Chapter 188
Chapter 188
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 188
Chapter Title: The Dawn of the Whole World, Our Promise (3)
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3.
- It's a promise.
At that voice.
In the torrent of old memories contained in that voice, Shin Tae-yeop opened his eyes.
“Yeah…… we promised.”
Though his eyes were fully open, the world was nothing but a blur.
Not from fog.
From tears.
Slowly, one by one…… scattered memories were returning.
Hyun-su uncle…… you did it.
I don't know how.
But we found it together.
The way to save Jeong Cheol, and the whole world too.
“Shirak! Shirak! Shirak!”
Suddenly then.
Something cold came rushing in and licked his face until it stung.
“Ow, it hurts! Cut it out, you punk.”
Shirak landed on Shin Tae-yeop's shoulder and licked its own wings.
“You're okay too…… Your neck was pitch black earlier. Glad you're fine.”
“Shi!”
“Not a big deal? Liar. You weren't even conscious.”
Shin Tae-yeop scratched Shirak's neck and let out a sigh.
“I met Seskari.”
“Shi?”
“Same age as you, but way bigger and a louder voice.”
Shirak let out a whine and drooped its head like a defeated loser.
“Kidding, kidding! Ignoring that miraculous bonus encounter with Anridal, you're still……”
Wait……
Anridal and Shallyuan.
The moment he realized it, chills raced through his entire body. Shin Tae-yeop hurriedly looked around.
This place…… a hospital room?
Shinchon Severance Hospital. It was a four-person room, and on the beds to either side lay Jeong Ha-kyeong and Gong Min-young.
“What happened?”
Then came a voice, sharp like an interrogation.
He whipped his head around to see Seo Hwa-yoon standing there, arms crossed, her voice laced with worry.
“Hwa-yoon noona!”
“You guys weren't showing up, so I went all the way to the cathedral, and there you four were, passed out all chummy together.”
Gong Min-young and Jeong Ha-kyeong too……?
Hang on. Where's Seong-mi? She's nowhere in sight.
“Seong-mi woke up a bit ago and left. I asked, but she said she couldn't remember well. So what happened?”
“Well……”
“Well?”
Shin Tae-yeop glanced once more at Gong Min-young and Jeong Ha-kyeong.
That creepy presence…… it's gone?
Gong Min-young's mouth and teeth had been grotesquely deformed…… but they're back to normal now.
“You gonna answer or not?”
And Jeong Ha-kyeong……
Damn it, what about Jeong Ha-kyeong? Has she taken back control of her body?
“No big deal.”
“No big deal? Then why were you bleeding all over? Did Gong Min-young maybe──”
“──Just the three girls fell so hard for my fatal charm, Shin Tae-yeop, that they fainted── Ow!”
Seo Hwa-yoon's fist trembled after smashing down on Shin Tae-yeop's head as she let out a sigh.
“Don't try to bullshit your way out of this. I'm being dead serious right now…… Uh…… what?”
Seo Hwa-yoon suddenly cocked her head and peered intently at Shin Tae-yeop.
“Uh…… why? What's up?”
“It's gone.”
“……?”
“Something's off. It was there a second ago…… Tae-yeop. Your rosary's gone.”
“What?”
The rosary's gone?
At her words, Shin Tae-yeop frantically groped at his neck.
“It's…… really gone.”
Who took it?
No…… that's impossible.
The rosary was implanted by Park Hyun-su, the [Owner of the Broken Dawn]. It's a catalyst for magical memory.
Not embedded in the body.
In the soul.
That's why those northern hunters could never rip it off him before.
“Where the hell…… did it go?”
Wait.
His genius mind quickly arrived at the answer. No need for the catalyst anymore?
Which means……?
Calculation deployment.
Analysis and computation.
Result derivation and materialization.
The instant it finished.
On his palm, a dazzling seven-layered magic square unfolded.
Hum, hum, hum, hum, hum, hum.
A hollow laugh escaped him on its own.
No more need to bother with hand seals…… because he'd recovered his memories.
