The suppressed murderous intent boiled up in his expressionless, shadowless face, but disappeared as if washed away the moment he faced In Yoo-shin.
Even so, the remains of the murderous intent remained as a cynicism that twisted the corners of his lips that drew elegant lines.
“There is also destruction where vitality declines and gradually fades away. Animals will not be able to conceive, and plants will not be able to bear fruit and grains. The earth will dry up and dry out, and under the gray sky where not even the sun can shine its full light, it is a moderate and quiet destruction where resignation, not despair, dominates, slowly flowing to the end.”
Destruction.
Hyeon Gyu-ha ran his index finger across the keyboard as he said that. More than half of the keys that his fingers had touched turned to dust.
“Then shall we look around somewhere else?”
Hyeon Gyu-ha turned his back first and In Yoo-shin followed in silence as he walked ahead. The word stuck in his throat scratched his tongue, but he couldn't spit it out.
Gyu-ha talks as if he experienced the destruction himself.
Looking at the graffiti in the closet again, he felt strange. When he first saw this graffiti, he didn’t think he would be swept away by the gate. In Yoo-shin fiddled with the essence of the poison he received from Choi Jin-hyuk in his pocket.
Leaving the locker room for the last time and going up to the second floor, Hyeon Gyu-ha burst two demons in succession. He didn’t know how many demons there were already.
“Are the people outside okay?”
Lee Hye-yeon and Choi Jin-hyuk were A-class hunters, so they would normally have no problem surviving. However, they had to fight to protect dozens of ordinary people with a small number of people.
“It might not be of much use, but there are lower-level hunters and Awakened ones, so they’ll be able to hold out somehow. Finding the dungeon boss quickly will help.”
Hyeon Gyu-ha clicked his tongue and rubbed the back of his neck.
"It's a shame that we're indoors where the pool might collapse at any moment. If we had taken refuge in the outdoor pool, we wouldn't have had to worry about it. Hye-yeon is invincible in water, especially in the ocean."
"Uh, then you're even better than Gyu-ha?"
"Umm...…………."
For some reason, Hyeon Gyu-ha made a very subtle expression at that question.
"I could win, but as a Korean, I guess I should say it's a problem I can't win…
He just asked a childish question about who would win if they fought, but suddenly he started talking about Koreans and things like that, and it became a grand scale. In Yoo-shin quickly followed him, who was one step ahead, because he was curious about the answer.
"Did you hear the name of that sister's artifact?"
"No?"
"It’s called ‘Do not tell death’."
In Yoo-shin, who thought it sounded old-fashioned, thought about his words and flinched. If you combine the words about being invincible in the sea and hiding death....... Th-that's why................
"Uh................ That, don’t tell me...................... That, uh......…............ "
"Do you understand?"
In Yoo-shin nodded his head fiercely. Fighting and winning against Lee Hye-yeon, who had deployed that artifact, felt a bit odd for a Korean like him.
"That's why I don't really want to fight that older sister. I don't want to lose, but even if I win, I'll feel bad."
"I'm asking just in case, but isn't that a Japanese artifact?"
"It's a Joseon artifact. There's also a mini turtle ship artifact pattern on the shoulder, so ask her to show it to you when she’s wearing short sleeves."
A mini turtle ship. Even the saying of that is cute.
“Oh, now that I think about it, when I was in middle school, wasn’t there a huge news story about Noona catching a sea monster that other countries couldn’t catch? It was in Southern China?”
“That’s right. As expected, your memory is good.”
Hyeon Gyu-ha smiled as he praised In Yoo-shin for something trivial and got another chance to stroke his head.
“To be exact, it was in Northern China. The gates in the waters near Lezhao went wild, and the sea monsters poured out in large numbers, but we couldn’t catch the boss. We mobilized S-class hunters, but there was no answer, so we secretly pushed them out to the sea in front of Lianyun and got rid of them.”
Shandong Rizhao is part of North China, and Jiangsu Lianyun, which borders it, is part of South China.
The South China government, the Republic of China, which was suddenly struck by lightning, strongly condemned it, but the People's Republic of China government in the north pretended not to know, saying there was no evidence. Since they were split from one country, they are called North China and South China, but South China is weaker than North China in terms of territory and national power.
According to the logic of power that dominates the international community, the investigation into the truth was concluded haphazardly, and South China was in danger of covering up the damage.
The South Korean government dispatched Lee Hye-yeon after receiving an SOS from the South China government. A week later, she took a promotional poster for the Ministry of the Interior, holding the crystal of the boss monster she had hunted like a crown.
