Chapter 159
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: Slum, Daughter of the Spirit King - 2
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Inside the already chaotic general store, two flashes of light were moving at high speed along erratic trajectories.
Shhh—shhh—shhh—shhh—!
Following their movements, blood splattered across the store, staining the ceiling and floor.
“Gah!”
"Ugh!”
Inside the warehouse, Jack, who had been peeking out the window, unwittingly stood up fully to get a better look.
‘What… wh-what is happening?’
A moment later, as the two arrows returned to the customer's grasp, not a single assailant was left standing.
Thud— thud—
"...Are you the leader?"
As the customer raised his left hand, one of the assailants' bodies floated into the air, as if by psychokinesis.
"Gah— Who, who are you? Th-those arrows just now, don't tell me..."
"From now on, the only time you're allowed to open your mouth is to answer my questions."
Crrrraaaack—
"Mmph—!”
Though unseen, something seemed to have gagged the assailant's mouth.
At that moment, Jack reached for the doorknob, but Hannah grabbed his forearm.
"Jack, it's dangerous..."
"No, it'll be okay."
He himself wasn't sure how someone capable of such terrifying acts could be considered 'okay,' but...
Creeak—
one thing was certain: the only person he could trust right now was this mysterious customer.
He first approached Mr. Hans, who lay collapsed by the counter.
"Th-thank goodness..."
He was still breathing. It seemed he had taken a heavy blow and temporarily lost consciousness.
Jack let out a sigh of relief and turned his head to look at the 'customer'.
"Excuse me... wh-who are you?"
He wore a hat pulled down low and even a mask, so his face was completely hidden.
"At the very least, you're not a real customer, are you?"
If nothing else, Jack was quick on the uptake.
This man had come here intentionally.
It felt as if he had come specifically for these assailants.
But...
"Your friend was kidnapped, wasn't she, Jack?"
This man even knew his name?
"H-how did you know that..."
"Was that friend's name Jane?"
"...Yes, th-that's right!"
He nodded and approached Jack.
"Jack......."
Hannah tugged at his clothes from behind, but Jack stepped forward instead.
"I think I can help. What do you say?"
"Huh? Excuse me, but... who are you?"
It was perhaps the most basic question.
But the man—Lee Hyun-wook—remained silent for a moment.
***
He pondered.
‘Should I reveal my identity here? No... there's no need.’
The best surprise attack happens when the enemy doesn't know Steel Rain is here.
Therefore, it was right to eliminate any possibility of information leaking out.
Of course, they might have noticed after he repeatedly acted in a very Steel Rain-like manner,
‘but it seems they don't know yet.’
If Michael Jordan were playing basketball incognito on a court in a remote neighborhood, who would think it was actually him? They'd assume it was just some expert imitating his style. Similarly, though Lee Hyun-wook's fame had spread across the world, not everyone knew his defining characteristics.
"Well..."
Just then, the girl standing behind them hesitantly stepped forward.
"Are you... perhaps sent by Jane's father?"
Hyun-wook wondered what she was talking about.
"...Jane didn't talk much about herself, but I overheard some things while living with her. She said she l-left home because of a fight with her strict father. And that her father... was someone of high standing."
"And she sometimes joked that her father might come looking for her..."
It seemed Jane, the daughter of a spirit, had vaguely explained her situation.
‘It's a classic story. The king who forbids his daughter from going to the human world, and the princess who leaves anyway...’
Befriending the Spirit King's daughter here would later trigger a 'hidden quest'.
‘And this kid right here is destined to be the one to undertake that quest.’
Hyun-wook looked at the thin, blond man before him. Jack Hamilton, the Spirit Guardian...
He wasn't a particularly strong Player, but he would play a key role in a future scenario involving the Spirit King.
"So... you were sent by Jane's father, right?"
To Hannah's repeated question, Hyun-wook neither confirmed nor denied.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you the details."
