The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 80

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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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80
Chapter 80 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Warm, luminous light bloomed from my palms. Unlike Han Su-jin’s atonement—which brought suffering—this was pure purification. Light that cleansed all contamination and pain, all sorrow and curses.
Whoooosh—
The radiance spread outward. The dark bruising that had consumed Han Su-jin’s arm transformed into black smoke, scattering into the void. Starting from her wrist, through her elbow, up to her shoulder—the blackened veins regained their natural color. Her pallid complexion returned, and her rigid muscles relaxed.
“Ah….”
Tears she’d been holding back burst from her eyes. They were tears mingled with relief as the pain vanished and joy that I was alive.
“Guild Master…”
She gripped my hand tightly. Still trembling, but far warmer than before.
I turned immediately to Park Jae-jung. His leg. The festering wound on his thigh. The curse of the Demon Bullet had burrowed into his flesh, rotting down to the bone. Had I arrived even slightly later, amputation would have been inevitable.
“You’ve suffered greatly, Park Jae-jung.”
“Director… you’re… you’re really alive.”
Park Jae-jung shed thick tears. I’d never seen this taciturn, reticent man weep like this. His rough hand gripped mine. It was trembling.
“I’m ashamed. As vice guild master, I failed to protect our members… I’ve only been a burden….”
“Don’t say such things.”
I placed my hand on his wound and channeled purification light into it. Black toxin rose like smoke from the rotting flesh. As the Demon Bullet’s curse was purified, pink new skin began to bloom.
“Everyone is alive because you endured. You’ve suffered tremendously all this time… thank you.”
“Director….”
Park Jae-jung bowed his head. His shoulders heaved. He wept silently.
I finished the treatment and rose. I looked at Seo Eun-ha, who stood dazed, wiping away tears. Her expression remained one of disbelief.
“You’ve worked hard, Eun-ha.”
She didn’t answer. She simply stared at me in a daze. Her eyes were swollen and red.
“Is it really… really you, Lee Tae-hyun?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you wouldn’t make it back….”
“I did.”
“How… how did you get here? They said all the routes up were blocked….”
“There was another way. I crawled up roughly 600 meters.”
Her eyes widened. She understood what 600 meters meant.
“You’re insane….”
She let out a hollow laugh. Then she struck my chest with her fist.
Thud.
It didn’t hurt. Her punch lacked force. Instead, it carried every emotion imaginable. Anger, relief, joy, resentment.
“You bastard. I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Is sorry enough?”
“….”
“You’re really insane.”
Seo Eun-ha pressed her forehead against my chest. Her shoulders heaved. She was crying. The cool, composed Seo Eun-ha wept like a child.
I raised my hand to stroke her hair, then stopped. Instead, I rested my hand on her shoulder.
“I’m glad you’re all alive.”
“…You idiot.”
Bang! Bang!
But our touching reunion ended there. The sound of dozens of military boots thundered through the corridor outside the iron door.
“Over here! Basement Level 2 Machine Room! Mana signature detected!”
“Breach the door!”
“Prepare flash grenades!”
They’d found us. Using mana to purify had exposed our location. So Dominion had mana detection equipment after all.
Seo Eun-ha flinched and retreated behind me. The tears from moments ago vanished, replaced by fear once more. Park Jae-jung forced himself upright, his eyes scanning the room—searching for a shield.
I raised my hand to stop them.
“Rest. You’re all exhausted.”
“Guild Master, but….”
“It’s fine.”
I walked forward.
I drew Shadow Fang from my waist and wiped the smile from my face. Instead, I filled that space with killing intent rising from the depths of my being.
“While I was gone, you hunted my family like rats.”
Scorching rage boiled within me. These people—the ones who’d done this to my comrades. The ones who’d embedded cursed bullets in Park Jae-jung’s legs. Han Su-jin had been forced to sacrifice her own flesh to survive because of them.
Crash!
