The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 74

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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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74
Chapter 74 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Park Mi-kyung. She appeared to be in her late thirties to early forties. Her short hair was matted with sweat and grease, and her muscular forearms, exposed beneath her loose work clothes, were thick and toned. Yet her entire body was covered in crimson blotches.
[Status Abnormality: Acute Core Energy Poisoning]
[Nervous System Damage Progressing]
Her status window blazed red before my eyes. Her pupils had lost their focus, and her veins had darkened into stark prominence. The contaminated gas was gnawing away at her nervous system, triggering horrific hallucinations and excruciating headaches.
“Park Mi-kyung.”
When I called out softly, she startled and lifted her head. Her vacant eyes turned toward me—or rather, they seemed to be staring at the empty space behind me.
“W-who are you? Did you come to catch me too? Get away! I’ll tear you apart!”
With trembling hands, she seized the monkey wrench beside her and swung it wildly at the air. It wasn’t an attack so much as a desperate thrashing—a creature cornered by invisible terror, fighting for survival.
“Please, calm down. I’m not here to hurt you.”
I stepped closer.
“Your head feels like it’s splitting open, and the world spins before your eyes, doesn’t it? Like insects crawling beneath your skin.”
Park Mi-kyung’s movements froze. Her pupils trembled violently as she stared at me. I had struck exactly at the heart of that terrible agony only she could feel.
“Ugh… ughhhh…”
She dropped the wrench and clutched her head, anguished whimpers escaping her lips.
I was certain now. This negotiation would succeed. What she needed wasn’t comfort—it was treatment to end this suffering.
I extended my hand slowly, with the calm composure of a physician approaching a patient.
“I can help you.”
“Ugh… don’t come near…”
Park Mi-kyung stumbled backward. Behind her lay the cold scrap metal wall. With nowhere left to retreat, she thrust the wrench toward me—not a true threat, but the desperate flailing of a cornered beast at the cliff’s edge.
“Who’s there! Get out of my head! Get out!”
She screamed at the empty air, tears streaming down her face. The hallucinations born of gas poisoning. To her eyes right now, I was no savior—I was a demon or monster come to torment her.
“Lee Tae-hyun, be careful! That woman has incredible strength!”
Kim Seok-hun’s urgent shout came from behind. Indeed, the muscle definition visible through the gaps in her loose work clothes was more substantial than most men’s. But she was still just a sick woman.
Clang.
I caught the wrench she swung with effortless ease. She gasped in surprise and strained to wrench it back, but the metal bar didn’t budge an inch in my A-rank grip.
“Relax. You’ll break it.”
I gently pried the wrench from her hands and tossed it aside. It clattered away.
“It hurts… it hurts so much…”
With her weapon gone, her defenses crumbled entirely. She collapsed to the floor, cradling her head. Her fingernails raked across her scalp, drawing blood that seeped through her hair. How unbearable the pain must be. With contaminated core energy directly scraping her brain nerves, it had to be worse than burning flesh.
I knelt on one knee before her and extended my right hand—the one without the gauntlet. Precise mana control required the gauntlet, but for biotic purification, direct contact provided superior sensitivity.
“Just hold on a moment.”
“No… I don’t want… I don’t!”
She tried to push my hand away, but I blocked her resistance and placed my palm against her forehead. The moment my hand made contact, analysis began.
Through my palm, I felt her body temperature—burning like a furnace. The blood flowing through her veins was scalding, and within that inferno, I sensed sticky, repulsive foreign matter. Mutated core energy particles. They clung to her nervous system, sparking and igniting.
‘This is critical.’
Any longer and her brain would have liquefied or suffered permanent damage. But it wasn’t too late. Not now that I had made contact.
“Purify.”
Whooooom—
The mana within my body surged like waves, flowing through my palms into her mind. This was not a destructive force—it was a cleansing one. Like pouring clear water endlessly into a cup filled with muddy water, my pure mana overwhelmed her contaminated nervous system.
Screech!
Her body began to respond. Black smoke erupted from her pores, carrying the acrid stench of tar and sulfur. The toxins accumulated within her body were being expelled.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
She screamed and gripped my arm tightly, her nails digging into flesh, but I remained unmoved. This was not pain—merely the sting of disinfectant on a wound.
“It’s alright. It’s draining out.”
I increased the output of my mana. An invisible current materialized before my eyes. The dark crimson fog strangling her brain was being pushed away by my white light. The twisted neural pathways found their proper places, and the swollen blood vessels subsided.
Ninety-eight percent of the contamination was removed, and her nervous system stabilized. After about three minutes, her screams ceased, and her ragged breathing gradually became calm. The tension in her grip on my arm weakened.
Ssshhh…
As the last black smoke dispersed into the air, her face emerged. The flushed skin regained its natural color, and the bloodshot eyes cleared. I wiped the sweat from her forehead and withdrew my hand.
