D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 163
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 163
Why was fighting me so difficult?
Everyone here was a human who had transcended their past selves.
Some had borrowed the Constellation’s power, while others had climbed to their current position through their own efforts alone.
“I can’t believe they all developed so desperately….”
Franson muttered with a tone of regret.
I agreed completely.
Normally, it would be something to celebrate when they worked hard to become stronger Hunters.
But in a situation where they had to subdue their past selves without injuring them, it was different.
They had grown so powerful that even the slightest miscalculation in controlling their strength would wound their past selves.
This was why everyone bore one or two injuries on their bodies.
“Some of them have changed their strategy.”
“Yes.”
More and more were choosing to wrap shields around their own bodies and take the attacks head-on instead.
Probably because the damage they sustained from being hit was less than the reflected damage.
Ji Chae-ah and Dan Yibum fell into this category.
Kim Gyuwun was desperately blocking his own attacks, but the real problem was Ha Gyuhyuk.
“My kid’s going to be in tatters. Absolute tatters.”
The one whose condition differed most from their past self was naturally my client.
In Earth’s Hunter history, no one had ever risen from D-rank to Transcendent.
He was an existence that had climbed from D-rank to the position of Transcendent. How grueling it must be to avoid wounding his D-rank self.
“Ha Gyuhyuk is only dodging, yet he’s still getting hurt.”
“That’s just what D-rank is.”
His past D-rank self was already sustaining injuries just from being thrown into this Dungeon.
The environment itself was poison to lower-ranked Hunters.
So my Ha Gyuhyuk was perfectly evading all of his past self’s attacks, yet he continued to accumulate wounds.
“Se-um, shouldn’t you go and do something about this?”
“What could I possibly do? Go there and show off my empty Karma window?”
It was the perfect environment to crush morale.
Franson fell silent in an instant.
My heart ached too, but all I could do was watch over him.
Maintaining a solemn expression as if I were hiding some secret weapon.
But there was no need for me to step in.
Eventually, Franson’s heart grew too pained, and he was healing him moment by moment.
His enormous healing covered the entire area.
“Truly the greatest healer. But where did you earn the Karma to use this?”
“I went into a Server where a plague had spread, developed a cure, and earned it. Honestly, it was too easy a path, so I didn’t want to do it….”
He was a gambling-loving Constellation indeed.
He was the type who preferred interesting investments even if they meant taking massive losses, rather than one guaranteed big win.
In short, he was someone who could earn Karma but chose not to.
Yet the fact that Franson, who operated by such principles, had accumulated karma meant he too had given his heart to the humans of this Earth.
“Originally he didn’t care whether his clients lived or died, and now he’s looking after people he hasn’t even contracted with.”
“Right, watching Se-um love those kids from beside him, I must have given my heart without realizing it.”
“Let’s just grab one of them and make a contract.”
“I don’t know… whether I have the right to touch people who struggle so hard to protect the world like that.”
He sighed, saying he’d given his heart to beings who wouldn’t live long anyway.
Franson still suffered from the regret of turning away from the destruction that had consumed his own world.
Since that was the foundation maintaining Constellation Franson, there was nothing to be done about it.
“Is that why? You only visited worlds where destruction was coming.”
“Maybe. I didn’t want to see worlds where there was even a slight chance of salvation.”
He accessed servers where there was absolutely no way to save them and enjoyed brief amusement.
He was one who believed he had no right to enter worlds worth saving.
The only times he accessed such worlds were when I or Tasha entered them.
Even then, if he ended up entering a world with hope, he would never create a client.
‘How could I create a client in such a world when I’m the one who drove those I love to destruction.’
Look at it now.
He complained about putting both Kim Gyuwun and Dan Yibum in a sack or whatever, yet in the end he never offered them a contract.
Franson probably had no intention of creating a client in this world either.
In other words, it meant this Earth would be saved.
“Yeah.”
“Ah, we’re included too?”