However, the two of them seemed to have already reached their own conclusion.
"S-so Jane really was the daughter of some famous guild master?"
"I knew it... she had an air of nobility about her, like she wasn't from around here..."
After that exchange, Jack scratched his head, looking troubled.
"But... I don't know what we can do to help."
"That's right. We don't even know who took her."
The two spoke worriedly, and Hyun-wook nodded as if he already knew.
"I do need your help, but not right now. It'll be later. Instead..."
He pulled up the long-haired assailant who was lying on the floor.
He had some kind of gag in his mouth, and its material must have been metal, because all his teeth were broken.
"...For now, I'm going to need quite a bit of your help."
As for who took her and where, that was something he would find out now.
And Lee Hyun-wook's interrogation success rate was, to date, 100%.
***
In the darkness, a cylindrical water tank stood in a spacious area.
And inside, a girl with green hair slept, naked.
"...This woman resembles your kind, doesn't she?"
A man in horn-rimmed glasses licked his lips as he gazed at the captivating nude form.
"No, they are beings without flesh to begin with. They merely assembled bodies in our image—"
The speaker was a woman with dark skin and red eyes,
and pointed ears peeking through her long silver hair proved she was not human.
"Haha— I'm well aware of that. I am, after all, an elementalist myself."
At his words, the dark elf snorted.
"Well, your spirit-taming techniques are so pathetic, they were of no help at all."
"...That's a harsh thing to say. Weren't we the ones who provided this tank?"
"You know as well as I do. Your skills alone could never have captured such a precious slave—"
Eheheh— The man chuckled sinisterly and began to examine the girl in the cylindrical tank more closely.
"In any case, everything is perfect. If we use this pretty little thing as bait to provoke the Spirit King, his foul-tempered race will surely try to wipe out Yggdrasil with a tidal wave. Eheheh— I'm looking forward to it."
Even the dark elf, who had been on edge the whole time, showed a strange smile at that.
"In that moment of chaos, our army will open a massive portal and land."
"Yes, that will be the climax! Eheheh— I can't wait."
"And... you must not forget that Yggdrasil will be ours."
In their eyes, the final moments of the city of Yggdrasil were already playing out vividly.
***
Rootlet Town. In our language, it would translate to something like 'Fine Roots Village'.
It was a self-deprecating name, implying they were on the fringes, like the fine roots of Yggdrasil.
In its center stood a large, four-story building with a sign that read 'Shopping Center'.
Lee Hyun-wook sat on a bench in the desolate park in front of it and raised his mana messenger.
"Team Leader Kim, are you ready?"
- Yes, we're on standby.
The voice belonged to Kim Se-hee. She and Park Jun-mo were currently on standby about a kilometer away.
Shortly after arriving in the commercial district with Hyun-wook, he had disappeared, saying he'd spotted something,
but the two had remained calm, waiting for his instructions somewhere.
When Hyun-wook apologized for this, Kim Se-hee snorted, 'Well, it's not the first time, is it?'
In any case, Hyun-wook entrusted Jack and Hannah to them and then gave instructions for the upcoming operation.
"See that big building painted green? That's the target."
On the outside, it looked like a shopping mall, but there was no way something so proper would exist in the slums.
The shopkeeper, Hans, who had regained consciousness, had told them the true identity of the Rootlet Shopping Center.
‘...That place is a kind of criminal hub where all of Yggdrasil's crime syndicates gather.’
A country with the weakest public authority in the world, yet home to the world's most valuable city...
The management of this place was fated to be controlled by foreign guilds.
And without the control of public authority, it was only natural that those big players wouldn't shy away from dirty work.
However, rather than handling such dirty work themselves, they preferred to use 'errand boys',
and naturally, those among the poor who gained power began to make a living off that dirty work.
The place where they gathered was that shopping center... a criminal hub known as <The Hive>.
And it was highly likely that Jane, the Spirit King's daughter, was being held captive there.
