Solo Resurrection

Chapter 126

The Approaching Darkness (2)

When did it start…

My husband has become a bit strange.

It’s hard to explain in words, but the atmosphere has changed subtly.

There have been some difficult times recently, but it’s odd to say he changed because of that.

Not long ago, he suddenly took me somewhere, saying we were going to a nice place.

I went with a fluttering heart, thinking it might be some kind of event, but the place we arrived at was a strange religious group.

It’s a place where even the neighborhood aunties go often these days, but I’ve always refused invitations because I found it creepy.

I got angry momentarily and snapped at my husband, asking if he frequents such places.

Then my husband looked at me with a terrifying face.

It was the first time I’d ever seen my husband make such a scary face.

Since that day… I get goosebumps every time my husband looks at me.

I’m scared of my husband.

It might be that I’m being oversensitive, but if this continues, I really

“Huh?”

Park Ha-seon, who was writing in her diary, hurriedly closed the notebook at the sound of the front door opening.

Just as she hid the notebook deep in the bookshelf and stood up, a voice came from behind.

“What are you doing here?”

“You’re home?”

“I asked what you were doing.”

“Come on. What would I be doing? I was just looking at my phone.”

“I see…”

Her husband nodded with an expressionless face.

Park Ha-seon let out a sigh of relief and calmed her startled heart.

At that moment,

-Thump. Thump.

Her husband strode over and stopped right in front of Park Ha-seon’s face.

Expressionless. Park Ha-seon swallowed hard as she faced her husband’s serious face.

“What’s wrong… You’re making me uncomfortable…”

Park Ha-seon carefully tried to push her husband away.

No, she tried to push him away.

“Do you think I’m a fool?”

***

Ippotranslation

***

Taehan City was a small city located in the countryside.

It was a very quiet city where most areas were fields except for a few regions where shops were gathered.

-Screech!

A vehicle with BADASS written in flaming letters on the hood stopped in the middle of a country road.

“Phew… Haa. The air is nice.”

The man who got out of the vehicle was Kang Hyeon.

As he took a deep breath, he felt the fresh air filling his lungs to the deepest part.

“You made such a fuss about not wanting to come, but you seem the most excited.”

“Shut up.”

Kang Hyeon frowned at Yoon Na-rae’s quip as she got out of the vehicle next.

“Why did you come along then?”

“Hmph. It’s my choice whether I follow or not, isn’t it?”

“Fine. The reason is obvious anyway.”

Soon after, An Yu-seong, the reason Yoon Na-rae came along, got out of the vehicle.

An Yu-seong smiled contentedly as he watched Kang Hyeon and Yoon Na-rae bickering.

“You two look good together. Like close siblings.”

“Are you picking a fight as soon as we arrive?”

Finally, Shin Seong-a got out of the vehicle, completing Kang Hyeon’s group.

“Kang Hyeon. This town definitely seems strange.”

“Already? What’s strange about it?”

“The smell of conspiracy, plots, and criminals is stinging my nose.”

“Didn’t I tell you to stop watching detective dramas?”

Kang Hyeon shook his head as he watched Shin Seong-a muttering with a serious face.

“Anyway, we came because you insisted… What are we going to do now?”

They had come down impulsively due to An Yu-seong and Shin Seong-a’s strong insistence, but there was no answer.

In fact, this incident wasn’t attracting much attention.

It wasn’t a large dungeon break, and most cases were resolved cleanly without human casualties, so people weren’t interested.

“Sigh, how did I end up taking on this kind of job…”

Just as Kang Hyeon was sighing and roughly running his hand through his hair,

“Kang Hyeon. There’s something here.”

Shin Seong-a, wearing a cotton hunting cap synonymous with detective hats, pointed at something with a magnifying glass.

“What is it?”

“Footprints.”

“So what…”

In the place Shin Seong-a pointed, there were faint footprints that were surprising to have been discovered.

“There’s not just one or two footprints. There are quite a lot visible.”

“I’m sure there are.”

It was beside the road, even if it was a country road.

There was nothing strange about there being many footprints.

“Kang Hyeon. This is outside, isn’t it?”

“Are you going to keep stating the obvious?”

“Look at this.”

Just as Kang Hyeon’s brow was furrowing to the point of crumpling, Shin Seong-a pointed at something.

“What is this?”

“These are barefoot prints. And they look oddly different from human ones.”

“I can’t really tell…”

If what Shin Seong-a said was true, it was certainly strange.

After all, there were barefoot prints on the dirt road beside the paved road, not shoe prints.

However, it seemed a stretch to connect this to the current case.

“I know you’ve been into Sherlock Holmes lately, but just grabbing onto anything and walking around doesn’t make it a clue…”n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Ignoring Kang Hyeon’s words, Shin Seong-a was already moving along the footprints.

