The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 412

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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 3, Episode 16

“As expected from my master…”
“You’re so cool, Master!”
Moon Na Rin and Lee Dan Woo’s eyes sparkled with what seemed like overwhelming admiration.
“Did you prepare everything well?”
“Yes!”
“Guild leader, we packed everything the older sisters told us to!”
Their voices rang out so vibrantly that I couldn’t help but think youth truly was the best.
“What about water?”
“Oh… water!”
Good thing I asked.
A person could survive several days without food if they drank water properly.
Yet it was such an obvious necessity that novice hunters without Gate experience often forgot to bring it.
“The Awakeners Association should have emergency supplies. Tell them you didn’t bring drinking water and get plenty from them.”
“Yes, I’ll be right back!”
The two young sprouts, anxiously hopping at the thought of forgetting essential supplies, rushed toward the Association tent at my words.
After confirming that the camera crew filming nearby had followed them and moved away, I turned toward the Gate and muttered in a voice no one else could hear.
“They sure do love dungeon breaks.”
Bastards.
My teeth ground together involuntarily.
It had been several days since the Justice Guild secured the bid for the Jongno A-rank Gate.
The reason the Apocalypse Cult chose this exact moment—when the Justice Guild had gathered before the Gate—to make their announcement was painfully obvious.
They wanted to redirect public attention away from the Justice Guild and toward themselves, essentially getting what they wanted without lifting a finger.
I had already anticipated that the Apocalypse Cult would release a prophecy about the sixth dungeon break.
So I waited throughout the Gate conquest preparations.
The moment they moved, we would immediately counter with an announcement about the young healer hunters.
But they stayed suspiciously quiet, and it seemed they waited until just before Gate entry—when the Justice Guild couldn’t respond quickly.
‘I almost fell for it without knowing anything.’
Fortunately, the young healers appeared right on time.
I secretly checked my phone and found that most of the discussion was about Lee Dan Woo and Moon Na Rin rather than the Apocalypse Cult’s prophecy.
Dongbaek and Fantasia had kept them so tightly under wraps, and the shock of those two calling me “master” and “teacher” seemed to have captured everyone’s attention.
Of course, there were still articles about the Apocalypse Cult, but the public’s interest was clearly focused on the healers.
People would rather learn about the relationship between cute A-rank hunters and an S-rank healer with a unique purification skill than listen to a pseudo-religious cult screaming about the world’s end and everyone’s death.
I had gotten lucky.
I wanted to bite my lower lip, but I had no way of knowing where cameras might be capturing my expression.
Since I’d shown confidence in the Apocalypse Cult’s bulletin, I had to maintain that outward composure until we cleared the Gate and emerged safely, regardless of what I actually felt.
“Hmph.”
Fortunately, keeping up a smile wasn’t difficult.
‘He’s probably flipped out by now.’
I’d timed it carefully and landed a solid blow—he must be furious about getting knocked over so thoroughly.
Imagining Shin Tae Jung’s distorted face, I couldn’t help but smile.
After everyone completed their final checks, I followed the group gathering before the Gate, watching it ripple like an ominous shadow.
I’d changed many things up to this point, but the Sixth Dungeon Break was something on an entirely different scale.
The death of Seo Yu Baek, the only S-rank Healer, and tens of thousands of civilians had been a critical turning point.
“Justice Guild entering the Gate.”
I followed Kang Han as he made his final report to the Association Staff member and passed through the Gate.

* * *

[ “Justice Guild has entered the Gate! Just a moment, and we’ll begin streaming the dungeon conquest from inside! What do you think will happen with today’s strategy, Hunter Jo Tae Seok?”
“Well, it’s a large-scale A-rank, so there must have been considerable concern. But hasn’t Justice Guild come extremely well-prepared? Honestly, for an A-rank Gate conquest team, it almost seems like overkill. Haha!” ]

