Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Anything But the North!
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Not the north!
They teach you in school that there's no gravity in space, right?
But going against everything I'd learned, the moment I leaped over the railing, the pirate ship shrank to the size of a needle's eye in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, those white hands came chasing after me, not a single one falling behind.
Being airborne meant no recoil to worry about—I could pull the trigger on my anti-materiel sniper rifle as much as I wanted.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
But that was all.
Grab. Grab. Grab!
"Guh?!"
By the time the pirate ship overhead vanished completely, obscured by the Milky Way...
I'd been overtaken by the white hands. Their overwhelming numbers clung to me from every direction, like barnacles on a tiny star. I couldn't even breathe anymore.
My consciousness started fading, my eyes rolling back up into my head—right then.
"Player!"
"Gah?!"
When I snapped back to awareness, I'd opened my eyes in that high-tech future city where I'd met Levi before.
It was the café inside it.
"W-what happened? I was definitely swarmed by those white hands...!"
"Player, calm down first. Deep breaths."
Levi carefully helped me up from where I'd been lying on the floor.
Was it because I'd just barely escaped death?
My breathing was ragged. I was on the verge of hyperventilating.
Every time, Levi patted my back—my gear already unequipped somehow—and supported me from the side.
About ten minutes passed like that.
"Are you feeling calmer now?"
"Yeah, thanks to you."
Once I'd pulled myself together a bit, Levi took my hand and led me toward the café counter.
She handed me a cup of coffee there, slightly cooled but prepared in advance.
"This should help you relax a little."
"Yeah..."
I didn't really want anything in my mouth, but to catch my breath, I carefully sipped the sweet macchiato down my throat.
And for some reason...
"Huh?"
My heart, which had been pounding wildly until now, suddenly settled into a cold calm.
"It's coffee laced with a tranquilizer from our civilization. No side effects, brings your heart rate back to normal. Everyone used it a lot for their celibate lifestyles."
"Oh, really?"
I didn't know about the rest, but it deflated my dick in an instant—the one that had been gearing up to get hard after surviving that close call.
Talk about effective.
Anyway, thanks to that, the situation had settled down too.
"Did I... die?"
Levi perched on the counter, sipping her own coffee just like me.
I asked her carefully.
"Yes."
Seeing her face light up with a bright smile, I finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew... haa...!"
"It was a close one. My warp ability only works if there are no 'humans' around the player."
"That's why you told me to jump off the pirate ship?"
"Yes. Those white hands were after you. Protecting the females around you from them—and ensuring your survival—left only one option."
"Fleeing to this world?"
"Exactly. Using my warp to bring you safely to this city."
Sure enough, it saved my life.
If the warp had been even a little later, I might've arrived here not breathing.
The survivor of the universe's first civilization, indeed.
Great call.
That said...
"Levi, do you know what those white hands are?"
A monster type I'd never seen before.
Or maybe not even monsters—unknown entities, really.
I thought of those things with huge eyes in the palm of each hand and looked at Levi, who seemed to know something.
When I asked...
"Those are... the final enemies we have to defeat."
"...!"
She dropped a bombshell.
"They live at the very top of the dungeon's upper layers. And they're the great evil itself, the ones who know the location of the dungeon's heart."
"Dungeon's heart..."
"I suspect the reason you warped from the lakeside portal to the depths where Jörmungandr lived this time was their interference."
The reason I'd ended up in the depths where Jörmungandr lurked instead of the intended 12th floor.
Levi told me that was because of these white hands too.
"What the hell are they? Are they like the final boss ruling the dungeon?"
"No, probably not. They moved too crudely for that—like machines following orders, not thinking hunters."
...Levi added that explanation.
"There's definitely something behind them, the real dungeon entity we need to take down. The problem is we have no way to uncover that black curtain yet."
"...Well, that should work itself out, right?"
"Pardon?"
"Their target is me, no matter what. Whether it's because I teamed up with you or some other reason, they'll show up in front of us eventually."
A wall we have to cross anyway, like it or not.
And if that wall comes to us? All we have to do is prepare in the meantime.
