Ranker Who Shatters Myths - Chapter 306

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Broken Ranker

Devours Myths

Chapter 306

The Other Side of the Sun (3)

“Gwi… Gwiroae-nim?”

Lee Hyeon came to his senses as he looked at Maksus, who was cautiously addressing him.

Anxious eyes.

It seemed his mind had wandered for a moment.

“No. It’s nothing.”

Lee Hyeon waved his hand dismissively and snorted as if it were nothing.

“I thought there was something else. I can’t really sense much.”

“Of, of course. Gwi, Gwiroae-nim is Zeus’s Apostle after all…”

“Let’s go to him quickly. It would be strange for you to be held up by me.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

Maksus brightened up immediately and left his seat.

Lee Hyeon crossed his arms and watched Apollo, who was mingling enthusiastically with his brothers.

Even wearing a mask, he was someone who exuded much deeper experience and wisdom compared to the other brothers.

Apollo briefly made eye contact with him, but only gave a light nod.

He showed no signs of hesitation.

‘No. I don’t know for certain yet. Maybe there’s some misunderstanding.’

Lee Hyeon organized his thoughts calmly.

‘It might just be someone similar. Let me observe a little more.’

If Apollo’s true identity was Lee Gun-san, Lee Hyeon couldn’t understand why Lee Gun-san hadn’t mentioned his identity to him all this time.

Lee Gun-san knew that he was disguised as Zeus’s Apostle.

He had even helped Go Jin-woo and Ramon manage Homeros Holdings in every way possible.

Such a person gave no hint when Zeus’s son was actively tormenting Homeros Holdings?

Wasn’t that too strange?

Of course, there was exactly one case where that could happen.

‘…If we too, like Zeus’s son or the Lee Network, are merely simple nodes to manage for him.’

The fact that Lee Gun-san was sponsoring various people around the world and secretly connecting them.

But Lee Hyeon didn’t want to erase the thought that they were ‘special’ to Lee Gun-san.

So,

Even though Noeancheongjeong was still displaying a message with ‘Lee Gun-san’ written on it,

Lee Hyeon wanted to find reasons why Apollo wasn’t Lee Gun-san.

But…

“Apollo, stop this now and tell us about the agenda for secretly gathering the brothers.”

“Right! Isn’t this a situation where Dionysus, Heracles, and even Minos are absent!”

“We need to hear what you’re thinking too.”

“Exactly. Opening a meeting so arbitrarily without permission from Dionysus, the chairman, means there must be an important agenda.”

“We absolutely cannot tolerate our brotherhood being scattered by internal strife.”

The brothers who had been openly wary of Apollo stared at him intently while holding their wine cups.

Maksus hurriedly clapped his hands and stepped forward.

Clap!

“Everyone seems on edge from the sudden meeting summons! Let’s not do this and calm down…”

“Right. Let’s get straight to the main agenda. I had no intention of dragging out the meeting anyway. May I take a seat?”

At Apollo’s words, the crowd dispersed and each took their seats.

All showing reactions of discomfort or awkwardly watching Apollo’s mood.

[‘Player: Lee Gun-san’ and Apollo’s voice match with 99.91% probability.]

“…”

But Lee Hyeon remained silent.

Although distortion magic was applied, the speech patterns and intonation curves were familiar.

A strangely emerging scene came to mind.

The voice of the welfare worker who sat at the orphanage dining table during middle school, breaking bread for our brothers.

“My brothers.”

[Apollo has opened the meeting!]

The moment Apollo sat on the jade throne and spoke in a heavy voice,

Whoooosh!

A blindingly bright golden radiance suddenly struck down in the center of the meeting hall.

Rather than grand authority, it was an aura of order that seemed to return all things to their designated places.

“Dionysus has finally taken up the sword instead of the wine cup. Not satisfied with conquering Guam to increase his power, now he seeks to quarrel with the entities of the outer sea that have no substance.”

Rational sentences without unnecessary words.

“I also acknowledge the efforts Dionysus has made to lead the brothers and greatly build our father’s glory. I’m not unaware that thanks to him, the scattered brothers can gather in one place today to enjoy a banquet.”

“…”

“…”

“I’m not unaware of his passion in trying to find our missing ‘father,’ nor of his boasting of valor and spirit for the father who will someday return.”

