Overpowered Awakening: I Became Invincible With A Broken Talent-Chapter 137: Deadlight District (28)

The entire white scene transformed in an instant.

Following the fading darkness, a new environment revealed itself.

Scanning the place, it was hard to describe it with simple words.

But if he were to categorise it with a single word, he would call it hell.

Yes, it was hell.

On Earth, there had been many depictions of the biblical hell.

But the most popular one, the one he had seen the most, featured a mass of land filled with darkness and fire, with mountains that burst with lava and lakes filled with everlasting flames.

This place was exactly like that, the only exception being that instead of flames, it was covered in toxic matter.

Instead of the typical red or orange of flame, this place was green, not a natural green but an ugly one.

The air in this place was toxic in itself. If any hunter were to step in here, simply inhaling the venomous air would disorient them, maybe even take their life.

There were several lakes spread across the vast space, each of them filled with boiling green venom, the bubbling sounds constituting a cacophony of noise.

And replacing the mountains that burst with lava, thick and hot venom erupted out of the mountaintops, splattering across the land and finally ending up in the lakes, numbering in dozens, maybe even hundreds, that spread across the area.

With a single glance, this place spelled hell and death.

But not for Marlon.

At this moment,

His B-rank talent, Venom Vanguard, was activated.

His A-rank Toxic Resistance skill made it possible for him to inhale the toxins without taking damage.

Instead of feeling uncomfortable, he felt rather comfortable.

But he could not show it.

Why?

Because of the opponent he was up against.

So he acted exactly as he should if he did not possess such a talent.

He twisted his face fearfully, trying to look as sick and uncomfortable as possible.

He even made his body shiver before kneeling on the hard and coarse rock beneath him.

Then, with a painful expression, he turned to look at Aurax, who was standing not too far from him.

To boost its frightening image, it deliberately walked across a lake of boiling hot venom.

Whitish-green smoke evaporated around its body, creating a threatening scenery for anyone who gazed upon it.

Feeling thrilled by its own creation, an ugly grin appeared on its face.

"Haha!"

Aurax laughed manically while staring deep into Marlon’s eyes, whom it now saw as its prey.

Then it began moving toward him with steady steps, still maintaining the intimidating image it believed it had created.

"Goofy."

But Marlon thought differently.

To him, Aurax looked like a teenager suffering from severe main character syndrome.

It took a great deal of willpower for him to hold in his laughter.

He even had to break their gaze and look down, letting out a small chuckle before returning to his pretentious expression.

The Aurax believed it had gained a major advantage with the new region and continued walking toward him slowly, without a single hint of caution.

It did not stop speaking, continuously taunting him.

It asked whether anyone, even the strongest human, could do what it had just done.

From its words alone, it was clear that its ego was massive.

And aside from punching enemies to death, one thing Marlon loved was shattering egos.

"YOU’RE TRASH!"

The Aurax bellowed the moment it closed the distance between them.

It stretched its hands apart, taking on a domineering pose with a wild grin plastered across its face.

Then it reached down and grabbed Marlon by the hair.

It lifted Marlon’s face upward, preparing to begin another round of taunting.

"Huh..?"

But it was surprised.

Marlon was no longer shivering.

The human’s face no longer carried the fear it had expected to see.

Instead, it held a smile.

The Aurax was stunned.

Marlon’s smile widened as he sent his free hand forward in an instant, firmly grabbing the Aurax’s hand.

"Punch of death."

With a low mutter, he activated his trump card and, without a single pause, sent his death-energy-wrapped fist crashing straight into the Aurax’s stomach.

Everything happened so quickly that the Aurax failed to react in time.

The fist landed squarely against its abdomen.

Because it was far from ordinary, the Aurax’s body began aging rapidly before dispersing into dust and vanishing from existence.

[ You’ve slain X1 Boss ]

[ Level up ]

[ Level 97 -----> Level 98 ]

Marlon ignored the notifications and focused instead on the true core that fell to the ground. He stored it inside his inventory.

As the boss’s death was confirmed, the toxic hell began to glitch violently before gradually warping into darkness.

Marlon’s vision blackened for a split second, and the next moment, he felt the sensation of falling.

He was returning.

When his vision returned, he found himself standing on the same spot he had disappeared from earlier.

It seemed there had been changes in the atmosphere, as the others noticed immediately.

Caleb and Clarissa rushed toward him.

Seeing him intact, Clarissa shed tears of joy and relief before throwing herself at him and hugging him tightly.

Marlon hugged her back, gently patting her back to calm her down.

Caleb smiled softly and gave him a gentle nod of approval.

"Where is Theresa?" Marlon asked after separating from Clarissa.

"She disappeared a few minutes before you appeared."

Caleb was the one who responded.

"Huh?"

Seeing his confusion, Caleb explained further.

According to them, Theresa had suddenly started behaving oddly a few minutes earlier.

She could no longer speak properly, and sometimes she would trip despite nothing being in front of her.

At first, they thought it was just clumsiness, as she was a civilian who had stepped into a danger zone for the first time in her life.

But then it worsened.

She would fall asleep while standing, then suddenly open her eyes and begin uttering gibberish.

Clarissa thought something was wrong and began using healing magic on her, and that was when she noticed the healing had no effect.

Even though Theresa was clearly uncomfortable, there were no signs of anything abnormal within her system.

Then, before the two could question further, Theresa suddenly glitched and disappeared.

Hearing all of this, the only explanation was that she had been a hallucination created by the Aurax.

She began malfunctioning because the Aurax itself was no longer in a stable mental state, and when it was finally killed, she disappeared as well.

Marlon explained his theory to them.

"That is insane," the two of them responded at the same time.

A being capable of creating such a realistic hallucination was not something to be underestimated.

More mystery surfaced as they began imagining its true strength.

For example, how did it know a perfect human name to use, how did it create such a convincing story to deceive them, and how did it know about cities and nations in the real world?

The more they thought about it, the more their heads began to hurt, so they decided to set the matter aside for now.

"This needs to be reported to the Hunter Association. With their technology and expertise, maybe they can explain it," they concluded.

At that moment, a portal appeared in front of them.

Marlon sent the two through first before using clone swap to arrive with Sandra and the others, checking whether a portal had appeared on their side as well.

Fortunately, one had already formed in front of them, and without hesitation, they all jumped into it.

They emerged on the other side.

Once everyone had fully exited, the portal vanished, leaving behind only a faint gust of wind that stirred the dust and dense fog in the area.

The same foul smell still lingered.

Having just left a place with relatively cleaner air, being reintroduced to this stench so suddenly made it feel far more intense. It was like moving abruptly from cold to heat. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Fortunately, they all carried breathable masks and quickly put them on.

After putting on his own mask, Marlon turned to observe the other danger zones in the area.

The remaining portals were still swirling and active, indicating they had not yet been cleared.

Even the field-type zone remained intact.

"Hmm... how are they even faring?" he wondered.

The rate of notifications from his clones had dropped significantly, with messages appearing only once every few minutes about them slaying monsters.

He was not particularly worried, as there had been no reports of any clones dying among those he had sent with the other hunters.

He could also still feel his mental connection with them, despite the distance.

The only conclusion he could draw was that they were scouting for monsters, hence the delay.

But now that he was no longer occupied, a sense of unease began to creep into his mind.

And as if to confirm his suspicion,

[ Clone 12 has been killed ]

[ ... has been killed ]

Five notifications appeared at once.

Four of his clones were dead and one was badly wounded.

=====

Meanwhile, at the same time, the Hunter Academy experienced something... bizarre.