WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 132: 132
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Angel... An angel, huh.
I was an angel, all right.
I’d saved countless people however I pleased, both inside and outside the Tower.
I had a kind personality, too.
I was practically a real angel...!
“Hyeji. Yejin. Could you call me ‘Angel’ from now on?”
“Why Angel all of a sudden? Weren’t you always going on about being a Prophet?”
“The locals are calling me an angel, so I need to localize accordingly.”
“The locals called you an angel?”
“Ah, can’t you two hear the locals? Looks like there’s Tower censorship here too, just like on the High Floors.”
Even while the locals worshipped me as an angel and went wild, Hyeji and Yejin had only stared blankly at me.
Apparently, all the locals’ words had been cut off.
Since I was the only one they could somewhat understand, they must have been focused on what I said.
Anyway.
I’d roughly saved the people who were about to die.
I’d also cast heals and buffs so they could hold out.
Had I done everything I could here?
I nodded.
“We’re about done here, so we’ll be going. Ah, I’ll clear out some monsters on the way. That should make your trip easier. Make it safely to whatever destination you’re headed for.”
“Angel! Please, your name...!”
“Iing Iing. Let’s go hunt monsters!”
“Ing!”
Ppororong.
Ignoring the middle-aged knight’s desperate cry, we flew into the sky.
After instantly putting distance between ourselves and the refugees, I reminded myself of my true duty.
“Alright! We saved people, so now it’s time for some mindless slaughter!”
As I scanned the area with shining eyes, I spotted three Ogres wandering through the wasteland below.
Nice.
Should I warm up a little?
Just as I raised my staff...
“Wait!”
“?”
Choi Yejin urgently grabbed me.
“Don’t kill them all.”
“What?”
“Leave one alive.”
“...”
What was that supposed to mean?
Did we really need to leave one alive?
What a waste of Points.
“Why?”
“You asshole. You told me to write a strategy guide. What am I supposed to learn if you one-shot all of them?”
“Ah.”
Now that she mentioned it, that was true.
If we wrote a strategy guide based on my standards, it wouldn’t help ordinary people at all.
“I need to write how strong Floor 42 monsters are by normal Hunter standards, and how they should be dealt with.”
As expected of our party’s record keeper.
She had a real professional mindset!
“Sounds good. Let’s see what you can do.”
“Yeah.”
Choi Yejin pulled her bow from her back.
Then she threw herself toward the ground.
The battle between Choi Yejin and the Ogre began.
* * *
Choi Yejin’s battle was very different from what I expected.
For starters, she didn’t face the Ogre head-on.
The moment she landed, she rolled behind a boulder and hid.
Pshooong!
Then came her first arrow.
Thud!
It struck precisely behind the Ogre’s knee joint.
“Kwaaaaargh!”
The creature screamed and began limping.
Choi Yejin immediately ran to the opposite side.
Pshooong! Pshooong!
Her second and third arrows.
This time, they hit its other knee.
The arrows slammed into its knee, shattering the joint.
“Oh.”
She was taking away its mobility first.
Of course, there was no way to fight that huge thing head-on.
Boom! Boom!
The injured Ogre limped after Choi Yejin.
Crash!
When it slammed down its fist, the entire ground caved in.
Even a glancing hit would turn a Hunter into minced meat.
Yet Choi Yejin narrowly avoided every attack.
More accurately, she wasn’t avoiding them.
Before the Ogre even threw its punch, she had already moved away.
‘Is she reading its movements?’
The angle at which it turned its shoulders.
The direction in which it planted its feet.
She predicted the next attack from details like those and moved ahead of time.
She was remarkably nimble and quick.
Those were the movements of someone who had spent years being put through hell on the Highest Floors.
It reminded me of when I’d had an IRL fight with Choi Yejin!
After leading the Ogre around for quite a while, it gradually grew exhausted and started panting.
Tat!
Choi Yejin suddenly changed direction and rushed at it.
She stepped on its limping leg, leaped up, climbed its back, and scrambled upward in an instant.
“Uwoooogh?!”
The startled Ogre shook its body wildly.
It was already too late.
Thud!
