The Hero Returns

Act 2

Ku-wuwuwu—

A massive pressure swept across the middle-aged man.

He shivered as an icy chill took over him. It felt like huge blocks of steel were tied to his shoulders and legs to crush him on the spot.

"What…what is this?" he thought.

Shudder, tremble—

His body began trembling without him even realizing it.

No, wait, it wasn't as if he was not fully aware of it. His instincts certainly have realized the truth by now.

"This guy…what the hell is he?"

He realized that this man before his eyes was a true monster.

It wasn't just the middle-aged man that felt that, however. The crowd of people nearby all felt the exact same thing.

They couldn't even take a single step. Even then, the timer continued to tick down.

"Let me make this one thing clear ahead of time," said Su-hyeun while scanning his surroundings with his eyes, which included the third one in his forehead.

No one dared to move, and his gaze drifted toward a few who flinched every now and then.

"If you make a move, I'll kill you myself."

Gulp—

That was a warning filled with his killing intent.

Su-hyeun was deliberately aiming for one thing: making sure that no one moved a muscle.

"However, I can ensure everyone's survival if no one makes a move."

"Everyone?"

"Is that…even possible?"

"Hold on, if you think about it, why can't it be done?"

"If it's someone like him…"

The one who had confined all these people here and ordered them to kill was certainly a powerful individual. However, that being was nowhere to be seen right now, and someone seemingly as strong as that being was standing right before their eyes.

Someone strong enough to suppress 50,000 people with nothing but the air he emitted. If it was someone like that—if it was Su-hyeun—wouldn't he be able to do something here?

"For now, let's organize what I know so far," Su-hyeun thought.

He was indeed busy using his brain trying to figure out what to do, just as they had said.

"The location, the time, and the numbers."

The unseen voice said this: they must decrease the number of people in this place by half, and Su-hyeun was thinking of doing exactly that. His gaze shifted over to the wall in the distance.

"Are you thinking of destroying that wall and getting out of here?"

Almost at the same time, a voice came to Su-hyeun from the side.

Step, step—

Not only that but the owner of the voice was also moving, disregarding Su-hyeun's warning, no less.

Two minutes had passed by already. Su-hyeun's gaze shifted over to the man who began walking toward him.

Although he did warn the others, this man had not pulled out his weapon nor emitted any hostility. All he did was to say something as he approached Su-hyeun.

In that case, there was no reason to kill this man.

Not only that but Su-hyeun also realized that the man's face was somewhat familiar.

"Where have I seen him before?" Su-hyeun briefly searched through his memories, but no one, in particular, stood out. He could only frown slightly at how the man's face seemed to be censored in blurry mosaic before replying to him, "Yes, that's my plan."

"As expected. If that happens, decreasing the number of people in this place by half will be more than possible to pull off. Without killing anyone, to boot."

"Most likely."

"However, it won't be easy. The wall looks quite thick, after all."

At a casual glance, it was hard to tell how sturdy the wall was or its potential thickness. This man seemed to have checked those points out already.

A considerable number of people among these 50,000—especially among the races similar to humans—were fairly highly skilled individuals, but even then, this man came across as unparalleled by anyone.

"He escaped from the influence of my skill."

No, wait—it wasn't simply him escaping from it. He wasn't affected by it in the first place.

"Who exactly is this guy?"

Su-hyeun narrowed his eyes while staring at the man with unknown motives. The latter was grinning without a care in the world as if he didn't feel all that threatened at the moment.

He spoke up, "Well, let's just break the wall down first and see. I was thinking along the same thing, anyway."

Su-hyeun nodded at that.

For the time being, they seemed to be thinking the same thing.

And what he said didn't seem to contain falsehoods either. Su-hyeun decided to think of this situation as another individual as skilled as he was being summoned here.

When Su-hyeun asked, "Are you going to help me?" the man smirked and replied, "Of course."

He then raised his hand toward the wall that the former had been staring at earlier.

"Okay, okay. Now then, it's going to get dangerous, so everyone? Step aside for a little while."

"Uh, eh?"

"My body…?"

Whoooosh—

Something huge and transparent began pushing the crowd of people back. Su-hyeun withstood that "something," and soon, only he and the unknown man were the two people remaining near the wall.

"Did he create a thin but sturdy transparent barrier with magical energy and push all these people back?" he inwardly asked.

The theory behind it wasn't all that difficult to grasp. However, you would still need quite a precise control of your power to perfectly push all these people aside without hurting them.

"Well, then. Let's break this thing down."

While saying that, the man unsheathed his sword.

His attire was as far removed from being a swordsman as one could get, yet he had been carrying a sword on his hips.

"The atmosphere he gives off is closer to a magician rather than a swordsman."

Su-hyeun observed the man for a little while and then stopped paying attention to him.

Five minutes had passed them by already. Fifty-five minutes now remained.

Since there was a time limit, he couldn't afford to waste time on something unnecessary.

"In that case..."

Squeeze—

Su-hyeun unsheathed his sword and injected enough magical energy into it. "Let's get started."

[Wave Sword—Explosion Style]

[Palm Leaf]

[Flame]

Rumbleeee—

Pa-shhhh—

A huge amount of magical energy concentrated on Su-hyeun's sword, and soon, winds and flames viciously whipped about.

"Ooooh…"

The man had distanced himself far away by then, and he began expressing how impressed he was with pursed lips. Su-hyeun glanced at him before striking the wall with his sword.

CRUNCH—!

Ku-rururu—

The wall's surface crumbled down. It must've been several meters deep because the wall continuously crumbled down with no signs of opening up yet.

"Ten meters, no, wait, a little over that."

Squeeze—

Not only was the wall thick but its hardness was also something else.

Still, it wasn't unbreakable, at least.

