The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 96

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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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96
Chapter 96 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
Bang!
The muzzle flash erupted toward Dr. Junk’s chest. Time seemed to slow. The silver memory chip spun through the air, and Dr. Junk’s gaunt frame lurched backward violently.
“No!”
I pushed off the floor and hurled myself forward. My mana was depleted, but pure physical elasticity alone allowed me to stretch my hand through the void and snatch the silvery memory chip from the air.
Whoosh!
Clutching the chip, I rolled across the floor and lifted my head.
“Doctor!”
“Kgh… cough!”
Dr. Junk collapsed onto the workbench, spitting blood. Fortunately, it wasn’t instantly fatal. The Cleaner’s bullet had aimed for Dr. Junk’s heart, but because he instinctively twisted his body, it pierced through the joint of the mechanical prosthetic arm he’d just torn off and passed through instead.
“These rat bastards…”
Dr. Junk pressed one hand against the blood spurting from his shoulder, spitting curses.
“You little shits. Hand over the chip. If you don’t, next time I’ll blow that old geezer’s head clean off.”
The Cleaner Captain standing before the shutter cocked the hammer of his pistol again, aiming it at me. Whether from the side effects of overclock drugs or not, his eyes beyond the visor were grotesquely bloodshot with burst capillaries, and on either side stood Park Jae-jung, still gripping his shield but losing consciousness, and my teammates who had exhausted their mana and collapsed.
Trapped between two impossible choices.
It was the exact moment I was gathering strength in my fist holding the chip to stand up.
Uuuuuuuung—!
The massive ceiling of Underground Level 4 of the Black Market, The Pit, began to resonate as a whole. It wasn’t mere vibration. Dozens of colossal aircraft engines descended simultaneously, overwhelming the air with their oppressive vibration and roar.
“What… what is this!”
The Cleaner Captain lowered his gun and looked up at the ceiling. Through the massive ventilation shaft passages piercing the artificial ceiling of the black market, dozens of searchlights poured down with such blinding intensity that one couldn’t keep their eyes open. The slum filled with darkness and garbage became as bright as midday.
[Warning. As of this moment, the entire Underground Level 4 of Neo Kuro Market is designated as a Class 1 Armed Control Zone.]
A mechanical and authoritarian voice tore through the loudspeaker. It contained no emotion, no mercy.
[We are the Steel Alliance 1st Strike Force, guardians of order in Neo Seoul.]
[All unauthorized armed forces at this location will immediately disarm and raise both hands above your heads. Failure to comply within 10 seconds will result in all personnel being classified as hostile terrorists and executed.]
Between the cascading searchlight beams, dozens of Hunters in heavy reinforced suits began rappelling down in a torrent. An iron army enforcing absolute principle and regulation had breached into the black market, a place that had symbolized freedom and chaos.
Three mana golems had triggered a chain explosion—it would have been stranger if Neo Seoul’s police force hadn’t responded.
“The Steel Alliance…”
Seo Eun-ha muttered breathlessly.
The situation had completely reversed. The arrival of the Steel Alliance was a threat to us, but for the Cleaners of Blue Tower, it was nothing short of a death sentence.
“C-Captain! It’s the Steel Alliance! The encirclement is tightening!”
“If we’re captured by them, our connection to the board will be exposed!”
The Cleaner members looked at their captain in agitation. As an unofficial unit of Blue Tower, the moment they were captured by the Steel Alliance at this site, they would be the first to face elimination by Blue Tower’s leadership.
The captain’s facial muscles trembled. He alternated his gaze between me, the chip in my hand, and the Steel Alliance forces pouring down, grinding his teeth.
“…Operation canceled. All units, scatter and retreat.”
“Captain! But if we don’t recover that chip…!”
“Better than being captured here! Withdraw!”
With the captain’s command, the Cleaners detonated smoke grenades and scattered like cockroaches into the garbage heaps in all directions. It was as if their only objective was to vanish without a trace and escape the territory.
[Countdown complete. Initiating suppression fire.]