"Maru, can you check if you feel any spirit energy inside?"
At his words, a rather heavy lump of metal stirred inside his backpack.
「Hmm— Let me see...」
The Spirit King's daughter was, of course, a water spirit. And spirits can travel between the phenomenal and material planes.
This meant she couldn't be restrained by purely physical means; a 'Spirit Prison' had to be used.
「Yes, I feel it, I feel it— It's a pretty powerful one, but it's in a lot of pain!」
Maru, who was usually the calm personality among the spirit swarm, was now thoroughly agitated.
「I know what this is! A scream like this... its very 'essence' is being devoured!」
A Spirit Prison was a bizarre magic that restrained the 'essence' of a spirit existing in the 'phenomenal plane'.
When subjected to it, a spirit falls into a kind of despair that cannot be described simply as 'pain'.
‘That's why, if trapped inside for too long, they go mad, just like a spirit swarm.’
「Uuuuugh—!」
The bad memories seemed to resurface for Maru, as it twitched as if about to burst out of the backpack at any moment.
"Maru, calm down. We're going to save that spirit."
「Whew— Alright, you all heard that? Calm down and wait! Why are you making such a fuss over nothing?」
Maru chided the other entities in the swarm, as if it hadn't been the one getting impatient.
But its own voice was trembling, clearly filled with rage.
‘There must be elementalists inside, Black Elementalists at that. This is worrying...’
Spirits are based on the attributes of nature. And isn't nature often called fickle?
Spirits possessed the same uncontrollable nature, never knowing where they might bolt off to.
That's why elementalists say the process of building trust with a spirit is as difficult as handling a child.
‘If they can't do it with patience, they resort to force and become Black Elementalists.’
That was also why Kim Se-hee had to spend such a long time befriending Hani.
‘I'm not an elementalist, so if I'm not careful, Maru could go berserk again.’
So he needed to be very careful to keep Maru, this spirit swarm, from acting on its own.
"Here, eat this and try to stay quiet until I ask you to do something, okay?"
What Lee Hyun-wook offered was none other than a grade-1 spirit stone.
- Oh, you really managed to get something this valuable?
Kim Se-hee and Park Jun-mo had acquired it while Hyun-wook was busy.
"Yeah, absorb it quickly."
As he placed it in the bag, a faint light leaked out of the backpack, indicating Maru had begun to absorb it.
Lee Hyun-wook thinned out some metal to create a screen to block the light, then walked forward.
"Alright, I'm going in. Please get ready."
- Roger. Time to stir up some trouble.
Lee Hyun-wook walked forward naturally, glancing behind him.
Whoooosh—
About 50 meters away, a gust of wind began to blow from an alley... and soon grew into a massive whirlwind, sweeping across the poorly paved road and heading toward The Hive.
"Hey, look over there! A whirlwind's formed!"
"Wow, I've never seen a natural phenomenon like that before."
But strangely, within that wind...
Crackle—!
Azure currents of electricity were mixed in, creating a deadly scene.
"...Is that a natural phenomenon? Isn't, isn't that just an attack skill?"
The two hulking figures standing at the entrance of The Hive couldn't help but turn their heads in that direction.
"Whoa— Dammit, it's coming this way!"
"Hey, don't panic! It's getting weaker!"
"...You're right. Is it really a natural phenomenon?"
Meanwhile, Lee Hyun-wook used the Ring of Gyges to 'Stealth' and landed on the roof of The Hive.
There were numerous guards there as well, but they were distracted by the commotion on the ground.
But... there was also a guard in front of the rooftop door. The security was somewhat excessive.
‘They probably reinforced security after kidnapping the Spirit King's daughter.’
He was still stealthed, but he couldn't hide sound, so he moved covertly and hid behind a cooling tower.
"Maru, open up the floor here."
At his command, Maru melted the concrete floor as if it were cheese.
