Chapter 226: Chapter 226

Thud!

“Aaagh!”

A man in his late 20s screamed and collapsed. The cursed poison entering through his respirator was taking effect. The poison quickly spread through his body, blurring his vision.

“Heh, lucky us!”

“Wow, we managed to take down a Level 162!”

Three students stood before him, looking down and sneering. They were Level 130–140 players, watching as the Level 162 man lay dying before them.

“What about the points?”

“Hold on… Whoa! He’s got 2,300 points!”

“Guess he didn’t level up for nothing.”

Mocking him, the students stripped him of his points and items. Then, they frowned as they received a message.

“What’s this? We’re being called back to HQ?”

“Out of nowhere?”

“Tch, let’s finish this up and head over.”

They would’ve ignored it if they could, but being part of the guild left them no choice. After looting him, they left the man there and headed toward HQ.

“Hey, if we leave him like that, won’t he die?”

One student glanced back at the man.

“Let him die.”

“Come on, it’d be better to at least give him some antidote. It’d look bad if he dies.”

“Guess you’re right.”

In the end, they roughly administered an antidote they bought with points before leaving.

When they arrived at HQ, they found fourteen students sprawled across the floor.

“What… what’s going on?”

“What the…?”

The students were bewildered.

“Oh, you’re here?”

A man waved at them from where he was sitting on the couch.

“Who… who are you?”

“Damn it, was this your doing?”

Two of the students asked, glaring at him with a threatening tone. The man smirked and nodded.

“Yep, that was me.”

“Damn it.”

“That bastard’s only Level 160.”

“Nickname: Heaven Defier? Damn, how cringey.”

These three students had already taken down a Level 162 once before. One of them subtly released some poison, which would inevitably affect those lying around as well—but that didn’t matter. Taking out this cringeworthy guy came first.

But even as time passed, he didn’t so much as flinch.

“What the… isn’t the poison working?”

“It is… look.”

The sprawled-out students’ faces were turning a faint shade of purple, showing that the poison was indeed filling the space.

Nonetheless, the Level 160 man calmly stood up.

“You’re using poison on me?”

He smirked, taking slow steps forward. The three students instinctively backed away.

“Damn it…”

“Come any closer, and I’ll kill you.”

The student at the front drew his sword, pointing it at the man. But the man’s form disappeared in an instant.

“Drawing your sword—does that mean you understand it could be you who dies?”

“What… ugh!”

Bang!

The student with the drawn sword was folded in half and slammed into the wall.

“Kim Sang-ho!”

The student who had released the poison called out to his friend, his face going pale.

“Is this really the time to worry about your friend?”

At that moment, the man appeared right in front of him. Although he wore a smile, his expression was more chilling than ever.

“Ah, aaaaah!”

The second student was hit in the stomach and thrown back into the wall as well.

“Eek!”

With his two friends down in an instant, the last student bolted, trying to escape.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

The man grabbed him by the hair, yanking him backward and slamming him to the ground.

“Aaah! My hair! You’re ripping my hair out!”

“Shut up. You’re being noisy.”

“O-okay, just please… don’t hit me!”

“That’s not happening.”

“Gah!”

Finally, the last student took a punch to the face and was knocked out cold.

* * *

“That’s about enough.”

Jeong-hoon returned to the couch and sat down. As the students slowly regained their senses, they were already kneeling with their hands raised.

“Hey, what about the antidote?”

“I-I administered it.”

Jeong-hoon had a skill that now made him immune to all poisons, but the others didn’t. The student who’d released the poison had to spend most of his stolen points on antidotes to save the poisoned students.

“So, shall we have a little chat now?” Jeong-hoon smirked.

According to the roster, there were 42 names. Originally, there had been 46, but four had quit before he obtained the list, reducing the count to 42. Including the ones he had just subdued, he’d dealt with a total of 35.

Even excluding Kim Ji-gang, who had died, six were still unaccounted for.

