LRAB Chapter 390: Lawlessness (2)
Chapter 390: Lawlessness (2)
【When you ‘block’ an opponent’s skill, you may analyze its properties and accumulate Ruined Core stats.
The amount of Ruined Core stats gained varies flexibly depending on the blocked skill’s power and mana consumption.
Ruined Core stats can be accumulated up to 100, and by consuming 100 stats, you may activate ‘Ruined Core’.】
【Upon using Ruined Core, the opponent is sealed from using ‘all’ skills.
There is no time limit to the seal, but it resets if the target moves more than 25 meters away from the user.】
‘Interesting.’
This skill came as a bundled set: Weak Point Analysis and Ruined Core.
Weak Point Analysis was closer to a passive skill that automatically helped accumulate stats when you successfully defended against a skill.
Ruined Core, based on those stats, was essentially a debuff skill. It was conditional, but as long as the target stayed within range, it could block skill usage semi-permanently.The original story had rarely mentioned skills of this type.They popped up in passing, or as references to someone’s ability— but the method of acquisition was never described, so how to obtain one had always been vague.
And now Master of Shell Games handed it to him like it had been waiting. At this point, it was basically Santa Claus.
‘Strategic defense just became more important.’
Kang-hoo rubbed at his slightly throbbing forehead.
Recently, the number of highly useful, high-impact skills—when used correctly—had been increasing rapidly.
Those kinds of skills all shared one thing in common: every single one demanded picky activation conditions.
For instance, Selfish Trade required you to block an enemy attack with a shield within 0.3 seconds.
If you failed?
Selfish Trade might as well not exist, and with your defense breached, the odds of injury shot up.
It felt like being forced into high risk, high return over and over. But the skill was too good to simply ignore.
“.......”
Leaning against the cold concrete wall, he drifted into imagining how to use Weak Point Analysis / Ruined Core.
How could he leverage it to create the most lethal situation for an enemy?
When there was no combat, he had to keep doing image training. More of those scenarios became reality than you’d think.
Three hours later.
After matching Park Dong-jae’s routine—one beer and a small debrief on the dungeon run—they left immediately.
He planned to head up to Seoul first, then move to the airport according to his flight time.
Since his “teleport” destination was set near Ground Zero, using it would be far more wasteful.
So if he wanted a comfortable buffer, he needed to leave around now.
It was already a miracle he’d managed to squeeze in a dungeon run with Park Dong-jae at all.
Even greedy hunters didn’t run their schedules this tight—overdoing it could get you hurt.
For the time being, Park Dong-jae said he’d stay at the gym, train individually, and prepare for when he’d go to North Korea with Kang-hoo.
After running dungeons nonstop with Myeongga Guild hunters, he said he’d hit a bit of burnout.
He understood the importance of resting properly when it was time to rest, and reinforcing the fundamentals when it was time to build them.
Kang-hoo also told him not to overdo it, then boarded a bus headed for Seoul.
A so-called “moving fortress”—a safe bus operated by Jeonghwa Transit with a premium mark.
At this level, unless some idiots with death wishes attacked, nothing would disrupt the trip to Seoul.
Once on board, Kang-hoo took his seat and fell asleep almost immediately.
The drowsiness that came with extreme fatigue wasn’t something willpower could overcome. He had to sleep.China.
Returning to his “old” dwelling, Celestial Assassin looked back over the familiar space, lost in thought.
Perhaps because he’d spent over a decade there, everywhere he looked bore his touch and traces.
It was true there were bad, unpleasant memories as well as good ones.
He kept recalling how, in a frenzy, he’d slaughtered “uninvited guests” who came here without permission.
The point at which his rampages began to be restrained was after he met Ju Haemi.
His story with Ju Haemi couldn’t be captured in a few lines—it was like a whole film.
In any case, what mattered was after taking Ju Haemi in as his adopted daughter, the berserk rampage that had made him seem like a madman ended.
And now he had returned to his original self. Of course, his old temperament still surfaced from time to time.
Just then a woman standing beside him, looking in the same direction, broke the long silence.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yeah. I don’t have any attachment to China.”
“I never thought you’d take a disciple, not until you died. What a surprise. You really got that attached?”
She was two years younger than Celestial Assassin—nearly seventy.
Like him, she had a sturdy physique. And her wrinkles were unnaturally few.
At the mention of a disciple, the corners of Celestial Assassin’s lips—expressionless until now—lifted.
Whenever he thought of his disciple’s face, pride always lingered—something he couldn’t simply dismiss.
But not wanting to show it, he snapped at the woman.
“Can you stop with that damn plastic surgery? Live your age. Smearing money on your face doesn’t change how old you are.”
“What’s with the sudden nitpicking?”
“It’s true! It’s even uglier that way. If you’re old, accept it and live with it. If you go against the Heavenly Principle, you’ll be punished.”
“Oh, and it’s fine that someone living on borrowed time got resurrected overnight? That isn’t ‘going against it’?”
“Why are we going there?”
“Because you’re talking that ‘Heavenly Principle’ nonsense. I’ll spend my money on my face if I want—who are you to talk?”
