Chapter 57
“Whoa, Eve! Is that Daengdaeng?!”
“Yes! Daengdaeng evolved!!”
ㅡWoof woof!
It's the same concept as the possession Ophelia said Minyumi could do last time. Using mana, you draw out Fenrir—the royal family's watchdog—into Daengdaeng.
In an instant, Daengdaeng grew five hundred times bigger, gave my cheek a single smug lick, then charged toward the gate at unbelievable speed.
“Eek, now you've got drool on me.”
Cars were packed tight along the road, and people were crowded between them too, but Daengdaeng expertly dodged every obstacle with a flurry of whoosh-shaa-shak and leaped incredibly high as it charged.
Coming out of the gate were deer-like creatures with six legs. They were threatening people while shaking their hard, antlered heads, but the moment Daengdaeng let out a growling bark, they were startled, turned their heads, and began staring blankly at Daengdaeng.
And when you show even the slightest opening in front of our apex-predator Daengdaeng, it’s basically the same as giving up on life. With unbelievable reflexes, Daengdaeng twisted aside and bit the deer’s neck from the side with a crunch, killing it before it could even scream.
“Good job, Daengdaeng!”
“Eve! Don’t go too far forward!”
“A-ah!”
I had edged forward a little to see Daengdaeng’s performance better, only to almost get swept up in the people fighting up front.
The deer monsters probably couldn’t beat Daengdaeng no matter what, but they were still dangerous monsters, with bulging muscles, threatening antlers, and huge bodies.
They were also trampling several vehicles to pieces, so the people by the roadside were bawling their eyes out.
“Ugh, they’re too dangerous to get close to.”
“Dohee!! Just block it with your body and stab! I’ll heal you!!!”
“Hey! Even if I get healed, it still hurts!”
Han Dohee was also up front fighting hard like the B-rank front-line fighter she was. Chaea unnie was in the back, but that didn’t mean she was just an ordinary person like me, with a completely normal body.
After all, I’m the special case. Normally, when you awaken, mana appears in your body, and you get some degree of physical compatibility—better reflexes or tracking vision, or something like that.
“Hmm, they’re fighting pretty well.”
Watching Daengdaeng from afar, I could tell my eyes definitely hadn’t gotten any better at tracking vision. Honestly, if they had improved a bit, I’d probably have gotten better at games too. Or not? Come to think of it, the games I play don’t really need tracking vision.
“Hah!! It’s the boss, Daengdaeng!!”
ㅡGrrr..!
I thought some kind of deer boss would come out, but suddenly a giant bear appeared. So this gate must be connected to some forest or something. Still, it can’t stop Daengdaeng!
“Daengdaeng, Suri! Take it down!!”
Around us, the wrecked cars were blaring and clattering and making an awful racket, so my voice didn’t reach Daengdaeng. But if I used a skill, that would be different!
“Swoosh... Haa..! I’ll infuse Suri with mana! Fight hard ㅡ !!”
As the small amount of mana in my body flowed into Suri, Suri’s wingbeats became insanely fast. Same thing I used on Minyumi in the Desert Mausoleum last time.
Suri flew so high it looked like a speck, then drove its own body like a meteor straight into the back of the bear’s neck and spine with a splat.
ㅡROOOAAAR!!!
Ultimate Suri Bird Strike left that chubby bear unable to keep up. I’d driven a stake straight into the back of the spine, where the nerves run, and its head went numb so it lost the will to fight and started bawling.
Meanwhile, Daengdaeng next to it grabbed the bear's neck, now down to about half health, as easily as twisting a child’s wrist.
“Good job!! So cool ㅡ !!!!!”
This time, it was completely my win. Daengdaeng and Suri had taken down eight deer?? And they’d even killed the boss??? Then I’d get an S+ rank and four honors on the results screen. Even the bear, now a ghost, might clap and give me one honor.
In a flash, Daengdaeng hopped over the cars and came toward me, while Suri, flying far off, landed beside me.
