Chapter 167: Hunan Province (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 167: Hunan Province (4)
The second floor of the cafe inside the Maengju building.
A secret, perfectly soundproofed space used exclusively for meetings.
The atmosphere among the women in this peaceful room was warm and pleasant.
All except for one.
“I’m so pissed.”
Ha Sion was chewing the paper straw sticking out of the iced Americano in front of her.
Her usual gentle, mild-mannered demeanor was gone, replaced by a simmering rage that looked ready to explode at the slightest provocation.
“I hear the scenery there is just gorgeous~”
Cheon Yeo-wool, sitting across from her, muttered in a teasing voice as she lifted a forkful of chiffon cake to her mouth.
The “there” she was talking about was, of course, Zhangjiajie.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to do it outdoors?”
“Do you have a death wish?”
That finally crossed the line.
“Sorry, sorry.”
At Ha Sion’s low warning, Cheon Yeo-wool giggled and stopped her teasing.
Yu Hana, Kang A-rin, Cheon Yeo-wool, and Ha Sion.
The four of them had reached an agreement here a few days ago.
They were all aware of the risk.
If all of them followed Jung Hae-in to Zhangjiajie and the Evil God’s real target turned out to be the Pentagon, things could get very complicated.
And so, with heavy hearts, they had decided to assign someone to stay behind.
Someone had to leave Jung Hae-in’s side and handle the dirty work in the far-off United States.
The four of them drew lots.
And in the end…
Ha Sion was chosen.
“This doesn’t count, does it?”
“Why not?” Kang A-rin asked, tilting her head.
“Yoon Chae-ha, she should have been in on it, too. Add her in and let’s draw again.”
“Heh heh.”
Ha Sion grumbled, but it was already too late.
They were leaving tomorrow.
“I’ll bring you back a souvenir~”
As if to prove the point, the other women just laughed.
*
Saturday morning.
Before I knew it, the time had come to depart for Zhangjiajie.
The members who were leaving with me headed for the Maengju Guild’s main building early in the morning.
We gathered in the combat analysis room on the top floor.
It was time for a final check of our equipment and condition before we left.
I was first.
Standing in the middle of the room, I slowly closed my eyes and quietly unwrapped the bandages on Catastrophe.
As I released my mana, Catastrophe slowly began to react.
Vwooom…
The menacing aura of the crimson spear slowly spread through the air.
“No problems here.”
This was good enough.
I slowly opened my eyes.
Then I stepped out of the combat analysis room.
Next up was Kang A-rin.
“Sub-Guild Master, you may enter.”
When a staff member called for the next person, Kang A-rin stepped into the room.
Through the glass, I watched her stand on the testing platform, her face completely devoid of tension, and started a conversation with the girls sitting next to me.
“…So what did you tell your parents?”
Yoon Chae-ha was sitting beside me.
Since she’d mentioned taking the drastic step of deceiving her parents, I asked out of concern.
“That I was sleeping over at my boyfriend’s place.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
How was that any different from telling them she was being dispatched to a dangerous place?
If anything, parents would hate that even more…
“No, but still…”
“When I told them it was you, Hae-in, they told me to have a good time.”
“……”
I’d figured her parents, being researchers, would be pretty old-fashioned.
They were, it turned out, far more open-minded than I’d expected.
I took a moment to seriously consider how I should process this situation.
Just then, as if remembering something, Yoon Chae-ha clapped her hands and spoke.
“Oh, and they asked me to be sure to tell you this.”
“What is it?” I asked, a sense of unease creeping over me.
“They said to make sure you use contracep—mph.”
Before she could finish, I reached out and covered her mouth.
Her lips were soft and warm against my palm.
Her eyes went wide as she looked up at me.
I glanced around quickly.
Thankfully, the others didn’t seem to be paying us any attention yet.
I let out a sigh of relief and whispered quietly to Yoon Chae-ha.
“You don’t have to… say things like that.”
Beneath my palm, she just tilted her head.
“I don’t have to?”
“No, that’s not what I…”
It seemed like we were talking about two different things. I shook my head and moved away from her.
Any more conversation and I felt like I’d get swept up in her pace.
It was the same with Cheon Yeo-wool and Yu Hana.
They, too, seemed to have made up suitable excuses to head to China.
‘I didn’t say anything.’
Ah, except for Cheon Yeo-wool.
She said she was just tagging along.
The checks were nearing their end.
The others, having more or less finished their preparations, gathered in the center of the room.
All the checks were complete.
“I’ve booked the portal. All we have to do is go,” Kang A-rin said, looking back as she came out of the analysis room.
I glanced over her and the others.
The playful expressions they’d worn earlier were gone.
