Chapter 51 : Into the Dungeon. (9)
Chapter 51: Into the Dungeon. (9)
Brainwashing and controlling the monsters with a large magic circle had been an impulsive move.
I had copied exactly the method that the archmage Mister Eden had used when fighting extraterrestrial lifeforms.
‘So it really works.’
Once again, I marveled at the Purchase (Purchase) Talent.
To think I could recreate a comic-book hero in reality.
Was there any ability more broken than this?
While I was admiring the ability, a man who looked like the field commander approached me.
“Jincheon Guild, A-rank hunter Ja-ryong Kang In-seok.”
The man who had been shouting for everyone to run was nowhere to be seen; now, his eyes were filled with respect.
“What exactly are you? You don’t look like some ordinary intern…….”
Kwa-gwa-gwang!
A thunderous explosion rang out from somewhere.
Even at this very moment, someone was teetering between life and death.
Ja-ryong let out a breath.
“This isn’t the time to be making introductions. Fine. So.”
He continued.
“What should we do?”
The A-rank hunter put aside his pride and asked me for advice.
That alone showed how desperate he was.
I looked around, and it was obvious that everyone was exhausted from the grueling battle.
There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t injured.
As if they didn’t even have the strength to speak, everyone was just gasping for breath.
To them, the only hope was probably me.
A heavy sense of responsibility pressed down on my shoulders.
I knew the method.
But putting it into practice and succeeding were a different matter.
Still.
I had to overcome it.
Because a hero never gives up, no matter the hardship or adversity.
I turned around and started walking.
“Follow me.”
The place I led everyone to was the end of Dongho Bridge.
Based on Oksu Station, it was the starting point of the temporary bridge laid over the Han River.
“Is there a gate here?”
“According to our investigation, there wasn’t one. Only around the Gangnam District…….”
“Then.”
I cut off the Jincheon Guild agent.
“What about a hidden gate?”
“Huh? That would be…….”
Just like dragon leather hides its identity in a polymorph state,
a hidden gate was a gate that had opened but turned transparent and couldn’t be seen.
I stretched my hand out into empty space and injected mana.
Soon, an oval shape emitting a pure white light revealed itself around my hand.
“This is the main gate.”
Bewilderment crossed Ja-ryong’s face.
“Tch. So it was hiding here.”
One of the agents pointed at the gate.
“How do you know this is the main gate?”
Since I knew it through information from my previous life, I decided to make a vague excuse.
“I can sense it with my ability.”
The moment he heard my answer, Ja-ryong gave an order.
“Good. I’ll go in with a few others and take it down.”
With a multi-gate, once the main gate is closed, the rest all shut down at once.
With the solution right in front of him, Ja-ryong grew excited.
“No. You can’t go in.”
“What?”
Ja-ryong furrowed his brow and turned toward the voice.
Someone who had been silently watching until now stepped forward.
“It’s a closed-type, right?”
He was a hunter with his arm fixed in a triangular sling.
The severed arm was barely held together by bone and muscle.
“Superior Guild, A+ hunter Cream Lee Do-hoon.”
He continued.
“Thanks to you, I owe you a lot.”
Cream slightly bowed his head toward Hase-na.
Hase-na wiped the beads of sweat flowing down her forehead.
“For now, I barely managed to attach it. This is my limit, so once the battle is over, go to a big hospital.”
Cream lowered his head.
“That’s more than enough. The Dio Guild really has many skilled people.”
Jincheon and Superior.
Comparing the outward appearances of the two representatives,
Ja-ryong, with his thick stubble, looked like a tough guy,
while Cream gave off the image of a gentleman who would suit a tailored suit.
“I heard earlier—you’re Hunter Choi Yong-gi, right?”
“Yes.”
“Am I right? Closed-type.”
“That’s correct.”
Ja-ryong roughly scratched his head.
“Fuck. A hidden gate, and of all things a closed-type. This is a headache.”
Right then, the pure white gate rippled and grew even larger.
Jjeoek.
It was as if a gigantic monster had opened its eyes.
The white color of the gate turned blood-red.
Inside the thin membrane of the gate, a massive number of monsters pressed their faces toward this side, screaming.
