The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 62

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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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62
Chapter 62 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
As the beam of sunlight that had poured down like a single thread of hope was cut off, the rooftop sank once more beneath the Lower District’s characteristic sickly yellow and dingy artificial lighting. It felt as though a massive coffin lid had slammed shut.
I leaned against the railing, gazing upward at that colossal expanse of steel pressing down upon my head.
People call this place the Lower District. But strictly speaking, even this ground beneath our feet is not the true earth.
In the past, when the Great Cataclysm struck, monsters poured forth first from below—from the Ground Surface where putrid water and mud churned together. Humanity abandoned the earth to survive, climbing upward. Ruined buildings thirty to fifty meters high. Their rooftops precariously connected by steel frames and bridges, and upon them, a shantytown constructed—an aerial structure. That is the Lower District where I now stand.
‘But even that was not enough.’
As Core Energy was released, Awakeners emerged and the existence of Ma Seok was revealed. Humanity gained power, but monsters too consumed Ma Seok, evolved, and climbed ever higher. When even the Lower District ceased to be a safe zone.
Humanity made another decision. Higher still. To a place monsters could never dare reach.
Thus was constructed the massive steel expanse hovering six hundred meters above my head—an artificial plate. Upon it rose the Floating City of the chosen citizens, the Middle District.
And above that existed the Celestial Fortress, the Upper District, built by those who wielded wealth and power, seeking to dominate the heavens.
Thirty meters from the ground, then six hundred meters higher, and beyond that, unfathomably far. This city divided its classes with ruthless precision by height.
“Damn it.”
A hollow laugh escaped me. Just a short while ago, I had been a resident of the Middle District beyond that Gate.
A brand new Officetel with warm water flowing abundantly. A soft bed and clean air. In the evenings, Park Jae-jung, in his forties, would look after his young representative, arriving with chicken in his rough hands, laughing as he suggested we share a beer in that comfortable Living Room.
I had even resolved my mother’s hospital bills. The finest hospital in the Upper District, a VIP private room—I had thought only happiness remained, with no more financial worries. I believed I was finally leaving behind my F-rank porter life and living like everyone else.
“…I should have said something.”
It had been over a month now. The day after visiting my mother, Park Jae-jung had asked me casually.
‘Representative, did you go somewhere nice over the weekend? You look in such good spirits.’
At the time, I simply brushed it off, saying it was nothing, that I had just rested a bit. The truth was I had held my mother’s hand and
“Don’t worry about money anymore. Everything’s been taken care of,”
and my heart had soared with joy on the way back.
Why hadn’t I said it then?
‘Jae-jung, I visited my mother. She doesn’t have to suffer anymore.’
Why was that one sentence so difficult? Was it to maintain dignity as a young representative? Or was I afraid this happiness would shatter?
“How foolish. Truly.”
A dull ache throbbed in my chest. They had made it out alive. Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness—yet the fact that I was not among them, that I had been left alone in this hellish pit once more, cut bone-deep.
Looking back, it was a trap from the start. The massive Guild Dominion. They had pressured the nation into forcing our Moonglade into this dangerous Ground Zone 9 sweep operation. Their intention was to crush our growth before it could take root.
We survived spectacularly and even stopped the explosion. Perhaps Dominion had already known the gas was leaking. As if they knew this would happen, the moment we stopped the explosion, they erased every path from the Lower District to the Middle District.
Blue Tower too had taken its profits and abandoned me, and I had returned to square one.
“Still… I won’t die for any of you.”
I steadied my ragged breathing.
I had to return. I had to survive and make it back to that warm Officetel Living Room, and tell Park Jae-jung the truth. That I had actually visited my mother. That was why I had been in such good spirits.
Bang—!
As if refusing to grant me even a moment of sentiment, the iron door to the rooftop entrance was wrenched open violently. It was not a monster.
“Cough… gasp, gasp… Damn it. Did they all leave?”
“Boss. The Blue Tower bastards are gone. The Transport Ship disappeared.”
Pouring onto the rooftop, gasping roughly, were the remnants of Iron Fist who had been beaten down by Seo Eun-ha in the Corridor earlier. And at their center stood a man with half his face a bloody pulp, swaying unsteadily.
