Chapter 758: Gold (1)
I went up to the rooftop garden. Two helicopters had already landed there. Yerim, Moon Hyunah, and people from the Hunters Association were unloading supplies from them. More helicopters arrived right after. I could also see helicopters taking off from the Haeyeon building next door.
“We cleaned out a ton of A-rank and above stuff!”
Yerim said it excitedly. Ms. Hyunah sent a file to my phone.
“All the item info’s in there. Everyone’s still moving nonstop, too.”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
Once Gyeol woke up, the items she’d made would disappear. But she’d said that once the system finished applying, the dream-world copies of real items would regain their original performance. They weren’t real items anyway, just dream versions, so there was no reason to leave good extras sitting around unused.
“Director Han!”
Shishio jumped down from a helicopter. I quickly asked Gyeol to let me use Shishio’s translation item.
“These are the items I’d been saving up. They’re single-use, so I didn’t even bring them to the fight against the Haeyeon Guildmaster.”
He held out a large box to me, then shrugged off the flashy coat he was wearing.
“SS-rank equipment, Thousand-Year Ironwood Leaf. It’s specialized for defense.”
“…That was equipment?”
“I dyed it and added decorations. Originally it was a plain bronze color. Took me over a month!”
Shishio laughed proudly. I’d thought it was custom clothing, but it was equipment. SS-rank or not, it was a little embarrassing to wear. It was way too big for me, too. Equipment with size-adjustment functions still had limits…
“Um, Ms. Hyunah. Want to wear this?”
“…SS-rank?”
“Yeah. I think the stats would suit you.”
She was a close-combat type, so she needed defense too. Moon Hyunah looked dubious, but she took the coat and put it on. It was excessive—red with white and gold patterns, plus metal and fur trim—but it suited her better than I’d expected. She actually looked great.
“I’ve got S-rank weapons here too. Enough for your little brother to melt down as much as he pleases. There’s even an SS-rank dagger.”
Shishio gave me a lingering look, clearly disappointed he couldn’t come with us. Under that burdeningly earnest stare, I smiled as warmly as I could and thanked him.
“Mr. Puppeteer says he can help connect just Hunter Moon Hyunah.”
It was possible to pull S-rank hunters into the dream world with Mari and Gyeol’s abilities, but Rookie had warned it would be dangerous for now. Mana would be thrown into chaos by the intervention of the transcendents. Still, Ms. Hyunah would be getting support from Puppeteer. Probably because of Sigma.
‘So he really is planning to leave it to Ms. Hyunah.’
I stole a glance at Chief Song, standing stiffly near the entrance to the rooftop garden. He had made up his mind to take responsibility for Seong Hyunjae. With his life on the line. That meant it would be hard for him to become someone else’s guardian too. From Puppeteer’s point of view, Ms. Hyunah was probably the better fit.
A helicopter came down on Seong Hyunjae’s side as well. Kang Soyeong and Evelyn stepped out, followed by Mr. Vantes. Mr. Vantes set down a locked bag in front of Seong Hyunjae. They exchanged a few words, but the helicopter noise drowned them out.
“Looks like there’s still no word from Hunter Noah.”
Emily, who had arrived with the European items, spoke with obvious disappointment.
“And I’m not exactly in any position to help.”
“Then we’ll just make good use of the potions. Maybe our paths crossed.”
At least he was still safe. Given how little we’d heard, I suspected he and Little Jin had seen the message we left and gone together to France. I was worried, but if it was those two, they’d probably be fine. The transcendents’ top target was Seong Hyunjae anyway.
The countdown in the system window kept shrinking. One by one, the people who had brought all kinds of items started to leave. About thirty minutes left now. I looked up at the sky. The stars kept vanishing and reappearing.
‘He said an elder.’
Young Chaos, cutting off the paths the transcendents were creating. A stretch of light on one side of the black sky was swept away all at once. Then, in that pitch-black sky, one light after another began to return. Even so, compared to before, it had been cut down by about half.
Whenever the darkness stretched long across the sky, relief seeped into my chest. Even in that overwhelmingly hopeless place, I had someone solidly on my side. It had only been a few days, but suddenly I found myself missing him.
“Gyeol.”
Gyeol, who had been draped over my shoulder, lifted his head.
“It’s time for you to go too.”
