#c: sung hyunjae | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dbgdbw · 2 years ago

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243.Lanchaea’s Lambda (1)

란체아의 람다 (1)

“Hyung, that thing, it’s Sung Hyunjae?”

Yoohyunie, who was held in my arms, suddenly asked.

“Hm?”

“Seeing how he’s taking useless interest in hyung, it seems to be the case.”

…instead of by his face, was that how you’d ended up recognizing him.

“For starters, he’s not.”

But even as I was saying as much, it was difficult to disguise my discomfort. They were different, but also similar. Could this really just be chalked up to coincidence. Honestly, it was a bit much, wasn’t it. Even if you looked past the similarity in appearance, their Skills and weapons were completely identical as well. Their personalities seemed to differ a bit, at least, but it wasn’t as though they were dissimilar.

“‘Sung Hyunjae’ again, is it.”

Sigma, who had caught Yoohyunie’s words, murmured.

“It’s a person who resembles y-, no, someone that you happen to resemble, sir. My ‘Partner’, you see.”

Figuring that I should go ahead and complete the quest as well, while I was at it, I decided to press on.

“While this isn’t my personal opinion–so, completely objectively speaking–he’s quite good-looking and disgustingly accomplished, but at the moment, stuck just watching through a monitor while cooped up in a room as a hot-pink bunch of yarn.”

Why wasn’t the ‘Completed Quest’ notification showing up. Did I have to push it a bit further? Exactly how much was this thing expecting from me, anyway.

“It seems he’s taken up knitting as a hobby as of late, and the scarf did turn out well, at least. He appears to be good at making cocktails too. He’s good at cooking, won’t eat bread crusts, but will unexpectedly the eat shrimp tail ends, and according to Soyoung-ssi, he’s good at origami too. There’s a massive aquarium in his home. Though it got smashed open, it’s been re-filled with water since, I’ve been told. He’d asked before whether I wouldn’t like go fishing together as, apparently, there’s a good location to personally fish for new stock.”

“Fishing?”

“Yeah, d’you wanna come with? You haven’t gone fishing before, right?”

At this point in time, I hadn’t gone before, either. Before regressing, I’d done so on occasion inside of Dungeons. If you managed to catch the relatively knackless fish that lived inside of Dungeons in alive condition, depending on the variety, they could be sold at a fairly hefty markup for ornamental purposes. For some F-rank Dungeons, rather than monster hunting, it was the fishing that would rake in bigger profits.

After barely scrounging up a few more useless tidbits of personal information, the quest finally got marked as complete. That damn Sung Hyunjae, honestly.

“...in any case, there’s some asshole like that. As you can clearly see, the situation seems to have reversed–you should be going right along and turning tail, no, sir?”

Yoohyunie was brimming with mana, while Sigma would have burned through at least half of his own reserves. Even if he were to attempt anything, the outcome was already decided. To be honest, that he’d bothered to chase Yoohyunie all the way here in the first place was unexpected. I hadn’t thought him to be the type that would knowingly enter into a losing fight.

“I’ll concede that the situation is disadvantageous to myself.”

탁, with a light footstep, Sigma retreated. Having leapt to the top of the crumbling ruins of the wall, he looked down at us.

“Alpha–no, ‘Han Yoohyun’, was it. First… An apology, then.”

For some inexplicable reason, Sigma humbly bowed his head. Just when I was wondering what he was up to, since he was hardly the sort to behave that way.

“I’d assumed that C-rank was a renegade un-Awakened lacking an affiliation and had him Marked, you see.”

He just had to open his fat mouth and spew a bunch of useless shit. Apparently informed about how Marks worked, Yoohyunie’s eyes narrowed at the reply.

“Hyung?”

“Well, the procedure had started when–”

Without listening to the rest of my explanation, Yoohyunie pulled down my scarf and scanned the back of my neck. There was the faint sound of teeth grinding together.

“The marking procedure was interrupted before it was completed, though? …did it leave a trace?”

“...a little.”

It didn’t feel any different, so I hadn’t realized, but that goddamned bastard! This is my real body, you hear! I wanted to know what it looked like, but if it was my nape, it wasn’t like I could see it with my own eyes. Ah–the Teacher Skill. When I quickly used it on Yoohyunie, I could see a slight design imprinted on the back of my neck. It looked like the faint stamp of a seal, that had run out of ink during the process.

The nearly extinguished flames suddenly came roaring back alive, blazing up high. Quirking the corners of his lips, this time, that Sigma bastard took out the contract.

