WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: BlueMangoAde
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 871: F-Rank Hunter Jeon Myeong-hoon (10)
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Crackle, cracklecrackle...!
The ants hesitate as they look at Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Only the Priest Ant looks at him with eyes that seem to understand something.
One General Ant points a sword at Jeon Myeong-hoon.
“Weren’t you one of the native human species? Why have you suddenly become like that!?”
“I abandoned my body. Well, if I lose focus, I’ll scatter and die right away. Still, I rather like it.”
Crackle!
Holding his spear, Jeon Myeong-hoon speaks while maintaining a body that burns as lightning itself.
“I have found my answer. I have no more business with this colony, so move aside.”
“Hmph, do you think we’ll let you go? Intruder...! If we are to settle on this planet, there cannot be a being of your caliber here!”
Rumble...!
As a General Ant shouts, every ant in the colony begins to resonate.
An enormous amount of mana begins converging upon the General Ant.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Like Auswahlen had done, countless lines of mana pierce into the General Ant’s back.
However, unlike Auswahlen, who had received mana from only a single unit, could it be because this General Ant receives mana from the entire colony?
Its presence continues to rise.
S--Rank.
S-Rank.
S+-Rank...!
At last, SS--Rank!
Jeon Myeong-hoon smirks at the General Ant, which has become something like a mana spirit, much like himself in his lightning-spirit form.
“Commendable. Tell me your name. I will remember it.”
“Ha, intruder. I am Black Ant. An ant called Black Ant, nothing more!”
“Is that so.”
That is all.
In an instant, Jeon Myeong-hoon and Black Ant vanish from the battlefield.
When they reappear, they are in the skies above Ant Garden!
Spirits of mana and lightning collide, sending shockwaves outward.
Black Ant is strong.
It can keep up with Jeon Myeong-hoon, who has become a spirit and moves at the speed of lightning!
The system window cannot keep up with Jeon Myeong-hoon’s speed. It grants him skills such as [Soul of Thunder Heaven], [Breath of the Thunder God], and [Lightning Spirit Body], then belatedly registers them as his Unique Skills once his understanding far surpasses them.
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s Unique Skills gradually increase.
Yet regardless of his Unique Skills, Jeon Myeong-hoon trades attacks and counters with Black Ant beyond the status window and system window.
[Excellent!]
[Uoooooh...!]
Black Ant continuously unleashes ant-exclusive swordsmanship as it roars.
But eventually, the time comes.
Booom!
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s spear pierces Black Ant’s mana-formed chest and goes beyond it.
It cleaves through the very flow of mana with lightning.
Black Ant crashes into the center of Ant Garden.
Gush!
Ant fluid bursts across the surroundings.
Jeon Myeong-hoon silently looks down at Black Ant and descends to the ground.
[You fought well.]
“Cough... Ghk... Damn it... Those Merchant Guild bastards. They said this place would be within the level where we could settle...!”
[Well, it might have been if I weren’t here. There are no beings at your level in this world... No, there would have been none if I weren’t here.]
“Hehe... Fine.”
Black Ant lowers its antennae.
“With strength like yours, you will be of help to Her Majesty. It seems she has sensed you as well.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon looks in one direction.
Deep within the dimensional space inside the SSS+-Rank Gate, where the vast ant colony has settled.
Though it is a minor dimension, it has blue skies and great hills. From somewhere within it, he feels a gaze watching him.
Zzt, zzt...
For the first time since coming to this world, Jeon Myeong-hoon looks faintly surprised as he senses a mortal capable of drawing a response from him.
“She has gained enlightenment and grown stronger...! Even you will not defeat her easily.”
Yet Jeon Myeong-hoon soon clicks his tongue as he feels that gaze.
“We’ll see.”
“...It does not matter. Even if Her Majesty cannot win, through a strong opponent like you, Her Majesty will surely... overcome her heart demon...”
Having finished speaking, Black Ant loses consciousness.
Jeon Myeong-hoon strikes Black Ant with the shaft of his spear, sending it flying toward the other ants.
