The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 488

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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 92

“Ahhhh, home!”
The moment I opened the door to the common space, I threw myself onto the sofa.
How long had it been since I’d come home?
Familiar space, familiar scent, familiar touch.
“Yes, this is it.”
I flipped over and gazed up at the ceiling, laughing.
No matter how nice the Hospital Room’s private ward was, nothing compared to home.
“Ah, so quiet.”
Even if there were relatively fewer people than in a standard Hospital Room, it was still a Hospital Room.
Of course it was—a place to receive treatment, not to rest comfortably.
Visitors coming to see other patients, medical staff drifting in and out on schedule.
Without realizing it, my ears had grown tired from the constant noise.
Kang Han, who’d returned to the Guild with me, had gone to oversee the hunters’ training, while Je Hwa was busy coordinating with the new recruits the Item Development Department had recently hired.
Na Baek Ho had probably gone out to play with Baek Young and Maeng Yi, as expected.
“Sigh.”
As I exhaled a long breath, the tension drained from my entire body.
The accumulated fatigue from casting skills every hour seemed to press me down heavily into the soft sofa.
“Just a little rest.”
Just ten minutes or so.
Lying on the sofa, I simply blinked my eyes shut and open a few times.
“What? Why is it so dark?”
I’d come home around midday, but when I opened my eyes, the world was shrouded in darkness.
The lights, set to turn on automatically at a certain time, cast a dim glow throughout the space.
“Wow, six hours.”
I’d meant to rest just for a moment before getting up, yet six hours had passed.
With no important schedule to keep, I couldn’t help but laugh at myself as I sat up—apparently I’d been that tired.
Indeed, my body felt remarkably lighter after the rest I’d so desperately needed.
Yet the quiet that had felt so satisfying before sleep now felt only like desolation.
It was absurd.
I’d slept deeply and woken refreshed, but no one had come home during those six hours—and somehow that felt lonely.
“This isn’t childish sulking.”
My own voice of reproach echoed briefly, then faded into silence again.
I sat vacant on the sofa for a moment longer, then forced myself up.
My slow steps carried me toward Sa Ma Young’s space.
It now stood with its lights blazing, waiting for a master who would never come.
Sa Ma Young had gone directly to the Sama Guild from the Hospital.
Consequently, his space in the Justice Guild remained as it had been before he entered the Gimpo Gate.
From the clothes hanging in his wardrobe to the wine bottle with half its contents still remaining.
Standing there alone felt strange.
As if Sa Ma Young might suddenly appear from anywhere at any moment.
“When would I ever have time to organize all of this?”
I muttered and complained, but truthfully, I already knew.
I would probably leave this space untouched for quite a long time.
Unlike other areas that carried the warmth of daily life, I settled onto a tall stool placed in a corner of the kitchen, which was unusually tidy and organized.
Then I opened the System’s message log and began scrolling backward through the records.
The fierce battle at the Gimpo Gate remained preserved in just a few lines of text.
An SS-Rank Dungeon had nearly exploded. Sa Ma Young had nearly died.
Saving me in the process.
Reading through the message log wasn’t painful.
I’d already reviewed it many times and become numb; if anything, it had all become clearer.
“Prevent the apocalypse.”
Even when Kang Han and I entered the Dream Dungeon through the golden Gate, it hadn’t felt as shocking as this.
Then, returning to reality had brought consolation—the knowledge that everything was still safe.
But this was different.
If Sa Ma Young, or Kang Han, or Je Hwa had failed, there would be no reality to return to for consolation, unlike the Dream Dungeon.
The same went for everyone in the Justice Guild, for everyone else.
And the surest way to protect them all was to prevent the apocalypse.
Because this world was my reality.
That’s when it happened.
Ding—
A sharp, clear bell-like chime—different from the affinity-rising sound effect—accompanied a new System message.

[ Yeo Joo’s Synchronization with This World Complete! ]
[ Will you receive your first reward? ]

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I stood in a city reduced to ruins.
In the distance, the Han River lay shrouded in thick gray fog, and a shattered bridge no longer connected anything at all.
I looked up and surveyed my surroundings more carefully.
The twisted, broken landscape of the street seemed familiar.
Now that I thought about it, the shape of the severed Han River bridge also rang familiar.
‘That is…’
Between the massive concrete rubble of what had once been something whole, a marker bearing the words “Mapo Bridge” came into view.
As my gaze rose slightly higher, I spotted green signs—”National Assembly Building” and “Hangang Citizen Park”—dangling as if ready to plummet at any moment.
‘Why am I here?’
Before I could find an answer, the quiet street erupted into chaos.
Wind rushed in from afar, carrying with it hurried footsteps and ragged breathing.
Moments later, several figures came running from the main street where a famous department store once stood, opposite the National Assembly Building.
They kept glancing back over their shoulders as if being pursued by something.
When one of them tripped over some carelessly scattered rebar, the group was forced to stop.
Caked in dust and dried blood, their forms were grotesque, yet immediately recognizable.
“Gasp, gasp! Damn it!”
Struggling to catch his breath as he got to his feet and tried to steady himself, striking the ground in frustration, was none other than Ryu Do Kyung.
Ryu Do Kyung, Guild Master of the Cheongmun Guild based in Cheongna.
But the man with long, flowing hair and the delicate Guild robes he always wore like traditional Korean dress was gone.
His long, fluttering sleeves, hastily tied with string, had already been torn to rags, and his face, once serene, now blazed with malice and fury.
“Of all places, why did you go Berserk there?! I’ve told you a hundred times—if you’re not in good condition, sit it out!”
The target of Ryu Do Kyung’s roar was Ha Young Hyun.
Having lost an arm long ago, the Utopia Guild Master had her empty sleeve cut short and now slumped onto a plastic chair from a broken bus shelter, her head bowed.
Someone stepped in between Ryu Do Kyung and Ha Young Hyun as he lunged forward, unable to contain his rage.
“Please stop, Guild Master Ryu Do Kyung. What does it change if we fight among ourselves?”
“Kang Han, are you really indifferent?! We nearly all died because of that one woman!”
It was Kang Han.
His eyes were fierce, his entire body covered in wounds, but it was undoubtedly Kang Han.
‘Is he really the Kang Han I know?’
He was simultaneously familiar and utterly strange.
Now that I looked more closely, the spear Kang Han held was different.
It wasn’t the Muk Spear that Je Hwa had made for him.
A plain spear with no ornamentation, its shaft hastily wrapped in cloth to prevent slipping, looked as exhausted as Kang Han himself.
‘This is not the Kang Han I know.’
My feet, which had been moving toward them, came to a halt.
A ruined Seoul, hunters caught in the throes of Berserk and waging desperate battles.
This was the world inside the Sejong Barrier.
“After Gwanak District and Seongdong District fell, it looks like Yeouido is next.”
Yoo Myung Hwa, who had been quietly watching the confrontation between Ryu Do Kyung and Ha Young Hyun, murmured.
“Is there meaning in this? Fighting on while losing comrades one by one—is this right?”
Yoo Myung Hwa posed a question no one could answer, and her gaze turned toward the Han River.
Eyes once steel-steady with unwavering resolve now sought an impossible peace in the quiet, flowing waters of the Han.
“Still, someone must fight, mustn’t they?”
Kang Han spoke, his voice thick with exhaustion.
“Someone must keep showing them. That there are still people who haven’t given up, so neither should you.”
And his green eyes looked directly at me.
“Isn’t that right?”

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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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