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Chapter 239

“Project Ark is a secret society unlike any other. After our world is destroyed, at least ten million people plan to flee to another dimension. We are more advanced than any other secret society or organization. And you want me to sacrifice those precious resources for the future to stop those Cyclops just to buy a few more months of time? You’re insane,” Hopper said.

‘Ten million people… that’s a lot of people, but isn’t our current population right now hundreds of times larger than that?’

“You don’t seem to be convinced.”

“Because declaring that you won’t even try to save billions of people doesn’t sound like a good plan.”

“You naive soul. Those people are already dead, their fate is sealed. There is no way to save this planet. No way! There isn’t even a remote possibility. Don’t you think escaping this world is our only chance?”

“...”

“We are not like those other cultists! We are not trying to only save ourselves by getting the favor of our God. We are trying to keep ten million people alive, to keep our civilization and our culture! Only the Golden Horizon can do that!

‘Now I understand. No wonder they called themselves Golden Horizon.’

Ji-Cheok guessed that it didn’t refer to the horizon people usually thought about, but to what was known as the ‘event horizon’ of a black hole. It was said that this event horizon was such that nothing that happened inside of it could affect anything that was outside.

No information could be observed inside of it, and even time was warped in the area around the black hole. These guys called themselves Golden Horizon because they wanted to take humanity beyond this boundary and keep it away from what happened on Earth.

“Yeah, that’s kinda cool. So?”

Ji-Cheok stopped using honorifics for him. His translation skill was powerful enough to pick up on all the verbal nuances.

“Do you not understand?” Hopper said.

“No, I get it. From your point of view, where you see humans as resources, it’s great that you are able to get ten million people out of here alive, but I doubt that the dead will see it that way.”

“Who cares what they think when they are going to die anyway?”

The arrogant look on his face made Ji-Cheok feel a little angry.

‘In the face of death, everybody is equal.’

“It matters because my family and my friends will be on that list of dead people.”

“What if I told you that the humans around you would be on the Ark?”

“Then, what about the people around the people around me?”

“It’s a never-ending cycle.”

“Yeah, it never ends. So I will tell you right now. If you are not going to help me, don’t even try to interfere. If you promise me that, I’ll be on my way.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then you are going to be my enemy. You might want to know that I can mess with your little Project Ark just as well as you can mess with my operation.”

At Ji-Cheok’s words, the old man took a sip of wine, then threw it away.

Clang!

.

“It seems our little negotiation has failed. I’m afraid I am going to cut out the rotten part. You are not getting out of here alive.”

“Hm… I beg to differ.”

Ji-Cheok unfolded his shadow. Stretching out of his body, the shadow colored the floor and walls, engulfing them. At the same time, he gathered his Qi. The Defensive Augmented Qi flared around him, stronger and more intense.

“I am a member of the Golden Horizon’s Council of Six! How dare you disrespect the Alchemic Puppeteer Hopper Nelson! This is your grave!”

“What a cheesy line for a villain!”

‘Take the first action to win the battle! Activate the [Cleaving Mysteries] technique of the Chaotic Fist Art!’

The Fist Qi flew out at breakneck speed. It was more like shooting an artillery shell than throwing a punch.

Boom!

Hopper was hit by the Fist Qi before he could put up any defense and directly exploded.

‘Yikes... That’s a horrible way to die.’

But before he could even think about Hopper, he felt a chilling sensation. On instinct, he took a sharp step backward and positioned himself as he grabbed the space around him with his shadow.

Boom!

A mere fraction of a second after he moved, something crashed down, smashing through the ceiling at such an incredibly high speed that he could barely perceive it. The shockwave from the destruction of the ceiling rippled through the air, impacting Ji-Cheok. The intangible pressure was massive and harsh, cracking the walls and scattering the bits and pieces of the building he had been holding onto with his shadow.

Then, whatever it was hit the ground. A crater appeared, and the impact produced yet another shockwave. The violent shockwave spread out in all directions, bringing with it a searing heat storm.

‘What the hell… It feels like a meteor strike!’?he thought to himself in the fraction of a second he had, then quickly recalled his shadow. In an instant, he built up layers of defense in front of him.

Boom! Boom!

The entire mansion was blown apart. Even the ground was slightly melted, bubbling halfway into lava.

In front of Ji-Cheok appeared two human-looking creatures who appeared to be the culprits of the whole mess.

[Homunculus 098]

[Class: S+

A puppet that is half alive and half dead. It was created by Hopper Nelson, an Alchemist and a Puppeteer.

Female combat puppet.]

[Homunculus 099]

[Class: S+

A puppet that is half alive and half dead. It was created by Hopper Nelson, an Alchemist and a Puppeteer.

Male combat puppet.]

One of them was a large, muscular male puppet who appeared to be 2.5 meters tall. The other one was a female puppet who was 1.8 meters tall and relatively lithe and slender. They were wearing futuristic combat gear with a cybernetic look to it. Ji-Cheok wondered how they made stuff like that. They also seemed to have some sort of information-limiting skill. Otherwise, there was no way his Eye of Insight could have gotten only this little information from them.

“I will use my strongest combat resources against you!”

“You should be honored.”

