------------------
HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
------------------
Chapter 48
“Are you seriously expecting me to believe that?”
Daniel Lopez regarded Hyun Jooyeon with a face full of disbelief.
“Even if you don’t believe me, there’s nothing more I can tell you.”
Jooyeon hadn’t expected him to accept it easily in the first place.
If she were in his shoes, she wouldn’t believe it either.
Dojun’s abilities went far beyond what anyone would consider possible, and no one would accept it without seeing it firsthand.
But now, she had to make him understand it was real.
’Dojun really is humanity’s true hope. No—he HAS to be!!’
It wasn’t an exaggeration.
When the first Rifts appeared, neither police nor the military could contain them. It was the newly awakened heroes who defeated the monsters and became humanity’s hope.
But what about heroes now?
They were stuck squabbling over petty interests, measuring themselves against each other like children.
Some still truly dedicated themselves to protecting humanity, but most had already lost their way.
In a world like this, Dojun’s existence would come as a massive shock.
He was powerful enough to completely shake up the hero world—and was certain to become a genuine savior of humanity.
’Most heroes can’t even fight monsters infused with dark mana.’
Jooyeon could say this confidently, having faced them herself.
Even a sub-boss-Rank monster took more than one or two S-Rank heroes to handle.
If a boss monster’s powers were amplified more than twofold by dark mana?
Not even dozens of S-Rank heroes could guarantee victory.
In other words, sub-boss monsters would effectively become as strong as current boss monsters, while bosses would turn into virtually untouchable beings.
And if dark mana made all monsters more than twice as powerful, could anyone expect the countless Rifts around the world to remain under control?
Of course not.
Massive Rift breaks and monster waves would erupt across the globe, as predictable as sunrise.
That would be…
’The true beginning of catastrophe.’
The thought alone made Jooyeon’s face harden in dread.
“So you’re telling me Hero Seo Dojun really closed that Rift by himself?”
“Most likely, yes. Seo Dojun has more than enough strength to do that.”
When Daniel Lopez had come to question her in person about the sudden Rift closure, Jooyeon had already half-expected it.
Of course, she’d been surprised to hear about another Rift being shut down, but with Dojun’s power, it was perfectly plausible.
Besides, the fact that Daniel Lopez, who was practically the top commander of the entire Rift shutdown operation, had come personally meant no officially registered hero teams had entered that Rift.
“The reason I’m struggling to believe this is…”
Daniel Lopez trailed off for a moment, let out a heavy sigh, then went on.
“…Well, there’s no use hiding it anymore. We’re in a Code Red situation. Word just came in that many heroes have died inside the Rifts.”
“…I see.”
“You don’t seem that surprised.”
“If Seo Dojun hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now either.”
“…Just what in the world is going on?”
Daniel Lopez’s voice was shaking more than ever.
Jooyeon told him the unvarnished truth.
Hearing the full story, Daniel Lopez couldn’t hide the despair on his face.
If what Jooyeon said was true, then whether the Rift shutdown succeeded or failed wasn’t even the biggest problem.
At the nearest, the safety of Brazil was at stake, and in the broader sense, the safety of the entire world was threatened.
“But I heard there were other hero teams that successfully closed Rifts.”
“That’s correct.”
“Then that means those Rifts must be different from the ones we faced. There must be a difference between the Rifts where heroes failed and those where they didn’t.”
“You mean the color of the entrance, right?”
“At this point, that’s the only clue we have.”
“I’ll order an immediate inspection of every Rift,”
Daniel Lopez said, pulling out his phone without hesitation.
＊ ＊ ＊
Dojun’s third Rift, entered without even stopping to rest, was by a river.
⋮
The village in ruins, and the massive river flowing before it, created one of the most dreaded Rift environments for any hero.
“Damn it! A river? Looks like we’ll have to go straight into the water!”
“There’s nothing worse than fighting monsters underwater…”
“I’d rather battle flying monsters off a cliff than this!”
“Who the hell even carries diving gear around? Damn it!”
⋮
Rivers, lakes, islands—these three types of terrain shared one grim feature: there was a 50% chance the exit of the Rift would be underwater.
The problem was that very few heroes could fight effectively in water.
Globally, there were fewer than a hundred heroes with proper aquatic combat capabilities.
Of those, the undisputed number one was Ivan Looper, New Zealand’s national hero and an S-Rank.
Ivan Looper, a champion scuba diver and Guinness world record holder for the longest breath-hold underwater (24 minutes, 21 seconds), had awakened as a hero with a unique trait—aquatic respiration. Thanks to that, he became one of the three highest-paid heroes in the world.
Brazil had hired Ivan Looper several times at great expense.
After all, sending heroes who couldn’t fight properly underwater into those Rifts was only sacrificing them for nothing—it was far cheaper, and far wiser, to pay top dollar and bring Ivan in.
“The Rift core is underwater.”
Dojun checked the Rift map he’d received from Jeong Injoo, then looked around.
As expected, the concentration of dark mana here was heavy.
’And underwater, it would be even worse.’
That was simply how mana behaved.
Even dark mana was, in the end, a force of nature, and in places rich with natural energy like water, its quality and quantity would only expand.
Dojun stepped straight into the water.
Surprisingly, not a single drop touched his body as he entered.
A mana barrier.
