Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Reckless Consequences
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A blocked entrance.
After a straight path of traps came a zigzag course.
"It feels like I'm just following a recipe."
After a long journey, Gregory too stood before the Cursed Room.
'An illusion spell, he said?'
He didn't pass through the stone chamber before him. Looking back, he saw the seventy Awakened following him.
"We wait here until our numbers are replenished."
At his command, the tankers took positions at the front and rear and began to rest in shifts.
'No fatalities yet.'
They hadn't been completely unscathed. Their numbers had dwindled from one hundred to seventy due to injuries. However, none were life-threatening.
'It wounds my pride. Their team only has ten people.'
Trusting Wang-sik was one thing, but his pride in his own abilities was another.
As a hunter, Gregory possessed a pure competitive spirit. But this raid had made the difference between them painfully clear.
'Should I just push forward?'
The Cursed Room, the one Wang-sik had strictly warned him not to enter rashly, was right before his eyes.
If he had his way, he would have led his elite team and conquered it himself.
'It's not just my life on the line.'
The old him wouldn't have stopped.
'Right now, Bae Wang-sik is the leader.'
Officially, he was the leader, but in reality, Wang-sik was leading all one thousand of them.
'Patience.'
Gregory chose pragmatism over pride.
While some were patient, others had no intention of waiting from the start.
"Reinforcements have arrived."
A team of two hundred hunters, led by Wang Jin-chun and E Suo-lin, joined them.
This brought the number of hunters under their command to 280.
"Why did so few come?"
Wang Jin-chun asked with a frown, and the Chinese hunter acting as his adjutant replied.
"The rest refused the order."
"What?"
"It seems Gregory didn't allow it."
Wang Jin-chun had requested three hundred reinforcements. With over eight hundred hunters waiting at the entrance, he hadn't anticipated any issues.
But only two hundred had responded to the call.
Those who had come, despite Gregory's orders, were mostly individuals with close ties to China or those who hoped to forge such ties.
"It doesn't matter. Let's just finish this quickly."
At E Suo-lin's words, Wang Jin-chun set aside his complaint and looked at the wall of illusion before them.
"The other team broke through with just ten people. We didn't even need this many."
"No need to leave out the people who came here to fight."
Listening to their conversation, the adjutant asked with a worried expression.
"We were told to wait. Will this be alright? And... we're the only group that's had fatalities..."
The adjutant trailed off as he saw Wang Jin-chun's expression.
"And what of it? Did you think there would be no sacrifices in an S-rank gate raid?"
Even though twenty Chinese hunters had died, Wang Jin-chun showed no change in emotion.
"My apologies."
As the adjutant finally backed down, Wang Jin-chun gave his order.
"Relay this to the tankers. As soon as you enter, secure the opposite side."
The adjutant wanted to say something else, but he didn't get the chance.
'There's no guarantee the same monsters will be in there.'
There was no way Wang Jin-chun and E Suo-lin didn't know this.
'Are they just thinking they can handle whatever comes?'
Regardless, they were confident they could deal with it, even if it meant sacrifices. Sending the tankers in first was a way to mitigate their own risk.
The order was relayed, and the tankers from various nations who had answered the call mixed in with the Chinese tankers.
"Enter!"
The tankers broke through the wall of illusion and went inside.
Three seconds later, the rest of the Awakened followed through the illusory gate.
Wang Jin-chun and E Suo-lin passed through the gate, ready to attack at a moment's notice.
"What is this?"
Wang Jin-chun's voice was laced with displeasure.
He was seeing something completely different from what he had expected.
"Aaargh!"
"H-Help me!"
Screams.
The tankers who had entered first were being cut down before they could even get into position.
"Guild Leader! It's a Royal Nest!"
The Royal Nest was the leader of the S-rank monsters, the Blood Nests, that they had encountered in the passage.
"One Royal Nest, four Blood Nests."
