Chapter 28: The Crisis Begins
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 28: The Crisis Begins
He was staring straight at us.
As if he could see our exact location.
“That’s…”
“The man who was with her.”
There was nothing in his hands.
Is he a magic-user? Or a martial artist?
He could also be an ability user.
Catherine narrowed her eyes.
She wasn’t a sensory type, and besides, there were so many unique cases among returnees that it was difficult to tell.
“What should we do?”
“It seems he knows our location. I wonder what he’s thinking…”
He trailed off, then suddenly scowled.
As if something was wrong.
“Kaito?”
“Such a pathetic trick.”
He pushed up his black glasses, looking slightly annoyed.
His spatial sense was being thrown into disarray.
Kaito’s spatial sense was exceptional, even among other spatial ability users.
Because he was blind, his sense of space was far more developed than that of an ordinary teleporter.
It was what made him one of the most powerful spatial ability users in the world.
For that reason, he had never bothered to have his eyes fixed, even though he could.
To him, being blind was not a weakness, but a strength.
In fact, thanks to this spatial sense, he had easily discerned that Ha Si-ho was diverting her power elsewhere.
But what if that very sense was disrupted?
Spatial sense was incredibly delicate.
If such a sensitive faculty were to be distorted, his spatial abilities would naturally become useless for a time.
But Kaito was a returnee.
A veteran who had crossed the line between life and death countless times.
This wasn't the first time he had encountered an enemy who targeted his spatial sense.
Naturally, he had developed countermeasures long ago.
The problem, however, was that his opponent was Ha Si-ho.
An S-rank hunter with the absurd talent to interfere with parallel worlds.
She was a once-in-a-millennium prodigy in the field of spatial abilities.
In his eyes, if Ha Si-ho continued to grow at this rate…
He was certain she would become one of the most prominent S-rank hunters on Earth.
So what would happen if she decided to throw the entire surrounding space into chaos?
Even if she was diverting her power elsewhere, it would still take Kaito some time to respond.
‘But if she does this, her own senses will be just as scrambled as mine.’
Was she trying to create an opening to escape by disrupting my spatial sense?
But the trap had been laid over a wide area.
Even if our spatial senses were scrambled now, the trap wouldn't disappear.
And it was doubtful they had even detected the trap in the first place.
‘Wait.’
In that moment, he recalled the man Catherine had mentioned.
The man on the beach, staring up at them.
“Catherine! It’s a trap!”
The moment the thought struck him, Kaito shouted.
He’d been had.
He was the only spatial ability user on their side.
If their spatial senses were disrupted, not only would they be unable to pinpoint each other’s locations…
The biggest problem was that teleportation, which relied on that sense, would be blocked.
He was blind.
He couldn't teleport by sight like ordinary spatial users.
Therefore, he needed time to restore the spatial sense that Ha Si-ho had scrambled.
And his opponent was aiming for that window of time.
The moment his teleportation was sealed.
That man intended to attack them once they had lost their mobility.
The man was confirming their location in place of Ha Si-ho, whose own senses would be in disarray, just in case they tried to flee.
‘He plans to intercept us the moment our teleportation is blocked!’
They were trying to take away his mobility and force a direct confrontation.
And that meant the man was confident in his skills.
Otherwise, he would have to be insane to reveal himself so openly.
“Kaito.”
“Catherine, we have to strike first. In a few seconds, my teleportation will be useless. Can you do it?”
As Kaito asked, gritting his teeth, sparks began to fly around Catherine.
“Anytime.”
“I’ll move you right next to the man. You have to take him out in a single, decisive blow.”
Catherine’s eyes flashed, glowing a brilliant blue as sparks danced within them.
Seeing this, Kaito took a sharp breath and immediately activated his teleportation.
Fwoosh!
The two of them vanished from the sky and reappeared right beside the man.
As if he hadn't noticed their movement, the man's gaze was still fixed on the sky.
One breath.
This ends in a single breath.
Catherine, having moved with Kaito, drew her leg back.
Her fist stopped perfectly at her waist.
The lightning that surged from the heart of a lightning dragon condensed in her fist, momentarily glowing with a pure white light.
Just as the man in the glasses slowly turned his gaze toward them…
Her fist had already been thrown.
