The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 378

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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 199

‘It’s working.’
Even as I feigned composure, bringing the purification potion to Sung Ro Sa’s lips, a deep sigh of relief escaped me.
The potion had truly purified the darkness.
‘As expected from Seo Yu Baek.’
I had never doubted his ability, yet a lingering anxiety had remained.
But even without the elixir—a kind of concentrated essence—it was showing sufficient effect.
I was quietly smiling when it happened.
“How did you stop it?”
A rough hand seized my shoulder as I tended to Sung Ro Sa.
“It was clearly a rampage that wouldn’t end easily. How did you do it?”
Shin Tae Jung stared down at me with wide, startled eyes.
His expression seemed caught between shock and fury.
Just as the firm pressure of his deepening grip began to hurt, Kang Han struck Shin Tae Jung’s hand away forcefully and spoke with unmistakable threat.
“Don’t lay hands on her.”
“…My apologies.”
Only then did Shin Tae Jung regain his composure, struggling to compose his expression.
Yet it seemed he hadn’t fully recovered his equilibrium.
His wavering gaze refused to leave me.
“Cough, I want to ask too.”
Sung Ro Sa, having drunk a second potion and looking considerably better than before, spoke.
She held up the now-empty potion bottle and asked.
“Did Yeo Joo the healer make this potion?”
It wasn’t just Shin Tae Jung and Sung Ro Sa.
Everyone inside Bang Wi Jin’s protective barrier waited for my answer with astonished faces.
I could even see the camera broadcasting this entire scene to the outside world.
This was the moment.
Everything that would follow depended on what I said here.
‘So what am I going to do about it?’
My mind, paradoxically, grew calm.
This was something predetermined from the moment I first learned of this ability—something that was always meant to happen.
“Yes, I made this potion. One that can stop rampages.”
“That’s… possible? An ability like that exists?”
“Sung Ro Sa’s rampage stopped, as you just witnessed.”
“W-well, that’s true, but…”
“Let’s see—it hasn’t dropped completely, but the addiction rate has decreased quite a bit.”
I deliberately checked the scanner screen wrapped around Sung Ro Sa’s wrist as I spoke.
“Addiction rate? What’s that?”
“When that reaches 100%, a rampage occurs.”
“So with this wristwatch, we can know in advance before a rampage happens?”
“Exactly. It’s a Darkness Addiction Scanner.”
“I thought it was just an ordinary wristwatch…”
The hunters listening to our conversation each checked their own scanners.
Then I noticed Kang Han, who was also looking down at his wristwatch, pause.

[ Status Abnormality – Darkness Addiction 82% ]

…I’d definitely brought it down to 0% before entering.
It seemed Kang Han’s altered constitution was being affected by the black spores far more than I’d anticipated.
“Kang Han.”
I habitually started to use a skill directly on him, then reconsidered.
What people had been exposed to was only the skill of ‘creating Darkness Purification Potions’.
If possible, I wanted to keep the skill that purifies through contact hidden.
I could purify him subtly without using the Bluetooth skill to hold hands or anything obvious, but could Kang Han manage not to show any reaction?
If he made a conspicuous action like Sa Ma Young had moments ago, the hunters present here—or someone watching the broadcast—might catch on.
“Your addiction rate seems a bit high. Please drink this.”
“…Thank you.”
Kang Han accepted the Darkness Purification Potion, seeming to understand my intention.
One bottle of 40% and one bottle of 20%.
As the potion went down with each gulp, I confirmed that Kang Han’s addiction rate was safely decreasing.
“Kang Han!”
Sa Ma Young called out to Kang Han from outside the barrier.
I was startled seeing him block the simultaneous attacks of the vines and Yoo Myung Hwa, but Kang Han, who had been beside me just moments before, had already leaped into the fray.
Crack-crack-crack—, Crash!
Unlike Sa Ma Young’s silent, swift, and fluid movements, Kang Han’s rough and heavy-hitting attacks pierced directly into the monster’s core.
A destructive blow that seemed to tear apart everything around it—the spearhead of Justice.
Splurt—!
With a sound like a leather ball bursting, the torn boss monster scattered in all directions.
It was an attack that wouldn’t be strange to receive a dungeon clear judgment.
But the boss monster, being plant-type, possessed tenacious vitality.
Whoosh!
Most of the massive body was oxidizing into black ash, but from deeper within, from the heart hidden in secret, a new stem sprouted forth.
However, compared to the original vine that had been the size of an adult torso, it was now pathetically weak.
Seeing this, Kang Han apparently thought he’d bought enough time and began to assist Sa Ma Young.
“Gaaack—!”
Facing two S-Rank hunters, Yoo Myung Hwa let out a bestial shriek and unleashed an even more vicious barrage of attacks.
With each movement of her arms, veins of black coursing beneath the skin, the razor-sharp metal edges affixed to her gauntlets sliced through the air with piercing shrieks.
The speed was beyond what my eyes could even follow.
“…Damn it!”
I understood Sa Ma Young’s frustration completely.
Though she moved like a monster, the opponent was Yoo Myung Hwa.
They couldn’t kill her, and they couldn’t inflict the kind of grave wounds that might threaten her life.
Kang Han was also gripping his spear backwards, using only the blunt shaft to engage Yoo Myung Hwa.
We could continue fighting until her strength gave out, but there was no way to predict when the black spores might erupt again.
If she were exposed to the black spores once more while already in this rampage, I couldn’t guarantee her survival.
“Let me try once more….”
Ju Sa Eun hurled a talisman.
But Yoo Myung Hwa didn’t fall for the same trick twice.
With a single twist of her body, she evaded the talisman and seized the opportunity to grab Kang Han’s spear shaft.
Just as Kang Han, his brow furrowed, was about to block her fist with his bare hand—
“Kugh!”
Like when she’d been hit by the talisman skill, but far more abruptly this time, all of Yoo Myung Hwa’s movements froze.
Could Ju Sa Eun use her skills in such rapid succession?
As I turned in shock to look at the hunters inside the barrier, my gaze caught Shin Tae Jung standing tall, his eyes fixed on Yoo Myung Hwa.

