The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 49

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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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49
Chapter 49 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
“…We have to break through that?”
Han Su-jin gazed out the window, her entire body tense with apprehension.
“Where is our destination, Director?”
Park Jae-jung, equally uncertain of their route, gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles.
I unfolded the map. We were currently at Ground Level, while the Lower District we needed to reach sat approximately twenty meters above us, constructed atop a massive artificial platform.
“There.”
I pointed toward the colossal concrete pillars barely visible through the mist—dozens of them supporting the Lower District like an elevated highway. One of them housed a cargo lift. Our only passage upward.
“Three kilometers in a straight line. We’re heading to the Zone 99 Third Unloading Dock pillar.”
“Will the lift be operational?”
“We’ll have to check if the power’s been cut when we get there. For now, we have no other options—we drive the vehicle all the way.”
“Understood.”
The vehicle accelerated. The Moon Rover jolted and rumbled across the devastated road.
Shrieeek!
Massive plant tendrils erupted from the mist, hurtling toward us.
“Left side. Burn them.”
At my command, Seo Eun-ha unleashed flames that incinerated the tendrils, while Park Jae-jung wrenched the wheel to avoid the wreckage of a collapsed bus.
“Ahead… Worm!”
Lee Ji-young was also scanning the surroundings with her Eye of Truth.
The road split open as a mid-sized monster—a juvenile obsidian worm—erupted from below.
“No time. Just run over it.”
“Hold on tight!”
Park Jae-jung slammed the accelerator to the floor. The modified Moon Rover launched skyward, using the worm’s body as a ramp.
Boom—crash!
The impact reverberated through the vehicle as we landed, but we didn’t slow down.
After an hour of relentless, chaotic driving, an enormous wall materialized before us.
A colossal concrete ceiling blocking out the sky.
The floor of the Lower District itself. And supporting that floor was a massive pillar ten meters in diameter.
[Zone 3 Cargo Lift] —faded paint lettering on the pillar’s side.
“We’ve arrived.”
The lift still had power. A stroke of luck. We immediately began moving the vehicle onto the elevator platform.
“Phew, thank goodness. We almost had to haul it up the stairs…”
Seo Eun-ha exhaled in relief.
“This lift could stop at any moment. Let’s ascend immediately.”
But the elevator’s sensor appeared damaged—a beeping sound accompanied the illumination of the overweight warning light. A zigzagging Steel Emergency Stairs ran along the pillar beside the elevator.
“We need to disembark and verify the weight isn’t exceeding capacity.”
There was no time to check individually. The moment everyone exited the Moon Rover, the warning light extinguished.
‘What if the power cuts out while we’re ascending?’
I hesitated briefly, but ultimately, even if we descended later, there would be no way to bring the vehicle back up anyway. I decided to take the risk.
“We’ll send the car up via the elevator, and we’ll take the stairs.”
After sending the car up, I shouldered my backpack and stood before the Steel Emergency Stairs. The height was dizzying. From above, I could faintly hear the murmur of voices and screams.
“Once we safely reach the Lower District, we’ll come back for it.”
“…The situation up there doesn’t look good.”
Lee Ji-young peered upward through her goggles as she spoke.
“I can see gas. It looks like the monsters have already climbed the pillars.”
“Then we’d better hurry.”
I gripped the steel railing of the staircase, my enhanced grip strength crumpling the metal slightly.
“Let’s go. Back to our home…”
Screeeech, clang. Screeeech, clang.
As I climbed the rusted steel stairs, only the rhythmic noise filled my ears. About thirty meters from Ground Level to the Lower District. The height of a ten-story apartment building. Yet why did it feel so vast? It was like crawling above the clouds.
“Ugh, seriously! These stingy bastards….”
Seo Eun-ha, climbing the stairs directly above me, breathed heavily and grumbled.
“They throw money around like that, but look at the state of the emergency stairs. See the rust? I should get a tetanus shot, damn it.”
Her sharp, blunt tone. But the way her hand trembled as she gripped her staff suggested that beneath her grumbling lay an attempt to shake off her tension.
“No talking. Conserve your breath.”
Park Jae-jung’s heavy voice from the front. He had secured his shield to his back and simply climbed in silence.
“And… never look down. You’ll get dizzy.”
But humans always want to do what they’re told not to. Climbing from the rear, I paused for a moment and, leaning against the safety bar, looked down.
I was speechless. The landscape of Ground Level, Zone 9, which we had just escaped, had completely transformed in the last ten minutes.
