The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 76

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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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76
Chapter 76 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Whirrrrrrr—!
The ground beneath my feet began to tremble. The vibration from the massive pump shook the entire Control Room like an earthquake, and the ear-splitting mechanical roar mixed with the sound of water rushing through the Pipe System was so deafening that I couldn’t even hear the person next to me speak.
“Ugh! My ears are going to burst!”
Park Mi-kyung covered her ears and shouted toward the monitor.
“The water level is dropping! Right now at 90%… 80%…”
The graph on the screen was plummeting sharply, but there was no time to celebrate. This tremendous noise and vibration was like a dinner bell ringing for the Underground monsters that had been sleeping.
Kieeeek—!
Grrrrr….
Red lights began flickering to life from the darkness of the distant Tunnel.
One, two, ten… No, dozens of them.
These creatures were mutants adapted to the humid, dark environment of the Tower Underground, and they were extremely sensitive to sound.
Mutated Underground Tunnel Spiders, Acidic Slimes, even Giant Rat Alpha specimens. The variety was diverse. A repulsive swarm that looked like it had been scraped from the bottom of the Sewers was charging toward the Control Room’s lights.
“Lee Tae-hyun! What are all those things?!”
Park Mi-kyung screamed in terror. I stood firm in front of the blast door and drew the short sword from my waist.
“Don’t worry about it!”
I shouted without even turning around.
“Director Park, just watch the screen! Don’t take your hands off until all the water is drained!”
“Yeah, got it! Damn it!”
She started typing on the keyboard again. I took a deep breath. A narrow entrance. Fortunately, there was only this one steel door leading into the Control Room. If I exploit the bottleneck, I have a chance.
Tap-tap-tap—!
The massive Tunnel Spider at the front crawled across the Ceiling and spat venom down at my head.
Sizzle!
I tilted my head lightly to dodge. The moment the venom fell to the Floor and released white smoke, I pushed off the ground and leaped upward.
“Vanish.”
Slash.
My short sword drew a silver line through the air. All eight of the spider’s legs were severed simultaneously, and its body plummeted to the Floor. It wasn’t mere cutting. The flames of purification seeped into the severed edges, burning away the very cells attempting to regenerate.
Kee…?!
Before it could even scream, I stepped on its back and launched myself toward the next one.
Thud! Whoosh!
This time it was a swarm of Giant Rats. They were known for attacking in packs and tearing with their teeth. But before A-rank speed, their fangs only scraped empty air. My short sword danced, piercing precisely through their throats and hearts.
There was no time for corpses to pile up. The dead ones in my hands either vanished into white light and dust, or were purified into mana and absorbed into me. The more I fought, the less tired I became—instead, my mana surged upward. This strange sensation was the true way of combat for a Purifier.
“A monster….”
I heard Park Mi-kyung murmuring in a daze behind me. Did I look to her like a white reaper dancing among dozens of creatures?
Then it happened.
Thud— Thud— Thud—
Heavy footsteps different from the small fry echoed through the Tunnel. The rats and spiders, terrified, split to both sides. A massive shadow emerged from the darkness.
Mud Golem.
A 3-meter B-rank monster made of mud, filth, and discarded machine parts. It was so enormous it completely filled the Passage.
Kwuooooo-!
The creature swung its mud arm toward me. There was nowhere to dodge.
“Lee Tae-hyun! Get out of the way!”
Park Mi-kyung’s warning came, but I didn’t retreat. Instead, I gripped the dagger in reverse and extended my left palm toward the creature’s muddy torso.
“I’ll pass on the mud bath.”
I grinned wickedly.
“It’s far too filthy.”
Boom-!
As its fist collided with my left palm, a tremendous shockwave slammed into the entrance of the Control Room. But it wasn’t I who was sent flying backward.
“Purification.”
A blinding pillar of light erupted from my palm. To a golem composed of filth, the radiance of pure purification was a force that denied its very existence.
Ssssssshhhhh-!
