Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 246

246. Team B

The monster had run away, leaving behind only the person it had attacked.

The participants stared at the fallen person with frightened eyes. The victim had lost all the pigment in their body, looking like a person made of transparent vinyl. They were limp and devoid of any life force, yet still breathing, moving slightly. This grotesque and eerie sight was unsettling; even someone with strong nerves would find it disturbing, so it was no wonder the participants hesitated to approach.

‘If we touch them, won’t we end up like that too?’

‘Maybe this time it’s taking away pigment….’

‘What if they turn into zombies or vampires?’

“What are you doing?”

Rembrary, who had briefly chased after the monster, returned and asked. The participants glanced at the fallen person and then at Rembrary, pointing with their eyes or chins instead of explaining. Rembrary quickly noticed the victim, now resembling transparent vinyl.

However, Rembrary wasn’t bothered by the bizarre sight. He approached and asked again, “Why are you just staring?”

Rembrary had no ulterior motive; he genuinely didn’t understand why they were leaving the injured person on the ground.

But as soon as he asked, one of the participants suddenly raised their voice. “Then why don’t *you* do something! What’s with the act of being nice!”

‘What’s wrong with that guy?’ Rembrary wondered, bewildered. Why was this person suddenly angry? All he’d done was ask why they were leaving the injured person unattended.

Rembrary wasn’t the only one puzzled.

—What’s wrong with that guy?

—Is he crazy?

—Can’t control his anger ;;

—Why is he jumping around like that?

Rembrary stared at the participant strangely but decided this wasn’t the time to worry about it. He picked up the victim, who was limply lying on the ground.

Seeing this, the other participants screamed in horror.

“Why?”

“Are… are you okay?”

“About what?”

“!”

Regardless of the others’ surprise, Rembrary calmly carried the person towards the bus. The staff belatedly rushed over, and the medical staff quickly began examining the fallen participant.

Watching this, Rembrary pondered. *That participant… should I heal him or not?* Healing him was easy, trivial even. Besides, there was less need to hide his abilities now. Weren’t there other awakened people besides him? He had already shown himself defeating the monster in front of everyone.

But the problem wasn’t the ability itself, but its rarity.

If he was just good at catching monsters like other hunters, everyone would simply exclaim ‘wow’ and move on, no matter how amazing his abilities were. But healing abilities were different. If this ability was revealed, people might not just exclaim ‘wow’ but also target Rembrary.

Even in his original world, powerful people and authorities had targeted him, hadn’t they? Even non-humans coveted Rembrary’s overwhelming healing abilities.

‘Let’s hide this for now.’

In the end, Rembrary decided to secretly heal that participant if he had the chance, but not to do it publicly.

‘I should see if there are any other healing ability users first.’ It might be good to see how people react if one appears.

Even with just the actions Rembrary *had* shown, the viewers were impressed.

—As expected, our kind crazy guy ㅠㅠ

—Look at him rushing over as soon as someone gets hurt.

—Isn’t Woo Yeon-woo, who speaks like a crazy person and acts annoyingly but helps when it matters most, better than someone who says kind and good things but doesn’t actually help?

—We have to acknowledge Woo Yeon-woo’s inconsistency between words and actions, lol

—Yeah. Jo Ji-ho was just watching even though he’s best friends with the fallen person. Woo Yeon-woo is a hundred times better.

ㄴAre they best friends? But he was acting like that to Woo Yeon-woo?

ㄴYeah, if you watch Jo Ji-ho’s personal videos, he hangs out with the fallen participant the most ㅇㅇ

ㄴ헐 [Korean slang expressing disbelief or shock], is that why Jo Ji-ho was getting angry at Woo Yeon-woo by himself? Because he was just watching even though he’s best friends, but Woo Yeon-woo immediately took care of him, so he felt guilty?

—Wow. That’s really trashy then.

* * *

“Trash…….”

“Why the face?”

As Jo Ji-ho frowned while looking at his phone, a participant who saw his expression came and sat next to him, asking. Then, as the bus shook, the participant hit his head on the back of the front seat.

“Ah, drive a little slower.”

“…….”

“Well, there are frog eggs all over the road. But why the face? Is it because you failed the mission?”

In response, Jo Ji-ho pressed the power button on his phone, his lips tightly shut.

“The humans are calling me trash.”

“You? Why? What did you do?”

“What I *didn’t* do.”

“?”

“Woo Yeon-woo immediately took care of the fallen person, but I was just watching.”

“That’s funny. As if they would be any different.”

The participant chuckled and nudged Jo Ji-ho with the snack box he was holding.

“Ignore it. They always talk the most when they’re not watching.”

“How can I ignore it? They’re dissing me even when they’re *not* watching.”

Jo Ji-ho fidgeted with his phone and glared at the back of Woo Yeon-woo’s head in the front seat for no reason.

“It’s all because that bastard is acting nice.”

The other participant didn’t agree.

“It’s not acting nice; he *is* nice.”

“Do you believe celebrities? They’re used to being conscious of other people’s eyes. He wouldn’t have stepped up if there weren’t people around, would he?”

“I don’t know. I have bigger worries right now.”

“What worries?”

“I’m just wondering if I should quit….”

“Quit? Why?”