In other words, Lee Hye-yeon easily destroyed the evil spirit that North China had failed to catch and had barely managed to throw away in another country. My shoulders tense up for no reason. The best of all evil spirits is, after all, the national evil spirit.
Even now, inside the dangerous gate where the evil spirit was bursting under the pressure right before his eyes, he walked side by side with Hyeon Gyu-ha, having a leisurely conversation. Was it because he looked no different than usual?
The feeling of a sharp thorn sticking out from his chest lingered and lingered.
A strange black and white world.
Hyeon Gyu-ha, who sometimes walks ahead and sometimes walks alongside, but never puts the human spirit in front.
And the red-tinted…………….
“Yoo-shin-ssi, these stairs seem a little dangerous. I’ll carry you up, so come here.”
“Ah, yes!”
In Yoo-shin quickly approached, trying to suppress the awkward feeling of awkwardness that was like a foreign object.
He looked around the main building and even the stands surrounding the stadium, but he couldn't find the dungeon boss. The only achievement was that he found the store.
When he opened the refrigerator, the cold air that had been pent up flowed out. In Yoo-shin quickly closed the refrigerator door.
"Can't I eat sealed snacks or ramen?"
"It's possible as emergency food, but they say it doesn't taste good. It's like chewing on paper or sand."
"This place really isn't a place to stay for long."
"That's why the best strategy is for no one to enter the erosion gate. The level of the demons is not bad, but the environment is the biggest enemy. The only reward for clearing is that I survived."
He left the store and looked around the archery range for the last time. There were many demons that Hyeon Gyu-ha had dealt with, but the dungeon boss was still nowhere to be seen.
"I think it's on Guild Leader Narsha's side."
"If I'm going to do it, I'd like to show off and take down the boss alone. The boss here is annoying to mentally attack, and he's also squishy, so it doesn't really go along with me."
Unlike other demons that had animal forms to some extent, the amorphous demons that emerged from the erosion gate were more like slimes or liquid monsters.
When he came out to the playground, he saw the remains of demons here and there. Fortunately, no one seemed to be hurt. At that moment, Gong Tae-seong also finished his search and suddenly swung his sword widely as he crossed the playground. White flames rose from the blade and burned the demons that were attacking from behind.
"Whoa."
“…….”
Hyeon Gyu-ha stared at me as he inadvertently exclaimed. In Yoo-shin quickly added.
"The sword energy launch is even cooler."
"Of course."
"Anyway, since the guild leader must have found it, I guess we can leave the dungeon."
The white flames that burned the black and white world without shade had a mysterious beauty. The amorphous black demons without vocal cords or mouths were silently consumed by the white flames without a single word. In the white air, fragments of white flames danced. A flame blazed from the tip of Gong Tae-seong’s sword as he cleared away the nearby demons. It was a mysterious sight that naturally drew attention, proving that the nickname of the salt king was not given for nothing. Hyeon Gyu-ha’s gaze, which was watching In Yoo-shin, grew faint and he touched his shoulder.
“Yoo-shin-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“The temperature of fire is the highest when it is blue.”
“That’s what they say.”
“White is the temperature below that.”
“……?”
“That guy’s awakening ability is also a white fire.”
“Ah…….”
Only then did In Yoo-shin understand Hyun Gyu-ha’s words and glanced at Gong Tae-seong walking away while burning the last demon. Did he hear it? It would have been better not to hear it, but judging from his expression, it seemed like he had already heard it.
“If I had awakened pyrokinesis, it would have been blue fire.”
“That’s right, right…………….”
In Yoo-shin's heart pounded at the sight of Gong Tae-seong's expression, which seemed to indicate that he wanted to burn Hyeon Gyu-ha instead of using fire. We shouldn't fight here…................
Fortunately, Gong Tae-seong, who is sanguine but has common sense, ended up glaring at him. While glaring, his eyes seemed to sting for some reason.
“Judging from the state of the dungeon, it seems like he found the boss and ran away, but his mouth is still alive and he’s still babbling.”
In Yoo-shin corrected his thoughts. He was a little less common sense. He had nothing to say since Hyeon Gyu-ha was the one who started the fight without any reason.
“You’re talking about someone else. What are you talking about when you couldn’t even burn the boss with fire and missed it?”
“There was no boss.”
“There wasn’t one in the west either.”
“…….”
The boss of the dungeon was neither in the west nor in the east.
In an instant, a quiet silence fell. Lee Hye-yeon’s bewildered voice, approaching to mediate the two, echoed through the playground.
“So now………………. The dungeon boss is nowhere to be found?”
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Credits:
Translator: Hoshi Miya
Editor/Proofreader:
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