Chapter 26
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 026
Chapter Title: B-Rank Hunter Naito Merchant - [3]
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We kept moving from one neighborhood to the next. As I spread out my mental net to scout, I frowned.
"There's a pack of Deathclaws in the sewers too."
"Sewers?"
I relayed the details: the number of monsters, the location of the sewer where they were lurking, and the three nearby manholes they could emerge from.
One of the hunters grinned.
"This should be a breeze this time. We split into teams, station ourselves at those manholes you mentioned, and pour on the firepower."
"Any chance they won't come out the manholes and bust through the ceiling instead?"
"Doubt it. We can slice through walls and shove them aside, but cutting the ceiling? All that concrete and dirt comes crashing down—total hassle. Plus, it's pretty thick, so it'd take them a while to break through their way."
With that, we split into three teams to wipe out the rest of them.
First, the team I was on, and the one with Baek Dam-bi (I'd sent her there to draw the Deathclaws' attacks from the front line, figuring it'd boost the other hunters' survival odds—and she didn't seem at all displeased to be used that way).
And finally, the team led by Naito Merchant...
I eyed the sewer entrance in front of me and broadcasted the monsters' movements to everyone via radio.
Two heading toward Baek Dam-bi... and three toward Naito, so get ready...
Once I'd passed the info to the other teams, I narrowed the range of my mental net. I had to prepare for the monsters about to emerge right in front of us.
The instant three Deathclaws burst out, my team and I opened fire as one, dropping them all.
"Nice!"
Our side took them down without a scratch. What about the others?
I expanded my mental net again. Baek Dam-bi's team had handled their share cleanly too.
I was just about to check on Naito Merchant's group.
The radio blared.
Help! It's Naito Merchant's side—help us!
I shot my mental net toward them and asked urgently.
"How many?"
Two... we only took down one! And one of them won't go down even after getting shot!
From the description, it was a Force Field Body. My monster to handle.
I teleported there immediately, but there was no Force Field Body around. Just one hunter gushing blood from his nearly severed neck and two others groaning from limb wounds.
Where were the Force Field Body and the other monsters?
An engine roared in the distance. Blaring music came with it.
I turned toward the noise and spotted them.
Two Deathclaws were chasing a single biker.
And only one hunter had brought a bike today.
Naito Merchant.
I watched the Japanese man racing along on his silver bike, blasting his shotgun at the monsters pursuing him, with the two Deathclaws hot on his tail. Make that one now—one that had been about to pounce on him got blasted by his shotgun and dropped dead.
But the Force Field Body was still unscathed, bearing down on him. As I focused to teleport, I kept watching the scene unfold.
The Force Field Body closed the gap and kicked off the ground to leap—just then, Naito Merchant leaned both his bike and body aside in one fluid motion. An impossible dodge without scrutinizing the monster's every twitch and predicting what came next.
Naito Merchant swerved his bike to evade the near-miss, pulling a sharp turn to head another way—while keeping his upper body twisted backward.
He kept firing his shotgun at the Force Field Body chasing him again. He had to know those shots were useless. Why bother?
To keep the damn thing fixated on him. The gunfire was his way of roaring, I'm still attacking you, so stick with me even if I'm hard to catch—don't go after the others. If that monster rampaged among the other hunters instead, they'd all be dead.
No other reason made sense. Even in this life-or-death frenzy where every beat mattered, I could tell from his eyes locked straight on the monster. The music blaring from his bike was probably to lure it too.
Meanwhile, both the Force Field Body and Naito Merchant were moving at absurd speeds. Pinpointing a teleport spot to get close was a nightmare...
It took time, but I finally nailed it.
I materialized right beside them. The Force Field Body barreled straight ahead. As I raised my hunter rifle and squeezed the trigger at its flank—the same instant Naito Merchant pulled his shotgun's trigger—our eyes met.
In that split second, incredibly, Naito Merchant's gaze flicked between me, who had appeared right in front of him, and the Force Field Body. I'd never seen dynamic vision like that, not even in my UFC days.
And then—bang—five times.
Five autocannon rounds spat from my hunter rifle tore the Force Field Body to shreds.
"Whoa!"
Only then did Naito Merchant lower his shotgun. He looked at me again and flashed a relieved smile.
