Chapter 102: Hunting Expert
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 102: Hunting Expert
I did some prep work on the way.
Since I had 6 points saved up, there was no way I was going to let them sit there.
Predation was already Level 5, and upgrading it to Level 6 required 3 points, so I decided to skip it for now.
Instead, I upgraded Hunting Expert for the first time in a while.
It took 4 points to reach Level 5.
Whoa...
Why did I wait so long to upgrade this?
With these two new options, it finally felt like I had active skills of my own.
Until now, the only skill I really used was Cat Step, and since that was just a normal skill, it always felt like something was missing.
Sure, I had Combat Readiness and a few other minor skills I'd absorbed through Predation, but none of them were things I actually wanted to use.
Combat Readiness was a perfectly fine skill, but a situation where I actually needed to use it hadn't really come up.
On the other hand, Cat Step was incredibly versatile, so even though it was only Level 4, I used it all the time.
But now, my Cheat Mode had finally given me active skills.
"This is insane."
Slowing down and speeding up time.
The only difference between targeting "the surroundings" and "myself" was 1 Mana.
In reality, time is absolute.
When one second passes for me, one second passes for everyone else.
That is an unbreakable law of physics.
But what if I could change that?
Without a second thought, I put it to the test.
Oh Yoon-seop and the members of the Hunting Squad were talking to each other on the tram.
Their movements began to slow down.
My Agility stat was currently Level 17. If Predation triggered, it would go up to 19, which meant a time deceleration effect of roughly 85% to 95% would be applied.
"Wow."
This meant other people's time flowed about twice as slowly.
To put it another way, I was experiencing time twice as fast.
In essence, slowing down others' time and speeding up my own...
...amounted to the same thing.
If someone else's time slowed down, my movements would look incredibly fast to them...
"Ugh, shit. What am I even saying?"
Anyway, to sum it up:
In terms of efficiency, slowing down others' time for 2 Mana might seem slightly better.
But the 3-Mana skill offered a 7% increase per Agility point, meaning I could move even faster.
Strictly speaking, the two skills served different purposes.
Simply put, "Slowly" slowed down my surroundings, making it easier for me to perceive things I might otherwise miss.
Meanwhile, "Quickly" instantaneously accelerated my own movements, making me move faster than the opponent could anticipate or react to.
And above all, I didn't even need to choose between them.
"I can just use them together."
The world slows down, and I speed up.
This wasn't just a simple matter of being 85% slower and 120% faster.
When combined, they would multiply, creating an insane synergy.
This is killer.
"...Are you alright?"
"Yeah."
Since I was geeking out by myself, everyone's eyes had drifted to me.
I waved my hand dismissively and refocused.
It was almost time to get off the tram.
Led by Oh Yoon-seop, the members of the Hunting Squad disembarked.
Each of them carried a gun plundered from the drug cartel.
Knowing a gunfight could break out at any moment, they all looked tense.
I eased their anxiety.
"Don't worry. As long as you don't die instantly, I'll keep you alive."
"..."
They all knew.
They knew that as long as they could make it back home, Saintess Kim Ji-hee could bring them back from the brink of death.
That was why they could find the courage to fight.
Of course, nothing was more valuable than life in a world like this.
But things more valuable than life itself were beginning to take root in Paradise, and they were the chosen ones.
Membership Level 3.
To secure a ticket to Paradise, where a stable life was guaranteed, they had to be willing to plunge into life-or-death battles without hesitation, even if they weren't throwing their lives away recklessly.
Mental preparation was key.
Oh Yoon-seop gave his final instructions to the Hunting Squad.
"Do not die under any circumstances. You have to survive to live. We are risking our lives to protect Paradise, the place that took us in, but Paradise will never let us die. That is why the Captain himself has come with us. Fight without fear. But do not throw yourselves into danger recklessly."
Oh Yoon-seop, who was the definition of a soldier, inspired courage in the Hunting Squad.
The members of the Hunting Squad had been with Oh Yoon-seop since the multiplex, but they weren't soldiers.
Some had completed their military service, but more than anything, they simply trusted Oh Yoon-seop, who always led by example.
"Yes, sir!"
With grim determination, they quietly advanced.
As they drew closer, using the buildings for cover, noise began to filter through.
Dong Seoul Terminal.
People were moving between the massive buildings.
Heavily armed men were busily moving about, checking the weapons piled up in the bus garage.
It was obvious they were preparing to march out soon.
"Check your weapons."
"Check your weapons."
At Oh Yoon-seop's quiet command, the squad members did a final check on their firearms.
They were all locked in.
That was a good sign.