“And perhaps owing to your resurrection, it seems that the contract remains in place, still. So it’s now my turn to collect what I’m owed, C-rank.”

The bastard spoke, using the tip of his finger to underline a part of the contract in a long stroke as he continued.

“In the case that Alpha is granted his freedom, within twenty-four hours, the other party will be compensated with intelligence that he deems satisfactory recompense.’ Is what it says, no.”

“I’ll spill the info, so get your ass down here right now!”

“What would happen if the twenty four hours were to pass without my hearing the intelligence, I wonder.”

“...what?”

“‘Waiting’ is something I can do as well, C-rank.”

That’s, this son of a bitch! That Sigma would possibly refuse to receive his compensation, was something I hadn’t anticipated. I should’ve been a bit more judicious with my wording on those conditions!

“Even if you were to wait, do you think that I’ll simply tell you what it was after the contract defaults into being nullified! You’ll never hear what it was, for the rest of your life!”

“Then I should be able to acquire the C-rank and Alpha both. That’s not bad, either.”

…fucking hell, I should’ve left my dongsaeng out of the compensation talks. No, if I could get ahold of the SS-rank detox Item from the Point Store first, then that was that. Since it was single use, it shouldn’t be that expensive, right.

콰르릉!

Just then, the lower part of the rubble Sigma was standing atop of began to melt. As the heap of boulders collapsed, Sigma leapt further backwards with light footsteps. His gaze cold, Yoohyunie watched him with narrowed eyes.

“Feeling sore, I see. Even so–I’ll allow you at least a day to tarry in Achates City.”

Saying so, Sigma’s form disappeared altogether. Yoohyunie set himself down from my hold.

“Hyung should stay here and–, no, here might be too dangerous too.”

“And just who are you trying to go after! That’s just what that bastard wants. The further you get from the Mana Hole, the more disadvantaged you’ll be. That bastard came here with a reservoir tank full of his own faction’s mana in tow, along with a retinue of several S-rank Guards. Not to mention that, right now, you’re in a deeply fatigued state, too.”

He had been continually locked away. Even with SS-rank stats, his physical condition couldn’t be called ‘good’. Had he been an ordinary person, he would’ve already wasted away to the point that it would’ve been difficult for him to stand, as it was.

“We can just buy the detox Item from the Point Store and use that. So.”

“I really can’t go after him?”

- With Rinie here too, Hyung!

As one, both of them turned pleading looks on me. Ah, um, well.

“...well, then again. Since it seems like he wants to capture you alive, it shouldn’t be too dangerous, I suppose. Ah, that’s right, did you happen to see the message the Newcomer sent?”

Yoohyunie shook his head. So he hadn’t even had the time to look at the message, huh. The contents of the message Yoohyunie had received was identical to the one Sung Hyunjae had gotten.

“Then, does that mean I can come back to life the way hyung did a bit ago, even if I die?”

“Uh, that’s not…….”

After debating whether I should tell him for a moment, I decided to speak honestly. Since, so long as it could be helped, we’d decided not to hide anything from each other.

“I entered this world with my real body.”

“What? T-then hyung’s–!”

“In exchange, the number of lives I have is five. Since I’ve used one up, I have four left still, now.”

I told him about the disks too. And how, somehow or another, Sung Hyunjae seemed to have ended up inside of the System as well. Even as he frowned slightly, Yoohyunie nodded his head.

“...I’ll just stay by hyung’s side. Even if there’s four left, you never know what might happen. I can’t just leave hyung behind. And without Eunhae, going together would only end up being more dangerous.”

“No need to worry about that. Though, it does have a thirty minute time limit.”

I bought a MiniMini Cookie from the Point Shop and ate it. Soon after, my body shrunk to a tiny size. After his initial surprise, Yoohyunie carefully wrapped his hands around me to pick me up. Having scuttling down the length of Yoohyunie’s arm to approach, Rinie made circles around me.

- Hyung! Hyung! So cute! Like Rinie!

“At about this size, it should be easy to protect me, even without going out of your way. And your flame resistance should be conveyed perfectly well, too. And with my stats at C-rank, plus the S-rank equipment, it shouldn’t be like when I’m an F-rank, where even a glancing blow could be life-threatening.”

- Rinie wants to hold Hyung! Let Rinie hold you please!

