The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 396

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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 217

At my voice, long eyelashes trembled once before drowsy eyes fluttered open, hazy and unfocused.
Eyes like a misty sky—a pale blue—slowly turned toward me.
“…You’ve… arrived?”
The heavily sleep-laden voice sounded distant, as if still wandering through dreams.
“There’s much to report… but could I sleep a bit longer and then… we could talk…?”
“Who exactly do you think I am?!”
At my voice, grown louder with frustration, Shane finally seemed to regain awareness, his brow furrowing.
“…Who are you?”
“A customer who came here furious to lodge a complaint, that’s who.”
I’d come to file a grievance!
“How did you get into this place…!”
He jolted upright, alarmed.
When we’d last met in the Dream Dungeon, he’d looked like he hadn’t slept in a week, but judging by how much rest he’d gotten since then, his face was now as smooth as a peeled egg—which only irritated me further.
“How in the world did you even enter this space?”
“How? I walked in. Just because you hid it doesn’t mean the door disappears.”
“Even if you were lucky enough to find how to open the door, I’m asking how you found me in this space!”
“I just walked around and found you. And that’s not even the important part right now?!”
Who should be angry here?
Whether my arrival had angered him considerably, Shane—breathing heavily—snapped his fingers after wiping his face dry.
In an instant, everything changed.
The space that had resembled the cosmos vanished, replaced by a noble’s reception room.
I stared blankly at the tea steaming before me, only belatedly realizing I was already sitting on the sofa.
“What is this….”
Just as I was startled and about to lift myself from the seat, the reception room door opened with a click, and Shane entered.
Gone was his disheveled appearance from moments before—he now wore an immaculate formal suit.
Rather than modern Western clothing, it resembled the kind of attire you’d see in medieval fantasy novels, and it suited this space perfectly.
I couldn’t hide my bewilderment at the rapidly shifting situation, but fortunately I regained my composure quickly.
It was because of Shane’s first words as he sat across from me.
“You really have no fear, just like last time.”
“I didn’t want to come bleeding either, you know? Who’s responsible for all this?!”
I pulled up the mangled Quest window that had appeared in the Dark Spore Dungeon and thrust it toward him.
“This whole mess happened because you lost your mind and just kept sleeping!”
“….”
Shane kept his mouth firmly shut, unable to tear his gaze from the Quest window.
Right, there was nothing to say.
“I understand you wanted the Dream Catcher because there are people you want to see. But hobbies should be pursued during leisure time! Isn’t it crossing the line for an administrator to forget their duties and do nothing but sleep?!”
I seized the opportunity and pressed harder.
“This won’t do! The Dark Spore Dungeon that should appear much later keeps popping up unexpectedly, Quests become unreadable, and reward items aren’t being distributed properly! If the administrator doesn’t do their job right, we lose our chance to prevent the apocalypse and fight properly!”
At my last words, Shane’s thin shoulders flinched once.
Not all administrators were bad like Mollig, who had handed over the game console to Bishop Yi.
Some dimensional beings who had failed to prevent the apocalypse tormented those trapped in trials with the mindset of “since we failed, you should suffer too,” while others like Shane retained a thread of compassion.
I exploited that weakness.
“Sigh.”
Shane exhaled a deep breath.
Then, with the appearance of a Western painting, he took a sip of tea and spoke.
“You came with a tail attached.”

* * *

“They’ve cleared out all the security personnel.”
Sa Ma Young laughed hollowly while surveying the Muaksan Gate perimeter where not a single ant was visible.
The reason Yeo Joo had come here alone remained unknown, but it was now certain this wasn’t something she’d orchestrated by herself.
There was only one person who could withdraw personnel stationed to guard the Gate as needed.
“The Association Director.”
That old fox.
Unlike Sa Ma Young, the other two men didn’t voice it, but their expressions were equally displeased.
Displeased, and doubly so.
The existence of another person who shared a part of Yeo Joo that they didn’t know about.
“Is this the place?”
Kang Han asked Je Hwa.
“The signal cut off completely after this point, so she must have gone inside.”
Je Hwa gestured toward the black Gate and answered.
‘I should have made it as an item that works even inside the Dungeon.’
Ordinary GPS doesn’t function beyond a Gate.
It was something I’d agonized over when creating the necklace.
Adding it as an item function felt like Yeo Joo would notice immediately, based on pure instinct.
Kang Han, observing Je Hwa click his tongue, spoke.
“We need to go in and confirm that Yeo Joo is safe. What will you do, Je Hwa?”
“Of course I’m going too.”
His own voice burst out abruptly, wounding his pride once more.
Non-combatant or not, there was no reason he couldn’t enter a Gate.
Especially not one that Yeo Joo had entered.
Je Hwa wanted to confirm her safety with his own eyes just as much as the others.
While the two conversed, Sa Ma Young began moving toward the Gate first.
Whether they accompanied him or not was irrelevant.
Only Yeo Joo mattered.
Even if I had to face the Death Knight again inside, it didn’t matter.
As long as Yeo Joo remained unharmed.
But Sa Ma Young’s steps halted before he could even reach the Gate.
“What is this…?”
Kang Han and Jung Je Hwa, who had been following closely behind, were in the same predicament.
The three men stood a few paces before the Muaksan Gate, their eyes narrowing as they glared at the System window.

