Resurrection Chapter 77 - Did It Feel Good?

Min Gongchan spoke as he shoved the entire basket of potions and scrolls into his dimension pocket.

“Don’t think it’s unfair. The Earth is going to end soon and humanity will go extinct, so you won’t be able to even look at things like gold bars anymore.”

「Is that really true?」

At the interdimensional merchant’s question, Min Gongchan gave a soulless smile and held out the whole bag of gold bars. As if sad about the fact that he would never see gold bars again, the interdimensional merchant’s face suddenly bloomed wide open.

He said it bloomed, but the swirling vortex indented in the middle of his face abruptly opened up like a morning glory, and Yoon Younghyun was startled. While he was gasping and stepping back, the interdimensional merchant swallowed the entire bag of gold bars.

He scrunched up his face again, then saw Min Gongchan and Yoon Younghyun out. Then, muttering repeatedly how utterly regrettable it was, he tidied up his stand, which had nothing to tidy, and went inside. Then the space rumbled again—whoo-oong—and with a bizarre current, the shop disappeared as if it were being sucked away somewhere.

After the interdimensional shop vanished, Yoon Younghyun relaxed. Only then did it occur to him that he had armed himself from head to toe with the exceedingly precious goods of an interdimensional shop.

Feeling like he had hit the jackpot, he grinned with a slack jaw and fumbled with his newly equipped armaments. Being geared up from head to toe, so-called “item-powered,” made him feel incredibly reassured.

Yoon Younghyun, who had been grinning foolishly out of joy, immediately wiped the smile off his face and fidgeted the moment his eyes met Min Gongchan’s. He was clearly trying to say thank you, but Min Gongchan spoke first, before he could even move his lips.

“There’s no need to thank me. It’s all for the sake of defeating Yaksha anyway.”

“You might as well just tell me to thank you. What is that if not telling me to thank you? Fiiine, thanks, thank you so much!”

Yoon Younghyun, who had shouted out in a fit of pique, still seemed to have his doubts. At the mention of Yaksha, the anxiety he had forgotten seemed to rush back in as he spoke with a skeptical expression.

“But can I really fight Yaksha?”

“Want to test it out?”

“What? Are you suggesting we go on a hunt or something?”

He thought Min Gongchan was suggesting they hunt some monsters here in the dungeon to test the performance of his newly acquired items. However, Min Gongchan gave a strange reply to his question.

“A hunt is a hunt, I suppose. A vampire hunt.”

“Huh? There are vampires here?”

Among the monsters in the dungeon, vampires possessed considerable intelligence. That said, they weren’t like the ones humans commonly imagined, living in medieval castles and draped in black capes; they were giant bats that could walk on two legs and use magic.

The Awakened system attached names like Royal or Noble to them according to their stats, but in reality, even a Noble-class was incredibly strong, on the level of a black-star or higher boss mob.

As for the Royals, it was rumored—though no one knew where the rumor came from—that they were on par with a lesser dragon. Considering that the only monster called a lesser dragon was the colossal beast that had destroyed Seoul, Leviathan, it must be a monster you could only pray not to encounter.

Fortunately, none had been witnessed so far, and the commonly seen vampires were not even Nobles, but Mids or Lows. These vampires used magic that fit the description of evil perfectly, and most importantly, they spread disease.

Yoon Younghyun, being a werewolf, was already infected, so there was no chance of him being infected with the vampire virus again. The lycanthrope and vampire viruses could not infect a host simultaneously, nor could they coexist.

But Min Gongchan, an ordinary person, was different. A mere graze from a fang would likely turn him into a vampire, and he’d probably die from shock before that. Of course, the most likely outcome was having his blood sucked dry and dying from excessive blood loss.

Not wanting to see that happen, Yoon Younghyun had a horrified expression, but Min Gongchan didn’t speak as if there were vampires here. Instead, he said something even more terrifying than saying the place was crawling with vampires.

“That’s what I’ll become if I drink this.”

With that one phrase, Yoon Younghyun realized what was in his hand. Instead of taking the time to ask in shock, he reached out his hand first.

As a werewolf, his reflexes couldn’t be said to be slower than Min Gongchan’s. However, Min Gongchan had already broken the neck of the glass bottle and, at the same time as he spoke, drank its contents.

Smash!

In the end, Yoon Younghyun only managed to strike Min Gongchan’s hand. Absurdly, he had only hit his hand lightly, but the werewolf’s formidable strength had shattered not only the glass bottle but also the bones in Min Gongchan’s wrist. Seeing his wrist twisted halfway around, Yoon Younghyun freaked out.

“Aack! Y-your wrist, your wrist is twisted!”

“Why are you freaking out when you’re the one who did this?”

