The Hidden Ending Strategy of a Veteran in a Dead Game

Chapter 16: Cayena

It was a strange sensation.

The mana circuits, which were supposed to be confined inside my body, had expanded beyond it.

Should I say it felt as if my very existence had grown larger?

- Tiiing.

The sword, deflected by the force of mana, made a metallic clang as it hit the ground. I fumbled to examine the wound on my side.

The gash was still open.

Since it was a penetrating wound, blood should have been pouring out by now.

“Is the bleeding… stopped?”

Mana had enveloped the area around my side.

Had it been blocked by a mana release technique of the third tier?

If I could use such a skill, it would certainly reduce the bleeding.

But no. My damned constitution didn’t allow me to release mana.

Besides, mana release alone wouldn’t have this kind of hemostatic effect.

It felt as though the wound was being filled from within.

[Constitution: Due to your mana circuits, the functionality of Burst Core (2-Star) has been altered.]

[Burst Core (2-Star) – Passive]

- (2-Star): Mana Expansion

[Mana Expansion]

- A feature linked to your constitution and mana circuits!

- Expand your mana circuits beyond the body!

- How about keeping an eye on both your internal and external states?

The new effect of Burst Core!

My body trembled as I forced myself upright. While the bleeding had temporarily stopped, it wouldn’t hold for long.

‘Damn, it hurts.’

It felt like I was on the verge of death, but it was bearable. The expanded mana circuits, filling the wound from within, were keeping me alive.

- Clang!

I stomped on the sword that had fallen in front of me, shattering it.

I had never liked it from the start.

All the blades in the world should disappear.

Because I couldn’t use them.

A grin spread across my face.

The gaze of the escort knight who locked eyes with me was trembling in fear.

“How… How are you still standing? Your stomach was clearly pierced!”

“I endured, you bastard. Now you’re dead!”

I charged at him.

An unarmed swordsman is like a boxer with broken wrists.

The escort knight took a defensive stance, but it was pointless—he was a novice at hand-to-hand combat.

- Swoosh!

Grabbing his head, I launched a flying knee strike.

The mana he released raised his guard, but it wasn’t enough.

I was going all out.

[Heavy Blow (D) – Active]

[Diamond Parts (E) – Active]

A combo of two skills.

My knee, strengthened as if it were made of diamond, delivered a devastating blow.

- Crunch!

My knee shattered his guard and landed squarely on his jaw. Teeth flew in every direction as his eyes rolled back.

One left.

“It’s your turn now, hammer freak.”

Only Damon remained.

- Thud.

Leaving the collapsed escort knight behind, I turned to face him.

He staggered backward, his earlier bravado nowhere to be found.

His darting eyes gave away his desperate attempt to flee.

The closer I approached, the more he retreated.

“What do you want? I’ll give you anything! If it’s money, I’ll sell my business to pay you!”

“Money is nice. I don’t have any.”

“If you want it regularly, I can even pay you monthly tributes.”

“Hmm. A steady income sounds appealing.”

“I swear! From now on, Aiselon’s underworld will be yours.”

“Ruling Aiselon’s black market… I like it.”

At my words, Damon’s expression brightened.

“Right? Leave all the dirty work to me. I’ll make sure you don’t have to lift a finger, my lord.”

“You’re quite persuasive. As the ruler, let me issue my first order.”

I pointed at Damon.

He swallowed nervously, waiting for me to speak.

“You. Death sentence.”

“Yeah, a death sen… Wait, what?!”

Death sentence.

“You’re the reason I got stabbed earlier, you bastard!”

If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have gotten hurt.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

“You think I’ll just let you kill me?!”

He clearly had no intention of dying quietly. Gripping his broken hammer, he lunged at me.

We were close enough to touch.

The moment his hammer swung down, I crouched low.

As expected, he aimed to crush me with his hammer. Even if he missed my head, he clearly intended to smash my back.

- Clench!

His hopes were in vain.

I grabbed his approaching wrist and collar, twisting his body.

Then, as if sitting down, I flipped him over my back.

- Crash!

His own force, combined with mine, slammed his head into the ground.

A classic suplex.

I like to call it the “Face Slam.”

“Damn. Heavy.”

I shoved Damon’s limp body—his face and neck visibly damaged—to the side and stood up.

With this, my objective was complete.

The raid route was done.

“Well, it’s not over yet.”

I still needed to get out of here.

What a hassle.

