Tearing the Gate Apart - Chapter 68

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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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Episode 68.
Directly after the Distorted Choir’s Schism Hymn commenced.
The Raid Party found themselves in an unexpected location.
It resembled a labyrinth like the place they’d been before.
But the structure was surprisingly simple.
Because of that, the team members were able to regroup quickly.
Soon, the core members of the Raid Party gathered and pooled their thoughts.
They were none other than Jon, Jeong Sang Hoon, and Yoo Se Ha.
As the leader, Yoo Se Ha spoke first.
“I’ve finished the headcount, and only the captain seems to be missing.”
“We could push ahead with the raid, but still—we can’t just abandon Bro.”
At Jon’s response, Yoo Se Ha’s expression soured.
They seemed roughly the same age.
But Jon had been speaking casually from their very first meeting.
Yoo Se Ha decided he’d have to set a proper boundary.
“But how many times have we met? You can drop the formal speech. I never asked you to.”
“I’m a foreigner. Formal Korean is hard for me.”
“You’ve been in Korea for over ten years, haven’t you?”
“You studied English for ten years in school too, but can you do free conversation?”
……
Yoo Se Ha found himself at a loss for words.
Because it was true.
Just as the atmosphere began to heat up, Jeong Sang Hoon stepped in quickly.
“Oh my! Why are we all like this? Yoo Se Ha, Jon is kind of like an outlier. You can’t judge him by logic.”
“Phew. I understand.”
As Yoo Se Ha nodded, this time Jon bristled.
He seemed to have roughly grasped the direction things were going.
“Hey! Freaking guys. You just cursed me out. You weren’t calling white guys red and comparing them to radish kimchi, were you?”
“Why would we do that?”
“Then why radish kimchi?”
“Well, it’s complicated to explain… by that logic, didn’t Jon just curse us out too?”
“That’s just an interjection.”
“W-we did the same thing.”
“Huh? Is that what it was? Okay! I’ll take it.”
Yoo Se Ha’s explanation had plenty of gaps in logic.
But to his surprise, Jon accepted it readily.
He was a man who truly defied categorization.
In any case, they could now have a proper discussion.
The three exchanged the information they’d gathered so far.
Yoo Se Ha spoke first.
“It feels like a miniaturized version of the Abyss of Silence.”
“I looked around hoping there might be a secret passage, but even my Perception Skill didn’t pick anything up.”
“We’ll have to solve the gimmick to get out, obviously. The problem is we don’t know what it is.”
Jeong Sang Hoon and Jon added their thoughts, but no clear solution emerged.
Ultimately, all the Raid Party could do was one thing.
Continue searching until they solved the gimmick.
Just as they were about to finish their discussion.
A panicked voice came through the Whisperer.
―Yoo Se Ha! You need to come see this!
“What’s happening?”
―The space is getting narrower!
“What?”
The three rushed out in alarm.
The walls were collapsing and the chamber was shrinking bit by bit.
The speed was slow, but the pressure was immense.
At this rate, they’d clearly be crushed to death.
Right when everyone was panicking.
One wall abruptly became transparent.
Soon, the sight beyond came into view.
Yoo Se Ha couldn’t close his gaping mouth.
“Is the captain soloing the boss right now?”
……
Jeong Sang Hoon was equally speechless.
What kind of deranged Awakened One raids a boss alone?
But Jon’s reaction was composed.
“If it’s Bro, he could pull it off. That guy operates on a different level entirely.”
“If you can use an expression like ‘operates on a different level,’ it seems you’ve practically mastered Korean. I don’t understand why you can’t manage formal speech.”
……
Jon, who’d been casually struck down by Yoo Se Ha.
He seemed rather flustered.
His already ruddy face turned scarlet.
But Jon recovered his composure in an instant.
“Korean people memorize weird English vocabulary all the time too. You don’t know TOEFL English?”
“Ha! You really are disgustingly good at counterarguments.”
In the end, Yoo Se Ha only shook his head.
While the two bickered.
Jeong Sang Hoon had his eyes fixed on Ha Gyeong’s fight.
“How is he dodging everything like that? He’s encountering the boss pattern for the first time.”
It wasn’t just a matter of being fast.
The boss would strike in specific ways—how could he know that in advance and dodge?
Especially when the opponent was so much larger.
And had such an enormous stride.
Yet Ha Gyeong found the spaces to dodge as if he were a prophet.
And while doing so, he was landing effective blows.
Even Jeong Sang Hoon, a 1.5-generation Awakened One, had never seen anything like it.
“Why on earth did our Master pick a fight with someone like him? Because he’s younger?”
Of course, in the Awakened One industry, experience was crucial.
Having survived meant you were that strong.
But it wasn’t an absolute metric.
Just look at Ha Gyeong himself.
He truly was an existence operating on a different plane, as Jon had said.
Jeong Sang Hoon watched Ha Gyeong’s fight with complete focus.
“Wait! I think we need to do something to escape!”
“No one said we didn’t. Obviously this is a room where we have to do something to get out…….”
“No, wait! I don’t mean that!”
“Then either you do or you don’t. Why are you yelling?”
“The captain has to do something. He’s stuck over there by himself!”
“That’s probably because of the Artifact. Bro doesn’t get cursed easily.”
“Ah, is that so? Then do we really need to search this room?”
But the team members who’d set out to search returned with nothing to report.
Meanwhile, the space continued to shrink.
In minutes, they’d be compressed like grapes in a press.
Unable to bear it any longer, Jon pounded on the wall and shouted.
“Help! Bro!”
Remarkably, Ha Gyeong turned his head.