“I-I’m sorry…”

“We’ll never do something like that again…”

Jeong-hoon chuckled.

“Of course, you won’t. I’ve reduced all your stats to zero.”

===

[Seven Deadly Sins]

– Type: Sloth

– Level: ?? (Grows by absorbing stats)

– Grade: Epic

[Detailed Stats]

– Strength: 102

– Agility: 101

– Stamina: 100

– Defense: 101

– Wisdom: 102

– Magic Power: 102

– Mental Strength: 101

===

Jeong-hoon had knocked all the students unconscious.

The reason was simple.

It was to feed their stats to Sloth.

As a result, Sloth’s stats had all exceeded 100, while the 35 kneeling students had their stats downgraded to levels unworthy of their ranks.

‘They’re practically at Level 20 now.’

So, even if they all attacked him at once, Jeong-hoon was confident he could handle them with one hand.

“…”

The students fell silent. They were all high school students.

Jeong-hoon drew Leviathan and pointed it at them.

“Well then, who should I kill first?”

At his chilling words, the students flinched, and some even wet themselves.

“P-please spare us…!”

“We’ll do anything if you let us live!”

Jeong-hoon stroked his chin.

“Begging to be spared? I bet those you robbed begged the same way.”

“We never killed anyone!”

“That’s right! We only robbed them—we never killed anyone!”

The students quickly protested.

Jeong-hoon scanned their faces and nodded. They didn’t seem to be lying.

“Fine. Then quit the guild immediately.”

“Yes!”

“We’ll leave right now!”

At his command, the students began to leave the Golden Raccoon Guild one by one, erasing their names from the roster.

‘Still not here, huh.’

Despite the message he had sent to everyone, there were still six who hadn’t shown up.

“Anyone here know about these six?”

Jeong-hoon showed the students the names on the roster.

The students nodded.

“They’re the executives!”

Then one of the students shouted anxiously.

“Executives?”

“Yes! There are six executives in the Golden Raccoon!”

“Okay, you’re good. You can go home.”

“Th-thank you!”

Before Jeong-hoon could change his mind, the student quickly stood up and bolted for the door. Despite having knelt for so long that his legs must have been numb, he moved with impressive speed.

The remaining students, seeing the opportunity, began to share all the information they knew, their eyes shining with excitement.

Most of it was useless, but a few pieces of information caught Jeong-hoon’s attention.

‘Oh? There might be more than just that one avatar around.’

Though not certain, it seemed that the six executives could also be avatars. The students reported that they had learned the entire process of targeting and robbing from the executives, not from Kim Ji-gang.

“Okay, you all can go back now. If I catch you doing that kind of thing again, I won’t hold back next time.”

He had already drained enough from them.

“Th-thank you!”

“We’ll behave from now on!”

The students hurriedly fled.

[Behaving, my ass.]

As he watched them run off, Mook-ho grumbled. He was unhappy about letting so many of them go, just like the four earlier.

“It’s fine. They’ll be dealt with by someone else, even if not by me.”

With their stats dropped to that of a Level 20, the quickest way to recover their abilities would be to level up, but their levels remained unchanged.

In a world where strength equated to power, surviving would be incredibly tough for them.

‘No need for me to get my hands dirty.’

* * *

Jeong-hoon sat on the couch, waiting and waiting for the remaining six to return.

Finally, he faced them.

“It’s you, huh? The one who took down our guild leader.”

They appeared to be around the same age as Kim Ji-gang. It seemed they were aware of Jeong-hoon’s existence, entering with scornful expressions.

“Did you receive a quest or something?”

At Jeong-hoon’s question, they shrugged their shoulders.

“So what if we did?”

Their levels were slightly lower than Kim Ji-gang’s, between 205 and 210. They had even completed all three job advancements.

Despite knowing that Kim Ji-gang had fallen, they still acted so nonchalantly.

Jeong-hoon smirked.

‘There are cases where transcenders can’t communicate with each other.’

