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While Yoo Seodam was waiting for Aracelli to finish her double circle, on Earth, Yekaterina was drinking a cup of coffee in silence as she watched the sun set. Her current location wasn’t in her usual office in the Floating Garden of Spirits, but at ‘Another League’ in the middle of Gangnam. Although the building couldn’t be said as the true hideout of Another League, this 40-story tall building was still packed with facilities befitting a famous guild, such as training grounds and storage room for both magic tools and ether dispenser .

“Hmmm…” Yekaterina hummed as she stared wordlessly at the huge window which also functions as a monitor. Information related to ‘Hell Gate’ was being displayed there. Moreover, it also displayed any change that happened in real time. Normally, the information in front of Yekaterina was something which couldn’t be obtained, no matter how large the guild is. It was top-secret information. But thanks to Lacanthal who was helping the government to research Hell Gate, Another League became an exception.

However, even with the myriad of knowledge which Lacanthal possessed, he still told Yekaterina this, ‘Hell Gate is a natural disaster. No matter how strong we are, we can never win against the laws of nature. Just think about it this way: the world hates us, and it is trying to push us away. We can never win against it. The best we can do is resist.’

In other words, even with Lacanthal’s knowledge and technology, it was still impossible to completely stop the Hell Gate’s expansion. He was just slowing it down.

However, it’s not like there’s no other way to stop it. Lacanthal’s conclusion was only based on the premise that they did it from outside of the Hell Gate. If they ventured inside the Hell Gate and destroyed its core, or the ‘thing’ keeping the Hell Gate alive, surely, they would be able to stop the destruction of Earth. But, as of now, that method was not feasible. Humanity still doesn’t know where the location core or the ‘thing’ inside Hell Gate was located. On top of it, it was akin to suicidal to just enter to search for it since the minimum energy wavelength of Hell Gate was estimated to be higher than an ‘URS’.

‘If it’s around URS level… it’s at the same level as the Supreme Dharma that Seodam-nim had killed the other day.’ Yekaterina sighed. Considering it takes dozens of S rank hunters to handle a single S rank gate, it means that it would take at least dozens of hunters with strength on par with Supreme Dharma to clear the Hell Gate. But currently, there is no such strong force on Earth. Even Seol Jungyeon, who was hailed as Earth’s strongest, was only at the level of the SSS rank.

Yekaterina was then reminded of what Lacanthal said to her.

‘Giving up and accepting the ‘destruction’ is also a possible choice.’

His words were indeed true. Once we accepted it, we would live our lives every day as best as we possibly could knowing that it would end someday.

However…

‘Will Seodam-nim give up?’

There were always people who would still fight even though they knew that it was impossible to win. Yoo Seodam was one of those people. On top of it, unlike other people, he had the power to really create a ‘miracle’.

“Whoa!!!” Yekaterina, who had turned off the monitor and was about to open her laptop, jolted in surprise as her own shadow began to rise up.

“Reporting in.” From within the now standing shadow, a handsome man with long black hair walked out. He was the very man who could infiltrate any place in the world as long as there is shadow there.

“Starting three days ago, there’s a man who has been monitoring this building.”

“Monitoring us?”

“That’s right. His constant monitoring is suspicious, so I tried to identify him. But since his stealth skill was also quite good, I failed to do so.”

“…” Yekaterina felt at a loss for words. The man in front of her was an Expert in the terms of Murim, as well as a master of stealth. He was strong enough to detect any kind of movements from someone with S rank level of stealth. If he failed to identify someone, it means that the opponent had at least S rank or higher detection ability or S rank or higher stealth skill.

‘Why is such a person monitoring our guild…?’ Yekaterina closed her eyes for a moment and pondered. “It will be fine. It won’t be as difficult as you think to identify who the other person is.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. There aren’t many people who have stealth and detection skills of S rank or higher. If we limit it further to hunters, the number will be reduced even further. Were there any Experts in the New Murim Alliance who have stronger stealth skills than yours?”

“As far as I know, there is none.”

“Then, I think we should focus our search on those with superpowers. It won’t take long.”

At Yekaterina’s words, Smiling Shadow nodded his head.

“I’ll look at it from now on, so just go back and rest.”

“I understand.”

After Smiling Shadow disappeared once again into her shadow, Yekaterina immediately contacted the Hunter Association and requested a list of those with S rank or higher stealth and detection skills.

At the same time, she couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy.

‘Why is an S rank hunter watching us…?’

* * *

A month had passed since I hunted Mazellion. And since then, both Aracelli and I were living a pretty luxurious life in the Blue Magic Tower. However, we couldn’t truly enjoy the luxury since we were working hard to complete Aracelli’s double circle. It would have been very disappointing if we had worked hard and had no results, but surprisingly, the results came in just one month.

“Fyuuh… Professor, I finished it.”

“Really? You already completed a double circle?”

“Yes. But, It’s a bit awkward. It feels like the new mana is rotating in the opposite direction. If I move the circle incorrectly, I might even get a ‘mana side effect’.”

Mana side effect was a slightly different phenomenon from ‘mana rebound’ which occurs if you cancel a magic in the middle of casting it. It could be seen as the magic counterpart of ‘backlash’ when someone failed their meditation on martial arts.

“But in the end, I made it without any problems!” Aracelli smiled brightly. Now, in addition to her nine frozen circles around her heart, another mana circle was spinning. Although the amount of mana was miniscule compared to her original mana pool, it was still fine as it was possible to regain her original power as she continued to build it up step by step.