“Hey! Where are you going!”

“Pfft, you got ignored.”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”

“Ack! The orc is hitting people!”

Kang Hyeon gave Yoon Na-rae, who was giggling, a knock on the head and hurriedly chased after Shin Seong-a.

“Phew, can you see anything?”

Shin Seong-a was walking like a duck, crouched down on the ground.

“Yes. Someone tried to erase the traces, but they did a sloppy job. It’s getting more and more suspicious. There must be some kind of conspiracy.”

“Is that so…”

And so, led by Shin Seong-a, the group walked down the quiet country road.

August, the tail end of summer.

The sunlight was particularly harsh, and the cicada sounds pierced their ears.

Just as Kang Hyeon’s patience was reaching its limit with sweat starting to trickle down,

“Kang Hyeon. It’s over there.”

Shin Seong-a, who had finally discovered something, whispered in Kang Hyeon’s ear.

“Can’t you just speak loudly?”

“The culprit must be in there.”

“Alright, alright. You really are a great detective…”

Detective Shin Seong-a nodded with a serious face.

“Fine. Then let’s just go in.”

“Ah! We should block the escape routes and then go in…”

“Just do the first verse.”

Kang Hyeon suddenly turned serious.

“Yes.”

“What escape routes in a cave?”

Kang Hyeon frowned deeply and strode into the cave.

“There’s definitely a smell.”

The cave was filled with a musty odor and the smell of something rotting.

There was also a somewhat familiar smell mixed in.

“Wait a minute, this damn smell… I’ve smelled it a lot somewhere…”

As Kang Hyeon was sniffing,

“Cough…”

A familiar voice was heard from deep inside the cave.

“Shit, is it goblins again?”

***

Ippotranslation

***

Inside the cave, three goblins were having a lively drinking party.

There was one goblin shaman and two goblin warriors.

“What a wild party. What’s all this?”

The food they were eating was clearly human food.

Familiar green bottles of alcohol.

A feast of meats spread out, including all varieties from land, sea, and air.

It was literally a sumptuous banquet.

“Kurk? Kekeke.”

Perhaps because they were drunk, the goblins showed no hostility as Kang Hyeon approached.

They just giggled and held out their hands.

“What is it?”

Since he had left the translation device with Kergo at the guild training grounds, he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

When Kang Hyeon showed no reaction to his outstretched hand, the goblin shaman abruptly stood up.

Then, putting his hands on his hips, he started babbling something.

“Keeeeek! Kurk, kerurk!”

He seemed to be chanting something solemnly, but to Kang Hyeon, it just looked like he was begging to be hit.

-Slap!

A palm flew so fast that there wasn’t even time to react.

“How dare you yell, you scoundrel.”

The goblin hit by Kang Hyeon’s slap was instantly smashed into the cave wall.

The two goblin warriors hurriedly got up, but nothing changed.

-Slap, slap!

In an instant, the three goblins were down.

Kang Hyeon laid them out side by side on the ground and stepped on them methodically.

“Who do you think you are? Huh? Just die. All goblins should die.”

“Mr. Kang Hyeon. Could you wait a moment, please.”

Shin Seon-a grabbed Kang Hyeon.

“Why?”

“Don’t we need to find out something? I’m serious, not joking.”

“That’s right. Stupid guild master, can’t you see the food here? Anyone can tell it’s human food… Right?”

Kang Hyeon glared at Yoon Na-rae, then stroked his chin.

“You’re certainly right about that.”

“Given the footprints outside, it’s possible they raided somewhere, but I couldn’t find any reports of incidents online. And we found traces of multiple people coming in and out of this cave.”

“Are you saying people brought food to the goblins?”

“That seems to be the case, given the circumstances.”

Kang Hyeon laughed in disbelief.

“Has the world finally gone mad?”

This also explained the goblins’ nonchalant attitude when he arrived.

They clearly thought he was just another human coming to offer tribute as usual.

“What should we do?”

“Should we wait here? Sigh, if we had the translation device, I could just beat them up while questioning them.”

“How about we hide here and wait for someone to come?”

After pondering for a moment, Kang Hyeon nodded.

“Might as well. If we wait long enough, someone’s bound to show up.”

***

Ippotranslation

***

The next day.

Unbelievably, no one showed up.

“Brother. I told you we should just leave, didn’t I?”

“Shut up. I’m pissed off too.”

The group waited in hiding in front of the cave for a full day but didn’t even see a squirrel.

“Ah, if only we had the translator!”

“Instead of waiting here stupidly, guild master, why didn’t you go to Seoul and back? You could have made two round trips by now!”

“You’re really going to die.”

“Aaagh! An orc is hitting a person!”

Kang Hyeon didn’t even have the energy to hit Yoon Na-rae who was being annoying.

