I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 136

136.

While periodically eliminating the zombies and mummies that swarmed them, they headed deeper inside.

“Wait!”

Baek Eun-hee, who was walking, stopped and grabbed Choi Eun-gyeol’s arm. Choi Eun-gyeol also looked ahead with a serious expression.

The place was completely dark, lacking even the occasional emergency light. Of course, with their night vision, seeing wasn’t a problem.

The real problem was the monsters being generated from that darkness. They’d been wondering where these zombies and mummies were coming from, and it turned out the source was a small, artificial gate.

“That’s an artificial gate. If it were a gate break [a naturally occurring tear in reality], monsters wouldn’t come out in such an orderly manner, nor would the gate have such a small and neat shape.”

Baek Eun-hee nodded at Choi Eun-gyeol’s explanation.

“I think that box created the gate.”

Beneath the gate sat a treasure chest with its lid slightly ajar.

“But why is this area such a mess? It doesn’t look like the monsters are breaking down the walls.”

It didn’t seem like the hunters outside had come all the way here to fight, but compared to the relatively intact interior of the building, this place was utterly devastated, forming one large, hollowed-out space.

The two cautiously moved forward. The gate pulsed, spitting out about one monster per minute. That wasn’t a problem for them; they could easily handle them one by one.

What bothered them more was that the treasure chest was already open. Could that chest have been what sealed the gate?

Baek Eun-hee approached and examined it, then looked at the empty chest and called out quietly, “Hey, Choi Eun-gyeol.”

“…Yes.”

“In my judgment, it seems we’re already one step behind.”

“It seems so to me too.”

Inside the empty chest, there was a velvet cushion, and a clear impression showed where a bottle would have been placed.

“Seriously, who is it?”

“Let’s close the box first. It seems like the gate opened because this was open.”

As Choi Eun-gyeol said this, they closed the box, and the gate promptly disappeared. Maybe this gate was like a guardian, designed to protect the box.

“Ugh, seriously. Should we track down the guy who took this?”

Baek Eun-hee flipped her hair back, clearly annoyed, but Choi Eun-gyeol squatted down and examined the floor.

The floor around the box was covered in marks left by a sword.

He gently brushed the marks with his hand.

“What are you doing?”

“No, just… it’s a ridiculous thought. I hope it’s not true.”

Baek Eun-hee was also curious, so she approached Choi Eun-gyeol and looked at what he was examining.

After a moment of silence, looking at the trajectory of the sword marks, Baek Eun-hee finally spoke, “This is very…”

“Familiar, right?”

“No, it can’t be. We can’t handle that guy. Unless we get the same guy to help.”

“Yes, you must have misseen it. Do I even know how to recognize sword marks, haha.”

Choi Eun-gyeol tried to shake off the ominous feeling and got up from his seat. But he couldn’t hide his unease and kept looking back.

***

Cha Tae-woon and Song Jin-ah headed to ‘Soul Land’ in Gwacheon [a city in South Korea].

Even before they arrived, they could tell that the inside was in chaos. There was a huge roar and the sounds of rampaging beasts.

And citizens who hadn’t evacuated in advance were running out in a panic.

“It looks like there are monsters there too?”

“We should move, somehow….”

The citizens who were running away from the monsters in the amusement park were horrified and ran away even when they saw Cha Tae-woon and Song Jin-ah.

Song Jin-ah felt a pang of bitterness, but she was already used to it, so she didn’t dwell on it. They flew to the place where the roar was loudest.

There, an amazing sight was unfolding.

The huge amusement park rides themselves had become monsters and were moving.

Some were rampaging, swinging the trains attached to their arms, and the horses of the merry-go-round had escaped and were running wild.

The bumper cars also charged at people.

While an amusement park ride shaped like a flying saucer was crushing everything on the floor, one of the citizens who was running away from it tripped and fell.

Cha Tae-woon quickly approached, picked up the fallen citizen, and set them down safely on the other side.

“Please run away quickly.”

“Kyaaaa! Gurgle-”

However, the citizen that Cha Tae-woon had painstakingly saved foamed at the mouth and fainted as soon as they saw what had saved them.

“Oh, dear.”

Then Song Jin-ah clicked her tongue and approached.

“Why are you scaring them?”

“No, I didn’t….”

