Chapter 26
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Rescue (3)
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“Hoo….”
Using star power still felt awkward no matter how many times he did it.
Especially when channeling it through a gun instead of a sword—it drained him even more. Probably because firing a gun expelled the energy outward.
At any rate, the effect was solid, so he’d just have to take comfort in that.
“Min-jun! How could you charge ahead all by yourself like that? It’s dangerous!”
“Huff… huff… Come on, Leader. Think about this old man too. Ugh, I’m gonna die.”
Only after they’d finished mopping up the swarm did So-hee and Dong-gil catch up and call out to him.
Dong-gil looked like he was on the verge of collapse as he caught his breath for a moment.
But when he spotted the battered young man slumped on the ground, he forgot all about his fatigue, his face hardening into a grave expression.
“…”
“Uncle.”
At Min-jun’s call, Dong-gil snapped out of it and carefully stepped toward the youth, who sat staring blankly at him.
After two steps, three—the pace quickened.
Before long… Dong-gil rushed forward and enveloped the young man in a full-body embrace.
“You! You’re alive! You little punk.”
“Team Leader Sung? No way, back in Jamsil…”
Even amid the fierce hug, the young man couldn’t grasp reality, his face blank.
Gradually, focus returned to his eyes, and he hugged Dong-gil back.
“It’s really you, Team Leader Sung? Thank the heavens. Leader… You have no idea how much I regretted running away alone that day. How did you escape that mess?”
“You punk. I thought I was done for too, but turns out people don’t die that easily. Oh, right. Chick, say hi. These two pulled me back from death’s door. This is Jung So-hee. You saw her, right? And this ridiculously strong guy is Lee Min-jun—just call him Leader.”
At Dong-gil’s introduction, Choi Woo-jin tried to force his immobile legs to stand and offer thanks.
But he wobbled—
Min-jun caught and steadied him.
“You okay?”
“Haha… Sorry for all the help. First off, thank you for saving our team leader. And now you’ve saved me too—how can I ever repay this debt—”
“Skip the debt talk. Get some treatment first.”
So-hee, who’d been silently watching Woo-jin bow, finally spoke up.
“How’d you end up this banged up? You look like a zombie.”
As she spoke, So-hee rummaged through her bag, pulled out emergency medical supplies, and began treating Woo-jin with practiced hands.
“Who knew treating people nonstop would give me a skill this useful.”
“Urk…”
So-hee focused the aura-like haze emanating from her body on Woo-jin while intently disinfecting his wounds.
The [First Aid] skill alone had been plenty effective, but the [Aura of Healing] she’d bought from the shop offered even better recovery—at the cost of survival time instead.
“Woo-jin, now spill the details. What the hell happened?”
“Not long after we entered, they ambushed our team.”
The ground wasps were stronger than the ones they’d seen outside, but not beyond what Team 1—the most combat-capable unit at the station—could handle.
Everything fell apart when Woo-jin got captured.
To search for him, his seniors couldn’t return to the station and had to wander inside… which led to them all getting dragged to the nest.
“…”
“We thought we were goners once they hauled us to their nest, but then something happened outside, creating a small opening.”
His seniors used that chance to buy time, telling a few to escape and call for backup.
Realistically, not everyone could flee, so the fastest ones—including Woo-jin and a few seniors—managed to slip out of the nest.
“Even though we got recaptured one by one after escaping…”
Listening to Woo-jin’s story laced with deep self-loathing, Min-jun suspected that “small opening” was when the police chief had poured survival time into sealing the dungeon.
“So… your team’s still alive?”
“Probably… yeah, still alive for now. They don’t kill people themselves.”
“They’re all safe?!”
“…Not sure I’d call it safe, but yes. Definitely when we went to check. They’ll hold out until we get there.”
Even as she finished bandaging Woo-jin’s wounds, So-hee kept treating him and continued.
“There! The visible injuries should be mostly healed. But don’t push it—your fatigue’s still there.”
“Benefactor! Thank you!”
“Ugh! What’s with that title? Just call me So-hee!”
“So-hee! Thank you!”
Despite So-hee’s waving him off, Woo-jin sprang up and kowtowed in gratitude. She shook her head and packed away the supplies.
“This punk, still making a fuss in a situation like this… Quit stalling and talk.”
Urged by Dong-gil, Woo-jin pulled out the [White Rabbit’s Pocket Watch] from his pocket, checked the time, and replied.
