The Returner

Chapter 79: Anyone unwilling to train? (4)

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s body trembled as if there was an earthquake happening right now.

The monsters coming out from the Gate were all too familiar to him. All the other monsters he’d been seeing so far until today were in many ways the same as the ones he knew from Berafe, but still, there were some differences.

Similar, but also something a bit different.

However, Yi Ji-Hyuk was familiar with these monsters appearing right in front of his eyes. That’s right – they were Berafe’s creatures.

Yi Ji-Hyuk began gritting his teeth.

“And what the hell is going on here?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

So, did this mean the two worlds were now connected, for sure? Earth, with Berafe?

But, when he thought about it, it wasn’t such a strange occurrence after all. Especially so, when considering the fact of Yi Ji-Hyuk crossing over.

When he was forcibly transferred to Berafe just as the Black Monday commenced, that event clearly showed there was some kind of a connection between this world and Berafe. In other words, it should not be strange to see the reverse of that situation, like the one unfolding right here.

That was when logically analysing everything that happened so far, of course. But, seeing the lifeforms straight out of Berafe’s ecosystem caused Yi Ji-Hyuk’s emotions to boil over quite violently.

This was way different from when he encountered Oh-Sik. Technically speaking, the Ogre wasn’t a Berafe resident, but a creature of the demon world. Indeed, it was an important problem to him where one was being summoned from!

Yi Ji-Hyuk slowly facepalmed while he stared at the creatures appearing before his eyes.

Now, he was already well aware of certain similarities existing between the two worlds. For instance, just like here, there were humans living in Berafe, as well. He knew of the fact that the same types of living beings could exist in two different worlds.

However, this problem now involved creatures that could be called one of Berafe’s specialty (?) products.

The divine creatures only existing in Berafe, creatures that persistently tried to get in his way right until the end....

They were the Fairies of Light, born from the blessings of the God of Light, Latrel. And they were coming out from the Gate as he stood there in shock.

“GROAN...”

Yi Ji-Hyuk groaned and scratched the back of his head.

Latrel was basically the god in charge of Berafe. Those who received this god’s blessing could, in theory, only exist in Berafe.

However, at the moment, Fairies that looked like little Caucasian girls with dragonfly-like wings on their backs, and about half the size of a grown man, were taking flight into the Earth’s sky.

“What.... are those?” (Jeong In-Soo)

At least from the visual perspective, these Fairies looked far too different from all the other monsters he had encountered, so even Jeong In-Soo couldn’t just issue an order to attack.

“Eiii, I don’t care anymore.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Although it felt weird to him, so what if this world was connected to Berafe in some fashion?

If they came invading, all Yi Ji-Hyuk had to do was to stop them. If they wanted to play with him, then he’d only have to show them who’s the boss. That was all! Nothing would be resolved if he just stood here worrying about things until steam rose up from his head!

Making up his mind, Yi Ji-Hyuk shrugged his shoulders and turned to look at Jeong In-Soo.

“Let’s get cracking, shall we?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“What? We need to shoot those... uh, things?” (Jeong In-Soo)

Jeong In-Soo dazedly asked back while staring at the Fairies.

Seriously, wasn’t that a bit too much?

The creatures he and his soldiers had to fight off until now were undoubtedly monsters. They were wonderful targets to kill and blow away, where his men wouldn’t feel a lick of guilt as they did so. Hell, they would probably not hesitate when asked to shove a grenade down the throats of those hideous monsters to blow them up sky-high.

However, weren’t these Fairies a different story altogether?

First of all, these foreign creatures didn’t attack them first, and secondly.... Just take a look at their adorable appearances!

Also, one could even feel some sort of holiness from the gentle light emanating from them, too.

Even for Jeong In-Soo, who prided himself as a hardened soldier, shooting them down felt as if he was about to bombard a civilian area and thus, he didn’t like the idea at all.

Only if they looked all ugly and disfigured or something.... But, they looked like young girls around half a person’s height, which made things so much worse.

“Do we have to attack?” (Jeong In-Soo)

“Of course.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Are they really dangerous?” (Jeong In-Soo)

“What do you mean?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk tilted his head in confusion.

Jeong In-Soo’s expression was very unconvinced as he asked back.

“I mean, look. They are so cute!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Yi Ji-Hyuk visibly paled and hurriedly took two steps back.

“A pedo?!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“What the?! Hellllll noooooooo!!!!!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Jeong In-Soo cried out at the top of his lungs and his face reddened considerably.

“What the. This guy turned out to be an extremely dangerous man! Excuse me, but, aren’t you afraid of getting cuffed and sent to jail?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Those things aren’t humans!! I’m being falsely accused here!” (Jeong In-Soo)

“They look like humans, though! Think about it! You might be harbouring such indecent thoughts deep inside! You’ll be fine if you seek psychiatric treatment as soon as possible! Don’t be ashamed to admit it! Everything’ll be fine. Trust me.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“I’m telling you, you’re wrooooong!!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Suddenly being labelled as a pedophile, Jeong In-Soo could only despair and deny it as he hastily took a look around him.

