Chapter 185
Chapter 185. Meeting
Yoo Ji-han noticed Min Yu-ri was shocked, but unlike Kim Si-hu, she couldn’t regain her composure.
Even though she knew everything was an illusion, this repetitive situation had destabilized her mind.
‘Yu-ri’s condition isn’t good.’
Just as Yoo Ji-han was assessing Min Yu-ri’s pallor, she spoke in a trembling voice.
“It’s all my fault. Because of me, So-yeon ended up like this!”
“Why is it Yu-ri’s fault?”
“If I hadn’t sent her on that errand…”
Min Yu-ri was taking the fall for Min So-yeon’s collapse. Yoo Ji-han shook his head.
“The real problem is the monsters that attacked your sister; it’s absolutely not your fault.”
“But…”
If left as it was, the conversation seemed to be heading to a dead-end.
Yoo Ji-han firmly grabbed Min Yu-ri’s shoulders.
Startled by his abrupt action, she flinched.
“I said I’d help you, didn’t I?”
“…”
“If you keep crying here, nothing will improve.”
In reality, her sister had been unconscious for a long time, and everything seen here was merely an illusion.
Regretting and grieving would accomplish nothing.
“Do you think your sister would like to see you beating yourself up in front of her?”
“…No.”
“Be calm and confident. If I were your sister, that’s what I would want.”
In a situation where she couldn’t escape due to his grip on her shoulders, Min Yu-ri turned her gaze away, avoiding Yoo Ji-han’s eyes.
Eventually, she faced him and gave a small nod.
“If So-yeon wakes up… will she not resent me greatly?”
“When that time comes, I’ll take responsibility for teaching her.”
“Y-yes?”
“It’s essential to educate a sister who takes her hardships for granted, regardless of gender or age.”
Yoo Ji-han slowly stroked his fist while mentioning proper etiquette.
What that implied needed no further inquiry.
“Are you going to hit my sister?”
“Well, who knows? Although, I will definitely make your sister respect you a lot.”
“Wow… that’s reassuring.”
Min Yu-ri looked at Yoo Ji-han with a face that was a mix of crying and smiling.
Unlike the initial tension, she now appeared much more relaxed.
*
“Oh, I’m awake.”
—Ji-han!
Lying on the ground, Yoo Ji-han slowly opened his eyes.
The healer, Lee Dong-gil, who had woken up first, was checking on Yoo Ji-han and Min Yu-ri’s conditions with the Sylph.
As Yoo Ji-han propped himself up, he looked down at Min Yu-ri.
Her eyes were slightly red, and she too was slowly awakening.
‘Looks like there’s no big problem…’
Kim Si-hu had taken care of securing the area, and all party members had returned to reality after their slumber.
The top-tier magic stone, which had shone brightly on the magic circle, was now dim and maintained a candlelight brightness.
The targets of the spell had all vanished, so it was now resting.
“Yu-ri, are you okay?”
“Ah, yes! I’m fine, but…”
Awoken, Min Yu-ri quickly cupped her hands to cover her face.
Even though she didn’t slap herself like in a dream, her cheeks burned with embarrassment.
Everything she did in that illusion felt utterly shameful to her.
“Hyung, you’re awake!”
“How’s it outside?”
“It’s quiet.”
As he got up, Yoo Ji-han received a situation report from Kim Si-hu, who had returned from outside.
The spells that burst from the magic stone swept over everything beyond Space Distortion.
We were the only ones caught directly in the spell.
‘Took about an hour, huh.’
Collectively, rescuing from Kim Si-hu to Min Yu-ri took around an hour.
Though it felt like it had taken well over a month in terms of perception, it was actually much shorter than expected, and Yoo Ji-han considered that fortunate.
‘Since I’ve rested enough, we should chase after them again.’
Though it was an unintended rest, aside from a bit of mental fatigue, he had recovered physically while sleeping.
It shouldn’t be hard to chase after the people from another world.
‘But before that!’
Yoo Ji-han turned to look at the top-tier magic stone.