“It’s done.”
She blinked blankly, staring into empty space with unfocused eyes like someone awakening from a long nightmare, then slowly looked down at her own hands.
“…Huh?”
A hoarse voice escaped her lips.
“It… doesn’t hurt?”
The woodpeckers that had relentlessly pecked at her head were gone. The red hallucinations that obscured her vision, the tinnitus that pierced her ears—nothing remained. Only silence and the fresh morning air.
She touched her own head in disbelief and pinched her cheek.
“How… what is this…?”
She lifted her head to look at me. The wariness faded, replaced by confusion. The man she thought was a demon trying to kill her moments ago now appeared like an angel in a doctor’s coat.
But I had no intention of being an angel.
“Are you coming to your senses, Park Mi-kyung?”
She nodded blankly.
“Who… are you? A doctor? Or… a Hunter?”
“Neither.”
I picked up her wrench that lay nearby and handed it to her.
“I’m just a visitor with a need.”
She took the wrench with trembling hands. As the familiar tool’s weight settled in her grip, her eyes gradually regained their light. The sharp rationality unique to a technician was returning.
She tried to stand but stumbled. Her stamina was depleted from prolonged hunger and illness. Kim Seok-hun quickly approached and steadied her.
“Director Park, are you alright? It’s me, Kim Seok-hun.”
“…Uncle Kim? Why are you here…?”
She alternated her gaze between Kim Seok-hun and me, trying to quickly grasp the situation. Then she looked at me again.
“You fixed me?”
“Yes.”
“It’s not free, is it? What do you want?”
Just as Kim Seok-hun said—she was no pushover. The fact that she immediately asked for the price from her lifesaver revealed how fiercely she had survived in the Lower District. I liked that.
“The Tower.”
I answered briefly and pointed upward with my finger.
“The blueprints of the Anchor Tower’s pipe system. And a route to infiltrate the interior while avoiding the sensor detection network. That’s what I want to know.”
Park Mi-kyung’s expression hardened. She tightened her grip on the wrench and closed her mouth. Silence stretched between us.
“…You’re insane.”
She let out a hollow laugh.
“The Tower’s interior was blown apart. The Elevator, the Staircase—everything’s severed. What are you going to do in there? Climb with your bare hands?”
I took a step closer to her.
“Park Mi-kyung, just show me the way. It’s the price for pulling you out of that suffering.”
She stared up at me intently, her gaze searching my eyes for any hint of deception. But there was no wavering in mine.
“Ha….”
She exhaled a sigh and brushed her disheveled hair back.
“Fine. I did come back from the brink of death, didn’t I? Compared to that skull-splitting agony, handing over a scrap of blueprints is nothing.”
She staggered toward the Workbench, rummaged through the haphazardly stacked piles of scrap metal, and pulled out a bundle of oil-stained, weathered blueprints.
“Here. Unofficial blueprints the Dominion used when they were maintaining the Tower.”
She unfolded the blueprints on the Workbench. Complex Pipe System lines and power grids were drawn like a spider’s web. But her finger pointed not to the center of the blueprints, but to a remote corner.
“But you know one thing and miss two others.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sensors? Detection networks? That’s not the problem.”
She lifted her head to look at me.
“The Tower’s interior is currently… completely filled with water.”
“Water?”
“When it exploded, the coolant pipes ruptured. From the Underground to 300 meters above Ground Level, the Tower’s interior is now nothing but a massive vertical aquarium. And that water… it’s not just water. It’s contaminated water mixed with Core Energy waste.”
She continued.
“Evade the sensors and open the hatch? The moment you do, hundreds of tons of contaminated water will pour out and drown you. Or rather, you’ll dissolve before that happens.”
It was an unforeseen variable. I wouldn’t simply be climbing a wall—I’d have to swim up through 300 meters of toxic poison.
Kim Seok-hun’s face went pale. But I looked down at the blueprints and smiled.
“Contaminated water, huh….”
For an ordinary person, even touching it would cause their flesh to rot away. But for me?
“That’s actually good news.”
“What?”
Park Mi-kyung frowned. I grinned at her.
This actually worked out well. Swimming through water was far faster than climbing through empty air. And if that water was contaminated, it meant it was full of fuel to replenish my mana infinitely.
I pointed my finger at the drainage valve she had indicated on the blueprints.
“Can you definitely open this?”
Instead of answering, Park Mi-kyung scoffed. She slapped the blueprints shut and rubbed her belly with her oil-stained hand.
“Listen, friend. I don’t know if you’re a hero or just insane, but I’m a patient. I haven’t had a drop of water for days while breathing in gas and groaning.”
A thunderous growl erupted from her stomach, instantly shattering the serious atmosphere of the cramped Workshop.
