The Returner Chapter 137

Oh-Sik puffed up his already-bulging muscles and ran forward, hard.
Yi Ji-Hyuk used ‘Shield’ to deflect countless tentacles rushing at him and cheered Oh-Sik on.
"Kill that d*mn thing!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
And also, he didn’t forget to glance at the people behind him
"Utterly useless!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
He had made sure to level them up properly to match the level 5 Gates, but now, these ability users had become useless once more after the hardcore monsters began popping out from the new Gates.
Well, he should simply level them up again to max this time around so that later on, when an even more ridiculous monster than this one appears, they’d be able to kill it without him present!
Even when facing such an urgent situation, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s eyes carried his strong and determined will, causing a sudden bout of nervousness to invade Seo Ah-Young’s mind.
"W-what was that?!" (Seo Ah-Young)
"Pardon?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"…No, it’s nothing." (Seo Ah-Young)
While Seo Ah-Young hugged herself tightly and trembled, Oh-Sik was rushing towards the sea anemone monster in a frenzy, and pounced towards the middle of it.
Splash!!
The anemone’s short tentacle suddenly split open and a darkish liquid shot out towards Oh-Sik.
Oh-Sik deftly spun around in the air and evaded the suspicious liquid.
The acid grazed by his fur and thick smoke rose up from the affected spot.
Keureuk!!
A vicious, murderous light quite literally poured out from Oh-Sik’s eyes as the giant Ogre threw a hefty punch to the body of the sea anemone.
POW!!
Accompanied by the sound of a leather drum being beat, the huge anemone was shoved back quite a distance away.
"Well done!!"
"Nice!!"
Now reduced to being a group of cheerleaders, the NDF agents all cried out loudly and clapped their hands. Choi Jung-Hoon watched that spectacle and shook his head in helplessness.
"That, that isn’t right…." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
They didn’t come here to act like cheerleaders, after all!!
Perhaps she thought of the same thing, Jeong Hae-Min stared at Choi Jung-Hoon with an unimpressed expression on her face.
"If this is all they’re good for, why did you make me bring them here? Busy wasting my energy and all." (Jeong Hae-Min)
"….I’m truly sorry." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
The one responsible for selecting the overseas ‘trip’ personnel just so happened to be him, so he couldn’t even come up with a proper excuse to offer up at the moment.
‘Hang on. Why does it feel like I’ve been saying sorry a lot nowadays?’ (Choi Jung-Hoon)
What was the point of walking around outside with your neck in braces? You were still going to get the cold shoulder treatment at ‘home’ anyway.
As this undeniable sensation of something deeply sorrowful welled up in his chest, Choi Jung-Hoon shifted his gaze back to Oh-Sik.
Roar!!
Oh-Sik pounced and punched again, but the sea anemone dodged his attack by twisting itself around like a mollusc, which was kind of surprising to see from its huge body.
Oh-Sik gritted his teeth and continued to attack.
Although he wasn’t able to inflict big injuries….
"At least, the attention is not on me anymore." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Just because the monster’s focus was not on him anymore, the movements of the tentacles had become noticeably duller.
Yi Ji-Hyuk extended his Mana-laden hand and sliced apart every single tentacle coming at him.
‘I was originally going use those guys for this job, though.’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk looked at the NDF agents using the power of cheers to encourage the Ogre and spat out several groans.
Dumba*ses, worse than a single Ogre!
Totally useless, really!! Useless!
Someone might think there’s a buff on them when seeing them act like that, serio…. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
"Huh?"
Yi Ji-Hyuk tilted his head.
Hang on a minute.
Didn’t something pop up in my head just now?
Mm… Well, it’s not that important right now, so…. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
Just as the tentacles began regenerating, Yi Ji-Hyuk jumped back.
"First of all, the single base hit." (Yi Ji-Hyuk) (TL: There was a baseball reference here, but I couldn’t really understand it and ended up TLing the line literally. Sorry, not a fan of baseball myself.)
Wuuongg….
Several black magic circles the size of an adult man suddenly appeared in front of Yi Ji-Hyuk, and jet-black beams of light shot out from there.
Vrruong-!!
The beams of light shot forward and penetrated the sea anemone’s body like lasers. The large monster writhed about furiously as its bodily fluids were spread around to everywhere.
That’s a bit grotesque, no?
Even a horror movie wouldn’t use that. I mean, if they did, it’d end up as a seriously messed-up scene, no doubt. Heck, the movie might end up something that ladies with weaker hearts wouldn’t be able to endure. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
Oh-Sik pounced on the writhing sea anemone and opened his maw real wide, before tearing apart the centrally-located tentacles that were thicker than a human’s body with his fangs.
