Chapter 35

Chapter. 35

I carefully fed him the potion for Tower climbing I had received under my Alchemist identity.

The curse that had seemed ready to explode at any moment had stopped, but his body was already no different from a rag.

Gulp.

Only after Lee A-un barely swallowed a mouthful of the potion did his face become a little more relaxed.

“Whew. For now, he has crossed the immediate crisis of dying.”

[That is a relief. But Agent, what did you mean by a curse earlier?]

“Hmm.”

The curse placed on Lee A-un.

This was quite malicious.

My brow furrowed at the malice that naturally radiated from it.

“It turns Lee A-un into a biological bomb.”

[A biological bomb…?]

“Think of it as two bombs implanted in him. One bomb goes off if his Mana Reflux Syndrome is resolved. The other goes off if his Mana Reflux Syndrome is not resolved and Lee A-un dies.”

Mana Reflux Syndrome was the bait.

It was like a propaganda balloon telling everyone to focus on it.

But the moment you took that bait, the game was over.

If you resolved the reflux syndrome? It exploded immediately.

The incident just now was that case.

If you failed to resolve it?

It exploded when Lee A-un died.

That was probably what would have happened soon if I had not intervened.

If one failed to grasp the core issue, the “curse,” then no matter which path one took, it led to catastrophe.

It was vicious.

And as I had just seen.

The power of the “Lee A-un bomb” was strong enough to blow away all of Incheon.

Busan had fallen, and now Incheon was the only remaining residential zone.

If this place was blown away, then whether Han Seol-ah existed or not, whether the Gate Breaks were stopped or not, the Republic of Korea would be destroyed just like that.

‘They are trying to completely bring Korea to its knees.’

Why had someone placed such a malicious curse on him?

Whatever their purpose was, it was a trashy method that treated human life like a bomb.

‘If I catch them, I will truly kill them.’

Heat shot all the way to the top of my head.

I clenched my teeth, tightened my fist, then slowly exhaled.

“Whew…”

Calm down.

Getting worked up would not help anything.

And this “Lee A-un bomb” trap was no longer dangerous.

Because I had identified the curse as the core.

Now I only had to resolve the curse, but…

After explaining Lee A-un’s situation, I asked Snowy for advice.

“What is the method to resolve this curse?”

Snowy’s answer was concise.

[There is none.]

“Huh.”

[This is the first time I have even heard that something called a “curse” exists in this world.]

“Is it not just that you did not know?”

[…There is truly only an extremely small amount of information I do not know.]

“Could this not be part of that extremely small amount?”

[…]

“Did that sting?”

[I will… search a little more.]

That was the attitude, Snowy.

Does your Hunter life end just because you say there is no method?

I had urged it to search for anything more for now, but before long, I quietly chewed over reality.

‘It is probably right that there is no method.’

Even I, who had spent ten years obsessively gathering information and digging through everything down to the underworld internet, had never seen the keyword “curse.”

If even Snowy, whose information-gathering ability far surpassed mine, did not know, then at the very least, there was not even a clue to lifting a curse

 among the information publicly available in this world.

Then was it impossible to lift Lee A-un’s curse?

The answer was “possible.”

‘Lost Honor has one.’

As long as I could somehow make him possess a body there, resolving it would be simple.

However.

‘It is a little wasteful to use the Possession Ticket carelessly. No matter how I think about it.’

Possession Tickets were difficult to obtain.

And yet, they were the method for unlocking jobs in the Corridor of Constellations.

They were directly connected to my power as well.

They were incredibly precious.

Furthermore, now that the Compendium had opened, a path had also opened for me to invest them only in super-blue-chip candidates who could reach potential ability EX as much as possible.

No matter how dangerous the curse was, it would be impossible not to feel regret over spending such a precious resource so abruptly.

‘…Besides, this Possession Ticket is especially important.’

An ability useful for catching Resonar.

And one I had to make use of in future Tower strategies as well.

‘If I do not use the ticket? How do I resolve the curse?’

The situation was complicated.

But the conclusion had already been decided.

‘I will bet on Lee A-un.’

If Lee A-un’s possibility of becoming EX-rank had been completely “unknown,” I might have racked my brain over it.

But Lee A-un was a talent the developer had publicly stated had “the possibility of reaching EX-rank.”

