From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 173: Homebound Pt. 10

The symbol of London, London Bridge, was collapsing.

This tragedy wasn’t because of a monster’s attack, however.

No, the destruction of London Bridge was the fault of the Round Table, the organization that represented England.

“It was inevitable…” Merlin said as she looked at the collapsing bridge with eyes filled with sorrow.

Fatigue and melancholy flashed across her beautiful visage.

However, barring her, everything in the vicinity was soaked in red blood.

Drip.

Drip.

Everything, everyone was soaked in blood, one’s own blood if not the enemy's. Or even the blood of their comrades.

The members of the Knights of the Round Table, which used to number well into the dozens, had decreased noticeably.

“Lancelot…” Gawain whispered, lifting the knight up.

The knight had been torn to shreds.

His arms were shaking like leaves in the wind, and his eyes were unfocused.

“Did I fulfill my duty well…?” Lancelot asked.

While losing dozens of his comrades in the volatile confrontation, Lancelot had put his life on the line, rushing in to create an opening for those who fought beside him.

Although the battle had begun once Arthur had attacked and ended with the collapse of London Bridge, Lancelot had still done his duty well.

“Yes,” Gawain replied.

They had won.

With the city falling apart around them, the Round Table had won.

“Lancelot.”

The dying Lancelot heard the voice he so longed for.

Merlin.

She took Lancelot's hand.

A bright, shining light burst from their clasped palms—she was trying to prolong Lancelot’s life.

“Cough!”

However, Lancelot’s condition was difficult for even Merlin to treat.

Merlin knew that the true identity of the man in the black robes must have been something truly terrifying, as even her power, one so great that it could provide treatment on par with an elixir, was completely useless.

Thus, to be able to be of aid in taking such a being down meant something. She said, “Lancelot, your contribution was tremendous.”

“Lady Merlin…” he gasped.

She continued, “You have truly saved England… A knight that is the embodiment of loyalty and honor.”

Teardrops laced with blood fell down upon Lancelot’s cheeks.

“Moreover, you are a benefactor to us all.”

London Bridge had collapsed. Lancelot’s lance, which had broken and fallen into the Thames, was sinking to the depths.

“T… thank yo…” Lancelot struggled out, expressing his sincere gratitude.

“I have…received…your orders…”[1]

Barely able to say his final words, his voice trailed off as he said his goodbyes.

Having lost all his strength, laying helplessly in Gawain’s arms, Lancelot thus died.

“Just how…”

Merlin turned to look into the Thames with a rarely seen expression, one full of rage.

That man had been torn to shreds by Arthur.

That man in the black robes had sunk into the Thames alongside London Bridge and Lancelot’s lance.

“Gasp… Gasp…”

From behind, they heard the sound of heavy breathing.

It was Arthur.

Having struck down the man in the black robes, he was gasping for breath as he pulled himself together.

“We’ve been hurt so much today.”

The damage that they had taken was to the extent that the very existence of the Round Table was endangered, and it had happened because of only one single person.

That man used a power that seemed to come from demons.

That man also seemed to rule the monsters.

A man who truly seemed to fit the title of the Demon King…

Just as the knights seemed to be under the thrall of a shuddering fear, Arthur’s voice rang out again.

“But we’ve won.”

Arthur stood tall, using the Excalibur that Lee Jun-Kyeong had given him as a staff.

“We defended England, and the great knights who have given their lives have sacrificed it all for the sake of our homeland. As a result of their sacrifice…”

He looked like a child, but he seemed to stand taller than anyone else.

“We won. We will continue to win.”

“Hail.”

“Hail.”

When the knights raised their swords and saluted Arthur, a heart-stopping voice resounded.

–Isn’t it too early for you all to celebrate your victory?

Everyone’s gaze instantly turned back to the river Thames.

“...!”

A man in black robes was standing proudly on its waters.

“How…!” Arthur exclaimed in astonishment.

