WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 162
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Rumble...
The city wall and its debris collapsed in a heap.
Clouds of pale dust billowed up.
Wall-Iing Iing was helplessly destroyed and crumbled away.
“Iing...!!!”
Poro-rong.
Iing Iing hurriedly flew toward Wall-Iing Iing.
Perhaps she was frantic because the wall had collapsed, but she flew far faster than usual.
We soon reached the very edge of the city.
And saw it.
“The wall’s been completely wrecked.”
“Yeah. What the hell happened? I don’t see any monsters.”
The wall had been utterly demolished.
The explosion had seemed serious even from afar, but up close, the damage was even more horrific.
The towering wall had become a mountain of rubble.
The hardened lava clinging to its outer surface had been shattered into even smaller pieces and lay scattered helplessly across the ground.
“Ghk!”
I clenched my teeth.
“As an Extreme Lunatic Hell construction contractor, this is damaging to my reputation...! The wall collapsed just one day after I built it! I did shoddy construction like those corrupt construction companies in King Korea! O heavens! Primordial Heavenly Venerable! Are you saying I too was no different from a King Korea construction company that steals building materials?!”
The wall I had built had fallen apart after just one day.
Just like those construction companies in King Korea that pilfered materials, I had done shoddy work!
I cried out in the iconic pose from the film Platoon.
Normally, Iing Iing would have patted my shoulder and comforted me.
But she could not do that this time.
Because...
“Iing... Iing, iing, iing...”
Iing Iing was the one grieving the most here.
Sniffle, sniffle.
She stared at the collapsed wall and wept bitterly.
Huge tears dripped down her face.
Honestly, I was a little surprised.
‘She’s this sad because a wall collapsed?’
I had not expected her to cry.
It seemed the wall had meant more to Iing Iing than I had thought.
I hurriedly comforted her.
“Iing Iing. It’s okay! I’ll build you another wall! Wall-Iing Iing Mark II! A Gigantamax Extreme Lunatic Hell wall! Wall Maria and Wall Rose, make way! Attack on Iing Iing is coming!”
“Iing, iing, iing...”
“Iing Iing, don’t cry. It hurts my heart so much when you cryyyyy...!”
“Mr. Jiho, you really cherish Iing Iing.”
“Of course! Iing Iing is our party’s conscience, hope, and love! After looking at shameless carry leeches like Ms. Hyeji and Ms. Yejin, do you know how admirable and pretty Iing Iing looks?”
“We weren’t even doing anything, so why the fuck are you picking a fight with us?”
Leaving the grumbling carry leeches behind me, I patted Iing Iing’s back.
Her crying gradually subsided.
But she still looked miserable.
Seeing Iing Iing’s face full of grief made me angry.
Whoever did this, how dare they!
How dare they make Iing Iing sad!
I would never forgive them!
As I spent a while comforting Iing Iing...
“Hey. Look at this.”
Choi Yejin, who had been examining the area, trudged over.
She held a chunk of stone in her hand.
It was part of the wall’s debris.
She held it out to me.
“This is strange. Look at the condition of the stone.”
“?”
“Isn’t one side incredibly smooth? Like it was cut with a blade.”
I took the stone from Choi Yejin and examined it.
Naturally, most of its surface was rough and uneven.
But for some reason, one side alone was exceptionally smooth and clean.
When I ran my palm over it, there was not the slightest snag.
“What is this? Why is this stone like this? The cross-section is incredibly clean. Even if a factory cut it with a water jet, it wouldn’t be this smooth.”
“Right? Look at the other debris around here. All of it is like this too.”
“Hmm.”
At Choi Yejin’s words, I inspected the surrounding debris.
Sure enough, quite a few pieces had smooth cut surfaces.
This had not been an ordinary collapse.
Something had cut through the wall as though slicing a cake, causing the rest of it to collapse.
As I examined the rubble...
“Iing...”
Iing Iing pointed at the chunk of stone in my hand.
“Iing Iing, do you want this?”
“Iing.”
Iing Iing nodded.
I gave her the stone.
Then she hugged the stone, which was as large as her body, tightly against herself.
It seemed she wanted to keep even a trace of the wall.
