I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 97

97.

Even in the Parasitic Desert, Seo-ah had been kidnapped and separated from the group. Back then, she at least had Yang Tae-woo by her side, but now Seo-ah was all alone.

She had to make her own decisions and act on her own.

[Skill ‘Brain’ is strongly activated!]

Seo-ah calmly reread the script on the system window quickly.

‘Human suffering becomes his life force.’

Was that why he used Ignis to turn the world into a sea of fire?

The guy made that grating sound of scraping metal again.

【No need to be so afraid. There will be no pain.】

The black magician stretched out his fingers from under his robe.

When his dry, twig-like fingers flicked once, the liquid that had been pouring down surprisingly gathered again at his fingertip.

【Become subservient to me, human from another world!】

Surprisingly, the black magician knew about the existence of another world and even that Seo-ah came from there.

But she didn’t even have time to be surprised by that.

The black, slimy, spherical liquid flew straight towards Seo-ah’s mouth.

“…Ugh!”

Seo-ah covered her mouth in horror. Then, she turned around and started running into a small side path.

The long, narrow path was, contrary to the world of the gate, wet, slippery, and muddy.

Moreover, it was even more uncomfortable to run in the dress she was wearing.

On both sides of the walls, things that looked like roots or stems of trees were densely spread out.

The unidentified liquid was chasing after Seo-ah, neither slowly nor quickly.

“Ah!”

After running for a while, Seo-ah was blocked by a small lake and stopped abruptly.

The edge of the lake was made of tree root walls, so there was no ground to step on.

After hesitating for a moment, Seo-ah saw the sphere coming right behind her and jumped straight into the water.

Splash-

Seo-ah was startled as she jumped into the clear, cold water.

The lake, which didn’t seem that wide from the outside, was quite deep. Feeling like she was sinking endlessly, Seo-ah quickly splashed around to float her body.

And then she suddenly thought.

‘Isn’t the reason there’s a lack of water throughout the gate because it’s all gathered here?’

No matter how strong the fire is and how dry the land becomes, the water that turns into steam must gather somewhere again.

Seo-ah regained her senses and looked up from the water. The sphere that had been chasing her was nowhere to be seen.

【You’re still in the palm of my hand.】

But Seo-ah’s eyes widened as she heard the voice that followed, and she looked around.

Looking at the tree roots, it seems like it’s underground, but there’s a lake inside. The sky isn’t visible, but it’s not very dark either. The air she briefly smelled earlier was full of musty dirt.

She definitely didn’t leave the gate. However, neither the location of her companions nor her own location was marked on the map.

‘This space is strange.’

Seo-ah concluded that this space itself might be a place created by the black magician underground.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to hold her breath in the water. There was a limit to hiding underwater anyway. Either way, she was going to die.

‘Let’s solve the breathing problem first.’

After confirming that the surface of the water she had glimpsed was calm, Seo-ah slightly poked her head out.

“…Haa.”

She took a deep breath in and out and looked around again thoroughly. Except for the sound of water that Seo-ah made, everything was as quiet as a mouse.

Seo-ah went back into the water and swam towards the opposite shore again.

Seo-ah, who was pulling her upper body up by putting her arms on the ground first, was soon in despair. A dark-colored robe fluttered before Seo-ah’s eyes.

【Did you run away?】

A humid and rough voice rang in her ears.

***

“What the heck….”

In the spot where Seo-ah disappeared, Yoo Ji-ahn was the first to come to his senses in a situation where everyone was frozen.

“You guys somehow take the spiritist back to Ignis.”

“Hyung [older brother/male friend], what about you?”

Yoo Ji-ahn firmly gripped Ruin Blade at Kim Soo-hyuk’s urgent question.

“I’m going to save Park Seo-ah.”

“How do you know where! Hyung!”

“Just do as I say.”

Yoo Ji-ahn said firmly and jumped out of the window as it was. Song Jin-ho stopped Kim Soo-hyuk, who was trying to go near the window in a hurry.

“You can’t follow him anyway.”

“Then what should we do!”

“We have to do as he says. When has Ji-ahn hyung ever been wrong?”

“Damn it, how long will a weak E-class last! Why her of all people!”

