Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Forced Rampage
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"Seo Il-hu, every time you spouted that self-righteous crap, I wanted to kill you. Now my wish is finally coming true! I'll show you something special. A precious treasure that a lowlife like you could never hope to possess."
A vivid purple vein began to rise across his skin, starting from where the syringe had pierced.
"What the hell is this...!"
What had he injected? Poison?
But there was no time for speculation. The vein raced upward rapidly, and black liquid began oozing from the man's eyes.
"Gahk... urk..."
"Who would've guessed that guild had created something capable of neutralizing rank differences in power."
Drip. A drop of blood fell to the floor.
The man groaned in agony, slamming his head against the ground and clawing at the floor with his nails. I couldn't see his face as he kept it lowered, but maybe his eyes had burst.
If that was the case, then the current situation─
"Aaaagh-!"
Thud.
In that instant, a massive gust of wind erupted.
"Hahaha!!"
Even in the confines of a cave where no wind should blow, a fierce gale whipped up around where they stood.
We, who had been huddled tightly against the boulder, lost our grip and were flung against the wall. It felt just like standing in the heart of a typhoon.
I'd experienced something similar before. It was akin to when Ju Yeon-woo had gone into rampage.
"Ugh!"
Kang Min-ji let out a small cry she couldn't suppress amid the pain, but it was drowned out by the howling wind—they didn't notice.
"Min-sik hyung! If we get caught up in that, we're done for too. Let's close the dungeon now."
"Yeah. It's a shame we can't stick around to watch that bastard die, though."
They pulled away from the fallen man and approached the stone in the center, as if preparing to do something. Hong Min-sik extended his hand toward it.
The relentless wind kicked up clouds of dust.
By the time their figures vanished in the swirling murk, I plunged through the raging gale and ran forward. And I shouted.
"Min-ji-ssi!! Run!"
"Huh?! Where?!"
Kang Min-ji looked bewildered but started sprinting after me anyway.
There was no chance to glance back. I grabbed the man who had his face buried in the ground, groaning, and hauled him upright.
Then I swiftly tore open his shirt with the knife I was holding and slipped my hand inside.
My fingers traced past his prominent collarbone and over the firm muscles of his chest. Kang Min-ji, seeing me groping the injured man's body in this situation, flushed red and yelled.
"Yu-jeong-ssi! What the hell are you─?!"
To her eyes right now, I probably looked like some pervert fondling a hurt guy in the middle of chaos. Hell, if I were her, I'd think the same.
But right now, I was guiding.
I had no idea what Hong Min-sik had done to this guy named Seo Il-hu.
What I did know was that the symptoms he was showing were a clear case of ability rampage.
And whether due to the injection or the rank difference or whatever, it was progressing at twice the speed of Ju Yeon-woo's.
Once the veins bulge and dead blood starts leaking out, it's right on the verge of full rampage—or so I'd heard. Ju Yeon-woo hadn't gotten that far, so this man was in a more advanced state.
'...I managed it back then. It'll be fine. It has to be.'
If it could be stopped, I had to try anything. I wanted to jam in some mucosal guiding like last time and halt it, but the guy refused to lift his head.
I'd managed to prop up his body, but his head was still aimed downward, lips clenched so tight it looked like they might split open.
He seemed to be enduring intense pain, and if I tried mucosal guiding in that state by prying at his lips, mine would end up shredded.
I poured guiding into him as fast as I could. Maximizing contact area, while my other hand slipped between his fingers to rub his earlobe and lifted his head.
I'd never been taught, so no theory to go on, but I figured pushing guiding into his head might snap him out of it faster. And sure enough, it worked almost immediately.
I'd used less power than last time, but the effect came quicker than expected. Before I could even be surprised, he parted his bloodied lips and asked.
"...Who are you?"
The man blinked dazedly at me, his gaze hazy as if entranced. I grabbed his cheeks with both hands.
Snap out of it, mister. This isn't the time for introductions.
