The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low - Chap 323
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Something shook his body hard. Cha Eui-jae frowned. The rumbling was making his stomach turn. Cha Eui-jae smacked his lips. Damn it, let him sleep a little longer…
“J!”
A thunderous voice rang in his ears. Cha Eui-jae snapped his eyes with a start. The first thing he saw was a cracked ceiling. A crack? It wasn’t an illusion as he could see dust falling from it. Yoon Ga-eul was holding onto Cha Eui-jae’s shoulder with a pale face, panting.
“Student Ga-eul?”
“Thank goodness… you haven’t woken up for so long, I was worried– no, this isn’t the time. We have to get out of here right now!”
“Huh?”
“The space is collapsing–! Aah! Watch your head!”
Thud! With a loud bang, debris poured down from the ceiling. Cha Eui-jae quickly raised his upper body and blocked the debris with his arms. What he could see through the gap in the collapsed ceiling was…
A pitch-black void.
It was the same void he’d seen when he opened the Memorial Dungeon door.
The entire classroom shook ominously. If the floor collapsed, would it also reveal a void?
‘That would be a big problem.’
Being trapped in an unknown void was unacceptable. While wiping away her cold sweat, Yoon Ga-eul muttered.
“This– this is strange. It’s a space Hong Ye-seong made, so it shouldn’t shake like this…”
Hong Ye-seong. Although he was strange, he was a strange man with solid skills. Yoon Ga-eul asked in a trembling voice.
“Could something have happened outside…? Or, to Hong Ye-seong…”
A number of grim possibilities ran through his head. Cha Eui-jae stood from the floor, holding his cold temples. Then he hugged Yoon Ga-eul tightly to his side.
“Let’s get out of here first!”
“Oh, yes! But I can do it alone—”
He didn’t listen to the rest of what she said. Cha Eui-jae tightly grabbed the ticket he had put in his inventory. At the same time, his vision changed.
Cha Eui-jae looked around. It was the guild leader’s office of the Pado Guild. The place he felt the safest. Cha Eui-jae headed from here to where Yoon Ga-eul had hid…
“You can come down now…”
“Oh, sorry. I’m in a hurry.”
“J-nim! Are you back?!”
The door opened with a bang. Shield Guy, Bae Won-woo’s expectant gaze swept around the room. Then, realizing that it was only Cha Eui-jae and Yoon Ga-eul, he looked away. His mouth tasted bitter seeing the other’s hunched shoulders.
“Sorry, I’ve met him but I couldn’t bring him out…”
“It’s okay. It’s not something that can be resolved quickly anyway, but more than that, there’s a big problem!”
“Big problem?”
“Yes, yes. I’ll tell you on the way to the conference room. It’s faster to see it with your own eyes. You should go there too, student!”
Bae Won-woo gestured for them to follow him. Cha Eui-jae glanced at Yoon Ga-eul with a bewildered expression, and hurriedly started running after him. As he strode down the emergency stairs two or three steps at a time, Bae Won-woo said.
“Right now, not only the bureau, but… the whole world is on emergency alert.”
“Did a monster wave break out? Or a mutation?”
“No, no… ah, we’ve arrived!”
Bae Won-woo threw open the conference room door, where several hunters were already gathered inside. Bae Won-woo gestured for them to get out of the way and led Cha Eui-jae to the window. One of the walls of the conference room was made entirely of glass, allowing him to see the scenery outside at a glance.
And, Cha Eui-jae was overcome with a strong sense of discomfort.
“…”
“…Do you know what has changed?”
“…Over there.”
Cha Eui-jae raised his index finger and pointed to the sky. Since the Day of the Rift, the sky that had always been there…
“The White Hole disappeared?”
***
Ugh. Dark red blood fell on the dirt. Next to Hong Ye-seong, who was lying face down, spitting blood, Kkokko spun around restlessly. Kkokko’s six subordinates— no, friends, spun around with it.
“Bawk? Baw…”
“Ugh, urgh…”
After vomiting a mouthful of blood for quite some time, Hong Ye-seong lay down on the ground, avoiding the puddle of blood he had spewed. He could smell its pungent smell. He roughly rubbed his nose and mouth with the back of his hand. It came off with blood. His golden eyes swirled as he stared at the blue sky.
