Chapter 57

Of course, the Lizardmen weren’t merciful enough to just let people escape.

‘There are so many others, why chase after me specifically?’

Yuseong bit his lip at the sight of Nord personally pursuing him while ignoring the many other warriors.

“Hiss! Catch him! You must catch him! Don’t let a single one escape!”

“Vengeful Spirit Summoning Technique!”

“Keeeeeeek!”

Dozens of spirits charged in while letting out bizarre screams that could drive one insane, but Yuseong, with his high spirit stat, didn’t even blink at their screams and merely threw out punches indifferently.

As he continued fleeing while shaking off the pursuit, Yuseong finally confirmed that not a single person remained in the vicinity and stopped.

“Stop.”

A vocalization method that felt like expelling all the air from his lungs.

Simply hearing and understanding a language versus properly speaking it were problems of completely different dimensions.

Even among humans there were pronunciation differences when speaking languages, so with a completely different species that had different vocal organs, there was a possibility they wouldn’t understand even if he tried to speak as similarly as possible.

However, fortunately, the Lizardmen stopped in their tracks with surprised expressions.

“Did you just speak our language? If you understood what I said, say it again.”

“Yes. I can speak your language.”

“It’s difficult to understand, but it’s definitely our language. To think we’d meet a human from another world who can speak our language. Where did you learn it?”

“Isn’t there something more important right now? There, High Priest Nord was it? I have some questions.”

“If you want to talk, don’t you think it’s proper etiquette to first state your name and status?”

After pondering briefly, Yuseong spoke in a somewhat dejected voice.

“My name is Han Yuseong. As for status, I’m a citizen of the Republic of Korea…”

“Is that all? Don’t you have any other positions at least?”

“That’s all.”

“Normally it would be unthinkable for a lower class to speak with the upper class, but given this exceptional situation, it can’t be helped. You, Han Yuseong. What did you want to ask?”

“Lower class… No, never mind.”

Yuseong was about to explain how much wealth he had but shook his head.

He realized that the class Nord spoke of wasn’t referring to the amount of wealth one possessed.

“Earlier it seemed like you were saying you’d let us go safely if we retreated, and even during battle you tried to capture rather than kill when possible. What’s your intention?”

“We were merely trying to stop the impudent intruders who defiled sacred land, as per our duty. Unnecessarily spilling blood is not what we desire.”

“Impudent intruders? Hey, I think there’s some misunderstanding – you were the ones who invaded first, not us. Where do you think this city is?”

“I apologize for that part. However, our coming here wasn’t by our will but merely an accident.”

As expected, these were different species who, unlike monsters that unconditionally antagonized humans, possessed intelligence and reason to think.

“Accident?”

“There’s a long story behind it, so it’s not something I can explain simply here and now. If I must explain briefly, I could say that only this city barely managed to escape amidst a catastrophe where the world was being destroyed.”

‘If we play our cards right, we might be able to end this without fighting?’

An incident that occurred due to inability to communicate.

There was some damage, but they hadn’t crossed a river of no return.

‘Right, it’s not good to have prejudices just because they look different from us. As civilized beings, we should be able to resolve situations through dialogue.’

The cliché where people fight meaningless battles due to miscommunication or minor misunderstandings, only to realize the truth later and regret.

Having read countless such stories, Yuseong asked in a much gentler voice, thinking peaceful coexistence with the Lizardmen might be possible.

“What would you do if humans wanted to talk?”

“We would naturally accept. We’ve suffered much damage and consumed many resources wandering the spatial gaps for long years. Meaningless fighting is not what we desire. If dialogue is possible, that would be best. However, that would be impossible, wouldn’t it?”

“Why do you think it’s impossible? I can arrange a place for dialogue with the human ruling class.”

“You? But didn’t you say you were lower class?”

“I know someone from the upper class. If we go through him, we should be able to convey your intentions to the human rulers.”

Kang Changseok.

Since he was also a user, he should be able to talk with the Lizardmen, and as the chairman of the Korean Contractors Association, he should have sufficient connections with politicians.

His own role would end there.

The so-called higher-ups would decide what happens after that.

“Is that true?”

“What, you think I’m lying? Of course it’s true.”

Nord, who had maintained a cold expression throughout, showed a faint smile at Yuseong’s confident demeanor and said.

“If you succeed in resolving this situation through dialogue without fighting as you suggest, I will give you a reward befitting that merit.”

“Reward sounds good. What is it?”

“As the interim ruler of Dragonia and High Priest of the Dragon God Religion, I promise to grant you first-class citizenship of Dragonia and the position of governor for any country you desire.”

“…Governor?”

Yuseong, who had been grinning, froze at Nord’s words.

It felt like he’d heard something really strange, but it was so far outside the realm of common sense that his brain couldn’t process it immediately.

“Is that not enough? Your greed is considerable. Very well, I don’t know how big this planet is, but I’ll give you one more country of your choice. This should be sufficient, right?”

“There’s one more thing I’d like to ask.”

“Ask anything.”

“If the dialogue goes well and you’re permitted to stay in this world, what do you plan to do next?”

