noveltune Chapter 55
Chapter 55
The silence flowing under the moonlight tickled both cheeks.
“What does that mean?”
Heart this and that, what courage made him utter such embarrassing words? He hadn’t even solved the problem at hand yet, nor organized his thoughts.
Regret immediately welled up. His heart became complicated. As messy as the wave traces left on the sand by traveling wind.
“Can I take that to mean you have feelings for me?”
Again, the scenery was the problem. Intoxicated by the atmosphere provided by the unfamiliar and beautiful landscape, he had blurted out nonsense. At least, that’s how Ryu Seo-ha judged it.
“No, it’s just, I literally meant I wanted to give you a gift.”
Biting his lower lip firmly with his teeth as if scolding the lips that had uttered unrefined words, he quickly moved to explain. To prevent his hasty words from being over-interpreted.
“But why?”
“Because I’ve received so much...”
“You gave it with the mindset of a debtor repaying a debt?”
“No, that’s not...”
“But you wanted to give a gift to Kwon Se-jeong without any reason?”
The more he spoke, the more tangled the situation became. To deny Choi Gang-hu’s cold questioning, he needed to acknowledge the fundamental part, but that wasn’t easy. His heartbeat became erratic.
“I simply knew she would need it, so...”
“Simply?”
“...I thought it would be of some small help.”
“And to me?”
“...”
“In the end, it was just familiar charity driven by kindness towards anyone.”
The muttering tinged with bitterness tangled the threads in his mind hopelessly. Kwon Se-jeong and Choi Gang-hu were different. Though he had liked them both from the start as a reader of the original work, his current feelings towards the two were completely different.
“Ha, what was I expecting?”
Choi Gang-hu let out a low, hollow laugh and slowly closed his eyes. His heart shook violently. Afraid he would let go of his hand like this, his fingers twitched.
“...It’s different.”
As if someone was choking him, his constricted vocal cords struggled to squeeze out a small sound. Choi Gang-hu, who had closed his eyes, opened them and met his gaze.
“It’s true that I have a compulsion to avoid incurring anyone’s hostility, but for you, Mr. Choi...”
His trembling eyelashes felt heavy, and he lowered his gaze. Unrelated to the survival methods of the weak, he simply wanted to see it. The sight of Choi Gang-hu being happy to receive a gift.
To Ryu Seo-ha, he was an absolutely necessary person, but surprisingly, he often forgot that desperation. Perhaps because of this, words and actions he wouldn’t have done if he had calculated everything as usual would naturally pop out.
“For me?”
When he couldn’t continue his next words, a voice gently urging him brushed the back of his ear. It was a tone that gave reassurance, as always.
“You act selfishly too, you know.”
“...You mean Ryu Seo-ha?”
He looked straight up at him, who asked back with a subtle expression.
“I’ve never once thought you were the same as others.”
And he declared firmly.
“You are a special person to me, Mr. Choi.”
It was the first time in both his previous life where he never even rode a slide, and his current life where he had grown accustomed to quietly suppressing himself.
-Was it fun?
-Yes, very much.
-Then let’s come play again next time.
But Choi Gang-hu’s mention of reopening the unique amusement park could only be passed over with an ambiguous smile instead of a positive confirmation.
“Defense team roll call complete.”
It took about 3 hours until dawn. Even considering that the day cycle in dungeons is usually faster than Earth’s, it was a very short night.
“Attack team formation complete.”
Some hunters would stay behind to guard the perimeter for civilian protection, while the majority of hunters would set out to eliminate the terrorists.
No particular tension could be seen in them as they moved in formation according to nationality and type. Understandably so. They probably believed that if hundreds of high-grade, high-level hunters rushed in at once, the situation would be resolved before the opponents could even try any tricks.
‘...I have a bad feeling.’
On the other hand, Ryu Seo-ha had no choice but to tighten the strings of tension again. It was because there had been something bothering him since the beginning of the incident.
The bull-masked terrorists had been mentioned in passing in the original work too. Through foreign news articles, in relation to Gangseong Group’s European branch.
While reading, he had wondered if it might be foreshadowing related to the Church. It was just a guess based on context, and since it wasn’t dealt with importantly in the end and just passed by, he had dismissed it as a red herring.
“Huh? What’s that?”
Like then, he hoped it was just an overinterpretation.
“Yeah. What the hell are those crazy bastards doing?”
“What? What is it? I can’t see.”
“Hmm... The masked guys are strung up on straight poles?”
When search-type hunters among those crossing the desert for the extermination operation voiced the strange scene unfolding beyond the sand dunes,
‘Sacrificial ritual!’
Only Ryu Seo-ha sensed the crisis and immediately took a combat stance.
“We have to stop them! Right now!”
He had no choice but to issue a warning, putting aside thoughts of looking strange. Stopping what they were trying to do was the top priority.
“Huh? Why are you suddenly...”
Whoosh─!
Before the hunter could finish asking back, one of the sand dunes obstructing the view was swept away by a small tornado.
Choi Gang-hu, who had leveled the sand dune with a light gesture, ignored the surprised gazes and floated the Ruyi Sword in the air.
“Damn it, everyone prepare for battle!”
The disappearance of the cover concealing them meant their approach was also exposed to all. The element of surprise was lost.
Instead of reprimanding Choi Gang-hu for his sudden individual action, the temporary leader hunter loudly declared the start of combat.
Massive firepower attack skills poured down in droves. Onto the large barrier right next to where the sand dunes had been.
Crack! After the barrier, spread firmly thanks to numerous S-grade items, shattered, Choi Gang-hu, who had been at the forefront, turned around.
“What...”
With an expressionless face, he made an incomprehensible gesture towards his allies. A small breeze arose, sweeping past everyone lightly.
Then the hunters collapsed as if they were puppets with cut strings, thud, thud. Without exception, even S-rank hunters, all of them.