WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 107: Park Siyu (4)
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Choi Jaebyung clenched his fist and threw up his shield.
The item let a shield materialize just by feeding it mana, and the more I saw it, the more convenient it looked.
Though could you really call that thing a shield?
"Don't lose! Hang in there, Choi Jaebyung! If you lose, Park Siyu's up next!"
"Damn it, if you're gonna cheer, cheer for me!"
"Hey! Cut the pointless chatter in Channel 1! It's confusing!"
Choi Jaebyung snapped irritably and hardened his shield even further.
"You've got it rough too. Kang Hangyeol pulls weird stunts pretty often, so bear with him."
"Ugh, no problem."
"At least turn off your voice chat if you're gonna talk!"
"Kang Hangyeol, one more word out of you and I'm muting you."
So this was what they meant by abuse of power?
Park Siyu and Choi Jaebyung were the ones actually talking trash about me, but somehow I was the one eating all the blame.
How is that fair!
Choi Jaebyung braced with everything he had and blocked Yeongno's roar.
With nowhere left to plant his feet, he got knocked back down.
Once the roar died out, the Hunters, myself included, resumed the attack.
Yeongno's movements felt more sluggish than before, probably from overexerting itself with that iceberg spell earlier.
As the fog thinned bit by bit, long-range attacks started coming up from below too.
But the one who landed the real finishing blow was someone else entirely.
Kwaaaaang.
A strike of light tore a gash into Yeongno's skin.
Thinking it over, there was only one person capable of an attack like that.
Park Siyu, having landed two more hits mid-backflip, came closer to where I stood.
"Never expected the Light Sword thing to mean it literally like that."
I'd figured Light Saber was just a name, but it turned out to actually be a sword of light.
"Whatever, more importantly, what happened to your hair?"
Park Siyu's hair had gone completely white, like an old man's.
Given how good his base looks were, it read less like old age and more like he'd just dyed it gray.
He always carried that upstanding guild rep image, so picturing him dyeing his hair that color didn't even compute.
Park Siyu brushed the strands hanging over his forehead back with one hand.
"It's... nothing much."
"Doesn't look like nothing to me."
His face had gone pale too, almost bloodless, like a light tap would knock him over.
Park Siyu vanished in an instant and reappeared above Yeongno's head, swinging the Light Saber once.
Sure, the scales had come off and left the skin exposed, but that skin wasn't so fragile that you could just slice through it like paper.
Yet one swing from Park Siyu's blade and chunks of Yeongno's flesh were coming clean off.
Scratch that fragile comment!
Worry about someone else for once, why don't you!
"Come in from the right. Middle group, don't push too deep. I've got the left."
Park Siyu kept issuing orders diligently through all of it.
Seo Jihoon, who'd been below, climbed up.
The scythe in his hand darkened, then swelled to a size big enough to take Yeongno's head clean off.
Seo Jihoon's scythe carved a wound into Yeongno's body.
That wasn't all.
The wound the scythe left behind started festering fast.
Ugly red blotches spread out from the center of the injury.
Yeongno thrashed and smashed every pavilion left standing around it.
Its tail swung toward Park Siyu, who was still standing on its body.
I expected him to lift the Light Saber and slice the tail off... but instead he just gripped it in his fist, saber and all.
The tail slammed into his hand and the impact kicked up a gust of wind.
"Whoa, he's blocking that bare-handed?"
Even accounting for the Transcendent state, that felt excessive.
Genuinely made me want to know Park Siyu's stats.
Seo Jihoon swung his scythe and Yeongno toppled backward.
The remaining pavilions collapsed in a chain reaction, kicking up a storm of dust.
"Push it!"
"Watch out for the flying debris!"
"Just die already!"
The Hunters watching from below kept up a relentless barrage.
Park Siyu raised the Light Saber's hilt over his head and spun it once.
Anyone unfamiliar might have mistaken it for some vanity flourish, but this was nothing of the sort.
The moment he brought the hilt down, dozens of wounds bloomed across Yeongno's body.
A massive fireball someone had conjured struck Yeongno's body one last time.
Yeongno lost its balance and toppled completely backward.
A heavy silence settled over the ARF.
Not a single person let their guard down.
Not until a painfully familiar line broke the quiet.
"Is... is it over?"
Every eye turned toward the Raon Guild Hunter who'd wandered up from the back.
Every Hunter standing there turned and glared at whoever had said that.
Some of them looked ready to kill.
Choi Jaebyung, unable to stand it anymore, rounded on the Hunter.
"Hey. Want me to send you off first?"
"What's your problem? Am I not even allowed to say it's over when it's over?"
"You idiot, you never say that! You don't know the golden rule? The golden rule?"
The Hunter stared back at Choi Jaebyung like he'd lost his mind.
A raid wasn't over until the clear notification actually appeared.
And unfortunately, the gods weren't on our side.
Ssssss.
Yeongno's fallen tail and body began to move again, slowly.
Park Siyu pointed the tip of the Light Saber at it.
His hair had gone back to normal.
"Phase 3."
At Park Siyu's word, the Hunters tensed up again.
Yeongno had taken serious damage, and Phase 3 was likely its last thrash before death.
From here on, it's a race for the finishing blow.
