The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 175
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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 175
“There’s no way to save So Yi-yoon.”
It was Harp’s first words, bursting through the door in the dead of night.
He wasn’t at the Research Institute—he’d been monitoring the situation near Ragnarok.
I’d noticed he hadn’t shown up for our usual training sessions, but I never imagined it was because of this.
“Here, wipe yourself off first.”
Jung Hwan-jae handed him a handkerchief.
A so-called healer, yet he’d arrived with tears of blood streaming down his face.
I hesitated, wondering if I should step in, but he finally seemed to notice and wiped at his eyes.
“Ah, I couldn’t feel anything, so I didn’t realize.”
“….”
The atmosphere grew solemn.
A blue light shimmered from his hands, and the tears of blood ceased instantly.
“Anyway, there’s no way to save him. I felt like I had to tell you right now.”
Harp, who usually seemed indifferent and sluggish no matter what was said, was moving with such urgency.
Then again, the entire atmosphere felt like everyone was throwing themselves into action.
Perhaps Harp was being especially sensitive because So Yi-yoon was involved.
“Enough to rush here at dawn like that?”
“Enough to swim across the Pacific Ocean at dawn to get here.”
He suddenly appeared near the Guild Building and started shouting for someone to open the door.
‘Someone get out here, quickly!’
‘Wait, why is a researcher yelling outside without their phone!’
‘Hurry, please!’
If the guild members who’d been training at dawn hadn’t rushed out and brought him inside, it might have made the morning headlines.
When they saw Harp crying tears of blood, they actually wondered if they should take him to the Hospital first.
Even when we gathered in the early morning after receiving his call, barely able to open our eyes, his expression remained anxious.
“So what are you saying?”
“It’s about So Yi-yoon.”
“Yes.”
Harp took a long, shaky breath.
He’d been excluded from the dungeon conquest team and assigned to handle external chaos instead.
The reasoning was that large-scale personnel support was possible since he could receive cooperation from other Assigned Staff Members and Awakened individuals visiting the Research Institute.
Besides, they wanted to respect his unwillingness to enter the dungeon.
But seeming bothered by the consideration, he’d apparently been monitoring So Yi-yoon’s mana fluctuations.
“You can really see that?”
Harp glanced back at Sung Mi-ju, who shook her head as if fed up, and sighed deeply.
Sung Ji-wook had tried to wake her, but once she was out, she wouldn’t lift her head, so he gave up.
“It’s not visible with human mana anymore. But after properly opening the Network function, I can see it much better than before.”
“Why are you deliberately doing something so dangerous? The tears of blood seem to be from that too.”
“Exactly! I’m being careful so that even if So Yi-yoon suddenly becomes a dungeon somewhere, there won’t be any casualties.”
Sung Ji-wook, Hwa-jon, and I frequently visited the Ragnarok Region to reinforce our shields.
Even if So Yi-yoon’s mana ran rampant inside, we ensured it wouldn’t exceed that boundary.
At the very least, we could buy ourselves some time.
“It’s not that I don’t trust your shields, but it’d be nice to see things happen a bit faster. And.”
“And?”
Hwa-jon, who had remained silent until then, gently pressed for the rest.
“You kept saying it’d be great if we could save everyone, so I wondered if there might be a way. Turns out there isn’t.”
….
“…I don’t personally agree with that approach. But if it’s the majority opinion, I thought it was worth considering. It’s unfortunate it won’t work.”
He wasn’t actually trying to worry about us or help us.
“Besides, monster waves appear there periodically anyway, so someone has to go check on it!”
The Hunter Association already had people responding to that.
Half the monster waves never even made it past our shields, dying to the traps we’d laid in advance.
Realizing how unconvincing his own argument sounded, he returned to the main point.
“Anyway, his mana is already inhuman, and the Assigned Staff Member’s ability to suppress it is barely functioning anymore.”
“That means….”
“Two days at most.”
The atmosphere froze instantly.
Everyone had been preparing for this, but the sensation of it suddenly becoming imminent was different.
