Chapter 79
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Everyone, Please Die
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We'd made it this far with minimal casualties, but that didn't mean we'd done so without any investment.
The hunters' stamina and mental strength, poured into hunting S-rank monsters without taking a single hit—no matter how much healing they received—had been inevitably depleted. They'd been saving what little they had left for the final battle to close the gate.
And now, in that situation, the monsters we'd killed were coming back to life?
"Kuhahaha! No one's ever survived hearing my name. That's why I'm telling you idiots now. The SSS-rank hunter will rise as my faithful servant, and the rest of you will serve as fertilizer to sustain him!!!"
Ri Hei-an, who had seemed to make a stylish exit, turned around to see the monsters rising and started blabbering loudly.
Hong Si-jun, unable to bear it any longer, finally unleashed his pent-up rage.
"I heard your name two years ago!! Ri Hei-an!!"
"Heh heh heh. Didn't you ever think I let you live?"
"Cut the bullshit!! You ambushed me while I was sleeping, then ran scared from my greatsword!! I've scoured every dungeon for two years to find you. Today is the day you die!"
"Heh heh. Back then, I held off stabbing your heart because I wanted to stuff the wife by your side. Thank your wife for that. Is she here today too? If so, I'll specially taxidermy her and turn her into my personal necro-onahole."
"You bastard!!"
The Hong Si-jun I knew—the one in dungeons—was a man of few words.
He worried about the other hunters, always stepping up front to take the risks, fighting selflessly. With his wife, the SSS-rank summoner Gye Yeon-su, he was tender and affectionate when they were alone.
Yet when saving Kang Hana, he'd considered Im Hye-ji's position and left the choice to her. He knew how to neatly resolve situations, acknowledged B-rank hunter Kang Hana's abilities, and boldly handed over his main command role. He was cool-headed and rational.
But seeing him now in this emotional exchange with Ri Hei-an clearly showed the immense rage buried in his heart.
That's the kind of man he was.
His comrades—whom he'd spent years with, longer than family over the last decade, to whom he'd entrusted his back and his life—had died, and even after two years, he couldn't forget it.
Thanks to that, we'd at least gained a brief moment of restful respite that we hadn't even had upon entering.
The monsters had charged without giving us time for a flashback cutscene when we first entered the complex, yet they waited patiently during this childish—if that's what it was—verbal spat between Ri Hei-an and Hong Si-jun.
It was the very picture of someone commanding monsters.
A question arose in my mind.
How was that possible?
Was it because he'd killed and revived the monsters here once before?
Or could he control living ones too?
But there was no way to resolve my doubts.
Slipping out to stand by Hong Si-jun and shout it would draw too many eyes, and what if Ri Hei-an ignored a nobody like me?
Above all, their war of words ended quickly.
"Die. Once you're dead, you won't be able to defy your master. Heh heh."
The monsters charged.
At a far faster speed than before.
With far greater attack power.
Boom!!!
The battle line buckled not long after combat began.
"The previously killed monsters are joining this side."
Everyone thought the same.
If we cleared an S-rank backflow dungeon without casualties, how much attention and support would we get?
Countless hunters would envy us.
Not the world's first, but Korea's first S-rank backflow dungeon closure.
The protagonists of recapturing Hwaseong City.
Of course, the records would list "Hong Si-jun and XXX others," but even so, it was a lifelong boast for grabbing a drink anywhere.
'I was there for the Hwaseong recapture.'
Like a Vietnam vet—especially in a Hwaseong bar—nearby patrons might even gift a bottle of soju out of gratitude.
Many hunters had come here clutching such small, insignificant hopes and dreams.
Even those here for the money shared the same wish: to retake Hwaseong unharmed.
The SSS-rank hunter was performing several times their collective feats.
There was a scout perfectly briefing the surroundings.
Hell, there was even a healer who could revive the dead.
At the moment we reached the end without a single death despite injuries, the thought "just a little more" must have dominated their minds.
But the dream ended there.
"All nine S-rank monsters have joined..."
For the first time, Kang Hana's voice trembled at the end.
From her safe position outside the main force, briefing us, she could see it.
The aura and numbers of the monsters encircling me and the other hunters.
