Chapter 141
[Who threw a poop bomb at the Daejeon Tower yesterday?]
[Breaking) Daejeon hit by a mysterious stench…. Complaints surge.]
“Tss….”
Clearly, it was my fault.
I calmly read through the comments.
[Title: I'm a Daejeon local hunter, and I'm on my way to the convenience store wearing a gas mask]
(A proof photo of me giving a thumbs-up, more or less.jpg)
ㄴ Hahahahahahaha
ㄴ That bad?
ㄴ Last night, my nose—blocked for a legit ten years—finally got blasted open.
ㄴ Nose goes pop~ my gut churns~
ㄴ What kind of smell is it to freak out this much?
ㄴ The smell of rotting fish.
ㄴ It's a smell you can't describe in words.
The monthly best posts were flooded with talk of the midnight stench.
Even a breaking news bulletin had popped up.
“Oh, that's Mr. Jung Manho.”
In the video, Mr. Jung Manho was standing in front of countless microphones.
[We apologize to the citizens of Daejeon for the inconvenience. This stench was caused by a minor accident during the disposal of dungeon byproducts, and it has absolutely no harmful effects on the human body….]
[Are you sure it has no effect on the human body?]
[Hey, what do you know about monsters? Are you a hunter?]
[Hunter Jung Manho isn't a doctor either, is he? I heard he only finished middle school—what medical knowledge does he have?]
[What did you say, punk? Are you done talking?]
Jung Manho sprang to his feet and, unable to bring himself to hit the reporter, slammed the innocent desk instead.
The desk cracked and shattered.
[That concludes the interview! It's over! Over!]
[Wait a second!]
Even that display didn't seem to scare the reporters at all. They immediately kept after him, shoving microphones in his face.
“Man, they're having a rough time. Seriously.”
I quietly opened the window.
Sniff, sniff.
Fortunately, it seemed like the cleanup had been perfect last night, because the smell was gone now.
I felt both sorry and grateful to the broker and to Mr. Jung Manho.
“I should bring them a gift or something later.”
What would guys like that enjoy? Red ginseng? Sunglasses? A motorcycle?
They went through all that trouble because of me, so I could at least do that much.
“I'll figure it out slowly.”
I put the problem off for later.
Now was the time to focus on the gallery again.
More precisely, it was time to brag about my achievements.
First up, the photos from my recent trip to the sea.
[Title: I… split the sea….]
[Author: ㅇㅇ(44U.4U4)]
The photo had my dirt wall artfully hidden.
Only the split sea and the sunlit seabed were visible.
ㄴ Where is this?
ㄴ (Author) The East Sea.
ㄴ East Sea my ass, just say it's inside the tower lol
ㄴ (Author) It really is the East Sea, though?
ㄴ If you'd done that in the East Sea, it'd have made the news lol
ㄴ Even an S-rank couldn't split the sea.
ㄴ Still, if it's S-rank, wouldn't it be possible?
ㄴ I asked Kim Suho, and he said he was the one who did it.
ㄴ So the tower lurker was Kim Suho;;;;; the world is terrifying;;;
ㄴ You think an S-rank would be hanging around the gallery 28 hours a day?
Normally, I wouldn't post a photo on this scale to Hunter Gallery, but.
Had I really gotten that desensitized too?
Since it didn't seem like anyone would believe me anyway, I just went for it.
And it didn't seem like anyone could figure out who I was from this, either.
“As expected, you don't believe me…. Fine, laugh all you want for now.”
When the truth is revealed later, this post will become a holy site.
At that point, I moved over to Wizard Gallery.
To share the news that I had cleared Floor 45.
[Title: I finally broke through the wall]
[Author: ㅇㅇ(33K.3K3)]
[Content: I just cleared Floor 45. Proof coming in a bit.]
ㄴPkkatju: I already saw the pic you posted in Hunter Gallery lol
ㄴMagic Is Firepower: Wait, how is a person supposed to split the sea???
ㄴMagic Is Firepower: Could Wind Beetle do this?
