Chapter 116
Chapter 116
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Temptations in the Dark
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Sangheon, are you okay?”
“Huh? Me? I’m fine.”
Sangheon smiled and said he was fine, but in this state, he looked so pale in the face and skin that he’d get friendly fire mistaken for an undead if he entered a gate. His body, once covered in muscle, had lost both fat and muscle, shrinking to half its size.
“What did Gaf say to make you like this?”
“Gaf? Nothing. I just helped out a little.”
“Helped? With what?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Sangheon…”
“Hyung.”
Sangheon looked straight at me. His complexion was bad, and his body was wrecked, but his eyes were clearer than ever, filled with a strong will.
“You know I’m a hunter too, right?”
“I know.”
“Then trust me and wait.”
“Got it. Sorry.”
With that, I went around looking for Gaf. People greeted me, but I wasn’t in the mood to respond.
“Gaf! What the hell did you do?!”
I grabbed Gaf by the collar and yanked him up.
“Huh? I didn’t do anything?”
Even dangling from my grip, he looked down at me as if it were nothing.
“And anyway, I can’t show hostility first.”
Boom!
Some kind of force crushed down on me, loosening my hand, and Gaf pulled back, creating distance. It was the same type of ability I’d felt from Eres.
“Ugh…”
My knees buckled.
“You… endure this?”
Gaf floated in the air, surprised that I was holding out. Maybe because I’d endured it from Eres for days on end, I could resist a bit now.
“What did you do to Nayoung and Sangheon?!”
I pushed back against the crushing pressure and took a step toward Gaf, reaching out my hand.
“I’ll say it again: I didn’t do anything bad. I just listened to their stories and helped a little.”
“You’re not supposed to make deals with devils…”
“That’s racial discrimination, isn’t it? That hurts. Anyway, stop taking it out on a harmless devil and go do your training. You’ve got to block those heaven folks coming soon, right?”
Gaf cackled as he flew off, and the pressure on me vanished.
Damn it, he was right. The angels were the urgent priority right now. I was worried about Nayoung and Sangheon, but all I could do was trust them and wait.
* * *
I got up early and started my usual routine.
I warmed up lightly on the electromagnet with dozens of tons of weight loaded on.
I washed my filthy body and had a simple meal. Normally, I’d eat breakfast with Nayoung or Sangheon, but since they kept avoiding me, I just sat at any table in the cafeteria and ate.
People from the academy and hospital came by to chat.
After that, I checked on the academy and hospital. The hospital’s construction was already complete, and they were continuously adding equipment and staff.
The academy’s main campus construction was finished too. But more hunters than expected were flooding in from home and abroad, so they were building on additional land to expand.
“Jiseok~”
Adriana waved at me and came over.
“Adriana.”
“Why do you look so worn out lately?”
Adriana kneaded my shoulders, deliberately pressing her chest against me.
“The angels are coming. Gotta prepare.”
Monsters coming out of gates, the next legion commander who knows when, plus angels, and now even devils to worry about. My strength was growing, but the enemies were multiplying even faster.
“Oh my, look at that tension in your shoulders. I’ll loosen them up.”
It was blatant contact, but I didn’t have the energy to enjoy it or find it annoying.
“I’m fine. That’s enough now…”
I was about to say it was okay when.
“I can do that.”
Nayoung approached, her eyes hollowed out underneath, and gripped Adriana’s hand tightly.
Nayoung, who had above-average strength even among magic users, squeezed her wrist, making Adriana pull away.
“Ow ow, if a girl’s too rough…”
Nayoung glared daggers at Adriana.
“See you next time~”
Adriana deftly avoided Nayoung’s gaze and left.
“Oppa, I worked hard.”
“Huh? On what?”
“Now even if the angels come down, no need to worry.”
Behind Nayoung stood Jaein, whose eyes were twice as hollow as hers.
“Take Nayoung unnie… please, Chairman…”
Jaein collapsed onto the floor.
“What did you two do?”
“It took time making and testing this item.”
Nayoung tapped the tiara on her head and the staff I’d never seen before.
They were glossy black and shone with light. The design was beautifully simple, without any garish decorations.
“With so many angels, mental interference could’ve been dangerous for me. I covered it with these new items I developed and trained to strengthen my mental barrier further. Calculations say even the angels from last time couldn’t break through, no matter how many there are.”
Nayoung showed me a notebook crammed with writing. Nayoung’s usual notes were as neat as printouts, but these were scribbled down at breakneck speed, almost like doodles.
“We calculated it together, so it should be right.”
Jaein chimed in.
“No, it’s not that I don’t believe you—I just can’t make sense of it.”
“Oh… Anyway, I’m going to sleep now.”
Among us, Jaein was probably the busiest. He was developing cores using dragon hearts, new regen items, and researching the angels’ magic circles. Even in the middle of all that, he’d been helping Nayoung with her item development.
“Is this why you were avoiding me?”
“Avoiding? No? I was just busy thinking about this.”
I’d talked to her multiple times, but she’d given half-hearted replies. When I suggested eating or walking together, she said she was busy. Turns out she was just mentally preoccupied.
