Hell’s Handbook - Chapter 279

279: Thousand Bone Cage

Barbara collapsed and did not move, so Su Jin did not continue attacking her and paused to observe the situation. He noticed that the other four owners were still coming toward him, but Abbas seemed to have given up on Barbara.

“So, in order to control a dead person’s abilities, the person’s corpse cannot be incomplete, or there’s a limit to how incomplete the body can be before it’s no longer usable?” Su Jin got it now. This limitation made more sense to him. Otherwise, Abbas could have just gone around to dig up the bodies of every formidable person in history and he’d have become unimaginably powerful.

“Humph! You have such an invincible body, I’m sure it’ll still be in one good piece even after you’re dead! I’ll turn your body into my new toy and you shall be my slave forever!” hissed Abbas.

Su Jin’s lips curled upward slightly, which confused Abbas. He had just said some really nasty things, yet Su Jin still seemed very happy about it. But just one second later, he felt a terrible sense of danger coming his way. He frantically summoned all the bones to protect him, but in that same instant, the bones were shattered to powder by some powerful force. After they shattered, he saw another man who looked just like Su Jin, except that this man was made entirely from psychokinesis. This was the person who made that attack from behind.

The psychokinetic Su Jin held White Ash and Black Fire and fired away. The holy and evil bullets from the two guns poured down like rain but disappeared after a short while.

“Not bad.” Su Ji gave a pleased nod. His psychokinetic clone wasn’t as strong and nimble as himself, but it was able to use his items. But he had expected that. His psychokinetic self was the same as his actual self, except that it didn’t have flesh and blood. It was a body-less Su Jin. The Handbook recognized owners by their souls and not their bodies, so even his psychokinetic self could use White Ash and Black Fire.

During this battle, Su Jin became very familiar with the improvements in his psychokinesis. He could make psychokinetic weapons and a psychokinetic clone of himself, which were vast improvements in his overall capabilities. Psychokinetic weapons could be used when he was not allowed to use actual weapons, plus they appeared at his command, which was easier to hide than retrieving an item from the Handbook.

The psychokinetic clone was an even bigger surprise. This was a clone that could use his weapons as well. This might not come in very handy during Challenges, but it would definitely be an unexpected move in other battles such as those between teams.

Abbas was terrified. What in the world was this young man made of? Was he really a newbie who had only gone through around ten Challenges or so? How was he able to improve his capabilities in a desperate battle like this one? Wasn’t this the sort of thing you’d expect to see only in one of those shounen manga? Or perhaps… Abbas had never been a real threat to Su Jin at all, which was why Su Jin could take his time to slowly improve and adjust his powers.

In fact, Su Jin was very pleased with what Abbas had done. Abbas had not done anything that could threaten Su Jin’s life initially, because he didn’t want to pull out his trump card right from the start. But if he had summoned those five owners right from the start and launched an aggressive attack, Su Jin might not have emerged victorious.

By the time Abbas executed this move, Su Jin had already discovered how to create psychokinetic weapons and psychokinetic clones of himself, so the appearance of these five owners was no longer a threat to him. Clearly he had never heard of the saying, a lion ought to use all of its strength even when fighting a rabbit.

Su Jin was hoping that Abbas could bring him more surprises, but it was clear that Abbas was going to disappoint him. Abbas proceeded to summon more bones and control the four owners. He didn’t have anything else to offer besides that.

The four dead owners were actually quite formidable and would have ranked among the top 5,000 if they were still alive. It must have taken Abbas a lot of effort to get hold of these owners’ bodies.

But the dead were dead and had lost any will of their own. Their actions were entirely based on their muscle memory and Abbas’ instructions. Such a person couldn’t be much more formidable than a puppet, right? Or rather, Su Jin was very sure that these bodies were just puppets with greater detail.

“We’re all Handbook owners and we’ve sacrificed a lot in order to survive, so I won’t call you out for being disrespectful to the dead or anything like that, because those who’ve never been in Challenges will never understand how we must use any resources we have in such desperate and hopeless situations.” Su Jin took a big step forward. He glanced at the dead owners and his psychokinetic clone suddenly appeared next to one of them. Rumor surrounded the dead owner’s body, humming as it flew back and forth. It struck the owner so many times that he was filled with as many holes as a beehive and the owner fell weakly to the ground.

“Hmm, using this clone with Rumor gives me even more room for flexibility.” Su Jin nodded slightly. Rumor automatically returned to the user, while his clone could appear from absolutely nowhere, so this allowed him to launch an attack from any angle.