The moment their eyes met, the team members could feel it.
That he would absolutely save them.
* * *
Ha Gyeong found the situation bewildering.
His missing teammates were trapped behind a glass wall.
And the space was continuing to shrink.
Left like this, they’d be wiped out in no time.
Ha Gyeong decided to create some distance from the boss.
‘Thank goodness the thing’s slow. But how do I save them?’
The Silent Archbishop swung his Staff repeatedly.
Dozens of cyan Magical Spears flew in.
Ha Gyeong decided to use the boss’s attacks.
He ran up the glass wall using the Wall String Step.
Whoosh—! Thud-thud-thud!
The Magical Spears embedded themselves, but not a single mark remained on the surface.
It seemed that wasn’t how the gimmick was meant to be solved.
Still, Ha Gyeong didn’t mind.
‘Failed? Then I’ll just try again.’
There was still time.
His teammates hadn’t been flattened yet.
But time was not abundant.
He had to save them before disaster struck.
He scanned the surroundings quickly and detected only the Ultimate Abyss Fragment.
Even with Soul Mark Perception, nothing stood out.
So what was the answer?
Ha Gyeong stared at the transparent wall trapping his teammates.
‘Surely not just ordinary glass?’
It had withstood dozens of Magical Spears from the Silent Archbishop.
It was absolutely not simple glass.
But it did seem weaker than a regular wall.
Light was passing through it, after all.
Ha Gyeong grabbed the Whisperer the moment he dodged the boss’s attack.
“Yoo Se Ha, are you listening?”
―Yes, Captain.
“Have you tried attacking the glass wall?”
―Huh? No? It only just became transparent, so…….
“Then start throwing attack skills at it.”
―Yes, understood.
Yoo Se Ha replied in a bewildered tone.
Normally, dungeon structures could be destroyed freely.
But this place had a strong religious character.
With its ornate carvings on the walls.
It seemed none of them had thought to destroy it.
Especially since it had only just turned into a glass wall moments ago.
Soon, bursts of multicolored light began flashing rapidly.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
But the wall didn’t even crack.
Ha Gyeong let out a wry smile.
‘It wasn’t panic—they just thought it wouldn’t work?’
That made sense, didn’t it?
Who would try to break a thick iron door by hitting it?
If something obviously won’t work, you find another way.
Ha Gyeong examined the glass wall carefully.
But there was nothing particularly special about it.
Nothing except that it was extraordinarily thick.
As he continued evading attacks.
The Silent Archbishop suddenly shifted his position.
Boom—! Bang!
He seemed frustrated indeed.
He hadn’t landed a single blow on Ha Gyeong yet.
‘What if his Staff is the key?’
It was the most likely possibility.
Ha Gyeong deliberately lingered in front of the glass wall.
And sure enough, the Silent Archbishop thrust his Staff at him.
Exactly as Ha Gyeong intended.
Whoosh—! Crack!
The glass wall shattered with a tremendous sound.
It didn’t even look like he’d hit it hard.
Yet it came crashing down completely.
Immediately, the teammates came pouring out.
Their faces deathly pale.
“Aahhh! I almost got crushed!”
“Gasp! Gasp! I really thought I was dying.”
Looking inside, the walls were completely closed.
So if they’d been delayed even ten seconds, the team would have been annihilated.
He’d thought there was more time.
It had been much more precarious than he realized.
Soon the teammates gathered around Ha Gyeong.
“Leave the rest to us, Captain!”
They were all genuinely grateful to Ha Gyeong.
You could see respect overflowing in their eyes.
Of course, not everyone expressed their thanks the same way.
“Bro! Keep that life debt on the books. I’ll pay you back once I die of natural causes.”
At Jon’s words, Ha Gyeong let out a hollow laugh.
He was always like that, so it wasn’t surprising.
Instead, Ha Gyeong turned the joke back on him.
“I don’t know how long Jon’s life will last. As an Awakened One who frequents the Abyss, you could die today and it wouldn’t be natural causes anyway.”
“Wow! Check that insult game. You’re immortal after all.”
“My sense of longevity seems inadequate. I’ll go with immortality myself.”
“Shiiittt! Finally Bro’s been tainted by the Florida alpha male vibe. Love it.”
“Let’s stop with the banter and focus on the raid.”
“Damn it, I just got schooled on banter by that blockhead Bro…….”
Jon looked more discouraged than ever.
Even when he’d gotten beaten up sparring, it hadn’t been this bad.
It seemed Ha Gyeong had touched a nerve.
Ha Gyeong didn’t pay it much mind either way.
‘He’s not the type to sulk over something like that.’
Though he’d probably need to humor him a bit.
With the teammates’ arrival, the boss raid quickly gained momentum.
Aggro was properly secured.
The Melee Dealer’s Shell Destruction was solid.
It was now only a matter of time before the Silent Archbishop fell.
But right in the middle of the raid proceeding smoothly.
An unexpected system message appeared.
[Warning]
[Intruder detected in dungeon]
[Encountered Talent Devourer, Veil Lancer]
Boom-crash—!
The ceiling of the Boss Lair shattered.
Something dark came plummeting through.
Two meters tall with a skeletal frame.
A pair of massive membranous wings.
A head resembling a canine creature.
The Emperor’s trusted aide who had driven Ha Gyeong to the brink of death.
The Talent Devourer, Veil Lancer.
Ha Gyeong could only furrow his brow.
‘Of all the timing… But how did he even get in here?’
Ripping open the gate
Author |
Moraetop
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Samyang C&C Inc.
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Editorial Department
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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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