Ranker Who Shatters Myths - Chapter 308
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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 308
The Other Side of the Sun (5)
The headquarters of the Dijiang Sect.
Above the ‘Abyss Swamp’.
Whoooosh!
Though fewer than ten in number, masked figures each radiating violent aura revealed themselves.
The sudden appearance of the Sons of Zeus.
Because of this, the cardinals and bishops of the Dijiang Sect at headquarters could be seen moving frantically.
Between the dark red ground, whitish tentacle-like things swayed like heat mirages.
“I hear… our dear brother was making quite a racket. Squeaking like a little rat.”
But Dionysus’s cold gaze was directed not at the ground but elsewhere.
While he had briefly stepped away for the glory of ‘Father’, his business partner had dared attempt rebellion only to be caught by him.
At that very moment, a massive shadow descended beside him.
Thud!
A giant figure wearing lion’s hide and wielding a club—it was Heracles.
And on the opposite side stood a judge with a bull’s head—Minos.
“I’ve confirmed it. He was definitely trying to incite the brothers. Saying ‘Dionysus’s madness will lead the organization to ruin.'”
“And so?”
“I dealt with it.”
Heracles replied indifferently.
He struck his club against the ground.
Thunk!!
A sacred relic of olive wood coated with Hydra’s poison, boasting solid strength and deadly toxicity.
“I targeted the moment he was trying to return to his main body from the vineyard. I reverse-tracked the connection passage and hammered a ‘task’ into his soul.”
“Excellent.”
Dionysus burst into laughter.
“Apollo, that old sun, was already setting in the west anyway. I could feel his lifespan running out. Your strike must have been the finishing blow. His vessel must be cracking apart by now.”
Dionysus still vividly remembered when he first met Apollo.
Back when he had just become an adult and knew nothing.
A benefactor who had come with the face of a philanthropist, placing various favors in his hands.
But Dionysus no longer considered Apollo a benefactor.
He had carved the faces of countless brothers for him, built meeting halls, and raised the organization to this extent.
Though Apollo’s help had been significant, it wouldn’t have been possible without Dionysus dedicating his earnest youth to it.
So Dionysus thought he had done his duty to his benefactor and to his ‘brothers’.
But now, saying he was displeased, Apollo wanted to swallow up the fortress they had barely completed?
Dionysus had absolutely no intention of falling to the level of a mere hunting dog.
He himself was a true god.
In place of the vanished Zeus, he was the vessel destined to seize all earthly power and ascend to 【Olympus】 to become the true God-King…!
Though now he was merely wearing human skin and mingling with mortals,
this hellish life of exile on earth wouldn’t last much longer.
If he could properly deal with the Dijiang Sect members, if he could get his hands on the divine power of the outer sea,
elevating his karma to mythology wouldn’t be difficult either.
He could complete Astrape, the power of Zeus torn into fragments.
“Then let’s go without worrying about what’s behind us.”
Purple madness flickered in Dionysus’s eyes.
“The golden apple we want… is right there.”
With Dionysus’s cry,
Whoooosh!
The Sons of Zeus began to charge.
[The Sons of Zeus are descending!]
Rumble!
Somehow resembling Zeus’s lightning, pure white lightning bolts struck the black earth.
* * *
“I am… *cough*!”
Lee Gun-san tried to say something but coughed.
Red blood stained his handkerchief.
“General!”
Lee Hyeon hurriedly tried to calm Lee Gun-san. Moon Su-chan’s steps also faltered.
But Lee Gun-san stretched out his hand to stop them.
As if he didn’t want to show them his weak side.
“…”
“…”
“Are you going to be alright?”
Instead, Choi Hye-jin supported Lee Gun-san.
The blood on the handkerchief.
It wasn’t red.
Boiling golden blood.
‘That’s…!’
Lee Hyeon’s Neuan Cheongjeong trembled.
[Snow Sapphire is reacting!]
That wasn’t blood but melted fragments of divinity.
It was part of Astrape.
It meant Apollo’s legacy was rapidly crumbling.
Lee Gun-san tried to straighten his back and say something to the two brothers, but each time the coughing up blood made it difficult.
Choi Hye-jin suggested he rest first and speak later,
“No. This is something I need to explain to those boys. It’s true that I’ve been hiding the facts all this time.”
Lee Gun-san was stubborn.
“Dear.”
“…You’re so stubborn.”
“Could you perhaps bring ‘that thing’ from the study?”
“You…!”
Choi Hye-jin’s eyelids trembled. Then she held her head and sighed.
“Fine, do as you please. Even if I say anything, you’ll just let it go in one ear and out the other.”
“You know you’re all I have, don’t you?”
“…Just don’t talk nonsense.”
Choi Hye-jin left the room,
and Lee Gun-san wiped his mouth with the handkerchief while looking at Lee Hyeon and Moon Su-chan, the two brothers.
“Before I tell you the ‘truth’… there’s just one thing I need to say to you.”
Lee Gun-san looked much more haggard than he had moments before.
The sight of dry firewood continuing to burn away.
However,
Whoooosh!
In an instant, a scorching hot wind reminiscent of the sun swirled around the surroundings.
In Lee Gun-san’s right hand was Apollo’s plaster mask.
[The Sanctuary of Apollo has been arbitrarily declared!]
[All communication with the outside has been severed.]
