Turns Out To Be a Genius Duelist
chapter-44

Chapter 44 6th Floor Plaza b 3}

“…”

There was a stony silence that dominated the hall. Yoon-seok stopped circulating the Bloodseeker’s Energy. There was no more evil here anymore, and there were only about seventy survivors.

Among them, there was the woman who guided Yoon-seok here. Maybe she thought this was all a dream, but she looked like she had fully left her mind. Yoon-seok spoke to a man who was still lying on the floor, not knowing that the storm just ended.

“Are you a duel challenger?”

“Yes, yes! That’s right!”

“Are you familiar with this building?”

The man, who seemed lost for a while wondering what the question meant, quickly regained his senses and nodded his head crazily.

“…Yeah! I’m probably the oldest here. I think I know the union better than anyone else!”

Given that he understood Yoon-seok’s intention just by asking that question, he was quick-witted. He didn’t look like a man who would lie and exaggerate about his powers.

“Then I won’t be needing her anymore.”

Plorkk!

Yoon-seok stuck his sword promptly into the woman’s neck, who still seemed transfixed. The only reason she could survive until now was that she didn’t have a mark. Yoon-seok had no intention of forgiving her, however.

“If there’s still anyone in the union, could you please point them out?”

Did they think Yoon-seok came to save them just from his actions and politeness? For a second, he was afraid. The man brightened up and began to shed tears. Anger and sorrow flashed in his eyes as he pointed.

The survivors who were looking at the man paled as white as paper and avoided his gaze. Yoon-seok didn’t listen to their pathetic excuses. He just sliced through their necks all the same.

Then, looking at Jang-Il, he asked in an aloof manner.

“I heard from the admin that the plaza was a place where challengers of the same floor can meet and interact in person. Did she lie to me?”

The man was still very emotional, but he suppressed them as much as he could for Yoon-seok.

“…I don’t think so. That’s the purpose of the plaza. It was still the same just three months ago.”

It was a shelter for the underdogs and a rest stop for the ambitious where they could relax for a while. It was said that the original plaza was such a place. So how did it end up like this?

Later, the man who introduced himself as Jang-Il from Moorim offered an easy history lesson about the six-story plaza. It all started when a duel challenger appeared.

“We don’t know him. Whether he’s human, a beastman, or why he did such a thing in the first place.”

However, the unidentified challenger staged a massacre in the peaceful plaza. He killed all challengers on sight and escaped from the dimension, moving onto the next floor as soon as the entire plaza was empty. He was akin to a natural disaster. The challengers who managed to survive created a union so that history wouldn’t repeat itself. From then on, all duel challengers were required to sign that contract.

“The head of the union had that kind of power. All the clauses in the contract were ridiculous, but the schedule was accepted.”

The first reason was that the man who staged the massacre was from the duel track. The second reason was that although duel challenges might not be as powerful as that unidentified challenger, their powers were way ahead of those from other trials. Furthermore, even back in those peaceful days, the duelers were still being bullied.

“They made no exception for those who were already here. They put us in a tight spot and forced us to sign the contract.”

The contract contents were the same as they were then, but the treatment wasn’t this bad. He thought their hatred would subside as time went by.

That wasn’t the case. The union leaders instigated the idea that duel challengers were pure evil, and the majority conformity tactic worked. Neither moral treatment nor human rights succeeded. At first, there were quite a few who protested, but their voices gradually relented.

The Allies slowly began to rejoice in the enslavement of duelers who wanted to move on to the next floor.

“But the security of this place became sloppy after that incident.”

Jang-Il laughed bitterly when Yoon-seok pointed out that it was a little strange.

“At first, it was much stricter than it is now. Everyone was relieved when their one fixed strategy worked far better than they expected, so they let loose. And the capable ones just went up without coming here.”

Do the capable ones just ascend? In that sense, he could assume that the Heavenly Devil or King of Steel hadn’t entered the plaza. If they did, this place would have fallen before Yoon-seok’s arrival. Nothing was left to be said for King of Steel, whose magic limitations were meaningless, and the Heavenly Devil wasn’t someone to be judged based on her magic stat.

Why didn’t they come here? There was one reason, he guessed.

‘Elle said it was just a place to interact, and it wasn’t that important to them…’

He didn’t find the square appealing. He didn’t want to interact; even if he did, he could do it in the chat room. Yoon-seok would’ve participated in other trials by spending LP if he weren’t here to ask for information.

Jang-Il advised him with caution.

“With all this fuss, I’m sure the union has heard about it. The elites will arrive sooner or later, so why don’t you leave first….”

“Elites?”

“Yes, you mustn’t look down on them. They are a group made up of really talented challengers. And I didn’t tell anyone this because I didn’t want to die, but the head of the coalition is also a dueler. I’m sure because I’ve met him in person at the arena. He didn’t remember me back then because I was wearing a helmet.”

Yoon-seok was struck speechless. This was the same person who excluded duelers, induced hate against them, and became slaves.

“He’s smart. The allies admired him for being such a strong challenger even though he wasn’t a dueler, and he took advantage of that respect and easily became their leader.”

He could tell that he was a cunning guy just from listening. Despite feeling deep resentment for the man, Jang-Il’s discretion of not telling anyone about this was admirable.

“Stay here. If you’re in danger, move to the waiting room.”

Yoon-seok said so, but Jang-Il replied that he couldn’t move dimensions because he was tied to the contract. In the end, there was nothing he could do, so Yoon-seok left the survivors in the building.

If the Jang-Il’s words weren’t wrong, they would arrive soon. The main culprits behind all of this.

Whoosh!

