Chapter 059
I faintly heard something like the sound of something shattering.
The thermometer that had been floating above my head broke apart. And along with it, the overwhelming heat that had been pressing down on my body vanished.
"So my body temperature's back to normal, I guess."
When someone suffers from hypothermia, they paradoxically feel the urge to take off their clothes. The fact that I no longer felt that way meant my body temperature had finally returned to normal.
Freedom. Han Sang-ah's strike had landed properly, and the gamble she and I had agreed upon had paid off. Proof of that.
"Good. Han Sang-ah has done her part."
Spinning my spear with a flourish, I smiled as I looked at the woman floating in midair.
"Now it's my turn to do mine."
Han Sang-ah's efforts bore fruit, successfully shattering the unpleasant thermometer that had hovered above my head.
"I'll melt you down slowly."
Han Sang-ah's role was over now. Which meant it didn't matter how many days it took to deal with the monster in front of me. And there was no longer any need to maintain a careful distance from it, either.
All the conditions that had been restricting my movements were gone.
"My body's not in great shape, though."
When you're hypothermic, your body doesn't respond properly. That was something I'd been prepared for to ensure Han Sang-ah's success. A prime example being the big hole punched through my side.
Still, this was getting off easy. Leaning on my spear, I stood up and straightened my posture.
"Let's see how long you can keep dancing with me."
The one who gets tired first dies. I pulled back the Paradoxical Monster Flame that had been burning away the curse embedded in the ice. In a long fight, I'd need to burn something else.
And how much time passed after that?
At last, the monster I'd been fighting looked at me with a stunned expression. Its once queenly, dignified bearing was now scraped and pierced by my spear, covered in wounds.
"This makes it over two weeks."
To be exact, two weeks and two days, plus an extra three hours. Even the monster that seemed like it would never change its expression now looked completely exhausted.
Neither the monster nor I had suffered a single fatal wound. But countless small injuries had piled up, one after another, like a steady drizzle.
— I've never seen a lunatic who fights like you… If a cockroach and a leech mated and produced offspring, I wonder if even then something like you would come out.
At first it had pressed me fiercely, but now it no longer had the strength to do even that.
"They say life is a marathon."
A wave of drowsiness washed over me. I ignited the Paradoxical Monster Flame within my body to burn away the sleepiness, then slowly advanced with my spear aimed at my opponent.
"Farewell."
The spear extended in one smooth motion, piercing straight through the monster's heart. The creature, impaled on the spear, stared blankly at the weapon skewering its chest and muttered in disbelief.
— Dying of exhaustion? I've prepared myself for the death that would come someday in my life, but this…
After muttering as if dumbfounded, the monster's body slowly began to turn to ice, starting from its toes. Toes, calves, thighs, pelvis, abdomen, chest… Gradually freezing over, the monster was eventually completely encased in ice.
Then it shattered and scattered. The expressions frozen on the collapsing shards of ice were nothing but emptiness.
"Sorry I couldn't give you a heart-pounding fight."
I'm just not cut out for that. The ones who've truly fought me always leave this world wearing dissatisfied expressions. Probably because it wasn't the ending they wanted.
Adjusting the length of my spear back down to something like a dagger, I hooked it at my waist.
"Oh, a box."
With a crunching sound, snow surged up from the ground and took the form of a massive box.
— Looks like it's over.
From the radio, silent for two whole weeks, Han Sang-ah's voice finally came through.
"I thought you were dead."
At my words, Han Sang-ah replied.
— My job was already done. Contacting you would've just gotten in the way of the fight.
So she'd just been relaxing silently for two weeks? She really was something else.
"Open your box."
I hadn't eliminated the Corruption Source alone. Naturally, a box identical to mine would have appeared in front of Han Sang-ah as well.
"After all that hell, it better not be something like a spam gift set."
I slowly opened the box.
"A ring, huh."
It was a platinum ring adorned with a sapphire. After examining it using my knowledge, I let out a small sigh.
"Man. What kind of pervert made this thing?"
When you put this ring on, sharp needles spring out from the inside, pierce into your finger, and take root there. The needles are long enough to bore through finger bones.
It'll hurt, but if you endure it for a moment, that's the end of it. And in exchange for that brief pain, the effect you gain is excellent.
"Was it called the Amulet of Dominion?"
In the world I'd been in before, there was an item with that name. A magical tool that, if you failed to resist its power, forced you to collapse to the ground, unable even to lift your head.
This ring was the same. The moment I willed it, the ring would immediately exert its power and try to freeze my opponent.
And anyone without an appropriate means of resisting it would instantly end up like frozen fish.
Even if an opponent succeeded in resisting the ring's power, they would have to keep resisting it while fighting me.
Opponents below a certain level would be frozen outright, and those above that level would have their movements restricted to some degree.
The best thing about this kind of function is that it completely seals off one of the enemy's possible strategies.
"They'll never be able to swarm me."
They can't try to overwhelm me with numbers. If they rely on sheer quantity, that inevitably includes many weaker individuals—and those guys won't even be able to approach me before they freeze solid.
I'd already experienced its effectiveness once before with the Amulet of Dominion.
Turning the ring over in my hand, I let out a small sigh.
"Ah, my poor finger."
I slipped the ring onto my index finger. The needles sliced through flesh and drilled into bone. Sharp—almost exhilarating—pain.
After putting the ring on and coming back to my senses, I found myself back at the place where we'd jumped into the Corruption Source. Han Sang-ah was there, roughly scratching her matted hair and wiping the gunk from her eyes.
