WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 123: Resurrection (3)
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"Got someone you love?"
"Love, please. Do I look like I'm at an age where I'd know anything about love?"
Seo Jihoon's half-closed eyes swept over me.
If we were counting years actually lived, I was probably older than him, but that was beside the point.
"Just...."
This time, I didn't fail to understand Seo Jihoon's feelings.
I'd once carried the same desire myself, wanting to save someone.
"Ever killed anyone?"
"Funny... kuhk, question to ask. Among Hunters... ugh, you'd have a harder time finding one who isn't a killer."
That was probably true.
"Killing means stealing something precious from someone else. So I have to be ready to do the same myself."
Growing stronger to avoid losing someone precious was an answer that could only come from someone who'd already lost something.
Even if Yu Chaeyoung and Park Siyu had never been lovers, that didn't change the fact she'd been precious to him.
Recognizing your own powerlessness and moving forward, or staying trapped by the ghosts of the past.
That was the difference between Park Siyu and Seo Jihoon.
"Are you, ugh... lecturing me right now?"
I didn't answer.
He could take it that way if he wanted, or not, it made no difference to me.
However he chose to see it, that was on him.
"Getting blood on your hands means exactly that. And out of every option you had, you picked the worst one."
For Yu Chaeyoung's sake, and to stop the god Beritaas, Seo Jihoon had to die.
He'd probably already made his peace with that much.
"I just... wanted to see her smile one last time, that's all...."
"I'll take that as your last words."
Seo Jihoon closed his eyes, looking toward where Yu Chaeyoung's body lay behind me.
A vast sky came down and swallowed him whole.
Sky Sword descended with a chilling, merciless calm.
The black shadows that had been covering Seo Jihoon and me vanished.
Sensing someone approach, I moved my sword.
"Hangyeol?"
Startled, I yanked Sky Sword back in a hurry.
A shallow cut was left near Eunyoung noona's throat.
"Trash."
Choi Suhyun's voice made me let out a short sigh.
Somehow the exact same words hit twice as hard coming from Choi Suhyun.
Did that guy take some special course on how to make people want to punch him?
Eunyoung noona approached carefully.
"You're okay, right?"
She crouched down and rested her hand on dead Seo Jihoon's forehead.
The sympathy Eunyoung noona felt for Seo Jihoon was different from mine.
She'd also lost someone precious to her, in the great disaster.
That hand, that warm look in her eyes, overlapped for a moment, not with Eunyoung noona, but with Yu Chaeyoung.
Above noona's head, Yu Chaeyoung's form flickered faintly into view.
The interior of the god Beritaas's Personal Barrier shuddered.
I shoved noona out of the way of an incoming attack and swung my sword.
A wave of black split cleanly in two.
"Hangyeol! Above!"
Eunyoung noona pointed upward.
Yu Chaeyoung's unconscious body floated high into the sky.
"Hyung!"
"Damn it."
Choi Suhyun appeared above Yu Chaeyoung's head.
Blink, one of Choi Suhyun's skills.
Within the range his sight and mana allowed, he could teleport instantly.
Unlike Park Siyu, Choi Suhyun had no restrictions holding him back in a fight against the god Beritaas.
That was exactly why Park Siyu had sent him here.
In his hands, instead of a sniper rifle, was a platinum-colored gun stamped with the ACKO signature.
Before Awakening, Choi Suhyun had been a national shooting athlete.
Choosing a gun as his weapon had basically been inevitable for him.
Choi Suhyun could do pretty much anything, but even setting that aside, when it came to shooting, whether Olympic marksmanship, pistol shooting, rifle sniping, or archery, he was the kind of genius who showed up once every few hundred years.
He snapped his goggles into place and grumbled.
"You have any idea how much mana this thing eats?"
He gripped the ma-total with both hands and pulled back on the barrel.
Mana bullets poured out from the muzzle, blanketing the sky, all converging on Yu Chaeyoung.
The light was so overwhelming it looked like every star in the sky was falling, and every last one of them was aimed at her alone.
A massive explosion erupted around Yu Chaeyoung.
The cliff crumbled, debris scattering in every direction.
Choi Suhyun used Blink to drop down to the ground.
He must have pushed himself too hard, the skill cutting out a few times mid-use.
Eunyoung noona threw up a barrier using Ishtar's Flame.
"Hey! Choi Suhyun! Watch out for the people below, you could... wait, what? When did you get behind me?"
"Since before you used the flame?"
Once she judged all the debris had finished falling, Eunyoung noona dropped the barrier.
A strange tension passed between her and Choi Suhyun.
Just as Park Siyu felt responsible for noona, Choi Suhyun didn't think he was entirely blameless in what had happened to her either.
The reason he'd become a follower earlier than expected in the first place had been because of her, and even scrolling back through his comment history showed he'd been paying more attention to her than anyone expected.
"You gained weight while I wasn't looking... aaagh! Hey! What's with the hitting, are you insane?"
"Die!"
Before Choi Suhyun even finished his sentence, Eunyoung noona's fist slammed into his stomach.
Die. Come on.
Sure, she'd spent a month with Yu Jihan, but that didn't mean she had to go straight to telling people to die.
"You little!"
Choi Suhyun, caught off guard, clutched his stomach with tears in his eyes.
