The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 53

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

53
Chapter 53 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
The Repair Shop was larger than I’d anticipated. There was easily enough space to hoist two vehicles, with rusted tools hanging along one wall and a grease-stained Workbench tucked into a corner. The fluorescent lights in the Ceiling were naturally dark, and the only illumination came from the Moon Rover’s headlights.
“We need to get some light on.”
Park Jae-jung rummaged through the car’s trunk and pulled out two portable lanterns. Click, click. As he flipped the switches, a bluish LED glow flooded the Repair Shop.
Only then could we see each other’s faces. Everyone looked haggard. Seo Eun-ha’s hair was matted with sweat, Lee Ji-young’s glasses sat crooked on her face, and the Lee Seung-ryong Party members were covered in bruises from being crammed in the Cargo Hold.
“Is anyone… injured?”
I asked. Instead of answers, groans echoed from various corners. There didn’t appear to be any serious wounds. It was a miracle.
Outside, the sound of monsters still clawing at the Shutter persisted. Screech, screech. Like fingernails dragging across a chalkboard. But the welded steel plate held firm.
“For now… we need to hold out until the gas dissipates.”
I said. No one responded. Not because they had nothing to say, but because they had no strength left to say it.
As the adrenaline drained away, intense hunger and exhaustion crashed over me like a tide. My hands still trembled faintly, and my solar plexus throbbed from the mana I’d expended holding back the Shutter.
“Sigh…”
I lay down on the cold Repair Shop Floor, my back against it. The rusted steel framework of the Ceiling blurred above me. My heart still pounded as if it might burst. In my ears, the monsters’ screams and the hissing gas from moments ago echoed like phantom sounds.
“Boss…”
Han Su-jin approached. Her knees were caked with dirt, and her eyes were bloodshot.
“Are you alright? You used so much mana…”
“I’m fine. But you, Su-jin…”
I pushed myself up to look at her. She was on the verge of collapse from transferring mana to me. Yet she hadn’t rested, continuing to tend to the injured who’d been in the Cargo Hold.
“Come here and sit down. If the Healer collapses, who’s going to treat everyone?”
I forced her to sit beside me. Then I tore open a combat ration box from the trunk.
Pop. I pulled the cord on a heat pack, and with a sharp hiss, white steam rose up. Moments later, an artificial meat smell permeated the cramped space. The retort food aroma, which I would normally have ignored, now smelled more appetizing than any gourmet meal.
“Eat. We need to survive, and that means eating.”
I handed out the warmed pouches to my teammates one by one. No one spoke. Not Seo Eun-ha, not Park Jae-jung, not Lee Seung-ryong. They simply shoved food into their mouths like beasts. Chewing, swallowing, chewing again. As the hot broth slid down my throat, my frozen insides seemed to thaw bit by bit.
“Sob…”
A D-Rank Hunter eating in the corner suddenly burst into tears.
“I want to go home…”
His sobs seemed to trigger a cascade—sniffling sounds erupted from various corners. Relief at having survived mixed with despair at what lay ahead, all flowing out as tears…
I set down my spoon and looked at the Hunter. How old was he? Acne scars still marked his face. Each time his shoulders shook, a teammate beside him patted his back.
My chest tightened. But I offered no words of comfort. Because saying “it will be okay” right now would be a lie. It won’t be okay. Not for a long time.
Seo Eun-ha leaned toward me and whispered softly.
“…Aren’t you going to cry?”
“I don’t have time to cry.”
“Liar. Your eyes are bloodshot.”
I didn’t answer. She didn’t press further. She simply tapped my shoulder and returned to her spot.
Shortly after, the crying subsided. They’d exhausted even the strength to weep. Only ragged breathing and the occasional cough remained in the Repair Shop.
I took a sip of water and pulled a black hard case from deep within the trunk.
A wireless long-range communication device. Our only hope, and the key to moving forward.
Everyone’s attention fixed on the black case.
“Is that… a communication device?”
Lee Seung-ryong asked carefully, a glimmer of hope kindling in his eyes.
“Yes. Long-range wireless communication is possible. I’m planning to contact the outside with this.”
“The outside… you mean a rescue request?”
“More like a negotiation than a rescue.”
I opened the case as I spoke.
“I’ll contact a different guild—not Dominion. Blue Tower or the Steel Alliance. We’ll trade the information we have for their assistance.”
“What kind of information?”
“Evidence of what Dominion did in Zone 9 Underground.”
He likely suspected it too. That Zone 9 wasn’t simply abandoned land. That something filthy and sinister lay buried beneath it.
“…Will it work?”
“We won’t know until we try.”
I pulled out the main unit of the communicator and placed it on the workbench. If this failed, we would truly become trapped rats.
“Ji-young.”
“Yes.”
Lee Ji-young approached. She removed her goggles and cleaned her glasses.
“Can you do this?”
“I know how to handle the equipment. The problem is… what’s outside.”
She connected the cables and powered it on. With a low hum, the machine activated. But what poured from the speakers wasn’t a human voice.
“Crackle— SCREEEECH— Beeeep—”
Ear-splitting noise. Not mere static. Someone was deliberately crushing the signal.
“As I thought…”
Lee Ji-young’s expression hardened.
“Radio jamming. Extremely powerful… S-Rank mana wavelength. Dominion has erected a massive silence barrier over District 9 Airspace.”
“Can’t we break through it?”
Park Jae-jung asked with a grave expression.
“Impossible by conventional means. They’re literally devouring the signal itself.”
Lee Ji-young irritably moved to close her laptop. It was hopeless. We’d risked our lives to bring this equipment, only for it to be useless.