Then, immediately afterward.
Click.
The world seems to stop.
Within that domain, Jeon Myeong-hoon looks at the being already standing before him.
Zzt, zzt...!
‘Black Ant drew upon the other ants’ mana and reached around SS--Rank...’
“SS+-Rank. That would be my own rank.”
She slowly opens her mouth.
“As the Queen Ant, if I gather the colony’s mana, I could reach SSS--Rank. If I draw upon the Constellations as well, perhaps SSS+-Rank. But even if I forcefully inflate my mana like that, it would mean nothing against a true powerhouse like you.”
Three times larger than the other ants, the ant bows her head to Jeon Myeong-hoon.
“I am Elizabeth, the Queen Ant. I disguised myself as one of your human race, founded a place called the Nature Guild, and went about as a Hunter disguised as a human woman.”
“Mm. Ah, I think I saw you on the news.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon is not especially surprised by the fact that the Queen Ant had disguised herself as a human, created a guild, and hidden within human society.
Watching him, Elizabeth, the Queen Ant, speaks.
“As expected. You are not human.”
“I am human, though?”
“I mean you are not a human of this world. Like the Constellations in the sky, you are a being from another dimension. Am I wrong?”
“...”
“I can sense that you do not have much affection or interest in this world.”
“How can you tell that from only a few conversations?”
“If you were a male of this world’s native species, you should have shown at least some agitation upon learning that Elizabeth, the Nature Guild Leader, was the Queen Ant. I even worked as an idol. With that reaction, you cannot possibly be a normal human.”
“Hah...”
Jeon Myeong-hoon lets out a small laugh.
This ant is more amusing than he expected.
“So, Queen of Ants. What do you wish to say?”
“...I sense the integrity of one who has found their path within you.”
The Queen Ant asks Jeon Myeong-hoon.
“Being from another world, have you found your path?”
“A path? What are you looking at as you wander your path?”
“It began with feminism.”
“...??”
Elizabeth, the Queen Ant, reveals her worries.
“At first, it began with the question of why a Queen Ant must bear a king. That question led to a question about my own existence. Based on that question of existence, I began to contemplate this world’s ideologies.”
She clenches her four fists and looks to the sky.
“Why are we born? Why do we have predetermined fate? Where do we come from and where do we go? Why do we exist? What is the purpose of our lives? What is life?”
“...”
“Being from another world! It seems you have already found it. But I have not. It feels as though I will reach it if I only go a little farther, yet no matter how much I contemplate, I cannot reach it! What must I do to reach the answer? Tell me the answer!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon stares at her, then raises his spear.
[Queen of Ants.]
Click.
[You seek God.]
“God! Yes. What is your God?”
[My God was within these hands. Queen of Ants! Where is your God?]
“That is what I am asking you!”
[If you wish to know, clash against it. Is that not why you came here in the first place?]
“...”
Elizabeth, the Queen Ant, smiles faintly at those words.
“Correct.”
Tap!
Her four hands begin forming hand seals.
“I will clash with you and find out!”
The next moment, space begins to twist.
[...!]
Shrrrrk!
Space seems to scatter like puzzle pieces before reconstructing itself.
Countless spells rise and fire at once through the reconstructed space.
“I am a Mage. Even before the world perished, I was a Mage who traveled between other worlds and strange realms.”
‘A Traveler!?’
“That is why I could flee with my kin the moment the world was destroyed! Until now, I only traveled through other worlds containing resources useful to my kin. But this is the first world inhabited by sentient beings. Traveler like myself! Give me an answer!”
Her magic is alive.
Countless spells transform into magical script in midair.
The magical script pours down like a waterfall, continuously changing the space as though alive.
Within the endlessly changing space that presses down upon him, Jeon Myeong-hoon becomes a streak of emotionally charged lightning.
Holding his spear, holding hands with the lump of charcoal...
He closes his eyes and performs a spear dance.
He is clearly moving at the speed of lightning, yet his spear dance appears slow.
[Swamp of Darkness, Hole in the Firmament.]
