Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Isn't This Cheating?
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"That thing... instead of breaking it, I think we can just unravel it."
My words made Yuna, visible beyond the monitor, pause with her sword raised, her face puzzled.
Chun-sik, beside me, also widened his eyes and alternated his gaze between me and the monitor.
"Quin-nim. That's a magic barrier. It's different from alchemy."
"No, that's not what I mean..."
I pointed at the screen, to the blue barrier wavering unstably.
"It just feels familiar."
Yeah. This was a sensation I knew well.
The precarious, unstable state right before ingredients clashed violently and boiled over during potion crafting. The thin line between failure and success.
From experience, how you handled it at this stage determined the outcome completely.
If you guided the mana flow to stabilize, the ingredients harmonized into a new potion. But if you applied force to disrupt the bonding?
'The bonding itself breaks apart.'
What if we did something similar to that unstable barrier now? Wouldn't the mana composing it decompose entirely?
- ...How do we do it? Is there another way besides breaking it?
Yuna's urgent voice came through. Thanks to Chun-sik's disruption, the barrier was unstable, but it could revert to normal at any moment.
I racked my brain quickly. To safely dismantle the barrier, I needed a medium to directly interfere with that mana flow first.
"Yuna. Do you have a recovery potion on you right now? And the compass we made?"
- Of course I do. Why?
"That'll do it. Just follow my instructions."
First, secure the medium.
"The compass. Detach just the needle part. You'll need to keep injecting mana to maintain its shape."
That needle, etched with mana circuits by Chun-sik, was the substance Yuna had that would react the least upon hitting the barrier. It was close to pure mana.
- Detached it. Next?
"Good. Now open the recovery potion and thinly coat the needle tip."
Next, the necessary processing.
- The potion? On the needle?
"Just do it."
Yuna uncorked the potion vial and wet the needle tip.
The fire sac component in the recovery potion would leave a subtle noise in the barrier, and the proteins would act as a lubricant to aid penetration.
One more thing. The most crucial ingredient.
"And your blood."
- Blood?
"Yeah. Coat it on like you're coating the needle."
The unstable barrier kept trying to revert. As the needle passed, we needed to insert foreign mana through the subtle noise it left behind to delay recombination.
Yuna immediately cut her finger and thinly smeared red blood over the entire needle. As it absorbed into the mana-formed needle, it began to glow with a strange red hue.
- Done. What's next?
I practically pressed my nose to the monitor. No complex mana circuits entered my sight.
Just those knots wavering precariously, like liquid about to boil over. We had to sever them.
"Good. Now slowly move your hand. Not up there... around the middle in that ambiguous direction... there."
- Is this right? It all just looks like a blue wall to me.
"That's the particularly unstable spot. It's thinner than the rest. A bit to the right. A little more. There! Stab it!"
- Here? Stabbing!
Pok.
On the monitor, Yuna's hand moved. The red-coated needle touched the barrier's surface.
Sss...
Surprisingly, the needle smoothly penetrated into the barrier without any resistance.
- It's really working...
"Good. Now flick it."
- Flick it? What?
"Flick the back end of the needle you just inserted with your finger."
- How hard?
"Uh... not too hard. Like right before you flick someone's forehead, that amount of tension, then pop?"
- ...What kind of feeling is that?
"Just try moderately. Nice and slow."
Yuna on the monitor looked exasperated. But she trusted my guidance and lightly flicked the back of the needle with her finger.
Ting—
In that instant, a clear sound rang through the space.
Passs...
At the same time, the part of the barrier where the needle was stuck faded faintly. The blue mana began slowly dispersing into the air like smoke.
- It's working.
Surprise colored Yuna's voice at the visible change.
"Keep going. Same way. It's not over yet."
- Got it. Where next?
I stared intently at the quivering barrier. We had to find the next spot before the dispersed mana regrouped.
"A bit lower from there? No, slightly to the left. There!"
Ting— Ting—
The barrier grew fainter and fainter. Yuna mechanically stabbed and flicked the needle following my directions.
And finally, the moment she flicked the last point.
Crack—
With a sound like dry firewood snapping, all the points Yuna had stabbed connected in spiderweb cracks.
But it wasn't like glass shattering.
