Ch.238. First Stage Seal (2)

Professor Sung Chae-rin smiled at me.

“You’re joking right now, aren’t you?”

“It’s not a joke. I wouldn’t joke with you, Professor.”

At that, Professor Sung Chae-rin’s expression changed frighteningly. Only her hair was pink. Since Professor Sung was usually calm and scholarly, even I had never seen this expression before.

“Are you telling a doctor that you want to commit suicide?”

Her lecture continued for a while. It was already late afternoon and I was her last patient. She seemed intent on using all her remaining consultation time on me.

No, the consultation hours were already over. I silently listened to her lecture for quite some time.

“Breaking the seal ultimately means shortening your lifespan! So are you going to break it or not? Answer that you won’t!”

“I’m going to break it.”

“How many times do I have to repeat myself!”

This exchange went back and forth more than ten times. Finally, Professor Sung Chae-rin threw up her hands.

“Sigh. I know your personality well. You’re stubbornly persistent. Then convince me. How rational is this suicide method in your head?”

“I told you it’s not suicide.”

Perhaps because of Arin, Professor Sung Chae-rin showed a more intense reaction than expected. But I had already prepared what to say to convince her.

‘I don’t plan on dying right away either.’

My death will certainly accelerate at some point, but I have no intention of dying before completing my revenge against the Red Lake.

I think that’s the only reason why I survived when I should have died from my mana heart collapse.

Hiding these inner thoughts, I spoke in a nonchalant tone.

“Of course, I don’t plan to break all the seals. I need to live too. But if something like today happens again, it won’t be the seal that’s the problem—I might die at the hands of a villain first. Don’t you agree?”

I explained today’s incident in more detail.

Although I’m an operator, I’m in Flame’s field division. So at minimum, I need some means to protect myself. That’s what I said.

‘In truth, operators secure the safest position in advance before starting a mission.’

Naturally, approaching dangerous villains directly like today is uncommon for operators. Of course, thanks to that, a catastrophe was prevented.

Professor Sung Chae-rin obviously knows about an operator’s duties.

“Wasn’t today just an unusual case? Operators usually secure a safe position and…”

“That’s not wrong, but it’s just a generalization. If I were a monster or villain, I’d find and kill the skilled operators first.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Anyway, don’t I need some means to protect myself? If I want to live fully for whatever lifespan I have left.”

That’s how I continued to persuade Professor Sung Chae-rin. The seal I wanted to break was only the first-level seal.

Clearly, it would shorten my lifespan somewhat, but with the remaining four levels of seals still in place, it wouldn’t be fatal.

Of course, breaking the first-level seal is certainly a precursor to releasing the other seals, but I kept emphasizing to Professor Sung Chae-rin that I would only break the first-level seal for now.

‘If I can just learn that first method, I might be able to break the rest on my own.’

In the end, Professor Sung Chae-rin gave in to me. After all, as I said, if I were to die at the hands of a villain first, that would be something she wouldn’t want either.

“Sigh… Alright. Level 1, just level 1. But before that, as a doctor, it’s my duty to properly explain your condition. Will you listen again?”

Then Professor Sung Chae-rin displayed a screen in the examination room. It was an imaging of my mana heart that I had seen before.

“On the side is the mana heart of ordinary awakened ones. And on the right is your mana heart. Can you see how it’s structured?”

As she said, my mana heart was very unusual. Because there was a red jade in its place.

“While the fusion of Ancient Gear with the body is something villains attempt all the time, it’s actually impossible due to mana immune rejection. Because the MCI shoots up to maximum instantly.”

But my unique constitution with an MCI of 0. Because of that constitution, the red jade could miraculously take the place of my mana heart.

In place of that mana heart that collapsed after being overdriven to defeat the Doubt Demon.

“But of course, this isn’t normal. It’s extremely abnormal. To use an analogy, it’s like five seals barely suppressing a nuclear power plant that has already exploded.”

And although she was the one who performed the surgery to allow the red jade to replace the mana heart, even Professor Sung Chae-rin didn’t know much about those seals.

“It was a surgery with zero chance of survival from the start. You didn’t die because these seals that miraculously appeared on the red jade began to control the backflow and overload of mana. So even to me, these seals are a mystery.”

In other words, there was no way to know the nature of the seals through medical methods, so they couldn’t be carelessly broken.

“Right now, these seals and your mana heart on the verge of collapse are in balance. So as the seals disappear, the collapse of your mana heart will accelerate.”

She was right.

Today at the event venue, I consumed a large amount of mana to create blue flames, Cheongyeom. In the process, I tried somehow to break the first-level seal, but I ended up fainting.

‘Tampering with the seals on my own… might be insane.’

A nuclear plant that has already exploded. That analogy was truly apt. But I couldn’t just let it go.

I had to break it somehow, even forcibly. Otherwise, it would hinder not just my revenge but also my work at Flame.

‘According to the original story, Flame’s current strength isn’t nearly enough.’

Even with Yuri and Soso, I needed to somehow fill the void left by Siwoo and Min-ah’s absence. It had to be me.

Professor Sung Chae-rin seemed to read my mind.

“Sigh. Look at that expression. If I just say no, you might do something even more crazy. For level 1… there is a way. Want to hear it?”