“Ji-young.”
I grabbed her wrist.
“What if you saw it with your eyes?”
“What?”
“Your skill—Eye of Truth. You can see what machines cannot read.”
She stared at me blankly.
“The flow of mana, patterns, and even the most minute gaps.”
No matter how perfect Dominion’s barrier was, it was ultimately maintained by people. And no magic in this world is flawless. Somewhere, there would always be a crack.
“I’ll try. But I can’t guarantee anything.”
“Don’t overexert yourself. Just give me the signal, and I’ll push through.”
Lee Ji-young took a deep breath, removed her glasses, and placed them on the workbench. Then she slowly closed her eyes, and opened them again.
[Skill Activated: Eye of Truth]
Above her pupils, blue mana circuits bloomed in geometric patterns. Her vision transformed. The damp repair shop ceiling vanished, and the sky beyond it came into view.
“Hmm… there’s a black spider-web-like mana barrier covering everything around us.”
Lee Ji-young’s Eye of Truth perceived something we could not see.
“I need to find a gap.”
She widened her eyes with intensity.
“…I found it.”
Blood trickled from Lee Ji-young’s nose as she gripped the communication device’s frequency dial with trembling hands. She began tuning the frequency, relying solely on her Eye of Truth and her senses.
Crackle… screech… whine.
At some point, the ear-splitting static vanished, and clear white noise came through.
“Now! Ten seconds!”
Lee Ji-young shouted without even wiping the blood from her face.
I grabbed the microphone without hesitation. There was no time to wait for a response.
“This is Zone 9, Mun Glade. We are alive.”
Then I pressed the transmission button I’d prepared. [File Transfer: Zone_9_Core_Analysis_Data.zip]
“This is the truth Dominion has hidden. Blue Tower, you would understand its value.”
Crackle-!
A red light illuminated on the communication device. An overload warning. Lee Ji-young staggered, gripping the dial and holding on.
“Just a little… just a little more…”
The transmission gauge rose slowly. 80%… 90%…
“We demand answers. In twenty-four hours, open this frequency.”
99%… 100%.
Boom!
The communication device’s fuse burst, sending sparks flying.
“Ah!”
Lee Ji-young cried out as she was thrown backward. Han Su-jin caught her.
“Ji-young! Unnie!”
Smoke rose from the communication device. And silence returned once more.
I stood dazed, lowering the microphone. Did it succeed? Or did it cut off at that final one percent?
“Haa… haa…”
Lee Ji-young breathed heavily in Han Su-jin’s embrace, her face smeared with sweat and blood.
“I… I sent it…”
She murmured in a weakened voice.
“I couldn’t… confirm it… but surely… through that gap…”
“You did well. That’s enough.”
I patted her shoulder with trembling hands. Whether the other side heard us remained unknown. But we had punctured a small hole through the wall of silence.
Now all that remained was waiting. Hoping the invisible signal had reached them. And hoping that beyond that wall, someone existed to catch our voice.
“Rest now. We’ve done everything we can.”
I sank to the Floor, gazing at the smoking machine. It felt as though an unbearably long night lay ahead.
Crackle.
Tap.
Thud.
I was wrestling with scattered components atop the Workbench.
“Sigh….”
Sweat trickled down my forehead, stinging my eyes, but I had no free hand to wipe it away. Instead of a soldering iron, I gripped a heat-scorched metal skewer; instead of a precision screwdriver, a sharpened tweezers.
“That’s… actually going to work?”
Seo Eun-ha, watching from beside me, asked with evident concern.
“It has to work.”
I gestured with my chin toward the smartphone resting nearby—a cracked-screen device, broken and belonging to one of Lee Seung-ryong’s party members.
“The main transmission chip in the communicator burned out. There’s no way to replace it, so instead I’m going to extract the communication module from this smartphone and transplant it.”
“Will that even be compatible?”
“Not just by plugging it in, no. That’s why….”
I lifted a copper wire thinner than a human hair with the tweezers.
“I’m bypassing the circuit and forcing the voltage to match. Physically twisting the connections together.”
There were no magical skills involved. This was purely my hand dexterity, my C-Rank agility, and the crude techniques I’d learned grinding away as an F-Rank porter just to survive—the knack for dismantling broken equipment and reselling it. That grueling work was finally paying dividends today.
Sizzle. The heated metal skewer melted solder, securing the wire in place.
“Done.”
I stared at the unsightly communicator, its casing left open, wires jutting out haphazardly. It was hideous. But when I pressed the power button, a faint green light flickered to life.
“Ooh…!”
Lee Seung-ryong and the Hunters let out soft exclamations.
“Now it’s a race against time.”
I checked my wristwatch. Five minutes remained until the promised twenty-four hours elapsed. Lee Ji-young stumbled over and sat beside me, her complexion still pallid.
“Are you ready, Ji-young?”
“Yes. My head aches a bit, but my eyes are open.”
She removed her glasses and took a deep breath.
The appointed hour. Midnight. Lee Ji-young activated her Eye of Truth. Blue circuitry materialized across her pupils.
“…Huh?”
She let out a confused gasp.
“What is it? You don’t see a gap?”
“No… it’s not that….”
With trembling hands, she pointed into empty space.
“The Wall… it’s opening. Someone outside is forcibly drilling through it.”
Crackle—
Static erupted from the communicator’s speaker. We hadn’t even synchronized frequencies yet.
“Sizzle… ah, ah. Microphone test.”
The noise cleared abruptly, replaced by a clean, distinct voice. It was the Blue Tower.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————