Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 301

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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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301. Orcon Ruins (1)
“What? S-rank Armor? We absolutely have to go. Nice work, really nice.”
“Phew. I checked the list further down, and there was just one Ruin Gate. If we’d been even slightly late, we wouldn’t have known about it, so it’s fortunate we claimed it first.”
It had been a unilateral decision, but none of the guild members complained. After all, there was only one Ruin Gate to begin with, and it was a place where S-rank Armor appeared.
The Gate I’d chosen turned out to be as follows.
[Orcon Ruins]
-Recommended Level: 76~80
-Capacity Limit: 10 people
Of course I was curious what kind of S-rank Armor would show up, but I deliberately didn’t ask Chun-bae about it.
I figured it wouldn’t be as much fun if I went in already knowing.
“Hehe. I’m getting excited.”
“Excited, huh. Wake up and smell the coffee.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Armor or not, it’s going to Han Chul, Hye, and me.”
“Come on. You should let your imagination run wild. There could be magic stat boosts on armor, right? Like something a battle mage would wear.”
“Look at our Min-jae dreaming big.”
The other guild members felt the same way. Our guild’s item distribution goes to whoever it suits best.
S-rank Armor would definitely have special properties, and confirming them firsthand was another source of excitement for us.
“So, if everyone’s okay with it, should we schedule the run as soon as possible?”
“No issues. The last Gate was too boring.”
“Yeah. Once Yong-yong unleashed his Breath, there was nothing left to do.”
Yong-yong had grown after consuming the Spirit Stone of Flames at Kerimantal Crater, and we’d already confirmed the power of his Breath this time.
It was already strong, but its destructive force had increased further—apparently things didn’t just burn anymore, they melted away.
[World’s #1 Hunter Han Hye! Next stop: a Ruin Gate!]
[Will the world’s top-ranked hunter Han Hye continue to ascend?]
[Han Hye has transcended Superhuman—watch the gap widen!]
After clearing the Trial Gate this time, I had officially surpassed the Superhuman level. The margin wasn’t huge.
Choin was at level 79, so there was only a one-level difference. It’d probably be neck-and-neck for another month or so.
A vacation was scheduled after this Gate expedition anyway. Still, Korea was in a festive mood.
It was a strong Hunter nation, but not quite among the very top tier internationally.
-For Han Hye
-Han Hye, my light, my darkness, my love, my life…
-Anyone who doesn’t believe in Han Hye is a fool
-Lol a year ago there were actually Han Hye antis, but now they’ve completely vanished
Still, I was rather pleased to have become a source of joy for people. That joy circled back to me as praise.
-Congratulations
-Congrats Han Hye~
-Han Hye, congratulations on achieving world rank 1!!
I didn’t make a big deal of it myself, but congratulations came pouring in from various places.
Of course from people at the Swordsmanship Meeting, and I also heard from Shin Chang and Seo Seung-yeon, along with hunters from Dawn Light and Iron Wall.
Some reached out after a long time. Even hunters who’d been with me back at that first Deformed Gate. I sent them my thanks with genuine warmth.
Come to think of it, I’d become pretty indifferent to this sort of thing.
‘At first I’d hunt down every mention of my name and react to each comment with joy.’
Ego Surfing, they’d called it. I still do it from time to time, but not like before. I think that’s a positive development—I’m focusing on myself rather than external eyes.
When I was low-level, Mana Erosion and Divinity seemed distant and incomprehensible, but now that I’m high-level things are different. I suppose you could say my sense of responsibility has grown stronger.
“Phew. Let’s go.”
As part of that, there was one more thing I needed to do. I’d been putting it off with everything else piling up, but it had to be done before entering this Gate.
-Whoosh!
It was using the Gate’s training facility. I’d set up Fist King as my first opponent. A lot of data had been updated from recent encounters.
I wondered how strong I’d really become. My body was itching for a real test—maybe I’d caught some of Shin Chang and Fist King’s competitive spirit.
“Huh.”
As I steadied my breathing, Fist King’s phantom materialized before me. Whatever device created it, it looked real, not like a projection.
Fist King had carried over his personality too, immediately throwing a punch.
-Whoosh!
-Crack!
An uncontrolled shockwave. I’d seen that when facing the remnants of Catoblepas and the Übermenschen.
If we both went all-out, what would happen? I rose my own mana to meet it and drew Essirel.
* * *
“Whew, I’m exhausted.”
To be honest, I won. I’d countered with an outboxing style using Subspace, Combustion, and Segmentation.
True to his reputation as the Fist King, who clearly possessed high vitality stats, his skin was tough—but not to the degree of a Catoblepas or Ja-tan.
He took damage from Combustion and couldn’t properly defend against Segmentation. To be honest, the feeling was rather complicated.
Even if it was only a phantom, it felt wrong to wound a comrade I’d fought alongside.
‘Though I didn’t hesitate because Divinity is precious.’
Despite the victory, the result wasn’t particularly satisfying. I could tell the influence of the Fist King and Shin Chang ran deep in me.
I wanted to defeat the Fist King through pure swordplay and martial arts alone. That hadn’t been easy. Truthfully, I was outmatched.
I suppose there’s no helping it. Though I’d gained several advantages, my highest stat remained Mana in the end.
Moreover, the Fist King was one of the first-generation Awakened after the Gate Crisis, and had been in the Advance Team all along, so he must have received considerable support.
I was searching for Hidden areas myself, but compared to the Advance Team backed by national resources, I seemed to fall a bit short.
There were actually comments praising me that went like this:
-Why Han Hye is impressive: World’s top rank without state support
└That’s really unreasonable though
└When you think about how the Advance Team got bombarded with secret techniques and Spirit Medicine for years after the Gate Crisis lol
└Real talk, catching up to the Advance Team isn’t in the realm of impossibility. The amount of support they got when times were tough was just different.
