Chapter 350
Chapter 350
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 350
Chapter Title: Hidden Treasure Warehouse
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After getting an earful from Lee Hyuk-soo, Adora concealed her presence.
Using Wish, she ensured that no humans could perceive her.
Lee Hyuk-soo, looking baffled as if the person before him had vanished into thin air, received her polite request to take a moment to look around the area. With that, she stepped alone into the crowd.
It had been ages since she'd enjoyed uninterrupted observation.
'What a fascinating place.'
To her eyes—a witch and Creator of Death—the city of Seoul on Earth was brimming with bizarre and wondrous sights.
How did those massive metal hunks soaring through the sky manage to float?
What powered the carriages that moved on their own, belching acrid smoke?
Above all, she couldn't fathom the people burying their faces in those palm-sized black slabs, muttering to themselves or bursting into laughter and tears.
What could be inside those tiny plates to evoke such a torrent of joy, sorrow, love, and hate?
It was nothing like the Abyss, where everything followed clear laws and the brutal logic of the strong devouring the weak.
Chaotic, inefficient, and disorderly at first glance, yet within that chaos lay its own order and rules, forming a functioning society.
"Ah, I'm so damn tired..."
"...This Abyss run was tough, huh."
"We wrapped it up nicely, though. How about drinks to celebrate?"
"Hell yeah! Beer too?"
Such snippets of conversation echoed endlessly around her.
Complaints about hierarchies in their groups, plans for a quick meal of fleeting pleasure, vague anxieties about the future.
To her, they seemed utterly trivial and ephemeral, yet these people fretted and chattered about them with utmost seriousness.
In her world, where survival and death were the only absolute values, such scenes were unimaginable.
She was particularly drawn to their facial expressions—the ever-shifting flow of emotions.
The emotions displayed by Abyss dwellers were mostly raw and primal: fear, rage, greed, hatred.
But the humans here were different.
Disappointment and relief from relationships with others, fleeting desires for material things, pride and affection toward kin.
These emotions shifted by the moment—sometimes childish, often unpredictable, and so richly varied they defied comprehension.
Perhaps such easily swayed and fragile feelings were the hallmark of human weakness, she mused.
Yet at the same time, she wondered if that very diversity enriched their lives, driving them forward.
It was as she crossed the park.
She paused, drawn by the sound of a child chattering happily while clutching their parent's hand on a bench.
The child giggled delightedly, as if discovering something amusing, clinging to their parent. The parent gazed down with eyes full of boundless warmth and love, gently stroking the child's head.
"Be careful! Always hold Mommy's hand when crossing the street!"
"Yesss!"
"You have to stick right by Mommy's side. You never know when an Abyss might pop up."
"Got it, Mom."
The child's innocent reply, the parent's worried tone.
The deep bond flowing between them.
Adora watched the scene for a long while.
It was an emotion she had never experienced, one incomprehensible to her as a witch and Creator of Death.
The shackles of blood ties, the blind protective instinct and love toward the weak.
By the laws of the Abyss, where death and destruction were everyday norms, it was utterly irrational and inefficient.
'But...'
For some reason, she couldn't tear her eyes away.
This was a world where the absolute terror and threat of the Abyss loomed right outside the door.
Even in this precarious reality, where everything could crumble into destruction and death at any moment, they cherished and loved one another, clinging to their daily lives.
A fleeting thought crossed her mind: perhaps that fragile bond was the primal force allowing humanity to endure amid despair, carrying civilization onward.
'Is this... the world Park Chan-woo fought to protect?'
Why had he staked everything on this chaotic, fragile, contradictory place?
Adora still couldn't fully grasp it, but she felt she understood just a little.
There was something here absent from the Abyss—something she had never possessed.
A warmth born from life itself, unpredictable exchanges of emotion, a vague yet tenacious hope for the future.
She resumed walking.
As she entered the bustling downtown, even more diverse sounds and sights greeted her.
Drawn by the fragrant yet bitter aroma wafting from a place with an unfamiliar sign reading "Cafe," she stepped inside.