E Suo-lin quickly assessed the situation and scanned her surroundings.
Spotting a black orb floating in a corner of the ceiling, she immediately opened her palm.
Frost quickly formed around the black orb and began to freeze it. The scattered insects sensed the danger and returned to the orb, but E Suo-lin's response was faster.
Shatter!
The orb broke, and the insects rained down. But in that short time, the Blood Nests that had spread throughout the room were tearing into the bodies of the Awakened.
Entering the open space was a mistake in itself.
In the narrow passage, they could form a wall of shields to block the insects' approach, but not here.
Because the tankers had entered in a single file line, the insects descending from above easily attacked their rear.
"Help me!"
The screaming didn't stop.
Those trying to retreat the way they came to save themselves ended up tangled together, blocking the exit.
"It's faster to just deal with them."
E Suo-lin and Wang Jin-chun ignored the screams around them and focused on eliminating the Blood Nests.
Already knowing their weakness, their combined assault quickly took care of the remaining Blood Nests.
Amidst the pandemonium, their attacks were cold and precise, and eventually, only the leader, the Royal Nest, remained.
But sensing the power of the two, the Royal Nest's insects swarmed toward E Suo-lin all at once.
In response, E Suo-lin stopped her attack and encased her body in ice.
Ice Shield.
It was a barrier stronger than most tankers' shields.
At least, that's what she had believed until now.
Screeeech!
"How can this be..."
Her ice began to be rapidly ground away by the insects. Meanwhile, Wang Jin-chun threw a sword of fire at the Royal Nest's orb floating on the ceiling.
Immense power struck the red orb directly.
From inside her ice, E Suo-lin saw the sight and thought it was all over.
"Concentrate your attacks!"
Sensing that the orb wouldn't shatter in a single blow, Wang Jin-chun ordered an attack.
The surviving Awakened instinctively added their power, and the Royal Nest's orb, which had been holding on, finally shattered.
"Hoo."
A hole was about to be bored through her ice wall, so E Suo-lin let out a sigh of relief, relaxing for a moment.
It was then.
A circular afterimage remained where the orb had shattered.
"Huh?"
As someone pointed in surprise, the Royal Nest's insects that had fallen to the floor shot up toward the ceiling.
And one by one, they began to turn into bloody fluid.
"What is this?"
The bloody fluid began to fall toward the floor very slowly. Someone shot an arrow at it, but the arrow broke upon contact with the fluid and fell to the ground.
The middle of the arrow was charred black.
It had been burned away by a powerful acid.
The bloody fluid began to fall, burning even the surrounding air into vapor.
A rain of bloody fluid.
There was nowhere to run.
"Wang Jin-chun, get over here."
E Suo-lin pulled Wang Jin-chun to her side.
"Wall of Flame."
As Wang Jin-chun enveloped their surroundings in fire, E Suo-lin deployed a powerful ice wall inside it.
The intention was to burn as much as possible with the fire and block the rest with the ice wall.
They had managed to respond, but the others had not. The tankers lay their shields flat and hid underneath, but it didn't seem like it would be enough.
Everyone foresaw what was about to happen.
Hell.
Everyone, save for two people, was now simply awaiting their deaths.
Vwoooom!
It was then that a magnificent sound filled their ears.
A massive barrier spread out, bisecting the entire room horizontally. The barrier didn't stop there, rising toward the ceiling.
The falling bloody fluid disintegrated into white vapor upon contact with the barrier, which remained until all the fluid had completely oxidized and vanished.
An unfitting silence then fell over the room.
While everyone was crouched down to avoid the falling fluid, one person remained standing.
A tanker holding a golden shield.
It was Wang-sik.
He hadn't appeared from the entrance, but from the exit. The exit was normally only visible after destroying a magic circle, but since Wang-sik had come from the other direction, he was able to pass through the illusion.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Wang-sik asked, his voice thick with fury.
