Chapter 35
Chapter 35
5. Seoul Expansion -2
"No."
Why was it getting bigger? That shouldn't have been possible, should it?
And where did they get the materials, where is the food coming from? Why are the buildings lit up? They don't even look like important buildings—are they wasting electricity like crazy just to show off Seoul's power?
Park Dusik shook his head as he pulled his gaze away from the telescope.
What he was most curious about was the food.
With forest covering everything in every direction, there'd be no one to trade with, so how could they possibly keep that many people scraping by? Were they risking death to try farming?
Since the Gate Incident, farming had become a life-or-death gamble. In a world where plants turned into monsters, finding intact, edible crop seeds was one problem—but planting them wasn't the end of it either.
If even a little monster spore drifting in the air got in, the plant mutated. Yesterday it was a tasty crop; today it was a monster treating the farmer as the tasty meal.
So what if you cultivated in a greenhouse or underground facility completely sealed off from the outside? Then magic power became the problem. Plants exposed to seeping magic power mutated at a certain probability.
And plants next to a mutated plant mutated over time as well.
All told, farming was a 4D occupation where you never knew when or how a landmine would go off, and if you didn't respond fast, the whole field was gone.
So you had to proceed with extreme caution, alongside hunter manpower—and even then, yields were obviously terrible. That was why farming had been a last resort even in the Hunter Monarchy era.
Park Dusik, who had been agonizing over this mystery, arrived at the answer after thirty minutes of deliberation.
"⋯⋯I've got it, I've got it!"
There were quite a few unopened bunkers near Seoul. If they'd looted one of those, Seoul's sudden growth made sense. It would be piled high with materials and food.
But the only bunkers that hadn't been looted by now were the ones located in heavily contaminated forest. Which meant that expedition must have burned through an enormous amount of stamina!
Plenty of hunters must have died. If they'd brought civilians along as meat shields, they would have died too, and that Noah Won bastard might have been badly hurt as well.
"Heh heh heh⋯⋯ So that's why you left the lights on even in worthless civilian buildings! You were bluffing that you're still this strong! I've seen through it all, Noah Won! I've seen through every thought in your head!"
Park Dusik slapped his knee at his own genius for seeing through the scheme.
Then this was an opportunity. An opportunity!
A golden chance to swallow up everything—the resources Noah Won and his Seoul hunters had bled to scrape together, the buildings they'd raised, and even the non-hunter civilians they'd been using!
But it was too big for him to swallow alone. He didn't know the exact extent of Seoul's damage, but the manpower he had was just himself, a B-rank hunter, and one C-rank hunter under him. Seoul would have more than that.
It galled him to have to share this with others, but he shouldn't get greedy. He decided he'd gather the raiders he knew.
Park Dusik cleared his throat and shouted.
"You there, lackey! Send a letter to the subway side! Tell them Seoul fell into my trap and took massive damage, so they should bring all their forces and come up!"
"Y-yes⋯⋯? A trap, sir?"
"Yes! I schemed to make those bastards crack open the bunker for me. But this is no time to be impressed. Prepare for war! Arm all ten slaves and attack Seoul!"
"Uh, um⋯⋯ A trap, boss? There are people coming down from the direction of Seoul. Did you lure them into a trap too?"
"What?"
Startled, Park Dusik looked north.
Sure enough, five hunters were coming down the road.
You could tell whether someone was a hunter just by looking at their eyes. Their pupils held a peculiar confidence—the confidence that they could accomplish something even in this world.
The important thing was what rank they were. They didn't look⋯⋯ high-ranked. For one thing, their faces weren't familiar. Park Dusik stood slouched with his arms crossed and yelled first.
"Stop! Who are you!"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
They didn't answer. They just quietly started muttering among themselves. He caught scattered fragments—something about the boss still weeding, something about the face matching the description. And then.
One of them stepped forward and spoke. It was a woman⋯⋯ wearing an old school uniform, burned and frayed all over.
Looking closely, a name tag, nearly half torn off, dangled from the uniform. Lee Hyejin.
"You're B-rank hunter Park Dusik, right?"
"Yeah!"
"You look just like I heard. One of your refugees escaped to Seoul once. From what I heard, you work civilians with no abilities almost like slaves⋯⋯"
Again.
Again with this nonsense!
Frustrated and furious, Park Dusik pounded his chest.
"That same old tiresome story again? Pathetic bastards! You got power and you still want to live that grubbily?! Does it make any sense for a lion to go around sucking up to rabbits⋯⋯!"
Just as he was about to raise his voice, the Seoul hunter let out a small laugh and said.
"True."