[ Gate Entry Prohibited
Reason: Insufficient Authority
Entry will resume in 1 minute ]

* * *

Along with the thought that ‘I’ve picked up a tail’, familiar faces materialized in my mind—the Reception Room scene playing out before me.
Sa Ma Young, Kang Han, Jung Je Hwa.
I was startled for only a moment at the sight of the three men standing before the Muaksan Gate, but the text on the System window visible to them made my blood boil all over again.
“One minute? You’re telling me to leave in one minute?!”
If I were to address everything, one minute wouldn’t be nearly enough—I’d need an hour!
“For them, it will be one minute. This is my space, so the flow of time is mine to command.”
“Ah, here I go again.”
“For someone who came of their own accord, you know remarkably little about the Administrator’s domain?”
“That may be true.”
I shamelessly shrugged my shoulders and pointed to the Quest window of the Dark Spore Dungeon I had created, speaking plainly.
“So, what are you going to do about this?”
“I will provide compensation.”
“Compensation? If things had proceeded normally, the Dark Spore Dungeon wouldn’t have appeared for quite some time, but because it suddenly erupted, several people nearly died. Exactly what form of compensation are you planning to offer?”
Of course, I intended to receive compensation.
I would extract every last bit of it.
But Shane’s focus had latched onto something else entirely.
“What do you mean by that? A dungeon that wouldn’t have appeared for quite some time?”
“You’re a mid-tier Administrator, so you should understand. There’s an order to everything regarding Gate occurrences.”
The ‘Apocalypse Process’ was a kind of trial.
Just as one wouldn’t ask a child who had barely begun to walk to complete a marathon, the bizarreness of Gates and monsters increased in difficulty gradually.
In that sense, the Double Dungeon that opened this time was a violation of protocol.
If things had gone even slightly wrong, I would have faced the apocalypse ending without ever having fought properly.
But Shane showed a reaction as though he couldn’t comprehend my words at all.
“An order…?”
I was the one who found myself more flustered by this turn of events.
Wasn’t this something any mid-level manager would know?
Did I really just misspeak?
“W-well, you see…”
“Shh.”
Shane raised a hand to silence me, then quietly closed his eyes.
At first, he appeared serene, as though meditating.
I half-wondered if he’d fallen asleep again.
But the peace didn’t last long.
His long eyelashes began to tremble as if roused from slumber, and his fists, resting on his knees, clenched tightly.
Eventually, Shane’s jaw tightened so severely that muscles stood out along his gaunt face as he slowly opened his eyes.
“…Excuse me?”
“…”
Shane said nothing.
He merely gazed at me for a long while with those wavering blue eyes, his lips moving soundlessly as he searched for words.
And so, after that incomprehensible internal struggle, all that emerged was:
“I apologize first. You’re right—I’ve been negligent in my duties as a manager.”
“Is that really what you’re saying right now…!”
“However, I’d like to correct the misunderstanding that the out-of-sequence Gates arose from my negligence.”
“Then why did such a thing happen?”
Again, Shane didn’t answer immediately, hesitating before finally seeming to reach a decision and speaking.
“Do you understand the law of causality?”
“Cause and effect, something like that, right?”
“That’s not all there is to it, but yes. Everything has a reason. I didn’t know this until now, but as you said, the apocalypse process seems to have a certain flow to it. However, that flow is also bound by the law of causality. In other words, Gates that deviate from the flow are results created by reasons sufficient to trigger them.”
It was a complex explanation, but my chest sank with understanding the moment I heard it.
Because too many things came to mind.
All the contents of the 【Chronicles of Sejong】 that I’d been changing.
“You’re catching on, I see.”
Cause and effect don’t apply only to the apocalypse process.
Stories work the same way.
The narrative on one page determines what comes on the next.
“Then…”
A sinister premonition twisted my insides.
Almost without thinking, I looked at Shane pleadingly, but he spoke in a calm voice, pronouncing judgment like a sentence.
“The apocalypse process has accelerated.”
“Damn it.”
Harsh words spilled out uncontrollably after that.
I couldn’t bear my own incompetence.
Why hadn’t I anticipated this would happen?
I wanted to tear apart every moment I’d wasted in complacency, thinking there was still plenty of time left.
But at the same time, doubt crept in.
“But things were fine until now. So why did it suddenly change?”
If the law of causality hadn’t suddenly applied, then the narrative should have been broken from the beginning.
From when Kang Han re-awakened far more quickly, from when Sa Ma Young didn’t die, from when Je Hwa resumed crafting items, or from when the Justice Guild didn’t collapse.
Or perhaps.
‘From the moment I appeared in this world.’
Wasn’t my very existence a deviation from the law of causality?
“To answer that question, I need time as well. The hypothesis that comes to mind immediately is….”
Shane continued, his expression as bewildered as mine.
“That some forceful power has been suppressing the flow of causality until now. But that doesn’t make sense.”
“Why not?”
“Because causality isn’t merely about cause and effect. To gain one thing, you must give up another. To exert enough power to obstruct the natural flow of the law, there would have been an astronomical price….”
Shane fell into his own thoughts again, but this time I was in the same state.
Finding the cause of what had already happened mattered far less than figuring out what to do moving forward.
I closed both eyes the way Shane had done moments before.
Breathing deeply, I methodically cooled the emotions that kept surging up inside me.
The apocalypse process was accelerating.
Then I had to move faster as well.
I drained the now-lukewarm tea in one gulp and rose from my seat.
“I’ll go take a look. Let me out.”
“…Already?”
“We don’t have time to sit around.”
“Wise.”
“I hear that often. Let’s set a time for our next meeting. Once Shane figures out why the flow suddenly changed, I need to know that answer too.”
“I’ll make haste.”
I’d expected him to flatly refuse with something like ‘that’s none of your concern.’
But Shane surprisingly nodded readily and snapped his fingers.
Simultaneously, a small bell-shaped icon appeared at the corner of my vision.
“I’ll ring the bell when I find the answer.”
“That blasted bell….”
As if the bell ringing ding-ding every time my favorability rose wasn’t enough, now there was an administrator-exclusive bell.
While I grumbled, the reception room transformed into a library.
A single door creaked open among the countless shelves packed with books, the kind that would bear a name like ‘some royal library.’
It seemed to be indicating I should leave through there.
But before I left, one last question remained.
“But what is this? An irreversible choice?”