[All Logos channeling that was observing you has been temporarily blocked.]
A concealment barrier meant to prevent even the Heavens from knowing the truth.
“As you’ve seen, I can perceive causality, and accordingly, I ‘know’ the future.”
“…!”
“…!!”
As expected.
Lee Hyeon and Moon Su-chan swallowed dry saliva when the words they had anticipated came out.
But one thing.
They didn’t miss that the tone was subtly different in one part.
“You mean you ‘knew’….”
“To be precise, it would be correct to say I’m merely remembering.”
“In the end, you used us…!”
“Su-chan.”
Lee Gun-san’s low and dry call silenced Moon Su-chan.
“I’m not something as grand as a prophet. I’m just an old soldier who has been defeated thousands of times.”
The old soldier’s eyes showed no wavering.
Those eyes contained not calculation or schemes, but only bitter regret.
“…Defeat? Thousands of times? Please explain in detail.”
Lee Hyeon carefully spoke up.
The two brothers were feeling the same sense of dissonance at this moment.
-The General’s causality is already burned black. As if it’s been burned through repeating the same life thousands of times.
Moon Su-chan had said something similar.
At the time, it would have been just a simple metaphor.
But what if that was actually true?
‘Come to think of it…!’
Ramon and Maksus. The letter from Lee Gun-san that both of them had experienced identically.
What if his ability to know their talents, know the future, and even present their prospects was actually in the realm of ‘experience’ rather than prophecy?
What if he had created an organization and built networks by securing talented individuals scattered around the world in advance, based on what Lee Gun-san had actually experienced?
Moon Su-chan must have had the same thought, as his face hardened stiffly.
“I am actually a returner.”
“…!”
“…!?”
A completely unexpected declaration that suddenly burst forth.
Lee Hyeon unconsciously gasped, and Moon Su-chan’s entire body stiffened.
“Also, I am a failure who had to turn the wheel of life countless times in regret and lamentation.”
Lee Gun-san’s eyes were shining brightly, but the color was very pale, like the sunset appearing as it crosses over the western mountains.
“I brought it.”
Just then, Choi Hye-jin entered the room again with heavy footsteps.
In her hands was a heavy, old brass key shaped like a clockwork spring.
Lee Hyeon and Moon Su-chan were still too confused to say anything.
“Are you really okay with showing this to these children?”
“Haven’t they already come this far on their own? These children are no longer ‘children’ anymore. They’re qualified enough.”
“What I’m talking about isn’t qualification or anything, but your…! No. If that’s what you think, then that’s what it is.”
Choi Hye-jin threw the brass key to Moon Su-chan with a somehow cold tone.
Thud!
Moon Su-chan caught it reflexively.
His hands touching the key were full of trembling.
Perhaps.
He might have been making a terribly cruel misunderstanding,
A trembling mixed with regret that he might have denied and doubted Lee Gun-san’s life.
“Go see with your own eyes. What that foolish husband has been sacrificing for you all this time, and what he’s been regretting.”
“….”
“….”
Choi Hye-jin left words mixed with resentment and disappeared outside again.
Lee Gun-san smiled bitterly.
“Don’t resent her. She’s acting like that because she’s frustrated. She knows my entire situation.”
“….”
“….”
“So thank you. For understanding the weight of the burden I carry. And I’m sorry. For trying so hard to share that weight with me somehow.”
Lee Gun-san smiled faintly.
“In thousands of lifetimes… she has always been the only woman for me. So please understand.”
Lee Hyeon and Moon Su-chan still couldn’t say anything. Moon Su-chan’s hand holding the brass key trembled even more.
Lee Gun-san looked at that hand pitifully and said.
“I’ve turned back life countless times, but not once have I been able to protect you two completely. In some lives, Lee Hyeon died, and in other lives, you went insane.”
“…!”
“…!!”
“So I recorded it separately. Where I made mistakes, how you died, how incompetent a father I was.”
“….”
“….”
“I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget how incompetent a father I had been all along. That’s… a record of my failures.”
Lee Gun-san’s voice trembled as finely as Moon Su-chan’s hands.
“Go and see. If you look carefully at the basement of the study, there will be a room you’ve never seen before. Originally, I didn’t want to show it to you until this life ended…. What father would want to show his children a failed report card? But,”
Lee Gun-san breathed heavily with difficulty and avoided Moon Su-chan’s eyes for the first time.
It was because of shame.
“If you doubt my love, then yes. You should go and confirm. Whether I used you, or… whether I sold my soul to save you.”
Deep wrinkles formed around Lee Gun-san’s eyes.
“Judge with your own eyes.”
Moon Su-chan couldn’t say anything.
The old man he had thought might be a monster now had the most shabby and sad face in the world.
Clench.
His hand holding the brass key tightened with force.
“…Let’s go, hyung.”
Lee Hyeon stood up from his seat. His voice was also trembling slightly.
The two brothers headed toward the study as if drawn by a magnet.
Moisture silently formed around Lee Gun-san’s eyes as he watched their retreating figures.
And….
“…You’re really a terribly selfish person.”
Much later, Choi Hye-jin quietly returned to the room and sat beside the bed with staggering steps.
Instead of wiping Lee Gun-san’s sweat-soaked forehead, she wrapped his already cooling hands with both of hers.
As if he would never let it slip away.
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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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