Chapter 160
Chapter 160
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 160
Chapter Title: The Survivors, Jongno-gu Gyeonghui Palace (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Lead Hunter Kim Baek-jun.
On the day the news of his death arrived, Shin Tae-yeop was dreaming.
“Where is this……?”
A world swallowed by the Abyss.
No matter where he looked…… the horizon stretched endlessly in gloomy indigo, and the air hung heavy and humid.
“A graveyard……?”
He could see five gravestones.
Was it because of the Abyss? They had melted into grotesque shapes, making it impossible to read the inscriptions.
Precious connections he couldn’t remember.
Ah…… A wave of sorrow soaked his chest, sending shivers through his body…… Shin Tae-yeop knelt before one of the gravestones.
“Shin Tae-yeop?”
A voice called out then.
“It took you quite some time to get here.”
It was a familiar voice.
Cold and deep, a young man’s voice.
But who it belonged to…… he just couldn’t recall.
“Who are you?”
He sprang to his feet and whipped his head around.
Someone was perched on the third gravestone, gazing off into the distant horizon.
“……?!”
A nameless man.
He tried to shout the name, but it slipped from his mind in an instant.
“My name…… my name…… I feel like I know it…… What was it?”
“I have no name. It’s been taken from me now.”
The man rose from his seat.
He had a sturdy build and stood tall…… with an utterly cold demeanor.
“The name from my human days…… You should remember it.”
A name……?
He rummaged through his mind, but nothing came up.
“I don’t know…… I…… I can’t remember…… Nothing…….”
Shin Tae-yeop gestured to this endlessly sorrowful world and continued.
“What is this place? Who’s buried in these gravestones?”
“This is…….”
A deep shadow fell over the man’s eyes.
“……The world I destroyed. And those buried here are the ones I killed.”
What……?
The moment he heard those words, it felt like a gaping hole had been punched through his chest.
“Why?! Why?!”
“My wish. They were sacrifices offered to achieve it.”
A throbbing pain stabbed through his head.
Shin Tae-yeop grabbed one of the gravestones to steady his collapsing body.
“Don’t tell me you’re…… the [Nameless Demigod]?”
Instead of answering, the man pointed to one of the gravestones with his finger.
“You’re one of them too. The gravestone you just grabbed is proof.”
“……?”
“That’s your grave.”
What……?
His breathing grew ragged on its own.
- I saw you die.
The moment Roheirits’s scream flashed in his mind, the gravestone warped and twisted grotesquely…… transforming into something bizarre.
“This is…… a mirror?”
“Does it look that way to you? Your lost self. Those memories are inside it.”
“What?”
His heart suddenly pounded with a thud.
His body was screaming. Telling him to find the fragments he’d lost.
The moment he leaned in to peer into the mirror.
His body was abruptly yanked downward by a brutal force.
“W-What……?!”
The Abyss rose to his ankles.
Tentacles erupted from it, writhing with a low uuuu…… as they dragged at his limbs.
“Let me go! Let me see it!”
Why was that?
He knew this Abyss’s power belonged to that man.
“Let me go!”
“…….”
“Damn it! Let go! Let go! Let me goooo! Please, just let me see it!”
His body began sinking into the Abyss bit by bit. Ankles…… knees…… thighs…… now up to his waist.
“No, no, no way!”
As if mocking his cries.
The tentacles pulled him down even more savagely. Shin Tae-yeop thrashed desperately.
“Pleeeeeease!”
He knew why.
He knew that if he was dragged down there, it would all be over.
“Shin Tae-yeop.”
The man, who had been silent for so long, finally spoke.
“Why do you try to reclaim your memories?”
Why…… why?
Isn’t it obvious that he wanted them back?
“Why are you so desperate? There might only be despair and sorrow inside.”
The tentacles’ pull grew stronger. Now up to his chin…… ah…… his mouth……
“That’s just a nightmare of a vanished past.”
A vanished past’s nightmare……?
“Just forget it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.”
The moment those words reached him.
The Abyss at his feet swallowed his body whole. He flailed wildly to escape…… but the Abyss flooded into his eyes, nose, and ears───
──────His eyes snapped open.
