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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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It was always like this.
Most low-level villains often underestimated her.
Thugs who were careless and judged by appearances rather than accumulated strength were arrogant, as if the superiority they felt from oppressing those who were relatively weaker than them was their own skill.
Kang Ha-ni hated such mediocre villains.
And in this battle, most of the enemies were the mediocre kind that she hated.
Her snow-white blade, drawn from its scabbard, accelerated while imbued with magical power.
Flash Draw.
It was easy after the villain at the forefront collapsed with a large gash.
He was probably the strongest among them, as they broke formation and tried to flee after he fell.
Even though she had displayed overwhelming power, she was still just a student. They would have had a chance if they had surrounded and attacked her together.
Thanks to them breaking formation and fleeing instinctively without deciding whether to fight or escape, things became easier for her.
The pure white blade, absorbing her magical power, drew a straight line, and a moment later, red blood splattered.
Even with the handicap of aiming for limbs instead of vital points to incapacitate rather than kill, the battle wasn’t difficult.
“…Hmm, it seems like I’m almost done here.”
She had dealt with the relatively stronger ones already, so the guards should be able to capture the rest of the fleeing villains without difficulty.
“Should I go help So-hyun?”
As she turned her gaze, she saw something quite unexpected.
Numerous villains, unable to even flee, were struggling while pinned beneath something enormous. As if receiving divine punishment from an overwhelmingly powerful being, they suffered, enduring a weight just enough to keep them alive without killing them.
The sight was so overwhelming that it took her a moment to realize that the enormous object was the weapon So-hyun usually carried.
So-hyun had explained Ruyi Jingu Bang to her.
She thought it was amazing even just hearing the explanation, but seeing it in action was something else.
Although they were only villains below B-rank, the combined power of that many superhumans wasn’t something to be ignored.
Of course, he had the advantage due to his weapon, but it was still surprising to see him completely subdue them even more effectively than herself.
‘Was he that strong…?’
The way he didn’t even allow those below a certain level to resist exuded an aura she couldn’t have imagined from him on the day they first met.
‘Ah…!’
One of them, with the help of the others, managed to escape.
A classic tactic: targeting the user when faced with a powerful weapon.
Without Ruyi Jingu Bang, So-hyun was in danger as he was now barehanded.
Just as she was about to rush over while thinking that he was being careless—
Crack.
The villain screamed as his foot was stomped on, and the following punch landed squarely on his jaw.
“Shut up. Why are you screaming, you bastard?”
What? He was pretty good at close combat now too, it looks like.
Perhaps because one had escaped, or perhaps So-hyun had increased his strength, the villains underneath Ruyi finally collapsed, unable to hold on any longer.
“That ended rather anticlimactically.”
It seemed like that side would end even sooner than hers, so should she go catch the other escaped villains with the guards?
As she thought that, she suddenly dodged purely out of a sense of killing intent detected by her sixth sense.
“Huh?”
But nothing happened, no attack came.
“Too bad, too bad. It would have been better with a little more time.”
No, to be precise, something did happen.
It was just that the distance wasn’t close enough to warrant an urgent dodge, and that he hadn’t assumed any kind of stance.
But the feeling that she would have died if she hadn’t dodged at that instant wasn’t a mistake.
“Kid. It’s good to be sensitive to killing intent, but if you can’t distinguish between real and feigned intent, it’ll be your downfall. Are you going to react to every bit of killing intent your enemies send your way?”
The large figure approaching her who was exuding killing intent looked familiar.
“Ah, huh? Rose Garden?”
“Hmm…? Ah! If it isn’t the friend of that promising brat!”
His smiling face, as if he had met someone he was happy to see, looked as friendly as a neighbor, but the aura he emitted wasn’t friendly at all.
He grinned ferociously.
“Then is that brown-haired brat here too?”
The giant had shown interest in Lilac before. He was probably referring to Lilac when he said “brown-haired.”
“He’s not here today.”
“What, that’s a shame. He was the most promising one. Well, you’re not bad for your age, so I’ll have to make do with you today.”
He smacked his lips and looked at her as if she were a substitute.
It was quite insulting, but there was no reason to stop him from underestimating her.
“Alright, let’s see how much potential you have to become strong. I’ll personally test you.”
Test? Was he kidding?
She placed her hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword and channeled her magical power.
It would be dangerous to prolong the fight if she didn’t know his level.
Flash Draw. A supersonic slash flew towards his neck, but he didn’t even bother to defend.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t react.
He simply endured the slash, which was enhanced by magical power and was delivered by Snow Fang known as the “Demon Blade,” with his protective qi.
“Oh, not bad. Even with a good weapon, it’s the swordsman’s skill that matters. Good, good. You’re worthy of being tested.”
Dangerous.
“Kid! Let’s see how far you can go…!”
Seo Tae-ho, the S-rank villain known as “Fighting Demon,” roared and threw a punch.
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A few hours earlier.
Seo Tae-ho had arrived at the battlefield, but he wasn’t even thinking about joining in.
He had been tricked.
This was definitely a scam.
He was so excited to have a bloody battle after a long time, but all of his opponents were unawakened people carrying toys.
“This is a breach of contract! Fine, I’ll let it slide that you’re not at the forefront! But why did you attack our allies?!”
He should be the one getting angry, but this annoying fly kept buzzing around him.
“Huh, are you saying I should just stand there and take it when they provoke me?”
“Ugh…!”
That was right.
Seo Tae-ho had already clashed with the external recruits they had gathered and decimated them.
