Rank 0 of the Awakener Special School - Chapter 43

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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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Rank Zero in the Awakener Special Academy
Episode 43
“…….”
Do Min-gi’s lips pressed shut.
“Creak, creak…….”
Another Infected Creature was approaching.
That was right. Even with the High-Rank Infected Creature defeated, countless others still swarmed this place.
There was no time left to deliberate.
In Do Min-gi’s dark eyes, shadowed by exhaustion and pain, Ji-woo’s face lingered one last time.
Do Min-gi closed his eyelids slowly.
“Nam Rae-in, I’m asking if you can hold this position?”
“…Me?”
“Yes. By my calculations, having you buy time here will be most effective.”
Do Min-gi hauled himself up, his body threatening to collapse at any moment.
Ji-woo asked from beside him, surprise evident in his voice.
“…I’m not staying here?”
“What more could you accomplish with those fists?”
“You know. My Core.”
“Right. Your Regeneration Core. So your fists and stamina will recover quickly. You’re perfect for getting the children as far away as possible. I know the way, after all.”
Do Min-gi’s judgment was swift and rational.
As proof, neither Ji-woo nor Nam Rae-in offered any counter-argument. They couldn’t think of a better alternative right now.
“Then I’m counting on you, Nam Rae-in.”
“You’re aware this is a debt?”
“…Yes. Let’s call it that.”
Nam Rae-in, standing some distance off, shoved his hands in his pockets with a resigned look and began walking forward.
“Take good care of her.”
He jerked his chin toward Seol Ji-hyo.
* * *
After that, Ji-woo left the place with Do Min-gi and four children.
‘Will Nam Rae-in be alright on his own?’
He glanced back briefly.
When Ji-woo had been away for a moment, it seemed Nam Rae-in had taken down some Infected Creatures single-handedly.
Though Ji-woo wasn’t sure what Nam Rae-in’s Core was, it was clear he possessed considerable combat capability.
But the Infected Creatures Do Min-gi had been fighting—there looked to be more than ten of them.
Could he truly handle so many alone?
“Brother!”
Suddenly a child cried out.
At the call, Ji-woo’s head turned. He saw Do Min-gi, who’d been walking ahead, collapse.
Ji-woo rushed toward him.
“Captain?”
His complexion had already gone pallid. Even his fingernails were beginning to darken.
It was a Poisoning Symptom.
‘Already?’
Not even a full day had passed, let alone forty-eight hours.
It might be because his physical and mental stamina were nearly depleted.
Do Min-gi and the children had been in the deep layers of the Abyss. The miasma there was thick.
Fighting nonstop for dozens of minutes in such a place would naturally make one’s breathing ragged. He would have had no choice but to inhale large quantities of poison.
‘…But I didn’t notice.’
He hadn’t seen it at all. That his condition had deteriorated this badly.
Do Min-gi hadn’t let it show once while escaping the horde of Infected Creatures and walking here.
In fact, he’d even walked at the front, leading the children.
“Captain, stay with me.”
Ji-woo tried to help him up somehow.
But Do Min-gi, poisoning already taking hold, was showing signs of paralysis.
And worse—
“Aaaahhh!”
The children around them began to scream.
Boom, boom, boom…….
A tremendous tremor hit hard enough to make Ji-woo stagger.
This was the true meaning of misfortune piling on misfortune.
The terrain was shifting.
Of all times.
“Sis, sis…….”
“I can’t breathe…….”
Even the children who’d been walking fine began to stagger and collapse one by one.
It wasn’t from the tremors. The children, too, had reached their limit and were showing Poisoning Symptoms.
Looking back, it was strange they’d made it this far intact.
The children had been trapped in the Abyss for about two days since Saturday afternoon.
‘What do I do?’
What am I supposed to do in a situation like this…….
As Ji-woo looked around with a hardened face, Do Min-gi spoke.
“Recruit.”
“…That’s Seol Ji-hyo.”
“Yes, Recruit. Are your hands alright?”
“The pain is gone.”
“Good. Then listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you.”
Despite his ashen complexion, he opened his mouth without wavering, his voice steady.
“From here, I’ve marked the walls.”
“…What?”
“Once you pass this corridor, watch the walls carefully. If you follow the marks, you should reach the Abyss Entrance without difficulty.”
“What are you talking about now?”
“I’m telling you to complete your mission. To move the children—to the very end.”
The ground shook violently all around.
His face drained of color.
Yet Do Min-gi showed no sign of distress.
“Right now, I’m the one holding you back. And in a situation like this, dead weight isn’t needed.”
In other words, get the children out of here and escape quickly.