Saying that he would do a very good job of protecting me, Rinie squeezed me in a tight hug with his forelegs. But then, if you’re doing that, you won’t be able to help Yoohyunie, you know. As it turned out, because there happened to be a shirt with a chest pocket in Yoohyunie’s–no, Alpha’s inventory, he changed into it and I went into the pocket. Unwilling to give up hope, Irin circled around me.

“Let’s quickly track and take him down!”

From the Point Shop, I bought ‘Hunting Hound(C)’(1). When I activated the single-use Item that would let me track something down within a 3km radius, after setting it on top of the contract with Sigma, soon enough, something that resembled a firefly popped out and, as though signaling for us to follow, flitted meaningfully in place. 텅, with the sound of feet kicking off pavement, Yoohyunie’s body soared into the air.

By scattering viridian willow leaves a short distance ahead and stepping on the leaves, he leapt forward in consecutive movements to climb to the top of a building shrouded in darkness. Nearly the very instant the tips of his feet touched down on the building, 훅–, his body launched forward once more. Several buildings passed by underfoot, in the span of seconds.

“My Point Shop seems to be different from hyung’s reward store.”

“Huh?”

“My reward store is only showing Skills and weapons.”

Yoohyunie, who had been skimming his status and quest windows as he raced on, spoke. Though there was a large selection available, there was nothing like a ‘Universal Key’, ‘MiniCookie’, or tracking Item available, he said. In fact, the Skills and weapons were priced far higher when compared with my reward shop, too.

“...did the Newcomer actually show me some thoughtfulness?”

Or, it might’ve been that Sung Hyunjae had tampered with it, too. In any case, I’d gotten some good profit margins as a result.

- 크르르르르

In the distance, the snarls of monsters could be heard. That Sigma bastard, had he headed towards the location of the SS-rank monsters. If he could rope in the Achates City Guards as well, then it would likely improve his odds. What a cop-out.

“Yoohyun-ah, don’t worry about mana.”

“But this world’s–”

“Hyung has a ton of mana potions. I can buy them from the Point Shop, too. So go all out on using your Skills.”

Hyung will generously pour all of the mana potions I’d so assiduously saved out for you. I’d like it if I could cast the Attack Skill 2x Share on you too, but regrettably, I’d used it on that damned guy already.

Another building passed by below. As he stopped on top of a desolate half-crumbling building, the grotesque figure of a monster came into full view.

A monster with scales tantamount to SS-grade armor covering its body. Not far away, what looked to be monsters resembling a gigantic serpent and bear were surrounded by Achates Guards as well. All three seemed to have sustained little to no damage. It seemed that, as Guards below S-rank, the most they could do was throw themselves at the problem in the hopes of buying some time.

And over on the far side, on a building located near the serpent, that Sigma bastard was standing. As though telling us to draw closer, he showed us a smile. That it resembled a certain nugu-ssi(2) only made my mood worsen further.

“Be careful, hyung.”

“Hold on a sec, Yoohyun-ah.”

Stopping Yoohyunie, who had been about to rush forward towards Sigma, I took out an Item. ‘Over Here(SS)’.

“Let’s start things off with a bang, first.”

Cleaning up the Achates and Solemnis Guards hanging around would make things go smoother later. I aimed the pistol that was approximately double my current body at the place where that Sigma bastard was. 반짝, the muzzle of the gun twinkled briefly. It wasn’t that anything had been fired from the gun. With that signal, having designated the location, a brief moment later.

구그긍–

Something appeared from above, in the sky above Sigma and the giant serpent monster. The round object, which had plummeted to the ground in a blink.

콰아아앙–!!

Exploded. Light, as blinding as the rays of the dawning sun, burst outwards, spiking as both a tremendous roar of sound, as well as firepower. Everything in the surroundings was wiped clear in an instant. A faint breeze and a sense of heat reached even where we were, despite the considerable distance.

An Item that would drop an SS-grade bomb at the indicated location, up to three uses.

- 샤아아!

- 쿠워어어!

The monsters howled raucously. The snake, its body mottled with burns from having been bombarded dead-on, writhed violently. Each time it did so, spurts of venom, as well as a miasmic aura, spilled into its surroundings. Even before the heat from the detonation had settled, Yoohyunie leapt into the air. It was an element that was incapable of harming even a hair on my dongsaeng’s head, to begin with.

“My poison resistance did drop in grade, but it’s still S-rank! We can just buy an antidote, too!”

As it so happened, the pocket was located right next to his heart. If the venom tried to permeate through, it should be filtered through my resistance first, and subsequently be purified. Since he had SS-rank stats, too, he should be able to hold up to the poison all the better; even with only S-rank poison resistance, an SS-rank serpent’s venom would still be manageable.