The breath of the lightning dragon swallowed the man whole.
The surging lightning blast tore through the area, creating a storm that shook the surrounding trees violently.
And within that chaos, Catherine’s eyes slowly began to narrow.
Because the man who had taken her Lightning Dragon Fist was, for some reason, still standing there, completely unharmed.
“This is…”
An illusion.
An afterimage created by refracting space.
Catherine felt that something was terribly wrong.
It definitely hadn't been an illusion when she looked just a moment ago.
So when did it change?
Catherine’s gaze snapped backward.
The instant her eyes turned, she saw two figures in the forest.
Two people, looking directly at her and Kaito.
They were the target, Ha Si-ho, and a third party they hadn't known about—Kang Ha-chan.
In that final moment, as Kaito teleported…
Did she move the man away and create an illusion to match that timing?
‘To do something so risky, so brazenly.’
Only now, seeing him with her own two eyes, did she understand.
He was an ordinary person.
Did a mere civilian volunteer to be bait when his life could have been snuffed out in an instant?
There’s a limit to being fearless.
And they had been wasting their efforts on a civilian.
A bit of luck.
A moment of carelessness.
The urgency of the situation.
A lack of information.
All four were uncertain variables.
But the moment those four were met with a single act of audacity…
It had led to this result.
‘Kaito was right.’
They’d been had.
Two returnees who had survived another world and clawed their way back to Earth, tricked by a half-rate hunter who could only muster the output of an A-rank and a civilian.
As that thought crossed their minds, Catherine and Kaito could only watch as Si-ho brought her hands together.
*
Flash!
Watching the two returnees get blown away by Si-ho’s teleportation, I quickly turned to look at her.
Drip.
Just then, a stream of blood ran from her nose, and she grimaced as if struck by a wave of dizziness.
“Si-ho, are you okay?!”
“I’m fine.”
She took a short breath and wiped away the blood.
“Everything went just like you said it would, Manager.”
“We just got lucky.”
It was true.
It was a situation we could only create because luck had piled on top of luck in a hopeless scenario.
Just thinking about the punch that Russian returnee had thrown in that final moment sent a chill down my spine.
If Si-ho had been even a fraction of a second too late, my body would have been erased from this world without even leaving a scrap of flesh behind.
“I’ll teleport us right away.”
Although Si-ho had sent the two of them flying, she could only do so without physical contact to places within her line of sight.
Thus, the place she had sent them was none other than the edge of the horizon, the maximum reach of her vision.
They must have fallen into the sea by now.
But they were returnees.
They would surely get out of the water and fly back here in no time.
“What about your spatial sense?”
“I fixed it right away.”
Si-ho said it as if it were nothing and grabbed my sleeve.
Now, all we had to do was escape before they returned.
“I can’t set the coordinates, so I don’t know where we’ll end up.”
“That’s fine. I’m with you, aren’t I?”
Si-ho stared at my face for a moment, then squeezed my sleeve tightly.
“It was the right choice not to run away, wasn’t it?”
Has she been worrying about that this whole time?
Hearing her words, a smile spread across my face.
“Yes. You saved my life.”
Only then did Si-ho’s expression soften.
“Teleporting.”
And with that single word, our vision was about to change.
Until an unexpected impact exploded before our eyes.
BOOOOOM!
With the feeling of a violent collision, my body began to tumble across the ground.
Unable to comprehend what was happening, I let out a pained groan from the impacts assaulting my body from all sides.
Whiiirrrr—
The ringing in my ears paralyzed my thoughts.
I thought I could hear a voice through the ringing, but I couldn't regain my senses.
“Keuk, cough.”
As a cough burst from my lips, I realized something thick and sticky was dripping from my mouth.
My body froze as I squinted, my vision slowly clearing enough to recognize what was spilling from my lips.
It was blood.
Not just a few drops, but enough to make me wonder if losing this much was dangerous.
Slowly, I lowered my head and saw that my side was empty, my intestines spilling out.
Seeing it, I momentarily wondered if I was dreaming.
But as soon as my eyes registered the sight, an intense pain pierced through my brain, and I felt like I was about to lose consciousness.
“To be hit… by such a… pathetic…”
Through the ringing, I heard a voice again.