It was information given as a quest reward, so there was no way it could be a lie.

If there was even the slightest possibility.

I had the ability to turn that possibility into certainty.

‘Nebula is a god, and I am invincible.’

“Umm…”

Just then, Lee A-un woke up.

“Y-You are…”

Lee A-un’s eyes, as he looked up at me, were hazy and unfocused.

He looked as though he had just awakened from a dream.

He coughed and coughed, struggled to spit out the blood pooled in his mouth, and spoke in a trembling voice.

“Are you an angel?”

…What is he talking about?

After Apostle, now it was angel?

***

Death.

Lee A-un was floating in that abyss.

A space where nothing existed.

He could not even feel gravity.

His senses dulled, and his consciousness faded.

Then, a whisper that seemed to come from somewhere far away seeped into his mind.

[Seed of calamity■…]

[■ has fin■lly…]

[The long, long ■■■…]

[The per■on who cast the cur■e…]

What was it saying?

He could not hear it clearly.

But from somewhere deeper than instinct, from the depths of his soul, a warning told him he must not listen to that voice.

Lee A-un covered his ears and curled up.

‘Please save me.’

He cried out with all his strength, but no voice came out.

The sticky voice surrounded Lee A-un.

The voice itself seemed to have mass.

The whispers clung to him like leeches and tried to devour even the last of his remaining consciousness.

Was this death?

It was horrifying.

Just as he was about to resign himself.

[You have consumed the Red Elixir.]

Along with a strange voice whose gender could not be identified.

FLASH!

There was light.

A warm and dazzling light poured down, gently melting his frozen soul.

The chilling voices that had clung to him so persistently scattered while screaming.

Peace.

An absolute sense of relief, like the embrace of a mother he could no longer even remember.

‘Ah…’

Just as he was about to close his eyes in overwhelming emotion.

Flash!

The light vanished, and Lee A-un was hurled back into reality.

“Aaaaagh!”

Terrible agony ran through his entire body.

The pain felt as though the blood vessels, muscles, and organs throughout his body were twisting and tearing apart.

It was on an entirely different level from the Mana reflux that usually tormented him.

A tremendous amount of Mana flowed in.

That Mana ran backward at tremendous speed, tearing his entire body apart.

Then it was released again.

It felt as though his entire body was being ground inside a shredder called “Mana.”

‘Save… me…!’

There was nothing he could do except thrash.

Through his blood-blurred vision, Lee A-un saw something.

‘…What is that?’

The storm of Mana that had been tearing him apart was subsiding.

No, someone was calming it.

The Mana was being unraveled strand by strand.

The strands shone green, filled with the aura of life, and fluttered in the air as if they were alive.

Tens of thousands of shining threads.

‘Beautiful…’

It was magnificent enough to make him lose himself in awe even amid the pain of death.

A thought suddenly came to Lee A-un.

The being carrying out this wondrous feat surely could not be human.

It had to be an angel, or something even greater.

At last, when the final strand of Mana faded as if finding its proper place, the hellish pain vanished as if it had all been a lie.

It did not stop there.

The sensation of Mana reflux that had tormented him for so long, and that pain along with it, was being erased.

‘It is… disappearing.’

He very carefully tried moving his Mana.

Sssrk.

Smoothly, without obstruction, it flowed in the correct direction.

“……!”

His breath stopped.

His vision blurred.

He was healed.

He was truly healed!

The Mana Reflux Syndrome that had bound him like a curse for decades had vanished cleanly!

‘A miracle… A miracle really…!’

Even as he had written in his will that “ridiculously enough, I am still hoping for a miracle,” he had mocked himself for it.

He had thought he had given up, that everything was over.

But in the depths of his soul, even in the moment he was dying, he had never been able to let go of hope until the very end.

And now, that hope had become reality.

Lee A-un slowly raised his upper body.

A man stood before him.

An ordinary impression.

A faint face that would be difficult to remember if one simply passed by, a face that seemed like it could melt into a crowd.

But Lee A-un strained his eyes so he would not miss that face.

So he would not forget.

So he could carve this person’s face into his soul.

His eyes met the man’s.

As if entranced, Lee A-un asked,

“Y-You are… an angel?”

The man tilted his head.