But not for Sigma.

Stepping on viridian willow leaves, Yoohyunie’s body breached Sigma’s proximity in a blink. 화르륵, dark blue flames surged. By assimilating the residual heat from the detonation, even with the application of a small amount of mana, they surged and raged wildly.

Neither did Sigma stay still. Apparently having replenished his mana in the meanwhile, golden currents of electricity enveloped him in a spectacular display. As his chain wove around him in a long slithering movement.

“Irin!”

As Yoohyunie’s command fell, an enormous crimson mass lurched forward from behind Sigma. Irin, having taken the form of an imugi, while cloaked in blue flames, stretched fangs and talons towards Sigma.

카가각, immediately after the chains moved to rebuffed the horned dragon’s attack–without letting the window of opportunity slip by, Yoohyunie lunged at Sigma’s back.

The blade held in Yoohyunie’s hand swung in an arc. Lightning and fire mixed together, devouring the other. Clothes tearing in a long line, Sigma extricated his body through a barely discernible lapse in guard between Irin and Yoohyunie. But that was where the serpent happened to be. An SS-rank monster that’d had its body partly melted away, brimming with poison.

- 시이익!

Flicking its crimson tongue, the serpent stretched its jaws wide open. Sigma, who had been caught up in the miasma, grimaced slightly; the other end of the chain that was blocking Irin shot out, and.

콰득!

Pierced through the serpent’s head. In a smooth movement, by treading on the chain, Sigma vaulted up to the top of the serpent’s head. As though he’d been anticipating Yoohyunie’s pursuit, by jerking on the chain, he impelled the serpent to spit its venom at him.

- 키익!

Mad with pain, the serpent sprayed a particularly viscous batch of poison. Before it could come in contact with Yoohyunie’s body, Irin opened his mouth, sending a billow of flames forth.

콰과과과, burning through the venom in a instant, the Breath of blue flames swallowed up the serpent’s head. Subject to flames that bore infernally high temperatures, the serpent perished without being able to make a sound. As the serpent’s head–burnt to an indistinguishable, charred state–toppled to the ground, a bundle of points blinked into existence.

“Yoohyun-ah, grab the Points!”

The Points I saw were of a far lower number than with the SS-rank monsters from before. A nod towards the acknowledgement of the hardships I’d gone to to pull off the bombings, then.

Sigma had already retreated further without even a single scrap of cloth catching fire, however. Tch, how agile. That guy must have the battle foresight too, after all. But even so, seemingly having been affected by the miasma, his coloring had turned slightly pale.

Apparently having used up a significant amount of his strength, Irin returned to the form of a crimson salamander and approached my side. Just when he was about to launch another attack on Sigma.

타다다다다–!

The sounds of a helicopter could be heard. Was it one of Solemnis’ helicopters? Wasn’t going so far as to mobilize even a helicopter cheating!

“Yoohyun-ah, be careful! There are some larger weapons that use up a lot of mana, that are capable of producing S-rank attacks or higher!”

Nodding his head, Yoohyunie used the hand not holding onto his sword to draw a sniper rifle out of his inventory. Thinking to use a sniper rifle to take on a military-use helicopter was a preposterous notion–but when it was an Item in the hands of an SS-rank Guard that was in question, that was a different story. The rifle was leveled at the helicopter, and.

덜컹.

The side of the hulking helicopter slid open. I was wondering whether a weapon would be pointed outside, but what revealed itself ended up being.

부와아앙–

A giant motorbike, roaring noisily. Three sets of bikes dropped out of the helicopter. The bike that was at the fore amongst them had a lance protruding in front. Crimson strands of hair streamed through the air under the moonlight.

“Ho, you bastards! Lanchaea’s Lambda has arrived!”

Upon touching down on the ground, along with a boisterous roar, the bike accelerated in an instant. Reaching an incredible speed through what was most certainly the work of a Skill, the bike collided with the bear-shaped monster. The moment the tip of the lance came into contact, the hide that had been as durable as steel plates crumpled alongside the spearpoint, shredding as though reduced to so much tissue paper.

And soon thereafter–with the sound of a sack of water bursting open, the bear’s body quite literally shattered into infinitesimal fragments.

끼이익, with a long screech of tires against pavement, the bike came to a stop; Lambda, who had eliminated the SS-rank monster in a flash, hefted the lance upright. Displaying a smile, she waved her hand in our direction.

