------------------
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
------------------
Chapter 68
In the morning, with Busan city visible in the distance, Baekya organized the situation he was in.
'I have to climb the Tower, and the regressors are after me. My constellation wants to see me succeed, but at the same time, he wants to see me struggle.'
It was complicated, but not beyond his ability to handle.
'The Black Star Cluster thinks I'm dead and is trying to come to this country. But they also have an intersection with the regressors. I don't know if the whole organization knows I'm alive, or if only that Ghost Swordsman knows, but either way, they'll think I'm no longer an obstacle.'
He was someone who had even experienced political battles between the National Assembly, the Blue House, the military, and Hunter factions.
'I'll show them they're wrong.'
Baekya quickly came to a conclusion.
'If possible, I won't take action myself. But I'll maintain a situation where I can step in if I have to. Whether I intervene or not, once the Black Star Cluster issue is resolved, I'll immediately enter the Tower.'
Fengyun, Ryu Haneul, and Choi Gimin were all looking at him expectantly.
Baekya first called Ryu Haneul.
"Haneul."
"Yes."
"Sort things out with your brother and come back. After that, let's move together. I'll say it's for training, so play along."
"Yes!"
Ryu Haneul was delighted.
'Senior, you're finally looking at me!'
He had been testing the waters for a while, but Baekya had always refused, playing the role of an older brother, which had been frustrating him.
It was getting awkward to bring it up again, so he was grateful that Baekya had offered first.
"It seems the Black Star Cluster will be here soon. They'll cause trouble using artifacts or magic. There are countless countries that have been ruined overnight or had their national fortunes broken because of those bastards."
"We can't let that happen."
"I'll leave her to you, negotiate with the Re-allocation department head. The country needs to know the situation too."
Baekya gestured with his chin towards the Re-allocation department head's younger brother.
He was being held by Fengyun's subordinates and breathing heavily.
Ryu Haneul nodded once again, and Baekya turned to Fengyun.
"Fengyun."
"Uh, yeah, I'm listening."
"You understand the general situation, right?"
"I live off reading the room in Yeouido. Of course, I know. The Chinese bastards, artificial Awakened, and the Black Star Cluster are all mixed up. Don't worry. I'll stay low and cooperate with the suits, withdrawing like a turtle."
Fengyun nodded gallantly.
Baekya took off the 'Aesthetics of Distortion' ring from his finger and handed it to him.
"And one more favor. Make this into a necklace. Change it into a style suitable for a young man in his 20s with fair skin."
"No problem."
It was likely to be the last gift.
Choi Gimin thought, 'It's my turn now, right?'
'I also struggled to protect the yacht, so of course, he'll say something to me...'
However, Baekya ignored him and approached the artificial Awakened held by Fengyun's subordinates.
"Let go. I need to talk to the kid."
'Huh?!'
Choi Gimin's shoulders slumped.
'I fought so hard that my shirt ripped. Shit! As expected, I shouldn't associate with that Baekya bastard.'
Fengyun's subordinates hesitated and then released the artificial Awakened.
Baekya spoke to him.
"Are you okay from where you were hit earlier?"
The black-haired boy hesitated for a moment and then snapped—
"Someone's coming, someone's coming, that's all I've been hearing... Whoever's coming, I hope they all die! You damn South Korean bastard!"
He raised his hand and slapped Baekya's cheek.
The sound of the slap echoed across the front deck.
"..."
At that moment, a chill fell over the deck, making even the midwinter sea breeze feel warm.
"Senior? What, what, what kind of rebellious act is that..."
Ryu Haneul placed his hand on the hilt of the Dark Heavenly Demon Sword and exuded killing intent, and Fengyun also frowned.
Only Choi Gimin was grinning, but even he soon stopped smiling.
Even after slapping him, the artificial Awakened looked flustered and shifted his eyes around.
Anyone would have thought he was the one who got slapped.
Baekya met his eyes without flinching.
"What's your name?"
"I don't have a name to tell you South Korean pig bastards!"
"Okay. Then let's call you Baejeong's brother."
"Do, do your kind also call me that? I'm not that son of a bitch's brother! My name is Lee Baeyun!"
"You said it."
"...Damn it."
Lee Baeyun tried to look away, but Baekya's overwhelming presence didn't allow it.
Baekya raised a hand and pointed to Busan city.
"Look."
His voice held pure will, and Lee Baeyun couldn't help but obey.
And so, he saw.
Skyscrapers so tall they seemed to pierce the heavens.
Countless cars speeding along the coastal road.
Crowds of people commuting to work on the sidewalks beside the main road.
Baekya asked—
"Do those people all look like South Korean pig bastards who deserve to die?"
