Chapter 1157 – 1157. Savior Of The Academy
“Oppa…?”
When I remained silent, Seong Hari looked at me with a puzzled expression.
I let out a deep sigh and, while fixing her disheveled clothes, explained the situation.
“They’re coming this way. We’ll have to fight.”
“……!”
Understanding the situation, Seong Hari tensed up and gripped her spear. Her relaxed expression vanished, replaced by a sharp gaze as she scanned her surroundings.
I used Makina’s vision to check their positions. They were getting closer. They were being excessively cautious, each step deliberate.
‘These guys know our approximate location, but not our exact position.’
If they knew exactly where we were, they wouldn’t waste time and would have launched a swift surprise attack.
How should I deal with this?
After a moment of thought, I took out C4 from my inventory and planted it on the surrounding trees.
“…Are you going to use bombs?”
“There’s nothing better than bombs for gaining the upper hand.”
Seong Hari looked at the bombs with distrust. For someone of her caliber, bombs weren’t very effective unless she was completely off guard.
The approaching enemies were also heroes with abilities, so bombs wouldn’t be of much help. I knew that too.
‘These guys are clearly acting covertly. It’s some kind of secret mission.’
The way to piss off an opponent is simple: do what they don’t want you to do.
‘Let’s grease the wheels beforehand. Then, when the bombs explode, a fire will start. Maybe it’ll even spread to the forest. Heh heh. A lot of attention will be drawn here… It’ll be a pain in the ass to clean up.’
I was in a shitty mood from being interrupted, but the thought of making them feel shitty too made me feel a little better.
As I chuckled, Seong Hari shook her head. The sticky, romantic atmosphere from before had completely vanished without a trace.
“Hari, let’s go that way. It’s much better to lure them out over there.”
“…This feels like it’s going to escalate… Is it just me?”
I shrugged. As expected, Seong Hari had great intuition.
A little while later, the enemies appeared where I had planted the bombs. Without hesitation, I pressed the detonator. The thrill of pressing the red button with my thumb was something only those who had done it would understand.
Boom! Bang! Kaboom!
Explosions erupted. Black smoke billowed into the sky, and the flames spread through the pre-applied oil. I watched the explosions with satisfaction.
That’s when it happened.
The flow of air changed.
Pop! Whoosh! Pop!
Explosions sounded. The sound of air bursting. The black smoke rising into the sky seemed to be blocked by something, swirling around instead of rising.
‘They used wind to cut off the oxygen and extinguish the fire. They’re not amateurs.’
That meant there were veterans among them.
I handed Seong Hari a space-movement scroll.
“Are you trying to run away?”
“Let’s fight them and run if it looks like we can’t win. Got it?”
“Got it.”
The enemies appeared.
There were about 20 of them, and they were positioned as if they were facing a giant monster. Seong Hari and I exchanged glances and took a fighting stance.
A middle-aged man walked out from among them. Judging by the atmosphere, he seemed to be the field commander.
“Annyong, annyonghaseyo.”
His Korean was clumsy. So clumsy that the tension that had been building up suddenly dissipated.
“Wee do not want to fight.”
“……”
Is this a new trap?
I didn’t let my guard down and opened my mouth. Fluent Chinese poured out.
“What is your purpose?”
“…Your Chinese is excellent. It’s at a native level. Are you perhaps Chinese?”
My Chinese skills came from a dating app.
“There’s no rule that only Chinese people can speak Chinese.”
“That’s true.”
“You guys clearly aren’t from the Zhengmen Sect. Why did you attack us?”
“We want to ask for your cooperation. More specifically… we need the help of Seong Hari next to you.”
“Is this how China asks for cooperation?”
“You are criminals, aren’t you? Especially you, you’re a terrorist. We can’t treat you the same as ordinary people.”
Time was being wasted. Their numbers had increased from 20 to 30. But they didn’t attack first. It seemed they really did want cooperation.
“…Let’s hear you out. What do you want from us?”
“Are you promising cooperation?”
“I need to hear what it is first. And you’re not thinking of using us for free, are you?”
“We’ll promise fair compensation. The details are not suitable for this place.”
“Tell us here.”
The man frowned.
“…It’s an important matter. Classified as top secret. We can’t talk about it just anywhere.”
“I’ll say it again. Tell us here. You’re the ones threatening us right now. We can’t trust you.”
“We don’t need you. We want to talk to Seong Hari.”
“Seong Hari doesn’t speak Chinese. And Seong Hari and I are partners.”
“……”
The middle-aged man’s lips moved. No sound came out, but judging by his lip movements, he was cursing. He picked up a walkie-talkie, reported the situation, and received instructions from someone.
“…Fine. We’ll back down since we’re the ones in a hurry.”
“You’re in a hurry, but you’re still acting like you’re doing us a favor.”
“You keep getting on my nerves. Do you really intend to cooperate with us?”
“It depends on how you act.”
The middle-aged man sighed.
He gestured to the men surrounding us and gave an order.
“Disengage. Fall back and start controlling the perimeter. If the residents ask what’s going on, just say a monster appeared.”
