Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Another Piece of the Puzzle (2)
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He said nothing.
Yet Hong Sua and Im Taehyun headed in the same direction as if they'd coordinated beforehand.
Toward where Kim Gunja and Sin Yeji had vanished.
'If it's them, they might hold out until reinforcements arrive...!'
The same thought instinctively flashed through their minds.
But for ordinary people without awakening powers, shaking off a monster's pursuit—especially from a skeleton knight mounted on a skeletal horse—was no easy feat.
No, it was impossible.
Especially while carrying a child.
"Huff... huff!"
Im Taehyun had started running first, but he was already lagging behind Hong Sua.
And the sound of death was closing in on him.
Clack-clack, neighhh—!
Hong Sua whipped her head around at the crisis, and seeing the skeleton knight raise its glaive as if ready to cleave Im Taehyun in two, she screamed.
"Im Taehyun!"
Gritting his teeth, Im Taehyun threw himself to the ground.
Slashhh—
His shoulder tore open, blood spraying into the air.
"Aaaagh!"
"Waaah!"
Im Taehyun's scream and the child's wail echoed through the amusement park.
Hong Sua bit her lip as she watched the skeleton knight that had slashed past Im Taehyun wheel around.
In a panic, she scooped up the child and grabbed Im Taehyun's hand, pulling him along.
"Get up!"
"Agh... ugh..."
Writhing in agony, Im Taehyun still forced himself to his feet with sheer willpower.
Pulling the dazed Im Taehyun along, Hong Sua quickly scanned their surroundings.
The undead hordes spreading in every direction, and among them, the group zeroing in on them as targets.
Biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, Hong Sua made a cold judgment.
'We can't outrun them.'
Hong Sua led Im Taehyun into the nearest building.
Somehow, they had to survive.
'I have no intention of dying in a place like this!'
Hong Sua recalled what she knew about the undead.
Beings with intense hostility toward the living.
But excluding the boss, they weren't particularly intelligent.
She was betting on that.
Once inside the building, Hong Sua hid under the rearmost display shelf.
Im Taehyun grasped the situation and held his breath too.
'Shh...'
Was it some survival instinct in the child too?
The kid in Hong Sua's arms stopped crying.
Crack! Crash!
Doors and windows shattered, and the undead poured inside with rattling clacks.
'......'
'......'
The two prayed silently.
That the monsters would lose their target and leave.
But,
Clack—
Boom! Crunch! Baaaam!
That hope went unfulfilled.
Smashing through nearby shelves indiscriminately, they were drawing closer to the pair's hiding spot bit by bit.
Hong Sua's fingertips trembled faintly as she clutched the child tightly.
Im Taehyun gazed at her steadily, emotions flickering in his eyes.
Then, he curled the corner of his mouth upward slightly.
As if he'd made a decision.
And he whispered softly.
'Team leader.'
'......?'
'Just in case. If by some miracle we survive... then go on one date with me. A real date, not a business trip.'
'What...?'
'You heard me? It's a promise.'
'What kind of talk is this in a situation like—'
Not waiting to hear Hong Sua's response, Im Taehyun clutched his profusely bleeding shoulder and shot to his feet.
And then,
"Over here, you fucking bastards!"
With a thunderous roar, he hurled himself toward the window on the right.
Crash!
The undead horde's attention snapped toward Im Taehyun as he burst out of the building amid the commotion.
"......!"
Hong Sua's pupils dilated sharply.
Blood trickled from gashes where the broken glass had torn his skin, but Im Taehyun kept screaming for dear life.
"You brainless fucks! Over here!"
Clack!
The skeleton soldiers inside the building chased after him toward the outside.
"Yeah! Right h—!"
Just as Im Taehyun judged he'd successfully drawn their eyes away and started putting distance from the building,
Screee— thunk!
An arrow from behind slammed into his thigh.
An ordinary man like Im Taehyun had no way to dodge an arrow flying at him from behind.
"Aaaaagh!"
Clack!
The undead swarmed toward the fallen Im Taehyun.
Hong Sua clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle her scream.
Tears blurred her vision, making it hard to see Im Taehyun writhing in pain.
Neighhh— clack!
To Im Taehyun sprawled on the ground, the charging skeleton knight looked like it was moving in slow motion.
'Ah...'
And so did Hong Sua, hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
Im Taehyun's lip quirked up.
'Crying looks pretty on her too... that's not fair.'