Song Jin-ah roughly cast a recovery skill on the fallen citizen. Then the citizen quickly regained consciousness and ran away without looking back.

That made Song Jin-ah embarrassed.

“Well, um. So… where do you think the elixir ingredients are?”

At that time, a shout of ‘Waaaaa’ was heard from somewhere. When they turned around, pirates who looked like they were from the Middle Ages were pouring out.

They weren’t humans of the same era. Besides, they were twice as big as ordinary people.

“What are those….”

But before they could figure out what they were, the pirates rushed towards Cha Tae-woon and Song Jin-ah as if they had planned it.

Song Jin-ah immediately grabbed [Tail of the Sun] and [Tail of the Moon] in both hands and entered battle mode.

Cha Tae-woon also lowered his stance, holding [Kajahd’s Shield] and [Kajahd’s Sword] in both hands.

When he raised his shield high and slammed it into the ground, the ground was covered with white ice. When the pirates who were running stepped on the ice and froze, Song Jin-ah flew forward and slashed their necks with her daggers.

The pirates collapsed, blood pouring from their necks. Song Jin-ah was active in the front lines, but the number of pirates pouring out gradually increased.

“Do something!”

Cha Tae-woon swung the sword he was holding in his right hand into the air. Sharp and large awls popped out of the ice floor and pierced dozens of pirates who were running.

As a significant number of pirates fell and the view was secured, Song Jin-ah found the source of the pirates.

“It’s over there.”

Song Jin-ah pointed to a wooden building that looked like it was from the Western era. There was a sign that said .

That facility had also become a monster.

Other large amusement park rides were also threatening, but the Vikings were too numerous.

However, what stood out was that while all sorts of buildings in the amusement park were broken, that place was intact.

“That place seems to be the darkest.”

“Let’s go for now.”

As they headed towards the building, more pirates poured out.

It was unusual for them to come out in groups at regular intervals like a monster wave. This was by no means a natural phenomenon.

They defeated the approaching enemies and barely made it inside.

The two who entered were bewildered.

“Was this place originally like this?”

“I have never been to this amusement park in the original world.”

As if water had overflowed from somewhere, the inside of the building was filled with water up to the height of a person’s knees.

It was strange that the water wasn’t pouring out.

“Maybe they created the sea because they are pirates. After all, the name is .”

“Even so, there wouldn’t have been this much water. You can’t receive guests like this. Excuse me for a moment, Hunter Song Jin-ah.”

“What, uh…!”

Cha Tae-woon suddenly hugged Song Jin-ah’s waist and hoisted her onto his shoulders. Before Song Jin-ah, whose body was suddenly floating in the air, could protest, Cha Tae-woon jumped up and stuck his sword into the floor.

Then the water that had been stagnant below instantly froze and became an ice rink.

Only then did Cha Tae-woon put Song Jin-ah down. If he had simply set her down, Song Jin-ah’s feet would have frozen to the ice rink.

Song Jin-ah, who was back on the floor, complained a little.

“Tell me these things in advance.”

“My body moved first. I’m sorry.”

Still, Cha Tae-woon’s judgment was sound. Even though it was a little slippery, it was much more comfortable on the ice rink than wading through the water.

The slipperiness wasn’t a big hindrance to an S-class hunter, but wading through the water was worrying because he didn’t know what was lurking beneath the surface.

Besides, when he discovered pirates whose knees were stuck in the ice and couldn’t move, he could see that Cha Tae-woon had made the right decision.

Song Jin-ah leisurely walked among the pirates and carefully cut off their necks. Occasionally, Cha Tae-woon hit the pirates she missed with his shield and finished them off.

Unlike when dealing with citizens or hunters in Seoul, there was no hesitation in his actions. But the pirates were definitely ‘monsters’, and if they weren’t dealt with swiftly, there was no telling what kind of counterattack they would launch, so his decisiveness was natural.

As they advanced, they found stairs going down. The stairs covered in ice had become a slide.

“It looks like it’s underground.”

“It’s definitely dark.”

“I’ll go first.”

It seemed like his head would touch the ceiling if Cha Tae-woon straightened his back and walked.

So he sat on the floor and slid down the ice rink.

Bang! Squeak, squeak.

But as soon as he reached the bottom, there was a tearing sound of metal colliding.

“What’s going on?”

Song Jin-ah also rushed down immediately.