Blood Demon of the Past Life – Chapter 123

Chapter 123: People Who Have Lost Hope （2）

Whoosh━

A giant club split the wind.

The red-haired woman, Jessica, hurriedly rolled on the ground.

Kwaang!

“Ugh.”

She bit her lip.

Extreme pain surged from her broken ankle, injured by the attack moments ago.

But she couldn’t stay still.

The B-rank monster, Ogre, with bloodshot eyes blazing in front of her, wouldn’t allow her time to recover, as if it was about to devour her at any moment. Moreover, it wasn’t just one. She could see at least three within her sight, and there was a reason why she was cornered like this.

‘This is dangerous.’

She had to escape.

If she tore the teleport scroll she had bought for a large sum of money, she could escape to a safe place immediately.

However.

She couldn’t do that.

She shouldn’t.

She had entered the Yellow Zone with a special purpose, and she couldn’t escape until she achieved it. Even if her body was completely shattered by the Ogre’s giant club.

‘I will never die.’

Kwaang!

She kicked the ground.

Narrowly avoiding the Ogre’s attack, she quickly slipped between its legs.

Pat.

Slice━

She cut its leg.

The Ogre roared and attacked her, but she dodged its attacks here and there, taking advantage of her speed. Pain shot up from her ankle. Her limping leg didn’t move as she intended, but she stubbornly dealt with the Ogre with tenacious will. In an instant, one Ogre was covered in blood. When it finally fell to its knees, Jessica jumped up and tried to stab her dagger into its neck.

But then.

‘……Ah.’

Her jump was low.

To be precise, the moment she landed, she couldn’t put any strength into it due to the pain that exceeded her expectations.

It was an opportunity for the Ogre.

The Ogre next to her quickly approached and swung its giant hand before she could even dodge.

Kwaang━!

Thud.

“Cough.”

She crashed into a tree.

Jessica, who had fallen to the ground, coughed up a handful of blood.

Thump, thump.

The Ogre approached.

The enraged Ogre raised its club high.

‘Am I going to die like this?’

It was her last chance.

To survive, she had to tear the teleport scroll.

With a pale face, she looked up at the Ogre.

Her already white skin looked even paler in contrast to her red hair.

“……Fcuk you.”

She didn’t use the scroll.

It was a glimmer of hope.

Woosh━

The club fell.

She opened her eyes wide.

She tried to move her body, which barely moved.

But at that moment.

Kwaang━

“Are you alright?”

Right in front of her.

A man who suddenly appeared blocked the Ogre’s attack for her.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

The situation was resolved in an instant.

When Kang San’s group joined, the three Ogres couldn’t hold out for long and collapsed.

Kwoong━

『You have passed the thirteenth Trial and Tribulation.』

『The promised reward will be given.』

A familiar voice was heard.

Before checking the reward separately, he first approached Jessica and asked.

“What are you doing here alone?”

It was strange.

Jessica was a celebrity that the people staying in Kitakyushu would remember, so she would know better than anyone how the system here worked. However, it was no different from suicide for her, who was not an S-rank or A-rank Hunter, to wander the Yellow Zone alone. He had saved her due to the Trial, but Kang San wasn’t particularly pleased with Jessica’s presence because of the past incident.

“That’s……”

Jessica hesitated.

She paused.

Under his gaze, as if telling her to answer without rushing, she seemed to have made up her mind and finally spoke.

“I came to find my family.”

“Family? Here?”

“Yes.”

It was an unexpected answer.

In fact, Jessica had never told anyone why she was staying in Kitakyushu, except for the early days.

“Three years ago, my younger sister came to Kitakyushu for a trip. You might ask what kind of trip it was in this chaotic world, but she was a bright child who wanted to keep her identity as a human being, especially during such times. And then the ‘Large-scale Link’ incident that everyone knows about happened. Do you know? Some people come here simply to enjoy the benefits of the Monster Field, but most of the people who can’t leave here are like me. They came looking for their families, and they can’t leave because of their families. That’s the reality of Kitakyushu.”

