LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 15 - Shadow Worm,, Chara-Tebil (7)
Chapter 15. Shadow Worm,, Chara-Tebil (7)
“Kim Baekjun, what should we eat for lunch today?”
Lunch?
Ah. So it’s already that time.
“How about that soup restaurant again? Their buchimgae was pretty decent too.”
“You mean the one the inspector finished all by himself? The sergeant didn’t even get a bite. You’re teasing, aren’t you?”
“Did I… do that?”
Familiar laughter rang out, then faded into obscurity.
How do I describe it? It was sad.
Because I knew this was a dream.
And it made sense—laughter was… a relic of a world long gone.
When I regained my senses, an unfamiliar voice growled nearby.
“…That’s why I don’t trust these human scum. Worse than bugs, these pieces of sh**.”
Another deep voice boomed.
“…Get rid of that crazy b****. No time for this. The others will be here soon. Grab the stuff and move out.”
“Why don’t you do it yourself? Three of you scared of her?”
Shouts… screams… groans…
The sound of a brutal scuffle filled the air. Moments later, gunshots erupted.
Even then, I couldn’t move. My consciousness slipped back into darkness.
“Hah!”
When I finally woke on a cot, I was overwhelmed by confusion.
The first thing I saw was a torch mounted on a wall.
The place was dim and damp overall. Most of all, it was freezing.
…Where am I?
“You woke up exactly on the third night, just as the Star Messenger said.”
A middle-aged man’s voice, unfamiliar to me.
I abruptly sat up in bed. My head throbbed, and a fiery sting burned in my side and left arm.
…Pain.
“Take it slow. We’re not here to hurt you.”
Instinctively, I checked my condition.
My side and left arm… they were covered in severe scars.
Scars meant the wounds had healed properly. My other body parts were intact as well.
[Hunter Perk, ‘Healing of the Stars,’ is restoring your body.]
Did I survive?
No, maybe… not yet.
I unclenched my fists slowly and raised my head.
I was confined in a narrow cell, and two men stood beyond the iron bars, staring at me.
One was an intellectual-looking, dignified middle-aged man.
The other… Was that even a person?
His face was obscured by an upside-down tin bucket he wore like a helmet.
But he was well over 2 meters tall and so muscular he could put every bodybuilder on the planet out of a job.
[Lv: 31]
[Lv: 35]
Their levels were unbelievably high.
Higher than mine.
Far beyond ordinary Nightmare Hunters.
“Where am I?”
“Isn’t it obvious? This is an underground prison.”
“And who are you?”
“Just think of me as the commander of an assault squad that stood at the very front lines, even beyond
At the edge of my vision, Jung Hayoung appeared.
She was slumped against the prison wall, bloodied.
I instinctively held my breath but relaxed slightly when I saw her chest rise and fall faintly.
“You people?”
“Let me make one thing clear before you misunderstand. I wasn’t the one who imprisoned you, nor did I turn your lover into that mess. If anything, I saved her.”
“You call that saving? You helped her die?”
“I helped kill.”
The middle-aged man gestured down the hallway with his eyes.
I turned to look and froze in shock.
Five Hunter corpses were piled up.
“Do you know that you were a target for all sorts of scavengers these past three days?”
Three days? I’d been unconscious for that long?
“You’re in this prison for your safety. It’s the easiest place to protect you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous… Isn’t this the Paradise Zone?”
“The world is far too rotten to discuss such naive notions. Look at the foot of your bed.”
Three large leather sacks were piled there.
Each sack was bulging.
This is…?
Jet-black stones.
The Soul Stones of Chara-Tebil.
Underneath them were countless more Soul Stones.
“The entirety of Muak-dong transformed into a Paradise Zone. As a result, every aberration in the area was annihilated. And conveniently, they left behind these Soul Stones. That’s where the problem began.”
A dull ache throbbed in my head.
At last, I grasped the outline of the incomprehensible disaster.
“Are you telling me other Hunters tried to kill me? Just to take these?”
“That’s right.”
“And Jung Hayoung protected me from those bastards.”
It was hard to believe.
No, I didn’t want to believe it.
That the world had become this wretched.
“Were they insane?”
“Or perhaps just true to their nature? The first-ever servant’s Soul Stone. Who wouldn’t want to know what kind of power it holds? Doesn’t it look like an unparalleled opportunity to become stronger?”
Frustration roared in my head.
I staggered to the iron bars and gripped them tightly, glaring at the middle-aged man.
“You’re here for this cursed thing too, aren’t you?”
“No. I came to ask you something far more important.”
The middle-aged man dragged one of the corpses and propped it against the wall before sitting on its head.
A crunch.
The sound of a neck snapping.
“Let’s talk about the Muak-dong raid. It was a catastrophe. We succeeded in the raid, but more than half of the assault team was wiped out.”
“Wait… did you just say more than half?”
