The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 106

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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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106
Chapter 106 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Beyond the glass window, the blood of the gray-uniformed guards pooled on the floor seeped into the carpet, releasing a metallic stench.
I moved slowly behind Ryu Jin-hwan, whose gaze had grown unfocused and whose head hung low. The outer layer of his mana core had been purified, causing the output of his parallel processing to plummet dramatically.
The genius brain that once controlled all logistics throughout Neo Seoul was losing its function. Park Jae-jung and Han Su-jin were methodically stuffing ledgers and data banks scattered across the floor into their bags.
‘Now let’s gather the equipment.’
I opened the isolation chamber door and stepped back into the vast Main Server Room. Despite the gruesome sight of thirty corpses strewn about, Seo Eun-ha’s visual mirage ensured that the outside world still perceived this space as peaceful—though that illusion would last at most another minute or two.
“We need to find underwater equipment.”
I walked carefully around the pools of blood, scanning the structure of the Main Server Room with my eyes. My observation abilities, evolved since awakening as an A-Rank, detected the faintest sense of discord among the tens of thousands of tangled cables.
“One of the main fiber optic cable bundles that was connected to Ryu Jin-hwan’s spine doesn’t lead toward the servers—it goes into that empty wall section to the northeast. There’s no reason to run security lines into a blank wall. Something is hidden back there.”
My colleagues quickly followed my analysis toward the northeast wall. As we drew closer, I saw it was a seamless titanium alloy surface. A brutally thick steel fortress designed to open only through Ryu Jin-hwan’s brainwaves and biometric signature.
“There’s not even a seam. How do we open this?”
Seo Eun-ha tapped the alloy wall with the tip of her staff as she spoke.
Purification wasn’t a universal key for decomposing pure metal masses like this. Sometimes pure physical force was required.
I turned to face Seo Eun-ha.
“Eun-ha, we can’t mimic Ryu Jin-hwan’s brainwaves, but couldn’t we turn the locking mechanisms that make up this steel wall into slag?”
Seo Eun-ha’s crimson eyes curved in a crescent as she smiled. She peeled off her wet gloves and chuckled.
“Tae-hyeon. You should have trusted me from the start. Step back.”
Seo Eun-ha placed her bare hand against the center of the smooth titanium wall.
Shiiiiiii—!
The air around where her palm touched the wall surface distorted like heat shimmer, and suffocating heat poured forth. There were no flames, but the extreme temperature concentrated on a single point of the titanium alloy, producing a horrific welding sound. Titanium was heat-resistant, but before the concentrated flames unleashed by an S-Rank mage, it was nothing more than soft butter.
“Park Jae-jung! Now!”
The instant Seo Eun-ha shouted, Park Jae-jung thrust both hands clad in enormous mithril gauntlets into the gap where the alloy wall was beginning to melt like crimson lava.
“Grrrraaaagh—!”
Park Jae-jung’s forearms swelled as if about to burst, veins bulging from his skin. The merciless brute strength of his body, rebuilt through vascular surgery, began twisting and tearing apart the internal locking mechanisms of the vault that Seo Eun-ha had weakened with heat.
Crack! Boom!
With an ear-splitting explosion, the massive circular vault door, a meter thick, was torn free and crashed to the floor.
The interior of the vault, in perfect vacuum without a speck of dust, revealed itself before our eyes.
“My goodness….”
Han Su-jin was left speechless. The vault was a treasure chamber that concentrated the accumulated wealth and essence of magical engineering of the massive Blue Tower Guild.
Display cases lining the walls radiated brilliant light from high-purity mana stones of A-Rank and above, while the central pedestal displayed weapons and armor that were clearly extraordinary at first glance.
But what captured my attention were the deep blue specialized suits stored in a cabinet in the corner.
“Found it. Just as I thought, it’s here.”
I retrieved the contents from the storage case.
Deep-sea operation pressure suits—lightweight and durable, made from the hide of deep-sea krakens and treated with magical engineering to withstand tremendous water pressure. And gill masks that allowed infinite breathing underwater by converting mana into oxygen.
These items were useless on land, but for us about to plunge into the hell of the seabed, they were equipment worth our lives.
“Each of you, take a suit and mask that fits your build. Get all the spare sets too.”
My colleagues moved quickly. Even as Han Ae-ri gathered her deep-sea suit, she located two short, sharp harpoon-shaped magical daggers displayed on the shelves and tucked them into her waistband. They were underwater assassination weapons designed to minimize water resistance. Seo Eun-ha and Han Su-jin likewise swept high-purity mana recovery potions and premium defensive equipment into their backpacks.
I reached for three brilliant crimson mana stones, each the size of a child’s fist, placed in the deepest part of the vault. The highest-grade cores, extracted only from the hearts of S-Rank monsters. Without hesitation, I gripped one in my bare hand and channeled the wave of purification through it.
