Chapter 191
Chapter 191
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 191
Chapter Title: Part 2 - Episode 54
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Eeeeeeng!
[Grrrrr!]
Seol Do-yoon nocked a purple arrow onto his bow and drew it back. A deep purple circular area etched itself onto the ground.
Hwang Ki-tae shrugged his shoulders as he watched Dun and Seol Do-yoon suddenly enter combat stance, baring his sharp shark-like teeth.
[I'm just saying I want to be with you, so why are you trying to attack me?]
Hwang Ki-tae lowered his stance, placed his hands on the ground, and raised his barbed tail, assuming an attack posture as well.
Piiiik!
Ice spears and icy winds flew at them simultaneously. Dun thrust his outstretched palm forward forcefully, creating a clap of wind.
Whoosh—a powerful gust roared out, scattering the biting icy winds and spears in all directions.
Dun deflected Hwang Ki-tae's attacks while relentlessly maneuvering to drive him into Seol Do-yoon's attack range.
Killing him outright would have been easy, but applying pressure without injuring him while controlling his strength was difficult.
[Scary, scary. I hate this. I'm just so lonely.]
“…….”
Dun gritted his teeth, crouched low. His breath came in heavy gasps; he felt like he could fall asleep any moment.
Thwoong!
As Seol Do-yoon released the bowstring, countless arrows poured into the purple area.
Where the arrows struck the ground, black thorny bushes sprouted up. The densely grown branches began to wrap around Hwang Ki-tae's body.
The branches started siphoning away Hwang Ki-tae's abilities and mana.
[No! No! No! No!!!!]
Ice pillars and spears erupted thickly from the ground.
Dun swiftly moved toward Seol Do-yoon, hoisted him onto his back, and leaped high to evade the attack.
As he kicked off the ground and soared, a barrage of thick ice spears rained down from the sky this time.
Seol Do-yoon looked down at Hwang Ki-tae, who was trying to break free from the branches outside his domain, as the spears fell from above.
They had gone to great lengths to bind him for soul stone extraction, and now he was trying to escape.
Seol Do-yoon curled his lips, shoved Dun off his back, and drew his crude yet ornate black bow once more.
Ice spears sharper than awls hurtled from above and below like the fangs of a raging beast about to clash.
As he fell, he nocked another arrow. This one was a dark blue arrow with a hooked tip.
Closing one eye, Hwang Ki-tae's form turned into a black silhouette, and his soul stone became clearly visible.
Tendons bulged on Seol Do-yoon's arm as he pulled back the bowstring.
Beneath his windswept hair from the gravitational winds, Seol Do-yoon's unwavering eyes gleamed faintly yet distinctly.
[Grrrrr!]
Piiiing!
With a sound tearing through the air, a single straight arrow shot toward Hwang Ki-tae.
Around the flying arrow, dark blue vapors bloomed magnificently, like new branches sprouting from a spring tree.
The arrow struck precisely where Hwang Ki-tae's soul stone was, at high speed.
As Seol Do-yoon pulled his hand back, the soul stone popped into his grasp with a sharp thud.
Dun drew his sword from his inventory and shattered the incoming ice spears from above with nothing but wind, then scooped up Seol Do-yoon—who was about to crash into the ground—onto his back once more and swung his leg.
Wind gathered at his toes, unleashing a fierce gust. The tips of the thorns below snapped off or were uprooted entirely.
Kwaaaaaang!
Upon their flashy landing, the shockwave alone nullified all the surrounding attacks.
Seol Do-yoon whistled at the clean execution.
Having landed safely without a single scratch thanks to Dun, Seol Do-yoon examined Hwang Ki-tae's freshly extracted soul stone.
It looked like an ordinary monster core on the outside.
Seol Do-yoon decomposed the monster core into an emotion stone and memory stone to inspect the interior.
He couldn't read any memories—whatever had been done to it—and only the monster's characteristic emotions registered strongly from the emotion stone.
“Dun, try using a skill while holding this.”
“Monster Domination.”
[[Monster Domination] activates.]
A new crystal grew over the emotion stone, forming a bond with the memory stone.
But it couldn't hold; the new crystal vanished almost immediately.
“…….”
