Chapter 7: Dad is?

“How… how are you going to do that?”

Jeonghu asked, his face full of disbelief.

Yohan looked at Jeonghu in silence for a moment, then clenched his teeth and went back into the villa.

Before the kids could follow, he headed straight to the fifth floor—the top floor of the villa—and rushed up to the rooftop.

Just like when he first bought this villa after the recent renovations, the green rooftop floor greeted Yohan as it always had.

KRUUOOO!

And from beyond, a gigantic monster smashing through buildings welcomed Yohan as well.

If things kept going like this, that thing was definitely coming his way.

‘That idiot only knows how to charge straight ahead.’

Muttering curses, Yohan looked around.

To the left, more villas.

To the right, more villas.

In front, a three-story commercial building. Buildings everywhere, crowding the landscape, suffocatingly dense—just as you’d expect in a high-population area.

Yohan stared at the packed buildings for a moment, then leaped toward the building in front of him.

He’d jumped down from his own third floor before so this was nothing.

Even if he landed wrong and broke a bone, he’d heal quickly enough.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art turned a person into a superhuman, and that included superhuman recovery.

Of course, he wasn’t entirely sure.

In the game, bones never broke.

“Well, I guess I’ll find out now.”

He landed safely, without a scratch.

Yohan crossed building after building like that, getting closer to the gigantic monster.

Standing right in front of it, the pressure was overwhelming.

The biggest animal he’d ever seen in his life was an elephant, but even an elephant couldn’t compare.

‘Never thought I’d see a creature as big as a villa moving around.’

Yohan swallowed hard and glanced back.

Royal Palace.

The name sounded fancy, but it was just ‘my house.’

Steeling himself, Yohan looked down at the rooftop floor.

It looked like someone had tried to work out up here, a rusty dumbbell caught his eye.

He grabbed it at once.

He expected it to be pretty heavy, but it felt light.

‘Must be because I got stronger. Still, it’s solid metal, should hurt if I throw it.’

Thinking that, Yohan hurled the dumbbell at the giant monster with all his might.

THUD!

With a loud crash, the dumbbell struck the monster’s arm.

It must’ve stung a bit.

The monster flinched and started looking around.

“Over here, you bastard!”

No sooner had Yohan shouted than the monster bared its teeth and let out a low growl.

“What, huh? What are you gonna do, huh?!”

GRRRRR… URRRROOOAAAR!

The monster glared with bloodshot eyes and began to roar.

‘Does it get this mad at creatures smaller than itself? Did I ever act like that toward flies or mosquitoes?’

Lost in that silly thought, Yohan quickly jumped back.

CRASH!

The monster’s fist slammed down where Yohan had just been.

A chunk of the building crumbled instantly.

Seeing it up close, chills ran from his toes to the top of his head.

Getting hit by that would be the end.

The only saving grace was that the monster seemed a bit slow.

Or maybe it just looked that way because it was so big.

“Yikes!”

Meanwhile, the villa’s piloti structure began to collapse as soon as one of the pillars took the hit.

Before the building could come down on him, Yohan hurriedly jumped to the next building.

Of course, he ran in the opposite direction from his own house.

“Here, you bastard! Over here!”

And he didn’t forget to taunt the monster.

Not only had Yohan dodged the monster’s fist—something that should’ve squashed him like a fly—but now he was even mocking it.

That seemed to make the monster even angrier. It spun around and swung its fist at Yohan again.

Yohan dodged easily.

‘This is doable.’

It really was.

The monster’s fists were powerful, but so large that they were easy to avoid. Now he understood why flies and mosquitoes could dodge a person’s hand so easily.

“Come on, you idiot! Try and hit me!”

Yohan, growing more confident, raised his voice even more.

At that moment,

“Oh no, our house!”

“Hyemi, are you alright? Get up, we need to run!”

“Mom, what about Chorong?”

“Forget the dog! Get out now!”

Yohan’s sharp ears picked up the voices of people.

In that instant, a chill ran down his spine—colder than when the monster had thrown its punch.

He realized his mistake.

How many people were at home when the game started?

