Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 279

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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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279. Choin (2)
[Fortress of Glory]
-Reach the end of the fortress.
The moment I stepped through the Gate, an impressively antiquated fortress came into view. It clung to the mountainside, and I had a distinct feeling that something awaited at its highest point.
The objective was likely up there. The castle walls bore the unmistakable scars of destruction—the handiwork of Choin’s team.
No monsters lingered in the vicinity. Choin’s team had seen to that as well. Only their corpses remained scattered about.
I proceeded forward with measured caution.
[↑]
Just beyond the gate, hastily erected markers appeared. They were guideposts left by Choin’s rescue team as they ventured deeper.
Thanks to them, navigation posed no difficulty. I pressed past the castle walls toward the fortress interior.
[←]
Signposts dotted every junction, eliminating any chance of confusion or wrong turns. The monsters had been cleared as well.
What struck me was how minimal the remaining battle scars were.
“They certainly breached this place with remarkable efficiency.”
As befitted the world’s top-ranked team, their precision was evident. Even the traces of mana stones being collected were visible.
I followed the guidance, concentrating to see if anything would register within my spatial awareness, but nothing caught my attention.
[↑]
[→]
[↑]
I passed several more markers. Since I didn’t need to engage in combat, my progress toward Choin was swift and direct.
Still, the fortress’s considerable size meant the journey consumed time regardless.
“Found him.”
Within my sixty-meter spatial perception, I sensed Choin in the distance. He sat motionless, utterly still.
[→]
As I rounded the final corner, a corridor materialized before me. It was exactly as described—long and expansive.
No visible barrier existed, yet Choin sat at its very center.
Perhaps due to the reports of him being pierced multiple times, his condition appeared far from ideal. His eyes were closed, his breathing deep and measured.
The instant my foot crossed the threshold, absolute darkness descended.
“Huh?”
A single step made all the difference.
I retreated backward, and the long corridor with Choin’s figure reappeared. Advancing again plunged me into complete blindness.
“Who’s there?”
My presence roused Choin from his meditation. Though the darkness likely obscured his vision, he turned his gaze toward me.
“I’m here.”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
Choin tilted his head slightly.
“Who are you?”
“The rescue team.”
“Right, so…”
I caught Choin’s slight frown.
“Space Mage.”
“…!”
Choin was flustered. Understandable. I’d never seen him directly, but hadn’t he entered the Gate while being aware of me?
Moreover, it would have been difficult for him to expect that I’d come to rescue him.
“So you’ve come.”
“Did you anticipate this?”
“Somewhat.”
I sensed his voice losing some of its strength—a self-deprecating tone, perhaps.
“Even for you, breaking through here would be difficult.”
“Says who?”
“….”
Choin fell silent for a moment.
“Do you have a way?”
“Of course.”
There were reasons I’d said I could extract Choin easily. And furthermore….
‘I’m sensing threads?’
In my spatial perception, I detected something hazy. This was something I’d been aware of since discovering Choin.
They weren’t visible to the eye, nor did I sense mana, yet I could distinctly perceive these faint presences.
“Wait a moment.”
Still, I needed to verify. I withdrew a spare blade from my Subspace—not the Flowing Style Sword, but an E-rank one.
First, I wanted to confirm how these threads attacked. Choin didn’t appear to be on the verge of collapse immediately.
-Whoosh!
-Crack!
The moment I brought the blade toward the faintly perceptible line, a sharp cutting sound reached my ears.
“Hmm.”
I stared at the blade trembling from the impact. The blade surface was completely pierced through.
In 0.1 seconds? Perhaps even shorter, everything on the thread had evaporated.
It hadn’t melted away somewhere. Like a laser, it erased everything that touched the thread.
There was a very slight time lag, but it seemed difficult to penetrate this with a physical body.
‘Like laser security equipment—a structure where you have to remember what you glimpsed briefly and break through.’
According to their testimony, the change occurred when they reached the middle of the corridor, so it wouldn’t have been easy.
The corridor was quite long too. However, there was a solution.