“The emotion stone is definitely Hwang Ki-tae's from his lifetime, but the memory stone isn't his.”
Seol Do-yoon added, peering into the soul stone for a moment.
“Then whose is it?”
“No idea. Looks like another monster's memory stone. Abyss kids generally despise monsters, so they probably swapped in a memory setting. The composition of that monster core makes normal crystal generation through domination skills impossible.”
“Fuck. Can't we just rip out the memory stone?”
“No. We can only edit the soul up to a point with a soul stone. We can't delete the framework.”
Dun's eyes darted around busily as he heard this.
He glanced up, then down.
He looked at Hwang Ki-tae's soul stone, now turned into a monster core, then at Seol Do-yoon, who had said it couldn't be changed.
“Why not?”
Dun, who had been fidgeting and grinding his teeth for a while, shrugged and clutched his forehead.
“Fuck, why the hell can't you?!”
Dun's eyes reddened. No tears fell, but stress had burst blood vessels, turning them bloodshot.
His anxious frustration spilled over onto Seol Do-yoon. Watching him silently, Seol Do-yoon's eyes crinkled in a smile.
“Don't think I can do everything. Even you at max level can't.”
Dun bowed his head deeply and gripped his hair as if to tear it out, saying nothing.
“……I know. I was just pissed because I'm pathetic and helpless. Sorry, fuck.”
When he finally spoke, his emotions had slightly subsided.
Seol Do-yoon gazed at Dun expressionlessly.
Seeing that small back, wallowing in self-loathing after tossing out a half-hearted apology, brought to mind Lee Sae-byeok back in Korea, probably picking her nose.
He'd thought Dun and Lee Sae-byeok were different, but when she acted this irritatingly, they looked chillingly alike.
Examining when Lee Sae-byeok lost her reason and got angry, it often happened after being strung along with false hope.
He'd wondered why, and figured it was because small hopes had been crushed many times.
He hadn't expected Dun, living a completely different life from Lee Sae-byeok, to have his anger button pressed in the same way.
Forcing down his own irritation, Seol Do-yoon crossed his arms and watched Hwang Ki-tae struggling to escape the weakening barrier.
'He's a monster now, so should we kill him?'
Unfortunately, he felt no particular emotion about it.
He hadn't been close to Hwang Ki-tae to begin with, and the guy had occasionally been a pain in the gate, so he even thought it might be better to end him quickly and boost the survival rate of Abyss's talented kids.
'You got weak from a cold, so maybe it's your time to go too?'
Of course, after Lee Sae-byeok found out about that thought, he'd ended up dangling from a gate cliff with his body bound.
She'd been thinking of Abyss's future, and he'd been doing the same for Abyss's future—it was too much.
Back then, he'd thought she was overreacting over someone they weren't even that close to, but now he understood her position.
Since each individual's death and morale connected to Abyss's overall spirit, removing lives should be avoided unless necessary.
In a way, you could say Lee Sae-byeok had grabbed Abyss members' morale by the scruff and pulled it up.
[I don't have enough power to deal with them while keeping the Hysis Gate open...]
Hwang Ki-tae, drained of strength and unable to move, muttered as he reached toward Dun.
The affection in his heart tormented him. He had to draw those two in.
Only by holding them in his hands could he soothe this aching emptiness and loneliness.
He couldn't do it now with all his power gone, but if the kids deployed to Hysis combined their strength, it should be possible.
Hwang Ki-tae mustered his last remaining strength to create a massive gate encompassing the area under Seol Do-yoon and Dun's feet.
They sensed something amiss, but the gate entrance was so large it covered the entire area here—they couldn't evade it.
Dun, Seol Do-yoon, and Hwang Ki-tae were swept into the generated gate and transported somewhere.
* * *
[Breaking news! Multiple A- to B-rank gates are bursting open one after another from the sea off Busan, causing significant damage to the city.]
“Yawwwn…….”
Lee Sae-byeok yawned while watching the news playing at school.
“Sae-byeok, they say a record-breaking gate just exploded in Busan.”
“Yeah?”
Lee Sae-byeok flipped through the manga she'd borrowed from her friend, responding indifferently to her deskmate's words.