"Two tall iced Americanos to go, and one cheesecake packed up."
Numerous people sat at tables, lost in their own conversations.
The world had turned into a madhouse, but daily life hadn't changed much yet.
People still had to live, and Korea was relatively free from the influence of the "Creation Abyss."
She glanced around briefly and spotted a glass of black liquid on a table, its owner apparently away—perhaps in the restroom.
It carried that same scent from before.
She quietly picked up the glass and settled into a secluded spot by the window.
'This must be... coffee.'
She lifted the glass and took a slow sip.
A sharp bitterness she had never tasted before, paired with a jolt that cleared her mind like a flash.
Not exactly pleasant, but strangely not bad either.
She quietly gazed out the window at the bustling crowds and listened to the laughter and chatter filling the cafe.
"Come on, set me up on a blind date already?"
"Yeah. Who knows when we'll kick the bucket? A blind date's nothing."
"Still, the Abyss erosions seem fewer lately, right?"
"Creators' whims don't last a day or two. Could ramp up again anytime."
To her, who stood closest to death itself, this world of trivial daily chatter and vibrant mortals remained a endlessly curious spectacle.
The world Park Chan-woo had risked his life to protect—she was coming to understand it, bit by bit, in her own way.
After all, this was her first time strolling openly on Earth.
...She had been terribly curious.
About Park Chan-woo the man.
Who he was, the path he walked, how he lived.
Why he made choices so resolute yet sometimes recklessly incomprehensible.
Why he extended a hand to a witch like her, even opening the path to becoming a Creator.
What hope he had seen in a world brimming with death and destruction.
She was just so curious.
The throngs visible through the cafe window, their mundane conversations and expressions.
They offered glimpses of the world Park Chan-woo inhabited, but did nothing to quench her thirst for the man himself.
Had he been one of these ordinary folk?
Or exceptional from the start?
Adora took another sip of the bitter coffee.
Like this dark, enigmatic liquid, Park Chan-woo remained an unknown realm to her, beyond full comprehension.
She had gleaned fragments of his power, knowledge, and memories indirectly through Lee Hyuk-soo, but it wasn't enough.
'I need to find the traces he left behind.'
Not just skimming the surface of the world he lived in, but seeing and feeling the places he had tread, the things he had touched.
Only then could she hope to understand him, even a little more.
But where to begin?
There was scant information on Park Chan-woo's "original life" on Earth.
Adora sought out Lee Hyuk-soo again.
"Park Chan-woo. Hand over everything you know about him. Everything from his time on Earth."
Lee Hyuk-soo had returned to the Abyss Safety Bureau.
He looked incredibly busy, preparing for what lay ahead.
"...Fine. But be back by tomorrow evening."
Lee Hyuk-soo handed Adora a thick file folder containing all the information he had gathered on the man known as Park Chan-woo.
"I shall."
Adora accepted the file folder from Lee Hyuk-soo.
It was a fairly thick stack of papers.
Records on the individual named Park Chan-woo that he had compiled over time.
Without a word, she nodded, then used Wish once more to erase her presence completely and slipped out of the Abyss Safety Bureau building.
The sun was setting, and the city's lights were flickering on one by one.
She left the crowded streets behind, heading to the rooftop of a quiet high-rise where few people ventured.
A chill night breeze tugged at her clothes, but it stirred nothing in the Witch of Death.
Leaning against the rooftop railing, she opened the file folder from Lee Hyuk-soo.
'Initial awakening location, major presumed movements...'
Adora scanned through the pages at a rapid pace.
Most of it was information she already knew or had guessed.
It merely reaffirmed how extraordinarily powerful Park Chan-woo had been.
But the answers to what she truly wanted to know were nowhere to be found.
'As expected... this isn't enough.'
The file chronicled Park Chan-woo as a hero or transcendent being.
What intrigued her was the "human" behind the mask.
How he had lived in this vibrant, chaotic world—what emotions he felt, what had forged him into the Park Chan-woo she knew.