“It’s already so hard to survive, so why do you attack owners in the same difficult situation as yourself? I’m not one who would hurt others just like that,” Su Jin continued speaking to Abbas. “Okay, I’m beginning to sound a bit more noble than I really am… I know that everyone has different ways of dealing with the same situation depending on their personality, so I can’t say that the way you do things is definitely wrong. But I can safely say that there’s one thing you did wrong.”

“What is it?” asked Abbas immediately.

“You’ve offended someone you shouldn’t have!” said Su Jin in an icy, unfeeling voice as his expression turned frosty.

At the same time, three psychokinetic clones of himself appeared. Rumor, Black Fire and White Ash appeared in the hands of each clone, blasting the last three dead owners to smithereens.

In just a few minutes, the trump card that Abbas was so proud and confident of was completely torn to shreds by Su Jin. This was proof of the difference in their capabilities, but it was also the sad result of Abbas underestimating Su Jin when they first started fighting. If he had used everything he had to fight Su Jin right at the start, then even if he didn’t win, he might have had the chance to escape. But now… he didn’t even have the chance to escape.

Abbas’ eyes widened and cold sweat poured down his face. He clenched his teeth tightly and let out a mighty roar, but it only resulted in more bones pouring down. If he were fighting an ordinary person or even an ordinary owner, the number of bones could bury his opponent alive.

“You’re feeling indignant – are you indignant that you’ve lost, or indignant that you’re going to die just like that?” Su Jin gathered his psychokinesis once more, but this time, he created a pair of angel wings on his back. Each feather was made from pure psychokinesis and its silvery glow carried pretty blue sparkles.

From afar, Abbas in his frightening looking armor made from bones looked like the lord of hades looking down at the living.

Su Jin in casual clothing as he flapped his silver angel wings gently looked like a harmless angel walking among humans while calmly observing the beauty of life.

One was the lord of hades, the other an angel among humans. Two opposing images were on the same drawing canvas, which meant that one of them had to be wiped out so that the drawing would be in perfect harmony.

“I… will not fail, and I definitely will not die!” roared Abbas furiously. “You think you’re definitely going to win? You think I’m the only one who’s underestimated his opponent? You’re guilty of this too!”

“Thousand Bone Cage! Explode!” Abbas’ eyes were bloodshot as the sea of bones instantly gathered around himself and Su Jin. From the outside, it looked like a giant ball made from bones with the two men inside it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Each of the bones suddenly exploded. The energy contained within seemed capable of destroying the world and the blasts tore through the air. The nearest residential area a few hundred kilometers away wasn’t worried or frantic, since wars in this area were so common. They merely thought that this was a fight between two armed groups that had used highly destructive weapons. Only Kano Mai and her companions paled slightly, because they suspected these were coming from Su Jin’s end.

In the middle of the blasting bones, the angel wings made from psychokinesis surrounded Su Jin as he kept his hands stuffed in his pockets. He looked like he was watching a 3D film with excellent special effects as the angel wings protected him perfectly from the blasts.

As the explosions continued, the people within earshot began to feel like something wasn’t quite right. Even if two armed groups were fighting, they couldn’t be shooting such destructive weaponry at each other constantly for such a long time. The blasts did not stop at all, and if one did not listen to them carefully, one might think it was just one long blast.

Meanwhile, Su Jin started frowning. The blasts were too violent and they had gone on for too long. They weren’t enough to break through the protection of his angel wings, but he didn’t have enough psychokinesis to hold these wings up anymore.

“Damn it!” Su Jin laughed sadly as his angel wings shattered and became mere silver sparkles. The violent blasts instantly swallowed Su Jin up.

“HAHA! Even if I have to die, I’m making sure you go down with me!” Abbas was controlling the bones, so he tried to stay as far from the bones as he could. But there were simply too many bones and the impact from the chain explosions had gone out of his control. He was inevitably hurt in the process and he was badly injured in several places. But he clenched his teeth and held on because he was determined to make sure Su Jin died with him.

The blasts lasted a full 20 minutes, and the people in the nearest towns finally panicked. They packed all their things and started running away from the blasts frantically. The local government sent special troops out to find out what was the cause of these nonstop explosions, but before they could get anywhere near the explosions, they were killed by members of the Dark Council.

By the time the explosions finally stopped, Abbas was like a broken ragdoll. His lower half was broken by the blasts and his upper half was badly injured in many places. He was definitely going to die, but he didn’t regret doing what he did. As long as he could drag one down with him, this wouldn’t have been for nothing.

Just then, he saw a figure standing straight where the explosions had been the most concentrated. The figure spotted him and started walking slowly toward him.

“No… no…!” Abbas let out an indignant roar. He couldn’t accept an ending like this. That young man was actually still alive!