Solo Resurrection

“Ugh…”

Her head was throbbing.

Choi Yeon-hwa, who was groaning lightly, carefully opened her eyes.

“Where am I?”

It was a place she had never been before.

A gloomy darkness and a humidity that made her body feel uncomfortable rose up.

Choi Yeon-hwa tried to recall why she was in such an unfamiliar place.

‘Strangers appeared during the dungeon practice…’

She had resisted them but was ambushed and lost consciousness.

And now.

She was in a place she had never been before in her life.

Looking around, she could see a few students who had been in training with her gathered together.

“Are you awake?”

A man carefully examined her complexion.

Choi Yeon-hwa didn’t know his name, but she remembered seeing him during the training.

“Where are we?”

“We’re not sure either. We haven’t been conscious for long… One thing’s for sure though, it seems to be a prison.”

“You’re right.”

From any angle, this place was a prison.

The narrow room was surrounded by solid cement walls on all sides.

The door was a thick iron gate, and the narrow iron bars on it were the only passage connecting to the outside.

“What happened to the others?”

“It seems they’re held in different rooms. I heard Korean a little while ago. Mostly curses and screams though.”

“Screams…?”

“I think they were caught trying to escape.”

Choi Yeon-hwa quickly understood the situation.

The people captured here were ability users.

Each carried weapons in their inventory, and some even used skills.

There must have been people with enough power to break out of this stuffy prison in an instant.

“They tortured the captured people. There were screams for a while, but after that, it seems no one dares to think about escaping.”

“By ‘they’, do you mean the foreigners who came to the dungeon?”

“Yes. From what I’ve heard, they seem to be Russians.”

“Russians…”

Hearing this, Yeon-hwa thought that they might not even be in South Korea anymore.

‘Those guys came through a portal back then. There’s no guarantee that the exit leads to Korea…’

Just as she was organizing her thoughts.

-Click!

Suddenly, the thick iron door opened.

And two foreigners appeared.

“Follow.”

One man spoke in broken Korean.

Choi Yeon-hwa and the people trapped in the room hesitated, not knowing what to do.

“Follow!”

“Argh!”

In an instant, the man kicked the person in front of him.

“Follow.”

The guy seemed to only know how to say “follow” in Korean.

For a moment, Choi Yeon-hwa pondered.

Should she take out her weapon and resist? But there was no guarantee of escape even if she defeated this guy.

The people captured with her were all low-level trainees.

In contrast, these guys seemed to be quite powerful ability users.

“Let’s just do as he says for now.”

The man who had woken Choi Yeon-hwa said.

The hesitant people nodded and stood up.

As they went out into the corridor, they could see quite a lot of people gathered.

About 30 people in total.

There were 5 people in Choi Yeon-hwa’s room, so people had come out of 6 rooms in total.

Among them were Jeong Dae-han and his subordinates.

“Welcome, everyone.I’m Oh Jeong-su. I know you must be very confused right now, but please follow the instructions well.”

Waiting for them outside was an Asian man with an arrogant expression.

As familiar Korean words were heard, shouts erupted here and there.

“Where are we?!”

“Who are these people? Send us home!”

“Do you think you’ll get away with this?! Do you know who my father is?!”

Oh Jeong-su, who had been listening to these words, stretched out his hand.

“You there.”

“Y-yes?”

“Yeah, you. Come here.”

“Why should I come out?!”

The man reacted with confusion and resistance to Oh Jeong-su’s words.

“You said you wanted to go home. I’ll send you. Come out.”

Oh Jeong-su was suddenly speaking informally. His tone was oppressive and arrogant, but the man, overwhelmed by the atmosphere, couldn’t say anything.

“Bring the man”.

At Oh Jeong-su’s words, white men with sturdy builds approached the man.

“W-what? What’s going on!?”

The man resisted desperately, but it was useless.

The difference in strength between the man and these guys was more severe than between a child and an adult.

They easily subdued the man and brought him in front of Oh Jeong-su.

“You want to go home?”

“Yes…”

The now cowed man lowered his eyes obediently.

Oh Jeong-su, who had been looking at the man indifferently, suddenly slapped him.

-Slap!

With that one slap, the man realized his position.

“Kuhek!”

Blood burst out at once, and his teeth shook.

-Slap, slap!

“You want to go home? Huh?”

“N-no…”

-Slap!

“Didn’t you say you wanted to go home?”

The man’s face swelled up instantly, making it difficult even to open his eyes.

The man was now clinging to Oh Jeong-su’s trouser leg.

“I’m, I’m sorry…”

The man pleaded, but Oh Jeong-su kicked him away mercilessly.

“You want to go home? Huh?! Can’t you read the situation?!”

“Kueo…”

The man, who had been beaten to a pulp in less than 5 minutes, finally lost consciousness.

“Take him away”.

At Oh Jeong-su’s words, the men took the unconscious man away.

Oh Jeong-su clapped his hands to clear the atmosphere and looked at the people.

“Does anyone else have something to say?”

No one dared to raise their heads at Oh Jeong-su’s words.

They were all ability users, but after all, they were just novices who hadn’t even properly experienced a dungeon yet.

The fully armed enemies even had guns, so they didn’t even dare think of resisting.

“Good. Please follow along nicely when we’re being this gentlemanly.”

***

Ippotranslation

***

The place Oh Jeong-su led to was a damp plaza.

Many Koreans were gathered there, most of whom seemed to be in similar circumstances.

