Chapter 186
A man was sitting on a metal chair connected to countless wires and cables.
The man, whose skin and muscles carried a strange metallic quality, was none other than Kim Kyungsoo, the ruler of the Western District.
Kim Kyungsoo sat in the chair and gazed at the distant city hall.
Through his mechanical eye, the image of the building appeared vividly.
It had been decades since he had established himself in the Western District.
During that time, he developed the area and built an advanced mechanical civilization. Even so, there remained a vast gap between his domain and the city hall.
And that was something Kim Kyungsoo could not tolerate.
“Jin Geumho… what on earth is he thinking? What is he planning?”
He already knew that Jin Geumho, the mayor of Neo Seoul, was plotting something.
Information flowed to him through multiple channels.
Among them, the one Kim Kyungsoo trusted the most was the analysis of the supercomputer Samjok-o.
Samjok-o, born from the fusion of an Ancient Golem’s brain and a computer, could process enormous amounts of information in an instant.
It was on a completely different level from human analysis.
Yet even so, it had failed to uncover much about Jin Geumho and Neo Seoul.
The city hall possessed a defensive barrier so perfect that even Samjok-o could not penetrate it.
“Neo Seoul belongs to Koreans. How long are we going to sit by and let other races and outsiders run wild?”
He was Korean to the core.
He took immense pride in being of pure blood from this land—
even if most of his body had been replaced with machinery.
At that moment—
—Master.
Samjok-o’s voice echoed.
“What is it?”
—Cha Jincheol has just passed away.
“What?”
Kim Kyungsoo shot to his feet without realizing it.
The information Samjok-o delivered was that shocking.
—This is a report from Hyeonmu.
“Cha Jincheol is really dead?”
—Confirmed.
“…Hmm.”
Letting out a low groan, Kim Kyungsoo sat back down.
Cha Jincheol had been equipped with Hyeonmu, an inferior AI derived from Samjok-o.
Samjok-o and Hyeonmu were linked through an ego connection.
Thanks to that, he could access Hyeonmu’s data even from this distance.
Kim Kyungsoo asked,
“How did Cha Jincheol die?”
—I am unable to determine that.
“Did Hyeonmu take damage as well?”
—Hyeonmu activated the return protocol before Cha Jincheol’s death.
“So it was that dangerous of a situation?”
Hyeonmu was not a living being.
It was a fragment of Samjok-o, operating through a chip implanted in Cha Jincheol’s brain.
Samjok-o could retrieve Hyeonmu at any time.
This was a precaution in case subordinates equipped with inferior AI betrayed him or proved incompetent.
However, for an inferior AI to return to Samjok-o on its own required a complex process.
This was called the return protocol.
Hyeonmu had activated that protocol to return.
That meant the situation was critical—so critical that it cut off all external contact and waited solely for retrieval.
Until it was fully recovered, not even Samjok-o could know what had happened to Hyeonmu.
Samjok-o asked—
—Shall I retrieve Hyeonmu?
“Yes. Do it immediately.”
—Beginning retrieval procedure.
“How long will it take?”
—At least one day.
Retrieving an inferior AI was no simple task.
Once the return protocol was authorized, the AI would convert all its data into mana particles and release them into the atmosphere.
Samjok-o would then collect them.
Without a relay device, this process took considerable time.
However, once all the data was gathered, there was no need for analysis—it would be absorbed directly.
—I will report again once Hyeonmu is fully absorbed.
Kim Kyungsoo nodded and thought,
‘Cha Jincheol wasn’t weak, especially with Hyeonmu installed… yet he was killed? What in the world could have done that?’
***
“Guaaagh!”
The knight commander’s desperate scream echoed throughout the castle.
His entire body was charred beyond recognition.
Even the armor that had protected him was blackened and crushed.
It was the aftermath of being struck by Thunder God’s Hammer, the strongest skill of Lee Jiryung.
He had been hit by Thunder God’s Hammer several times before.
Each time, the knight commander endured it with his immense defensive power.
If Trigian had not died, he might have continued to withstand Lee Jiryung’s attacks indefinitely.
But when Trigian died, his mental strength wavered—
and at that exact moment, Lee Jiryung’s rank increased.
He became a true S-rank.
All the countless battles he had fought and the experience accumulated to his limits exploded at once, pushing him to the next level.
The moment he became a true S-rank, the power of Thunder God’s Hammer changed.
Not only did it shatter the knight commander’s Holy Shield, it dealt irreparable damage to his body.
Only now had Lee Jiryung truly reached the realm of the Thunder God.
As if to prove it, an immense current flowed from his entire body.
Even the awakened members of the Pegasus Raid Team kept their distance, afraid of being electrocuted.
“Whew…”
Lee Jiryung exhaled and withdrew all the electricity he had been emitting.
“Waaaaa!”
“The captain reached S-rank!”
“We won!”
Only then did the awakened members of the Pegasus Raid Team cheer.
The knight commander had been the last.
The undead knights had already been cleared.
Now, the castle belonged to them.
However, they didn’t have much time.
Rumble!
The castle shook violently.
With the core—the knight commander—dead, it was beginning to collapse.
Raid leader Bronson shouted,
“Damn it! We don’t have much time. Collect the bodies and grab the items! Take everything that can make money—starting with the materials!”
Nearly four hundred people had participated in this dungeon raid.
More than two-thirds of them had died.
Only a little over a hundred survived.
Even among them, most were from the Pegasus Raid Team.
Mercenaries and awakened from the Western District had mostly perished.
It was an enormous loss.
Far too great a cost for clearing a single dungeon.
Still, selling the items obtained here would more than make up for it.
The greatest gain of all was that their leader, Lee Jiryung, had become a true S-rank.