“Graaah!!”
“Gaaah!!!”
They were ghostly figures cloaked in black mantles, like grim reapers.
Inside the robes, the skulls had no eyes, with their noses and mouths gaping wide open.
As if cursed by Satan himself, they thrashed about, seething with malice as they tried to cross into this world.
Ja-ryong and Cream both frowned.
“Disgusting. Every time I see those things, they make my skin crawl.”
“Agreed.”
The being over there was a Bater.
It was a spirit-world monster that sucked in a human’s inner self like a vampire.
Baters stole reason, tortured the mind, and attacked the dark side, breaking people down.
If exposed for too long, it was dangerous enough to leave someone ruined for life.
Cream clenched his teeth.
“Now what do we do.”
With a normal gate, if humans entered and subjugated the monsters, the door closed.
If the subjugation failed, monsters would pour out of the gate endlessly.
A closed-type gate meant humans couldn’t enter, and monsters couldn’t come out either.
Strictly speaking, closed-types weren’t that threatening to humanity.
Given time, they would disappear on their own.
In a few days, that red door would vanish without a trace.
But.
‘I can’t wait.’
The longer we did nothing, the damage caused by the multi-gate would keep piling up.
Even one second faster.
We had to deal with this headache.
Ja-ryong drew his sword.
“We can just force it open.”
There was not absolutely no way to enter the gate.
If we tore apart that thin barrier acting as the boundary, entry would be possible.
However, doing so would mean dragging the Baters out into the world.
Cream tried to stop him.
“We’re already short on hands, and you want us to deal with those things too? I’ll pass.”
Baters were spirit-world monsters, so physical attacks didn’t work on them.
They even flew freely through the air.
Even among high-rank hunters, those who could fly were rare.
That was also why there was nothing anyone could do if a dragon that flew through the sky appeared.
“Then what are we supposed to do!”
Feeling impatient, Ja-ryong raised his voice.
I stepped forward.
“I’ll go in.”
A heavy silence fell.
There was a strategy to close a closed-type in a short amount of time.
To face and kill that many Baters ‘alone.’
It sounded simple, but it was never easy.
Neither Ja-ryong nor Cream.
It was something they absolutely couldn’t pull off.
“No.”
“That’s impossible.”
The heads of each guild tried to stop me, but I didn’t mind.
“Make an opening in the closed-type and push me in there. If you intentionally seal the hole from the outside, the Baters won’t be able to come out either.”
“That’s too dangerous.”
“You could die.”
They were right.
If I failed, the closed-type gate would shut.
Not only would my body never be found.
My soul would wander the Nine Heavens forever along with those evil spirits.
“I’ll do it.”
I repeated myself.
There was no other way.
Someone had to step up for us to escape this hell.
“To deal damage to Baters, my ability has to be used. It’s something only I can do.”
Ja-ryong and Cream’s expressions darkened.
Their deliberation didn’t last long.
“Sorry about this.”
“I’m sorry as well.”
They apologized.
It was probably guilt over pushing onto someone else what they themselves couldn’t do.
Yeah.
‘This is what a real hunter is.’
There were people like Seo Gwang-pal who abused their power.
But there were also true Awakeners who struggled to save the world.
“Not at all. I’m grateful that you held out until now.”
Ja-ryong and Cream spoke.
“Then, what should we do?”
“We can’t just dump this on an intern and stand around spacing out.”
I pointed to the other side of the bridge.
“Please stop the wave. While you do that, I’ll close the main gate somehow.”
They turned away.
“Hey. Whipped cream. You’ll be fine with one arm?”
“No problem. You don’t even have bullets.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Before I’m a rifleman, I’m a swordsman.”
Ja-ryong raised his voice.
“Everyone heard that, right? Let’s squeeze out every last drop of strength we’ve got for the people of the Dio Guild here!”
As he turned, he added,
“Hey. Let’s talk after this is over. This kid said he’d buy us a beer.”
Cream let out a small laugh, looked at me, and then turned away.
Once the Jincheon and Superior Guilds disappeared, only me and the intern remained.