Starting from its arm, the creature’s entire body began to boil. As the binding force of the core energy mixed within the mud severed, the golem lost its form and collapsed.
Thud thud. Clang clang.
Three seconds later. The once-massive monster had vanished, leaving only a single crimson stone—its core—and scattered scrap metal embedded within its body scattered across the Floor.
The Tunnel fell silent. As the leader disappeared so pathetically, the remaining minions panicked and fled into the darkness. I brushed the dust from my clothes and turned back.
“Director Park. How’s the operation?”
Park Mi-kyung stared at me with her mouth agape. She snapped back to attention at my question and checked the monitors.
“Huh? Ah… it’s done. Drainage complete!”
The water level graph on the screen pointed to 0%. Simultaneously, the pump noise that had been assaulting my ears began to fade.
Whirrrr… click.
As the machinery stopped, silence settled over the Control Room. Park Mi-kyung rose from her chair and approached me, examining my body from every angle.
“Are… you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“Hah, unbelievable.”
She let out a hollow laugh.
“Those news anchors are all liars. Murdered a security officer? With your skill, it wouldn’t be murder—it’d be a massacre. But seeing how cleanly you subdued it….”
She trailed off and shook her head.
“Anyway, thank you. I’m alive because of you.”
“I came here to work.”
I answered briefly and turned my gaze back toward the Tunnel. The Anchor Tower now drained of water—it would be waiting for me as a massive vertical shaft.
“Shall we go? The water’s gone, so the path should be open now.”
We returned to the lower section of the Tower. Kim Seok-hun, pacing with an anxious expression, spotted us and rushed over.
“Lee Tae-hyun! Director Park! You’re both safe! The noise suddenly stopped and I was worried….”
“The operation was successful.”
I walked toward the Tower’s Hatch. The Contaminated Water that had been pouring down like a waterfall moments ago had stopped completely. Now only a damp, briny breeze was flowing from within the Hatch.
I switched on my portable lantern and shone it inside—the sight was magnificent.
The interior of the Tower, now drained of water, resembled the belly of some colossal beast. A cylindrical space fifty meters in diameter. The walls grotesquely exposed a complex tangle of Pipes and steel structures, while the Floor was littered with viscous slime left behind by the receding water and bones of indeterminate origin.
And above. Darkness stretching vertiginously high. A vertical passage extending six hundred meters upward to the Middle District.
“Truly… completely empty.”
Kim Seok-hun swallowed hard. Park Mi-kyung also looked up at the interior with an exhausted expression.
“You’re going to climb up there? With your bare hands?”
“Yes.”
I drew my short blade and tapped the pipes on the wall. They were corroded, but still sturdy.
“There are plenty of footholds. It won’t be faster than the Elevator, but it’s a reliable path.”
I turned back to look at the two of them. Now came the moment of parting.
I pulled out the purified water canister and preserved rations I’d prepared in advance from my backpack and handed them over. Then I took out a few small stones from my pocket—makeshift purification stones I’d infused with mana bit by bit.
“Place these at the Village entrance and by the water Tank. The lesser monsters hate the smell and won’t approach.”
Kim Seok-hun took the items with a trembling expression.
“Lee Tae-hyun… Are you really leaving? You’ll come back, right?”
“I’m not sure.”
I gazed into the darkness of the Tower.
“There’s something I need to resolve up there. Once that’s done… maybe we can see each other again with smiles someday.”
I gave Park Mi-kyung a light nod.
“Director Park, consider the medical bills settled with this. Take good care of yourself.”
“Hmph. Who are you to say that? Just don’t fall and die.”
She grumbled, but her eyes were glistening. They believed in me despite the terrorist stigma branded upon me. That was enough.
“Then, I’ll be going.”
Without hesitation, I entered the Hatch. My feet touched the damp Floor as I grasped the first pipe. The cold touch of metal. This would be the ladder carrying me to the Middle District and to where Kang Chang-gyung was.
Clang.