- Bang!

The doors burst open, and a swarm of rough-looking men poured in.

“Boss! Are you okay? We heard the noise and came running—”

“What the…!”

“The boss is down! Call everyone!”

The fight had been so noisy that the remaining members of the gang had gathered.

While I was busy taking down the escort knight and Damon, the boss of Lak-Lak, Seyrin, had escaped.

She must’ve summoned reinforcements.

“There’s no easy way out, is there?”

I sighed, watching the men pour in.

I had hoped to handle things quietly and escape through a secret passage.

But who was to blame?

My strength hadn’t reached the level where I could overpower them yet.

Even as I lamented inwardly, the gang members continued to crowd in.

“Give up! That’s the only way to die with less pain!”

“We’ll chop off a limb or two before we interrogate you.”

Yeah, it didn’t look like they’d let me go.

“Guess I’m pushing myself today.”

Not that I hadn’t anticipated this outcome.

I had considered how to escape.

The best plan was to deal with them quietly and use the secret passage.

If that failed, there was Plan B.

“Operation: Free Pass.”

I would break through head-on.

[Sprint (E) – Active]

- Boom!

I charged into the mob.

Have you ever seen human bowling pins?

Now I have.

- Crash! Smash! Bang!

With Diamond Parts enhancing both arms, I sprinted at full speed.

I poured all my energy into it, knowing that stopping meant death.

The gang members flew like bowling pins.

“Aaargh!”

“Stop him! Stop him!”

“How?! You try!”

My incredible speed and destructive force left them in disarray.

Even so, I was sweating bullets.

After all, the Sprint skill…

‘I still can’t fully control it!’

The speed was too much, making it difficult to steer.

And since Burst Core had reached 2-Star, its output had increased further.

- Whirrr!

The mana engine caused a chain reaction of explosions within me.

The torrent of mana coursing through my body felt like it would tear me apart.

[Constitution: The World’s Strongest is gasping for breath.]

[Constitution: Mana circuits are straining to keep up.]

Had it not been for my unique constitution, I might’ve already collapsed.

At least one thing was clear.

‘If I keep this up, I’m dead.’

Whether my heart exploded from overstrain, my legs gave out, or I collapsed from mana exhaustion, one of those outcomes was guaranteed.

“Move! Get out of my waaaay!”

So I pushed even harder.

If I could just break through them, I’d survive.

Better to end this while I was still in one piece.

Perhaps cowed by my ferocity, the gang members screamed and fled.

“Don’t come near me!”

“Aaaaah!”

“Move! There’s nowhere to—aaagh!”

The ones who collided with me screamed, and so did I.

The damage from the impact was entirely mine to bear.

“Aaaaagh!”

Screaming, I pressed forward—again and again.

- Crack. Crunch.

The overstrained body trembled, and blood continued to flow from the wounds.

Even Mana Expansion was unable to keep up with the accumulating damage—proof that the injuries were too severe.

Perhaps it was due to Burst Core, but it felt as though blood was pouring out in torrents.

My body was a mess, but somehow, I managed to keep moving.

Part of it was thanks to the effect of World’s Strongest.

‘All that grueling training really paid off.’

Being pushed to exhaustion under Nohr’s instruction had trained me to keep moving, even when on the verge of collapse.

It was fine.

I was almost there.

Most of the gang members had already fled to avoid me.

- Leap.

Taking advantage of the gang’s retreat, I vaulted over the wall.

“What are you doing? Chase him!”

“You go after him, you idiot!”

“That guy isn’t the priority! The boss is down!”

“Gah! Get everyone else!”

I could still hear the gang members’ voices from the other side of the wall, but no one gave chase.

They likely didn’t have the confidence to catch me.

After all, their relationships were purely transactional, built on money.

No one among them would risk their life for revenge.

In fact, the opposite was likely true.

“Don’t chase him! Contain the situation first!”

“Deep Worm will now operate under my command!”

“Why should you take charge? I outrank you!”

“Lak-Lak, gather here immediately!”

The death of a gang leader meant the absence of ownership over various business operations.

Those with quick wits would immediately begin making their moves to seize control of the leaderless organization.

“Hyenas, all of them.”

I couldn’t stand them.

Tch. I clicked my tongue.

The underworld was bound to descend into chaos for a while.

All these back-alley thugs knew how to do was fight.

New organizations would emerge, internal hierarchies would be reshuffled, and the businesses tied to them would inevitably see changes.

