Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Ruined World (2)
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The endless forest finally came to an end. But nothing had changed. The same barren, desolate world stretched out to the horizon.
"......"
Well, facing the thick wind was still a thousand times better than breathing in that rotten stench.
It was a bit heavy, sure, but it felt alive, not dead.
Whoooo...
Lee Sang-hyun paused for a moment. He squinted, peering into the distance.
Something was there.
'...A lake?'
It was too far for his senses to reach, so he couldn't be sure. But it looked like a lake.
A pitch-black lake.
Lee Sang-hyun looked up at the sky.
'The stars...'
A green star twinkled through the swiftly drifting ash-gray clouds. Right above the lake.
Lee Sang-hyun bolted toward it. The parched, cracked ground tried to hinder him, but it was no obstacle. He vaulted over it effortlessly at full speed.
As he drew closer to the lake, his heart suddenly began to pound.
Thump...! Thump...!
It raced like he was rushing to meet an old friend. The excitement was hard to contain. It boiled up fiercely.
'This is...!'
There was definitely something in that lake. Something different from ash, dust, and soot.
Clutching a near-certainty, Lee Sang-hyun charged ahead. He arrived at the lake.
It wasn't a transparent lake reflecting the night sky. It was a viscous swamp brimming with filth so revolting it hurt to look at.
"......"
Should he call this a pit of malice? Or a corrupted lake?
It was a landscape that could only come from someone pouring black sludge into it with insane malice.
'...Foul.'
Lee Sang-hyun grimaced at the malice-soaked vista and the nose-stinging stench, clamping his mouth shut.
The thrill of reuniting with an old friend had vanished. In its place was only bitterness.
'...Nothing here.'
He abandoned any hope of finding something. Not even a shred of it remained.
Honestly, all he felt was despair. He couldn't imagine anything surviving there.
'...Let's go somewhere else.'
The moment he turned to leave.
Bwoooosh... A waterspout erupted from far across the lake. Blinking hard, he saw a massive something spewing filth through a hole.
"That's...!"
It was unfamiliar to Lee Sang-hyun.
But the Water's Origin from Tethys remembered it. It had never forgotten, always hoping to meet again.
Thump...! Thump...!!
That's why he remembered. What it was, why it was buried in filth, why it cried out.
"Ra...el...!"
The whale's name, buried in the dirty sludge, was Rael.
Tethys's son, Rael.
Bwoooosh...
The last guardian of the blue sea, who had tried to purify the rotting ocean.
"Rael..."
As one might expect, Rael's wish ended in failure amid the demons' mockery and scorn.
And even in death, he found no rest, subjected to utter desecration.
The demons bound Rael's soul to his decaying body and dumped him into the sludge lake.
A sludge lake thick with blood, ash, rage, sorrow, resentment, and jealousy.
The dead Rael, unaware, kept trying his best to purify the polluted sea—the sludge lake.
Bwoooosh...
If he could restore its blue light, his body breaking didn't matter. Sacrificing centuries was no loss. So he purified endlessly... endlessly.
In eternal darkness.
Trapped in inescapable sludge.
"......"
Lee Sang-hyun fully witnessed and felt the memories and emotions of Tethys embedded in the Water's Origin.
Thump... Thump...
The heart's feelings were joy at the reunion, fury at the demons, and guilt.
Guilt toward her son, swimming eternally in an unpurifiable sludge lake without rest even in death...
Grip.
Lee Sang-hyun's chest tightened with a mother's heart. At the same time, he realized what he had to do.
'Finish what Tethys couldn't.'
Lee Sang-hyun decided to free Rael, clinging to the thread of hope in this pit of malice.
Two associations were established in South Korea.
The Hero Association and the Hunter Association.
Founded by the chosen ones, the two shared similarities but differed in nature.
If the Hero Association was a sacrificial, devoted group restoring social order for the public good,
the Hunter Association was a mercenary band prioritizing personal gain.
Of course, both strove to maintain 'social order'.
"Over here! He's hiding this way!"
"Who'd have thought he'd hide in a building."
"Buildings are nothing. One hid in a single-family home, you know?"
"Jeez. What a fuss over a goblin."
"But the pay's good."
"Let's finish quick and head back. I wanna rest."
