Chapter 131:
She was focused solely on the monster before her.
Groan.
The boss monster, like Seo Jae-yi, was also half-dead.
Its body was scorched, and the electrical current flowing through it had weakened.
It was even missing its right arm. Seo Jae-yi, unable to keep up with its speed, had ripped it off. She had even cauterized the wound with fire to prevent regeneration.
But despite appearances, Seo Jae-yi was in a more precarious situation.
【Overload Progress — 79%】【Danger level. Limit ability usage!】
She was on the verge of overloading.
Her vision flickered in and out of focus every time she was hit by the electrical current.
Releasing the Heat Dome would improve her condition, but she couldn’t do that. The monster would seize the opportunity and escape.
Beep!
【Overload Progress — 81%】【Danger level. Limit ability usage.】
Her overload level spiked again as she concentrated the surrounding heat around the boss monster.
Her eyes started turning red. Her body temperature rose, and hot breath escaped her lips.
An Esper’s overload was the main cause of their body’s deterioration, and it also made them unleash their full power without thinking about the consequences.
Seo Jae-yi waved her hand, her face expressionless. Blasts of heat, like spears, shot out from the Heat Dome towards the boss monster.
Boom! Boom!
But they weren’t strong enough to pierce through the boss monster, which still had its legs, even though it had lost an arm.
More spears rained down, trying to catch the quickly moving monster, and Seo Jae-yi’s eyes turned even redder.
Crackle!
The boss monster shot a bolt of lightning at Seo Jae-yi. It pierced through the barrage of fire spears and struck her.
Her hair stood on end, and her body trembled. She staggered from the powerful shock.
The Heat Dome’s heat subsided slightly as Seo Jae-yi’s focus wavered.
A momentary gap.
The boss monster seized the opportunity and attacked again.
Rumble.
The sky roared. The dark sky, agitated by the continuous barrage of lightning and the intense heat, turned even darker.
The black sky wasn’t on Seo Jae-yi’s side.
Boom!
A blinding light flashed. The world, which had been red, turned white in an instant.
Lightning, the most powerful force of the sky.
Seo Jae-yi felt the lightning striking her, even though its speed was too fast for her eyes to follow.
And she thought,
Ah, this is the end.
It was a short, intense, and terrifying end.
Rumble!
A deafening thunderclap echoed through the air as the lightning struck her.
Crackle!
The Heat Dome, created by Seo Jae-yi, was filled with powerful electrical currents. The smaller currents, branching out like veins, broke down the Heat Dome and devoured the heat.
At the center of the collapsing Heat Dome.
Seo Jae-yi, struck by lightning, was in a horrifying state.
She would have been dead if she weren’t an S-rank Esper, a monster who surpassed human limitations.
But she was still standing. She hadn’t collapsed. She was still alive, her eyes wide open.
It was both awe-inspiring and terrifying.
Raaaaar!
The Rank 2 dungeon’s boss monster, seeing Seo Jae-yi, let out a terrified scream for the first time.
It was driven by its instinct to kill her. The residual energy from the lightning that had destroyed the Heat Dome amplified its speed.
Its left arm shot forward, aiming for her abdomen.
But its rough fist, with its sharp claws, was stopped by something. By the heat surrounding Seo Jae-yi’s body.
“…”
Their gazes, finally meeting at close range, locked.
Seo Jae-yi’s eyes, fixated on the boss monster, blinked slowly. A reddish glow spread across her skin with every blink, and heat emanated from her body.
And the moment the Heat Dome, which had been suffocating the boss monster, disappeared, her eyes turned completely red.
A crimson red, redder than flames, like blood.
Beep!
【Overload Progress — 91%】【Emergency! Emergency! S-rank Esper Seo Jae-yi’s overload level has exceeded 90%!】【All Espers, please gather immediately!】
Seo Jae-yi’s overload level had instantly surpassed 90%, the threshold for an uncontrolled outburst, due to the immense shock, a shock even an S-rank Esper would struggle to withstand.
The news was immediately relayed to all Espers across the country. If she exceeded 99.5%, the final limit, she had to be terminated immediately.
But the only one facing Seo Jae-yi now was a single boss monster.
Even a Rank 2 boss monster couldn’t handle Korea’s strongest S-rank Esper who had lost control.
Seo Jae-yi’s finger drew a line from the ground to the sky.
A massive pillar of fire erupted from beneath the boss monster, engulfing it instantly.
Raaaaar!
It quickly escaped, but its body trembled, scorched by the intensified heat.
The heat, like lava, started seeping into its body through the cauterized wound on its right arm.
It couldn’t handle the current Seo Jae-yi. It would die if it continued fighting! It had to escape!
The boss monster, realizing this instinctively, turned and fled from Seo Jae-yi. It ran as fast as it could, not caring if its legs broke. It just had to get away from here. It could regenerate later.
Please!
Screech!