Seeing that made me even angrier!
“Ms. Hyeji, please put this in your Spatial Bag.”
“You’re taking a stone with you? Why?”
“These are Wall-Iing Iing’s remains. We need to preserve them carefully.”
“...Why are you talking about a wall like it’s a person?”
“Silence! Can’t you see poor Iing Iing’s miserable face?! Wall-Iing Iing is dead! It’s gone now! But it will live on, as one with me, on my back and in my heart!”
“What meme is that supposed to be...?”
Oh dear, it seemed Ms. Hyeji had not watched the cosmic masterpiece, Ten-Thousand-Won Breakthrough Jjangren Lagann.
How could a modern person be so uncultured? Tsk tsk...
As a Doctor of Philosophy, I would have to understand.
Anyway.
“Let’s head into the city and gather some information. We need to find out what happened.”
We headed for the city.
* * *
The mayor’s office.
Valdemar dipped his head toward me.
“Angel! You have returned! This time, it has only been a week!”
Apparently, I had entered the Tower again after just one week this time.
The intervals between Tower visits were getting shorter and shorter.
At this rate, I might really enter the Tower again after just one day tomorrow.
Anyway.
I sank into the chair in the mayor’s office and spoke.
“I saw Wall-Iing Iing collapse as soon as I arrived.”
“...I have no excuse. I failed to protect the wall you built for us, Angel.”
“This is not your fault, deputy mayor. It seems this was something you ordinary mortals would have had difficulty handling... So, what exactly happened?”
“Well...”
Valdemar then reported what had happened while I was gone.
Wall-Iing Iing’s destruction had not happened in only a day or two.
“It began in the northern sky. After you left, blue lights began flashing occasionally beyond the northern volcanoes.”
“Blue lights?”
“Yes. At first, they could only be seen at night. But they gradually became more frequent, and recently they have flashed several times a day, even during daylight.”
Blue lights...
I recalled the mana pattern I had seen beyond the map boundary yesterday.
Could this phenomenon be related to that?
Valdemar continued.
“And whenever the lights flashed, they were always followed by... a tremendous roar.”
“A roar... You mean the sound we heard when the wall collapsed earlier. It was quite deafening.”
“Yes. And when we went to where the roar had erupted...”
Valdemar paused.
He swallowed hard, then spoke in a low voice.
“The ground... had been cut.”
“...Cut. Come to think of it, the wall debris had clean cross-sections, like they had been sliced by a blade.”
“Then it will be easy to explain. It was exactly as you saw. Whenever the roar sounded, the ground and terrain had been cut apart. Some hills had been split in half, while some boulders had been cut into two pieces.”
I unconsciously looked toward Ms. Hyeji’s Spatial Bag.
Wall-Iing Iing’s remains, which she had just stored away.
That smooth cross-section, as though cut with a blade.
“At first, it only happened far to the north. But as the days passed, the strange phenomenon gradually spread southward... this way.”
“And today, it reached the wall?”
“Yes.”
Valdemar nodded.
His face was full of concern.
“Fortunately, no one was near the wall, so nobody was injured. The lava outside had already hardened, so there was no immediate danger of it flowing into the city. But...”
“Next time, it might cut into the city itself.”
“Yes.”
Hmm...
I folded my arms and looked north.
Blue lights.
A thunderous boom.
And earth cut apart as though by a blade.
Whatever it was, the strange phenomenon that had begun in the north was gradually spreading toward the city.
I had to stop it.
“Deputy mayor.”
“Yes, Angel.”
“I told you before. One day, I would handle the north myself.”
I rose from my chair, raising my staff.
“That day is today. As the mayor of ‘Extreme Lunatic Hell Heaven Ark, Humanity’s Last City, Big-City,’ I can no longer bear to see my citizens trembling in fear!”
“Angel...!”
Valdemar’s face filled with emotion, awe, respect, admiration, praise, and worship.
Instead of a cape, I let my coat tails flutter as I turned around.
“Let’s go, Iing Iing. We’re going to see the face of whoever cut down your wall.”
“Iing!!!”
It was time for Extreme Lunatic Hell wall revenge!
We set out north.
