The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 325

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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
Part 2, Episode 146

Kang Han was bewildered.
So much so that he wasn’t even aware of how his massive frame was leaning against Yeo Joo’s petite form like a burden.
His fingers trembled faintly as they gripped her unmarred ankle.
Meanwhile, Yeo Joo tried not to feel disappointed.
She’d harbored a glimmer of hope that Kang Han might have suddenly grasped reality, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
It appeared he was simply panicked by memories he’d never experienced before.
‘Still, it’s not so bad.’
It would have been ideal to succeed immediately and escape the Land of Dreams, but that was far from simple.
Kang Han had already become perfectly assimilated into this world.
Creating even a single crack in those solid memories was an achievement in itself.
“Tell me, Yeo Joo.”
When Yeo Joo said nothing, Kang Han pressed her, his tone urging.
“You’re already suspecting it, aren’t you, Guild Master? Those memories that just surfaced, those emotions—didn’t they all feel false?”
“…That can’t be.”
Even as he denied it with his words, Kang Han’s eyes wavering as he looked up at her betrayed his doubt.
His hand, wrapped around her pale ankle, remained steady.
“Couldn’t it be the influence of this dungeon? Making us see illusions and phantoms?”
“Then answer me.”
Part of her wanted to cry out before Kang Young Won as she had before: ‘Not just this dungeon—everything is fake, you fool!’ But her battered body couldn’t endure that agony again.
So instead of giving him the answer, Yeo Joo decided to ask him a question that would lead him to find it himself.
“Then answer me. Why are you being so kind to me?”
“That’s….”
“Because I’m a healer? Or because you felt sorry for me being dragged into such a dangerous dungeon on my first raid? Is that really all?”
Faced with the barrage of questions, Kang Han had to clench his lips shut.
A confession seemed ready to force its way through the gap between his teeth.
A confession he’d harbored for so long, yearned for so desperately.
And as if reading those very thoughts, Yeo Joo asked:
“We’ve only known each other for a few days, haven’t we?”
Crack!
A sound like a chisel striking stone echoed through Kang Han’s mind.
When he first encountered Yeo Joo in the elevator—what had that been like?
It felt as though he’d found a missing piece he’d been searching for.
As though he’d finally met something precious he’d never even known he’d lost.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from that face with its round eyes fixed on me.
I thought I’d fallen for her at first sight.
I’d thought she was beautiful.
Beautiful, and I wanted to touch her, wanted to see her smile, wanted to be with her.
But this feeling that had continued ever since—it was more than that.
Stickier, more protective, more precious, more….
“Don’t you want to know?”
Kang Han nodded slightly.
I wanted to know.
If those memories were real, as she said.
If there was time I’d forgotten.
When did Yeo Joo become such a person to me?
Why had I forgotten those memories?
“It’s not just me.”
My mind was in complete disarray, yet only her eyes remained crystal clear.
“There are so many precious people you need to remember, Kang Han.”

+++

As the Side Passage began to widen, I nestled back into Kang Han’s arms and we began moving again.
The Side Passage was longer than expected, and if I matched my own pace, it would take far too long. Besides, if I stayed pressed against him like this, the Dungeon wouldn’t dare attack me.
More than anything, my premonition was terrible.
My instincts were screaming.
To reach the Second Zone quickly.
Whoosh, whoosh!
The scenery blurred past us rapidly.
Contrary to my concerns, Gye Young Ho was also using the wind to keep pace with Kang Han’s speed.
“…?”
Sensing my gaze, Gye Young Ho’s eyes turned toward me, though he kept his focus forward.
Because of the protective barrier Kang Han had created, I wouldn’t have heard whatever conversation passed between them, but the heavy atmosphere that settled afterward was unmistakable.
The way he smiled silently like that.
He was a good person, trustworthy.
If he had been by Kang Han’s side when he’d lost everything, what a tremendous strength he would have been.
I was thinking vaguely along those lines when suddenly our speed accelerated.
“I hear something. I’ll go ahead first, Young Ho.”
“Yeah, go on. I’ll be right behind you.”
All I could hear was the rushing sound of wind, but Kang Han’s face grew serious as he ran even faster.
Only when we approached the exit of the Side Passage did I begin to hear something myself.
Clang! Clang!
“Watch our backs!”
“Watch out!”
The harsh crash of impact, urgent voices, and the acrid stench of smoke.
My fingers tightened around Kang Han’s sleeve, my anxiety mounting.
And the moment I burst from the Side Passage into the Second Zone.
“Dodge!”
At someone’s cry, Kang Han wrapped his arms around me and hurled us both aside.
Whoosh!
A crimson streak’s afterimage grazed past by the narrowest margin, trembling in my shaking vision.
Before I could even register the pain of hitting and scraping against the floor, I lifted my head to assess the situation and saw a sphere the size of a basketball burst with a wet crack as it was struck by sharp ice spikes.
What fell to the ground quickly began oxidizing into black ash, but it was enough to discern its original form.
“An eyeball?”
The eye, filled with magma instead of vitreous humor, was a monster.

