76: The Evil Version

“As you wish, esteemed sir!” Su Jin was now practically superhuman. If he were to participate in an MMA competition in the real world, he might kill someone with just one punch. Moreover, he now had the help of his Psychokinetic Spirit Power, so even if some boss level monster appeared right now, Su Jin probably still stood a chance.

“Come with me!” The scrivener walked off with the three bodyguards and Su Jin and his companions quickly followed behind them.

They came to a fighting arena with several fighting rings. More than a dozen others applying to be a sailor were engaged in combat here, but all of them were fighting a bodyguard one on one.

“You’re up!” The scrivener waved his arm and the three bodyguards got into the ring. They stood at three points of the ring to form a triangle and left the middle position open for Su Jin. At the same time, the scrivener’s hand gave off a white light and the three bodyguards were now armed.

“Once inside the ring, you must be the last one standing to win!” shouted the scrivener loudly.

“What the fuck?” cursed Su Jin inwardly. The scrivener had taken his money but was going to send him to his death anyway. These three bodyguards were obviously armed for war.

This Challenge wasn’t named the Fairytales of Horror for nothing – none of the people here were fairytale-like at all. In fact, they were all scheming in their own way.

One of the bodyguards had full body armor and a giant shield, one carried a spear and wore chainmail, and the last one had a bow and arrow in hand. This was a perfect combination for war. They covered defense, long range combat as well as close combat.

“Mr. Su, are you sure you’ll be okay?” Ning Meng was clearly rather worried.

Su Jin didn’t answer her. He got into the ring and stood in the middle of the ring. Once he got in, the fights in the other rings stopped and everyone turned to watch Su Jin, since a three versus one match was clearly going to be more exciting.

“Let the fight begin!” yelled the scrivener.

Su Jin shook his wrist slightly and retrieved Rumor. At the same time, he heard the sound of something swooshing through the air. His eyes glinted as he sent Rumor flying out along with himself as he aimed straight for the bodyguard with a bow and arrow. Having someone who could attack from afar in such a fight was definitely his biggest problem.

Clang! Rumor struck the archer’s arrow and returned to Su Jin’s hand almost immediately after that. Su Jin threw it out again without even turning back because he could sense that the other two bodyguards were coming for him.

The fighting ring wasn’t that big, so even though the other two bodyguards had such heavy armor on their bodies, they could get close to Su Jin pretty quickly. The bodyguard with a shield used the shield to block Rumor’s attack, but besides being sharp, Su Jin could use his psychokinesis to change its trajectory.

Swoosh! Rumor flew right past the shield and stabbed right through the throat of the bodyguard with a spear. This bodyguard was wearing chainmail and the only part of his body that wasn’t covered was his throat.

The bodyguard with a shield was surprised that his shield hadn’t managed to block Rumor’s attack. While he was still trying to figure out how that had happened, he suddenly saw something black flying towards him. Su Jin had flung Rumor out again after it had returned to his hand.

The bodyguard with a shield wasn’t afraid of Rumor’s attack because he was covered in a full body armor. Even if Rumor hit him, he wouldn’t die. But Su Jin hadn’t thrown Rumor at this bodyguard to kill him. Su Jin was just using this attack to slow the armored bodyguard down enough for him to kill the archer first.

The armored bodyguard instinctively lifted his shield to block Rumor’s attack. By the time he put it down again, Su Jin’s hand had already punched right through the archer’s chest. The armored bodyguard was really terrified now. Su Jin had killed his two companions in a matter of seconds.

“HA!” The armored bodyguard raised his shield and charged at Su Jin. He was in charge of defense, but since the two bodyguards he was supposed to help defend were dead, he switched to attacking instead. He didn’t have any weapons on hand, but his heavy armor was almost as solid as a tank and could mow an ordinary person down easily.

But Su Jin wasn’t an ordinary person. He flung the archer’s dead body aside, then lowered his center of gravity and charged towards the bodyguard with the same stance.

One was a heavily armored man while the other was a skinny young fellow. Everyone was sure that Su Jin was on the losing end, but the actual result completely floored the crowd.

Bam! The armored bodyguard was sent flying like a kite with a broken string after slamming into Su Jin. In order to stand his ground, Su Jin had stepped so hard on the ground, his feet made a dent that was about a meter wide.

Su Jin made an angry growl as he held up his arms in front of him. All the spectators remained silent. They were so terrified and shocked by the way Su Jin growled like an animal and the vicious attack that didn’t match their expectations of what he was capable of.

The scrivener himself was just staring wide eyed in shock. He had indeed intended to take the bribe money and leave Su Jin to die, but now, he simply couldn’t process what just happened.

Su Jin rotated his shoulders to relax them, then turned to shrug at the crowd, with an expression that looked disappointed in how weak the three bodyguards had been.