Since they couldn’t even eat for fear of being discovered, Kang Hyeon really didn’t want to move a finger.

“Mr. Kang Hyeon. How about learning the translation magic on this occasion?”

“What? There was such a thing?”

Shin Seon-a nodded at Kang Hyeon’s question.

“Yes. Skill books sometimes come up for sale.”

These days, with the auction house being active, you could easily get skill books if you had the money.

Although translation was classified as an ability rather than a skill, they were all learned in book form, so they were uniformly called skill books.

“Why have I never seen one?”

“Despite the incredibly high price, they disappear instantly the moment they’re listed. So it’s not a well-known ability among ordinary people.”

“You really have a lot of random knowledge.”

“Hehe.”

Shin Seon-a scratched her head at Kang Hyeon’s compliment.

“For now, since we can’t do anything, contact Han Jae-moon and tell him to take away the goblins inside.”

“Understood.”

As Shin Seon-a contacted the guild, Kang Hyeon lay on a rock and stared blankly at the sky.

“Still, it feels unsettling to go back without any results…”

Just as he was sighing, something suddenly occurred to him.

“I guess I’ll have to use the Team Leader Shin Tae-gil chance after a long time.”

Kang Hyeon immediately called Shin Tae-gil.

-Yes.

Shin Tae-gil’s short answer.

“Why are you so chic today? I thought you were a cool city guy.”

-If you’re going to joke around, I’m hanging up. I have a mountain of work.

“As expected of the cool city m…”

Before he could finish speaking, the call was disconnected.

Kang Hyeon called again.

-Yes.

“You’re making this really expensive. I called because I have something to ask.”

-Go ahead.

“Do you know about the frequent dungeon breaks happening around Taehan City recently?”

-I’m aware. Why are you asking about that?

“I want to investigate it a bit.”

At Kang Hyeon’s words, Shin Tae-gil’s voice tone went up a notch.

-We’ve been having trouble because we’ve been investigating but coming up empty. If you could take this on, we’d be really grateful…

“What will you do for me?”

-What compensation between us… Ahem.

In the meantime, the thickness of Shin Tae-gil’s face had become quite substantial.

“Never mind that, just get me a skill book to learn the translation ability.”

Shin Tae-gil sighed at the mention of the translation ability.

-Hah, how did you know about that too?

“Is that important? I need it to solve this case, so get it for me as soon as possible.”

-Mr. Kang Hyeon. Translation skill books are something you can’t get even if you have money.

“Why?”

-Because the world’s richest people buy them for their children. After all, you can learn any ability once you pass Tutorial Stage 1.

Indeed, being able to understand all languages without any cost was an enormous merit.

It was an ability worth coveting if you had a lot of money.

In a way, it made sense that it was hard to obtain.

“Ah! So are you going to get it for me or not!?”

-I’ll try to get it…

Kang Hyeon smiled with satisfaction.

“We’ll talk about other compensation later, now tell me about what you investigated earlier.”

At Kang Hyeon’s request, Shin Tae-gil explained for a while.

The summary of the content is as follows:

The dungeon breaks occurring in this area happened in two main ways.

One was due to failing to clear the dungeon within the time limit.

The other was due to accidentally breaking the main core during the raid.

“Both are strange.”

-Yes. I don’t understand how dungeon management could fail in today’s system-equipped situation.

“And it’s even stranger to accidentally shatter the main core during a raid.”

-So I’ve been meeting with guild masters and members who caused breaks, but I haven’t found much. I couldn’t find any evidence that they did it on purpose either.

“You’re past your prime too, Mr. Shin Tae-gil.”

Shin Tae-gil sighed at Kang Hyeon’s sarcasm.

-These days, just investigating and moving on replacing electronic equipment with magic stones is more than we can handle. Honestly, these aren’t high-grade dungeons, and there hasn’t been significant damage, so it’s been difficult to allocate much manpower. With the budget already tight and money continuously going to you as well…

“Okay, okay. You were acting all chic earlier, but now you’re full of excuses. And why are you bringing me up as an excuse?”

-…

Shin Tae-gil fell silent at Kang Hyeon’s pointed words.

“Alright, just compile and send over the information you’ve gathered so far.”

-Yes… I’ll send it right away…

Shin Tae-gil’s voice was much more subdued than before.

“Are you upset?”

-I’m not that kind of person.

Kang Hyeon grinned at Shin Tae-gil’s response.

“You are upset.”

-I’m hanging up. I’ll send you the data now.

“You’re upset, right? I think you’re definitely upset.”

Shin Tae-gil hung up without answering.

Kang Hyeon looked at the guild members who had been listening to the conversation on speaker.

“Do you think he’s upset?”

“Yes. He’s definitely upset.”

Everyone nodded in unison.

“He’s upset. He really is.”