WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: WeTried
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◈ I Made a Tier List the Transcendents Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 48: Epnol Company (2)
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There were different roles for every character in a story.
The protagonist, supporting characters, villains, extras, and so on.
Then what role could I possibly occupy among them?
'None.'
The answer was clear.
I could not occupy any role.
The protagonist had to live the protagonist's life, and the lives of supporting characters were no easier.
I was not purely evil enough to be a villain, and I knew far too much about this world to be an extra.
That was why there was no role for me within the story.
I would remain merely a spectator.
"So you go. Yoseong Island."
"Ah."
* * *
Lee Hamyung did not feel that he had made any major mistake.
But judging by the current situation, that had clearly been a miscalculation.
He was now in a position where he had no choice but to experience the butterfly effect caused by his own mistake.
"Those damn bastards."
When Jin first gave him a mission, he had been thrilled.
Jin was a being who had long since escaped the bounds of an ordinary human by any measure.
Lee Hamyung had simply been happy that someone who stood shoulder to shoulder with the beings above the heavens trusted him enough to entrust him with a mission.
So he had rushed straight to Yoseong Island.
The direct distance from Hyeondeok City to Yoseong Island was roughly 300 kilometers.
He could reach it in less than half a day.
As soon as he arrived, Lee Hamyung infiltrated the Epnol Pharmaceutical Company factory he had been assigned.
He had admired Jin's insight in pinpointing even its exact location, then launched a surprise attack on the facilities inside.
...Things had only gone well up to that point.
The problem began when he used One Sword Annihilates Heaven in real combat for the first time.
Having received all of Jin's enlightenment, Lee Hamyung had expected to wield the sword without difficulty. Yet the technique failed to manifest as he had intended.
Its destructive power had been terrifying, but his lack of skill had left survivors behind.
After destroying the first factory, Lee Hamyung had been caught while trying to launch a second surprise attack.
He had not yet reached the Life-and-Death Realm.
He believed it would not be a problem, since he could reach it quickly if given a little time. But Epnol Company had a cultivator at the initial stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.
In martial terms, that was likewise the initial stage of the Life-and-Death Realm.
In a one-on-one fight, he might have been able to win despite the difference in realm. The problem was that he was not in a position to face only that cultivator.
Thus, Lee Hamyung had ended up being hunted in earnest.
"Haah..."
Hiding his presence in a sewer on the outskirts of the city felt pathetic.
There was no need for excuses. It was all his own fault.
More than anything, he feared disappointing his master.
It had not been long since they had truly become master and disciple, but Jin was the person who had given him the greatest thing in his life.
Lee Hamyung had already shown Jin a disappointing side once. He had been determined to succeed at least this time.
After remaining there for a while, he began moving again.
Half his body had already stopped functioning.
He had drawn on a considerable amount of true essence, so continuing to fight was impossible.
Even if he later became a corpse, should he not at least report back?
For that reason, his only goal now was to return to Hyeondeok City.
Rumble!
"Damn it."
But that seemed difficult as well.
A tremor ran through the sewer, followed by the shouts of the pursuing forces.
"There! That's him!"
Hearing their voices from afar, Lee Hamyung prepared for one final struggle.
Cough!
He vomited blood, but he gritted his teeth and endured it.
At the very least, he would take those at the front with him to the afterlife.
Just as he prepared to face them...
"A-Aaah!"
"???"
A remarkably pathetic scream came from somewhere.
Lee Hamyung immediately recognized its source. It was a voice he had heard quite often lately.
"Senior Sister?"
"...Oww. Ugh, blegh... The smell. Why are you in a place like this? Ugh."
Wendy had appeared without any warning.
He was bewildered by the sight of her frantically waving a hand in disgust, but then realization struck him, followed by guilt.
"...Did Master send you?"
"Ugh, blegh... Why else would I be here? Ah... This smell is awful."
With tears in her eyes, Wendy waved away the foul demonic fumes in the underground waterway.
Even as she did so, she seemed to have checked Lee Hamyung's condition and cast a healing spell.
His wounds rapidly closed.
His expression quickly darkened as he watched.
"I'm sorry, Senior Sister... I'm so useless..."
He wanted to apologize somehow, but he could not finish speaking.
As his wounds healed, the last of Lee Hamyung's strength was drained away. With those words, he lost consciousness.
