The Regressed SSS-Rank Supporter Who Turned Dark - Chapter 49

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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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#Episode 49
The path to the Transport Station.
Four hundred meters felt like four hundred kilometers.
Walking through the fog teeming with monsters was no different from treading on thin ice.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
“Kyaaaaahhhhh!”
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
Boom!
Due to the spatial distortion effects of the Fog Maze, fragmented sounds reached me in disjointed pieces, amplifying my tension.
Noise originating from far away sounded as if it came from right beside me, and since the sounds were incomplete and mixed with countless others, I couldn’t begin to gauge what was happening or where.
Ahead? Behind?
Or perhaps left and right?
It was impossible to judge distance or proximity.
Naturally, my nerves were wound tight as a coil.
And when people grew tense, they made mistakes they wouldn’t normally make—especially if they were a terrified newbie.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Gunfire suddenly erupted, piercing my ears.
Eeeee—!
Ugh.
A sharp pain accompanied by ringing in my ears.
‘What the—’
Whip!
I turned my head toward the sound and found a trainee unleashing automatic fire into the empty fog.
…Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
The gunfire was brief.
Full Auto.
A carbine rifle on full auto would empty a thirty-round magazine in roughly two to three seconds….
Yet the volume of gunfire that erupted in that short span was far from negligible.
The muzzle flash that burst forth was equally impossible to ignore.
“Sigh.”
A breath escaped me unbidden.
I held no resentment.
It was entirely plausible.
Why else would they call them newbies?
I understood, but the situation being what it was, there was no avoiding the price to be paid….
“R-reload. I need to reload. Reload, reload….”
Shiver-shiver-shiver!
The trainee who had recklessly sprayed bullets fumbled with trembling hands like an aspen leaf, searching for a fresh magazine.
Click, thud.
The unfortunate magazine hovered near the magazine well without finding its slot.
Well, well.
How could someone who can’t even handle a firearm properly manage to reload while panicking?
“Get your head in the game, you bastard!”
Thwack!
An instructor nearby drove a vicious kick into the trainee’s chest.
Crash!
The very moment the trainee tumbled ungracefully to the ground.
Squelch!
Pallid tentacles erupted from the mist, coiling around the instructor.
Sizzzzzzle!
With no one to help, wisps of pale smoke rose from every part of the instructor’s body ensnared by the tentacles.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”
A harrowing scream tore from the instructor’s mouth.
Ugh.
The stench of burning flesh assaulted my nostrils.
“Damn it!”
Another trainee nearby swung a machete-shaped spirit blade, severing the tentacles.
Thud!
“Ahhh, ahhhhh, ahhhhhhhhh!!!”
The freed instructor’s screams continued unabated.
It didn’t appear his body was actually burning.
But where the tentacles had coiled, marks remained as if branded by a hot iron, and spider-web-like scars spread across the exposed skin between tears in his clothing.
Shudder, shudder, shudder!
Watching the instructor convulse like an epileptic seizure, there was no doubt he was suffering unimaginable agony.
The trainee who’d caused this disaster by firing wildly into the air—yet it was an innocent man paying the price.
No, to be precise, we all would.
What the instructor endured was merely the beginning.
Squelch, squelch!
Pallid tentacles erupted from all directions.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
“Uhhhhh!”
The evacuation column descended into chaos in an instant.
Rat-a-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Everyone pulled their triggers as gunfire rained down.
Combat erupted without warning.
Whoosh.
Massive jellyfish-like creatures emerged from the mist, larger than any human.
They drifted across the ground as if swimming through water, bobbing gently.
‘Fog Drifters!’
Even with my extensive experience, I’d never faced creatures like these before, though I’d certainly heard of them.
* * *
Seosin-myeon, Mansei-gu, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
Waters off Jebu Island.
“Thirty minutes to deployment!”
“Thirty minutes!”
Heavily armed mechanized infantry stood ready in military all-terrain motorcycles and tactical vehicles mounted with heavy weapons, awaiting the signal to advance.
Surrounding them, dozens of tanks lined up with their barrels trained westward toward Jebu Island.
Not far away, multiple attack helicopters prepared for sortie, while dozens of self-propelled guns completed their formations and stood ready to provide fire support.
Whiiiiiine!
In preparation for aerial combat with airborne monsters, hundreds of kamikaze drones blackened the sky above.
It resembled a full-scale war deployment.
In fact, it was war.
The age of great chaos had arrived.
The conflict between humanity and monsters had long since escalated into full-scale warfare.
Now, humanity fought monsters day after day, with the very survival of the species hanging in the balance.
“Sir. Major General Lee Ik-gu. Standing by in the operational zone.”
Lee Ik-gu, the field commander, answered the call from the Defense Strategy Department with military precision, his voice taut with discipline.
A two-star general.
Typically, a major general—what they called a “two-star”—would have shed their military bearing and adopted an air of dignity, but his superior outranked him by far.
Ahn Guk-seon.
Minister of the Defense Strategy Department of South Korea.
No matter how high a two-star general’s rank, before a former three-star general who bore ultimate responsibility for South Korea’s national defense, he was merely a distant junior and one among countless subordinates.
Moreover, Minister An was a first-generation Hunter and a seven-star-class Hunter—practically a guardian deity of South Korea itself.
– You’ve been working hard.
“Not at all, sir. I’m simply doing what must be done.”
– Just hearing that puts my mind at ease.
