Chapter 167 : Trauma

For a moment, Ho-cheol's eyes widened in surprise.

The wolf monster on the island he personally owned did speak, but its appearance was just that of a monster.

Its essence was not a monster, but the result of a special erosion core gaining a sense of self.

“A monster bastard can even speak human language?”

Until now, there had never been a precedent of a monster that could speak human language.

Among monsters, there were some individuals whose vocal cord structure was close to that of a human, or whose intelligence was greater than a human's.

Nevertheless, experts had claimed that the phenomenon of no monster using human language was due to an instinct ingrained from the genetic level, or due to hostility or hatred towards humans, but there was still no clear answer.

At the very least, it was certain that the monster in front of him was a discovery that would rewrite the history of human-gate relations.

But the surprise was fleeting, and the emotion that followed was displeasure.

“I’m not young enough to be called a child by a monster like you. And I’m not foolish either.”

How narrow-minded you are, that boundary between human and monster is of no use.

The monster spoke again.

Hearing it again, the voice was closer to directly transmitting its will to his brain rather than reaching his ears.

And every time the monster spoke, the stinging headache grew more intense.

Ho-cheol poked the capsule with the tip of his sword.

“Enough with the mental attacks.”

“The words of a great being. I worship them.”

At the crazy words from behind him, he glanced back.

Unlike the calm Ho-cheol, the man standing behind him had fallen to his knees and was bowing his head as if moved when the monster spoke.

“You’re out of your mind.”

“Insolent! This being is the one who has truly reached transcendence…!”

“Transcendence?”

Ho-cheol scoffed.

“To my eyes, it just looks like a disgustingly shaped monster bastard.”

Just a couple of hours ago, he had thought that hunters weren't so bad, but now that he thought he might have to deal with something so disgusting, that motivation suddenly dropped.

Originally, he had intended to ask a few things to get some information, but he gave up at the typical atmosphere of a person brainwashed by a trait.

Since he was a literal fanatic, there was no way a conversation would get through.

Ho-cheol instead looked at the monster and said.

“So, you were planning to brainwash those idiots and create a half-monster army or something.”

Ho-cheol poked the capsule with the tip of his purple sword.

It seemed to be made quite sturdily, as it didn't even get a scratch, but even so, its limits were clear.

“I don’t know if you’re stupid or arrogant.”

He had not prepared any means to protect his own safety.

No, was it because of the confidence that if they came this close, he could turn most humans into slaves?

“How about it, if I kill you, the subject of the brainwashing, will the others come back to their senses? Shall we experiment?”

At least one thing was certain.

“Really, what a disgusting face.”

It was a good thing he was on an empty stomach; if he had eaten, he would have been nauseated enough to see his lunch again.

With those words, Ho-cheol swung his sword.

He cut the capsule, and the monster inside, in half.

“You crazy bastard!”

The man behind him shouted in a fluster.

“Why, you said it was a transcendent being. If it’s a guy that will just die with a single sword stroke, isn't it closer to a bug?”

Despite Ho-cheol's taunt, he just stood up, pale as a sheet.

“That's not it!”

As if he had no time to speak, he shut his mouth.

He was about to turn his back and run, but.

Before that, the corpse of the monster flowed out from between the crack of the split-open capsule and fell with a splat.

Countless pieces of flesh scattered and reattached repeatedly.

Some swirled like a giant black ball, then suddenly created a crack and split into several small mouths.

The sound that came out of them was a bizarre and terrible death rattle.

The man who was trying to run away staggered after taking only a few steps.

Blood gushed from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, and he collapsed, his body trembling.

Ho-cheol also frowned.

A headache that was incomparable to the one before washed over him.

I definitely killed it, so what's that?

Honestly, he had looked down on it because it seemed to have no combat power at all.

The mental stimulation was also just at a slightly annoying level.

But was it that the capsule and the culture medium had been suppressing its output?

Ho-cheol swung his sword again.

Once horizontally, once vertically.

And he forcibly tore off a nearby unknown mechanical device and brought it down on the monster.

Ppujjeok—!

With a crushing sensation, its fragments flew everywhere.

But the debris soon squirmed and gathered in one place again.

Every time he killed it, the attack that seemed to directly stir his brain grew stronger.

Ho-cheol brought his hand to his ear.

A sticky, bloody liquid was flowing down.

“This is dangerous.”

Even if it wasn't transcendence, its life force was overwhelmingly tougher than any creature he had ever seen.

Even a villain who had reached S-rank with his regeneration ability wouldn't be this much.

A meaningless resistance.

I am an immortal being.

“Right, I’ll acknowledge the immortality. Then let’s see how long you can hold out.”

Ho-cheol swung his sword even more strongly.

A rough and overwhelming output, with the will to crush the space itself.

He poured in his Trait and sliced the monster.

But the monster revived several times even in death, and its screams only tormented Ho-cheol.

The monster was slightly impressed.

An excellent body, and an even more excellent mind.

I like you.

As my apostle—

“Agh, why does a monster keep trying to talk to a person.”

Where do you think you’re sharing a table?

Ho-cheol swung his sword again irritably.

After that, he cut, sliced, and crushed the monster for nearly 5 minutes, but in the end, he was the first to give up, exhausted.

“Heo. Why won't it die.”

He muttered, as if completely fed up with the monster's body, which was squirming and returning to its original form.

He couldn't call someone else and ask for help.

The entire laboratory was now filled with the monster's screams, and the only people who could enter and endure here were, at most, the Sword Demon or Eclipse.

And the screams that came out every time he killed it kept poking at his mind, which added to his considerable displeasure.

Accept me.

I will grant your wish.