He couldn’t speak easily.

Three years.

The Large-scale Link incident that drove countless people to their deaths.

The cruel truth that her sister might be dead.

As if reading Kang San’s mind, Jessica answered.

“I know. Three years have passed, so my sister might be dead. But just now, the ‘artifact’ I gave my sister showed a biometric response. Right here, in the Yellow Zone. What does that mean? My sister is still alive. So.”

Swish.

She knelt down.

A grown woman, a sight different from Jessica’s usual sharp image.

From her red lips, contrasting with her pale face, she uttered words she wouldn’t normally say.

“Please help me. According to the artifact’s signal, my sister is less than 2km away from here. If you help me, I’ll definitely repay you, whether I find my sister or not.”

It was desperate.

It was an earnest request.

Jessica’s situation was certainly unfortunate, but Kang San couldn’t accept this situation.

It was the danger of others.

Moreover, he had younger siblings to protect.

He couldn’t put himself and his people in danger to help a stranger.

But then.

『The fourteenth Trial and Tribulation has been given.』

『Due to the karma of the wicked, you must now help Jessica and find the artifact. You can check the location of the artifact at once through the tracking function, but if you fail to find it within 30 minutes, all the rewards you have received so far will be retrieved, and the karma will become stronger.』

『Reward: All Stats +5』

A sudden Trial.

This was definitely a different pattern from before.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

It was an unfamiliar situation.

After the tenth Trial, both the Trials and the rewards had become stronger, but compared to that, the difficulty and reward of the Trial had become vaguely weaker, and he had been given Trials consecutively as if they were linked.

Even so.

He didn’t have a choice.

From now on, apart from Jessica’s existence, it had become a problem that Kang San had to solve.

‘The problem is that I can’t predict how dangerous a location 2km away from here will be. The Yellow Zone is a place where B-rank monsters and occasionally even A-rank monsters can appear. I can’t put my party in danger because of me.’

Leaving Jessica behind.

He approached his party.

In their eyes, unable to grasp the situation, Kang San said in a calm tone.

“You guys go back first. I’ll help her and come back.”

“Huh?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I’m about to do is very dangerous. Woo-bin, Han-byeol, Chan-woo. Do you remember what our families said to me when we were leaving for Japan? They asked me to take good care of their precious son, brother, and hoped nothing bad would happen. So let’s split up here for a while. I’ll solve the problem and be right back.”

It was a recurring dilemma.

Every time he was given a Trial, how much risk should his party members take with him?

His younger siblings always said they needed him, but he tried to keep the line because of the secret only he knew. So, he moved together when the variables were manageable. However, as now, when the party had to move excessively, he tried to exclude them as much as possible if it didn’t suit their purpose.

It was guilt.

Kang San had no choice but to sugarcoat the truth that he couldn’t reveal.

But an unexpected person showed an angry face.

“I don’t want to.”

It was Yeon Woo-bin.

Yeon Woo-bin looked at Kang San with unwavering eyes.

“We’re in the same party. None of us intend to leave anyone alone in danger. I became a Hunter to avoid losing precious people. If you’re going to help her, please take me with you.”

“Me too.”

“Hyeong-nim. If you’re going to be a hero, give me a spot too.”

It was an embarrassing situation.

They misunderstood.

Thinking that Kang San was sacrificing himself for his own sense of justice, they took the position that they could never back down like this.

Especially Yeon Woo-bin, his past trauma resurfaced.

Remembering the time he lost his mother, he could never make the choice to protect only himself and leave Kang San behind. This led to a brief argument. Kang San tried to persuade them to leave, but his hot-blooded younger siblings never gave in. It couldn’t be said that it was a sincere will that had actually experienced the crisis of death, but Kang San was grateful for their hearts.

Time was short.

He couldn’t keep arguing.

“Alright. Let’s go together.”

He made up his mind.

