Chapter 15

Chapter 15. Designated Request (2)

“―Ptooey!!”

Heat mixed with dust burst from my burning throat along with bloody spit.

An intense heat and pain like being gouged with iron skewers raced through my entire body.

“You crazy bastards!! You cut off the tail by blowing up every last one of your own researchers too?!”

The cases the researchers had been trying to evacuate with.

What had been inside them were bombs.

Even to someone like me who knew nothing about bombs, they were chunks of metal practically screaming, I’m a bomb.

‘I knew things were going too easily.’

I have no idea when they switched them out.

The researchers had been clutching bombs that would kill them and running away, believing they were precious research data and prototypes.

‘Right. This is Inrang.’

No blood or tears when it comes to company profit.

Human rights or whatever else, there’s no dirty deed they won’t commit!

Thanks for reminding me so vividly.

So low-level researchers are infinitely replaceable, is that it?

“Haa... Damn it. Is everyone okay?”

After spitting out another mouthful of blood, I asked behind me.

“Cough... khk, ugh...”

“Cough...”

Through the flames, I could see the suppression team staggering to their feet amid rough coughing.

Wow, police equipment these days is good.

I did block about half of it, but they’re still fine after taking the aftermath of an explosion that big.

Then again, his younger sister is on this team too, so Kim Cheol-su must have paid enough attention to their gear that they didn’t need Haechi units.

“W-we’re fine. But Mr. Gang-sik, how in the world did you survive that explosion just now...”

Lieutenant Kim Young-hee asked in shock as she used her rifle like a cane to stand.

“Ptooey!”

Instead of answering, I spat whatever had risen into my throat onto the floor along with the blood.

It was...

“G-good heavens.”

Blackened wires and detonators.

“Phew...”

The moment I saw they were bombs, I shouted into the ear cuff.

Then I bit through and swallowed every wire and metal pipe section I could reach.

After that, I kicked the cases away as hard as I could with my metalized legs.

Finally, I metalized the vital points all over my body too.

Even so, I couldn’t completely reduce the impact of the explosion.

“A-are you really all right?”

“...More or less.”

It’s not enough to be unrecoverable.

But my insides are churning, so I feel like I need to eat something immediately.

―Rumble.

But the sound that followed told me there was no time to waste.

The bombs had no levers or switches.

I hadn’t seen any timers either.

Which meant someone detonated them remotely.

“Young-hee, take your team and get out immediately. As far away as possible. Give me that rifle.”

“What?”

“There’s no time to explain, hurry!!”

“Y-yes!!”

Kim Young-hee hurriedly handed me her rifle.

Then she quickly led the other team members out of the factory.

I glanced at their retreating backs.

Then immediately brought the rifle in my hand to my mouth, about to start devouring it from the muzzle...

―CRRRAAASH!!

“...!!”

A barrage of ice spikes pierced through the factory roof and poured down.

The indiscriminately falling ice spikes soon converged on me as though they had found their target.

“You crazy bastard, don’t you know it’s basic manners not to attack during a transformation!?”

I hurriedly rolled across the floor and shouted.

A leisurely voice echoed through the air.

“This humble one has lived in Hanseong all his life and has never once heard of such etiquette.”

Appearing on the factory roof atop a massive block of ice was...

A man holding a fan that scattered ice powder.

He wore a clean robe patterned with peach blossoms and a gat.

Against the jungle of neon signs stretching behind him and the nightscape of a futuristic city, he looked utterly out of place.

And he was also someone who absolutely should not have appeared here.

“...Huh? A scholar?”

As though to prove that fact.

Around the man, who stood atop the ice with his hands clasped behind his back and his robe fluttering.

A faint five-colored mist wrapped around his body and shone.

“The mana aura of an Awakened... Did the Families really come here to clean up after Inrang?”

Even though it was my first time seeing the phenomenon in person, I recognized it instantly.

Because it looked exactly like the depiction in the game.

“...What the hell is going on?”

Naturally, not every mana Awakened came from one of the Families.

But the only people who proudly walked around in hanbok so anachronistic for this era.

Were the scholars from the Families.

‘The problem is why this bastard showed up here.’

Water and oil.

Day and night, spear and shield.

Or the north and south poles of a magnet.

Entities that absolutely could not mix and should never be mixed.

That was the relationship between the corporations and the Families in this world.

“Why is a scholar from the Dohwa Foundation cleaning up after Inrang? Weren’t you people sworn enemies?”

“Well now. To identify even my school merely by looking at my clothing, it seems you are not merely an ignorant butcher.”

“Don’t give me that butcher crap. You anachronistic yangban bastards...”

