Kim Seo-jun hadn’t just closed his eyes to rest until a moment ago.
With his eyes shut and his mind focused, he had spent a full forty minutes mastering a new martial art.
The name of the technique was Psychokinetic Barrier—
The only martial art Kim Seo-jun had learned in his previous life solely for defense.
This Psychokinetic Barrier created the strongest synergy effect with the Solar Divine Technique, capable even of blocking the terrifying laser cannon of the demonic beast.
The barrier was most powerful when applied directly to one’s body, but it also worked effectively as a wide-area shield that completely blocked a radius of three meters.
Moreover, as the term “psychokinesis” suggests, this technique allowed the user to manipulate internal energy by willpower, making it possible to break something as thin as a branch about five meters away by moving the energy through it.
Kim Seo-jun had intensely trained this Psychokinetic Barrier through mental cultivation for over forty minutes, finally achieving a basic level where it could barely be used.
Feeling the time was right, he opened his eyes.
In truth, Kim Seo-jun had already found a way to escape this place.
But because the method was extremely dangerous, he needed to master the Psychokinetic Barrier first to secure at least minimal safety.
So, he had poured all his effort into learning it with his eyes closed.
That didn’t mean he had completely blocked out everything else, though.
He had overheard the conversation between Shin Woo-jin and Shim Jae-deok, as well as all the exchanges they’d had with the hunters.
“So, the ones trying to evolve this rift into a D-rank for their own gain are the brothers Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo, huh.”
Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo already had different objectives for this raid, and they must have received additional proposals from Shim Jae-deok.
They had initially tried to comply with Shim Jae-deok’s demands, but when Kim Seo-jun saw them causing trouble even before he entered the rift, he changed plans to wipe out Shim Jae-deok as well.
Just looking at Park Jae-hong, who had a self-destruct device strapped to his body, it was clear that no survivors other than those two brothers should remain inside this rift.
“This won’t go the way you want.”
Kim Seo-jun was determined to escape and make those who tried to kill him pay the price.
But first, there was one crucial thing he had to confirm.
He needed to verify whether Ko Tae-hwan was truly the one who had hired Shim Jae-deok.
So, as soon as he opened his eyes, he sought out Shim Jae-deok.
“Why? Did you think I wouldn’t notice you stashing artifacts in that pouch?”
Kim Seo-jun had long known that the pouch Shim Jae-deok always wore at his waist was an artifact imbued with the Spatial Expansion effect.
Though only palm-sized, the pouch contained a vast interior space of 8 cubic meters.
Shim Jae-deok’s brief absence had been due to secretly searching through the Great Public Cavity, picking up artifacts off the ground and putting them inside the pouch.
Kim Seo-jun had noticed all of it.
“T-This is mine.”
“Is that more important than the professor’s life?”
Kim Seo-jun’s blunt words made Shim Jae-deok flinch.
“Do you really have confidence you can get me out of here alive?”
“If I didn’t, would I still be doing this?”
“Alright… fine.”
Shim Jae-deok reluctantly untied the pouch and handed it over.
“I promise both things you asked for. So get me out of here. Wouldn’t you say it’s a waste for my life to end like this?”
Shim Jae-deok clung to Kim Seo-jun as if grasping at a straw.
But Kim Seo-jun’s attitude suddenly hardened.
“Before that, tell me why I should save you.”
Kim Seo-jun addressed him formally as “you.”
Shim Jae-deok’s face reddened in embarrassment.
“Y-You definitely promised…”
“What promise? I don’t remember any such thing.”
“You bastard!”
Shim Jae-deok finally realized Kim Seo-jun had been toying with him.
Anger surged, and he began to raise his magic as if to attack on the spot.
At that moment, Kim Seo-jun curled his lips and said,
“If you want to live… then kneel. If you beg on your knees to be spared, I might reconsider.”
Kim Seo-jun was resolute.
Though Shim Jae-deok was well over forty, he shrank back under that fierce gaze.
This was not a matter of magic power levels.
In fact, Shim Jae-deok’s magic was much stronger than Kim Seo-jun’s.
It was a difference in presence.
The aura of an absolute master who had once protected the world from the Celestial Demon Commander crushed Shim Jae-deok beneath it.