“Naturally, we must revive Dragonia.”

“How exactly would that revival take place?”

“We would change this planet’s ecology to suit the dragon race, spread dragon civilization, and manage the natives by dividing them into ranks according to their abilities and uses. It will take a long time, but it’s entirely possible.”

Nodding his head while listening intently to Nord’s words, Yuseong finally grasped the entire situation and broke out in cold sweat.

‘They’re crazy imperialists! Peaceful coexistence my ass! No wonder they looked weird from the start. Lizards? They look sinister just by appearance!’

Whether human or different species, they indeed acted as they looked.

“Why are you backing away?”

“There’s no way to contact the outside from here, right? First I need to get out to convey your intentions to the outside, don’t you think?”

“That’s problematic. You are the only human who can speak our language. If something unfortunate were to happen to you after going outside, peaceful negotiations between us and the natives would become impossible. You will remain here, and we will send out the people we’ve captured one by one so they can convey our intentions.”

“Ah, that method existed! I hadn’t thought of that.”

“…”

“…”

A moment of silence.

And shortly after, a cruel smile appeared on Nord’s face.

“You’re thinking of running away. Aren’t you?”

Bang!

The ground began to shake as if an earthquake had struck, simultaneous with his tail striking the ground.

While Yuseong momentarily hesitated to maintain balance, he dodged the staff flying toward his chest and stared at Nord with a bewildered expression.

‘A priest rushing in with a weapon?’

The bewilderment was brief, and as Yuseong calmly deflected the attack and tried to counter-attack, he realized something was strange after exchanging several blows.

Far from being pushed back by his attacks, Nord was perfectly blocking them and rather pressing the attack.

“What kind of priest fights this well?”

“It would be a mistake to think a priest is weak in close combat. This level of martial arts is basic training for a guardian of Dragonia. Rather, aren’t you supposed to be a warrior? Should you be getting pushed back in hand-to-hand combat by a priest?”

“Kuk!”

Yuseong ground his teeth.

Among his skills, only two were directly related to physical combat.

The assassination technique Shadow Moon Style 16 used by Over Technology world agents, and the Combat Technique of academy cadets.

Until now, he hadn’t felt the need to learn new skills since he had only faced opponents that could be handled sufficiently with these two skills, like Deep Ones, scoundrels, and Orc warriors, or extremely irregular enemies that were completely out of scale like Outer Gods and mad witches, but at this moment Yuseong sincerely regretted those past choices.

Thud!

The staff struck a vital point.

Even though Pain Nullification eliminated the pain, he couldn’t avoid a moment of stiffness, and during that time Nord approached and grabbed for Yuseong’s neck.

No, tried to grab.

Zzzzt!

“Ugh?”

A shock like being electrocuted.

While Nord was stunned by the shock, Yuseong used Flash Step to instantly create distance.

‘Not an opponent I can handle with my current abilities. I’m running.’

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as saying it.

An enraged Nord was pursuing at terrifying speed while letting out fierce roars.

Unless one had the ability to soar into the sky or sink into the ground, escaping from this situation was impossible.

Naturally, Yuseong didn’t have such abilities.

Instead, he had an ability that surpassed both of those, literally in a different dimension.

‘I just need to cross to another dimension.’

With a sardonic smile, Yuseong took out the goggles he had been carefully keeping and put them on.

[Accessing Multi-dimensional Exploration System.]

[Successfully observed quests.]

-My clan was massacred by the ancients. I want revenge no matter the cost.

-A group of 195 people desperate to escape from the demon realm.

-Gates opened and monsters appeared, is this for real?

-An Inquisitor took my younger sibling.

-……

-……

-……

The reason Yuseong readily accepted the mission despite not knowing what dangers might exist.

It wasn’t just an impulsive decision made because he didn’t want to follow Kang Changseok’s words, but because of the user ability that guaranteed perfect escape no matter what situation arose.

‘Which quest should I choose?’

While escaping from Nord’s pursuit was the priority and any quest within an appropriate grade would do, Yuseong couldn’t hastily choose a quest.

Simply running away wasn’t satisfying enough.

He thought it would be good if he could also fill in his shortcomings while doing the quest.

‘For close combat related skills, a martial arts world setting would be better. But to get skills, I can’t just look at the grade. I need to know what kind of person the client is…’

Bang!

A familiar sound.

As he launched his body into the air, the ground where he had just been standing began to ripple.

Though he wasn’t airborne for long, the distance had considerably shortened in that time.

In the end, Yuseong had no choice but to choose a quest that caught his eye.

[Starting ‘Youngest Disciple of the Jincheon Martial Arts Family’.]

[Activating Deus Ex Machina program.]

[Dimensional coordinates specified and Ariadne’s Thread connected.]

[Initiating spirit particle transfer.]

“…What is this?”

He had only turned one corner.

Just briefly lost sight of him, yet the prey that was almost caught had vanished without a trace.

A bewildered Nord had his subordinates thoroughly search the vicinity, but they ultimately couldn’t find Yuseong.