Chapter 78: Fire Answers Fire

As soon as the pot lid was lifted, the savory scent of freshly roasted salt spread through the air, glowing red.

Yuseong’s heart, too, must have warmed and floated up like the white steam billowing softly.

At least, until the sudden appearance of a stranger who, before he could scatter gasoline everywhere, disrupted the moment.

There was no anger.

No, there wasn’t even time to consider feeling angry.

It simply felt as if his mind was burning white-hot.

Usually, Yuseong didn’t need much of a reason to get angry.

Just as he’d been furious not long ago when someone broke open the honey well at Gabartan, Yuseong always became enraged when someone stole his prey.

But this time, the situation was a bit unique.

“Get your salt from the sea.”

That was what the stranger said as he drew fire from his body.

In that instant, Yuseong felt as if he had been hurled far back into his past.

After his grandfather died, when he survived alone on the island, hiding from monsters.

When he was cowering in a storeroom crammed with half-rotting food.

That was when the Special Forces from the mainland arrived.

Little Yuseong, hidden in the ceiling, watched as a man in black set the last of their food ablaze.

The sharp smell of gasoline and an even more poisonous black smoke.

A scorching wind, hot enough to burn his face even from afar.

A fire lit inside Yuseong’s heart as well.

When Yuseong’s heart was set ablaze by anger, his head grew cold.

So, just as he had when he’d stabbed Hwang Rian in the nape, he moved swiftly and without hesitation.

First, he kicked Jang Dojin away.

Perhaps Jang Dojin hadn’t expected Yuseong to attack so suddenly—his throat was struck, and he lost consciousness in an instant.

Jang Dojin’s limp body rolled backward, down the sloped hill.

It was only a split second, but the flaming attack was just as swift.

The Operators near the stranger were already swallowed in flames.

There was no time to dodge.

Instead, he used a method to minimize the damage as much as possible.

Yuseong grabbed a plastic canteen filled with Magical Power Water and held it over his head.

Then, he squeezed it with all his strength.

The freezing-cold Magical Power Water soaked his entire body in a torrent.

Fssshhhhh.

At last, the flames engulfed Yuseong.

***

“Chil Yong will be pleased…”

Heuksoo, sent by Chairman Yong Jeo Ran of Jangru Salt Company to punish BioKizen.

His Gift was nothing remarkable: he could secrete flammable oil from his body.

Discovering such a Gift, Chairman Yong Jeo Ran had taken him in. For that, Heuksoo had pledged his loyalty.

This was a mid-level warning.

A warning from Yong Jeo Ran, sent to BioKizen for ignoring his first message and trespassing into the 16th Layer of the Salt Desert.

Just the other day, Heuksoo had successfully infiltrated the Korean Peninsula Abyss.

He’d entered through a Gate in Jirisan that the Korean government had yet to discover.

And now, he had splendidly disposed of BioKizen’s lackeys here in the 16th Layer.

Though two unrelated Explorers had been caught up in the crossfire, such sacrifices were inevitable for the greater cause.

“No personal feelings involved…”

As the Operators’ flesh burned, black smoke billowed, stinging the nose.

You might withstand the flames, but if you inhaled the smoke, you couldn’t breathe.

Heuksoo turned and began to leave.

But out from the black smoke, a badly burned hand shot out.

“What the—!”

Heuksoo dodged, but the burned hand moved like a snake, coiling tightly around his neck.

A hissing sound escaped his lips.

“Keuk!”

The owner of the hand was Yuseong.

Thanks to the Magical Power Water collected from Cold Boulder, he had survived the flames.

But only the parts that the water had soaked.

Parts of his suit were scorched and fused to his body, and the hand that grasped Heuksoo’s throat was roasted red.

Even so, the grip was so fierce that Heuksoo couldn’t pry Yuseong’s hand loose.

“My… my brain…”

Yuseong didn’t bother to reply. He answered with his fist.

Wham!

A fist smashed into Heuksoo’s face.

Aside from his unusual Gift, Heuksoo wasn’t anything special—his front teeth shattered in a single blow.

The ruthless payback didn’t end there.

Yuseong hoisted Heuksoo up and slammed him to the ground.

As Heuksoo’s head hit the earth, stars exploded before his eyes.

But the real ordeal began after that.

Yuseong grabbed Heuksoo’s leg.

Having done similar things before, Heuksoo instantly realized what Yuseong intended to do.

“N-no—”

Yuseong twisted the leg to the side without a moment’s hesitation.