– …Okay.
The pink fairy dragon fluttered up into the air. His eyes, full of worry, fixed on me. He fidgeted with his front paws, then opened his mouth.
– I’ll wait for you, Daddy.
“Yeah. Gyeol.”
The words it’ll be okay never came. Gyeol wasn’t clueless, and that only made empty reassurance feel worse than useless. The inside of my chest burned.
“I’ll go home too.”
– I know. Don’t worry about home.
I nodded, and after hugging me tight once, Gyeol vanished. I let out a short breath. Now.
I used the Teacher skill. At the same time, a slash of golden light came crashing down before my eyes.
Clang!
I brought up Shishio’s spear in front of me. A golden chain wrapped around the shaft, and Puppeteer’s hand covered mine. Crackle! Electricity burst out. But Grace nullified it. Puppeteer, pressed close against me, took no damage either. Holding the end of the taut chain, Seong Hyunjae smiled faintly.
“You looked at me like you missed me. Cold of you.”
“Back off. I told you. Peace, you too.”
Yuhyun, Yerim, and Peace all moved farther away. None of them had recovered their rank or skills yet. Moon Hyunah also sprang backward and folded her arms. Chief Song’s brow tightened. I turned to Seong Hyunjae.
“That’s one thing and this is another. Do you have any idea how you treated me? It hasn’t even been a year yet.”
A lot had changed—enough that the past felt hard to believe—but he’d done way too much brutal crap for me to just forget it.
“You’re the kind of guy who once shoved someone to the floor and pinned them there with your foot.”
“…Hyung?”
“That bastard did that too?!”
Yerim flared up, furious. No, see, the thing is—
“He’s also the guy who used to think about wiping you and Yuhyun out. Anyway, if he’d gone back to who he was then, it’d be obvious.”
If this were the Seong Hyunjae from back then—
“To Mr. Seong Hyunjae, I’d be—”
“A useful item.”
“Exactly. That’s what I’d be. And going into a fight, I’d be the kind of item you’d definitely want to keep on hand.”
Doubling attack skills was already absurdly useful, and Grace let me serve as armor too. I had L-rank detox and curse removal, and I could read at least some of the enemy’s information. On top of that, the Teacher skill could assist with battle precognition.
“It’d be easier to spirit me away before the system finished applying.”
Gyeol’s ability would just be a hassle, so he would’ve waited until the kid disappeared. At my words, Seong Hyunjae put on a show of looking disappointed.
“I thought Han Yujin liked me quite a lot.”
“What, you wanted me to get careless and let myself be dragged off? Then you should’ve acted from the start. You can’t lay all your cards on the table and still expect people to fall for you.”
“Didn’t I tell you I value myself?”
Ah, right. If I was supposed to help him recover part of his emotions, then yes, he would’ve had to tell me. Past Seong Hyunjae really was insufferable. How the hell had I ended up becoming friends with someone like that? I was a strange bastard too, honestly.
Crunch. The chain wrapped around the spear shaft turned slowly. Faint currents crackled, and scratches began to appear on the shaft. Recoil pushed back from the Teacher skill I’d used on Seong Hyunjae, but I could endure it. Puppeteer looked down at me. He was weakened now, down to around S-rank instead of being a transcendent, but… gritting my teeth, I used the Teacher skill on Puppeteer too. Pain rang through my skull in an instant. My breath tore out of me.
“You really are reckless. Though I suppose that’s how you made it this far.”
With that whisper, Puppeteer’s arm wrapped around my waist. At the same moment—crack! The spear shaft, ground down by the chain, gave out under the pressure and snapped. Along with the broken pieces, thunder split the air.
Rumble!
A powerful current leaped up, blackening the garden as it surged, gathering along Puppeteer’s touch. Then I stepped in front of him.
Thud.
Grace nullified the electricity, but the aftershock slammed dully into my chest. Clink, the gold chains split apart piece by piece. Some aimed at us, but the remaining links shot toward the people who had backed away. Seong Hyunjae, you absolute—
Srrr—
Threads unraveled from Puppeteer’s sleeve. The drifting strands spread in an instant, piercing through the golden rings and tangling them tight. The crackling rings froze in midair, but their owner—
“Good.”
