Chapter 378

A Hero. A Hero would never turn away from a thorny path.

Seo Jun-Ho looked around. ‘It’s clean.’

The same was true with the street the building was on, but the inside of the palace was even cleaner. It was as if not a single speck of dust was allowed to be there.

[Clean up, clean up, cleanly, cleanly.]

[Clean up, clean up, cleanly, cleanly.]

The cleaning robots were cleaning the first floor while moving in a straight line. Seo Jun-Ho stared blankly at the sight and looked around.

‘Why are there only robots?’

There wasn’t even a shadow of a person here. He got a strange feeling as he climbed up the stairs to the next floor. He went up, up, and up, but it was all the same.

[Command protocol confirmed. Eliminate criminals. Eliminate criminals.]

He saw the palace’s public safety robot, which he had seen in an alleyway when he first came to Neo City.

They were police robots that went all around the city, arresting those who ignored traffic signs. There were also medical robots that worked at hospitals to treat people.

‘Holy shit.’

The entire building was teeming with robots. At the very least, there weren’t any people up until the 70th floor.

“Contractor. Something—something about this is strange…” the Frost Queen whispered as she tightly hugged Wisoso.

“Wisoso,” Seo Jun-Ho called out.

- What is it?

Their reply came a moment too late, which meant that the Small Heavely Demon was stunned as well.

“Is the palace a place that only has robots?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

- No. Not at all. The records from only three years ago showed that there were a great number of employees assisting His Majesty the Emperor.

“You said your father worked at the palace. Did he tell you anything in particular?”

- No. Those working at the palace will explode the moment they try to tell someone insider information.

“Hm.”

One thing was for sure: the citizens of Neo City had no idea of the changes in the palace.

“This doesn’t make sense. How could no one be aware that the palace has changed?” he wondered.

- That is likely due to the special characteristics of the palace.

Seo Jun-Ho stared at Wisoso quizzically.

- The palace does not allow normal civilians to come in at all. And even those that are of high status can only enter the building after making a request for an audience.

“You’re telling me that no one has requested an audience with His Majesty for the past three years?”

- That’s not it. His Majesty would send the Alliance Leader in his place every time, using his poor health as an excuse.

It had already been three years since the people last saw the emperor with their own eyes. He hadn’t shown himself a single time thereafter, but no one suspected anything.

“The Alliance Leader did something.”

- I could be incorrect. Regardless of the presence of the Jinyiwei, the palace may have already fallen into his hands.

Wisoso admitted.

“But didn’t you say earlier that not even the Alliance leader can take on the Jinyiwei head-on?” Seo Jun-Ho pointed out.

- I did not know that things were like this. If the Jinyiwei were here, the palace would not have been reduced to such a state.

“...I suppose all we can do is go up and check.”

The palace was a skyscraper with 99 floors in total. Once Seo Jun-Ho reached the 98th floor, he finally started to sense something.

‘Magic energy.’ It was powerful, and it likely belonged to someone of a ‘transcendent’ status. ‘So they made it so that the magic couldn’t be sensed from the lower floors.’

It was clever. No matter how careful someone was when they came out, it would be too late to run away by the time they realized it.

Of course, Seo Jun-Ho had no intentions of running away.

“I thought you were one of the Jinyiwei, but I suppose not.”

At the other side of the hallway stood a very skinny, middle-aged man holding a staff.

“Wisoso, do you know who that guy is? I remember seeing him at the Alliance meeting,” Seo Jun-Ho said.

- Indeed, I do. He is the poorest man in the galaxy, Yoo Joo-Wan. He is the Beggar Sect’s Leader.

Jun-Ho scoffed when he saw his clothes. “He’s a beggar? I’ve never seen a beggar with such clear skin.”

- His clothes are also made of a luxury material only found on the planet Cottonsilver. I also like that fabric.

Yoo Joo-Wan spoke as they slowly approached. “As I thought, you were the little rat scurrying through the Alliance Leader’s quarters, Seo Jun-Ho.”

“Actually, it was Jun-Sik.”

Geez, why did everyone always get it mixed up? And why was it such a big deal?

Yoo Joo-Wan blinked and then spoke, “Your feeble excuses are for naught.”