The iron door shattered as Dominion’s elite soldiers poured in. Black reinforced combat suits, full-face helmets, heavy weapons equipped with laser rifles. More than ten of them. Dozens of laser targeting dots converged on my chest and head, painting my body crimson.
“Hands up! Move and we fire!”
“Drop your weapons!”
“Kill them all!”
A laugh escaped me.
Those gun barrels? Compared to the mutant monsters pouring from the Surface Rift, they were toys. Compared to the abyssal predator I’d faced in the Lower Tower or the Sentry Golem, this was child’s play.
‘Slow.’
I kicked off the ground. The world decelerated.
The dilating pupils of the lead soldier bursting through the door. The muscle movements of the second one slowly raising his rifle. Even the trajectory of the flash grenade arcing through the air behind them. My A-rank reconstructed senses dissected every detail of the battlefield into individual frames and fed them into my mind.
Dominion’s elite soldiers? Laughable.
Compared to the mutated shadow leopards and Blood Orcs that had descended upon us beneath that crimson rift in Ground Zone 9, these creatures’ movements were enough to make me yawn. Back then, I’d fought for survival, counting tenths of seconds. Did they really think they could catch me at this speed?
“Flash grenade! Close your eyes!”
The Squad Leader shouted, hurling a small metal canister.
Thunk.
I snatched the flash grenade from the air with my bare hand. It burned, but I didn’t care. Before they could even pull their triggers, I rolled it back toward their feet.
“What? That crazy—!”
Flash—Boom!
Blinding light and deafening sound erupted in the cramped machine room. The soldiers screamed, their eyes shut, their hands covering their ears as their own weapon consumed them.
“Ahhhhh! My eyes!”
“I can’t see! I can’t see!”
“Open fire! Spray the front!”
Panicked, they began wildly firing their laser rifles into empty space.
Crack! Boom!
Lasers embedded themselves in the wall and ceiling, sending sparks cascading down. But their trajectories had nothing to do with me—I’d already slipped into their blind spot.
‘Don’t kill them. Just subdue them.’
I moved like a shadow, slipping into their midst. The Shadow Fang in my hand began to dance.
Whoosh!
I sliced through the nearest soldier’s rifle barrel with my dagger. The blade cut through steel like paper. Simultaneously, my other hand drove upward into his jaw.
Thud!
His reinforced helmet crumpled as his body flew backward through the air. He sailed a good two meters before slamming into the wall unconscious, then slid down to the floor.
“What?! Where is he?!”
The second soldier frantically swung his rifle around. But he was far too slow. I was already beside him. I wrenched his rifle away and snapped it in half.
“Gack?!”
I drove the broken rifle’s stock into his solar plexus. Even through the reinforced suit, the impact registered—he made a sound like a croaking frog and collapsed.
“Three o’clock! He’s at three o’clock!”
The third soldier aimed at me and fired. I slid beneath his shots, passing between his legs while sweeping my heel against the back of his knee.
Crack!
The sound of bone dislocating. He screamed and dropped to his knees. Before he could rise, I brought my hand down in a knife-edge strike to the back of his neck. He went limp.
“Ahhhhh! It’s a monster!”
The fourth and fifth soldiers fired simultaneously. Lasers seared past my left and right sides—hot, but they didn’t touch my skin. I bounded between them, grabbing both their helmets with my hands. Then I slammed their heads together.
Crash!
Both went unconscious.
“Requesting backup! Requesting backup!”
The sixth soldier reached for his communicator. I rushed over, grabbed his hand, and twisted it.
Snap.
The communicator fell. He screamed in pain. I brought my knee up to his jaw. Out cold.
“Retreat! Fall back!”
The remaining soldiers panicked and stumbled backward. Elite soldiers, they called themselves—yet they couldn’t mount a single proper counterattack while six of their comrades went down.
It hadn’t even taken a minute.
About ten Dominion soldiers lay scattered across the floor, groaning and disarmed. None were dead. They were either unconscious or nursing broken bones.
The last remaining Squad Leader backed away, raising his communicator.