As the rampage temporarily halted, the wind died down too.
After all that commotion, there was no way the espers hadn't noticed our movement.
The silver lining was that they turned their aggression toward us instead of immediately touching the stone.
What silver lining? Better a speck of hope than none at all.
"Attack those guys. I'll guide you so you don't rampage—go all out!!"
"What do you─"
"You wanna die?! Now!"
Seo Il-hu straightened up. Curses and rage poured from their side, but he ignored it.
"Fuck, who the hell are those bitches?! Since when─"
The two espers scooped up the monster and magistone, while Hong Min-sik reached toward us.
Soon after, an explosion rang out, and shattered stone chunks flew our way.
The moment I reflexively squeezed my eyes shut, I felt guiding drain sharply through our touching skin.
When I came to, Seo Il-hu had already pulverized the incoming debris protecting us.
But his opponents showed no sign of stopping, unleashing explosion after explosion relentlessly.
Boom! Boom!
The outcome of fighting in such tight quarters was obvious. They intended to kill us.
Burying all evidence and witnesses along with the dungeon.
Kaboom!
In that instant, a powerful blast surged forth with a ferocious wind. The shockwave was so intense that the espers near the symbol were hurled into the opposite wall.
Thud. I could see all three slamming into the cave wall.
Seo Il-hu, panting heavily from unleashing so much power at once, soon bellowed.
"Everyone, to the center—hurry!"
No sooner had he shouted than the cave began to shake again. Even fiercer than before.
Barely deflecting the dust and falling rocks with wind, we got up and ran.
Finally, Seo Il-hu's hand touched this dungeon's symbol, and it began to crack.
Amid the shattering fragments, the same light as when we'd entered the dungeon burst forth.
I winced as the blinding light filled my vision, followed by a deafening roar like the cave collapsing around us.
Thud.
One thing I was certain of: the gate had closed.
That was it.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ From that sudden, unannounced gate akin to a natural disaster, the sole survivors were two civilians and one B-rank esper.
The Center was still verifying how many had been caught in it, but that was the outcome for now.
There might be living people in a cleared gate. But there was no way to reopen and check.
At least, no one who'd gone missing in a gate had ever returned alive so far.
Kang Min-ji's joy at surviving lasted only a moment before tension released and she burst into tears.
Seo Il-hu blamed himself, saying more could have survived if he'd handled things better.
This Seo Il-hu guy felt guilt in the weirdest places. He even said he should've saved the espers trying to kill him.
I'd heard most espers on gate expeditions lacked ethics, so he must be a mutant.
"...I should've subdued them and brought them out. My abilities weren't enough. I blasted them outside my movement range... It's no different from me killing them."
"Huh? What are you talking about! Those people were trying to kill us!"
"All lives are equal. They needed to live to atone for their crimes."
"No, didn't you see? Our lives were hanging by a thread. Did you want the cave as our grave?!"
Kang Min-ji stopped crying and spoke in disbelief.
Meanwhile, I stared blankly into space.
"I'll buy this one..."
From what I'd overheard, Hong Min-sik and his gang had been illegally capturing monsters inside the dungeon, and they'd killed all other witnesses to the scene.
The decapitated esper we'd seen before entering the cave was one of them.
A gate is a passage connecting another dimension to our world.
Normally, there's no communication between inside a gate and the outside world. Electronics don't work inside gates.
Of course, there are exceptions. Apparently possible under certain conditions with wave-type ability espers.
Barring those, there's no way to report outside or leave evidence like surveillance cameras.
In other words, perfect crimes are possible inside. No matter what you do, closing the gate erases all evidence naturally.
Either way, I'd survived. Even from an unannounced gate, where civilian survival rates are abysmally low.
And right now, I was at the Center.
More precisely, inside the awakener rank measurement room.
"What... the gauge!"
"Director! The gauge is broken!! The last recorded wavelength─"
...No way I have to fix that too.
The guiding measurement device lay completely smashed before my eyes, belching out black smoke.