What kind of embarrassing situation was this, and also, right in front of his subordinates, even?

Eh?

Why are you all looking at me like that?

Is there a bug on my face or something?

Why are you slowly backing away from me? (Jeong In-Soo’s inner monologue)

“N, no.... It, it’s not true....” (Jeong In-Soo)

Strength rapidly abandoned Jeong In-Soo’s vocal cords.

Yi Ji-Hyuk placed his hand on the good Colonel’s shoulders and consoled him to the best of his abilities.

“Why don’t we go see a shrink together?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“What do you mean, together?! I’m telling you, you’re wrong! You made a mistake!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Now that his reputation irrefutably got cemented as a loli lover, all Jeong In-Soo could do was to shed the tears of blood while glaring at Yi Ji-Hyuk.

How could he so ruthlessly assassinate my character like this?! What a terrifying man!! (Jeong In-Soo’s inner monologue)

Jeong In-Soo shuddered from shock after realising the other, and just as terrifying, ability of Yi Ji-Hyuk. Out of despair, he shouted out loudly.

“I will prove that I’m not a pedo!! Attack!! Destroy every single one of those d*mnable creatures!!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Yi Ji-Hyuk nodded his head sagely.

“Since you can’t have them, no one else can, huh.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“That’s nooooot it!!” (Jeong In-Soo)

“You know that this is the textbook symptoms of denial, right?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Seeing Jeong In-Soo completely lose his sh*t like this, the adjutant could only shake his head in dismay and issue the order to commence firing.

“Fire!” (the adjutant)

At the same time, guns began spitting out lead in an orderly frenzy.

Bzzz....

However, unlike their fragile-looking appearance, these Fairies were blessed with Latrel’s divine powers. There was no way bullets would be able to affect these creatures that had stepped halfway past the physical and into the realm of divinity.

Even though they were simply ‘swimming’ in the air, the bullets raining down on them simply avoided hitting the targets altogether and missed completely.

“What the hell?!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Jeong In-Soo shouted out in fluster.

“An army of pedos?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Nooooo!!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Of course, every soldier present today couldn’t have been secret pedos who deliberately missed their marks.

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s expression was unreadable as he studied the Fairies.

That must’ve been the ‘intervention from the gods’, a cheat-like power where the Fairies could choose the best odds between the bullets hitting them and them missing altogether.

Thousands of bullets all lost their targets in front of the gods’ powers and aimlessly flew away.

‘Does that mean Latrel’s powers are applicable in this world, too?’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

That power wasn’t something Fairies were born with in the first place. No, Latrel blessed them with that cheat power. So, if they could activate this power here, then that could very well mean Latrel’s blessings also worked in this world too.

“GROAN~.”

He really disliked everything related to Berafe.

He bloody disliked everything about Berafe, even if it was a small piece of pebble,or just plain ‘air’ from there. But, if he was asked to choose what he disliked the most, then it’d definitely be Latrel.

As a matter of fact, Latrel and her dang followers were the insufferable enemies that hindered his progress for the last one thousand years.

Not just Latrel, though – there was the Lord of the Dragons, too.

And then, that stupid b*tch he didn’t even want to recall the name of....

When he thought about those three females, the very cause of his mistrust towards women kind and his current incurable mental state, his intestines felt like leaping out of his throat.

Flames of anger figuratively erupted out from his eyes.

Now that I think about them, it’s really p*ssing me off.

Why should I look at those stupid, ugly and totally useless sh*ts even in this place?! (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)

“You godd*mn trash....”

Yi Ji-Hyuk stepped forward and reached out.

Whoosh....

Jet-black Mana began gathering in front of his hands.

Fairies sensed the convergence of the dark magical energy and instinctively began scattering everywhere in haste. To Yi Ji-Hyuk’s eyes, though, they looked like a bunch of mosquitos buzzing about noisily.

“Wanna run?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

As if I’d let that happen!

The black Mana wiggled ominously, then dozens of long black tentacles shot out from the gathered black mass. Each of the tentacles revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth and flew towards the fleeing Fairies.

‘Hmm....’

Jeong In-Soo watched this scene unfold as a certain sense of unease, a discord, filled his mind. He shuddered ever so slightly while thinking to himself.

Since the creatures Yi Ji-Hyuk killed off had been a grotesque bunch of monsters, Jeong In-Soo hadn’t really thought about it until now. No, maybe he was aware of the truth but subconsciously ignored it for the time being.

But, seeing the youth deal with these fairy-like creatures, Jeong In-Soo could definitely feel it now.

....This Yi Ji-Hyuk, he was like the incarnation of the Devil.

With jet-black fog-like thing oozing out of him, and those tentacles busy shooting out towards those fairies, Jeong In-Soo couldn’t help but feel like he was actually standing beside a villain, instead.

