Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: The Hunter of the Void, Cheonun Hyoja-dong (4)
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6.
“Another stele just like the others.”
That four-meter-tall stele was the third one the <Association> had discovered.
“At this point, even the skeptics can’t claim it’s meaningless.”
When I approached, Choi Uk was scrutinizing the stele closely.
Raven gas mask and raven-feather cape.
Choi Uk, the Raven Hunter, exuded an aura as gloomy as this dim, eerie world.
“Even looking at it again…… the stonework is truly remarkable.”
Weathered by wind and rain.
Half the surface was worn away and eroded beyond recognition, but one thing stood out clearly.
“World Tree.”
I uttered the name once more, laced with awe.
World Tree.
It was the nickname of the tree prominently embossed at the center of every stele.
“Five roots…… and each one bears some kind of symbol.”
From my quick glance, they were, in order: octopus · maggot · spider · dog · lizard.
“The others we saw before were the same. What intrigues me are the branches—what’s carved there.”
But that was impossible to tell.
There were seven branches in total…… but the upper parts were always missing.
Worn away.
Or smashed by someone.
“Hmm.”
Choi Uk stared up at the stele for a while before turning away with a sigh.
“It’d be great if we could meet one of this world’s natives…… We could learn so much easily.”
“There are natives.”
“Where?”
“The Heteromorphs of Cheonun Hyoja-dong are all humanoid.”
Choi Uk let out a wry scoff.
“True enough. But they don’t speak our language. I meant someone we could actually talk to.”
I shrugged.
This world—a realm of swirling sand and ash—was already dead.
A city shrouded in hollow dampness.
All that remained of this [Fantasy Village] city was a solemn, funeral-home atmosphere.
“How could there be survivors in a place like this?”
The pointless conversation ended there. Choi Uk looked up and beckoned to Mun Ji-hyo, who was waiting on the rooftop of a two-story house.
“Any threatening Heteromorph reactions nearby?”
Above Mun Ji-hyo’s head.
The illusory eye, 《Heavenly Sight》, began rolling its pupil around. Mun Ji-hyo replied.
“No problems. The outdoors are clear, at least.”
Choi Uk nodded and rang the bell five times.
Signal to assemble the squad leaders by branch.
Once the squad leaders had gathered, Choi Uk pulled a map from his coat and spread it on the ground.
“We’re here now. Deep into the southeast of Cheonun Hyoja-dong.”
“That’s correct.”
“We’ll comb this area thoroughly. Bring back anything that triggers a tooltip.”
“We’re focusing only on otherworld structures?”
The distinction between our world and the otherworld was clear.
Buildings from our world remained intact, while those from the otherworld had been corroded by the dampness.
“Exactly. Clear out all threats—we might end up camping here.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong and I entered one of the ruined stone houses in this dead world.
“Fuck, I can’t see shit.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong grumbled as she flicked on the flashlight attached to her gun barrel.
Cheonun Hyoja-dong was oppressively dark.
Stars shone in the night sky…… but for some reason, their light couldn’t penetrate.
“What’s the point of searching a dump like this? This is all a waste of time.”
That’s when something crunched under my foot.
Crouching down and shining my Dawn Sword on it…… it was a white wood symbolic model.
“There’s a tree here too…….”
Was it really the World Tree?
This white wood appeared nearly everywhere in this world.
“What the hell happened here?”
Feeling an inexplicable wave of nostalgia, I stood up.
“You think imagining it’ll give us answers? It was probably some fucked-up nightmare.”
Outside, other Nightmare Hunters were bustling in and out of buildings.
Screams occasionally echoed from the streets.
The sounds of former residents of this world being slaughtered.
I thought to myself.
I’m standing at the heart of one world’s tragedy.
“Doesn’t something feel off?”
Reconnaissance Sergeant Lee Seong-mi said.
It was at the reassembled squad leaders’ meeting.
“There are way too few Heteromorphs. Safety’s good, but this has never happened before…….”
Reconnaissance Sergeant Eom Jae-beom disagreed.
“We’re a hundred-strong combat unit. Elite at that. Heteromorphs think too—they’ve probably fled in fear.”
“Sure, I hope so…… but it’s too different from everywhere else we’ve been.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong quietly crossed her arms beside me.
“Have Heteromorphs ever run from us before? They’ve set traps, sure.”
“The ones here are different from the others.”
That’s when Choi Uk turned to me.
“What’s your take?”
All eyes turned to me in an instant.
I voiced the thought that had surfaced in my mind.
“Could someone have beaten us to it?”
The squad leaders murmured.
Then Second Hunting Squad Leader Go Hoon let out a hollow laugh.
“Who? Rear Hunters? Or those scraps in northern Pyeongchang-dong who just caught their first Subordinate?”
“Not them, but…….”
“If not them, who?”
I had no answer.
Go Hoon’s sarcasm rang true. What threat had I even been imagining?
“Hm. With so few Heteromorph threats, the search went faster than expected.”
Choi Uk checked his pocket watch, then glanced up at the sky.
“We planned to push to the center by morning…… but let’s do it now. Any objections?”
The march resumed.
We crossed the sand fields again.
The worst terrain—every step sank deep, draining our stamina.
No Heteromorphs in sight.
Yet the dead world watched us in suffocating silence.
An oppressive quiet, like walking through the center of a funeral hall filled with collective mourning.
Jeong Ha-kyeong never left my side.
Not during the march, meals, or sleep.
Since our comrades were all slaughtered, our bond had grown tighter.
We had no one else to lean on.
