Chapter 255
Thud! Roll—
The serial killer’s severed head rolled across the floor before finally stopping against someone’s foot.
It belonged to the man who had just told Levin, “That’s far enough.”
But Levin had ignored him and swung Titan Killer anyway, completely separating the serial killer’s head from his body.
Everyone knew that once the head and body were separated, no method could bring a person back to life.
It was Levin’s declaration that he would not leave even the slightest possibility behind.
Meanwhile, the face of the man who had warned Levin had hardened coldly.
He wore a loose robe with a hood attached.
The hilt of a sword was partially visible beneath the robe, making it clear he was a martial-type Awakened.
The moment Levin saw the man’s face, a chill ran down his spine.
It felt as though a blade had been pressed against his throat.
That was how terrifying the aura surrounding the man was.
The man bent down and picked up the serial killer’s head.
Even after being decapitated, the serial killer still wore a smile.
The man silently stared at that face.
There was something grotesque about the sight of someone calmly holding and observing a severed human head.
“What a waste. If he’d stayed alive, we could’ve extracted much more data from him.”
The man tossed the head in front of the sprawled corpse.
Levin glared at him.
“Who the hell are you? What’s your relationship with that bastard?”
“That bastard? So that’s what you call Number 301.”
“Number 301? You call people by numbers? Which means there are at least three hundred more freaks like him.”
“How bold.”
“What?”
“There are lines one should never cross.”
“So?”
“And right now, you are crossing that line.”
“The fuck are you talking about?”
Blood vessels bulged in Levin’s eyes, but the man continued speaking without concern.
“I’ll be taking Number 301’s corpse.”
“Don’t make me laugh. He’s mine. You’re not taking even a toe without my permission.”
“I wasn’t asking for your permission. Do not misunderstand, boy.”
The man’s voice grew colder.
At the same time, the surrounding air itself seemed to freeze.
Goosebumps spread all over Levin’s body.
Instinctively, he realized the man was stronger than him.
The body reacts faster and more honestly than the mind ever can.
His fingertips trembled, and sweat dripped from his forehead.
The corners of his eyes twitched, and his mouth went dry.
Reason told him he needed to retreat.
If he crossed the line the man spoke of, there was no way he would leave unharmed.
And yet he could not back down.
His family had died because of the serial killer.
He needed to learn who had created monsters like him and for what purpose.
Suppressing his fear with all his might, Levin shouted.
“Fuck! You think acting scary’s enough to intimidate me? That bastard’s corpse belongs to me.”
“Hm. I thought you were clever, but it turns out you’re merely reckless.”
The man lowered his head and let out a faint sigh.
A moment later, when he raised his head again, his eyes had changed.
Instantly, a surge like electricity shot up Levin’s spine into his brain.
Thinking was a luxury.
Levin instinctively activated ghostification.
The barrier had been destroyed during the restaurant explosion, so the transformation happened instantly.
Slash!
Immediately afterward, a streak of sword light sliced through where his body had been.
The man had drawn and swung his sword before Levin could even perceive it.
It was a horrifying sword-drawing technique.
Cold sweat ran down Levin’s back.
If he had ghostified even a fraction of a second later, he would have died instantly.
The man’s eyes gleamed with interest when he saw Levin’s semi-transparent body.
“To transform into a gaseous state in an instant. What an interesting ability.”
He had seen countless Awakened before, but never one with a power like this.
Naturally, it piqued his curiosity.
“You, too, are now a research subject.”
The man’s lips twisted upward, revealing white teeth.
Levin knew exactly what that expression meant.
Just like the elves of the North District and the dead Lee Jiryung, this man desired Levin’s power as well.
Woooong!
A powerful vibration emanated from the man’s sword.
It sounded almost as if the blade itself were crying out.
At that moment, Levin felt a level of danger incomparably greater than anything before.
Ever since awakening his ghostification ability, he had never felt such terror.
There was no visible change in the man’s sword.
There was no aura blade or similar phenomenon typically seen from high-ranking martial Awakened who used swords.
And yet Levin felt as though the razor-sharp blade would still cut straight through him.
Levin accelerated in his ghostified state.
It was three-dimensional movement unrestricted by space itself.
Even high-ranking Awakened would have struggled to follow such movements, yet the man’s eyes tracked Levin perfectly.
The moment their eyes met, Levin realized something.
‘This guy… he’s blind.’
The man’s eyes had no focus whatsoever.
And yet his gaze remained fixed precisely on Levin.
‘What the—?’
Swoosh!
At that moment, the man’s sword flew toward Levin again.
It was too late to dodge.
Levin unleashed Purple Lightning.
Crackle!
Violet lightning exploded against the man’s sword.
Metal was the perfect conductor for electricity.
Levin was certain the current would travel through the blade and paralyze the man’s body.
But the next moment, his confidence shattered completely.
The man casually flicked his sword and deflected Purple Lightning away.
The violet lightning struck the ground instead, scorching the entire area black.
Meanwhile, the man’s sword changed direction midair and flew toward Levin again.
This time, there was absolutely no way to dodge.
‘Shit!’
Grinding his teeth, Levin desperately prayed his ability would somehow work against the sword too.
Slice!
At that instant, the man’s blade grazed Levin’s left arm.
“Ghk!”
A scream escaped Levin’s lips from the burning pain in his arm.
Even while ghostified, no blood flowed from the wound.
But the sensation of flesh being split apart was horrifyingly vivid.
It was a sword capable of cutting not only the body, but the soul itself.
‘This is insane! How is this even possible?’
Levin’s eyes widened.
He had never imagined or experienced anything like this before.
He had never once expected to face such danger while ghostified.
Because of that, his reaction was delayed by a fraction of a second.
And the man did not miss that opening.
Shrrk!
