Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Scout (2)
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Once again today, the world was buzzing hot because of me.
"What a shitstorm."
Of course, even in the middle of that chaos, I kept my cool.
Hot when starting fires, cold when using my brain.
That's me, Jeong Do-jin, the blazing cool guy.
...Tremble tremble tremble tremble tremble.
My hands shaking? That's just manners mode.
I'm Jeong Do-jin, a gentleman who stays polite 24/7.
"Soju, fuck, where's my soju?"
I dumped the pills I'd bought from the convenience store into my mouth.
My heart immediately calmed down. This is real qingxin huj, fuck yeah.
"Hoo..."
I blew out a sigh of relief and checked the TV.
News from around the world about the broadcast ban law!
Boiling it down, the gist was this.
Hunter live broadcasts from gates are banned, but broadcasts via summons don't violate the law.
"Guess I don't have to worry about jail time anymore."
I turned off the TV and flopped face-first onto the bed.
As soon as I sprawled out, my worries reared their head again.
I still had no clue how to clear the Sealed Tower.
'If I could just use magic right, the trash mobs would be a cakewalk.'
Truth be told, if things had gone normally, I should've had at least one mage-type summon by now.
If my predictions hadn't gone wrong, that is.
'...Tch, what a shame. If I'd even made that defending mad skeleton my summon, the Sealed Tower would've been a piece of cake.'
The boss of the Absolute Defense Line: Defending Mad Skeleton.
That guy was one reason I'd targeted the Absolute Defense Line in the first place.
Undead-fying the boss mob after Queen Elizabeth!
If that worked, my party would finally have a mage.
A summon that could deal damage and support.
'Tried over ten times, and it all failed, though.'
Why did it fail?
The little ghosts couldn't harvest its soul.
'No idea what the conditions are for the Undead Rise skill to work.'
Couldn't be because it's a boss mob—Queen Elizabeth, another boss, worked fine.
"If I'd even hit level 10..."
I scratched my head while staring at my king-god status window.
My level was still 9 right now.
'Level 10 would give me a new skill...'
All hunters get new skills every 5 levels.
That was the main way hunters acquired skills.
'What I got at level 5 was Corpse Explosion.'
Skills are crucial.
They're the only way to get stronger besides stats and gear.
'Problem is, which skill manifests is random.'
Skills tend to fit a job class.
Healers get buffs or heals mostly.
That's why skill reset scrolls sell for top dollar.
'Oh yeah, gate clear rewards or skillbooks too.'
Neither had anything to do with low-rank hunters like me.
Hunter life is such a luck-based shitshow.
Plus, it was overly optimistic anyway.
No guarantee it'd be a summon skill.
'Even if it was, might not be a mage-type summon.'
Might be faster to undead-fy a mage-type monster instead.
"I heard even named summons like El Ayla get skills every 10 levels too... Ah."
That's when it hit me, like a puzzle piece clicking into place.
The mystery of why I couldn't undead-fy the defending mad skeleton.
'That bastard was already undead when it fought me.'
I groaned and crossed my arms.
'No way it undead-ed itself.'
Become undead on its own and keep its sanity?
Fuck, that'd make it a lich.
'Too weak for a lich, though. It was just a regular skeleton mage.'
Not an undead mage that overcame death on its own.
That was my conclusion.
'Someone else's necromancer's undead corpse!'
An undead that already had an owner!
That had to be the defending mad skeleton's true nature.
A sigh escaped my lips once the thought process wrapped up.
It made perfect sense that way.
"No wonder I couldn't make it my minion if it has an owner."
I'd tried to steal someone else's summon.
Of course Undead Rise failed.
Still, that conclusion sparked some curiosity.
'Who the hell turned that guy into an undead?'
Obviously not a human awakener or hunter.
The defending mad skeleton was a gate monster hunted and revived 43 times over.
'Whatever. I'll find out when I hit the Sealed Tower.'
I shelved the conclusion for now.
Gate 'Sealed Tower' was the Absolute Defense Line's chain gate.
Didn't seem unrelated to the mad skeleton.
I'd find the answers there without overthinking it.
Though it was a bit surprising.
'Who'd have thought the Absolute Defense Line had a storyline gate.'
Gates connect to different worlds.
Strictly speaking, to the past of those worlds.
No cases where the gate's world connected back to Earth, though.
'A snapshot of some world at a specific time.'
That's the essence of gates.
At least, that's the expert guess.
'We assume it's the past because identical gates keep popping up dozens of times.'
This Absolute Defense Line clear was the same.
That gate had been closed multiple times before.
Yet the same dungeon kept spawning everywhere.
'Like having multiple copies of the same video.'
That's how viewers and I knew the layout.
It had 'rerun' so many times.
'The monsters inside are probably copies too.'
Like duplicate videos, for example.
'Save a NewTube video, edit it, delete the copy—none of that affects the original.'
Make gear from monster byproducts.
Pull out poisoned corpses for bombs.
Use their souls as summons.
All fine.
Mess with the copy all you want; the original doesn't change.
Besides, that 'original' is already in the past.
Gates are reenactments themselves.
'Same with the souls I undead-fy.'
I'm just screenshotting and using them however; the originals are long dead.
Good thing monsters don't have portrait rights.
'...Whatever. Not worth stressing over.'
What do I care about gate truths, fuck.
Curiosity as a hunter? Nah.
'It's like physics or biology.'
Cell structure is a cosmic mystery too.
Way more valuable than gate secrets.
But regular folks don't know the details.
No way to find out even if curious.
Gates are the same.
'Funny how no one cares about other scientific mysteries but obsesses over gates.'
A giant meteor hits, Earth ends.
99% of humanity doesn't give a shit.
Never pondered blocking it.
Doesn't affect making a living.
Wasting time theorizing randomly? Pointless.
My brain would just spit out conspiracy crap.
"Better focus on my immediate future than dumb theories."
-Ktalk!
That's when it happened. My phone pinged with a message.
I quickly opened Ktalk.
The message I'd been desperately waiting for had arrived.
A golden weekend flew by in a flash, and it was Sunday.
4 PM was a perfect time to meet someone.
Not close enough for lunch or all-day hangs, but experience told me it worked fine.
Saturday's out. It's the precious first day of the weekend.
Get called out by a near-stranger? Kinda off-putting.
Sunday morning's bad too.
Time to sleep off Saturday's fun.
But by Sunday 4 PM, most people are up.
Sleep longer, and the whole weekend's wasted.
Fine if they have dinner plans.
Wrap my business in an hour.
They just leave a bit early.
Time slipped by to late December's end-of-year vibe.
Not too late, not too early—right before dinner.
1-2 hours with a not-so-close acquaintance won't make their face twist in annoyance.
Maybe that's why.
When I arrived at the meeting spot, the person waiting for me didn't look pissed.
The total opposite for me—I gaped like an idiot.
"You're ten minutes early. Good manners."
A beautiful blonde woman sitting on the bench.
She wasn't my appointment.
"...Why are you here, miss?"
"The guild member you were close with had urgent business. I was free, so I came instead."
"Ah, I see."
Hey, if you're gonna bullshit, at least make it less obvious.
'Free my ass. How could you be free?'
Korea's most famous summoner-class hunter.
The mixed-blood woman handed me her business card and said,
"First time meeting in person. Nice to meet you, Hunter Yeoto."
"...Nice to meet you? That greeting suits me more, Miss Iyan."
Her name was Iyan.
The Ilryun Guild master's own daughter.
Also Korea's one and only A-Rank summoner-class hunter.