Chapter 195
Chapter 195: At the End of the Land
Kim Hyun-tae experienced an insult he had never encountered in his entire life.
And it was even more shocking that the one saying it was Yoo Ji-han.
Thud!
Kim Hyun-tae felt the invisible thread of his patience snap.
“Ha, hahaha! Right, you frustrating little brat…”
With his sword planted in the ground, Kim Hyun-tae strode towards Yoo Ji-han.
A smile resembling that of a madman crept upon his face.
“Stop.”
Lee Mi-a blocked his path.
In response, Kim Hyun-tae glared at her as if he could kill her with his eyes.
“Get out of the way!”
“This is clearly your fault.”
“You bastard! Whose party member are you even!”
The atmosphere of conflict between Yoo Ji-han and Kim Hyun-tae began to spread to the innocent Lee Mi-a.
Unable to stand by, Hwang Joon-ho and Lim Si-yeon rushed in to mediate the situation.
“Whoa, whoa, let’s just calm down.”
“This isn’t the time for us to fight.”
“Hyung! Let’s just smash it all to pieces!”
“Shut up.”
“Ugh!”
“……”
Instead of calming the fight, Kim Kang-woo seemed to instigate it.
However, with the other party members persuading him, Kim Hyun-tae eventually paused his actions.
Yet his eyes were still fervently fixed on Yoo Ji-han.
‘This is bad.’
Yoo Ji-han sensed that he could no longer remain with Kim Hyun-tae’s party.
The trust that had existed between the party leader and members had completely shattered.
While he appreciated Kim Hyun-tae mobilizing the Haenam Expeditionary Force, moving together in the current state would only become a burden to each other.
“If you’re really unhappy, let’s stop here.”
“No.”
“……?”
“We will proceed to the End of the Land as scheduled. Don’t you dare try to end everything on your own.”
But Kim Hyun-tae insisted on moving according to the planned route until the very end.
Knowing he couldn’t stop him, Yoo Ji-han didn’t particularly oppose it.
“Then we depart in 10 minutes.”
“……”
After relaying the departure message to the distancing Kim Hyun-tae, Yoo Ji-han turned to Jerry behind him.
She looked up at him with a bright smile.
“Kya! I always believed in you…!”
“This is all because of you guys, you know.”
“As a reward, I’ll give you a kiss! Chuu~”
Thud!
Yoo Ji-han gave Jerry a playful flick on the head instead of a kiss.
*
“Jerry! If you sense even a hint of a monster controlling you, I will kill you immediately.”
“You’re captured, so you should have some conscience. I absolutely won’t do that.”
Putting the sudden commotion behind them, Yoo Ji-han’s party resumed their journey towards the End of the Land.
The only noticeable change was that the distance between the two parties had increased by about 10 meters.
The emotional distance between Kim Hyun-tae and Yoo Ji-han had likely extended to over 100 meters.
“Si-hoo, how’s your magic?”
“Hmm… It seems difficult to recover in a short time.”
“Specifically, how much do you have left?”
“I can use big magic just two more times. By the time we reach our destination, maybe three times should be possible.”
Most of Kim Si-hoo’s magic had been exhausted summoning the giant hand that smashed the mosquitoes.
So it would be hard to expect him to fulfill the role of a mage in the upcoming battles.
“I wish I could share some of my magic…”
Min Yu-ri wanted to give her abundant magic to Kim Si-hoo, but it was nearly impossible to exchange magic with different properties between individuals.
“Never let go of Chilla.”
“Chirp chirp!”
Kim Si-hoo had to move as defensively as possible.
With only Min Yu-ri and Yoo Ji-han remaining as dealers in the party, he somewhat oddly welcomed that Kim Hyun-tae’s party was still following from behind.
‘It’s quiet.’
Kim Hyun-tae did not insist on leading like before.
He merely continued to glare at Yoo Ji-han from the back.
But Yoo Ji-han ignored him and walked ahead.
“Stop.”
About 40 minutes later, the group arrived at the village at the very end of the peninsula.
The stronger salty scent was evidence that they had reached close to the sea again.