The man’s sword changed direction again in midair and flew once more toward Levin.
This time, it targeted his chest.
‘Fuck!’
Unable even to attempt dodging, Levin instinctively squeezed his eyes shut.
CLAAANG!
At that exact moment, a deafening metallic impact exploded right in front of his chest.
Levin had braced himself for pain.
But strangely, he felt none.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
A massive steel rebar rod was embedded in front of him.
The man’s sword had pierced straight through the rebar and stopped mere inches from Levin’s face.
Levin felt cold sweat running down his spine.
Someone had thrown a steel rebar rod and saved him just before the sword pierced through him.
It did not take long to realize who had saved him.
“Good thing I wasn’t too late.”
A familiar voice came from behind him.
Levin recognized the owner immediately just from the voice alone.
“Hyung?”
“Get back. He’s not someone you can handle.”
The moment Levin saw the man standing in front of him, his legs nearly gave out.
The back blocking his path was not especially large or broad compared to other Awakened, but it radiated an overwhelming sturdiness.
It was Zeon.
“You okay?”
“You still alive?”
Brielle and Eloi, who had arrived late, supported Levin as his ghostification came undone.
“Brielle? Eloi? How did you—”
“You idiot! Just get back already.”
Supporting Levin between them, Brielle and Eloi retreated.
Meanwhile, Zeon approached the man holding the sword.
The man spoke first.
“So you’re the Sand Mage.”
“And yet you recognized me instantly even though I haven’t used sand.”
“Do you not realize how famous your name is? Or are you simply unaware?”
“You know me, but I don’t know you. That feels a little unfair.”
“Why don’t you try guessing?”
“Should I?”
Zeon carefully observed the man.
He looked completely unified with his sword, as though he himself had become the blade.
Several meters separated them, yet it felt as though Zeon would be cut apart the instant he stretched out a hand.
This was the man’s domain.
A space ruled entirely by his sword.
Zeon had met countless Awakened before, including many martial-type Awakened who used swords.
But not one of them possessed a presence or swordsmanship remotely comparable to this man’s.
He wasn’t powerful simply because he was a high-ranking martial-type Awakened using a sword.
His swordsmanship itself had clearly reached an extraordinary realm.
Zeon did not know the man’s identity or name.
Yet somehow, the man felt strangely familiar.
Zeon knew people who carried a similar atmosphere.
“Could you perhaps be… one of the Numbers?”
“Oh? So you’ve met them before.”
“I’ve met the old man and the twin sisters.”
“In that case, it’s no surprise you recognized me. My name is Lee Jeongho. I’m the final member of the Numbers.”
An A-Rank martial-type Awakened who had blinded himself in desperate pursuit of reaching S-Rank.
By abandoning his sight, he had acquired the skill Mind’s Eye.
The harmony between Mind’s Eye and his swordsmanship was so sharp and terrifying that it could even cut beings without physical form.
Lee Jeongho was a swordsman who existed somewhere between A-Rank and S-Rank.
The moment he heard the word “Numbers,” Levin’s face turned pale white.
Only then did he finally understand the unimaginable strength of his opponent.
Zeon asked Lee Jeongho,
“So that serial killer came from City Hall.”
“He was the byproduct of flawed research. A failed creation.”
“And that’s why you’re trying to retrieve him?”
“Even if it’s a failure, it still belongs to City Hall.”
“You’re calling a person property?”
“And that thing looked human to you?”
Lee Jeongho smirked.
He did not see the serial killer as human.
Though it looked human and spoke like one, the serial killer was not human.
It was an experimental lifeform created using a human fetus and monster byproducts.
A bio-soldier developed to combat the monsters threatening Neo Seoul.
There were never enough Awakened available for dangerous missions.
To compensate for that shortage, Neo Seoul initiated the Bio Soldier Project.
Using humans as the base, they injected countless monster blood samples and byproducts.
After innumerable failures, they finally succeeded in creating bio-soldiers.
But in the end, Neo Seoul decided to dispose of them.
Because the completed bio-soldiers were fundamentally defective.
Their forms resembled humans, but they were never truly human.
They possessed unstable minds that could go berserk at any moment, physical abilities surpassing human limits, and some even awakened genuine powers like real Awakened.
They were uncontrollable bombs.
In the end, City Hall decided to eliminate every result of the research.
A massive purge was carried out in the dead of night, and most of the bio-soldiers were destroyed.
But a few managed to escape the laboratory.
One of them was the serial killer who murdered Levin’s family.
Among the bio-soldiers, he had been one of the most complete.
But the more exceptional his physical abilities were, the stronger his murderous impulses became.
Unable to suppress his bloodlust, he vented it upon the poor living in the slums.
By the time Neo Seoul learned the truth, countless people had already died.
Only afterward did City Hall decide to retrieve the serial killer.
And they dispatched Lee Jeongho.
Lee Jeongho slung the serial killer’s corpse over his shoulder.
Zeon stepped in front of him and spoke.
“You’re just leaving after causing all this chaos?”
“I wasn’t the one who did this.”
“So you’re saying you bear no responsibility?”
“And you intend to hold me accountable for it? You don’t really have the luxury for that.”
“……”
Zeon frowned at the sudden remark.
Awakened from all across the West District were rushing toward them.
In an instant, they surrounded Zeon’s group.
Lee Jeongho twisted his lips into a grin.
“See? I told you that you wouldn’t have the luxury.”
Lee Jeongho leisurely walked straight past the West District Awakened.
“Huh?”
“The Execution Squad?”
The moment they saw the identification proving he belonged to the Numbers, the West District Awakened did not dare block his path.
And just like that, Lee Jeongho disappeared beyond them.
The West District Awakened immediately shifted their attention toward Zeon’s group instead.
“To cause this kind of destruction in the West District… all of you are under arrest.”