Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: The Endless Loop
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Watching people thrust themselves into the blazing Paradox Flame in the large basin stirred up all sorts of emotions.
"It's like something out of the Bible."
Han Sang-ah, who'd been gazing at the scene, cracked a joke that made me chuckle.
"What're you talking about all of a sudden?"
"Doesn't it look like they're getting baptized by fire? That phrase pops up all the time in the New Testament."
"Didn't know you were into religion."
Han Sang-ah responded to my comment.
"Not really. My grandpa went to church religiously, though."
"That old man?"
She replied again.
"There was this church that famous politicians and big shots frequented."
"Ah, so that's his angle."
Seems like prayer and faith weren't on his mind—he was just there to network. Smart guy.
"Doesn't hurt to drop by when you've got time. The church my grandpa attends asks for an elder tithe between 200 and 300 million won."
Damn, that's steep. Back in the day, even the priciest ones didn't demand more than three million for a position tithe. Anyway, religion's not my business.
"A lot of famous hunters have some religion or another."
Some are probably devout, others just go for the image. Not important either way.
"I've got a juicy rumor about that, too."
Jeong Oh-hoon, munching on peanuts like he'd picked it up somewhere, jumped into our conversation.
"A rumor?"
He grinned mischievously.
"We'll chat about it later. It's not a big deal, right? Good for a drinking story at best."
I figured we should handle the pressing matters first. Night had fallen deep, and we'd head out for another search at dawn. Ideally, we'd find Jaun Valley's Erosion Core by tomorrow.
After eating and washing up roughly, we crashed. Come dawn, as the sun peeked over the horizon, we geared up and headed back to Changchun City.
"Still the same."
The thick purple fog blanketing the Changchun City area hadn't budged an inch, smothering everything in sight.
The spots we three were scouting were the countless lakes and reservoirs around and inside Changchun City. According to the last report from the missing hunters before comms cut out, the fog dominating the area seemed to be spewing from those bodies of water.
"This is no joke."
Following the operators' guidance, we reached a lake on the outskirts of Changchun City. About five lakes clustered together not far off.
"What the hell, is this the gates of hell?"
Enormous clouds of thick purple fog billowed from the bubbling, boiling lake water.
If 600,000 people crowded together puffing e-cig vapor like it was their last breath, would it look like this? The fog was that dense.
No exaggeration—it felt like you could grab handfuls of the stuff, knead it like dough, and bake yourself a loaf.
"No wonder masks or resistances don't cut it."
We knew about the lake from the operators' briefings and maps, but the fog hung like blackout curtains, making it impossible to pinpoint locations.
"Let's head in."
As we plunged into the fog, we all started coughing in unison, like we'd rehearsed it. Jeong Oh-hoon, looking uneasy, pointed to the Paradox Flame blazing around his head.
"Hey, this thing really works even in a situation like this, right?"
Instead of answering, I cranked up the Paradox Flame's intensity. The ferocious blaze incinerated the toxins in the encroaching fog.
"It's just the thick steam making you cough."
No poison involved. Steam inhalation therapy at the ENT clinic can trigger coughing sometimes. Or a wet sauna works as an example, too.
"Anyway, we're good."
"Can't you just burn all this crap away? You're burning away the harmful properties anyway. If all the toxins in the area lost their harmfulness, would that be a problem?"
I shook my head at Han Sang-ah's suggestion.
"Even if something seems useless, making it vanish causes issues. Since we're in China, want a local example? The Great Leap Forward."
More famous as "that sparrow purge," probably.
Sparrows are harmful pests.
Everyone knows how that ended, right?
"Mercury, hydrochloric acid, radioactive materials, antifreeze... What do you think happens if they lose one of their core properties?"
I have to limit it to what I can control. Can't go unleashing the uncontrollable.
"Let's start investigating."
Looks like the cute little Casper ghosts were waiting for us, too.
Ghosts zipped out of the fog, making weird noises as they swirled around us. But they couldn't harm us anyway.
Instead, about 33% tried possessing me and got crushed into oblivion. Occasionally, a poltergeist would lash out at us...