The calm flow of the clouds had stopped, and cracks began to appear in the sky. Hong Ye-seong patted the chicken that was digging to his side with his still clean sleeve.
“Yeah, yeah. Am I okay? No, no, not at all. I’m in so much pain, Kkokko. I think my stomach is torn.”
“Bawk…”
“Let’s see…”
He closed his eyes and listened. There were sounds. Sounds of breaking, cracking, and shattering. All around him. The space he had built from the moment he gained his powers was falling apart.
“I guess the time-wasting is over~ … I held out for quite a while, right?”
“Squeak…”
The yellow feathered chicks trembled. Some of them were frozen and couldn’t move. The trembling of the chicks grew worse as the pieces of the blue sky fell and the pitch-black void beyond was revealed.
Hong Ye-seong sniffed. It was hard to breathe with the blood rising every time he did it. He stuck out his lips and grumbled.
“Gee, I didn’t even do a single thing. This is a bit unfair~”
“Squeak…”
The little ones who were shivering finally collapsed with a gasp of breath. Hong Ye-seong reached out with difficulty and touched the soft feathers. The warmth remained, but the signs of life were gone.
“Hey… If I had known this would happen, I would have just roasted and eaten them. I was just holding on to them for nothing…”
“Bawk! Bawk!”
“I’m sorry. I should have given them to J… My friend would have raised them better than me. Right?”
Hong Ye-seong coughed softly. Kkokko rubbed his head against his side as if he had sensed something. The sky was falling. He stared at the falling pieces of sky. His sharp senses, the fear engraved in his bones, flesh, and soul, warned him.
Run away.
RUN AWAY!
RUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAY
But he couldn’t move a finger. Hong Ye-seong was used to burns and heat, but he was helpless in the face of pain. His twisted stomach kept tormenting him. Gulp. Hong Ye-seong tilted his head back and spat out the clump of blood. His vision was blurry and shaking.
‘If I had known this would happen, I should have gotten some training…’
He shouldn’t have ignored the civil servant’s and Director Ham’s words. At least he could have built up his stamina. He only regretted it now. His vision was trembling. Was the floor shaking? No. Hong Ye-seong realized. His whole body was shaking. Cold sweat had formed on his back and nape. Hong Ye-seong carefully stroked Kkokko’s head with his sleeve.
“Kkokko-ya…”
“Bawk…”
Kkokko cried pitifully and shook its head. Hong Ye-seong spat out in a trembling voice.
“Run away.”
Crack.
The blue sky collapsed without a trace. There was only a void darker than the night sky. In the starless darkness—
A pure white circle appeared.
Then the pure white circle disappeared and appeared over the void. Like a blinking eye.
Blink, blink. The white circle disappeared and reappeared repeatedly as if focusing, then it fixed its ‘eye’ on Hong Ye-seong, laying next to a puddle of blood.
Hong Ye-seong tried to move his hardened cheeks, creating something similar to a smile.
“Hello.”
The huge white eye stared at Hong Ye-seong. Something swirled inside it. Suddenly, a lightning-like realization struck Hong Ye-seong’s entire body.
He tried to move his still mouth with difficulty. His golden eyes spun around quickly.
“…You.”
The moment the warden of the destroyed world disappeared, the black hole in the sky turned pure white. Those who knew the inside story would think it was a hole connected to the destroyed world, and those who didn’t would think something had happened. People called this transformed black hole as—
White hole.
But what if it wasn’t a hole that connects worlds?
Not a hole…
“…You were watching?”
But what if it was an eye?
The round circle curved thinly. As if smiling.
As if his thoughts were correct.
His whole body trembled. He couldn’t tell if it was from excitement or fear. This sudden realization had caused sparks to fly through his head. Hong Ye-seong clenched his teeth. Then, with his trembling hands, he pushed Kkokko away.
“Go, Kkokko!”
“Bawk?”
“Quick! Run away! Anywhere is fine!”
It was a desperate cry. A cry that made the pushed Kkokko to run instinctively. Flapping its smooth wings and leaving new chicken footprints on the dirt. Before it knew it, it was in front of the half-collapsed gate.
Kkokko stood on the threshold and looked back. Then—
Crack!
The floor collapsed. Kkokko straightened its wobbly balance and jumped to the gate. The last thing its small black eyes saw was—
A huge white hand pressing down on the dirt floor…
And the color of red flowing out.