But it couldn’t escape. Its legs, which had always felt light, felt heavy, and then it realized its ankles were bound by ropes of fire.
Raaaaar! Kyaaagh!
It thrashed wildly, trying to break free from the burning ropes, but it couldn’t, weakened by the previous attack.
And as if waiting for this moment, thorns, sprouting from the ropes, pierced its body. Its weakened electrical current couldn’t block Seo Jae-yi’s unleashed heat.
Whimper…
Seo Jae-yi slowly approached the boss monster, which couldn’t move, its legs bound, its body pierced by thorns, its body trembling.
“…”
Her face, unlike before, was devoid of any warmth, cold and expressionless. She looked like a completely different person.
Despite having a similar build, she exuded a terrifying pressure. The fear that washed over the boss monster made it hard to breathe.
Raaaaar! Screech!
It was literally becoming hard to breathe. The heat piercing its body was intensifying. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, as if to prolong its suffering.
The boss monster screamed, the slow burn more painful than being instantly incinerated.
Beep!
【Overload Progress — 92%】【Overload Progress — 93%】
Even the frantic alarms couldn’t stop Seo Jae-yi.
She too was being burned by the heat, along with the boss monster, but she didn’t feel any pain.
Her mind was consumed by the single thought of burning the thing before her, of burning everything.
I want to burn everything. I have to burn everything. Everything, even myself.
And as her vision turned crimson red…
Crackle!
The boss monster unleashed its final attack. A massive electrical current surged through its body and struck the nearby Seo Jae-yi. It was almost a self-destruct attack.
But its desperate struggle only hastened Seo Jae-yi’s overload.
Crack!
She heard something shattering within her.
But she was beyond rational thought.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
A deafening alarm, far louder than before, blared as she crossed the final threshold.
【Overload Progress — 95%】【Limit breached! Limit breached!】【S-rank Esper Seo Jae-yi’s limit has been breached! Overload commencing! All Espers are ordered to terminate Esper Seo Jae-yi immediately!】
“L-look!”
Several Espers appeared, alerted by the alarm.
But her eyes were completely devoid of reason.
The heat that had been burning the village subsided instantly. The world became silent. Like the eye of a storm.
But the silence was short-lived.
Boom!
A deafening roar echoed through the air, and an immense heat surged from Seo Jae-yi. The boss monster before her was instantly incinerated, turned to ash by the volcanic heat.
Boom! Crash!
“Aaaaaargh!”
Pillars of fire erupted from the ground. The village, already in ruins, was completely reduced to ashes.
The Espers who had rushed to the scene screamed and retreated, unable to withstand the unbearable heat. They couldn’t even get close.
Their faces were filled with terror.
The overload of Korea’s strongest Esper had begun.
“Is it almost over?”
Forest Dungeon.
Baek Joo-won, who had been waiting for Seo Jae-yi at the cave entrance, turned his head, sensing something.
Airok, curled up on the ground, seemed to have completed his transformation. The heat emanating from his body was subsiding. His breathing became more steady as the reddish glow faded and a blue light enveloped his body.
Everything would be over today.
It seemed he had regained his strength faster than expected, perhaps because he was in Baek Joo-won’s life force-filled dungeon, not the human world.
“Tsk. Dragons are so resilient; he would probably survive even if I threw him anywhere.”
Baek Joo-won poked Airok’s belly with an annoyed expression.
It wasn’t even a real injury; it was just part of the recovery process. He couldn’t understand why Seo Jae-yi was doting on him so much.
He shouldn’t have left the egg here when he went to see Seo Jae-yi. He should have hidden it deeper inside the cave, somewhere difficult to find.
He hadn’t expected her to bring it out, thinking it was his child and might die if left alone.
“She’s too kind for her own good.”
You should only be kind to me.
Baek Joo-won clicked his tongue, irritated.
She must be chatting with her family, considering how late she was.
She was too kind; she loved not only her family but also humans. She couldn’t abandon them, even after being used like that.
She could live more selfishly; no one would dare criticize her. He couldn’t understand her devotion.
‘I have to take her as soon as possible.’
Baek Joo-won’s eyes darkened.
He had no intention of sharing Seo Jae-yi with other humans.
She was his. She had become his the moment she absorbed his power.
Forever.
Crack.
He suddenly heard an unexpected sound.
Baek Joo-won jumped to his feet, startled by the sound of something shattering.
“…Did the orb break?”
A part of his power, a part he had to give her to force her out of the dungeon.
But it wasn’t just a part; it was almost all of it. And it had just shattered.
As if it couldn’t endure it anymore, as if it had reached its limit.
There was only one thing this could mean.
“…Overload?”
Seo Jae-yi overloaded?
That was impossible. There was no way. Why would Seo Jae-yi, the one he had worked so hard to heal, overload?!
Baek Joo-won, his face pale, rushed out of the cave.
No, Seo Jae-yi couldn’t have overloaded. That couldn’t happen.
It must be a mistake. It had to be.