Chapter 79
Greed blinds people.
Madness robs them of rational judgment.
That was exactly what was happening inside the arena.
The massive sum of one hundred thousand Sol blinded their eyes, and collective frenzy stripped away their reason.
The spectators charged at Zeon, forgetting that he was a powerful opponent.
To Zeon, they looked like the undead.
“One hundred thousand Sol is mine!”
“I’ll kill Zeon!”
“Die!”
Their madness filled the arena.
At that moment, Zeon moved.
Bang!
“Urgh!”
His strike slammed into the face of the man leading the charge.
With a scream, the man collapsed.
Even after seeing someone fall right before them, the crowd kept rushing forward without hesitation.
Zeon threw his fists at them.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
With heavy impacts, the front line crumbled.
There was no need to use sand authority or flame magic.
Zeon’s martial arts alone surpassed most combat-type awakened.
No one could withstand even a single blow.
In an instant, half the crowd was down.
Only then did the spectators regain their senses.
Fear brought their minds back.
“W… what?”
“Ugh…”
“Damn it!”
Half the people who had been laughing and shouting moments ago were now lying in pools of blood.
Even in their madness, fear was unavoidable.
Even an F-rank awakened could take on dozens of ordinary people at once.
Zeon, however, was at least B-rank.
Even truckloads of civilians wouldn’t be enough to overwhelm him.
Goran knew that.
Yet he still drove the crowd toward Zeon—for a reason.
A cruel smile formed on Goran’s lips.
“Boom.”
KABOOM!
Suddenly, one of the fallen spectators beneath Zeon’s feet exploded.
Zeon was blown away by the blast.
He flew nearly ten meters.
Where he was about to land, another fallen spectator lay.
Even in the chaos, Zeon frowned.
No way…
His suspicion became reality.
BOOM!
Another spectator exploded.
They were literal human bombs.
Caught in the explosion, Zeon was sent flying again.
Thud!
He slammed into the arena wall.
Debris from the shattered wall buried him.
Ava smiled deeply.
“As expected, the boss’s ability is incredible. That must have done serious damage.”
At that moment—
Zeon pushed aside the rubble and stood up.
Tap. Tap.
He dusted off his robe.
There wasn’t a single sign of injury on him.
Ava’s smile vanished.
In contrast, Goran looked intrigued.
“So that’s not enough, huh.”
That explosion had been strong enough to instantly blow away even a D-rank awakened.
The fact that Zeon came out unscathed meant only one thing—he was that strong.
“Estimated B-rank or higher… troublesome indeed.”
The stronger the awakened, the greater their pride.
Naturally, they rarely bow to others.
But breaking such people and placing them beneath you—that was what made it thrilling.
Zeon looked at Goran.
“You planted bombs inside their bodies.”
“Heh…”
Goran neither confirmed nor denied it.
Zeon didn’t press further.
The time for words was over.
Only a direct confrontation remained.
Flash!
Zeon launched himself forward.
Hundreds of steps lay between him and Goran, but he crossed them in an instant.
Just as he was about to reach the top—
BOOM!
A massive shockwave slammed into him.
It was Dolkan—the bald man behind Goran—firing at full power.
The shockwave shattered all the arena’s windows, and spectators collapsed with ruptured eardrums.
Dolkan was Goran’s enforcer.
He had defeated and injured countless enemies with his shockwaves.
No one had ever come out unharmed.
He assumed this time would be no different.
But Zeon landed safely on the upper level, as if mocking that confidence.
There wasn’t a trace of damage on him.
Dozens of fireballs formed around Zeon.
Seeing this, Ava ordered the prostitutes,
“Protect the boss.”
Without hesitation, they surrounded Goran.
At that moment, Zeon swung his hand—
And the fireballs poured down like rain toward Dolkan and Goran.
“Uoooo!”
Dolkan charged forward like a bull, raising his right arm to shield himself.
Most of the fireballs struck his arm and bounced off.
His right arm was a mechanical prosthetic.
Built with Neo Seoul’s advanced technology, it could deflect most physical and magical attacks.
A few fireballs flew toward Goran, but the prostitutes blocked them with their bodies.
Their faces twisted in pain as the flames struck them.
Yet none screamed or tried to dodge.
Instead, their eyes shone as if it were an honor to sacrifice themselves for him.
“Bastard!”
Dolkan swung his mechanical arm at Zeon.
Zeon slightly lowered his head and avoided the punch. In that instant, Dolkan’s side was left completely exposed.
Wrapping flames around his superheated gauntlet, Zeon struck Dolkan’s side.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
Dolkan’s face twisted in pain with the explosive impact.
Only his right arm was mechanical—every other part of him was still human.
Naturally, he felt pain when struck.
The unexpected agony made his body recoil.
Zeon didn’t miss that opening.