Space becomes darkness that devours light.
Jeon Myeong-hoon continues his spear dance within it.
“Traveler, give me an answer!”
[Cradle of Radiant Extinction, Seven-Hued Jewel.]
Dazzling light bursts from the center of the reconstructed space.
The light drives away the darkness, pushing away everything other than itself.
Jeon Myeong-hoon does not yield even an inch and continues his spear dance.
“Feminism? Capitalism?”
[Flower of Mud, Touchstone of Heaven and Earth.]
The earth fills the world and devours the lightning.
No matter how much the earth swallows his lightning, Jeon Myeong-hoon steadfastly maintains his spear dance.
“Democratism? Socialism?”
[Dark Azure Kalpa Fire, Pale Blue Sacred Flame.]
Dark azure and pale blue flames weave a yin-yang symbol as they burn away the lightning.
Yet no matter how much they burn, Jeon Myeong-hoon’s lightning does not cease.
“Darwinism? Hedonism?”
[Waterfall of Interstellar Winds, Breath of a Gust.]
Endlessly raging winds cut through heaven and earth like blades.
Even when cut apart again and again, Jeon Myeong-hoon’s lightning continues without end.
“What should I live for!”
[Song of Thunder, River of Thunder.]
Rumble!
In an instant, space itself becomes a single bolt of lightning and swallows Jeon Myeong-hoon’s lightning.
At that moment.
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s spear dance finally stops and quietly comes to an end.
For some reason, the Queen Ant feels an inexplicable regret when Jeon Myeong-hoon’s spear dance does not continue.
“Why do you stop!”
[Queen of Ants.]
Clearly, what stands before her is a lightning spirit whose body has turned into lightning.
Yet for some reason, she feels that her opponent is like calm water.
[All of those are your God.]
“They are all different. How can they be God!”
[Because every one of them is the God you have chosen!]
“...What...?”
[How can thought and ideology have good or evil! There are only choices.]
Bzzzt...
The tip of Jeon Myeong-hoon’s spear slowly moves again.
The Queen Ant begins following it with her gaze.
[If I were that fellow, I might have given you enlightenment more easily. But I am not that fellow, so this is all I can do. Watch.]
Crackle...
The slowly moving spear tip stirs the space as it releases a faint current.
Suddenly, the Queen Ant looks somewhere other than the spear tip.
She sees the spear shaft.
Strangely, though Jeon Myeong-hoon holds the spear shaft, it seems as though others are holding it with him.
Whirrr...
Space and time move at her will as she analyzes that phenomenon.
In her home world, she had been a powerful Mage.
With all the knowledge and magic she has accumulated over her lifetime as a Mage, she tries to analyze and understand the phenomenon.
But more and more, impossibly countless hands seem to support the spear shaft.
Her knowledge and magic cannot interpret that vision.
‘My magic, my space, cannot interpret it? Why?’
No matter how much she analyzes it, nothing emerges.
As though what she sees is merely an illusion.
The Queen Ant can only stupidly shift her gaze along Jeon Myeong-hoon’s spear.
And finally.
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s spear tip reaches a certain point.
Shkraak!
With that.
The Queen Ant feels space itself being cut away, and the magical space she constructed is dispelled.
Pop!
[Did you see?]
“...”
For the first time in her life, Elizabeth, the Queen Ant, feels ashamed.
She saw it.
But she is not sure what he means.
She is ashamed that she does not even know what he is asking whether she saw.
“...I do not... know.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon smiles.
[You could not interpret it?]
“I... could not.”
[That is normal.]
“No, that is not normal...! I am a Mage. The moment anything enters my constructed space, there should be nothing I do not know! I...!”
[Because that is my story.]
Jeon Myeong-hoon lowers his spear.
Then he turns around.
[Queen of Ants. Where is your story?]
“...Ah...?”
At those words, Elizabeth suddenly looks behind Jeon Myeong-hoon.
There...
Beyond the shattered constructed space.
She sees the ant colony.
Her world, which she has birthed and raised.
‘No. I turned away from this world to escape my role...’