“Hah, haahk.”
Due to the massive blood loss, strength began to drain from my body against my will.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
It hurts.
It hurts so much I’m going to die.
As my consciousness threatened to fade, I narrowed my vision and forced my head forward.
There, I saw Si-ho, her head pressed to the ground by the hand of a Russian female soldier, seemingly knocked unconscious.
Blood was trickling from Si-ho’s forehead.
She seemed to be seriously injured as well.
Dammit, what the hell…
What did I fail to predict?
No matter how hard I wracked my brain, this was the limit for a normal person.
More importantly, my consciousness was trying to shut down.
This much blood loss, these injuries.
At this rate, I’m going to die.
I don’t want to die.
I hate the pain.
Of course I do.
No matter how much I hung around with returnees, I was just an ordinary citizen.
Someone who could die to an F-rank dimensional entity.
That’s who I was.
To a normal human, they were nothing short of a natural disaster.
My life was something that could be snuffed out with a single gesture from them.
‘Was I being too greedy?’
Saying I wanted to save returnees.
That I wanted to create a place for them to come back to.
Was that too big a dream for someone like me, who could die with a single flick of their wrist?
Was it really nothing more than me being a busybody?
I can’t even take care of myself.
I had to give up on my university and my dream because of a false sexual harassment accusation.
Was I just getting carried away after hanging out with returnees for a little while, foolishly starting to harbor such a dream again?
‘Fuck that. Why do I even have to think about that shit?’
I just never want to see that goddamn expression my returned sister wore that day ever again.
After meeting Ahyu, the Heavenly Demon Cheon Hong-ryeon, that thought once again became a dream.
Because Kkotbi seemed to be in so much pain from what she’d experienced in Elysium, I wanted to comfort her.
Because Si-ho never wanted to lose her mother again, I wanted to help her so she wouldn't have to.
That was all.
That’s how I’ve always been, and how I’ll always be.
If a man can’t even look after the people by his side, what kind of grand ambition can he possibly achieve?
I gritted my teeth, suppressing the pain that was splitting my head open.
What can I do right now?
I saw a man about to walk past me.
Black glasses and a cane, like he was blind.
Soaked in seawater, his face was filled with irritation.
“Hah, seriously. To think I got stopped by a trap I set to catch the target. This is too embarrassing to live with.”
Hearing the man’s words, I shot my hand out.
And I grabbed onto the cuff of his pants as he tried to pass me.
As I held on with the last of my strength, the blind man’s head turned toward me.
The moment he saw me, his face contorted in disgust.
“How dare a piece of trash like you touch me! I’m already pissed off, don’t get your filth on me!”
As he shouted, he began to kick me mercilessly.
From what Si-ho had told me, this man was a returnee with the same spatial abilities as her.
If that was the case, then holding onto him meant I could at least help Si-ho escape somehow.
“Si-ho! Wake up!”
As I shouted, I wrapped my arms around the man’s leg, clinging to him even as he kicked me.
With the violent movement, blood gushed continuously from my stomach.
I’m a dead man anyway.
If so, I wanted to at least save Si-ho.
It’s fucked up, but I didn’t want my life to end so meaninglessly.
“汚い虫けらが…! 放せ! (Filthy bug…! Let go!)”
He spat out Japanese instead of Korean, his face twisted in revulsion as if he’d been touched by something truly disgusting, and kicked me in the head.
Flowing blood covered one of my eyes, blinding me.
Still, I held onto the man and endured.
“Ye-Catherine! Blast this thing and kill it! It’s so disgusting I don’t even want to touch it!”
He screamed as if he couldn’t bear to be touched by an insect.
The Russian soldier, Catherine, clicked her tongue at his behavior, leaving her to deal with something he could have handled himself.
“Должен ли я даже убить его? (Do I really have to kill him?)”
“Why would you let something like this live?!”
She made a reluctant face, then flicked her finger as if she had no choice.
Crackle!
A blue bolt of lightning shot out and streaked over my body.
A flash of light exploded before my eyes, and acrid smoke rose from my entire body.
And that was it.
The moment I realized something was flowing from my body, my vision and my entire being went dark.
And that was the moment that signaled the end of my life.
If it weren’t for the single streak of light that flashed before my eyes.