* * *
Poro-rong.
We flew north using Iing Iing’s Psychokinetic Flight.
The lava fields stretching beneath us had grown far wider than yesterday.
Red rivers of lava ran like veins over the blackened, hardened ground.
Here and there, hills and earth had been split cleanly apart, as though cleaved by an enormous blade.
Those must have been the traces Valdemar mentioned.
And strangely enough...
There was not a single Wyvern in sight.
“Wyverns. There were so disgustingly many yesterday... Where did they all go?”
Ms. Hyeji looked around anxiously.
Well, they had probably fled in terror from my august self.
How could mere sparrows dare appear before the successor to Mao Zedong and master of the Four Pests Campaign again?
Anyway, we flew for quite some time.
Past the boundary that had blocked us the day before yesterday, then past the boundary that had blocked us yesterday.
After flying far beyond the newly opened region...
I finally saw it again.
“An egg!”
The “egg” I had seen yesterday.
The thing I suspected was a Dragon Egg.
It was in the exact same spot as yesterday!
The presumed Dragon Egg was wrapped in a bluish membrane and gave off a faint glow.
I looked at my companions and shouted triumphantly.
“See?! There’s an egg right there!!! Now apologize, all of you. Repeat after me once, ‘We were ordinary mortals for doubting the great Jiho’s discerning eye!’”
“...What are you suddenly talking about, Mr. Jiho?”
“The egg! There’s an egg right there! Yesterday, you said you couldn’t see it and acted like I was seeing things!”
I pointed my staff toward the center of the valley.
We were much closer than yesterday, so I could see it more clearly.
It had a smooth oval body and was the size of a refrigerator.
No matter how poor the vision of these ordinary mortals, they could not possibly fail to see it from this distance!
But for some reason...
“I only see the ground.”
“I only see lava. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“? Are you serious?”
Ms. Hyeji and Ms. Yejin...
Really must have been blind.
They still could not see that enormous egg!
“How can you not see it? It’s the size of a refrigerator! You all seriously need vision correction surgery.”
“But I really can’t see it...”
“Stop this shit already. What egg?”
“Iing, iing, iing.”
“Iing Iing says she can’t see it either.”
“...Really?”
Well, I could understand Choi Yejin and Na Hyeji being ordinary mortals.
But even Iing Iing could not see it?
“Iing Iing, are you an ordinary mortal with bad eyesight too...?”
“Iing...”
Iing Iing drooped sadly.
No.
Iing Iing had done nothing wrong.
That was right, prophets were lonely by nature!
“Anyway, we can inspect it when we get there. Let’s head over, Iing Iing.”
“Iing!”
Poro-rong.
We began flying toward the egg.
It was not far away, so we should have arrived soon.
But for some reason...
“Why aren’t we moving forward?”
Something strange happened.
We were clearly flying forward with Psychokinetic Flight.
Yet the distance to the egg was not decreasing in the slightest.
I asked Iing Iing.
“Iing Iing, we aren’t stopped, right?”
“Iing? Iing.”
Iing Iing shook her head.
She said no.
We were definitely flying forward, and fierce wind rushed past our ears.
But the distance to the egg did not decrease at all.
What kind of bizarre phenomenon was this?
This was frustrating.
I gave an order.
“Pilot! Full throttle! Longbow Apache, full speed ahead!”
“Iing!”
At my command, Iing Iing went full throttle.
She pushed our speed to the limit.
Whoooosh!
Psychokinetic Flight accelerated to its maximum speed.
Fierce wind and walls of air whipped around us.
My coat tails flapped wildly in the wind.
But even so...
The distance to the egg did not shorten at all.
What the hell?
Why did it feel like we were going forward while hanging motionless in midair?
Then Ms. Hyeji and Ms. Yejin spoke one after another.
“Mr. Jiho. Haven’t we been in the same place this whole time?”
“That rock. I think I saw it earlier too.”
“?”
What were they talking about?
We had not merely been in the same place. We had practically been standing still the entire time.
Yet they talked as though we had been circling one spot.
Then, a possibility flashed through my mind.
“Wait. I’ve seen this in martial arts novels.”