If I’d calmly read her expression, this wouldn’t have happened. It was my mistake—getting emotional clouded my judgment because she’s close to me.
“I thought you made a deal with Gaf.”
“With Gaf? No way. Who openly contracts with a devil unless they’re an idiot?”
“Right?”
I felt relieved. But… why did hearing that make me more uneasy about Sangheon?
* * *
Korea has about fifty A-Rank Hunters. The number changes often with deaths and new promotions.
Fifty out of forty million people. Recently, our territory expanded north, pushing the population over double, but the number of A-Rank Hunters didn’t double.
Even if we say a hundred out of nearly a hundred million, that’s still top one-in-a-million talent.
But there are too many monsters around. Hyung Jiseok is an S-Rank Hunter in the world rankings, and Nayoung noona is top-tier among S-Ranks in battles against multiple opponents.
Jaein hyung is churning out new items nonstop to make Regen the world’s best item company.
Changhee doesn’t have standout skills, but with his insane focus, he handles Jaein hyung’s large sniper rifles that others can’t. He’s growing like a storm, so A-Rank isn’t far off.
We’re clearly one-in-a-million talents, but everyone around me is advancing so much that I feel utterly pathetic.
“So, can I even help Jiseok like this?”
Gaf spoke to me from the darkness enveloping me. It sharply poked at what I’d been thinking, so I couldn’t ignore it.
“Urk…”
Consumed by darkness, I collapsed to the floor, then rose again using the World Tree’s power—over and over.
“Tough, huh? I guess I said something unnecessary. I thought you had it in you. Just give up. Jiseok will handle it alone. He always does, right?”
Gaf spoke pityingly to me as I lay there exhausted. To my ragged body and mind, it was a sweet temptation.
“Give up… No way… Again…”
I braced my knee and barely stood. Every ounce of energy had been drained, making me feel like an undead.
“Yeah. Keep at it.”
Beyond the spreading darkness, I could see Gaf grinning ear to ear. What’s that guy’s goal? What does he gain from tormenting me?
More importantly, I had to push back the darkness with light right now.
“Light Sword!”
I wrapped my sword in light. Before, it would’ve been swallowed instantly, but now the darkness receded. But only a tiny bit, just an inch around the sword. The darkness consumed the rest of my body—face first, then back, torso, feet—draining the life from them, turning them gray.
Stronger. Brighter. I wished for more power.
‘Give up.’
Gaf? A hallucination? Or just my own desire to quit manifesting as sound?
My senses were going haywire; I couldn’t tell real from fake.
‘Why bother trying so hard? Let others handle it and just fight the easy ones.’
‘Jiseok doesn’t even care about you, does he? He only cares about Nayoung, Jaein, Yesul.’
‘Your abilities are worthless. It won’t work anyway.’
The thoughts I usually had were amplified and twisted, echoing in my head.
Even focusing wasn’t enough; the stray thoughts and hallucinations weakened the Light Sword’s glow.
I wasn’t ungrateful toward hyung. But gratitude overwhelmingly outweighed any resentment.
He saved me when I nearly died to Choi Miran.
Hwagok Cleanup, which Dad ran, was in the red until hyung came. Now Dad’s president of a major company called Regen. The original members who suffered with Dad at Hwagok are all treated well at Regen now.
Without hyung, I’d have stayed F-Rank forever. He squeezed time from his busy schedule to train me. The training was brutal, but it got me to A-Rank.
I recalled the harsh trainings hyung put me through.
To sharpen Light Sword, I took hits relentlessly. I collapsed to the floor hundreds of times. Once, I was poisoned and rushed to the ER.
He’d thrown me into a gate and told me to survive on my own.
Blinded me, tossed me amid dozens of monsters, then ate snacks with Nayoung noona.
Thinking back, I went through a lot.
Yeah… I have to repay it. What I received.
“I’ll hit you… with light attributes. Until you build immunity, hyung.”
I gritted my teeth and gradually intensified the Light Sword’s light.
* * *
“Damn it!”
Takashi, from the special committee given a month by the prime minister, slammed the failed experiment results onto the floor.
“How many unproven circuits are left?”
Takashi asked the lead researcher.
“About three hundred remain.”
They’d extracted all the infinite healing magic circle info from Angelus’s head. But they couldn’t theoretically prove how it produced those effects.
They couldn’t activate unknowns blindly, so they were testing and analyzing circuits bit by bit, but time was too short.
“Sigh… Tomorrow’s the day the prime minister mentioned, and three hundred are still left…”
Silence fell over the lab.
“We’ll activate the magic circle tomorrow. Prepare.”
Takashi took off his glasses, as if resolved.
“B-but, we haven’t verified the design yet. We don’t know what’ll happen.”
Worst case, instead of granting life force, it could become a black hole sucking infinite life force.
It was completely uncharted territory—a single mistake could invite disaster home.
“How long to analyze the remaining three hundred at this rate?”
“At this pace, at least four more months…”
They were pulling all-nighters, but the info extracted from the angel’s head was overwhelmingly vast.
“We proceed as scheduled tomorrow.”
“But…”
“Do you want to die?”
Takashi glared at the researchers.