Ruuuuumble—

[Transformation]

Su-hyeun's left arm was enveloped in flames, or rather, it had actually become fire itself.

This was the "Transformation" ability he learned from Apollo.

On top of this...

[Amplification—Pinwheel]

A magic ability Su-hyeun had developed himself that was meant to be used in conjunction with the divine Flame was activated.

Fwhooooosh—

A massive whirlpool of winds containing condensed air violently whipped up in front of Su-hyeun. At the same time, his left arm was loaded with a stupendous level of strength before punching forward.

Whoooosh—

KA-BOOOOOM—!

Along with the heavy punch, the flames that became amplified after devouring the condensed air exploded toward the thick wall.

When that happened...

Rumble, crush, tumble—

The thick and sturdy wall began collapsing noisily, and another space beyond it finally revealed itself.

Krrrrr—

Woof, growl—!

Kyah-aaaah—!

What came from there were enraged roars and plenty of killing intent.

An artificial forest teeming with countless monsters was revealed by the broken-down wall.

"Well, this is...we've overcome one steep mountain, only to run into another one, haven't we?"

The man stared into the forest beyond the wall and spoke in a troubled and lost tone, but of course, his expression had not one hint of such emotions at all.

"Maybe." It was the same story for Su-hyeun. However, his opinion on the subject of steep mountains was slightly different. "Isn't it more like, this is a hill after a steep mountain?"

"Excuse me?"

"Just sit back and watch."

Step—

Su-hyeun walked through the wide-open wall. He then raised his sword while gathering winds around it. "Blow away—"

Squeeze—

He tightly gripped the sword with both of his hands before powerfully swinging it.

"Palm Leaf—"

Fwhoooosh—!

Swiiiiiiish—

Winds gushing out from the Palm Leaf Sword morphed into a gigantic storm and swept the forest aside. These winds were focused more on creating this storm and didn't contain too much killing power.

The man took a step back and whistled loudly. However, it was hard to tell whether he found Su-hyeun's ability to create a storm amazing to behold or was simply impressed by the spectacle.

Rumbleeeee—

Soon after that, scorching purple flames flared up on Su-hyeun's palm.

It was the divine Flame which power wonderfully suited the winds roused up by the Palm Leaf.

Crackle, sizzle—

"That's burning well, isn't it?"

Su-hyeun muttered to no one in particular while staring at the flames sweeping across the forest.

This forest was about twice the dimension of the open space where 50,000 people had been summoned. As for the number of monsters found in this place, it should've easily breached the 10,000th mark.

Ki-aaaaah—!

Kyahk, khaak—!

Several monsters that happened to be close to the wall dashed over there although flames were burning their whole body away. Su-hyeun had been waiting for them to come closer, but just before he could walk over to them...

Swish—

A lengthy, black spear flew out from somewhere.

Pa-babababak—!

And there was more than one spear, too.

Hundreds of spears impaled the burning bodies of the monsters rushing toward the wall, and soon, all those monsters could only look like hedgehogs and collapsed on the ground.

Boom, thud—

Krrrr, krr—

Su-hyeun observed the monsters that still managed to cling precariously to life before turning his head to look at the man behind him who was responsible for throwing all those spears.

The man spoke up, "Why didn't you leave something for me? I had nothing to do here and was getting bored, you see."

"You should find your own task if that's the case. You aren't even a little kid, you know."

"You saying that kinda makes me feel sad, somehow? I thought we were a team?"

"A team, you say..."

That word didn't exactly suit Su-hyeun.

More than anything else, he didn't trust the unknown man. He still didn't know anything about that man who was capable of summoning those black spears to start trusting the other party.

[Exactly 50,000 individuals…Oh, two extras as well? Well, it doesn't really matter.]

That mysterious voice spoke as if there were more people than expected among the summoned—two more, to be exact—and Su-hyeun was confident that he knew one of those two.

It was none other than himself.

Su-hyeun hadn't been summoned here by the owner of that voice but by the trial that the system had given him, so it was unsurprising that he wasn't included in the initial number prepared by that unknown "being."

And then, most likely...

"That guy must be the same story as me."

An existence outside of the regular standard—that's how Su-hyeun saw his own case as. He was already strong enough to hunt down a predator by himself, after all.

And in his view, this man wasn't all that different from him.

Su-hyeun spoke up, "In that case, go right ahead and help yourself."

"Help myself with what, exactly?"

"You said that we're a team, didn't you? At the very least, shouldn't team members not do things that might get in the other's way?"

"Well…You aren't wrong there," said the man while nodding in acceptance.

Su-hyeun stepped back and, at the same time, the man stepped up to the plate. The former crossed his arms in front of his chest and simply stared as if he had no intention of helping out.

"The kind of abilities he uses, the kind of person he is..." Su-hyeun continued to ponder.

Something about that man continued to bother him.

"I need to figure those things out first before..."

And just as he began observing the man...

"…Huh?"

Creak, screeeaaak—

All those monsters felled by Su-hyeun just now turned black and were revived again as summoned creatures.

The black summons weren't only made up of the monsters either. Some creatures had unidentifiable silhouettes, while some even had outer appearances of humans. These creatures were now standing right next to the man.

This was somewhat different from the concept of the "undead."

"The corpses remain as they are."

That's because the corpses remained on the ground untouched. In other words, the souls had directly manifested into this world.

And the moment Su-hyeun confirmed that, he finally remembered where he saw this man who was currently standing before his eyes.

It was during the 43rd floor's trial, back where he had to fight against countless heroes the likes of Chun Ha-jin and Hercules inside the Coliseum.

And that man was the strongest hero among all of them, whose body had been used by the administrator of that floor.

"His name was Luslec, wasn't it?"

The "Necromancy" used by the man before Su-hyeun's eyes was definitely the same as that hero's.