This was undoubtedly placed here by the people from another world.
If that’s the case, retrieving their memories from that stone should also be possible.
Click!
While detaching the magic stone from the magic circle, Yoo Ji-han presented it to the Sylph and commanded,
“Devour it.”
—Nom!
The Sylph puffed its body up and swallowed the top-tier magic stone whole.
With that, the memories of those from another world who had participated in placing the magic stone materialized before his eyes.
—If you get caught here, even heroes wouldn’t survive.
—This is the price you pay for daring to touch us!
The people from another world displayed their confidence in the magic with sinister smiles.
Having successfully escaped that trap, Yoo Ji-han scratched his head.
‘Heading to Haenam, huh.’
The people from another world were boarding the ship to cross the vast South Sea.
Having set the magic stones, they seemed to be moving from Goheung to Haenam.
—Our captain won’t have long until he awakens.
The reason for their continual relocation was confirmed through this memory.
They aimed to gather the scattered elites and buy time for their leader, “the captain,” to regain consciousness.
Although their plans had suffered various setbacks due to the heroes’ swift interventions,
the people from another world believed that a captain who could neutralize even Rank 1 heroes could turn this situation around.
‘IUPC might be a mere delay tactic…’
Even all activities of IUPC using monsters seemed like mere factors for the people from another world to attract external attention and stall time.
—Gah!
They were still carrying their belongings as they moved.
From one bundle, Jung Young-wook’s voice was heard.
They likely hadn’t killed him yet because he still served as a useful hostage.
Having read all memories from the magic stone, Yoo Ji-han addressed his companions.
“Let’s head to Haenam.”
The party of Yoo Ji-han, having escaped the Space Distortion, boarded a ship abandoned by the people from another world.
Thanks to having learned the navigation from Nam Ho-yeol, he was able to move the ship clumsily.
Traveling from Jeonnam Goheung-gun to Jeonnam Boseong-gun didn’t take much time at all.
‘About 40 km to Haenam, huh.’
The straight distance from Boseong, known for its green tea, to Haenam was about 40 km.
Compared to how they had been running so far, this was not too far away.
Yoo Ji-han’s party moved as stealthily as possible toward Haenam.
Along the way, they gathered a suitable amount of food and water from markets or convenience stores they encountered.
“We’ve arrived!”
And after about 5 hours of continuous travel, they managed to reach Haenam without any major incidents.
Given all the accidents they had experienced so far, the absence of any incident felt rather strange.
‘This is where it ends.’
Yoo Ji-han, having unexpectedly toured the Jeollanam-do region, looked at the sign pointing to Haenam.
Now, the only stage left for the people from another world to move to was Seoul from here.
However, they weren’t expected to head straight to Seoul before their captain awakened.
He had a premonition that this expedition would end here.
*
In the Jeollanam-do Yeosu where Red Hole and Dice participated in the expedition.
In Jeollanam-do Goheung, Happy Time and Zhuque were part of the expedition force.
Similarly, there was also an expedition force in Jeollanam-do Haenam.
Snowball and Shadow Guild were its protagonists.
Entering the Haenam region, Yoo Ji-han first sought them out.
The intention was to share the current situation and information related to the people from another world.
But he encountered an obstacle right from the start.
“Caw!”
“Kyahhhhh!”
“Grrrr…!”
The expected gathering place for the expedition force in Haenam was the Haenam County Office.
Typically, to reach there, one would have to cross a path carved through the mountains,
yet the area was filled with monsters.
It felt as if they had intentionally blocked the road.
“What do we do?”
“If we turn back here, it’ll take too much time.”
The city where the Haenam County Office was located was surrounded by various mountains.
One could either return by another route or jump over the mountains, but if they openly blocked the entrance like this, it meant there was a high chance monsters were hiding in other locations as well.
“I’ll draw them away.”
During a discussion about methods, Yoo Ji-han chose to become the bait alone.
“No way!”
“I oppose that too.”
Naturally, his party members opposed that for safety reasons.