In this desolate world, we were each other’s sole link to a vanished era—the only ones who could share memories of comrades now gone.
“I had a dream.”
“What kind?”
“Military and police joint project. Building a school near Pyongyang. I got shafted into being the liaison with the cops.”
At night, Jeong Ha-kyeong would sometimes recount impossible dreams. I chuckled.
“Typical for a captain.”
“Yeah. But the liaison…… was you.”
“Unlike you, Ha-kyeong, I don’t have the rank to── Oof!”
Jeong Ha-kyeong jabbed my side hard and continued.
“Then a teacher got dispatched—Kim Gye-sang. With Yoon Geon-woo as TA and Cha Seung-hyeon as student rep.”
“TA? Geon-woo wasn’t aiming to teach. And Seung-hyeon’s high school.”
“Fuck, that’s why it’s a dream. The funny part starts here. Labor ace shows up…… Hong Byeong-gyu.”
I pictured Hong Byeong-gyu in a ratty tee and hardhat, and burst out laughing.
- Hey, cop bro.
“You’re enjoying this alone.”
“What if that dream were real?”
I paused while stroking the tip of my Dawn Sword.
“If this were the dream…… a nightmare we never want to dream again…… if we’d all met like that…… how great would it be…….”
Jeong Ha-kyeong leaned her head on my shoulder and began sobbing silently.
I silently sharpened the Dawn Sword’s blade.
It felt like such a distant dream. Too distant to even yearn for.
I didn’t cry.
In this world, truly honoring their lives and mourning their deaths wouldn’t come from tears.
- Gather all the fragments. If you wish to restore the world as the Creator intended.
I bit my lip.
In the heart of the dead world, the Dawn Sword hummed softly.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and rain began to fall.
7.
“This is……?”
I stared at the notebook Seo Hwa-yoon held out, tilting my head.
“Rin Script, right?”
Rin Script: 珍.
This was the form Choi Uk had recorded of the light figure he witnessed during the Gyonam-dong raid.
“You know it well. The key is that this is Shin Tae-yeop’s notebook.”
“……Why would Tae-yeop have it?”
“Something about it jogging his memory? Anyway, the point is this. Did you see Shin Tae-yeop’s condition in the central library? Even a tank Hunter would’ve died instantly.”
True…… but Shin Tae-yeop had survived. Lived.
“You’re saying there’s a link between that miraculous survival and this script?”
“As expected, Baek-jun’s sharp.”
Seo Hwa-yoon pointed to the notebook.
Around the Rin Script, the paper was charred black, as if it might crumble any second.
“I started researching assuming this script protected him. The results? Astonishing.”
Seo Hwa-yoon pulled out a test tube. One containing a Heteromorph body part. She placed it on the shelf, then held up parchment inscribed with 珍.
I gasped.
“How…… how is this possible?”
The Heteromorph part glowed red and began vaporizing.
“Just like your unique skill’s effect.”
“Yes…… exactly.”
A massive realization hit me.
“If we could distribute this to other Hunters…… it’d be revolutionary!”
“You think I haven’t considered that?”
Seo Hwa-yoon held up the parchment. It was charred black like the notebook.
“Once it activates, the paper crumbles, metal melts.”
“Couldn’t we make bullets?”
“Maybe, but…… would the Holy Apostles sit idly by? They destroyed the world to make us rely on their power—using another god’s…….”
Seo Hwa-yoon trailed off.
But I caught her implication.
The massacre at the cathedral on the first day of destruction…….
I shook off the memory with a groan and looked up.
“That makes the research sound pointless.”
“Not entirely. Have you read this Rin Script’s tooltip?”
“I’ll check it again now.”
It had been a while; my memory was fuzzy.
I recalled Choi Uk naming it after his fading daughter, Rin.
Focusing on the Rin Script brought up the tooltip.
Yurvel…….
The creation god who shaped and loved the world.
Chanting the name inwardly, a warm glow, like with Geldharia, enveloped my body.
“From the tooltip, we can infer the Creation God is the polar opposite of the Holy Apostles.”
“……?!”
“The Creation God created and loved the world, while the Holy Apostles seek to destroy it. Total opposites.”
I nodded.
Now came the main point.
“These scripts might be our surest way to overcome the destruction.”
Seo Hwa-yoon added, somewhat uncertainly.
“No idea why he’s sharing this intel with us.”
Choi Uk was still Choi Uk.
Even Seo Hwa-yoon hadn’t grasped the three-way war concept.
“Alright. What do you need?”
“A bunch of similar scripts have turned up in Cheonun Hyoja-dong.”
“……Really?”
“No tooltips, so not sure they’re the same. But as a language form, worth studying.”
“Isn’t linguistics a liberal arts thing?”
Seo Hwa-yoon grinned at my words.
“Books, murals, whatever. Bring ’em as you find them. The central library has every language from the world. We can decipher──”
That’s when it happened.
The door slammed open violently.
A male Association member rushed in and shouted urgently.
“Is the president here?”
“I am. ……What’s wrong?”
“It…… it’s appeared…… in Cheonun Hyoja-dong…… it’s here.”
His pale face and demeanor screamed trouble. A chill ran down my spine.
“It? What are you talking about?”
Dreading the answer yet urging him on, I heard something unimaginable.
“Otherworld…… otherworld Hunter! The Sixth…… Sixth Hunting Squad…… they’ve been wiped out……!”
[Rin Script: 珍]
[Description Summary]
- Lingering image of light recorded as script: 珍
[Usage Method]
- ????
珍 means grace.
It is the symbol of Yurvel, one of the four creation gods who shaped and cherished the world.