“…”

“…”

“But he has made far too many enemies on all sides.”

“…”

“…”

“The immediately visible Guam and Jiseo Order are only what’s revealed on the surface. Among those worldly beings who call us the axis of evil, none show us favor, and mortals constantly suspect our identity and strive to expose us somehow.”

The longer he spoke, the larger the scene stored in Lee Hyeon’s mind became.

The voice of the general who patted our stiff shoulders on military academy entrance day.

“His madness will lead us to destruction. The revival of 【Olympus】, the return of our father, must be achieved not on an altar of blood, but upon precise order.”

And the breathing of the mentor who had rebuilt the broken me into a person again over the past four years.

“We must stop him.”

The gaze.

“At this rate, our brotherhood will drown in Dionysus’s wine before being devoured by the outer sea.”

The touch.

“My brothers, will you continue to just sit still like this?”

Lee Hyeon could no longer deny his thoughts.

‘Really… it is the General.’

The scent of a terribly lonely old soldier hidden beneath the brilliant solar divinity.

Something like that was absolutely not something anyone could imitate.

‘Why on earth are you…!’

* * *

[Connection to 【Olympus’s Vineyard】 has ended.]

[Removing Kairees’s plaster mask.]

Puha!

Lee Hyeon exhaled roughly as he removed his hand from the Kibisis.

He was back inside the transport aircraft.

Quite some time had passed, as the sun was rising in the sky reflected outside the window.

As Maksus had expected, Apollo condemned Dionysus’s choice.

But he didn’t attempt impeachment.

Because most of the brothers’ reactions were lukewarm.

The majority were already intoxicated by the spoils of victory that Dionysus brought.

Apollo’s speech only echoed hollowly through the temple.

However,

‘Why on earth…’

Lee Hyeon was still confused.

“Did you have a nightmare? Why are you sweating so much?”

“…Huh?”

Then he suddenly turned his head at a voice from beside him.

Moon Su-chan was getting up and organizing his luggage.

“Didn’t you hear? They said to get ready since there’s less than an hour until arrival.”

Lee Hyeon stared at Moon Su-chan for a moment.

A phantom-like sense of déjà vu that seemed almost graspable but not quite.

“What’s wrong? Still not fully awake?”

A blunt tone that could only come between brothers.

But within it was mixed worry and concern.

Then Lee Hyeon realized the identity of the déjà vu he had momentarily felt from Moon Su-chan.

“Hyung.”

“What?”

“When I first suggested we return to Korea at the 【Nest】.”

“…?”

“You didn’t want to go.”

“…”

“Why was that?”

Deeply sunken eyes.

“That’s…”

“You know something, don’t you? About the General.”

“You, how did you…!”

Moon Su-chan was about to say something, but seeing Lee Hyeon’s heavy gaze, he couldn’t easily open his mouth.

He looked around.

Fortunately, no colleagues seemed to be paying attention to them.

“You’re right.”

“…”

“Tell me what you know, hyung.”

“…This place is a bit awkward.”

Moon Su-chan let out a sigh.

“Let’s finish talking once the plane lands.”

* * *

The runway at Incheon International Airport was soaked in the cold dawn air.

“Well, see you at the company, senior.”

“Aaaah! Going straight to work as soon as we return to Korea! I’m sure it was a tourist visa!!”

“Everyone get some good rest. See you tomorrow.”

Since they had scheduled the South Africa trip to match exactly with their vacation period, there was no time to recover from travel fatigue.

Kim Min-jeong said she would try to change it to a long-term business trip by submitting the South Africa results as a report, but this would also take considerable time to get approved.

While everyone was parting with smiles,

Lee Hyeon and Moon Su-chan moved to a cafe located near the airport.

Originally they should have headed straight to Uijeongbu, but first there were some things the two of them needed to sort out.

The cafe was bustling with people going on trips.

Fortunately, no one was paying attention to the two of them.

Still, just in case.

Whirrr!

Lee Hyeon spread his magic power field widely to block external interference.

“Now tell me. The facts you knew.”

“Before that, let me ask first.”

Moon Su-chan let out a deep sigh while scratching his temple vigorously.

“How did you suddenly figure it out? You seemed to know nothing about the General.”

