Turns Out To Be a Genius Duelist

Chapter 230 Choi Yoon-seok (2)

The soul keeper he met earlier. He said, perhaps it was the Tower that hid.

—I don’t want you to destroy the Tower.

As things went against him, he avoided conversation through death, but until then, he tried to persuade Yoon-seok as much as he could. This made one thing clear: the Tower wasn’t omnipotent.

‘Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had said that.’

Yoon-seok tightened his grip around his sword. He had to check. Could he break this Tower right now?

Whoooooosh-!

There was no reason to go all in. Yoon-seok, who raised his magic lightly, sliced the air.

“It seems like you have a guest.”

Rick and the man recognized Yoon-seok’s presence, but they didn’t do anything to block his sword energy. The two took a step back and left the sword energy’s path. Maybe they thought it was simply an ambush.

“What are you doing…?”

The man filled his hands with magic and muttered.

“I have no regrets, but you came to a place you shouldn’t have….”

Boooom-!

The black sword energy crashed into the Tower. There was just a slight dent in the iron door; that was it. This could be done by anyone with Rank D strength. Of course, assuming that the iron door was an ordinary iron door.

“…What?”

The two men looked shocked. And, apart from feeling baffled, Yoon-seok could feel the expectations in their eyes. Yoon-seok put his sword away and scratched the back of his neck out of habit.

“Who are you? How… how did you do that just now?”

Rick, shaking as if he had been struck by lightning, came to his senses first and asked. Excited, steam came out of his nose, and his eyes grew red.

‘He looks like a murderous maniac with that mask on.’

Yoon-seok smiled.

“Who knows, I guess even hounds can do things like this.”

It was a sarcastic remark disparagingly calling Yoon-seok the Tower’s dog. Well, it wasn’t exactly wrong…

Rick clenched his teeth.

“Challenger…”

“…?”

“I see. So this is how it is… was the cornered hound given a double-edged sword?”

Rick’s eyes burned.

“Let’s make a deal.”

“…?”

“Break the Tower now. I will give you more than whatever the Tower promised.”

The vigor in his voice was incredible. But offering a deal while looking at him with such a scary look made it feel like it wasn’t a deal at all. However, the results would’ve been the same even if that wasn’t the case.

“I don’t want to.”

Yoon-seok replied flatly. However, Rick didn’t know how to give up.

“…The Tower is not to be trusted.”

Not to be trusted? Yoon-seok was well aware, even if he didn’t say it. Although Yoon-seok only had doubts, wasn’t Rick the one who hid his identity earlier and tried to gently coax him? However, the Queen was as unreliable as the Tower. Furthermore, he gained nothing from breaking the Tower here. This was just a recreated space.

‘I sent that sword energy for confirmation in the first place.’

His highest priority question was answered. Yoon-seok had the power to destroy the Tower.

‘Do I have to use the Tower to kill the Queen or the Queen to kill the Tower?’

The Queen’s power was needed to come here, and the Tower’s ticket was needed to go to the place where the Queen was.

“You’ll regret it. So if you change your mind now…”

“No, I won’t. I don’t plan on changing it.”

A firm rejection with no room for discussion.

“Then I have no choice but to change it for you.”

Rick spread his dangerous aura and drew his sword. If they couldn’t talk it out, then use force. It very much fit his past life. It wasn’t a bad idea, but…

‘Interesting.’

Sadly, his conversation method doesn’t work on Yoon-seok. First of all, wasn’t he Cheon-ma’s disciple?

Was it because he wasn’t a challenger? Using the punishment sword to drain his stats didn’t work. Furthermore, just as Yoon-seok acquired various skills and powers at the Tower, he seemed to have attained one ability or another from the Queen.

However, even with that, the battle against Rick was quite disappointing.

Whoosh-! Boom! Slashhh-!

One breath. One breath. As the tense exchange of attacks continued in a narrowly maintained balance, the scales gradually tilted to Yoon-seok.

‘Down, up, and widen the distance or launch a surprise attack.’

Yoon-seok took it one step at a time with patience. He looked for counter skills, noticed his small habits, and took the lead using the swordsmanship passed down to Cheon-ma. In short, he poured out all the things he naturally learned in dueling.

‘What? Why is he so bad at fighting?’

Their abilities might be similar, but Yoon-seok held an overwhelming advantage in terms of skill.

“…Don’t give up!”

“Look who’s talking?”