“Mwahaha, good job, good job! Come back!”
ㅡFwoosh!
As its mana ran out, Daengdaeng returned to its original form. Suri, too, nodded in satisfaction after getting a mana boost once.
“Suri was super cool too! Your accuracy is insane?!”
It was basically like falling from a kilometer up and going, “What? Give me back the bear’s spine.”
“Ugh, my arm hurts. I can’t drive. Ugh.”
“Dohee unnie!”
“Wow, Daengdaeng, what was that? You got huge for a second there, and now you’re back to normal?”
“Yep. It’s only a temporary change, so I can’t keep it up.”
“Huh, really? You fought amazingly well. Suri too.”
ㅡBEEP!!
By then, the tow trucks that had rushed over after the report were already swarming all over the place. They had to drag the cars smashed in the fight off to the side of the road, and the people who needed to leave had to go first.
“Excuse me, are you the hunters who participated in the open gate?”
“Ah, yes. That’s us.”
“Oh my, thank you. If you could write down your name and phone number, we’ll process everything as quickly as possible and pay out the compensation.”
“Yes, thank you for your hard work.”
What, you get money for participating in an open gate? I thought everyone just did it out of goodwill. Then shouldn’t the three wolves Suri caught the first time I ran into an open gate in Ahyeon-dong have gotten compensation too?
Kind of a shame....
“Hey, Kim Chaea, what are you doing writing your name down.”
“I participated, didn’t I~ Why’re you being like that, Dohee-yang~”
“Huh, you’re pretty shameless....”
Chaea unnie was cheering from the back with a staff, acting like a cheer squad captain. There weren’t many injured people, so she hadn’t healed anyone. Still, whatever, good is good.
For a while, as the tow trucks were hauling the wrecked cars out of the road, a loud voice suddenly rang out from the overpass a little behind us, along with the characteristic crackle of a megaphone.
ㅡBeeeep....
“Bwaaah!!! Oh my God!!!! Boo-hoo-hoo!!!! Kyaaaaaaak ㅡ !!!!”
“Damn.”
“Oh my.”
“Huh..?”
The voice that boomed through the megaphone sounded like an adult man, and the moment Han Dohee and Chaea unnie heard it, they reacted.
“What a catastrophe!!! Sob sob!!!!”
“Eve, let’s go already.”
“Huh? Why? What is that?”
“Pfft.. let’s go already. Dohee hates that guy.”
Chaea unnie was somehow grinning from ear to ear. Han Dohee frowned deeply, hung her head low, and hurried off toward the Maxcruz.
“Everyone’s grief!!! This sorrow!!! Heartbreak!!! Damage!!! I understand it all ㅡ !!! I, Kwon Doyoung, the hunter insurance planner!!!! Sob sob!!!! I will be your strength ㅡ !!! Come to me right now and get an insurance consultation ㅡ !!!!”
“W-who is that person..?”
“Yeah. He’s a total lunatic.”
“He’s Dohee’s ex-boyfriend.”
“Wh-what?!”
“Ah, Kim Chaea!”
What kind of people has she been seeing, anyway?
* * * * *
“Team Leader Yu. Should we go outside and play a round of golf too?”
“Forget it. It’s not like this is the first or second time.”
At the Signiel Busan Rooftop Private Lounge, Yanfei’s schedule, which had been set for 4 p.m., kept getting delayed, and before they knew it, thirty minutes had passed.
There were four S-rank hunters total, all belonging to one guild called Cheonra Gwimaeng. Considering that Korea had two S-ranks, and only one of them, Yoo Chaerin, was actually active, the gap in strength was overwhelming.
That still didn’t mean it was okay to be late to a meeting with S-rank hunters from another country, though.
Im Jongho, the personal aide watching from the side, had his mouth jutting out in a pout, muttering about how those damn Chinese are always like this. Yoo Chaerin felt the same, but she just waited silently.