Thud!
Lee Hamyung collapsed facedown on the ground.
Not long afterward, he was teleported away in that very state.
"...Did you take him?"
"Yeah. He's here with me. Looks like he'll recover after about two days of treatment."
At Jin's voice by her ear, Wendy nodded.
If he stayed sprawled out like that, Wendy would only have a harder time fighting freely.
"But that's really amazing. You can do all that from there?"
"I can."
"That sounds really obnoxious. Boo."
"...Just wait until you get back here. Or do you want to see me now?"
"Ahaha, kidding, kidding, kidding."
Wendy waved both hands and shook her head.
At the same time, Epnol Company's employees arrived from farther down the sewer.
"What? Where did he go?"
"Who's that bitch?"
Whether Wendy muttered, "Bitch?" to herself or not, they did not seem interested.
They only wondered where Lee Hamyung, whom they had been pursuing moments ago, had disappeared to.
The group murmured for a while.
The one who calmed the commotion was a man in a green robe who stepped out from among them.
"Hey, did you hide him?"
"...What if I did?"
Wendy's subdued reply and cold gaze made the opposing mage's expression turn even more sinister.
"Then we'll have to find out where he is. And fix that rotten attitude of yours while we're at it."
As he spoke, he slowly looked Wendy's body up and down.
Each time that sticky gaze passed over her, Wendy's expression grew a little more sour.
"...Wow. The person I actually want to look at me won't even do it, but some worthless mutt like you..."
"What?"
Wendy did not answer his question.
Instead, she swept her colder gaze over the entire group.
At the same time, she drew up her mana.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
"...The path of magic?"
A first-tier lightning magic of the path of magic.
Arc Javelin, a pure white spear formed of lightning.
The green-robed mage's face drained of color when he recognized it.
"You think this is my first time seeing maggots like you?"
She still looked as she had back then in front of her master, Jin.
But for several decades, she had effectively served as the Tower Master of Hyeondeok City's Magic Tower.
Naturally, she had resolved countless large and small conflicts over those long years.
For reference, among the major powers of Hyeondeok City, there was no one who could boldly meet Wendy's eyes during a gathering.
Even before reaching the path of magic, Wendy had unquestionably been the strongest.
Baaang!
Before he could tell anyone to run, the green-robed mage fled first.
An 8-Star Concept Mage could not stand against a mage who had entered the path of magic.
No matter how well he fought, the end would only be a pointless death.
But Wendy gave a clear sneer as she watched him run.
Then she fired the lightning spear at the mage.
Kraaaash!
A single thunderclap rang out.
With it, the mage's body turned into a handful of ash before he could even scream.
"Eek... Eeeek!"
"Move! You sons of bitches!"
The entire pursuit force in the sewer fell into chaos.
The strongest mage among them had turned to ash in a single blow. Naturally, there was no way they could resist.
Some realized they could not escape and begged for mercy.
That might have been the wisest choice.
"...What should I do with them?"
Wendy had been exterminating the fleeing pursuers one by one, but she actually stopped when she saw them.
But Wendy was not alone now.
"Kill them. They're trash anyway. There's no point in sparing them."
"Yeah. I guess that's right."
After hearing the answer, Wendy summoned another lightning spear without a trace of doubt.
And after those few seconds of slaughter ended...
"Mm, good job."
"Hehe..."
She merely smiled brightly in delight.
* * *
Epnol Company's chairperson, Kang Yeonggyeong, received a report and slammed a fist down on the desk in fury.
Bang!
"You even let an ordinary mortal get away? Does that make any sense?"
Epnol Company's factory and research facility on Yoseong Island, Haedong City, had collapsed.
A project that had barely begun had been destroyed in an instant.
The employee's voice, heard through communication magic, trembled like an aspen leaf.
It was not actually the employee's fault, but reporting the disaster meant receiving the chairperson's fury head-on.
"Damn it. What the hell have you been doing?"
After hearing the full report, the chairperson vented their rage by smashing every piece of furniture in the office.
After several such outbursts, the chairperson put together everything that had happened and reached one decision.
"Fuck this. Send a written protest immediately! How dare those backwater vermin pull something this absurd?"
The recipient of that "written protest" was the Winter Tree Mage Tower in Hyeondeok City, Haedong.
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