Chapter 76
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: How to Protect My Man (3)
The chat window, which had been buzzing just moments ago, came to a complete halt.
Everyone watching the broadcast turned into a honey-mute, their frontal lobes firing on all cylinders as they tried to process whether what they were seeing was real.
[...Is this for real?]
It took nearly ten minutes for the first chat to pop up.
Like the Pied Piper, it was followed by a tidal wave of messages.
[She's insane.]
[Is this the power of an EX-Rank Hunter...?]
[She's smashing the entire gate by herself.]
[What monster dies in one hit like that?]
[Choi Yu-ra! Choi Yu-ra! Choi Yu-ra! Choi Yu-ra!]
[Unnie Yu-ra, marry me!]
ㄴ[Lol crazy bitch ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
The monsters in the S-Rank Gate were terrifying.
Some teleported while invisible, and a building-sized turtle spewed lava from its mouth.
A pterosaur twenty meters wide and nine meters tall dominated the skies, crackling with lightning like Zeus himself, while deathworms crawling underground occasionally burst forth with jaws massive enough to swallow a single-family home whole.
Monsters that could wipe out an entire city if even one escaped the gate.
But Choi Yu-ra massacred them effortlessly.
[Holy shit, did you see that?]
[It's like she sensed it, not saw it?]
She reached into empty air and grabbed hold—snatching an invisible monster. With a squeeze, its head exploded, breaking the invisibility.
[No way... At this level, she could kick down a skyscraper, right?]
She slipped under the giant turtle and delivered a kick. It sprayed lava as it launched into the sky and disintegrated.
['Lightning... sliced.' Is that even possible?]
The pterosaur, which wasn't just spewing lightning but had become lightning itself, was cleaved in half by her hand blade, dying amid the bolts.
[First time I've ever felt sorry for a monster...]
For the deathworm, she plunged her hand into the ground, yanked it out, whipped it like a lash until its body stretched and snapped, spilling guts everywhere.
Lightning-fast.
She advanced after instantly clearing the monsters, then stopped in her tracks.
"Ah, they told me not to annihilate this area, right?"
Gates were dangerous but also treasure troves yielding mana stones and byproducts from monsters.
S-Rank Gates were usually too risky, so annihilation was the goal—but this one was managed by the Millennium Guild.
With Choi Yu-ra around, periodic cleanups like this raked in massive profits.
"That's it for the broadcast."
Unlike before, the chat had been silent for ages.
Awed by her overwhelming might once more, viewers thought instead of typing.
'Thank God Choi Yu-ra's a hunter.'
If she were a villain...
South Korea would've fallen long ago.
＊＊＊
That evening, the day Choi Yu-ra's solo S-Rank Gate clear video hit the internet.
Atop a certain skyscraper, a woman watched it and laughed.
"Wow, that bitch Choi Yu-ra's doing something surprisingly cute."
"What do you mean, Madam President?"
A woman with long teal hair hanging down snatched a snack and clicked her tongue.
"Tsk tsk, you idiot. Why do you think she filmed this? There's always a reason."
"I wouldn't know, so please enlighten me."
"You know how she just went public with her boyfriend, right?"
"Yes. It caused a huge uproar."
"You know that and still don't get it? It's a warning. 'Hands off my man.'"
Leaning back in her chair like she was bestowing a favor, she spoke.
She looked like a bubbly, cheerful woman on the surface, but anyone who knew her true identity would never think that.
"I'm this strong, so if you touch my man, I'll kill you all—that's the message."
"Surely she didn't dive into an S-Rank Gate just for that?"
"Hey."
One of South Korea's top five villain organizations.
"You saying I'm wrong?"
"My apologies."
The boss of the Green Dragon syndicate, which dabbled in every crime from kidnappings and contract killings to organ trafficking and drug distribution.
Who would dare treat 'Dimensional Sword' Park A-ji like an ordinary woman?
The twin swords at her waist clinked sharply against each other.
"I wasn't planning to touch him anyway. Right?"
"Yes? You don't mean...?"
"Hey, no matter how strong Choi Yu-ra is, she can't protect him inside a gate. If we let this provocation slide, we'd lose all credibility as villains, wouldn't we?"
Was that really okay?
Her underling—called vice president but read as "gofer"—bowed his head silently.
"You think we're pushovers just because we stayed quiet? Villains look weak? Time to give that bitch a taste of her own medicine?"
As Park A-ji spewed her ravings...
A red-haired woman appeared outside her hideout building.
Her white mask hid her face, but her smartphone was filled with photos of Green Dragon members, hacked from the Hero Association.
"Got 'em all memorized."
She pocketed the phone and entered the building.
A camera drone trailed obediently behind her.
"Killing people for the first time. Nah, these aren't people, so it doesn't count."
That was the end of the Green Dragon.
＊＊＊
"......"
Hero Association Special Villain Task Force.
A elite unit newly formed to carry out the president's declared "war on villains," consisting solely of ten S-Rank Heroes.
Among them, the strongest and most seasoned S-Rank Hero, 'Flash' Kim In-ah, stared intently at a video circulating on the deep web.