Kim Soo-hyuk was restless with worry about Seo-ah, and Song Jin-ho clenched his fist without saying a word.

He felt frustrated by the reality that he said he would protect Seo-ah, but he couldn’t do anything at the crucial moment.

Then, Yoon Ah-jung put Alice over one shoulder and put her foot on the windowsill, nodding her head.

“What are you spacing out for? What can be solved now anyway? Let’s move quickly too.”

Then she jumped from the 5th floor of the building.

“Damn it!”

Kim Soo-hyuk spat out a curse and followed her, and then Hong Jin-ho and Kang Hae-in also jumped out of the window.

Four A-class hunters ran quickly through the streets covered in the night.

Meanwhile, Yoo Ji-ahn was already running out of the village at the speed of light.

‘Southeast.’

Combining the memories of his past life and the direction Ignis told him, the place he found was a dried-up river.

A place where traces of water once flowed, but now only sand and gravel roll around.

Yoo Ji-ahn stood there and caught his breath. But his breathing did not calm down.

Surging anxiety was increasingly dominating him.

His heart was pounding, and his throat and chest felt stuffy. The images of his colleagues whom he couldn’t protect in his past life flickered before his eyes.

‘I can’t lose anyone. Never again.’

Yoo Ji-ahn bit his teeth and glared with shaking vision.

‘No.’

He mustn’t lose his mind.

The guy was especially good at exploiting people’s weaknesses. Besides, he had to control his rampage.

But just the fact that Park Seo-ah was captured made his blood run dry.

He didn’t even have time to judge why he was so anxious.

All he could think about was the promise that he wouldn’t let anyone touch her. Now that Seo-ah had been captured, that promise was broken.

But, he had to save her no matter what. His head was filled with that thought.

Yoo Ji-ahn took a deep breath and slowly expanded his senses. He could feel the waves of magic power from here and there.

The numerous waves felt from underground were the real enemies they were supposed to face.

It would be easier to fight those enemies with Ignis and the spiritist.

‘But there’s no time to wait for them.’

He didn’t know what danger Park Seo-ah was in at this moment. Or maybe, already perhaps…

“Please.”

He muttered lowly and raised Ruin Blade high and struck the ground vertically.

He was going to find Seo-ah among those numerous magical entities.

It wasn’t easy to find clues by hitting his magic power on the ground, but Yoo Ji-ahn focused on the energy felt from the tip of the sword.

He had already felt it several times, and he had used it to find her in the Gangnam Station underground shopping district.

After a while, Yoo Ji-ahn opened his eyes wide. Then a sigh of relief leaked out.

He had found Seo-ah’s magic power. Finding the magic power meant that she was still alive.

‘It’s quite deep.’

But it wasn’t impossible.

Yoo Ji-ahn’s black eyes gleamed as he estimated the location of the faint magic power.

Yoo Ji-ahn checked the location once more and then drew up as much magic power as possible from deep within his dantian [energy center in the body].

Blue smoke was swirling on the blade of Ruin Blade.

‘More, more. This is not enough.’

He needed a lot of magic power to reach it at once.

‘Just a little more, it’s almost done now.’

And when he reached the calculated value, Yoo Ji-ahn cast the skill [Explosion] and poured magic power into the ground.

[Explosion] was the most powerful wide-area attack skill he had, second only to [Thunderstorm].

Bang, bang, bang, kwaang!

The sound of smashing a rock with a huge hammer was heard in succession. The ground and the air covering him shook at the sound.

Kwarururung.

And when the sound reached the depth he was aiming for, the ground beneath Yoo Ji-ahn’s feet began to collapse.

Yoo Ji-ahn stepped back and looked at the collapsing ground. A very large, deep pit was created in front of him. It was deeper and wider than a volcanic crater.

A single human being had exploded and collapsed a wide area of land itself.

Yoo Ji-ahn caught his breath and looked down. Deep in the ground, as he expected, there was water shimmering. It was very deep and clear water.

From here was the guy’s world, the upside-down world he created. And this water was an intermediate medium connecting this world and the guy’s world.

The guy imprisoned all the water in the world here, and nourished himself with human suffering.

Yoo Ji-ahn put Ruin Blade into his inventory. And with his mouth firmly shut, he jumped into the deep, dark hole without hesitation.