"Hmph! Aren’t there also traitors to the Republic among them? Those bastards all need to die!"
Lee Baeyun knew that she was faltering.
It had already been over 10 years since the North Korean government had collapsed.
He knew everything he needed to know.
It was just that she couldn't change the habits of a lifetime overnight.
And Baekya, a former president of the Awakened Association, had met and led countless such people.
He spoke calmly—
"Yeah, there are a lot of people you want to kill. I have a lot of those people too. But if you kill everyone you want to kill, what would happen to the world? Do you want to live in a world where people kill everyone they want to kill?"
"..."
"You want stability too, right? Something you couldn't get over there. If the price for that is not killing people, isn't it cheap?"
"..."
"I'm not saying don't be angry. You can think of him as a traitor. I'm just saying you need to create a reason to control that emotion. Like your brother."
"...Why are you bringing up that bastard again?!"
"Because I hope you can find that reason too."
Baekya stopped there and gestured to Ryu Haneul.
Ryu Haneul approached, took Lee Baeyun's hand, and headed towards the opposite side of the deck where the cabin entrance was.
Lee Baeyun's eyes were already shaking like reeds in a typhoon.
Thump.
The two passed the corner of the front deck.
At that moment, Ryu Haneul activated his mana.
"Hey."
Halt.
Lee Baeyun's body stiffened at the chilling voice.
Lee Baeyun looked up at him and forgot how to breathe.
His mind went blank, and he couldn't think of anything.
The halo above Ryu Haneul's head was burning with an ominous and oppressive color, and his clear expression was like a wrathful deity from hell.
Ryu Haneul spoke with an intensity that suggested he wanted to devour her with every word.
"If you lay a hand on my senior again, I will break your bones and tear your muscles. If you don't want to be fed Loneliness, shut up and be quiet. Then I'll at least feed you three meals a day."
Lee Baeyun involuntarily sank to his knees.
"Lock him in a suitable cabin."
Ryu Haneul handed Lee Baeyun over to Fengyun's subordinates.
Lee Baeyun disappeared below deck.
Ryu Haneul continued to pant for a few minutes afterward.
'How dare he.'
He felt some regret for taking his anger out on a kid who didn't know anything, but the moment he saw Lee Baeyun touch Baekya, he snapped.
Perhaps it was the trauma of witnessing Baekya's death firsthand.
'I can't control my emotions. Maybe I need to have my memory partially erased...'
Physical contact with Baekya was a privilege granted only to a select few, including Ryu Haneul himself.
He wanted to hang him in Gwanghwamun Square and have passersby spit on him.
If this were a medieval world inside the Tower, he might have actually done it.
"Ha. You're no different from me, are you? As expected, all Rankers can't help but become bastards."
And that Choi Gimin bastard, sneering from a short distance away...
Even in the modern world, it seemed like something he could do.
Ryu Haneul spoke in a tone that clearly conveyed his desire to activate Loneliness.
"Shut up."
"That great Baekya is no different from you."
Normally, Ryu Haneul wouldn't dislike such words; he might even like them.
But he had just heard Choi Gimin compare himself to Ryu Haneul.
Didn't that mean Choi Gimin was putting himself on the same level as Baekya?
He needed to know his place.
"Not everything that comes out of your mouth is worth saying."
Instead of spewing insults, Ryu Haneul reached for the sword at his waist.
Choi Gimin raised both hands and said playfully, pretending to be scared—
"No, really, this is frustrating. Don't you realize he just assigned you the villain role? It's the worn-out bad cop, good cop routine. Anyway, that guy, he's a master of pretending to be nice."
Ryu Haneul took his hand off his sword.
Choi Gimin was so pathetic that he wasn't even worth cutting down.
At the same time, he understood why Choi Gimin thought that way.
"Please, at least try to pretend to be nice."
"What difference does pretending make?"
"That's what we call social skills."
"Which society? Awakened society? Aitel society? Or the society inside the Tower?"
"...I get what you're trying to say, but don't instigate social conflict. You know how much senior struggled to prevent that..."
"Exactly. In the end, both you and that guy are just doing what you have to do while suppressing your emotions. That guy relieves stress through disciples like you. I relieve it directly. What's the difference?"
Even before his regression, Choi Gimin didn't climb the Tower.
Choi Gimin joined during the final raid on the 99th floor, and the 99th floor didn't have much of an epilogue story.
"You wouldn't understand even if I explained it."
Ryu Haneul murmured, looking into the distance.
"I'm the sky, senior is the star, and you're stuck on the ground."
"Fuck. Talk about narcissism. And you have the nerve to take your anger out on a kid after living for over a hundred years."
"That's why you don't understand."
