Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Event Occurrence (2)
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"...Seohyeon, I told you not to look at that weird site."
Jin Seohyeon flinched and hid her phone at her uncle's pitiful gaze.
"It's not a weird site..., these days, there are more hunters who don't check it than those who do."
The man didn't seem particularly convinced by Jin Seohyeon's small protest.
He just gave a wry smile, as if saddened that a kid young enough to be his niece was like this.
"Anyway, looks like it's wrapping up soon."
A click sounded from the seam of the man's armor as he pointed to one side.
Their raid leader, representing Arang Guild, was answering a reporter's question.
"Hmm..."
Jin Seohyeon's eyes turned further back.
Civilians and hunters who had come out of curiosity, interested in this raid.
Considering they were away from the city center, it was a fair number of people.
While happily noting those who had bothered to come, one figure particularly caught her eye.
The man with blue eyes was fidgeting restlessly, like he desperately needed to use the bathroom, and he gave off bad vibes just by looking at him.
"Uncle, that guy's gonna rush in after the interview ends."
The armored man glanced where Jin Seohyeon pointed and spat out curtly.
"Obsessed fan, probably. The standby team will handle it."
"Whoa, we even have obsessed fans?"
What a silly conversation they were having when the interview ended and the raid leader returned.
"We're entering soon. Gather up and prepare."
The lax atmosphere tightened in an instant.
Everyone gathered here stood at the pinnacle of the hunter world.
Jin Seohyeon let out a single yawn before steadying her mana.
"Seohyeon, how much further to S-rank?"
Recalling her last test results, she roughly gauged it at her healer sister's question from beside her.
"Hmm? If we take it easy, two or three more should do it."
"Oh..."
She chuckled at her sister, who lit up more excitedly than she did herself.
Then, a commotion broke out from the back.
"You can't come in any further!"
"Just a moment, just a moment! It's important!"
It was that guy from before.
Her teammates, accustomed to such disturbances, merely glanced over before refocusing on the upcoming raid.
She'd thought he was an obsessed fan, but disappointingly, no.
His attitude seemed less like a fan wanting an autograph or handshake and more like a righteous man on the eve of a grand undertaking.
As she watched the man being held back by the standby team with interest, his gaze turned her way.
His blue eyes locked precisely on her, and in that instant, the expression vanished from Jin Seohyeon's face.
A flurry of images flashed through her mind.
A massive room filled with mirrors.
Enemies standing opposite them, identical in appearance.
Teammates attacked by replicated abilities.
And me, sprawled with my throat slit.
"Urk..."
"Seohyeon?!"
The grotesquely vivid images made it hard to hold back the nausea.
Her healer sister jumped in surprise at the sight of her covering her mouth and dry-heaving.
"Your... face is super pale. You okay?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine."
When she raised her head, the spot was empty.
The man had already been dragged away by the standby team.
From the circumstances, that man had done something to her.
For what reason? Sabotage to make the raid fail?
She shook her head. It was too clumsy for that.
There was no way an idiot existed who believed shaking her condition would decide success or failure.
Instead, she read the lingering intent remaining in her mind.
Two words, clear with strong will, not yet converted to images.
'Warning, future?'
An ominously foreboding message.
*
A massive passageway wide enough for dozens to walk side by side.
Colorless crystals embedded in the walls reflected light off each other, brightly illuminating the cave interior.
The ten raiders advanced in formation until they encountered beasts made of crystal.
"Hup!"
The flail swung by the man clad head to toe in armor struck a wolf.
Bam! The 'crystal wolf' that flew back with a thunderous crash rose again as if nothing had happened.
Horrific defense, but dealing with it wasn't his role.
The mage, who had finished chanting from the rear, pointed his staff at the wolf.
Aim, compress, compress, release. Pure mana coalesced inside the wolf's body before slipping from control.
"—Explode."
Crack! Even a creature with absolute external defense couldn't handle an explosion from within.
The wolf's form shattered into pieces in an instant.
Sensing the danger from that sight, perhaps.
One wolf wrestling with the frontliners turned and charged at another mage preparing to chant.
Facing the wolf lunging for her throat, the mage didn't stop chanting.
Empirical trust that her teammates would handle it somehow.
—Kyeng!
And that trust was rewarded.
The wolf, right before her, bounced off like it had hit a wall, then burst from the completed spell.
The mage gave a quick eye-thanks to Jin Seohyeon, who had created the barrier, then prepared her next chant.
The hunt proceeded smoothly. The otherworldly beasts fell to thoroughly organized violence, and the 'crystal bats' emitting psychic waves turned to flee.
The raid leader, Oh Seung-hoon, raised his sword.
"Jin Seohyeon!"
Oh Seung-hoon, sprinting at full speed, leaped toward the sky.
But it wasn't high enough to reach the bat flying at that altitude.
However, no worries.
He kicked off the air toward the ground once more, 'touching' her barrier as a foothold.
Using Jin Seohyeon's barrier as support, Oh Seung-hoon leaped again, and that was enough.
Because his sword, swung mid-flight, reached its target.