No need to hunt it down.
"I just need to get stronger."
"...You're right."
"My first goal is becoming an S-rank hunter. Sound good? Pretty solid first milestone, huh?"
"Yes, that's more than suitable as a starting goal."
Turn crisis into opportunity!
Saying that, I made Levi—who'd been worrying for me—smile again.
With the talk wrapped up, it was time to head back.
"Levi. I want to let Lee Gok and Captain Roger know I'm fine. So, could you send me back to that pirate ship?"
"That's... impossible. If the warp destination had been original Earth, I could've returned you exactly where you came from. But you were between dimensions at the time."
Bringing something visible is one thing; putting it back precisely is another.
Levi said even pulling me here had been a struggle.
'Does that mean I can't reunite with Lee Gok right away?'
She must be freaking out right now, thinking about me diving under the Milky Way.
"So where am I warping to?"
"Well, I'm setting it for somewhere in the Korean Peninsula as much as possible... but honestly, we'll need some heavenly luck this time."
"W-what?!"
Then came unexpected news.
Wasn't Levi from the universe's first civilization, with tech far beyond Earth's?
And this cyberpunk expert was praying to the gods?
"I set it for the Hunter Association in Seoul, but if it bounces a bit upward in position and you spawn in the north... hope for a quick escape."
"Wait, hold on... the north? You don't mean Nor—"
"Heaven forbid you spend your life in a dictator's semen extraction factory..."
Levi, don't pray with clasped hands.
Or rather, semen extraction factory?
No matter how reversed the world is, does that hardcode genre actually exist up north?
If Korea's tricky, send me to Japan or the US—no complaints.
Anywhere but North Korea would be better than there.
"Even without the reverse world, any Korean stepping foot there is fucked!"
...I shouted on one hand.
"Ah, I guess a joke like that was needed to lighten the heavy mood?"
Instead of joking, I'd appreciate boosting the warp accuracy even a little.
"Comrade! Squeeze it out quick-quick!"
The kind of joke that might make women laugh with "Hahaha, near!"
But for me, it sent chills down my spine.
Leaving those words behind, I didn't have time to say more before Levi's farewell and the white light of warp enveloped me.
Levi's warp ability felt just like a dungeon portal.
Your vision gets wrapped in pure white light, then you emerge somewhere else.
Splash!
My scream didn't last long.
In the instantly changed environment, I plunged straight into water.
'Salty...?'
This familiar taste—seawater. So I'd ended up in the ocean.
'She said Hunter Association in Korea, but did the warp go wrong?'
Even adrift in the middle of the sea, a hunter's physique meant no hypothermia worries. So I was relieved on that front.
The issue was, which sea was this?
If it was the East Sea near Korea, lucky. But if it was the Yellow Sea between China and North Korea...
'Gotta check first.'
I cautiously surfaced and scanned the surroundings.
For starters, fancy lights twinkled in the distance—so at least not North Korea.
Now, China? Korea?
Or Japan? Instead of swimming straight to land, I poked around nearby, looking for clues.
Rumble...
"Hm?"
The seawater started vibrating faintly.
Rumble rumble rumble.
A massive engine roar, and huge shapes closed in from all sides...
"...Turtle ships?"
Warships with dragon heads and spiked decks?
No, wait—that silhouette was definitely a turtle ship, no matter how I looked.
"No way I warped to the Joseon Dynasty, right?"
...Nah, the modern engine noise booming from the rear was way too loud for that.
In the blink of an eye, turtle ship-shaped warships surrounded me.
Spotlights hit me next. Looking like an illegal immigrant caught trying to land, I decided to watch and wait.
"Hehe. Catching an unexpected 'big fish' out here."
"...?"
"Truly fortunate, sir~."
An elf in hanbok with a traditional bun hairstyle?
This mishmash of genres locked eyes with me, speaking in that fancy "~sawayo" drawl.
"Oh, and just so you know, you won't be going to the Supreme Lee Clan, sir~."
"...What?"
"Because from now on, you belong to our Busan representative hunter family—the Andong Kwon Clan."