Mad Dog. The Guild Master of Iron Fist. He had taken a direct hit from Seo Eun-ha’s fist, his nose shattered and teeth knocked out, yet with stubborn tenacity he had survived, clawing his way up here leading his subordinates.
“You bastards… my Ma Seok… my money…”
Mad Dog spat blood-tinged saliva and gnashed his teeth. His eyes were bloodshot with venom and rage—the eyes of a beast that had lost everything. Those eyes found me standing at the rooftop railing and froze.
“…Huh? Wait, that bastard.”
Mad Dog’s mangled face twisted grotesquely.
“Isn’t that the guy from before? That porter bastard!”
His subordinates murmured and surrounded me.
“Really? He didn’t board?”
“Was he abandoned? How pathetic!”
Murderous intent spread across their faces. Seo Eun-ha, the S-Rank who had pulverized them, had departed. What remained was a single, seemingly defenseless F-Rank porter. They needed a target for their rage, and a perfect prey had just materialized.
“Hey, this works out. You ruined my life, so at least crushing you will make the trip to the afterlife feel less unjust.”
Mad Dog discarded his broken chainsaw and drew a heavy machete from his waist. His twenty-odd subordinates also unsheathed their weapons and snickered.
“Boss, check out that bastard’s clothes. They look incredible.”
“If we strip those and sell them, we’ll have drinking money.”
They licked their lips at my tactical jacket. But they didn’t know what expression I wore in that moment.
I withdrew a white dagger from my pocket and gripped it in reverse. White mana bloomed from my palm.
“A porter, huh….”
I smirked.
Right, to your eyes I’m still just an F-Rank hauling cargo. Dominion, Blue Tower, all of you—you’re all the same. You judge by appearance alone.
“I wanted to go home, but you’re going to make me late.”
“Don’t bark, you little rat! Kill him.”
At Mad Dog’s command, the nearest operative charged forward, swinging a steel pipe. It was sloppy. The trajectory, the speed—far too predictable. For my agility stat raised to C-Rank, it was enough to make me yawn.
Whoosh—
I twisted my torso slightly to evade the pipe and drove into his guard. No hesitation. My dagger pierced his left chest precisely—the mana core where his heart lay.
Squelch!
“Gack…?!”
His eyes rolled back. But the true agony wasn’t from the blade wound.
[Skill: Purification – Forced Core Deactivation]
My pure mana surged through the dagger into his heart. The turbid mana flowing through his body collided with my power. No—it couldn’t even collide. My purification consumed his crude mana in an instant and forcibly tore apart the skill structure inscribed upon his core.
Crackle—!
“Ah, aaaagh! My body… my strength….”
He convulsed, screaming. Through my hand gripping the dagger, his vitality, mana, and the fragments of his skills were sucked in viscously.
Thud—
As I withdrew the dagger, he collapsed to the ground like a mummified husk completely drained of mana.
The mana circuits within my body burned hot. As his corrupted core was purified, the energy contained within flowed into me.
In truth, there was one secret I had never revealed to Seo Eun-ha or Park Jae-jung.
They believed my ability was merely healing that washed away corruption, but the true nature of my purification was far from sacred. It was a force that returned the corrupted to its primordial state—an absolute negation that erased every aberrant phenomenon created by core energy.
A Hunter’s skill, a monster’s resilient body—all were merely byproducts of core energy. Thus, with a single touch, I could erase that blessing and reduce my opponent to a weak human from an earlier age, or something even less.
[Forced Core Energy Deactivation].
This was the true face of my purification skill. Had my allies known, they might have seen me not as a healer or Scrap Alchemist, but as a predator of this world—a power I could never speak aloud.
“What… what did you just do….”
As his subordinate withered and died in an instant, Mad Dog and his remaining men went pale. Fear finally crystallized in their eyes. They had realized this was no porter’s movement.
I gripped the short sword, pristine white and unblemished by a single drop of blood. My gaze fixed upon Mad Dog.
“Mad Dog.”
I advanced slowly toward the retreating figures.
“That tenacious vitality skill of yours—I’ve been coveting it.”
My eyes gleamed with cold intensity.
“Come at me all at once. I need to drain your strength if I’m going to survive this place.”
[System Alert: Analyzing the structure of the target’s skill, Heavy Strike (D).]
[Analysis failed. The authority of purification does not permit the abilities of others.]