The bickering between the two had a certain warmth, like watching an old married couple.
Even Ju Haemi, watching her father Celestial Assassin from a distance, looked amused rather than worried.
Because this wasn’t a one-off.
It was teasing and jabs only possible between people that close.
After sparring like that for a while, the two regained their usual seriousness and continued.
“Is the cancer really completely gone?”
“Yeah. I got tested again and again, and medically they say it’s cured. My doctor cried so many times.......”
“Is that even possible with modern medicine? Didn’t you say it had spread through the peritoneum and they couldn’t do anything?”
“It’s a long story. To sum it up briefly—”
What Celestial Assassin added next was about Kang-hoo.
Even if he never showed it, Celestial Assassin knew well: Kang-hoo was his benefactor.
As she listened, the woman nodded and smiled.
She couldn’t believe the process, but that Celestial Assassin was free of cancer as a result was a joyful thing.
And since the starting point of that joy was his disciple Kang-hoo, it was only natural he held him dear.
Celestial Assassin said with a smile.
“He looks like he wants to keep it secret until the day he dies, but I know. I know he made a miracle.”
“Maybe it was a constellation ability?”
“If a constellation like that exists, then maybe. But we can’t know for sure, so it’s only speculation.”
“That’s good. And congratulations on getting a new life. You’ve saved the money you spent every year on a single flower.”
“Listen to how you talk.......”
“Now that you’ve recovered, I think we need to bring this up once. That’s why I came.”
“Bring up what?”
“Any intention of going back to Sinwol?”
The moment the name Sinwol was spoken, Celestial Assassin’s eyes turned cold.
It was the sort of word that could shake a heart.
But contrary to her expectation, his response was immediate.
He shook his head.
“No. To eliminate variables, it’s better if I remain a dying old man tucked away in the back room.”
“More precious than Sinwol—your disciple?”
“Even if it isn’t Sinwol, there are plenty of ways to face a dark future. I’ll find a new path, Ihwa.”
For the first time since the conversation began, Celestial Assassin spoke the woman’s name.
Ihwa.
The very name that had been mentioned before when Kang-hoo spoke about the Saintess of Salvation Elizabeth.Kang-hoo woke up just as the bus was about to enter the road leading from the outskirts into Daejeon.
The areas managed by Cheong-an, Heuksaja, and Eclipse—who were fighting over Daejeon’s dominance—had relatively good roads.
But this area was far enough away that calling it their jurisdiction was a stretch, and the road conditions were poor.
It wasn’t like the state maintained roads properly at the national level, and Daejeon’s Public Safety Bureau had long since become hollow.
So bad roads on the outskirts weren’t strange—if anything, they were expected.
That constant jostling from the “safe bus” woke Kang-hoo, whose sleep was already light and sensitive.
Then—
Kiiiiiik.
The driver stopped the bus.
If it wasn’t a red light, there was only one reason to stop on the road: something had happened.
He used a sensory-focus skill to strengthen his vision to the limit.
With enhanced eyesight, the reason became clear right away.
Multiple trucks were blocking the road. A flag of an organization fluttered from them.
‘Cheong-an? A disguise.’
The eye-emblazoned flag was indeed Cheong-an’s.
But Kang-hoo didn’t believe it for a second.
This was Eclipse, one hundred percent.
A cheap attempt at deception—but only Eclipse pulled this kind of trash.
“Idiots.”
“Let’s ignore them and go back to sleep. They’ll throw a little tantrum and leave. Like always.”
The mood inside the bus stayed calm.
There were plenty of guard hunters, and the driver was also a well-trained hunter.
And in an emergency, structures mounted along the bus’s sides could function like automated mana-shot rifles.
Messing with Jeonghwa Transit’s safe bus was treated as the same as messing with Jeonghwa Guild.
In the end, it meant you had to be insane and eager to die.
Everyone assumed the “criminal gang” would scatter on their own and tried to sleep.
Even the guard hunters didn’t open the doors or step out. This kind of thing happened all the time, and the outcome was obvious.
Then—
“.......”
Sensing something off, Kang-hoo cracked his eyes open.
Their expressions in the headlights were far too relaxed.
If they only meant to cause trouble, there wouldn’t be that strange exchange of glances between them.
It felt like signals. Like a promised coordination.
A deliberate attempt to stall.
After scanning the situation around the bus—
Kang-hoo lowered himself slightly beneath his seat and immediately deployed a skill.
【Shadow Step】
Unlike a physical body, a shadow could freely slip outside even from inside a bus.
Normally he wouldn’t use skills in a bus, but right now, speed was life.
Papap!
He swapped places with the shadow to appear outside, then immediately swapped again with a shadow that had already moved farther away.
It all happened in under a second.
The position where he’d been sitting among passengers a moment ago was now far behind him.
The next instant—
Kugugugug! Gugugug!
“.......”
A scene unfolded that stole Kang-hoo’s words.
The ground beneath the stopped safe bus sank in completely—like it had been swallowed by a massive sinkhole.
“Those bastards.”
Yes.
It had been a designed trap.