True to its difficult-to-counter structure, there was sufficient space between the threads for a single person to pass through.
Memory would be the key factor.
-Whooom!
The next experiment was blocking with Subspace. I deployed two Subspaces to block a single thread.
However, the faint thread remained connected. Or rather than connected, it seemed to occupy that space itself.
-Whoosh!
I swung the blade.
-Crash!
As expected. From the moment I opened the Subspace, I’d anticipated this—blocking with Subspace didn’t make attacks simply vanish.
It was an unfortunate situation I’d suspected before even entering.
“So there’s no way through, huh.”
Choin muttered, having confirmed my trial and error through sound alone. Though I couldn’t see it, he’d shrugged his shoulders.
“What do you mean?”
True, breaking through seemed more difficult now, but my conviction that I could still “easily” rescue Choin remained unchanged.
Besides, fortunately I could sense the thread lines within my spatial awareness—wasn’t that a blessing?
-Pop!
I activated Leap.
Directly beside Choin.
To a spot the thread lines didn’t reach.
“!?”
I felt Choin’s startled reaction through the air itself.
“How?”
“How did you get to a place without thread lines so instantly?”
His question was predictable.
“I can sense it.”
My original plan didn’t require Subspace to be unable to block. I could simply move within the Subspace itself.
The Subspace could serve as a makeshift Leap gateway—I’d even pierced the transparent wall of the Gate with it before.
When I’d actually opened the Subspace, the thread lines hadn’t been severed; they remained. But they couldn’t damage the Subspace itself.
Yet I could sense the thread lines? Then I could break through far more conveniently with Leap. I handed the escape Secretary I’d received from the United States to Choin.
“Go on, get out of here.”
I’d considered bringing my Guild members if Subspace blocked us, but in this situation, it seemed I’d need to advance alone.
It didn’t look easy for my Guild members to break through here. If I could see, I could at least guide them, but without that, following me wouldn’t be simple either.
‘It’d be a shame to abandon a Fortress Gate like this.’
Even if I left it, the United States didn’t seem likely to subjugate it easily, so taking it myself seemed the better choice.
Moreover, without other people around, traps like these posed no problem to me whatsoever.
-Pop!
After handing the escape Secretary to Choin, I used Leap toward the opposite corridor.
Countless thread line traps filled the vast, long corridor, but for someone capable of 60-meter spatial movement, they were essentially meaningless.
“Aren’t you leaving?”
Choin still said nothing. He was staring at the escape Secretary I’d placed in his hand. Though he couldn’t see it.
“I’m going ahead.”
Well, he’d figure it out. Just as I was turning my body—
“Wait.”
Choin spoke up.
“What?”
“Are you planning to subjugate this place?”
“Yeah.”
“Alone?”
“Yeah.”
A slight premonition that this would become bothersome crept over me. Would he not say something like “it won’t be easy” again?
I was about to ignore him and move forward.
“Can you take me with you?”
“Huh?”
“Can you take me with you?”
Choin looked toward me.
“I want to see you fight.”
It was slightly different from what I expected, but my sense that this would become bothersome remained largely unchanged.
* * *
“Suddenly?”
“Yeah.”
Choin didn’t add anything further after that. He wanted to see me fight, he said.
Hadn’t he already witnessed that during the Catoblepas encounter?
Hmm. Or not? Perhaps he wanted to see me subjugate a Gate up close, rather than something so one-sided.
Either way, it was honestly a bothersome affair.
‘If this guy decides to backstab me…’
I might seem paranoid, but I had a history of being ambushed by Lei Chuang from China and the Übermenschen.
Moreover, this was Choin—the one who had been conscious of me because of the world’s number one position.
Based on my experience as a porter, my theory was that there were hardly any genuinely good-natured hunters among them.
If this bastard truly decided to stab me in the back, it wouldn’t be easy for me either.
‘After all, he was the world’s number one hunter.’
That aside, it was the same. To escort Choin through this corridor filled with laser threads and get him out…
I would have to coach him on the route. Or grab him directly and move him myself.
