The Hero Returns - Chapter 462

* * *

The world came to learn that the period of peace they had been enjoying for the past year or so was actually the eye of the storm.

It was all because dungeons had appeared throughout the world—no, it was because all those dungeons had suddenly entered the outbreak stage.

Dungeons appeared without any warning whatsoever. As people failed to notice them on time, it was also impossible to raid them. The reason for that was every single one of them caused the outbreak at once as if they had a prior agreement or something.

Not only that…

“Wait, so you’re telling me that Su-hyeun is fighting in there?!” Lee Ju-ho cried out.

The “in there” was the “small sun” that had appeared in the center of the Pacific Ocean.

You didn’t even need the satellites to take a look at that thing. Its scale was so enormous that regardless of where you were in South Korea—a country situated very close to the Pacific in the first place—you would be able to see it with your naked eyes.

And the actual scale of this small sun as picked up by the satellites was almost one-third of the entire Pacific Ocean.

“Yes. And Gordon Rohan and one other unidentified awakener are suppressing outbreaks that are taking place in various locations at the moment.”

“An unidentified awakener, you say?”

“Yes. Apparently, it’s not possible to check his background or his identity. That’s why the authorities are suspicious of him, but it sounds like his abilities are the real deal, at least.”

Lee Ju-ho listened to Bak Yun-gyu’s explanation and recalled a certain someone. That would be none other than the “little brother” who came to hang out with Su-hyeun a few days ago.

“You know, I might have an idea who that awakener is.”

“You do? Who is he?”

“I also don’t know all the details, but I do know that he’s Su-hyeun’s acquaintance.”

“Mister Kim Su-hyeun’s acquaintance…I see.”

Although that awakener’s identity was still unknown, Bak Yun-gyu seemed to have accepted him as Su-hyeun’s acquaintance.

Bak Yun-gyu’s trust in Su-hyeun was responsible for this. Actually, most people who knew Su-hyeun would probably not have any issues with this situation, even if it was not Su-hyeun himself but someone else with whom he was acquainted.

“In any case, you require the assistance of both Thomas and Hak-joon, correct?”

“Yes. I believe our forces will be enough to somehow suppress the matters in South Korea. However, the real problem is now with the nations near the Pacific, such as China and Russia.”

“Thomas hasn’t returned from the Tower, unfortunately. As for Hak-joon, I’ve already dispatched him to Gangwon Province. But if you need assistance, I’ll redirect him to another location.”

“Yes, please. We’ll leave it up to you.”

The phone call with Bak Yun-gyu ended there.

After hanging up the phone, Lee Ju-ho shifted his gaze outside his window. There it was, a small “sun” blazing in the distance—exactly like how the whole world was talking about it.

If it was really Su-hyeun who had created that “space,” then it was not that hard to guess his reason for doing so.

“He’s trying to trap something in there, most likely.”

Su-hyeun showed a great deal of interest in that photo. This event must’ve been connected to it somehow.

Everyone was searching for Su-hyeun as the outbreaks happened. Their reasoning was simple enough—they all believed Su-hyeun as their hero, and they prayed for him to come and save them this time as well.

Unfortunately, they had no clue.

“We must solve this situation by ourselves.”

Su-hyeun was fighting against “something” inside that space.

He had never once before fought so flashily and loudly like this, which indicated his opponent this time was strong enough to necessitate such a display. In all likelihood, they should not expect Su-hyeun’s help to come for the foreseeable future.

Honestly speaking, Lee Ju-ho wanted to go there and help Su-hyeun if he could.

But…

“Me trying to help is in itself a hindrance.”

Su-hyeun had already created a huge gap in the level of power between himself and every other awakener. That gap had widened so much nowadays that it was hard to even see where he was now. Even the original number one awakener in the world, Gordon Rohan, had no choice but to accept this reality.

Grit—

“Dammit,” Lee Ju-ho could only quietly swear under his breath.

From a certain point on, he found himself receiving help from Su-hyeun all the time but never reciprocating that help to the latter.

Lee Ju-ho was gutted and angry about this.

That wasn’t all. His sources of frustration were that no one could help Su-hyeun now and that Su-hyeun was slowly becoming isolated and alone.

That was when he heard a certain noise.

Ka-boom—!

This noise, small and faint, came from quite some distance away.

