The Owner of the Healing Therapy Shop Is Ranked 0th in the World - Chapter 29

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Owner of the Healing Therapy Shop is World Rank 0

 

Chapter 29

 

* * *

 

“Bonjour.”

 

Jinseong’s hospital room door opened without a knock.

 

The person who entered the room without permission was none other than Alice.

 

She looked down at the sleeping Jinseong. Then she approached him and whispered something softly in his ear.

 

Jinseong reflexively opened his eyes.

 

“Kugh!”

 

As soon as Jinseong opened his eyes, he grabbed Alice’s neck as if to break it.

 

“Ugh, gah… I woke you… from your nightmare… and you’re… so ungrateful.”

 

Alice frantically tapped at Jinseong’s hand that was gripping her neck tightly.

 

Jinseong, who had been breathing roughly through his mouth, gradually loosened his grip when he realized the person in front of him was Alice, not a monster.

 

“Ow ow ow, that hurt. My neck almost broke.”

 

Alice pouted her lips and cast a heal skill on herself.

 

“Not even a word of thanks.”

 

“…Why are you here.”

 

“Hmph, why am I here.”

 

Alice gracefully moved and sat on the edge of Jinseong’s bed.

 

“I came to help because I sensed dark energy emanating from somewhere. Aren’t you grateful?”

 

“…”

 

“Look at all that sweat. Are you okay?”

 

Alice offered him a handkerchief, but Jinseong didn’t take it.

 

“If you don’t sleep because you’re afraid of nightmares, you’ll only have more nightmares.”

 

“I know.”

 

“Or should I follow you around and wake you up every time you have a nightmare? Should I just move to Korea while I’m at it?”

 

Jinseong got up from his seat as if he didn’t want to hear any more.

 

“Get out. I need to wash up.”

 

“Is she your girlfriend?”

 

Jinseong looked down at Alice with cold eyes, understanding who the out-of-context question was about.

 

Alice just shrugged her shoulders and didn’t stop the conversation she had started.

 

“She’s pretty. Not as much as me, though.”

 

“I’d like you to mind your own business.”

 

“Right, then shall we talk about us? You know it’s been exactly 2 years since we last met? Remember the Magenta Palace Gate?”

 

Alice took out a cigarette from her pocket and put it in her mouth.

 

“I was completely smitten with you back then, so I insisted on following you when you said you’d go solo. You really hated me then, didn’t you?”

 

“Still do.”

 

“I followed you in and your skill blew away my hair and clothes, I really regretted it. Why can’t heal skills restore hair? It was the worst moment of my life.”

 

Alice giggled as if something was extremely funny. Her voice grew louder until it could be heard outside the room.

 

“When we escaped the Gate, you carried me like a princess and put your jacket over me. I still have that jacket.”

 

Alice glanced toward the door.

 

“Can I go to Korea to return it?”

 

Jinseong sighed quietly and walked toward the door.

 

“Get out.”

 

Jinseong flung the door wide open and jerked his head toward the hallway.

 

Despite the cold dismissal, Alice didn’t care and pursed her pink-tinted lips to blow a kiss.

 

“Bye bye~ See you again.”

 

Yebichnna was standing in front of the open door. Even though Alice knew this, she pretended not to and acted surprised.

 

“Oh my, we meet again?”

 

“Come in.”

 

When Jinseong gestured to Yebichnna, Alice subtly blocked her path and winked at Jinseong.

 

“Oops. Oppa, I haven’t given up on you yet, you know?”

 

Alice spoke in a seductive voice, looked Yebichnna up and down once, then left.

 

Jinseong’s expression showed displeasure as he watched Alice’s retreating figure.

 

* * *

 

After a brief rest period, Jinseong decided to leave the country despite everyone’s attempts to dissuade him.

 

As he stepped out of the hospital room, the outside air that entered his nose was excessively dry.

 

Jinseong’s mind was still foggy as he took slow steps.

 

Unless he forced himself to concentrate, his consciousness would become hazy from time to time.

 

This was because the monster’s poison rooted in his mind constantly triggered Jinseong’s trauma.

 

“Hunter Gangjinseong, please give us an interview!”

 

“Hunter Gang! We came from Germany!”

 

As he left the building, countless crowds and wave-like voices from all directions engulfed him.

 

Among them, there was a voice that pierced sharply into Jinseong’s ears.

 

“You bastard! Our Adam died like that!”

 

It was the wailing scream of a man.

 

The French Hunter Adam, whom he had risked his life to carry out of the Gate, had unfortunately passed away.

 

Even knowing the criticism was directed at him, Jinseong couldn’t stop walking. His gaze was directed forward, but his focus remained on the cracks between the sidewalk blocks.

 

“Why did only you come back alive! You could have saved him! As an S-rank Hunter, you should have saved my son!”

 

The blame from victims’ families was familiar. For Hunters who constantly crossed the line between life and death, survival sometimes became a sin.

 

But this time, he couldn’t let the criticism flow past him like water.