"⋯⋯What?"
"I think so too. Why should hunters have to suck up to useless freeloaders? Huh? It's annoying when they run their mouths without even knowing who's protecting their lives. The world's already ruined anyway—might as well live it up like in a comic. Right?"
She turned around and looked to her subordinates for agreement. At that, they casually tossed out a line each, as if this were an everyday occurrence.
"There goes Hyejin again."
"You're gonna get another earful from the boss."
Thrown off by the unexpected reaction, Park Dusik stammered.
"⋯⋯Th-then what is it?"
Before the answer—
Whoosh—!!
Blue flames blazed up, coiling around Lee Hyejin's body. Backlit by the light she herself created, she smiled with dark shadows cast across her face.
"But the person who saved my life likes that kind of thing, so what can I do? Even a man-eating tiger rolls over and shows its belly to its keeper, doesn't it?"
"Y-you're going to fight?!"
"Yes. We've got more numbers⋯⋯ and you're the same B-rank as me, right? But I win every fight unless I'm up against someone above my rank. Everyone—I'll pin that bastard down. Clean up the rest and bring the citizens out. Let's finish before Captain Noah gets here."
At that, the four hunters under Lee Hyejin scattered in an instant, slipping past Park Dusik and trespassing into the territory he ruled. Soon the sounds of fighting came from inside.
Park Dusik ground his teeth and drew up his power. Some young blue-faced girl acting like she'd already won—his pride couldn't take it.
Judging by the output of her flames, the B-rank claim seemed true. Hunters of the same rank had roughly equal output. Training didn't increase it. So what decided a fight was the compatibility between abilities.
Which was why Park Dusik was certain of victory before the fight even began.
His skill was called 『Earth Dragon Art』—the power to control the earth. And didn't flames die out helplessly when buried under dirt! The abilities themselves were in a perfect hierarchy!
"Very well! I, Park Dusik, B-rank hunter and knight of the Hunter Monarchy, shall face you with my mighty 『Earth Dragon Art』!!"
"⋯⋯You're loud."
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble-!
Dirt climbed up Park Dusik's body, forming armor of rock. Immediately, Lee Hyejin extended her arm and poured out blue flames. A torrent of intense heat radiated out, sweeping over where Park Dusik stood.
Whoosh— ssssss!
But Park Dusik's rock armor was unscathed. The flame blast couldn't pierce the armor. The accumulating heat, too, could be vented by steadily swapping the armor with fresh dirt from the ground.
Thud, thud-thud-thud-thud!
He charged straight ahead.
Was she shocked that her ability didn't work? Lee Hyejin just stood there blankly, doing nothing.
Well, it wouldn't be strange if she gave up. How could she win when her ability didn't work?
At first he'd meant to kill her. But on second thought, that seemed like a waste. If he trapped her in a mound of dirt, knocked her out, and then 'persuaded' her over a long, long time to join his team⋯⋯
"Was it called 『Quick Flash』⋯⋯"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯?"
"Hup."
Crunch.
With a short breath, a sharp pain erupted around Park Dusik's solar plexus. He let out a choked exhale and looked down—the solar plexus of his rock armor was caved in, shaped like a fist.
A punch.
"H-how⋯⋯ did⋯⋯"
"It works. So this is 『Martial Arts』⋯⋯? You really can get stronger by practicing. Unlike that blue fire that doesn't even raise my core temperature by one degree no matter how long I use it."
Park Dusik's mind raced.
Had she put magic power into her fist? No, that kind of technique couldn't produce this much force. That was common knowledge. For hunters, the power received at awakening was everything!
Then there was only one possibility. A flame ability user had been hiding nearby out of sight, and Lee Hyejin was actually a physical enhancement type. She'd cunningly set a trap to deceive Park Dusik! Filled with indignation, he shouted.
"Y-you coward! Fight me fairly, one at a time!"
"I don't even like fair fights, and if two of us really had come, we obviously would've handled you together⋯⋯ but right now, it's just one of us."
Lee Hyejin straightened her hand and held it upright.
Above her short-clipped nails and rough, calloused hand, blue flames rose. Her output might not increase, but experience accumulated. Through the daily practice of setting her own body on fire, she had reached the point where her own flames no longer harmed her.
And to this, she added the discipline Noah Won had brought back from another world. The 『Martial Arts』 that moved magic power along the body's meridians according to specific rules, producing explosive force through that coordination.
A thrust wreathed in flame.
"『Azure-Flame Quick Flash (靑炎快閃)』."
Shhk— BOOM!!
