Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: The Birdcage
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Lee Soo-hyuk and Unhyang were momentarily speechless.
Hailes' words, touching even slightly on the truth of the world, made it hard to show any immediate reaction.
Tower. Ceiling. Boundary. Birdcage...
It wasn't just Hailes who felt suffocated by those words.
"...Why are you telling us this?"
What could be the reason for sharing something like this with people she'd just met today?
Hailes lowered her head from gazing at the sky and looked at Soo-hyuk.
"Just... I thought maybe you could smash that thing."
"How could I do that?"
"Not right now. Someday."
In that instant, Soo-hyuk realized who Hailes was seeing in him.
Even now, she was looking at Lee Soo-hyuk through him. She was seeing correctly, but honestly, he couldn't be fully confident.
"Keep this in mind. We have to prepare for the 'thing that will happen someday'."
Soo-hyuk's eyes sparkled at Hailes' continued words.
"Do you know something about that day, by any chance?"
"Hmm... a tiny bit?"
"Then...!"
"Shh."
Hailes covered Soo-hyuk's mouth with her finger.
"It's too early to know."
"......"
It seemed she had no intention of telling.
The 20-year void suddenly felt all too real.
During that time, someone had kept pushing forward. Building strength, gathering information. Meanwhile, he had regressed for the first time.
'I haven't even gotten back to square one.'
He had climbed back to the 8th floor like before, but it still wasn't enough.
The road ahead was long. While someone reached the ceiling, he had plummeted to the ground.
"...Yes."
Soo-hyuk didn't impatiently press her for an answer.
If the issue was his own inadequacy, he would overcome it someday.
"Then I'll find out soon enough."
Hailes smiled at Soo-hyuk's confident reply.
"Just like I saw on the broadcast. Daring to act this confident even in front of me."
It was fascinating.
To be so boldly confident before the great archmage Hailes.
'It wasn't an act.'
The persona from the stream wasn't fabricated. He truly resembled Lee Soo-hyuk.
There had been value in half-forcibly keeping him around.
"Um... shouldn't we head down soon?"
Unhyang cautiously spoke up while checking the time.
"We've been slacking off too long."
"Ah, right. Yeah."
Hailes nodded after glancing at the time.
By now, even departing immediately would be cutting it close. They had come too far just to dodge annoying stares.
"Then let's head back."
At Hailes' touch, the red dragon turned around.
The destination was the arena hosting the inter-guild competition.
The stage for the inter-guild competition was vast.
A gigantic dome-shaped field built by piling up desert sand.
The competition stage resembled less an arena and more a small city.
"Do we really need to make the arena this grandiose? It's not like we'll even use it."
A woman with arms crossed at the arena's edge muttered in a curt tone.
The short-haired, youthful woman scanned the rankers gathered in the arena.
She wore a martial robe emblazoned with Exterminate Demons. It appeared ordinary at first glance, but not just anyone could don it.
"Exterminate Demons...?"
"It's the Murim Alliance Leader."
"Is that woman leading Murim this time?"
Participants whispered as they eyed the woman.
Her identity was Namgung Hwayoung, the Murim Alliance Leader.
The representative head of Murim and the Namgung Clan's top expert.
Namgung Hwayoung had placed the Namgung Clan at the head of the Eight Great Clans and, with Jin Do-ha's endorsement, ascended to Alliance Leader at a young age.
Yet despite her position, she could not claim the title of Murim's top ranker.
'What Murim fears isn't the Alliance.'
Far from first place, she wasn't even second.
With the Heavenly Demon entering the competition and shattering his seclusion, her rank was merely fourth.
First was the Heavenly Demon, second Jin Do-ha, and third the Shinryeon Castle Lord Un Cheongeuk.
"She's got some nerve. Knowing who's competing this time."
"Yeah."
"The Alliance Leader might change after this competition."
Their voices made it clear.
The world feared the Heavenly Demon. The current Murim Alliance was so disregarded that even inscribing its foundational Exterminate Demons was mocked.
She wanted to rip out their tongues and sever their necks right then.
Thud.
But she couldn't.
This space was dominated by that very person.
"Heavenly Demon..."
"Heavenly Demon."
"Shh. Don't make eye contact."
The absolute being who recently crushed Murim once more and reimprinted terror upon the tower.
A possessor of immense power who could defy the rule of law forged by countless united guilds.
"...He really came."
The Heavenly Demon had appeared at the competition after years.
Paths split before his footsteps. Rankers who boasted strength scattered far away, as if even brushing his robes was terrifying.
Indifferent, the Heavenly Demon scanned the surroundings, then slightly frowned upon not finding who he sought.
"...Not here yet."
Not here yet?
Who?
His single remark sent ripples through the arena.
"Who is he talking about?"
"Hailes?"
"Has to be the Archmage. She's missing, right?"
The only ranker worthy of the Heavenly Demon's attention had been Hailes. At least until now, that was the consensus.
But recently.
There was another super rookie.
"Could it be Lee Soo-hyuk?"
