The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 395

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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 216

As the night deepened, the backyard grew increasingly lively, with drinks passing freely from hand to hand.
Je Hwa, who had been staring blankly into the bonfire, brushed the ash from his clothes and rose to his feet.
‘Time to head back.’
He had never been fond of gatherings where crowds assembled.
Yet he had lingered nonetheless—all because of the Justice Guild members who approached him awkwardly, offering him drinks.

“Why don’t you do the same? Abandon Maestro and ask Yeo Joo to take you in.”

Sa Ma Young’s jab struck a nerve that still ached.
There had been temptations countless times before, but I could never abandon Maestro.
And I likely never would.
Maestro was my everything.
No matter how much we snarled at each other face to face, I could never do what Sa Ma Young had done—choosing to be with Yeo Joo over his desire for the Sama Group.
Before the bitter smile that had spread across my face could fully fade,
I turned my head at the presence approaching me, and my eyes narrowed.
“…What is it?”
Kang Han and Sa Ma Young had come to find me together.
This unusual combination sent an ominous premonition through my mind.
“Let’s talk for a moment.”
Kang Han, speaking as if mindful of their surroundings, led the other two to a Guild Dining Hall where all the lights were off and no one remained.
The fact that there wasn’t even time to move to a proper Conference Room made my shoulders stiffen.
“Yeo Joo has disappeared.”
“…What?”
While I doubted my ears, Sa Ma Young, unable to contain himself any longer, spoke with his hair disheveled.
“We can search everywhere if we do it now! We should start by checking taxis and spatial transfer companies…!”
“If word gets out, it could put Yeo Joo in greater danger. Besides.”
Dark green eyes turned toward me.
“There must be an easier way.”
“Are you asking me to mobilize Maestro’s personnel?”
I let out a scoff, crossing my arms.
But Kang Han wasn’t fooled by my dismissal.
“Where is Yeo Joo right now?”
“Are you suggesting I hid her somewhere?”
“I know you’re not the type to do something so foolish. Rather, you’re quite intelligent—smart enough to have prepared a way to track Yeo Joo’s location in advance.”
“Hmph.”
I’d thought him stubborn to the point of being dull-witted.
But Kang Han’s true nature, revealed now that the matter concerning Yeo Joo had been stripped away, was entirely different.
He was simply skilled enough to feign complete ignorance.
“…Surprisingly sharp instincts.”
Jung Je Hwa’s eyes, unguarded in their wariness, fixed on Kang Han as he produced his phone.
The GPS attached to the Absolute Defense Necklace displayed her current location on the map in red light through a custom-built application.
Sa Ma Young, confirming the screen, muttered in astonishment.
“…Muaksan?”