Yoo Ji-han avoided areas crowded with buildings to evade potential surveillance.
“Ugh!”
Jerry, her mouth sealed with Min Yu-ri’s jelly, wriggled as if she had something to say.
Yoo Ji-han, parting the thick trees for a moment, loosened her mouth.
“Do you have something to say?”
“You’re looking for my comrades, right? I know the way from here very well.”
“So?”
“I can tell you if you want. Just a tiny favor in return!”
Jerry looked at Yoo Ji-han, licking her lips with her red tongue.
This was the umpteenth request for a kiss.
“Not needed.”
“Wait a minute!”
Yoo Ji-han coldly rejected her offer.
When he tried to seal her mouth again, Jerry freaked out and exclaimed.
“You don’t even know where they’re hiding!”
“No. I know.”
“Huh?”
“On top of that, I also know where you sent the Rank 1 Heroes.”
“…Don’t lie.”
To her claim of lying, Yoo Ji-han succinctly replied.
“Kallem.”
“Huh?!”
“Is that all you have to say?”
His tone carried strong conviction, not merely boastfulness.
Now with her mouth sealed again, Jerry looked up at Yoo Ji-han with a dazed expression.
‘How?’
The sole intent behind mentioning the name of this world was clear.
How on earth did this man acquire such information?
‘Could it be that earlier when he closed his eyes…!’
Jerry sighed, realizing something.
Despite the efforts to ensure information security, not only Earthlings but even other people from this world didn’t know.
The reason the Korean expedition team could keep track of various hideouts and elites.
‘It was all because of him.’
That reason stood right before her.
Not only was Yoo Ji-han a skilled hero, but he also took on the role of extracting information from people from another world.
“Ugh! Ugh!”
Yoo Ji-han ignored Jerry, who wanted to say more.
Eventually, the spot where the group quietly arrived was near the observation deck in the village at the end of the land.
“Is this the destination you mentioned?”
“Yeah.”
“Camera. Get ready.”
“……?”
At the moment Yoo Ji-han tilted his head in confusion.
Kim Hyun-tae, directing the cameraman, dramatically gripped his great sword and twisted his waist.
Swoosh—
A powerful aura surged from his sword.
Yoo Ji-han had a hunch, but Kim Hyun-tae responded to that expectation.
He swung his sword towards the observation deck with great force.
“Huah!”
[Wrath of the Dragon]
Bang——!
An attack sliced cleanly horizontal like a dragon swinging its long tail.
With the skill overflowing with aura, the whole first floor of the observation deck was obliterated.
The structure, with its supports gone, began collapsing from the second floor downward.
Crash! Crash!
Crumbling glass walls and the blaring sounds of the collapsing structure filled the air.
Yoo Ji-han avoided being swept up in the destruction.
Soon a massive cloud of dust billowed from the ground, obscuring everyone’s view.
“Ah! Refreshing.”
Kim Hyun-tae smiled brightly, his face showing pure relief.
He had managed to blow off some of the accumulated stress by knocking down the building.
“Ugh!! Ugh?!”
“……”
Not just the party members, even Jerry couldn’t hide her disbelief at his actions.
Shocked, Jerry squirmed, and Yoo Ji-han was left speechless.
Who would ever imagine he would obliterate the observation deck?
‘It was on the third floor…’
The hidden location of the hideout and the entrance to space distortion was near the third floor of that observation deck.
But since the entire observation deck had been blown away…
Yoo Ji-han waited at a distance for the dust cloud to clear.
“Over there.”
At about the height of the third floor, he sensed an unusual magical aura.
That was undoubtedly the entrance to the space distortion.
“Grrrr…”
Meanwhile, among the fallen debris of the building, several people from another world who had been on the observation deck were sprawled out.
Kim Hyun-tae finished them off by stabbing his great sword into their chests.
Yoo Ji-han approached him and said,
“Why are you destroying a perfectly fine building?”
“Thanks to that, I won’t have to look for it annoyingly.”
“I already knew the exact location. What if there were citizens inside?”
“Isn’t it fine if there aren’t? Stop rattling on.”
Pfft!