Lee Ju-ho, who was almost losing his mind here as he tightly clenched his fists in helpless anger, abruptly raised his head back up. That was how he saw a massive pole piercing through the small sun Su-hyeun had created.

That polearm must be colossal as it was possible to behold with one’s naked eyes despite the great distance.

Whoosh—

A short while later, the polearm that so suddenly announced itself to the world vanished from view.

It had gotten smaller, in other words.

After witnessing this brief but bizarre phenomenon, Lee Ju-ho abruptly recalled a certain mythical item, “Was that Ruyi Jingu Bang?”

* * *

Land—

Sun Wukong gripped the Ruyi Jingu Bang once more. He lightly spun the narrow and lengthy polearm around his palm while scanning his surroundings, “Man, there are so many of them!”

“It seems that it’s not just their great numbers, either,” said the Bull Demon King as he cocked his hand while glancing at all the Predators that flooded out from the Dark Realm.

The light burning in his eyes was noticeably different from his usual laid-back expression; it seemed far sharper and with a hint of viciousness.

Su-hyeun had not seen the Bull Demon King fight in earnest before, so he found the current atmosphere rather unfamiliar.

Even so, he felt very much reassured. “Looks like he’s thinking of not holding back,” Su-hyeun thought.

The Bull Demon King always took some steps back and assumed the role of an onlooker, a bystander.

However, there was no doubting the depths of his abilities. After all, wasn’t he the one who stopped Fafnir’s earlier invasion all by himself?

And maybe the Predators had cottoned on to that fact early because they grew visibly tense and wary after Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King made their entrance.

Of course, there would always be those suffering from reckless bravado among them.

Paaahk—

Fwhoosh—

Some Predators that happened to be nearby pounced on the Bull Demon King without any warning.

Predators possessing magic-type abilities tried to bind the limbs of both the Bull Demon King and Sun Wukong as the physical combat-type ones unleashed their weapons or claws.

“Got y—!”

Swiiiish—

A Predator rushing in from behind the Bull Demon King couldn’t finish what it wanted to say when a humongous palm had suddenly appeared before its eyes.

SLAP—!

Riiip—!

The Bull Demon King’s palm dismissively slapped the Predator’s head, separating it from the rest of its body. It was as if he swatted an annoying fly.

“It seems that I’ve got something dirty on me now.”

“Are these punks the ‘Predator’ thing Buha was talking about?”

“It seems so. And that one over there,” the Bull Demon King glanced at Fafnir, who was still standing before the doorway to the Dark Realm with a staff in his hand, “He seems to have gotten bigger than before.”

The battle against Fafnir was still fresh in the Bull Demon King’s memory.

He spent one whole day fighting that Predator to stop it in its tracks, then eventually chased that monster away. The battle was even more challenging because the Bull Demon King did his best not to kill Fafnir. Even so, he still had to acknowledge the latter’s strength regardless of what.

“Listen, Wukong.”

“Yes, First Brother?”

“You’re forbidden from touching that creature.”

“Why? Do you want to have a go at him yourself?”

“Didn’t you hear what I said earlier?” The Bull Demon King let out a groan and then shook his head, “That creature is our little brother’s prey.”

“Ah, you’re right,” Sun Wukong conceded quickly and nodded.

He had already heard about Fafnir several times from the Bull Demon King. Meaning, he had accepted the fact that Fafnir was Su-hyeun’s opponent this time.

Besides…

“Well, the others here are plenty enough for me, anyway.”

Smirk—

Sun Wukong’s grin was far brighter than ever before. He looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself.

This was because he was no longer bound by the restrictive state of not fighting and killing. Such a thing was akin to heavy shackles coming undone in Sun Wukong’s perspective.

The Bull Demon King shook his head as if Sun Wukong’s reaction couldn’t be helped and then glanced at his surroundings.

“Well, then,” he said as he pulled out a fan as big as his torso from behind his back. “It’s been a while since my last fight, so why don’t we go on a rampage for a bit?”

“Yeah, it’s been a really long time since I last worked with you, First Brother,” Sun Wukong spoke in agreement, then pointed with his Ruyi Jingu Bang. “Get bigger—!”

“Blow away—”

The two Yogoe brothers opened their mouths simultaneously.

“Ruyi—!”

“Palm Leaf—!”

KA-BOOM—!

Fwhooooooosh—!

