The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 111

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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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Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with Song – Episode 111
The moment word spread about an S-Rank Gate, chaos erupted outside in an instant.
There weren’t many Hunters capable of handling an S-Rank, and in a situation like this, all we could do was prepare for evacuation and vacate the area quickly.
That was the right call.
Harp leaned back against his chair and opened his mouth as if casually tossing out a comment.
“Funny how luck works out—there are two Rank 1 Hunters here, and a Rank 14 as well.”
“….”
“…Hmm.”
“…Sigh.”
That would be me, Jung Hwan-jae, and Sung Ji-wook, in that order.
Doesn’t this make us look like we’ve brought a calamity upon this place? Though I’m sure that wasn’t his intention.
Without meaning to, I rolled my eyes in embarrassment, and the others didn’t seem much different.
While everyone else was panicking over the emergence of an S-Rank Gate, we were left enduring this awkward silence.
I’m not sure what Harp’s Skills or Stats are, but judging from when he helped me earlier, he seems quite formidable.
[Liri: Ye-ah, aren’t we evacuating?]
‘Oh, right.’
“Either way, whether we’re clearing the Gate or evacuating, we should do one or the other, shouldn’t we?”
“Ah, yes. Let’s go. Researcher Harp.”
“This place tends to have unnecessarily high-Rank Gates open frequently. We handle the protection of contaminated Staff Members here as well.”
Harp’s expression remained calm, as if he understood the circumstances behind this situation.
He even added a somber remark that perhaps this S-Rank Gate had appeared specifically to greet us, though such high-Rank Gates don’t usually manifest often.
I’ve never wished for a welcome like this. Others are suffering collateral damage too.
“So you’re saying this happened because of the Staff Members?”
Harp took the lead, and we followed behind him.
Harp didn’t answer Jung Hwan-jae’s question immediately.
He seemed to be deliberating over how much to tell us. Whatever he said, it appeared to be a matter of significant research importance.
“Since people who need to know already do, I’ll assume you know as well and explain.”
“Yes.”
“There’s one method by which Staff Members die—by exhausting all their Holy Power. And there’s something called a Fusion Dungeon.”
I hadn’t expected a Fusion Dungeon to emerge here.
But thinking about it, it made sense. Didn’t it?
This was a place where Staff Members and Hunters gathered in such large numbers, and a department that researched Staff Members themselves.
There was no way all their Holy Power remained intact. These were people who studied and investigated such things.
“So a Staff Member itself becomes a Dungeon?”
“Exactly. Usually, the Contractor becomes the boss monster of that place, while the Staff Member becomes the dungeon’s environment.”
Harp explained this in a helpful tone.
I had thought he’d be someone who reacted irritably to everything, but it seemed that was all a misunderstanding on my part.
Sung Ji-wook looked horrified.
“A Staff Member becomes the dungeon’s environment?”
“Holy Power itself is fundamentally different from human mana. It possesses strength thousands of times more formidable.”
The dungeon’s environment itself, the monsters within it, the traps laid throughout—all of it was merely an infinitesimal fraction of that Assigned Staff Member’s power.
“Because it’s been contaminated, it can’t be used properly, so it’s only at this level. Otherwise, every time a single Assigned Staff Member died, Seoul would’ve been obliterated,” Harp explained, standing by the window.
The Research Institute was silent.
People seemed to have hidden in safe places the moment the Gate ruptured.
We should have been hiding regardless of our stats, yet somehow we found ourselves relaxed.
Perhaps it was because we’d heard that Fusion Dungeons had lower internal difficulty than they appeared on the surface.
[Liri: Carelessness records the highest fatality rate among hunters, Ye-ah.]
‘Does psychological reasoning generate data as well?’
[Liri: We tend to analyze everything.]
[Liri: The greatest reason Awakeners die is because they let their guard down in that moment. So don’t let your guard down.]
[Liri: But since I’m here, this group should be able to clear it.]
Carelessness in dungeons, carelessness at Gates, carelessness in moments of crisis where I tell myself I’ll be fine.
I knew such complacency killed people. But hearing Liri state it so directly snapped me back to attention.