Lee Soo-hyuk.
The name of the great player who alone overcame the terror known as the Heavenly Demon in the tower's history.
But the Lee Soo-hyuk mentioned here was definitely not him.
"The Heavenly Demon? No way."
"Isn't that too much of a stretch? Even so, the Heavenly Demon eyeing that rookie..."
"Come to think of it, where is that guy?"
Coincidentally, neither Hailes nor Lee Soo-hyuk had arrived at the arena yet.
If even one were present, they could have pinpointed who. As it was, certainty eluded them.
Still, opinion favored Hailes.
She was the only player in this era who could rival the Heavenly Demon.
Rumble-
The sky darkened then.
Something colossal blotted it out like thick storm clouds.
As shadows spread, participants looked skyward.
Kyaaaa-!
A massive roar thundered across the heavens.
Some rankers mistook it for a monster and drew weapons or prepared skills, only for halting voices to erupt everywhere.
"Stop! That's..."
"The Archmage's dragon!"
Archmage Hailes' summon.
Red Dragon Volcanus.
It had appeared above the inter-guild competition arena.
Flap-
Folding its wings slowly, the red dragon descended.
Just as paths had cleared for the Heavenly Demon, space opened for Hailes' procession.
Thud-
The red dragon touched down.
The Heavenly Demon, Jin Ha-ryeong, gazed up at the red dragon's back.
It had been years since the Heavenly Demon and the Archmage gathered in one place.
The participants sharing the space thought:
The tower, dormant like the dead for so long, had begun to stir from this moment.
"Were we the last ones?"
A bright, cheerful voice rang from atop the red dragon.
It was Archmage Hailes' voice.
Her clear words pierced sharply, prompting participants to think:
'We'?
"We're late."
At that moment, another participant leaned forward alongside Hailes.
"Isn't this a bit too flashy?"
"What's wrong? We'll draw eyes no matter how we show up."
"That's your take."
A participant wearing a familiar mask over their face.
Among the main competition entrants, only one wore such a mask.
"Lee Soo-hyuk?"
Streamer Lee Soo-hyuk.
The player who rose to fame via broadcasts, now renowned as the super rookie who reached the 8th floor in record time.
He had arrived riding the red dragon with the Archmage.
Watching him, the Heavenly Demon muttered.
"He's here."
Glances flicked to the Heavenly Demon's lips at his murmur.
'He's here.'
Which of the two did he mean?
If the Archmage, it was obvious. She alone had touched the Heavenly Demon's domain.
But if.
The one the Heavenly Demon awaited was not the Archmage, but Lee Soo-hyuk...
"Gwi-yeong."
"Yes, Alliance Leader."
Swish-
At Namgung Hwayoung's call, a masked figure emerged from her shadow.
"Try contacting that guy right after the competition ends."
"If it's Lee Soo-hyuk, I believe the Alliance already reached out separately."
"...Is that right? Well, him still being solo means he's no ordinary mule-headed type."
No guild would pass up such a gem.
Yet his solitude meant he had rejected every guild offer that contacted him.
"Did the Archmage claim him?"
The player standing between the Heavenly Demon and the Archmage.
Interest was inevitable.
"...Curious what kind of person he is."
Cheongryang stood before the massive screen for viewing the competition.
Normally, she'd be lining up snacks here by now, gearing up for cheers. But snacks aside, she was frantic searching for Unhyang and Soo-hyuk.
"Where the heck did they go?"
The competition would start in ten minutes.
Yet Unhyang and Soo-hyuk were still unreachable.
She'd scoured the crowds just in case, but no sign of them.
Checking every spectator and player here would be like finding a needle in the desert.
As such hopeless thoughts surfaced.
"Yap."
Squish-
Unhyang appeared amid the crowd, poking Cheongryang's cheek.
"Looking for me?"
"You little..."
"Little?"
"...brat."
"Oh?"
With Unhyang's return, Cheongryang breathed a sigh of relief.
Since they'd vanished together, Soo-hyuk must have made it back on time too.
"Where were you? What about Soo-hyuk?"
"He already headed over."
"Straight to the arena? Good. Timing works out."
Unhyang belatedly apologized to the relieved Cheongryang.
"Sorry. Urgent business came up earlier."
"What kind of urgent business? Were you two dating or something?"
"That'd be nice, but sadly no."
Unhyang shrugged nonchalantly after dropping that bombshell.
"The Archmage dragged Soo-hyuk off."
"Huh? ...The Archmage?"
"Yeah. Chased after them. Look."
Unhyang pointed to the screen behind Cheongryang.
Thud—the screen shook as the red dragon landed.
A atop it rode Archmage Hailes and Soo-hyuk. Stunned at what the hell this was, Cheongryang went speechless.
"See? Told you."
"...Yeah. It really is."
Collecting her thoughts, Cheongryang asked.
"What exactly happened?"
"No clue what went down."
Unhyang shook her head, eyes on the screen.
"But something's bound to happen."
More precisely, the faces of Soo-hyuk and Hailes filling the screen.