In front of the TV, where cheerful voices without a trace of worry poured out, Shin Tae Jung, Vice Cult Leader of the Apocalypse Cult, released his grip from the armrest of his chair.
If he’d kept holding it, his S-rank strength in anger would have crushed it like a rice cracker, exposing his emotions for all to see.
When the prophecy announced in the Apocalypse Cult’s name failed to garner the attention it deserved, the timid and foolish Cult Leader, Bishop Yi, was already biting his nails until they bled.
Click, click.
Suppressing the urge to slap Bishop Yi’s face and extract every tooth that produced that unbearable sound, Shin Tae Jung asked in a measured voice.
“Bishop Yi, you’re certain about this, right?”
“Wh… what did you say?”
As Bishop Yi stared blankly back at him, the sharp eyes behind his glasses grew even keener for a moment.
But that too passed quickly—Shin Tae Jung, who still needed to maintain his image as a benevolent Vice Cult Leader, opened his mouth with the patience of someone teaching a dog.
“Your foresight. You said you’d seen the future where the Jongno Gate ruptures and the Sixth Dungeon Break occurs—multiple times.”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“Bishop Yi.”
“W-why do you keep c-calling me? I said it’s right!”
Bishop Yi shouted abruptly, but Shin Tae Jung’s expression didn’t change.
‘A dog can bark sometimes.’
As long as Bishop Yi remained useful, Shin Tae Jung intended to continue playing the role of a benevolent master.
“Right, I understand. Your foresight couldn’t possibly be wrong.”
Speaking with practiced gentleness, Shin Tae Jung chuckled softly as Bishop Yi flinched away from his hand reaching to pat his head, then stood up from his seat.
“You haven’t slept properly in days, and things will get busy once the Gate ruptures, so get some rest first.”
If the Sixth Dungeon Break happened as prophesied, the world would finally begin to pay attention to the Apocalypse Cult.
With each step Shin Tae Jung took out of the break room where the newly acquired TV sat, the old wooden floor creaked beneath his feet.
When that eerie noise finally faded and disappeared, Bishop Yi turned up the volume on the streaming broadcast that had begun showing the dungeon interior.
The caster and commentator seemed to be chattering about something, but Bishop Yi heard nothing at all.
This morning, while taking a solitary walk, the seizure had begun, and as always, the future revealed itself to me.
Feeling the premonitory symptoms of dizziness creeping in, Bishop Yi didn’t want to witness another horrific apocalyptic vision unfolding before my eyes—I would have rather gouged out my own eyes.
But then.

[ “…The Jongno A-rank Gate, which could have escalated into a sixth-tier Dungeon Break, has been safely cleared. However, in the process, many Hunters from the Justice Guild were injured or killed, and in particular, the death of Healer Yeo Joo has shocked everyone….” ]

The news broadcast showed the plaza in front of Gwanghwamun.
The sight of people weeping sorrowfully and laying white chrysanthemums was heartbreaking, yet cars still rushed past and crowds bustled about.
There was no massive crater like in my previous premonition, no collapsed buildings.
Gwanghwamun still stood in its place, and the streets were clean.
The sixth-tier Dungeon Break had not occurred.
“Gasp, gasp…!”
Bishop Yi had jolted back to reality as if suddenly plunged into ice water, and even now, as the Justice Guild’s raid had begun, I remained utterly bewildered.
‘Could the premonition… actually change?’
It had never happened before.
The futures I had seen were always filled with blood and screams, ash and silence, and endless darkness.
But for the first time, it had changed.
I had clearly seen Jongno devastated multiple times before.
The sixth and seventh-tier Dungeon Breaks and the apocalypse that followed were supposed to be an inevitable flow.
The premonition skill I had cursed showed me a future where the sixth-tier Dungeon Break did not occur.
Crunch, crunch.
Unable to tear my eyes from the streaming screen, Bishop Yi swallowed the metallic taste of blood in my mouth and thought.
‘If, truly, things can change.’
Thump, thump.
An emotion—whether fear or something else entirely—surged forward, and my heart pounded so violently it felt as though it might burst at any moment.

* * *

The moment I opened my eyes inside the Gate, I found myself standing in the middle of a half-devastated city.
Roads stretching in all directions and sturdy, if crude, buildings seemed to testify to a civilization that had once flourished magnificently.
Yet the dilapidated city, utterly silent, lay dead and dark.
“This place…”
Sa Ma Young’s startled voice reached me from somewhere as he entered the dungeon.
“The Yangpyeong A-rank Gate?”
“Can the same dungeon appear again?”
Bang Wi Jin and Bang Ri Ri also faltered in confusion.
“I think I’ve seen this in a strategy broadcast before?”
“It’s definitely the Yangpyeong dungeon. I’ve rewatched the strategy broadcasts so many times I recognize it.”
Even guild members who hadn’t directly entered the Yangpyeong Gate, aside from those from the Sama Guild who had, each offered their thoughts.
They all seemed deeply bewildered.
But I couldn’t blame them for their confusion.
The large A-rank dungeon that had opened in Jongno was unmistakably the same environment as the Yangpyeong A-rank Gate that the Sama Guild had conquered.
However, it wasn’t a completely identical Gate.
If it were, a sixth dungeon break would never have occurred.
“But it’s… no, it’s quite different. It seems more intact than back then?”
“The Yangpyeong dungeon didn’t have floating rocks and debris like this.”
The Yangpyeong A-rank dungeon had resembled the ruins of a city left behind by an unknown civilization that had never existed on Earth.
And the Jongno A-rank dungeon resembled that city at the moment it was destroyed, before it became devastated.
“It appears to be the same location at different points in time.”
That was when Kang Han arrived at the correct answer.
Whiiiiing-!
An ear-splitting siren blared across the entire city, and a Quest window suddenly materialized before my eyes.

[ ! WARNING ! ]
Research Complex Self-Destruct Protocol Activated
47 : 59 : 59

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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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