[Destroying skill structure. Forcibly reducing to pure mana.]
Whoooosh—!
What flowed through the short sword was not the technique called Heavy Strike that he had wielded. It was the fundamental energy of the core that composed that technique—a mass of pure, crystalline-cold mana with all impurities stripped away.
“Haaah….”
The mana circuits within my body devoured that energy like a starving beast. My veins burned and expanded, and my depleted mana reserves filled to the brim in an instant.
Only then did I grasp the true nature of my ability.
‘That’s right. I was mistaken.’
I had harbored a secret hope—that I could steal their skills and make them my own. But my purification was not a power that permitted such crude theft.
‘A unique and unparalleled authority that interferes with all contamination in the world.’
This was the first sentence written in my skill description. A power that annihilates contaminants or restores twisted, corrupted matter to its primordial essence.
The skills that Hunters use are ultimately corrupted forms of power created by artificially warping and processing core energy. Spewing fire or swelling muscles—these phenomena themselves defy the laws of nature.
My purification regarded that artificial manipulation—that skill—as contamination and shattered it. Then it converted the remnants into the purest form of energy and offered it to me.
‘I cannot steal skills. But…’
I clenched and unclenched my fists. The density of mana flowing through my fingertips was on an entirely different level than before.
‘I can expand my mana circuits themselves.’
The high-purity energy obtained by decomposing the opponent’s skill permanently strengthened my mana circuits. In other words, the more enemies I defeated, the more my fundamental power level would swell like a thug’s muscles.
Of course, this alone would not immediately elevate me from C-Rank to B-Rank or A-Rank. To break through the barrier of rank, my body would need to approach the threshold of death, undergoing a process of cellular destruction and reconstruction. But until then, I could burn this infinite fuel and become an indefatigable monster.
“You… you bastard….”
Mad Dog, who had been horrified by the sight of his ally becoming a mummified corpse from mana depletion in an instant, snapped back to his senses and snarled.
“Kill him! That bastard’s a mage! Don’t give him distance—crush him!”
“Uaaaagh!”
Screaming to suppress their fear, they charged at me in unison. Steel pipes, axes, and crude magical arrows flew from all directions.
But to my eyes, every trajectory was crystal clear. My enhanced mana circuits had accelerated the signal processing speed sent to my sensory organs.
Whoosh—!
I lowered my body in place. An axe blade cleaved through the air above my head.
“Got you!”
One of them seized the opening and thrust a sashimi knife at my ribs. There was no space to evade. But I did not dodge.
Clang—!
“Huh…?”
The moment his blade touched my ribs, it bounced away with a dull metallic ring. The knife blade had lost its edge, and my black jacket bore not a single scratch.
“This thing’s expensive, you know.”
I seized the bewildered man by the collar.
“And you—your mana color is remarkably murky.”
Boom!!
A white shockwave erupted from my palm, slamming into his solar plexus. He couldn’t even scream as he flew backward, crashing into the wall. His heart might still be beating, but his core circuit was scrambled—he wouldn’t be channeling mana for a while.
“That… that insane monster bastard…!”
Mad Dog stumbled backward. The fury that had blazed in his eyes was fading. The man he’d thought was a mere porter was now tearing through his subordinates with his bare body, nullifying their skills and slaughtering them wholesale.
I brushed the dust from my short blade and fixed my gaze on Mad Dog.
“What’s wrong, Mad Dog? A moment ago you were talking about flaying my skin to buy yourself drinks.”
I advanced toward them slowly. With each step, the contaminated gases beneath my feet purified into white wisps that scattered away.
“Come on and try. Though I’ll be taking payment from your core instead of cash.”
“You demonic bastard!”
Mad Dog pulled a crimson vial from his pocket and jammed it into his neck. Instantly, his entire body swelled red, veins bulging as if they might burst.
“I’ll slaughter every last one of you! Graaaaah!”
Mad Dog howled like a beast, all reason abandoned. The explosive surge of mana made the rooftop floor vibrate with a sharp hum.
But I only smiled wider. The more forcibly he’d drawn out this power, the more exquisite a feast it would be for my purification.
“Yes, that’s the way.”
My mana circuits thrummed with delight. If I consumed him, I might finally crack through this tedious C-rank ceiling.
“Come at me. I’ll cleanse you thoroughly.”

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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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