ㅡKssshh.. Ah, Jongho. Those guys are coming up.
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
The senior hunter from Nova’s Busan branch, who had been waiting on the first floor, contacted Im Jongho over the radio, and not long after that Yanfei arrived by elevator.
‘Jesus.’
This was the first time Im Jongho had ever seen Yanfei in person. Her outfit was far bolder than what he’d heard or seen in photos, enough to make him nod involuntarily. At this rate, waiting thirty minutes didn’t seem like much.
‘No, get it together, Im Jongho. You came out here to work.’
Still, Im Jongho gathered himself again in professional fashion.
“Haha, you’ve been waiting so nicely~? Like a dog, huh?”
“..Ms. Yanfei apologizes for being late.”
“I came out late on purpose too, so don’t worry about it.”
“..Yoo Chaerin accepts the apology.”
While the translators prepared by both sides were sweating bullets, South Korea’s top 1 percent super-elite, Yoo Chaerin, could more or less understand what Yanfei was saying.
Of the three countries in East Asia, Korea was the only one that didn’t do this; China and Japan used a strategy of branding hunters like the heroes in superhero comics.
Japan already had a well-developed subculture scene, and China had so many hunters that even if you had talent, unless you stood out or had a face that caught people’s eye, you weren’t popular and didn’t make much money.
Because the Chinese authorities, fearing the power of hunters who had both strength and popularity, levied massive taxes on hunter activities to keep them in check. Since they had to make money by running all kinds of events, this sort of culture developed out of necessity.
“Agh, don’t you even bring out a cup of tea or something?”
“Cold water. With ice.”
“Ugh, I hate cold water. I don’t drink cold stuff.”
“Cold water. Lots of ice.”
“..Understood.”
“You’re so mean~”
Since the drink runner was Korean, he had no choice but to follow Yoo Chaerin’s words. It was only natural that the other people were having a hard time amid the two S-rank hunters’ war of nerves, but people who work events like this get paid absurd amounts of money anyway.
“How’s the Nova Guild been doing lately? I hear good news seems to be coming in.”
“I heard some of the tax evaders in Cheonra Gwimaeng got caught.”
“Ah... that’s not what I’m asking.”
“Neither was the talk about the Nova Guild.”
“Tch, boring.”
While they were snarling at each other over the West Sea entry-type gate, dragged out here by this matter and forced to face each other, there was no way the mood could be warm and friendly.
In fact, the Busan Chinatown open gate matter that had brought them here today hadn’t come up at all, and they were just poking and probing each other from every angle.
“Nova. Hand over the West Sea gate. I’ll give you money.”
“You know it’s not a matter of money.”
The ownership of an entry-type gate is not much different from claiming the surrounding land or territorial waters. Measured precisely, the West Sea gate was closer to Korea than to China, so ordinarily Cheonra Gwimaeng should have been the one to back down.
“Keeping this up is exhausting, isn’t it? Hm? It seems like the Korean Hunters Association hates it too.”
“That’s right. The hunters of Cheonra Gwimaeng keep getting on our nerves.”
“Hmm.”
Yanfei let out a soft sigh, then pouted and said playfully.
“New hunters haven’t really been coming out in Korea lately, have they?”
“..Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering if there’s a reason. Hehe.”
In fact, over the past few years the number of newly registered hunters had been noticeably dropping. Compared to about four years ago, it was down by roughly 8 percent, which was a big enough difference that it couldn’t really be dismissed as nothing.
“If things get rough, say the word! Nova could come under Cheonra Gwimaeng, you know.”
“I’ll decline.”
“Really? That’s a shame. We might even get a new S-rank.”
That was information beyond what they’d agreed to disclose beforehand. Even with the secretary who came with her trying to stop her, Yanfei grinned and added.
“I wonder who’d be stronger, your new recruit or ours.”
“Nova hasn’t publicly introduced any newly recruited hunter, though.”
“Really? Then never mind.”