[ Shin Tae Jung uses the skill ‘Deep Signal’. ]

A chill ran down my spine—not merely from the sight of Shin Tae Jung’s pupils, which had transformed vertically like a reptile’s.
‘Controlling an S-Rank hunter.’
I’d once witnessed Ji Jung Hwi, an A-Rank mental-type ability user, manipulate hundreds of wasp monsters simultaneously.
But the target of Shin Tae Jung’s skill now was a person.
Moreover, an S-Rank hunter of equal standing.
Judging by the bloodshot whites of his eyes and the veins bulging across his forehead, it seemed far from effortless—yet he was nonetheless forcing Yoo Myung Hwa’s movements under his control.
“Krrgh….”
Just as with Sung Ro Sa, Yoo Myung Hwa was seized by Kang Han and brought inside the barrier.
But there was one critical problem.
Having completely lost her reason and turned aggressive, we couldn’t get Yoo Myung Hwa to drink a potion.
I tried holding a potion bottle to her lips just in case, but it was useless.
‘I’ll have to use a skill.’
Unlike Kang Han or Sa Ma Young, Yoo Myung Hwa hadn’t shown any dramatic reaction.
Perhaps I could use it while pretending to administer the potion.
But this time too, Shin Tae Jung moved first.

[ Shin Tae Jung uses the skill ‘Command’. ]

The moment the system window materialized before my eyes, a voice pierced through my ears with peculiar clarity.
“[Drink it.]”
It was a voice that sounded artificially modulated.
Yoo Myung Hwa accepted the purification potion from me with trembling hands.
But that was all.
Crack!
A full 40% purification potion shattered in Yoo Myung Hwa’s grip.
As I stared blankly at the potion dripping away, Shin Tae Jung asked me.
“You have more potions, right?”
“…Here.”
Shin Tae Jung opened a potion directly and placed it in Yoo Myung Hwa’s hand, then issued another command.
“[Don’t break it. Drink.]”
Yoo Myung Hwa could no longer resist and obediently drank the potion as Shin Tae Jung commanded.
“Huh.”
The effect was immediate.

[ Abnormal Status – Darkness Addiction 98% ]

Yoo Myung Hwa’s addiction rate, which had been displayed as ‘???%’ all along, finally appeared as a number and dropped below 100%.
The moment the complete rampage state ended, Yoo Myung Hwa regained consciousness, blinking slowly before suddenly asking.
“How many… died?”
“No one died.”
“What?”
Yoo Myung Hwa, as if unable to believe it, turned to Sung Ro Sa.
“You didn’t kill anyone, you idiot.”
“That can’t be…”
I wanted to explain it to her the way Sung Ro Sa had.
But the situation outside the barrier wouldn’t allow it.
The boss monster that Kang Han had weakened appeared to have been completely defeated by Sa Ma Young.
That was fortunate.
Boom, boom, kaboom!
Except for the way it oxidized into ash and detonated multiple peaks all at once as a final act of revenge.
“My lord!”
“My lord!”
Oh Young In, Bang Wi Jin, and Ju Sa Eun all rushed toward the barrier at once, trying to break through.
Kang Han did the same.
But I stopped them.
“No! If you go outside now, we’ll just have multiple hunters going berserk!”
As if expending everything it possessed while dying, the thick black spores darkened the air like nightfall itself.
“But… but the lord…”
“I’ll go.”
“Yeo Joo.”
Kang Han grabbed my wrist in alarm, but I pulled free and shook my head.
“Only I can. I’m not susceptible to the spores.”
The boss monster had already vanished.
For me, unaffected by the spores, Sa Ma Young was the only remaining threat.
But I had something to believe in.
Sa Ma Young doesn’t turn aggressive when he goes berserk.
‘Rather…’
The memory of Sa Ma Young from long ago surfaced—lying helplessly, staring blankly at the sky as if accepting his own death.
I tried to reassure Kang Han, whose eyes were filled with anxiety.
“It will be fine.”
Fear gripped me in the darkness where I couldn’t see even an inch ahead, but there was no hesitation.
“I can’t leave him alone in there.”

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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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