I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 44

44.

Shortly after, Seo Ah-hyun and the others arrived at the lakeside, anxiously watching the water.

“Puh-ha!”

“Guild Leader! How did it go?”

Baek Eun-hee searched the water for some time but couldn’t find a trace of the creature that had disappeared. However,

“There was a deep hole down below. It seems they were taken that way.”

Baek Eun-hee remained calm, though showing signs of anxiety. Seo Ah-hyun, looking at the tracker, said,

“The bio-signals are still being detected, so they’re not dead yet. And…”

Baek Eun-hee, looking at the same time, added,

“They’re still moving. Where are they going?”

The team members tried to follow the direction in which Park Seo-ah and Yang Tae-woo’s dots were moving.

However, the two dots weren’t going in one direction. They scattered and gathered again, moving back and forth erratically.

It was clear they were being dragged around by the monster.

“It’s probably not underwater. If they were still underwater, they would have died by now. It seems there’s a space underground.”

“Should we split up?”

“…….”

Seol Jin-ah and Go Geon-hoo each voiced their opinions, and Baek Eun-hee bit her lip, lost in thought for a moment.

“Guild Leader, I understand how you feel, but there’s no time to blame yourself.”

“I know. I was thinking of a way to figure out why they haven’t killed them immediately, and where their final destination is.”

Baek Eun-hee looked at each of her team members’ faces with a firm and calm expression.

“Did you guys check the name of the gate when you came in here?”

“Uh, well…”

“I think I saw it as ‘Parasitic Desert’.”

When you enter a field, the name of the gate appears very briefly at first. Low-grade gates may not show it, but high-grade gates usually do. However, it appears and disappears in an instant, so it’s easy to miss.

“Parasitic Desert… Come to think of it, many of the monsters we’ve encountered so far have been parasitic organisms.”

“Right, that’s probably why they haven’t killed them yet. They need hosts.”

Baek Eun-hee squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. Her hand, gripping the splint, had turned white from how hard she was squeezing.

“Go Geon-hoo and I will follow Park Seo-ah’s location, and Jin-ah and Ah-hyun will follow Yang Tae-woo’s location. Since it’s moving so erratically, don’t just blindly follow, but try to predict the location roughly and move.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Let’s hurry. Communicate through team chat. And if you happen to encounter the boss, don’t rush in recklessly; be sure to call me.”

Everyone had tense eyes, but no one was greatly panicked. They had faced countless dangerous moments while going through numerous gates.

However, the variable was that Park Seo-ah, whom they had to protect, had been captured.

How long can a weak E-rank survive against A-rank gate monsters?

Baek Eun-hee suppressed her anxiety.

“Let’s go, split up!”

* * *

Toc, toc, to-roc.

Seo-ah startled awake, feeling a cold sensation on her cheek.

‘Where is this?’

She slowly sat up and looked around. It was dark, damp, and she saw rough walls.

“This is… a cave?”

Her voice echoed. It seemed to be a cave. It was dark, but as a hunter, she had no problem seeing in the dim light.

‘I was attacked by a monster and dragged into the water. I thought I was going to die, but…’

There was a cage in front of her.

“Hunter Yang Tae-woo.”

Seo-ah shook Yang Tae-woo, who was lying next to her. Yang Tae-woo couldn’t open his eyes easily.

Clang, clang-

The sound of metal scraping against stone was heard. Seo-ah instinctively pretended to still be unconscious and quickly laid down. She slightly squinted and looked around.

Something large flickered in front of the cage. On closer inspection, it was a large crustacean-type monster.

Looking at its two pincers, it seemed to be the monster that had brought them here. Seo-ah quietly turned on the state checker [a device or skill that assesses the attributes and condition of a target].

[Infected Scorpion]

[Overall Grade: B⁺]

[Has a hard shell, large pincers, and a deadly poisonous stinger. Extremely fast instantaneous speed.]

[This entity is afflicted with a status abnormality.]

[Acquirable items: Scorpion’s Contaminated Shell, Scorpion’s Poisonous Stinger]

‘I’ve never seen anything like this before. An infected scorpion…’

Anyway, it’s a scorpion. Just thinking about it is horrifying. Seo-ah shuddered inwardly and waited for the scorpion to retreat.

Fortunately, the scorpion seemed to look inside the cage intently before disappearing with loud footsteps.

As soon as the scorpion disappeared, Seo-ah first used a recovery skill on Yang Tae-woo.

“Ugh….”

“Hunter Yang Tae-woo, drink this.”

When Yang Tae-woo groaned in pain, Seo-ah took out a Maker’s Healing Potion and poured it into his mouth. Only after emptying the entire bottle did Yang Tae-woo slowly open his eyes.