Nearing the end of the file, she spotted something intriguing in the records just before the Tower of Arrogance incident.
It was a situation report on regional representatives recruiting climbers for the Tower of Arrogance ascent.
「...Joined residents of Happiness Apartment Building 105 en route...」
「...Upon arrival at target point, confirmed joining of young man in Unit 505 (Park Chan-woo)...」
'Happiness Apartment, Building 105, Unit 505.'
Adora's eyes lingered on a specific record as she flipped quickly through the file.
At last, a concrete address.
The place where Park Chan-woo had stayed right up until departing for the Tower of Arrogance.
She pointed it out to Lee Hyuk-soo, who was bustling about sorting documents nearby.
"This place. Do you know anything about it?"
Lee Hyuk-soo glanced at the indicated record, furrowed his brow, and shook his head.
"Happiness Apartment, Building 105, Unit 505. Ah, that spot."
His tone held no particular anticipation.
"There's nothing there. We've checked it multiple times ourselves, but nothing significant..."
After Park Chan-woo's disappearance, he had naturally investigated the last residence on his trail.
But it had been empty—no clues to his power or whereabouts.
"Significant?"
Adora echoed.
"That's not what I'm after."
She closed the file folder.
Lee Hyuk-soo's idea of "significant" was likely powerful artifacts or hidden intel.
But Adora sought something else.
She wanted to know Park Chan-woo the man himself.
The space he breathed in, the items he kept close, the thoughts that crossed his mind.
Those seemingly "insignificant" traces of daily life were the most vital clues to her.
"I'll return by tomorrow, as promised."
Adora pressed on, undeterred by Lee Hyuk-soo's pessimism.
"...Got it. Be careful."
Who needed to be careful was debatable.
He could only hope she wouldn't cause any trouble.
Knowing he couldn't sway her stubbornness, Lee Hyuk-soo didn't press further.
Adora erased her presence with Wish again and left the Abyss Safety Bureau.
In the twilight cityscape, her steps led unhesitatingly toward Happiness Apartment, Building 105.
Following the given location, she searched and finally arrived.
'This is it.'
Happiness Apartment, Building 105, Unit 505.
Standing before the steel door of the rundown hallway-style apartment, Adora caught her breath for a moment.
The door itself looked ordinary, but her senses detected layers of alien energies beyond it, marking the space as far from a simple dwelling.
'Ataraxia's magical barrier.'
First to register was the familiar draconic mana.
The signature illusionary barrier of the Despair Dragon Ataraxia, one that deceived space itself.
Beyond mere concealment or visions, it overlaid a phantom space atop reality, disorienting intruders' sense of direction and perception—a high-level spell.
Park Chan-woo must have asked Ataraxia to ward the place before leaving.
But that wasn't all.
'...Not just illusions.'
Adora narrowed her eyes, peering beyond the door.
Deeper within Ataraxia's barrier coiled even more intricate and malevolent magics.
Like the entrance to a fortress or a secretive mage's tower.
What had Park Chan-woo hidden in this mundane space?
Or had he simply been paranoid about intruders during his absence?
Adora pondered briefly, then shook her head.
She'd know once inside.
Reasons could wait.
She began dispelling the barriers.
Shrr.
First, she reached toward Ataraxia's illusionary barrier.
Channeling her deathly authority with precision, the draconic mana twisting space unraveled like a loosening thread.
Dispelling the remaining barriers took over half a day.
'Magic beyond what humans could unravel.'
Even the demon merchant Dagon or Ataraxia would struggle with this array.
Park Chan-woo's "home" was fortified to perfection.
But she was Adora.
Click.
With all barriers undone, Adora grasped the doorknob and quietly opened the door.
At last, the final remnant of Park Chan-woo's daily life.
The interior of Happiness Apartment, Building 105, Unit 505 lay revealed before her.
And.
"Why are these...?"
Adora couldn't help but be stunned.
The World Tree Staff, Arahan's Golden Mystery, the Star of Arrogance, Ragnarok...
Every piece of gear Park Chan-woo had worn—save the Baal Set—was here.