The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 19

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#019. Rules of Survival

Sung-jun, who had decided to accept Seoa as his disciple, rejected her earnest request to perform a formal bow ceremony that she seemed to have seen somewhere, and began preparing for their journey.

What he had prepared so far was for traveling alone, so with the addition of a companion, additional preparations were necessary.

It felt like shopping in a collapsed world.

“Wow! Teacher! Can I take this too!?”

To allow her to take as much as she wanted, Sung-jun chose a shopping mall in the most dangerous area and brought her there.

Of course, they had to defeat an enormous number of Corrosion Entities to enter the shopping mall, but shopping malls in dangerous zones had plenty of supplies left untouched because they hadn’t been looted.

Sung-jun let out a deep sigh watching her, a typical high school girl who focused on clothing rather than food and basic cosmetics rather than medicine.

“I’ll say this again, we’re not exactly going on a picnic or anything.”

“Hehe… I know! Teacher!”

“If you know, then how about removing those snacks you’re forcibly stuffing into your backpack? Are you planning to fill your stomach with nitrogen instead of food?”

“But…”

Watching her reluctantly take the snack bag out of her backpack, Sung-jun waved his hand in annoyance.

Then the snack bag in her hand began to compress to the size of her palm as the air inside was expelled.

Along with the loud sound of the contents inside being crushed.

-Crunch, crack, crunch.-

“Ahhh! Teacher! This will crush all the snacks!”

“The taste is the same.”

Seoa stared blankly at the snack bag that fell with a ‘thud’ sound, then picked up the compressed snack bag with a somewhat sad expression.

Then, instead of putting it in her backpack, she placed it back where it was originally displayed.

“Aren’t you taking it?”

“I wasn’t going to eat it myself. I was going to save it to give to you later, Teacher. What kind of disciple would present such crushed snacks to her teacher?”

Feeling embarrassed by his disciple’s words that she had gathered it for her teacher from the beginning, not for herself, Sung-jun scratched his nose and waved his hand again.

Then amazingly, the completely destroyed snacks returned to their original form as if time had been reversed.

“Teacher?! Th-this is?”

“Shape restoration magic. I told you, didn’t I? Magic may not be omnipotent, but it’s versatile.”

“Could I use that magic too?”

“I told you about that too. You’re banned from using magic for the time being.”

Even though he had accepted Seoa as his disciple, Sung-jun prohibited her from using magic based on intuition.

This decision was made based on his judgment that the method he newly named ‘Primitive Magic’ was dangerous and could potentially take the user’s life if used incorrectly.

So while Sung-jun hoped that Seoa would demonstrate her intuitive talent on a solid theoretical foundation, she felt impatient to freely display the abilities she had worked so hard to awaken.

“I told you. No magic use until you can explain the magic you saw to me.”

As soon as I turned my head, Seoa, who had been secretly trying to cast the compression magic I had just performed, was startled by my words as if I had eyes in the back of my head and stopped her casting.

Then, as if to indirectly express her dissatisfaction, she brought a bunch of commercial snacks from the store and lined them up in front of me.

“Could you compress all of these? My teacher who’s not omnipotent but versatile?”

***

“Ugh… Ughhh…”

What entered Shirasaki Miyu’s eyes when she woke up was not the forest where she had fainted, but the familiar ceiling of a tent.

“That’s right, Ma Sungjun! Baphomet! Where is Ma Sungjun?”

“If you mean Ma Sungjun, he already left.”

The answer came not in Baphomet’s voice, but in the voice of Cha Hyeonho, the administrator of the survivor camp.

And beside him was the figure of a woman sitting in a calm posture as if she had been waiting for Shirasaki Miyu to wake up.

“Who… are you?”

“I’m Han Suryeon, an Awakened belonging to Dimension Nation. Nice to meet you, Shirasaki Miyu, a ranker belonging to the Japanese Awakened Union.”

Shirasaki Miyu instinctively realized that the woman in front of her was one of Korea’s top fighters.

And also that she was a fighter whose level was in no way inferior to the man called Ma Sungjun whom she had faced.

However, naturally, her heart that should have been excited remained coldly calm.

‘Don’t want to fight? Why?’

It was a sensation she was experiencing for the first time. Her blood, which would unknowingly boil the moment she faced a strong opponent, was sleeping without any reaction.

Ideas about how to deal with this new type of Awakened she was seeing for the first time weren’t springing up like a fountain either.

It was a sensation she was experiencing for the first time. Even when facing a strong opponent, her heart didn’t race, and her head remained empty with no thoughts coming to mind.

As if the circuit called instinct had broken down.

“So, what business does Han Suryeon, said to be Korea’s strongest Awakened, have with me? Sorry, but if it’s a request to cooperate with the Korean government, I’ll refuse. I have a very urgent matter to deal with right now.”

“Is that urgent matter perhaps pursuing a man named Ma Sungjun?”

“You know Ma Sungjun?”

Watching Shirasaki Miyu’s intense reaction, Han Suryeon sipped the tea she was holding.

Then she began explaining her purpose for seeking her out.

“I’ve been tracking that man for a long time. No, the expression ‘tracking’ isn’t quite right. I’ve been chasing that man’s shadow without even knowing if the person I’m looking for is that man.”

“Why are you looking for Ma Sungjun?”

“That’s classified information of the Korean government, so I can’t tell you.”

