The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 330

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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 151

When was the last time someone scolded me like this?
I couldn’t even remember properly.
My parents died in an accident when I was sixteen, so it must have been about eight years ago.
Meanwhile, Kang Han at least didn’t lose his words entirely like I did.
“…I apologize for moving without the Guild Master’s orders. I was reckless.”
Judging by his furrowed brows, he seemed quite uncomfortable.
“Kang Han.”
“Yes, Guild Master.”
“I am the Guild Master of the Justice Guild, and I’m your mother.”
“Pardon?”
The green eyes of Kang Han, looking at his mother—Hunter Kang Young Won, slightly smaller than him yet radiating commanding presence—trembled.
“What you just tried to do, rushing into that Gate without any plan, was irresponsible both as a Sub-guild Leader and as Kang Young Won’s son.”
“…I apologize.”
At Kang Han’s polite apology, Kang Young Won’s sharp gaze softened slightly.
But only for a moment.
Seeing the shimmering golden Gate in the distance, her anger flared anew, and Kang Young Won began striking Kang Han’s back with a fierce hand.
“You reckless fool! What do you think is in there!”
“M-Mother!”
“And why did you drag the healer Yeo Joo along!”
Kang Han hunched his large frame, enduring his mother’s back strikes, his neck flushed red.
Smack! Smack!
Watching Kang Han’s vulnerable side for the first time, I blinked and thought to myself.
An S-rank combat Hunter mother’s back strikes must really hurt, huh?

+++

After the commotion subsided, the hunters gathered before the Gate to begin their discussion.
“This is unprecedented. A second Gate?”
“And there wasn’t even a boss monster here, was there? Yet suddenly we got the Dungeon Clear message.”
Gye Young Ho, who had been conversing with Yoon Ki Baek, cautiously brought his finger to the Gate’s surface and spoke.
“The Gate appears to be open. Has anyone experienced something similar before?”
The raid party consisted entirely of S-rank hunters with extensive experience in the hunter community, yet no answer came forth.
Everyone simply shook their heads with anxious expressions.
I remained silent as well.
Had this been a situation where I needed to buy time until Kang Han regained his grip on reality, I would have revealed the truth as I had to Kang Young Won.
But circumstances had changed now.
‘What on earth is that final wish?’
In a situation where even Kang Han couldn’t fathom what was happening, stepping forward carelessly could only make things worse.
‘Think, Yeo Joo. Use your head.’
I stared at the rippling Gate and pondered, but nothing concrete came to mind.
Then, sensing a gaze upon me, I turned to see Kang Young Won, who had regained her composure.
However, she was no longer smiling.
Her green eyes, sunken like a swamp of unfathomable depth, fixed upon me in a face that bore a terrifying resemblance to Kang Han’s.
“Let’s attempt entry.”
As Kang Young Won, who had maintained her silence, finally spoke, a stir ran through the gathered hunters.
“What if it becomes sealed again like the first Gate?”
Ha Young Hyun, the Guild Master, asked in her characteristically gruff voice.
“We’ve already exhausted all the potions we brought, and Han Ji Sung, the Sub-guild Master, even died. How are we supposed to….”
“Your point is valid, Ha Young Hyun. The risk is substantial. Additional casualties are certainly possible in this situation.”
“If you acknowledge it’s reckless, shouldn’t you revise the plan?”
“If the first Gate hadn’t been sealed, I would have. We would have halted the raid, regrouped with additional hunters and supplies from outside, and then resumed. But now, we don’t have that option.”
Kang Young Won struck at the heart of the matter.
Though no one had mentioned it until now, from the moment the first Gate closed, the raid party had been isolated.
It was a game that wouldn’t end until one of them—either the hunters or the Gate—disappeared.
“Given this is an irregular Dungeon, no one can predict what will unfold next. The first Gate that was sealed might already be open, or perhaps this second Gate is merely a trivial anomaly. Therefore, the Justice Guild will enter. Even at the cost of risk, protecting citizens from the Gate is a hunter’s responsibility and duty.”
Kang Young Won spoke while gazing steadily at Ha Young Hyun.
She must have overheard my earlier argument with her.
“However, as I’ve already stated, this is a dangerous choice made at the cost of our lives, and this raid party wasn’t organized for a second entry. From here on, I’ll leave it to your discretion.”
“Discretion?”
Kang Young Won glanced at me once, then nodded.
“Consult within your respective guilds and act accordingly. There will be no penalty for halting the raid and withdrawing here. As the Guild Master of the Justice Guild, I promise you that. You’re welcome to bet on the possibility that the first Gate’s seal has been lifted when you return. However, in that case, you must inform the authorities of the situation, secure additional support and supplies, and make every effort to evacuate civilians from the Gate’s vicinity in preparation for any contingency.”
Any contingency.
Everyone understood well that those words meant a Dungeon Break.
And the scenario where all the hunters inside perished.
Given the circumstances, the decision didn’t take long.
Utopia, after huddling together and exchanging a few words, was the first to withdraw.
“We’re going in. If it’s a gamble either way, we should choose the safer option.”
“…Please be careful.”
Chae Jung Woo seemed to hesitate until the very end, but ultimately he ran back the way he’d come, following Ha Young Hyun, the guild leader.
But they were the only ones.
“Is there no one else?”
Kang Young Won, standing at the very front of the Gate, asked.
Everyone had already made up their minds, it seemed, and simply stared quietly at the Gate.
In that silence, I hid my trembling hands inside my sleeves.
Fear suddenly gripped me.
What if Kang Han’s final wish had nothing to do with this Cheon Ho Dong Gate?
What if I could escape outside, like with Utopia?
In a situation like this, wouldn’t it be okay to run away…?
Just then, Sung Ro Sa stepped a few paces closer to the Gate and spoke.
“Someone needs to look after Ji Sung. I really need to take him with me… but I can’t carry him.”
Sung Ro Sa spoke with a bitter tone and looked exhausted.
His once-white clothes were already crumpled and disheveled, and his pale face was covered in dust.
The others were no different.
The confidence and composure of the strongest hunters that had been visible before the reporters was nowhere to be found.
Everyone was torn and broken in various places.
Yet despite all this, they had decided to face danger once more.
“I will take care of Ji Sung, the Sub-guild leader.”
Yoon Ki Baek, the shield user from the Justice Guild, carefully lifted Ji Sung’s body.
Once preparations were complete, the hunters led by Kang Young Won began to enter the second Gate.
“Then let’s go.”

