Report
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 36
[Joo Suhyeok: You lost him?]
[Joo Suhyeok: Is this even possible?]
[Joo Suhyeok: You lost a guy who just popped out of the Tower?]
[Na Jeongwon: How could we not lose him?]
[Na Jeongwon: Ryu Haneul is openly protecting him. Didn't you anticipate that? Didn't you accept him knowing that would happen? You wanted the Heavenly Demon's power but not his will?]
[Na Jeongwon: If that's the case, you should have killed him right after the regression. But you didn't want to do that either. Because it made you feel like the bad guy.]
[Lee Baejeong: You're quite harsh today. Haha.]
[Lee Baejeong: You even told Baekya to be careful and that you'd give him a second chance.]
[Na Jeongwon: Yeah, about that.]
[Joo Suhyeok: Damn, are you guys still holding onto some lingering attachment?]
[Joo Suhyeok: That bastard was always like that. He sees the world like it's full of bugs, right? That's why we all agreed to kill him right after the regression, isn't it?]
[Lee Eunwoo: Hold on.]
[Lee Eunwoo: I can't just let that slide.]
[Lee Eunwoo: I agreed to kill him, not the timing of immediately after the regression. You, Cheong Siyeol, and Lee Baejeong got scared and killed him on your own.]
[Joo Suhyeok: This guy's acting all calm again. If your brilliant calculations had worked, we wouldn't have needed to regress in the first place.]
[Lee Eunwoo: It's better than killing him blindly and then facing the consequences.]
[Lee Eunwoo: Like now.]
[Joo Suhyeok: Oh, for fuck's sake!]
[Lee Eunwoo: I clearly said it back then. I said we didn't know what kind of extraordinary artifacts Baekya might have. He's the one and only Hunter who solo climbed the first 20 floors of the Tower. So we needed to prepare for a long time and kill him in one go without a single mistake.]
[Lee Eunwoo: Look at the situation now.]
[Lee Eunwoo: In the end, we failed to kill Baekya. And now he knows we've regressed and even knows about our trump card.]
[Lee Eunwoo: There's talk within the guild that we might have had a hand in his death. Seriously, read the room. Baekya is currently a hero to the world. If we're not careful, we might all be wiped out.]
[Lee Eunwoo: And because we killed him in such a hurry, we haven't even prepared any countermeasures.]
[Joo Suhyeok: Countermeasures?]
[Lee Eunwoo: How do you plan to clear the 60th floor? What about the Rank 1 Gate that will open in the East Sea in a few years? And the Dragon that almost destroyed China's eastern coast?]
[Joo Suhyeok: You know the answer. We'll just fight well when the time comes.]
[Lee Eunwoo: I hope you're joking. The Hunters who follow an ignorant fool like you as their Guild Master must have tremendous luck!]
[Joo Suhyeok: You bastard!]
[Lee Eunwoo: Admit it. We created a huge void too soon.]
[Lee Eunwoo: From now on.]
[Cheong Siyeol: We need to kill Baekya again.]
[Lee Eunwoo: What?]
[Joo Suhyeok: Oh!]
[Na Jeongwon: Ah.]
[Lee Baejeong: Wow!]
[Lee Baejeong: Where were you all this time?!]
[Lee Baejeong: If you had believed me back then.]
[Lee Baejeong: By now...]
[Cheong Siyeol: You know we couldn't have done that.]
[Lee Baejeong: ....]
[Cheong Siyeol: I've read all of your messages.]
[Cheong Siyeol: It seems like everyone is confused after everything was undone.]
[Cheong Siyeol: I'm not confused.]
[Cheong Siyeol: My idol, my hero, my sun. I hope he can remain a beacon of hope for the world.]
[Cheong Siyeol: I still earnestly wish for that.]
[Cheong Siyeol: Didn't we all swear? That we would never let that disaster repeat itself?]
[Cheong Siyeol: Now that Ryu Haneul has started his public activities, we can't stay hidden any longer. Public opinion is reaching its limit. The Blue House keeps complaining, don't they? Let's resume our activities from next week.]
[Cheong Siyeol: After we turn the public opinion around.]
[Cheong Siyeol: Let's finish what should have been done months ago.]
"...."
* * *
"Ugh!"
In the bathroom, I gripped the toilet bowl with both hands and retched repeatedly.
It was filled with dark, clotted blood.
The aftereffects of the summoning had messed up the mana circuits throughout my body.
It was probably the first time I had pushed myself this hard since the early days of the Aitel era.