But even so, nobody was offended by Su Jin’s complacency. After all, Su Jin had proved that he was truly a mighty fighter. If someone like Su Jin didn’t have the right to be boastful and arrogant, who did?

At the same time, Ning Meng and Gu Ming were beaming from ear to ear. They were so excited at how powerful this veteran in their team was. With such a powerful person around, they didn’t have to worry about anything.

“Impressive! Very impressive indeed! I am about to go on a sea expedition and I need a true warrior to protect me. Will you be willing to be the captain of my bodyguards?” a voice resounded from behind.

Su Jin turned around to realize that this voice belonged to one of the main characters of this fairytale, the stupid prince who was beloved by the little mermaid but still had no clue about how much she had sacrificed for him even at the end of the story.

Su Jin smiled faintly as he figured that the fairytale wasn’t going to take too long to happen, otherwise it was going to take too much time to find seven treasures. He just needed to do something and it would push the story forward, and his hypothesis turned out to be correct.

“Your Highness, it is my great honor to be able to serve by your side!” Su Jin immediately bowed before the prince with a devout look on his face.

The prince was dressed in an elegant white armor and did look like what one would imagine Prince Charming to be like. His facial features were handsome and approachable, so Su Jin was sure that this man would have succeeded in the real world as an idol who made money with his looks alone.

The prince gave a pleased nod and he turned to say to the rest, “To everyone who is willing to serve me! I don’t care if you were a commoner or a thief. As long as you are willing to pledge your allegiance to me, I shall grant you glory and honor!”

“Long live His Highness!” Su Jin suddenly felt like he was watching some TV drama set in ancient times. Everyone was shouting ‘long live His Highness’ so loudly and excitedly as if they were on drugs or something.

Everything went smoothly after that. As the captain of the bodyguards, Su Jin was allowed to bring two trusted people on board as well. So Ning Meng didn’t have to become a cook. She could just follow Su Jin around.

Su Jin looked at the armor he was given and felt like he had benefitted from this Challenge already. If he could bring this back to his Personal Hell Domain, he figured he could exchange it for some points.

The gold armor on Su Jin sparkled brightly in the light and made him look impressive, but Su Jin felt that the prince had purposely given him this shiny gold thing so that in case of any danger, the enemy would spot Su Jin’s gold armor first and target him instead. But Su Jin wasn’t really bothered since he wasn’t truly loyal to the prince. If he ran into any danger, he would just remove the armor.

Ning Meng and Gu Ming, on the other hand, didn’t get such pretty armor. They were given brass armor and barely looked like they were in the same team as Su Jin.

“My brave warrior, we are about to meet the punishing winds of the sea. Are you prepared for it?” said the prince as he stood at the bow. The fleet was about to depart. Besides Su Jin, the other person next to the prince was that scrivener.

Su Jin was now the captain of the bodyguards, so he had to play the part. “Your Highness, I am prepared to go through even the gravest of dangers for your sake!”

“Excellent! I like confident people. But you need to know our aim in going out to sea!” The prince was pleased with Su Jin’s display of loyalty. Then, he turned to look out at the distant sea as he held onto the railings of the boat.

“So…why are we going out to sea?” Su Jin’s eyes lit up. The story was finally getting somewhere.

“Do you know any legends surrounding mermaids?” asked the prince as he looked towards the sea.

Su Jin nodded. “I know a few. Legend has it that mermaids are the most magical creatures of the sea. Their voices are mesmerizing and they are a very kind race.”

The prince nodded and he suddenly started smiling. “You’re right. Mermaids are magical creatures indeed. But that’s not all. Mermaids also possess a very special ability…or rather, they are useful in a very special way. Do you know anything about that?”

Su Jin was stunned for a moment as a nasty legend came to mind. This was a legend surrounding Japanese mermaids in particular and he didn’t expect this to surface here.

“Are you referring to…the legend where one will gain immortality after eating the flesh of a mermaid?” asked Su Jin in a low voice. Gu Ming and Ning Meng shuddered when they heard what Su Jin said. This was a famous legend, but it didn’t sound like the stuff of fairytales at all.

“Oh ho! I didn’t expect a commoner like you to know about this legend as well. But you are right! I am to become the king of this nation in the future, so I want to be king forever!” A bright smile spread across the prince’s face and even the scrivener next to him was full of smiles.

Su Jin and his two companions couldn’t help but feel a shudder down their spines. These were fairy tales of horror, all right. This man was an evil version of Prince Charming and he was wicked beyond redemption. Su Jin wondered if the Little Mermaid’s side of the story was equally tainted.

“Don’t worry, we just need a small piece of flesh and I will be able to live forever. So, I’ll share the rest with all of you as a reward for your loyalty!” said the prince with a hearty laugh.

“Long live Your Highness! No, wait. May Your Highness live forever!” the scrivener scrambled to butter the prince up.

“May Your Highness live forever!” Su Jin and the rest echoed the scrivener.