A splash of red droplets spurted from Kim Hyun-tae’s hand as he cut the life of a person from another world.
He flicked the blood off with a disgusted look on his face.
But then—
“You’re really quite the madman.”
“……!”
“……!”
Yoo Ji-han and Kim Hyun-tae raised their heads almost simultaneously.
Rius, perched on the head of a giant snake that looked mutated, gazed down at them.
Riding on the snake’s body emerging from the entrance of space distortion were the elites they had been pursuing since Yeosu.
“Yeong-wook!”
Kim Si-hoo yelled upon spotting Jung Yeong-wook, seized by a woman.
Bound at the limbs and even blindfolded, Jung Yeong-wook flinched at the sound of his name.
Yoo Ji-han observed him very carefully.
Unlike when he fled by ship from Yeosu, this didn’t seem like an illusion of a fake Jung Yeong-wook.
“Jerry! You’re causing trouble again.”
“Ugh! Ugh ugh ugh.”
“No excuses needed. You’ve been expelled from the elites starting now.”
“Hmph! Ugh ugh ugh ugh…”
Jerry displayed a nonchalant reaction to being expelled from the group.
Following that, Rius glared at Yoo Ji-han.
“Yoo Ji-han, was it? …You’re definitely the root of all problems.”
“It took a lot of effort to find you, Rius.”
“I should have killed you before coming to Haenam!”
“With what means? You were too busy running away.”
As Rius quietly seethed, Yoo Ji-han chuckled.
It seemed there had been some significance in the enemy’s response to finding him so far away.
“Kim Hyun-tae. Don’t move just yet.”
“Don’t give me orders.”
Ignoring the conversation, Yoo Ji-han appealed to Kim Hyun-tae, who was trying to rush out.
Rius glanced at Jerry and Im Min-soo, who were still tied up.
“Why don’t you kill them?”
“I demand a hostage exchange.”
“If it’s a hostage, are you talking about that mage?”
“Yeah.”
Rius, focusing on Jung Yeong-wook, appeared contemplative.
Eventually, he nodded.
“Take them away.”
“Gugugugu!”
“……!”
From somewhere, a giant pigeon monster swooped down and seized Jung Yeong-wook by the shoulder.
Then it flew over Chilla and dropped him.
“Chirp!”
Chilla swiftly caught the falling Jung Yeong-wook.
‘They just let him go like that?’
It wasn’t a simultaneous exchange of hostages.
Seeing Jung Yeong-wook so readily handed over confused Yoo Ji-han a bit.
“Now you just have to hand over the two people on your side.”
“……”
“Why? Don’t you want to?”
“What’s your scheme?”
“A scheme? I just gave it to you when you asked.”
“What about the antidote?”
“I already fed it to him.”
The ones who had abducted him disguised as an ordinary pillow to sneak him away.
Now they were changing their attitude and willingly handing him over.
There had to be some reason behind this.
“Dong-gil. Check quickly.”
“Got it.”
Healer Lee Dong-gil approached Jung Yeong-wook, leaning against Chilla.
He tore off the blindfold and the sticky tape sealing his mouth, removing his bindings one by one.
The musty smell emanating from him made Lee Dong-gil feel the hardship he had endured.
“Are you injured anywhere?”
“……Not really.”
From the crown of his head to the tip of his toes.
Overall, Jung Yeong-wook appeared gaunt; except for some minor injuries, nothing looked seriously wrong.
At that moment, the somewhat lifeless Jung Yeong-wook called out to Kim Si-hoo.
“Kim Si-hoo.”
“Yeah?”
“I… um…”
Jung Yeong-wook stuttered with a fading voice.
Unable to hear him clearly, Kim Si-hoo asked,
“What did you just say?”
“I’m…”
“Just a bit louder…”
“I really hate you!”
“……!”
“You’re such a fucking elf! If it weren’t for you…!”
Jung Yeong-wook’s voice boomed louder.
At the sudden declaration of anger, Kim Si-hoo’s eyes widened in surprise.
Puhwaaaah—!
Black fog burst out from Jung Yeong-wook’s eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