His voice was directed at Wang Jin-chun and E Suo-lin, who were still protecting themselves with their wall of fire and ice.
They belatedly lowered their defenses.
"I told you to wait."
"We were going to clear it anyway, so what was the point? As you can see, the raid was a success."
"So you don't care if your comrades die?"
"Isn't it natural for there to be casualties in an S-rank gate raid?"
Wang-sik suppressed the urge to kill him. At least, this wasn't the place for it.
He turned from the unreasonable Wang Jin-chun to E Suo-lin and said.
"Is this your method of conquering the Earth?"
Unlike Wang Jin-chun, E Suo-lin said nothing. Wang-sik added another word.
"If this is how you do things, you'll be the only one left alive in the world you conquer. That's called isolation."
"Don't speak so carelessly."
"How shameless, struggling to save only yourself. If I were you, I would've just shut up and bowed my head. Have you no shame?"
"That's..."
"I told you to shut up."
Wang-sik cut her off and gestured behind him. Shin Myeong-sik, who had been crouched by the exit, approached.
"Get Gregory on the line."
Gregory's voice came through the communication crystal.
—How are things on your end?
"Just as I expected. They ignored my orders and went ahead. Over a hundred dead. Send the healers this way."
—Understood.
"And E Suo-lin and Wang Jin-chun are off the operation."
—You're kicking them out?
"Because these bastards will ruin us."
At those words, Wang Jin-chun couldn't hold back and took a step forward. In that instant, a chain shot toward him.
Wang Jin-chun quickly batted the approaching chain away and launched himself into the air. At that moment, Wang-sik charged, shield raised.
Clang!
The moment Wang Jin-chun's attack was blocked by the shield, the chain that had been deflected changed direction.
Shhh-clank!
Wang Jin-chun's body was bound by the chain.
'Powerless.'
Wang Jin-chun's eyes wavered as he twisted his body. Still, with the strength of an S-rank hunter, the chain began to loosen bit by bit.
Furthermore, the other Chinese hunters rushed toward Wang-sik.
"Stop!"
E Suo-lin's voice halted the Chinese hunters in their tracks.
She looked at Wang-sik and said.
"Won't you regret this? The boss monster is probably still ahead."
Over a hundred had died, but the firepower of the Chinese hunters was still formidable. It was a ploy to remind him of that fact.
The firepower of two S-rank hunters, in particular, was absolute. But Wang-sik didn't feel the slightest bit of regret.
"Two more weaklings won't change anything."
Wang-sik threw the nearly-free Wang Jin-chun next to E Suo-lin.
He tried to charge again, but E Suo-lin raised a hand to stop him.
"Fine. Go ahead and try. You'll have to take responsibility for everything."
"Of course. That's what a tanker does. But who's responsible for what happened here?"
"It was just an accident. The kind that often happens in a raid."
At her shameless words, Wang-sik looked at E Suo-lin with an emotionless expression and said.
"So this is what it looks like."
"What?"
"Your character, I mean."
E Suo-lin's body trembled. Seeing her, Wang-sik also grew angry.
"Why are you the one getting angry?"
Wang-sik took a step toward her, his expression one of genuine confusion.
"No one who died here was more insignificant than you. How can you, the most insignificant survivor, dare to be angry?"
Overwhelmed by Wang-sik's presence, E Suo-lin took a step back.
E Suo-lin wanted to make an excuse. But she realized she wasn't just facing Wang-sik.
The eyes of the surviving hunters were condemning her. Among them were even Chinese hunters.
Even the faces of the Chinese hunters who weren't glaring at her were filled with regret and conflict.
Thud!
Wang-sik planted his shield into the floor. The surviving hunters then drew their weapons and began to take their positions behind him.
The number of people gathering behind him grew one by one, quickly exceeding one hundred. These were the very people who had been following E Suo-lin's orders just moments ago.
"S-Stop..."
E Suo-lin finally surrendered.