—Even if it meant leaving him behind.
Do Min-gi had always been that way.
Since joining the Special Unit… no, even before that.
His mind had always made judgments that were cold, logical, and rational.
Minimum casualties. Maximum efficiency.
Now was no different.
Yet Ji-woo couldn’t agree.
“Are you asking me to be a murderer?”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Yes, it is. Captain, you’re still alive. But you’re telling me to just pretend I don’t see you and leave.”
“……Recruit.”
Do Min-gi’s breathing grew slightly harsher.
There wasn’t much time left.
“You’re a high school student, so you understand numbers. How many children are lying over there?”
“Four.”
“And on my side?”
“…….”
“It’s simple. Four and one. Which has greater value?”
“I think every human life has equal worth.”
…Pretty words.
Do Min-gi let out a bitter laugh.
“If you still don’t understand after all this explanation, fine. Then just follow orders. Do as you’re told.”
Do Min-gi was someone whose voice had carried no inflection since the moment they met.
Rarely, he raised his voice.
“Who is the leader of Team 2 right now? Me. Not you. I have the authority to decide, and I’m telling you to get those children out of here one second faster.”
Bang!
Do Min-gi brought his trembling fist down hard on the ground.
“If you can’t even do that, then just leave alone. And go find the Director right now and withdraw from the Special Unit. You have no place here……!”
As he coughed dryly.
Boom—!!
The massive rock face that had been supporting the ceiling finally gave way and collapsed.
It split the space between them like a wave.
“I…—”
Do Min-gi’s voice reached Ji-woo one last time.
“…hate people like you most of all.”
And with that, Do Min-gi was completely hidden from view behind the rocks.
“…….”
Only Ji-woo and the four unconscious elementary school students remained.
There was no more time to delay.
‘Ha…….’
Ji-woo clenched his teeth, quickly turned his body, and lifted the two nearest children into his arms.
Fortunately, the Abyss Entrance wasn’t far from here.
At Ji-woo’s level of physical ability, a round trip wouldn’t even take a minute.
Just as Do Min-gi had said, the marks he’d left were on the walls, so there was no reason to get lost.
Boom, boom, boom…….
The tremors grew fiercer.
With one more round trip, Ji-woo succeeded in moving the remaining two children to the Entrance.
He had finally accomplished his ‘mission’.
“Gasp, gasp…….”
His breath came in ragged gulps.
The moment he set the two children down at the Abyss Entrance,
Crash!
As if on cue, another inner wall collapsed before his eyes.
The Abyss interior was caving in. The passages were narrowing. Some sections seemed to twist and distort as if being pulled into a black hole.
Beyond that…….
Do Min-gi was in there.
– I’m telling you to complete your mission. To move the children—to the very end.
He had followed his orders.
All four children had been saved. They were safe now.
But.
“Ha, ha…….”
Ji-woo stood motionless at the Abyss Entrance, breathing hard, staring at the collapsing cavern.
He couldn’t move his feet.
In a few seconds, someone would die in there.
Erased from this world forever.
‘Ji-hyo could have ended up like that too.’
If she hadn’t been rescued, she would have been torn apart by Infected Creatures, her body never found.
Only then did Ji-woo understand.
Seol Ji-hyo had suffered misfortune in the Abyss at the hands of her classmates, yet in the final moment, someone must have found her and pulled her out.
—And that person was——
‘Probably someone like Do Min-gi.’
Someone willing to stake his own life to save another.
Someone who pretends to be efficient, yet is hopelessly inefficient when it comes to himself.
It was thanks to such a person
that Ji-hyo had been able to save her life, wasn’t it?
“…….”
The wild beating of Ji-woo’s chest suddenly fell still.
Before the Abyss, on the verge of complete collapse, Ji-woo quietly clenched his fist.
He understood. This wasn’t revenge or anything like that.
It had nothing to do with why Ji-woo had come to this school in the first place.
And yet—.
“……Ha.”line>
A short laugh that was more like a sigh escaped between Ji-woo’s teeth.

And the next moment.
Whoosh!
Ji-woo kicked off the ground.
– I…hate people like you most of all.
Do Min-gi’s voice played back in his ears.
Ji-woo tightened his clenched fist with all his strength.
He dashed toward the pile of rubble where Do Min-gi was trapped.
At the moment he drew his fist back to strike hard against it, Ji-woo thought:
He did not hate people like Do Min-gi.
…He couldn’t possibly hate him.
Kaboom!
The rubble pile, stacked like a mountain, shattered with a single blow.

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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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