“Where is…”

“Shh… the monster is watching us.”

Yang Tae-woo immediately started talking through the team chat. Perhaps because the distance was quite far, communication with the rest of the team was cut off.

– Monster?

– I think it was called an infected scorpion, do you know about it?

– That usually appears on entities that have become hosts… It’s coming again.

As footsteps were heard, the two lay down again. Either way, it wouldn’t be heard through the team chat, but it was better to be careful because a faint magical power flowed whenever it was used.

‘Does being infected mean being infected with parasites? Come to think of it, the name of this gate was Parasitic Desert when we first entered.’

Then there was a high possibility that they wouldn’t kill her and Yang Tae-woo in order to use them as hosts.

Seo-ah slightly squinted and was startled. What came with the scorpion were humans.

Kieeeek-

The scorpion waved its pincers at the humans and gave some kind of instruction. The eyes of the humans were all unfocused.

‘Are these the humans who live here? People can… be in gates too.’

If they were beings living in the gate, wouldn’t they show up on the state checker?

Seo-ah was relieved to see that the humans didn’t show up as monsters. But something was definitely strange. Then weren’t these infected humans? After the scorpion shouted for a while and left, the remaining humans walked away like zombies.

But one of them peered intently into the cage. Then he made eye contact with Seo-ah.

Looking at his eyes, it seemed that he hadn’t been infected yet. As Seo-ah was about to say something, he put his index finger to his lips. It meant to be quiet.

Seo-ah nodded slightly, and that person disappeared somewhere.

“Hoo….”

The tracker had been turned off at some point. She turned it on again, but only ‘No Signal’ appeared. She didn’t know if it was because the cave was too deep.

‘But they will definitely come to save me. Until then, I have to endure it.’

Perhaps because she had bumped into things while being dragged here, her whole body ached. Seo-ah also drank Healing Potions and Mana Potions.

Seo-ah had no intention of dying here. No, no. Would it be better to die than to be infected with parasites and become a being who had lost her will?

Her thoughts were racing towards the worst.

Seo-ah glanced at Yang Tae-woo.

– Hunter, what skills do you have?

– Why do you ask….

Yang Tae-woo was about to ask why, but he answered as if he couldn’t help it at Seo-ah’s serious gaze.

– Recovery, Barrier of Vitality, Stealth. That’s all I have. I told you, it’s trash except for the high recovery amount.

“…….”

Yang Tae-woo constantly showed his inferiority complex. It wasn’t the time to argue, so Seo-ah ignored his words appropriately and thought.

“What could be missing….”

Seo-ah judged that there was still time and opened the Hunter Store and started searching through it.

“Ah, damn it. Why did I have to go there at that time….”

Yang Tae-woo was A-rank, but he had never taken the initiative in any situation. He was constantly looking outside with anxious eyes, lamenting his fate.

– Are there humanoid monsters too?

Yang Tae-woo, who was tearing at his hair, answered Seo-ah’s question obediently.

– Yes, but the humans we saw earlier aren’t monsters.

– That’s right, they didn’t show up on the state checker….

– But we still have to be careful because they’re infected humans. They’re being controlled.

– I don’t think it’s all of them… Some people are cooperating because they have no choice….

Footsteps were heard again, and Yang Tae-woo and Seo-ah became quiet again. It wouldn’t be heard anyway because it was a team chat, but it was better to be careful because a faint magical power flowed whenever it was used.

This time, they were about to pretend to be asleep, but someone outside stammered with clumsy pronunciation.

“Drag… out.”

The infected humans came in droves and put their hands under Yang Tae-woo and Seo-ah’s armpits and stood them up.

When Yang Tae-woo tried to resist, Seo-ah, who made eye contact with him, shook her head.

Yang Tae-woo frowned but seemed to be staying still for now. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t quite think of Seo-ah as just an E-rank.

While being dragged, Seo-ah looked for the human she had made eye contact with earlier. But it was hard to tell who was who because their hair and clothes were similar.

The place where Park Seo-ah and Yang Tae-woo were dragged was a large dining table. They were forcibly seated in each chair and looked around. It was questionable how they brought the table and chairs into this cave.

As they sat there, the unfocused humans set food in front of Park Seo-ah and Yang Tae-woo.

“…….”

Park Seo-ah and Yang Tae-woo looked at each other and blinked, unsure of the ingredients or the cooking method.

Thump, thump!

Then the human next to Yang Tae-woo thumped the table.

“Eat… it!”

It was clearly a human’s words, but it sounded strange. First, Seo-ah picked up a spoon and stirred something that looked like strange porridge.

“…Ugh.”

Yang Tae-woo, who did the same thing, made a disgusted noise. On closer inspection, it was full of unidentified eggs and larvae.

It was a big crisis.