Most people would still be inside.

Some might have escaped, but what about the rest?

‘Was I trying to save my house at the cost of others?’

He wasn’t lost in some delusion of justice, thinking he was a hero in a survival crisis.

“Still… people should act like people.”

Muttering, Yohan swung his hand.

Clack.

The Heavenly Demon Spear unfolded in his grip, revealing its true form.

“Come on, you idiot! Follow me!”

With those words, Yohan jumped down to the street.

No flying techniques or walking on air, Yohan didn’t have any of that. If the giant monster caught up, he’d probably get kicked like a soccer ball.

Would he go flying? Or end up as a bloody pulp?

Or maybe he could use the momentum to get even further away?

While he pondered—

Whoosh, boom!

A fireball shot through the air and struck the monster’s face.

KRUOOOAAAK!

No matter how big it was, a burn still hurt. The giant monster clutched its face and howled in agony.

He didn’t know where the fireball came from, but he had a good guess who sent it.

“Seoyoung…”

His second child had come to his aid.

GRRR, KRR…

Despite groaning in pain, the monster lowered its hand and scanned the area.

“Ugh, that’s nasty.”

One side of its face was horribly burned.

It couldn’t even open one eye properly, but it glared at Yohan with murderous intent.

Not knowing where the fire had come from, it seemed to think Yohan was responsible for everything.

Well, since Seoyoung’s power came from Yohan, that wasn’t entirely wrong.

UOOOAAAK!

The monster screamed in fury, raising its foot toward Yohan.

At that moment, another fireball flew in.

Boom! Boom-boom!

It worked.

The monster, busy dodging fire and roaring in pain, looked nothing like the terrifying force that had smashed through buildings earlier.

In fact, it looked almost ridiculous.

But then, its gaze shifted toward the direction the fireballs had come from.

Yohan panicked.

“Hey! No! Not there! Look at me, you bastard! Hey! Don’t pick that up! Put it down!”

As the monster reached for a chunk of building debris, Yohan rushed toward it.

While Yohan panicked, Jeonghu, who had been waiting next to Seoyoung with a 4x scope attached to his rifle, took aim the moment the monster looked their way.

He targeted the good eye—the one untouched by burns.

He took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Just one shot.

But the effect was tremendous.

KRRROOOAAARR!

The monster clutched its exploded eye and howled in agony.

The roar was so loud that Yohan, standing nearby, had to cover his ears.

THUD!

Unable to bear the pain, the monster dropped to its knees, rubbing its face against the ground in agony.

And then, it went berserk.

When a person’s blood pressure rises, veins pop out on their forehead.

For this monster, it was much worse.

Veins bulged all over its body—calling it ‘full-body varicose veins’ wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

“Now…”

Yohan realized this was his chance.

He crept up to the monster.

Reaching its foot as it writhed in pain, Yohan thrust the Heavenly Demon Spear forward.

Squelch!

He aimed for the Achilles tendon.

Infused with Yohan’s inner power, the razor-sharp Heavenly Demon Spear pierced straight through the monster’s Achilles tendon.

While it was thrashing in pain, Yohan climbed swiftly up its calf and slashed horizontally.

THUD!

The monster, still on its knees and not understanding what was happening, didn’t react as Yohan kicked off its body and stabbed every bulging vein he saw with his spear.

Splat!

Blood spurted from every wound.

Startled by the pain and the blood pouring out, the monster flailed its huge arms, trying to swat Yohan away like a gnat.

Too slow.

Yohan mocked the monster’s massive size as he finally reached his target.

The carotid artery.

The Heavenly Demon Spear gleamed.

Slash!

Krr…?

Blue blood spurted from the monster’s neck.

He’d aimed well, but the wound was shallow.

Yohan hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and drove the spear deep into the monster’s carotid artery.

Blood gushed out around the deeply embedded spear, and Yohan yanked it out with all his strength.

Shwaaak!

As soon as the spear was pulled free, blood sprayed out like a fountain. Yohan quickly jumped off the monster’s body.

A human who suffers a carotid injury loses consciousness in five seconds.

