Monster Heavenly King - Chapter 11



Only Noblemtl

11. Encounter with humans (2)

Smartphone.

The essence of modern civilization, which can be said to be essential for modern people.

Perhaps technology had advanced while I was away, but it had a slightly wider LCD than I remembered.

‘I never thought I’d feel this sensation again.’

This grip fits perfectly in one hand.

Seeing the smartphone again after 30 years was so exciting that just holding it was thrilling.

I looked at the LCD screen with the home screen appearing.

First of all, the first thing to check was decided.

‘What year is it now?’

How long has it been since he disappeared?

That was the biggest concern for Hyunseong.

Hyunseong touches his smartphone with his bare hands, praying that not too much time will pass.

Butㅡ

“what?”

Knock, knock, knock. Tututuk.

A smartphone that doesn’t seem to want to leave the home screen no matter how many times you touch it.

I thought it might have been a mistake, so I covered it with both hands and pressed hard, but the screen did not move at all.

Could it be that he doesn’t properly recognize his own hands, which are nothing but bones?

“What the hell?”

I never thought I wouldn’t be able to even touch it.

Hyunseong is troubled over what to do.

Soon, he approached Yoo Yeon-hee, who had a bewildered expression on her face, not yet fully grasping the situation.

“Uh, that… ?!”

Her hand was captured before she could even react.

When I touched the calendar with that finger, the screen I wanted appeared.

I sighed when I checked the date.

“Five years…?”

They say that mountains and rivers change in 10 years, so 5 years may not be short, but it was relatively good.

In the worst case scenario, 30 years in the martial arts world would have passed, or the flow of time would have been different, so everyone he knew would have already grown old and died.

Because I had thought about that kind of situation.

“… … .”

He thought of his only family.

A latecomer with a 10-year age gap who had no one to rely on but himself after his parents passed away.

The last thing he remembers about his younger brother is him being happy and saying that he liked his middle school uniform.

“I’ll be an adult soon.”

School years are an important time in life.

Are you resenting yourself for disappearing during those five years?

‘I found out what I was most curious about.’

He looked at Yoo Yeon-hee with crimson eyes.

Since we had only just met, I thought it would be a shame to just let him go.

Hyunseong, who was thinking while stroking his jawbone, used the hand he was still holding to tap on his smartphone and handed it to her.

“Hiccup.”

Yoo Yeon-hee flinched, thinking that she might suffocate.

However, the skeleton was only showing the liquid crystal to himself.

And what it says there is-

[Tell me what happened in the last five years.]

A simple and clear request.

She stared at the words written on her smartphone and thought.

I wonder if I’m dreaming.

‘Or maybe I’m hallucinating due to excessive fear.’

Otherwise, the current situation could not be explained at all.

Not only does a skeleton use a smartphone, it also learns Korean and converses?

If you tell someone, they’ll give you a pitiful look.

Hyunseong used her hand to touch the smartphone.

[answer.]

A short, two-syllable word.

When Yoo Yeon-hee saw it, she desperately opened her mouth with an intuition that she had to answer whether it was a hallucination or not.

“Oh, that’s the question… what happened in the last five years?”

Hyunseong nodding his head.

Yoo Yeon-hee frowned and began to recall the events of the past five years, one by one.

And, Hyunseong heard all of that-

“What are you talking about?”

I couldn’t help but clack my jaw in disbelief.

Korean movies win awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Korean male idols sweep Billboard, and Korean dramas are the most popular in the world.

What kind of nonsense are you talking about?

Even if you watch nationalistic videos on YouTube, it’s not like this.

“No, really!”

She shouted desperately, perhaps sensing the reaction of disbelief.

Perhaps feeling frustrated, he snatched the smartphone that was being held by Hyunseong and started tapping away at something.

And, when I showed them the articles, I couldn’t help but be convinced.

‘hmm?’

During that time, Hyunseong felt something strange.

How does this smartphone work?

[Is there a radio wave bursting here?]

“Oh, this was introduced about 3 years ago….”

She explains new technologies as if she were a salesperson selling phones.

But, that explanation didn’t go down well with my ears.

Because he only had one interest.

[Can I make a phone call?]

“Yes, it is possible.”

“… … ”

A keypad appears when you click the call button.

He dialed the only number he remembered, but he couldn’t bring himself to press the call button and just watched.

She, who had been watching quietly from the side, swallowed the question that had risen to her throat.

‘There’s no way a person could be a monster.’

No matter how much I thought about it, it seemed more plausible to think that I was crazy.

But how else could one explain the sight before one’s eyes?

After much thought, she opened her mouth carefully.

“Excuse me… Are you a human?”

“… … .”

Hyunseong wakes up from his thoughts at the question he hears.

There was a possibility that I could have asked her for help here to contact my sister, but I quickly dismissed that idea.

‘I can’t even guarantee how long it will take to get out.’

Because there was no guarantee that I would ever see her again.

More than anything, he wanted to hear the answer to his questions directly from his younger sister.

Hyunseong handed her his smartphone and headed into the labyrinth.

* * *

“So… I was hunting a goblin when a skeleton appeared and the two new recruits were killed by that skeleton and Park Hyungmin was also killed?”

