The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 157

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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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Yeo Joo Saves the World – Episode 157

I opened my hazy eyes as the system notification chimed.
Then I saw it—a roiling shadow like black mist had completely engulfed the Campsite.
It was the true form of a C-rank monster called Nightmare.
It possessed no physical attack power whatsoever, but it was a non-physical monster that forced its targets into sleep and made them experience nightmares.
Typically, like a territorial spirit, it guarded its domain in some corner of a Dungeon and rarely moved.
But as with any population, mutations existed.
The one that had descended upon our Campsite tonight was precisely such a creature.
Despite being merely C-rank, Nightmare was among the most dreaded monsters by Hunters.
These creatures attacked by transforming their targets’ darkest and most horrific memories into nightmares.
In other words, the greater the trauma, the greater the damage inflicted.
Ironically, it meant that Hunters who regularly ventured into dangerous Dungeons were more vulnerable to Nightmare’s assault than ordinary people.
“Nngh…”
Suppressed groans echoed from within the tent where the Magma Guild members had entered.
The filming crew, positioned at a slight distance, had likewise succumbed to sleep.
Having collapsed into unconsciousness, even their camera lay scattered across the ground.
It was fortunate for me that this crime scene—or rather, non-crime scene—wouldn’t be recorded.
“Everyone will have to endure just a bit longer before waking up.”
There were three ways to escape a Nightmare’s attack.
Kill the Nightmare, have someone wake you up, or overcome the nightmare yourself and awaken through sheer will.
But as I listened to the anguished moans of the people, I did not attack the Nightmare, which thrashed about with apparent delight.
I simply turned around to wake Na Baek Ho.
And yet.
“Arf.”
“What? Na Baek Ho, are you alright?”
“Arf!”

[ ( *˘╰╯˘*) ]

What nightmare Na Baek Ho would fall into from the Nightmare’s attack was easy to predict.
Happy House.
That place where he had starved, been forced to fight by people’s filthy greed, and watched other dogs die before his eyes.
Baek Ho would be dragged back to that hellish place once more.
Yet before I could even intervene, Na Baek Ho had overcome the dream and awakened on his own.
“How?”
At my question, Baek Ho rose from his spot and padded over to me.
Then he rubbed his head softly against my leg.
“Because of me?”
“Woof!”
“I… appeared in your dream?”
“Woof!”

[ (*⌒∇⌒*) ]

Baek Ho was smiling.
After enduring something so terrible, he was smiling like this now.
“…Let’s go. Finish this quickly and we’ll head home—I’ll give you lots of treats.”
“Yay!”
An excited Baek Ho wagged his rear end happily and took the lead.
I cast one final glance at Baek Young and Kang Han, who had fallen asleep leaning against the rocks under the Nightmare’s influence, then turned and walked on.

* * *

“Aaaahhhhh!”
“Monsters! Run!”
“P-please! Someone save me!”
I stood in the heart of Seoul.
It was the same street where the Fifth Gate Break had occurred.
“Why am I here…?”
I muttered to myself.
My mind felt clouded, as if shrouded in fog.
I had clearly been doing something important, but I couldn’t remember what.
As I tried to recall my memories, it happened.
A sudden grip.
Someone seized my hand desperately.
“P-please save me. I… please, I’m begging you.”
A man covered in dust and bleeding from wounds across his body pleaded with me.
My military uniform quickly stained red with his blood.
“Y-you’re a soldier, right? Please, just… get this debris off my leg….”
The man spoke as if terrified I would abandon him.
“Just hold on a moment.”
I said this while approaching the massive concrete boulder pinning his leg.
It had fallen from a building destroyed by the rampaging monster.
“Hngh!”
I gritted my teeth.
Though a soldier, I was no Awakened—the weight was absurdly overwhelming.
But I refused to give up.
My calloused bare hands scraped and bled, and though my uniform tore as I heaved the boulder up with my shoulder, I paid it no mind.
Around me, the monster’s roars and people’s screams continued endlessly, but I focused only on saving this one man.
After struggling for what felt like an eternity, the man finally crawled out from beneath the concrete.
Though his legs were already broken and crushed beyond walking, the mere fact that he could move filled him with joy, freed from the terror of death.
“Kyaaahhh—!”
A woman’s scream echoed nearby.
I helped the man to what seemed like a safer location, then immediately ran toward the source of the screams.
It was only hours later that I finally stopped to catch my breath.
“What exactly is happening here?”
I asked the middle-aged woman I had just rescued, binding the wound on my bleeding arm to stop the bleeding.
“A Gate Break occurred! The Justice Guild failed to clear it!”
“Just now… what did you say?”
“It’s all because of the Justice Guild! Goodness, why did they have to be so greedy!”
With trembling hands, I pulled out my phone and searched.
And I despaired.