The contaminated mana gas that had leaked from Basement Level 3 blanketed the surface like a violet mist. Its density was so thick that the lower sections of the ruined buildings were obscured from view.
“Ji-young. How fast is the gas rising?”
“Faster than expected. It should reach our position in about five minutes.”
Lee Ji-young’s voice wavered at the end.
Kuuuuuuu….
The massive concrete pillar beneath my feet began to vibrate. It wasn’t a simple tremor. It was the resonance of something enormous rising from deep within the earth…
“T-Tae-hyun…”
Han Su-jin, positioned directly above me, called out in a trembling voice. She gripped the railing tightly, her entire body shaking.
“L-look there… look there… the ground… the ground is vomiting….”
She pointed toward the area near the collapsed Guro Digital Complex Station Plaza. From within the violet mist, the earth bulged upward before erupting like a volcano.
BOOOOM—.
A monster burst forth alongside a column of earth. But it was not the mutated dogs or rusted robots we typically encountered.
[Core Monster: Basilisk]
[Rank: A-]
A colossal lizard exceeding fifteen meters in length. Its entire body was covered in dull gray scales, and with each breath it took, the surrounding concrete crumbled.
And it wasn’t alone.
From the cracks in the road, house-sized Crimson Spiders (B+ rank) crawled out in swarms, and atop the collapsed buildings, Wyverns (B rank) with ten-meter wingspans descended and shrieked with piercing cries.
“What… this is insane.”
Seo Eun-ha let out a hollow laugh.
“Did a zoo just open? Those things only exist in the deep sections of the front-line Dungeons. Why are they erupting in the middle of the city?”
“The environment has changed. That contaminated gas is like oxygen to those creatures.”
That was when I sensed movement near the fog-shrouded Ground Level, close to the ruins of a Convenience Store.
“P-please! Save us!!”
“This way. Run toward the pillar!”
Five or six people. They wore tattered protective suits and carried rusted steel pipes. They were Hyenas—illegal scavengers who had snuck into Zone 9 to pick through scrap metal and anything worth selling.
They were running desperately toward us, toward the staircase.
“Wait? There are people! Boss, there are people over there…!”
Han Su-jin cried out urgently.
But the distance was too great, and they were moving too fast.
Shiiiiing—
A Crimson Spider clinging to the building wall spewed webbing. The silk, tougher than steel wire, coiled around the ankles of the man running at the front.
“Aaah! Brother, help me!”
The man screamed, but his companions ran without looking back. The spider reeled in its prey slowly, savoring the hunt like a fisherman. And the moment the man’s body was dragged into the mist—
Crack. Snap. Horrible sounds accompanied the abrupt silence of his screams.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
The remaining people shrieked in terror and scattered. But a massive shadow already loomed before them.
“Kieeeee”
A Basilisk erupted from the ground, its yellow eyes gleaming as it looked down upon them. As it opened its maw, a gray-tinged venom poured forth. The feet, legs, and torsos of the fleeing people transformed into gray stone in an instant, hardening completely.
People frozen mid-stride, turned to statues. The Basilisk began crunching through them like candy.
“…Damn it.”
Seo Eun-ha turned away, spitting out a curse. Her hands had gone pale white.
“It’s a massacre. That’s… not something we can handle.”
“Don’t look.”
Park Jae-jung shouted from above. His voice was trying to remain composed, but it trembled with rage.
“Even if we go down now… we can’t save them. We’d just die pointlessly.”
Cruel, but true. We’re at the midpoint of the staircase. Going down would only make us food for those things.
“…I’m sorry.”
Han Su-jin whimpered.
“I can hear them… so terrified… wanting to live… their voices won’t leave my head…”
The cursed empathy of an S-rank Healer. She was experiencing the terror of the dying in real time.
“Su-jin. Look at me.”
I tapped her ankle.
“Cover your ears and look up. You have to survive so you can save the others waiting for us above.”
“…Yes, yes…”
I looked down again. The Basilisk had finished consuming the statues and lifted its head, staring toward the pillar where we stood. Its yellow eyes gleamed with hunger.
But it couldn’t climb up. Perhaps it hadn’t yet adapted to the surface gravity, or perhaps it couldn’t reach the height where the purple gas didn’t touch…
But the gas continued to rise. Sizzzzz. Purple venom began reaching the ten-meter mark below. The sound of steel stairs corroding and melting filled the air.
“Hurry.”
Lee Ji-young’s warning followed.
“The gas is rising faster. In about ten minutes, those creatures will ride the gas upward too.”
“You hear that? Your butt’s on fire. Run!”