Crunch!

“Gaaaaaah—!”

The leg twisted at an impossible angle. The tendon snapped, and the ankle bone broke.

Yuseong did the same to Heuksoo’s other leg.

Crack!

“Gahh… haahh…”

Torture is meant to extract information.

But Yuseong didn’t ask a single question.

Like butchering a piece of meat, he silently rendered Heuksoo powerless.

After the legs, he broke both arms as well.

Like an insect tormented by cruel children, Heuksoo flopped helplessly on the cold ground, bleeding.

He kept mumbling apologies in Chinese.

“Speak Korean.”

When Yuseong replied for the first time, color returned to Heuksoo’s face.

Since he’d been dispatched for this mission, he did know Korean.

“Ah, sorry! I was wrong, it’s my fault—”

But Yuseong seized Heuksoo by the throat again and dragged him along.

Just then, Jang Dojin, having regained consciousness, appeared.

“H-hey! Are you okay?”

Jang Dojin looked around at the horribly burned surroundings and fell into panic.

Moments ago, the Operators had been walking and talking; now, they were all charred corpses.

“B-b-b-burns…!”

Seeing Yuseong’s burns, Jang Dojin nearly screamed.

It was a level of injury that required immediate treatment.

“Bring the backpack.”

But at Yuseong’s cold command, Jang Dojin could only stumble over and retrieve the bag.

Fortunately, the backpack had survived, and Yuseong took out dried gourds and some food.

“Stay here and wait.”

“With those burns, where are you going…”

Yuseong didn’t reply.

He simply dragged Heuksoo toward the Salt Desert.

In the direction Yuseong was headed, a red, cave-like structure came into view.

A cave made of salt rock.

Within lay the ancient mine carved out by old races, for inside, there was red salt far more precious than the salt scattered everywhere.

It was the Red Salt Mountain.

“You—your Gift is to secrete oil and light it on fire, isn’t it?”

When Yuseong spoke, Heuksoo finally began to babble.

“Y-yeah, that’s right. Please, spare me…”

“You must be tough against flames, seeing how you look.”

“Yes, yes, so please—enough…”

Every time he was dragged, pain surged through his shattered limbs.

“Stop whining. You just burned several people alive.”

“They betrayed faith… b-betrayed loyalty!”

“And more importantly, you messed with my food and supplies.”

No matter what excuse Heuksoo made, it was unforgivable.

Yuseong drank water mixed with dried apple and a little Magical Power Water.

He nibbled on some gourd, chewing it slowly.

Fortunately, his tongue wasn’t burned, and he could still taste the food even through the pain of his burns.

The burns covering Yuseong’s hand began to heal slowly.

Heuksoo was shocked when he saw this.

“H-how are your wounds…!”

Unless you met a real healer, this rate of healing was impossible.

“Are you a S-rank Explorer or something? Why are you here…?”

It was reasonable for Heuksoo to mistake Yuseong for a S-rank Explorer, the highest level in Korea.

Yuseong didn’t bother to explain.

After silently walking for some time, he arrived at the entrance to the Red Salt Mountain.

Up close, the mine’s entrance was bigger than it appeared from afar.

You could see relics of civilization, like rails for pulling carts and decaying mining equipment.

But the most startling thing was the tremendous wave of heat pouring out from the entrance of the Red Salt Mountain.

Fwoooosh.

It was so intense that you could feel the heat even from the desert outside.

Yuseong pulled out a magic stone from his pocket.

A cold magic stone from Cold Boulder, still radiating chill.

There was a reason he’d bothered to bring it along.

Yuseong wrapped the blue magic stone in a cloth and smashed it against the rock.

Crack!

He repeated this several times.

Until the magic stone was ground to a fine powder.

Yuseong poured the blue powder all over himself.

He spread it meticulously over his suit and skin, leaving no spot uncovered.

The magic stone powder emitted an icy chill.

Anywhere else, he might have gotten frostbite instantly, but inside the hellish Red Salt Mountain, it would serve as his protection.

He wetted the cloth used to crush the stone and covered his mouth to protect his airways.

Prepared, Yuseong shot a cold glare at Heuksoo.

“You can endure hot places, can’t you?”

“If it’s not blazing flames, I can handle it.”

“Then you’ll survive the Red Salt Mountain easily.”

“If you’re still alive when I come back out, I won’t kill you.”

“……!”

Heuksoo barely managed to hide his delight.

He could withstand flames, after all.