Seeing them like this, I felt reassured.
Except for Yoon Chae-ha, of course.
She wasn’t reassuring in the slightest.
We left the analysis room without a word.
And we headed for the clearance office where Maengju’s private portal was located.
As expected, there was no direct portal to Zhangjiajie.
We had to go to Changsha in Hunan Province, the nearest international portal hub, and then travel to Zhangjiajie from there.
In the original world, it was a national park, so there would have been transportation available…
But in this world, Zhangjiajie was a hazardous area.
So there was nothing of the sort.
We traveled from the clearance office in Seoul.
“Let’s go.”
A swirling vortex of space-time, shimmering blue.
As I stepped into the portal, the familiar yet unpleasant, nauseating sensation of space twisting washed over me.
And the next moment…
Whoosh.
We had arrived in China.
Poke.
Just as I was trying to get my bearings, dizzy from the disorienting sensation…
Someone poked me on the cheek.
The feeling forcibly snapped my consciousness back into focus.
“You’re here?”
When I came to my senses, Yu Serin was standing before me.
She was waiting for us, dressed in a form-fitting black combat suit.
Lined up behind her were the members of Phantom in various outfits.
“Yes, we’re here.”
“Leave the guiding to us. I’ve been living abroad for so long, I’m practically a local. Hehe.”
With that, she turned and headed for the airport exit.
We followed her in silence.
“…When did you two get so close?”
Yu Hana, who was sheathing her Dongbaek Sword beside me, asked cautiously.
I had spoken with Yu Serin frequently via video call over the past few days.
I’d contacted her to see if there were any problems on-site, but most of our conversations ended up being idle chatter.
Swish.
Just then, Yu Serin, who had been walking ahead, turned back, sidled up right next to me, and started chattering away.
“Hey, that thing we talked about before I went to sleep last night. Was it true? That the top 10 students at Gaon get to live in the penthouse these days? We didn’t have anything like that back in my day!”
Yu Serin asked nonchalantly, fully aware that the others were listening.
“Before you went to sleep… a call…?”
The moment I heard Cheon Yeo-wool muttering from behind me, I sent Yu Serin back to her Phantom team.
“……”
Yu Hana looked at me as if she had a lot to say, but she made a gesture that seemed to say she’d hold it in for now, since we had a mission ahead of us.
It looked like once this mission was over…
Some kind of change was definitely on the horizon.
We took a black vehicle Yu Serin had rented and headed for Zhangjiajie.
We dropped our things at the base point she had set up near the mountain entrance—a place that looked like an ordinary mountain lodge on the outside.
“We’ll begin immediately.”
Kang A-rin had delegated all authority for this mission to me.
Therefore, Phantom was also under my command.
On the central table in the mountain lodge, I projected a hologram of the results of my all-night analysis.
I began the briefing.
“We will split up and approach a total of six points.”
I had successfully narrowed down the locations by analyzing the geological patterns and vegetation.
As a result, we only needed to check six locations instead of six hundred.
I placed six red markers on the map.
“We will divide into six teams and begin the search simultaneously. In teams of two or three.”
“What exactly are we supposed to be looking for?” a man who appeared to be Phantom’s second-in-command asked me.
I explained calmly.
“If the point you reach is the real target, a giant Golem will burst out of a wall the moment you get close.”
“…For real?” Yu Serin asked from beside me, a look of disbelief on her face.
“Yes.”
It was real.
I had designed it that way.
A Golem containing the Fragment would emerge.
“The mission itself is not difficult at all. The problem, however, is that this is an area where the wavelength of Mines has been detected.”
I looked at each of the gathered members, taking them all in.
“Therefore, during the search, you must maintain communication status every five minutes. If contact is lost for any reason, immediately disregard everything else and head toward that team.”
We were each given a terminal that shared our locations in real time.
Now, it was time to form the teams.
First, Yu Hana and me.
Yu Hana had to move with me, no matter what.
Second, Cheon Yeo-wool and Yoon Chae-ha.
Their synergy was surprisingly excellent.
Cheon Yeo-wool, who specialized in a Holy Method that burned away Demonic Force, and Yoon Chae-ha, who wielded flames that did the same.
This combination would be the team with the most powerful firepower.
Third, Yu Serin and Kang A-rin.
Both of them moved like shadows.
Their stealth and high-speed mobility would not only allow them to reach the target point quickly but would also make them excellent at providing support.
The remaining three teams were formed by dividing the Phantom members appropriately.
I had made all the decisions. Then, looking at the determined faces before me, I gave the order in a low voice.
“Let’s move out.”
Without delay.
The mission to acquire the Fragment of Order had begun.