That tension was precisely the essence of the Raid Route.

The resulting turmoil in Aiselon’s underworld.

“Though it’s all for nothing.”

In the end, none of those here would take control of the underworld.

New forces would come from elsewhere and establish dominance.

“Who will it be, I wonder?”

An outcast?

A demon-worshipper?

Or perhaps a gang expanding from another region?

‘Even fugitives on the run might show up.’

It was a complete gamble from this point.

But I’d find out soon enough.

I’d be busy for the foreseeable future.

“Still, just in case, I’ll need to clean things up.”

When I returned, I’d ask my family to conduct a cleanup of the underworld.

The innocent shouldn’t have to suffer.

And also—

“Time to score some morality points!”

It wouldn’t hurt to boost my reputation.

I smirked.

The reason I’d gone through this ordeal, enduring such hardship—

While it had helped Burst Core evolve and allowed me to gain new skills,

‘You have to build up morality when you can.’

Raising moral alignment wasn’t easy.

In a world where war against demons never ceased, being known for virtuous deeds meant being recognized as a beacon of hope for humanity.

“Let’s do this! Hahaha!”

The moon still hung in the pre-dawn sky as I laughed heartily beneath it.

***

At the same time Kellen defeated the Aiselon gang boss and made his escape,

A woman perched atop a crumbling building rested her chin in her hand.

“Fascinating. How did he pull that off?”

Her golden hair cascaded down in waves.

Her sharp, upturned eyes, paired with her prominent fangs when she smiled, gave her a striking allure.

However, her vertically slit golden irises radiated a wildness, a dominating presence that overwhelmed anyone who met her gaze.

She watched as Kellen fled into the distance.

“From what I sensed, he was 1-Star. No, wait. It changed midway, so he must be 2-Star now.”

She had sensed his level rising mid-fight.

What intrigued her most was that the prowess Kellen had displayed was not something a freshly ascended 2-Star could normally achieve.

Inside the building, even a 3-Star knight had fallen to him.

Judging by his stature, he was still young.

His potential was absurd.

Her eyes gleamed with interest.

“When did you people start raising monsters like that?”

Tap, tap.

She drummed her fingers against the heads of fallen knights.

“Ugh… Ughh.”

“Guhh…”

The covert knights who had been shadowing Kellen groaned in pain.

They had been secretly protecting him during his outings over the past few days.

Despite being 5-Star knights, they hadn’t managed to lay a scratch on her.

Considering her usual temperament, it was a miracle they were still alive.

No, to be precise, she had intentionally refrained from killing them to avoid unnecessary trouble.

This was Bayerle territory, and these were Bayerle knights.

“Ah. They can’t speak, can they? Shouldn’t have gone for the mouth.”

She scratched her cheek before leaping lightly into the air.

She was curious.

How had Kellen fought?

She needed a closer look.

- Leap.

With a single bound, she landed in the midst of the gang members.

“Who the hell are you?”

“W-wait, did she just fall from the sky?”

The gang members warily took up defensive positions, but it was meaningless.

“Hmm. A bit sloppy at the end. You should’ve just killed them all.”

She shook her head in disappointment, as if out for a casual stroll.

Her composure bewildered the gang members, but only for a moment.

“And who are you to be loitering here? I’m Seyrin, the boss of Lak-Lak—”

The lone remaining gang boss, Seyrin, placed a hand on her shoulder, but he never finished his sentence.

“What’s this mosquito buzzing about?”

- Boom!

With a single gesture, his head exploded.

The primal fear she evoked froze the others in place.

“Alright, big sis will lend a hand.”

Unconcerned, she shrugged her shoulders and began to move.

- Slash.

- Splat!

- Crack.

Ten seconds later, no one was left alive.

Her casual swipes, as though brushing away flies, reduced the gang members to pulp.

- Creak.

Walking barefoot through the blood-soaked ground, she entered the building.

The meeting room.

The place where Kellen had fought tooth and nail.

“Oh-ho. Oh-ho-ho!”

She saw it.

“Fighting with bare hands? I like it! Hahaha!”

Evidence that no weapons had been used during the battle.

Grinning with satisfaction, she chuckled deeply.

“Nohr, that old man—good thing I took his offer. This will be fun.”

The pinnacle of 8-Star martial arts.

The golden lion from the East.

Cayena had taken an interest in Kellen.