How hot could a salt mine really be, he thought.

“Th-thank you…”

“It’s too soon to be grateful.”

With that, Yuseong dragged Heuksoo into the mine.

The moment they entered, Heuksoo realized something was off about this place.

Yuseong lifted Heuksoo up with one hand and growled,

“When I come back, I hope you’re nicely dried into jerky.”

Then he hurled Heuksoo against the wall.

His twisted limbs couldn’t cushion the fall; he rolled helplessly across the ground.

Sharp salt crystals tore into his body.

Without looking back, Yuseong ventured deep into the mine.

Sssssssss.

From deep within, a terrifying wind roared.

“Haah, keuk, haah…”

In terms of heat alone, it wasn’t as bad as open flames.

For Heuksoo, this was bearable.

“Aah… it hurts…”

But the powerful saltiness mixed into the wind, and the salt rock all around greedily absorbed the blood and moisture from Heuksoo’s body.

It really did feel like he was turning into jerky.

Even S-rank Explorer Ignite and his Fire Brothers had failed to conquer this place.

There was a reason even those Explorers, no less skilled than Heuksoo, gave up on the expedition.

Inside the giant dehydrator that was the salt mine, Heuksoo slowly withered.

No matter how long he waited, Yuseong didn’t come back out.

Until Heuksoo’s eyes dried up and he even lost his vision.

In the end, he lost consciousness in the pitch-black darkness.

***

Hwang Rian never expected to meet Yuseong again so soon after their last encounter.

“So, you broke his arms and legs and even took his eyesight.”

And she’d been utterly shocked when Yuseong suddenly showed up, dragging the headache of Daegak behind him.

“I did break his arms and legs, but I didn’t blind him. That’s from staying in the Red Salt Mountain too long.”

“And who threw him into the salt mine?”

“I did.”

“Then it’s basically your fault.”

“Is it?”

“You did good.”

Hwang Rian grinned.

The mad terrorist who acted on Chairman Yong Jeo Ran’s orders.

That guy killed five Operators hired by BioKizen.

Until then, neither Daegak, Haenam Coastal Security, nor the Law Ministry had noticed a thing.

It was a situation where any one of those departments might lose someone over this.

Yet Yuseong had captured the culprit alive and delivered him immediately.

Hwang Rian was so grateful, she didn’t know what to do with herself.

“Is he sane?”

“No, he’s practically a vegetable. Our little guy’s gotten pretty brutal.”

“He poured oil on my food and set it on fire.”

“Well, that’s enough reason.”

The problem was, Heuksoo’s condition was so pitiful.

He was conscious, but unable to say a word, only babbling.

It must have been a tremendous psychological shock.

“There’s a lot we need to find out…”

It wasn’t something to announce to the public.

Neither the Chinese nor Korean governments would want that.

“I heard a little. About why he came here and such.”

When Yuseong said that, Hwang Rian’s face brightened.

“Oooh! Tell me quickly!”

Hmm.

Yuseong hesitated.

Then he pointed to the liquor cabinet in Hwang Rian’s office.

“Let’s have a drink first.”

“…Hey! Do you know how much that is?”

What he pointed to was a bottle of liquor in the cabinet.

An expensive, aged tequila.

“You didn’t even buy it with your own money.”

“If it was confiscated, it’s mine.”

“That’s illegal.”

As a member of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Awakened Task Force, Hwang Rian sometimes took trophies from those she brought to justice.

It was illegal, of course, but Daegak and the prosecutors usually turned a blind eye.

Thanks to Yuseong, who had sparked her interest in food, she especially enjoyed collecting liquor these days.

“I’ll give you one glass.”

“Fine.”

Grumbling, Hwang Rian opened the cabinet.

Inside, it was kept at a much lower temperature than it appeared.

To keep air from getting in, it was double sealed.

Hwang Rian unwrapped the packaging and took out two glasses.

“I’ll have one too.”

She’d never tried it, but after tasting a few drinks in the past, she’d developed a secret liking for alcohol.

When it was finally time to open the tequila, Hwang Rian smiled broadly.

Glug.

While she poured the tequila into the straight glasses, Yuseong pulled something from his pocket.

Hwang Rian’s eyes went wide.

What Yuseong held looked like a heart made of ruby.

A red gem, about the size of a fist, similar to Hwang Rian’s hair color.

“What’s that?”

“Salt.”

It was the Ultimate Salt, the very thing Yuseong had brought out from the depths of the Red Salt Mountain.