Rank 0 of the Awakener Special School - Chapter 42

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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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Awakener Special School, Rank 0
Episode 42
“…Why would these be lying here?”
Ji-woo muttered the words with a deliberately grave expression.
“Who knows? Maybe he got into a fight with an Infected down here.”
“But look—the glasses aren’t cracked or bent at all.”
Ji-woo held up the glasses pointedly.
If they’d fallen off during a struggle, it would hardly be strange for them to be damaged.
Yet Do Min-gi’s glasses were pristine—not a single scratch.
Ji-woo studied them carefully before speaking.
“Maybe he dropped them on purpose?”
“That senior’s got terrible eyesight. Why would he deliberately lose his only pair?”
“Still, it’s strange. Glasses this clean.”
“Let me see.”
Nam Rae-in accepted the glasses and turned them over thoughtfully.
He traced the frames and even tried them on, muttering, “Wow, his eyes really are shot,” as he handed them back.
“…From here on out, the path splits. So maybe he dropped the glasses on purpose—to mark which way he went.”
“Why glasses, specifically?”
“Because anyone who finds them will know at a glance that they belong to the Squad Leader.”
Of course, Do Min-gi had probably been hoping the person who found them would be Tae Ga-young.
“The glasses were lying on this side of the split, right?”
Ji-woo moved decisively down the right passage, and Nam Rae-in followed silently in his wake.
But the real problem came after.
‘…Another split?’
They’d already passed the first fork where the glasses lay, yet another branching corridor appeared before them.
Ji-woo scanned the area for any other items from Do Min-gi, but found nothing that seemed remotely useful.
‘What now?’
He was staring uncertainly at the junction when—
“Right.”
Nam Rae-in pointed down the right passage.
“…How can you be sure?”
“Intuition.”
Nam Rae-in’s mouth curved into a slight smile.
“I’ve got a pretty good instinct for these things.”
It was hardly a convincing answer.
But then, they had no other option either.
Nam Rae-in strode purposefully down the right corridor, and Ji-woo had no choice but to follow.
“Right.”
“Left.”
“Hmm, this one’s right too.”
Each time a new fork appeared, Nam Rae-in called out directions with complete confidence.
They walked for what felt like an eternity.
Doubt had begun to gnaw at Ji-woo’s mind when—
“Screeeee, screee!”
A chilling sound echoed from nearby—like fingernails scraping across metal.
The cry of an Infected.
Both Ji-woo and Rae-in stopped dead.
“…Whew, quite the nest.”
Nam Rae-in’s breath came as a low whistle.
Before them, a writhing mass of Infecteds—at least a dozen by the look of it—churned in a loose swarm.
And at the center—
‘What is that?’
A form of Infected he’d never seen before.
A massive creature, well over two meters tall, with skin far thicker than the others. Its hunched back bristled with what looked like vertebrae jutting through the hide like spines.
Most unsettling of all were the black fumes coiling around it—toxin, perhaps?
He’d never seen anything so grotesque, even on television.
“High-grade.”
Nam Rae-in murmured the words.
‘…High-grade?’
When Ji-woo’s gaze shifted forward again—
He saw Do Min-gi, standing alone against the high-grade Infected.
“Is that… Nam Rae-in? And the Newcomer?”
Though the distance made it hard to see clearly, Do Min-gi seemed to have noticed them—his eyes widening in obvious surprise.
Behind him, perched on a large boulder, was—
“P-please… help us…”
Children huddled on the rock, shaking violently as they tried to flee the swarm of Infecteds.
Ji-woo’s eyes narrowed as he examined the boulder.
‘…Four of them?’
Tae Ga-young had said there were two missing children.
‘Why are there twice as many?’
But there was no time to dwell on that now.
Setting aside the mystery, Ji-woo sprinted toward Do Min-gi.
Fortunately, the high-grade Infected seemed to be wounded, struggling to move with any speed—clearly Do Min-gi’s handiwork.
As Ji-woo approached, Do Min-gi looked up, his left shoulder cradled in his other arm.
“…What brings you here?”
Blood dripped steadily between his fingers.
‘This man…’
Up close, Ji-woo could see that Do Min-gi’s body bore wounds everywhere.
It took no explanation to understand.
Do Min-gi had herded the children to high ground and then faced the Infecteds alone—including the high-grade one.
It couldn’t have been easy.
Do Min-gi’s Core wasn’t specialized for combat. Physical training alone would make it impossible to fell so many Infecteds single-handedly.
The evidence was plain in his current state.
Blood spatters on the ground.
Hanging strips of torn flesh.
A mangled shoulder.
And yet—
“B-brother…”
The children sitting on the boulder behind them remained untouched. Not a single scratch among them.
Watching them, Ji-woo finally spoke.
“…Nam Rae-in, get the Squad Leader to safety.”
He didn’t have a concrete plan—just the conviction that Do Min-gi needed to be moved somewhere secure.
But—
But then—
“…The children come first.”
Click.
Do Min-gi seized Ji-woo’s arm with a blood-slicked hand.
“Have you forgotten? Our mission is to evacuate the children from Naarak.”
“That doesn’t mean throwing away the Squad Leader’s life in the process.”
“During a mission, there are times when you must stake your life.”
“This isn’t one of them—not when we’re here now.”
“…What are you saying?”
“I heard you were smart. Yet all you can think to do is throw away your own life? That’s your only option?”
For a moment, a small crack appeared in Do Min-gi’s impassive expression.
“Newcomer, behind—”
But his warning came too late.
A shadow fell across Ji-woo’s back.
The Infected had closed in.
The high-grade one, which had seemed immobilized only moments before.
And as its shark-like teeth bared with vicious intent—
Whoosh!
Ji-woo spun and drove his fist upward.
“…?!”
Do Min-gi’s eyes went wide as saucers.
Crunch!
The Infected’s jaws clamped down on Ji-woo’s fist, snapping shut.
Dozens of teeth bore down on his knuckles, beginning to crush them visibly.
Blood gushed from between the creature’s clenched teeth, dripping in thick droplets.
“Newcomer, your hand—”
Do Min-gi’s expression shifted entirely.
Was this newcomer relying on his Regeneration? Deliberately thrusting his bare fist into that monster’s mouth?
But Regeneration didn’t nullify pain—far from it.
Shoving a bare hand into such a creature’s jaws was something an ordinary person would never dare attempt.
Not someone with conventional thinking, anyway.
“Get your hand out, now!”
Nam Rae-in’s cry rang out from a distance.
Instead, Ji-woo tightened his grip on the hand wedged in the creature’s mouth and—
BOOM!!
—hurled the entire beast over his shoulder in a violent throw.
“…!!”
He had just lifted and slammed a two-meter high-grade Infected to the ground using only one arm.
“Ughhhh…”
The creature crashed into the stone floor, its snout crushed, its fingers twitching once before going still entirely.
What on earth—
Do Min-gi’s gaze dropped slowly.
Drip…
From Ji-woo’s hand—barely more than a pulp now—blood fell steadily.
“Squad Leader.”
At the sound of Ji-woo’s voice, Do Min-gi’s shoulders tensed.
His tone was calm, his expression blank.
Do Min-gi raised his eyes slowly.
Without his glasses, everything in his vision was a hazy blur.
Yet one thing remained startlingly clear.
The crimson blood flowing from that destroyed fist.
And—
“If you were going to handle everything yourself, why bring me along?”
Those blue eyes, boring into him with unwavering intensity.
“Because manpower is necessary.”
Do Min-gi found he couldn’t look away from those eyes.

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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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