With a thud, Shim Jae-deok finally knelt.
He unconsciously shed tears, clutching Kim Seo-jun’s pant leg.
“Please… please spare me. I don’t want to die yet. I’m begging you. Don’t leave me here!”
Shim Jae-deok chose submission to survive.
He understood.
If Kim Seo-jun truly wanted to save him, he could live and get out.
This wasn’t something understood logically, but instinctively.
“The one who hired you was Ko Tae-hwan. He’s the one who ordered you to send me into the rift to have a leg or arm cut off.”
Kim Seo-jun now began reciting facts without even being asked.
He wasn’t surprised because he had already suspected Ko Tae-hwan’s involvement.
He just needed confirmation.
“How much did he pay you?”
“Two hundred million…”
“Ha. You’re willing to cut off my arms or legs for just two hundred million? You really underestimated me.”
“I only wanted it to be an injury, not fatal. That’s sincere!”
“Sincere… I don’t think we’re in a position to bargain with sincerity.”
“P-Please… If I can return alive, I’ll follow your orders from now on!”
Shim Jae-deok clung desperately to Kim Seo-jun’s lifeline.
The fact that Kim Seo-jun was only a 19-year-old student had long disappeared from his mind.
He was willing to do anything to survive.
His CC-rank Hunter license was essentially just a ceremonial license with no combat experience, making him no different from an ordinary person facing the fear of death.
“Alright, I’ll say I understand for now.”
Kim Seo-jun left it at that and turned away from Shim Jae-deok.
“Hey, Kim Seo-jun!”
As Shim Jae-deok tried to crawl on his knees and grab him, Shin Woo-jin stepped in front.
“Let’s stop, professor. Didn’t he just say he understands?”
“… You really, really are going to save me, right?”
Shim Jae-deok slumped down, muttering over and over, “I have to live. I have to live.”
Watching that, Shin Woo-jin sighed deeply.
Hoo… I don’t know how someone like him became a hunter and a professor.
Greedy but lacking courage.
Awakened to Mysticism but lacking even the minimum qualifications to use it.
That was Shim Jae-deok.
Kim Seo-jun moved aside and took out all the artifacts from the spatial pouch.
Various artifacts spilled out with a clatter.
He managed to gather quite a few in such a short time.
There were six artifacts in total, but most were useless, and only two looked somewhat worthwhile.
One was a mask resembling an egg with two eye holes. When Kim Seo-jun held it, a brief description window popped up in front of his eyes.
[Cloaking Mask]
– Consumes 2 magic points per minute to render the wearer invisible.
– Cooldown: —
Since there was no cooldown, it seemed the mask could be used freely as long as the wearer had magic.
The second was a fist-sized blood-red orb that looked exactly like a human eye.
[Crimson Eye]
– Inject magic into the Crimson Eye to hypnotize anyone who meets its gaze for 3 minutes.
– Cooldown: 24 hours
Although hypnosis was quite a useful effect, this artifact was also not suitable for use here.
The rest were truly useless.
An earring that increased magic by 1, a cream that enhanced smell, a sleep aid blindfold, a digestion-boosting pill, a voice-copy band, and so on.
After inspecting everything, Kim Seo-jun carefully put all the artifacts back into the spatial pouch.
Having finished his task, he looked toward the top of his vision.
[00:07:23]
Only about seven minutes remained until the rift’s closure.
By now, those bastards must have left the rift.
Kim Seo-jun figured that even the Lee brothers would no longer remain inside the rift at this point.
Their goal was the rift’s persistence.
But after Kim Seo-jun defeated the boss Gondola, newly created by the Black Magic Stone, the rift’s closure was imminent.
The Lee brothers must have been anxious about the rift closing and might have returned to the location of this rare item by some means of their own.
Kim Seo-jun had deliberately stalled until now, despite having an escape plan, in case he ran into them after clearing away the rock debris and going outside.
Lee Han-soo was a CA-rank support-type hunter, and Lee Hyung-mo was a BB-rank close-combat hunter, so they could be very dangerous.
Even if Kim Seo-jun didn’t know, others would be easy prey if Lee Hyung-mo set his mind to it.
“Lee Hyung-mo. Leaving without dealing with this yourself was a huge mistake.”