Wind rose around him. The wind surrounded me, Seong Hari, and the man.
“This is top secret, so we need to prevent information from leaking. You’re not going to complain about this too, are you?”
I told Makina to monitor the situation in case of an emergency. Fortunately, they weren’t playing any tricks. It seemed they really did want our cooperation.
“It’s unpleasant, but… I can tolerate this much.”
“That’s very kind of you.”
The man cleared his throat, gathered his thoughts, and then spoke.
“About a week ago, a dungeon in Hainan broke.”
“Where is Hainan?”
“How ignorant, Hainan is an island at the southernmost tip of China. People call Hainan the Hawaii of China.”
The Hawaii of China?
I had never heard of it, but I nodded.
“If a dungeon broke there, shouldn’t the Chinese Hero Association handle it?”
“Due to the dungeon break, part of Hainan has turned into another dimension.”
“…Another dimension?”
My face hardened.
A dungeon break is when a dungeon that hasn’t been fully cleared collapses, and monsters pour out. It’s usually just a matter of dealing with the monsters, but sometimes it affects the environment like a contaminated area. Turning into another dimension is the worst-case scenario for a dungeon break.
“That’s right. Thanks to that, we’re in a very difficult situation.”
I looked at him suspiciously.
“I haven’t heard of such information.”
“We’re controlling the information so that the residents don’t feel anxious.”
That’s bullshit.
Since when has China cared about its people like that?
There was probably something fishy about this.
‘They probably experimented with the dungeon and something went wrong.’
Seong Hari poked my shoulder with her finger.
“It looks pretty serious. What are you talking about?”
I briefly explained the situation. Seong Hari didn’t react to the explanation.
“You take care of it, Oppa. I trust you.”
“Okay. Let’s continue what we were doing later.”
“…Ugh.”
Seong Hari’s face flushed, and she slapped my shoulder with her palm. The stinging sensation was so surprising that I shook my head and looked at the middle-aged man.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t heard your name yet. What is it?”
“I’m Yang Tao, the team leader of the 4th team of the Chinese Hero Association headquarters.”
“I see. I’m Seong Yujin.”
“Are you going to cooperate? We’ll give you generous compensation. 200 million yuan in cash. If you want, we can give you an A-rank item as compensation.”
“I haven’t said I’ll do it yet. I don’t have enough information to take your request.”
“…A request? Is that how you see it? Not bad. What are you curious about?”
“Tell me more about the other dimension.”
“……The other dimension that appeared in Hainan Province is the Spirit Realm. We tried to suppress the other dimension three times, but the spirits went crazy and we failed.”
The Spirit Realm.
As soon as I heard that, I could picture the situation.
“You know about Seong Hari’s trait.”
Spirit Devourer.
That was Seong Hari’s trait. She had an almost absolute advantage against spirits.
“How did you find out about Seong Hari’s trait?”
“China has a large population, so we have a lot of talented people.”
Yang Tao spoke vaguely.
I guessed that someone with information-gathering abilities had found out about Seong Hari’s trait. Maybe they saw the future, or maybe they had a special ability to find out other people’s abilities.
‘They’re probably ability users managed by the state, so they wouldn’t tell me the details even if I asked.’
Seong Hari said she trusted me, but her opinion was important in this matter. I explained everything I had heard to her.
“The Chinese Hero Association wants you to get rid of the spirits.”
Her mood instantly dropped. Despite having the Spirit Devourer trait, she liked spirits rather than disliked them. She wouldn’t be happy about having to deal with spirits.
“…Using the Spirit Devourer, huh?”
“That’s right. But have you ever used the Spirit Devourer before?”
“Once… a long time ago.”
“What do you want to do? If you don’t want to do it, we can run away. We have the scroll.”
“You said the spirits are going wild? How much damage is there?”
“I’ll ask.”
Yang Tao spoke in a serious tone to my question.
“The confirmed death toll is 4,000. People were killed by lightning, suffocated, burned to death, buried alive… The spirits killed the residents in all sorts of ways.”
I immediately translated it to Seong Hari.
“Hari, 4,000 people have died.”
“……”
Seong Hari’s eyes trembled.
Seong Hari was different from me. I didn’t care if 4,000 people died, or 400 million people died. But Seong Hari was fundamentally righteous. She couldn’t ignore injustice. The Seong Hari I knew was a hero.
“If I don’t step in here… more people will die, right?”
“Probably. But you have to deal with spirits. Can you do it?”
She closed her eyes tightly and then opened them. A determined light shone in her eyes, as if she had made up her mind.
“If people do wrong, they must be corrected, and if spirits do wrong, they must be corrected.”
“Really? But what if it wasn’t the spirits, but the people who did wrong?”
“…I already answered that. What are you going to do, Oppa?”
“I’ll help you.”
I was curious.
This incident wasn’t known in the future. In other words, China had successfully covered it up.
‘It’s highly likely that Seong Hari stepped in and resolved it in the original timeline.’
Maybe the information I wanted was in this incident.