A backstab could happen during that process. What if he suddenly pushed me? It would mean touching the lasers generated within 0.1 seconds.
The body and limbs could recover in the Subspace, but if I were unlucky enough to have my head pierced?
‘Brain damage can’t be healed even by recovery facilities.’
Thinking about it, Choin’s team hunters were incredibly fortunate. My spatial sense detected many laser threads crossing through the head area.
But there were certainly reasons to take on the trouble and bring him along.
A 76-80 level Fortress Gate. Not just these traps, but there could be even more difficult enemies above.
And from a long-term perspective as well. To counter mana erosion, I needed to maintain friendly relations with capable hunters.
Though Choin was conscious of me, there had been no incidents between us that would breed ill will.
“Hmm. Alright.”
It would certainly be bothersome, but it was a bothersome I could bear. But the decisive factor was Choin’s conduct.
If Choin hadn’t sacrificed himself for his team members, I would have gone alone.
“Can you move?”
“The wounds have recovered somewhat. Even without regeneration, I have body enhancement.”
Right. Choin originally had S-rank body enhancement and regeneration. Choin rose from his seat.
“There’s a laser thread 30 centimeters ahead. Diagonal. From your upper left to lower right.”
“Like this?”
“Wait!”
Explaining it verbally seemed difficult. After a moment of thought, I simply used Leap.
-Whoosh!
I appeared behind Choin’s back. That way, if any problems arose, I could react immediately.
“I’ll guide you.”
“….”
I gently pushed Choin’s shoulder.
“Like this. Head down.”
“….”
“You need to take one step to the left.”
Choin didn’t seem to enjoy this situation much. Though I couldn’t see him, I could sense his expression through my spatial awareness.
A bitter smile. Yes, that had to be it.
“…Thank you.”
Still, Choin wasn’t entirely thoughtless.
“For agreeing to such an unreasonable request.”
“It’s nothing.”
“You could have done this alone.”
“You think so?”
“I do.”
His sudden approach caught me off guard. Earlier, I’d thought he might say something like, ‘It wouldn’t be easy to subjugate this place alone.’
Still, I didn’t let my guard down. No matter how much of an Übermenschen Choin was, this was our first direct conversation, wasn’t it?
I kept my spatial awareness sharp, ready to Leap at any moment. If he made even the slightest move, I’d teleport away instantly.
Fortunately, Choin showed no signs of betrayal.
“About us.”
Choin spoke again as we approached the end. I wasn’t sure if he knew, but I tensed slightly as well.
I may seem paranoid, but I’ve genuinely come close to death before.
“Hm?”
“It was noisy on the internet.”
Was that what he meant?
“I don’t really care.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.”
I meant it sincerely.
Helping Choin stemmed partly from my experience with Liu Zhen. The misunderstanding between us had been caused by external factors, after all.
“We didn’t meet face-to-face to discuss it. People naturally love tearing someone apart.”
“True, that’s how it is.”
“Liu Zhen and I had issues too, didn’t we?”
“Ah, that Chinese guy?”
“When I actually met him, he turned out to be decent.”
“Was that so?”
“It was.”
Having spoken with him directly, I found certain aspects surprisingly different from what I’d expected.
The media had portrayed him as an exceptionally arrogant hunter, but in reality, he didn’t give off that impression at all.
Could he be a similar type to Seo Seung-yeon, who was famous for her cold demeanor?
Perhaps, given that he played the role of America’s hero, he deliberately cultivated that particular image.
“Actually, the thing is….”
Choin opened his mouth again, and I instinctively sensed that whatever he was about to say carried unusual weight.
I waited for a moment, but after a long deliberation, Choin shook his head.
“No. It’s better if I tell you about this later.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
The conversation was still awkward.
I hadn’t heard the full story, but it felt like accepting Choin’s request despite the inconvenience had been the right choice.
“Can you tell me before we leave this place?”
After a brief moment of consideration, Choin nodded.
“If I’m going to tell you, it has to be before we leave. Once we’re out, I won’t be able to.”
Clearly, Choin was harboring some kind of secret.

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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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