Chapter 23: 23

[Translator – Rainypup]

Chapter 23 – Song Eun-young (3)

I didn’t know who the god Vector was, but I should thank them. Ahn Joo-hye pushed Kim Yoo-han aside.

No fear, that one.

Fortunately, Kim Yoo-han didn’t seem to have any plans to hurt Ahn Joo-hye as he threw my sword to the ground.

I grabbed Ahn Joo-hye’s hand and barely managed to stand. I looked around the messy interior of the cave.

[The dungeon has been cleared.]

[Calculating points.]

The Giant Ant Cave dungeon expedition we had thought would be ordinary ended in the worst way possible.

Besides me, who couldn’t move, the remaining hunters moved to search for the exit gate. Once Min Seong-taek and Kang Hyun-seung woke up, Kim Yoo-han cooly acted as if nothing had happened. Maybe it was because Ahn Joo-hye had worked for a long time as a D-rank hunter, but she was fast on the uptake. It seemed like she was going to pretend as if nothing had happened. 

Though compared to her, I felt wronged no matter how I tried to twist it in my head since I was the one who got beaten up without even knowing why. In fact, whenever it seemed like I was going to say something, Kim Yoo-han glared daggers in my direction.

‘I’ll let you go since I’m in so much pain, really.’

“Then, I’ll be back soon.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Kang Hyun-seung, who didn’t know anything, said before going out to search for the exit. After my teammates left, I sat down and leaned against the wall, then started blankly staring at the other end of the wall. The signs of the battle remained in the cave.

Corrupted entities referred to corrupt energy. Gods did not have any concept of a physical form. A form was merely a temporary vessel.

One could call them an ego of agglomerated will and transcendental power. Most gods stuck to their territories since that was the reason for their existence. 

Corrupted entities were beings that deviated from the meaning of their existence.

‘Technically, that queen ant can’t really be called a Corrupted entity. It was more of an eroded entity..’

It was clear I had to figure out why and how something like this occurred. Once I had regained some of my stamina, I looked around the cave.

“This is…”

Something was shining from where the corrupted entity had disappeared. No one had found it yet because it was in a puddle of muddy water.

Once I kicked away some of the water, I could clearly see what it was. 

It was a small piece of glass.

I took a handkerchief from my pocket and used it to pick up the glass fragment.

“I knew it.”

Someone had used the Queen Ant and created this mess.

‘ …They’re heading back here. They’re close.’

I wrapped the glass fragment with my handkerchief and put it in my pocket.

Min Seong-taek and the others, who had found the exit, had returned.

“Phew, in the end, this was a bit of a loss.”

“At least we’re alive.”

“It must be nice to be so calm.”

“What calm? I’m trying to comfort myself somehow.”

Kang Hyun-seung and Min Seong-taek said as they stood in front of the exit gate.

The two walked through the gate while muttering about how sick and tired they were of caves.

I glanced slightly at Ahn Joo-hye who was beside me.

The Queen Ant raid had obviously gone smoothly.

Although a suspicious existence had made a corrupted entity appear, taking on something at the level of the Queen Ant was easy.

Just as I was about to talk to Ahn Joo-hye, I made eye contact with Kim Yoo-han who hadn’t gone out yet.

“You go out first.”

Kim Yoo-han sighed softly when he sensed my annoyance. I stopped myself from asking what he was sighing for. His reply was really something.

“You go first.”

“I don’t wanna.”

It suddenly became a childish fight. Ahn Joo-hye, who was between me and Kim Yoo-han, went through the exit gate first.

I wanted to talk to Ahn Joo-hye, but it was too late. No matter how I thought about it, the Queen Ant only started to act strange after Ahn Joo-hye threw her dagger.

Even though I didn’t have any proof, there was nothing wrong with asking.

I had just lost the best timing to ask. I didn’t want to start a fight for no reason, so I just quietly went through the exit gate.

“Ugh, my eyes.”

The brightness of the area hurt my eyes since I had spent over two days trapped inside a dark cave. We were the only ones around the dungeon gate. Unless there was a special reason, the people from the Hunter Association only checked when hunters entered a dungeon.

Hunters who came out of the dungeon simply had to leave a report on the Hunter Network and Guild Site.

Of course, if there was no report within the expected timeframe, then that would be grounds for investigation.

Anyway, we had come out of the dungeon within the expected period.

The problem came from elsewhere.

An ear-splittingly noisy siren rang from the apartment buildings nearby.

“It’s a dungeon break.”

“They’ve been happening more frequently recently.”

Kang Hyun-seung and Ahn Joo-hye calmly talked to each other.

‘A dungeon break means that monsters will rush out to reality, right?’

Wasn’t this a dangerous situation?

All things considered, the three people’s reactions were a little strange.

They seemed a bit tense, but they seemed to be excited as well.

Outside the dungeon, our things got piled up in one spot.

Kim Yoo-han couldn’t be seen anywhere.

“Huh? What about Kim Yoo-han?”

“I didn’t see him.”

“Did he leave right after we cleared the dungeon?”

“There are guys like that. He’s really a strange guy.”

Did he really leave right after we cleared the dungeon?

‘Well, he is really bad at social interactions.’

The siren continued to ring noisily.

An alarm rang on the four people’s phones almost simultaneously.

[Notice]

Black Orc Temple ( C ) dungeon breakGyeonggi Province, Ilsandong-gu Madu-dong Mt. Jeongbal vicinityEstimated to be around 100 monsters

When I looked up, the whole area near Mt. Jeongbal was engulfed in a huge circle. Since we were on top of a mountain, we could see everything that was happening.

‘This must be the field expansion I ever heard about.’

A field expansion was something that only happened once a dungeon broke and a monster zone appeared.

