I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 144

144.

Seo-ah shouted to Cha Tae-woon and Choi Eun-gyeol.

“I’m going into that swarm of flies! Please cover me!”

“Huh? Suddenly?”

“Yes, I understand.”

Choi Eun-gyeol was taken aback by Seo-ah’s words and asked again, while Cha Tae-woon agreed without any further questions.

“She must have found a way. We can’t keep going like this anyway.”

He persuaded Choi Eun-gyeol on her behalf.

“Ugh, fine. Hey, Sis! You can’t just rush in like that!”

Choi Eun-gyeol cleared the path ahead of Seo-ah with [Electric Shower], and Cha Tae-woon froze the area behind Seo-ah to prevent them from approaching.

Seo-ah dealt with the occasional stragglers with her Bbyongmangchi, delving deeper into the swarm of flies.

‘Just a little more.’

The flies attacked more fiercely.

As if trying to protect something, they desperately tried to push Seo-ah away, but Seo-ah only focused on one individual and approached it.

All the flies looked the same, so it was easy to miss if she wasn’t careful.

Choi Eun-gyeol and Cha Tae-woon were blocking most of them, but many still managed to reach Seo-ah.

“Ugh.”

She couldn’t fend off all of them, so scratches gradually increased on Seo-ah’s clothes, arms, and legs. But she didn’t use her recovery skills. She didn’t have time for that.

The closer she got to the leader fly, the more intense the emotions flowing in became.

‘Monsters really do have emotions.’

It didn’t seem to be as complex and deep as human emotions, but the leader individual was definitely feeling regret.

‘It would be nice if that also activated around this point.’

Startled by a fly flying directly at her, Seo-ah swung her Bbyongmangchi.

She didn’t forget to switch it to ‘Non-lethal’ beforehand. Seo-ah wasn’t going to kill the leader fly right now.

Before she knew it, Choi Eun-gyeol and Cha Tae-woon were closely following behind Seo-ah.

“What are you going to do?”

“There’s a leader fly over there. I’m going to try to persuade it.”

“Persuade… a monster, you say?”

Seo-ah replied uncertainly to Cha Tae-woon’s questioning.

“Well, I hope it works. Even if we catch all the flies here, getting out is still a problem.”

“That’s true… if it works.”

Choi Eun-gyeol glanced at Seo-ah. He figured she must have a plan, but he didn’t ask any further questions here.

Seeing it with his own eyes would be more certain.

Cha Tae-woon seemed to be thinking the same thing, as he silently focused on chasing away the flies coming near Seo-ah.

Perhaps it was because Seo-ah said ‘persuade,’ but it seemed like they were trying to reduce the killing more than before.

“Tch.”

Choi Eun-gyeol also switched to wind magic, replacing his attacks with blowing the flies away.

The closer they got to the center, the more deafening the buzzing of wings became.

But suddenly, the leader fly that Seo-ah was watching tried to fly away to another place.

“No!”

Seo-ah immediately jumped, and Choi Eun-gyeol, realizing her intention, used wind magic to propel Seo-ah forward.

Thanks to that, Seo-ah was able to sit directly on the leader fly’s body. The leader fly shook its body madly, trying to throw Seo-ah off.

“Calm down, calm down. I’m not trying to hurt you.”

At that moment, Seo-ah’s passive skills, [Gentle Sunlight] and [Quiet Night], activated together. It was a very opportune timing.

The buzzing of wings gradually subsided.

As the leader fly quieted down, the rest of the flies also became silent. It was clear that controlling just this one individual would eliminate the need to fight here.

“I wonder if it can understand human words….”

Even if it understood, it wouldn’t be able to answer, so Seo-ah had to read it with her [Emotional Transference] ability.

Seo-ah put her hand on the leader fly’s back and closed her eyes.

‘As expected, the feeling of regret is still the strongest.’

The leader among the flies, the thing this individual regrets is probably its subordinates dying.

They had been dying for over ten hours, so the number would be enormous. But it was surprising that it felt regret rather than anger.

That meant there was a high possibility that they weren’t attacking willingly.

“Let’s stop fighting. You don’t want your subordinates to die either, right?”

“Do you really think that will work…?”

Choi Eun-gyeol, who was guarding Seo-ah from the side, muttered lowly, but his eyes showed a hint of anticipation.

Seo-ah wasn’t really confident either.

At that moment, the leader fly buzzed subtly. Seo-ah focused on the emotions flowing in without missing them.

There was a change in the fly’s emotions. After regret, the next feeling was fear.