The monster held on a bit longer—about thirty seconds—before it lost consciousness.

For a human, death from carotid bleeding takes twelve seconds.

For the monster, it took a full minute.

It left a pool of blood on the ground, then, just like the Orcs, turned into smoke and vanished.

“A sea of blood. It’s really a sea of blood.”

The monster’s blood stank horribly.

Pinching his nose and grimacing, Yohan spotted a strange stone left behind where the giant monster had disappeared.

“For something so huge, it leaves behind a core the same size as an Orc’s.”

It did look more brilliantly blood-red, but that was about it.

Curious, Yohan picked it up just in case.

KRUUOO!

KRAK!

Now that things had calmed down, Yohan could hear the cries of monsters from somewhere nearby.

“Ah…”

In most games, killing a boss monster ends the quest or the game itself, but here, killing a giant monster didn’t end anything.

Not until the time limit was up.

“I let my guard down.”

Yohan dashed off with renewed vigor.

He felt even faster than before.

‘Must be because I’ve completed the Small Heavenly Circuit.’

At this rate, he could probably kill Orcs—or even bigger monsters—with a single blow from the Heavenly Demon Spear.

‘Well, except for that giant monster from before.’

“Orcs are still coming!”

Most of the monsters swarming in from all sides were Orcs.

They trampled over building debris, charging at Yohan—the only person left on the street.

Yohan gripped the Heavenly Demon Spear tightly.

“Dad! You can do it!”

From the half-destroyed building, Sejeong cheered for her dad from the rooftop.

“Oh! That’s right!”

Yohan grinned and swung his spear.

With a flash, the spear caught the sunlight and sliced through the neck of the leading Orc.

He spun around, twirling the spear with him, and cut down two more monsters that followed.

He didn’t know what kind they were, but they were hairy, beast-like creatures.

Yohan grabbed the axe dropped by one of the bisected hairy monsters and hurled it at another monster straight ahead.

The axe arced through the air and embedded itself in the monster’s head.

It was Yohan’s one-man show.

Lost in the thrill of battle, he cut down monster after monster.

In the world of the Martial Arts Alliance, this might be ordinary, but here in reality, Yohan was displaying the might of the Heavenly Demon himself.

“Wow! Dad!”

Sejeong looked down at her father with sparkling eyes.

He looked just like a hero from a movie.

Her dad was always the coolest person in the world, but today he was even cooler.

“I think… I might have to marry Dad when I grow up, sis.”

Junga snorted as she watched Sejeong speak with shining eyes.

“Maaarry? Don’t say such nonsense and stay put! You’ll fall if you lean on the railing like that!”

“Hey! You said you’d marry Dad when you were little, too!”

“What? Me?”

“Yeah! Rival!”

“Rival, my foot! Oppa, stop making up stories!”

“It’s true, Junga.”

“Unnie!”

“Seriously, while Dad’s fighting for his life, you girls are just watching and bickering? You’re all such ungrateful kids.”

Having finished off all the visible monsters, Yohan climbed back up to the villa rooftop and clicked his tongue at his noisy children.

“Dad!”

Sejeong ran over to Yohan.

“Dad! When I grow up, I’m going to marry you!”

“Oh, my Sejeong! You really want to marry Daddy?!”

“Yeah! You’re strong! Sejeong’s ideal type is a strong person!”

“Haha…”

Suddenly, Yohan wondered if it was really okay to let Sejeong see these brutal scenes.

Meanwhile—

Sejeong, eyes shining, asked Yohan,

“Dad, why are you so strong?”

“Why… am I strong?”

Yohan hesitated.

It’s because I learned the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

If he said that, she’d ask what the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was, and if he said it was created by the Heavenly Demon, she’d ask who the Heavenly Demon was, and if he said a demon descended from the heavens, she’d probably ask, ‘Does that make you a demon too, Dad?’

He didn’t want to be called a demon while explaining the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and once the questions started, they’d never end.

With a serious face, Yohan said,

“Listen carefully, Sejeong.”

“Okay!”

“Dad is…”

“Dad is?”

“Just strong.”