ㄴPkkatju: Are we opening a wind-magic vs earth-magic flame war now? ㄷㄷㄷ
ㄴPkkatju: I am curious, though.
ㄴWind Beetle: Hold up. I'm going to the sea and trying it now.
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): Where are you going? You need to watch my Floor 45 clear video first.
ㄴFridge: Is that really the East Sea? How many meters is it?
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): About 200 meters, give or take? It's the East Sea.
ㄴFridge: Was the newbie really that strong?
ㄴMagic Is Firepower: You're not a newbie anymore. Come down already.
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): Thank you, master.
ㄴPkkatju: Then did you kill that whale by splitting the sea too?
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): ㄴㄴ Even so, splitting 4,000 meters was impossible.
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): Take a look at the video.
I then uploaded a video of the successful hunt.
In the video, a giant sand arm surged up through the sea, seized the whale in an instant, and burst it apart in a shocking display.
“Haa…. Even I have to admit, this is seriously cool.”
It was, quite simply, an overwhelming scale.
Sure enough, comments appeared in an instant.
ㄴFridge: You said you felt a wall, so I wondered how strong it was, but this is way too overwhelming;;;;
ㄴFridge: I was the one who felt the wall.
ㄴMagic Is Firepower: To catch that, you'd probably need ten staves.
ㄴPkkatju: At this point, isn't he already stronger than Wind Beetle?
ㄴFridge: Why does this guy love vs matchups so much?
Then a post went up. The author was Wind Beetle.
[Title: I came to the sea too]
[I'll show you that an S-rank doesn't get left behind.]
[(Selfie of him making a rough V-sign with the sea in the background.)]
“What the hell is this guy doing?”
So that was why he went quiet for a bit—he flew all the way to the sea in the meantime?
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): How did you get there so fast?
ㄴWind Beetle: This is S-rank speed…. Keep striving.
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): (dumbfounded meme)
ㄴFridge: Get that unsettling face out of here.
ㄴWind Beetle: (crying meme, roughly)
ㄴPkkatju: So, did you split the sea?
ㄴWind Beetle: I'm still trying. It's not going well….
“An S-rank can't be this idle…? Wait, what about the Mexico dimensional stone?”
ㄴWind Beetle: It's hard…. Any tips?
ㄴPkkatju: (I declare defeat meme)
ㄴFridge: (I declare defeat meme)
ㄴMagic Is Firepower: (I declare defeat meme)
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): (I declare defeat meme)
ㄴWind Beetle: No, I think it'll work if I just keep going a bit longer.
ㄴWind Beetle: So, any tips?
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): (I declare defeat meme)
ㄴWind Beetle: Aaaagh~~~~~~
Leaving Wind Beetle alone, we started talking about something else.
ㄴFridge: What reward did you get?
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): About that reward...
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): I guess this wasn't the way to do it after all.
I then explained in more detail the unusual message the status window had shown this time.
Sure enough, they had no idea about it either.
ㄴFridge: There seem to be similar floors.
ㄴFridge: I've heard that on some floors, the more monsters you kill, the bigger the reward gets. Floors in the 30s, for example.
ㄴFridge: In that case, you'd broken through the reward cap.
ㄴㅇㅇ(33K.3K3): Then I'll do it this way whenever I can from now on.
ㄴFridge: Take care of your body first, would you?
“Aw, that's all I ever hear.”
As expected, it seemed better not to mention that I'd nearly lost one of my arms.
The lecturing would obviously go on for a while, and I'd already gotten it back, anyway.
Then another new post from Wind Beetle, who had been quiet for a while, went up.
[Title: I succeeded in splitting the sea too.]
[Author: Wind Beetle]
[Look, I split the sea too.]
[It's not easy.]
[I should make this my profile pic.]
ㄴFridge: Seriously, I'm speechless.
ㄴPkkatju: The scale is even smaller than the newbie's, too.
“... The future of this country is bleak.”
In the photo, the sea was split for about 10 meters starting from the shoreline.
