Chapter 73

"Abdulraziz, do you know where you are now?"

<Indifferent.>

Even though I thought he wouldn't answer, the silence made me blurt out my words. Seo-eun quickly changed the topic, fearing the messenger might disappear.

"What does a human mutant look like? Is it one of the people living in Sulawesi?"

<Wrong.>

"Really?"

<The first human mutant on Earth.>

"Who doesn't know that?"

If the messenger responded like this, no matter how much I probed, I wouldn't get the information I wanted.

"Why is my gate usage so cost-ineffective?"

<Pretty words, gentle words.>

"Why is my stay fee higher than others?"

I swallowed the words "Is it?" but the messenger couldn't have missed them.

<'We' are one.>

"What?"

I repeated, but there was no response for a while. Seo-eun, thinking the worst, spoke out loud.

"Is it because the messenger's fee is included in the stay cost?"

<There's no such thing as free.>

"Then, if it's 12 days, shouldn't it be 6 days? I only stayed for a third of the time."

<'I' consume more because I travel twice.>

It sounded like nonsense.

"What are you, anyway?"

<'^%&' savior>

The static made the first part inaudible, but I clearly heard the word "savior."

"What savior?"

As I asked, a loud bang echoed.

Boom, boom, consecutive explosions startled Seo-eun, who pressed herself against the wall. She cautiously approached the source of the sound, and saw red and blue fireworks bursting outside the living room window.

Peering down from the corner of the window, she saw someone holding fireworks. After nearly twenty shots, the fireworks finally stopped. Seo-eun waited for the messenger to reappear, but he didn't.

The face that had been obscured by the fireworks was revealed to be Kim Han-sol. Seo-eun quickly opened the window and leaned out.

"Wow! Nice to see you, Deputy Guild Master! You really came back!"

"Why are you setting off fireworks in front of someone else's house?"

"This? It's a welcome party."

Kim Han-sol waved the envelope in her hand. The protruding bundle was the same as the fireworks she had just set off. Kim Han-sol seemed far from ordinary.

***

Snap, Kim Han-sol opened the can of her drink. She had brought fireworks but only set off one, placing the rest on the rooftop bench.

Seo-eun, still suspicious if she was alone, looked down from the rooftop.

"I asked the Five Elements Guild to notify me when Deputy Guild Master Tachien returned."

Kim Han-sol explained the reason for her timely arrival.

"Aren't you in the northwest?"

"I'm in the southeast now. The Union assigned me to compile a list of lower-level mutants."

Kim Han-sol rummaged through the bag on the bench and offered Seo-eun a drink.

"Five Elements' Seacher said a human mutant would appear, right?"

Just as Seo-eun was about to refuse, Kim Han-sol cut to the chase. "You'll drop it, right?" She smiled, and Seo-eun reluctantly took the drink.

"I'll drink it well."

"Thank you. But I heard our Seacher, Lee Ji, was unsure, while Five Elements was confident. Did you meet Kim Seo-kyung?"

"Yes."

"How was it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is Tachien going to join the Union? I heard the meeting at Tachien's headquarters failed."

Kim Han-sol spoke ambiguously, as if testing the waters.

"Even in the Nether, you get news fast."

"Healers aren't as strong as fighters, so they have to gather information. Isn't that right?"

It seemed what she was really testing was Seo-eun's abilities, not her Union membership.

Seo-eun wasn't sure how much Kim Han-sol had witnessed the day the mutant salamander appeared. But with the earth mage surviving the fire, Kim Han-sol must have some reasonable suspicions.

Whether Kim Han-sol had ascended to the highest level or if Tachien's Deputy Guild Master had reawakened as a healer.

If she wasn't overly self-absorbed, the latter was more likely.

"Maybe healers are as rare as seachers?"

Seo-eun gave an equally ambiguous answer.

"Hmm, did Tachien treat us well?"

"That's why we didn't accept mentalists. When we needed healers, we paid them accordingly."

"That only applies to Jo Kyung-min. You ignored the combat types, but now he's a specialist in treating Woo Gwang-seok. How much did Tachien get from him?"

"It just so happened that Professor Jo Kyung-min was nearby."

What sociopath calls someone a professor?

She muttered and sneered. Seo-eun had seen Jo Kyung-min again due to the jellyfish mutant but didn't show it to Kim Han-sol.

