The boss within the barrier zone has been defeated. The barrier will close shortly. [00:59:57]
Kim Seo-jun let out a deep sigh as soon as he saw the message that appeared right after Gondola had fallen.
“Damn it.”
His gaze shifted toward the wall collapsing under the explosion.
It was the very wall where the portal magic circle had just been moments ago, but now it was nothing but rubble.
“Is it lucky that at least it didn’t collapse all the way here?”
They had saved the hunters, but the way back to the rift entrance had vanished.
No, if they sprinted full speed for two to three hours, they could make it there. But realistically, that was impossible.
“I shouldn’t have killed her. I should have left her alive.”
Kim Seo-jun looked down at Gondola’s corpse, which had been blown apart from the upper body—only the lower half remained.
At that moment, his eyes caught sight of a blue magic stone.
“Even though her heart was shattered to dust, the magic stone still came out.”
Kim Seo-jun bent down to pick up the blue-glowing magic stone. But right next to it, barely noticeable unless looked at closely, was another magic stone emitting a faint black light.
“What is this…?”
It was exactly the same black magic stone that Lee Hyung-mo had implanted into Yoo Jin-oh’s forehead.
Kim Seo-jun discreetly clenched both stones in one hand, making it seem like he was only picking up the blue one so the others wouldn’t notice the black magic stone.
Only then did the hunters regain their senses one by one and approach him.
“Thanks to you… everyone survived.”
Shin Woo-jin expressed his gratitude to Kim Seo-jun with a grim expression.
Other hunters injured in various places also thanked him, but Kim Seo-jun’s face wasn’t pleased as he looked at them.
“To be honest, except for Hunter Shin Woo-jin, I had no desire to save anyone.”
Except for Shin Woo-jin, the other hunters had all been plotting to put Kim Seo-jun in danger by any means necessary.
If Shin Woo-jin hadn’t been here, Kim Seo-jun would have ignored the bomb without hesitation and jumped into the magic circle.
The hunters knew this too and lowered their heads in silence.
At that moment, Sim Jae-deok, who had been hiding somewhere, finally appeared.
His eyes gleamed as he looked toward Kim Seo-jun.
“Student Kim Seo-jun, that thing you just picked up… is that a Blue Magic Stone by any chance?”
Sim Jae-deok’s eyes were filled with greed.
“Why do you ask?”
“Why? Because we’re all in trouble here, aren’t we? We should at least share the spoils, right? Let’s see… Blue Magic Stones go for roughly a billion won each, so if seven of us split it evenly, that’s 140 million won each. Perfect.”
Shin Woo-jin exploded with anger at such an absurd remark.
“Hey, Professor Sim! Are you serious right now? We might be trapped in this rift forever, and you’re talking about splitting money?”
“Huh, come on. If this rift closes, we just find another one. Do you really think in such a huge world there’s only one rift?”
Sim Jae-deok was completely unaware of the gravity of the situation.
No one knew for sure if anyone had ever been trapped in a closed rift world and whether there was a way back.
Even if there was another rift, it might take a year, or even ten years, to find it.
Sim Jae-deok was overly optimistic about the situation.
Seeing the serious expressions on everyone’s faces, he finally realized how badly things had gone.
“… You don’t really mean we’re going to be trapped here, do you?”
“Don’t you see the countdown at the top of your field of vision? It says the rift closes in 55 minutes.”
“Is that for real? Then why isn’t everyone running to the rift right now?”
Sim Jae-deok looked around anxiously.
Then he spotted a hunter standing alone, not coming toward them, staring up at the ceiling of the Grand Hall.
“Hey! What are you doing standing there alone? We have to get out of here… huh?”
Sim Jae-deok’s sudden startled shout drew everyone’s attention to the lone hunter.
His name was Park Jae-hong.
He was the tank alongside Lee Hyung-mo during the raid.
But right now, he was not himself.
He had a large, stuffed backpack slung over his back, and in one hand, he held a small device of unknown origin.
The sight was disconcerting.
Tears streamed down Park Jae-hong’s face.
“Hey, Park Jae-hong! What are you doing?”
At the question from a fellow hunter, Park Jae-hong forced a sad smile and slowly spoke in a voice void of any will to live.
“No one will be getting out of here alive today…”
Then he pushed the device in his hand forward.
It was a button.
A self-destruct button that could detonate the explosives packed inside his backpack anytime.
“Hey, Park Jae-hong! Calm down. Just calm down!”
Shin Woo-jin realized the situation and approached the younger Park Jae-hong to try to calm him.
“It’s already too late. I’m terribly sorry to everyone here, but I have no choice if my family is to survive!”
“What are you talking about? Your family surviving? Could it be that Lee Hyung-mo is holding your family hostage?”
“Heh, ha ha ha! Nobody knew, did they? How vicious those bastards Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo really are. If anyone here gets out alive, my family will die. So stop this foolishness and let’s bury our bones here together!”
Just as Park Jae-hong shouted and was about to press the button, Shin Woo-jin rushed toward him but saw a bolt of lightning pass by at incredible speed.