He could see it. The familiar ceiling.
He could hear it. The cries of large ravens heralding the dawn……
Huh……?
His eyes were fully open, but the world was a blur.
Not from fog, but from tears.
He couldn’t remember what dream he’d had or why he was crying.
Damn it…….
Feeling that all-too-familiar dizziness to his bones, he fiddled with the rosary around his neck, the [Fire Fan Pearl].
“T-Tae…… Tae-yeop oppa……?”
A familiar voice called out.
Turning his head from where he lay on the bed…… there was Ryu Hyeonji.
“Ryu Hyeonji?”
The moment he saw her face, something crucial flashed in his mind.
Do Ye-jin.
Shin Tae-yeop bolted upright and shook Ryu Hyeonji’s arm.
“Do Ye-jin? That idiot Do Ye-jin…… Did you find him? You found him, right?”
Something…… felt off.
He could tell just from looking at Ryu Hyeonji’s face.
“What’s wrong? Were you crying? What happened, your eyes are all puffy……?”
This wasn’t the time for jokes.
Heo Cheon-gyeom, standing by the window with arms crossed, looked haggard.
“It’s…… It’s…….”
Ryu Hyeonji couldn’t continue, and Shin Tae-yeop’s mouth hung open.
“No way, Do Ye-jin…….”
Heo Cheon-gyeom shook his head.
“We still don’t know what happened to that fool. Ryu Hyeonji went to Gangbuk-gu with the Association Chairman.”
“And?”
Heo Cheon-gyeom explained reluctantly, recounting Gong Min-young’s cooperation and the battle with Gangbuk-gu’s Pope.
Something was off about the story.
“Hold on. You succeeded in taking down the guy calling himself the Pope, right? Then why do you all look like that?”
Shouldn’t they be celebrating?
Ryu Hyeonji exchanged glances with Heo Cheon-gyeom, then spoke in a trembling voice.
“T-There…… t-the…… Chairman…… passed away…….”
What……?
It took an agonizingly long time for his brain to process the words.
Association Chairman.
There was only one person with that title in Seodaemun-gu.
“Lead Hunter…… died……?”
A heavy silence affirmed it.
The one-eyed raven perched by the dorm window flapped its wings with a whoosh.
“No…… I’m not getting this? You won, didn’t you……?”
His tongue twisted, words failing him.
A scorching storm raged in his mind.
- I won’t give up on you.
- Wasn’t it that I wanted to say thanks for finding me?
A storm of grief so intense it threatened to make him faint.
Kim Baek-jun……?
How? Uncle…… What the hell happened?
It took an eternity to regain even a shred of composure.
“You sure…… you saw right?”
Black, who had been listlessly circling the air beside Ryu Hyeonji, let out a whine.
「He’s dead. Dead. The scent is completely gone. The scent of life.」
Despair loomed like a cliff before his eyes.
“How…… How did this happen?”
“I…… I don’t know…… We did win…… but suddenly someone showed up…….”
“Who? Who showed up?”
“That…… Sister Gong Min-young…… c-called him…… the Sword God…….”
Sword God?
The term [Elite Knight] flashed through his mind.
“Richard…… Hugh……?”
In Scesari and Roheirits’s world, the [Apostle of the Sword] chosen by the Ikillas Absolute God.
“Ri, Riシャル Hugh? What?”
Ryu Hyeonji looked puzzled at Shin Tae-yeop’s mutter.
Throb.
Shin Tae-yeop clutched his forehead against the headache.
Again…… again……
Memories flooding in on their own. But…… the details escaped him.
“Shishishishishishishishi!”
Just then, a cool sensation touched his head, which felt ready to explode.
Shyrak……?
Shyrak, dozing by the window, flapped its wings and flew over, licking his cheek furiously.
“Ah, stop, stop! You little…… What, did I come back from the dead or something?”
“Shi!”
“Okay, true…… but stop! This isn’t the time.”
Shin Tae-yeop rose from the bed and asked Ryu Hyeonji.
“Where’s everyone now?”
“Y-You shouldn’t move yet, right? Your condition…….”