Yeongno's white skin darkened steadily until it turned black, and its eyes flushed a deep red.
It no longer looked like something you could call a dragon or a divine beast. It had become a massive serpent, plain and simple.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
It slammed its huge tail against the ground over and over without stopping.
The ground shook hard enough to throw people off their feet. It felt like an earthquake.
Yeongno's completely blackened tail came down on the ground.
The earth split open and jagged rock spires kept erupting through the cracks.
The rocks swallowed the Hunters and the entire ARF alike.
"Status check."
"Confirmed everyone except the dead and critically injured."
"Who's still combat capable?"
"Uh. Around twenty-six, twenty-seven."
Kim Gangwoo was with Choa at the moment.
I'd figured Park Siyu was handling everything alone, but apparently that wasn't quite the case.
Below the rock wall was a cliff, and beneath that, a field of jagged stone spikes.
Raids came with a few unspoken rules among Hunters.
Most items obtainable from a raid were ungraded, their true value unknown.
It wasn't rare for survivors to turn on each other in a bloodbath over loot once a raid ended.
The real problem was Hunters who skipped the raid entirely and waited to strike after it was over.
Killing yourself half to death to earn an item was bad enough if it ended up in the hands of a fellow sufferer, but handing it to some bastard who'd been slacking off in the back the whole time? That'd make anyone furious.
That's how the raid auction system came about.
Survivors would band together, protect the loot, then decide ownership through an auction afterward.
The proceeds from the auction got split among every Hunter besides the one who bought the item, which counted as a fairly sensible solution.
But there was one item this rule didn't cover.
The guaranteed drop.
Raid items usually dropped at random, so aside from the guaranteed drop, nobody knew what would come out.
This raid's guaranteed drop was the Dragon Orb, the one Choa had already mentioned to me before the raid started.
Guaranteed drops went by the golden rule: whoever grabbed it first, kept it. Most guaranteed drops, thankfully, tended to be consumable items usable a limited number of times rather than semi-permanent gear.
Famous examples included the "Tears of the Blue," said to cure every illness and wound short of raising the dead, or "Eve's Trumpet," which could summon an army of angels.
"You think an item that grants wishes is even real?"
"Well, won't know till we crack it open. If it's really real, praying to become a Transcendent doesn't sound half bad."
The Hunters on the rock next to me were chattering about the Dragon Orb.
The way people looked at Yeongno had changed.
They weren't looking at a monster anymore, but a treasure chest.
Right as everyone was gearing up in their own way, Yeongno reappeared, its skin now a dark, blackish red.
The Hunters all rushed it at once.
Orders?
The thing was practically dead already.
What was the point of orders now?
Blood dripping from Yeongno's wounds hardened midair and shot toward the Hunters.
Kraaaaaaaaah!
Yeongno began thrashing in a final frenzy.
Its wildly swinging tail smashed through the rock spires.
"Damn it, I can't get close!"
"Watch out over there!"
Amid the chaos, some Hunters managed to block the attacks and land damage on Yeongno anyway.
Everyone was racing toward the finish line when it happened.
[(Interruption) 'Choi Suhyun (Soter)' has joined the boss raid.]
"What?"
"Who did you say?"
"The god Soter, that's definitely..."
A red flash of light shot toward the Hunters, who froze for just a moment.
The straight line of red light collided head-on with a black light that came flying from behind.
"You're late."
"Damn it, what's your angle here?"
"Figured you'd show up eventually..."
Yu Seyeon and Seo Jihoon, pushed back, each muttered something under their breath.
Once the dust cleared, Choi Suhyun stood atop the rock, gun in hand.
Originally, this wasn't supposed to happen this way.
Choi Suhyun joining was supposed to wait until after the raid ended.
The reason the timeline got moved up was, obviously, Eunyoung noona.
Hundreds of red lights appeared around the enraged Yeongno, all converging on Choi Suhyun at once.
Choi Suhyun raised his gun, the corner of his mouth lifting.
At the same moment, a massive wave of status windows poured into my view.
[Received a sponsorship of 1,000,000 merit points from follower 'Choi Suhyun'.]
He'd split five million points at once and thrown them all in a single burst.
This is insane!
[Choi Suhyun's current sponsorship ranking is No. 1.]
['Choi Suhyun' has joined the Aria Guild (Black) comms room.]
[Would you like to appoint Choi Suhyun as Guardian? The appointment takes effect the moment he accepts.]
[Choi Suhyun has become your Guardian.]
[This follower carries the epithet 'Bullet Marksman'.]
[Choi Suhyun (follower)'s Taboo is '......'.]
Huh? Wait, that's how this works?
I felt a wave of unease at the unexpected list under Taboo.
Bang.
Choi Suhyun pulled the trigger.
A single bullet split into dozens of streams and collided in midair.
The remaining rounds tore into Yeongno's body.
It looked like watching fireworks.
Choi Suhyun watched Yeongno lose its balance and collapse, then rested the gun on his shoulder and swept back his disheveled hair.
Every Hunter standing on the rock had their eyes locked on Choi Suhyun.
"I'm here to end this game."
"Quit talking nonsense."
I couldn't help myself and cursed him out over Channel 1.
Footnotes:
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