“No, I, I was just trying to snatch the bottle… I didn’t know your body was so fragile…”

Having always associated with fellow werewolves or similarly matched Awakened, he had forgotten that an ordinary person’s body was as soft as tofu. It was even more so because his opponent was Min Gongchan, the man who used to beat werewolves to a pulp. Because of that, he had failed to control his strength, but Min Gongchan’s expression was calm, as if he didn’t feel any pain.

“Don’t worry. It’ll heal soon enough anyway.”

“It still hurts, though!”

“It doesn’t hurt. To be honest, I don’t have the luxury of feeling this pain.”

Yoon Younghyun saw Min Gongchan’s face growing paler and paler. It went beyond pale and turned bluish, and something was strange.

He could see an impure energy entering and leaving his body. It didn’t seem to be just a side effect of being hexed by Yaksha. Convinced that it must have come from the liquid he had just drunk, Yoon Younghyun didn’t know what to do with his hands as he spoke.

“What was that thing you just drank? And what’s all this talk about vampires?”

He wanted to grab Min Gongchan, but he was afraid he might shatter his arm if he did. So, he just fidgeted without holding onto him, as Min Gongchan began to sweat a reddish perspiration.

The sight of red sweat flowing as if blood were gushing from his entire body was utterly bizarre. In that state, Min Gongchan spoke, grinding his teeth.

“What I just drank was Royal Vampire Blood.”

Yoon Younghyun flinched at the unbelievable words. He was about to yell, asking what an ordinary person who wasn’t even an Awakened was thinking, drinking something like that. Before he could, his body froze at the practical problem that would soon be upon them. Min Gongchan, also aware of the problem, made a few requests.

“If I fail to transform, kill me. The experience points will probably be substantial, so it will help in the fight against Yaksha.”

Min Gongchan wasn’t wrong. This Awakened system, which clumsily mimicked a game system, did not distinguish between humans and monsters. Killing a human or killing a monster yielded the same amount of experience points. Player killing and human sacrifice were of the same nature.

Nevertheless, the majority of Awakened killed monsters rather than fellow Awakened. It wasn’t just due to a reluctance to kill their own kind stemming from ethics and morals. From an efficiency standpoint, it was much better to beat down monsters than Awakened. The experience gained from killing one person was negligible, and above all, one had to bear the risk of being labeled a murderer.

Player killing, along with human sacrifice, was one of the things strictly forbidden by the state. If someone committed serial murder for the purpose of leveling up, the Special Task Force would hunt them down to the very ends of a dungeon. Punishing such super-powered criminals was one of the Special Task Force’s highest priorities, so no one was foolish enough to commit murder just to level up a bit.

However, the case of a human turning into a monster was different. If one was certain that the person had completely lost their human intellect and become 100% monster, killing them was not a crime. On the contrary, since they were in a monsterized state, it would grant the killer a lot of experience points.

Min Gongchan was urging Yoon Younghyun to do just that. Since what he had drunk was not the blood of an ordinary vampire, but of a Royal Vampire, if he failed to transform and became a monster, he would be incredibly powerful.

Of course, he would be weaker than if he successfully transformed and became a Royal Vampire, but Yoon Younghyun couldn’t just readily agree. This was especially true because Yoon Younghyun himself was someone who feared losing his humanity and becoming a monster more than anyone. He shouted at Min Gongchan, who now looked as if he were completely covered in blood.

“Do you think anyone would say, ‘Oh, how wonderful, thank you,’ if you say something like that? What on earth are you thinking? Why are you going this far!”

At the scream-like shout, the blood-drenched Min Gongchan moved his lips.

“Because I have to… protect Kim Yitae.”

Yoon Younghyun was dumbfounded. Kim Yitae was an A-class magic swordsman chosen by the Golden Emperor and possessed the unprecedented skill of resurrection. By his side was Seo Heesoo, a legendary tanker who was once a holy knight and whose skills had not rusted, and even the Special Task Force was paying close attention to his safety.

No matter how much Yaksha targeted him, as had been proven in Dungeon 77, getting a hold of Kim Yitae was not easy. Even if he did get his hands on him, as long as Kim Yitae possessed Resurrection, it was impossible to kill him. So who was protecting whom?

Yoon Younghyun spoke, almost growling.

“As long as he has the resurrection skill, Yitae sunbae won’t die. Even if he gets captured by Yaksha, he won’t die! So why go this far…!”

“Who said that? That Yaksha won’t kill Kim Yitae. You, of all people, Kim Yitae…”

Min Gongchan, who cut Yoon Younghyun off, couldn’t finish his sentence. It wasn’t just because of the agony of transformation that was washing over him.

Yoon Younghyun noticed that he had swallowed words he couldn’t bring himself to say. But he was afraid to press him about what they were. As Yoon Younghyun fell silent in shock, Min Gongchan looked at him through pain that felt like being repeatedly stabbed with a knife.