Chapter 149
Chapter 149: Let's Fight (2)
"Why, why are you doing this?!"
Park Je-hwang stumbled and scrambled backward, still on the ground.
The look in his eyes said he couldn't understand my actions at all.
I ignored it.
It wasn't as though I'd started this hoping to be understood.
"Get up."
As I walked toward him with my sword drawn, Park Je-hwang flailed his arms and legs and cried out desperately.
"P-please spare me!"
"Get up. Or I'll cut off your legs."
I immediately swung the Iron Instrument God's Sword downward.
Craaack!
The blue stone floor of the Poison Valley split apart like tofu.
Sparks flew, and dust scattered through the air.
Park Je-hwang leapt to his feet to dodge the strike.
"P-please!"
I asked him.
"Is what I'm saying too difficult?"
"What on earth is this—"
"Pick up your sword. Or I'll cut you."
I brought my sword down from above once more.
Clang!
Park Je-hwang blocked my sword with his own, but—
Grrrrnd!
I simply pressed down with sheer force.
It was no careless swing.
I channeled a ferocious energy into the blade.
Crrrack!
The blue stone floor beneath Park Je-hwang's feet split apart as if struck by lightning.
Thud!
His knees slammed into the ground, and my sword began to cleave through his shoulder guard.
Crack! Crack!
The golden armor the old monster had crafted tore apart beneath the Iron Instrument God's Sword.
Cracks spread through the sword Park Je-hwang was gripping as well.
He was clutching the hilt so hard that the skin of his trained palms split and bled.
Thwack!
"Grgh!"
I drove a knee strike into him, and a groan burst from his lips.
Fluttterr!
His tattered fan swirled around Park Je-hwang and rattled his wits, and Kim Tae-yang—
[…….]
Said nothing.
"P-please! Ghost, sir—!"
A scream bordering on a shriek followed.
Halt.
I stopped the force I'd been pressing through the sword.
"You've got real backbone, I'll give you that."
"……Hah. Hah."
After only a brief exchange, Park Je-hwang looked as though he'd wrung out every last drop of strength in his body.
His entire frame was trembling violently.
The whites of his eyes had flooded red where the blood vessels had burst.
The golden armor, crushed like an empty tin can.
And inside it—Park Je-hwang.
Kim Tae-yang's enemy was there.
[Park Je-hwang is in agony. +100,000 Despair]
"What on earth…… Are you doing this for?"
I looked back at him, face blank.
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Right now, you're playing games with me—"
Thwack! Crunch. Crash, crash, crash.
I didn't even wait for him to finish before landing a blow that sent Park Je-hwang rolling across the floor, smashing through a windbreak wall and slamming into it.
"Gugh!"
I approached him again.
I stood over him, hands clasped behind my back.
"Sturdy bones."
"G-Ghost, sir!"
"And polite enough to address me properly every time."
Park Je-hwang looked up at me—
Ptoo.
He spat out something that had been grinding in his mouth.
A broken tooth.
[Park Je-hwang sees his broken tooth for the first time and falls into profound shock. +1,000,000 Despair]
I crouched down in front of him and studied Park Je-hwang in silence.
Park Je-hwang glared back at me.
Slowly.
I raised my hand, yet Park Je-hwang didn't look away.
Eyes blazing with fury.
Kim Tae-yang.
Your enemy truly was a formidable man.
Which is why—
Thwack! Crunch. Crash, crash.
"He needs to be hit more."
He went flying through yet another windbreak wall and crumpled to the ground unconscious, and the skulls that had formed the wall shattered and scattered all around.
A moment later.
Ptoo.
Another broken tooth landed on the ground, and Park Je-hwang opened his eyes.
I was still standing over him, hands clasped behind my back.
Park Je-hwang's face had swollen so badly it was nearly unrecognizable.
"What's your climber energy compatibility score?"
"……."
"Not going to answer?"
"……905 points."
An S-rank score.
‘If the rumors about two more S-ranks in Korea are true—it would be Park Je-hwang and Hwangbo Geom.’
I crouched down in front of him once more and watched him in silence.
Slowly.
Park Je-hwang averted his gaze and looked down.
[Park Je-hwang finds it too difficult to hold your gaze any longer. +1,000,000 Despair]
His spirit was well and truly broken.
Grab.
I seized his jaw and forced his head to turn toward me.
Park Je-hwang flinched and still tried to look away.
"I'm only doing this for your own good."
"You say that now……"
I released his jaw.
"You do have talent."
"……!"
Park Je-hwang's eyes went wide, and I said the opposite of what I actually believed.
"Hwangbo Geom must have been jealous of your talent, no doubt."
"……!"
I held out a single elixir pill toward him.
"A miracle medicine that strengthens internal energy."
Park Je-hwang looked back and forth between the elixir and me.
"Stay here and circulate your energy for two hours before you leave."
"H-here?"
"Stop relying on the Artificial Dantian and build your energy in your body's natural energy center—that is the path to reaching a higher realm. And besides."
Glance.
I looked around and added,
"There's no one here but the two of us, is there?"
"Ah!"
"The Murim Tower is saturated with spiritual energy. The secret is to stay as long as you can and practice your energy circulation."
It sounded like an offhand remark, but for Park Je-hwang, it must have been the kind of advice that made his eyes snap wide open.
For someone who had always rushed out the moment a floor was cleared, this was an entirely different way of thinking.
And the one who gave that advice was none other than me.
Ghost.
"This partnership wasn't altogether unpleasant."
I turned my back on him.
"But you have a master, so let's leave it here."
In that instant, a strange light flickered in Park Je-hwang's eyes.
"You don't need to come to the 39th floor."
"……!"
I walked away with long, unhurried strides.
Park Je-hwang, without even a moment's hesitation, came limping after me and called out.
