Chapter 243: Lanchea’s Lambda (1)
“Hyung, is that Seong Hyunjae?”
Yuhyun, who was in my arms, suddenly asked.
“Huh?”
“He seems unnecessarily interested in you, so I think it might be him.”
…So you’re recognizing him by his behavior rather than his face.
“For now, no.”
Even as I said it, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling. He was different, yet similar. Could I really dismiss this as mere coincidence? Honestly, no. The appearance alone might be a stretch, but his skills and even his weapon were exactly the same. His personality seemed somewhat different, but not completely dissimilar either.
“Seong Hyunjae again.”
At Yuhyun’s words, Sigma muttered.
“He resembles you—no, rather, you resemble him. He’s my partner.”
I took this opportunity to complete the quest.
“This isn’t my personal opinion, but objectively speaking, he’s good-looking and annoyingly competent in many ways. Right now, though, he’s holed up at home, staring at a monitor like a big hot pink ball of yarn.”
Why isn’t the quest completion notification popping up? Do I need to say more? Just how much do they want me to explain?
“Lately, he’s gotten into knitting and seems to be pretty good at making scarves. He also makes great cocktails. He’s a good cook, doesn’t eat the crusts of bread but oddly enough eats shrimp tails. According to Soyeong, he’s also good at origami. He has a large fish tank at home. He once broke it but refilled the water. He even caught the fish himself and suggested we go fishing together, saying he knew a good spot.”
“Fishing?”
“Yeah, do you want to go too? You’ve never been fishing, have you?”
At this point, I hadn’t either. Before my regression, I had occasionally fished in dungeons. Some dungeon fish, if caught alive, sold quite well as ornamental pets, depending on the species. There was even an F-rank dungeon where fishing was more profitable than hunting monsters.
After spilling a few more unnecessary personal details, the quest was finally completed. Seriously, Seong Hyunjae.
“…Anyway, that’s the kind of guy he is. Looking at the situation, it seems the opposite of before. So, shouldn’t we just run away?”
Yuhyun’s mana was still full, but Sigma had likely used up more than half of his. If they fought, the outcome was obvious. Honestly, the fact that Sigma had chased Yuhyun all the way here was surprising. I hadn’t thought he was the type to persist despite knowing he had no chance of winning.
“I acknowledge that I’m at a disadvantage.”
With a light tapping sound, Sigma stepped back. He leaped onto the debris of a collapsed wall and looked down at us.
“Alpha—or should I say, Han Yuhyun. First… shall I apologize?”
For some reason, Sigma bowed his head slightly. That wasn’t like him at all, so I wondered what was going on.
“I engraved that C-rank, thinking he was an unaffiliated wandering Awakened.”
He then spouted absolute nonsense. Yuhyun, who clearly understood the implications, immediately frowned.
“Hyung?”
“No, he started but didn’t finish—”
Before I could even finish my excuse, Yuhyun pulled down my scarf and checked the back of my neck. Then he gritted his teeth slightly.
“He started engraving but didn’t finish? …There’s a mark.”
“…A little.”
I hadn’t felt anything, so I didn’t realize it, but that bastard! This is my actual body, damn it! I wanted to check, but I couldn’t see the back of my neck. Oh, right—the teacher’s skill. When I quickly used it on Yuhyun, I saw a faint pattern on my neck, like a stamp with ink almost run out.
The flames that had subsided flared up again. Sigma smirked and pulled out a contract.
“Thanks to your revival, the contract is still valid. Now it’s time for me to receive my compensation, C-rank.”
He traced his finger along a section of the contract as he spoke.
“It states, ‘Upon Alpha regaining freedom, within 24 hours, the contractee must provide satisfactory information as compensation.’”
“I’ll tell you, so come down right now!”
“What do you think happens if I go past 24 hours without receiving the information?”
“…What?”
“I can wait, C-rank.”
That bastard! I never expected Sigma to refuse receiving his compensation. I should have been more precise when setting the conditions!
“If you wait, the contract will be nullified due to non-fulfillment. Do you think I’ll tell you then? You’ll never get the information!”
“In that case, I’ll gain both C-rank and Alpha. That doesn’t sound too bad.”
…Shit, I should have left my brother out of the compensation clause. No—before that, I could just buy an SS-rank contract-breaking item from the shop. If it’s a one-time-use item, it shouldn’t be too expensive.
Rumble!
At that moment, the rubble Sigma was standing on started melting. The pile of stones collapsed, and Sigma lightly leaped further back. Yuhyun stared at him with a cold gaze.
“Seems like you’re angry. Still, I’ll stay in Achates City for the next day.”
With those words, Sigma’s figure completely vanished. Yuhyun stepped down from my arms.
“Hyung, you should stay here—no, wait, is here even safe?”
“Where are you planning to chase him? That’s exactly what he wants! If you move away from the mana hall, you’ll be at a disadvantage. That bastard brought his own mana storage and several S-rank guards. Besides, you’re already low on stamina.”