By using mana to form a thin shield around his body, he could avoid any harm so long as he maintained it, whether underwater or in flames.
He was able to stay balanced in the water by channeling mana to anchor his weight down through his feet.
If Ivan Looper, known as the greatest underwater hero, had seen this, he would have been completely stunned.
But Dojun did have one weakness.
Breathing.
Mana was powerful, but not omnipotent, so in the end, Dojun still had to surface to breathe after holding it as long as possible.
Of course, his breath-holding ability was superhuman, so he could last nearly an hour underwater.
The water, dimmed by the dark mana, was a bit murky, but Dojun’s vision remained clear.
Shwaaaa—!
A massive water serpent, more than twenty meters long, cut through the current and charged at Dojun.
It was an Arakon, a water-dwelling monster he’d seen often enough even in the ruined world.
It didn’t have any particularly impressive powers, but it's typical snake-like behavior—wrapping around prey to crush their bones, then swallowing them whole—made it dangerous, especially underwater where it moved with terrifying speed.
It only needed to ambush its target and coil its body around them before they could react.
With dark mana now infused through its body, the Arakon’s confidence was at an all-time high.
Whirrr!
Like a swirling whirlpool, it instantly coiled around Dojun from head to toe, easily wrapping up his 185-centimeter frame.
Now all it had to do was squeeze, crushing every bone in his body.
The Arakon began to constrict.
But, it couldn’t.
Its strength, enough to crush steel, had no effect.
Before it could even comprehend what was happening—
Pop Pop Pop Pop!
Its body exploded apart like a firecracker.
“Disgusting.”
Dojun frowned at the Arakon’s shredded remains dRifting through the water, then reached out to collect only the mana stone before continuing across the riverbed.
Countless monsters came at him.
In some ways, water-dwelling monsters were easier opponents.
Their attack patterns usually boiled down to biting or, like the Arakon, constricting their prey.
Yet most heroes avoided fighting underwater for a simple reason: hardly anyone could truly fight at full strength below the surface.
Underwater, the lack of air and awkward floating cut their combat skills in half. Especially for sword-wielders, realizing how useless their swings were made them vow never to fight in those conditions again.
Even Ivan Looper, the top underwater hero, relied on a harpoon for his main weapon, proving how important weapon choice was for underwater combat.
So how did Dojun, known as the Sword God, fight underwater?
Thud! Thud! Smash! Smash!
He punched the piranha-like monsters swarming him from all sides.
Even he didn’t like using his sword underwater.
Though he could protect himself with a mana barrier, it was impossible to move a sword underwater the same way he could on land, so his swordsmanship was inevitably weakened.
Thanks to that, the area around him looked absolutely horrific.
Monster corpses torn apart floated everywhere, their blood and brains staining the water—enough to make anyone with a weak stomach start gagging on sight.
As Dojun kept cutting through the riverbed, his eyes suddenly went wide in disbelief.
“That’s…!”
＊ ＊ ＊
“Alright, let’s lay this out.”
Chairman Daniel Lopez spread out the Rift map in front of him and began marking Xs with a red pen.
Swish, Swish, Swish.
One after another, the Xs appeared, until he had marked a total of twenty-four. Only then did Daniel Lopez put down the pen.
“This… doesn’t it look like they’re all clustered in a certain area around Santarém?”
Just as Jeong Injoo had pointed out.
Daniel Lopez glanced over at the aide standing nearby, who immediately began measuring distances on the map.
After a short moment, it became clear to everyone.
“Within a 500-kilometer radius centered on Santarém, every single Rift has been corrupted by that so-called Dark Mana. Not a single one was spared.”
At the aide’s explanation, Daniel Lopez, who had fallen silent, picked the pen back up and began drawing circles around some of the marked Xs.
“This Rift, BA035—that’s where Arbaldo was killed. Here, BA027—David died there. And this one…”
These were the Rifts where S-Rank heroes had lost their lives.
Altogether he circled six such places, and the only Rift without a single casualty was the one closed by Dojun’s group.
“And if your theory is correct, then it was Hero Seo Dojun who shut down BA018, right?”
At Daniel Lopez’s question, Hyun Jooyeon and Jeong Injoo nodded with absolute conviction.
“Whew…”
Having roughly organized the situation, Daniel Lopez let out a deep breath and collapsed back into his chair, his energy sapped.
He still couldn’t say for sure why this “Dark Mana” had strengthened the Rifts, but one thing was certain: the deaths of S-Rank heroes had been caused by an unpredictable variable that no one had foreseen.
At the very least, Daniel Lopez could breathe a small sigh of relief knowing he had grounds to avoid personal responsibility for their loss.
But all of this still needed to be proven, and for that, they would absolutely need the help of one man.
“Still no contact with Hero Seo Dojun?”
The aide tried again, only to report that he was still out of range.
“We’ll leave him a message as well.”
Jeong Injoo added, and promptly sent a text instead of calling.
Hyun Jooyeon also left a message via chat.
“If the Rift situation doesn’t change, then the only team capable of closing these marked areas… is yours.”
Daniel Lopez said with a resigned smile.
A card he’d thought was worthless, just a stopgap shield to buy time, had turned out to be nothing less than a savior.
All Daniel Lopez felt now was a deep sense of shame and regret.
------------------
HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
------------------