There was no good or evil when it came to ‘power’.

As a soldier, he knew very well what type of an item a gun could become depending on who used them. Even then....

‘Is it because of stereotyping?’ (Jeong In-Soo)

He knew full well that it was Yi Ji-Hyuk that fought for their sake, yet the scene unfolding before his eyes... He just couldn’t feel ‘good’ about it. Not at all.

Meanwhile, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s tentacles opened up their maws real wide as they neared the Fairies.

Even if they possessed the absolute evasion ability, it was impossible to render a direct attack ineffective.

When facing a direct attack or, for that matter, a wide-area ranged attack, possessing a high evasion rate was useless. All they could do was to reduce the incoming damage as much as possible. In front of an absolute and overwhelming might, such things as ‘luck’ was rendered meaningless.

As Yi Ji-Hyuk’s tentacles surrounded them, the Fairies did their best to dodge as nimbly as possible, before they started singing in unison.

[Ah~ ahahah....]

Heavenly voices spread out.

A song that was seemingly loud enough to fill up the whole world, yet containing a trace of vulnerability, spread out in the blink of an eye.

The moment their voices merged into one, an impossibly massive explosion of impact wave occurred. The sonic impact wave blew away the black tentacles and rapidly descended towards Yi Ji-Hyuk and the Defcom soldiers.

“Euah-uwaaack!!”

Jeong In-Soo was flung away like a scrap of paper meeting a violent stormy wind. He collided with the rest of Defcom soldiers and fell to the ground, before he could just barely raise his head up. He wiped away the blood trickling down to his eyebrows.

He was now fully convinced of the fact that these creatures were indeed monsters, regardless of how they appeared to be on the outside. Of course, it was wrong to lump Fairies along with the rest of monsters according to Berafe’s standards, though.

“Ho-oh?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk received that sonic attack head-on and emerged just fine. Still, he was shaking his head in a rather exaggerated manner.

Resorting to sonic attacks, huh?

Willing to try everything and anything, ain’t ya?

Yi Ji-Hyuk reached out once more and the black tentacles reappeared.

The singing Fairies couldn’t dodge these tentacles in time and got ensnared, desperately struggling to free themselves.

“Drain.”

The tentacles opened their maws and began devouring the Fairies. The screams of young girls being killed reverberated throughout the entire area, causing the soldiers to hurriedly cover their ears.

Although they knew these things were not human, after hearing the sorrowful cries that sounded just like from dying children, a tangible sense of hostility towards Yi Ji-Hyuk began blooming in their hearts.

If the soldiers here thought about it for a second, weren’t it themselves who initiated the first attack?

‘Is there a need to go so far?’ (Jeong In-Soo)

Even Jeong In-Soo, who possessed the highest goodwill towards Yi Ji-Hyuk amongst everyone here, got the feeling that this was going too far.

‘Those creatures aren’t humans, but monsters.’ (Jeong In-Soo)

If Yi Ji-Hyuk simply grinded them away into fine meat paste or blew them away clean, then the sense of disgust and repulsion wouldn’t have been so great. But, with him devouring those humanoid creatures whole like that....

Completely disregarding what everyone else was thinking, Yi Ji-Hyuk simply extended his tentacles and swallowed up every single Fairy flying in the air.

What will happen, if this guy decides to fight other humans?

Will he devour humans in the same manner as he’s doing right now?

No, hang on a minute – isn’t the very act of swallowing up monsters insane, to begin with? (Jeong In-Soo’s inner monologue)

By the time Jeong In-Soo managed to force himself back to his feet, Yi Ji-Hyuk had finished devouring the Fairies and was clutching his belly.

“Argh, man. I feel so bloated.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

He had forcibly devoured Mana of the opposing nature and it was giving him indigestion. He might need quite a lot of time to convert this lot.

Yi Ji-Hyuk licked his lips ever so slightly.

Back in Berafe, he would’ve never resorted to touching such unclean and disgusting Mana. But now, he had no choice in the matter. He might as well eat whatever junkfood he could lay his hands on, digest them, and convert them to his strength.

Yi Ji-Hyuk spat out a long sigh after realising the pathetic state he found himself in, and turned around.

And straight away, he found people staring at him with a rather familiar look on their faces. After seeing Jeong In-Soo looking at him with an unreadable expression, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s own face crumpled as well.

“Fine, fine. I’m sorry about this, okay? But, they are monsters, so what did you expect me to do? Yes, they might look like little girls, but well, stop looking at me like that! You know, I still respect your personal preferences.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“No, I told you! That’s noooot iiiitt!!” (Jeong In-Soo)

How can your brain only think about that, you insane fool?!

Yi Ji-Hyuk inwardly clicked his tongue as he continued to look on at the bloodied and battered Jeong In-Soo desperately denying everything.

This guy was beyond help. Really now.

< 79. Anyone unwilling to train? -4 > Fin.

(TL: The amount remaing till the next sponsored chapter: $25)