Solo Swordmaster

Chapter 44: The Final Resort

“S-Sir…!”

Park’s mind went blank.

Not once had the gears in his head ever stopped before — not when he was impaled by a sword, had his bones shattered, or beaten up by Limon.

That was thanks to the power of 「Counterfeit God’s Alias」. It gave him the ability to lie in any situation.

But at this very moment, he could do nothing but hold his mouth agape.

Not only was this situation that bewildering…

“Sickening? Aren’t you being too harsh on your trusted aide?”

“You asked my honest opinion, did you not?”

“Well, I suppose I did,” Limon chuckled.

Lee Chun-gi had just allowed Limon to critique his judgment.

Seeing the two men converse in front of him, Park was stunned.

‘How…?’

As far as he knew, these two were absolutely incompatible with one another.

Lee Chun-gi had tried to expunge Limon, who was hindering his status as a Monarch.

And Limon had created a hostage situation to pressure Lee Chun-gi.

Yet, here they were — not only were they standing side by side, they were making peaceful conversation.

In fact, Park wasn’t just confused. His eyes were almost popping out of their sockets.

“What, are you surprised? That me and this little shit are both alive?” Limon smirked seeing the man’s confusion.

“……”

Park could not answer.

His eyes darted around the room, perplexed.

“To be honest, I was on the verge of killing him,” Limon scoffed.

The only thought Limon gave regarding Lee Chun-gi was how torturously he was going to kill him.

There was no reason to keep him alive.

“But no matter how much I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if this little shit was the one to repay my blood debt.”

After interrogating a dying Lee Chun-gi, Limon was driven into another dilemma.

He’d realized that there was someone else behind all of this — Lee Chun-gi was just a puppet on a string.

He pondered if he should really kill him when Lee Chun-gi was the only clue to the true gray eminence behind this matter.

And so, he came to a decision.

“So I decided to pause on killing him for now until I find out who my real debtor is.”

It was truly out of the ordinary.

No one would dare say such a thing unless they thought of the Infinite Monarch as some junk under their bed.

But Lee Chun-gi looked complacent.

There was no need to be shaken up when the writing on the wall was so obvious. Limon could kill him whenever he wanted to.

‘Wh-What the actual fuck…!’

Park unknowingly let out a whimper.

Having stood by Lee Chun-gi’s side for so long, he knew how strong the man’s pride was.

He couldn’t believe how calmly the Infinite Monarch was listening to this nonsense.

But amidst the disbelief, Park felt that many of his questions were answered.

How was Limon here?

Why weren’t the other guild members coming to help?

How did Limon find his bank information?

How did Seo Yongchan spill everything?

All of these would have been skeptical if it was Limon, but it all made so much sense if it was Lee Chun-gi.

That also meant that Lee Chun-gi was already aware of every little detail Limon had just exposed about him.

“Sir, there has been a misunderstanding!”

“A misunderstanding, you say…”

In a state of panic, Park tried to make even more excuses.

But Lee Chun-gi was all closed ears.

“Was it all a misunderstanding that I ordered you to steal the guild’s money and hold the orphans hostage?” he asked calmly.

“Th-That was… I—”

“Mr. Park.”

Lee Chun-gi cut him off.

“My ears are rotting. Please stop running your mouth.”

His voice was bone-chilling.

His normally calm, nonchalant eyes were swarming with pure, explicit detestation. It was as if even the sight of Park made him sick.

Park’s face twisted. He could see the full picture now.

He realized lying wouldn’t work anymore.

He realized that Lee Chun-gi didn’t trust him anymore.

And he knew his place in 『Infinity Guild』was no longer.

Well, it was an inevitable outcome.

「Counterfeit God’s Alias」may be a powerful skill, but it couldn’t turn every lie into truth.

Not only had all of his schemes been exposed, he was also caught trying to pin the blame on Lee Chun-gi. How could he get him back on his side after all that?

If such a feat was possible, there would have already been an eleventh Monarch.

And Lee Chun-gi did not tolerate even the smallest of flaws.

He would kick out people left and right if they didn’t bring out the best results despite giving it their best efforts.

There was absolutely no chance he would forgive Park after such a disgraceful display.

Knowing this better than anyone else, Park stayed frozen as Lee Chun-gi issued his sentence.

“You’re fired.”

There was no disappointment, compassion, or regret.

Lee Chun-gi had fired him like he was simply taking out the trash.

***

***

‘Fired? You’re kicking me out? Me, kicked out of 『Infinity Guild』?’

Park felt something inside him snap.

The despair of getting fired from the guild that was everything to him.

Everything he had.

It brewed into his rage towards Limon and Lee Chun-gi.

He’d been pushed into a dead-end.

His vision went blood red and—

“Aaaaaaargh!”

Park swung his fist with a roar.

Crack—!

He’d strained himself with a sword jabbed into his shoulder.

The sound of bones crushing with agony rang through the air.

But Park didn’t give a damn.

Using Limon’s backstep to dodge his fist, he forced the sword out of his shoulder.

“While you were frolicking off in the Dungeon, I was the one who made 『Infinity Guild』into what it is now! There isn’t a single part of this guild that I haven’t touched!”