“One person already quit. I saw him going to the PD [Production Director] to tell him earlier.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s scared, I guess. It hasn’t even been a month since filming started, but three people have already been injured. Two of the participants alone have been injured, so it’s understandable that he’s scared. I’m also really scared.”

The participant took out a snack, put it in his mouth, and crunched it while looking at Jo Ji-ho, as if asking, ‘Aren’t you?’ But Jo Ji-ho’s face showed that he didn’t understand at all.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“I am scared.”

“But you don’t feel like quitting?”

“What happens if I quit and go home? Do the monsters disappear? No, they don’t.”

* * *

Around the time the bus that left Team A’s mission site arrived at Team B’s mission site, three people had already quit from Team A, and one person had quit from Team B.

Rembrary’s cameraman clicked his tongue while filming the quitters getting off the bus.

“If they were going to do this, they shouldn’t have applied in the first place. Don’t you think?”

“I don’t think so.”

“……Okay.”

Rembrary indifferently opposed the cameraman’s words. He had seen many people change their minds at the last moment or at the moment of decision, and he had no intention of criticizing them. He thought that it wasn’t that those people were strange, but that they just didn’t know what state they were in before they changed their minds.

Rather, Rembrary was busy paying attention to the five monitors on the bus. The monitors showed Team B, which Nokchairokcha belonged to, moving to carry out their mission.

“Did a screen like this come out when our team left earlier?”

When Rembrary asked, the cameraman answered somewhat sullenly, “I think so.”

Rembrary nodded and watched Nokchairokcha with his arms propped up. He had heard that she was one of the most skilled awakened people, but he had never seen her hunting in person, so he was curious to see what abilities she would show.

[You absolutely can’t act like Team A. You have to be quick and keep your wits about you to increase the chances of everyone being safe. Don’t forget that.]

*The way she takes care of the participants definitely shows the signs of a veteran….*

At that moment, Nokchairokcha, who was walking while continuing to give instructions, stopped when she found an egg lying alone on the stairs.

Rembrary lowered his arms and leaned his head forward as if he was going to fall into the screen. The first situation was similar to Team A.

[Wouldn’t it be better for Nokchairokcha to break the egg?]

[You have a lot of experience…….]

[I’ll support you from behind.]

The Team B participants were also putting off breaking the egg to Nokchairokcha.

[Okay.]

And Nokchairokcha answers calmly, like Rembrary.

But unexpectedly, she didn’t approach the egg. Instead, she raised both hands towards the air, shaping them as if she was holding an invisible egg, about 20cm high and 15cm wide.

‘What is that?’

As he watched, Nokchairokcha slowly inhaled. Then, as if there was really something in her hands, she twisted the air with force. The way she turned her right and left hands in opposite directions looked like she was turning the egg to open it.

‘Could it be?’

Rembrary’s eyes widened. He had seen similar abilities in his original world. He didn’t know if Nokchairokcha was trying to use that ability, but the basic posture looked similar.

At that moment, the large egg that had been fine was distorted with a crunch.

“Amazing.”

Rembrary exclaimed almost simultaneously with the other participants.

“To see this here.”

In a slightly different sense.

The cameraman asked, “Huh?” at the muttering sound.

Rembrary opened his mouth, saying, “That……,” and frowned when he saw the camera pointing at him.

“Why are you filming me?”

“Well, my role is to film Woo Yeon-woo mainly.”

“So you’ve been filming me the whole time?”

The cameraman smiled contentedly and answered, “Yes,” and then asked, “But what did you say just now?”

Rembrary shook his head, conscious of the camera, and changed the subject.

“I said her ability is amazing. I thought she might be stronger than Undushin with that kind of ability.”

Thinking that the words seemed to have changed, the cameraman explained, “It might be if you only look at the ability. But the limitations are big… You’ll have to see.”

“Limitations?”

“She can only use it once a day.”

“Once?”

“And the hit rate is low.”

“Hit rate?”

“She’s good at destroying things when they’re in place like that, but she can’t destroy moving targets right away. Nokchairokcha’s subscribers will all know.”

*Is it just a similar ability?* Rembrary recalled the paladin who used his abilities with almost 100% accuracy and nodded.

*Well, abilities can be similar.*

“Besides, even if she gets rid of it like that, the probability of a monster popping out of the egg and not popping out is about 50/50. But this time, it’s not popping out.”

As if to prove it, Nokchairokcha and the Team B participants were nervously looking at the egg. But as the cameraman said, no monsters came out of the broken egg.

After about 10 minutes, Nokchairokcha and the Team B participants high-fived and rejoiced, and the cameraman, seeing this, was upset for no reason and huffed.

“The all-pass will come from that side.”

“Why? Shin Jo-woon is still there.”

“Shin Jo-woon isn’t an awakened person.”

Hearing those words, Rembrary, who hadn’t been thinking about Shin Jo-woon at all, suddenly began to worry. With anxious eyes, Rembrary watched Team B return to their bus, cheered on by the staff. Hearing through the screen, Team B was already happy as if they had become the all-pass team.

‘Can an anchovy become anchovy crumbs [referring to Shin Jo-woon’s small stature and perceived weakness]?’

However, Rembrary was no longer interested in Team B. Suddenly, worries about Team C rushed in.

‘All that anchovy is good at is running. Should I secretly hide and help him?’