Dizziness surged through me.
But the man kept talking, unfazed.
“The sacrifices weren’t in vain. They offered strategic insights for those who came after.”
One.
There’s no need to eliminate every aberration in a Nightmare Zone.
Once the servant is defeated, the rest are destroyed automatically.
Two.
An assault team must be composed of no more than seven elite members.
“The most important thing is the third lesson.”
“Damn it… I don’t want to hear it.”
“Does each member of the assault team possess ‘will’ or not?”
Will.
There’s no such stat.
What an abstract concept… The man tapped his chest near his heart.
“A boy named Shin Taeup had will. That’s why he led others and annihilated the first Nightmare.”
Next, he pointed over my shoulder at the Soul Stones of Chara-Tebil.
“You’re no different. Will drove you to charge into the servant alone, creating a legend. The Nightmare Zone is a world worse than the worst. And who was it that twisted its fate? It was you, those who had will.”
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Kim Baekjun. Do you have the ultimate will to end this Nightmare?”
The ultimate will.
I froze at the unexpected question.
“My assault team has pinpointed the location of the second servant. The general area is identified, and now we just need to pinpoint its exact position.”
A step closer.
The man approached.
“For that raid, I’ve judged that the power of a leading Hunter is indispensable. The power of a Hunter who defeated the first servant alone. But before that, I need to confirm something.”
His eyes gleamed as he tapped my chest with his fist.
“What is your ultimate will? Is it vengeance against the Nightmare? A sense of justice to save the world? Or is it, like these beasts, a desire for power to dominate?”
…My will.
Unconsciously, I held my breath and straightened my back.
I engraved the sights of this mad world into my retinas.
The Soul Stones.
The unconscious Jung Hayoung.
The corpses of the Hunters.
The modern underground prison. And the echoes of laughter from the world I once knew.
“I don’t have lofty ideals like a sense of justice.”
The resolve I etched into my heart on the first day of the apocalypse trembled.
“I just want to return the world to its original state.”
“That’s what justice is. Very good.”
The man extended his hand toward me.
“I’m Choi Wook. Leader of the assault team
I didn’t take his hand.
“Other Hunters are already after my head. What makes you think I’d trust you to watch my back?”
“Hatred.”
Just a single word.
But the murderous intent it carried was suffocating.
Choi Wook pointed a finger at Im Yonggon.
“This guy was a firefighter. On the day of the apocalypse, he was dispatched to the scene, only to witness his closest colleagues massacred. When he fled home, he found his widowed mother being chewed apart.”
“…And you?”
I regretted not holding my tongue then.
Choi Wook opened his mouth as if to chew on his words.
“My twelve-year-old daughter was torn to shreds. Right in front of my eyes. I watched every limb get ripped apart one by one. Does that answer your question?”
“Ah… That’s… terrible…”
“If you can’t trust us, at least trust this hatred that holds not a single lie.”
At that moment, four Hunters came rushing down the stairs.
At the front was Hong Byunggyu from Team A.
Looking closer, I realized they were the group of Hunters who had cleared the path during the boss fight.
A heavy silence lingered briefly.
The next moment, Hong Byunggyu firmly gripped the handle of his axe.
Choi Wook raised both hands leisurely.
“We didn’t come here to fight.”
“I’ve heard that line plenty. They all ended up dead, though.”
The giant wearing the tin bucket shrugged his shoulders.
The enormous hammer strapped to his back clanged loudly, three times the size of any sledgehammer.
“If that’s how you want to act.”
Dangerous.
An overwhelming sense of dread shot through me, predicting a bloody disaster.
I immediately stepped forward.
“Choi Wook only came to talk. That’s the truth.”
Hong Byunggyu looked utterly bewildered.
He seemed shocked that I had awakened.
“You… You’re awake? Since when…?”
“I just woke up. For now, could you step back?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Hong Byunggyu finally cleared the way.
“Then we’ll talk again in three days. After pinpointing the location of the second servant, I’ll return.”
With those words, Choi Wook exited first, followed by Im Yonggon, who casually hoisted the five Hunter corpses onto his shoulders and left.
As their footsteps faded, Hong Byunggyu let out a dry laugh.
“Did they really just leave after a chat? What was it about?”
“They’re preparing for the second raid… and asked for cooperation.”
“A raid? Already? Their levels are crazy high… Are those bastards camping out in the Nightmare Zones or something?”
Hong Byunggyu’s own level was [Lv: 26].
But upon hearing the explanation, I found his level understandable.
He had leveled up significantly using the flood of Soul Stones that came after Muak-dong turned into a Paradise Zone.
Still… How were the levels of
“All of those over there are yours. That’s sixty percent of all the Soul Stones from Muak-dong. The rest of us split the remaining forty percent, each taking ten percent.”
Hong Byunggyu pulled a key from his waist and unlocked the cell door.