The date was off the table, but he had no regrets.
As Im Taehyun closed his eyes facing the swinging glaive,
Booooom—!
Instead of the expected pain, a massive explosion roared.
The shockwave whipped his hair around.
'......?'
Confused by the unexpected turn, Im Taehyun cracked his eyes open, then widened them fully at the sight.
The skeleton knight charging at him had vanished, and chunks of the shattered skeletal horse littered the ground.
Dozens of crimson sword projections rained down on the surrounding undead next.
Boom! Boom! Baaaam!
Like Scud missiles striking, they obliterated the monsters one by one with pinpoint accuracy.
Im Taehyun had seen footage like this before.
During the Hunter license exam, the attack that had forced Jin Garyul to reveal his true colors.
'N-No way...'
Thud.
At the sound of footsteps, Im Taehyun turned his head.
There stood a woman.
Sin Yeji, the A-rank Hunter and possessor of the Demon Eye.
At the sight of her, Im Taehyun's lips trembled, his vision blurring for no reason.
"Th-Thank you."
"......"
Sin Yeji wordlessly scooped up Im Taehyun and handed him to Hong Sua.
Watching her turn back, Im Taehyun realized it.
Her aura was completely different from before.
Gone was the cheerful girl from the cafe who'd cheered him on with a "Fighting!"
Her face was twisted in anguish, a mix of rage and sorrow.
— Save the people first. You can do it, right?
As per Kim Gunja's request, Sin Yeji had been notifying the Association and amusement park staff about the gate break when she faintly heard screams nearby.
Rushing in that direction, she spotted Im Taehyun's peril and realized this wasn't the only gate break.
And simultaneously, a nightmare from the past resurfaced.
The horrific Second Bloody Day.
Sin Yeji could never forget the day she lost her older brother.
Under a sky turned blood-red.
Countless people blocked by towering ice walls, slaughtered by demons without escape.
'No...'
That memory had her current state swayed more by emotion than reason.
— Suffering mild dependency and obsession due to PTSD...
— She reacts quite sensitively to 'human lives'...
As the headquarters chief had reported to Baek Jincheon, no matter the circumstances, Sin Yeji placed human lives above all else.
That's why, upon first meeting Kim Gunja, she'd strongly opposed him becoming a Hunter.
— D-rank? You wouldn't have enough lives even with ten. Give it up. Being a Hunter isn't for you.
'Never again... never again...!'
She never wanted to witness people dying before her eyes again.
Absolutely not!
Weeeeng—
Sin Yeji's Demon Eye blazed with ghostly flames fiercer than usual.
Her gaze turned toward the source of the screams.
People in peril appeared to her in blue silhouettes, as if within reach.
Piercing through all obstacles.
With her mana circuits fully opened, Sin Yeji surrendered to the mana flow and floated gently into the air.
She was deploying flight—a feat possible only for a select few even among S-rank Hunters.
Bang!
Aerial Sin Yeji blasted through the air at full speed with a sonic boom.
To protect the people.
#
Crack!
The boss lich's core shattered.
[Kiiiiiaaaaa—!]
The Association Hunters and nearby guild reinforcements, rushed in on emergency call, sighed in relief as the lich let out a spine-chilling screech and vanished.
"Phew, it's finally over."
"Undead are bad enough, but that type is the worst."
"All the effort for zero profit. Total loss."
"Tell me about it..."
The Hunters shook their heads at their weapons corroded by the lich's curses.
Forget artifacts not dropping—the monsters spawned from the gate break yielded low-quality mana stones, making the whole thing inefficient.
"At least the Association's paying compensation..."
"Like that's enough to make up for it. Damn, unlucky to have this happen right when we were nearby."
"Quit griping and report in already. I'm beat."
"Fine."
The summoned A-rank Hunter radioed in the lich's complete annihilation.
The transmission connected to the temporary HQ at the amusement park entrance.
"Boss, lich fully eliminated!"
"Northernmost sector 17 cleared!"
"Southernmost cleared too!"
"Perimeter teams report no monsters escaping the park!"
With reports flooding in from all sides, the Association team leader commanding the temporary unit visibly relaxed.
"It's under control for now."
His aide chimed in with a bright expression.
"Lucky break. Two gate breaks in an amusement park, and fewer than ten casualties. A miracle."
The aide tactfully omitted that credit would reflect on those who'd commanded the scene.
The team leader couldn't help feeling pleased, having thought the same.