I flushed the toilet, cleaned the blood splatters with the showerhead, and rinsed my mouth thoroughly.
If Wolha noticed this, there would be a commotion for sure.
【"Are you okay?"】
【"I can't even blame you for entering the Tower in that situation."】
【Your Constellation 'Sunny' is restless.】
【"At least take this."】
【Sponsors 5 Health stat points.】
【Health +5】
"No, thank you."
I muttered softly as I left the bathroom.
"Thanks to your help, my Constellation, I was able to reach A-Rank again. I've saved months, no, years of time, so this much pain is... Ugh!"
My stomach churned again.
"Hyung, are you feeling sick?"
I heard Wolha's voice as he opened his bedroom door.
"No, I'm fine! I'm fine. You don't have to come out."
I quickly closed the toilet lid and pretended nothing was wrong.
Then I pushed Wolha back into his room.
He kept talking to me.
"I saw some blood splatters on the tiles yesterday..."
"Wow~ What are you studying now?"
"I'm fine..."
"Modern Korean history? Or the management philosophy of the Gate Management Department?"
I pretended not to hear him.
He glared at me for a moment.
His gaze was firm for someone his age, but to me, it was just cute.
I shrugged nonchalantly, and he sighed softly and replied.
"It's just a collection of past exam questions. I was working on last year's final question. I have to arrange them in order and explain how the earlier events influenced the later ones."
There were five options listed in the question:
A: Awakened Registration Act
B: Awakened Mobilization Act
C: Designation of Mana Stones and Artifacts as Strategic Materials.
D: Declaration of National Territory for Towers and Gates
E: Establishment of the Awakened Support Agency.
Seeing the marks where he had written and erased answers with a mechanical pencil, it seemed like he was struggling quite a bit.
"This is hard."
"Right? The multiple-choice questions are manageable, but the essay questions are tough."
From what I could see, Wolha was intelligent.
It was almost as if he had taken all of Ilha's brain cells for himself.
But questions like this were easier to solve if you had background knowledge and were familiar with the relevant terms.
"Want some help?"
"From you, hyung?"
Wolha raised an eyebrow.
He looked like he had just heard a bad joke.
I pointed to each option one by one.
"The Support Agency was established first."
"Wasn't it the Registration Act?"
"It's Support Agency, Registration Act, then Mobilization Act. You need to be registered to be mobilized, and you need a responsible agency to register, right?"
"Oh."
"Then it's easy, right? They declared national territory to designate strategic materials. Get the context?"
Wolha stared at the paper for a moment and then replied—
"It's about that. The efforts to integrate and control Awakened into the existing society as much as possible. I need to see it from that perspective."
I clapped my hands.
See, he's quite smart.
Wolha looked up at me from his chair.
"But do the Awakened actually follow these rules?"
I answered without thinking,
"They follow them pretty well, don't they?"
Thinking back, it wasn't something Ilha would say.
"Aren't there unregistered Awakened?"
"There are. But if you're not registered, you can't trade Mana Stones."
"That's why they designated them as strategic materials."
"Yeah. You can only buy and sell them at the central exchange. So whether you're buying or selling, you have to go through them. Also, if you're not registered, you don't have the right to vote or run for the Hunter Association chairman, and your access to the Tower is restricted."
"I saw on 'Star Chatter' that there are even assassins made up of unregistered Awakened."
"They're all small fries. Almost all Rankers are registered."
"Why?"
I raised my right hand and pointed to the halo above my head.
I suddenly noticed the 'Ghost Princess's Handkerchief' tied around my wrist.
It was getting a bit worn out.
"Because I can't hide the fact that I'm a Ranker."
Wolha nodded as if he understood.
"I see. Okay, thanks."
"Don't mention it. I just picked it up from the Sun and Moon Guild Hunters."
I put my left hand in my pocket.
Then, I opened my inventory and took out another ring, making it look like the ring was appearing from my pocket.
【Aesthetics of Reversal (Heroic → Master)】
【Reflects 100% of all attacks (physical, magical, mental, etc.) below C+ Rank, and 90% of all attacks below B+ Rank.】
【*Recovers its original rank when transferred to another owner.】
It was one of the drops from the Mirror Prince.
It was a good piece of equipment for tanker-type Awakened who fought in a fixed position, but it wasn't very useful for me, as I preferred mobile combat.
It's definitely not because I'm worried that this guy might get caught in some low-rank Gate and die like last time when I'm not around.