A brilliant lightning streak coursed along his entire body as he covered the 20 meters in the blink of an eye.
It was Kim Seo-jun.
As Park Jae-hong tensed his hand, Kim Seo-jun flashed the Thunder God’s Flash.
Right before his finger could press the button, he unleashed the Footstep Art of Asura Extreme Island.
Click.
Park Jae-hong’s wrist flew into the air.
That button—packed with explosives—could have detonated the entire backpack anytime.
“Hey, Park Jae-hong! Calm down. Just calm down!”
Shin Woo-jin tried again to calm him down.
“It’s already too late. I’m terribly sorry to everyone here, but I have no choice if my family is to survive!”
“What are you talking about? Your family surviving? Could it be that Lee Hyung-mo is holding your family hostage?”
“Heh, ha ha ha! Nobody knew, did they? How vicious those bastards Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo really are. If anyone here gets out alive, my family will die. So stop this foolishness and let’s bury our bones here together!”
Just as Park Jae-hong shouted and was about to press the button, Shin Woo-jin rushed toward him but saw a bolt of lightning pass by at incredible speed.
A brilliant lightning streak coursed along his entire body as he covered the 20 meters in the blink of an eye.
It was Kim Seo-jun.
As Park Jae-hong tensed his hand, Kim Seo-jun flashed the Thunder God’s Flash.
Right before his finger could press the button, he unleashed the Footstep Art of Asura Extreme Island.
Click.
Park Jae-hong’s wrist flew into the air.
If they stayed like this, they would be crushed to death by the enormous boulder.
Kim Seo-jun ran toward the recently collapsed wall and shouted loudly.
“Everyone, stick behind me!”
Only then did the world’s time flow normally again.
Shin Woo-jin, Sim Jae-deok, and the other hunters realized the urgency and hurriedly ran after Kim Seo-jun.
There was no time to check if they were following properly.
Because his left hand had absorbed such immense destructive power that even flames erupted from it, Kim Seo-jun stretched it out forcefully toward the half-collapsed wall.
Shuaaang.
The beam that shot from his hand was bigger and more powerful than the one that had blown Gondola away.
The light pierced through the wall and created a huge cave.
Without hesitation, Kim Seo-jun jumped inside.
One by one, the others followed.
Even Park Jae-hong, who had tried to kill them all by pressing the button, suddenly seemed to want to live. Clutching his severed arm, he threw himself into the cave belatedly.
At that moment, the Grand Hall roared and completely collapsed.
*****
From the dense darkness, a sudden bright light spilled out, illuminating the surroundings.
“Everyone… are you okay?”
Shin Woo-jin checked on the survivors.
“I’m… okay.”
“Me too.”
Three hunters responded, and Sim Jae-deok also confirmed his survival.
“If we had been even a little later… we would’ve died. Damn, what a mess.”
“If it weren’t for Kim Seo-jun, we’d all be dead. But where’s Kim Seo-jun…?”
Shin Woo-jin searched for Kim Seo-jun by swinging a camping lantern back and forth.
But Kim Seo-jun was pressed against a huge pile of fallen rocks ahead.
They all approached that spot and found Park Jae-hong, pinned beneath the rubble, gasping for breath.
“He said we’d all die together, but I guess he was too scared to die alone.”
Kim Seo-jun’s cold words left Park Jae-hong speechless.
Instead, he whimpered softly, begging for his life.
But no one here was willing to extend a helping hand to the one who had tried to kill them all.
Everyone coldly left the dying Park Jae-hong and sat a few meters away.
“Thank you, Kim Seo-jun.”
“Once again, I owe you.”
“We owe you a great debt.”
The hunters expressed their gratitude to Kim Seo-jun once more.
If he hadn’t carved out the cave with his overwhelming firepower, they would have been crushed flat and parted ways with the world.
They barely survived, but no one could smile.
They were completely isolated.
Buried under what might be thousands of tons of rock with no hope of escape.
Kim Seo-jun sat silently cross-legged, closing his eyes.
Without speaking to anyone, he quietly let time pass like he was sleeping.
After some time in silence, the hunters began to speak one by one, unable to bear the frustration.
Though some were injured, at this point such wounds were insignificant.
“Senior Woo-jin, is there absolutely no way out of here?”
“Jae-hong, he must be in terrible pain. Should we send him off ourselves?”
“I never expected Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo to betray us like this!”
At their words, Shin Woo-jin frowned deeply.
“Even so, sending Jae-hong off ourselves… huh. And you all—how much did those bastards pay you to pull monsters toward Kim Seo-jun?”
Shin Woo-jin pressed the junior hunters on why they secretly let monsters near Kim Seo-jun.
“We just thought we’d make some pocket money…”
“They said if we pushed monsters toward Kim Seo-jun, we’d get ten million won each. How could we refuse?”
“Lee Hyung-mo said it was a simple matter—just lightly injure Kim Seo-jun so he’d give up becoming a hunter.”
The hunters no longer hid anything.
Sim Jae-deok grew nervous and began biting his nails.
