Chapter 53
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: First Death
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While heading to the 4th floor, Gonghyeok had a dream for the first time in ages.
It was about his first death.
After the 10th Great Summoning had ended.
Now, 14 years after humanity had climbed the Babel.
The humans surviving in Babel had dwindled to fewer than 100.
In the deepest underground bunker of the Unique City 'Deus' on the 5th floor.
Ju Gonghyeok, one of the last 46 hunters, counted the enemies he could sense.
Ju Gonghyeok's observation-type 'Avatar' Observer appeared, and the Observer's goggles and arm screen frantically displayed measurement results.
- Approximately 276,000 monsters within a 10km radius, excluding Cluesti.
- 961 monsters currently infiltrating the bunker. They haven't confirmed this as a hideout yet.
- The Four Heavenly Kings' Cluesti is currently hovering 20m above the underground bunker.
A map of the underground bunker appeared in Ju Gonghyeok's eyes, marking the infiltrating monsters and Cluesti's position.
"Christina."
"Gonghyeok."
Christina gave a sorrowful smile with a wistful face.
"Don't call me teacher anymore. This might be the end."
"... Professor Chris."
Even though she was stained with bloodstains and bodily fluids, exhausted and haggard, she still wore a warm smile.
A mixed-race Briton and Indian who had received support from both nations simultaneously.
The mental pillar of the raiding party hunters.
Former world hunter ranking No. 2.
Holder of records for the most dungeons cleared and the most boss monsters hunted.
Representative of the strongest raiding guild 'Deus Ex Machina'.
Owner of the avatar 'Destruction God Shiva'.
'Christina C. Mahadeva.'
She was also the one who had taken over orphanages in various countries while providing monster relief support in Northeast Asia.
"The kids... you're the only one left now. Stalwart Ben-Hur, kind-hearted Yeonsi, clever Chin-Long..."
"Professor."
"I couldn't protect you all."
She stroked Gonghyeok's head with a bitter expression.
Gonghyeok clenched his right hand, missing his ring and pinky fingers, holding back tears.
He was the one who failed to protect Yeonsi.
Before climbing Babel, when the thugs dragged Yeonsi away from the orphanage, all he could do was hide in the bushes near the daycare.
When the boss raid on the 56th floor failed and Ben-Hur stood alone guarding the boss room door, all he could do was retreat to the 5th floor while remembering Ben-Hur's final back.
When Chin-Long, modified beyond recognition and losing his reason to become a monster, all he could do was erect a tombstone from his remaining remains.
Gonghyeok had always survived cowardly.
And he always thought that was right.
Gonghyeok tightly grasped Christina's hand.
"Professor. We're not dead yet. Don't get swept up in emotions. Cluesti will come here soon."
"Yeah. That's right."
"The eastern encirclement is the thinnest right now. Hoover and Swati's Titans can still move—use them as decoys to draw attention west. We survived the 60th floor with 40 million of them, didn't we? 200,000 is nothing. Let's take Cluesti's head this time."
"Yeah..."
"If we die here like this, all the deaths of those who gave their lives for the greater cause will mean nothing!"
Looking into Gonghyeok's eyes burning with unyielding fire, she smiled with a weary face.
Krurrr...
One of the monsters that had infiltrated the bunker tore through the steel plate and fell.
A hunter swung his crescent blade with a horrified face, severing its head.
Whether death or life, once their course of action was set, the hunters mechanically rose.
"Alright... let's go."
"Alberto, get up. Did the painkillers drain you so much you can't even get it up anymore?"
Thud.
Alberto, leaning against the wall, collapsed weakly to the side.
Alberto stared into empty space with the eyes of the dead.
"Damn, this guy. He headed to the Argentine heaven first! Cheating bastard. If you're going with me, at least sync up the time difference."
Hoover closed Alberto's eyes with a face that didn't match his joking tone at all.
The last hunters, now 45 in number, murmured.
"This feels like it'll be the final avatar summon."
"Can't say proper goodbyes, so I'll do it now. You all did great."
"Let's end it."
They all looked at each other's faces and nodded.
"Incarnation summon."
Beelzebub, Zodiac Synapse, Quetzalcoatl, Trickster Loki, Hephaestus, Phoenix, Unicorn, Titan Pallas, Mitra, Brothers of the Sword, The Hand, Lancelot du Lac, Othello...
And Observer.
Gonghyeok looked at his avatar that had reached level 99.
A scarecrow avatar capable only of reconnaissance and analysis.
'If I had a much better avatar than this piece of trash, I could've helped my comrades somehow.'
He'd thought that more than once or twice.
But like it or not, Observer had stuck with him to the end as his alter ego.
It had even coincidentally developed the unique skill Prediction Path (U.S.), and he'd survived countless brushes with death thanks to Observer's danger detection.
Observer looked back at Gonghyeok.
The Observer probably wanted a much better master than someone like me.
With that thought, Gonghyeok sighed along with his comrades.
"Alright. Let's go."
The bunker's ceiling blew away.
＊＊＊
The city streets of the destroyed Unique City were littered with monster corpses.
The 45 hunters had crushed 70,000 monsters.
'And I was the 39th to fall.'
Gonghyeok leaned against a crumbling stone wall, taking a long-overdue smoke break.
The surviving hunters, missing one or two limbs, impassively cut down the approaching monsters.
