Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 308

Hunter ranks, as the world understood them, were evaluated as follows: One C-rank was worth ten D-ranks, one B-rank was worth ten C-ranks, and so on. To face a hunter one rank higher, one needed at least ten hunters of the lower rank.

However, this was just a rough estimate, and anyone familiar with the hunter industry knew that numbers were just that—numbers. Even within the same rank, the amount of mana one could use differed, and the types of skills greatly varied. The roles of tankers, damage-dealers, and healers often couldn’t be compared one-on-one. There were simply too many variables and differences for any fair comparison between them to take place.

As a result, the fairest standard of all was to go purely by one’s mana capacity. Still, even those outside the industry knew that S-rank hunters were a complete exception to those calculations.

“S-rank” wasn’t really a rank at all. It was more of an indication that someone was beyond measurement. The mana measuring devices developed by humans were simply unable to properly gauge such individuals’ power.

Only those who were beyond measurement were considered S-rank, which meant the idea of needing ten A-ranks to face a single S-rank was incorrect. In reality, it took at least twenty A-ranks—and even then, it was impossible to estimate the power exchange accurately due to the differences in situation, the types of opponents faced, or the state of the S-rank hunter.

In the current era, the number of S-ranks a country possessed determined its power—and for good reason. S-rank individuals were like the nuclear weapons of a bygone age, but far more practical and “intuitive.”

Nuclear weapons had no human rights—they were simply political weapons until someone pressed the launch button. But S-rank hunters were different. They were living, walking weapons, and there was no predicting when they might go off. There was no way to suppress them either. Whether an S-rank hunter turned into a villain overnight depended solely on that individual’s morality.

And that was the reason Jinchul had hounded the S-rank villain Hwang Dongsoo in such a special and dedicated fashion.

This is a relief, Jinchul thought as he looked at Greed.

The potential S-rank threat that Dongsoo posed was under control, and he was now fighting alongside them as a shadow soldier.

Jinchul could not hide his satisfaction. In particular, he liked how his debuffs created a synergy when fighting with someone as skilled as Greed, amplifying his skills’ effectiveness many times over.

“Where do you think you’re running?” Greed bellowed. “Get over here, you bastards!”

Seismic Smash!

A massive shockwave erupted from Greed’s foot as he slammed it into the ground, pulling the villains who had been attempting to escape toward him.

Jinchul contributed in his own way.

“Chains of Oppression.”

The villains who were caught in the pull of Greed’s skill were captured by Jinchul’s mana chains.

What followed was violence of the highest degree. Greed swung Iron around like a baseball bat, mercilessly smashing into the villains. Some of them even died instantly.

Iron had once been an A-rank tanker. His tough physique alone made him an excellent blunt weapon. The damage dealt was beyond description. Of course, this happened without Iron’s agreement, but that did not reduce its effectiveness.

Jinchul took advantage of the chaos to issue a command to the association’s hunters. “Use this opening to retrieve the Outer Artifacts they’re carrying!”

“Yes, sir!”

The Outer Artifacts were dangerous, powerful, and suspicious weapons that granted unknown abilities to their users. The fact that the villains from China were able to fight back against Greed with such strength was proof of the artifacts’ potency.

Jinchul left Greed to handle the fighting and focused on collecting the Outer Artifacts as quickly as possible, occasionally adding a debuff here and there to assist. The two had never fought together before, but their teamwork was flawless.

“Hmm...”

That realization gave Greed a strange feeling. Even though his past memories had returned to him after becoming a shadow soldier, it didn’t erase the bad blood he had with Jinchul in this life. He had suffered so much because of those tiring, irritating debuffs. Even as an S-rank villain, he had been forced to live in hiding for two years, struggling to recover from injuries inflicted by the chairman’s relentless pursuit. If it had only been Jongin, Greed could have simply avoided him, but Jinchul had made sure the association knew Dongsoo was a wanted man and never let up on the chase.

But life was full of surprises, it seemed. Now the very same Jinchul was fighting on his side, making things easier for him with those debuffs.

Greed grinned to himself. “But that’s life,” he muttered.

It was convenient now that they were on the same side, and he didn’t mind it all that much. Something else was on his mind, though.

“Hmm... Outer Artifacts...”

He picked up an Outer Artifact still clutched in the hand of a dead villain. He guessed they were Chinese-made, but none of them looked the same. If these weapons truly had such impressive buff functions, why not mass-produce them? Their mismatched appearance made it appear like they were still in the experimental phase.

“Oh? Hmm...”

Perhaps it was the fact that he was a former high priest or because he was a shadow soldier, but as soon as Greed held the artifact, he noticed something—it was draining his mana. There were plenty of weapons out there that did the same thing, but this one felt different.

“It doesn’t use the mana it drains from me,” Greed noted.

“It seems to send it elsewhere,” Iron said. After he had been released from Greed’s grip, he picked up another artifact and came to the same conclusion. “I don’t think we should touch these.”

Greed nodded in agreement. “Right. Someone’s using this to collect information about us.”

Without hesitation, they crushed the artifacts and retrieved the black mana that was about to escape.

Afterward, Greed approached Jinchul. “I think I know why that Doctor gave these weapons to the humans.”

