Disciple of The Three Kings [EN]: Chapter 286

The Three Kings’ Disciple (287)

The moment Jung Sang-ho’s last finger broke.

His finger was a kind of trigger.

In the pain of it breaking, the trauma he held resurfaced.

*Whoosh!*

What was inside him expanded and exploded.

That was the principle of the Red Bomb.

Stimulating and exploding a player’s core with pain, trauma, and intense negative emotions.

Negative emotions amplify the player’s magic power by several to dozens, or even hundreds of times, and the moment it bursts out.

‘Boom!’

It becomes a massive explosion that engulfs the area.

It’s nearly impossible to stop a player’s core that has already begun to expand.

It was.

-It’s a principle similar to nuclear fission.

Like the most lethal weapon before the world’s invasion, once an explosion starts, there was no way to stop it.

‘Finally…’

It was the time of liberation.

“Jung Sang…ho!”

Even Lee Shin-woo’s voice, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, wasn’t important to Jung Sang-ho.

“It’s too late.”

It was the end.

An opportunity to escape this terrible pain, and the end.

It was that moment.

“Jung Sang-ho.”

A voice different from Lee Shin-woo’s.

Familiar yet somehow different, Jung Sang-ho opened his eyes.

In front of him.

“……!”

There he was.

A shadow appeared in the world that had turned white with the surging and exploding energy.

A man who split the white world with a red line and stepped in.

“You….”

Jung Sang-ho’s eyes began to tremble.

He thought he wouldn’t see him.

“Lee Ro-woon.”

But at the last moment, he appeared right in front of him.

His heart began to violently fluctuate.

As the resolve he had hardened began to waver….

*Whirr! Whirr! Whirrr!*

The waves of this explosion, reacting to the player’s heart, began to spread further.

“No way.”

Jung Sang-ho urgently brought his hand to his chest with ominous eyes.

*Whirrr!*

The waves spread out once more.

“No… way.”

Feeling more ominous at the uncontrollably growing waves, the division of the player’s core was accelerating.

What Jung Sang-ho wanted was not this level of explosion.

“……!”

The explosion that was about to happen was something that could not be created by any other means.

Perhaps the entire Philippines, where he was standing, or even more, could be annihilated in an instant.

Even though he had made up his mind, he hadn’t thought it would be to this extent, and his heart trembled with unease.

The waves grew even larger, resonating with it.

It was a vicious cycle.

“I… I….”

Only then did Jung Sang-ho come to his senses and began to tremble all over.

“What have I done….”

He hadn’t even realized what he wanted and had done, but now, at this moment, everything became clear.

“I… I….”

Jung Sang-ho said, looking at Lee Ro-woon.

“This wasn’t what I intended….”

Those were the last words he left.

*Whirrr!*

Finally, a red ring began to form and spread.

The explosion would occur the moment it engulfed the waves.

*Thud.*

The sky and earth trembled.

It was the moment the explosion was about to begin.

“…….”

Jung Sang-ho closed his eyes tightly, and he couldn’t hear anything.

“……?”

He had thought about what might be after the end of the world, after death, but.

“……!”

He never thought he would maintain his consciousness in this silence.

He thought he had already died and fallen into the world beyond, when.

*Grip.*

Something snatched his wrist.

“Jung Sang-ho.”

His name was called again.

“It’s been a while.”

Lee Ro-woon was there when he carefully opened his eyes.

Languid, yet serene.

Yet, Lee Ro-woon, who had a welcoming and wistful look.

His right hand was holding his wrist, and in his left hand….

*Whoosh!*

The explosion he had created was contained.

* * *

*Rustle.*

Jung Sang-ho, who had been asleep, quietly opened his eyes.

*Clink.*

As the familiar noise pierced his ears, Jung Sang-ho’s eyes were even more lifeless.

“Cough….”

He didn’t know how many days he hadn’t had a single drop of water, and a voice cracked like parched land came out.

“Dream….”

A strange voice, as if he hadn’t uttered a single word for years.

There was nothing special about it.

“It was a dream.”

Because this was his daily life.

*Clink.*

It had been a long time since he was imprisoned in the enemy’s base, in a secret underground.

He tried to count the days, but at some point, he forgot the passage of time and had to surrender himself to the pain.

-Didn’t I raise you?

His voice echoed like a reverberation.

-And I granted the ideal you desired.

Intense anger and despair filled his body.

-So, I will for you….

“Shut… up….”

It was a voice he didn’t want to hear.

But a voice that was branded like a seal and wouldn’t leave him.

Jung Sang-ho was living in that pain.

“Is it hard?”

A presence appeared before Jung Sang-ho’s eyes.

“Then you should have made a better choice.”

Jung Sang-ho curled his lips at the voice that seemed to mock him.

But it was better this way.

That was….

“Choice….”

Me.

A figure that looked exactly like him.

No, a figure that looked exactly like him when he was healthy.

That was an illusion created by himself while being imprisoned, a support for his rotting heart to endure.

The same days, one day when he felt pain as if he was really going to die, the guy appeared.

-It is for the greater good. What is so difficult about sacrificing one’s body for a great cause?

“The choice to stay back then.”

-Countless lives were saved because of you.

“Your choice not to follow him.”

It was heard.

-This is your choice.

“The result.”

At first, he thought that the illusion was a support that sustained him.

This place where they didn’t give him a single drop of water or a piece of bread.