The Ruyi Jingu Bang shoved aside the Predators as vicious storm winds ripped apart the sky. Su-hyeun hurriedly wrapped himself up in the Somersault cloud to evade the winds.

However, the sensation transmitted through the clouds wrapped around him felt a bit strange.

“Winds are not reaching me?”

Wondering, he scattered the clouds away only to realize that he couldn’t feel any winds touching him.

Of course, he could clearly hear the whooshing noises of the winds from close by. It was just that the Bull Demon King had excluded Su-hyeun from the range of the winds’ effects.

Not only that…

“That’s not Palm Leaf.”

The Bull Demon King called out to the Palm Leaf, which was probably out of his long-time habit, but what he activated just now was definitely not the Palm Leaf’s ability.

This was the supreme-rulerhood of Wind itself. Not only that, but it boasted a high degree of proficiency.

“Hey, little bro,” Sun Wukong walked on the shaft of the Ruyi Jingu Bang and approached Su-hyeun. “We’ll drink booze later, so you should just go and beat the living snot out of that punk first.”

“Booze?”

“Didn’t you say we’ll drink booze together some other time?”

Su-hyeun chuckled at that. To think that the first thing Sun Wukong said to him in the current situation was, “They would drink together later.”

It felt like his gravely determined mindset had instantly become more relaxed for some reason.

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Why was that, though?

He briefly thought about why his mind was relaxing, but he figured it out quickly enough.

“Right. Back then, I was all alone, wasn’t I?”

His previous fight against Fafnir ended in Su-hyeun’s resounding defeat. He fought against countless monsters and eventually died alone.

Initially, some awakeners fought alongside him, but they were soon eliminated.

However, things were different now.

“Let’s finish this quickly and have a drink, Third Brother.”

“Very good.”

Poof, poof, poof, poof—!

Thick “fog” spread around Sun Wukong. Next, hundreds of clones sporting the exact same face and attire as Sun Wukong materialized. They must have found something delightful because they were all smiling brightly while spinning their own Ruyi Jingu Bangs.

“Get bigger, Ruyi!”

Ka-booooom—!

The Ruyi Jing Bang belonging to one of the clones lengthened in an instant to shoot forward. Its target wasn’t the Predators but their leader, who was wielding a staff and standing right at the back of them all. That leader no longer had a smile on his face.

The target was right in front where Fafnir was standing.

“Okay, then, have a good trip.”

“Thanks, Third Brother.”

Land—

Su-hyeun leaped on the Ruyi Jingu Bang and began walking toward Fafnir. He used the Earth Shrink Technique and approached his opponent quite quickly.

The ranks of Predators that had split apart to avoid getting hit by the Ruyi Jingu Bang tried to stop Su-hyeun’s advance, but right at that moment, storm winds swept them aside.

Fwhooooooosh—!

Slice, splaaat—!

Those Predators that couldn’t dodge in time were ripped apart into bloody chunks. Even then, the winds continued on to chop and slice apart the bodies of all those Predators trying to block Su-hyeun’s path.

With this, there were no more obstacles in his path.

The distance between Fafnir and Su-hyeun closed up quickly.

“Let’s finally end this.”

Pazzzik—

Arcs of electricity enveloped Su-hyeun’s blade.

When that happened, Fafnir, who had been standing back and observing the unfolding battle, finally showed some reaction.

“Are you happy about their participation?” Fafnir raised his staff as he watched Su-hyeun arrive right before his nose.

“Too bad, the end result will not change. Actually, this development will unfold in the manner that I have been greatly wishing for.”

“Oh, you mean, your fight against my First Brother?”

“That’s right.”

“I heard about it, so yeah, I know. But like I said earlier…”

Rumble, cackle—

The ominous thunderclap could be heard coming from the heavens above.

“You think you can win against me?”

KA-BOOM—!

Paaazzzzzzik—

Fafnir would have normally replied that it wouldn’t be hard at all, but today, he couldn’t do so.

It was all because of the unbelievable spectacle unfolding right before his eyes.

Kkyaaaaaah—!

A humongous figure of a dragon was screeching loudly.

This dragon of electricity, whose mere presence managed to break through the protective magic barrier of Fafnir to sting his skin, emitted an eerie crimson light and coiled around Su-hyeun’s figure next.

[Cintamani]

[Zeus’s Thunder Glove – Thunder Dragon Miru]