The Struggles of the #1 Rank - Chapter 33
The train doors opened at Car No. 12, the carriage right in front of the special-class Car No. 13.
Joo-ah’s team hurried inside before the doors closed.
Jae-rim, who entered first, looked around the carriage before taking an empty seat. Yeon-joo sat beside him, while Chan-hee took a seat across from them.
Joo-ah was the last to step inside. She followed Chan-hee, who had walked ahead of her, and was about to sit beside him when she turned her toes in another direction.
She had no desire to sit beside Chan-hee and endure his teasing, especially not on a train.
She moved toward Jae-rim’s side instead, but Chan-hee didn’t seem to care. He simply crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
Before long, the doors shut, and the train began to move. The seats faced each other, just like those on an ordinary subway.
Since the first quest was usually not very difficult, Hunters tended to receive train tickets to floors with relatively low numbers as rewards.
However, the ticket Joo-ah had obtained this time was for the Tower of Floor 100. That was a fairly high floor for a first reward.
Joo-ah looked at the train ticket in her hand before raising her head to gaze out the window. A landscape filled with darkness rushed past.
A faint tension settled over the carriage.
Joo-ah’s gaze slowly shifted away from the window.
Her team wasn’t the only group aboard Car No. 12.
At the far end of the seat where Chan-hee sat, a grotesque-looking monster was occupying a seat.
Unless they were in a special-class carriage, Hunters could encounter monsters on the train.
Whether a fight would break out, however, was anyone’s guess.
If they were lucky, they would arrive at their destination quietly. If they were unlucky, they would have to deal with an annoying fight in a cramped space.
Ding. Ding.
How much time had passed since the train departed?
【The train will stop at Floor 75 of Tower 3 shortly.】
Accompanied by the sound of bells, the train briefly stopped at a platform, and the doors opened.
“Damn it, just thinking about that monster smacking me across the face pisses me off. I should’ve tortured it a little longer before killing it.”
“Quit running your mouth. Keep it up, and you’ll be the first one to die.”
Other Hunters boarded the train, laughing among themselves. They had been joking around and laughing at each other as if everything were hilarious, but only belatedly noticed Joo-ah’s team.
“Well, well. Looks like a Higher-Ranked Group team got here first. Excuse us for joining you.”
“Now that I think about it, the team called in this time was Higher-Ranked Group B, wasn’t it? You’re always climbing high-level Towers, so what brings you to a dump like this?”
Their gazes then shifted to Joo-ah, who was sitting with the rest of the team. They clicked their tongues.
“Well, I think I can guess why.”
The Hunters who had boarded were from a team made up of a varied mix of A-rank and B-rank members.
Unlike the higher-ranked teams, ordinary groups had more Hunters. Naturally, the quiet carriage soon grew noisy.
It was only natural for conversations to spread when so many people gathered. Their remarks about Joo-ah were simply one passing topic among many.
They took seats beside Chan-hee and quickly moved on to another subject.
Not long afterward, the door connecting to the next carriage opened, and a monster dressed like a train conductor walked in.
Yeon-joo, who was sitting beside Joo-ah, whispered softly.
“That thing is here to collect our train tickets. When it comes to us, just hand over the ticket we received as a reward.”
“Okay.”
Joo-ah nodded calmly. Chan-hee, who had been glancing at the noisy Hunters with an annoyed expression, also took out his train ticket from his item box.
The monster checked the tickets one by one. When it reached Joo-ah, she showed it the train ticket she had received as a reward without any trouble.
“Hey, you crazy bastard! Hand it over already!”
The other Hunter team sitting across from them was playing around, snatching tickets from one another.
The monster dressed as a conductor stood in an awkward position, waiting for them.
Yeon-joo let out a quiet sigh and muttered.
“What are they going to do if they end up starting a fight…?”
By a fight, she meant one with a monster, not a fight between Hunters.
“Hey, monster. He doesn’t have a train ticket, so kick him off.”
“Are you kidding me? Then what the hell is that in your hand?!”
“This? It’s just a scrap of paper.”
One Hunter ran off to the side while holding his teammate’s ticket. The others watched as though the scene were hilarious.
“If you want it so badly, why don’t you try taking it? What’s wrong? Are you so damn short that you can’t reach up here?”
One of the Hunters snickered and raised the hand clutching the ticket above his head. His teammate’s face turned bright red as he cursed under his breath and tried to snatch it back.
“Aaaah!”
In the end, they struggled over the ticket and fell over together.
The problem was…
“Damn it. I knew this would happen.”
They had fallen right in front of the monster sitting at the far end of the carriage.
Yeon-joo pressed a hand to her forehead, looking as though she already had a headache.
The monster, which had been staring straight ahead, lowered its face. When its eyes met the Hunters’, its unnaturally wide-open eyes began to twitch strangely.
“W-whoa…!”
The Hunters hurriedly tried to get back on their feet, but they were already too late.