“Right,” Jinchul said. “I was only operating on a guess when I didn’t know the truth about the Church of the Outer Gods. It seems they want as much information about us as possible, don’t you agree?”

“You already knew?”

“Yes. From what I could tell, the Doctor seemed very interested in hunters. Humans, to be more exact.”

“You met him in person? What does he look like?”

Greed was genuinely curious. The Doctor had forced him, a former warrior of the Monarch of Shadows, into joining his cult in this timeline. He needed to know what he looked like in order to punish him when they eventually met.

“Hmm... Well, if you’re wondering about his appearance... He looked like an ordinary old man.”

“A regular old man?”

“Yes. The kind of elderly man you’d expect to be called ‘Doctor.’ He was in a wheelchair.”

***

At that moment, Suho was staring intently at the face of the Apostle of Evolution, the so-called “Doctor.”

“I asked you where the other weapons went,” he repeated.

“Hmm... I’m not sure what to say to that.”

Despite Suho’s pressure, the boy, who looked no older than ten years old, seemed relaxed. He simply shrugged.

“I gave them away on impulse. I can’t remember where every single one of them went. To me, they were all failures anyway. But humans seem to have found them effective enough that they started killing and stealing from each other to get them.”

“You sure you didn’t do that on purpose?” Suho asked.

“Why would I bother? As long as I can get the information I need from them, it doesn’t matter who owns them.”

“And did you get this information?”

“Yes. Quite a bit of it too. The S-rank villain named Hwang Dongsoo was a particularly useful subject.”

“Hwang Dongsoo...?”

Suho and Beru looked taken aback at the same time, but the Apostle didn’t seem to notice.

“S-rank hunters are something else,” he said. “I was lucky enough to get Dongsoo to join the Church of the Outer Gods. That was when I learned to create weapons that look like humans.”

“Greed... I’ll deal with you later,” Beru muttered under his breath, grinding his teeth.

Far away, Greed suddenly shivered, feeling a chill for reasons he couldn’t explain.

Suho set his own thoughts aside for the moment and asked, “So what are these humanoid weapons? Did you create new humans?”

“Creation... That is in the realm of the gods. I am a mere created being, and I could not even begin to exercise such an ability. But... I did manage something similar.”

“Something similar?”

“Yes. Evolution, at its peak, isn’t so different from creation. Take a look at Experiment Forty-Seven, whom I gave you,” the Apostle said, pointing proudly to the woman standing beside Suho. “As you can see, Experiment Forty-Seven is a human being who can think and speak. But she has no soul. No matter how much I tried, that was beyond my capabilities.”

With that, Suho finally understood the eerie sensation he’d felt the first time he met the 47th doll.

“So she’s basically an AI in a human body,” he said.

“Conceptually similar, but this feels far more human, don’t you think? This is a much more evolved version. She can recover from wounds incredibly quickly. Almost like...”

“The shadow army?” Suho interjected, seeing the point precisely.

At that sharp remark, the Apostle chuckled, and his lips stretched into a wide grin.

“Correct.”

He nodded emphatically, seeming very satisfied, and opened his arms wide. “Now take a look! See all the effort I’ve poured into this! All these failed experiments began the moment I caught sight of the immortal army led by the great Shadow Monarch, far away in the depths of the universe.”

He looked almost ecstatic as he recalled the astonishment of that moment.

The Monarch of Shadows had an army that simply could not be killed, and the soldiers of the gods had been helpless before that dark power. It had been an extreme shock. The Apostle had believed that the god who created him was an absolute being to be served loyally, so this was especially bewildering for him.

Then a question had begun to take root—was his creator really an absolute being, even in the face of unstoppable death?

“Let me tell you something. Creation and immortality are polar opposites, you could say. I’m no god, so I’ll never truly create life. But what if I could avoid death? It struck me that perhaps I might be able to pull it off with enough evolution and experimentation. That was the start of my research, the reason I volunteered to come to Earth. I don’t know about the others, but at least for me, that was the goal from the start.”

“And did you succeed?” Suho asked.

“I’m halfway there.”

Suho immediately understood what the Apostle meant. The shadow soldiers were immortal beings created from souls, while Experiment Forty-Seven was a close mimicry crafted with only a body. She was also a soldier who could regenerate endlessly. Though the material was different, the Apostle had succeeded in creating something similar, at least outwardly.

“But there was nothing I could do about the remaining half. Perhaps it is because I am only a creation, but the soul was beyond my ability to fabricate,” the Apostle admitted.

These were soulless and therefore empty vessels, but the shells, at least, could be recycled for all eternity.

The Apostle licked his lips, disappointed, but Suho wasn’t fooled. The results of his research were definitely surprising, and as long as he was alive, the research would continue. Then when his research made its next step toward success... he would become Jinwoo’s enemy.

Suho clenched his fist, filling it with mana.

The Apostle noticed and asked, “What’s this, all of a sudden?”

“One last question,” Suho said, walking toward the Apostle with a raised fist. “You say you made immortal soldiers from empty vessels without souls... Which experiment are you, then?”

“Ah.”

At those words, the Apostle’s relaxed face tightened for the first time.

Suho lashed out with his fist, and every illusion surrounding the Apostle shattered. All that was left was a pink brain submerged in a small glass tank.