Chapter 171: Heuksan
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171: Heuksan
7
A dark space, devoid of any light.
Rocks drifted here and there as if gravity had gone haywire.
Step, step—
In this place, reminiscent of outer space, a mane of long, white hair—a stark contrast to the darkness—swayed for a moment.
Simultaneously, a pair of red eyes fixed on a point in the void.
Crack!
In that instant, red lightning sparked in her grip.
Clutching the bolt as if it were a spear, she thrust it forward.
Crackle-crackle!
“Guuuuuuuuung!”
The moment the torrent of lightning pierced the pitch-black space, a violent roar echoed out.
It was the agonized cry of a living creature. A colossal angler-beast of absurd proportions was thrashing about.
The creature, having hidden itself in the darkness, had been caught while slowly approaching to devour Baeksan.
But it wasn't the only one targeting her.
The moment the angler-beast screamed, human-sized parasites that had been clinging to its underside rained down toward Baeksan.
Watching the parasites fly at her, their shimmering, writhing legs on full display, Baeksan immediately gripped Bazra and sliced through them.
In an instant, after cutting down thousands of parasites, Baeksan kicked off a stone platform.
She landed atop the head of the angler-beast, which was still writhing in pain, and immediately swung her sword down.
Sizzle—!
With a shower of red sparks, the angler-beast split apart and plummeted into the darkness below.
Watching it fall, Baeksan landed on another rock and let out a long breath.
‘This is peaceful.’
She had fought hundreds of battles since entering the Tower of Revelation, yet Baeksan felt a sense of peace.
It was because she hadn't felt at ease a single time since her return.
The Earth she had come back to, after leaving that hellish world, was vastly different from the one she remembered.
That was only natural.
A great deal of time had passed between her dimensional displacement and her return.
Of course, some things hadn't changed.
Her stepmother and father, whom she was reunited with after so long, were a little older but otherwise the same.
And the stepsister her stepmother had always talked about was kind to her as well.
But while they may not have changed, she had.
A deep-seated distrust of humanity had taken root in her heart.
Too many betrayals, an environment where no one could be trusted—those conditions had made her this way.
Baeksan’s distrust had reached an incurable state, to the point where she constantly suspected even her own family, who showed her nothing but deep affection.
She was thoroughly convinced that one could never know a person’s true intentions, not even in death.
That was why, even after returning to the embrace of her family, Baeksan had felt a persistent, subtle discomfort.
And the primary source of that discomfort was none other than that man, Kang Ha-chan.
A man who possessed the same aura as her, who could wield Bazra, and who had the skill to point out her flaws.
Furthermore, he was entangled with an array of extraordinary individuals that was simply beyond comprehension.
During her time by Kang Ha-chan’s side, Baeksan had met many of the people he introduced as his acquaintances.
One was a monster who called herself the Strongest Under Heaven.
Befitting her title of Heavenly Demon, she possessed an absurd amount of power, visible at a single glance. She was a greater monster than any of the Six Evils.
Another was a returnee who seemed to have been devoured by shadow.
The depths of his being, woven from shadow, were so profound that nothing could be seen within.
Then there was the strange child who made one feel as if they were looking at the cosmos.
Meeting her eyes felt like being surrounded by stars, yet the death that lurked within her was enough to suffocate anyone who looked too closely.
There was also a little girl around whom space itself seemed to bend.
It was as if she were beloved by the god of space; all of creation seemed to warp around her.
Besides them, countless other such figures surrounded Kang Ha-chan.
The problem was that, despite being surrounded by such powerful beings who should have warranted suspicion, Kang Ha-chan showed not a hint of it.
All that could be seen in his eyes was trust.
And, unbelievably, those same eyes were directed at her.
The boundless trust he aimed at her was something she simply could not understand.
On top of that, he was unnervingly perceptive about her.
Whenever she thought she needed something or felt a craving for a particular food, he would pop up out of nowhere and provide it.
Once, she had confronted him out of sheer embarrassment, but since they were things she needed, she ended up meekly accepting them.
Of course, she was suspicious even as she took them, but nothing he gave her was ever capable of causing her harm.
‘What in the world is he?’
To Baeksan, Kang Ha-chan was a truly bizarre human being.
At first, she thought he had some ulterior motive, that he was merely acting the part of a saint.
After all, madmen who helped others unconditionally usually had something to hide.
But that was only if it happened once or twice.
In the few short days since her return, Kang Ha-chan had demonstrated an endless stream of incomprehensible actions.
The man was a genuine madman.
His tendency to help others, as if blinded by something, to the point of setting himself on fire for their sake, was enough to sicken even her.
No matter how much the distrustful Baeksan tried to suspect him, she could not fathom the value or meaning behind his actions.
That was why Kang Ha-chan made her uncomfortable.
He was a person who defied her common sense.
It was only natural to feel uneasy.
And so, the place Baeksan chose was the Tower of Revelation.
Inside here, she could be alone.
And if she was alone, she wouldn't have to suspect anyone. Nothing could be more peaceful than this.
