WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 157
──────
One hour earlier.
A mansion on the California coast, United States.
Yu Seunghee's home.
Yu Seunghee, America’s Floor 48 Hunter, sat on the living room sofa, glaring at his smartphone screen.
[Blue Dot secures 8.014 million Points in one day... Republic of Korea's Point reserves continue to rise.]
[Blue Dot's Tower-clearing speed continues to break Hunter records worldwide.]
['Extreme Lunatic Hell Group' officially established. 'Extreme Lunatic Hell' sign installed at Yongsan headquarters.]
[Blue Dot...]
The screen was filled with articles about Blue Dot.
Yu Seunghee muttered under his breath.
“Blue Dot... What the hell is that bastard?”
Clicking his tongue, he closed the news window.
Why was a man who had abandoned Korea and moved to America looking up a Korean Hunter called Blue Dot?
Because of social media.
He opened his own SNS account.
Countless replies filled the screen.
└Yu Seunghee, you traitorous bastard, lol. You said Korea would collapse. Well? It didn't, did it? King Korea survived thanks to Blue Dot!
└This asshole kept rubbing it in every day, saying he escaped Korea and abandoned a doomed country. What a bastard.
└Yu Seunghee, your mom is dead. Spit.
└└Hey, don't drag his mom into it. What if he sues you?
└└Lol, he's a foreigner now, so he can't sue. Free hits, nice.
└└Come to think of it, you're right. Time to curse him out too. Cry out, my hell-cleaving keyboard!
└Yu Seunghee, you $@#$-less bastard! I'll ^& your %#...
└└Whoa...
...
An endless barrage of hateful comments.
Every single one insulted, mocked, and ridiculed him.
Well, it made sense.
The posts he had written until now were more than enough to irritate Koreans.
[Koreans are calling me a traitor, but honestly, if they had the talent, they would've all come to America too. Aren't they just mad because they couldn't? Lol.]
[The support I got in Korea? You call that support? America gives me several times more than Korea ever did.]
[Korea? Oh, those beggars struggling because they have no Points? Lol.]
He had written plenty of posts mocking and ridiculing Korea, so backlash was inevitable.
But it had not been like this until recently.
Korea's collapse had been considered inevitable.
So even when he insulted and mocked Korea, all he got were resigned or bitter reactions.
Recently, however, things had changed.
└You said Korea would collapse. When is it happening? I've waited so long my neck stretched out, and now I need twelve weeks of treatment. Waaaaah.
└└Ask King Dot to heal you. He even fixed Kim Taeseok's arm, so your neck should be easy!
└I heard Blue Dot earned 8 million Points while I was eating. How much did you earn today? Don't tell me a Highest Floors Hunter like you only brought in a few tens of thousands of Points, lol.
└While you escaped Korea, Blue Dot saved Korea from collapse, lol.
└└Traitor trait: escapes their homeland.
└└Extreme Lunatic Hell Patriotic Admiral Yi Hunter trait: saves his homeland from collapse.
└└Truly... Shining Blue Dot!
└└Damn it, Big Dot again. I have no choice but to praise him.
└Seeing the traitor Yu Seunghee makes me realize again how incredible Blue Dot is. He's defended the country as an active Hunter from the Lower Floors until now...
└The Republic of Korea is open for business!
└I'm all...
└Ack, lololol.
...
Apparently, Korea was recovering.
All because of a single man called Blue Dot.
The posts Yu Seunghee had written up to now were now returning to hit him like a boomerang.
“Tch!”
He clicked his tongue harshly and scrolled down.
“Blue Dot, Blue Dot, Blue Dot...”
The entire world was Blue Dot.
Yu Seunghee gritted his teeth.
“Some bastard named Blue Dot has completely wrecked my SNS.”
Blue Dot, a Hunter from the Republic of Korea.
Yu Seunghee had heard of him a few times.
Apparently, he climbed one floor a day.
Apparently, he had obtained Magic Stone Reactors on the Middle Floors.
Apparently, he earned hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Points every day.
Apparently, he had even made some kind of hair loss medicine...
Of course, Yu Seunghee did not believe those rumors.
How could he?
“They say he climbs one floor a day? And he reached the Highest Floors less than two months after becoming a Hunter? Ha. What fucking nonsense. Unbelievable.”
Ordinary people might believe it.
But he was a Highest Floors Hunter. He could not.
It had taken him several years to reach the Highest Floors.
How could anyone reach them in two months?
It was physically impossible.
From the High Floors onward, the Tower was a vast world where one had to travel at least dozens of kilometers. From the Highest Floors onward, it stretched hundreds, even thousands of kilometers.
No matter how strong a Hunter was, no human body could climb a floor a day.