I observed him while chewing and swallowing the metal in my mouth as quickly as possible.

“Inrang treats human lives as less than insects, and you’re cleaning up after bastards like that. Doesn’t that make you people the bigger scoundrels?”

“...I let you run that loose mouth merely because it was open.”

Looks like that remark struck a nerve.

The man bristled and crushed the fan in his hand.

From the block of ice beneath his feet, small spikes broke off and began circling around him.

‘His visible ability is ice manipulation.’

Telekinesis-based?

No. If that were the case, he would have taken the gun out of my hand first.

He’s an elemental school mage.

Probably a single-element specialist.

Judging by how his mana aura hasn’t taken form, he isn’t particularly high-ranked.

Then he’s at least manageable.

“Why? Did I say something wrong? Associating with lowlifes who make and drink weird drugs...”

“Bastard!! Will you not shut that mouth!”

The man erupted in anger and fired the ice spikes.

His patience is as young as he looks.

He can’t be much more than twenty.

I dodged the ice spikes one after another, rolled, and leaped onto the factory roof.

Then I aimed the rifle at him.

“Hah! You may be unusually talented at rolling around, but that is all!”

The man waved his hand at me.

Ice surged up from beneath his feet, rising between him and me.

Even the rifle in my hand froze solid in an instant.

“Haha, now that pathetic lump of iron is usele―”

The man’s mocking voice stopped.

Because I was no longer visible beyond the pillar where I should have been.

“Bastard, where did you go so quickly...!”

His own ice pillar blocked his view, and he turned his head to scan the surroundings.

―Whoosh!

“Ghk?!”

I tried to smash him beneath the chin, but narrowly failed.

“You butcher bastard, you are fairly capable!!”

Nearly losing his jaw because he let his guard down, the man began freezing everything around him in earnest.

“Tch!”

It’d be annoying if my feet got caught, so I backed off once.

‘So this is mana, and magic, the supernatural ability that uses it...’

That isn’t a physical attack, so Bulgasari can’t cover it.

...This might be a little dangerous.

When I leaped back, the man withdrew the ice as well.

“Tch, I was told I would merely be dealing with some lowest-class butcher.”

He muttered that, finally releasing both hands from behind his back.

Then properly settled into a stance.

“I am Hwaryeong of the Dohwa Foundation, eighth junior rank, Frost Mist!! Butcher, what is your name!”

“Goddamn it. You yangban traditionalist bastards... Do you think this is an elementary school speech contest?”

I raised my middle finger rigidly toward Hwaryeong, who had introduced himself as eighth junior rank.

“I’m His Majesty the Emperor of the Korean Empire, you shaved-ice machine bastard.”

“Y-you... vulgar!”

Looks like my words pissed him off all the way to the top of his head.

He emitted a cold aura clearly different from before and charged first.

“I shall teach this lowborn bastard what manners are!!”

“Try it if you can!”

Dozens of ice spikes rushed in from every direction.

“Ghk!”

I ran and rolled across the unstable rooftop.

Dodging the ice spikes and pillars Hwaryeong fired one after another.

Then after another two rolls or so, I fired Thunder.

―BOOM!!

“Hut!!”

Apparently thinking it was an ordinary gun, Hwaryeong tried to block it with a single ice pillar, only for the pillar to shatter halfway. He barely dodged.

“You wield a bizarre object!”

“Would it kill you to talk normally?”

Startled by the massive gunshot and power, he backed off and recalculated the distance.

I kept provoking Hwaryeong while running around the rooftop.

Loading and firing bullets over and over.

Whether they hit or not, I kept firing.

“That no longer works!”

At first, after seeing a thick ice pillar half-shattered by one shot, Hwaryeong kept his distance...

But after experiencing the same thing several times, he apparently figured out Thunder’s weakness.

The recoil was vicious, and it couldn’t fire rapidly.

In other words, all he had to do was close in and deny me time to reload.

And.

“Ugh!? You rotten bastard!”

If he wanted to stop me from running all over the roof...

He only had to freeze the floor.

‘Even rotten, a Family is still a Family, huh.’

The slick ground prevented me from properly building speed.

And Hwaryeong’s ice pillars drew closer and closer.

“As expected, you were only a loudmouthed butcher!”

“What the hell are you talking about, shaved-ice machine bastard!”

At that moment, I threw myself toward the sharp ice pillar rushing at my body.

―Slash!

I gave up a little of my side, but trusting in my regeneration, I sprinted straight along the ice pillar.

“Ugh!! How dare a lowborn step on it with those filthy feet!”

“Who the hell do you keep calling a lowborn, you snot-nosed brat!!”