He had worked for 『Infinity Guild』since the beginning, before Lee Chun-gi was even given the title of Monarch.

While the other guild members were busy leveling up in the Dungeon, he was setting up the guild structures, building connections with politicians, casting sales networks for dungeon products, and recruiting new talents.

He was the one in charge of managing the guild

That was why he was confident he was credited to getting『Infinity Guild』into the top ten guilds worldwide.

And so, he believed that the guild flourished thanks to him making it basically his.

“You’re firing me just for this? You’re just a Monarch because you got lucky with your cheat skill, you little cheeky son of a bitch!”

Park gritted his teeth.

If he had a cheat skill like 「Technique Acquisition」, he would have already grown『Infinity Guild』by magnitudes.

Lee Chun-gi didn’t care about jack when it came to running the guild. All he did was clear the Dungeon while acting as the face of the guild.

How could that good-for-nothing fire him?

How dare he be so fucking ungrateful?!

His rage voided all rationale inside him. And so, Park turned to his last resort.

“If that’s how it is, I’ll slaughter the both of you!”

It was the cry of a complete lunatic.

To try that on the Infinite Monarch and the man who beat the Infinite Monarch was no different than committing suicide.

But Park had something he was counting on.

[76% chance of a successful deceit upon borrowing your subject’s name.]

[Your credibility has met the minimum conditions.]

[Unique skill 「Counterfeit God’s Alias」activating.]

[Forging up to 76% of all of Lee Chun-gi’s skills and status for 152 minutes.]

[However, 「Counterfeit God’s Alias」will initialize calibration of the borrowed subject after use.]

“Hm…?”

Lee Chun-gi felt his entire body get drained as the system messages popped up. He twisted his face.

Park looked at him with bloodthirst.

“It’s too late for regrets now, Lee Chun-gi! You made me use this skill and you will die by it!”

“…Indeed, you’ve been hiding a skill like this.”

「Forged Prestige」

Park’s final card.

A secondary skill of 「Counterfeit God’s Alias」, it sniped the target’s skills and blessings by deceiving the Constellation contracted to them.

Naturally, there was the downside that the stolen skills were weaker and could only be used for a limited amount of time.

But it was able to copy even unique skills.

Not to mention, the more blessings that were stolen, the weaker the target would become.

Its effects were undeniably exemplary.

While Lee Chun-gi could only bring out 24% of his actual power, Park now wielded the other 76%.

Park was essentially three times as strong as Lee Chun-gi right now.

He could kill off Lee Chun-gi without breaking a sweat.

Limon was still a problem, but Park wasn’t worried about him.

‘There’s no way a Swordmaster can stand against me!’

He was already well aware that he had defeated Lee Chun-gi from everything he’d heard.

But that was just because Lee Chun-gi was a fucking neanderthal who couldn’t even manage his own skills.

He was confident he could make a fool out of that old goner Limon with his newfound power.

After all, it was impossible to lose against a single fucking civilian when he had thousands of skills!

“You’re first, Limon Asphelder!”

And so, he targeted Limon first.

That way, he could humiliate Lee Chun-gi by showing him how incompetent he was.

“Di—”

But before he could use a single skill, Park froze.

He had reached out his right hand to cast an attack skill.

And that very same hand was now rolling on the ground, sliced clean off.

“GAAAAAAH!”

“Didn’t I tell you?”

Limon flicked the blood off his sword as he watched Park grasp his missing wrist.

“Don’t call me by my name, you fucking imbecile.”

“Y-You pathetic old goner, that was a foul—!”

“Foul?”

Limon looked bemused, hearing Park call him out in rage for attacking so suddenly.

“Don’t bark up the wrong tree, you little bitch. I’m not here to play fight. I’m here to fucking kill you.”

You want a start that starts after a ‘ready, set, go’? Then go be an athlete.

Park hyun-gun glared at him, his eyes bloodshot.

“Don’t act like you’re worth shit for getting just one blow in while I let my guard down!”

“Have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe, you might be the dimwit for letting your guard down in front of an enemy?”

“You son of a bitch…!”

Park gritted his teeth at Limon’s deliberate mockery.

With dead-on murder in his eyes this time, he got ready to use his skills.

‘I’ll kill him, I’m going to fucking kill him!’

He blocked the pain and regenerated his hand with healing skills like 「Regeneration」, 「Super Regeneration」, 「Combat Recovery」, and 「Alganesthesia」.

He strengthened his physical capabilities to the extreme with boost skills like 「Super Acceleration」, 「Super Sense」, and 「Titan Strength」.

He looked for his opponent’s weak spots by predicting the future with skills like 「Accelerated Cognition」, 「Foresight」, and 「Flaw Detection」.

All he had left to do was unleash hundreds of attack skills as soon as he saw an opening!

He had just taken the first hit because he hadn’t activated his skills yet.

Park simultaneously activated the skills, absolutely certain that Limon would be a piece of cake if he fought properly.

A colossal power from dozens and dozens of skills swept over his body and mind.

He felt omnipotent.

He felt like…

LIKE HE COULD DO ANYTHI—

“Gaagh?!”

From his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

Blood splurged out of Park’s facial orifices as he spasmed on the floor.

Limon blinked blankly.

“…The hell are you doing?”

——

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