As he spoke, he quickly scanned Seo Jun-Ho. The Alliance Leader had said that he cut off all the Player’s limbs in an instant, but the man before him looked far too healthy to be injured.

‘It seems that he has some kind of healing ability.’

He was probably fooling around because he was relying on his healing ability, but it wouldn’t be long before he realized that it wouldn’t matter. All Yoo Joo-Wan needed to do was kill Seo Jun-Ho before he could even think about healing himself.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Yoo Joo-Wan swung his staff. “You ran away to look for a safe place, but you met me instead. Your luck is pitiful.”

“Wrong again.” Seo Jun-Ho hadn’t fled to look for a place where he would be safe. On the contrary, he had come to this place willingly, even though he knew it could be the most dangerous place to be. “But even though you’re wrong, it looks like my choice was the right one.”

Now, he was sure that an important member of the Alliance Member was here.

“About Alliance Leader Namgung Jincheon. Did that old beast decide to live for hundreds of years just because he wanted to be the emperor?”

“...” Of course, Yoo Joo-Wan didn’t speak. His facial muscles didn’t twitch, either.

Seo Jun-Ho grinned at that. “It doesn’t matter if you feign ignorance.”

“I do not know what nonsense you are spewing. The Alliance Leader, living for centuries? Have you gone mad?”

“If you really have no idea what I’m talking about, then you would have frowned or looked confused.” What kind of person wouldn’t even blink when they learned that their superior was hundreds of years old? “You must have been practicing in the mirror.”

“Hah!” Yoo Joo-Wan let out a cry that tore through the air. He raised his staff, aiming at Seo Jun-Ho.

“The Alliance Leader was wrong this time. I cannot let you live. You will die here,” he whispered coldly.

“That’s the third time. Wrong again.” Seo Jun-Ho chuckled as he took out White Dragon. “You’re not strong enough to kill me.”

“You’re a child who knows nothing of this world. Do you know why martial artists turn their bodies into machines?”

Shik.

Yoo Joo-Wan’s luxurious robes flowed down like silk, revealing the eight robot arms installed on his torso.

“It is to obtain power that allows you to do the impossible.”

“Ten arms? Are you an octopus or something?”

“Contractor, octopi have eight arms. It is squids that have ten appendages.”

“I guess he’s a squid, then.”

Yoo Joo-Wan’s face contorted. For some reason, being compared to a squid pissed him off. “I will slaughter you using the Galaxy Staff Technique.”

“Geez, why do you keep putting ‘galaxy’ in front of everything?” Did he think he was cool?

Seo Jun-Ho smirked. “Okay, then this spear will now be Galaxy Black Dragon.”

Vrrr?!

The spear believed him, and it seemed like it wanted to jump with joy.

“Hey, it was obviously a joke.” This wasn’t a good look.

Vrr…

White Dragon wilted, and the cold air it gave off weakened.

“That’s enough joking around.” Each of the ten hands held a staff and took a stance. “I will take my time demonstrating the great futility of trying to fight ten transcendent martial artists at once.”

Swoosh!

Yoo Joo-Wan dashed down the hallway, and his arms moved like lightning.

‘Delayed attacks.’

This was an offensive technique that Seo Jun-Ho had also studied while training with Seo Jun-Sik. As he expected, the ten staffs swung at Seo Jun-Ho at different intervals.

“Hup!” Seo Jun-Ho struck them aside, wielding White Dragon as weightlessly as if it were a cloud.

“Impressive!” Seeing his opponent handle the attack better than he expected made things even more exciting for Yoo Joo-Wan. The air around him changed. “Can you take this one, too?!”

The movement of the staffs suddenly changed. Earlier, they were only focusing on speed, but now, some of them grew heavy, some of them grew more elegant, and some of them changed in a variety of ways. It really did feel like Seo Jun-Ho was fighting ten martial artists at once.

‘Hm.’

At that, his hands moved busily even as it felt like his head was spinning. It was because he didn’t have the ‘best fighting style’ that Hart had mentioned on the 2nd Floor.

Pow!

The attacks he couldn’t block started to injure him.

“Ahahahaha! Did you intend to stand against the Alliance Leader with only this level of skill? You are a fool! A fool!”

“...Look how riled up that fucking beggar is.”

Clang!

Seo Jun-Ho buried White Dragon into the ground, creating a wall of ice. He spat out the blood pooling in his mouth.