Two tentacles were torn off and fell to the ground. These two wiggled around as if they were independent lifeforms and continued to spray bodily fluids all over the place, before they eventually went limp.
"….It’s seriously disgusting." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk frowned deeply.
He was already feeling a bit nauseous after getting pounded on earlier, yet he had to witness such a disgusting sight, too! What a relief that such monsters did not exist in Berafe.
If they did, he would've blown them all to smithereens without giving a rat’s a*s about the collateral damage to his own army.
Meanwhile, the sea anemone writhed about even more violently, before countless tentacles shot out in all directions as if it had transformed into a hedgehog.
Keureureuk!!
Oh-Sik tried to evade all those tentacles shooting towards him, but in the end, he couldn’t dodge them all and got his lower belly pierced by one.
Roar!!
Hearing Oh-Sik’s pained roar, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s frowns deepened.
‘That guy should be nothing more than a disposable pawn, but….’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
…I’ve grown attached to him.
At this rate, I won’t be able to use him anymore, no? (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
For him to form an attachment to a monster, now that was something Yi Ji-Hyuk of Berafe would’ve never dreamed of doing.
‘The fixed state, huh….’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
His brain being in the fixed state could, in a way, mean that he’d be unchanging forever, so could that also mean his humanity had been suppressed as well?
‘Hang on a bit. Haven’t I formed emotional bonds with others a few times before?’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
It seemed that Yi Ji-Hyuk’s mental state had softened after his return to Earth as well. Indeed, if it was Yi Ji-Hyuk of Berafe, then never mind Oh-Sik, he’d not have left Affeldrichae alone like that.
He’d most likely tried to imprison her or even try to eliminate her altogether, with whatever means necessary.
"Hmm…."
A human was an unchanging creature. However, at the same time, a human would constantly go through changes right up until his dying day.
From that perspective, his change shouldn’t come across as strange, but then again, he had been living for well over a thousand years without experiencing any change, so he couldn’t help but feel a bit bothered by this odd emotion welling up in his chest.
Yi Ji-Hyuk’s own black tentacle reached out and dug into Oh-Sik’s back.
Keureuk!
Oh-Sik gritted his teeth as even more pain assaulted him from his back, but when he felt the purest form of black Mana flow inside, he began roaring out in elation.
ROARRRR!!
He then tore the tentacle piercing him with the claws on the right hand, before pulling out the remainder from his belly. The flesh surrounding the open gap suddenly boiled and the hole closed up in an instant.
"Now let’s see…." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk closed his eyes and waved his hands about in the air. Right away, a huge magic circle formed in the air.
RUMBLE!!
Mana pouring out from Yi Ji-Hyuk’s body got rapidly sucked into the magic circle, activating it.
….So, what should be the most effective attack for a sea anemone like that?
Since it’s an aquatic creature…. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
"Yup, it should be fire, right?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
With a flick of his hand, the magic circle began emitting a dense light. Then, a really small but ominous spark of black flames emerged from the black circle.
This spark of flames sucked in his Mana and grew larger and larger. At first, it grew to a size of a ball, but then, as big as a person. Eventually, a black ball of flames the size of a house burned fiercely in the middle of the air.
"Ah….." (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young saw that and her entire body began shivering.
She was a flame-type ability user; she could proudly boast that, when it came to wielding flames, she certainly knew her stuff better than anyone.
However, even from her perspective, that black flames seemed to be created from a completely different type of ‘origin’ than her own flames.
If her flames were the mighty Sun capable of scorching the earth, then that ball of black flames was the tongue of the devil swallowing whole the world itself.
It was melancholic….
It was also dark and eerie….
More importantly, it felt brutal, heartless.
"Go!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Along with Yi Ji-Hyuk’s shout, the magic circle vibrated, and it fired that black flames. The incendiary, house-sized ball of flames burned the air and flew straight at the sea anemone.
"Oh-Sik-ah!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
When a black Gate appeared near him, Oh-Sik didn’t even take a glance behind and jumped into it.
RUMBLE!!
As the sea anemone raged on and writhed around violently, its tentacles still crazily whipping about as if to destroy everything in their paths - the black flames erupted all over it.
And then!
Kuowaaaaaarrr!!
The black flames burned like the scorching spear of the heavenly wargod, creating a huge pillar of flames shooting up in to the sky.
Like a black dragon rising up in the air, like a black tornado spinning around violently…..
The NDF agents dazedly looked on at the unfolding spectacle of the gigantic pillar of black flames penetrating past the cloud cover and rising up all the way to the ends of the world.
"Hmm….."
Yi Ji-Hyuk too stared at the scenery he himself had created and formed a smile of satisfaction.
