Baek Sorin — Part 4
[Hooooohhh…]
The sound of air escaping.
The ghost amalgamation spun around in circles.
A faint light leaked from its translucent form.
Then, just like a balloon with a hole in it, it shriveled up and vanished.
At the same time, the cold aura disappeared.
As the temperature quickly returned to normal, the frozen stiffness in my body melted away.
“Is… is it over?”
“Yeah.”
I stood still for a moment, savoring the victory.
Nothing remained where the ghost amalgamation had disappeared.
Instead, I walked over to where it had first appeared.
The skeletal hand was still sticking up from the ground, gripping the smartphone that was playing that cheerful song.
[Three bears living in one house♪ Daddy bear, Mommy bear, Baby bear♪]
Baek Sorin looked at it with a confused expression.
“What the heck is that?”
“It’s the core.”
“The core? You mean a mana core?”
“Exactly.”
“Why is the core attached to a smartphone?”
“It happens sometimes. It’s not unusual for ghosts. And if it hadn’t been a core, the phone’s battery would’ve died long ago.”
“Ah, electricity…”
I approached the smartphone.
Crackle!
Mana sparks jumped through the air, but I ignored them.
I pushed through easily and looked down at the phone.
The screen was locked.
The background was brightly lit, showing a child dancing cutely.
I didn’t recognize the face.
The child wasn’t particularly cute or pretty.
Just an ordinary kid.
Probably…
The daughter of one of the workers buried here.
The worker must have died slowly, thinking of his daughter.
Watching her on the screen as his body froze and his breath stopped.
That resentment, that sorrow, condensed into the smartphone and transformed into a mana core.
‘What a goddamn awful world.’
Crack!
I equipped the [Extraction] trait and used it.
The smartphone split apart, and the mana core that had been fused with it emerged.
A level-3 mana core.
It was about the size of a fist.
It was too big to have come out of such a flat smartphone, but sometimes mana cores warp reality like that.
“So it really was a mana core…”
“I told you it was.”
“I’ve never seen a real mana core before!”
“You’ll get sick of seeing them soon enough.”
It was time to collect our reward for beating the boss.
We headed towards the cold storage room that I’d noticed earlier.
Cold air poured out from the slightly open steel door.
When I touched the door, it felt like my hand was freezing solid, but after equipping [Cold Resistance], I felt fine.
“Why are we going in there?”
“Think about it. Don’t you think the seal was a bit too weak?”
“Well… yeah. Just breaking through a wall put us right in the forbidden zone.”
“No matter how greedy they were, they wouldn’t have covered this place up so sloppily. If the forbidden zone had been exposed, Galaxy Mall would’ve taken a huge hit.”
“Then what happened?”
“At first, it probably wasn’t this big. Just a small pit. But over time, it grew.”
“Can forbidden zones grow?”
“Usually, no. Usually.”
I rummaged through the cold storage room.
Most of it was junk.
It looked like they’d dumped construction waste in here after the project was finished.
They probably thought they’d save on disposal costs since they were just going to bury it anyway.
[Detection] [Treasure Hunter]
Numerous blue dots appeared in my vision.
Among them, two stood out, burning brightly.
“Sorin, dig over there.”
“Huh? In the trash?”
“Yes. Hurry up.”
“O-Okay.”
There was no need for me to get my hands dirty.
Baek Sorin didn’t complain as she energetically started digging.
At first, she tried to use her sword, so I handed her a small shovel from my golf bag.
“Is that like a pocket dimension? You just keep pulling things out.”
“It’s no pocket dimension. Golf bags just have a large capacity.”
“You carry a gun, water, combat rations, and now a shovel… Are you preparing for war?”
“I’ve fought in wars before.”
Baek Sorin continued digging.
She dug exactly where I told her, diligently shoveling away the dirt.
Slowly, we got closer to the two bright spots.
Finally, with one last scoop, she uncovered them—two treasures.
Ssssssh.
A cold, oppressive energy filled the storage room.
One was a black star, radiating dark energy.
The other was a spiked star, emitting a frosty white aura.
Baek Sorin shuddered and stepped back.
“Wh-What are those?”
“They’re crystals.”
“Crystals? I’ve never heard of them.”
“Of course you haven’t. They’re not common.”
I didn’t know their exact origin.
In Arcane Seoul, they were just called ‘crystals’—materials or exchange tokens.
Some said they were fragments of a forgotten god’s body. Others claimed they were pieces from another world summoned by ancient wizards. Some even believed they were condensed mana that had transformed over time.
‘So these are the low-grade ones.’
Using these crystals, you could obtain traits or equipment suitable for levels 3 to 5.
I already knew exactly what I’d be using them for.