After all, high-level 'cultural pursuits' required social order.
As new 'privileged ones', they had to protect that foundation.
So they were similar yet different.
They agreed on maintaining order, but everything else clashed.
Hunters in the Hunter Association—players who were mercenaries—thought only of their own well-being.
"Lived as bottom-feeders my whole life... You want me to keep it up? No thanks."
"Merc work covers the bills. And you get stronger without trying too hard."
"No need to bust your ass."
"No need to risk your neck, right?"
"Booze, smokes, and babes. What more do you need?"
Considering they could now indulge in luxuries they never dreamed of before being chosen, it wasn't strange.
It was the life everyone imagined from the tutorial onward.
Hunters even found players mimicking 'heroes' weirder.
"You play hero. I'll enjoy myself."
"World's changed. Why live like that? Dumb."
"That's losing out. Hell, who knows when you'll die? Enjoy while you can."
"We're the chosen. We deserve to."
"What if you die? Idiot."
"Don't be a moron. No one cares if you suffer like that."
"I'll live it up."
Heroes, conversely, pitied the hunters. They seemed like fools blind to the future.
"Idiots. This isn't the time to play. Time to grow."
"Fun can wait. Opportunities go to those who strive—especially in chaotic times like now."
"We're evenly matched now, watching each other... but that'll end soon. Only the strong survive. Build forces under the hero banner."
"Not suffering from lack of fun. Holding back for a better future."
"Ruler or slave—decided by today's efforts. I'll be the ruler."
Kang Mu-hyuk, of the Strongest 7 and the first South Korean to conquer the White Tower, acted as a 'hero'. To lay groundwork for becoming a lord.
'Society holds for now... but it'll turn to might-makes-right. I need my own force by then. One that bows to no one, not even the other Strongest 7.'
In the collectivist Hero Association over the individualist Hunter one, gaining recognition and connections would naturally build power. Obvious.
Especially with world powers flocking to Seoul's 'safe zone'.
'I'll... become a lord.'
For the future, Kang Mu-hyuk gladly played hero. The hero people needed now.
Truthfully, he had no obligation. Coldly, it was self-satisfaction, projected from his mother Tethys's illusory heart.
Thump. Thump...!
Yet Lee Sang-hyun felt he must. Not for Tethys or Rael, but for 'himself'.
He didn't know why.
It just felt right.
He had to do it for himself.
'If a guardian who purified the sea even in death vanishes meaninglessly... nothing sadder.'
Pity for Rael fueled him too.
Hooo.
Lee Sang-hyun calmed his mind and took a deep breath.
Thump. Thump.
The steady heartbeat spread through his body, gently enveloping his heart.
'Let's begin.'
Lee Sang-hyun plunged both hands into the sludge lake.
Splash.
The sludge—mixed blood, ash, rage, sorrow, resentment, jealousy—was sticky and repulsive.
Just touching it raised chills and nausea across his skin.
Shlick! Sssss...
A normal person would faint on contact. Or their flesh and bones would melt, leaving them screaming madly before collapse.
"......"
But Lee Sang-hyun showed no sign. With calm expression and mind, he gripped the foul sludge.
'Circulate and purify.'
What he attempted was utterly mad. Drawing the sludge into his body, purifying it, then expelling it.
Reckless, regardless of whether it could purify the lake.
Yet like guardian Rael, Lee Sang-hyun began circulating and purifying the sludge.
Squish. Squish squish.
Squish squish.
The sludge entered through his right hand into his body, flowing through veins to his heart.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The heart, filled with the Water's Origin, purified it. Not impossible. Stickier than rancid oil, but manageable.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The cleansed water left the heart, through veins to his left hand, back to the lake. The sludge-filled lake.
'...I can do this.'
Impossible for Rael, bound to a rotting body. But living Lee Sang-hyun could.
Whether he could purify the whole lake was questionable. This vast lake would take more than a day or two.
He might collapse from the demons' lingering malice first.
Already, his exposed hands turned bluish, veins dark blue.
'Here goes.'
Still, he didn't retreat. He closed his eyes, focusing his mind.
What lay ahead was simple. Circulate and purify the sludge. Nothing more.
Thump...! Thump...!