Rumble—
A hole large enough for one person appeared, and Lee Hyun-wook jumped inside.
Thud—
The fourth floor. He was in a dark room. A musty smell indicated it hadn't been used in a long time.
"Good. Can you patch up the ceiling again?"
「Yeah, I've got enough sense for that. You don't have to tell me every little thing.」
The hole in the ceiling soon closed, and the sunlight from outside completely vanished.
"So that spirit's scream... you're saying it's coming from the basement?"
「Yep, still a long way down.」
It seemed he would have to descend another five or six floors this way.
At first, he had planned to make a hole in the ground near the building and enter the basement directly.
But the security outside was too tight, and the ground was too thick.
In other words, that method would have generated more mana and noise, increasing the risk of being discovered.
Lee Hyun-wook closed his eyes and extended his metal control to the floor below to detect moving metal.
‘There's almost no one here on the fourth floor, but the floor below is different.’
He would scan first like this, then make a hole where there were no people and go down.
‘And before going down, I need to disable the CCTVs first.’
CCTVs are usually mounted near the ceiling. Lee Hyun-wook detected them and destroyed their internal circuit boards.
"Alright, no CCTVs or people directly below."
Rumble—
Hearing this, Maru made another hole in the floor, and Hyun-wook jumped through.
"Huh?"
But... right after landing softly on the third floor, he witnessed an unexpected scene.
He made eye contact with a muscular black man, who was... naked.
And behind him stood a tattooed white man, also naked.
"The hell? Where did you just drop from?"
Wondering what this bizarre scene was, he looked around and saw it was a locker room. And just next door, beyond the wall, he could feel a lot of metal moving. Was it a gym?
"Hey! You—"
Thwack—!
At that moment, something fell from the ceiling and smashed into the black man's head.
It was a large chunk of concrete, and the man collapsed forward.
Next, a rebar pulled out from the ceiling, snaking through the air to wrap around the white man's neck.
“Gah!”
Crack—
Before the man could resist, the gruesome sound of his cervical vertebrae snapping was heard.
Before Hyun-wook could even react, Maru had taken care of them.
「See! I told you I had good sense, didn't I?」
"Yeah, you did good."
「Tsk— This human really doesn't know how to give a compliment...」
Hyun-wook stuffed them into a locker and descended another floor. Again, he was in some kind of room.
"What? Third floor? Yeah, Security Team 1 is on its way now."
Judging by the commotion outside the door, they seemed to have noticed the CCTV malfunction and sent someone to check.
But no one would have ever imagined he would infiltrate like this.
"There's someone below, but the room next to us is empty. Can you break down the wall?"
Choosing empty spots like this, he finally reached the first floor.
「We're almost there! It's the floor right below!」
But he couldn't just drop down recklessly.
If they had succeeded in kidnapping the Spirit King's daughter, there would be numerous dark elf elementalists present.
‘And if I face a forest elementalist in a confined space, I'll be restrained in an instant.’
Hyun-wook knew the fighting style of the so-called 'forest elementalists' well.
They used seeds native to the 'Green Hell' erosion zone in Berlin as their main weapon. They would scatter them and command the forest spirits to 'rapidly grow' them, and the seeds would instantly sprout into man-eating plants.
Among them, the 'vine' types were so tough that they were difficult to cut without something like Moglay.
‘And that kind of wood attribute is the most difficult to counter with my metal attribute.’
Therefore, the solution was to drop down directly above the Spirit Prison where the Spirit King's daughter was trapped and snatch her.
‘I can't drag this out. I have to escape immediately.’
Even if a fight broke out, he needed to use an open, outdoor area as the battlefield to avoid the vines.
"...I need to drop right on top of it. Where is its exact location?"
「Hmm... not here. We have to go through about two walls.」
Walls. Beyond those walls, he could sense a lot of metal moving.
"If I go out into the hallway from here, the alarm might go off..."