A gloved hand shot out without warning. Puppeteer grabbed a thick bundle of thread and spun me with him. Fingers grazed my hair by a razor-thin margin, then dropped away. At the same time, Puppeteer teleported backward. The hand that had clawed through empty air withdrew smoothly.
“Stop!”
Chief Song shouted.
“One reason I’m trying to help Hunter Seong Hyunjae includes Han Yujin’s safety!”
“And?”
Seong Hyunjae tilted his head slightly.
“Even if I were to kill Han Yujin, Song Taewon, you would still save me. Wouldn’t you?”
“…Hunter Seong Hyunjae!”
“So I ought to seize Han Yujin and make use of him as things stand.”
Clink. The rings wove themselves together again and returned to their owner.
“But I’m not feeling especially motivated.”
“Why, have you already gotten attached to me or something?”
“Because even if I took you, it feels like you’d still find a way to escape.”
Gold eyes blinked slowly. There seemed to be a trace of genuine perplexity in that gaze.
“The odds are low. But the problem is that I remember Han Yujin’s track record.”
“I have caused a lot of trouble.”
“By simple calculation, using Han Yujin as an item gives the highest chance of success.”
But the odds of an F-rank with F-rank stats making it this far had been vanishingly low. And yet that low-probability outcome had happened over and over again. Even Seong Hyunjae couldn’t be fully certain he could overpower me and keep me under control.
“This memory is quite troublesome.”
Seong Hyunjae muttered under his breath. Even if they were memories stripped of emotion, they couldn’t be without influence. I looked at the system window. Nineteen minutes.
“Then why not just ask me for help? You know perfectly well I’d say yes.”
“Who knows.”
Seong Hyunjae’s gaze lifted to the sky. Who knows, my ass. He remembered everything, didn’t he? I hadn’t given up on Seong Hyunjae. Not once. Not after everything.
“The people around Han Yujin won’t agree.”
“Well, sure, they’d probably say we should just ditch you. Still, there are transcendents after me too, and—”
“Because you’re falling apart.”
Those golden eyes settled on me again. Chief Song’s shoulders jerked.
“Crescent Moon already knows. Once the system applies, the others will know too. Better to keep the number of obstacles low.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“Han Yujin’s physical condition.”
I swallowed hard. Chief Song looked away. Yuhyun and Yerim, as if they’d realized something, started moving toward me.
“Every sentient being contains a tiny fragment of their source.”
An infinitesimal fragment of the source. If the proportion was larger, they could be born S-rank, or become something closer to a specific attribute than a human—like Yuhyun.
“A person’s source. The core, like a soul, that returns to the source.”
Seong Hyunjae’s voice stayed calm as he went on.
“Han Yujin. Haven’t you ever felt like the very essence of you was slipping out of alignment?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
The answer came too fast. So fast even I noticed it. Seong Hyunjae smiled.
“There was actually one more condition for me to recover my emotions.”
“…What?”
“More precisely, it was a condition under which I wouldn’t have asked about my emotions in the first place.”
“What does that even—”
“If, before I died, Han Yujin had honestly told me about his own condition.”
My heart lurched.
“If I was going to lean on Han Yujin and hold on to hope, then Han Yujin needed to be safe first. So if you hid even your own abnormal condition, it would be difficult to rely on you.”
“…Hyung, what is he talking about?”
Yuhyun’s hand grabbed my arm. His eyes were shaking so hard it was almost unnatural.
“I thought you got better.”
“I’m fine. I—”
“Hyung!”
“You said before that even your lifespan had increased…”
The sensation I’d felt when I cut the system connection could have just been my imagination. The elder hadn’t said anything either.
“Right. If something was wrong, the elder would’ve scolded me again, wouldn’t he? Right?”
The time kept ticking down. I could feel the mana in the air slowly changing. It settled in smoothly, spreading wide and even.
[Honey! There’s barely any time left! Sending messages is getting hard too, and I’m putting you first on the priority list!]
Right after Rookie’s message came another.
[You need to cherish yourself.]
Another transcendent’s message appeared. It had to be Crescent Moon. Then, right beside me—
“Huh? A message window popped up.”
Yerim said. Yuhyun and Moon Hyunah were looking at message windows too. I wanted to stop it, but there was no way.
The message continued.
[You are cracked.]
–TL Notes–
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