[Abyss-affiliated hunters and rankers have all gathered in Busan to close this gate. For an interview... Ahh!]
[What the fuck, an interview right now?]
[Eek, Se, Se-rim!]
On the TV, Moon Se-rim flipped off the camera, and Yi Kyung-seop hurriedly covered her finger.
As Moon Se-rim disappeared behind Yi Kyung-seop, Yeo Woo-hee came into view.
[Can you share your thoughts on closing the largest gate in history?]
Yeo Woo-hee walked by with a seductive smile curling her lips.
[Yeo Woo-hee - Abyss Hunter]
[I know you're watching right now, Sae-byeokie. We'll close it quick and come back~ Don't worry too much, my baby.]
Yeo Woo-hee blew a kiss to the camera and vanished. Woo Ji-yun waved beside her.
[As a representative Korean hunter, could you say something proper...?]
“…….”
Byeon Woo-jin, grimacing as he followed quietly from behind, teleported far ahead the moment the mic was offered.
Lee Sae-byeok, who had watched it all live, chuckled.
She spotted the Association Chairman inspecting the hunters' gear as they entered the gate. Given the scale, he'd come to assess the situation.
'No big deal.'
A-rank gates were usually closed smoothly with two or three Abyss members plus top rankers.
There were more A-rank gates this time, but with core Abyss rankers like Yi Kyung-seop, Yeo Woo-hee, Byeon Woo-jin, Woo Ji-yun, Moon Se-rim, and other top rankers all there, she wasn't too worried.
A single top Abyss ranker could close an A-rank gate, and with all of them participating, it should be a breeze.
She tried to focus back on her manga, but for some reason, she couldn't read it.
Truth be told, her intuition wasn't good.
Her gut feelings were usually spot-on, and she'd felt uneasy since morning.
Hot water wouldn't run out, she dropped her toothbrush while brushing and it fell into the toilet, a car splashed muddy puddle water on her uniform.
Unrelated misfortunes, but they amplified her anxiety.
Ding-dong-dang-dong.
The school bell rang, signaling the start of class.
Lee Sae-byeok sighed deeply and spun the cutter knife she'd picked up to sharpen her pencil.
* * *
Lee Sae-byeok was currently skipping the rest of school midway and riding the KTX while watching the news.
Reports still said the gate clear was proceeding safely, but her uneasy premonition lingered.
To recharge, Lee Sae-byeok peeled and ate an egg she'd bought midway, then picked up her pencil and began sketching the gate interior based on mentions from broadcasts and news.
Gate drones and bots could only enter the entrance, so info was limited to that area.
It was pointless to strategize a clear since she couldn't enter, but running a simulation they could overcome might ease her mind.
Combining various attack types and gate types from the revealed info, Lee Sae-byeok drew multiple gate layouts—then ruffled her hair, unable to understand her own sketches.
'Why underwater gates of all things.'
Humans were land animals, so underwater combat was several times more disadvantageous; hunters always cursed whenever underwater gates appeared.
Lee Sae-byeok frowned and pulled out her phone. She needed to coax the guy who hated gate duty into scouting.
[You there?]
[You there right?]
[Hey]
[Where are you?]
Lee Sae-byeok messaged Seol Do-yoon.
He only cared about his own safety, but his abilities were top-notch.
If she could lure him in properly for reconnaissance, that'd be great.
The guy who usually replied quickly hadn't responded even after 20 minutes. Frowning, Lee Sae-byeok suddenly clicked her tongue.
'Oh right, this fucker's flexing in the Arctic.'
Biting her nails, Lee Sae-byeok jiggled her leg. It'll be fine, she brainwashed herself.
The news only aired hopeful updates, so she searched for YouTubers broadcasting live from around the Busan gates and tuned in.
Monsters emerged in groups from the vast sea, while top rankers fought them off, protecting civilians.
Then, something odd caught Lee Sae-byeok's eye.
Amid the blue ocean, there was an unusually red patch, and in it, a person floated like a corpse.
Lee Sae-byeok paused the video, screenshotted that spot, and zoomed in.
The blood-soaked figure bobbing on the surface looked familiar—terrifyingly so.
It might be a misidentification, but the build matched one person.
'Byeon Woo-jin...?'