Unless they could fly through the sky, that was.
So all he could do was scoff.
Whenever he heard stories about Blue Dot, he had treated them as a meme.
But...
“...Still, Koreans are making such a huge fuss over him. Maybe there really is something to it. I should look into this.”
People had flooded his SNS and comment-bombed it.
Blue Dot had appeared in internet news articles.
Even Torumph had mentioned him on social media.
Something certainly seemed unusual.
Yu Seunghee began searching.
[Blue Dot Hunter]
The results appeared immediately.
Hunter Gallery, Korea's Hunter community.
It was a place where he himself had once been somewhat active, back when he had still been a Hunter in Hell Joseon.
Posts written directly by Blue Dot filled the site.
[(Info) How to Clear Floor 44!]
[(Info) How to Clear Floor 45!]
[(Info) How to Clear Floor 46! + Face Reveal!]
The posts had been uploaded one day apart, as if to prove that he really climbed one floor every day.
Yu Seunghee opened one.
What he saw was...
[There are people living inside the Tower!!!]
[The Wall-Blue Dot I made. My Extreme Lunatic Hell City...]
[This is a statue the Tower locals made based on my handsome, noble, beautiful face.]
[For Floor 47, just kill every monster you see and leave through the Escape Portal.]...
“...?”
The post was a dizzying mess that made him question the writer's sanity.
Yu Seunghee stared steadily at the screen for quite a while.
“Pfft.”
A burst of laughter escaped Yu Seunghee.
“Puhahahahaha! What is this?”
It was an absurd parade of nonsense.
People lived inside the Tower?
He built a city?
He was a mayor?
And this statue was his face?
“Isn't this guy completely insane?”
Yu Seunghee's expression brightened instantly.
Right.
This was Blue Dot's true identity.
The claims that he climbed one floor a day.
The claims that he earned millions of Points every day.
They were all just the ramblings of an attention-seeking lunatic.
It was obvious.
The Korean government had to be faking it.
A country on the verge of collapse had created a fake hero to sell hope to its citizens!
The proof was that a Highest Floors Hunter did not reveal his face or identity!
“I was an idiot for getting angry at someone like this. Koreans really are stupid. I get that they're afraid of collapse, but how can they be manipulated by a pathetic moron like that? Tch, tch... Leaving Korea was definitely the right choice. People at that level aren't worth saving!”
Yu Seunghee sank deeper into the sofa.
The moment he became certain Blue Dot was a fraud, his irritation and anger vanished as though washed away.
He even felt a little sorry for them.
While Yu Seunghee sat there chuckling to himself...
Ding!
A message arrived.
The moment he checked the sender, his expression softened.
[Rachel: I have arrived nearby. I will visit in ten minutes.]
“...Is it already that late? I need to hurry.”
Yu Seunghee leaped to his feet.
First, he took off his T-shirt and changed into a dress shirt.
Then he ran a hand through his hair in front of the mirror.
He sprayed on expensive perfume.
Psst, psst.
He made sure to put on his luxury watch and rings as well.
A short while later...
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
Yu Seunghee hurried to the front door and swung it open.
Standing there was...
“Hello, Hunter Yu Seunghee.”
A blonde woman stood before him in a neat suit.
Rachel Turner.
She was the agent recently assigned to handle Yu Seunghee.
Apparently, she had originally handled Hunter-related missions in the Far East before recently returning to her home country.
He had heard rumors that she had been demoted after a disastrous mission failure...
Whatever. He did not need to know the details.
America had assigned such a capable and beautiful agent to him.
Did that not show just how highly America valued him?
Yu Seunghee lowered his voice.
“Welcome, Rachel. I've been waiting for you.”
“Yes. I've come because of the London Conference schedule. Please check your travel schedule and the events you will attend.”
Rachel did not even glance at Yu Seunghee as he made a greasy expression.
She continued.
“And here is the list of London Conference attendees.”
Rustle.
Rachel handed him a thin document.
Yu Seunghee accepted it and looked it over.
“Hmm. I know all these names.”
Every name on the document was familiar.
There were very few Hunters who had come from Hard-rank.
Furthermore, the rankings of Hunters high enough to attend the London Conference had remained unchanged for years.
They were all names he knew.
But there was one exception.
One name he had never seen before.
[Yu Seunghee / United States / Floor 48]
[Baek Jiho / Republic of Korea / Floor 48]
“...Baek Jiho? What? I've never heard that name before.”
It was the only unfamiliar name on the list.
Had someone become a naturalized Korean citizen?
Just as Yu Seunghee frowned in confusion...
“Blue Dot.”
“...Excuse me?”
