Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 576

“Hmm?”

Samsun’s eyes gleamed.

He looked towards the office wall.

A transparent tube extended halfway up the wall. It was filled with a milky white smoke, making it look like a pattern etched onto the surface.

The smoke within the long, thick tube was churning.

Glug.

Smoke, by nature, has no weight. However, when that tube opened, the complex hydraulic mechanism would activate with great force, spewing the smoke throughout the entire first-floor annex.

And the identity of that smoke was Ecstasy Incense.

Whoosh!

Samsun quickly moved towards the exit.

The floor had returned to its original position, closing again after Ohseon had left.

Samsun strode up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, in front of the passage, he opened the round tube at the end of the wall and pressed his ear to it.

“……?!”

He heard footsteps.

This tube was a listening device connected to the ground above, amplifying the sounds from above.

Yet, it was discreet.

The footsteps were very light and quiet. There seemed to be at least four or five such presences.

Samsun’s eyes wavered.

‘Experts?!’

Those who could silence their footsteps to this extent had to be experts who had broken through the Wall of No Form [a state of enlightenment in martial arts].

Great inner energy alone could not produce such footsteps. The body itself had to be restructured after breaking through the wall of enlightenment. Only then could such stealth be achieved.

‘Why can’t I hear other sounds? Where did Ohseon go? Why are the guards’ voices not…?’

It was then.

“Oh ho.”

A voice filled with amusement.

“Look at this? They’ve done all sorts of things on this good land?”

Who is it? Whose voice is it?

In an instant, Samsun felt a chill run down his spine.

‘Killing intent!!’

Samsun instinctively pulled his ear away from the tube and stepped back.

KWA-A-A-A-ANG!

The thick floor of the passage collapsed entirely.

Not only that, but the force of the strike, like a sharp awl, completely pulverized the passage floor and even part of the stairs connected to it.

‘Crazy!’

Samsun’s eyes were filled with shock.

Above the dusty passage, bright sunlight streamed through the gaping hole. And with that light, an arm suddenly appeared, bathed in a faint white glow.

A white aura that felt eerie and exuded the madness of a beast.

The voice, presumably belonging to the owner of the arm, came from above the hole.

“Good senses.”

Whoosh!

Samsun ran in the opposite direction without looking back.

‘An intruder!’

And not just any intruder.

It was a terrifying expert who had not only broken the floor of the thick secret passage with a single punch but had also shattered the stairs with the shockwave.

The passage floor was not only thick but also had a layer of White Lotus Steel [a fictional, extremely strong metal] sandwiched between layers of soil and stone.

That expert had shattered the thick layers of earth and the steel plate with a single fist.

If asked, Samsun could do it too. But to do so, he would need a little time to gather his inner energy to its maximum output.

That person didn’t need that. If he had broken it with a punch the moment he felt the killing intent, it meant that the single blow of martial arts he unleashed in an instant was as powerful as his maximum attack power.

An expert. Stronger than himself.

Perhaps a true master who could even compete with Ilseon had infiltrated Paradise.

The ability to recognize the difference in martial arts prowess between oneself and an opponent with just one strike. It was proof that Samsun was also no ordinary expert.

Samsun, who had passed through the long underground corridor in an instant, pulled hard on the chain hanging from the ceiling of the central wall.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeng!

A terribly discordant and chilling sound echoed throughout the underground.

“Huk!”

“W-what is it?!”

“These guys… why are they making such a racket?”

From startled voices to languid ones.

Murmuring sounds erupted from all fifty rooms. They were the customers of Paradise.

Samsun shouted.

“It’s an emergency! Everyone in each room, please move to the evacuation passage immediately!”

Woo-oo-oo-oo-oong!!

Samsun’s voice penetrated the entire underground space. It was clear from his voice alone that he possessed profound inner energy.

“O-oh no!”

“What? Is it real?”

“Please save me! Please save me!”

“You bitch! Where are you running off to!”

“Waaah! Mommy!”

“It seems something has happened. Hey, grab some opium.”

“Kyaaaaak!”

It was utter chaos.

The voices of men, women, and children echoed. Some were angry, some were relaxed, some were terrified, and some were annoyed.

Samsun’s face twisted.

‘Those bastards…!’

KWA-A-A-ANG!

At that moment, a tremendous explosion and a powerful shockwave engulfed the entire basement.

This shock was even greater and more powerful than before. It was a terrifying impact that made it seem like the entire basement would collapse. It was almost as if they were trying to collapse the entire place.

‘Crazy! Are they really planning to bury this whole place? Was destruction their only goal?!’

Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

Samsun’s eyes widened.

From above the broken secret passage, three or four men appeared.

Whoosh!

The aura emanating from that far distance was truly immense. The moment they revealed themselves, the entire basement was filled with a murderous aura, as if the entire area had become the domain of those experts.

‘Damn it!’

Samsun leaped diagonally across the corridor.

‘…I have no choice.’

Thud!

His eyes, having broken through the iron door, saw the huge iron pipes extending to the left and right of the wall.

At first glance, they might look like ordinary decorations, but those two iron pipes were the most dangerous devices in the Paradise branch.

They were the detonators. The explosive power of the mechanism itself was not that great, but the moment those mechanisms exploded, all the gunpowder surrounding this area would detonate, causing the ground to sink entirely.

It wasn’t just the ground that would sink. Around the gunpowder that extended to the lower part of the basement rooms, the Tang Clan’s White Flame Incinerator [a fictional device that produces inextinguishable flames], which would never go out once ignited, was laid.