“That’s why I also created a new circling technique, I called it ‘Aracelli-style double circling technique’! Should I teach it to you, Professor?”

“Oh, no. I can’t learn that.” I shook my head at her proposal. The reason why Aracelli could do it was because of her insane talent of handling mana. Meanwhile, I don’t know how to handle mana by myself at all, so it’s impossible. It’s the truth I learnt while developing a mana circling technique with Ha Sunyoung back then.

“Anyway, I’m so glad you made it.” I ruffled her hair as I said so. With her success, there’s no reason for us to be in this world any longer. We got up straight away, and went to Tower Master’s office to say our goodbye.

“Oh, are you going back already?”

“Yes. My business here is over.”

“Hmm~ So are you going back to Michelas~? Do you need any help to find your ship? You said that the ship you boarded had sunk, didn’t you~?”

Ah. Now that I think about it, I had that kind of backstory, didn’t I?

“It’s fine. There is a way to go back even without the ship.”

“Is that so~?” She smiled meaningfully as soon as she finished her words.

Don’t tell me, did this ahjumma notice that I was lying to her?

“Anyway… be safe on your journey. Is your girlfriend going with you too?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a pity… I thought I was going to get that kid, she seems talented. Creating a circle in just one month is just simply amazing.”

“…”

I closed my mouth shut at her words. I struggled not to tell her that Aracelli was not just talented, but already a much stronger magician than her.

“Then, we will go. Thank you for your hospitality.”

『Who Will Be Killed In The Dark Night Sky?』

#SciFi #Psychology #Thriller #Mystery

“Let’s go right away.” This time, though. I grabbed Aracelli’s hand so that I could feel her presence and wouldn’t arrive separately just like when we arrived in this world. In addition, most of the ‘probability’ accumulated in my body was used for her dimensional shift. The leftover probability would also be used to prevent Aracelli from becoming one year younger.

[Moving to Drifting Spaceship Zermelt 13, the world where the protagonist ‘Haucolor’, resides.]

[10…9…8…]

[2…1…0]

[Moving complete.]

[You have become an uninvited guest of Zermelt 13.]

The moment I opened my eyes,

Rumble-!!

“Ugh?!”

“What!”

The ground shook. Thankfully, I managed to keep my focus and quickly leaned against the wall.

[The skill ‘Protagonist Hunter’ has been activated to help you adapt to the environment, but the air in this place is seriously lacking!]

[You need air!]

“What?”

I glanced to the side and saw Aracelli covering her mouth with a pale expression on her face. I realized belatedly that I was able to adapt thanks to the skill, but she couldn’t.

“Damn it, it’s crazy right off the bat!!” I looked around quickly and realized that the walls were all black. No, when I looked closely, it wasn’t a wall. It was a window. I misunderstood it since the outside was just too dark.

“Outer space…” Yes, It was space. The ground I was treading on was a drifting spaceship.

“Aracelli, get up.”

“…eugh.”

I took Aracelli, who barely managed to survive thanks to turning her circle into my hand and ran to the other side of the hallway. Automatic doors opened and closed by itself as I passed. It was a mechanism beyond my knowledge level. Meanwhile, alarms echoed throughout the hallway.

-Emergency! Air pressure in hangar 3 is extremely low!

-Emergency! Air pressure in hangar 3 is extremely low!

[Hangar 3: 39%]

-Passengers in hangar 3, please exit as soon as possible.

Holographic maps suddenly floated up in the air, so I ran and ran through the twisted hallways while looking at them. From the map, I could tell that the spaceship was modeled after a spider or maybe a maze. It was difficult to find the way because several small corridors were connected together. But thanks to the map, we managed to arrive at ‘Sector 7’.

“Cough!! Cough!! Cough!!”

“Haa…” Fortunately there was plenty of air here, so oxygen was pumped deep into my lungs as soon as the automatic door closed. I never knew oxygen could be so sweet. It seems that the saying which goes ‘people will start to appreciate something once they lost it’ was indeed true.

“Aracelli, are you okay?” But before Aracelli could answer, shadows loomed over us. They were some kind of armor… No, they were five soldiers in sleek space suits pointing their guns at us.

“Who are you?”

“How did you get here?”

“Are there any such guys among the remaining passengers?”

“I don’t know, I saw them for the first time!”

Their language was automatically translated by the skill as I heard it. I raised my arms—a universal body language to all nations, or even all over the dimension—to signify that I had no intention of resistance.

“We are only passing by.”

The system had told me that currently I was an ‘uninvited guest’. Therefore, there was no use pretending to be a passenger. I need to get my ‘concept’ right from the beginning, or it will surely come back to bite me later on.

“Passing by?”

“Well, then maybe there’s even a spaceship?”

“Your spaceship! Get us to your spaceship! Let’s leave this place!”

“I knew that a rescue ship would be coming! Whoa! I lived, I lived!”

“Eh?” What is this situation… This wasn’t what I wanted.

The soldiers were all wearing colorful helmets of different colors. One of them who was wearing a red helmet came up to me and said, “Thank you, it looks like you heard our signal. Where is your spaceship? If you tell us, we will guide you there!”

“…”

Unfortunately for him, I couldn’t live up to their expectations.

“There is no such thing…”

“Huh?”

“What?”

Afterall, I didn’t come here with a spaceship…