How long had we been watching their battle?
Only much later did we notice the beings raining down attacks on our bodies.
Black-haired Se-um, Franson with unbroken wings, Natalia in tentacle form.
They were tearing apart our avatars.
“Shouldn’t we call this a past life rather than the past?”
“Right.”
Tasha, suddenly exposed in her true form, shook her head and muttered something.
In an instant, the young tentacles melted away.
Franson stood rooted in place, staring at his past self.
Franson gazed at him with many thoughts crossing his mind, then smiled bitterly.
“This hurts a bit.”
It must have been a matter of the heart.
Soon the past Franson blazed up.
As if pronouncing immolation upon one who had committed sin.
“Se-um!”
Ha Gyuhyuk screamed at the sight of me, my body pierced through by a blade despite being battered and broken.
I waved my hand once to say it was fine.
I drew the sword from its sheath and cut off the neck of Fake Se-um.
It rolled across the ground before vanishing in an instant.
“We’re already dead, so it’s fine.”
But Ha Gyuhyuk seemed considerably shocked, having witnessed my neck severed right before his eyes.
Fake Ha Gyuhyuk seized the opportunity to rush at him.
I knew he wouldn’t suffer serious injury, but I couldn’t bear to watch any longer.
In an instant, I closed the distance and caught the blade Fake Ha Gyuhyuk swung with my bare hand.
The blade embedded itself in my incarnate form’s palm.
“S-Se-um…”
“Snap out of it. I’m right beside you, and what I severed was nothing but an illusion.”
I squeezed my hand, and the sword shattered into fragments.
I gripped Fake Ha Gyuhyuk’s throat with one hand and crushed it.
Though Fake Ha Gyuhyuk thrashed with his feet suspended in air, he couldn’t even leave a scratch on my hand.
So this was how weak he truly was.
My client.
Ha Gyuhyuk suddenly gasped as if suffocating—an inevitable consequence of the injury transferring to him.
“Ha Gyuhyuk.”
I spoke to the real one while staring at the fake.
He coughed but managed to respond with a yes.
“What you need to focus on right now isn’t me. Even a momentary lapse invites unavoidable calamity.”
Stay alert.
This isn’t a place where you can afford to be careless.
It’s more dangerous than anywhere else, and it’s where I become more helpless than at any other moment.
“I won’t protect you.”
I can’t protect you.
“So you protect me instead.”
I dropped Fake Ha Gyuhyuk to the ground, and I felt him gasping for breath.
But the fabricated entities soon began to vanish.
It was the signal that the first wave had ended.
“Everyone, consume a recovery potion.”
Kim Gyuwun issued orders rapidly despite being drenched in blood.
In situations like this, someone capable of commanding so decisively is invaluable.
I turned toward Ha Gyuhyuk and approached him. He barely managed to steady his breathing as he drank the elixir.
“Did you hear what I said clearly?”
“Yes, I will protect you, Se-um.”
Despite having just had his throat crushed by me, he responded with unwavering clarity.
I had essentially instilled in him the terror of death, yet even in such circumstances, he remained obedient.
“I nearly killed you, and you don’t protest at all? You don’t even ask what you’re protecting me from?”
“Protecting you means ensuring you’re never alone, Se-um.”
He nodded as if he understood everything.
He carefully took my hand.
Gazing sadly at my hand split open by the blade, he poured a precious elixir onto my incarnate form.
It didn’t even hurt.
The wound sealed itself in an instant.
He pressed his lips to his palm again with utmost reverence, then whispered.
“You told me to survive in your own language, Se-um.”
Don’t make me lonely.
No matter what I do, never die.
Even if worse comes to pass, you must survive.
I had no choice but to resort to such violent means now. There was nothing left in my arsenal.
He gazed at me with luminous eyes, then rose to his feet as though standing guard before me.
His back, remaining before me, seemed infinitely vast.
“Preparing for the second wave! Please form up your formations!”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————