I focused on her subsequent words.

***

Yuri Tarkovskaya was still at headquarters.

Exhaustion from prolonged intense work couldn’t disappear in just a few days. She decided to skip another raid. For a few days, she would remain on standby at headquarters and guide the interns.

It was regrettable that she couldn’t personally participate in raids that could bring significant profits, but she could rest easy since Soso had returned to the field.

‘An A-grade dungeon.’

Today, Flame’s raid team set out to conquer an A-grade dungeon. The members were Yeon Soso, Father Stefano, and Maria.

They also sent the information team along, so even without her, those three members should have no problems.

‘It’s not an A+ dungeon after all.’

So she set aside her worries about the raid team for a moment. Soso’s skills were reliable. But not participating in the raid didn’t mean she could rest.

Yuri was both the guild leader and CEO. As Flame was a corporate guild, she always had a pile of work to do.

‘At this rate, the next quarter’s budget might be… a bit tight.’

Although they had already introduced considerable equipment, they needed new equipment again for the recently hired interns.

The good news was that an A-grade dungeon would bring substantial profits. And a few days ago, Yuri had personally captured two villains.

While the stalker villain was just a common criminal, capturing the A-grade villain Rex was a particularly big achievement. He was a vicious terrorist who had committed all sorts of crimes worldwide, so the bounty was considerable.

‘It’s all thanks to Minsu.’

Being able to respond immediately to the stalker villain and capturing Rex were all because he gave swift and accurate instructions.

Indeed, Minsu was exceptional. Even when he was at Aince, his cool judgment in battle always shone as brightly as his outstanding flame magic.

Especially with Rex, if Minsu hadn’t identified that villain who had sneaked in so stealthily in advance, that event venue filled with countless citizens would have turned into a scene of carnage.

‘But… more than that…’

Of course, there was relief at preventing a major disaster, but just before that, when she confirmed the signal Minsu had sent, her heart sank.

Minsu, an awakened one who couldn’t properly use mana, had an A-grade villain by his side.

If that villain had harmed Minsu, Yuri’s heart would have shattered like glass. Even when Minsu fainted right after Rex’s arrest, Yuri felt like the sky was falling. And that guilt still remained within her.

‘Even with just a little mana use…’

Although Minsu talked about it as if it were nothing, he seemed to have used a flame spell to hold Rex. To lose consciousness from just a little spell use.

Compared to when he was the most promising flame mage at Aince, he had become so fragile.

‘Even though it’s a miracle that he returned to the hunter industry like this.’

She was glad Minsu had returned to Flame. And she was glad to see his exceptional abilities as an operator.

He was still the same Minsu she knew, calm and unafraid even against the A-grade villain Rex.

But that joy was now mixed with her intense regret. After all, she was the one who had ruined that promising future.

A few days ago, behind the stage of the security dispatch event, when she was by Minsu’s side as he lost consciousness with a body like a fireball.

Although it was only 20 minutes, that time felt as long as 2 years. Like those 2 years she had waited for Minsu to return.

And when she wrapped Minsu with her mana, Yuri remembers tears flowing incessantly, unbecoming of her nickname “Snow Woman.” Of course, those tears quickly froze and disappeared as ice fragments.

‘I’m glad Minsu didn’t see that.’

If Minsu had seen that, it might have seemed fake, like crocodile tears. No, rather, she didn’t want to show such an unsightly appearance of herself crying in front of Minsu.

Perhaps that’s the same for any woman in front of the man she likes. Unconsciously, her hand reached for the dating guide covered on her desk.

“Sigh. What am I doing.”

But she remembered it was work hours now. And if she truly cared for Minsu,

She knew that she should hide her feelings, unworthy of loving him, and focus on Flame’s work that would be of great help to Minsu.

Because the Yuri that Minsu needs now is not the Yuri from Aince.

She’s Yuri Tarkovskaya, the guild leader of Flame and an S-grade hunter. If she can’t be that Yuri, she has no value to Minsu.

‘I mustn’t forget that. My feelings, my thoughts about Minsu…’

It was somewhat comforting that a few days ago, her cold mana had helped a little in calming Minsu’s high fever.

Resisting the temptation to reach for the dating guide, Yuri resumed her work.

There was an email from Hunter Choi Sinu of the Hunter Association, whom Flame had helped at the recent event.

‘A report on the A-grade villain, Rex?’

Since Minsu and Yuri were essentially responsible for Rex’s arrest,

It was customary to provide some information about the aftermath and interrogation results. Flame was also an association-certified guild.

And reading the report he sent, Yuri froze for a moment.

‘Rex… is related to the Red Lake?’

If so, this arrest has become an unexpectedly huge gain. For the past 2 years, they had been tracking traces of the Red Lake, but those guys were incredibly secretive.

After recalling the contents of that report in her mind, Yuri read the next report. It was a report that Team Leader Seo Dooho had submitted before setting out with the raid team.

[Regarding the Provision of Dedicated Equipment for Intern Employees]

And after briefly scanning that report, Yuri’s gaze stopped at the page with the report about Minsu.

‘Ancient Gear craftsman…? And Minsu personally requested to accompany Soso…?’

Yuri began to read that page in detail.