‘What’s that?’

Meanwhile, Choi Yeon-hwa was busy assessing her surroundings.

A massive machine she had never seen before.

People with countless needles inserted into their bodies and machines attached.

Among them were Jeong Dae-han’s group, who used to be Choi Yeon-hwa’s friends.

With bizarre devices attached all over their bodies, they showed clear signs of beating and seemed to have lost consciousness.

“Now, each of you will need to describe your status window in detail. If you lie, you see those people over there?”

Oh Jeong-su pointed towards the machines.

“You’ll end up like them. Those things stuck in their bodies aren’t for health checkups. They’re specially processed ‘items’. Do you know what happens to those people later?”

Oh Jeong-su looked around with a sinister smile.

“Their magic will be drained until they die. After sucking out every last drop, we’ll sell them off. The good thing is, being ability users, they fetch a decent price.”

People’s faces turned pale at Oh Jeong-su’s words.

“If you don’t want to end up like that, follow instructions well. Come forward one by one, state your physical stats, skills, and ability list, then step onto the machine in front of me.”

People didn’t dare to resist.

They simply came forward obediently, looked at their status windows, stated their stats, and repeatedly stepped onto the adjacent machine.

The machine was a large cylindrical shape, and numbers appeared like a scale each time someone stepped on it.

Oh Jeong-su diligently recorded these along with their physical abilities.

‘That number… It’s proportional to magic.’

Choi Yeon-hwa, who had been observing these numbers closely, quickly realized what they were.

It was a magic measuring device.

There was clearly a consistent proportional relationship between the magic figures people stated and the numbers appearing on the machine.

“Next.”

Soon it was Choi Yeon-hwa’s turn, and as she stepped forward, she first checked her own status window.

▫Name: Choi Yeon-hwa

▫Title: Indomitable Will

▫Level: 7

▫Detailed Stats:

Strength 12 (+1)

Agility 18 (+1)

Stamina 14 (+1)

Magic 12 (+1)

Additional Stats: –

▫Unique Ability: Sword’s Blessing

▫Abilities: Intermediate Swordsmanship(D), Lower-grade Martial Arts(E)

▫Skills: Acceleration(B), Sword Spirit’s Descent(B)

A rather impressive status window.

Although she had no dungeon experience, this was the result of growth from passing through five levels of the tutorial.

Thanks to this, her level was slightly ahead of most people around her who were levels 2-4.

Moreover, even compared to others of the same level, she possessed considerably higher stats.

This was not only a difference in talent but also the result of consistent effort from enjoying exercise since childhood.

“Call it out.”

“Level 3. Strength 9, Agility 12, Stamina 10, Magic 13.”

Choi Yeon-hwa deliberately called out the lowest possible numbers except for magic.

“Quite decent. Skills?”

“Just one, lowest-grade swordsmanship.”

“Good. Step up here.”

Choi Yeon-hwa stepped onto the machine like the others.

As numbers appeared, Oh Jeong-su noted them down and nodded.

“Next.”

Early dawn.

Bandarenko, who had spent the night sleepless, sighed.

“Kang Hyeon…”

The final battle with Kang Hyeon wouldn’t leave his mind.

Could he win if they met again? He asked himself, but he already knew the answer.

“I can’t win.”

He was overwhelmed by Kang Hyeon.

Saying he couldn’t show his true skills because he was too surprised was just an excuse.

“Is he really dead?”

Normally, he wouldn’t have such doubts.

He had directly confirmed Kang Hyeon’s death.

But the end was the problem.

Shortly after Kang Hyeon died, his corpse disappeared.

Moreover, without dropping a single item.

Usually, when an ability user dies, they drop all items in their inventory.

“If that didn’t happen, it might mean he’s still alive.”

He clearly confirmed that his heart had stopped, but you never know.

Things were so chaotic, and Kang Hyeon might have had some kind of teleportation item just before dying.

“Huu…”

If he was alive.

If he somehow found this place, would there be a way to stop him?

‘I couldn’t even properly handle just Kang Hyeon…’

That’s when it happened.

-Knock knock

A knocking sound was heard.

“Come in.”

The one who appeared opening the door was Oh Jeong-su.

One of the quite useful men recruited to take over Korea.

Now that the Kangshin Guild had fallen and Kim Jeon-yong was dead, he was virtually the only link to Korea.

“What is it?”

“I’m here to report on the Koreans who arrived this time.”

“Anything special?”

“No. The magic measurements were completed as planned, and we’ve started extraction on some of the more resistant ones. The rest of the personnel are scheduled to start leveling up from tomorrow.”

Bandarenko silently nodded.

“I understand. Then I’ll…”

“Wait. I have something to say.”

Bandarenko stopped Oh Jeong-su as he was about to leave.

“Make sure none of these people die.”

“Pardon?”

Oh Jeong-su was taken aback by Bandarenko’s sudden words.

Usually, captured ability users would be leveled up by any means necessary and made to invest all their stats in magic.

After reaching a certain threshold, they would be used for magic extraction, with no regard for casualties in the process. This was the existing method.

“I said, make sure no one dies.”

“Understood. Is there a special reason…?”

“We’ll need to negotiate with Korea using those guys as bait.”

“By negotiation, you mean…”

“You don’t need to know beyond that.”

“Understood.”

Oh Jeong-su bowed his head without further question.

“I plan to kill them all after the negotiations anyway. Just keep them alive until then.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”