Common sense dictates that you wouldn't give a Heroic-grade artifact to someone who's not even your real brother, right?
"Here's a gift. I saw it while I was out and thought of you. It's not anything special, just a fashion ring, but wear it well."
"Huh?"
"It's a fashion ring. Even if you're studying for the civil service exam, you can still be a bit stylish."
Of course, I couldn't tell him it was a Heroic-grade artifact.
Since F-Ranks couldn't see artifact status windows anyway, I could just make up some excuse.
"O-Okay. Thanks."
Wolha stuttered a bit as he received the ring with both hands.
He also suddenly rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times.
What was that about?
Did his eyes get bad from studying all day?
"I'm heading out. Keep studying."
I guess I should buy some vitamins on my way back.
* * *
【"Don't overdo it today. I don't want to see a bad ending after you've finally cleared the floor and overcome your trauma."】
【Your Constellation 'Sunny' repeatedly urges you to be careful.】
I nodded several times.
"Don't worry."
I had no intention of overdoing it today either.
This was rehabilitation, not training.
My destination was the Ghost Princess's Castle.
It was a place where I had an absolute advantage due to my overwhelming synergy.
I planned to go there and get a few more 'Ghost Princess's Handkerchiefs.'
It was time to start paying more attention to managing my identity.
On the way there, I opened my status window in the taxi.
I navigated to the deeper sections.
+
【Server Ranking / South Korea】
【Hong Baekya: 313th (Invisible)】
+
As expected.
Even if it's barely scraping by with a minus, A-Rank is still A-Rank.
I had already entered the top 300.
All Awakened within the top 1,000 could see their own ranking on the server.
From 300th onwards, your ranking was also revealed to other Awakened.
From 100th onwards, it was periodically displayed on the Tower wall.
And from 30th onwards, it was displayed on the Tower wall in real-time.
Of course, most people only checked up to around the 100th.
It was annoying to keep pressing buttons on the status window to get this far.
But for someone like me, who needed to hide their identity, the very fact that someone could see my name and ranking was extremely dangerous.
That was also the reason why there were almost no unregistered Rankers.
Even if they weren't registered with the government, they were already registered in the Aitel System.
Anyway, if I climbed just a few more steps, I would enter the visible range of others.
Then, simply disguising my halo wouldn't be enough.
I would have to cover my face every time I went out.
Of course, things like masks or sunglasses would be useless against even an E-Rank Awakened's 'Appraisal' skill.
I would need something like the Ghost Princess's Handkerchief, which could conceal my halo.
"Thank you."
The taxi arrived in Seongnam City.
【Your Constellation 'Sunny' effectively blocks the mental magic...】
Once again, I bypassed various mental magic, the defensive formation for high-ranking Awakened, and even the Artificial Samdocheon to enter the Ghost Princess's Castle.
It seemed like the defenses had become even weaker since then.
As long as I didn't go berserk, it was a good thing for me in my current state.
As always, green ghosts swarmed towards me.
【Phantom (B) has appeared.】
【Ghost (C) has appeared.】
【Wraith (C) has appeared.】
【Banshee (C+) has appeared.】
I prepared Law of Light.
Instead of just unleashing it randomly like before, I combined it with an existing skill, like when I used Incineration Ray.
There was one that was perfect for dealing with ghosts.
【Light of Purification (B+)】
That's it.
I fired 'Light of Purification' mixed with 'Law of Light.'
Fwaaaaaah!
A light like a powerful military flashlight shone in the darkness.
The thick fog and green ghosts were swept away cleanly.
Despite being a wide-area skill, the mana consumption wasn't too high.
My mana was also slowly increasing.
【Mana has increased by '1'.】
The increase was much slower compared to just a few months ago, when I had incomparable power, but it wasn't insignificant yet.
More importantly, I had to find Dullahans or Ghost Knights quickly.
That was the only way to get more Ghost Princess's Handkerchiefs.
I don't know how many ghosts I killed.
【Dullahan (B) has appeared.】
A notification popped up.
Unlike before, there was no 'warning' alert.
It meant my rank had increased that much.
I was about to fire an Incineration Ray.
"Found you!"
Swish!
If a figure hadn't suddenly jumped out from behind and bisected the Dullahan from neck to groin with a longsword, I would have definitely done so.
The figure was wearing thick artifact armor.
So, my eyes were drawn to their wrist before their face.
【Ghost Princess's Handkerchief (Heroic)】
A white, ring-shaped halo floated above their head.
"...."
"...."
I discreetly hid my hand behind my back.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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