[Translator – Rainypup]

[Catch the Black Orcs!] Rank: C Participants: 37 Reward/s 1) Slayer of Black Orcs [Merit Points: 1000]2) For every Orc killed [Merit Points: 30]

As the monsters started to spread around the area, the field also got bigger. Whenever an Awakened person stepped into a field, they automatically became a participant.

Since they didn’t gain anything from the Giant Ant Cave, the dungeon break was an opportunity for the others to obtain more Merit Points.

“I’m sorry, but I’m leaving first.”

“Me too.”

Min Seong-taek and Ahn Joo-hye went down the mountain first. Kang Hyun-seung glanced around before waving goodbye and going down a different way.

Finally, the annoying siren stopped.

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I trudged down Mt. Jeongbal.

The street where the dungeon break had occurred was very silent since everyone had either gone home or had entered a nearby establishment when the dungeon break got announced.

I managed to get down the mountain, but I was still not within the field. Someone from the association, wearing a black jumper, blew a whistle as he came approached me.

“This area is out of bounds.”

“I’m a hunter.”

“May I see your ID?”

I nodded at the employee’s words and clicked on the app on my phone.

I showed him the information that could be used instead of a physical ID.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

The employee bowed to me and let me pass.

I scanned my surroundings and used Magic Detection.

Although the orcs were spread out in several directions, there also seemed to be plenty of hunters around.

Just as I was about to turn back due to my awkward position, I felt a strange energy.

‘This energy is…’

It was much weaker than the Queen Ant’s, but it was nonetheless the energy of a corrupted entity. 

The fragment I had wrapped in my handkerchief vibrated slightly as if resonating with something.

“It’s not like it’s a fragment of the Shikon Jewel.”

T/N: Pretty sure it’s an Inuyasha reference.

Anyway, I was certain there was something there. Even if it was just to figure out what was going on, looking into it wouldn’t be a loss. I shouldered my bag and ran all the way to the small park nearby.

“Is it not here?”

I thought it was around here, but I couldn’t see anything. 

‘It seems like I need to look around.’

As I started roaming around, I saw an orc at the end of an alley.

Seeing a monster lurking around modern buildings was pretty novel.

“Aaargh! Someone help!”

A man wearing a tracksuit was backing away from an orc holding an axe.

‘He should have stayed put.’

Just as I was about to help him, someone ran ahead of me.

“Huh?”

A woman wearing a black suit sent a knee kick at the orc. Although she had dealt some damage, it wasn’t enough to knock the orc unconscious. The orc swung its axe at the woman.

Landing with her hands on the ground, the woman dodged the orc’s attack and retreated. Since the orc was focused on the woman, I approached the man who had fallen to the floor.

“Can you stand? Run in that direction.”

“Thank you!”

The man stood with the wall’s help. When I pointed to the main street, the man ran away quickly.

The woman stood up while dusting off her hands and clothes.

‘Is she off duty?’

I guessed as much since hunters didn’t typically bring their weapons everywhere with them.

While there were those who liked to show off that they were hunters, most hunters went around in comfortable clothes when they weren’t on duty.

Noticing that the man had disappeared, the orc swung its axe down on the woman. The axe created a hole in the concrete floor. The woman jumped a bit higher than the orc’s head and kicked it. The orc’s neck turned almost 90°.

The orc’s body hit the wall. The orc wiggled as it tried to get away somehow.

Since its spine was broken, it could only flinch. The woman sighed. 

“Argh.”

It seemed like she hadn’t been careful with her landing and had sprained her ankle.

‘That’s why you shouldn’t kick like that when wearing normal shoes.’

Though, it wasn’t a big deal since the Awakened had a faster recovery rate than normal people.

The orc was still alive.

It would probably die if left alone, but it was better to kill it before then.

“Aren’t you going to kill it?”

“What?”

“It’s still alive.”

I asked the woman while pointing at the orc.

The woman blinked as she looked back and forth between me and the orc.

She seemed more surprised that I was here rather than the orc.

“Since when were you there?”

“From the beginning? It might be a bit bad if I said I was here from the beginning, but I’ve been here since you knee-kicked the orc.”

“Oh.”

The woman seemed embarrassed as she looked away.

“I don’t have any thoughts of stealing your kill considering you did everything, so finish it off.”

“It’s alright.”

“What?”

“I won’t get any Merit Points even if I kill the orc anyway. You take it.”

“What does that me—”

“Ah! And I need to get to work, so thank you for your hard work! Ugh!”

Before I could finish my question, the woman ran in the direction of the subway station.

Her ankle seemed to hurt since she was limping slightly.

‘Work? Can’t get any Merit Points? Wait…’

‘Never mind the going-to-work part, but not being able to get Merit Points means only one thing…’ 

She was not affiliated with any god.

The woman who just left was an Unaffiliated hunter. 

As I was about to chase after the woman, I turned around in the opposite direction. The energy of the corrupted entity that I was running after had suddenly disappeared. At the same time, a huge explosion came from the park right below Mt. Jeongbal. A few of the trees in the park flew high into the air before falling back down.

“It can’t be helped.”

I could find the woman again at a later time.

I ran towards the park where the explosion had occurred.

The park was in a horrible state.

I had never killed a black orc before, but I still wondered if a C-rank boss could cause such destruction.

Including the black orc, there were a few orc corpses lying around.

Someone had gotten here first.

Honestly, it wasn’t like no one came to mind. I wasn’t sure if there was a hunter around here who could do something like this, but my instincts were telling me that Kim Yoo-han had done it.

‘What the hell is up with that guy anyway?’

“Let’s get away from here first.”

I didn’t want to stay here and have someone think I was the one who did this.

Just as I was about to turn around and run, The field expansion disappeared and the status window came up.

‘Fuu… I’m really unlucky.’

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