We were collapsing helplessly.
Just their resurrection alone felt like a wall of despair rising, but the S-rank monsters in particular looked overwhelmingly powerful—even an SSS-rank hunter like Hong Si-jun would struggle alone.
In that despair, the voice of the Grim Reaper echoed.
"Heh heh heh. How does it taste, my ultimate magic circle summoned with the lives of 150 living humans? What you're facing now aren't S-ranks—they're SS-ranks. Giggle."
We couldn't verify if it was true, but they visibly looked strong enough to effortlessly devour a whole rank higher, deepening our despair.
No more on-site briefings came.
Where was dangerous? Where to block?
No answers.
The front lines were breached on all sides.
The areas with SS- and SSS-rank hunters held for now, but it was only a matter of time.
Rwaaaaaar!!
Even amid the chaos, the hunters fought to turn the tide.
They'd survived countless brushes with death.
Those who gave up on life in hopeless moments wouldn't have made it this far.
The SSS-rank summoner Gye Yeon-su's massive mud golem and flying gargoyles broke through one flank alongside Hong Si-jun, trying to forge a thread of hope.
But...
Grrraaaar!
"Giggle. Want to kill me? It won't be easy."
The last hope.
The instant judgment to kill the monsters' master, the necromancer—I couldn't help but admire it.
Anyone who's played games would think of this most basic solution right then, but standing on-site, you instinctively realize it's not that simple.
It was a massive wall.
Of nineteen SS-rank monsters.
Hunters fell from the rear, holes ripping through the formation in their wake.
Hong Si-jun, drawing out every ounce to seize that one chance, was visibly faltering.
"This is fucked."
Even I was breaking a cold sweat watching.
I stayed somewhat calm knowing I had an ace up my sleeve, but the healers and hunters inside were already trembling, some panicking.
Death approached.
For those awaiting certain death, even if prepared, it was brutal—especially for hunters clinging to life.
I looked at Im Hye-ji.
Im Hye-ji was biting her lip, hands shaking uncontrollably.
I took her hand.
"Oppa... my hands are shaking."
"Your hands are shaking."
"Oppa's are too...?"
Looking down, mine were shaking just as badly.
But the silver lining was our astonishing detachment—like third-party observers—we kept our reason intact amid this madness.
"We can do this, right?"
"If shit hits the fan, we bolt."
Maybe that's why it felt like the most rational judgment possible.
Should we open the door and run now?
If I shouted to the hunters, some could escape the dungeon right away.
But would Hong Si-jun even listen in this situation?
Over half were already dead.
Hong Si-jun was fighting even harder, entangled with monsters to save the others.
I decided to save that as a last-last resort—for when even I had to survive—and comforted Im Hye-ji.
"We can do it, right?"
"...Yeah."
The monsters were drawing closer.
With the second line breached, healers and mages like us wouldn't have much time before facing them head-on.
SS-rank monsters' AoE attacks were already sweeping our way.
"Hye-ji-ssi. Can you hear me?"
"Yes? Yes!"
Hong Si-jun spoke to Im Hye-ji over their private channel.
"Take Yeon-su and get out. I'll squeeze out my last strength to clear a path in the rear."
No hesitation in his voice.
A choice a party leader shouldn't make—but the best cold decision precisely because he was the leader.
"You and Yeon-su have to survive. Around when we set off to seal the gate, the Hunter Association will be secretly mobilizing hunters to Hwaseong. We can catch Ri Hei-an."
Hong Si-jun had planned for every contingency beyond sealing the gate on his own.
If sealing with current forces, as a means to catch a fleeing Ri Hei-an—or if variables arose, a way to cover the rear.
That's why he'd chosen escape as the final option.
Ri Hei-an would ultimately be caught or killed, but they had to minimize SSS-rank hunter losses in the process.
But Im Hye-ji refused.
"No. Hunter-nim."
She switched channels, turning on her mic for all to hear.
An emergency.
Her authority granted only in that precise moment.
"Hong Si-jun Hunter-nim, Gye Yeon-su Hunter-nim... and all remaining hunters. Everyone, please die. Trust me."
The most absurd, dramatic line I'd ever heard in my life.