“Hi there, young master!”

It hardly needed lengthy deliberation. It was Moon Hyuna.

-----

(1) 꼬리 무는 개 lit. ‘dog who bites [the] tail’ where tail→trace/trail→dog ‘on the hunt/chasing trail’

(2) 누구(nugu) = ‘who?’ → ‘a certain someone-ssi’

tumblr finally got around to un-shadowbanning the blog, so moving things back here )b

+(Q&A)

Q) i’m a big fan of the willow leaves Skill, and because i don’t think i recall seeing an instance of a physical attack that uses only the willow leaves: is it that, typically, its true form lacks substance, like a hologram, or is it that it does have a physical presence, but is unable to achieve significant force?

A) the usual form is similar to a hologram. expending a minimal amount of mana, it’s merely shaped into the ‘framework’ that resembles willow leaves. as a result, even when countless willow leaves are created, the amount of mana consumed is on the lower end. it’s typically used only to obscure sight, but as that mana is han yoohyun’s, han yoohyun is capable of traversing across them. this is achieved by reinforcing just the willow leaves being stepped on by han yoohyun with an increased amount of mana, the very instant he steps on them; exceptional mana control is required to sustain the flow, lest it be interrupted. it can be used in a variety of different ways, but as the willow leaves are numerous in count, it can be difficult to find an opportunity to use it in the first place^^ lifting another person or an object with them should be feasible as well, but it would require a far greater amount of mana and magical energy in return; and should a clash with the other’s magical energy occur, unable to provide continued support, they may end up being dropped as a consequence.

+(Q&A)

Q) you’d mentioned before that sung hyunjae would occasionally go fishing, and that song taewon, han yoojin, and kang soyoung had accompanied him prior; did those three enjoy fishing with sung hyunjae as well, though?? and why did sung hyunjae want to go fishing with these individuals in particular?

A) kang soyoung shuddered in revulsion. with her boss, she’d rather not do anything other than Dungeon raids^^ meanwhile, for song taewon, fishing is an activity well-suited to him. to be precise, what he enjoys is quietly casting the fishing line while hoping that none of the fish will bite. if the occasion ever arose where he could go on a casual fishing trip with han yoojin, he would probably take well to fishing too. he’d likely complain upon seeing sung hyunjae doing well, or run interference to entertain himself. when he fails to catch very many fish, he’ll probably joke at sung hyunjae to try zapping them with a bit of electricity. electrofishing is illegal, everyone^^ in kang soyoung’s case, she happened to get caught up in things as a casualty, while in han yoojin and song taewon’s case, it’s because sung hyunjae wished to share his hobby with them. with those two people, he wishes to be able to do an assortment of activities together.

+(Q&A)

Q) i was curious whether the reason sung hyunjae doesn’t eat bread crusts is because it’s a metaphor as it relates to sung hyunjae’s narrative, or if it’s simply a trait indicative of sung hyunjae’s pickiness!

A) typically, the trait goes hand-in-hand with the intended metaphor. it’s a longstanding habit of his ^^

※

+(Q&A)

Q) the small yoojinie that sung hyunjae took with him in the epilogue, how does his culinary preferences pan out? in contrast to the yoojinie who refused to acknowledge his preference for sweets, will he come to like sugary/sweet foods as well? or, does he end up taking after sung hyunjae and/or the elder’s food preferences? does he eat bread crusts? if he happens to show signs of 편식(picky eating), how would the elder and sung hyunjae respond??

A) he’s still in his early years yet, and possesses an ordinary preference for snacks ^^ considering his state as a child, there should be a high possibility that he will learn to like the kinds of foods that he becomes exposed to in his environment. it may be that he comes to like some foods that don’t even exist on earth. from the perspective of a young child, sung hyunjae would likely come off as an immensely cool and strong adult. when he sees that kind of grownup avoiding eating bread crusts, wouldn’t he end up thinking so you shouldn’t eat that part, huh. it might be that he ends up assuming that cutting off the bread crusts is a grown-up thing to do. assuming the young chaos doesn’t intervene, that is. both of them veer towards thinking if i don’t eat the things i don’t like, so what. as the young chaos had lived according to his whims as well, he’s the type to just leave things be so long as there’s no outstanding problems, and sung hyunjae would probably either locate or create various ingredients and foods with a similar enough nutritional value. but, of course, since there’s no substitute [for one’s diet], if it began to affect his health, then they would endeavor to address his picky eating.

#243화 #the s classes that i raised #tsctir #sctir

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