Her fingertips pierced the hard rock armor, and from that point, flames exploded. Park Dusik went flying, trailing thick black smoke.
The flames at the moment of that explosion clearly displayed greater power than the flames Lee Hyejin normally used.
"Gyaaaah!"
The airborne bulk of his body flew about three meters and rolled across the ground with a thud. And soon, it stopped moving.
Lee Hyejin slowly approached the fallen Park Dusik. It hadn't been a killing blow, so the odds were high he was still alive. She'd have to watch for a surprise attack.
She thought Park Dusik's words weren't entirely wrong. On this Earth, where the established theory was that a hunter had only one ability, if someone had seized something comparable to an ability—
Then they were effectively two people in one, no different from a dual ability user.
"But I would've caught you even without this power. Your ability seems to be earth control, so how can you have such a broken ability and only use it that badly⋯⋯? No, hmm. Maybe my fire got stronger. But that can't be."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Lee Hyejin fell into brief confusion. It had felt like something—like flames that had been suppressed suddenly flaring up. Along with some kind of flower scent⋯⋯
No, work came first. She decided to ask Noah about this part later.
"For now, don't resist any more. Noah said to quietly erase any hunter with bad intentions, but your ability's useful, so I'll take you with me for now. Put a leash on you and put you to work on construction and— wait."
No sign of life.
Lee Hyejin dashed over to where Park Dusik lay. But only the rock armor sat there empty—the actual contents were gone. Beneath it, she saw a deep hole.
"⋯⋯He bolted?"
Literally, the man had sunk into the ground.
Lee Hyejin tried hurling fireballs into the hole, but in the end she couldn't catch the fleeing Park Dusik. She let out a hollow laugh and perched on a nearby rock. How could a person just turn into a mole like that⋯⋯
Then she soon realized.
"Wait, if it's 『Earth Dragon Art』⋯⋯ a worm?"
According to Noah, Park Dusik had apparently been at the scene when the Hunter Monarchy collapsed. She'd wondered how a mere B-rank hunter had escaped from there under Noah's nose.
He'd had an ability specialized for running away.
Park Dusik was running through the subway station. Unless they were a teleporter, no one could chase him this far, but he was in a hurry, so he ran just in case.
"Damn it, damn it⋯⋯!"
He'd lost the territory he'd worked so hard to build. The vicious invaders from Seoul had taken his people, too, every last one. He couldn't leave it like this. He had to take it back.
"Lee Hyejin, was it⋯⋯ If she's got physical enhancement and flame control together, she must be an A-rank hunter. God damn it, she lied and said B-rank to make me drop my guard! Cunning bitch⋯⋯!"
An A-rank hunter.
Her face wasn't in Park Dusik's memory, so she must be an A-rank hunter who'd newly awakened after the monarchy's fall!
"In that case, she might be in conflict with Noah Won⋯⋯"
Two suns cannot rise in one sky. And hadn't Lee Hyejin even affirmed the Hunter Monarchy's ideology? Then she must have harbored grievances against Noah Won, and maybe, going further⋯⋯ Noah Won might have been purged!
"Ah!"
Now it all made sense.
Why would Seoul, which had stayed quiet all this time, suddenly come out raiding? Why would they attack Park Dusik's territory and strip away his people? The leadership of Seoul had changed!
"Yes, Noah Won barely cracked open a bunker to save dying Seoul, and meanwhile that woman Lee Hyejin, who'd been waiting for her chance, usurped the throne. Heh heh⋯⋯ But if that's the case, this is an opportunity!"
A ray of hope flashed.
Park Dusik ran panting into Gangnam Station Exit 2. There were people standing guard there, but they were civilians, not hunters, so he just shoved past them.
And soon he was able to meet face-to-face with one of the Hunter Monarchy remnants scattered through the subway stations—Kim Woomin.
"You little shit Dusik, what face are you showing up in my territory with? If you're here to pick a fight, I'm not just gonna sit here⋯⋯"
"This is our chance to take Seoul! Noah Won's been purged, and the one ruling Seoul now is just one A-rank flame-type hunter! Without that Noah Won bastard, you can counter a flame-type ability user, can't you!"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!! Is that true?!"
"Yeah! Call everyone you can reach! Bring them all and hit Seoul, and we'll split the supplies and people there fairly!"
For about an hour, they jabbered about how to divide up Seoul, and they succeeded in reaching a dramatic agreement. The heirs of the Hunter Monarchy, who had been hiding in the subway stations under Noah Won's oppression, were now⋯⋯ beginning to gather in one place!
[-> Download Slot 2: 『Earth Dragon Art』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 21%)]
How nice of them to gather on their own.