A smaller scale than mine, which had been over 200 meters deep.
But my dirt wall was opaque, while Wind Beetle had used wind to raise a barrier, leaving the sea's interior laid bare like an aquarium.
Honestly, his looked cooler.
“I should've used wind magic too….”
For the first time, I started hating my own attribute.
But he changed his profile pic to that?
I went into the A-rank group chat I'd forgotten about long ago.
Kim Suho's profile pic really had changed.
It seemed I wasn't the only one who noticed the changed profile pic.
Related posts quickly appeared in Hunter Gallery.
[Title: Looks like Kim Suho saw the tower lurker's post too?]
[Check out the changed profile pic lol]
ㄴWhy do you have an S-rank on your KakaoTalk friends list?
ㄴ(Author): If you're jealous, become A-rank lol
ㄴFor real. So S-rank really can split the sea….
ㄴBut the scale seems smaller than the tower lurker's?
ㄴThen the tower lurker must've been lying.
ㄴFor real, he's the only S-rank in Korea.
[Title: Hey, looks like overseas hunters saw this too.]
[They're doing a challenge on that side's SNS right now?]
“No way, how is this even spreading like this?”
I clicked the post, too dumbfounded to even argue.
Sure enough, there were videos of several overseas S-rank hunters doing the sea-splitting challenge.
The methods were varied too.
Some split it with swords, some with their fists. There was even someone splitting it with a shield.
But no one had split the sea on a scale as large as mine.
I couldn't help but puff up with pride.
[Title: So there's really no one who can surpass me after all….]
[Author: ㅇㅇ(3G3.33G)]
[Is this really all there is? Now I know what level S-ranks are at….]
ㄴNo fake edits allowed.
ㄴBro…. They're saying people should just start as S-ranks and stay there ㅜㅜ.
ㄴApparently overseas, they think Kim Suho is the original lol…
ㄴ(Author): Tsk… this is seriously pissing me off, for real.
ㄴlol…
ㄴYou mad? lol…
ㄴPfft…. Total loser lol….
“These bastards…. But is it true they think Wind Beetle is the original?”
When I checked, there were really challenge links tied to Kim Suho's account.
Was there anything more unfair than this?
“I'm going to become S-rank just out of spite, seriously….”
Muttering to myself, I closed the browser.
It was time to go check the tower rewards.
I transferred the black mage into a plastic bottle and headed to the warehouse.
***
There was no one at the warehouse on the outskirts of the city.
When I opened the door and stepped inside, a giant mound greeted me.
Bones and hide were piled in the vacant lot, along with two chunks of rock.
The stench had lessened a lot, but I could still smell the sea.
[Truly astonishing. It is comparable to the Emperor's warehouse.]
The black mage inside the plastic bottle exclaimed in admiration.
[To hunt a creature on the threshold of a divine beast all by yourself…. I can't believe it. I acknowledge it. You have the talent to see magic's end.]
“You can't?”
[I could, of course. It would require tremendous preparation and expense, though. Honestly, I don't particularly want to try.]
The black mage was showering me with rare praise.
For the guy who always complained to say this much, I didn't feel all that bad.
Then my finger buzzed.
[The Sandworm trembles.]
[The Sandworm advises that you should get rid of that bootlicker immediately.]
[The Sandworm hopes you open your eyes! One adviser is enough!]
[Hmph, what would a fallen beast like you know?]
[The Sandworm threatens to throw you out for recycling, bottle and all.]
“Stop it, both of you.”
They seemed to be competing for the seat next to me, the position of closest adviser.
Naturally, both had more than enough knowledge and qualifications.
It was surprising that the black mage had become this compliant….
“Spend that time working. I need to figure out an estimate for this.”
I stood before a giant whale heart and an unidentified black stone.
[The Sandworm advises you to eat the heart.]
“Hmm, that's a little gross….”
[It's called a heart, but it's something closer to a stone. If you eat it, well…. most of your body could end up turning to sand.]
“Then I should eat it.”
Without hesitation, I placed my hand on the white heart.