The two of them took turns to speak.

Even if Ji-Cheok defeated these two puppets, he had no idea where the main body was…

“Ha…”

Ji-CHeok sighed, but there was nothing more he could do. He had to take them down. Then, at least Hopper would not be able to meddle in his Cyclops operation anymore.

“Come and fight me.”

Ji-Cheok drew his swords.

‘I’ll kill you in one blow.’

? ? ?

Alchemic Puppeteer Hopper Nelson was both an Alchemist and a Puppeteer.

Originally the eldest son of a wealthy family, he lost two legs and an arm during the first appearance of dungeons on Earth. With only his left arm remaining, he was in despair.

A year later, however, he Awakened with the job of Alchemic Puppeteer and found new possibilities as a Hunter. He realized that he could not only repair his body, but also make an impact on the world.

A year of living with only his left arm had a number of effects on his psyche, including a strong tendency to stand above others and give orders. Combining his knowledge as a businessman with his abilities as a Hunter, he quickly rose to prominence in American society. As he founded and raised his company, Puppet Inc., he met people who thought and acted similarly to him and formed strategic alliances, which was now called the Golden Horizon.

That was why he wasn’t the least bit worried about Um Ji-Cheok.

He didn’t actively tell the world about himself, but he was one of the highest-rank Hunters in the world. He was level 142.

As an unknown superpower, he was determined to do everything in his power to kill Um Ji-Cheok, so he unleashed his full power.

Homunculus 098 was a ranged combat puppet with several abilities, such as invisibility, high-powered laser, instantaneous future vision, energy shield, telekinesis, and illusions.

Homunculus 099 was a melee combat puppet with a simpler but more powerful set of abilities compared to the 098. It had a transcendent body with monstrous strength and regeneration, powerful greatsword techniques, temporary time acceleration, and Battle Aura.

These abilities seemed rather boring, nothing that Ji-Cheok hadn’t seen before, but the output of both entities was frighteningly high.

On top of that, they were further enhanced by the skills of Hopper Nelson. His homemade doping potions and puppeteer skills maximized the power of these two Homunculi. Hopper was confident that he could kill a Cyclops with only two of these puppets.

And yet, Hopper Nelson wondered as he controlled the puppets…

‘Why isn’t Um Ji-Cheok falling?’

? ? ?

It went without saying, but when someone became a God, they were no longer a normal human being. In practice, one of the things that happened was that their senses would develop abnormally.

As soon as Ji-Cheok ‘saw’ mana flowing to the head of the female puppet, he swiftly dodged to the size.

Tss!

The puppet actually shot laser beams at him!

‘That’s pretty cool.’

Even as he was admiring and dodging her attack, he rushed forward, powering up his dual swords. However, just then, the giant male Homunculus came charging at him. Ji-Cheok could feel the concentrated power of the aura wrapped around the enemy like a flaming cloak.

Boom!

At the same time, an intangible pressure washed over him.

‘There are way too many enemies with telekinetic powers these days.’

Woong!

Ji-Cheok neutralized the force by unleashing his own Soul Telekinesis, and then he raised his swords and activated a cultivation skill.

‘Heaven and Earth Chaotic Sword Art! Heaven and Earth Polarity Reversal!

His swords were each a conduit for the energy of Heaven and Earth respectively, and the two energies intersected to form a Sword Path that brought about the destructive power of Heaven and Earth. The tremendously powerful energy beam instantly slashed the male combat puppet.

Boom!

Normally, he would have been split in half, but his armor was so tough that even though it was destroyed, the puppet just tumbled backward virtually unharmed.

‘He’s weaker than he looks. I guess I’m stronger than him.’

Zoom~

“Huh?”

The scenery around Ji-Cheok changed. Lush bushes appeared, and the male puppet who was about to take a final hit from Ji-Cheok was nowhere to be seen.

“Hmph!”

Ji-Cheok spun his swords like a windmill, extending his Augmented Qi around him, and it pierced through the bushes.

‘So this is just an illusion, huh. But it doesn’t seem like an ordinary illusion.’

His senses were telling him these things were real.

‘You’ve got some interesting skills! Then…’

He crossed his swords once more.

‘Heaven and Earth Sky Destruction!’

The energies of Heaven and Earth clashed with each other, in complete disharmony. Their dissonance turned into a mighty wave of destruction powered by Augmented Qi, which descended to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Boom! Boom!

Everything within a radius of fifty meters around him was instantly vaporized by the explosion of Augmented Qi. The shockwave swept the ground for hundreds of meters, and the ground itself was directly melted by the high heat. It was similar to what had happened when those two puppets had fallen down like meteors.

Ji-Cheok’s attack canceled all the illusions. It appeared that the puppets’ illusion skills were vulnerable to wide-area attacks.

At the same time, his senses returned to normal. He saw the pair two hundred meters away, behind an energy shield that had deflected the impact of his technique.

“According to the information I have about you, you shouldn’t be this powerful…”

“Wait! There’s no way! Have you become the avatar of a God?!”

The two puppets shouted in surprise, one by one.

Ji-Cheok shrugged at their wildly incorrect guess.

‘An avatar? Pft. I’m the God himself!’

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