‘Fear… It feels regret about its subordinates dying, but it feels fear in a situation where it’s not fighting, which means it’s being forced.’

By whom?

It wasn’t easy to infer the situation with only emotions and no specific language. What was fortunate was that this fly understood human language.

“Please, let us out of here. You know the exit, right?”

“You can’t just be gentle like that.”

Choi Eun-gyeol interjected at that moment. When Seo-ah made a sound of “Huh?” and looked at him, Choi Eun-gyeol cast [Electric Shower] above his head.

It was a much wider and larger scale than the lightning he had been casting continuously a little while ago.

“Hey, fly. If you don’t listen to our demands, I’ll drop this. Of course, not just once, but about a hundred times.”

Then Cha Tae-woon also froze hundreds of flies around them.

“I only froze them and haven’t killed them yet.”

So, while Seo-ah was trying to appease it, they were also using threats.

Seo-ah looked down at the fly with a dumbfounded expression.

“Just take us to the exit. Then everyone will be safe… Ah.”

The leader fly seemed angry and puffed up its body, buzzing. But unlike what it looked like, the emotion conveyed to Seo-ah’s hand was ‘delighted excitement.’

What was it? What was it enjoying? Anyway, it worked.

“Let’s go!”

With Seo-ah’s shout, the leader fly took off with Seo-ah on its back. Cha Tae-woon and Choi Eun-gyeol released the skills they had been casting and followed behind.

And behind them, tens of thousands of flies followed. Choi Eun-gyeol, who glanced back, shuddered.

“There are really endlessly many. If I thought about fighting all of them… Ugh, it’s terrifying.”

“By the way, I didn’t know it was possible to persuade monsters.”

Choi Eun-gyeol expressed his agreement by closing his mouth at Cha Tae-woon’s admiring words.

How far would Seo-ah’s abilities go? He was originally interested in the rare position of ‘S-Class Supporter,’ but he felt even more that he shouldn’t miss her.

Unlike what those following behind were thinking, Seo-ah was feeling a bit of self-disgust.

‘Haa, I didn’t even realize… How did I end up talking to a fly?’

She was belatedly embarrassed and dumbfounded, but she thought it was fortunate that it was resolved in a good direction.

After flying for a while, the leader fly stopped in front of a swirling vortex of light.

It was the only place emitting light in this place. It was so far away from where they were before that it would have taken quite a while to find it on their own.

Moreover, it would have been impossible to find it while fighting the swarm of flies.

Seo-ah jumped off the fly’s back.

“Thank you!”

Then, together with Cha Tae-woon and Choi Eun-gyeol, she jumped into the vortex of light.

There was a slight dizziness, but it was bearable.

The buzzing of wings gradually disappeared, and the view became really bright.

“Wow…!”

What Seo-ah and her party faced was the sky above Neverland.

Of course, the sky was not a problem for S-Class Hunters.

As Seo-ah was about to land, Yoo Ji-an, who had spotted Seo-ah first, jumped up and caught her.

“Park Seo-ah.”

“Ah, Hunter Yoo Ji-an. You’re safe!”

“That’s what I should be saying. Are you hurt anywhere?”

Yoo Ji-an, who had come down to the ground, immediately checked Seo-ah’s condition. Song Jin-ah and Baek Eun-hee also rushed over.

“Seo-ah, are you okay?”

“You came out sooner than I thought.”

Seeing everyone approaching only Seo-ah, Choi Eun-gyeol said with a sulky expression.

“Why don’t you look at this side too? I and the Association President suffered for 10 hours? No… 11 hours?”

“You look fine.”

Baek Eun-hee gave Choi Eun-gyeol a 0.1-second glance, then looked at Seo-ah again with honey-dripping eyes, examining her exposed wrists and ankles.

“Jin-ah, we need to heal Seo-ah quickly. What were these guys doing to leave so many wounds on Seo-ah’s body?”

Seo-ah sat on the floor, receiving treatment from Song Jin-ah, and looked around.

The remains of a large centipede were scattered everywhere.

“It looks like it was chaotic here too.”

“But only about 20 minutes have passed here. 11 hours, you must have suffered a lot.”

Seo-ah was a little surprised at Song Jin-ah’s calm explanation. 20 minutes. She knew that the flow of time was different in each dimension, but the difference was quite significant.

What was more surprising was that it only took 20 minutes to catch that big centipede.

“The place we fell into was the gap between dimensions.”

Cha Tae-woon explained to the members what he had experienced, and he also told them about Seo-ah persuading the flies.

The members who heard the explanation looked at Seo-ah with disbelieving eyes.