“Professor Sim, tell us now. Why did you make that proposal to Lee Hyung-mo and put Kim Seo-jun in danger? Why?”
“I—I didn’t make any proposal!”
Sim Jae-deok tried to deny it until Shin Woo-jin glared at him.
“Do you think I’m joking? You said you’re a CC-rank hunter, right? I’m CB-rank, Manseob here is DB-rank, Deokcheol is DD-rank, and Yongdae is DA-rank. Since we’re all trapped here, do you think we can’t bury one person among us?”
Realizing the severity, Sim Jae-deok stopped denying it.
“If you promise to save me and get me out of here, I’ll tell you everything.”
Still, he wasn’t about to spill everything easily.
“Are you still dreaming about getting out alive? Look carefully and see if there’s any way out. See if we can even push away this massive boulder.”
“…”
Sim Jae-deok fell silent and curled up alone in a corner, continuing to bite his nails.
Some time passed again.
Shin Woo-jin stopped pressing him.
Kim Seo-jun, the youngest victim who had saved everyone from death, was quietly resting with his eyes closed, and Shin Woo-jin felt guilty for worrying too much.
Instead, he discussed with the hunters about why Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo had done such a thing, and about the black magic stone implanted in Yoo Jin-oh’s forehead.
They couldn’t learn much about the black magic stone, but they reached one conclusion.
The two brothers’ original goal was to kill everyone who came here and create a new boss monster to keep the rift open.
If this rift continued to exist, in about six days it would complete its evolution from D-rank to C-rank and begin pouring D-rank monsters onto Earth.
The number of monsters vomited out at the E-rank rift stage was less than a hundred, but at D-rank it approached five hundred, and at C-rank it reached two thousand five hundred.
Imagine nearly 2,500 D-rank monsters pouring out from a C-rank rift.
It would be hell.
At least 30% of the hunters under the Rift Management Bureau would have to be deployed for suppression, and civilian casualties would number in the thousands.
Shin Woo-jin considered who might benefit from evolving this rift.
“Private guilds and high-rank hunters. Could they have bribed the Lee brothers?”
That was the best scenario Shin Woo-jin could imagine.
D-rank rifts would be excellent money-making venues for them, and defending against waves would be a perfect opportunity to show off their power to the world.
But now, even if they figured this out, it didn’t mean they could escape.
He quietly watched Kim Seo-jun, who had been resting with his eyes closed for forty minutes.
With only about ten minutes left before the rift closure, he grew anxious.
“No matter how great his power, breaking the boulders blocking the entrance is probably impossible.”
His focus shifted entirely to Kim Seo-jun.
The immense ability Kim Seo-jun had shown before being buried here was equivalent to that of an AA-rank hunter.
“Will I never be able to repay the debt I owe Hunter Kim Ju-hyeok?”
Eight years ago, Kim Ju-hyeok had used his mystical power to greatly increase Shin Woo-jin’s concentration and mana, saving him from death.
“If sacrificing myself lets that student escape, I won’t hesitate.”
As Shin Woo-jin thought this, he suddenly recalled Won-ga and set his jaw firmly.
“Lee Han-soo. That bastard definitely said it. There’s a magic stone in my heart!”
Lee Han-soo’s mystic power, the “Vision of Insight.”
He could tell the magnitude of mana and distinguish whether monsters were normal or special.
More importantly, he could tell whether a human or monster had a magic stone in their heart.
At a hunter gathering, drunk, Lee Han-soo had told Shin Woo-jin:
“Haha. Senior Woo-jin, did you know? With my power, I can tell if monsters have magic stones in their hearts. But the funny thing is, I can see them in humans too. I thought magic stones were only in monsters… but apparently not. Heh heh.”
As he said this, Lee Han-soo had poked Shin Woo-jin’s chest with a finger and added:
“Take good care of the magic stone inside you. Don’t let anyone steal it. Hahaha.”
That meant there was a magic stone inside Shin Woo-jin’s own heart.
He knew Lee Han-soo was telling the truth.
“If I take the magic stone from my heart and give it to that student…”
Would that give Kim Seo-jun, who absorbed the stone, a chance to escape?
At that moment, Kim Seo-jun opened his eyes wide.
He sprang to his feet and suddenly approached Sim Jae-deok.
“Professor, were you serious about what you said earlier?”
Startled by the sudden question, Sim Jae-deok stammered before replying,
“Of course! If you promise to help me get out alive, I’ll tell you everything.”
“Then let’s do this. I promise to save you and get you out, but you must fulfill three conditions.”
“What conditions? What do you want me to do?”
Kim Seo-jun looked at the flustered Sim Jae-deok with a mocking smile.
“First, you must promise not to reveal anything that happened here to anyone. Second, you have to immediately tell me who made the deal to betray me. And third…”
Kim Seo-jun gestured toward Sim Jae-deok’s waist.
“Bring out all the artifacts you secretly stashed there.”
Sim Jae-deok was dumbfounded, blinking in disbelief.
Shin Woo-jin and the hunters were equally confused, not understanding what was happening.
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