The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 331

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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 152

Everyone had lost their will to fight, unable to utter a single word.
Without even noticing the time slipping away, they stood in a daze, staring down into the crater.
Yet I couldn’t blame them.
A being that even the System could only tell to evacuate was, quite literally, a calamity.
“How could we possibly….”
The first Double Dungeon had been the beginning of the Apocalypse Process, and simultaneously its most formidable card.
Because there were no survivors, no one had known or passed it by, but it was also the moment when this world had come closest to its end.
Unable to even breathe freely in the intangible aura and smoke billowing from the crater, my dazed mind suddenly recalled, almost mockingly, the Apocalypse Cult.
Their claim that the end was an inescapable future.
What if they were right?
How futile had my struggles been, thinking I could stop something like that with human strength?
“No, this can’t be….”
It was Gye Young Ho’s voice, whimpering softly.
Even as his eyes remained fixed on the crater, his legs trembled helplessly as he stumbled backward.
Swaying and retreating, he moved toward the Gate.
Was he trying to flee?
That would be the wise choice.
The System was telling us to do exactly that.
Yet the words that came from Gye Young Ho’s terrified mouth were completely unexpected.
“Go! Everyone, run!”
Fumbling, he reached out to confirm the Gate was open, then shouted desperately.
“I’ll try to buy us time somehow! Escape!”
The first to react was Woo Jun Kyung of the Sama Guild.
Snapping to attention, he rushed toward Sa Ma Young and pleaded.
“My lord, please.”
His gloved hand grasped Sa Ma Young’s.
But his face soon darkened with despair.
Because he had seen Sa Ma Young’s eyes, burning hotter than the crater itself.
“Jun Kyung.”
“…My lord.”
“Go.”
“I cannot leave alone. You must come with me….”
“Woo Jun Kyung.”
Sa Ma Young cut him off.
“Didn’t you see? The first Gate opened. Go out and bring the kids back. I’ll stay here and have some fun. It’s been a while since I’ve had something entertaining.”
His face wore a joyful smile as he drew his long sword.
Woo Jun Kyung shook his head sharply.
“…Please forgive me.”
By the time Sa Ma Young sensed something amiss and furrowed his brow, Woo Jun Kyung had already vanished.
What he’d torn from the Subspace was unmistakably a Gate Escape Scroll.
That item, which transported users to a randomly designated location outside the Gate, was a clear reward from the earliest dungeons, including the first Gate itself.
Woo Jun Kyung had used one of the few remaining items in existence to save Sa Ma Young, who refused to evacuate.
The next to move was Sung Ro Sa.
“Damn it.”
Chewing her lip as she deliberated until the last moment, she bid farewell to Ji Sung, who lay before the Gate.
“I’m sorry.”
In Sung Ro Sa’s hand, as she exited the Gate following Woo Jun Kyung, was the necklace she’d severed from Ji Sung’s neck.
Tap, tap.
Then came footsteps approaching me.
“Yeo Joo, the healer—do you have any mana potions left?”
Why was it?
Kang Young Won was smiling again, just as before.
“Y-yes, here.”
“Thank you. This should be enough.”
Five mana potions I’d handed over filled her calloused hands.
I had no memory of ever seeing Kang Young Won drink a potion before.
As an unparalleled supreme hunter, her innate stamina and mana were exceptional, and her natural recovery was unmatched by anyone.
Yet for such a person to seek mana potions…
‘Final Execution
(終刑)
‘
Kang Young Won’s hidden ultimate skill.
The lower the caster’s health, the greater the damage it could inflict—a lethal technique that burned all available mana to activate.
“I’ve taken all the mana potions, so the healer has nothing left to do now.”
Kang Young Won gripped my shoulder and straightened my posture.
“Han—you’re responsible for safely evacuating Yeo Joo, the healer, from the dungeon. The same goes for everyone else.”
Though phrased as a command, the meaning was unmistakable.
I alone would remain.
“Everyone go out and do what needs to be done.”
It was as though she were entrusting us with her affairs after death.
Gritting my teeth, Yoon Ki Baek laughed with a voice as loud as the shield he carried.
“Ha ha, well then. We must escort the healer safely! Han’s got quite the responsibility!”
“Yoon Ki Baek.”
Kang Young Won’s expression hardened as she opened her mouth, but Gye Young Ho was faster.
“Our guild master doesn’t understand. We need to buy time. Even Kang Young Won alone won’t be enough!”
“Young Ho’s right. There’s no substitute for numbers in a situation like this.”
“No matter how many monsters respawn, having just the sub-guild leader evacuate the healer Yeo Joo should be sufficient, shouldn’t it?”
The other Justice Guild hunters chimed in with laughter.
“You all….”
Kang Young Won couldn’t continue speaking.
I understood her feelings.
She had given the evacuation order, but Kang Young Won knew it well too.
That her strength alone wasn’t enough.
That only the sacrifice of her guild members could minimize harm to innocent lives.
And then I heard Kang Han’s hollow voice.
“Cheonho-dong, Fifth… Dungeon Break.”

