Chapter 30: Tuning (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 30: Tuning (1)
Having found nothing at Cheonji, they seemed to have decided to head back down the mountain.
It wasn't my business, so I had started down first, but before I knew it, they were hurrying to catch up from behind.
“…Should we be doing this?”
The problem was, the team members were following me, not Woo Jang-hun.
Woo Jang-hun trailed quietly behind, isolated from the group.
“Of course~”
A female hero who looked like a support class had sidled up right next to me.
Her face was familiar; I felt like I’d seen her on TV a few times.
A pretty face with a vibrant aura.
Her name… I couldn’t remember.
“I’m telling you, we almost died! Because of someone back there…”
She glanced back and glared at Woo Jang-hun.
Her gaze was filled with unconcealed anger and resentment.
“By the way, what school are you from? Gaon, I bet? Or maybe Carlos?”
“Gaon.”
Her eyes sparkled at my answer.
“I’m from Gaon, too! Can we drop the formalities?”
She continued, smiling playfully.
“Go ahead.”
“Thanks! But seriously, how did you get all the way up there? There were so many magical beasts, and just two days ago, you weren’t this cool… I mean, you definitely didn’t have this kind of presence…”
She went on, looking at me with curious eyes.
It seemed the formal speech had been reining her in.
The descent was much easier than expected.
There were hardly any magical beasts in sight.
The few that did appear were weak individuals that posed no threat.
As we descended without any trouble, we soon reached the foot of the mountain.
A huge crowd had already gathered there.
Reporters from broadcast stations, guild officials, and agents from the Hero Association.
They had all flocked here at once to investigate the strange phenomenon on Baekdusan.
The scene was chaotic.
Dozens of camera flashes went off, and reporters urgently shoved their microphones forward.
-Did you find a Fragment?
-What are your thoughts on this incident?
A barrage of questions poured in.
All their attention was on the Lotus Team.
And thanks to them, I was able to slip through the crowd unnoticed.
That was my plan all along in coming down with them.
If someone who looked like a young student had descended alone, it would have drawn more attention.
But with the Lotus Team, the focus was naturally on them.
Thanks.
Seizing the opportunity, I silently slipped away and headed for the terminal.
Just then, a familiar face caught my eye.
Kim Gil-gyu?
He was an agent from the Association, the same one who’d come to pick me up during the negotiations for Iano's Tomb.
He saw me and stared blankly for a moment before quickly reaching out his hand.
“Jung Hae-in…!”
But at that moment.
The surging crowd pushed him back.
He reached for me, but his hand only grasped at empty air.
The distance between us widened in an instant.
I quickly disappeared into the crowd.
As expected of an Association agent, his instincts were sharp.
I gave him a little wave as he grew more distant, a smile on my face.
Then, I silently mouthed the words.
I’m off.
I had no intention of getting caught right now.
*
I arrived at Baekdusan on Saturday and got out on Monday.
It was like the axis of time had been completely warped.
Naturally, I missed school today.
Living the life of a very diligent student.
So, the place I was heading to now was not school.
So many people.
This was Yeouido. Just like in the real world, this place was overflowing with people in this world, too.
Skyscrapers filled the streets, adorned with the signs of various guilds.
The only difference was what lay in the center.
A penthouse, on a vast estate of a completely different scale, stood tall.
And I was now standing in front of it.
I reached for the doorbell at the massive front gate.
Clank!
But there was no need.
The huge iron gate vibrated softly as it opened automatically.
It seemed an internal detection system had already identified me.
Passing through the entrance, a wide garden came into view.
Well-tended paths and a fountain,
and on one side, even a small pond and a pavilion.
Beyond the building, it was a quiet and serene space, hard to believe it was in the middle of a city.
A space that reflected the Old Man's tastes.
The main building was still a little ways off.
You had to cross the garden to reach it.
Just as I was about to walk on quietly, I spotted a silhouette on one side of the yard,
lying comfortably on a sunbed.
Ugh.
I tried to head for the building as quietly as possible so as not to wake her…
“Hae-in…?”
But her senses were, as expected, sharp.
I stopped in my tracks with a conflicted expression.
She lifted her sunglasses slightly, looked at me, and then…
“Hae-in!!”
She shouted, her voice full of delight.
Then she shot up from the sunbed and ran straight toward me.
Squeeze—
I instinctively tried to dodge, but it was too late.
She grabbed my arm without hesitation and hugged me tightly.
“It’s been so long! Since you started school~ Did you skip today?”
A familiar perfume scent tickled my nose.
Her name was Seong Ara.
She was a member of Vanquisher.
I managed to break free from her embrace and got to the point.
“Who’s inside right now?”