That alone made the raid worthwhile.
“Collect all the armor and weapons the undead knights were wearing! That’s all money!”
“Jackpot! There’s a hidden storage here!”
“A hidden storage?”
At one awakened individual’s shout, many people rushed over.
Inside the hidden storage he had discovered, countless items were piled up.
At a glance, most of them looked anything but ordinary.
With this much, it seemed they could more than make up for all the losses suffered in this raid.
“We don’t know when the dungeon will collapse, so move quickly. Take everything valuable first!”
“Yes!”
The awakened moved busily.
They had neither the time nor the luxury to mourn their fallen comrades.
The greatest form of mourning was to provide substantial compensation to the families of the dead. To do that, it was important to scrape together even the smallest items and carry them out.
The Pegasus Raid Team had always taken care of the families of the deceased in this way, and it had greatly contributed to their reputation.
Lee Jiryung stood still, checking the condition of his body.
Vitality surged through his entire being.
It felt as though lightning, not blood, was flowing through his veins.
The exhilaration of feeling like his whole body was made of lightning was something he had never experienced before.
At this moment, it felt like he could even fight—and win—against Jin Geumho, the ruler of Neo Seoul.
As he savored his newfound power, Lee Jiryung soon turned his gaze toward Zeon.
Zeon showed no interest whatsoever in the items being brought out from the hidden storage.
Instead, his gaze was fixed on the pile of black ash on the ground—
the remains left after burning Trigian.
Lee Jiryung approached Zeon.
“You worked hard. Thanks to you, we were able to clear the castle.”
“You… reached S-rank, I see.”
“That’s right. I got lucky.”
“Luck favors those who work for it.”
Lee Jiryung nodded.
“It’s thanks to you. You gave me a lot of stimulation.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Why are you staring so intently at the ashes of Cha Jincheol? Are you worried that Kim Kyungsoo might hold a grudge? If that’s the case, you don’t need to worry. We all saw Cha Jincheol transform into something else. I’ll explain it properly to him.”
“I’m not particularly worried about that.”
“Then why?”
Instead of answering, Zeon bent down and pulled out a small metal box from within the ashes.
It was the chip that had been implanted in Cha Jincheol’s head.
With a slight squeeze of his hand, the chip crumbled easily.
“Do you know what this is?”
Lee Jiryung shook his head.
He didn’t find it particularly strange.
Cha Jincheol had been a mechanized awakened—
someone who possessed the ability to replace parts of the human body with machinery.
Finding metal inside his body wasn’t unusual at all.
“Why does it concern you?”
“A little.”
“You think too much for someone with your strength.”
“I’ve been told that before, but it’s in my nature. I can’t change it.”
“The strong don’t need to think too much. Just set a goal and charge forward with everything you have. The trivial worries and plans—others will take care of those.”
“I don’t have ambitions like yours.”
“Is that so?”
Lee Jiryung looked at Zeon with a meaningful expression.
Though his gaze was burdensome, Zeon did not avoid it.
As the two exchanged looks for a long moment—
Rumble!
With a powerful vibration, a large portal formed inside the castle.
An exit to the outside had opened.
“It’s the exit!”
“Waaaaa!”
People erupted in cheers.
Only then did Lee Jiryung turn his gaze away from Zeon.
He addressed the Pegasus Raid Team.
“Good work. If you’ve taken everything, let’s head out.”
“Yes, sir!”
The awakened responded and entered the portal one by one.
Lee Jiryung remained in place until all of them had left.
That was the role of a raid leader—
to stay until the very end, preparing for any unforeseen situation.
Once all the awakened had exited the castle, only Lee Jiryung and Zeon’s group remained.
Zeon spoke to his companions.
“Let’s go too.”
“Yes, hyung!”
“Yeah!”
“Let’s get out already. I’m sick of this place.”
Levin, Brielle, and Eloi replied as if they had been waiting.
They were tired of waiting for their turn to leave.
Just as they were about to enter the portal—
“By the way.”
Lee Jiryung’s voice rang out suddenly.
Zeon and his group turned their heads.
Flash!
At that moment, a massive bolt of lightning struck them.
Thunder God’s Hammer.
Lee Jiryung’s strongest skill had been unleashed.
‘Damn it!’
There was no time to dodge—and if he did, Brielle and the others behind him would be hit directly.
Zeon crossed his arms and took the attack head-on.
Boom!
With a thunderous explosion, Zeon was blasted away beside the portal.
Lee Jiryung’s lightning skill, now that he had reached S-rank, possessed power on an entirely different level.
Thunder God’s Hammer didn’t just strike Zeon—it electrocuted Brielle, Levin, and Eloi as well.
Gasping for breath, Zeon barely managed to lift his head.
Looking down at him, Lee Jiryung spoke.
“Thinking about it, even if you’re like a younger brother… I should still repay what’s owed.”
His words were nothing more than an excuse.
The moment he saw Zeon kill the Knight King, an inferiority complex had exploded within him.
A sense of crisis—that if he left Zeon alive, he might one day be devoured—had driven him to this ambush.
“Still, since you contributed to clearing the dungeon, I won’t kill you myself. You can meet your end along with the dungeon.”
With those final words, he stepped into the portal.
The portal closed, and the entire space began to collapse.
The dungeon, now cleared, was disappearing.
And when a dungeon disappeared, all life inside it vanished as well.
Knowing this, Lee Jiryung had deliberately attacked Zeon to leave him behind.
Zeon wiped the blood from his lips and struggled to stand.
His entire body burned with pain, yet his eyes shone sharply.
“As expected… there isn’t a single person in this world you can trust. But you made one mistake—
if you truly intended to kill me, you should have finished me off yourself.”