WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Returned Zenith Wants to Rest ◈
Episode 22:
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Awakeners referred to humans who manifested supernatural abilities after the gate phenomenon.
Hunter was only the name of a profession. The general term for those who had awakened abilities was awakener.
What defined an awakener was whether they had a status window.
Through the status window, they could check their abilities and skills.
‘A status window...’
Yoo Kangmin was curious about how that status window would express his own abilities.
But he saw no reason to accept this mysterious power.
‘There’s no telling where this power came from.’
As proof, a thread of qi seeping into his body extended upward.
It was heading deep into his mind, toward the place where his consciousness resided.
Yoo Kangmin’s gaze turned cold.
‘So it wasn’t going to end with simply granting me power.’
Certain rules had been etched into that qi.
What one could do upon awakening an ability.
How that power should be used.
Unfamiliar knowledge knocked upon the door of his consciousness, allowing him to understand without having to learn each detail.
It seemed that abilities commonly called skills were conveyed in this manner.
Abilities one could use despite never having learned them.
He vaguely understood how that was possible.
“I don’t need it.”
Yoo Kangmin forcibly severed the flow headed toward his consciousness.
The words before his eyes wavered.
[Registration in progress... Registration cannot be refused.]
It changed into something like a warning message.
Yoo Kangmin snorted as he stared at the words.
“Master?”
Yoon Seoha, beside him, called out to Yoo Kangmin.
“Ah, wait a moment.”
Yoo Kangmin raised the Limitless Heavenly Origin Art to its utmost.
He intended to use overwhelming power to block all interference directed at him at its source.
Hummmmmm!
The blue stone began reacting violently, as if it might burst at any moment.
Crack!
Craaaack!
Cracks spread across the stone’s surface.
[Awakener regis...]
The words crumbled.
At the same time, Yoo Kangmin felt it.
The gaze directed at him from somewhere had become slightly clearer.
Yoo Kangmin twisted up the corner of his mouth.
An even better idea than simply blocking it had occurred to him.
He thought that with his Limitless Heavenly Origin Art, he could contain even this qi of unknown origin.
“I’ll put this power to good use.”
So rather than severing it completely, Yoo Kangmin accepted part of that power as his own while refusing to allow it any interference.
One might wonder how such a selective choice was possible, but the Limitless Heavenly Origin Art made it possible.
Snap.
The connection was cut.
[Awakener registration canceled.]
With that message, the status window vanished.
What remained was pure qi with no meaning contained within it.
It melted into the flow of the Limitless Heavenly Origin Art.
‘This qi... It is certainly foreign.’
It did not increase the internal qi in his dantian.
He had not expected it to in the first place, since it was not qi that could be called mana or internal qi.
Yoo Kangmin had only accepted this qi to examine the foundation of the false world that made up the Martial Emperor’s Sword Tomb.
‘Still, my prediction was right.’
Perhaps because he had made that unknown qi his own, he could now see the source of the Martial Emperor’s Sword Tomb, which had felt so unfamiliar until just moments ago.
‘This place was made based on my memories.’
This Martial Emperor’s Sword Tomb had been created from his memories.
‘How much did it read?’
He felt strangely irritated, wondering whether it had only read about the Martial Emperor’s Sword Tomb, or all sixty years he had spent in the martial world.
It was not pleasant to think that something had looked through his memories without permission.
‘I’ll find out later.’
For now, getting out of this space came first.
With the Martial Emperor gone, there was no reason to remain in this empty place.
“But where is the exit? Usually, in cases like this, the space starts collapsing...”
That was when it happened.
Rumbleeeee!
As though it had been waiting for those words, the Martial Emperor’s Sword Tomb shook violently and began to collapse.
“Eek!”
“You were right.”
“W-what do we do?!”
“What do you think? We find the exit.”
“W-where is the exit?!”
“It must be somewhere.”
Watching the flustered Yoon Seoha, Yoo Kangmin’s lips curved up slightly.
“N-now isn’t the time for that!”
