Chapter 154
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: The World I Lived In
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Na, Lee Seo-ryeong.
And even Jahwa-yeon.
The moment we set down our spoons, we headed straight for the Association without a second's delay.
There's a saying that even dogs don't mess with you while you're eating, but the situation was different now.
A direct call came in through my hotline too.
Counselor Yoo Seon-woo, please come to the headquarters situation room immediately.
Since it was an S-rank or higher wave, I had to go anyway.
Lee Seo-ryeong and Jahwa-yeon insisted on escorting me, sticking close to either side.
"This way?"
"Yes."
The two of them hooked their arms through mine and leaped across the rooftops.
It felt like riding an amusement park ride—pretty fun, actually.
Thanks to them, we traversed the shortest path, stepping on building rooftops instead of dealing with traffic below.
Association headquarters situation room.
- Bang.
"What's going on?"
I flung open the door and asked sharply. The room was already in total chaos.
That's when a familiar face pushed through the crowd.
It was the team leader I knew.
"Ah, Counselor!"
He rushed over to me, drenched in sweat, his face pale as a ghost.
"Can you give me a quick rundown?"
"It's a massive Dimensional Transfer."
Massive... Dimensional Transfer...
An S-rank transfer had happened after all.
But the weird part was that large-scale transfers usually didn't reach S-rank.
Scholars theorized it was because the energy got spent widening the hole to shove through a huge number of entities, so the quality of the Otherworlders that made it across ended up lower.
In simple terms, quantity over quality.
"Large-scale transfers usually don't hit S-rank..."
"Yes, that's true in normal cases, but..."
I raised the question, and the team leader wiped his dry face, shaking his head.
"This isn't a normal Dimensional Transfer."
With a trembling finger, he pointed at the massive screen on the front wall.
"It's an unprecedented territorial erosion."
"......"
"It's not just Otherworlders pouring out..."
I stared silently at the screen.
The coordinates were in the West Sea.
Where there should have only been ocean, a massive island had appeared.
Charred black asphalt, gnawed-away high-rises, collapsed elevated highways.
The island carried the landscape of some thoroughly wrecked city.
Erosion normally happened when a portal formed, creating an isolated space called a dungeon.
Even Set Yu-wol's Kunlun Mountain worked that way—you entered through the portal interior.
Structures themselves manifesting directly into reality like this? Never.
"An entire city from that world just dropped wholesale onto the West Sea."
I zoomed in on the screen.
Concrete chunks jutting up from sea level.
But then.
Amid the rubble of collapsed buildings, one structure stood out glaringly.
"......"
No way.
Rusted and half-broken, but that distinctive tower shape and observation deck.
Definitely.
Not this South Korea.
It was a landmark no one from my South Korea—the South Korea of the world I lived in—could miss.
Namsan Tower.
It was embedded in the West Sea island, half-collapsed.
Which meant that place was...
Highly likely the world I had lived in.
As I stared at the screen, speechless, the team leader approached quietly.
"......As you suspect."
He glanced at the tower on the screen and bowed his head.
"......That place is the regulated world you transferred from, Counselor."
I turned to him.
"Entropy Earth."
My hometown.
The world I lived in—Seoul—had come here.
"How many Otherworlders?"
I asked calmly.
Just from that... I couldn't know everything.
My heart was racing. Seoul was destroyed.
I'd tried to forget.
My family from the world I lived in.
Since I could never see them again, I'd told myself they'd be fine and tried to erase them from my mind...
I never imagined I'd reunite with my world like this.
And in such a pitiful state.
Why it was destroyed? Unknown.
Nothing was certain yet.
It might have been intact and gotten wrecked mid-transfer.
'Stay calm.'
Please.
Nothing... was confirmed yet.
It had to be fine.
Everything would be... okay.
The moment I resolved to stay calm, my racing heart suddenly quieted.
My mind cleared, and the negative thoughts slowly faded.
[Origin of Species]
Immune to all status ailments and curses.
The system popped up before my eyes.
Apparently, my anxiety had been classified as a status ailment.
Good thing.
Right now, I welcomed any help from my abilities.
I... couldn't afford to waver, no matter what.
Snapping back to focus, I immediately fired off questions to gather intel.
"How many Otherworlders?"
"Quite a lot. Hard to pin down an exact number. At least hundreds... maybe more."
"Any info on their wave levels or rank classifications?"
"Well..."
The team leader bit his lip awkwardly and fiddled with the monitor.
"Too many to analyze precisely. There's unidentified noise interfering with the scans too... so no other details right now."
"I see."
The team leader explained the plan with a grim expression.