But that wouldn't inflict real damage. Mental attacks are their main gig, and when those fizzle out, they're neutralized. Duh.
"Nothing here."
After checking it out, we moved to leave the lake.
Navigating the thick fog, I halted at the operator's words. No way. I'd never lost direction.
"Chan-seok, you sure you didn't mess up?"
Seeing my serious face, Jeong Oh-hoon piped up. I answered curtly.
"Jeong, I don't screw up on stuff like this."
I'd drilled the importance of senses into Jeong Oh-hoon and Han Sang-ah nonstop. Me screwing up the direction?
I'd never gotten lost or mixed up directions even in a massive labyrinth lined with hundreds of mirrors everywhere.
"I agree with Yoo Chan-seok. No way it's a mistake."
Something was interfering. After glaring at the ground for a while, I clicked my tongue.
"Damn it, found you at last."
I'd traced the thread-thin strands of mana spreading across the ground like microfiber. The fog and ghosts had obscured it, plus it was spread so thinly.
"It's a loop."
A magic circle that keeps looping you back to the same spot. "Low mana" was relative to how thinly it was spread—the total mana involved was massive.
The active circle's range was at least 5km in every direction.
Like gold leafing the ground with mana. No wonder it's hard to spot. And damn, it's intricate and precise.
Feels like staring at a statue carved from pencil lead.
"Definitely a monster shell inside the Erosion Core."
But this could work in my favor. I hit the in-ear button right away.
"Looks like I can pinpoint the Erosion Core's location. Send the other hunters back to Harbin."
Backtracking should nail it. No random ghost could lay down something this stealthy and refined.
After about 30 minutes racking my brain on backtracking the circle, the operator's voice came through the in-ear, sounding a bit flustered.
"Hah, shit."
Feared as much. Not a puny 5km circle after all.
The hunters had gotten lost in this fog with time limits ticking. They all knew what happens once the fog takes full effect.
The circle mainly used hallucinations or auditory tricks to disorient. Luckily, operators were tracking hunters and trying to keep them on course.
I stopped dead at those words.
"Son of a bitch."
The in-ear was blasting multiple operator guides. I'd heard three. Meaning two were hallucinations, one real.
"Interfering like this."
Not radio jamming—just mimicking operator voices with hallucinations to nullify the guidance.
"Can't tell them apart?"
"I can."
Hallucinations differ from real voices. Precisely, hallucinations are mana-made, laced with faint traces of it. The issue? Others can't sense or filter them out.
I'm different. I use ambient mana directly, so my mana sense dwarfs other hunters'. That's how I pull it off.
"Escaping alone doesn't help."
We had 250 backup hunters in Harbin just in case... but over 600 were trapped here. If the ghosts possessed them all, they'd turn on us.
I kept eyeing the mana flowing through the ground. I couldn't draw circles, but nullifying them? Piece of cake.
After analyzing the circle, I spat on the ground.
"To break this, gotta find and disable 24 key points."
"Eight teams entered Jaun Valley besides us. Forget breaking it—link up with other hunters and lead them. More efficient, no?"
Han Sang-ah offered her take right away.
"We could get looped again during rallying."
Jeong Oh-hoon countered reasonably. He's right. Plus...
"You two could fall to hallucinations, too."
They might think they're following me, only to snap out of it alone far off.
"I can tell real from fake."
With things this tangled, we had to hustle.
"Any estimate on how long other hunters can hold out?"
My question triggered a mix of real voices and hallucinations blasting through the in-ear. Think you're messing with me, you bastard circle?
I instantly sifted the real operator and listened, then whistled.
"Three hours? Tougher than expected."
Damn, that's sprint-through-fire territory.
"Why? Sulfur bugs hold at least 15 hours, and resistance types even longer."
Irritated, I relayed the operator's explanation to Jeong Oh-hoon and Han Sang-ah.
"Some of these damn hunters are following hallucination voices instead of real ones."
And one more problem.
"Where do those voices lead them? Ta-da—lakes near their positions."
Jeong Oh-hoon muttered "damn it."
"So, what's the plan?"
"Know the easiest way to avoid auditory or visual hallucinations?"