“Even the most beautiful mountain is best appreciated after a meal. How about you get me some food first? Now that my head’s clear, I’m starving to death.”
At her words, I smiled bitterly. She was right. No matter how urgent things were, a person had to eat to survive. I myself had been running on empty since the few rat scraps I’d caught yesterday.
“Let’s go. I’ll buy you a meal.”
We left the Workshop and headed toward the Plaza. Dawn was already breaking. Beneath the gray sky, the morning landscape of Block 9 Shantytown was slowly revealing itself.
Sizzle—glub glub.
People had already gathered in the center of the Plaza. The broth made from the Giant Rat meat and bones I’d brought yesterday was boiling in a large drum. White steam rose, filling the cold dawn air with a savory, though slightly gamey, aroma.
“Oh, Lee Tae-hyun’s here!”
“Director Park, too? How are you feeling?”
The people gathered around the fire, receiving their rations of soup, parted to let us through. Just days ago, they had locked their doors, doubting each other’s survival. But now that food had become their common anchor, their faces bore a strange sense of solidarity and ease.
I claimed a spot on a worn wooden bench in the corner. Kim Seok-hun arrived carrying two steaming bowls of soup and a plate of roughly sliced boiled meat.
“Please eat. The meat may be tough, but the broth is quite good.”
Park Mi-kyung lifted the bowl to her lips before even picking up a spoon, gulping down the broth.
Slurp—gulp.
The sound of scalding liquid traveling down her throat was raw and unfiltered. She emptied the entire bowl without pause, then grabbed the meat with her bare hands and tore into it ravenously. There was no pretense, no formality. Only the primal instinct to survive.
I picked up my spoon as well. The warmth of the broth loosened the tension that had seized my insides. The flavor was rough, yet it carried a depth no refined dish could match.
“Ahh….”
Park Mi-kyung let out a deep sigh after devouring several pieces of meat in moments. She wiped the grease from her lips with her sleeve and looked at me. Her eyes had transformed. The pupils once filled with madness and agony had vanished, replaced by the sharp, cynical gaze of a skilled engineer.
“I feel like I might actually live now.”
She set down the bone.
“Thank you. For fixing me. For the meal.”
I replied flatly and set down my chopsticks.
“Shall we continue talking about the Tower?”
“Who do you think owns the Tower?”
“The Government. Private companies just manage it under contract.”
“Exactly. Technically, it’s critical national infrastructure. That’s why the design is extremely conservative. It was built to maintain its structural integrity under any circumstance—never to collapse.”
She began drawing on the water stains spilled across the floor with her finger.
“The Tower’s interior isn’t hollow. A massive vertical conduit runs through its center. Coolant—a mana conductor—circulates up to 600 meters in height, cooling the Tower’s heat and channeling mana upward.”
Her finger traced the Tower’s midsection.
“But there was an explosion two weeks ago. An impact severe enough to sever the Tower’s waist. The elevators and stairs must be destroyed, but why does the Tower still stand?”
“…An emergency system?”
“Bingo.”
Park Mi-kyung nodded.
“When impact is detected, emergency cooling valves automatically rupture, filling the empty spaces inside the Tower with coolant. It stabilizes the center of gravity and prevents fire. It’s like a built-in fire suppression system.”
Her explanation was logical. Anyone familiar with the structure could predict such a scenario without seeing it firsthand.
“The problem is… that water.”
Park Mi-kyung’s expression darkened.
“When the gas disaster struck, where did the core energy gas scattered across the ground level go? Gas with nowhere to escape seeps into the lowest points and anywhere there’s liquid. The water reservoir at the Tower’s base would be exactly where it collected.”
“Then….”
“Right. The Tower’s interior isn’t just water anymore. It’s highly contaminated fluid saturated with the toxic gas from ground level. Think of it as a 300-meter-deep tank of poison.”
She stared directly at me.
“Open the hatch? That’s not difficult. But the moment you do, you’ll be drenched in hundreds of tons of contaminated water, and swimming up through it would be suicide. Your skin would melt off.”
The people around us murmured uneasily. Contaminated water. The word alone was horrifying. But I simply picked up my chopsticks again and put the remaining meat in my mouth.
“Are you certain about this? Not just speculation?”
“The blueprints in my head don’t lie. Physics doesn’t lie either.”
“Then let’s verify it.”
I stood up.
“I’ll go directly and taste the water to see how toxic it really is.”
“What? Listen, you don’t believe me?”
“I believe you. That’s why we’re going to check.”
Park Mi-kyung’s expression showed exasperation, but as I moved forward, she reluctantly rose from her seat as if she had no choice.
“Sigh… this is what happens when you owe a madman a favor. Fine, let’s go. I’ll guide you, but don’t blame me if you die.”

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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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