I shook my head once to regain my senses and hardened my gaze.
“Look over there.”
Harp pointed somewhere with his usual calm tone. My eyes naturally followed his gesture.
Where the Research Institute’s grounds ambiguously overlapped, a Gate resembling a black hole was visible.
It looked nothing like the Gates I’d seen and passed through before, and a chill ran down my spine.
“The Research Institute researches Assigned Staff Members, but it also handles the separation of already heavily contaminated Staff Members from their contractors.”
“I see.”
“At that level of contamination, they can’t even send messages. We just need to keep their body at a slight distance.”
Harp added that one of the two had apparently succeeded in approaching the other, then exhaled a sigh.
True, even if we separated Liri’s avatar, Liri could still approach me.
But I couldn’t understand why someone would go so far as to want to overturn this place.
I felt sympathy for this unknown person. Even curiosity about why they had to make such a choice.
“What kind of person were they?”
“We’ll know once we go inside. There were many people right before fusion. Ah, if anyone gets swept up and mutates along with them, it’ll be a lot of work.”
Harp pulled out his phone from his pocket and called someone.
-Hey! Where are you!
“I’m guiding the rankers right now. You’ve isolated all the contaminated contractors, right? I’ve got the two rank 1 hunters here with me, so I’m sending them into the dungeon.”
-What? Jung Hwan and Yeom Ye-ah?
“Yeah.”
-Can you get their autographs after we clear it?
Because he’d put it on speakerphone, only Jung Hwan-jae and I felt embarrassed.
There was no sense of serious crisis in the voice shouting loudly. This seemed to be routine for them.
Most of them were hunter-origin staff, and if they were protecting Assigned Staff Members, this wouldn’t be their first incident like this.
It was simply a matter of hiding in a safe place and waiting for active hunters to arrive for rescue.
“Well, I’ve given you all the guidance. Will the three of you go in? It would be safer with at least ten more people.”
“Harp, you’re coming with us too. And my Assigned Staff Member says we’re enough.”
“Huh?”
The words that spilled from my mouth were impulsive.
I myself was bewildered as to why I’d said such a thing.
Yet it felt as though I wouldn’t be able to move forward if I didn’t speak now. Harp wore an astonished expression, as if questioning why I was saying this to him.
I nodded seriously.
“Let’s go in together and clear it. You don’t have to do anything.”
“Then why go in at all?”
“Because an even number looks better!”
[Liri: Ye-ah, you really can’t come up with excuses, can you.]
The moment I closed my eyes and began pushing the “even-number-is-good theory” with all my might, even Liri sent a bitter message suggesting she couldn’t accept it.
“Since it’s a Dungeon we’re entering for the first time, an even number does seem better.”
My face was on the verge of bursting from embarrassment, but Jung Hwan-jae at least took my side.
He regarded Harp with an unwavering gaze.
Sung Ji-wook, who had been observing the entire situation from the side, let out a groan.
“Please help me.”
“Why are you doing this too, Joke? You weren’t this kind of character before, were you?”
“I wasn’t, but if I don’t become this kind of character now, it won’t work out, so I’m overcoming my embarrassment and barely managing to say this—please just accept it.”
Sung Ji-wook glanced at me sideways, apparently unable to convince himself that my statement made any sense.
I myself couldn’t provide a logical explanation for why such a thought had suddenly occurred to me.
In truth, a composition of one dealer and three healers wasn’t particularly elegant.
It could very well end up being nothing more than grinding through with Jung Hwan-jae as an infinite power source.
But that would be the same whether there were two or three of us.
Having someone who could be a real force didn’t seem like a bad thing.
As I blinked with such thoughts, Harp exhaled a long sigh.
“I really don’t want to.”
“Please.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to.”
“Please, I’m begging you.”
He pressed his forehead as he desperately tried to evade me through a battle of wills.
His gaze shifted toward the Gate. As it continued to expand visibly, he seemed to have nothing left to say.
Harp, having removed his white coat to reveal only a shirt and slacks, turned back to face us.
“I’m going in, but I’m not doing anything. Just know that.”

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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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