“Mr. Baek Jiho is Blue Dot.”
Rachel spoke calmly.
Yu Seunghee blinked for a moment.
Then he gave a small laugh.
“Ah. That fraud.”
“...A fraud?”
Rachel tilted her head.
Yu Seunghee continued with a quiet chuckle.
“I happened to read some of his posts just now. Hahaha. Saying people live inside the Tower, that he built a city, that he's a mayor. He's quite entertaining. The Korean government is impressive too. To put someone like that forward as a hero.”
“...”
“Do you happen to know anything about him, Rachel? I heard you worked in the Far East before.”
At those words, Rachel stopped flipping through the documents.
“Blue Dot... Mr. Baek Jiho.”
Rachel slowly turned her head.
Her gaze went toward the view outside the window.
California's blue sea stretched endlessly beyond it.
She spoke softly.
“Jiho... was the best Hunter I have ever met.”
Rachel stared out at the sea with a wistful expression in her eyes.
It was an expression Yu Seunghee had never seen on her before.
Then...
Stroke, stroke.
Rachel began rubbing the top of her head.
She spoke quietly.
“Every time I met him... I would lose consciousness. He really was a rough person, you know?”
Stroke.
Stroke, stroke.
Rachel continued stroking the crown of her head as she spoke.
“I can still remember the feeling clearly.”
“...!”
Whenever she had met Baek Jiho, Rachel had been subjected to a Tukstaks smack to the head.
He had struck the crown of her head with his staff and knocked her unconscious.
Even now, merely remembering it was enough to make the top of her head throb.
But Yu Seunghee heard it in a completely different way.
She lost consciousness every time she met him?
He was rough?
She could still remember the feeling clearly?
And what was that hand stroking her head supposed to mean...?
Yu Seunghee was horrified.
‘D-Don't tell me that fraud... How dare he! What the hell did he do to my Rachel?!’
Yu Seunghee clenched his fist.
Crunch!
The smartphone in his hand shattered into pieces.
And thirty minutes later, a post went up on his SNS.
[Honestly, does nobody else think this is weird? I'm talking about that Hunter called Blue Dot.]
* * *
The next morning.
As usual, I wolfed down soybean paste soup while checking the morning news.
[U.S. Floor 48 Hunter Yu Seunghee causes controversy, claims “Blue Dot is a Korean government scam”]
[Ministry of Foreign Affairs “We deeply regret the baseless slander”]
[U.S. State Department “This is an individual's opinion and unrelated to the government's position”]
[Netizens say, “How dare a traitor?”... Flood of critical comments on Yu Seunghee's SNS]
“...”
Things had really exploded.
Articles had been pouring out overnight.
“That awful bastard...!”
Clack!
Noona set her spoon down on the dining table.
Her face was bright red.
“Jiho! Did you see this? A scam? The government faked you? Do they have any idea how hard you work every day? You save people in the Tower, you save the country! And that bastard has the nerve to say that?”
“I saw it, Noona.”
“You're not angry?”
“I am.”
I took a spoonful of soybean paste soup.
It was delicious today too.
“But it's okay, Noona. I already booked a scalp massage in London.”
“...A scalp massage?”
“Tukstaks Clinic, Branch No. 2. It's opening in London.”
Noona gave me an odd look.
She did not seem to understand what I meant, but decided to let it go.
That's right.
It was not like I was not angry.
He insulted King Korea and treated this great self like a fraud.
I wanted to fly to America right away and pound on the top of his head.
But I was an adult.
An adult who knew how to wait.
In three days, I just had to give him a very thorough massage in London!
Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
“...Wait.”
The traitor Yu Seunghee.
America's Floor 48 Hunter.
And this great self.
King Korea's Extreme Lunatic Hell Patriotic Admiral Yi Floor 48 Hunter.
Then, if I cleared Floor 48 today...
“I'll overtake him?”
The title of highest-floor Hunter of Korean descent, which Yu Seunghee had bragged about so much.
As of today...
It would become mine!
A grin naturally spread across my face.
“Noona, I'm heading out a little early today.”
“Finish your meal first!”
“I will!”
I chugged the rest of my soybean paste soup and leaped to my feet.
Then I raised my staff high.
“It's time to overtake a traitor...!”
I waited for my party members.
“Tower entry.”
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 48)]
[Na Hyeji (Republic of Korea: Floor 48)]
[Choi Yejin (Republic of Korea: Floor 48)]
[Please select the floor you wish to enter.]
“Floor 48.”
[Entering Tower Floor 48.]
Flash!
The attempt to clear Floor 48 had begun.
Footnotes:
Hell Joseon is a derogatory Korean internet term portraying Korea as an oppressive, hopeless society.
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