"W-what do you mean by that?"
I answered without looking at him.
"Exactly what I said."
"The partnership is over?"
"Find someone else."
Park Je-hwang stood there, mouth open, staring blankly at me—then said,
"I want to become stronger!"
I looked at him.
"I want to become stronger! Like you, Ghost, Sir!"
It was a desperate, earnest cry.
I smiled faintly and gestured at the golden armor he was wearing.
"In that ridiculous excuse for armor?"
I gave his shoulder a gentle pat.
"You worked hard."
I turned and walked away again.
Park Je-hwang stared at the elixir pill in his hand, his face a picture of complete confusion.
"W-wait just a moment!"
"This is where we part ways."
Limping as he was, he couldn't keep up with me as I strode away as if flying.
Park Je-hwang shouted at the top of his lungs.
"At the 39th floor—!"
I paused and turned to look at him.
Whoosh.
He threw something toward me—a golden helm he must have picked up at some point.
Catch.
The helm was covered all over with his blood-stained handprints.
Clank, clank.
And then Park Je-hwang stripped off every piece of his battered golden armor and threw it all to the ground—and then picked up my tattered fan with both hands, reverently, as though it were a sacred relic.
His eyes were filled with resolve.
Park Je-hwang called out to me.
"I'll see you in ten days."
I kept my face completely unreadable, helm in hand, as I passed through the inner hall and out through the gate.
[…….]
Kim Tae-yang was still silent, and—
The burn scar on my right wrist—the one I'd gotten from Park Je-hwang—burned as if it were on fire.
* * *
Hummmm.
Back inside Korea's Murim Tower.
It was noisy outside.
The 38th floor must have turned into a Golden Tower once again.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
The sound of drums being struck and roaring cheers came in loudly from outside.
It sounded like at least tens of thousands had gathered—but thankfully, Park Jae-yeol seemed to have the situation under control, as there was no one at the inner entrance of the tower.
‘If I walk out like this, even with the Dark Moon Mask on, it'll be dangerous.’
‘I'd better head to the poison herb field.’
Just then—
"Waaaah! Ghost! Park Je-hwang!"
A tremendous cheer erupted from outside.
Having cleared the 38th floor as well and turned it into a Golden Tower, it was virtually accepted as fact that Park Je-hwang was Ghost.
I'd dragged Park Je-hwang along and climbed all the way to the 38th floor, but honestly, I had been surprised even before clearing the 38th.
‘Unexpected.’
‘I never thought this many people would believe the nonsense that Park Je-hwang was Ghost.’
‘I'd thought it would be fine if only three or four out of ten raised an eyebrow.’
Even before the clearing, the believers had surpassed half—nearly seven out of ten.
‘It must be the power of hope.’
People believe what they want to believe.
Thinking ‘it would be nice if’ the Park Je-hwang standing right before them ‘were’ Ghost.
Whether it was actually true or not seemed to barely matter.
The mere fact that Ghost had returned to Korea was itself cause for joy.
"……."
I gazed at Park Je-hwang's golden helm in my hand and asked Kim Tae-yang,
"Why have you been so quiet?"
[…….]
"Are you unhappy with my approach?"
Kim Tae-yang was sharp—he would certainly understand.
Park Je-hwang the narcissist.
To push him to the extreme of suffering, physical pain alone wasn't enough.
He had to be cast into hell psychologically.
And for that—this approach was the best.
Kim Tae-yang had wanted to be Park Je-hwang.
His looks, his abilities, his background, his personality—everything.
But to Park Je-hwang, Kim Tae-yang had been nothing but a plaything.
Something that could be broken and ruined at will without a second thought.
A pleasure that came without accountability.
Leaving wounds in the victim's soul that could never be washed clean.
In other words—
Returning the exact pain Kim Tae-yang had suffered.
I hadn't said it outright, but—
Give him the hope that he might be ‘Ghost's disciple’, the misunderstanding he'd already formed—
……And then betray him at the most devastating moment.
[Kim Tae-yang mutters that the approach itself couldn't be more to his liking, but……. +1 Happiness]
‘He finally opened his mouth.’
But?
[He says something feels strange. +1 Happiness]
‘Are you anxious?’
[Kim Tae-yang says no. +1 Happiness]
‘Guilt?’
[He says absolutely not. +1 Happiness]
‘……Understood.’
"Kim Tae-yang, you wanted to be like Park Je-hwang."
The love and hatred lodged in the soul like a thorn.
[P-please! Ghost, sir—!]
Park Je-hwang, who had screamed before me begging to be spared.
His downfall was unmistakably stirring everything in Kim Tae-yang's heart and soul into turmoil.
Perhaps within Kim Tae-yang's heart—Park Je-hwang carried even more weight than I did.
……Even after everything that was done to him.
‘What a truly rotten body I've ended up in.’
"Alright!"
Kim Tae-yang.
‘I'll grant your wish.’
"Let's live as Park Je-hwang for a while."
Slowly.
I put on the golden helm.
Being a full-face helm, it covered my face completely.
I stepped out of the dim interior of the tower and walked outside with assured strides.
"Waaaaaah!"
An earsplitting roar of cheers filled the air.
The Bell Tower Sect, in particular, had set up a stage beyond the barricade and was holding a rally—their chants were thunderous.
I raised the Iron Instrument God's Sword, ‘Ro-dam’, that I'd had on my hip, high into the air.
"T-the Iron Instrument God's Sword!"
"It's the one the Nameless Hero gave him!"
"It's Ghost! Park Je-hwang is Ghost!"
"Park Je-hwang! Park Je-hwang!"
The whole area erupted, swelling with chants that seemed to shake the very ground.
‘Alright, Kim Tae-yang.’
‘Now go ahead—dance with that sword to your heart's content.’
……In Park Je-hwang's name.