Two-Way Battle

Since obtaining the karma manipulation skill, Yuseong had been secretly looking down on other users.

That mindset hadn’t changed even after being thoroughly beaten by Bruce.

His defeat then was due to confusion from the sudden turn of events and hesitation about whether he could actually kill Bruce, causing him to hold back.

If he had fought from the start with the resolve to kill and actively utilized karma, he probably could have won without much difficulty.

Having confidence that he could defeat Bruce, the strongest among users, naturally meant he wouldn’t take weaker users seriously.

However, facing Ryuhei now, Yuseong realized his own arrogance.

‘What kind of items are these…’

A longsword radiating holy light.

A pitch-black helmet reminiscent of a demon lord, a shield engraved with Medusa’s head, full-body armor and boots gleaming with an ink-like sheen, and various other accessories.

‘He’s decked out head to toe in items at least S-rank or higher. Just the aura he’s giving off rivals Bruce.’

The tremendous energy emanating from Ryuhei’s equipment dominated the hall.

Of course, the situation wasn’t too serious.

No matter how strong Ryuhei was, there were currently four users including Yuseong and Alice present.

If all five attacked together, they could subdue Ryuhei without much difficulty.

“Sorry, but I don’t have time to argue with you right now. While I’m still asking nicely…”

“Stop.”

Thud!

Yuseong blocked Kang Changseok who was about to step forward.

Tilting his head in confusion, Kang Changseok’s expression hardened when he realized Yuseong’s eyes were focused elsewhere, not on Ryuhei.

“Good instincts. Or did you foresee the future?”

A low murmur came from behind the ruins of the defensive facilities as Lucifer appeared.

Seeing Bruce and Isaac emerge from where they had been hiding among the people, Kang Changseok instinctively swallowed hard.

If Yuseong hadn’t stopped him, he would have helplessly lost his life to their combined attack without being able to put up proper resistance.

‘If they were scattered, we could have taken them down one by one easily. But of course things wouldn’t be that simple.’

After the sudden raid followed immediately by a landing operation to give them no time to respond, the enemies had finished assessing the situation and set up a trap in that short time.

As expected of users trained through countless quests and skilled at improvisation.

Sweeping away the energy pouring in from all directions with his arm, Yuseong opened his mouth while looking at the users.

“Just in case, I’m asking – is there anyone who wants to change their mind even now?”

“I would rather take my own life here than become a pawn of the Outer God.”

“Haah. So that means…”

About to say something, Yuseong shook his head and closed his mouth.

After their first life-and-death battle, Yuseong had explained everything to Bruce and told him there was a misunderstanding.

However, Bruce’s answer was simple.

‘Even if everything you said is true, it doesn’t matter. I saw the future you would create. A future where normal becomes abnormal and the living envy the dead, where everything goes mad. As long as there’s even a 1%, no, even a 0.1% chance of an Outer God appearing on Earth, I absolutely cannot let you live.’

An uncompromising, resolute rejection.

Even after trying to contact him several more times, the response remained the same.

Turning to look at Ryuhei and Isaac, their reactions were equally cold.

The users who had sided with Changwei didn’t change their minds even after hearing about training users with the goggles and being able to regularly create transcendents.

Fear of a future more terrible than extinction, patriotism for their homeland, evacuating as many refugees as possible.

Though their reasons varied, they had all firmly resolved to stay with Changwei until the end.

Woong!

Who would face whom was already decided.

Yuseong smiled at Lucifer while emanating red battle energy throughout his body, and Lucifer smiled back at Yuseong.

Boom!

The moment the two disappeared, shockwaves and thunderous roars erupted from all directions.

That was the beginning.

Ryuhei and Isaac simultaneously used shape-shifting to get behind Kang Changseok and Sophia and swung their swords, but Kasim, who had blinked through space, skillfully manipulated his staff to block both sword strikes.

Kang Changseok and Sophia only realized the situation after the three had exchanged dozens of blows.

“Contract A Kang Changseok, Contract B Golden Buddha Warrior. 30 second limit. Payment 30 million karma points!”

“Combat mode switch! Computational assist activate!”

“I’ll handle Isaac, you take Ryuhei!”

The compatibility between the undead Kasim and Ryuhei, who possessed not only a holy sword but numerous other holy attribute weapons, was the worst possible.

After confirming that Kang Changseok and Sophia had entered combat mode, Kasim took Isaac’s sword to his chest while casting a spatial transfer magic, and the two vanished in a flash of light.

Crash!

“Kuk!”

As Ryuhei hesitated momentarily after losing his target, the purple plasma bolt fired by Sophia detonated with a massive explosion upon hitting his armor.

Compared to other users, Sophia’s combat ability was practically nonexistent.

However, that didn’t mean Sophia couldn’t fight.

To begin with, a considerable level of combat ability was essential for clearing high-rank quests.

To compensate for her lacking combat ability, Sophia had created a dedicated powered suit, and furthermore succeeded in enhancing its performance using the magic power engine she had received from Yuseong before.