I wondered if they really needed to be that tense, but staying alert was never a bad thing.
I raised my hand at a suitable distance.
Our goal was to circle around to the back, launch a surprise attack on the garage, and seize the stockpiled weapons and vehicles first.
Of course, it wouldn't be easy.
Even if only thirty to fifty men were preparing to march, the total number of people stationed here at Dong Seoul Terminal to manage supplies and guard the base would be much higher.
If they surrounded us, we wouldn't be securing the supplies—we'd be trapped.
Still, that was the plan we'd drawn up.
Because either way, this place was going to be destroyed today.
"Let's go."
With those words, I activated Cat Step and approached from the rear.
I snapped the neck of a guard on watch to keep him from making a sound, then began taking them out one by one.
No matter how tight and thorough they tried to make their security, there were bound to be blind spots.
Especially when trying to guard a massive facility like Dong Seoul Terminal and its entire garage.
In reality, the guards were just there to spot anything approaching from afar; they weren't positioned densely enough to actually prevent an infiltration.
Besides, who in their right mind would dare trespass into a place as heavily fortified as this?
Because of that, the rear defenses fell in no time.
I had ordered Oh Yoon-seop to follow cautiously and only open fire if a gunfight broke out.
If we attacked first, people would swarm out from every corner like cockroaches.
Securing our primary objective came first; cleaning up the rest would come later.
As we neared the garage, the number of guards protecting the weapons and vehicles was higher than those at the rear.
Since they were preparing for a major operation, they seemed to be paying extra attention to guarding their supplies.
There were also massive piles of food.
It looked like they were preparing for a war that would last several days.
They must be absolutely furious.
I could understand why.
Losing Konkuk University Station was one thing, but launching an attack with weapons they'd prepared, only to get utterly crushed and stripped of all their gear again without achieving a single thing—nothing could be more humiliating.
Which was why I was grateful.
As the duration of Cat Step neared its end, I activated it once more.
I slipped into the blind spot of a group of about five guards.
I didn't need to kill them.
Or rather, even if I did, I had to finish what I came here to do first.
I swung my backpack to the front, pulled out another Level 4 Backpack from inside my Level 4 Backpack, opened it, and began stuffing the supplies inside.
"Man, this is sweet."
When playing Zombie Apocalypse, you'd occasionally see psychopaths on the Gallery who didn't even hunt zombies, but instead just wandered around stealing from and destroying other survivor groups.
They always posted screenshots, bragging about the massive piles of loot they'd plundered from survivor factions. Back then, I used to wonder how anyone could find that kind of gameplay fun.
Sure, the more supplies you have, the better, so taking what others had gathered made sense.
Raiding a survivor faction wasn't easy either, so you could just view it as a reward for your efforts.
But wasn't it a zombie apocalypse game?
The genre had its own romance, and true farming was supposed to be done amidst hordes of zombies to get that real rush.
I used to look down on those players, but now that this had become my reality, my perspective had completely shifted.
"As expected, eating food someone else prepared is always the sweetest."
I opened the vehicle doors, stuffed the supplies inside them into my bag, and rapidly filled up my backpack.
Since the supplies were packed in boxes, the weight piled up quickly, but with every added pound, the grin on my face only grew wider.
"Huh? What the...?"
That was when one of them noticed.
He hadn't spotted me, but he'd noticed the missing supplies.
I hadn't just swiped a thing or two; I'd swept up literally everything left out in the open. It would have been stranger if he hadn't noticed the empty space.
"Where did all this go?"
"Huh?"
"What do you mean 'huh'? Shit, call the others right—"
Bang!
This is why I hate sharp-witted bastards.
Leaving the idiots who were still stammering in confusion, I put a bullet right through the head of the guy who was trying to run.
At the same time, I activated my newly acquired "Quickly" and "Slowly" skills in tandem, planting bullets into the skulls of the remaining four.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
The duration was 17 seconds, but since I could cancel it at will, I could pull off some highly dramatic effects.
Even though it was a pistol, the gunshots rang out so rapidly they sounded like a single burst of four rounds, and all of them collapsed simultaneously.
"Damn."
Not bad.
With the nuisances dealt with, I was about to finish packing the rest of the supplies when armed forces, alerted by the gunshots, poured into the garage.
Seeing them all armed with guns, they were definitely no ordinary faction.
Muzzles were aimed in my direction.
But other gunshots rang out first.
Bang, bang, bang!
Accompanied by the covering fire of Oh Yoon-seop and the Hunting Squad, who had already taken up positions and were aiming down their sights...
...the gunfight at Dong Seoul Terminal began.