Hyun-wook summoned the AD-2 from his right wrist and took out the 'Black Rhino' from within it.
“I'll have to break through these two walls directly.”
「So, break this wall, then the next one, then the floor, right?」
After a moment's thought, Hyun-wook nodded.
"Yeah, we're doing this fast."
Rumble—
The wall in front of him immediately crumbled like a sandcastle.
"Ugh— What was that all of a sudden!"
Hyun-wook pushed through the dust and crossed the collapsed wall.
And he made eye contact with the people on the other side.
"Huh?"
In the dimly lit room, a large table was set up.
In front of it, two men were facing each other, exchanging something.
- Player (LV: 57)
- Player (LV: 66)
"Looks like some big shots were in the middle of a shady deal."
This was a hotbed of crime; a conversation happening in a dark room like this could hardly be wholesome.
"What the hell is this— Gah—"
One of the brutes standing near the entrance stepped forward, but his neck was immediately pierced by a silver flash.
“Dammit—”
Finally grasping the situation, the eight criminals in the room twisted their bodies and drew their weapons.
But Lee Hyun-wook was much faster. He pumped the Black Rhino and fired at the table.
BOOM—!
The two defenseless, unnamed big shots were sent flying and slammed into the wall.
The men standing around them pulled out enchanted guns, but...
"Huh, what the—"
Before they could even fire, their guns disassembled and scattered in all directions.
"Maru, open the wall—!”
With this much commotion, the people below would surely notice. He needed to be quick.
CRUMBLE—!
Immediately after, the ceiling, walls, and floor merged into one, swallowing five or six men at once.
Lee Hyun-wook pumped the Black Rhino as he ran forward and crossed another wall.
The moment he finally landed on the floor of his target location, he felt the floor ripple like water.
「Now, get ready—!」
At that moment, the floor sank, and his body began to be pulled down by gravity.
Shhhhh—
Lee Hyun-wook took out three 'Flyeyes' from the AD-2 and activated 'Night Vision'.
‘—If I hesitate even for a second, I'll be tangled in man-eating vines!’
In the view provided by the Night Vision, he could see numerous figures in the spacious basement floor, looking up at the ceiling in shock. There were over thirty of them, a mix of Players and dark elves.
And in the center was a large, cylindrical water tank. Inside it was the girl.
「That's it, that's the Spirit Prison!」
However, the mysterious capsule was protected by a mana shield. In other words, he couldn't touch it.
Hyun-wook aimed the Black Rhino at it and fired 'Annihilation Spray'.
BOOM—!
With a deafening roar, five magic circles bloomed and unleashed all the shells.
‘Dammit—’
But the mana shield didn't break, and the enemies began to react.
"Get him—!”
Shhhhh—
From behind Hyun-wook, a single Moglay shot out from the AD-2's subspace.
He propelled his body toward the tank, grabbed the Moglay, and swung with all his might.
Cra—ack—!
Finally, the thick mana shield was peeled away.
At that moment, a black magic arrow struck him in the side.
Damage of this level was fine. But...
- Dark Elf Forest Elementalist (LV: 67)
Those things were a big problem. Sure enough, they scattered some kind of seeds everywhere.
‘Dammit, if I get tangled in those, it's over.’
「I'll knock them away!」
Maru exploded the crumbling concrete fragments, scattering them like a shotgun blast.
The incoming seeds were swept up in that barrage and sent flying far away.
「How's that for good sense?」
In that interval, Hyun-wook grabbed Jane from inside the capsule and shot up toward the sky.
"No—!”
Leaving someone's scream behind, Hyun-wook escaped to the first floor and threw himself out a window.
“Whew— Now....”
Hyun-wook rolled on the ground, got up, and floated into the air while holding Jane.
Then he extended his left hand toward the building.
“...I'll bring this whole filthy building down.”
Immediately after, Maru peeled away the building's concrete, and Hyun-wook crushed the H-beams within.