[ Magma Eye – Prototype (A)
: A colossal eyeball-shaped monster.
A floating, mobile version capable of aerial movement.
Attacks by firing internal magma as laser beams.
Low durability. Refinement required. ]

The problem was that several identical eyeballs, besides the one already destroyed, were staring at us with their glowing crimson pupils.
Then, a faint voice reached my ears.
“This way!”
From the opposite end of the vast chamber, before a massive Tunnel that dwarfed the Side Passage we’d just escaped, Ji Sung waved his arms frantically toward us.
Kang Han moved without hesitation.
With each powerful push off the ground, the distance to the Tunnel entrance shrank rapidly, yet the Magma Eyes’ lasers pursued us like crimson tails.
Boom! Crack! Shatter!
Attacks from Ji Sung and Sung Ro Sa burst the Magma Eyes, covering our retreat.
“Get inside!”
As we drew near, Ji Sung stepped back further, clearing the way.
As a final touch, he launched one more Ice Spear to cover our rear completely.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”
The moment we regrouped with the rear guard, Kang Han checked my body and asked.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
I answered as calmly as I could, but I couldn’t help my expression darkening.
It was because of the sight of hundreds of eyeballs densely filling the air.
Magma Eyes had already been mass-produced to this extent.
Thanks to going through the Side Passage, I’d successfully created a gap in Kang Han’s memory, but it had taken far too long.
After confirming I was unharmed, Kang Han turned to Sung Ro Sa and Ji Sung.
“Thank you for the cover. But we’re not under attack here?”
“Not for now, at least.”
Ji Sung glanced somewhere as if confirming something, then answered.
“Yes, I understand. Then I’ll ask for cover once more. I need to bring Hunter Gye Young Ho.”
“Of course.”
At Ji Sung’s ready agreement, Kang Han left me with the words ‘I’ll be back soon’ and dashed back into the Side Passage.
As he moved swiftly, drawing much of the Magma Child’s attention, a fiercer barrage of attacks rained down than before, but Ji Sung blocked them all effortlessly.
Until Kang Han safely disappeared into the depths of the Side Passage, it seemed Ji Sung had burst through the Magma Child’s attacks at least ten times.
Boom!
“Woo Jun Kyung, I’ll handle this side, so focus over there!”
“Damn it! Why is that bastard Chae Jung Woo charging in alone like an idiot!”
I turned my gaze toward the trembling vibrations of the ground and the shouts that rang out clearly even from a distance.
The Second Zone, sprawling so vastly that the First Zone seemed cramped by comparison, was so brightly lit it was hard to believe it was underground.
This was because round light sources were embedded throughout the towering cliff-like walls.
Thanks to that, despite the enormous space, the entire battlefield came into view at a glance.
‘It doesn’t look like anyone’s been injured yet.’
I scanned the hunters engaged in combat just to be sure, but there were no wounded.
Except for Sa Ma Young.
‘That precious one is causing problems here too.’
Unlike the other hunters who were relatively unscathed, his left arm was already stained with blood.
It seemed he was ignoring it because the immediate battle was too entertaining.
A leaky bucket in reality, a leaky bucket in the Dream Dungeon as well.
I had no real interaction with Sa Ma Young in this place, but regardless, seeing that same face bleeding profusely caught my eye.
“Sigh.”
Don’t worry about it.
After dispelling my wandering thoughts with a sigh, I raised my gaze higher and spotted a clock.
It had only a single hand moving, with neither numbers nor markings.
“It’s a clock unrelated to the countdown,” Ji Sung said.
He had positioned himself nearby at some point and, like me, was looking up at the clock.
“When the hand reaches exactly 12 o’clock, monsters will pour out of the Tunnel.”
My hand brushed back the hair that had been tousled by the hot wind blowing from the Tunnel at my back, irritation evident in the gesture.
“As if it were a factory spewing out monsters by the hour.”

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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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