“Hyung. I was the one who asked the question.”

“This bastard…”

“I’m not in the mood to joke around, so please just tell me.”

“Do you really need to know?”

Moon Su-chan’s deeply sunken eyes.

“There are many times in the world when it’s better not to know.”

“No. I still need to know.”

Despite the worried words, Lee Hyeon didn’t bend his will.

Eventually Moon Su-chan scratched his head vigorously for a long time.

“Haah…!”

And then.

“Remember what you said about why I never contacted Korea even once after regaining my memories?”

He opened his mouth with a deeply suppressed voice.

Lee Hyeon nodded heavily.

At the time, he was too busy sorting out the 【Nest】’s affairs and dealing with Zarya to organize his thoughts.

But Moon Su-chan could have contacted Korea anytime if he had wanted to.

To tell them to come to South Africa to meet him.

That he missed his brother.

But there had been no word from him.

What if there was a reason for this?

“You’re right that I couldn’t contact because of the General.”

“…!”

“Because I didn’t want to let him know that I had come back to life yet. Though it’s become a pointless story now.”

“…The reason?”

Lee Gun-san wasn’t just a simple supporter or benefactor to the brothers.

He was the first person to teach them the weight of the word ‘father’ when they had no parents.

They became soldiers following him, and crossed life and death because they trusted him.

“Because he wouldn’t have been happy that I came back alive.”

“…!”

The words Moon Su-chan threw out calmly came to Lee Hyeon with too much weight, pressing down hard on his heart.

“When you’re at the 【Nest】… you experience many mysterious phenomena. Literally mysteries and otherworldly things. There are also many strange phenomena that the brothers and sisters share.”

“…”

“How to see the Outer Sea, how to trace causality, how to go against intuition… Among them is also how to see the stains of causality that humans cannot see.”

“Stains of causality?”

“If you’re human, no, if you’re a being living in this world, no one can escape the law of causality. Because there’s a cause, there’s an effect, and you need a reason to reach a conclusion.”

“…”

“When such causality is strongly engraved, it becomes karma and narrative. Sometimes it becomes myth and becomes the Logos of the Heavenly Realm. In other words, no being living on ‘the Island’ can escape causality.”

“Then what you’re saying is, you became able to see such causality?”

“It’s not that grand, you can think of it as seeing the ‘stains’ on causality. Because you need to know the cause to overcome the crisis you’re currently facing. It’s also the first technique I learned from Mother.”

Lee Hyeon could grasp the context of what Moon Su-chan was trying to say.

Originally, Moon Su-chan’s [eyes] were innate. Enough so that Yukimihiro would bestow the Golden Eyes of Truth.

“You were trying to figure out the reason for hyung’s resurrection with those [eyes]. So recognizing the Bloodflower Serpent was also…”

“Right. It was all thanks to these [eyes].”

Moon Su-chan lightly tapped his mysteriously glowing eyes with his index finger.

“Then I looked at you with these [eyes], and came to see the General.”

Lee Hyeon drew in a breath.

This was the main point.

From here on.

“The General’s causality has already been burned pitch black. As if it had been burned through repeating the same life thousands of times.”

“…What?”

Lee Hyeon felt his mind reeling.

“A real person couldn’t repeat life that many times, but… it’s true that he has ‘foreseen’ causality beyond the level permitted to humans.”

The lineage of Lee Gun-san, the divine position that Apollo holds came to mind.

Prophecy.

Foresight.

Oracle.

“The General isn’t simply a benefactor who supported us. He has eyes that ‘already know what will happen.'”

“…!”

“What if… your survival at the 【Ice Palace】, my resurrection in this form… all of it happened within that old man’s calculations?”

For the first time ever, fear appeared in Moon Su-chan’s voice.

“If that old man didn’t love us, but raised us for the ‘ending’ he desired…”

“…”

“Then what should we do?”

“…”

Just then, the roar of an airplane landing nearby split the space between the brothers.

Lee Hyeon couldn’t answer.

Because those terribly lonely eyes of the sun he had seen in Apollo’s meeting hall overlapped with Moon Su-chan’s suspicion.

The sun illuminates all things, but those who approach its light turn to ash and disappear.

“Even then, would we still be able to call that old man father?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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