Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Awake
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Humans take in most of their information visually. As a result, much of human behavior inevitably relies on sight. This was an ironclad rule.
However, it seemed that rule didn't apply to someone like Lee Gyeo-ul.
"You have no idea how much training and instruction hunters receive from their schools and associations. You can never beat me with cheap tricks and noise like that."
The wind slithered unpleasantly.
The gust Lee Gyeo-ul whipped up tore mercilessly into my body.
Like being thrown into a blender, the wind's blades shredded my flesh to ribbons, and with excruciating pain and dizziness surging through me, I dropped to my knees on the floor.
The ground had already become a crimson lake from the blood and chunks of meat spilling from my body.
The illusion I'd cast on Lee Gyeo-ul shattered.
She clicked her heels down the ruined hallway, approaching me as I knelt hesitantly in the pool of blood.
Her darkness, deeper than an abyss, seemed ready to swallow me whole.
My heart pounded wildly. My entire body trembled under the overwhelming pressure of her presence.
But this wasn't the tension born of fear or terror.
Unconsciously, I curled the corners of my mouth upward.
Right. If I couldn't beat Lee Gyeo-ul with petty sleight of hand, then I'd have to go all in, staking my life on this fight...
I pulled out the "white powder" I'd been clutching in my pocket.
Lee Gyeo-ul's eyes twisted for a split second.
"That's..."
Experimental Awake.
A drug that forcibly ramps up a Psyker's Erosion Rate, turning them into a Dimensional Beast.
The alchemist's masterpiece that sparked the "Dimensional Beast Awakening" incidents, and the kind of doping narcotic Goat had been distributing around Academy City.
In conclusion, this drug turns Psykers into Dimensional Beasts, but there's one crucial fact to know before that.
Why would students at Arcana Dimensional Beast Hunter Academy even take Experis?
The answer was simple. Experis was a magic potion that let them seize powers they could never normally have.
I resolved to fight Lee Gyeo-ul prepared to become a monster.
Aria Blood von Direwolf seemed to have escaped safely already, so I no longer needed to worry about my surroundings.
Thus, I would act purely on the thrill and battle heat coursing through me now.
I, the one and only "Psyker" and "monster" in this world, inhaled a massive dose of Experis.
"You're insane."
Lee Gyeo-ul clearly knew what Experis was. I etched her contorted expression into my eyes one last time.
The Experis, absorbed through my nose into my body, dyed my vision in hallucinations.
The colors of the world swirled in a vortex, crumbling my field of view.
The boundaries between lines and points warped; the entire universe blurred into an abstract painting, opaque and hazy.
It felt like what reality might be if James McNeill Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket came to life.
My mind grew hazy, and surrounding sounds smeared together like those of someone drowning underwater.
Yet, unlike the vague sensations, what I had to do was crystal clear.
Right here, right now, I had to smash Lee Gyeo-ul to pieces.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A Psyker's superpowers come from a virus.
Humans gained supernatural abilities from unknown viruses that came through the Rifts. This allowed them to reach the new realm of Psykers and gain the power to oppose Dimensional Beasts.
The psychic virus was a double-edged sword.
The more the virus eroded the body, the stronger the superpowers became, granting transcendent might. But if the Erosion Rate exceeded a certain threshold, it came with the fatal side effect of transforming into a Dimensional Beast.
Despite that drawback, humanity as a collective embraced superpowers without hesitation because they were indispensable against Dimensional Beasts.
Each Psyker had vastly different tolerances for Erosion. Ordinary Psykers rarely exceeded 20%, and even Psyker hopefuls aiming to be hunters hovered around 40%.
Those hailed as geniuses topped out at about 60%, and only three in all of Korea surpassed that.
The first was Lee Gyeo-ul's mentor, the second was Lee Gyeo-ul herself, and the third was the once-in-a-generation gem named Yubyeol-ha.
'Yubyeol-ha Sunbae is the only one in the world. Even at 100% Erosion Rate, she won't turn into a Dimensional Beast. No one else ever will.'
Lee Gyeo-ul clicked her tongue, recalling words from a colleague long ago.
'Looks like another one of those special humans is about to be born today. Or not a human, but a monster.'
The mask hiding the monster's face shattered.
The revealed vampire was none other than Baek Do-hyun.
Baek Do-hyun stared at Lee Gyeo-ul with vacant eyes, ominous red sparks crackling across his entire body.