They had been to places others couldn't even imagine.
Very, very far away.
* * *
Baekya returned to the Sun-Moon Divine Guild dormitory.
He tucked the 'Aesthetics of Distortion' ring, which Pungun had transformed into a chain necklace, into his pocket.
He was lost in thought from noon until evening that day.
Wolha, who came out to eat dinner after studying for a long time, was surprised.
"Hyung, have you been sitting here since earlier?"
Baekya looked up at his face.
'Yeah, we really don't look alike.'
Wolha didn't resemble Baekya.
Both were handsome with distinct features, but Wolha had much softer lines than Baekya.
His brow bones were lower, and his ears were round.
So, it wasn't that he was seeing an overlap with his biological younger brother, whose face he couldn't quite remember, from 15 years ago, or a few thousand years ago, whichever it was.
Baekya acknowledged what he had to acknowledge.
'I've grown attached.'
Living together and seeing each other every day, it was inevitable that they would grow attached.
Just like the bonds he formed in the Tower, a world he sometimes felt reluctant to leave and return to Earth from.
However, Baekya had returned to this world every time he climbed the 50 floors.
He had a talent for turning memories into reminiscences.
Baekya took out two stylishly packaged paper boxes from a paper bag.
"You came at the right time. I received a bonus for doing a good job recently."
"A bonus?"
"A low-grade elixir and an artifact. Open them right away."
Wolha accepted the paper boxes.
They were sealed with wax stamped with the emblem of the Sun-Moon Divine Guild.
Even before opening them, a subtle fragrance wafted from within.
Wolha's expression became serious.
Watching the news, it seemed like elixirs were overflowing from the Tower, but that was just about raw materials.
'Even if my brother did a good job, would they give me an elixir and an artifact?'
To consume them properly, they had to be compounded and made into pills in a workshop, and the price went up as purification procedures and special processing methods were added.
'What if this is stolen goods? They say there's an obligation to compensate...'
As Wolha hesitated, Ilha opened the second box.
【Aesthetics of Distortion (Heroic)】
Inside was a stylish chain necklace.
It seemed like it would suit him, but the weight of the grade displayed in the Aitel description was too heavy.
Moreover, Wolha was already wearing a ring of the same grade, which Ilha had also given him.
Wolha seriously wondered—
'He didn't rob the Sun-Moon Divine Guild's vault, did he?'
After hesitating for a long time, he asked—
"Hyung."
"Yeah."
"Is something happening?"
"..."
Wolha was smart.
All the artifacts Ilha brought him were defensive ones.
Ilha avoided his gaze, but nodded with a confident gesture.
"Yeah."
Wolha didn't ask any further.
He just smiled brightly and said—
"Okay, thanks. I'll put it to good use. And take care of yourself and pass the exam. Thanks for worrying about me."
"..."
"I'm worried about you too, brother. It's good to see you doing well these days. But don't overdo it."
Ilha abruptly stood up and headed for the front door.
"The cart's here. I'll get the food."
Wolha, like all younger siblings, knew that his brother had a problem expressing his true feelings directly.
* * *
Lee Baejeong left the Sun-Moon Divine Guild headquarters with a look of utter defeat.
'You think that kid will become my weakness?'
'He'll be an advantage to your political enemies.'
Not only was the reunion with his brother, whom he thought was dead, a shock, but he had also heard too much shocking information.
'Artificial Awakened.'
That alone was enough to make his head explode, but he also had to prepare for the Black Star Cluster.
Lee Baejeong believed that the country should be able to function without Baekya.
Baekya said he intended to stay out of it as much as possible this time.
In a way, things had turned out as he wanted.
'Damn it.'
That's why it was even more irritating.
"How did it go?"
His assistant asked as he got into the car.
Lee Baejeong sighed.
According to their own intelligence network, D-Day was a week away.
It wasn't enough time, but there was never enough time.
"Check the mana stone inventory for activating protective barriers in shelters and schools, and I'll block Rankers from leaving the country."
"Excuse me?"
"Send an official letter to the guilds that are considering challenging the 51st floor, telling them not to attempt it for the next month, and gather the guild masters who held back during the Rank 1 Gate incident."
"Yes, I understand."
The assistant replied with a puzzled look.
Lee Baejeong put his hand on his throbbing forehead.
'And it seems like there's a Black Star Cluster spy among us, so do something about it. You're the head of the Administration.'
He needed to kill Baekya, but he kept receiving help from him.
It was an endless series of obstacles.
Lee Baejeong worked overtime for seven days.
And so, a week passed.
------------------
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia
[Proofreader - Kaya]
Join our Discord for release updates!
https://discord.com/invite/dbdMDhzWa2
------------------