“Whoa…… what is this? It's gorgeous.”
Seo Hwa-yoon let out an exclamation as she gazed at the magic square. Shin Tae-yeop kicked off the bed and stood up.
“Is the operation prep done?”
He had no idea what had happened.
Whether Jeong Cheol, who had driven the world to ruin in his mad lust, had truly returned to his senses.
“Is prep…… of course── wait! Don't move yet.”
And why.
Do Ye-jin was the [Dawn of the Whole World] instead of Kim Baek-jun.
“But one thing's clear.”
This whole game was orchestrated by Jeong Cheol, and in it, Park Hyun-su and Jeong Cheol had trusted him with Do Ye-jin……
“No issues at all.”
So he.
Had to go find that idiot. Right now.
“My condition's perfect!”
Shin Tae-yeop flashed a thumbs-up, then suddenly looked up above his own head.
[Lv : 182]
[Lv : 186]
[Lv : 191]
[Lv : 195]
As expected…… yeah, this is how it goes.
Level──a simple numerical gauge of the soul's rank.
With his memories returning.
His levels were rapidly syncing up to those from the Battle Royale days.
“You didn't answer earlier. How's prep going?”
“Prep? Obviously. All the elite rear-guard hunters, Gundam pilots included, are getting thrown into this op.”
Gundam pilots, huh.
The fruits of Seo Hwa-yoon's desperate research and pampered nurturing: the civilian-to-hunter conversion project.
And they're deploying……?
Shin Tae-yeop tilted his head with a somewhat dazed look.
“Think those guys will actually help?”
“You know that time Kim Baek-jun got ambushed by those Baeksa bastards out west?”
A super famous incident.
After that, hunters who went after nightmare hunters basically vanished.
“I realized something from that.”
“……?”
“Get the fire net right, and even high-level hunters bite the dust.”
Got it……
Maybe Seo Hwa-yoon had anticipated something like this might happen.
“Total war, huh. Must've been a ton to prepare.”
“Yeah, but who am I? Seo Hwa-yoon. Only the final stage left now.”
“Final stage?”
Seo Hwa-yoon shrugged with a sigh.
“The funeral.”
“Funeral?”
“Yeah. Kim Baek-jun's funeral.”
Seo Hwa-yoon spat out the name Kim Baek-jun like it was bitter medicine, then added,
“Sorrow's the biggest fuel for rage…… no helping it.”
4.
“Shin-yul.”
Northern Seoul, Nowon-gu.
The corridor of Surak Mountain Shrine.
“You gonna bring every hunter here?”
The beautiful young man who had been leaning against a pillar, watching the quiet blizzard drifting outside the corridor, turned his head.
It was Hwang Ga-in, Nowon-gu's lead hunter.
She flashed a smile, her black-and-white miko robes fluttering to flaunt her voluptuous figure.
“All of them?”
Choi Shin-yul asked quietly.
The expression beneath his messy white hair was as impassive as ever, but the air vibrated lowly from the divinity infusing his voice.
“Yeah. Right~ now.”
“May I ask the reason?”
Choi Shin-yul's manner of speech carried an archaic tone unfit for a modern man.
Not his fault, of course.
It came from the environment he'd grown up in──the education of a household that styled itself as Korean sword nobility.
“Song Chan-un died yesterday, didn't he?”
“Yes.”
“Those divine weapons he planted in the hunters' heads…… those are gonna vanish soon too.”
“…….”
“Hmm, that look in your eyes says you have some plan of your own.”
Choi Shin-yul assented with silence.
The one who answered that quiet question…… was no human.
「Are you asking me, Choi Shin-yul?」
From the shadows of the corridor.
A pure white noble youth emerged, stepping more silently than falling snow.
「Right now…… ah, yes.」
His build, clad in pristine white formal attire, was perhaps only about eight years old at most.
But.
The waist-length white hair and refined manner of speech were utterly mismatched to that form.
「Things have gotten interesting. That's your answer. Just go with that for now.」
The moment that voice rang out.