The barrier evaporated completely, leaving only faint blue afterglow, as if it had never been there to begin with.
Silence fell for a moment.
Chun-sik, who had been staring holes through the screen, muttered blankly.
"...Isn't this cheating?"
It was his way of giving high praise. He couldn't believe I'd dismantled a complex magic structure purely on instinct, without a single calculation.
Yuna on the screen was speechless for a bit too, then spoke in a voice mixed with exhaustion.
- ...It's gone. Completely.
Tension released, I slumped onto the sofa. I hadn't realized my whole body was drenched in cold sweat.
Yuna on the screen readjusted her grip on her sword.
- Anyway, thanks to you, I can slip in quietly. Heading inside now.
"Y-yeah. Be careful."
With that, Yuna cut the comms.
Choi Yuna flung open the thick iron door where the barrier had vanished.
Kiiik—
'Before they realize the barrier's down...'
She heightened her senses to the max and entered.
But the interior was eerily quiet, contrary to expectations. No patrols, not even a single ant. Only chilly air greeted her.
With a bad premonition, she headed straight for what looked like the server room and research data room. The doors weren't even locked.
Kiiik—
"......"
The insides were empty. The massive server racks had all been pulled out, and the desks were piled high only with paper dust overflowing from shredders.
'Too late.'
It seemed they'd cleared out recently. They'd probably noticed the pursuit and moved everything.
That explained why she hadn't encountered any high-rank hunters on the way, why the intrusion had been easier than thought. They'd already extracted the valuables and left only the shell.
Choi Yuna bit her lip. Futility and rage surged up together.
But she couldn't give up like this.
'It looks hastily done. They must have left traces.'
Probably today or last night. They couldn't have erased all evidence perfectly in such short time.
She headed deeper, to the bottommost basement where even the elevator didn't work. She followed the faint lingering mana traces.
The final floor down the emergency stairs.
Opening the heavy iron door unleashed a foul stench that stabbed her nose. The nauseating mix of blood and chemicals.
Choi Yuna involuntarily held her breath at the horrific sight before her.
"......"
In the dark room, over ten makeshift beds held "those things" abandoned.
People utterly drained of mana and life force, mummified. These were probably the healers used as materials for White Cell.
They stared blankly into space with lifeless eyes, not even able to close them.
Choi Yuna ground her teeth.
"Crazy bastards."
Suppressing her fury, she checked for survivors. But only cold sensation came from the wrists she touched.
They'd prioritized discarding data over these. The dead don't talk, after all.
The moment she clenched her fist in despair and turned to leave.
Thud.
A tiny movement registered in her senses.
Choi Yuna reflexively checked it. Amid the messy beds and other corpses, half-hidden, was one man.
The instant she touched him, faint mana stirred. Healing-attuned mana.
It was so weak that judging him dead wouldn't be wrong. His healer's mana seemed to be clinging to his life.
"......"
But he only reacted faintly to her external stimulus; no normal consciousness.
'Wait.'
Then she remembered the recovery potion in her pocket. Could Seha's potion save even someone like this?
The deliberation was brief. If she could save him, she had to.
Choi Yuna immediately pulled out a recovery potion and roughly poured it into his mouth.
"Guh...!"
The effect was immediate. His withered body convulsed, then he began gasping roughly. Vitality was returning.
The man slowly opened his eyes. Recognizing her, he desperately tried to speak, lips moving.
But that was it. Still debilitated. The potion had revived him barely, but his body was wrecked.
"Wh...who...?"
"Rabbitfoot Company. Know it?"
His eyes lit up desperately at her words. With trembling hand, he pointed to the inside of his patient gown, his bandaged thigh.
"There... inside the bandage..."
Choi Yuna hastily unwrapped the bandage, and a small USB secured with tape fell out.
"I was... a researcher. White Cell development team... hack. I tried to leak the data to expose this madness, but..."
He swallowed painfully.
"They found out... and dragged me here. I couldn't let them take this... hid it until the last moment."
Gathering his final strength, he vomited blood and continued.
"This... hurry... to the world..."
Choi Yuna pocketed the USB.
"Don't talk. We're getting out of here first."
The moment she tried to help the researcher up.
Beeeep—!
A ear-splitting alarm tore through the entire facility.