As I rushed right up to him, I drew Thunder.

“―!! When did you reload...!”

Hwaryeong instinctively erected thick ice pillars one after another in front of himself.

But.

‘Got you!’

No bullet came from Thunder’s barrel.

―Click.

With the empty trigger pull, the gun left my hand.

The reason I had deliberately kept firing this thing even from angles where it couldn’t hit.

Was to make him recognize Thunder’s firepower as a threat.

‘And the real attack is...’

Hwaryeong erected an ice pillar in front of himself to block a Thunder bullet that didn’t exist.

Because of that, he didn’t freeze anywhere else, and for just a moment his vision was obstructed!

I kicked off the still-unfrozen roof.

And drove my fully metalized fist with all my strength into Hwaryeong’s chest as he hurriedly dispersed the ice pillar!

―BOOOOOOM!!

A tremendous explosion of sound, with fragments of ice scattering in every direction.

The shattered ice spread thickly like actual mist.

“Hurk... hurk...!!”

“Tss...”

The strong, metallic scent of blood drifted through the cloudy ice fog.

Hwaryeong’s chest was covered in several layers of hard ice like armor.

My body was pierced by dozens, hundreds of ice spikes that had erupted from beneath my feet.

And.

“Tch, short by a handspan.”

My fist had broken through layer after layer of the ice armor gathered over Hwaryeong’s chest.

But ultimately stopped before penetrating his body itself.

“Khuh... Haa... Y-you lowborn...!”

The blood flowing from my body and fist covered Hwaryeong’s body in red.

Seeing that my decisive blow had failed.

Hwaryeong suddenly laughed, as though he hadn’t been gasping for breath just moments ago.

“H-hahahaha!! See! In the end, the sword dance of a lowborn butcher is nothing more than a petty trick...!”

To that bastard.

“Cough... Hey, what are you doing?”

“Huh?”

I deliberately coughed up a mouthful of blood over his body and spoke lightly.

“W-what are you?! How are you still alive with wounds like those...”

Hwaryeong stared at me in utter disbelief.

I grinned and showed him what was inside my mouth.

“―You should’ve aimed for my neck.”

Mixed in with the bloody spit were metal fragments.

Right before delivering my final strike.

I had put Thunder’s bullet into my mouth without loading it, along with part of the barrel I had bitten off.

The insane handgun supposedly built by a firearms company devoted to absolute firepower.

A gun made to withstand even large-caliber ammunition.

―Crunch, crunch.

The barrel of that limited-edition monstrosity, one of the few still remaining in this world.

[You have consumed rare material.]

[Your body will be strengthened using the consumed material.]

[Your body will be restored using the consumed material.]

[You have gained proficiency.]

[Your hunger has decreased.]

​

Notifications rang rapidly.

And.

​

[Your proficiency for this rank has reached the maximum.]

[The rank of “Trait: Bulgasari” has increased by one level.]

With the final notification, strength returned throughout my entire body.

And immediately afterward.

―CRRRK!!

“Ghk... ack!? What...!!”

Hwaryeong’s body began stiffening.

More precisely.

I metalized with all my strength the blood I had sprayed over his body.

―Creak, crack.

“How is it? Being unable to move feels pretty damn shitty, doesn’t it?”

“Y-you bastard!! Are you perhaps an unregistered Awakened...”

Hwaryeong could only move his lips, his entire body covered in metal.

The weakness of elemental school mages was...

They had to directly control mana one step at a time.

Forming hand seals with their hands, chanting with their mouths, and so on.

Of course, high-ranking Awakened from the same elemental school had mostly overcome that weakness.

‘But there’s no way some eighth-junior-rank nobody can control mana without even forming hand seals.’

I brushed the ice fragments off Hwaryeong’s body as he kept moving his mouth and clenched my fist.

“You asked my name earlier, right? You little brat, where do you get off constantly calling your elder bastard this and bastard that? No manners at all.”

“...!!”

“My name isn’t lowborn, butcher, or executioner bastard...”

Hwaryeong could no longer even speak and could only curse me with his eyes.

“Lee Gang-sik. You lowborn bastard.”

―CRAAAASH!!

I brought my fist down with all my strength.

I Became an Immortal Who Chews on Steel

Author |

Mwiu

Publisher |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.

Managing Editor |

Editorial Department

Published by |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dream Books

Address |

Rooms 806-810, Kolon Science Valley I, 187-10 Guro-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul

ISBN |

G720:N+A063-20261006118

Blog |

blog.naver.com/dreambookss

Twitter (X) |

@dreambookss

Submissions |

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