The chill of cold metal seeped through my gloves. The Pipe System twisted like a spider’s web along the Tower’s inner walls. It was the only path I could rely on in this vast darkness.
I tilted my head back and looked up at the dizzying heights. The cylindrical space, fifty meters in diameter, had no visible end, and cold water droplets falling from above struck my forehead and trickled down my cheeks.
‘I have to go.’
I drove the Shadow Fang gripped in my right hand into a crevice in the Wall.
Clang!
The sharp sound of metal striking metal echoed through the empty space. The sound reverberated for several seconds before being swallowed by the darkness. Perfect silence. Isolation. It felt as though I alone had been left behind in the world.
I used the short blade as a brace to pull myself up. My left hand gripped the pipe while my feet stepped on the protruding bolts. Once, twice. The mechanical repetition began.
At first, I made good progress. My A-rank muscles generated explosive propulsion, but after ten, twenty minutes, the situation changed.
The pipe I gripped with my left hand was slippery. It wasn’t mere moisture. Concentrated contaminated sludge pressed against the Wall during drainage—viscous like oil, acidic enough to corrode my gloves the moment it touched.
Thud…
Fragments of broken pipe fell below. Perhaps because the Floor was too far away, I heard no sound. That silence felt even more eerie.
I steadied my breathing. Rush, and I fall. Fall, and I die unknown.
“Purify.”
I channeled mana into my left hand gripping the pipe.
Sizzle—
White steam rose as the black sludge burned away. The slickness vanished, revealing a clean metal surface. Only then did I exert force to pull myself up.
Pierce, burn, pull.
The repetition continued.
Pierce, burn, pull.
It was less a simple climb than an ascetic practice of clearing the path as I rose. Wherever my hands passed, the black filth was washed away, and in the darkness, a faint silver path of metal emerged like a trail.
100 meters.
Click—thud.
At that moment, a dull sound echoed from above my head. Not mechanical. Something scraping against a shell.
I stopped climbing and pressed myself flat against the wall. I didn’t shine my lantern upward. They might react to the light. I opened my senses fully, groping through the darkness.
Above my head, the Pipe System twisted in a tangled mass. In every crevice, enormous Cocoons clung densely together. As the water drained away, the parasites that had been dormant in the pipes had awakened.
Mutated Tube Worms.
Red masses of flesh writhed in the pipe gaps. They waited silently with gaping mouths, like traps for prey. There was no way around them. I had to punch straight through.
I held my breath. Fighting wasn’t the objective. I had to pass without being detected, or at least with minimal conflict.
Whoosh.
I moved like Shadow itself, silent and deliberate. I found the blind spots beyond their tentacle reach and concealed my body behind the pipes as I advanced. Their ragged breathing sounded from right beside me, and a revolting fishy stench assaulted my nostrils, but I didn’t flinch—just one careful step after another, climbing higher.
Tick.
A mistake. As I shifted my weight, I brushed a corroded bolt fragment. A small piece fell and struck the pipe. A tiny sound. But not to them.
Kiiieeeek!
The nearest one shrieked and lashed out with its tentacles. A gelatinous whip snapping through the air. I didn’t dodge. I couldn’t. Dodging meant falling.
I gripped the pipe hard with my left hand and drew my short blade with my right. The instant its tentacle coiled toward my throat, I traced its arc and severed it with perfect precision.
Whoosh.
A cut so sharp it made no sound. Toxic body fluid sprayed from the severed tentacle’s cross-section, but it burned white against my purified clothes. The creature thrashed in agony, trying to rouse the others.
‘Too late.’
I seized the moment and exploded upward with all my strength. Stealth was over. Now it was a race against time.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Tentacles converged from all directions. I twisted through the air and used the pipes as stepping stones, launching myself higher. An unstoppable velocity. I tore through their forest, climbing toward greater heights, deeper darkness.
150 meters.
Once I broke free of the Tube Worm Colony, I could finally catch my breath. But relief was short-lived.
Kuoooooo—
A heavy cry rose from below.

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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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