How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 123

Chapter 123

It was still a little disappointing not having a sword.

The silence weighed heavily. The mont Jin Geon felt that, Baek Ga-on approached almost simultaneously.

Their gazes collided in midair. Until before entering the underground, the two had maintained a fairly amicable relationship, but that friendship had always been shallow as thin ice. It would not have been strange for it to lt away and disappear at any mont.

Looking back, the very first step had already gone wrong.

He had threatened him arbitrarily, suspected him according to his own judgnt, and pressured him as he pleased.

What kind of man did Jin Geon appear to be in Ga-on’s eyes?

Perhaps Ga-on even thought it would be more convenient to silence him by killing him here. It was a deal in which Ga-on had nothing to lose. Whether infected or so grand cause, such things probably sounded like stories from a distant land to him. No matter how much he claid neutrality, Ga-on was still a “solver.”

If his life was on the line, he would inevitably choose his own safety above all else.

Yet contrary to Jin Geon’s expectations, Ga-on opened his mouth leisurely.

“I never knew.”

“Pardon?”

“You also show emotions on your face when cornered.”

“Haha, I told you already. We aren’t ghosts or monsters either.”

“Then stop being afraid and relax. At the very least, I’m a solver who doesn’t harm ‘humans.’ And you’re the Sheriff who appointed .”

“Ah…….”

“You said we’re in a Sheriff-advisor relationship. I agree. I think it wouldn’t be bad if we beca a little closer.”

It was a declaration that he would willingly beco a shield for him. For a mont, it almost looked as though a halo shone behind Ga-on’s back.

It was certainly a touching alliance, but to Nick, it only felt unpleasant.

“So you refuse.”

It had taken effort to extend goodwill. Having it thrown aside as though it was not even worth considering did nothing for his pride.

But it was not as though Ga-on had nothing to say either. So after taking his eyes off Jin Geon, he coldly shot back.

“The fact that you’re already trying to twist words like that ans you’re beyond saving.”

Would Nick really beco a reliable ally just because Jin Geon was dealt with? There needed to be a clear answer to that question before he could act directly.

But from Ga-on’s perspective, Nick was the sort of person who would only beco trouble the longer one dealt with him.

Wasn’t Nick the very one who had just opened the conversation with remarks that practically disregarded the authority of the gacorp? Yet imdiately afterward, he claid to respect it. Wasn’t that contradictory?

Even if his tendency to interpret situations however he pleased could sohow be laughed off—

“How about you stop talking as if you’re showing rcy after deciding on your own that I’m Yang Hu? Every proposal you made is only valid if I’m a ta-human.”

“The first one to make that claim wasn’t . It was that guy over there. I rely took his words into consideration.”

“Yeah, I figured as much.”

“If that displeases you, then all the more reason you should follow my suggestion. I’m the only one who can return to the Mars Defense Force and uncover the identity of this guy called X. If you want to clear yourself of suspicion, cooperating is the ideal choice.”

As though giving him ti to think, Nick exhaled a mouthful of thick smoke. Yet when Ga-on’s mouth remained shut like a clam, he deliberately spoke in a grave voice.

“But if you continue protecting Jin Geon, there’s no other way to interpret it except that you want to control the information around him and hide the fact that you are Yang Hu.”

“So you’re saying I should kill him to prove my innocence?”

“Correct.”

An unbearably arrogant self-righteousness.

But did he realize it? That deductions bordering on coercion were often the closest to the truth.

Nick was personally proving that even a broken clock was right twice a day, but Ga-on had no intention of grading his answer sheet.

So—

“There’s no guarantee. No guarantee that you’ll let go peacefully even if I do exactly what you say.”

He deliberately pushed back.

It was also his honest feeling. After what had happened today, he could only imagine becoming a puppet. No other future ca to mind.

“So you’d rather drink the penalty wine?”

“So what if I do? It’s not like I’ll die.”

Ga-on shrugged his shoulders and sneered as if putting on a show. To Nick, it sounded close to a challenge, almost a provocation. Naturally, the electronic cigarette in his hand bent strangely under the pressure.

“I thought you were at least quick with calculating profit and loss, but you’re completely bland. Even if your inside and outside are different, you shouldn’t reveal it so openly.”

“Says the very guy who deliberately pushed things this way. Don’t act like you’re giving advice. It’s pathetic.”

“Right, so that’s how it is.”

With that, the negotiations broke down. No, it could hardly even be called a negotiation. The outco had been decided from the beginning. This was rely a place where each side confird their positions, making that fact even more certain.

“Since it’s co to this, I’ll just have to bury both of you.”

Nick tore off his eyepatch and revealed his true nature. He was the embodint of trauma. A beast incapable of moving forward unless he repaid the wounds inflicted upon him.

“Yeah, see? Isn’t it much better when you show your true colors?”

Arguing back and forth was not Ga-on’s style. When justice and ideologies clashed, what determined superiority was ultimately strength. No matter how much one gilded it with justification, the essence never changed. Everyone fought in the field they were most confident in.

Politicians with authority, capitalists with wealth, and solvers with force.

The atmosphere, stretched taut like a rubber band, balanced on the verge of snapping at any second.

What exactly would Nick reveal?

At a glance, there did not seem to be anything on his attire that could be called weaponry. Though there were countless bizarre devices in existence these days, making it impossible to lower one’s guard, he was not even carrying a basic holster.

“Be careful of his eyes.”

Jin Geon’s warning ca out as though squeezed from his throat.

