The One Who Saved a World Before Will be Best at Saving Another

Chapter 51

Training could never be the same as real combat. No matter how much effort went in, some things were just impossible.

There were things gained only through training, and things gained only through real battle. About a month and a half had passed since training began.

“You’ve become decent now.”

Han Sang-ah had passed. At this level, she would not get beaten up easily anymore.

“I don’t… feel like I’ve gotten stronger at all.”

With a cracking sound, Lee Se-eun shoved her dislocated shoulder back into place as she replied. It was natural not to feel stronger.

Because while that friend grew stronger, I wasn't just sitting idle.

“My ability to evaluate others objectively is still better than big sis Se-eun.”

“Hey! How could you say it like that?”

Lee Se-eun immediately protested at my words, pulling the wooden chopsticks out of her cup noodles and throwing them at me. I managed to dodge, and the chopsticks buried themselves in the utility pole instead of me.

If that had hit me, I would have gone to the hospital. I couldn't help but marvel at the power to drive wooden chopsticks into a utility pole.

But still…

“Has she finally gone insane, throwing weapons at people?”

“Oh come on, it was just a joke.”

After spending quite some time together, Lee Se-eun had begun threatening my life in various ways.

She might think it was just play, but from the perspective of the one on the receiving end, there was no way to treat such things as a joke.

It was like a bear charging at you out of affection, trying to hug you. I glanced again at the chopsticks lodged in the pole, then turned to Han Sang-ah.

“You know we haven’t achieved the goal yet, right?”

Her margin of error in attacks hovered around 0.4. On good days, she managed near 0.3, but the original target had been 0.2. There was still a way to go.

“Yes, I know.”

She had managed to gauge her maximum output and bring her movements fully under control.

“If they’re at my level, I’m confident I won’t lose.”

To her words I gave her a simple reply.

“Not just at an equal level. You can defeat someone about twice as strong as you.”

“No way.”

Han Sang-ah didn't seem to believe me.

But it was true. The training I had made her undergo was the same path I had walked. I had faced opponents stronger than me countless times.

The whole point of the training had always been to win against those stronger than you. Someday she would see it herself, so I didn't bother correcting her.

Han Sang-ah sat down to heal the injuries she had taken, closing her eyes.

“This time it’s my turn.”

I checked the time and went to test the radio. All I heard was static. No answer came back, and my expression twisted.

“Is this year cursed for me or something?”

Why did problems only happen when I touched the radio? I shouted toward the window.

“The radio is broken, I think I need to go check!”

The moment I said it, Han Sang-ah opened her eyes and stood up. Lee Se-eun tossed aside her can of soda.

Whether I liked it or not, it was time to work. We boarded the waiting military truck. Han Sang-ah was the driver.

I had already experienced her driving skills on Gyodong Island, so I buckled my seat belt and prayed we would reach Dover alive.

* * *

At the main base of Descendants of Dangun, Kim Ji-hyun stared blankly at the swaying sandbag before her, with her eyes dull.

“…”

It seemed hopeless. She had pushed herself enough to regain the strength for everyday life. But despite all the hell she went through to regain the power that bastard had burned away, this was all she could manage.

She slammed a kick into the sandbag with all her might, but the force was no more than that of an ordinary person.

“Ahhh!”

In the end she couldn't bear it and pounded the wall with her fists. Once, that alone would have been enough to bring the wall down, but nothing happened now.

All those years of work had turned to ashes. She knew instinctively.

No matter what, in this state she could never rise above a normal Hunter. The commander visited from time to time, telling her “As long as you have the will to stay with us, that is enough.”

He said effort was enough, but she couldn't accept that.

“What… what am I supposed to do.”

The stress gave her insomnia and anorexia too. The medics warned her that overtraining would only destroy her body, but she couldn't stop.

“Still at it today?”

The question came with a loud belch. She turned to see Seo Gyeonwoo scratching his overlapping belly folds.

“What are you here for, to mock me?”

Kim Ji-hyun’s sharp retort only made him grin wider.

“What good would it do me to mock you? I came because… I have been experimenting, you know?”

“Who doesn’t know that here?”

Doctor Seo was a researcher of the Descendants of Dangun, conducting many studies. He had projects assigned by the commander and others he pursued on his own, which the commander knowingly tolerated.

“I experimented with corpses of monsters from the Erosion Zone. Heh heheghegh.”