If the brothers had tried to take out people themselves, Kim Seo-jun might have been forced to die here.
Luckily, they underestimated the situation and, unwilling to get their hands dirty, only destroyed the portal magic circle, making a critical error.
Now, it was time for the counterattack.
Kim Seo-jun moved to the edge of the completely sealed space.
There, Park Jae-hong lay dying, barely breathing.
The only way to escape this place required taking someone’s life, so Kim Seo-jun looked at Park Jae-hong with a faintly pitying expression.
If I were in your place, for the happiness and life of my family, I would have done the same.
He wasn’t justifying his actions, only understanding the state of mind that led to his decision to self-destruct.
At that moment, Shin Woo-jin approached Kim Seo-jun.
Placing a hand on his shoulder, he spoke quietly.
“Park Jae-hong can’t be saved. It’s not your fault, nor anyone else’s here. It’s the result created by Lee Hyung-mo, that bastard.”
Shin Woo-jin seemed to misunderstand Kim Seo-jun’s expression but didn’t bother to explain.
“Kim Seo-jun, I’m telling you now, I owe my life to your father. Without him, I’d already be dead. That’s why I want to repay that debt here and now.”
Shin Woo-jin suddenly started rambling.
Before Kim Seo-jun could say anything, he just kept talking.
“I’ll tell you a secret. You won’t believe it, but magic stones don’t only come from monsters. There’s a slim chance they appear in humans, too. And there’s one inside my body.”
Not only the hunters but even Kim Seo-jun was shocked by this.
No one had ever known magic stones existed inside humans.
“Believe me. And… I’ll give you my magic stone! Absorb it and find a way to live. You… you can definitely do it!”
Steeling himself, Shin Woo-jin clenched his sword tightly and tried to slit his own throat.
At that moment, Kim Seo-jun snatched the sword away.
“There’s no need for that.”
“Don’t stop me. This is my decision, and it’s a duty I must fulfill.”
Shin Woo-jin’s resolve was unwavering.
But Kim Seo-jun neither needed Shin Woo-jin’s death nor his magic stone.
“Debts paid with death are only burdens to the living. If you want to repay your debt, do it alive.”
“I have no way to get out alive…”
“There is. There is a way out of here.”
“… What?”
Kim Seo-jun squatted down in front of the barely breathing Park Jae-hong.
He took out the black magic stone he had prepared earlier.
“Hunter Shin Woo-jin, do you know what this magic stone is?”
Shin Woo-jin shook his head.
It was the first time he had seen the black magic stone since arriving here.
“Earlier, I saw Lee Hyung-mo use this to transform a hunter into a powerful monster.”
“You’re not…?”
Shin Woo-jin realized what Kim Seo-jun was about to do.
Taking out the black magic stone in front of the dying Park Jae-hong could mean only one thing.
“If you’re doomed to die anyway…”
Kim Seo-jun said as he grabbed Park Jae-hong by the hair and lifted him roughly.
The violent action made Shin Woo-jin and the other hunters’ eyes widen, all murmuring in surprise.
Then Kim Seo-jun continued.
“… Saving six lives on the way out wouldn’t be bad either.”
As he finished speaking, Kim Seo-jun forcefully plunged the black magic stone into Park Jae-hong’s forehead.
“Gyaaah!”
The near-dead Park Jae-hong screamed and thrashed wildly.
Shin Woo-jin shouted,
“What on earth are you thinking, doing something like this!”
The hunters also became agitated by the cries of their comrade.
But Kim Seo-jun merely stared at them with cold, darkened eyes.
“Cut the fake kindness. Those who said they’d ease the pain since he was going to die anyway are now pretending to be merciful and comrades?”
Those words silenced everyone.
They had all been the ones to suggest ending their comrade’s life; no one had the right to criticize Kim Seo-jun’s actions.
The only ones who could truly condemn what Kim Seo-jun had done were Park Jae-hong’s family, watching their loved one transform into a monster.
“If you want to live, turn off your lantern and stick close to me.”
Kim Seo-jun stepped away from Park Jae-hong.
Naturally, the hunters moved closer to Kim Seo-jun’s side.
Meanwhile, Park Jae-hong was smashing the piles of stones and slowly pushing himself upright—a towering figure over five meters tall.