The feeling of cutting down that man was still vivid. Arthur hadn’t just cut him once, he had torn him into dozens of pieces and buried them along with London Bridge.

To think…

That man…

“You survived…!”

The man snorted. “Your view of the world is too shallow.”

He spurred the waters of the Thames and slowly ascended into the sky, reaching the place where the knights were gathered.

Swish.

Facing the knights, who were silent in their astonishment, he slowly removed the hood that covered his face. That hood had never come off, even during the fight against Arthur.

As he did so, Merlin’s bewilderment only grew further.

“Oh my god…”

Merlin was the first one to show surprise, but not the only one.

“How do I…”

“That’s not possible…”

“Just what…?”

Chaos ensued among the knights.

The face of the man in the black robes was eerily familiar.

“Sir Underdog?” Gawain said to the man.

“No, it’s not him,” Merlin said, shaking her head in denial.

The man’s face was clearly similar to that of the Underdog, but at the same time, it was different.

Moreover, although the Underdog may not have known it, Merlin had cast a spell on him.

It wasn’t a spell meant to harm him, but a spell that was to save him if he found himself in danger.

However, she couldn’t feel even the slightest trace of the spell’s mana.

“You can’t kill me with that imitation of Excalibur,” the man said to Arthur, ignoring the murmurs of the knights.

Arthur took a step into the air and moved forward.

"No! Arthur!” Merlin shouted, stopping Arthur from continuing further.

Merlin understood Arthur’s condition better than anyone else.

If Arthur clashed with that man as he was right now, then death was all but certain.

“I was just distracted by the unexpected development. Let’s handle this quickly.”

The mood changed in an instant, and within a fleeting moment, in the blink of an eye…

“Ugh!”

…Arthur screamed, a long spear stuck in his shoulder.

It was a razor-sharp spear that resembled a sharpened dragon fang.

“Die,” the man in the black robe said.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A string of massive explosions ensued.

As a black cloud rose, the knights ran forward.

“Lord Arthur!”

“Arthur!!!!” Merlin screamed as she stretched out her hands, the black clouds quickly receding.

Standing where the cloud had been, a white-haired Asian man was holding onto the bleeding Arthur’s arm.

“Then, what if it was real?”

The white-haired Asian man was holding Arthur with one hand. His other hand held aloft a splendidly adorned sword.

“Excalibur…”

***

“Ha…”

His breath was rough, and he exuded a dark aura.

The man slowly raised his hand, and with it came out something that seemed to be a fast-beating heart.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Actually, it was too grotesque to say that it was exactly like a heart. A black spear tinged with gold skewered it.

Thud! Thud!

It had lost its body, but was still beating.

Boom!

The wielder of the spear infused mana into it and blew apart the heart, scattering the pieces everywhere and melting the remnants.

“We took it down…”

As Jeong In-Chang had said, they had defeated the monster.

He turned around and looked around. The ruined surroundings were dotted with gold, blood, and something dark and ominous. The fight had been so intense that describing it as terrifyingly awe-inspiring did not even come close.

It transcended humans.

‘No…it wasn’t even something that could have happened on Earth.’

He had never even considered that there could have been such a battle on this planet.

Aegir, who had turned into something bizarre, had resisted to the very end, even as his body was destroyed.

Even after an explosion, Aegir had continued to move even after his body had fallen.

“Ha…”

The unbelievable thing was that the same was true of Lee Jun-Kyeong too, who was struggling to breathe as he expelled a dark aura from his body. He wasn’t fine either.

While dealing with the golden giant, Lee Jun-Kyeong had also received several injuries. But that wasn’t the most terrifying part.

Gurgle.

The most horrifying part was his recovery. His body was healing in an almost grotesque way, It was a completely different resilience and mechanism even when compared to Jeong In-Chang, who had also gained the power of the Dragon’s Bloodstone.

It was almost as if time was reversing.

His body looked like it was going back to a time before he got injured.

Lee Jun-Kyeong thus stepped on Aegir’s corpse and looked over at the party.