Yoo Kangmin chuckled and gestured somewhere.
“Look over there.”
“Huh?”
There, an exit gate that had not existed moments ago had formed.
“W-when did that appear?”
It was only natural for Yoon Seoha to be startled. To her, an exit that definitely had not been there had suddenly appeared.
“Let’s go.”
“Ah, yes!”
Still, given the circumstances, leaving came before resolving her questions.
The two stood before the exit.
With a single step, they would be able to escape this place.
Yet when the time came to leave, Yoon Seoha hesitated.
“Master.”
“What is it?”
Yoon Seoha looked down at the Martial Emperor’s Sword in her arms.
“It’s just... I can’t believe what happened here.”
“Even after receiving that sword?”
“That’s why it feels even more unreal.”
Until this morning, all she had worried about was how many mana stones she could collect.
If the raid went well, she planned to buy a longsword.
She could not keep borrowing one from the Association every time.
Yet now, the Martial Emperor’s Sword rested in her arms.
The person who had given her that sword had turned into light and disappeared.
“Master, don’t you feel sorry for him?”
Yoo Kangmin slowed his steps for a moment.
The Martial Emperor had not feared death.
He had crossed swords until the very end, then disappeared with a smile.
Yoo Kangmin did not want to deny even that.
“He was satisfied.”
“You think so?”
“Just use the sword you received well. Don’t make him regret giving it to you.”
Yoon Seoha adjusted her hold on the Martial Emperor’s Sword.
Her encounter with the Martial Emperor had been very brief.
In the span of a long life, it would be nothing more than a passing connection.
But for Yoon Seoha, it was an encounter that would change her entire life.
“Yes.”
Holding the Martial Emperor’s Sword tightly, Yoon Seoha stepped out of the gate.
Flaaash!
Blue light enveloped the two of them.
Inside the Martial Emperor’s Sword Tomb, now an empty grave after the two had left.
Rumbleeeee!
The ceiling collapsed.
The stone throne where the Martial Emperor had sat disappeared beneath the falling debris.
That was when it happened.
The qi of the dispersing space gathered in one place.
There was no body, nor was there a face.
Yet something was there.
[You took what was mine, so you should give up yours as well.]
The last remaining floor collapsed.
The will cast upon it also vanished into the darkness.
* * *
The empty lot on the outskirts where the gate Yoon Seoha and Yoo Kangmin had entered stood transformed into an emergency response site.
Police cars lined every access road, while Association vehicles constantly came and went within the cordon.
Shouts continuously rang out from the temporary command post set up far from the gate.
“Still no rank?”
“It exceeds the measurement limit. Replacing the equipment makes no difference.”
“Then there’s no guarantee it’s only S-rank!”
At minimum, it was S-rank.
The possibility that it was even higher could not be ruled out.
The site commander kept gulping down water, their lips apparently going dry.
Only a short while ago, this had been a place where they confirmed the entry of D-rank hunters.
Yet now they were calculating how far the damage would spread if the gate burst open. They still could not fully believe this reality.
“What about evacuating the surrounding area?”
“I-it’s underway. But if we expand the controlled zone any further, it will reach the nearby residential area...”
“Expand it.”
Baek Dohee said this as she entered the command post.
The site commander hurriedly turned around.
“Branch chief.”
“I’ll take responsibility. Get the people out first.”
“Understood.”
The employee grabbed a radio and ran outside.
Baek Dohee approached the situation board with her cane.
Two people had entered.
Yoon Seoha. Yoo Kangmin.
‘Master.’
When the two had set off, she had never imagined this would happen.
It had only been a D-rank gate.
She thought Yoo Kangmin would watch over Yoon Seoha’s field training and that they would return to the training hall by afternoon at the latest.
‘An S-rank gate... No matter how strong Master is...’
Yoo Kangmin was strong.
Even she, who had been evaluated as close to S-rank, could not accurately measure his strength.
That was why, even if he had been trapped inside an S-rank gate, she held onto the faint hope that he might be enduring somehow.