"That's why we're forming an investigation team of Hunters at the Association level to dispatch them. Approach will be via naval gunboats."
They planned to enter through the investigation team members.
Made sense.
Going in solo would be a bit much.
It'd be like tackling a dungeon.
"We'd like you to join us, Counselor. Oh, to ease your burden, both new counselors will come along too. In case we need contact or negotiations with the Otherworlders inside—your abilities will be essential."
I got why they needed me.
As a counselor, my skills were a must, especially for a massive transfer.
The scariest thing about crowd panic? How contagious it is.
Fine by me, but...
Would those two really help?
"I'm good to go right away."
I nodded anyway.
"Understood. We'll prep immediately."
The team leader glanced at Lee Seo-ryeong and Jahwa-yeon behind me.
"Lady Baekju and... Heavenly Demon can head back if you'd like. The Association will handle security from here..."
Fair point.
This wasn't just escort duty—it was an Association-led raid.
No need for her to go.
But.
"No."
Lee Seo-ryeong tilted her head and stepped forward.
"I'll go too."
The team leader panicked.
"Pardon? Lady Baekju? This is Association business, so you don't have to—"
"It's an unknown zone. No intel, communications cut off—practically a death trap."
"That's true, but..."
"Frankly, the Association's firepower worries me."
Her gaze turned to me.
"I don't think you can protect him."
"......"
The team leader shut his mouth.
Who could argue with South Korea's strongest Hunter?
Before long, Jahwa-yeon stood behind Lee Seo-ryeong as if it were obvious, arms crossed.
The team leader swallowed hard, doing quick mental math.
From the Association's view, no reason to refuse.
The nation's top two powerhouses volunteering for a suicide mission? Only an idiot would say no.
I wanted to stop them, but...
From their expressions, they weren't backing down.
"If... if the two of you insist, we're grateful."
He bowed 90 degrees, voice shaky as he guided us.
"Right away, then. We'll add you to the investigation roster. This way."
We stood before a screen set up in one corner of the situation room.
"For registration, we'll input your personal details and... rank."
The reason for meticulously entering the roster amid this crisis? Simple.
Sometimes, erosion zones seal shut after entry, trapping everyone inside.
We call it getting lost.
Think of it as the worst-case scenario.
No telling when the door reopens—the longest recorded isolation was a full month.
So, this was prep for a potential missing persons list.
Jahwa-yeon stepped up first without hesitation.
Jahwa-yeon went first.
Registered.
Next was Lee Seo-ryeong's turn.
She hesitated a bit before the terminal.
"......Um, the age..."
She whispered to the staff, face flushing.
But before she could say more.
- Ding!
Age?
Why the age...
Wait, what?
The system had told me Lee Seo-ryeong was 29.
So I'd assumed we were the same age.
What the hell?
[......]
I asked inwardly.
The system went silent.
Not same age—she was older.
"......"
Truth be told, I preferred mature older women over peers,
peers over younger ones.
No clue why.
Maybe from counseling so many people, always being the caregiver,
I craved someone mentally dependable.
Not that I wanted to be babied or anything...
Probably not.
[Hmph, wipe that grin off your face.]
[( ＞Д＜；)]
I whipped my head around in surprise.
Must've smirked without realizing.
It felt like the system had deliberately fed me wrong info.
A bit embarrassing since my tastes were so obvious.
But now wasn't the time.
Then.
"......Assemblyman."
A pale palm suddenly blocked my view.
"You're staring at the screen... way too intently..."
I finally snapped out of it.
I'd been gawking at her age line.
Lee Seo-ryeong's ears were beet red as she held her hand in front of my eyes.
"Ah, no, it's nothing."
As the mood turned awkward.
I shook my head and hurried to the monitor.
My info was standard anyway.
- Ding!
The staff tilted her head, tapping the monitor.
And even I was thrown.
My rank was originally B.
"Counselor? Your... rank's been upgraded from B to A."
"What happened?"
Hunter ranks aren't like game levels, accumulating EXP.
It's a fixed value based on the wave measured at awakening.
Once B-rank, always B-rank—unless something major changes.
"......Your physical wave completely shifted recently... so we adjusted it upward."
My physical wave changed?
Ah.
Origin of Species.
My boosted physical specs must've registered on the wave.
"I had a hunch. Got it."
I nodded.
A-rank came with perks.
Thanks, I guess.
Just as we finished registration.
- Bang!
The situation room door burst open, and the team leader from earlier dashed in, gasping for breath.
"Ready!"
He shouted with grim resolve.
"Up... huff... speedboat's waiting at the Han River."
He met our eyes one by one.
"Let's move out."
We headed straight for the West Sea erosion zone.
To the world I once...
lived in.