“Yes, yes!”

Lee Moon-hyun frowned at Yoo Yeon-hee’s explanation.

Because the explanation she gave was far beyond my understanding.

‘I’ll give it my all…’

It could be said that the newbie collapsed.

However, the extent to which Park Hyung-min, who was attacking the second floor, was affected was beyond comprehension.

They say anything can happen in a labyrinth, but isn’t this a bit too much?

‘I don’t think it’s a lie though.’

I don’t think he would have made up something so hard to believe as a lie, so I must have been hallucinating because I was so confused.

That was the judgment he could make.

Yoo Yeon-hee noticed from Lee Moon-hyun’s expression that he didn’t believe her words.

‘but…’

Because I didn’t think anyone would believe me when I said it.

If I had heard it from someone else instead of experiencing it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it myself.

At the point where he told me not to lie, I could see how politely Lee Moon-hyun responded.

“Anything else unusual?”

“Ah, that’s….”

Yoo Yeon-hee, who was about to speak, hesitated.

What if I told you that the skeleton was using his hand to use a smartphone and even had a conversation with it?

It was fortunate that he didn’t pat me on the shoulder with a pitiful look on his face and hand me a mental hospital business card.

‘It’s strange to believe.’

Rather, I was worried that if I said I believed, people would look at me strangely.

She eventually mutters that there is nothing else unusual.

As Lee Moon-hyun was scratching his cheek and lost in thought, something occurred to him.

‘if…?’

The reason he came here and the rumor that has been going around among the Awakened recently.

There are awakened people who advance inside by simply defeating monsters without even picking up any items.

If that is,

‘What if you’re not an Awakened One?’

If that’s the case, then that strange behavior is somewhat understandable.

Somehow, I had a feeling that these two pieces of information I knew might be related.

‘I need to find out.’

* * *

Meanwhile, the place that Hyunseong was heading to after leaving Yoo Yeonhee was a hideout in the goblin territory.

I was thinking of heading straight into the labyrinth, but there was one thing I wanted to check before that.

I took a moment to stroke my chin and lose myself in thought.

“[acceleration]!”

When I used [Skill: Acceleration], a handful of magic power was lost, and the hand I was swinging became faster and cut through the air sharply.

Hyunseong tilted his head slightly and cast the skill once more.

After trying a few more times, he seemed to have gotten the hang of it and this time he didn’t use any skills and instead used his magical power instead of his internal energy.

“Umm… Is this it?”

Then,

Shhh!

The momentum within him as he swung his sword began to pick up.

As if I used a skill.

Hyunseong, who was looking at his own hand bones, nodded and clicked his teeth as if he found it amusing.

“My prediction was right.”

That was when my concentration reached its peak while fighting with Park Hyung-min.

In that split second between when a handful of magic power disappeared and the skill was used, I could feel a strange sense of foreboding.

When you spread your wings, your magical power moves in a special way, just like your internal energy moves.

‘It really happened in an instant.’

If it weren’t for that time when my concentration was at its peak, I wouldn’t have known until now.

And after a few repetitions, I was able to achieve the same effect as using a skill by manipulating magic power instead of using the skill.

‘Each has its own pros and cons.’

Up until now, the way to use skills was to pay the required amount of magic power and have the system automatically activate it.

There is a downside to having to acquire skills thoughㅡ

‘It activates in any situation as long as you pay magic power.’

Even in situations where you can’t keep your composure or moments where you feel like you’re losing consciousness, the skill will activate as long as you pay magic power.

The method of directly using magical power as internal energy was difficult, but it did not require acquiring skills.

‘Looking at it this way, it seems like there’s no need to choose the latter. But… .’

The way you use your magic power can be controlled more efficiently and delicately depending on your ability.

Is it a high score based on convenience or skill?

If you ask which one is more suitable for you… .

‘The latter suits me better.’

Because I am confident in my abilities.

Besides, if such delicate use is possibleㅡ

Shhh! Papbat!

Hyunseong using the Cheonma Sword Technique.

A sharp sound pierced the air.

If you look closely, you can see that acceleration is also being used in the middle of the attack.

‘Instead of using skills only in certain cases during the initial stages, you can have them incorporated into the martial arts themselves.’

It won’t be easy, though.

It was a whole other level of difficulty than simply moving both hands differently.

It feels like two different martial arts are unfolding inside my body.

However, if used properly, its power will be beyond imagination.

‘If the Cheonmasingyo guys had seen this, they would have been furious, saying it was witchcraft.’

Ma Cheon-gang might have just let it go, thinking it was just his personality, but wouldn’t he have gotten furious if the guys below him had mixed sacred martial arts with dirty sorcery?

However, he himself had no particular aversion to this kind of thing.

Mixing in something else doesn’t mean that everything you’ve built up will disappear.

Rather, in the process of mixing different things like this, there were cases where a new realm was revealed.

“Oh, if I had known this would happen, I would have asked the Nol Warrior to teach me some skills when he asked me to save him.”

Even at a glance, the guy’s skills were quite useful.

Hyunseong clenched his teeth as if he was licking his lips with regret.