Completely ignoring the monster's words, Ho-cheol clicked his tongue at a hypothesis that suddenly came to mind.

“Don’t tell me…”

He hadn't felt that it was alive from the beginning.

Was it really dead from the start?

“Let me ask you one thing. That body, it’s just a shell, right?”

The monster did not answer.

In fact, the monster was just as displeased with the current situation as Ho-cheol was annoyed.

An ordinary person, of course, but even a 1st-class hunter could not endure for a minute when exposed to his brainwashing telepathy.

But the human in front of him had not only been resisting for nearly 10 minutes, but was also openly expressing hostility towards him.

Although he was a tricky enemy, he also became greedy.

It would be difficult to find such a strong and excellent host anywhere else.

The reason he was brainwashing the top brass of Black Oskopf and continuing the research of human monsterification was to increase the compatibility of the body he would transfer to.

Although Ho-cheol was a human with a pure body, he had enough charm to make up for it.

And looking at the current atmosphere, it seemed that there would be no harm in telling him his purpose.

In fact, couldn't he bring the flow in the direction he wanted?

The monster, who had assessed the situation in various ways, opened its mouth again.

That’s right.

I am a spiritual being, and the current body is just a vessel.

No matter how much you damage this body, my spirit is firm.

“Haa.”

Ho-cheol let out a sigh.

A monster that wanted to mess with his brain as it pleased.

A monster that had to be killed only through the mental realm because it had no body.

Their respective goals could not be achieved here, at least.

Ho-cheol squatted down.

A being that had shed its body, he also knew well how to deal with such a thing.

It was very simple.

He just had to change the fighting ground.

Not here, where the body dominated, but to a place where the mind dominated.

“Right. Let’s stop this meaningless poking, and let’s have a go at a place you’re confident in.”

A solid castle that had not even flinched at the strongest mental attacks.

Ho-cheol opened that door himself.

With a splitting headache, a mental wave like a raging wave rushed into Ho-cheol's mind.

At the same time, his consciousness was cut off.

Ho-cheol opened his eyes again.

However, the faint sense of unease and awkwardness he felt from his body told him that this was not reality, but a consciousness that had occurred in his mind.

It seemed that he had been letting others into his mind too often lately.

Ho-cheol frowned.

“What the hell.”

Even if his body's movements were awkward, the pain was still there.

Most importantly, the sensation he felt now was an unpleasantness that was difficult to taste in reality.

The feeling of someone opening his head and rummaging through his memories at will.

It was by no means pleasant.

If he wanted to stop it now, it wasn't that he couldn't, but Ho-cheol left the crazy act alone.

To properly kill the monster bastard, it would probably only be possible here.

There was no gain in just chasing it away.

Ho-cheol looked around.

A desolate ruin with nothing.

It was also the most intuitive representation of Ho-cheol's current mental landscape.

This bleak landscape was also the reason why Ho-cheol was half-immune to mental attacks.

The key to a mental attack was to shake the mental landscape, but there was nothing left in Ho-cheol's mental landscape.

Would it make a big difference if you dropped a few more bombs on a city that had already been hit by a nuclear bomb?

When the monster realized that there was nothing more to scratch in his mind, it would probably show itself directly.

Then the second round would begin.

But even after waiting for a while, the monster's spiritual body he wanted did not appear.

“Shouldn’t you be coming out now?”

But contrary to Ho-cheol's expectations, the monster did not appear.

Instead, the surrounding space shimmered.

At the same time, Ho-cheol's memories rapidly flowed backwards.

Starting from the most recent memory of meeting the monster, the battle with the 1st-class hunter, entering Black Oskopf, the first lecture of the second semester, the meeting with the Society, the fight with the Sword Demon.

The memory that had started from the recent memories reversed through several months, several years, in a flash.

Ho-cheol squeezed his eyes shut and touched his forehead with his fingertips.

The massive amount of information rushing in at once was closer to dizziness or motion sickness than pain.

He ground his teeth slightly.

“This bastard…”

It was a cliché and monotonous form of attack, but it was definitely effective.

And before long, the memory that had scanned through his entire villain days had finally reached even further back.

To the time before the villain Jeong Ho-cheol.

At that moment.

The space, which had been shaking unsteadily for a long time, took on a proper form.

Ho-cheol opened his eyes again.

He slowly looked around.

The desolate scenery from just a moment ago was nowhere to be seen.

Inside a passenger car.

Before he could even understand the situation, a gentle voice came from the passenger seat.

“Son. What’s wrong?”

“He must be car sick. Give him a piece of gum.”

Subsequently, a low and firm voice came from the driver's seat.

Ho-cheol let out a sigh as if dumbfounded and rested the back of his head on the back of the seat.

I never thought I’d see my parents again like this.

He roughly understood the monster's aim.

The most decisive event that had made Ho-cheol a villain was the series of events that had occurred at the funeral hall, but that funeral hall was just an intermediate process that led to the result from the preceding events.

The beginning of all things, the starting point, was strictly speaking, today.

There had been moments when Ho-cheol had been the most angry and sad in his life, but he had never been as desperate as on this day.

Most importantly, the memory of this time was not without a sense of vagueness compared to the other two memories.

It seemed that it was planning to scratch at his mental state by showing this again.

“You idiot.”

If that had worked, I would have broken down a long time ago.

For now, he had no choice but to play along.

It would only show itself when he showed that it was useless.

Ho-cheol looked at the tunnel in the distance with a complicated expression.

Even if it was a trauma he had already overcome, it was still not pleasant to knowingly go to his death.

As he carefully stored this emotion in his angry piggy bank, the car Ho-cheol was in entered the tunnel.