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Chapter 283. Sleepless City (4)

“Eeeek!” Jung Hyun looked like he was about to cry as he looked back and forth between Seo Jun-Ho and Rahmadat’s head.

‘Well, that’s a normal reaction.’ 

Jung Hyun had probably never seen someone get their head cut off and still survive.

Seo Jun-Ho let out a small sigh and grabbed Rahmadat’s head.

“...That hurts, you bastard. You always grab me by the sideburns.”

“Is that so?”

It was a punishment of sorts, a way of telling him to stop playing around. He tossed it to Rahmadat’s body, which grabbed the head and placed it on top of the neck.

“Nice! It’s back on, hehe.” In an instant, the area where it connected with the body healed over without a single scar.

As he watched it unfold, Jung Hyun looked dumbstruck.

“He’s a human like us, right…?” he muttered.

“I’m not sure. He is human, but I don’t know if I should say that he’s like us…”

Rahmadat rolled his neck in different directions, making sure that it was attached properly.

“It’s pretty fast. The attack was precise and deep as well,” he said. Just like he thought, his opponent was quite strong. Rahmadat grinned, showing his teeth. “This is pretty fun. It’s a good opponent to work on my rehabilitation.

“...” Rosemary tilted her head and looked down at her hand. It had definitely severed Rahmadat’s head, and up until now, people always died when she did that. But seeing that the man in front of him was perfectly fine, it started to waver.

“...” Rosemary turned her head and looked at her creator, Piglet. Even though the only thing she had on her face was a mouth, she was somehow able to convey her question of what to do.

“What do you mean? Just kill him. Whether it’s a hundred times or a thousand, keep killing him. His regeneration skill won’t last forever.” Piglet cackled. “But you, Rosemary, have endless stamina.”

Rosemary was the result of siphoning the sleep of Maliva’s 20,000 citizens and converting it to energy. As such, she was unstoppable.

“Kiik!” Rosemary laughed along with her master and hugged one of the trees in the courtyard. There was a ripping sound as she pulled the tree from its roots and threw it at Rahmadat.

“Oh?” Rahmadat’s eyes glinted, and he took the attack where he stood without even bothering to dodge. “Hup. It is my turn now.”

He looked around, then wrapped his arms around a huge pillar at the entrance of the mansion. “Hup!” 

The muscles in his body swelled. His red face and protruding veins showed that he was getting serious.

“He’s getting all worked up again…” Seo Jun-Ho muttered to himself. Jung Hyun’s jaw was still on the floor, so Seo Jun-Ho gave him a light hit. “Chief Jung.”

“Uh… Uh?”

“Chief Jung!”

“Y-Yes!” Jung Hyun barely managed to pull himself together after watching Rahmadat ripping out the building’s pillar and roof before waving them around.

Seo Jun-Ho placed his hand on the handle of his sword before saying, “We should start moving as well.”

“Huh? Where…”

“That monster is simply a creation by Piglet’s skill.” Most creations like that died along with their masters.

Jung Hyun instantly understood, and his eyes brightened. “Of course! So, we should attack Piglet!”

“Yes. It won’t be easy, though.”

“Of course not. Even though he looks like that, he’s still a Squadron leader…”

“That’s not all.” Seo Jun-Ho closed his eyes and felt around them. He could sense the fiends that had been hiding their presence. “Just as I thought. There’s no way a Squadron leader would go around by himself.”

“Do you mean that the Squadron members are here, too?”

“There are forty-eight of them in total.”

“...!” Jung Hyun stared at Seo Jun-Ho, stupefied. The fact that there were forty-eight of them was surprising, but he was much more astonished that Seo Jun-Ho had found them just like that.

‘How… Has he really only been a Player for two years?’ 

He wasn’t just being generous. Seo Jun-Ho’s leadership, perception, and ability to understand and react to a situation were all on different levels.

‘I don’t want to admit it… But he’s a lot better than I am.’ 

Jung Hyun swallowed. He had debuted eight years ago, and he had even climbed to the bottom of the Rankers. However, he was still finding it hard to believe what he was seeing.

‘...Once he levels up, it’ll only be a matter of time until he gets to the top of the Ranking List.’ 

People could only enter the Ranking List once they reached the highest level. As such, Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t be a part of it.

“Pfft, are you aiming for me?” All eight of Piglet’s chins jiggled as he laughed.

‘That bastard’s pretty sharp.’ 

In truth, he was Rosemary’s only weakness. And if he died, the dreams that Rosemary had consumed from others would also disappear.

‘But the preparation for all this was done years ago.’ 

Piglet gestured with his hand, and the fiends hidden all across the estate showed themselves one by one. He confidently introduced his Squadron members.

“These guys drank mares’ blood along with me. You won’t even be able to touch me.”

“I see...” Seo Jun-Ho nodded. The final piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.

‘Even if he’s pretty strong, I didn’t think he was much stronger than Pride.’

However, how could one Squadron leader gain control of over 20,000 people? Rationally, Seo Jun-Ho thought it was impossible.

‘But he had help...’ 

All forty-eight Squadron members had assisted him.

Jung Hyun took out two daggers and lowered his voice, “Jun-Ho-nim, do you have a specific plan in mind?”

“No.”

Shiing. 

As the Sword of Ambition quietly slid out of its sheath, Seo Jun-Ho’s body started to grow hot.

‘Sixty… Seventy… Seventy-eight percent…’ 

After hitting a record of eighty-five percent while fighting the Heavenly Demon, he was now able to reach seventy-eight percent output pretty easily.