 

Those dagger-like words pierced straight through the gaps in his mind that had been torn apart by the monster.

 

The hallucinations he had heard inside the Gate began circling in his ears again. The voices of reality and past hallucinations mixed together, shaking his brain.

 

That’s when it happened.

 

“You murderer! Die! Just die!”

 

Something flew through the air from the hand of the man who appeared to be Adam’s father.

 

His senses as a Hunter were still sharp. In Jinseong’s vision, the trajectory of the flying raw egg was captured clearly like slow motion.

 

It was a slow projectile that he could easily dodge with just a slight turn of his head.

 

However, Jinseong didn’t move.

 

Thud.

 

The hard shell hit Jinseong’s left cheek and shattered into pieces. Cold, fishy yolk flowed down his cheek and stained his coat collar.

 

The surroundings were momentarily engulfed in silence. No one expected that a renowned Hunter would actually take such a crude attack.

 

Jinseong didn’t dodge. Feeling the sticky sensation flowing down his cheek, he recalled the final weight of someone he had carried out on his back.

 

‘This is better.’

 

He felt that receiving even this level of humiliation might ease the guilt of being the only survivor, even just a little.

 

Jinseong suppressed his trembling voice and spoke quietly.

 

“…I’m sorry.”

 

That was all he said.

 

Jinseong bowed his head and then resumed his heavy steps.

 

Behind him, the sound of wailing erupted.

 

He didn’t look back. He couldn’t look back.

 

That night, sensational news plastered the internet worldwide.

 

[High-ranking Hunters die one after another in Maze Gate… Endless…]

 

[Mysterious deaths of high rankers, it’s time for Hunter Gang’s explanation…]

 

[Consecutive deaths, difficult to view as accidents inside the Gate…]

 

[Where is Hunter Gang’s next conquest target?]

 

[WHP (World Hunter Police) investigation begins…]

 

* * *

 

“This is really too much. How is that Senior’s fault?”

 

I was reading news articles and community posts that were being uploaded in real-time from my assigned accommodation.

 

It was an article about people protesting, blaming Senior for Adam Hunter’s death. The article’s comments were filled with criticism toward the bereaved family.

 

[How is that Gangjinseong’s fault; he saved him and brought him out, this is ridiculous]

 

[It’s obvious that Adam or whatever got hurt trying to save him, why are they taking it out on the wrong person]

 

[Ugh, I miss Yuil hyung ㅠ If hyung Yuil saw me doing this stuff, he would have pushed it all away ㅠ]

 

But this wasn’t all. Talk of serial killings and such heated up the internet boards.

 

It was complete nonsense. It wasn’t even worth responding to.

 

Senior was someone who conquered Gates even at the cost of his own health, and even when he barely returned from the brink of death, he worried about the time limit.

 

For such a person to commit murder inside a Gate. What kind of absurd claim was this?

 

Koreans naturally defended Senior Jinseong. There were countless people getting angry, asking what they thought his sacrifice was.

 

However, some cautiously voiced their suspicions.

 

An opinion that the Black Crew that suddenly appeared two years ago had emerged in this same way was selected as a hot topic on the forums.

 

Naturally, that post was flooded with hate comments directed at the author.

 

Black Crew was considered a group of hunters who hunted other hunters, viewed as worse villains than Gates.

 

This was because they only committed murders inside Gates where no traces of crime remained, then disappeared like shadows.

 

‘Senior is a Black Crew member?’

 

This was also absurd.

 

Even if the Black Crew that had suddenly disappeared had started activities again, there was no way Senior could be one of their members.

 

I could be certain of it.

 

Whoosh, the moment I threw my phone far away and flopped down on the bed.

 

A portal appeared on one side of the wall and Mimi revealed herself.

 

“Mimi, you!”

 

I jumped up and grabbed the black cat tightly.

 

“Let go, you bastard!”

 

“Stay still!”

 

Then I hugged Mimi who was struggling to escape and carefully checked every part of her body. Fortunately, unlike last time, Mimi looked healthy.

 

When I let Mimi go, she quickly ran away and stood at a distance before saying.

 

“Let’s go back.”

 

“Do you know how surprised I was when you suddenly disappeared right after we arrived in France?”

 

“There’s a lot to be surprised about.”

 

“Where did you go? Were you inside the Gate?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“What did you do in there?”

 

“I examined the Gate. I was curious what kind of mischief had been done.”

 

“Why would you examine that? Weren’t you just supposed to play the role of a status window?”

 

Mimi narrowed her yellow pupils vertically and blinked, closing and opening her eyes.

 

“Let’s talk when we get back.”

 

“Hey!”

 

I shouted angrily at Mimi who was trying to enter the portal.

 

It was obvious that once we returned, she would subtly avoid my questions like this and treat it as if nothing happened.

 

“Let me ask just one thing!”

 

Mimi looked back.

 

“You… are you really trying to help humans? Just tell me this.”

 

“…You could say that. For now.”

 

Leaving behind an ambiguous answer, Mimi leisurely disappeared into the portal.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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