“Full salvo!”

Hundreds of micro-missiles and beams rained down on Ryuhei.

In terms of pure attack power at that moment, it rivaled users belonging to Three Strong, beyond Three Intermediates.

Of course, Ryuhei wasn’t just taking it passively either.

“Aegis!”

Flash!

The missiles that touched the light emitted from the shield in Ryuhei’s left hand instantly turned to stone and scattered to the ground.

Ryuhei launched forward taking advantage of the weakened firepower, but Kang Changseok’s intervention forced him to stop before he could get far.

Boom!

Ryuhei’s brow furrowed at the impact transmitted through his shield.

But this was just the beginning.

Using Ryuhei’s shadow, the shadows of half-collapsed buildings, the shadows of Sophia’s micro-missiles, the shadows of scattered debris on the ground – Kang Changseok emerged from literally every shadow in all directions to assault Ryuhei.

“Kuk! What is this…”

One a capitalist and the other a scientist.

Having unconsciously looked down on them due to their images being far from combat, Ryuhei struggled desperately just to defend against their unexpected fierce attack.

“…”

“…”

While everyone was fighting intensely, Alice and Bruce remained standing still where they had started, staring at each other.

A truly bizarre sight.

Their strange standoff that seemed like it would continue forever was broken by Alice.

“Looks like I won.”

“Tch.”

Alice’s sudden declaration of victory and Bruce’s short click of the tongue.

To an ordinary person it would have looked like they were just standing still, but the two had exchanged hundreds, thousands of invisible exchanges.

Bruce attacked Alice using experience accumulated over long years and thousands of martial arts, while Alice attacked Bruce using Eye of Truth that saw through all principles and laws, and an artificial brain with ultra-high computational ability.

And as revealed in their conversation just now, the result ended in Alice’s victory.

“As expected, you’re no ordinary android.”

“I am rather special.”

Bruce had traversed countless worlds and fought countless beings, including enemies similar to Alice.

An android that simultaneously used multiple martial arts with eight arms.

A robot that unleashed powerful attacks using antimatter engine output.

Simply comparing martial arts level or specs, the girl before him fell short of them.

But Alice possessed a freedom and creativity that programmed androids and robots lacked.

‘The longer this drags on, the more disadvantageous it is for me.’

Bruce’s eye twitched as he felt sweat running down his spine.

Unless it was an undead that moved with magic power like Kasim.

No matter how much he enhanced himself with stat increase rights and items, there were limits to a human body made of organic matter.

As the fight dragged on, stamina and concentration would gradually drop and internal energy would eventually run out.

However, Alice the android was different.

Whatever power source she was using, she would continue unleashing attacks endlessly without tiring until her nearly infinite output ran dry.

‘Haah, I didn’t want to use this.’

Having concluded he needed to settle this quickly, Bruce let out a long sigh and began pressing his acupoints.

Not knowing what Bruce was up to, Alice took a step back and just watched.

And that became a fatal mistake.

Boom!

The moment he pressed the final acupoint, massive energy began swirling around Bruce like a whirlpool.

Not his usual clear and magnificent energy, but a turbid and extremely rough energy.

Bruce looked at Alice with bloodshot eyes where capillaries had burst and spoke.

“…It’s a martial art called the Heaven-Defying Blood Demon Technique. A demonic art that temporarily amplifies internal energy nearly threefold by triggering latent power.”

“That’s an impressive technique. But why are you telling me this?”

“Even if you die, you should know what technique killed you so you’ll feel less wronged.”

“Interesting joke.”

“Does it sound like a joke?”

Bang!

As soon as the words ended, Alice’s body was sent flying back.

The attack didn’t end there.

Bruce chased after the flying Alice and continued unleashing a barrage of strikes without rest.

‘Fast!’

He raised his physical abilities to the extreme using massive internal energy.

Though he only threw simple punches and kicks as if unable to properly control his power, the series of simple movements executed with overwhelming speed and power easily surpassed martial arts in terms of lethality.

Boom!

No matter how durably built, nothing could remain unscathed after taking dozens, hundreds of strikes each carrying enough force to crumble mountains.

Seeing the hologram displaying her status turn red, Alice immediately entered combat stance.

[Limit temporarily released]

[Dragon Heart output 120%]

[All weapons free]

[Dragonkin mode activated]

Crack!

Catching the fist aimed at her chest, Alice rotated the joint intending to break Bruce’s arm.

But Bruce’s arm didn’t budge at all.

“Did you think you could break my arm with just this much strength?”

Creak!

As Bruce twisted his arm with a smile, an ominous sound rang out from Alice’s arm instead.

Bruce’s stats while using the Heaven-Defying Blood Demon Technique far exceeded Alice’s.

A desperate situation by anyone’s view.

However, Alice showed a reaction no one could have imagined.

Looking down at her own arm twisted in an odd direction, Alice smiled brightly and said.

“This is fun.”