“Calling me a huge bear is one thing, but how dare you insignificant bastards insult Arcadia! I should have blown your heads up, but I spared you because of the boss’ orders, so you should be grateful.”
That was right.
Surprisingly, he had tried to hold back even when provoked at first.
He didn’t want to break his promise to his boss, Callea, and he had to buy that rum raisin ice cream with the reward money.
But the more he endured the insults, the more they crossed the line.
When they finally said that a place with such idiots couldn’t be a proper organization, Seo Tae-ho decided not to hold back anymore.
He could have endured more, but he didn’t think the insults would stop even if he did.
He considered it an act of mercy that he spared the lives of those imbeciles.
He released a bit of killing intent, and the noisy guys trembled in fear.
Pathetic.
“…Ugh.”
“And I came here all excited to fight Yoo-sung, but they’re all unawakened people in suits and equipment. Why should I bother with such weaklings? I came here expecting to fight the rumored superhuman soldiers trained by Yoo-sung.”
It was annoying.
He would apologize to the boss later, but he would just look for that hidden dungeon and go back. The ice cream… It was a shame, but he could buy it with his own money.
“B-But there are heroes on their side!”
“…Huh?”
“We’ve confirmed that there are two heroes who quickly inflicted casualties on our side. Wouldn’t they be satisfactory opponents for you?”
How dare this weakling run his mouth?
Should I just crush him?
He thought so, but he had been bored lately.
It seemed like a waste of time, but he looked at the almost cleared battlefield with a sliver of hope.
As expected, there was nothing special.
Then, something decent caught his attention.
A boy… or a girl? He was running across the battlefield with a pure white sword. Which one was it? It didn’t really matter.
What mattered was that he showed promise and that he had flinched in response to the killing intent he had released.
Good, good.
If he couldn’t fight a strong opponent, he would have to test someone with the potential to become strong.
The Fighting Demon grinned ferociously and headed towards the battlefield.
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What the…
Judging by the situation alone, Ha-ni was dodging Seo Tae-ho’s punches quite well.
But Ha-ni’s expression wasn’t bright at all.
She understood that it wasn’t her skill that allowed her to dodge, but the fact that her opponent was going easy on her.
“Kid! You’re pretty good! More agile than I thought!”
Yet, he seemed to be enjoying himself.
He sealed one arm and didn’t use his legs for anything other than movement.
He attacked and defended using only his left fist, and even that precarious balance seemed about to crumble.
It wasn’t time yet.
In the original story, Ha-ni, who was called the Sword Demon, eventually succeeded in cutting off this man’s left arm, but that was after she had grown stronger and progressed in a completely different direction.
“Y-You crazy…!”
A beautiful and refined sword qi drew a straight line.
It was an attack that most heroes or villains wouldn’t survive, but it only left a small cut on the giant’s arm, far from fatal.
“Good! You’ve grown stronger! You wounded me through my qi!?”
The Fighting Demon, grinning ferociously, finally assumed a proper stance.
“The student is in danger! Quickly…!”
The guards tried to rush in to help, but Ha-ni immediately stopped them.
“Don’t come! You’ll all be defeated!”
“Haha! That’s right! This is so much fun! Why would I let any distractions interfere! Ordinary people shouldn’t meddle in a fight between superhumans!”
Ha-ni and his voices overlapped.
His fist, enveloped in qi, became even faster.
“Good. Very good! Let’s see if you can keep up when I get even faster…!”
His qi-clad fist struck the pure white blade.
Ha-ni, her hand numb with pain, almost dropped her sword and hurriedly tried to retreat, but that was a mistake.
“That sword, it’s a famed sword, isn’t it? I hit it with the intention of breaking it.”
Retreating without obstacles against an opponent faster than herself was suicidal.
“Not bad. Be stronger next time we meet.”
Power surged in his fist.
He was planning to knock her unconscious with an attack just strong enough not to kill her.
Thud.
He felt something touch him, but the Fighting Demon didn’t look back, thinking the opponent in front of him was more important.
Or rather, he intended not to look back.
“…Hmm?”
“Grow.”
If the energy of the artifact suddenly amplifying above his head hadn’t caught his attention, that is.
“Ruyi…!”
“Huh.”
He quickly turned around and drew a circle with his left hand.
The suddenly enlarged, gigantic object seemed too much to simply block, but every object had a center of gravity.
He could shift its trajectory with a circular motion before its weight transferred to him.
With a loud thud, Ruyi Jingu Bang slammed into the ground.
“Who are you?”
I didn’t even know you were there.
He was probably thinking that.
To him, I was probably just a mediocre guy.
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What the… Who is this guy?
I thought he was an ordinary person, but he seemed strangely superhuman. The energy he emitted was vast, yet the vessel containing it was still weak. It was truly bizarre.
But in the end, he decided to lose interest in him.
He wanted to focus on the opponent in front of him rather than that mediocre guy.
“I’ll spare you since you’re not worth my time. Or you can wait until I’m done playing with this one.”
He had no interest in tormenting someone who showed no aptitude for combat, let alone the potential to become strong.
“Why are you here?”
But it seemed like his opponent had no intention of letting him go.
“No, let’s set that aside for now.”
“…Hmm?”
“Wait? Why would I wait?”
The massive pillar he had retrieved had transformed back into a small dagger in his hand.
“That’s quite a mystical artifact. But even so, if the user is weak…”
“Get away from him, you bastard.”
“Sigh.”
There was nothing more futile than the ideals of a weakling.
It seemed like he needed to show this boy a dose of reality.
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T/N – I mean, I know where this villain is coming from, but that dismissive attitude is really pissing me off. Go MC, kick his ass!
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