He had been continuously confined. Even with SS-rank stats, his body couldn’t be in good condition. A normal person would have been so weakened that standing upright would be difficult.
“I can just buy a contract-breaking item from the points shop and use it. So—”
“Are you sure I really shouldn’t go after him?”
— Iryn is there too, Hyung!
Both of them looked at me with desperate eyes. Uh, well…
“…Fine, I guess. Since they’ll want to capture you alive, it shouldn’t be too dangerous. Oh, by the way, did you see the message from Rookie?”
Yuhyun shook his head. So he hadn’t even had the chance to check his messages. The content of Yuhyun’s message was the same as Seong Hyunjae’s.
“Then, if I die, will I come back to life like you did earlier?”
“Uh, no, not exactly…”
I hesitated for a moment before deciding to be honest. We had agreed to keep no secrets from each other.
“I entered this world with my real body.”
“What? Then, Hyung, you—!”
“But I have five lives. I used one, so I still have four left.”
I also told him about the disc. And that, for some reason, Seong Hyunjae was inside the system. Yuhyun frowned but eventually nodded.
“…I’ll just stay by your side. Even if you have four left, we don’t know what could happen. I can’t leave you. And without Eunhye, it’s even riskier to go together.”
“Don’t worry about that. At least for thirty minutes.”
I bought a Mini Mini Cookie from the item shop and ate it. My body immediately shrank to a tiny size. Yuhyun, startled, carefully scooped me up. Iryn scurried up Yuhyun’s arm and spun around me excitedly.
— Hyung! Hyung! You’re cute! You look like Iryn!
“At this size, it’ll be easier for you to protect me. Your fire resistance will work perfectly, too. Right now, your stats are at C-rank, and your equipment is all S-rank, so it’s not like when you were F-rank, where a single hit could be fatal.”
— Iryn wants to hold you! Let Iryn hold you!
Iryn insisted that he could protect me and clung to me with his front paws. But if he held me, he wouldn’t be able to help Yuhyun. Conveniently, Yuhyun had a jacket with a chest pocket in his inventory, so he changed into it, and I slipped inside the pocket. Iryn circled around me, still unwilling to give up.
“Let’s hurry up and catch him!”
I bought ‘Chasing Dog (C)’ from the points shop. It was a one-time-use tracking item with a 3km range. I placed it on Sigma’s contract, and soon, something like a firefly emerged, swaying as if to lead the way.
With a powerful push off the ground, Yuhyun shot into the air.
Blue Willow Leaves briefly spread out as he leaped onto the leaves, using them as stepping stones to jump from one rooftop to another under the cover of night. The moment his feet barely touched one rooftop, he immediately surged forward again. Several buildings blurred beneath his feet in an instant.
“My points shop seems different from yours.”
“Huh?”
“My shop only has skills and equipment.”
Yuhyun spoke while checking his status window and quest log mid-run. His shop had a lot of options, but it didn’t include items like master keys, mini cookies, or tracking tools. Even the skills and equipment selection was much more limited compared to mine.
“…Did Rookie set mine up to help me?”
Or maybe Seong Hyunjae tampered with it. Either way, it had been useful.
— Grrrrr…
A low growl echoed from a distance. Sigma had headed toward a place with SS-rank monsters. If he lured in Achates’ guards as well, he’d have the upper hand. Annoyingly clever bastard.
“Yuhyun, don’t worry about mana.”
“But this world—”
“I have plenty of mana potions. I can even buy more from the points shop. So use your skills as much as you want.”
I’d dump every single mana potion I had saved up on him. It would’ve been great if I could share my double attack skill too, but I wasted it on that damn guy.
Once again, we leaped across buildings.
From atop a half-destroyed and dangerously unstable skyscraper, I had a clear view of the monstrous figure below.
An SS-rank monster with a body covered in scales as tough as armor. Not far away, a massive snake-like creature and a bear-like monster were surrounded by Achates guards. The three monsters had barely any injuries. It seemed the S-rank and lower guards could only hold them off and slow them down.
And over there, near the snake, stood Sigma on top of a building.
He smirked as if inviting us to come closer. Maybe because he looked like a certain someone, it made him even more irritating.
“Hyung, be careful.”
“Wait a second, Yuhyun.”
I stopped Yuhyun, who was about to charge straight at Sigma, and pulled out an item.
Here It Is (SS).
“Let’s start with a big hit.”
Clearing out the surrounding Achates and Solemnis guards first would make things easier.
I aimed the oversized handgun—twice the size of my shrunken body—at Sigma’s location. The muzzle glowed briefly. Nothing fired from the gun. Instead, it sent a signal, marking the location.
And moments later—
Rumble—
Something appeared in the sky above Sigma and the giant snake monster. A round sphere plummeted downward in an instant.
BOOM—!!