However, Yoo Ji-han wouldn’t back down, showing them the bracelet made by Nam Ho-yeol.
“With this, I can run away alone, you know?”
“Still…”
“I oppose the opposition.”
“…”
Eventually, the conversation flowed toward following the party leader’s decision.
When the decision-maker insists on taking action himself, no one could stop him.
‘Here I go.’
Having agreed to meet at the Haenam County Office, Yoo Ji-han separated from his party.
He revealed himself directly in front of the monsters.
Swoosh!
Upon making loud movements alone and even slaying a monster there,
naturally, all eyes were on him.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a hero!”
“Kill that bastard!!”
Members of IUPC controlling the monsters all rushed after Yoo Ji-han.
With the sheer number of monsters moving at once, the ground shook, making it look like an earthquake.
“So slow!”
“That guy…!”
While continuously provoking them, Yoo Ji-han cleared the monsters off the path.
Although he was bombarded with more attacks than he could handle alone,
he had never intended to fight back, so he focused solely on dodging the attacks.
“Come on, do something!”
“Why can’t we take down one hero properly?”
“What, you rat bastard!”
After about 30 minutes of dashing around until sweat dripped from his forehead,
he had attracted the desired amount of attention from the enemies.
‘This should do.’
Yoo Ji-han judged that the party members had gone over the mountains and slipped into the woods.
Despite the rough mountain paths, the enemies were still in pursuit behind him.
But he remained unfazed, fiddling with the bracelet on his right arm.
Boom!
By flipping the bracelet over, his body became transparent starting from his wrist.
No matter how much one rubbed their eyes, it was a superb [Invisibility] skill that rendered him almost undetectable.
“What?!”
“He… suddenly vanished!”
“Where did he go?!”
The enemies lost track of Yoo Ji-han, flustered right before their eyes.
Yoo Ji-han, observing them, tossed the rocks he was holding into the air where they wouldn’t be visible.
“Over there! Over there!”
“I won’t let him get away!”
“Kyahhh!”
The IUPC members mistook the falling stones for a presence and ran in that direction.
Certainly, monsters with developed auditory or olfactory senses might detect him even with the [Invisibility] skill.
‘Lucky me that the enemies are dimwitted.’
Thanks to the ineptitude of the manipulators,
Yoo Ji-han could comfortably flee without being detected.
—Hehehe! What fools!
“Shhh.”
—Eek!
After giving a playful slap to the gabbing Sylph beside him,
Yoo Ji-han examined his bracelet.
“This bracelet is truly useful.”
The skill duration was approximately 5 minutes, and the cooldown was around an hour.
Considering it was hastily made by Nam Ho-yeol, it was a rather exceptional artifact.
Most importantly, it was satisfying that even the clothes he was wearing became transparent.
There were times when only the skin would turn invisible, making it necessary to take off all clothes to effectively use the artifact.
‘Time to move on.’
Yoo Ji-han stepped off the mountain path and returned to the intended route.
Though remnants lingered in place, he lightly ignored them and ventured onward.
‘There it is.’
The county office was not as far away as he had expected.
No visible buses remained as heroes kept watch in various places.
Yoo Ji-han approached them and introduced himself.
“I’m Yoo Ji-han. I believe my party members are here.”
“We have indeed been waiting for you.”
“Waiting, you say?”
“Our expedition leader has been seeking you, Yoo Ji-han.”
The news was that the leader of the Goheung expedition force was searching for Yoo Ji-han.
Yoo Ji-han asked the guard.
“Who is the expedition leader?”
He posed the question, recalling the vice guild masters of Snowball and Shadow Guild.
They were figures he had occasionally seen at Rank 2 Monster Areas.
But contrary to his expectations…
The name that popped out of the guard’s mouth was one he knew all too well.
“Kim Hyun-tae of Kim Hyun-tae’s Party.”
“…Are you talking about Keroes’ hero Kim Hyun-tae?”
“That’s correct.”
“……”
He hadn’t imagined he would run into him here.