[Stay back! I said stay awayyyyy!]
The screaming woman on screen was Seo Hye-rim, an A-Rank villain from Green Dragon.
True to her rank, her A-Rank enhancement skill let her crumple an eight-ton truck with her bare hands.
But the intruder grabbed her arm and yanked it off like clipping a grasshopper's leg.
[Arghhhhh...]
The scream was brief.
The intruder seized her head and ripped it off just like the arm.
[Who the hell are youuuu?!]
The other villains fared no better.
She charged through the flames of A-Rank villain 'Firebat' Yoon So-ha and kicked her midsection, bisecting her.
A-Rank villain 'Heracles' Shin Bang-hee, who could turn her body into orichalcum harder than steel, crumbled to dust from a single punch.
Dozens more villains swarmed her, but the intruder slaughtered them all effortlessly.
[Don't think you'll leave here alive!]
Atop the building's penthouse.
S-Rank villain and Green Dragon vice president 'Divine Light' Yoo Ji-an lunged at the intruder at five times the speed of sound, shockwaves trailing her.
Divine Light Yoo Ji-an's speed was immense—but the intruder casually caught her and crushed her skull with a palm strike.
[Guh... ack...]
Blood foam bubbled from her mouth as her head sank into her torso.
As the headless corpse collapsed, Green Dragon's boss Park A-ji swung her twin blades.
[You fucking bitch! Hey! You're Choi Yu-ra, aren't you!? Is this shit okay for a hunter to pull!?]
Her swords were no ordinary weapons.
Dimensional Severance. Anything in their path was sliced clean through, no matter how tough.
Ineffective against huge monsters due to short reach on vitals, but against fellow humans? Unmatched lethality.
[You crazy bitchhhh!!!]
But the intruder dodged every strike with minimal movement.
In an instant, she closed in, grabbed Park A-ji by the hair, and tore off her head.
[G-gurgle...!]
Life faded from Park A-ji's eyes with her final death rattle.
One of South Korea's top five villain groups...
Wiped out in just ten minutes after the intruder's arrival.
[......]
No survivors on the building's top floor.
The intruder cracked the mask's mouth open and turned to the camera drone.
Then, slowly and clearly—so anyone could understand—she spoke.
[Touch. My. Boy. Friend.]
Her lowered voice was unmistakable: Choi Yu-ra.
[And. I'll. Kill. Every. Last. Vil. Lain. In. This. World.]
Yet the madness gleaming through the mask's eyeholes...
Suited a villain just fine.
The video ended there. Kim In-ah lit a cigarette, exhaled a long sigh with the smoke.
"A warning."
A warning to the villains.
She'd shown her strength soloing an S-Rank Gate during the day.
Now, proving she'd kill villains without hesitation?
"No, not that simple."
Kim In-ah recalled Choi Yu-ra's final words.
"...Collective responsibility."
If even one villain touched her boyfriend, she'd slaughter them all.
So police your own ranks, keep your kind away from him.
If she'd led with that, it'd sound like empty bluster—but today, she soloed an S-Rank Gate, proving her superhuman might.
Villains now knew her power firsthand; her threat was real.
"Did she raid the gate from the start just to set this up?"
Kim In-ah played another video.
CCTV showed Choi Yu-ra at her guild when Green Dragon fell.
But that could be faked with hacks or skills—thorough investigation might expose her alibi.
"Hah."
It could be exposed.
"But better bury it."
She lacked the confidence to restrain the woman who could single-handedly turn Korea upside down.
South Korea's number one hero, Choi Yu-ra.
"Please don't pull this again."
The once-awkward trust-fund bully Choi Yu-ra...
Had just pulled off a genuine power play without realizing it.
＊＊＊
"Whoa, that hits the spot!"
The carbonation of ice-cold draft beer sliding down my throat.
I marveled at the chill soaking my stomach, fiddling with my ring.
"Thanks to you, I escaped alkie-hood."
One of the ring's functions from noona: toxin neutralization!
Alcohol counted as harmful, so now I could chug endlessly without getting drunk.
"I can tweak the neutralization to stay pleasantly buzzed. Perfect!"
No more self-hypnosis like "pass out when drunk" or whatever—I'd undone those.
My only self-hypnosis left: erection block and libido seal.
No worries; once Yu-ra noona overcomes premature ejaculation and controls her strength, or Seo-yeon gathers courage, I could indulge to my heart's content.
"But where's the chicken?"
Beer needs chicken.
Ding-dong!
Spoke too soon.
"Coming!"
I opened the door to find—not delivery—but Yu-ra noona.
"Jun-hyuk, sorry to drop by unannounced."
"Noona? Nah, it's fine... What's up so suddenly?"
Beyond her shoulder, I spotted her car.
Unlike usual, the trunk overflowed with luggage, lid tied down with ropes.
And the back seats? Jammed full.
"Uh... Noona? Why so much stuff?"
"Well, you see..."
The noona who'd charge monster hordes in an S-Rank Gate without flinching now hemmed and hawed.
"Like..."
Then, steeling herself, she said:
"Let's move in together."