"It’s not too bad, I guess?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
After absorbing the Mana crystal, he felt as if most of his Mana reserve had been replenished. Although he had to spend quite a bit of that when casting this one spell, but right now, the psychological satisfaction derived from creating this spectacle was far greater than the sense of enervation brought on by spending too much Mana in one go.
The flames eventually died down, and….
Yi Ji-Hyuk clicked tongue as he looked at the revealed sea anemone.
In the spot where it used to crawl, a scorched-black and reddened meat-like thing was still tenaciously holding on to its life and was wiggling about weakly on the ground.
"That’s why, you shouldn’t have come to this place, you know." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Didn’t you hear from your friends that Earth is my backyard?
Ah, you don’t have any friends, do you? (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
Yi Ji-Hyuk tutted grandly while walking towards the cooked remains of the sea anemone. It was still somehow clinging on, but he could tell it wasn’t long for this world.
"I should praise you." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Indeed, it being still alive after getting hit by that attack was rather praiseworthy. He should at least acknowledge its incredible vitality. At the least.
‘However….’
Wasn’t this a bit strange?
Gates wouldn’t always summon monsters with similar threat levels, but this sea anemone was far, far lower in grade when compared to the likes of the Zombie Dragon or the Seti.
If it were those two, they wouldn’t have been totally annihilated like this guy here with that attack, actually. At the bare minimum, the Zombie Dragon would’ve withstood it somehow, and the Seti would’ve evaded it altogether.
Sure, Yi Ji-Hyuk didn’t personally go around checking out each Gate so their individual sizes could have differed greatly. And even if the sizes were the same, it was not a sure thing that the same grade of monsters would emerge from them all the time.
"Still, why does it feel like I’ve missed something?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk stood next to the sea anemone, and stabbed his black tentacle into its charcoal-like body.
This was a lifeform he had never seen before. So, just how much Mana would it have?
"Drain."
Yi Ji-Hyuk’s tentacle wiggled and began sucking in the sea anemone’s body.
Ng?
What is this?
Yi Ji-Hyuk tilted his head this way and that after sensing something quite familiar here.
Wait, this is just your regular Mana, isn’t it?
Besides, why does it smell so…. familiar to me?
Well, sure, it could be….. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)
Even if it was a lifeform Yi Ji-Hyuk didn’t recognise, and even if it came from a dimension he didn’t know existed, as long as that world had Mana as its foundation, it wouldn’t be too strange for him to feel some sense of familiarity.
"Still, why do I feel so…. dirty?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Not his logic, but his gut feeling was acting up right now.
Something was definitely wrong here.
While Yi Ji-Hyuk was wrecking his brain, his tentacle continued to suck in the sea anemone with great relish. The tentacle stopped absorbing after the empty shell of the anemone was the only thing remaining, and it rapidly retracted back inside Yi Ji-Hyuk.
"The end." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
With this, this crisis had been sorted out.
Yi Ji-Hyuk lightly patted his tummy and turned around to leave.
For some reason, it felt like he just ate a free lunch today.
No, hang on a minute. He did get knocked around quite a bit, didn’t he? But still, he must’ve been going through a bit of ordeal recently if he initially thought that.
"Well, a person should get to enjoy a free meal every now and then, am I right or what?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Hearing Yi Ji-Hyuk’s muttering, Choi Jung-Hoon sighed to himself.
That man, seriously now….
After defeating a monster that the full might of France could not do anything about with just a single attack, he compared the whole thing to a free meal. So, where did that leave France, then?
Choi Jung-Hoon began cooking up various ways to smoothly pave over this diplomatic situation, but Lieutenant General Xavier didn’t seem to share his sentiment.
Xavier quickly ran over to Yi Ji-Hyuk and performed the military salute again.
With a slightly stiff face, Yi Ji-Hyuk received that greeting.
"We are grateful for all your hard work!" (Xavier)
Choi Jung-Hoon hurriedly ran in and translated while still being out of breath.
"Only through words, though?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"Is there something you’d like from us?" (Xavier)
"Well, there is only one thing anyone would want in France, no?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
After hearing Yi Ji-Hyuk’s translated words, a grin formed on Xavier’s lips as he reached out with his hand.
"Allow me to guide you to one of the finest restaurants in the country." (Xavier)
"Yup, you and I, we understand each other really well." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"Can I participate as well?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"It’s expensive." (Xavier)
"……………"
Choi Jung-Hoon’s expression became unreadable after being on the receiving end of Xavier’s joke, which seemed out of place from how the Lieutenant General’s face looked like.
"However, you are permitted to spectate from the sideline. The bread served before the meal is for free, after all." (Xavier)
"…..Thanks." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Choi Jung-Hoon was reminded of the definitely-true logic of anyone capable of getting along with Yi Ji-Hyuk not being right in the head.
Fin.