* * *

Strictly speaking, there is no way to meet the Administrator.
Even Kang Han, the protagonist, only realized the Administrator’s existence near the end of the novel and never faced them directly.
But that simply means there is no official route.
There are two methods to cause a phenomenon that would prompt the Administrator to come seeking me out.
The first, already employed, was using the Dreamcatcher as bait to summon the mid-level manager Shane.
And the second was to cause an anomaly within a Gate.
If an unintended event by the System occurs, the Administrator must be notified.
For example, like the Dark Spore Double Dungeon from just before.
‘Seeing how the Quest window looked like that, it was definitely a glitch.’
Yet even so, the Quest window was never corrected.
It meant the Administrator had not intervened.
‘If they won’t come out, I’ll have to go in.’
And so I arrived at the entrance of the Mooak Mountain Fixed Dungeon.
“The Association Director’s power at work, as expected.”
He’d assigned me a trustworthy subordinate with spatial teleportation abilities, and with a single phone call, even cleared away the security forces guarding the entrance.
Without needing to don the invisibility cloak again, I marveled anew at the force of authority as I stepped through the Gate.
“Here again.”
It was a place with deep connections in many ways.
At the thought of the cockroach—no, the Death Knight—whose head was severed yet whose mouth alone remained alive, dying and reviving endlessly, I felt an inexplicable chill.
The Double Dungeon had closed safely, but afterward, mana stone mining in the Mooak Mountain Fixed Dungeon had ceased.
It wasn’t decided to close it entirely, merely abandoned without personnel.
“Perfect for hiding. No wonder he’s not just a mid-level manager.”
Just as I’d somehow encountered Mollig in the Maze Dungeon last time, the Administrators create hideouts within dungeons.
And the dungeon Shane had chosen was this very Mooak Mountain Fixed Dungeon.
“Now this is where the problem begins.”
Naturally, the entrance leading to Shane’s hideout was nowhere to be seen.
I stood with my back to the Gate and paused to think.
If Shane were smarter than Mollig, where and how would he have hidden the front door to his home?
But the answer simply wouldn’t come to me.
So I changed my approach to thinking.
“What would I do?”
I wouldn’t have made it open by pressing a few hidden buttons like Mollig did.
Instead, I would have exploited human psychology.
A place where miners wouldn’t dare venture, even if we resumed mining in this Dungeon that we’re maintaining through mana stones.
I headed toward the spot where the crimson Gate had once appeared.
The ground where the blood of the Hunter who had died in the accident pooled like a puddle still bore a different hue than its surroundings.
I stared down at the dark soil that crunched beneath my feet, waiting for a moment, but nothing happened.
So it wasn’t an automatic door after all.
Disappointed, I smacked my lips and racked my brain again.
Just as I’d pressed hidden buttons when dealing with Mollig, it seemed I needed to perform some action here too.
But there was nothing obvious to press in the vicinity.
I even tried bouncing in place, but still nothing.
“If it were me….”
As I thought about it again, something suddenly occurred to me.
“Something I would absolutely never do.”
I retrieved camping gear for Dungeons that I’d stored in my Subspace.
As I rummaged through the bag with a soft clatter, my fingers found what I was looking for.
It was a utility knife with a blade slightly longer than my finger.
I cut my palm with it and clenched my fist, letting blood drip.
As I watched fresh drops of blood seep into the dark earth and looked up, a massive door came into view.
It was unmistakably not modern—a colossal door in the style of medieval Europe—and it stood there as if it had always been there, playing innocent.
“Ah, how cruel.”
I laughed hollowly, and my head nodded involuntarily.
Who would bleed again at the very spot where the Double Dungeon’s Gate had opened through blood and death?
From my perspective, having nearly died while trying to close that Double Dungeon, it was a truly vicious method.
And then I realized something.
The door had no handle to turn.
Instead, there was only a door knocker at eye level, with a lion holding a ring in its mouth.
‘So even in death, still a nobleman, I see.’
I let out another hollow laugh and used the ring to knock on the door—rap, rap.

* * *

‘Can I even breathe here?’
It was my first coherent thought after regaining consciousness.
I had no memory after knocking on the door—suddenly I was standing in the middle of the cosmos.
‘Wait, standing?’
Looking down at my feet, I was indeed planted firmly on solid ground.
Not floating weightlessly in zero gravity.
The realization that this wasn’t actually outer space brought a measure of comfort.
I found myself able to observe my surroundings.
It was easy to mistake for the cosmos.
Countless stars glittered across the pitch-black expanse.
I shifted my feet experimentally.
As I moved, white light traced the path of my footsteps.
Like footprints left in fresh snow.
Though the colors were inverted—white prints against black space instead.
“I suppose I’ll head that way.”
In a space with no forward or backward, I simply began walking.
The only thing resembling a path was the trail of light I’d left behind, yet somehow I felt certain that if I kept walking, I would find Shane.
I accepted this groundless confidence.
After walking for a considerable time, something began to materialize in the distance.
The moment I realized it was an enormous bed, I was already running.
“This bastard.”
Shane lay in deep slumber, a golden dreamcatcher hanging above the headboard, gleaming brilliantly.
No wonder the system’s malfunctioning with the administrator acting like this!
The memory of that terror—holding Sa Ma Young close, using my Purification skill like a prayer in that suffocating darkness—surged back, and rage burned so fiercely my head throbbed.
“Middle manager Shane Luerden! Wake up this instant!”

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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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