Seong Ara patted my shoulder with a wide grin, then placed a finger lightly on her lips and said,
“Hmm… just Gae Gwang-cheol and… me.”
The people I needed most were the Old Man and Park Gwang-cheol.
Gae Gwang-cheol is here.
“What about the Old Man?”
“The Association sent a car for him a little while ago. I think it’s because of Baekdusan? He’ll probably be back soon.”
It seemed best to wait.
“Thanks, I’m heading in.”
“I’ll go with you~”
I opened the entrance to the penthouse with Seong Ara.
It was quite noisy inside.
“Ah… shit… Hey, Seong Ara, did you mess with my drone again?”
An angry voice came from across the entryway.
Park Gwang-cheol.
He was coming out of the living room with a drone in his hand when he spotted me passing through the entrance.
In that instant, he froze.
His eyes widened.
He stared at me for a long time.
Normally, he would have already been laughing and joking around.
But he said nothing.
He was strangely, unnervingly quiet.
“Who… are you?”
His next words made me furrow my brow.
"Did you forget your meds?"
Beside me, Seong Ara stared at Park Gwang-cheol, dumbfounded.
But he kept his eyes fixed on me, pressing his temples and grimacing.
After a moment of thought, he finally spoke quietly.
“…You’re Hae-in, all right.”
His gaze sharpened.
“Hey, kid. What did you do?”
It seemed he had noticed the change in my body.
So I told them the truth.
Because I knew I could trust them.
“I think I absorbed a Fragment.”
Their eyes widened at my words.
“What…?”
The atmosphere froze.
*
I completed a physical examination using a machine built by Park Gwang-cheol.
The conclusion was that there was nothing wrong with my body.
To check for anything else, I now stood in the middle of the underground combat training ground.
Before me was a massive training dummy.
It was a dummy I had personally set as a benchmark.
-Hae-in, I’m starting for real, okay?
It fundamentally possessed a Dark-attribute mana core, making it difficult to inflict any real damage with ordinary attacks.
My plan had been that if Seong Si-woo later absorbed a Fragment and managed to destroy a dummy of this attribute, it would serve as proof that he had fully absorbed the Fragment.
I decided to verify that standard with my own body.
-Difficulty 7, activating Acid Reaper.
Beyond the training ground, behind reinforced glass, Seong Ara and Park Gwang-cheol were watching me.
Their eyes were filled with worry and tension.
The training dummy was at difficulty 7.
It was at a level that would take about two Tier 5 active heroes to handle.
Considering the average Gaon graduate is around Tier 4, it could be considered a fairly strong opponent.
I had deliberately set the difficulty higher than usual.
Part of it was because I was stronger than Seong Si-woo, but more importantly, I wanted to confirm whether the Fragment had been fully absorbed into my body.
-3, 2, 1.
-Begin.
The bizarre silhouette twitched and began to move.
And—
-Kieeeek!
The dummy shrieked and charged at me.
My vision instantly expanded.
My Intuition, which had evolved into 『All-Encompassing Perception』, read the battlefield with even greater precision.
Dodge.
My entire body reacted on its own.
The creature's attack was incredibly fast; normally, it would have been a direct hit.
Swoosh!
I immediately closed the distance and swung my spear.
But the dummy twisted its body, deflecting my attack.
In that moment, the tip of my spear, which I couldn't fully pull back, grazed its body.
Sssss—
‘!’
The dummy's Dark-attribute core sizzled, burning away slightly.
This meant the Fragment's power to extinguish demonic force had perfectly permeated my body.
The confirmation is done.
Then, I immediately kicked off the ground and shot into the air.
A full-power spear throw.
It was the technique I was most confident in.
The moment I took my stance to throw the spear—
“…?”
Suddenly, an unidentifiable impulse rose up in my mind.
I instinctively twisted my body in mid-air.
-Hey, what are you doing!
I heard Park Gwang-cheol’s shout.
But I was already surging forward, wringing out my mana.
This is…
This was not a technique I should have been able to perform.
Catenaccio.
My body was now trying to execute the most difficult spear technique from the original story.
My heart pounded. I didn’t know why, but…
I can do this.
Strangely, I was certain.
I unleashed all the mana in my body.
And with it, I wove clones in my own image.
They were still crude.
I had only managed to create three clones in mid-air.
But this would be enough.
No instructions or commands were needed.
What I was trying to do, where I needed to aim.
I already knew.
Together with the clones I had created, I charged the creature with all my might.
One spear.
And three mana spears,
Fw-fw-fw-fwak!
simultaneously pierced the creature.
Thud!
The dummy collapsed.
“Hah… hah…”
Catching my breath, I slowly raised my hand and looked down at my palm.
My heart was still pounding like crazy.
The test…
was a success.