From below, the hellish flames that would burn everything would rise, and from above, an immeasurable amount of soil and rubble would pour down.

In addition, the vents installed in each room would continue to supply air. There would be no chance for the fire to go out.

This was the culmination of the Tang Clan’s mechanisms that were laid throughout all Paradise branches.

Even if this place were searched later, no one would be able to recognize the burned and crushed corpses.

‘I don’t know who they are, but Ohseon must have already been taken down.’

It was certain.

Even if that wasn’t the case, they clearly had hostile intentions. Whatever their purpose, they must not leave this place intact.

Samsun grabbed the red handle on the right pillar.

In an instant, the members who were indulging their desires in each room came to mind.

‘It’s your own fault.’

Some of them would have entered the evacuation passages connected to each room. If they crawled through those fifty or so passages, they could escape safely.

But judging from the clamoring voices from all directions, it seemed that most of them were not properly aware of the situation.

‘Fools.’

When one becomes a member of Paradise, they are educated on how to act in an emergency and are required to sign a document stating that they will take full responsibility for any accidents that occur if they do not follow the evacuation procedures.

In other words, those who die without evacuating are entirely at fault.

Samsun forcefully pulled up the handle.

Screeeeeeeak! Rumble!

The huge mechanism was moving.

One was not enough. Both iron pipes had to be operated to activate the detonator.

And the detonator would explode within thirty counts of being activated.

‘Good.’

It was then.

Whoosh!

Was it possible that the gunpowder had exploded even though the detonator had not yet been activated?

In an instant, Samsun felt a terrifying killing intent surging towards his back. The killing intent was so intense that it felt like a storm of flames was engulfing him.

Samsun’s eyes wavered.

‘Damn it!’

It was him.

It was definitely that monster who had shattered the secret passage with a single punch.

‘Crazy! He’s already here?!’

Samsun quickly reached for the remaining detonator mechanism.

Swoosh!

“……?!”

Shock appeared on Samsun’s face.

His outstretched hand, his advancing foot, and his body leaning forward seemed to stop abruptly.

His entire body seemed to be under some kind of control, and his speed slowed down in an instant. It was as if something transparent, with a density much higher than water, or even mud, was binding his entire body.

‘This is…’

He didn’t know how many times he had been surprised in this short time.

‘Telekinesis?!’

That’s right. This was the art of telekinesis.

But Samsun could not have imagined that there would be someone in the world who could wield telekinesis with such an unbelievable range.

‘Damn it!’

Woo-oo-oo-oong!

Samsun pushed his inner energy to its limit. Then, his body, which had almost stopped, began to move quite quickly.

At that moment, a sharp flash of light flickered.

Thwack!

“Kuh-ack!”

A scream burst from Samsun’s mouth. The flash of light that had shot out had pierced his shoulder entirely.

The shoulder was tattered. The bones, joints, and some of the muscles were all broken and severed. The shoulder, barely attached to the mangled flesh, was beyond recovery.

“Senior.”

“Don’t worry.”

Whoosh!

The one who had closed the distance in an instant was a middle-aged man holding a three-foot-long spear and a short, thick sword.

Surprisingly, this man’s martial prowess was not significantly inferior to his own.

The man, Paeyul, said in a chilling voice.

“You trashy bastard.”

Thwack!

Samsun’s eyes became bloodshot. The spear had already pierced his abdomen.

Fshhhhh!

White smoke billowed from Samsun’s body.

The inner energy that had filled his entire body began to evaporate at a terrifying rate. The Qi Sea point [a vital energy center in the body], which had been destroyed by the spear, could not handle the inner energy of his entire body, and was releasing it all through his eighty-four thousand pores.

‘Damn it…’

Trickle.

Blood flowed from Samsun’s nose and mouth.

It was absurd. He was in charge of managing Paradise, but he had never imagined that he would die so futilely because of Paradise.

Fshhhhh.

Samsun’s hair gradually turned white. Deep wrinkles formed on his taut skin, and his clear, deep eyes became lifeless, like the eyes of a rotten fish.

‘Am I going to die like this?’

Thud!

“Cough!”

Samsun’s body floated into the air.

A young man was gripping his neck.

Samsun looked down at the young man.

‘……!!’

Even in his powerless and disoriented state, he felt extreme terror.

It wasn’t the fear of impending death. The fear he felt was a primal fear caused by the presence of the young man, no, the evil god, who was looking up at him.

A man who exuded an overwhelming presence that made him forget even the fear of death for a moment.

“Are you resentful?”

The evil god’s voice was terribly dry.

Like the cracked bottom of a drought-stricken rice paddy.

“You shouldn’t be resentful.”

Whoosh!

A blood-red flame blazed in the evil god’s left hand.

It wasn’t a real flame. It was an illusion caused by condensed fire energy.

Of course, that fire energy would unleash power no different from a real flame.

The hand covered in fire energy tapped Samsun’s abdomen.

In an instant, Samsun’s eyes widened as if they would tear.

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

Fshhhhh!

White smoke rose from Samsun’s seven orifices. The fire energy that had penetrated inside was cooking his internal organs raw.

The evil god, Yeon Ho-Jeong, released Samsun’s neck.

Samsun, who had fallen to the floor, twitched a few times before going limp.

Yeon Ho-Jeong said coldly.

“Be grateful that you died so easily.”