Choi Yejin drove an arrow into the top of its head!
She held the arrow directly in her hand and put all her weight behind it!
“Kuwoooong...!”
The enormous Ogre slowly collapsed.
A cloud of dust rose into the air.
“...Oh.”
I let out a quiet exclamation.
Honestly, I was a little surprised.
She had taken down that massive thing with nothing but a bow, no magic at all.
As expected of the last remaining Hard-rank Hunter in the Republic of Korea.
She was quite impressive for an ordinary person...
Ppororong.
I landed alongside Iing Iing.
Choi Yejin, who had been catching her breath, grinned at me.
“See? This is how a normal Floor 42 clear works. You destroy the joints, reduce its mobility, wear down its stamina, then...”
“But that took way too long.”
“...”
“How many minutes did it take to kill one?”
“...Thirty minutes?”
“There were originally three Ogres, right? Then it’d take an hour and a half for three. No, if all three had been together, you couldn’t have killed them in the first place. You struggled that much against one. Fighting multiple at once would be hard, right?”
“...”
There were a few thousand monsters like this around here.
How many days would it take to kill them all like that?
“I seriously don’t get it. Why work so hard to kill something that a single Railgun could finish in one second? You spent thirty whole minutes running and rolling around like it was some huge ordeal.”
“...You bastard.”
“Wow, look at all that sweat. Yejin, take a shower as soon as we get back. You stink of sweat.”
“You fucking bastard.”
“But! You did look like you were trying hard for an ordinary person, so that was kind of admirable!”
“That’s why you can’t write a strategy guide post based on your standards, you fucking asshole!!!”
Choi Yejin shouted furiously.
Why was she getting mad?
I’d complimented her for being admirable.
As she fumed, I looked around and asked.
“So where do we start clearing out? Should we begin nearby? Pathfinder, give us your opinion. You’ve got a map with the terrain recorded, right?”
“Hoo... Give me a second.”
Choi Yejin examined the rough map she had drawn.
After studying the refugees’ route and the terrain for a long time, she slowly spoke.
“...There’s probably a lot of monsters in the northern canyon. The terrain is exactly the sort of place Ogres and Troll bastards would like.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. They were especially packed into shaded canyons like this. If we head there first, we’ll have a better chance of finding lots of monsters.”
“Oh.”
As expected of an ordinary Hard-rank pathfinder.
At least she earned her keep!
“Then let’s wipe out that area first.”
We headed for the canyon through Iing Iing’s Psychokinetic Flight.
And there they were.
A swarm of Large Monsters filling the canyon.
Ogres, Trolls, Cyclopes.
There were even Wyverns in the sky.
At a rough count, there had to be hundreds of them.
“...Hey.”
Maybe she had been intimidated by the massive group of monsters.
Choi Yejin’s face stiffened.
“This isn’t right. We should go around them at this scale...”
“Danmaku is all about power!!!”
I raised my staff.
Mana Cannon, «Final Spark», fire!
Kugugugugugu...
Mana was sucked into the tip of my staff like crazy.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaang⸻⸻!
A brilliant pillar of light poured into the canyon.
When the light faded, the canyon had changed completely.
One side of the mountain that formed the canyon had completely vanished.
It had turned into an open plain!
The ground had melted and solidified like glass.
Nothing remained where hundreds of monsters had swarmed only moments ago.
“...”
Choi Yejin said nothing.
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
“Yejin-Yejin, why aren’t you saying anything?”
“...I think I just saw something impossible. What was that? Should I cut back on drinking?”
“Oh dear.”
Choi Yejin had drunk so much that she was even doubting her own eyesight.
How tragic.
An archer with bad eyesight couldn’t earn their keep.
Anyway, after that...
It was time for a proper slaughter.
“Center the target, then pull the switch.”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!...
I brought down the flying Wyverns like falling leaves with rapid-fire Railguns.
“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Kwaaaaaaaaaang⸻⸻!
I threw a Tactical Fireball at the hill where Ogres and Trolls frolicked.
Choi Yejin’s open-mouthed expression was quite a sight.
Then, at large groups of monsters farther away...
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang⸻⸻!
