The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 333

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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 154

I had successfully concluded my transaction with the middle manager and returned to the exact spot where I first crossed the golden Gate.
“Shall we take a walk?”
Kang Han, who had been gazing slowly at the bustling landscape of Yeouido, asked the question.
After settling onto the riverbank where the Han River waters rippled gently, he fell silent.
Unlike me, who had secured the Dream Catcher and completed the transaction with the manager, Kang Han must have felt as though he had just awakened from an impossibly long dream.
Though his form had melted away beyond recognition, I could tell from the way he gazed intently at his own hands—now perfectly intact—what he was experiencing.
“Did that actually happen?”
When the surroundings had grown completely dark, Kang Han suddenly asked.
“It was a recreation of what happened during the Double Dungeon, the Fifth Gate Break.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Cheongna wasn’t the first. People simply didn’t know about it.”
His voice was calm, as if speaking of someone else’s affair.
“Then Mother and the Justice Guild really did….”
“Stop it. The known Fifth Gate Break occurred because the first Gate ruptured. If the second Gate had also burst, the damage would have been far more catastrophic.”
Kang Han was crying silently.
Tears that gleamed in countless colors like the lights of the night cityscape fell steadily from his chin.
I wished he would resent me instead for revealing the truth to him in this manner.
Watching Kang Han shed tears endlessly in silence, I found no words of comfort.
What if I had asked the manager to erase Kang Han’s memories?
But I could not have done such a thing.
Kang Han deserved to remember, in whatever form.
Both his mother’s and the Justice Guild’s noble sacrifice, and his own struggle for them.
“Thank you, Yeo Joo.”
“Thank me?”
“Yes, because of you, I’ve come to understand.”
His face, still glistening with tears, broke into a relieved smile.
“The Justice Guild did nothing wrong.”
It was like watching a bird freed from its shackles take flight through the open sky for the first time.
“I don’t have to hate Mother anymore, and now I can take pride in the name Justice Guild.”
With each gust of cold wind that swept his brown hair, Kang Han was gradually liberating himself from the heavy guilt that had weighed upon him all this time.
My assumption had been wrong.
Kang Han, now knowing the truth of the Fifth Gate Break, needed no consolation.
And so I smiled alongside him and spoke.
“Someday, everyone will know. How many people the Justice Guild and Hunter Kang Young Won saved that day.”
A moment later, Kang Han rose from his seat first and extended his hand to me.
“Shall we head home now? The hospital discharge took far too long.”

* * *

The Doomsday Cult Headquarters, hastily established to evade the Korean Awakener Association.
In the darkness, Bishop Yi, bound to a decrepit chair, sobbed while spitting blood-tinged saliva.
“I, I told you everything. I told you, so why….”
The massive hand that had inflicted excruciating pain for hours suddenly seized his sweat-drenched hair.
“Ugh!”
“You hid things from me, didn’t you, Bishop Yi?”
Pale moonlight fell upon the Vice Cult Leader’s sharply defined, elegant profile.
The man’s crimson hair burned like flame, not a single strand out of place—impossible to imagine he was the one who had ravaged Bishop Yi’s face so thoroughly.
“I taught you that lies are wrong, yet that foolish head of yours still doesn’t understand?”
“I’m, I’m sorry! I was wrong, I was wrong!”
Only after witnessing Bishop Yi’s wailing sobs did the Vice Cult Leader seem satisfied. He slowly walked over and loosened the rope binding him to the chair.
Then he tossed a battered gaming device onto the blood-stained denim.
“Use it.”
“N, now?”
The gaming device given by the mole who called himself an administrator operated on Bishop Yi’s life force as fuel.
He had once used it carelessly and coughed up blood so violently he nearly died.
‘Am I going to die like this?’
His body was already ruined from torture.
Bishop Yi’s hesitation ended the moment the Vice Cult Leader reached toward his forehead again.
“Ah, I understand! I’ll do it! I’ll, I’ll try!”
His fingers, nails torn out, frantically pressed the power button on the gaming device.
But then.
“Huh? Why, why is this….”
On the black-and-white screen where Gate names had clearly scrolled in Jeonju, a block puzzle game appeared instead.
The panicked Bishop Yi mashed the protruding buttons repeatedly, but each time only childish sound effects—’plink! plink!’—rang out.
“This can’t be right? Back then, back then it was definitely….”
“Sigh.”
“No! Wait, just wait! Just a moment!”
“Bishop Yi.”
The voice was oddly affectionate, yet Bishop Yi’s face drained of all color as he looked at the man.
“Did you lie to me?”
“I, it’s not a lie… It’s real. I, I used this to control monsters….”
Bishop Yi, now too terrified to even consider escape, shook his head desperately.
“I really didn’t lie… Ugh!”
The moment the Vice Cult Leader’s fingertip touched his forehead, Bishop Yi’s limbs convulsed violently.
His pupils, contracted in terror, rolled backward, and white foam bubbled from his lips.
“Gack—”
Only after Bishop Yi lost consciousness, unable to withstand the agony tearing through his mind, did the Vice Cult Leader withdraw his finger and issue a command.
“Clean it up.”
The people hiding in the corners sprang into synchronized motion at those words.
They lifted the limp Bishop Yi and carried him away, while the chair and ropes were removed from the room.
With a soft click, the lights came on, revealing the space to be a surprisingly cozy bedroom.
After those who had finished their tasks bowed respectfully and left, the Vice Cult Leader gently stroked Bishop Yi’s forehead as he lay on the bed—his pupils splitting vertically like those of a reptile.
But the moment he retrieved his glasses from his pocket and put them on, his eyes had already returned to their normal, rounded shape.
“Hey, Bishop Yi.”
“Mmm?”
As if awakened from an afternoon nap, Bishop Yi stirred, his brow furrowing.
“What is it? Why’d you wake me up like this?”
“Sorry, you had another episode.”
“What? Again? Ugh.”
As Bishop Yi grumbled about his aching body and throbbing head, the Vice Cult Leader’s eyes narrowed with what appeared to be sympathy.
“It was pretty severe this time. Since you’re awake, I’ll bring you some medicine.”
“My throat’s dry too, so bring plenty of water.”
“…Sure.”
As the man turned to leave, his expression had already grown cold.