"You know I don't get along with Jo Kyung-min, right?"

'He was an original member of the comprehensive guild, but Oh Kyung-min kicked him out. After that, he joined DK and helped organize the guild members, leading to the conquest of the northwest.'

"Is that so?"

Seo-eun feigned ignorance, despite knowing this from Cha Haya.

"Putting my personal life aside, are you joining the Union? I was surprised when I heard you were meeting with Five Elements. When I asked, you said you hadn't considered it."

"Nothing is decided yet."

"Deputy Guild Master."

Kim Han-sol, who had been sitting on the bench, stood up and approached Seo-eun. A sweet scent tickled Seo-eun's nose, and she exhaled slightly. Kim Han-sol smelled good, a calming aroma, perhaps due to her being a healer.

"Didn't I tell you there was a way to cross without consuming the stone?"

"I know about the stones that aren't consumed."

Kim Han-sol's large eyes widened even more.

"Is there really such a way?"

"..."

Was she lying to coax me then? Seo-eun thought she was more cunning than he imagined.

"Wow, I was so surprised I made a mistake. I should have pretended to know and extracted some information."

She laughed again.

"You won't tell me, will you?"

Seo-eun had heard this from Yi Sung, so there was no reason not to share it. It wasn't a secret.

"I heard that 6th-grade Woo Gwang-seok can't be digested by the gate. This is information from the control center, so it should be accurate."

The chicken mutant's 6th-grade Woo Gwang-seok he had taken was also intact, so the information was correct. Kim Han-sol stood still for a moment, then raised one corner of her mouth.

The world... somehow.

She muttered to herself, as if she had realized something. Seo-eun, unable to contain his curiosity, asked.

"Why are you saying that?"

She crossed her arms, as if lost in thought.

"Like the highest-level mutants, Deputy Guild Master."

She paused to catch her breath, then placed her can on the bench. The droplets from the can quickly pooled at the edge. She opened her mouth to Seo-eun, unable to hide her complex gaze.

"Then, the highest-level mutants can use the gate, right?"

As if saying, "You can't feel the strangeness, can you?"

"6th-grade Woo Gwang-seok and that..."

Seo-eun closed his mouth, about to say it didn't matter.

The black wall absorbed the cosmuses of the mutants. Yeong-il was also absorbed and died.

The gate, similar to the black wall, needed Woo Gwang-seok to open the dimension to Seoul. If the gate couldn't digest 6th-grade Woo Gwang-seok, it was natural that it couldn't absorb the highest-level mutants.

"We're not the only ones who use cosmuses. Awakened mutants do too. The condensed energy is Woo Gwang-seok."

Heart, Kim Han-sol pointed to Seo-eun's chest with her fingertips.

"The place where cosmuses began. After high-level mutants die and are disassembled, Woo Gwang-seok appears instead of a heart. It's not found in lower-level mutants like 1st and 2nd grade. This is a fact the Union discovered upon arriving in the Nether."

"Team Leader Kim Han-sol."

Seo-eun removed her hand, as if digging into his heart.

"If what you say is true, why would the highest-level mutants consume Woo Gwang-seok to cross? If so, they shouldn't return to the Nether from Korea."

"Can you go to Busan if you buy a ticket to Daegu? They crossed using 3rd-grade Woo Gwang-seok, so they must return when the time is up. To cross without a time limit, they would need to cross the gate with pure 6th-grade Woo Gwang-seok. But, Deputy Guild Master, you don't seem to be a highest-level mutant?"

Seo-eun showed no signs of being shaken by Kim Han-sol's intense gaze.

"Team Leader Kim Han-sol, aren't you just speculating? Not just me, but other highest-level mutants value their lives. They don't use the gate recklessly."

"If there's a path with mines everywhere, and someone isn't affected by the mines, they can safely cross, unlike those who step on the mines and die. If the gate can't digest 6th-grade Woo Gwang-seok, it means 6th-grade, or highest-level mutants, can't consume it."

If the highest-level mutants aren't harmed by the gate, they could use it freely, as she suggested.

Seo-eun pondered but, without any highest-level mutants actually trying it, it was just a hypothesis.

"Cha Haya."

Kim Han-sol called his name.

"He was the first mutant to cross the gate. At the time, there was no information about the gate. Would Cha Haya have carried Woo Gwang-seok?"