I picked up a piece of stone and drew a line on the asphalt.
“Su-hwan. Just handle things up to here.”
With our combat power greatly reduced,
they wouldn’t be able to stop all the monsters.
I planned to make Bang Su-hwan the final line of defense.
“Yes. Hyung. Leave it to me.”
A sense of unease washed over me.
‘If even this guy gets breached. Then…….’
I forcibly suppressed my anxiety and continued.
“Hase-na, you support the injured from Jincheon and Superior.”
“Got it.”
Before she turned away, I said,
“Don’t die.”
It was short, but it was sincere.
Lee Ji-jun waited for my orders.
“What is it this time? A three-meter spear? Or are you going to make some kind of priest bomb? So we can wipe those things out.”
Unfortunately, blades and guns didn’t work on Baters.
“Put up a curtain.”
If the protective barrier of the closed-type gate were torn, the Bater would come out.
Something was needed to stop it.
“Baters can’t pass through human blood.”
“That’s the first I’ve heard of that.”
“It’s written in the manual.”
“Oh, really?”
It was a lie.
It was a secret of Baters that wouldn’t be discovered until five years later.
“Please.”
I placed a hand on Lee Ji-jun’s shoulder.
His pure white hair fluttered in the wind.
“You sly fox. If you say it like that, I’ve got no choice but to give it everything I’ve got.”
Without hesitation, Lee Ji-jun tore both his palms open with his nails.
“I’m ready.”
I raised White Revenge.
Then I drew a vertical line across the gate’s barrier.
Ziiik.
I kicked off the ground and leapt.
Like a fetus entering its mother’s womb.
Just before the Bater came out, I grabbed the thin membrane with both hands and went inside.
“Now!”
Lee Ji-jun spread the curtain of blood.
Inside the gate, the Bater and I became tangled together.
“Kkieeek!!!!”
The Bater’s desperate scream slammed into my eardrums.
Black commands wrapped themselves around my body from all sides.
It felt as if countless snakes were crawling over my entire body.
My airway tightened.
There wasn’t enough blood flow to my brain.
I felt like I was going to pass out.
“Ghk.”
Black veins bulged out over my wrists like spiderwebs.
I reflected my face in the membrane in front of me.
The bulging veins in my neck were obvious.
My pupils had turned pitch-black.
The Bater’s ominous mana was eating away at me.
In my muddled consciousness, my life flashed before my eyes, and hallucinated voices rang out.
“Hey, you fucking bastard!”
“Hyung. I’m quitting school.”
“They were killed by a villain.”
My grandmother and my younger sibling left my side.
And the horned monster that had driven humanity to extinction in my previous life spoke.
“You worm-like creatures. Disappear.”
What I finally heard was—
my father’s voice.
“Yong-gi. This won’t do.”
It was the image of my father from when I was young, the man who never bought me hero toys.
Back then, I couldn’t say a word.
But as an adult, I had talked back to him.
“Why not? Because we’re poor? If it’s money, I have as much as I want!”
“No. It’s fate. We mustn’t chase what we cannot become.”
Those words—‘won’t do’—echoed as if denying me, resounding like eternity.
No. No. I can’t do it…….
Only then did I realize.
Right. This was a hallucination.
I had to steady my mind and fight back.
At present, I couldn’t use <Judgment of the Superhuman> or <Infinite Acceleration>.
Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to deal damage to the Bater.
<Alusia> was useless as well.
Mental domination attacks didn’t work on Baters.
Only holy-type or light-attribute attacks could damage it, but that was beyond my abilities.
If that was the case.
I closed my eyes and gently traced circular, streamlined motions with both hands, as if swimming.
In the process, dozens—hundreds—of magic circles were created.
I immediately placed both hands on my chest.
The magic circles were absorbed into my body one by one.
“Khk!”
My spine tingled as I felt my heart burning.
This was it.
The method of placing a mental-type attack on myself and bearing the load (負荷).
Whether the Bater’s brainwashing was more vicious.
Or Mister Eden’s black magic was more cruel.
In the end, who would win?
My father was wrong.
‘I will choose the fate I want.’
Thousands of magic circles pierced through my body like spears.