“Ice? Can you use the techniques of the North Sea’s Ice Palace?”

“I swear, this guy never gets anything right.” Regardless of his useless chatter, Seo Jun-Ho had already reached his intended goal.

‘So this is the power of a transcendent Sect Leader of one of the Ten Great Families. Thanks for the info.’

This was more than enough.

Seo Jun-Ho put White Dragon away.

“You’re throwing away your weapon? Have you decided to surrender?”

“No. I just don’t think I need this anymore.”

At some point, a chain made of shadows had replaced the spear in his hand.

“...?!” Yoo Joo-Wan sensed that something was off and looked down at his feet. He felt a great force pulling at his ankle and saw that the chain was tied around him.

‘When?’

He reached down to remove the chain without even giving himself the time to finish the question.

“What?” There was strong pressure pulling on his ankle, but when he tried to touch the chain with his hand, his hand passed through it as if the chain was a lie.

“Sorcery! You’re using sorcery like a coward!” Yoo Joo-Wan yelled at the strange sight.

“Says the guy who has ten arms.” Several black balls appeared before Seo Jun-Ho. “Black Ball.”

He snapped with his fingers, and they shot out like arrows, aiming for Yoo Joo-Wan.

However, the pathetic attack made Yoo Joo-Wan scoff. “Is that all you have?”

“Of course not.”

The balls started multiplying.

‘I-Impossible.’ While he was hitting them aside over and over, he eventually noticed that they had proliferated to number in the hundreds. He didn’t even have space to dodge or hit them aside in the small hallway.

In the end, the black balls started exploiting his openings.

“Gah!”

Every time he was hit, his bones would get crushed, making him freeze from the unimaginable pain. Yoo Joo-Wan knew that he couldn’t just stand there and take it. He couldn’t get hit by even more balls.

Clink. Clink.

Seo Jun-Ho started pulling on the chain in his hand. As he did, the distance between him and the Yoo Joo-Wan started to shrink.

“The robot implants really are impressive,” Seo Jun-Ho remarked. The technology allowed normal people to reach levels of power that they could have never reached otherwise.

However, that was the end of it.

“But even if my arms and legs were cut off, I will never do such a thing.”

“Ridiculous! Sorcery is all you can use! Sorcery!” Yoo Joo-Wan roared, spitting blood as he tried to block the black balls. However, his bark was stronger than his bite.

Clink. Clink.

By the time he reached Seo Jun-Ho, Yoo Joo-Wan had already been reduced to a lump of flesh and blood. He fell to the ground as his knees collapsed, and small spasms ran through him.

“I-If you… kill me… the Alliance won’t let…” He warned.

Slice!

Seo Jun-Ho cut off Yoo Joo-Wan’s head with the edge of his magic-enhanced hand.

“Yeah, they won’t let me get away with it. But if I were scared of them, I wouldn’t have set out to do this in the first place.”

Seo Jun-Ho looked down at Yoo Joo-Wan’s corpse with cold eyes and made the latter confess.

‘I see.’ Seo Jun-Ho’s assumptions were correct. The Alliance Leader had a total of four people assisting him, and he was aiming to become the god of this world.

‘Many of his memories have either been sealed or locked away.’ It was proof that the Alliance Leader didn’t fully trust even those working for him. If that weren’t the case, then he wouldn’t periodically erase their memories.

“So he was watching me…”

The final memory Seo Jun-Ho saw was Namgung Jincheon sitting at his seat of honor. His eyes were closed, closely watching the battle that was happening tens of kilometers away from him. It was likely that he had done this by hacking into the chip installed in Yoo Joo-Wan’s head.

‘I guess he knows about Watchguard of Darkness and Frost now, then.’

Seo Jun-Ho didn’t know much about his enemy, but his enemy knew about him. He was at a heavy disadvantage.

“It could be possible that this man was stationed here as bait to test the strength of those who dare to trespass into the Imperial Palace,” said the Frost Queen.

“That’s so dirty.” Yoo Joo-Wan had served the Alliance Leader as his vassal for centuries, but the former was thrown away like he was nothing in the end. “It’s only right for scum like him to die.”

Leaving the corpse of the poorest man in the galaxy behind, Seo Jun-Ho climbed up to the top floor of the Imperial Palace.