in around Seo Jun-Ho.
‘Shit, if they attack me in this state…’
He wouldn’t be able to dodge.
“Contractor, you will be serving your head on a platter if you do not do anything.”
“I know.” Seo Jun-Ho unsheathed Black Dragon Fang. He still wasn’t used to Overclocking, and if he let his concentration falter even just a little bit, he would be digging his own grave.
‘I didn’t know that I’d end up practicing it like this.’
They said real battles were the best place to train. Seo Jun-Ho gripped Black Dragon Fang tightly and calculated the distance between him and his opponents. “That’s at least a few hundred meters… They’re too far.”
“Hahaha! You’re the best, Gouf!” Nino cackled and raised his hand, lining up dozens of iron spears in front of him. “There’s nowhere to run away now, you rat.”
The spears filled the box they were standing in. As Nino said, there was no space to dodge.
“Nino, keep it short. Just kill him,” Gouf ordered.
“This is for Shiso, you bastard!”
Zip!
The iron spears rained down, sounding like the roar of an engine. As they came down, Seo Jun-Ho kicked off the ground and surged into the air.
“Boy, do you even have a plan? You are not planning to simply hit them all away, are you?” the Frost Queen had to ask. Even though they were shaped like spears, the weapons were made up of magnetic sand mixed with iron. He couldn’t simply cut through them with his sword.
“...” Seo Jun-Ho gnashed his teeth without replying. He sharpened his focus to its limit as he watched the spears’ approach. They were coming at the speed of sound, but he was slightly faster than them. At that speed, they met almost in an instant.
“Contractor!” the Frost Queen cried out.
The spears were right in front of Seo Jun-Ho’s nose. If they struck him, the magic-enhanced weapons would pierce through his skin like butter. And they would probably pierce through his body and organs, which would most likely hurt.
‘But…’
Woosh!
The shadows behind him lunged forward and swallowed him.
‘Shadow Movement.’
Most of his remaining magic was consumed with this one skill. Crossing that great of a distance with a disturbed focus was a big gamble. Worst-case scenario, he would just use up all his magic. The sudden loss of so much energy made him dizzy.
‘But as long as I can do this…’
He would win.
The backs of their heads filled his vision. The fiends were still looking up at where he had been.