With a congested laugh, he pulled out a small vial. Inside were shards of jet-black stone.

“What is that.”

His sunken eyes gleamed as he looked at her.

“The path to your wish.”

“My wish? Do you even know what it is?”

He tapped the vial and rubbed his belly with satisfaction.

“With that frail body, no matter how hard you try, you cannot take revenge on Yoo Chan-seok. Even Seo Yeonju couldn't do it, right?”

“Don’t talk about Yeonju. She worked hard too.”

He clicked his tongue and continued.

“These have already passed clinical trials.”

He masked it to make it sound better, but in truth it was human experimentation.

Seo Gyeonwoo took out his phone and showed her three videos. Two failures, one success.

“Balancing the refinement ratio was tough. Heehee.”

When the stones were embedded in a body, they writhed inside like living things. In the failures, the veins blackened and swelled before the body exploded apart.

She grimaced, and he scratched his head.

“No one offered to help clean up afterwards… It was hell because of that.”

She watched the successful case instead. The veins did swell black, but then it subsided.

“How strong did they get?”

“Physically about 7.6 times… and this test subject, who had never sensed mana before, not only felt it but carried a considerable amount of mana inside.”

They became capable of holding mana in their body? Kim Ji-hyun stared in disbelief.

“Then it’s possible to mass-produce Hunters with this.”

He snorted and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

“To achieve this performance, you need good material in the first place.”

Even with lesser material, he implied, you could still create something Hunter-like.

“Since they came from the bodies of those monsters, it doesn’t feel like a good idea to use them.”

“Do you perhaps know about meat extracted from feces?”

She didn't know why he was bringing up something so filthy, but she listened.

“It was developed in Japan. Korea now uses that technology to mass-produce protein for Northeast Asia.”

She knew. Just like how food waste was dried into powder and distributed as aid, really it was a way to dispose of Korea’s waste.

“Does it matter what the raw material is, if the result is good?”

“….”

Not exactly wrong. He shook the vial and the stones chimed together.

Could she ever regain her old strength without using them, or even surpass her past self? Impossible.

Then could she live the rest of her life without avenging herself on Yoo Chan-seok, who had ruined her? That was something she couldn't accept either.

Her hand slowly reached for the vial.

“Either I’ll die, or live.”

“You will live. And you will likely be better than before.”

The black stones clattered. As if entranced, she grasped the vial.

“Just embed them, right?”

“Yes, and until you wake again I will treat you with care!”

She opened it and pressed the stones into her arm. They writhed like parasites burrowing inside. Soon her body shook, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.

Doctor Seo looked down at her with eyes filled with interest and anticipation.

* * *

Once more I admired Han Sang-ah’s flawless driving. The car we rode now probably felt the same.

Otherwise, why would it scream like that, roaring like a beast begging to be spared. Yet Han Sang-ah, gripping the wheel, showed no fear. Her face was calm as a still lake.

“We are almost there.”

From here I could already see massive smoke billowing from Dover.

“Even with the government still standing…”

To leave another country’s land in this state, either she had nerves of steel or nothing in the world frightened her.

“Hey, that is…”

Through the smoke that blanketed the sky, someone emerged. It was Kim Ji-hyun, her body covered with piercings like barnacles on a wreck.

— I found you at last, Yoo Chan-seok. You are so dead.

Kim Ji-hyun hovered in the air. With one hand extended, the black smoke above Dover swirled and gathered behind her into two pairs of wings.

“You two, focus on containing the situation please.”

That pierced woman had even sprouted wings on her back now.

From the look of it, she didn’t seem to care about anything except her desire to crush me.

“I will jump here.”

I leapt from the truck. Kim Ji-hyun, seeing me, beat her wings and wrapped herself in black smoke, landing before me.

Like ink dropped in water, smoke spread out from where she landed, veiling her form. Only her glowing red eyes shone through.

“Hello. Looks like you came here begging for another beating huh?”

“Every day was hell after that day.”

Step by step, she emerged from the whirling smoke. I scoffed and replied.

“Oh, dear… your face is half gone eh?”

It wasn't a figure of speech. Half her face remained intact, but the other half was bare white bone.

It was as if someone had ripped the flesh clean away. And above her head hovered a glossy black crown of laurels.

Should I even call that thing a human? Perhaps she was in the past, but not anymore.