Co to think of it, Nick’s right eye moved like an independent lifeform. It never stayed still for even a mont and constantly trembled. But that was not the only unusual thing. After all—

‘He isn’t looking here?’

Then where was he looking? The mont Ga-on rolled his eyes to follow that gaze, the flow of the air changed. An extrely faint fluctuation. Under normal circumstances, it would have been dismissed as imagination, but his honed instincts sounded an alarm.

Sure enough, the instant he retreated as much as his danger sense demanded, his vision abruptly darkened.

And as if waiting for that exact mont, droplets of blood dripped down with a plop.

Jin Geon could not hide his shock at the large slash marks crossing both of Ga-on’s eyes. An unreasonable ability that skipped over process and cause to produce only the result. It was a sight he had beco sick of witnessing in the Ergency Disaster Response Unit.

There was no way he could fail to recognize where it originated from.

He could now easily guess why Nick had openly made contact with Raphaela while disregarding the rules of the Ergency Disaster Response Unit.

“So you beca infected… and that’s why you defected?”

“Don’t confuse the order of priorities. I beca a ta-human after my mind had already changed.”

Ironically enough, what Nick awakened after countless exhausting experints was not talent, but a supernatural ability.

Airflow manipulation.

A power categorized as psychokinesis of air or Aerokinesis. Without prior information, the first strike was sothing one could “never” avoid accepting.

That was why Nick had aid for Ga-on’s neck—

“You’re a lucky bastard.”

It would not be an exaggeration to say his animalistic instincts had saved him. Though all it did was spare him from an instant death.

There was a saying in kendo.

First the eyes, second the feet, third the courage, fourth the strength.

It was a phrase teaching that eyesight was supre, followed by footwork, then courage, and finally skill.

It emphasized just how important the function of the eyes was, and Ga-on’s current state perfectly embodied that lesson. A human deprived of one of the five senses could never truly stand on their own. Especially when that sense was sight, the most precious of all.

The proof was how he stood there, unable to figure out what to do.

However—

But that was rely Nick’s optimistic assumption. Ga-on had already excluded his eyes entirely and was simply reorganizing his senses anew. The reason it took ti was because this crisis differed from all the dangers he had overco until now.

Regenerating as usual was out of the question, and at the sa ti, he could not simply give up and die either.

Burdened with all sorts of restrictions, this was his first round against the Ergency Disaster Response Unit. In other words—

“A pretty fitting handicap.”

“I’ll at least acknowledge your spirit. But how exactly does a blind man intend to defeat ?”

That was a problem Ga-on himself needed to solve. He was empty-handed without even a proper weapon. Just then, a single thought crossed his mind, and before he could even process it, his legs moved first from sheer impulse.

One step forward.

Then he clenched his fist and slowly extended it.

It was such a familiar stance that Nick unconsciously let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha, you’re planning to show off a martial art you only just learned right in front of ? Have you lost your mind?”

As though he had seen sothing utterly ridiculous, Nick lost interest and manipulated the airflow. Invisible fabricated weapons scattered in every direction in an instant. Thick lines carved themselves into the ceiling and walls alike.

The shadow of death approached without warning or premonition.

Yet Ga-on fearlessly charged forward. The inability to see was rely a minor obstacle. Precisely because of that, he was not deceived and could make the correct judgnt.

Click, a drug cocktail burst from the hormone regulator and was absorbed throughout his body. In that instant, his expanded senses clearly perceived the flow of the atmosphere. At least inside his head, the world was brighter than ever before.

Receiving only grazing wounds, he traversed the shortest distance possible.

And at the end of it—

Boom!

He stomped on the ground with enough force to shake the earth itself. His rotating body was no different from a storm, and under its influence, the ground twisted and split apart in a vortex.

Feeling a recoil that threatened to fling him away if he made the slightest mistake, Ga-on swung his arm.

What extended forward was a fist. What changed during the process were his fingers. And what was ultimately thrust out was his palm.

The threefold transition of fist, claw, and palm.

[Unauthorized Bajiquan Secret Technique: Gyeoksanta’u]

Unlike Rajinga, this was not a fake that borrowed the power of a different principle.

This was a technique that pushed against the surface of the air with the palm to maximize aerodynamic force. A long-range attack carried out by using compressed air as a dium.

However—

“You haven’t forgotten whose domain this entire place is, have you?”

It was useless against Nick, who could manipulate airflow. From the mont Ga-on showed suspicious movents, Nick had already firmly established his stance, reducing the damage infinitely close to zero.

It was not as though Ga-on had failed to anticipate that. No, it would be more accurate to say he had aid for it. Everything had been a trick to shorten the distance even by a single milliter.

Riding the montum that had not yet faded, he shot forward like an arrow.

Crash!

Ga-on reached right in front of Nick and threw a punch, only to be stopped with less than a sheet of paper’s distance between them.

What currently wrapped around Nick’s entire body was a layer of air compressed to a density no different from concrete. Even calling it full-body armor was insufficient. Unlike ordinary protective equipnt that only functioned once, his endlessly restored itself whenever destroyed.

After all, wasn’t the material spread abundantly throughout the world?

Nick had not been unard. It was simply that his weaponry could not be seen.

“It really is a little disappointing not having a sword.”

“So now you finally feel like giving up? I’d like it if you appreciated the courtesy I showed by at least trying to let you die without regrets.”

“And the courtesy I showed by letting you keep talking all this ti.”

Their fists were still pressed together.

And that ant only one thing.

Click. Along with a sound like a switch being turned on, an arbitrary axis ford within the rebounding layer of air.