The only time he could have a conversation was.

-It is your sacrifice.

Only when he tried to use him.

Except for that time, he thought it was the only support that would keep him from going insane in a life where he couldn’t even talk to anyone.

But at some point, he realized.

*Smirk.*

That it was actually making him even more insane.

And.

“Do you want to die?”

That it wasn’t a disease created by his own mind.

“Then die.”

That it was.

Just a device created for him to torment him even more.

To use him.

He had ruined a person’s life and heart for the sake of a cause.

“Not even being able to die.”

It was that moment.

*Static.*

The clear illusion of himself gradually began to distort.

“Not… die… ei… ther….”

Even his words began to stretch out like a broken tape.

Jung Sang-ho’s eyes widened at this sudden situation.

Something that had never happened before.

Something new was happening.

*Static.*

The illusion’s appearance finally changed.

“……!”

A clear illusion.

*Tremble, tremble.*

It was a reflexive reaction.

Jung Sang-ho’s eyes trembled, and his whole body trembled.

*Tremble, tremble, tremble!*

It was a reflexive reaction that proved the pain he had endured.

“No way….”

It was starting.

That endless pain.

Lacerating his whole body with a whip, digging into his fingernails with needles.

If he was torn, they would pour potion on him, and when the wound regenerated, they would tear it again.

-The cause.

-Liberation.

-Freedom.

While shouting such words, they would brainwash him, and that half-day of pain would continue.

Does the pain become familiar?

He wanted to tear the mouth of the person who said such a thing.

Would he really become accustomed to the pain?

Pain is not something you get used to.

It’s just something you endure, something you give up on.

“Kill… me….”

The only words Jung Sang-ho could utter were those.

*Thud.*

He was approaching Jung Sang-ho.

Jung Sang-ho said once more.

“Kill….”

It was that moment.

*Drip.*

The sound of a water droplet hitting the floor was heard.

*Swish!*

The sound of cutting was heard belatedly.

The body of the demon, Kwon Cheol, who was in front of him, was splitting in half and collapsing.

“……!”

It was a moment he had dreamed of every day.

How much he had longed for the day when that demonic human would die and he would be liberated.

But Jung Sang-ho was still not relieved.

There had been similar things several times before.

-Did you expect it?

Giving hope and crushing it.

That was the best way to break the heart, and he had already experienced it dozens of times.

This too.

“A dream….”

It would be a dream.

He was about to close his eyes again, abandoning any expectations, when the pain would come again.

“Yes. This is a dream.”

A voice was heard.

The dream he had earlier came to mind.

His escape, and himself trying to self-destruct after finding Lee Ro-woon.

“It’s a dream to erase your trauma.”

“Lee… Ro-woon?”

“It’s time to wake up now.”

Lee Ro-woon appeared right in front of him.

He looked at Jung Sang-ho with pitiful eyes and said.

“From a long nightmare. You’ve been through a similar time as me.”

* * *

“Sang-ho seems a bit more stable now.”

Lee Shin-woo, looking tired, approached Lee Ro-woon and said.

Their advance had temporarily stopped since that day.

-It’s the enemy forces!

-The enemy forces are carrying out a terror attack!

The explosion and vibration that occurred with the commotion.

At that time, when the terrified Blood Cult followers were causing chaos.

*Swish.*

Lee Ro-woon appeared, wrapped the explosion in one hand, and quietly disappeared.

The procession that had stopped since that day.

However, the number of people in the procession was increasing explosively.

“…….”

Lee Ro-woon, leaning against the wall, quietly looked at Lee Shin-woo.

“To think he was alive.”

Lee Shin-woo said as if he still couldn’t believe it.

Jung Sang-ho.

It was an unforgettable name, an unforgettable person.

From the same Saebom Orphanage, he was the friend who followed Lee Ro-woon and Lee Shin-woo the most.

And when Lee Ro-woon and Lee Shin-woo attempted to escape.

-Let’s go together.

Naturally, he had made that offer to Jung Sang-ho as well.

But in the end, Jung Sang-ho didn’t go.

-I’m not going.

At first, he felt betrayed and disappointed.

But after escaping that hell and a long time had passed, he realized.

-He….

The news Lee Shin-woo had delivered.

-He stayed behind for us. To buy us time.

He had given up his own freedom to help the orphanage escape.

And the news he heard was that he had been killed for that crime.

That’s why he thought he was dead.

“He went through a similar time as me.”

Lee Ro-woon said.

“He too….”

A languid and emotionless face.

But on one side, there was a wistful and pitiful look.

“He was waiting with me.”

Those who have not experienced that terrible despair and pain cannot know it.

The despair that would make you want to tear the mouth of anyone who uttered words of sympathy like, ‘It must have been hard,’ or ‘It must have hurt.’

Jung Sang-ho had felt what he had felt in the volcano.

“It seems there’s chaos within the enemy forces due to the Blood Cult’s rampage. It seems he escaped during that time.”

“…….”

“It will take some time, but he’ll be okay.”

He’ll be okay.

“He has to be.”

It was the moment Lee Ro-woon got up and spoke.

*Stagger.*

Lee Ro-woon’s body staggered and he briefly lost his balance.

“Are you… okay?”

Lee Shin-woo’s worried voice.

Lee Ro-woon quietly looked at his face.

Lee Ro-woon was still digesting the massive explosion that Jung Sang-ho had unleashed.