Baeksan’s gaze turned toward the dark space.
For a moment, various people flashed through her mind.
Laughing one day, stabbing you with a knife the next.
A world where you could only trust yourself.
Briefly recalling that hellish world, she seemed to compare it to Kang Ha-chan and this world, then lowered her head.
‘And yet.’
She began to leap from rock to rock again, ascending.
With her superior physical abilities and aura, the floating stones were no obstacle.
Dimensional entities attacked her from time to time, but to her, they were nothing.
As she passed between the rocks, she soon stopped at a certain point.
As she approached, she saw an unnaturally distorted space.
When Baeksan stepped inside, she saw a man, barely breathing in a corner between the rocks.
He appeared to be gravely injured. He was struggling to catch his breath when he finally noticed Baeksan and smiled in relief.
“You’re here.”
“You’re lucky to still be breathing.”
“I’m a pretty tenacious guy.”
Baeksan clicked her tongue at him, then sat down on the ground and began to butcher the fish-like dimensional creature she had brought.
She then tossed a piece of it to the man.
“It’s probably not poisonous. Eat.”
“I’m in your debt.”
He said, pressing down on his bandaged wound as he chewed the fish meat Baeksan had thrown him.
It was raw, but for him, nutritional intake was the priority for recovery. He had no other choice.
Wolfgang Vegas.
A bushy beard, wrinkles, and a bald head symbolized his age.
He was none other than an S-rank hunter from Alterz.
So why was he here now?
It was due to a small whim of Baeksan’s.
While climbing to the 10th floor, Baeksan had noticed the signs of a battle.
Of course, it was someone else’s problem, so she hadn't paid it any mind. But while ascending, she found Wolfgang collapsed in a corner here on the 23rd floor.
Normally, Baeksan’s personality would have dictated that she ignore him and leave him be.
But what was this whim?
The moment she saw him, Kang Ha-chan’s face had, for a brief moment, flashed in her mind.
The thought of that man, who would do such a seemingly meaningless thing without a second thought, made her feet feel heavy.
In the end, annoyed, Baeksan had treated Vegas just to shake off the nagging thought.
‘What the hell am I doing?’
She had come to the Tower of Revelation to be alone, yet here she was, saving some straggler.
Not only that, she was waiting for him to recover.
Even she had to admit she was doing something stupid. Baeksan swept her bangs from her forehead.
Had she changed somehow in that short time?
“You said your name was Baeksan.”
“Yeah.”
“I didn't get a chance to ask, but… are you a returnee?”
“So what if I am?”
Hearing Baeksan’s blunt reply, Vegas, who seemed a bit more comfortable after eating, leaned his back against the rock wall.
“I knew it. It wouldn’t make sense for you to be this strong if you weren’t a returnee. Cough.”
He coughed, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand, and looked up.
“Are you planning to challenge the Tower of Revelation?”
Challenge. Hearing that word, Baeksan looked up at him.
“From what I can see, it doesn't look like you came here to challenge it.”
“And how would you know that?”
When Baeksan shot back irritably, Vegas let out a dry laugh.
“I’ve been the resident old-timer on the 10th floor for decades. I can pretty much tell.”
“Why would you do something so pointless?”
“To stop those who try to climb the tower and kill themselves out of mere ambition.”
As he said this, Vegas coughed again and swallowed a bitter laugh.
“A hunter who climbs the Tower of Revelation can become a global star. Because of that, there used to be quite a few companies that would force their hunters into the Tower. To a nation or a company, the image of challenging the Tower was like raising their national prestige.”
Things have improved a lot recently, but there are still developing nations where hunters are treated horribly.
The world is not equal.
Thus, there were not a few hunters who were used like weapons, like slaves.
Alterz was originally founded to help such hunters.
The higher a hunter’s rank, the more national restrictions and other strings were attached to them.
“These days, I’ve ended up being treated like an old geezer who blocks the challenges of the youth. But the history of the Tower of Revelation was written in the blood of hunters. That’s why I guarded that spot. My message was, if you can’t even beat me, don’t even try.”
“What a waste of time.”
“I can’t deny it. My body may be old, but my mind is still living in the past. On the 10th floor, where my son died… I’m surely still trapped in that past.”
As he smiled forlornly, his eyes seemed to recall his son, who had challenged the Tower long ago.
His son was also a part of that history written in blood.
“So, from my perspective, it looks to me like you’ve run away.”
“You think I’m running away?”
“It happens sometimes among returnees. They finally come back, but they can’t adapt, so they enter the Tower of Revelation as a form of escape.”
The more extreme the environment of the dimension they were caught in, the harder it was for a returnee to adapt to a peaceful Earth.
“You give off that exact impression. Like you’re using the Tower of Revelation as a refuge.”
“You talk a lot for a guy who’s about to die.”
“Haha, since I’m about to die, I have to talk, don’t I? It’s the only way to hold onto my consciousness.”
Baeksan clicked her tongue and turned her head away.
In her eyes, while his skills were pathetic, his insight was unnervingly accurate.