The blade flowing with blue aura tore through the crystal shell like paper, bisecting the bat.
"Huuu..."
Afterward came rest and maintenance time.
Recover magic stones from dead monsters, injured head to healers for treatment.
Oh Seung-hoon approached the armored man and whispered lowly.
"Something happen to Seohyeon? Why's she like that."
The kid who would usually crack jokes first and mess around was unusually quiet.
No trace of her usual mischievous expression, her face grave as if bearing all the world's worries.
"Yeah... She was chatting normally with me right up until we entered the gate."
The armored man sighed.
He too wanted to know why the team's mood-maker maknae had turned serious.
Her combat performance was flawless, so no issue with ability.
Probably a mental problem.
Oh Seung-hoon nodded once before wrapping up.
"Push on with the raid for now. We'll talk when we get back."
As they reached that conclusion, Jin Seohyeon remained lost in thought.
She didn't fully believe that horrific hallucination.
But just in case, if it truly was a warning about the future, it meant she would die here with her throat slit.
The mere thought sent chills down her spine.
Thus, even if just a possibility, it warranted caution and careful approach.
After maintenance, the raid advanced in formation to a vast cavern.
A view so open it made the previous passages seem like mere corridors.
"Whoa..."
The healer unwittingly gasped in admiration at the cave filled with crystals covering walls and ceiling.
With each step they took, the crystals' reflections danced kaleidoscopically, shining on them.
Watching them, the hallucination image resurfaced in Jin Seohyeon's mind.
A massive room filled with mirrors.
Was it just her imagination that this place evoked that?
As tension rose while heading to the cavern's center, the crystals flashed.
"Ugh, watch out!"
Light filled the cave.
The raiders covered their eyes from the overwhelming brightness, and when it faded, familiar figures stood there.
The 10 raid members, gear and stances identical.
The only difference: they had no expressions.
"Ha, doppelganger type, huh?"
Oh Seung-hoon sneered as he drew his sword.
His comrades immediately entered combat stance as well.
Jin Seohyeon swallowed.
The hallucination was real. No reason to doubt the images that followed.
Teammates attacked by replicated abilities.
Me, sprawled with throat slit.
The interpretation was clear.
A teammate's doppelganger broke the front line and severed her throat at the rear.
Even shattering the barrier enveloping her body.
Only one person here could do that.
Raid leader Oh Seung-hoon, wielder of the 'Aura' ability.
Jin Seohyeon didn't take her eyes off the raid leader's doppelganger.
The familiar man's face drew his sword with an alien blank expression.
Soon, the original shouted.
"End it quick! Frontline, open a path! Seohyeon, barriers!"
Can't give the mage dealers and teammate doppelgangers time to use abilities.
Unlike their side moving like a single organism, the doppelgangers moved disjointedly.
Just external appearance and abilities replicated, it seemed.
They apparently couldn't copy teamwork.
"These bastards are idiots! Can't even coordinate!"
Uncle realized it too, loosening his tense expression.
Doppelgangers foolishly preparing advanced spells while blocked were dismantled by this side's basic magic.
Unlike the raid leader's doppelganger blocked by allies, the real Oh Seung-hoon ignored fallen foes and charged the rearmost doppelganger.
Her doppelganger defending lethal strikes toward fake teammates with barriers.
Eliminating Jin Seohyeon's ability was top priority.
Smooth. That's why it felt uneasy.
If she hadn't seen the hallucination, would the outcome differ?
No, she hadn't told her teammates.
Thus, if the hallucination warned of the future, this was the 'normal' progression.
Fake Oh Seung-hoon breaking through and severing her throat? It didn't add up.
Her teammates knew her priority was highest in combat.
No chance they'd let her die arbitrarily before all fell.
If not the hallucination wrong, then her interpretation was.
She wasn't killed by fake teammates.
With realization, she looked where Oh Seung-hoon had reached the fake Jin Seohyeon.
His blue-glowing sword rose, and a smirk curled the fake Jin Seohyeon's lips amid her barrier.
At a glance, like mocking Oh Seung-hoon trying to pierce her barrier.
No. The fake's eyes were fixed on her.
A chill crawling up her spine, she screamed reflexively.
"Uncle!!! Nooooo!!!!!"
Oh Seung-hoon's fluster at Jin Seohyeon's scream was a split second.
His judgment was swift, trusting his comrade's call.
But retracting the inertia-driven sword after shattering the barrier was impossible.
Thus, he twisted the blade's trajectory aimed at the throat with all his might, piercing the fake Jin Seohyeon's right shoulder joint instead.
"...Ah."
A chill swept over her body.
On the ground lay her right arm, outstretched toward uncle, fallen of its own accord.
She felt the heat draining from her body.
'Life Share... was it.'
"...Hyeon, heal quick!"
"...Crystals, right. All bro... "
"...Don't talk, crystals fir..."
In her blurring vision, the last sight was her healer sister treating the severed arm pressed back in place.
She knew instinctively.
Today was undoubtedly her fated death.
Yet she survived. Her fate had changed.
Perhaps that's why—her first time losing a limb oddly brought relief.