“Time’s tight. Let’s talk on the move.”
With one more added to their ranks, Min-jun’s group of four pressed on through the canyon, matching the pace of their “patient” Woo-jin.
‘…’
Long after Min-jun’s group had left.
“Keeek…?”
A single ground wasp crawled down from high in the canyon at breakneck speed, landing where they’d been.
It waved its antennae, sniffing the lingering scents, then vibrated its wings to emit a high-frequency sound only they could hear.
Keeek!!
Soon, without flying, it scurried after Min-jun’s path on its six legs.
* * *
Following Woo-jin’s guidance, after nearly three hours through the canyon, Min-jun’s group reached the presumed nest.
About 1km from the entrance.
The group halted in the shadows, holding a quiet discussion.
“Without your guide, we’d have suffered big time.”
Dong-gil, sticking close to Woo-jin, let out a sigh of relief.
As he said, the path here was a maze.
Sure, Dong-gil’s [On-Site Investigation] skill could’ve gotten them through eventually.
But with countless branching paths, without Woo-jin, they’d have burned precious survival time to reach it.
“Better lucky than good,” as they say.
“We’d have been lost too if they hadn’t nabbed us… Anyway, see that swarm buzzing around? That’s the nest entrance.”
Woo-jin’s finger pointed to where the cliff met the ground.
“…All those are wasps?”
So-hee shuddered, brushing goosebumps from her arms.
The area crawled with a black mass of wasps unlike any they’d seen before.
“Kid, how’d you escape that?”
“We weren’t guests, so no walking out the front door. Our exit was…”
Woo-jin’s finger shifted from the entrance to a spot high on the sheer cliff.
A tiny hole, barely visible even to Min-jun.
“They build underground like ground wasps, but there are air vents midway up the cliffs. That’s how we escaped.”
“You climbed down from that height?”
“When your life’s on the line, anything’s possible.”
The other three craned their necks, jaws nearly dropping, inwardly sighing. Reaching it wouldn’t be easy.
Buzzz—
Even if it wasn’t the main entrance, wasps still patrolled in pairs of two or three.
Seeing them, Woo-jin spoke up.
“It wasn’t this bad when I escaped. Guess my breakout and Min-jun smashing their swarm spooked them.”
“Better split into two teams: decoy and rescue. What do you think, Leader?”
“I agree. Just… how to divide us.”
Min-jun trailed off, scanning his companions before his gaze settled on Dong-gil.
“Uncle, looks like you’ll have to take the risky role. You up for it?”
“Psh—leaders give orders, not worry. And we trained for days like this, right? Leave it to me.”
“Then So-hee and I’ll do rescue. You and Woo-jin handle decoy.”
Dong-gil nodded at Min-jun’s words, but Woo-jin hesitated, as if something bothered him, before squeezing his eyes shut and speaking.
“But… before infiltrating, there’s something we need to confirm.”
“What’s the problem?”
“It’s not just our team in there. Seems like civilians too.”
“Either they’re there or not—what’s with the ‘seems’?”
At Dong-gil’s scolding, Woo-jin gestured for patience and continued.
“It’s weird. They were gonna use us as larva food. Shoved us into a nursery full of eggs and sealed the door—”
“Alive?!”
“Yeah. And it wasn’t just one room. Heard screams from the next one…”
“My god…”
So-hee covered her mouth; Min-jun and Dong-gil grimaced.
“We rescuing them too this time?”
Woo-jin looked to Dong-gil, who turned to Min-jun.
Min-jun pondered briefly, then frowned.
“We’ll aim to save them, but if it looks impossible… we prioritize your team, Uncle. The second we free people, they’ll swarm us. Hard to say if we can get everyone out.”
“…That hole in the protruding rock face leads to the nursery where our team’s trapped. Once we draw attention and run, that’s your cue.”
As Woo-jin spoke, Dong-gil tied his shoelaces and glanced at Min-jun.
“Leader, got a bad feeling. You know my skill…? Useless to worry about you, but still—be careful.”
“…Got it.”
Dong-gil’s [Detective’s Intuition], awakened alongside [On-Site Investigation].
Facing peril, it exponentially sharpened the user’s instincts—a degraded form of future sight, peeking at short futures.
“Alright, let’s go?”
Dong-gil and Woo-jin stretched lightly and dashed out of the shadows.