‘He’s not someone I need a plan for.’ 

After fighting such powerful people in succession, Seo Jun-Ho’s standards had gone up. Unfortunately for the fiends, it wasn’t merely the result of his haughtiness.

“Gah, why is it hot?” Jung Hyun huffed as the air suddenly grew hot. At the same time, Seo Jun-Ho kicked off the ground and shot forward.

Shing! Slice! 

“...”

The first person he cut down was a fiend that had been watching him. They didn’t even realize that their head had been severed until they fell to the ground.

Slice! 

“....?”

The second fiend he killed was someone a little further back. They squinted as Seo Jun-Ho’s blade reflected the moonlight as they were killed.

‘Slice!’ 

“You…!” Glaring, the fiend couldn’t even finish their sentence as they became the third sacrificial lamb.

In the blink of an eye, the Sword of Ambition killed three fiends under the moonlight.

“...!” Piglet had been lying on the soft sofa, but then he shot up and stood on the palanquin. An indescribable emotion could be seen swirling in his eyes.

‘...I missed his attack?’ 

He hadn’t underestimated his enemy. Because Seo Jun-Ho had gotten rid of Pride, Piglet expected him to have mastered the basics. However, the “basic” skills that Seo Jun-Ho possessed were much higher than he had imagined.

Panicking, he gave an order, “I-I’ll prepare Dream Soul, so buy me some time!”

“But…!”

The Squadron members looked scared. Their opponent wasn’t someone they could handle just because they wanted to. To them, it felt like they were fighting a ghost.

Shing! Shing! 

Whenever Seo Jun-Ho’s figure disappeared, fiends would fall. Those who tried to use their skills to fight, those who hid, and those who ran away all met the same end.

Slice!

When twenty fiends had died in this manner, they finally realized something. Every action was futile against Seo Jun-Ho’s cruel sword.

“P-Piglet-nim!”

“Shut up!” Piglet squawked and punched his subordinate in the head. While making the magic circle, he was as sensitive as a student before the day of the national college exam. “It’s okay. I just need to finish this circle, and then it’ll be okay…”

Piglet’s skill, Magic Circle Design (S), had allowed him to become the leader of the Sloth Squadron. It had never let him down before. Actually, the spell that was stealing the sleep of the citizens of Maliva was the effect of a large high-leveled magic circle.

“T-there!” Piglet shouted with joy a moment later, drenched in sweat. He barely managed to finish the magic circle. He immediately turned around, then started cursing. “Six? Dammit all! There are only six of you left?”

He gnashed his teeth. There had been forty-eight members of the Sloth Squadron, but now, only six remained.

Actually, at that moment, they were reduced to five.

“Everyone stand back!”

“C-captain!”

“Finally!”

The terrified Squadron members ran to him like he was the Messiah. Meanwhile, Seo Jun-Ho was staring at Piglet with an expressionless face while shaking the blood off of his sword.

‘...What a monster.’ 

When Piglet met those cold eyes, he subconsciously looked away. The look in Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes reminded him of the dead Heavenly Demon.

“But this is it for you...” The magic circle he had created with his skill was already complete, and it glowed sinisterly under the moonlight.

At that, Jung Hyun sensed something off and ran toward Seo Jun-Ho. “Jun-Ho-nim, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Yes. I think he’s plotting something.” Seo Jun-Ho was wary of the magic circle Piglet had made. He had no idea just what was Piglet’s skill, but it smelled dangerous. “So, step back for a moment and… Chief Jung?”

“J-Jun-Ho-nim…” Jung Hyun suddenly went pale and gripped his chest. “I…don’t…feel so good…”

“Chief Jung! Chief Jung!”

In an instant, Jung Hyun disappeared like dust in the wind. As he did, the only other thing that happened was that Piglet’s magic circle flashed once.

“Fufufu.” Piglet’s face contorted as he cackled at Seo Jun-Ho. “I have drunk the blood of a mare. I can snatch others’ dreams away, but I can also give them happy ones.”

“Where did Chief Jung go?”

“Who knows? If you want to know…”

The magic circle on the ground flashed once more.

“Go see for yourself.”

‘Ugh!’ 

Seo Jun-Ho quickly activated freeze, but the light didn’t stop as it covered him.

***

“...”

Seo Jun-Ho quickly pulled himself together. First, he checked the state of his body.

“Huh?” He discovered something strange.

‘...It’s in a horrible state.’ 

The sturdy muscles covering his body had all disappeared. In addition to that, his line of sight had also become lower. In other words, he had grown shorter.

‘Is this a curse that gives a physical debuff?’ 

Eyes sharp, Seo Jun-Ho stood up and looked around. He was in a small room.

‘And this… This somehow looks similar to Gu Shi-On’s skill.’ 

However, this room looked extremely familiar. He felt like he had been here a long time ago, and it somehow made him feel homesick.

Outside, he could hear the sound of someone doing the dishes. He brought his hand to his waist, but the Sword of Ambition had disappeared, so he poked around the desk.

‘...Tsk, the only weapon I can use here is a boxcutter.’ 

Though it was disappointing, Seo Jun-Ho still took it with him and quietly opened the door. If an enemy appeared, he would stab them through the neck.

“Da da dum~” 

But all those thoughts disappeared as soon as he saw a woman in the kitchen, the woman was wearing dishwashing gloves.

“Ah, you’re awake, dear?” She smiled brightly when she saw him.

It was because she was his mother—his mother whom he missed dearly.