How to Seduce S-Class Hunters with Bungeoppang - Chapter 84

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

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【Chapter 84】
The sound reaching my eardrums wasn’t ordinary. It was a chilling sensation—as if someone were speaking directly into my brain itself.
“W-who are you!”
I spun around in alarm, but nothing surrounded me except Ha-nyang lying unconscious and the Blue Lake rippling beneath my feet.
-Foolish child. To save another, one must possess strength befitting the task.
“Like I don’t already know that…! Ugh!”
A terrible migraine crashed over me—as if sharp needles were tearing through my brain. I staggered, cradling my head in both hands. Within that wave of searing agony, a clear, crystalline laugh echoed forth.
-Hahahaha! Raising your voice to me? How bold.
I gritted my teeth and summoned a pistol from my Inventory. After disengaging the safety, I aimed it toward an enemy whose hiding place I couldn’t even fathom.
“Stop hiding and show yourself! Using mind-control skills like a coward!”
-An amusing misunderstanding. I am not the monster you seek. Rather, the opposite.
“…The opposite?”
-Look carefully beneath the lake.
Without lowering my guard, I shifted my gaze downward to study the lake’s surface. In the deep waters glowing with blue light, a massive, grotesque form wavered indistinctly.
“Bone fragments…?”
-Indeed. Remnants of what once composed me. Though now only my spirit remains, fading into the distance.
Like one entranced, I lowered my gun and stared blankly into the lake’s depths. The voice that had pierced my mind transformed—becoming infinitely soft and tender, whispering at the edge of my consciousness.
-I have waited long for a child with a soul like yours. Now that you have come to find me, I shall grant you the power to protect all that lies beneath my name.
I lifted my head sharply. You’re offering me power now?
-In exchange, grant me one request.
“A request… what kind?”
-Purify this place in my stead. It has grown far too chaotic and turbulent for me to find rest.
Purify? Rest?
But before I could probe deeper into those cryptic words, the voice humming through my mind abruptly ceased. Simultaneously, a sacred silver beam of light descended from the impossibly distant ceiling, illuminating the center of the lake.
The lake’s waters became transparent as glass, revealing a single luminous, blue scale fragment embedded in the bottom, its form now starkly visible.
“…So that’s the power the voice spoke of.”
I understood instinctively. That scale could grant me strength.
Yet the scale lay at the bottom of a lake whose depths were unknowable. Primal fear of water and dread of the abyss weighed heavily upon my ankles.
Then, in that moment—
“GAAAAAAHHHHH—!!!”
A suppressed scream of unbearable agony tore through the distant darkness. It was Lee Hyun-woo’s voice. That cry resembled the desperate wail of a beast whose final thread of reason had snapped.
There was no time to hesitate. I shed my cumbersome outer garment and carefully removed my hair ribbon—its defensive barrier uses nearly exhausted—placing it beside the unconscious Ha-nyang.
The terror of entering the water paled before the greater fear of losing Lee Hyun-woo forever.
“I can do this.”
With a splash, I threw myself into the frigid lake without hesitation.
‘Ugh…!’
The moment I sank below the surface, a bone-chilling cold seized my entire body mercilessly. Thrashing briefly, I gritted my teeth, steadied my mind, and began swimming desperately toward the glowing blue depths.
But as I descended deeper, something felt wrong.
‘I can… breathe?’
Despite being underwater, my breathing wasn’t obstructed.
In fact, breathing down here felt far more comfortable than on the Surface. The crushing water pressure that had assailed me from all sides was nowhere to be felt, and my body had become light as a feather, as if gravity itself had vanished. The deeper I descended, the more an inexplicable, electrifying exhilaration coursed through every nerve in my being.
-Uuuung, uuuung.
It felt as though something unknown that had been crouching deep within my soul was resonating violently with that azure presence at the bottom of the Blue Lake.
At last, I reached the deepest point. Scales that gleamed with a piercing blue light, half-buried in the dirt. I reached out toward them. The moment my fingertips made contact—
Zzzzzt—
“Aahhh!!”
A searing agony that twisted and wrung my entire body crashed into my mind. It was as though every muscle in me was being torn and reattached by razor-sharp blades.
My nose stung sharply, and the clear waters of the lake began to cloud with a murky crimson tint. Fear gripped me. I wanted to abandon everything and ascend back to the Surface right then and there.
In that moment, a single face flashed through my mind. The person who had tried to protect me even while drenched in blood.
‘I want to save them.’
The person who prioritized me over themselves, who always extended a hand whenever I was struggling.
I clenched my teeth and seized the azure scales with all my might. I no longer wanted to run away. I refused to give up simply because I was weak.
‘I want to be of help to Lee Hyun-woo too!’
As if answering my desperate cry, in that instant, a sacred and overwhelming azure light erupted from my palm like a sun, blazing outward. My vision flickered white-hot, seared by that icy brilliance that threatened to burn my retinas away.
As my consciousness grew hazy and dim, I thought I heard the low laughter of someone.
“…Ugh.”
When I forced open my heavy eyelids and opened my eyes once more—
The Blue Lake that had been so deep and cold, as if it would swallow me whole, had vanished without a trace, like a mirage. I was lying on solid Ground.
Yet in my tightly clenched right hand, a fragment of azure scale pulsed faintly, proving that the terrible agony I had experienced moments before was no dream.
“…What on earth is this?”
I stared blankly, repeatedly opening and closing my fist.
A force unlike anything I had ever felt before coursed through my veins—something utterly indefinable. As if the floodgates of a massive dam that had been sealed shut for over a decade had suddenly shattered in an instant, a torrent of scorching, destructive blood surged relentlessly from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes.
Simultaneously, translucent System windows began to fill my entire field of vision.
[!! WARNING !!]
[Powerful external force detected.]
[Internal synchronization in progress.]
Ding—!
[Adjusting the rank of Awakener ‘Jung Ha-neul’.]
[Rank: F → Unmeasurable]
[Error occurred. Attempting rank re-measurement with administrator authority…]
[Rank re-measurement in progress.]
Dozens of windows flashed frantically in red and blue light, turning on and off in a frenzy. Then, at last—
[Rank measurement complete.]
[Jung Ha-neul’s rank is SS-Class.]
I gazed blankly up at the System window floating in the air.
“Nothing to be surprised about, meow.”
Ha-nyang, who had regained consciousness at some point, stretched languidly and continued speaking. Ha-nyang seemed to know everything that had happened to me.
“The Divine Beast that had been slumbering in this place seems to have taken quite a liking to you, meow.”
“The owner of that voice… was a Divine Beast?”
“Indeed, meow. Well, you had latent potential within you, so it would have awakened eventually anyway, meow.”
Still, since Ha-nyang had left a request behind, the tricolor fat cat swished its tail, suggesting it would be best to eliminate the uninvited intruder who had occupied this place without permission as quickly as possible.
“The Divine Beast clearly despised contaminated demonic energy mixing into the place where it dwelt. Seeing how it endured in this revolting place for such an eternity proves it.”
I gazed down at the scales that shimmered with a luminous blue radiance.
“…Thank you, Divine Beast. I swear the power you’ve given me will be used solely to protect those precious to me.”
As if answering my vow, the scales flashed with brief light before fading. I carefully stored them in my Inventory.
Now it was time to go rescue Lee Hyun-woo.

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

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