An overwhelming wave of evil intent crashed in──enough to make any ordinary hunter spew blood from every pore.
“Sai!”
Hwang Ga-in's face lit up as she rushed over, scooped the youth into a hug, and rubbed her cheek against his.
“Sai, my Sai……! Wonder who he takes after to be this cute, huh, Shin-yul?”
“…….”
“You're up already? Not sleepy? You can sleep more.”
「No, I'm fine now.」
The boy called Sai.
His features radiated an unmistakably alien aura, and amid Hwang Ga-in's barrage of affection, he curled his lips in a sneer.
「Thanks to you, the time I need to sleep is getting shorter and shorter.」
Only three people in this world knew the boy's true identity.
Hwang Ga-in, Choi Shin-yul, and Song Chan-un.
Even Im Ga-hee and Gong Min-young had never laid eyes on this god's true face.
「Ah, right…… I trailed off. Choi Shin-yul.」
“What is it?”
「Details later. For now, just drag all the hunters here.」
Their eyes remained deadly serious throughout.
A third party might mistake the pair for father and son. They resembled each other that much.
Snow-white long hair.
Speech colder than winter itself.
A quiet, oppressive presence.
But it wasn't similarity born of blood.
Solely.
The transcendent baptism bestowed from that supreme Iquillas.
「Doesn't matter how you do it. For anyone who resists, chop off limbs if you have to and drag 'em here.」
A flicker of displeasure crossed Choi Shin-yul's eyes.
Hmph……
The boy, well aware of the reason, decided for now to simply issue a low warning.
「They're valuable resources──don't get rough. Ah, and don't kill any. Absolutely. That's an order.」
5.
「You alive?」
Hurts…… feels like I'm gonna die.
Jeong Ha-kyeong lay sprawled on the floor in a big X, gasping for breath.
「Hey.」
At the edge of her vision.
「You alive or not, you little shit?」
A silver-haired beauty in a suit barged in and brushed off her skirt.
“Do I look like I'm down for the count, you bitch?”
Well, maybe she did.
Her body right now…… it was covered in self-inflicted stab and slash wounds everywhere, blood oozing out.
Not done by some fake.
All of them inflicted by Jeong Ha-kyeong herself, to activate her powers.
「Hmph…… that spunky answer means you're 'still alive'.」
Still alive?
The eerie undertone in her words jolted Jeong Ha-kyeong fully alert.
「Jeong Ha-kyeong. Your brainpower and physical abilities are pathetically low……」
“The fuck?”
「You're not just disrespectful to this great and supreme Shalluan-sama──insolent by default, every damn word dripping with low-class trash……」
“Butt out.”
「No…… your very existence is shit-tier dogshit…… but congrats are congrats. Congratulations.」
Shalluan, who had been muttering in a sinister tone, suddenly flashed a grin.
Smack!
She bashed Jeong Ha-kyeong's head with her long umbrella, her eyes gleaming with cold light.
“Fuck, why'd you hit me out of nowhere──”
「──Who'd have thought you'd endure three whole days. You learned a ton, didn't you?」
Definitely…… a ton.
She'd mastered the use of her powers while racking up insane combat experience.
“Yeah. Even self-harming hurts less than before.”
Didn't mean it didn't hurt.
Still hurt like absolute hell…… fuck this shit.
「Now you're at a level where you could hunt most hunters, Jeong Ha-kyeong.」
“……………!”
「Of course, assuming you actually use this great Shalluan-sama's powers properly……」
That smug face, wagging her finger like she's hot shit…… wanna punch it.
「Anyway, check your level when you wake up──you'll be shocked.」
Right, her level.
The Star Messenger had said the same. Syncing with the Holy Apostles would boost her level beyond imagination.
「Alright, now the last one.」
“There's still more after all this?”
「Yes.」
Jeong Ha-kyeong had asked as much.
But Shalluan's unusually serious demeanor made her swallow dryly without thinking.
「Before you go fight those Iquillas bastards, I've got one warning for you.」