“Thank you, Minister.”
– I’m calling not to interfere with your command authority. I hope you don’t misunderstand.
“No problem at all. Please proceed.”
– You’ve already been briefed, but securing Supernova’s person is the absolute priority.
Supernova.
A temporary callsign assigned to Cha Eun-sung by the Defense Strategy Department.
Given that HunterLink had identified the mysterious ten-star-class Hunter’s callsign as Supernova, the naming was clearly intentional.
Of course, Cha Eun-sung himself would be thoroughly displeased by it.
“Securing Supernova’s person. I have it firmly in mind.”
– Good. Do your best. Once we secure Supernova, I’ll leave all subsequent decisions entirely to your judgment as field commander.
“Understood completely.”
– Once Supernova is secured, there’s no need to prolong the engagement.
“I… beg your pardon?”
– The Abyss Clan is scheduled to be deployed.
“…!”
Lee Ik-gu’s eyes widened in shock.
The Abyss Clan.
One of South Korea’s five major clans.
They were an interest group that pursued only the welfare of their members with ruthless efficiency.
Their mission success rate ranked among the top three in all of South Korea, and they were renowned for their high survival rates as well.
However, they were notorious for employing any means necessary to achieve their ends—rumor had it they would discard even their own comrades like worn-out rags if circumstances demanded it.
“The Abyss Clan… has moved?”
Lee Ik-gu’s shock stemmed from the fact that they would ‘never’ mobilize unless there was profit to be made.
They were famous for cleanly ignoring even their own nation’s requests if the price and conditions weren’t right.
– The negotiations were quite difficult. We reached an agreement to deploy them after Supernova’s rescue.
“Thank you for your efforts.”
As a two-star general, Lee Ik-gu could roughly infer what sort of negotiations had taken place without needing to hear the details.
Neither Minister An nor Lee Ik-gu would dare voice such matters aloud.
* * *
Sea Mist Drifter.
A monster that appears when thick sea mist blankets the areas where dimensional rifts occur.
From what I knew, these jellyfish-like creatures drifted through mist rather than water, attacking humans indiscriminately.
The tentacles of Sea Mist Drifters carried a neurotoxin that inflicted excruciating pain—those struck by it would endure the worst agony a human could experience for hours on end.
And that wasn’t even the end of it; the aftereffects meant suffering intermittent pain for months afterward. Truly, there existed no more vicious tentacles.
“Cease fire, cease fire! Stop wasting ammunition—use blades! Deploy aether swords!”
I infused my voice with ether and shouted the command.
Bullets were useless against Sea Mist Drifters.
Composed of over ninety percent water and gelatin, bullets passed through them pathetically.
The holes left by their passage would seal in the blink of an eye.
My prediction proved accurate.
Squelch, squelch-squelch!
The Sea Mist Drifters suffered no damage from the gunfire and thrashed their tentacles about wildly.
“Slash! Just slash them!”
Gripping the Maniac’s Cleaver, I severed the incoming tentacles and carved through the nearest Sea Mist Drifter from above to below.
Splurch!
The Sea Mist Drifter split in two, its viscous bodily fluids spilling out.
Hisssss!
Its acidic nature became apparent as pale smoke rose from the ground, and a sour stench assaulted my nostrils.
Clink, clink!
Golden coins gleamed brilliantly.
[Secret Coin (Gold) acquired!]
[Secret Coin (Gold) acquired!]
…
[You have obtained a Secret Coin (Gold)!]
Without needing to draw a card, a white ferret extended from my deck and collected the secret coins.
It wasn’t just the Fog Wraiths I’d defeated.
Clink, clink!
The dead Fog Wraiths spilled out between two to three secret coins, and some as many as seven or eight.
‘Ah!’
Now I remembered.
When Fog Wraiths died, they dropped secret coins, etherium, or runes at low probability.
That’s why I’d heard that some hunters deliberately venture to coastal areas hoping for dimensional rifts to spawn Fog Wraiths.
But that was only possible if you had the strength to control the situation.
For strong hunters, Fog Wraiths might be farming targets, but for my current team and me, they were formidable threats.
Whoosh!
Tentacles flew at us from all directions.
‘Damn it.’
I cut them down, and again, yet they regenerated their tentacles in the blink of an eye.
“Argh!”
“Ahhh! Ahhhhh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!”
Screams erupted from all around.
I had to admit it.
Most of us were provisional hunters, and we were simply outmatched against a swarm of Fog Wraiths.
Whoooosh!
Ra Si-hyun was doing her best, but even as a mage, a mere 1-star couldn’t accomplish much.
‘This is impossible.’
I assessed the situation coldly.
Continuing the engagement would be suicide.
There was no choice.
We had to retreat.
Some people would inevitably be left behind, but in a situation like this, unfortunate casualties were unavoidable.
“Huh…”
Whoooosh!
A spiked chain blade swept past me at tremendous speed.
Whoooosh!
The chain mercilessly tore through the Fog Wraiths.
Shriek!
Screech!
The body fluids of the shredded Fog Wraiths drenched the ground.
‘That’s…’
I turned toward where the chain had come from.
“Finally found you. Huh.”
Call sign: Bloody Mary.
It was Choi Yu-ra.
“Hey, Cha Eun-sung.”
“What?”
“Am I your servant? You summoned me all the way out here?”
Choi Yu-ra growled at me as if she might devour me whole.

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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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