His eyes finally sparked with life. The composure in those eyes—calmer than easy mode on a console game—gave way to real emotion at last.
"You got here less than a minute after my radio call? Teleportation is the real deal! An Awakener hunter with top-tier specs is basically in multiple places at once..."
Was this guy cracking wise, or sucking up?
Neither. He was genuinely relieved, that much was clear.
So he'd been that steady even while tensed up. And he was just a non-Awakener...
"You hurt anywhere?"
"Thanks to you!"
We wrapped up the aftermath swiftly after that.
I teleported the two injured hunters and the dead one to the hospital, then returned to the scene.
Blood stench hit my nose right away. A pool from the hunter whose neck was half severed. I'd gotten him to the hospital, but that puddle's size didn't bode well for survival.
Yeah, we took down another pack. This one had a Force Field Body mixed in—extra pay...?
The first death hit me like a brick, freezing me up. The other hunters? Not so much.
"Damn, a Force Field Body shows up and we only lose one? Gotta buy a lottery ticket."
From their faces alone, you couldn't tell whose teammate had died.
They all looked casually somber, casually nonchalant.
That day, we bagged 59 Deathclaws and one unidentified monster (nothing special about it—gates spit out new species all the time, like undiscovered critters popping up in the Amazon jungle).
It was an astonishing haul for just one day.
Proof came that evening on the broadcast news.
The Incheon district restoration project has kicked off smoothly. In a seven-hour operation, a total of sixty monsters were slain, fully clearing two neighborhoods (...)
Compared to the Eagle Operation, where 10,000 reservists mobilized only to suffer eighteen missing and five dead for a single monster kill, this is incomparable...
The world had really changed.
By my standards, starting the op with casualties and injuries was a horrific stroke of bad luck. But the news framed it as a remarkably smooth start.
While I'd been casually doing my human rights thing, the world had toughened up this much.
Hunter Kim Geuk, who led this project, once again displayed astonishing prowess in Incheon last time...
After my workout and shower, I logged into HuntWeb.
I started drafting a post in my usual flowery style but stopped. Posting on the day one of my op's casualties happened felt like mocking the dead.
Instead of writing, I decided to just browse.
I searched for Naito Merchant on HuntWeb.
As expected from a celebrity, posts about him flooded out.
I learned quite a bit about him.
He wasn't just famous as a streamer—he was renowned as an incredibly skilled hunter. Or rather, his skills had made him a streaming star.
He even had another nickname online besides Naito Merchant.
'B-rank Hunter'.
Hunter ranks didn't include B-grade originally. There were only A-rank for Awakeners and S-rank for those who transcended them.
So this was a title unique to him: as a non-Awakener, he couldn't fill an A-rank hunter's role of dumping firepower on tough nuts like Force Field Bodies, but he handled everything just below that.
Unlike the negative connotations of 'B-rank,' it was purely a badge of praise.
A nickname that wasn't mockery? Rare as hell online. His skills must've blown minds...
I narrowed my eyes and kept clicking away.
A system notification popped up—a new message.
From him.
I'm reaching out to apologize. I looked up that comment you mentioned, and yeah, it was totally understandable why you'd be pissed—insulting a teammate like that. It was just a thoughtless one-liner at the time, but I was reckless and rude. Having met Baek Dam-bi in person now, she's more than capable in her role, so she didn't deserve that from me.
I'm also sorry for the post where I nosily brought up your criminal record and such.
I've deleted the offending comment and post. I could apologize a thousand times and it wouldn't be enough, but I'm truly sorry.
Ideally, I'd apologize to Baek Dam-bi directly too, but that'd mean telling her some jerk posted trash about her online, which might just upset her. Feels selfish to ease my conscience that way. I'll think it over carefully.
And Kim Geuk? Your skills today were every bit as legendary as the rumors! Deeply grateful for the backup in that pinch!
Hope next time we meet, we can greet each other with smiles. Rest well!
I'd heard Japanese people don't apologize easily, but clearly not all of them. This was one hell of a sincere letter—hadn't seen one this polished in ages.
After reading his message, I shut down the computer right away.
Then I mulled over the day's events and that Japanese guy.
He definitely fit the image I'd had of a veteran non-Awakener hunter.
Still, I doubted I'd ever warm up to him.