A space that could not be crossed no matter how far one traveled.
Distance stretching endlessly.
And the ordinary mortals’ senses being confused.
This was that, wasn’t it?!
“This is Qimen Dunjia! A technique that twists spatial directions and coordinates using the principles of yin and yang, the five elements, and the eight trigrams! Damn it, it’s a formation master! And a highly skilled one, if they can even use Qimen Dunjia! My martial artist blood is boiling!”
“Ugh, those damn martial arts novels... Anyway, something definitely seems strange. We keep circling the same place.”
“...I don’t know which direction we’re facing anymore. Are we sure we can get out of here?”
At last, Ms. Hyeji and Ms. Yejin seemed to notice the strange situation.
They had realized that space had distorted and ensnared them.
I had known from the start because the distance was not changing, but apparently they had been floundering in an illusion this entire time.
Anyway.
“As martial arts novels say, when faced with Qimen Dunjia, do not move recklessly. First, test the nature of the formation...!”
“Are you out of your mind? You’re making martial arts novel jokes in this situation?!”
“How about this!”
I aimed my staff.
My target was the ground directly in front of the distant egg.
BANG!
I fired a Railgun shot.
If the bullet traveled normally, I would learn whether this strange phenomenon only affected living creatures...
Or whether it applied to everything, including objects.
And then...
Shreeeeek!
A metal projectile flew from directly ahead and passed over our heads.
The Railgun bullet I had fired forward...
Had somehow come from in front of us.
CRAAASH!
“Eek!”
The Railgun bullet that passed over our heads created a tremendous noise behind us.
When I turned around, I saw a distant boulder shattered to pieces.
The Railgun bullet that had returned from the front had destroyed the rock behind us.
I muttered quietly.
“...I almost committed suicide there. A bullet I fired came back at me. As expected of Qimen Dunjia! It truly deserves to be called the flower of martial arts formations!”
“You crazy bastard, you almost died!”
“I fired it gently. Even if it hit, nobody would die. Anyway... Qimen Dunjia!”
This formation was far more dangerous than I had thought.
But there was still something I could try.
“The key to breaking a formation has always been finding its core...!”
I took a breath.
Then I heightened my spiritual senses.
I sharpened my spiritual perception and focused my mind.
I traced the pattern of the Blue Motes visible to my eyes.
To read the flow of mana beyond what I could see.
And then, I saw it.
Hummmmmm...
Blue Motes permeated the surrounding space.
Their arrangement was strangely different from normal.
Normally, Blue Motes in the air drifted freely.
They were supposed to float randomly and aimlessly in every direction, like pollen scattered in the wind.
But the Blue Motes here formed a strange pattern.
The Blue Motes moved steadily along fixed paths, as though traveling on invisible tracks.
I narrowed my eyes and followed the Blue Motes’ flow.
A stream of motes that extended forward suddenly bent and continued backward.
Another stream that had traveled upward folded sideways and returned to where it had started.
The Blue Motes here were not randomly distributed.
They formed a three-dimensional shape, layered upon one another, slowly rotating in different directions.
At some point, we had entered a huge three-dimensional array woven from Blue Motes.
I muttered quietly.
“Could this be... a spatial magic pattern?”
A memory suddenly came to mind.
It was a memory of Reimu from the past.
When she had opened a Spatial Leap Gate.
The rippling light behind her.
The pattern of spatial leap magic.
It had been a three-dimensional pattern rather than a flat one, constantly changing from moment to moment.
It had been so difficult back then that I eventually gave up on deciphering it.
At the time, I had only been a low-level wizard who had just reached the High Floors.
But things were different now.
Now, I was the Extreme Lunatic Hell Transformation Realm Longbow Apache Prophet Angel Admiral Yi Power Plant Manager Pill Refiner Floor 49 Wizard Hunter who had saved King Korea!
After the long passage of one whole month, I had become a seasoned magic veteran!
So now...
Maybe I could do it.
I murmured quietly.
“Let’s take it apart.”
Perhaps...
I could acquire spatial magic!
I slowly raised my staff.
Footnotes:
“Ten-Thousand-Won Breakthrough Jjangren Lagann” parodies the anime title Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
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