His arms shot out and grabbed Dolkan’s mechanical arm—and ripped it off.
Rip!
“AAARGH!”
Dolkan screamed as the prosthetic was torn away.
Shreds of nerves and muscle clung grotesquely to the severed limb.
“So easily…?”
Goran’s expression completely changed.
Dolkan, along with Taeo, Eaton, and Ava, was one of his strongest pillars.
He was always deployed in conflicts, a man of overwhelming combat power.
Yet he was crushed so effortlessly.
It wasn’t that Dolkan was weak—
Zeon’s strength simply exceeded Goran’s expectations.
“Damn it… this is getting troublesome.”
Goran cursed his own impatience.
Had he known Zeon was this strong, he would’ve approached things differently.
But regret always came too late.
Now wasn’t the time for that—he needed a way out.
And Goran knew the easiest way.
He shouted,
“Dolkan! Die for me!”
In that instant, Dolkan’s eyes changed.
Like a fanatic, his pupils rolled back as he charged Zeon.
With his remaining arm, he grabbed Zeon in a crushing embrace.
Zeon tried to break free—but Dolkan’s strength was beyond imagination.
Spittle flew from Dolkan’s mouth as he spoke,
“We die together, Zeon!”
Zeon saw Dolkan’s crazed eyes turn red.
He knew exactly what that meant.
Self-destruction?
His judgment was quick—his reaction even quicker.
Zeon unleashed Exion at full force.
Fwoosh!
The pressure forced a gap in Dolkan’s grip.
Zeon slipped through and curled his body tightly.
The next moment—
Dolkan exploded.
BOOOOM!
It was on a completely different level from the earlier explosions.
Pillars shattered, walls collapsed—the entire arena caved in.
“Damn it! What the hell…”
Zeon pushed aside the rubble and stood up.
This was already the second time he’d been buried in debris today—and the third explosion he’d endured.
If not for his robe made from Leviathan’s hide, he would’ve suffered serious injuries.
Zeon looked around.
Goran was nowhere to be seen.
He had clearly escaped before the explosion.
“Been a while since I’ve been properly pissed off.”
Zeon ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
He had never imagined Dolkan would self-destruct at a single command.
Whether human or beast, the most important thing was one’s own life.
To throw it away so easily at another’s word—it defied everything Zeon understood.
“A fanatic? Or some kind of mental control?”
This was already a ruined world.
A new kind of humanity—Awakened—had emerged, with countless abilities.
There were mainstream types—martial, magic, curse, and machine-fused—but also rare, unconventional abilities like Zeon’s.
Goran clearly belonged to that latter group.
“Mental domination… and explosion-based abilities?”
In the brief moment he had been grabbed, Zeon confirmed something—there was no explosive device inside Dolkan.
Yet he still exploded.
That meant Dolkan’s body itself had become the bomb.
He didn’t know how it was done, but if that truly was Goran’s ability, it was extremely dangerous.
“If I let him go, he’ll keep coming after me. I have to finish this today.”
Zeon immediately set off in pursuit.
Goran was the king of the slums.
He knew Sinchon’s layout like the back of his hand.
But so did Zeon.
Though it seemed like he had done nothing since returning, he had already memorized the entire area.
No matter where Goran hid, Zeon was confident he could find him.
***
The Black Lion burst into Yoo Sehui’s room and shouted,
“There’s been an incident!”
“What is it?”
Yoo Sehui glared at him, annoyed at having her peaceful time interrupted.
If it turned out to be trivial, she had no intention of letting it slide.
But his next words erased that thought entirely.
“The arena has exploded.”
“The arena? You mean Goran’s place?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It seems to be related to Zeon.”
“Zeon?”
“Yes. Someone saw him entering the arena.”
Yoo Sehui’s expression hardened.
She was one of the few who knew Goran’s true ability.
Because of that, she could easily guess what had happened.
“That terrorist… used his power on Zeon?”
Among those in the shadows, Goran was known as the Terrorist.
Using his blood and mana, he could awaken latent talent in others.
On the surface, it seemed like a blessing.
But behind that blessing lay a curse.
Goran could force the awakened mana in those he empowered to run wild—causing them to explode.
That was his true ability.
Decades ago, he used it to seize control of Sinchon.
And it wasn’t limited to awakened individuals.
Even ordinary people, if infused with his blood and mana, could be turned into living bombs.
His victims would explode without even realizing it.
That was what made it so terrifying.
No one could tell who had been turned.
Goran would transform people close to his targets into bombs—triggering them at the perfect moment.
It created a world where no one could trust anyone.
Using this method, he turned the families and allies of his rivals into weapons—and eliminated them.
Thousands had died that way.
That was how he became the ruler of Sinchon.
Yoo Sehui spoke urgently,
“Track both Goran and Zeon immediately. If this goes wrong, all of Sinchon could collapse.”