He must have actually gotten mad, because he swung a kick at her.
"Idiot."
Eunyoung noona caught his leg with one hand, twisted, and slammed him flat onto the ground.
Wow. No mercy at all.
Choi Suhyun coughed up blood with a dull thud.
Though that was probably less from what noona had done to him and more from the internal damage of the skill he'd just used.
He'd tried to counter and still hadn't expected to actually get hit, his eyes going wide with shock.
Choi Suhyun looked like a man who genuinely had no idea what had just happened to him.
"Heh heh."
"Don't you dare laugh, or you're dead. Okay, okay, I get it! My bad!"
As noona's foot rose above his head, Choi Suhyun threw both hands up and shook his head frantically.
Then why bring up her weight in the first place, when he'd get mad the second someone called him ugly.
Choi Suhyun brushed the dust off and got to his feet.
A low, rumbling sound rolled through the air.
Thick dust billowed up from where Yu Chaeyoung lay.
'Too late?'
Yu Chaeyoung's soul was currently attached to Eunyoung noona.
Even if the god Beritaas needed her, that didn't mean it would be easy to get her back.
A black sphere had formed in the sky.
Choi Suhyun's attack had cracked it, but that was as far as it went.
The sphere shattered, and Yu Chaeyoung emerged from inside it, perfectly unharmed.
Choi Suhyun gripped his gun tight again.
Yu Chaeyoung, eyes closed, slowly opened them.
Wait, that's possible?
Her spirit body was supposed to be attached to Eunyoung noona.
The moment I looked toward noona in disbelief, she collapsed toward Choi Suhyun.
"Hey! Song Eunyoung? What's wrong?"
"I'm fine... aaaargh!"
She cried out, her head splitting with pain.
"This much shouldn't be... ah."
"What? What's wrong with you? Hey, Kang Hangyeol!"
Choi Suhyun caught her, then looked over at me, demanding an explanation.
Yu Chaeyoung's body, or more precisely, the god Beritaas's power working through it, was pulling Yu Chaeyoung back in.
Eunyoung noona wasn't the only one suffering.
No matter how firmly she was attached to noona, Yu Chaeyoung was still a follower of the god Beritaas.
There was no way to refuse that pull.
The god Beritaas's Incursion was devouring Yu Chaeyoung bit by bit.
If Yu Chaeyoung's corruption got bad enough, it would affect Eunyoung noona too.
I raised Sky Sword and stepped toward her.
Choi Suhyun caught the chill radiating off me and stepped between us.
"Ugh, no. Hangyeol, don't."
Eunyoung noona clutched her chest and lifted her head.
"Hyung, move."
"Hey! Kang Hangyeol, what are you about to do!"
"No time to explain everything."
"What are you even talking about right now..."
Neither Eunyoung noona nor Choi Suhyun realized it, but right now I was practically the owner of both of them.
Unlike noona, who'd formed a proper contract, Yu Chaeyoung was nothing more than a ghost that had latched onto her.
Which meant I could forcibly sever the connection between them.
I pushed past a confused Choi Suhyun and raised my sword high.
[I... don't want to do this anymore.]
Her words seeped faintly into my mind.
If I severed the connection between them, Yu Chaeyoung would definitely wake up.
But there was no guarantee the Yu Chaeyoung who woke up would be the same one we remembered.
'Have to choose.'
There was always a moment where you had to choose.
To me, Eunyoung noona came before Yu Chaeyoung.
Nothing would change even if noona kept holding onto her.
I raised Sky Sword high.
Half sensing what I meant to do, noona shook her head.
[Sorry I couldn't protect you.]
[You... did everything you could.]
"Hey, Kang..."
The blade cut through Eunyoung noona's body in one clean stroke.
The recoil dropped her unconscious body to the ground.
"You, you're insa... huh?"
Holding her in his arms, Choi Suhyun realized belatedly that something wasn't adding up.
I lowered the sword and let out a breath.
"Like I'd actually cut noona for real."
"I doubt you'd pull a prank in a situation like this... So what did you do?"
"Yu Chaeyoung's spirit was attached to noona."
"It's a long story, but that's the short version. What I just did was sever the connection between noona and Yu Chaeyoung."
Choi Suhyun's mind raced.
Then he asked the simplest question he could manage right now.
"I had to choose between noona and Yu Chaeyoung."
Given his relationship with Park Siyu, Choi Suhyun probably had some connection to Yu Chaeyoung too.
Once he confirmed noona was fine, he scratched his head.
"Tell me stuff like that beforehand next time!"
"You're not going to scold me?"
"Me? You? Why would I?"
"If I hadn't just done that, Yu Chaeyoung wouldn't have woken up."
Eunyoung noona was slowly starting to come to.
At the same time, Yu Chaeyoung's consciousness, floating in the air, was returning.
"What would've happened if you'd just left Song Eunyoung alone?"
"The Eunyoung noona we have right now couldn't handle a Yu Chaeyoung already corrupted by the god Beritaas."
"She would've died, or had her body taken over by a fully corrupted Yu Chaeyoung."
"I'd have made the same call in your position. Except I'd have panicked, thinking you were actually about to cut down Song Eunyoung."
Choi Suhyun still looked irritated that I hadn't explained any of this beforehand.
Footnotes:
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