[Breaking News] Justice Guild fails to clear Cheonho Station Dungeon.
[Breaking News] Fifth-floor Dungeon breach—emergency evacuation order issued for Cheonho Station vicinity
[Breaking News] All members of Justice Guild’s raid team dead
[Breaking News] S-rank Hunter Kang Young Won dead at Gate
.
.
.

My phone slipped from blood-soaked hands.
‘All members of Justice Guild’s raid team dead.’
‘Hunter Kang Young Won dead.’
Dead. Dead. Dead.
My knees buckled.
“What are we supposed to do about all these dead people! If the Justice Guild hadn’t been so greedy, they’d all still be alive…! What do we do, what do we do.”
A middle-aged woman wept, striking the ground.
Each word felt like a blade piercing my chest.
I forced down my ragged breathing and lifted my head, surveying my surroundings.
Every building in sight was collapsing.
Mangled corpses lay scattered everywhere.
“It’s all because of the Justice Guild, all of it….”
The middle-aged woman, as if drained of even the strength to cry, repeated those words with hollow eyes.
I steadied my wavering body.
If all of this truly was because of the Justice Guild.
Because of my mother.
‘I have to save at least one more person.’
That was all I could think.
Just as I was about to turn away.
“Oh, young soldier. Don’t go—could you stay with me? I’m so scared….”
Crunch!
In an instant, the middle-aged woman’s head was torn clean off.
Splash—!
Scalding blood drenched my entire body.
“Hack, hack, hack!”
At that grotesque sound, I slowly lifted my head.
Through vision tinted crimson with blood, I saw an enormous monster.
Its lumpy, scale-covered body was already stained red—the blood of countless victims.
And in its clawed hand, it held the head of the woman who had just pleaded with me, her face frozen in that expression of fear.
“Hack.”
The monster let out a phlegm-choked cry, raising its remaining hand toward me.
I was helpless.
No gun. No weapon.
No way to stand against the approaching death.
I could only stare up at the monster’s hand raised high above me.
But then it happened.
“Mommy! Waaaaah!”
The monster froze in place.
It turned its head, and upon spotting the child, its mouth split into a grotesque grin.
“No… I can’t allow this.”
I forced my rigid body to move.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The monster charged toward the crying child.
I pursued it.
And I threw myself toward the child.
I caught the small body in my arms and rolled across the ground.
Screech!
The sound of the monster’s claws raking across the floor beside my ear pierced through.
Shards of glass scattered across the ground embedded themselves into my body, my consciousness wavering, but I held the child in my arms even tighter.
“Waaaaah!”
The child cried even louder in shock.
I positioned myself between the monster and the child, my back to them.
A single broken rebar clutched in one hand.
And in that moment, a strange sensation like electricity coursing through my entire body surged through me, and bizarre symbols flooded my vision.

[ Forced awakening triggered by crisis situation. ]
[ Skill ‘Electric Current’ cannot be activated. ]
[ Skill ‘Charging Spear’ cannot be activated. ]

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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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