But I didn’t want to find comfort in such words. Talk of support relative to results was ultimately meaningless.
One thing remained unchanged: I had to grow stronger.
Combustion, Segmentation, Subspace—those are my skills, and I did win after all. But I want to win through swordplay and martial arts too.
I’m quite greedy, it seems. Though that’s probably how I’ve come this far.
-Will you continue?
Chun-bae asked. My reserves of Divinity were still sufficient—I’d been receiving a lot lately. But something told me not to do it right now.
This sparring match, or rather combat, had given me something to contemplate. I needed to think more deeply about the Iron-Wing Rooster Tail Sword.
Three techniques merged together, but facing the Fist King today, I suddenly felt something was excessive. In fact, it was.
Defending and counterattacking while attacking aggressively like a rooster tail—there’s a certain contradiction in that.
I’d thought of it as going rooster-tail style only during counterattacks, but perhaps abandoning the defensive forms of the Imperial Foundation Swordplay might be better.
At low levels I was incomplete, but now that I’d grown considerably, knowing ‘defense’ forms would be enough.
‘Maybe I should think it over a bit, then test it in sparring with Shin Chang.’
I had plenty of time. My leave was already scheduled, so let’s spar with Shin Chang before then.
After that, anything’s possible in the Subspace, so I can think quite deeply about it.
* * *
[Dragon 2nd Team Successfully Clears Gate!]
While we prepared for the next Gate, news came about the 2nd Team. As expected, they’d cleared it without incident, just as I’d anticipated.
With three S-rank Skill holders, there hadn’t been much difficulty. When I checked in briefly, the mood was apparently excellent.
-They say Dong-hyuk was amazing? Aiden even called me separately and talked about it for ages.
The 2nd Team couldn’t hide their admiration for Dong-hyuk’s abilities now that Environmental Transfer was available to him.
According to Han Chul, even Aiden, who’s drawing attention as America’s next-generation vanguard, was impressed.
-Growth acceleration? That shouldn’t even be possible. It was just a normal difficulty Gate, neither easy nor hard, but we went up three levels.
That was exactly what I’d been hoping for. They’d gained three levels from a Gate where I’d expected a gain of one or two.
Their growth might be faster than I’d anticipated. This was an extremely positive development.
There were no sharp personalities in the group, so major team unity issues didn’t seem likely to arise.
Still, since it was a team of people I’d just met, dissatisfaction or complications could emerge.
-Feel free to contact me anytime.
Ideally, the 2nd Team would resolve things among themselves, but if that became difficult, I was prepared to help.
I liked the look of the 2nd Team members I’d selected and wanted them to stay together as long as possible.
[Singapore: Deformed Gate Emerges in Hunter Depot!]
Meanwhile, an incident occurred abroad.
[Misfortune Strikes Singapore]
[Deformed Gate Suppressed, But Massive Hunter Equipment Destroyed……]
Well, I thought it was less misfortune than a natural phenomenon. It was something I’d worried about a bit when I visited Korea’s treasure vault before.
It’s already established that Deformed Gates appear frequently when the Mana Density in the atmosphere rises.
A space for storing Hunter equipment falls under that category too. Isn’t it a space where Mana Density is pushed to extremes to prevent Hunter intrusion?
A Deformed Gate opening inside it may have been inevitable.
-What? It seems to have appeared because of high Mana Density?
I hadn’t been able to voice it directly then, but now I could. I expressed my concern to Seo-ung right away.
Of course, it wasn’t confident advice. More like… a concern?
-I’ll examine it carefully.
Because it came from me, Seo-ung took it quite seriously. He seemed to think it was the truth.
In fact, I’d done this several times before, just never stated it directly.
Wouldn’t it be enough for Seo-ung to sense that I was conveying facts in a roundabout way?
But things wouldn’t change that quickly. It’s a system built with considerable investment.
‘Even if Seo-ung or the Association President take my side…….’
They could shake their heads from higher up. Proposals like this rarely pass through in the first place.
Everyone knows the old saying—closing the barn door after the horse has bolted—but it keeps being used for a reason.
Concerns tinged with worry usually get pushed aside. Well, this is all I can do about it.
The rest will be managing things when the Gate actually ruptures. I just hope the S-rank equipment doesn’t get destroyed or lost.
.
.
.
[Lv80 Void Lord, Han Hye]
Strength: 110(+3)
Agility: 110(+3)(+5, +1)
Endurance: 130(+1)
Spirit: 104(+3)
Mana: 160(+1)
Unallocated Points: 9
Ahead of the Ruin Gate, I consumed one B-rank Spirit Medicine I’d received before, gaining 2 points in Strength and 1 in Agility.
After that, I distributed 6 points across my stats. I gave some attention to Spirit, but that was more preparation for the Lottery Gate than this one.
-The Grand Duke will impose a formidable pressure simply by existing.
I’d felt something similar when facing the Demon Realm Count last time. The Grand Duke would be worse, so I needed to shore up my stats however I could.
I wasn’t particularly worried about the Orcon Ruins Gate. I hadn’t even asked Chun-bae directly for information about it.
‘S-rank Armor hidden? Can I actually find it?’
-It won’t be easy, but with your abilities, I believe you can manage it.
‘Then I’ll give it a try.’
If I wanted to gain benefits beyond what Chun-bae revealed, I needed to improve my skill at finding Hidden items. It was a calculated risk.
If I couldn’t locate it in time, Chun-bae would simply share the information—no harm done.
“Shall we head in?”
“Let’s go. I’m ready.”
“So am I.”
“I have been waiting.”
And so we entered the Orcon Ruins Gate, where the S-rank Armor lay hidden.

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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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