Mana Cannon, «Final Spark», activated!
A brilliant pillar of light shot forth, literally erasing dozens of kilometers ahead.
As I drained every last bit of mana from my heart and indulged in mindless slaughter...
“Ahh...! This is it! It feels so damn good to blow off all that stress!”
I felt amazing.
I fired off huge spells one after another.
Flashes burst forth, terrain changed, and the explosions and shockwaves sent a heavy thrill through my whole body.
I was getting a powerful high from overwhelming firepower!
It was a sensation ordinary people who couldn’t use magic would never understand.
And Choi Yejin...
“...What the fuck is this?”
“What do you mean, what is it? It’s me.”
“What is this supposed to be?! What the hell am I even looking at? What is this? A person can change the terrain and erase mountains?! You erased a mountain?”
“Yejin, stop being shocked and write things down already. You need to write a strategy guide. If you can’t write that, at least draw the map properly. You know I already smashed Beijing’s barrier to bits, so why are you acting surprised now?”
“What the hell is this... Fine. I won’t be surprised. No matter what I see now, I won’t be surprised.”
“That’s more like it.”
“I won’t be surprised if you erase mountains. I’m not surprised. I said I’m not surprised.”
“Your hands are shaking right now, Yejin. Draw the map properly. You might make an error because your hands are shaking.”
“Please shut up... You’re making me lose my mind...!”
Was she really helping here...?
Maybe I shouldn’t have brought her.
I wasn’t sure she could write a proper strategy guide post like this!
Anyway, as we moved all over the map and slaughtered monsters indiscriminately...
I happened to look down.
Far away, the refugee procession was slowly moving north.
I had wiped out every monster in this area.
They should make it safely now, right?
I earned Points and saved people, killing two birds with one stone.
I really was a Holy Angel!
A little later...
“Ing ing!”
“Jiho, Iing Iing says she found an Escape Portal.”
“Oh, as expected of Iing Iing! Her scouting ability is reliable. So, Choi Yejin, how was clearing Floor 42 today? Was it manageable?”
“...”
“Choi Yejin?”
We found the Escape Portal.
Then we cleared Floor 42 with the half-dazed Choi Yejin in tow.
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 42)]
[You have completed Tower Floor 42.]
[You have defeated 532 Wyverns (3,000).]
[You have defeated 243 Trolls (5,000).]
[You have defeated 57 Ogres (10,000).]
[You have defeated 7 Cyclopes (10,000).]
[Points are being calculated.]
[Tower Floor 43 has been unlocked.]
[Returning.]
And so, it was a wonderful clear.
I earned lots of Points and relieved all my stress by generously unleashing large-scale magic.
* * *
While Baek Jiho was clearing Floor 42...
At the border between Europe and Russia, the battlefield, which had echoed with artillery and gunfire until only a few days ago, was eerily quiet.
At the European encampment, a blond-haired man sat on the rooftop of a ruined building, smoking a cigarette.
One of Europe’s top Hunters.
Julien Lacroix.
He had spent years stationed at this border, fighting Russian Hunters.
Beep.
His smartphone rang.
[Withdraw from the front immediately.]
[All top Hunters are to return to their home countries.]
[The European Union Security Committee has issued an emergency summons.]
Julien’s brow furrowed as he looked at his phone.
“What the fuck is this all of a sudden...”
Just then, he casually turned his gaze toward the Russian camp across from him and froze.
Krrrrrr...
The Russian armored vehicles were also withdrawing.
Then, a familiar face appeared in the distance.
A massive man with brown hair, wearing a tattered striped Spetsnaz shirt.
A Russian top Hunter he had nearly killed, and nearly been killed by, many times.
Grigory Borkov.
He was also gathering his things to leave the front.
The two stared at each other for a moment.
Julien was the first to call out.
“Hey!”
The Russian Hunter, Grigory, turned his head.
“Did you get a recall order too?”
A brief silence followed.
Then the Russian man gave a faint laugh.
“Looks that way.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know.”
Grigory shrugged.
“But Moscow did say one thing. Now isn’t the time for humans to fight each other.”
Footnotes:
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