Seo Eun-ha quickened her pace again, and I resumed climbing the stairs.
That hell now burned into my eyes. A-rank monsters running rampant, the powerless trampled like insects beneath their feet. That landscape was the future Dominion had gifted us and the people of the Lower District.
‘Don’t forget… I will never forget.’
I bit my lip until blood came.
‘I will repay this debt.’
Boom!
Finally, Park Jae-jung reached the last step and hurled himself over the railing of the Lower District. Seo Eun-ha followed, then Han Su-jin, and finally Lee Ji-young and I.
“Huff… huff…”
Lee Ji-young, the last to climb up, collapsed onto the floor, removed her glasses, and wiped away the sweat.
“Is everyone… okay?”
Her voice trembled. Even hearing it directly beside me, it sounded faint beneath the surrounding noise.
Looking to the side, Moon Rover had arrived safely. But the gas spreading like mist made visibility impossible—driving would be reckless. We could easily run someone over in these conditions.
I saw contaminated vines growing wild around us. They didn’t just cover Moon Rover; they’d wrapped around it completely, making it look like nothing more than a massive pile of grass from the outside.
Surveying the area, the gas was beginning to spread throughout the Lower District, and the monsters were claiming it as their territory.
Crash! Crunch!
“Aaaahhh!”
We’d emerged from a maintenance passage in the corner of the Third Cargo Unloading Facility. The wide road where cargo trucks normally passed lay empty, but beyond it—in the residential and commercial areas—hell had broken loose.
I stood there, staring blankly at the scene.
Spike Hounds raced across the shantytown roofs like wolves. They didn’t just hunt those fleeing; they sought out the hidden, destroying homes and dragging people out.
Far ahead, before the Main Elevator leading to the Middle District, hundreds of people had gathered in a desperate attempt to escape. A contaminated gargoyle dove down toward them.
Screech!
Its razor claws snatched a person from the crowd, lifting them skyward. Their screams echoed before fading into the mist.
My hands began to tremble.
‘Did I… do this?’
My hands shook. The explosion I’d stopped had become toxic gas, blanketing this place. My attempt to save everyone was killing them. This hell was born from my good intentions.
“Boss!”
Park Jae-jung’s loud call snapped me back to reality.
Crash!
Sparks erupted before my eyes. While I’d stood there dazed, a Spike Hound had lunged at my throat, and Park Jae-jung had deflected it with his shield.
“Snap out of it! You’ll die standing around like that.”
Park Jae-jung shouted through ragged breaths.
“Lee Tae-hyun! Are you insane?!”
Seo Eun-ha grabbed my shoulder roughly and pulled me.
“No time for self-pity. This isn’t your fault. The problem is that they closed the door.”
Even as she spoke, she swung her staff relentlessly.
[Fireball]
Two Hounds charging at us were engulfed in flames and rolled across the ground. But hearing the sound, more monsters turned their heads toward us.
“Grrr…”
“Kieeeek.”
Dozens of monsters that had been prowling around the Loading Dock were closing in on us. Our mana and stamina were both depleted.
“Su-jin, fall back behind me. Ji-young, look after Su-jin.”
Eun-ha’s voice cut through the chaos.
“I… I have no mana left… I can’t cast healing spells…”
Han Su-jin collapsed to her knees, her voice trembling. She desperately tried to gather what little mana remained, but only a faint flicker of light danced at her fingertips.
Boom—crash!
A deafening sound erupted from the Loading Dock entrance. A five-person party of native Hunters from the Lower District came fleeing toward us, driven back by the monsters.
“Damn it. Hold the line! Hold it!”
“We can’t! The blades won’t pierce! Why is their skin so damn tough?!”
They were D-rank Hunters. Under normal circumstances, they could have handled hounds, but these creatures had ascended from the surface and were enraged by the contaminated gas. The tank’s shield shattered pathetically against the monster’s fangs.
“Aaahhhhh!”
The tank fell, his arm torn away. His allies tried to save him, but the gargoyles that followed cut off their escape route.
The carnage unfolded like slow motion. The sound of flesh being torn. Desperate screams. And beyond them, violet poison continuously gushed from the Floor Drainage.
That poison coiled around my ankles. With each breath, my lungs burned, and my mind grew hazy.
‘We’re dying. At this rate, I’ll die, my comrades will die, and so will they.’
[Warning: Vitality declining.]
[Body contamination rising.]
Lee Ji-young stumbled beside me and grabbed my collar.
“L… leader… I can’t… breathe…”

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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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