I pulled a small magic box from my golf bag and carefully stored the two crystals inside.
“Is it over now?”
“You did well.”
“Whew! It’s finally over!”
Baek Sorin shouted in relief, then grabbed my hand and tugged energetically.
“Let’s go already! I thought I was going to die back there.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Huh? You said we were done.”
“The main part is done, but we still have to wrap things up. You’re not planning to just leave it like this, are you?”
“Oh… Don’t tell me you’re going to purify it?”
“Of course.”
“But that costs a fortune!”
“It’s not a normal purification. I’m going to use a shortcut.”
It wasn’t really purification—it was destruction.
It was a method you could only use in certain situations. It was risky too.
The boss of the shopping mall forbidden zone, the ghost amalgamation, had been destroyed, and I had collected the core that had been its power source.
Two of the three elements of the forbidden zone—the grudge and the distortion of death mana—were gone.
That meant the zone was already in the process of collapsing.
It was just happening so slowly that neither Baek Sorin nor I could feel it yet.
I started pulling things out of my golf bag.
Mana bombs, shaped like sticks of TNT.
These would deal a fatal blow to the collapsing forbidden zone.
I stacked nearly a dozen of them in the underground chamber, and Baek Sorin looked at me like she was horrified.
“You really did come here to start a war, didn’t you?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just get ready to run.”
“Run? Why?”
“Once I set these off, the forbidden zone will collapse. You know what happens if we get caught in spatial distortion, right?”
“Wh-Why not just use a timed bomb? Or blow it up remotely?”
“These are low-grade. Once exposed to air, they’ll degrade in less than an hour. We need to set them off before that happens.”
I quickly manipulated my smartphone.
It took nearly 10 minutes to set up the remote detonator and connect the fuse.
Even with all my traits—[Crafting], [Modification], and [Trap]—it took that long.
“Run!”
“Oh my god!”
We had about 45 minutes left.
Baek Sorin screamed as she sprinted out of the chamber.
She was fast.
She was already using the Acceleration trait as naturally as breathing.
But there was no way I was going to lose to her.
I activated both Speed and Sprint, easily catching up to her.
“Run faster! If you’re too slow, you’ll die!”
“Noooo!”
“I’m going ahead!”
“Wait for me!”
I effortlessly overtook Baek Sorin.
My traits and mana were far superior.
As I widened the gap, Baek Sorin gritted her teeth.
“Aaahhh!”
She dashed toward me with renewed determination.
The sound of the wind being sliced filled the air as Baek Sorin suddenly surged forward, getting closer.
Her combat instincts weren’t bad at all.
I nodded, then focused my energy into my legs.
Boom!
I kicked off the ground and launched myself into the air.
I soared more than ten meters up.
Luckily, the ceiling was high, and the corridor sloped at about a 30-degree angle, making it possible.
Leap!
I landed and glanced back to see Baek Sorin, her face flushed red.
“Hah!”
Baek Sorin leaped as well!
She landed, then charged forward, catching up to me and attempting to pass me.
“That’s not happening.”
I pushed my Einherjar Cultivation Technique to the limit.
At the same time, my mana core pumped energy through my heart.
Mana surged through my veins, spreading throughout my body.
My mana circuits burned hot, as if seared by fire.
I felt my entire body heat up.
My belt glowed, focusing my mana and allowing my body to move perfectly as I intended.
Tat-tat-tat!
My speed doubled.
There was no need to use Dash.
With just Speed and Sprint, I could easily overwhelm Baek Sorin, who was mixing Acceleration, Dash, Leap, and Breakthrough.
“That’s cheating! Cheating!”
“If you’re upset, why don’t you hurry up and reach level 3?”
“Oh, come on.”
“If you’ve got the energy to complain, channel your mana one more time. I’m going ahead.”
“Wait for me!”
How long had we been sprinting?
Just as we were about to reach the first floor, the smartphone in my hand began to ring loudly.
WeeeeoooWeeeeooo!
I pulled out the detonator.
“I’m blowing it up in ten seconds.”
“W-Wait! We still have time…”
There were about five minutes to spare.
But factoring in any possible miscalculations, it was better to detonate it five minutes early.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven…”
I started the countdown.
Baek Sorin narrowed her eyes, gritting her teeth and mustering all her strength.
She still had some energy left.
Her traits were all activated:
[Heavenly Killing Star]
[Indomitable]
[Dash]
[Leap]
[Acceleration]
[Breakthrough]
Rampaging Train hadn’t even been triggered yet.
She’d eventually unlock it on her own, but there was no reason she couldn’t awaken it now.
I pressed the detonator and yelled.
“Detonate!”
Click.
A small sound echoed.
Then a heavy shockwave surged from below.