* * *

It had been several days since the quarterfinals against Chungmun ended.
The Justice Guild had gathered in the Break Room to watch the first semifinal match together.
“Ugh, what is this? They’re doing it again without fighting.”
Yang Hwa Yeon frowned as she watched Hunters who should have been fiercely battling monsters to raise their combat scores instead pick up items scattered on the ground one by one to examine them.
“The Guild Cup isn’t a joke, you know?!”
When she finally slammed the table with a bang, Lee Tae Yoon, the Team 3 leader sitting across from her, quickly moved his coffee aside and chuckled.
“Yang Hwa Yeon, cut them some slack. How fascinating must it be for them to act like that?”
“No, but checking Item Information once or twice is one thing! What are they doing, appraising antiques?!”
This had become a common sight ever since—precisely since the day I made a deal with the middle manager.
Awakeners had suddenly begun seeing item information.
‘They said the update wasn’t fully ready.’
It wasn’t an exaggeration; a restriction had been placed so it only worked inside Gates.
As a result, Hunters often found themselves entranced, staring at Item Information.
Watching them behave like children who had just learned to read Korean, I couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh.
“Ah, I want to get into a Gate so badly! You know that Dungeon we’re mining? Can’t I just pop in for a bit?”
“No, you can’t. Manage your condition, Lee Yu Chan.”
Lee Yu Chan, who would be competing in the semifinal against the Muwoon Guild, was whining uncharacteristically.
“I’m really curious, though.”
“You’ll be entering a Gate in a few days anyway, so just hold on until then.”
“Seriously. You could never understand how long each day feels when you’re young and dying of impatience.”
“What, now?”
“The Awakeners Association is in chaos because of the status window re-registration, so our match might get pushed back!”
“That’s true, I suppose.”
This was another problem I had triggered.
‘How was I supposed to know so many people had their skills registered at the wrong grade?’
Following the manager’s update, people who could now see their status windows were flocking to the Korean Awakener Association for re-registration, and I’d heard that Association Staff were working overtime every day.
“But it really seems busy. I heard it takes about three weeks?”
Lee Tae Yoon spoke, having hastily re-registered after discovering that a skill he thought was B-grade based on the scanner was actually A-grade when he checked his status window.
“Sigh, life has no meaning without entering a Gate.”
“It’s not that life has no meaning—you’ve got a cold coming on. That’s what you get for trusting your youth and wearing thin clothes everywhere.”
I lightly poked Lee Yu Chan as he sprawled over the sofa armrest, teasing him.
Not that I actually believed he had caught a cold.
‘A cold on an A-grade Hunter? That doesn’t make sense.’
Since I’d been providing Darkness management exclusively to those competing in the quarterfinals, Lee Yu Chan’s Darkness addiction rate had increased in the meantime.
…Should I try using it once now?

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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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