If things went wrong, he would protect them no matter what, even if it meant his own death.

He started walking.

He could check the location of the artifact through the system, but there was no need to reveal that fact.

He said to Jessica.

“Lead the way to where the artifact is.”

✦✦✦✦✦✦

Jessica took the lead.

It turned out that she was a B-rank assassin-type Awakened, and she was very suitable for the role of a scout. There was a reason why she entered the Yellow Zone alone. Although she had encountered the Ogres by mistake, she thought she could rescue her sister without being caught with her concealment skill and agility.

“Two Ogres ahead.”

When Jessica signaled.

Kang San stepped forward immediately.

While Kang San dealt with the Ogres, blazing arrows and magic instantly brought down the two Ogres.

Kwaang━!

Rumble.

‘……They’re better than I thought?’

The series of events.

Jessica admired inwardly.

Not only was the coordination between Jeong Chan-woo and Jo Han-byeol, following Kang San, good, but Yeon Woo-bin’s firepower, which even burned the Ogres, was admirable. They were a more solid party than she thought. The doubts she had about their youthful appearance disappeared completely after just a couple of battles.

Her broken ankle had been healed with a potion.

Although she wasn’t in perfect condition, Jessica didn’t stop walking at the thought that her sister was right in front of her.

A distance of 2km.

It was shorter than she thought.

Fortunately, they didn’t encounter many monsters and were able to reach the location indicated by the artifact.

“It’s definitely here.”

The signal blinked.

Jessica was right in the middle of the signal and looked around for the artifact.

An ominous feeling crept up.

If her sister was here, she should be able to see a human form, not just a signal.

At that moment.

“Huh?”

She found something.

It was a small cave.

Inside the cave, which was barely visible, a child was huddled and trembling.

Jessica’s face was filled with despair.

In her eyes, she saw the artifact the child was wearing as a necklace.

“You, where did you get that? Why do you have that!?”

Her voice rose.

Even though she knew the monsters could hear her, Jessica couldn’t come to her senses in the face of the situation.

The past three years.

The reason Jessica could endure in Kitakyushu was because she felt a biometric response from the artifact, even for a fleeting moment. So she patrolled the Yellow Zone every day. She took risks, hoping to find her sister’s location and not letting go of the thread of hope. But now, the fact that a child she had never seen before had the artifact meant two things. First, her sister might be dead, and second, even if her sister was alive, she couldn’t find her with the artifact.

Hope crumbled.

Her pale face turned even paler.

“This can’t be. This really, can’t be.”

Tears welled up.

Unable to question the child any further, Jessica collapsed on the ground and covered her face.

Kang San watched her.

Unlike Jessica, whose hope was broken, Kang San heard a very hopeful voice.

『You have passed the fourteenth Trial and Tribulation.』

『The promised reward will be given.』

The Trial was solved.

It was a somewhat hollow success, but when he thought about it, the fourteenth Trial had the condition of finding the artifact, not finding Jessica’s sister. Thanks to that, the Trial was solved. Kang San had no intention of helping Jessica any further without the compulsion of the Trial, so he didn’t bother to comfort her.

Perhaps because it realized there was no intention to harm it.

The child with big eyes carefully opened its mouth.

“……Eileen-unni gave it to me.”

“What?”

Jessica flinched.

With a tear-stained face, she looked at the child desperately.

“What does that mean? Eileen gave it to you?”

It was then.

Kang San, who was watching the situation, faced another embarrassing situation.

『The fifteenth Trial and Tribulation has been given.』

『Due to the karma of the wicked, you must now find Jessica’s sister, Eileen. She is currently in the Red Zone, and you can check Eileen’s location at once through the tracking function, but if you fail to rescue her within 2 hours, all the rewards you have received so far will be retrieved, and the karma will become stronger.』

『Reward: All Stats +10, All Stats Stone +15』

‘……What is this.’

The third consecutive Trial.

This was really.

A very, very embarrassing and unfamiliar situation.