That was the reason Baek Dohee could keep directing the scene while maintaining her composure.
“How far has the rescue team formation progressed?”
“Three A-rank hunters have arrived at the site.”
“Still no answer from headquarters?”
“T-they only told us to wait...”
“Ha...”
Baek Dohee sighed at headquarters’ frustrating response.
Wait for what?
Should they not be presenting a plan for stopping the situation if that gate suddenly went on a rampage?
Crunch.
Her composure was slowly reaching its limit.
She wanted to enter the gate at once and begin a rescue operation, but realistically, she could not.
Entering was not difficult. The problem was what came afterward.
‘There’s no guarantee we’ll even enter the same space...’
With the interior altered, the existing raid information could not be trusted.
‘Rather than rescuing them, we might only create more missing people.’
It was a situation where she could do neither this nor that.
To break this deadlock, at least an S-rank hunter had to arrive.
‘What the hell is headquarters doing?!’
Baek Dohee looked at the gate.
Yoo Kangmin was strong.
She believed he could handle any situation, but Yoon Seoha was the problem.
A hunter who had only just become D-rank.
Baek Dohee could not imagine her lasting inside an S-rank gate.
‘If only I had gone with them...’
Her grip tightened around her cane.
It was a pointless thought.
As she was now, even putting her name on the rescue team would only burden them.
That was when it happened.
Beep!
A sharp alarm cut through the conversation.
Everyone turned toward the measuring device.
“What is it now?”
“There’s an abnormal reaction on the gate’s surface...!”
Rumble!
Before the employee could finish speaking, the ground shook.
The lights hanging from the command post ceiling swayed violently.
Baek Dohee looked out the window.
The gate was swelling.
It was a phenomenon Baek Dohee knew well.
A gate rampage.
“A rampage?!”
Before anyone could finish shouting, Baek Dohee poured all her mana into her voice.
“Everyone, fall back! Get away from the gate! Leave the vehicles and run! Move back!”
The empty lot instantly became chaos.
The waiting hunters drew their weapons and retreated.
No one knew what would emerge.
But everyone knew that whatever lay beyond was not an ordinary monster.
“Branch chief! You need to move!”
An employee grabbed Baek Dohee’s arm.
Baek Dohee could not move.
The scene from five years ago overlapped with what was before her.
A gate bursting open.
Monsters flooding out.
The screams of fleeing people.
Back then, she had been able to hold a spear.
But now, the only thing in her hand was a cane.
“Branch chief!”
Baek Dohee gritted her teeth.
There was something else she needed to do now.
“Evacuate, quickly.”
Flaaash!
An intense light burst from the gate.
“Get down!”
A hunter stepped before the others and raised a shield.
The others each used defensive skills as well.
Baek Dohee covered her eyes with an arm and stared beyond the light.
It was coming out.
Just as everyone thought that.
Hummm.
The gate folded inward.
The blue membrane that had swelled endlessly rapidly shrank.
The large circle reduced until it was the height of a person, then became a thin line before disappearing.
“...?”
No one could move immediately.
Not the hunter holding the shield.
Not Baek Dohee, who had prepared herself for death.
Everyone stared at the place where the gate had been.
“Whew. We barely made it back!”
Two figures appeared.
Yoon Seoha and Yoo Kangmin.
“...”
Everyone froze.
Seeing the frozen emergency responders, Yoon Seoha cautiously asked Yoo Kangmin.
“M-Master.”
“What is it?”
“We came out at the right place, didn’t we?”
Yoo Kangmin looked around as well.
He was just as bewildered by the entirely different scene from when they had entered.
“Did something happen?”
“Ah, Branch Chief!”
Yoon Seoha spotted Baek Dohee and waved.
“Ha.”
“No mana reaction...”
“Gate disappearance confirmed.”
Only then did Baek Dohee approach the two.
“What... exactly happened inside?”
Yoo Kangmin glanced at Yoon Seoha.
Then he calmly answered.
“I gave my disciple some training.”
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