As if asking, “What do you mean?”

Lee A-un forced his body, which would not move properly, upright and bowed flat to the ground.

“Thank you, truly, truly… H-How can I ever repay this grace? What must I do to repay the miracle you have bestowed upon me?”

“…”

“I-I will become anything. I will devote my life to becoming your sword and shield.”

The man did not answer.

“Please accept everything I have!”

Lee A-un was already prepared to accept any harsh command the man might give him to test his sincerity.

However, the man spoke in an incredibly calm voice, as if that sincerity were as light as a feather.

“Let us start by becoming friends.”

‘!!!’

Lee A-un answered loudly.

“Yes, sir!!!”

***

‘What is wrong with him?’

A little while ago, he was going on about angels, and now he was filming some kind of knightly literature.

‘I did once imagine that if I cured his chronic illness, he might skip the suffocating small talk and immediately see me like an angel… but now that he is actually doing it, it is a little bewildering.’

Still… I had been rather amazing.

It was true that I felt a little proud.

But I could not simply feel good about it forever.

Unless I resolved the curse, Mana Reflux Syndrome could recur at any time.

‘This is not over.’

That was that.

“…”

“…”

Silence settled between us.

[Agent? Perhaps you should say something…]

‘…’

No.

What was I supposed to say in this situation?

It had been far too long since I had talked to a person.

“…I am Ha Seong-un.”

“Yes, Lord Seong-un!”

“You do not have to call me ‘Lord.’ How old are you?”

“I am twenty years old, Seong-un… Angel, sir!”

“…I am not an angel either. But twenty?”

“Yes!”

‘…With that face?’

Oof. When hardship comes, try dodging it a little.

Maybe it was because he had suffered so much, but I could not possibly see that face as belonging to a twenty-year-old.

I naturally assumed he was older than me.

“Then I am older than you. Drop the angel nonsense and just call me Brother.”

“Yes, Brother!”

“…Drop the.”

“I cannot do that, Brother!”

“…Fine.”

…This is exhausting.

I avoided Lee A-un’s gaze as he knelt there, eyes shining.

I tossed him the Red Elixir I had fed him earlier.

It was the bottle that still had about half the elixir left because I had not fed him all of it.

“That is a miracle medicine called the Red Elixir. It is the medicine that temporarily calmed your Mana Reflux Syndrome.”

“Ah… So this is…”

Lee A-un nodded as if he understood something.

“You know who Mister Lee Hyeong-je is, right?”

“Pardon? How do you know the old man, Brother?”

“I also… owed that old man a little in the past.”

Thank you for the meals.

Calorie Sticks.

“This is a gift from that old man to you.”

“…”

Lee A-un’s face became visibly complicated.

“It is worth 1.5 billion Points.”

“Huuuuuh!”

Lee A-un flinched in shock and held the elixir high up toward the sky.

“What are you doing?”

“I-If it breaks…”

“It will not break. It is sturdy.”

“B-But this is an aloe juice bottle…”

“It is not.”

“There is even a piece of the sticker still attached…”

“I said it is not.”

Actually, it was.

I had been in such a hurry that I stole it from Cheol-su’s house.

“Be good to that old man. He cares about you a lot.”

“…That man does?”

Lee A-un’s expression went blank.

Complex emotions seeped from his trembling eyes, as if he could not believe it.

It seemed there was something between the two of them that I did not know.

To change that strange mood, I lightly tossed out a sentence.

“Ah, your illness is going to relapse again.”

“…Pardon?”

Lee A-un’s face turned pale.

“R-Relapse?”

“Yeah. Your Mana Reflux Syndrome has not been completely cured. It has only calmed down for a while.”

“Th-Then I should drink the remaining medicine when that happens?”

“No.”

What nonsense was that?

“If you drink that, Incheon will be blown away. Do not drink it.”

“…Pardon?”

“If you really cannot endure it, call me. If I am beside you, you can drink it with my permission.”

“Brother. Then this illness… cannot be cured?”

“It can. Probably.”

“……!”

Lee A-un snapped his head up.

His eyes were blazing.

I grinned and held out my hand to him.

“Let us do a job together.”

Now that I had confirmed his loyalty, it was time to extract the value of this precious “Possession Ticket.”