The Steel Alliance’s suppression fire began. Fleeing Cleaners and black market mercenaries tangled together, and the outside transformed once more into a blood-soaked hellscape.
“We need to get out of here too.”
I shoved the chip into my pocket and turned to look at my companions. The Steel Alliance wasn’t on our side. By their regulations, we were nothing more than criminals—wanted fugitives who deserved to be handcuffed and dragged away.
“What do we do! Park Jae-jung can’t even walk, and those bastards have blocked every exit!”
Han Su-jin’s voice trembled with despair. She was right—Park Jae-jung couldn’t stand on his own because of his shattered knees.
“Cough… Hey, you kids…”
At that moment, Dr. Junk, who had been lying beneath the workbench, fumbled at the worn metal plate on the floor with blood-stained hands.
“You think I’ve been rotting away in this godforsaken black market for years without knowing there’s only one entrance? That shutter?”
His fingertips pressed against a cleverly hidden groove in the floor plate.
Clunk! Thud!
A dull mechanical sound—suddenly, the floor beneath the center of the container we were standing on dropped away.
“Wh-what?!”
“Hold on tight! This passage goes straight to the Underground Sewage Treatment Facility!”
The moment Dr. Junk finished speaking, we tumbled into the gaping hole, dragging Park Jae-jung with us.
Whoooosh!
Gravity pulled us downward. Between the stench that assaulted my nose, we slid endlessly down the slick, dark metal pipes.
Behind the metal plate closing above our heads, the sounds of the Steel Alliance operatives breaking through the container and entering grew fainter and fainter.
Splash! Whoooosh!
We were hurled into a cold, filthy pool of water—an abandoned underground waterway of Neo Seoul, tangled like a spider’s web beneath the lowest level of the black market.
“Cough! Gasp!”
I lifted my head above the water and gasped for breath. Pitch-black darkness surrounded us on all sides, and only the sound of cold water echoing like a cavern filled the air.
“Is everyone all right?”
I pulled a small flashlight from my waterproof pack and switched it on. Seo Eun-ha spat out muddy water and got to her feet, leaning on her staff. Han Ae-ri steadied herself against the wall with difficulty. Han Su-jin was supporting Park Jae-jung, calling out his name.
“Park Jae-jung! Open your eyes, please!”
His eyelids fluttered weakly. He hadn’t lost consciousness completely. But whether that was fortunate or unfortunate, I couldn’t say. If he was conscious with his knees in that state, it meant he was feeling the pain too.
“Just one kilometer. We can do this.”
Dr. Junk led the way, clutching his shoulder with one hand. In the darkness, his low, ragged breathing mixed with the sound of water.
Han Ae-ri and I draped Park Jae-jung’s arms across our shoulders. His full weight pressed down on me. Supporting his body weight while depleted of mana was far harder than I’d anticipated. The sewage water rose to below our knees, and the floor was slippery.
One step. Two steps.
Whenever Park Jae-jung regained consciousness, he tried to move his feet, but his knees wouldn’t respond. Each time, a stifled groan escaped his lips. He said nothing. There was nothing to say.
This one-kilometer walk along the waterway felt like an endless journey.
[AM 09:00 – Underground Drainage Pump Room]
Creak—clang.
As I pushed open the rusted iron door, dry, cool air washed over me. When Dr. Junk manipulated the panel on the wall, dim emergency lights flickered on, revealing a fairly spacious area.
Machine parts scattered in piles, a makeshift bed, and an old operating table. If the container in The Pit had been his workshop, this place was where he truly hid—his bunker.
Only after laying Park Jae-jung on the operating table did some of the tension ease. But in its place, something far heavier settled down.
“Su-jin. What’s Park Jae-jung’s condition?”
“His mana won’t gather… Even with potions, the recovery is too slow. I can’t set the bones.”
Han Su-jin was crying, gripping his knees. Her hands were trembling. I didn’t need to ask how painful it was for a healer to stand before a patient and be unable to do anything.
“Move aside, kid. Your magic won’t cut it.”
Dr. Junk gritted his teeth and pulled the first aid kit toward him with one hand. With his shoulder wound hastily covered in gauze, he stumbled forward and examined Park Jae-jung’s condition.