Two days at most, one day at the fastest.
Thanks to our frantic efforts, everyone living nearby had already evacuated.
From training without rest, our coordination had tightened.
I’d thought we were fully prepared to respond no matter when or how the dungeon opened….
[Liri: Don’t be nervous.]
I know myself. I’m still not ready.
No matter how much I think about it logically, no matter how much I push myself saying this is something I must eventually face.
But regardless of my state, what must come will arrive.
I decided not to force myself to be okay.
Because I knew that worrying like that only ended up ruining the job.
“So what’s your assessment from seeing it directly?”
“We need to move to the Ragnarok Region immediately.”
The answer came right away, as if he’d been waiting for this question.
“Why?”
“Through Dae’s eyes accessing the Network, I found that the faster Awakeners gather in the Calamity Zone, the faster it begins.”
Dante, who had been standing with a serious expression until then, opened his mouth.
“So you’re saying since we don’t know exactly when it’ll open, we should gather all the Awakeners in one place and accelerate it instead?”
Harp’s eyes turned toward him.
The strange pupils of those golden eyes gleamed with light.
“Gathering Rankers of this caliber will definitely trigger it within one hour to twelve hours at most.”
Jung Hwan-jae and Dante, who had become the backbone of this operation, conferred briefly before nodding in agreement.
Jung Hwan-jae turned to look at us.
“Wake everyone who’s sleeping. We’re moving toward Ragnarok.”
* * *
“….”
The Ragnarok site we arrived at was in far worse condition than when we’d come a few days ago to reinforce the shield.
Black smoke billowed as though a fire had broken out somewhere, and everything it touched was corroding.
Harp, too, had gotten so close to the shield that it was affected—tears of blood streaming down its face.
Fearless, as always.
“When the actual Dungeon ruptures, all that energy gets sucked inward, correct?”
“Yes.”
All of that will be manifested as a Dungeon.
Right now, there’s nothing we can do to make it disappear.
To witness a disaster unfolding before our eyes and be powerless to stop it—it’s utterly infuriating.
Unlike during the day, a tense silence hung heavy in the air.
Some drank potions to ease the tension or receive buffs, while others engaged in meaningless conversation with the manifested Staff Members.
Liri, Lucy, and Nia stood beside us, all manifested.
“The Gate is changing!”
And then someone’s voice cut through the silence.
Everyone’s gaze snapped toward it in unison.
Calamity, despair, anguish, loneliness—it felt like a collection of every dark emotion a human could experience.
The black smoke was being sucked into something, growing stronger.
“That is….”
“A Staff Member who fought desperately until the very end has fallen. I hope Pandora’s data was recovered to a place of peace.”
Nia, her voice gentle, bowed her head lightly toward something distant.
A Staff Member who bought us time to prepare, who fought against the Awakener they loved to protect this world.
Though I never knew their face, I felt a profound sorrow.
I paid my respects quietly alongside them, then opened my eyes wide as though peering forward into what was to come.
“It begins.”
Jung Hwan-jae squeezed my hand tightly, as if offering courage.
I squeezed back gently, meeting his grip with my own.
Strangely, that simple gesture alone calmed my racing heart, which had been pounding with tension.
The smoke, drawn in like debris into a vacuum, suddenly vanished before our eyes all at once.
“Ye-ah.”
A warm voice came from right behind me.
I turned to see Hwa-jon looking at me with a gentle expression.
He carefully drew forward the hand not holding Jung Hwan-jae’s and pressed something into my palm.
“It’s an Okwanhdan. I know you haven’t used the one I gave you before, but I have an extra one.”
“Brother.”
“Good luck out there.”
Without a word, he performed a light palm strike before me and vanished in an instant.
“The Gate is opening!”
At Sung Mi-ju’s commanding voice, I turned my gaze forward once more.
The shield we had erected shattered effortlessly.
And before our eyes.
The largest and darkest Gate we had ever witnessed materialized.
“3:33 AM! Beginning the Ragnarok conquest!”
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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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