Did he have absolute faith in his power? Rick clenched his teeth under strain. It was significantly different from Yoon-seok, who was more relaxed. He was holding out with every move, slowly growing desperate, with blood leaking from his lips. Rick’s mask had already been sliced off.

“…Why do you have to do this? For Elle? What did the Queen promise?”

Yoon-seok asked, hitting Rick on the back of his head with his sword without giving him time to think.

Clang!

He kept his promise to defeat him, and additionally, their ranking had been sorted out. It was about time to ask another question.

“…”

However, contrary to Yoon-seok’s wish, Rick did not reply. He focused all his attention on moving his sword to win no matter what.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clanggg-!

Yoon-seok continued to push and asked.

“What do you want? Is it all for yourself? Why did you lie to Elle?”

“It’s not a lie…!”

Did he touch a nerve?

“Come to think of it; It doesn’t make sense that it’s for Elle. When you only found out that Elle was alive until later.”

“…”

“But you’re not lying?”

“Who are you? Why do you keep asking such weird questions!”

Rick shouted. From his point of view, it looked like a strange man appeared out of nowhere and was now persistently asking about something unrelated. However, this was a very important problem for Yoon-seok.

“Why? Why did you become the Queen’s hunting dog? Did you not have a choice? Or, did she manipulate you to make you think that was the right choice?”

“I decided to break the Tower…!”

Did his head go blank after being hit so many times? Rick exploded.

“When I saw that child choose to die on her own, I went to the Queen.”

“…”

“To ask her to give me the power to destroy this world!”

Yoon-seok understood now. Between Rick and Elle… no, what happened between the Queen and the Tower.

—I’m sorry I’m late. I’ll save you.

Rick sacrificed himself to save Elle. All he wanted was for Elle to get out of there and live her life. But…

—What I wished for… it’s not this.

Elle wasn’t confident in that. Pessimistic about the world, she closed her eyes. Although Elle became a challenger since then… Rick didn’t know that.

‘She must have intentionally shown that to him. That way, he would move the way she wanted.’

If there were hope, people wouldn’t break. Hope helped people stand on their feet. On the other hand, despair drove people into endless darkness.

“She lived a life full of misfortune and tragedy. For the first time, there was something I wanted. I just wanted to be with her. No, I just wanted her to live. Yeah, it was just that. But why doesn’t the world allow that?”

“…”

“This is fate? Mine? Elle’s? It was just decided from the beginning?”

The Queen told Rick about the Tower’s existence, the fate given to them, and the consequences of destroying them.

“Did you join hands with the queen because you hate the world?”

Yoon-seok asked, but on the other hand, he sympathized with the feelings he would have experienced at the time. At some point, he was no different from Rick. Because of Blood Ultimatum and because he wanted to be rewarded with the death of the wicked who bullied him.

Rick was probably doing something similar. He must’ve wanted to be compensated even if the end was in vain. He had to get revenge.

“Then why are you doing this now? After learning Elle’s alive?”

He found out why Rick joined hands with the Queen. Of course, it happened a long time ago… but thanks to Rick’s conversation with the First Manager, the future was also roughly clear in Yoon-seok’s mind.

—She said this was the only way, but there might be another. She’s a woman who always plays clever tricks!

The soul keeper died on this mission, and Rick came to this place and realized that he couldn’t break the Tower with the power of destruction, and even found out the truth that he was used by the Tower.

—Challenger… I see. Is this how it goes?….

But if it didn’t work with the power received from the Queen, then use his.

—What do you mean it’s not too late. I’m already dying. Can I not say I’m dying? Anyway, I kept my promise, so you keep your promise, too.

If Rick couldn’t do it in his present life, then do it next. Various arrangements were set in place, and that cause and effect were moved over to his next life. If he became a challenger, he could break the Tower.

—I don’t want you to destroy the Tower.

Yoon-seok gained such power in his next life. However, Yoon-seok was fundamentally different from Rick. Yoon-seok had no motivation to break the Tower at the cost of sacrificing everything.

Was it possible that Rick didn’t expect that after making such a crazy plan? Probably not.

—He said it was meaningful only when you can remember it yourself. That way, you, who have your destiny, will go on the right path.

Only Yoon-seok didn’t know yet that they had arranged something for the future. That was why he’s curious. If the reason for trying to break the Tower was revenge, why did Rick continue to try even after knowing Elle was alive?

“…”

Yoon-seok stopped swinging his blade and calmly looked at Rick.

Rick spoke.