Shirasaki Miyu, who had a quick mind befitting her battle-crazed personality, began speculating about why Han Suryeon was looking for Ma Sungjun.

Then she recalled information about the ‘Apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity’ that had presumably vanished only in Korea.

“No, that’s not it. You seem to think that man is related to the disappearance of the Catastrophe-class Corrosion Entity that appeared in Seoul, but while that man is certainly strong, he wasn’t strong enough for that level.”

“Are you saying you’ve fought Ma Sungjun?”

“Then do I look like I’ve been sleeping a lot because… Cha Hyeonho, how long was I asleep?”

“One week.”

“Damn… Anyway, do you think I was sleeping for a whole week because I sleep a lot? I was unconscious after fighting that guy and have been sleeping until now!”

“So he is strong.”

“Strong? Oh, of course he’s strong. It means he’s at least strong enough to knock me unconscious. But that doesn’t mean that man is strong enough to make an Apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity vanish.”

Shirasaki Miyu got up from the bed she was lying on and picked up the Grimoire that was placed next to her pillow.

Then she spoke to Cha Hyeonho, who was looking at her.

“I’m leaving. Don’t think about stopping me. I have to chase that man called Ma Sungjun from now on.”

“What do you plan to do when you catch up to him?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like I have to chase after him.”

“The North Korean region he headed to has become so dangerous that survival probability converges to single digits. Are you saying you’ll enter that dangerous place with no particular reason, just because that’s how you feel?”

“What can I do? That’s just how my personality is.”

“You’ll need to prepare food, water, and daily necessities too, won’t you?”

Hearing Han Suryeon’s words, Shirasaki Miyu suddenly looked at Cha Hyeonho with a pitiful expression befitting her age.

Even though she was already cute in appearance and even made a tearful expression, Cha Hyeonho shook his head firmly with a resolute expression.

“Don’t you remember turning away when I asked for help? You should have been kinder in your daily life.”

“But… it was bothersome…”

“Then I’m also bothered, so I’ll refuse to provide supplies.”

“Then I’ll go with just my body. I’ll figure out food myself, whether by robbing or catching and roasting Corrosion Entities, so don’t worry about it!”

To Shirasaki Miyu, who had completely changed her attitude and was getting angry, Han Suryeon offered the backpack she had placed behind her chair.

“It’s a survival backpack containing 20 days’ worth of food, water purification filters, essential hygiene items, and a fire-starting kit. I’ll provide this to you.”

“I don’t think you mean to give it for free.”

“You just need to find the man called Ma Sungjun and deliver my message.”

“You could go and deliver it yourself. With your level of strength, you should be able to pass through the North Korean region easily, right?”

“I’m a civil servant. Now that the nation is in crisis, I can’t turn my back on my homeland’s security based solely on my independent judgment.”

Han Suryeon’s voice as she said this was filled with regret that she too would have departed for North Korea if it were up to her heart alone.

Then Shirasaki Miyu put the backpack on her back and spoke to her.

“Fine. The deal is made. What should I tell him?”

Han Suryeon got up from her seat and approached Shirasaki Miyu.

Then she whispered in her ear in a small voice that others couldn’t hear.

“…is what you should tell him.”

“What!? Really?! You don’t think that just hearing those words, that guy will… anyway, you don’t think he’ll do what you want, do you?”

“You’re a talkative messenger. Should we cancel the deal?”

“No! Fine. Interesting. I stake my honor on it – I’ll definitely deliver your message.”

Shirasaki Miyu smiled and left the tent.

Then she looked back at Han Suryeon and left one final comment.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting, but you’d better abandon hope. The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. In a world that’s become like this anyway, how about loosening your shoulders a bit and living the way you want?”

“If all of humanity thought that way, humanity would never have reached where it is today. Please, I beg you to deliver my message.”

After hearing Han Suryeon’s words, Shirasaki Miyu left the survivor camp without even saying goodbye.

And in the tent that was left behind, Han Suryeon sat silently in her seat, sipping the remaining tea.

“Your hands are trembling.”

“Because I’m actually shaken. If I could follow my heart, I’d want to go find him myself instead of sending a message. But I can’t do that. I have citizens to save and enemies to defeat.”

“If that’s your intention, perhaps making an official request to the government would be…”

“I’ve already requested it countless times. I even made the request before coming to this camp. But the answer was always the same. They said resolving the crisis at hand comes first.”

“Well, no one would make the decision to send Korea’s strongest Awakened alone to the North Korean region based on mere possibility. But why did that man Ma Sungjun head to the North Korean region? And with a young girl who’s barely high school age, no less.”

“North Korea… North Korea…”

After thinking for a moment, she stood up abruptly as if realizing something.

Then she approached the map installed on the camp wall.

“This is where we discovered what we believe to be traces of him.”

“And this is where he’s presumed to have first appeared.”

“The survivor camp where we are is located here.”

Han Suryeon calmly placed pins like a student solving a math problem. A red line went north along the East Coast, then extended straight toward China’s ‘Jilin Province.’

“This place is…”

“It’s China.”

“If he really is the person who vaporized the Silermantis, and North Korea is just a transit point rather than his destination…”

With a voice that was a complex mix of ‘maybe’ and the denial of ‘probably not,’ Han Suryeon spoke.

“Perhaps he went to eliminate the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity that appeared in China.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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