“Don’t worry. I just collapsed from exhaustion. Body’s fine.”
He strode out, snatching the <Association> uniform from the coat rack.
“What’re you all doing? Not coming?”
“…………?!”
“With the subjugation team wiped out, it’s time for the First Hunting Platoon to step up, right?”
Despair blooms when everyone abandons hope.
“Time for the hero to make his entrance.”
That’s why Shin Tae-yeop.
Forced a gallant smile.
“Let’s go!”
If Kim Baek-jun were here, he’d do the same, like always.
“Y…… Yeah……!”
“Shishishishishishishishi!”
Vitality flickered in Ryu Hyeonji and Heo Cheon-gyeom’s eyes for a moment, and they hurried after him.
“So where is everyone now?”
“P-Probably at headquarters. By n-now, the executive meeting should be called!”
By now?
That meant the Gangbuk-gu special forces’ return was pretty delayed.
“Must’ve had pursuers.”
As he descended the stairs through the hallway.
Throwing on a coat over his uniform, he asked, and Ryu Hyeonji answered.
“Yeah…… There were wounded…… But we shook them off…… The Pope was dead, so they all went berserk…….”
“Rough guess, the Pope was like their command tower?”
“Y-Yeah!”
“We can’t waste a chance like that.”
In front of the [Operations Conference Room] door.
Shin Tae-yeop reached for the handle but paused. Serious voices leaked from inside.
“……So what the hell do we do now?”
“……What do you mean what? It’s over.”
“……Over my ass! What’s wrong with you all?”
He’d never been optimistic about the situation…… Shin Tae-yeop took a deep breath, turned the handle, and entered the conference room.
“Shin Tae-yeop?”
Conversation halted instantly, all eyes turning to him.
“YES, I AM!”
Shin Tae-yeop flashed an exaggerated smile, bigger than usual. Trying to dispel the despair permeating the room.
“Can I move now?”
“Yeah. No problems. What about you, Hwa-yun noona…… Can you move?”
Seo Hwa-yun forced a smile.
“Of course. See? This noona’s tough as nails.”
He slowly scanned the conference room.
Not an executive meeting, but platoon leader level……
No surprise.
With Association Chairman Kim Baek-jun, Hunter Operations Chief Do Su-jin, and Command Operations Chief Choi Uk all dead……
The executives left were.
Just Seo Hwa-yun, Lee Seong-mi, and Acting Chairman Jeong Ha-kyeong.
And…… two unfamiliar women. Those must be the defectors.
“I heard about the situation…… on the way over.”
Lee Seong-mi averted her gaze from Shin Tae-yeop miserably. Even though it wasn’t her fault.
“So where’s the discussion at?”
“What discussion?”
“Obviously, how we strike back!”
Shin Tae-yeop spoke boldly on purpose…… but was met only with heavy silence.
“Why the long faces?”
He pleaded with his eyes, turning to each…… but all avoided his gaze.
“We can do this. We’ve won so far! By combining our strength! Against every nightmare we’ve faced! This time too, surely…….”
His voice cracked, trailing off.
Why is everyone acting like this?
His eyes burned hot, frustration surging into anger.
“The barrier protecting Nowon-gu is gone now, right? Right?”
He shouted at Lee Ha-ram, who nodded immediately.
“And the Pope’s death shook their control, right?”
This time he looked back and forth between eyewitnesses Lee Seong-mi and Ryu Hyeonji. They nodded too.
“Then we can’t just sit here!”
“…….”
“We’re just giving the enemy time!”
“………….”
“Isn’t this our golden opportunity? To get back Do Ye-jin and Uncle Choi Uk!”
What?
Why aren’t my words…… getting through?
A faint tremor of despair rose in his eyes.
“The precious chance…… Lead Hunter gave his life for…… Isn’t it……?”
Yeah.
He always created opportunities.
His fists clenched until blood welled from his nails.
“If we waste this chance too…… That’s when it’s really over……. We’ll never get Do Ye-jin or Uncle Choi Uk back…….”
Silence again.
Not a single platoon leader answered. Not one lifted their head.
“Re…… Revenge…… That’s impossible…….”