It exploded.
A blinding light burst forth as if a second sun had risen. The explosion combined with an intense shockwave and scorching heat, swallowing everything in its vicinity. Even from this distance, the forceful wind and searing heat reached us.
It was a three-use item that dropped an SS-rank bomb on a designated location.
— Shyaaah!
— Kwoooarrr!
The monsters howled. The snake, which had taken the full force of the explosion, writhed violently, its body covered in scorched patches. With every movement, venomous fumes and toxic fluids spilled out in all directions. Even before the flames from the explosion had fully settled, Yuhyun leaped forward. After all, that snake’s attributes couldn’t even graze a single hair on him.
“My poison resistance rank dropped a bit, but it’s still S-rank! And I can buy an antidote if needed!”
Conveniently, the pocket I was in was right near his heart. If the poison spread into him, my resistance would help neutralize it. With SS-rank stats, he would also endure toxins better, and even with just S-rank poison resistance, he could still manage against an SS-rank snake’s venom.
But the same wouldn’t apply to Sigma.
Stepping on Blue Willow Leaves, Yuhyun closed the distance to Sigma in an instant. Dark blue flames surged, absorbing the lingering heat from the explosion and intensifying with minimal mana consumption.
Sigma, of course, didn’t just stand by. He had replenished his mana, as golden electricity crackled vividly around him. Chains spun in the air as he prepared for an attack.
“Irin!”
At Yuhyun’s command, a massive red form lunged at Sigma from behind.
In his wyvern-like form, Irin rushed toward Sigma, wreathed in blue flames, fangs and claws bared.
Clang! The chains intercepted the wyvern’s strike, but Yuhyun didn’t miss the opening. In that moment, he slipped around to Sigma’s back.
His sword slashed forward, lightning and flames intertwining as they clashed and consumed each other. Clothes ripped apart, and Sigma swiftly maneuvered through the only available escape route—between Irin and Yuhyun.
But waiting in that spot was the snake.
Its partially melted body reeked of venomous fumes, its SS-rank toxicity lingering thick in the air.
— Sssss!
The snake flicked its red tongue and opened its mouth wide. Sigma grimaced slightly, his expression tightening, while the other end of his chain stretched outward.
Crunch!
The chain pierced straight through the snake’s head. With fluid precision, Sigma stepped onto the chain and climbed onto the snake’s skull.
As Yuhyun pursued, Sigma yanked the chain, guiding the snake to release its venom.
— Kiiiik!
The snake, writhing in agony, spewed a dense, viscous poison. Before it could reach Yuhyun, Irin opened his mouth wide and unleashed a burst of flames.
Fwoooosh!
The blue fire instantly incinerated the venom, swallowing the snake’s head whole.
The heat was so intense that the snake died without even making a sound. Its head, charred beyond recognition, fell lifelessly to the ground. A notification for earned points appeared.
“Yuhyun, grab the points!”
The amount of points I saw was much lower than what I had received for the previous SS-rank monster. Guess I wasn’t getting full credit for the bomb this time.
Sigma had already retreated, untouched by the flames. Fast as ever. He really had sharp combat instincts. Still, he hadn’t escaped completely unscathed—his complexion looked slightly paler, likely from exposure to the venom.
Irin, having used a great deal of energy, reverted to his red lizard form and scurried over to me. Just as he was about to attack Sigma again—
Tatatata—!
The sound of helicopter rotors filled the air.
Was it Solemnis’ helicopters? Using aircraft was a low blow!
“Yuhyun, be careful! If they burn enough mana, they might deploy heavy weaponry strong enough to surpass S-rank attacks!”
Yuhyun nodded and, with his free hand, pulled a sniper rifle from his inventory. Normally, using a rifle against a military helicopter would be ridiculous—but in the hands of an SS-rank guard, it was a different story. He raised the rifle, aiming at the helicopter.
Clunk.
The side door of the massive helicopter slid open.
I expected to see weapons, but instead—
VROOOOM!
A deafening roar erupted.
A massive motorcycle revved to life as it shot out of the helicopter.
No—three motorcycles.
Leading the charge was a bike with a spear mounted on its front. Beneath the moonlight, crimson hair fluttered in the wind.
“You bastards! Lanchea’s Lambda is here!”
With a bold shout, the lead bike hit the ground and instantly accelerated.
A skill had clearly been activated, as the bike hurtled forward at astonishing speed. It crashed straight into the bear-like monster.
The moment the spear tip made contact, the creature’s tough, armor-like hide shredded like paper.
Then—
With a wet, explosive sound, the bear’s body was utterly obliterated.
Screech! The bike skidded across the ground, coming to a sharp stop.
The rider, who had effortlessly taken down an SS-rank monster, lifted her spear vertically. She grinned and waved in our direction.
“Hey there, kiddo!”
There was no need to hesitate.
It was Moon Hyunah.
–TL Notes–
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