+++

Blood dripped steadily from between his clenched fists, his knuckles white with pressure.
Kang Han didn’t even notice the pain of his fingernails digging into his flesh.

“It’s a world where what Kang Han desires comes true. Recreated based on the memories and System data that we two possess within this place.”

A recreated world.
This was the inside of that very Gate where the Fifth Dungeon Break had occurred.
Kang Han’s gaze turned toward the colossal entity floating above the lava.
He remembered that day without a single detail missing.
The day he had undergone an awkward awakening with all his skills sealed, the day his world had crumbled.
That’s why he could be certain.
That thing wasn’t at the horrific scene that day.
Among the monsters that had burst out as the Gate ruptured, there was none with a heart made of lava.
If there had been, the damage would have been far more catastrophic.
Not just Cheonho-dong, but Seoul, and beyond that, the nation of South Korea would have vanished from the map.
More people would have died, been injured….
“Ah.”
They had stopped it.
Mother and the Justice Guild members had stopped that calamity.
They had faced it with the resolve to die and ultimately prevented it.
“Han.”
Kang Han looked at Yoon Ki Baek with trembling eyes.
“Ah, this is….”
Yoon Ki Baek, whom he had called “Uncle” since childhood and followed, smiled awkwardly and handed something over.
It was an old wedding ring, its surface covered with scratches and scuffs from years of wear.
“Could you give this to my wife? And tell her… I’m sorry. Tell her I’m sorry for leaving her to raise the children alone.”
Kang Han gazed at the heavy ring resting in his palm, his mind conjuring the image of a woman collapsing helplessly and the faces of young children who bore Yoon Ki Baek’s features.
It was the day he had delivered the compensation they had scraped together with such difficulty.
Unable to console Yoon Ki Baek’s grieving family as they wept endlessly, he had simply stood there in a daze before turning away.
The final words transmitted through Kang Han continued.
“Tell my mother that when the Hunter insurance payout comes through, she shouldn’t hesitate—she needs to get that knee surgery done.”
“There’s a letter in my room drawer.”
“I just hope she doesn’t grieve for too long. That’s all I ask.”
With such hearts, they had made their choice.
Thump—!
The silent heart began to pulse once more.
Thump—!
The narrowing interval signaled that time was running out.

[ 00 : 00 : 30 ]

“Han, hurry!”
Kang Young Won pushed her son’s body toward the Gate, her voice urgent.
“Once you’re out, use this in a safe place.”
Two Gate escape scrolls—the same kind Sa Ma Young had used.
Kang Han lifted his gaze to meet Kang Young Won’s eyes.
In those longed-for green eyes that existed only in his memory, affection for him burned with unmistakable clarity.
“I’m sorry, Mother.”
He had never truly believed.
Before those who pointed fingers, claiming the Dungeon Break had occurred because of the Justice Guild, because of Kang Young Won, Kang Han could not say “that’s impossible.”
He had only bowed his head and apologized.
Because he had genuinely believed that their mistakes had cost countless lives.
“I should have believed until the very end. At the very least, I should have believed in you until the very end, Mother.”
There had been times when he felt ashamed of the name Justice Guild itself.
He had even resented that if he were not Kang Young Won’s son, perhaps he could have lived more easily.
Thump, thump.
As his heart began to beat in earnest, Kang Han released what he had been holding in his hands.

[ All remaining wishes must be fulfilled for the clear condition to be satisfied.
Hint: Regret ]

I finally understood what desire I needed to realize.
Every night when the Justice Guild crumbled and I trembled with helplessness, I thought about it.
If only I had possessed strength that day.
Kang Han grasped his mother’s hand and spoke.
“Please, let me be your son again next time too.”
“What? I told you to go already—what on earth are you saying!”
“I really want to be Kang Young Won’s son, Kang Han, next time too.”
Before the warmth of that touch—a sensation he would never feel again—could fade, Kang Han summoned a spear from the void and grasped it firmly.
It was not the spear he had wielded since entering the Dream Dungeon.
A dark spear that reflected the lava’s glow with somber intensity.
Gripping it with unwavering resolve, Kang Han charged toward the crater.

* * *

[ Hidden Dungeon, ‘Land of Dreams’ Cleared! ]
[ You receive ‘Dream Catcher’ as a reward. ]

“Haah.”
I opened my eyes in the empty white space and sat up, wiping away the tears that streamed down my face.
“What a damned ending.”
I cursed through gritted teeth and turned my head.
“You agree as well, don’t you?”
A man with blue eyes dressed in white.
Someone I had to meet even while trapped in this cursed dream.
The System’s middle manager himself.

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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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