Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Interlude Rest, New Seodaemun-gu (2)
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4.
The second week of June 2045 was a rest period.
A time for all the Association's Hunters to collect their thoughts and find some peace.
- We need time to recover from the horrors of the Great Library.
That suggestion from Kim Baek-jun had passed unanimously, according to Shin Tae-yeop. But even during that period, some people kept working.
“Today, we’ll start with a different question.”
Seo Hwa-yoon was one of them.
Subordination experiments like that ran every morning, but the rest of the time was free.
Do Ye-jin spent it enjoying a break with the First Hunting Squad members.
Yes, desperately enjoying it.
In a world where anyone could die at any moment—and where that anyone might well include yourself.
It might sound surprising.
But there were more entertainments to enjoy than you could shake a stick at, all recreated from the old world's legacies by the Hunters.
The most memorable one was water skiing.
The principle was simple.
Hook a line to a boat pulled rapidly along by a psychokinesis user, and ski away.
Water skiing was great.
No need for complicated thoughts.
Just close your eyes, and the world vanishes in an instant, leaving only the cool spray slapping your face.
「Kikikikikikikikikikik.」
「Kikikikikikikikikikik.」
Black & White seemed to love the water too, swimming alongside at insane speeds with their doggy paddles.
It was truly a hilarious sight.
Do Ye-jin and Ryu Hyun-ji paid half their soulstones to the Hunter running the water skiing.
The other half went to snacks.
Fancy bread and sweet soy milk.
Sitting around with her comrades, chattering about how this was delicious and that wasn’t...
It felt just like summer vacation, hanging out with friends.
Without a worry or ache in the world.
If only every day could be spent this happily.
One day, two, three, four, five.
On the sixth day, the last of the rest period, a fireworks festival was planned.
“Rice.”
The day started buzzing from breakfast.
“Park Ji-won, did you wash your hands? If not, go wash them and set out some spoons and chopsticks.”
“Rice. Rice.”
“Don’t whine. It’s almost ready. Hold on, Do Ye-jin, you punk! I told you no snacks before meals!”
Shin Tae-yeop was playing mom to the First Hunting Squad. Do Ye-jin was the cute maknae.
“This little shit... You wanna die? That it?”
That was Shin Tae-yeop’s response.
After the meal, he checked Do Ye-jin’s clothes like a ‘mom’ would, then dragged her out to the heart of downtown Gyonam-dong, where the festival was.
“Ye-jin.”
There, they ran into Ryu Hyun-ji.
Two young girls flanked her, looking quite a bit like her.
“These the little sisters you mentioned?”
“Yeah.”
“You got them safely into Paradise in the end... That’s really great.”
Getting citizenship in Paradise for her family.
That was why Ryu Hyun-ji had joined the Association, wasn’t it?
“But where’d they get the... fireworks from? They raided a mart, right?”
“That too, but I heard unnie Seo Hwa-yoon made some herself. During subordination training.”
One girl was shy, but the other was bold. The bold one was the one who’d spoken up when parting from Ryu Hyun-ji.
“My big sis might look fierce, but she thinks a lot and she’s a good person.”
“I know.”
“So please... take good... care of my big sis.”
The shy one bowed at the navel.
Do Ye-jin chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Yeah. Don’t worry.”
That’s when the first boom rang out.
Fireworks blooming into brilliant petals against the starry sky.
“...It’s really... pretty.”
Do Ye-jin murmured blankly.
The fireworks festival held deep meaning for her.
Before illness stole her mom away.
The last one she’d seen was with her mom.
The second.
Then the third firework.
Cheers erupted from the crowd.
The Association flew the banner of human equality, so on the surface, there was no distinction between Hunters and Paradise citizens.
That’s when Do Ye-jin spotted Shin Tae-yeop gazing up at the fireworks with gloomy eyes.
“What’re you thinking?”
She sidled up to him.
“The dead. People who went out like those fireworks—bright and fleeting.”
Shin Tae-yeop gave a wry smile.
“This is less a fireworks festival and more a salute. It carries the weight of a funeral.”
“Hmm... Is it okay for a funeral to be this fun?”
“Just my personal take, but funerals aren’t for honoring the dead.”
Shin Tae-yeop pointed at Do Ye-jin’s forehead with a finger.
“They’re for the ones left behind. Like us.”
“...?”
“It’s okay. They’ve gone somewhere better. So... no need to grieve. Buck up. Get back on your feet.”
Using the funeral rite as a medium.
To tell each other things like that.
“This is for you. Buck up, Do Ye-jin.”
He added, smiling bitterly at the fireworks. Do Ye-jin asked.
“You got back on your feet every time?”
“So far.”
“...So far?”
“I’m... tired now.”
“...?”
That’s when a signaler and a squad Hunter approached, handing Shin Tae-yeop some papers. Even at the festival, they wore full Association uniforms.
It was a deployment order.
June 12, 2045. First Hunting Squad deploys for a search op on the outskirts of Cheongunhyoja-dong.
“Vacation’s over in the end.”
Shin Tae-yeop smiled in resignation.
“Time to head back to school.”
Swapping school uniforms for armor.
Pens for weapons.
To a school where failing a test means death.
5.
“The core of 《Subordination》 is despair.”
Seo Hwa-yoon’s 《Subordination》 experiment.
That was the answer she’d brought to the officers’ meeting. I asked.
“Despair?”
“The state of giving up on everything.”
Seo Hwa-yoon snapped her fingers at the officers, as if to focus them.
“It was like that the first time too. When I lost my dad and thought I’d lost my big sis, that’s when the power came and I became a subordinate.”
“True...”
“And this time, she followed the exact same path to subordination.”
Seo Hwa-yoon glanced cautiously at me and Jeong Ha-kyeong, then said.