...No.
‘...I had already... escaped my role.’
From the moment she decided not to bear a king, she was no longer a being bound by that role.
‘The answer I wanted... I... the meaning of life... God...’
“Life is anger. I once cried that out.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon speaks quietly.
“My friend said that even if life is anger, anger is not the end. That friend said life is a miracle.”
Step, step.
Jeon Myeong-hoon slowly begins walking toward the Gate leading to Earth.
“To reach that answer, neither I nor that fellow found only one answer. We reached it through countless answers.”
“...!”
The Queen Ant feels as though thunder and lightning are striking within her mind.
“Whatever ideology you have, whatever choices you make, every decision you make in life will be an act of drawing closer to an answer.”
“Ahhh...”
Her body trembles, and she exhales.
Haa...
A breath that seems somewhat deflated and hollow.
Yet it also carries relief.
Tap.
Elizabeth, the Queen Ant, sits down where she stands and crosses her legs.
Seeing mana rush toward her, Jeon Myeong-hoon lets out an exclamation.
The entire dimension within the Gate resonates with Elizabeth.
“You have cast off the burden in your heart. Congratulations.”
She must have wanted to know what was right.
That is why she had pursued truth without end.
But truth is always close by.
Every choice she has made has been nourishment for an answer in its own way.
‘I think I understand.’
Jeon Myeong-hoon feels Treading Heaven Beyond the Path rumble as it prepares to advance another stage.
He begins organizing the question within his heart.
Then, he grips the lump of charcoal he still holds alongside his spear even more tightly.
He exits Ant Garden.
Then he closes his eyes, then opens them.
A familiar face stands before the Gate.
“Ah, you are...”
It is the A-Rank Hunter, Shin Ah-young.
Perhaps she has undergone some transformation through their last battle. She gives off an aura close to S--Rank.
However, Jeon Myeong-hoon’s gaze is not directed at Shin Ah-young.
“Ah, you must be Jeon Myeong-hoon.”
Rumble...!
This person does not give off the enlightenment of the Queen Ant, nor the aura of a master.
Yet a human blessed by the entire world is looking at him.
‘What is this mana?’
There is so much that he cannot even properly sense its amount.
“Nice to meet you. I am Kim Cheol-su, a Hunter who has recently risen to SSS+-Rank. I can clear this Gate. Please step aside.”
“Mm...”
Jeon Myeong-hoon smiles faintly.
Then he raises his spear.
“You cannot pass.”
“...Pardon?”
“It would be too sad if someone were trampled just as they are shedding their skin.”
“...What are you talking about? Move aside. I have already heard that you are at least an S-Rank Hunter. But...”
“Come at me.”
Looking at Kim Cheol-su, Jeon Myeong-hoon recalls the brief but intense memories he has gained since coming to this world.
It has not been a long time.
But...
Even in that short time, he has gained much.
Crackle...
His body, transformed into a lightning spirit, continues to flicker.
“I am grateful to you.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon looks at Cheol-su.
More precisely, he looks at the flow of the world blessing Kim Cheol-su.
He looks at the world itself.
“Because I was able to attain repentant enlightenment anew in so many things here. Yes, surely, it was because I looked back that I could take that hand again.”
Crack! Crackle...!
The lightning pouring from Jeon Myeong-hoon’s body grows denser.
Watching him, Kim Cheol-su suddenly begins to feel chills spread throughout his body.
Jeon Myeong-hoon tightens his grip on the lump of charcoal.
“God of this world! I thank you! I have cast off almost all the burden in my heart. So now, I want to properly clash with you as well! Come, world!”
Kim Cheol-su’s eyes roll back.
His skill, Heavenly Eye Insight, detects a fragment of Jeon Myeong-hoon’s essence, finally revealed.
His head nearly explodes, but Kim Cheol-su barely calms himself. As a frantic flood of messages rings out from his system window, he glares at Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
[The Outer God, Red Vermilion Turning Heavenly Lord, has begun unsealing its soul by its own power!]
[Expel the Outer God immediately.]
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