The shockwave shook this distorted world, this small, warped space.
The walls, the ceiling, and the floor rippled like waves.
My sense of balance warped, and my vision began to spin!
“T-Teacher!”
The precursor to the collapse of the world.
Baek Sorin called out to me in desperation.
I increased my speed and shouted back.
“If you don’t want to die, run! Run with everything you’ve got!”
“Aahhh, aaahhhh!”
“If we don’t get out in a minute, we’re dead!”
Even I wasn’t safe from this.
I shut off my thoughts about Baek Sorin and focused on running.
I didn’t look back once.
At the same time, I checked my pocket.
The teleportation magic chip I’d taken out of the golf bag in advance.
If my calculations were off, this chip would be our last lifeline.
A sharp turn appeared ahead.
I was moving so fast that I was on the verge of slamming headfirst into the wall.
“Dammit!”
I gritted my teeth and twisted my body.
I didn’t slow down.
I fixed my eyes on the wall rushing toward me, then jumped at an angle toward it.
Tat-tat, tat!
I kicked off the wall and leaped!
Running nearly vertically along the wall, I kicked off again.
Then, landing back on the ground, I continued sprinting.
Several more vertical corridors appeared.
I used the same method to break through each one and kept running.
Soon, my body felt lighter, and I realized I could make sharp turns without losing any speed.
It was almost as if I was defying inertia.
Acquired the trait [Mobility].
It has a cooldown, so it can’t be spammed, but it’s a very useful trait.
As I kept running, a pale white light came into view.
Up ahead, I saw the flickering light of a fluorescent bulb at the exit of the forbidden zone.
I pushed my speed to the max.
I poured every ounce of strength into my legs.
By now, the collapse was right on my heels.
I could feel it.
The entire world was falling apart.
The mana was vanishing into nothingness, and the disintegration of the space was stimulating my senses.
Sound, light, even the wind—all of it was scattering into oblivion.
I felt a sharp tension at the back of my neck.
The collapse was about to overtake me.
Crack!
The collapse surged ahead of me.
With a sound like breaking bamboo, the ground beneath me began to crumble.
It was as if I was witnessing an earthquake, with cracks spreading through the earth.
In an instant, the exit grew further away.
The ground crumbled, leaving massive chunks that threatened to drag me down into the void.
That’s not happening!
I gathered mana into my legs and leaped.
I flew across the collapsing ground and landed steadily.
The exit was now directly in front of me.
“Teacher!”
It was then that I heard a desperate scream.
I turned around.
The ground was crumbling.
And leaping across that collapsing ground was Baek Sorin.
But it wasn’t enough.
As a newly awakened superhuman with limited mana, even using the same Leap trait, she couldn’t jump nearly as far as I could.
Our eyes met.
Time froze.
In this collapsing world, in the midst of this disintegrating space, Baek Sorin’s eyes were filled with despair as she looked at me.
There was nothing beneath her feet. No solid ground to use for another leap.
But I didn’t reach out to her.
I didn’t help.
I kept my hand in my pocket, gripping the magic chip.
All I did was send her a look that said I believed in her.
‘You can do this.’
Because that’s how you were born.
You’re Heavenly Killing Star.
Not just a monster that gains experience from blood and slaughter, but the owner of a mythic talent that grows through endless battles and crises!
Baek Sorin’s eyes shifted.
The despair faded, replaced by something else.
An intense will, like a volcano, spread across her face.
She clenched her fists tightly, having lost her sword.
Baek Sorin positioned herself in midair.
Dash, Leap, Acceleration, and Breakthrough fused together.
A part of Heavenly Killing Star influenced them.
And thus, the third trait was born.
[Rampaging Train]
“Waaaahhh!”
Baek Sorin let out a battle cry.
It was as loud and fierce as a roaring locomotive.
Steam erupted from her entire body.
Her skin had turned a faint red.
Her body slid forward.
She had transformed into a raging bull, charging straight toward me.
Dash.
Not just any dash, but an aerial dash.
That’s impossible with just a basic Dash trait. You need a high-tier trait like Rampaging Train or Aerial Assault to pull it off.
I caught Baek Sorin, who was barreling toward me, in a firm embrace.
The impact struck my chest, but I could handle it.
Using that momentum, I propelled us both forward.
We burst through the exit just as the forbidden zone collapsed.
Swoosh.
There was no explosion.
No tremors shook the ground.
Just a faint breeze gently brushed against my ears.
As lonely and hollow as a single tear shed by a ghost.
The forbidden zone had completely disappeared.
And in its wake, something bloomed.
The trait Nine Lives.
The final piece of the warrior class’s “Big Three” traits.
The moment [SSR Baek Sorin] was completed.
–TL Notes–
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