“The total wipe of the First Hunting Squad. That triggered the despair, fulfilling the 《Subordination》 conditions.”
“So someone’s gotta die for it to work?”
Jeong Ha-kyeong asked from beside me.
For a moment, the power of 《Subordination》 felt similar to my Dawn Sword.
Power amplified by others’ lives?
But on deeper thought, it seemed different. The Dawn Sword didn’t demand others’ deaths. Not yet.
“No. The key is ‘can you 100% recall that feeling or not.’”
“Then the training method is...?”
“So we trained by recalling and controlling that feeling... Results are in the report.”
Total experiments: 11.
Score: 9 failures, 2 berserks.
I knew the berserk incidents well. I’d been squad leader for suppression.
“Zero success rate?”
“Not zero... but it’s a really tough realm.”
I answered Yu Seong-deok’s question.
“Training the inner self is several times harder than the outer, after all.”
“Still, we have no choice but to keep stimulating that feeling in training.”
Choi Uk said.
“It’s the way to repay those who sacrificed in the Great Library op.”
I glanced at Choi Uk for a second.
No way this guy... staffing the First Hunting Squad with Do Ye-jin’s cohort... foresaw this and made the call?
No proof. Just a hunch.
But if so... He really uses people like tools. Without blood or tears. My fault for dubbing them ‘subordination weapons.’
I nodded with a sigh.
“From the mood, no need for a vote. We’ll leave this to Seo Hwa-yoon as before.”
With that, Choi Uk shifted to the top-priority agenda.
“Heard the northern Hunters succeeded in taking down a subordinate in Pyeongchang-dong. You’ve all seen the alert, I assume.”
Pyeongchang-dong.
The northernmost admin dong in Jongno-gu.
It had been the攻略 base for the so-called northern Hunters. Jeong Ha-kyeong spoke dismissively.
“They finally bagged one. Worth caring about?”
“Yes. Absorbing their forces and hunting know-how would make the Association even stronger.”
The Nightmare Hunters of the north, silent till now, starting to move... Were they green, or just biding time... Who knows.
“Did we send an invitation to join the Association?”
“Of course. Got a reply too. Want to hear it?”
I nodded, and Choi Uk pulled out a parchment. Secretary Jeong Ha-kyeong handed it over.
A sigh escaped me first.
Are they messing around in this day and age...?
“Young punks?”
“Really? You tend to see the world too beautifully.”
Choi Uk packed tobacco into an antique pipe and lit it with a match.
“The issue is we might tangle with them in Cheongunhyoja-dong.”
“Could be.”
It really could.
What kind of people are they... Worry already gnawing at me. I rubbed my temples to ease a light migraine.
“So, relay a full briefing on tomorrow’s Cheongunhyoja-dong search op. Pass it to each legion.”
6.
Jongno-gu, Cheongunhyoja-dong.
The Association’s nickname for it: [Fantasy Township].
Bordering Buam-dong and Sajik-dong, it was the widest admin dong the Association faced.
That overwhelming size was Cheongunhyoja-dong’s first challenge.
The land was excessively vast.
Vast enough to hinder subordinate searches.
Deploying massive manpower for the search was only natural.
“What’re you thinking so hard about?”
“Yujulem.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong, expertly disassembling and reassembling her rifle, bit her lip for a moment.
“I... still wanna rip that bastard apart.”
“Agreed. But that’s not what I’m thinking.”
“...?”
I donned the [Shadow Exoskeleton Cloak], then strapped my leather scabbard to my back.
“Yujulem’s soulstone. It popped up for a second, then got absorbed by Ye-jin, right? I saw the tooltip then.”
As I recalled, the tooltip said this.
Once the explanation ended, Jeong Ha-kyeong looked puzzled.
“Regained its divinity...? What’s that mean?”
“No idea. It’s been bugging me...”
A mortal ascended to transcendence.
Maybe divinity is the opposite of humanity?
When I consulted Choi Uk on this, he replied.
- Isn’t the ‘regaining’ tied to this incident somehow?
- ...?
- The soulstone absorption, I mean. Intent to consolidate the subordinates’ powers...?
Choi Uk concluded thus.
- No info yet. For now, we can only assume Arishelrab’s power has grown.
Strange.
Why strip divinity from the subordinates? Couldn’t those powerful ones stand against the stars?
Above all... Why bestow a subordinate’s power on Do Ye-jin?
Master of Nightmares, nameless demigod.
What board are you setting with this apocalypse?
Now, time to find out.
I fastened the [Monster-Eye Skull Helm] resolutely to my side. And.
“Dawn.”
A blade of dawn birthed in empty air.
The dim room brightened in an instant from a single candle flame.
Grabbing the hilt, I sheathed it in the lively scabbard, which wrapped the blade like bandages.
“That’s me done. 15 minutes to muster.”
“Got it. Give me 5 seconds.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong secured her shotgun and rifle in her backpack holsters. Then slung a clamshell skull gas mask around her neck. Trapper Hunter gear.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
June 12, 2045.
Day 67 since the world’s end.
The Association launched a massive search expedition into the fifth Nightmare, Cheongunhyoja-dong.
We don’t obey the commands of the weak.
[Yujulem’s Soulstone]
[Description Summary]
― 1 : A squishy flesh-colored soulstone.
― 2 : Remnant of a subordinate serving the Nameless Demigod.
[Usage]
― Hand it to the Star Messenger to unleash the power dormant in this raw stone.
The Nameless Demigod commanded 118 lords under it.
Yujulem was one, but perhaps not a loyal one.
When the demigod plotted rebellion.
It enraged them by reclaiming divinity from every lord.
A transcendent mortal cannot maintain reason without divinity.