A red tongue shot out of the monster’s mouth and swallowed them in an instant.
“What the hell?!”
The Hunters who belonged to the same team rushed toward the monster in shock.
The carriage descended into chaos in a matter of seconds.
Meanwhile, the conductor monster, which had not received as many tickets as there were passengers aboard, began swelling up as it prepared to kill the Hunters who had boarded without authorization.
“What a complete mess.”
Chan-hee stood up with an irritated expression.
Was he actually going to help them for once?
With his hands in his pockets, Chan-hee walked slowly toward where Joo-ah, Jae-rim, and Yeon-joo were sitting. He raised one eyebrow.
“What are you doing? Get up.”
Joo-ah tilted her head.
Chan-hee should have been able to handle the monster on his own, so she didn’t understand why he was telling Jae-rim and Yeon-joo to get up.
“Aren’t you getting up?”
He even sounded annoyed with Joo-ah.
Yeon-joo stood up and sighed.
“Are you planning to just leave again?”
“We’re only a little farther from Floor 100. Getting off here or getting off when we reach it makes no difference.”
Joo-ah, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, asked in disbelief.
“You’re getting off here?”
The train was moving at high speed.
It wasn’t going to stop just because the Hunters wanted to get off.
Normally, if they intended to leave the train, they had to wait until it stopped at the next platform.
“Getting off now isn’t a bad idea.”
Jae-rim stood up.
Pointing at the scenery rushing past outside the window, Joo-ah said,
“But the train is moving! How are you planning to get out?”
Chan-hee, who was standing right in front of her, answered.
“How else?”
“…”
“We jump.”
Joo-ah slowly lowered the finger she had been pointing out the window with and smiled sweetly.
“I think I’ll just stay on the train.”
The monster had made things a little troublesome, but once her teammates left, she could simply use the Constellation’s power.
“Aaaah!”
Just then, another Hunter from an ordinary group who had been fighting the monster came flying toward Joo-ah.
“There’s no acting alone on our team, D-rank.”
Chan-hee grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet, murmuring softly into her ear.
“If you don’t want me to carry you, then come along nicely while I’m still asking.”
Holding Joo-ah by the wrist, he walked toward the train doors. She was dragged along as easily as a sheet of paper, and only then did she glance back at the seat she had been sitting in.
Another Hunter had collapsed unconscious in her seat.
If Chan-hee hadn’t pulled her up at just the right moment, she might have collided with him.
“Hunter Seo Joo-ah, don’t worry too much. Even if you jump off here, you won’t die.”
“…”
“You might get a little hurt, though.”
At Yeon-joo’s cheerful smile, Joo-ah asked with an unhappy expression,
“…Are you trying to reassure me?”
“Of course.”
Joo-ah sighed. Yeon-joo’s answer showed not the slightest hint of deception, which somehow made it even less reassuring.
Even back when she had been Eun-young, Joo-ah had never tried anything this reckless.
GROOOAR!
As they tried to leave the train, the monster dressed as a conductor charged at them.
“Open the door first. Hurry.”
Jae-rim drew his sword and spoke while engaging the monster.
Chan-hee took a Taser Gun out of his inventory.
“One shot is enough.”
BANG!
Just as Chan-hee had said, a single shot from the Taser Gun tore the train door off. It even shattered the window beside it.
“D-rank, come here.”
Chan-hee held out his hand toward Joo-ah, who was standing there dumbfounded. She looked at him with an expression that clearly showed how little she trusted him.
Chan-hee curved his lips into a smooth smile.
“I won’t let you get hurt at all, so hurry up.”
Reluctantly, Joo-ah reached out to him. If she had to leave anyway, there was no point in wasting any more time.
“It smells like water.”
The wind blowing in from outside the train brushed dryly against her skin.
Chan-hee wrapped an arm around her from behind, as though holding her shoulders, and whispered softly.
The dark Towers sometimes created unusual environments. The train passed through every kind of space within the Tower.
“Seo Joo-ah.”
Hearing her name out of nowhere, she turned around, her eyes widening slightly.
Chan-hee was looking straight ahead.
“Hold your breath.”
Without the slightest hesitation, Chan-hee held Joo-ah close and jumped off the train.
At the same time, an enormous amount of water rushed in. Joo-ah immediately held her breath.
The entire Tower was submerged in water.
When she turned her head, she saw Yeon-joo and Jae-rim, who had jumped off the train after them, swimming skillfully as they followed Chan-hee and Joo-ah.
Joo-ah turned her head forward again.
【The Anonymous Constellation advises that if Seo Joo-ah uses her power to adjust the barrier, she will be able to breathe comfortably.】
Joo-ah glanced at the status window appearing before her eyes and quietly used her mana.
Her defense temporarily increased, and a faint barrier formed around her face.
This time, Joo-ah used her mana in the same way on her teammates.
Chan-hee, who was holding her close as he swam upward, looked at her with slight surprise.
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