Only Destruction God Shiva and Christina roared with red-glowing eyes, crushing one of Cluesti's forearms in a desperate stand.
But as she glanced sideways at Gonghyeok with his guts spilling out, a blade pierced that eye.
'Is this the end.'
Watching Christina plummet while bleeding, Gonghyeok realized it.
That humanity had lost.
He'd lost too much blood; his fingertips wouldn't respond.
His head spun, and a chill of death that ignored endurance seeped into every corner of his body.
The Observer appeared before his eyes.
Without being summoned, it appeared on its own and displayed words on its gauge.
[Dead End?]
"Yeah."
Third-rate reconnaissance hunter Ju Gonghyeok.
His life ended here.
Among the 25 million hunters who poured into Babel, he'd clung on desperately to the end, but it all stopped here.
"......"
Pathetic.
Countless memories flashed before his eyes.
Days spent fleeing just to avoid death, clinging only to survival.
If I'm going to die like this, what the hell was the point of my life?
What happens to all those sacrifices I turned a blind eye to under the pretext of clearing Babel?
Unstoppable regret and remorse flooded in.
I knew exactly what those bastards would do to Yeonsi when they dragged her away, but I hid because my own life was precious?
Ben-Hur, Edgar, Animus, Chin-Long, Master Liang died in my place.
Was I just a hindrance who accomplished nothing?
'I want to go back.'
I want to save Yeonsi. I don't want to hide.
I won't let Ben-Hur die alone.
I want to listen to Animus's idealism to the end.
I have to stop Chin-Long's modifications.
It's wrong for Edgar to take responsibility for the Death God's descent.
Master Liang would tell me to abandon a wounded guy like me.
'Rather than living this meaningless life, a truly human life would've been much better.'
I couldn't achieve the greater cause or uphold justice.
If, if I could go back.
Could I achieve the things I dreamed of?
Regress.
A low voice echoed, and a status window appeared before him.
[Avatar 'Observer' (E)] Lv.99
Kriik, kiriirik.
The sound of metal scraping rang out as the Observer's level fluctuated.
①
Lv. ↓ ↑ 0
0
Regress.
[The avatar 'Observer' is becoming 'Game Master'...]
Unable to finish reading the final notification, Gonghyeok met his death.
[To be Continued...]
When he opened his eyes again, he...
＊＊＊
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Saerom Daycare, where Gonghyeok and Yeonsi grew up.
Gunshots echoed along the national highway leading there.
"Sh...it...!"
The Bronze Giant Park Juntae dropped his pistol and toppled backward.
A crossbow bolt's fletching protruded from his mouth.
"You even had a gun."
Gonghyeok gave a wry smile as he looked down at his lower abdomen where a bullet was lodged.
He'd thought the difference in numbers and stats—five against one—could be covered with ambush and experience, but the opponent had a pistol he didn't know about.
He'd handed Yeonsi over without a fight, so of course he couldn't know.
'Am I dying again like this?'
The dream had come true.
The dream of protecting Ha Yeonsi from these guys.
It was a bonus life anyway; even if he died now, there was no regret.
"...Well, honestly, that's bullshit. Even a bonus life, I should live it out as far as I can."
Gonghyeok pressed his wound as hard as possible and headed toward the orphanage.
"Oppa! Where did you go?!"
Seeing Ha Yeonsi pale-faced as she moved him to the bed, he recalled old memories.
The orphanage engulfed in flames, embers flying.
Yeonsi being dragged away by her hair.
Children screaming amid the inferno.
"I saved you..."
"Huh?"
"I saved you! I saved you, Yeonsi!"
Gonghyeok couldn't hold back the tears streaming down his cheeks.
He had fixed the regret that haunted him until the brink of death.
He had upheld the justice he always avoided.
Clap clap clap clap.
Beside him, the Ju Gonghyeok who died 14 years later clapped.
"Congratulations. On being able to save her."
The past Ju Gonghyeok, who failed to save her, turned his back and vanished somewhere.
Watching that back, the Gonghyeok of his second life thought.
'Yeah. This is the right thing.'
Sacrificing other precious people for a grand purpose means nothing.
Abandoning small justices for the greater good has no value.
Even if it leads to death, it leaves behind a meaningful death and a meaningful life.
With that sentiment, Ju Gonghyeok tightly held Yeonsi's warm hand.
And Ju Gonghyeok...
Experienced 12 more deaths after that.
Kwarung—
With the noise, the bitter taste of cigarette ash filled his mouth.
[Arrived at Zone 13, 4th Floor]
Opening his eyes from the dream, the gray sky of the 4th floor came into view.
Tens of thousands of arks were falling from the sky.
"About 130,000, roughly."
All the hunters who survived the 3rd floor had been summoned to this Zone 13.
"Something's off."
Normally on the 4th floor, you'd proceed with the 'Square of Slaughter' mission with about 10,000 people or the 'Sports Day' mission in groups of 2,000.
But all surviving hunters gathered in one place meant...
A mission he hadn't experienced on the 4th floor yet was about to happen.
In a way, the unexpected progression wasn't bad...
'My demon friends. You've gotten all riled up, haven't you?'
The demons pulling off such an unconventional move proved just how brilliantly Ju Gonghyeok was wreaking havoc.
To the point they couldn't just sit back and watch.