Those red sparks were unmistakable proof that his Erosion Rate had surpassed 80%.
"Accelerating, huh... Nostalgic. It was my go-to method before I met Cheong-ah, too."
Accelerating referred to recklessly boosting a Psyker's Erosion Rate with drugs or similar to amplify their power output.
But given how using superpowers inherently raised Erosion Rate, finding the right balance was incredibly hard. Hunters mainly used it as a suicidal last resort.
'No rationality left, so he's clearly handed control to the virus, but no signs of turning into a Dimensional Beast.'
Lee Gyeo-ul sighed, sensing the situation had gotten troublesome.
Did Psykers who weren't human simply not transform into Dimensional Beasts?
"Haa... He was definitely the friend who drew pictures for Cheong-ah. I thought she'd finally gotten a good boyfriend, but looks like neither she nor I have an eye for men. Who would've thought he was a monster, not a person..."
Mid-sentence, an ominous heat haze rose.
Without hesitation, Lee Gyeo-ul hurled herself through the window, leaping from the third floor.
As she fell to the ground, she glanced back at where she'd stood.
Tremendous heat was painting everything in its hue. The concrete outer walls melted away like summer ice cream.
Baek Do-hyun leaped after Aria from the gaps in the molten building facade.
Lee Gyeo-ul deployed her ability to propel herself skyward while slamming Baek Do-hyun's body upward.
She compressed the air again to unleash another convection warhead.
But things didn't go as she hoped.
Baek Do-hyun thrust his hands forward and activated his power.
Crackle, crackle! A sudden cold snap swept in, snuffing out the heat from the compressed air.
"Heat manipulation...?"
The cold wave Baek Do-hyun unleashed crashed toward Lee Gyeo-ul's entire body. In an instant, she froze solid and plummeted from the sky.
Baek Do-hyun didn't miss the moment. He gathered ultra-high heat in his right fist and smashed it into the falling Lee Gyeo-ul.
Heat haze and frost intertwined, warping space with the fusion of extreme cold and blistering heat.
BOOOOM!!!
The heat fusion pulverized everything around Lee Gyeo-ul, reducing the area to rubble.
The sports field where students once played now bore a massive crater, like something from the moon's surface.
Amid the rising steam, Baek Do-hyun stood calmly, exhaling white, misty breath like fog.
Fusion Pulverization was currently Baek Do-hyun's maximum output strike, but...
"That hurts..."
Lee Gyeo-ul regenerated her vanished body once more, flashing a wry smile.
Even within the fusion pulverization, she'd ceaselessly protected and regenerated her body with Barrier Fields to minimize damage. But she realized her Erosion Rate was nearing its limit.
"Killing you like this would be the most rational choice, but unfortunately, I'm not into becoming a monster myself."
She'd used too much cost messing around with Aria.
Black sparks flickered at her fingertips.
She didn't have the skill to fight in a state where the virus had fully eroded her body, like Yubyeol-ha Sunbae.
It was time to pull back.
"Guess that's it for today. But since we're at the same school, we'll probably cross paths again. Or maybe..."
That mindless state would leave him wandering this world forever.
Lee Gyeo-ul waved goodbye to Baek Do-hyun and vanished like the wind.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Yubyeol-ha stomped off.
"This jerk has to say something when it's over. Why isn't he picking up...?"
Baek Do-hyun hadn't called at the promised time, so Yubyeol-ha decided to take matters into her own hands.
Not that she was worried about him, of course. She just didn't like the idea of a useful pawn for her revenge vanishing without a word.
She handed Antonio's custody to the guidance officers cleaning up the scene, then dashed from place to place until she pinpointed Baek Do-hyun's location.
Yubyeol-ha hurried onward.
When she arrived, what waited was a school reduced to ruins.
The main building looked like a demolition site mid-tear-down. The annex had been caught in the aftermath too, in bad shape.
The sports field had a massive crater gouged right in the center, as if a meteor had struck...
'What the hell happened here...?'
Her shock was brief. She spotted Baek Do-hyun standing dazed in the center and rushed over.
"Hey, you bastard! When it's done, you call..."
Yubyeol-ha halted mid-step.
Something was off about Baek Do-hyun's vibe.
He was looking right at her, but his gaze felt alien.
She knew the emotion in his eyes all too well.
They were the eyes of a predator facing prey, glaring at Yubyeol-ha like he could devour her any second.