[ ! Warning !
This is an irreversible choice.
Do not speak of the Apocalypse Process. ]

As I was about to tell Association President Ji Jung Hwi about the Apocalypse, a crimson warning window appeared before me, and I questioned it.
But Shane tilted his head in confusion and asked back.
“What are you talking about?”
…He couldn’t see it.
When I had shown him the broken Quest window moments ago, his reaction had been entirely different—and instinctively, I understood.
This warning, mixed with informal speech, had not come from Shane.
‘Then who?’
The existence of that higher-ranking administrator supposedly on vacation suddenly crossed my mind, but I decided to set that aside for now.
“It’s nothing. See you next time.”
I had barely taken a single step out of the Library when I found myself standing in the Cave Dungeon once more.
When I turned around, the door that had led to Shane’s space had already vanished.
Alone again, the emotions I had forcibly suppressed began to surface.
With each step toward the nearby Gate, resolve and dread alternated like waves—rising and falling in endless succession.
I had no choice.
If things unfolded as predetermined, the only end awaiting me was apocalypse and death.
But because of my actions, the Apocalypse Process had accelerated.
Perhaps I had merely hastened everything?
In the end, wouldn’t it be like the final scene in a novel—Kang Han left alone to witness the world’s end?
It felt as though stones were bound to my feet, dragging me deeper into the abyss.
Crushed beneath an inescapable weight, I passed through the Gate and emerged outside.
“Ah.”
And there, I met the people who had been waiting for me.
In that moment, it felt as though I could breathe again.
“Are you alright?”
At Kang Han’s quiet voice, something welled up inside me—sorrow and courage intertwined.
“…I think I can do this.”
The results of all the changes I had made were not limited to the Apocalypse Process alone.
I had saved those destined to die and made the weakened strong again.
Looking at these three people, the prime examples of my efforts, I was reminded anew that I was not alone.
“What are you talking about?”
“Did something unfortunate happen inside?”
To Sa Ma Young and Je Hwa’s questions, I shook my head.
Because somehow, I felt lighter.
If the Apocalypse Process had already deviated from its predetermined course, then I too could throw curveballs freely.
Despite having mountains of questions to ask, I watched them wait silently for me, and I smiled genuinely, thinking:
‘Since it’s come to this, let’s give it everything we’ve got.’

– End of Part 2: Yeo Joo Saves the World

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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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