"I went through hell for a whole week, and you were sleeping?"
"It's not like me staying awake would've helped with anything,"
Han Sang-ah shot back.
"By the way, what happened to your hair?"
Her hair was patchily bleached white in places.
"I don't know either. Looks like you got a ring."
What Han Sang-ah received as her reward for clearing the Corruption Source was a long coat. And not just any long coat—it had absurdly high magic resistance.
To deal damage to Han Sang-ah through that level of magic resistance would be impossible without exceptional skill. On top of that, it also had impact reduction.
Any physical damage that struck that coat would automatically have its power cut in half.
"What's this?"
Han Sang-ah held out her hand to me.
"High five."
With a dumbfounded look, I brought my hand to hers anyway. Smack. The sound echoed.
"Good work."
"Yeah. Good work."
And the reward that would fall into our laps, proportional to the suffering we'd endured, was bound to be sweet. After all, we'd succeeded in clearing a Grade-1 Corruption Source without relying on Lee Se-eun's help.
"…"
A vibration sounded. Han Sang-ah pulled out her smartphone. Getting a call out here in the middle of nowhere meant it was a satellite phone.
"Yes, Grandpa. That's right. We just returned from the Corruption Source."
Grandpa? At that word, I looked at Han Sang-ah. If it was her grandfather, that meant the chairman of the Geumyang Group. Without exaggeration, the chairman of Geumyang Group wielded enough money to wipe out one or two countries by throwing it around like bombs.
"I'm surprised the news traveled so fast. No, it's not wrong for a grandfather to worry about his granddaughter."
So he'd already heard and contacted her. Han Sang-ah spoke to her grandfather in a rather dry tone.
"I think it'd be proper to ask for his opinion first. Just a moment."
She paused the call and looked at me.
"Grandpa wants to have a meal together."
"With me?"
She nodded at my question.
"He says he wants to arrange it immediately once we return to Korea."
"…I'd be grateful for that."
At my reply, Han Sang-ah nodded and resumed the call.
"He says he'd be grateful as well. Yes, then we'll proceed like that."
After the call ended, it wasn't long before people started gathering around us.
The hunters mobilized for the elimination of the Bratsk Refrigerator approached Lee Se-eun with exhausted expressions.
"Hunter Lee Se-eun. There's still no news."
Sitting on a folding chair and blowing smoke from her pipe, Lee Se-eun replied lazily.
"Then that means they're not dead yet."
"It's already been over two weeks."
Lee Se-eun let her hand dangle over the armrest and nodded.
"Yes, I can count too. I think it'd be better if you showed a bit more patience."
You could say already two weeks—or you could say only two weeks.
"It's a Grade-1 Corruption Source."
"When Hunter Lee Se-eun first attempted a Grade-1 Corruption Source, it took you five days."
Lee Se-eun finally stood up and looked straight at the hunter who'd been talking to her.
"Right. It took me five days back then. A week sounds like a perfectly reasonable time to wait, don't you think?"
The reason they were making such a fuss instead of simply waiting was simple. They were anxious.
"There's been no news at all for over two weeks."
"Seems some new technology was developed that lets us communicate with hunters inside Corruption Sources without my knowing."
Normally, it's impossible to communicate with hunters who've entered a Corruption Source in any way. He knew that, yet still brought it up.
"Operator Seagull is waiting quietly too."
At Lee Se-eun's words, the hunter clenched his fist. He knew that. But Seagull wasn't exactly "waiting quietly."
Inside Seagull, all kinds of meetings were taking place nonstop. Not just them—most of the hunters involved in this operation were constantly debating what the next steps should be.
"We're worried about your position, Hunter Lee Se-eun."
Lee Se-eun met his gaze. That was probably true. Everyone who joined this operation had done so solely on the strength of Lee Se-eun's name. If this went wrong, her reputation would inevitably take a hit.
In fact, the one who should've been the most nervous right now was Lee Se-eun herself.
"It's fine."
But she was calm. Lee Se-eun had spent a considerable amount of time in England with Yoo Chan-seok and Han Sang-ah, helping with their training.
She knew how Yoo Chan-seok fought. If he were going to fail, he would've returned long ago.
The fact that there'd been no news for over two weeks meant Yoo Chan-seok was still fighting inside the Corruption Source in his own style. There was no reason for her to worry.
Others didn't know how Yoo Chan-seok fought.
"Honestly, who could even imagine something like that?"
"Pardon?"
Instead of answering, Lee Se-eun took out a thermos, poured tea into the lid until it was about half full, then filled the rest with honey.
When Yoo Chan-seok fights, he doesn't go in expecting it to be over in minutes or hours. His assumed scale for the duration of combat is different.
"It's nothing."
Not just two weeks—maybe it could take over a month. But the longer it took, the higher Yoo Chan-seok's chances of success became.
— Reporting in. Reporting in. As of this moment, the disappearance of the Bratsk Refrigerator Corruption Source has been confirmed. Repeating. As of this moment, the Bratsk—
After confirming the report through her in-ear device, Lee Se-eun smiled, drained the syrup-thick tea in one go, stood up, and knocked the ash out of her pipe.
See? He melted it down in the end.
"Things are about to get crazy."
The successful subjugation of a Grade-1 Corruption Source. And the hunters who entered it—Yoo Chan-seok and Han Sang-ah—were both classified as rookies.
And the hunter who'd dealt with that Refrigerator wasn't the type to be satisfied with