As he was guarding the front of the building like a gatekeeper, a spear-like long arrow flew toward Yoon-seok. The target point was the most important part of the body, the head. As Yoon-seok slightly turned his head and escaped from its path, the arrow sunk deep into the huge front gate.

He turned his gaze toward where the arrow came from: a group of men was coming this way. There were about two hundred people in terms of numbers. It was safe to say that it was an army, not a simple group.

Yoon-seok and the army stopped less than twenty meters away from each other.

“My name is Eld Carta! The brave third son of the Carta tribe! Who are you!”

Eld Carta, the leader of the Union, mentioned by Jang-Il, whom the Union members were crying out loud for as they died. He looked pretty normal, but only on the outside. If he were, he wouldn’t have received this.

「You’ve met great evil.」

「At the end of the trial, additional features will be obtained.」

A great evil. He hadn’t received a notification like this in the building that seemed like the origin of the corruption. The evil set by Yoon-seok was a person who enjoyed hurting others. So what kind of psychopath could this man be?

Standing still and glaring at Yoon-seok, Carta asked a new question.

“What happened to the people in the building?”

“Those who should die died, and those who should live are still alive.”

Carta bit his lips in response to Yoon-seok’s. Carta knew that one day a man who would destroy the system would appear. But he didn’t expect it to be so soon.

‘At least ten more days was enough…!’

Union? Leader of the 6th Floor Plaza? Carta wasn’t interested in these false titles. He was just wearing them to achieve his goal, but he planned to kick this place away and head to the upper floors when the time arrived.

However, his plan was ruined. Hundreds have died, and it would take at least a month or two to make up for this setback.

“This is our paradise! Don’t dirty it and go back! Then I won’t stop you!”

However, more damage had to be prevented. Even if Yoon-seok were killed here, it’d take him more time to recover if his powers were reduced any further. Therefore, Carta made a final offer, hoping that Yoon-seok would just leave.

Of course, Yoon-seok ignored it.

“The kid that I tried so hard to stop! So you’re back as the devil!”

Looking at Carta murmuring lamentably, Yoon-seok laughed aloud. It was understandable. What do you mean, the devil? That was the same as the system calling him a great evil.

“Devil!”

“How could you do such a thing and laugh?!”

Seeing Yoon-seok smile, the crowd who followed Carta also called him names. Well, that was a relief.

He quietly pulled out his sword. If they wanted him to be the devil, then so be it.

“Executioner of Steel.”

Yoon-seok laid his totem on the ground to increase his physical resistance and once again invoked Lady’s Commandment. The whole territory was just like before.

「Lady’s Commandment disables all beings within the realm from conducting Dimensional Movements.」

He didn’t realize while using it in the building earlier that the translucent shield stretching out was as red as a ruby.

“What? Why is the Dimensional Shift suddenly…”

“Carta, do you have any alternatives…!”

Confusion followed the message. But he didn’t want to wait until confusion broke out. Yoon-seok leaped while focusing energy on his feet and landed in the center of the group.

Boom!

A unit of two hundred challengers was gathered around him. Did they not expect him to leap out to the center? Scanning through the series of flustered expressions on their faces, Yoon-seok grimly swung his sword.

“Formation! Don’t just stay still and get into formation!”

“Stop him”

He said they were elites, but they were indeed ranked higher than those in the building. He couldn’t tell, but some challengers might have been forced to fight because of the contract. There was no room to look through them one by one, as well as no reason to do so.

Yoon-seok already had a plan. Those who were marked here today would die, and those who weren’t would survive. If any of the survivors belonged to the union, it would be enough to call in Jang-Il and have them deal with it. Just as their allies thought it was their right to enslave them, it would only be their right to punish them.

“Hang in there, and you’ll have a chance!”

Did they practice combat with the majority as a part of their duties? They fought in a practiced way, surrounding Yoon-seok. Since it was difficult to handle his sword energy alone, several people combined their forces to block it. Nevertheless, the formation sent all kinds of skills such as poison, curse, and magic at Yoon-seok from the back.

There were too many to avoid or block one by one. But…

「Poison Immunity b Rank C} nullifies Carribane Poison.」

「Magic between subjects is overwhelming. Magic Resistance perfectly attains the following condition with Purification.」

「Physical resistance increases by 50% due to the effect of Executioner of Steel.」

Yoon-seok handled all of it bare-handed. Giving up on defending, instead, he focused on offense and returning the attacks. When Yoon-seok shed a handful of blood, they had to cough up gallons more. Unlike them, Yoon-seok used Bloodseeker’s Energy, and the residual injuries were healed naturally, resulting in a one-sided exchange.

However, his energy wasn’t infinite. Even though it was recovering right now just by breathing, the consumption rate was significantly faster than that.

“Even the monster gets tired!”

“Stay focused!”

The greater the impact of the absolute territory, the greater the ratio consumption of magic, so the deterioration rate was no joke. Especially considering his opponents were elites. Yoon-seok measured the remaining time by considering the consumption rate.

It would be about one minute at most. After that, he would run out of energy. Then he wouldn’t be able to use his sword nor his ability to recover. However, Yoon-seok smiled lightly.

“Just a little bit! Just a little longer.”

It was funny that they seemed to firmly believe that opportunities would come if they went on for a long time.

Rank C — Extracts Bloodseeker’s energy from other people’s blood.

Amidst the countless fallen bodies around him, or even among the fighters who fought against Yoon-seok as their limbs were being cut off. Or even the corpses inside the cold building. The blood formed into droplets and floated in the air.

And whirled like a typhoon to swarm into Yoon-seok.