The red mana stone shattered into white powder, and the vast mana condensed within it cascaded like a waterfall through my veins. My mana core, depleted from endless purification throughout the night, filled instantly and swelled with an overwhelming sense of expansion threatening to overflow.
All preparations for the hunt were complete.
We had stuffed every piece of equipment and data we could carry into our backpacks.
Beeeeeep—!
Whiiiiiir—!
Suddenly, a horrific siren that shook the entire Blue Tower building pierced through my eardrums, and red emergency lights flashed frantically as warning broadcasts blared.
[Warning. Warning. All Armored Guard units in the Top Floor Main Server Room have lost vital signs.]
[Intruder detected. Executive Director Ryu Jin-hwan showing abnormal vital signs. Full-sector lockdown protocol activated.]
Seo Eun-ha’s visual mirage had expired. The moment the horrific mountain of corpses in the server room was laid bare on the external monitors, the fortress’s systems went haywire.
The sound of steel bulkhead doors slamming shut echoed through every level. I felt the vibrations beneath my feet. The elevator shafts were locking, the stairwell fire doors sealing. If we got trapped here, thousands of security guards and unmanned weapons would pour into this room.
“Tae-hyun, we’ve been spotted! The ventilation shaft we came up through must already be sealed!”
Seo Eun-ha shouted urgently, gripping her staff.
“We finished playing the ‘find-an-escape-route rat game’ a while ago.”
I looked toward the wide glass wall of the server room. Fifty meters above ground level, the brilliant skyline of Neo Seoul spread below us, separated by what looked like a palm-thick layer of specialized bulletproof glass. Beyond it lay only empty space where torrential acid rain poured down.
“Eun-ha.”
Seo Eun-ha met my gaze at my call.
“Heat that glass as much as you can.”
Understanding my intention instantly, Seo Eun-ha flashed a fierce grin and extended her staff toward the bulletproof glass.
Shiiiiip—!
A massive wave of heat instantly turned the entire five-meter-wide glass wall blazing red-hot. The surface of the bulletproof glass expanded as if melting, letting out an eerie scream.
At that moment, heavy footsteps began rushing toward the server room entrance.
“Break through! Confirm personnel!”
The shouts of security guards climbing the stairs. The metallic sound of bulkhead doors opening. Less than thirty seconds remained.
“Su-jin, fall back. Aeri, watch the entrance.”
Han Su-jin quickly gripped her backpack and retreated. Han Ae-ri slipped silently toward the server room entrance and drew her twin blades.
“Now!”
I sprinted toward the glass, shouting.
“The rainwater outside will shatter it!”
I smashed the locking mechanism and forced the window open. The cold, raging acid rain storm from outside struck the blazing-hot glass surface with brutal force.
Extreme thermal expansion colliding head-on with sudden cooling. The specialized bulletproof glass that could withstand tank shells shattered into tens of thousands of fragments and cascaded down.
Crash—!
“Jump!”
My companions threw themselves into the void without a moment’s hesitation. Han Ae-ri made one final strike at the entrance and leaped after us.
Whoooosh—
The fierce acid rain lashed my face. The dizzying sensation of free-falling through empty space. Below, in the logistics warehouse, security guards were thrown into chaos by the sudden shower of glass shards, screaming.
“Park Jae-jung!”
Just before hitting the ground, I called out from the air.
Park Jae-jung curled his massive body and drove his arm holding the Gaia Shield downward toward the ground first.
Kuuuuung—!
The kinetic energy of the fall was discharged through the shield directly into the ground. The concrete floor within a ten-meter radius shattered like a spider web and erupted upward, and that shock absorption negated the acceleration of those falling behind me.
Tap. Thud.
We landed lightly atop the shattered concrete debris. In that moment, the security guards and four-legged patrol robots around us were swept up in the fragments, descending into chaos.
“Reinforcements are flooding in from the Main Gate! Head toward the breached outer wall!”
The instant we touched down, Han Ae-ri oriented us toward our escape route.
We no longer crept or crawled. Moving with the piercing force of hunters who plunder an enemy’s heart and slip away unscathed, we cut a straight line through the Blue Tower Courtyard—now a hellscape of destruction—and vanished completely into the dark back alleys of Neo Seoul.
The acrid stench of dust and machine oil assaulted my nostrils.
The far edge of Black Market District 4—Doctor Junk’s Abandoned Junkyard Underground Warehouse.
Dr. Junk crouched in a corner of the warehouse, chain-smoking with visible agitation.
Screeeech.
At the sound of the rusted iron door grinding open, Dr. Junk flinched violently and drew his pistol. But the moment he recognized us emerging from the darkness, his legs buckled. The gun clattered from his trembling hands as he exhaled sharply.
“Insane… You actually made it back alive? After turning the heart of Blue Tower upside down?”