But he made sure to note what mattered.
"Those two did the heavy lifting. Without them, who knows what would've happened..."
The team leader eyed the pair outside, hounded by crowds.
A-rank Hunters Kim Gunja and Sin Yeji.
'A-ranks who've only been Hunters for months, holding a gate solo. Impressive.'
But their feats came at a cost.
Kim Gunja was pale as death, drenched in sweat.
Sin Yeji had taken curses and arrows while rescuing people; not an inch of her was unscathed.
They should've headed straight to the hospital.
Yet as if by prior agreement, both said the same.
— Civilians first.
After basic first aid, they rested under the temporary tents.
But word had spread like wildfire; no one would leave them alone.
Even with terrain advantages, Kim Gunja—who'd single-handedly blocked an A-rank gate—faced Hunters and soldiers.
"You really held the gate alone? Incredible!"
"How'd you even think to do that solo? Most would just run."
"Hey, this is the guy who soloed the Homunculus lab! Can't judge him by normal standards!"
"Kim Gunja-ssi, Han Honggyun, A-rank from Great Victory Guild. Mind exchanging contacts if it's not too much trouble?"
Sin Yeji, who'd zipped around the park saving people from monsters, faced the grateful saved.
"Thank you so much. Thanks to you, my dad's safe."
"Hunter-nim! Visit my shop sometime. I'll treat you right!"
"Unnie! Could I get an autograph?"
The commotion settled only when additional ambulances arrived.
"Out of the way! What are you doing to the patient?!"
The paramedics barked, and the crowd sheepishly apologized, stepping back.
Loaded into ambulances, Kim Gunja and Sin Yeji sighed in relief.
Then they exchanged glances and chuckled.
Sin Yeji glanced at the paramedic beside her, then hesitantly voiced her concern.
"Uncle... your mana circuits..."
"Yeah. I know."
Kim Gunja replied with a wry smile.
He'd paced his stamina well during the gate break, so physically he was holding up.
The issue was his mana circuits.
Heaven-Shattering Divine Art and dark mana were fine, but adding divine lightning overloaded them; they couldn't keep up with the rapid shifts, starting to creak.
That was the main reason for his excessive sweating—more circuit strain than fatigue.
'Gotta invest in balancing the mana circuits for a while.'
He'd focused on Customizing Room upgrades till now, but this drove home the need for balance.
Ding!
Upgrading Abel's left arm in the Customizing Room had finally budged his stagnant Body level.
And blocking the gate break rapidly leveled his low-proficiency Divine Lightning and Lightning Dragon Star Spear.
Growth via customizing was undeniably dazzling.
Now, he planned to focus training and customizing on mastering his abilities and achieving balance.
As Kim Gunja fiddled with the paper in his hand amid these thoughts, Sin Yeji asked.
"Uncle, what's that?"
"Hm? Oh..."
The paper in Kim Gunja's hand was a business card with the name Yu Sangjin.
— I can't fathom why someone like you is in Hero Guild. Might sound nosy, but that place is...
Yu Sangjin had approached him as the support team arrived and he exited the warehouse.
Yu Sangjin was a mana stone illness sufferer before magic addiction, and a member of a victim group wronged by Hero Guild.
He utterly loathed Hero Guild.
"A puzzle piece."
"Puzzle... piece?"
Sin Yeji looked puzzled, but Kim Gunja just smiled in response.
The pieces needed to topple the castle called Hero Guild were gathering in his grasp, one by one.
'But still not enough...'
Toppling a power at the pinnacle with just the voices of the weak wasn't easy.
He needed something more decisive, more damning.
But such intel was mostly shared among the elite.
Far beyond what Kim Gunja could access now.
'First, build fame and power...'
That was when,
Bzzz—
A text arrived.
— Kim Gunja-ssi, this is Geum Jinung. Thanking you for that time, and I have a proposal. Free to meet if you have time?
From Geum Jinung of Geumsan Group.
'Geum Jinung...?'
His first impression hadn't been great, but he recalled sincerely answering the man's question.
— How... how did you change so much in such a short time?
— I have a desperate goal. So I just charged ahead.
An unremarkable answer, yet Geum Jinung had left looking shocked.
He hadn't done it expecting anything.
Just like blocking the gate break.
But each act born of his goodwill was weaving together.
Into threads called connections.
'Maybe...'
Kim Gunja's mind raced as he typed a reply.
To properly assemble the gathered puzzle pieces.