Tension took over the trio, as the dark aura that he exuded every time he exhaled felt different from before. There had been instances before where Lee Jun-Kyeong had lost his sanity and reasoning when he had exerted that level of power before.

Thus, Yeo Seong-Gu cautiously asked him, “Are you okay…?” A moment later, the response came.

"Yes."

Slowly, Lee Jun-Kyeong's condition was changing.

The black flame that had consumed him, the black breath that spewed out like smoke… Everything was fading.

“It feels like I’m going to die,” Lee Jun-Kyeong joked, twisting his body left and right and taking a step forward.

The fight with Aegir was still vivid in his mind.

It was entirely different from the time before.

Unlike before, when there was the chance that he would be consumed by the devilish aura or Madness while fighting, everything had been under his control.

Clench.

From the very beginning, this time, the overflowing power seemed to be his own.

Then, as if possessed by something, Lee Jun-Kyeong called out, “Status window.”

He opened the blue window, and the window displaced his own status to him. A lot of information was listed, but Lee Jun-Kyeong saw only one line clearly.

[Level: 99]

His own level.

He had thought that he had reached level 100 by now, but his level was still 99.

“Is it saying from here…”

As if he had forgotten the existence of Yeo Seong-Gu and Jeong In-Chang, Lee Jun-Kyeong muttered to himself.

“I can become even stronger…”

Looking at the blue window as it closed quietly, Lee Jun-Kyeong looked up at the sky.

‘<The Sky of the Apocalypse>...’

Just who was that bastard?

Thud.

“Mr. Lee!”

“Jun-Kyeong!”

Just like that, Lee Jun-Kyeong collapsed.

Jeong In-Chang carefully picked up Lee Jun-Kyeong, who had fallen to the floor, and quickly inspected his condition.

“Ha…what a relief. It just looks like he passed out,” Jeong In-Chang said, sighing in relief.

Then, while holding the fallen Lee Jun-Kyeong, Jeong In-Chang and Yeo Seong-Gu looked at each other.

***

Thud! Thud! Thud!

A huge white wolf was crossing the road without hesitation, running along a road full of abandoned cars.

–Growl.

He growled quietly as he searched the area.

In Gyeonggi-Do, the damage wasn’t as great as they had expected, perhaps because the land was wide and the population density low.

Thud! Thud!

The white wolf continued to search for something, sniffing the air with his snout and feeling the mana around it. He only stopped after running for a while.

–Growl.

The wolf slowly approached the thing that it had found.

Sssss.

As it walked forward, the wolf’s appearance changed, and it soon transformed into a small white-haired child. The child picked something up from the ground.

Sniff. Sniff.

In his hands were people’s clothes and even a lost shoe from someone who had fled so quickly that they couldn’t afford the split second required to pick it up.

They were traces of people, a sign of the dozens of humans that had been forced to flee by something.

“I found it.”

That was the very thing that the boy was looking for.

He examined the clothes and traces scattered around him. He then picked them up and transformed again, running back the way he came.

“Grr…”

“Growl!”

Although the wolf ran into monsters from time to time on his return, all monsters that crossed his path were in a hurry to run away.

They could feel it—a feeling of great power. They were sensing a predator and hiding themselves away.

“Fenrir!”

The wolf heard a warm voice calling to welcome him back as he arrived at his destination.

“Ooonyeo,” Fenrir said, having turned back into a human and handing the clothes in his possession to Ungnyeo.

“The people. I found it.”

They had returned to the villa that Lee Jun-Kyeong had bought in Gyeonggi-Do. After many twists and turns, they had arrived home. However, the family they had wanted to see wasn’t there waiting for them. In their place were traces of battle, traces of urgency.

They had fled from something. And that something…

“It’s not a monster,” Fenrir said to Ungnyeo with a clear gaze. "It’s a person. A Hunter.”

The family of the White Tiger Clan had fled from Hunters, not from monsters.

1. This is a customary formal farewell from a knight in Korean. ????