“You gave me far too much. Take more.”
“What are you talking about? Even this was taking without much conscience. Without you, we’d all be dead.”
“I… couldn’t save that many people.”
At my words, a somber silence descended.
So it was true.
Choi Wook’s words must have been accurate.
With a heavy sigh, I stepped out of the cell… only to freeze in shock.
“Why are you all doing this?”
Hong Byunggyu and the other Hunters bowed deeply at the waist.
“We’re doing this out of genuine gratitude.
It’s all thanks to you.
We’ve been wanting to tell you this for a long time.”
“…”
“Yeah, a lot of people died. But how’s that your fault? Bring me anyone who says otherwise. I’ll smash their mouth.”
The other Hunters chimed in fervently.
“Baekjun, you’re our hero.”
“Brother, stand tall with pride. Come on, why are you like this?”
I shook my head in the end and forced a smile.
Then, I briefly listened to Hong Byunggyu’s account of events.
Apparently, I had initially been admitted to a private room at the Sinchon Severance Hospital.
But the number of Hunters targeting my Soul Stones was endless.
They came from downstairs, upstairs, even through the windows.
It became impossible to protect me there.
“Those bastards… The safest place in a Paradise Zone was the underground prison. That’s why we moved you to Seodaemun Prison.”
“It’s okay. You all protected me, didn’t you?”
Knowing that filled my previously stifled chest with warmth.
But Hong Byunggyu shook his head and glanced at Jung Hayoung, slumped against the wall.
“We just took turns standing guard. We couldn’t hold a candle to this girl.”
“What exactly did Hayoung do?”
“She protected you for three days and nights.
She’s a true superhuman.”
Three days and nights?
Suddenly, I recalled the shouting I’d heard in my dreams.
It wasn’t a dream.
That was Jung Hayoung protecting me.
A pang struck my heart.
“Let’s go for now. We’ll escort you to the cathedral. You’ll need to use the Soul Stones quickly to be safe.”
“There’s a chance we might be ambushed on the way.”
“It’s not impossible.”
“Then I’ll go on my own tomorrow.”
I carefully lifted Jung Hayoung and placed her on the bed in the cell.
Starlight sparkled from the wounds all over her body.
It must have been the effect of ‘Healing of the Stars.’
“Tomorrow? You should go now for your safety.”
“I can’t bring an unconscious person to a dangerous place. I’ll go once Jung Hayoung regains her strength.”
At my words, Hong Byunggyu scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“I didn’t think of it that way. Alright, then. We’ll all guard the prison entrance tonight. Let’s go together tomorrow.”
After Hong Byunggyu’s group ascended the stairs, I leaned against the foot of the bed.
All night, I thought about Jung Hayoung’s actions.
It was hard to understand.
Her self-sacrifice went completely against the impression I had of her.
Someone who seemed so self-centered had acted selflessly?
No matter how much I thought, I couldn’t find an answer.
At 4:32 AM, Jung Hayoung finally regained consciousness.
“Cigarette.”
A frail, raspy voice.
She tapped her pants pocket weakly.
“Get me a cigarette. Light it for me. Damn, it’s hard to even breathe.”
“Cigarettes are bad for your health.”
Despite saying that, I did as she asked.
I placed a cigarette in her mouth, lit it with a lighter, and handed it to her.
Jung Hayoung exhaled the smoke with visible effort.
“Why did you do something so reckless?”
“This crazy bastard… Who are you calling reckless?”
Jung Hayoung let out a dry laugh, looking incredulous, and I lowered my head.
“I heard everything. Thank you so much.”
“So… who’s thanking whom here…? Ah, forget it.
The sleeping beauty stayed asleep so long the dwarves broke their backs.”
“Then let’s say the princess revived with a kiss, and it’s all even.”
“A kiss? What kiss all of a sudden?”
I pointed at the cigarette filter.
It was a reference to the indirect kiss when I lit her cigarette.
Jung Hayoung stared at me for a moment, then burst into laughter.
“This idiot… A kiss, he says… When’s the last time anyone even used that phrase… Ah, my sides…”
Was this even a joke worth laughing at?
Still, it caught me off guard.
Jung Hayoung…
I didn’t know she could laugh so brightly.
“Why are you staring like that? Never seen someone laugh before?”
“Perhaps.
I haven’t heard genuine laughter since the apocalypse.”
Laughter.
A dazzling relic of a bygone era.
Why hadn’t I valued this treasure before?
Something so precious it could make others happy just by hearing it.
“Is it such a big deal? It’s just laughing.”
That’s why I laughed along with her and thought to myself.
The best reward for fighting servants might not be the victory itself but this sound of laughter.
“Don’t make such a big fuss. You’re embarrassing me. From now on, I’ll… Hmm… Maybe once in a while, if I feel like it, I’ll laugh for you.”