If that weren’t the case, it wouldn’t make sense that they didn’t receive instructions to eliminate him through the avatar quest.

‘They’re still issuing avatar quests even after demoting a demon-level transcender like Mandora?’

Normally, they would see him as a threat and retreat.

Moreover, they were oblivious to Sloth’s existence.

The connection had been severed after Kim Ji-gang’s death.

This was precisely why Jeong-hoon had chosen to kill him first.

“What are you grinning about?”

“Have you lost your mind, thinking you can challenge me at the brink of death?”

Despite provoking Jeong-hoon, the two remained on guard. It was no surprise; their guild leader, Kim Ji-gang, had fallen. The fact that he was continuously growing stronger while completing quests was clear evidence that Jeong-hoon was no ordinary opponent.

“Sure. Go ahead and show me your trump card.”

Jeong-hoon opened the Celestial Gate and moved closer to the one on his right.

His fist swung towards the man’s face.

Thud!

At that moment, Jeong-hoon’s head snapped to the side.

He turned his gaze to see magical energy swirling around the face of the one he had just aimed at.

He had used physical attack reflection.

“Heh heh, it’s already troublesome if you can’t handle my first move without using your trump card.”

The man who reflected the attack chuckled.

Jeong-hoon smirked in response.

Then he swung his fist again.

Thud!

This time, the attack was not reflected. The man’s torso folded in half, and he crashed into the wall.

Gah!

The man fainted on impact.

As Sloth began to stir again, Jeong-hoon blocked its emergence.

‘Wait. Not yet.’

He drew Leviathan and swiftly ended the man’s life.

[You have defeated the Avatar of the Transcendent.]

[You have gained 10,000,000 experience points from the death of the Contractor.]

As expected, he was indeed an avatar.

“What the hell?!”

The remaining five watched the scene in shock, their expressions frozen in disbelief.

They were probably wondering how he could ignore the attack reflection.

The method was quite simple.

The reflection did not cover all areas.

Even Mukho, of Legendary rank, had a very low chance of successfully reflecting melee attacks; how high could this man’s reflection rate be?

There was bound to be a flaw, and Jeong-hoon simply exploited that weakness.

[Avatar’s Adversary Lv.2]

– Type: Title

– Rank: Unique

– Has a low chance to nullify the power of the avatar.

– Nullification is limited to powers granted by the transcendent.

– Title effect is limited to apostle-level transcenders.

Moreover, since Jeong-hoon possessed the Avatar’s Adversary title, it was a battle he could not afford to lose.

He opened the Celestial Gate and swiftly cut down the remaining five.

Gah!

Gah!

Though they attempted to unleash their secret moves, to Jeong-hoon, they looked like mere child’s play.

The battle ended in an instant.

[You have defeated the Avatar of the Transcendent.]

[You have gained 10,000,000 experience points from the death of the Contractor.]

[You have defeated the Avatar of the Transcendent.]

[You have gained 10,000,000 experience points from the death of the Contractor.]

The message continued to pop up repeatedly.

“Damn, they must be furious.”

Barus.

Even if it wasn’t complete annihilation, losing seven Contractors at once would hit hard.

Screeeech.

Then Sloth emerged and began absorbing their stats.

[Absorbing the stats of the Avatar.]

[Absorbing a portion of the Contractor’s abilities from the Transcendent.]

This confirmed it.

While his rank didn’t increase, the speed at which his stats were rising was different from when he dealt with Kim Ji-gang.

By absorbing those six, Sloth’s stats approached 120.

As the absorption concluded, Sloth retreated back into his shell.

“Well then, that’s the Golden Raccoon matter taken care of.”

He didn’t expect crime to vanish entirely, though.

The sudden surge of power had turned the world into a lawless land.

That was all the more reason to end this game.

At that moment, a familiar pair of eyes appeared in the gap before Jeong-hoon.

Baal.

Finally, you’ve shown yourself.

A smile crept onto Jeong-hoon’s face.

———-