+++

My breath caught in my throat from the acrid black smoke.
But even worse than that was the invisible force that seemed to press down on my entire body.
It was that damnable pressure I’d felt before in the Underwater Dungeon of the Cheongna Guild.
“Ugh!”
“Why… is this so difficult?”
“Damn it.”
Even the combat hunters were taken aback—what must it be like for a healer, the very definition of a fragile body?
It was when I’d barely managed a few steps through the smoke where I couldn’t see even an inch ahead, supported by Kang Han’s help as my body wavered.

[ You have entered the ‘Sacred Crater’. ]
[ ! Alert !
The first Gate’s lock has been disengaged.
Evacuate immediately.
Notice: All monsters that were defeated have been regenerated. ]

“What the hell is this nonsense!”
“Regenerated?!”
Hunters around me who had read the same message spewed curses into the air.
Now that the first Gate had opened, the two Utopia hunters who had withdrawn could escape safely.
But all the blood spilled while hunting monsters had become meaningless.
Even Ji Sung’s life lost.
“Damn it.”
Sung Ro Sa’s voice, thick with rage, echoed from somewhere.
But despair was far from over.
Thump.
With a sound like a heartbeat, the smoke that had filled the surroundings was swept away in an instant.
Now that my vision had cleared, I could see an enormous crater.
No—”enormous” wasn’t even adequate.
Standing before this crater that radiated such intense heat that merely looking at it felt like my eyes would burn, humanity became nothing but insignificant specks.
As the lava churned slowly beneath the fractured earth, black smoke erupted skyward.
Thump.
With the second beat, something convulsed at the crater’s center.
Reflexively, the hunters’ eyes widened in shock as they turned toward it.
At the very heart of the crater, in the roiling magma, a burning heart was pulsing.
Thump.
Each time it surged, spewing crimson lava instead of blood, violent waves rippled outward in all directions.
“Ugh.”
My head rang and my insides churned so violently that I couldn’t keep my body upright.
Yet this Double Dungeon contained far more than just the colossal heart.
“What… what is that.”
Gye Young Ho staggered backward, terror gripping him.
As the lava gradually stabilized, the silhouette of something cradling that heart slowly began to reveal itself.

[ God Frame (??)
– Completed Form. ]

The completed form, finally created after producing countless A-rank and S-rank failures.

[ ! Warning !
A calamity will soon draw its first breath.
Evacuate for your survival.

00 : 09 : 59 ]

The true nature of the Fifth Dungeon Break unfolded before 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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