True to his former position as Blue Tower’s chief researcher, his hands remained steady. Yet working with only one arm made each movement labored and slow. As he retrieved a magitech brace and affixed it around Park Jae-jung’s fractured bones, no one dared speak.
“The fracture is too severe. Forcing the bones back into alignment would sever the nerves. For now, I’ve used the magitech brace to stabilize the bone structure alone. Even if he wakes from death itself, he won’t walk.”
“…Thank you, Doctor.”
I leaned my back against the cold wall, my fingers absently tracing the memory chip in my pocket. My mind raced through calculations of how we’d fight without a tank, but no answer came easily.
Park Jae-jung wasn’t merely a tank. He was the pillar of our Moonblade Party. Without him, not only would coordinated assaults crumble—our entire defensive line would collapse.
‘I need to abandon any thoughts of fighting right now.’
Seo Eun-ha leaned against the wall with her eyes closed, her exhaustion evident as she clung to consciousness with depleted mana reserves. Han Su-jin held Park Jae-jung’s hand, weeping silently. Han Ae-ri adjusted the hemostatic bandage wrapped around her arm without uttering a word.
Twelve hours of hell. We survived. But the price was devastating.
“So.”
Dr. Junk, bandages wrapped around his shoulder, slumped into a chair across from the operating table and fixed his gaze on me.
“You went through all that suffering to extract that chip. You need to check what’s inside it, don’t you?”
I withdrew the silver memory chip from my damp pocket—a single small metal fragment. Yet within it lay the ugly truths of a massive guild, purchased with the lives of countless people.
“Let’s unlock it.”
Dr. Junk accepted the chip and inserted it into a terminal set up in one corner of the bunker. A hologram screen materialized, and countless folders and data files began to populate the display.
[File 1: Project Chimera – Clinical Trial Progress Report]
[File 2: Magitech Core (Bioform) – Dominion Delivery Records]
[File 3: Security Maintenance Guidelines – Blue Tower Board Resolution]
The very titles on the screen changed the air around us.
Seo Eun-ha’s eyes snapped open. The exhaustion in her gaze crystallized into cold steel, and Han Su-jin stared at the screen while gripping Park Jae-jung’s hand.
Project Chimera. Clinical trials. I understood what those words meant. The people trapped in cultivation tanks on Basement Level 4. Lee Seung-ryong and his colleagues. All of it was recorded in those files.
Han Ae-ri slowly rose to her feet. Her legs trembled, but she pushed through and walked toward the screen, clenching her fists.
“We need to leak this to the media right now…!”
“We can’t.”
I grabbed her shoulder, holding her back.
“Why not! The evidence is this solid!”
“Even if we release it, the Steel Alliance and Blue Tower’s information control networks will bury it within ten minutes, transforming it into fabricated fake news. We’re wanted criminals with a 26 billion won bounty on our heads, and they’re the Three Major Guilds that control Neo Seoul.”
“Then what are you planning to do with this chip?”
Dr. Junk furrowed his brow as he asked.
I stared intently at Blue Tower’s logo displayed on the screen—the blue tower itself. Romantic, emotional revenge broadcast to the entire world wouldn’t work against them. To strangle them, I needed to strike their most vulnerable point—the secret they desperately wanted to keep hidden.
“First, we treat our wounds and recover our mana.”
I spoke calmly, surveying my comrades.
“In the meantime, Doctor, search through the files on this chip for another weakness—something Blue Tower’s leadership has hidden internally, separate from Dominion. A fatal structural flaw that would force Blue Tower to collapse on its own. We need a real weapon to strip away the facade of the ‘Tower of Knowledge.'”
“A weakness?”
“Yes. The Dominion dealings can be severed with a clean cut, but we need something that would make Blue Tower crumble from within—something inherently catastrophic. That’s the true weapon we need.”
Dr. Junk stared at me for a long moment, then let out a low chuckle.
“You madman. You’re planning to bring down Blue Tower from the inside?”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I leaned my back against the wall and closed my eyes.

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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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