He scanned our forms—drenched in blood and rainwater—then his jaw dropped as he saw the massive bags that Park Jae-jung and Han Su-jin dropped heavily onto the floor.
“What is all that?”
“The Director was quite cooperative in opening the vault for us.”
I stripped off my wet hood and unzipped one of the bags. Premium deep-sea operation suits, mana stones, and military-grade data banks spilled out in a cascade.
Dr. Junk’s eyes bulged as his trembling hands reached for one of the data banks.
“This is… the classified storage that paranoid bastard Ryu Jin-hwan keeps stashed in a pocket dimension! What the hell did you do in there?”
“We purified the mana circuits.”
I pushed the data bank toward him and answered tersely. I couldn’t predict exactly what would become of Ryu Jin-hwan now that the outer layers of his core had been stripped away.
His consciousness remained intact, but whether his parallel processing would recover was impossible to guarantee. I decided not to dwell on it further.
“Inside, you’ll find records of bioexperiment dealings with Dominion and slush fund ledgers. Exposing Blue Tower’s hypocritical face to the world—that’s your specialty, Doctor.”
“Ha ha, hahahaha!”
Dr. Junk clutched the data bank and burst into laughter. This wasn’t a quiet chuckle. His shoulders heaved, his eyes reddened—the kind of laughter that spoke volumes without needing explanation.
But our party’s expressions remained grimly composed. Noticing the temperature difference, Dr. Junk’s laughter died. He looked between us, bewildered.
“You guys… what’s wrong? You won. You’ve got them by the throat. So why do you all look like you’re about to drop dead tomorrow?”
I picked up one of the deep-sea operation pressure suits from the floor and opened my mouth.
“Data exposure and social destruction are secondary concerns. Their real lifeline is elsewhere.”
“What?”
“Blue Tower’s true monsters. I figured out why the Guild Master and the S-rank Directors couldn’t chase us.”
I settled into a seat and began explaining slowly.
“From the residual impressions flowing out of Ryu Jin-hwan’s core, I saw the seabed. At first, I thought it was the waters off Incheon—footage of something being constructed in the deep sea of that region, submerged after the Cataclysm. But that was an old residual image from the initial construction phase.”
I pointed to the data bank.
“When I cross-referenced the logistics coordinates and fund transfer routes contained in here, the picture changed. The actual operational hub after completion is in the deep abyssal trenches off Geoje Island and Busan, near the waters off Chilcheon Island. They initially considered the Incheon area during the design phase, but switched to the South Coast due to current patterns and ley line stability issues. That’s where their secretly constructed underwater city is located.”
Dr. Junk’s pupils trembled.
“The Underwater City Project…! That’s been running in absolute secrecy for ten years. But why there?”
“The ley line ruptured.”
Park Jae-jung’s voice was heavy as he continued.
“The area surrounding the underwater city transformed into a spontaneous dungeon where core energy explodes. Blue Tower’s Second Director and their entire upper-tier forces are currently locked in combat with deep-sea monsters beneath the waves, struggling to contain the energy.”
Dr. Junk sank to the floor in stunned silence. Now he fully understood why we’d stolen the premium underwater equipment.
“So… while those bastards are gasping for breath underwater, you’re planning to crawl directly into that deep abyss off Chilcheon Island yourselves? Into that hellish pit where core energy is exploding?”
Instead of answering, I offered a dry smile and began checking the fastening mechanisms on the gill mask.
Those arrogant bastards who treated us as prey and transformed the weak into experimental subjects—monsters of their own making. In that deep sea where they were now trapped, I would grow stronger by devouring the pollution energy cascading down like a waterfall. Breaking their necks with my own hands would come after.
Meanwhile, Seo Eun-ha and Park Jae-jung were adjusting their suit sizes and inspecting the fastening mechanisms. Han Ae-ri was testing the weight distribution of the underwater dagger she’d retrieved from the vault, her fingertips tracing its balance point. Han Su-jin quietly tested the mana conversion device of her gill mask to ensure it functioned properly.
Each prepared in their own way, yet the atmosphere was unified.
“Dr. Junk.”
I called out to him after finishing my equipment check.
“Please calibrate these suits to our body types and adjust the mana circuits. Make them perfect—not a single second of error in the water pressure of Chilcheon Island.”
Dr. Junk stared up at us silently for a long moment. He stubbed out his cigarette on the floor, then let out a dry chuckle and picked up his toolbox.
“Yeah, damn it. If we’re going to see this through to the end, we might as well erect a tombstone in their grave. Give me three hours. I’ll modify these suits into monsters that can withstand hundreds of atmospheres of pressure.”
Dr. Junk began laying out his tools. His damaged mechanical arm moved deftly across the suit’s mana circuits. His hand movements were so precise that the broken prosthetic seemed irrelevant.
‘Three hours…’
I leaned my back against the warehouse wall and closed my 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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