“Headquarters! We need support! The target’s combat power doesn’t match the intel! At least A-rank… no, higher than that…!”
I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
Bang!
“Your information is outdated.”
Terror flickered in his eyes, and beneath his helmet visor, his face had gone deathly pale.
“You should update it.”
I placed my palm against the communication terminal on his chest.
“Purification.”
As I drew in mana, the terminal sparked and went dead.
“Get out of here. And tell your superiors—Moonglade is reopening for business.”
I dropped the Squad Leader to the floor. He trembled and nodded frantically, then scrambled to gather his men, dragging his fallen comrades away in desperate retreat.
I caught my breath as I watched their retreating forms.
Thud.
Combat concluded.
When I turned around, my teammates stared at me with vacant expressions.
“What… what is this?”
Seo Eun-ha murmured with her mouth hanging open.
“Is that really Lee Tae-hyun? Is that actually Lee Tae-hyun?”
In her memory, I was merely a supporter with C-rank physical abilities. I’d only compensated through strategy and purification power—Park Jae-jung had handled all the close combat. Yet now I dominated the battlefield with durability exceeding any tank and speed surpassing any dealer.
“Director… where does that power come from? Weren’t you C-rank?”
Park Jae-jung asked in a trembling voice, his eyes wide with shock.
“I’ll explain later. We don’t have time now.”
I deferred the explanation. There was no room to detail how I’d become A-rank.
“Those who fled will call for reinforcements. We’ll be surrounded soon. We need to move.”
The three of them tensed again. We were in the heart of District 7—essentially Dominion’s home turf.
“Where do we go? The surface routes should all be blocked.”
Han Su-jin asked anxiously.
I looked toward Park Jae-jung.
“Park Jae-jung, do you have another safe house? The original location seems to have been discovered.”
Park Jae-jung nodded.
“Yes. Our primary safe house was raided, so we fled here in desperation. But I have one backup location prepared.”
He pointed to a worn map of District 7 hanging on the wall.
“It’s inside the Market, two blocks from here. The area is so complex and dilapidated that drone surveillance can’t reach it. I converted an old secret warehouse I used during my mercenary days.”
As expected. An experienced tank operates on a different level.
“Let’s head there.”
I smashed open the back door that had been locked with a steel pipe. Before leaving, I paused.
“Wait. I need to erase our traces first.”
“Our traces?”
“The Dominion Pursuit Squad tracked us here by detecting Su-jin’s blood scent or Eun-ha’s mana signature. We need to eliminate that.”
I released mana across the entire mechanical room.
“Area Purification.”
Whoooosh—
White light swept through the mechanical room’s interior. Blood stains on the floor, magical residue lingering in the air, even our body odor—every trace and contamination that could serve as a tracking lead vanished cleanly. No matter how skilled their tracking dogs were, they wouldn’t be able to determine where we’d disappeared to.
“Wow…”
Seo Eun-ha couldn’t close her mouth.
“What is that? You can do that too?”
“Yes.”
“This is insane. Are you really A-rank?”
“I am A-rank.”
I answered and opened the back door. The rain was intensifying. Perfect weather for an escape—the sound of rainfall would mask our footsteps.
“Can you all run?”
“Of course. My leg is perfectly fine, like it’s brand new.”
Park Jae-jung bounced in place with a grin, testing his weight. The leg that had been rotting moments ago was now sound and whole.
“I’m fine too.”
Han Su-jin extended her arm for inspection. The sickly blue-green discoloration that had stained her skin had vanished completely.
Seo Eun-ha adjusted her grip on her staff, her eyes gleaming with renewed intensity. The terror from moments before had evaporated, replaced by the familiar confidence that defined her.
“Let’s move. This isn’t a retreat—it’s a tactical repositioning.”
I hurled myself into the darkness. The city back alley blazed with gaudy neon signs, their light fracturing through the rain. I tore through that labyrinthine maze, sprinting toward our stronghold for the counterattack.
‘Wait for me, Kang Chang-gyung.’
I ran through the downpour, my fists clenched tight.

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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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