Chapter 39

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Translator: Ace

Chapter: 039

Chapter Title: S-rank Hunter Kang Jun-chi - [2]

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I didn't know the exact situation, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he looked really desperate. I suppressed even my usual cutesy speech patterns and typed out a quick reply.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker: Location

Ⓢ Kang: Bukhansan, entering the Eunpyeong course

Kang Jun-chi sent a bunch of details about where he was, then followed up with this message.

Ⓢ Kang: And bring a weapon. Nothing too flashy. Can't have it drawing attention.

I had no idea why it couldn't draw attention, but I followed his instructions without question.

I grabbed just a combat hammer and a single pistol, then teleported outside.

I flagged down a taxi and hurriedly said,

"Break every traffic light if you have to—just go as fast as possible. I'll pay you triple!"

As the taxi sped along, I wondered why he'd called me. Why me, of all people?

The request for a weapon suggested it might be urgent. Should I have brought the Hunter Rifle instead?

But in Seoul, carrying automatic firearms capable of full-auto fire is illegal. Unlike Incheon hunters who just toss their guns at home after a hunt, Seoul hunters have to turn them in at the police station every time and check them out again before heading out. (Technically, the law applies in Incheon too, but cops and hunters there are too lazy to bother.)

And besides, there was already an S-rank Hunter there. If even he couldn't handle it, then whether I showed up with a Hunter Rifle or a BB gun wouldn't make a difference.

That thought calmed my impatience a bit, but his messages revealed his own urgency.

Ⓢ Kang: You are coming, right?

Ⓐ BabyBerserker: On my way!

Ⓢ Kang: Hurry as fast as you can, please.

Ⓐ BabyBerserker: Can you explain the situation? It'd be easier to prepare if I knew!

Ⓢ Kang: No can do. Someone might see the messages. I'll explain when you get here—just come.

After that, a few more messages pinged in, checking how far I'd gotten. He seemed extremely anxious.

But without any explanation of what was going on, there was nothing I could prepare.

To soothe my nerves and kill time, I pulled up YouTube.

I typed in "Kang Jun-chi," and a bunch of videos popped up.

Videos claiming he was likely the world's strongest Awakener, national pride clips reveling in the fact that such a legendary figure was Korean, defense ministry promos covering operations he'd joined...

One title caught my eye.

"A Man Stronger Than a Hydrogen Bomb."

I clicked it like I was hypnotized. The background was the ocean.

A massive wave engulfed the warship atop which Kang Jun-chi rode a container ship. It was big enough to flip a 40,000-ton vessel, but when Kang Jun-chi glanced at it, the water composing the wave froze mid-surf, losing its energy and collapsing unnaturally downward, like it had turned to ice.

Then the entire ocean in the frame began to move.

The vast expanse of seawater surged away, as if an invisible dam had appeared.

A void opened in the middle of the sea, untouched by the water.

And in that empty space, a colossal sea monster was revealed—a shark at least a kilometer long, big enough to swallow a blue whale whole. Without water, it could only flap its fins helplessly in place.

Kang Jun-chi stared at the sea monster with impassive eyes. He did nothing but look, yet in the next instant, its absurdly massive body compressed as if skipping all the intermediate steps.

It flattened out like something from a cartoon...

The title mentioned "hydrogen bomb," so the comments were full of H-bomb talk.

I read them one by one, engrossed, until the taxi came to a stop.

Bukhansan. The mountain whose name hinted that Seoul might as well be part of North Korea. That's where Kang Jun-chi was.

Like a lost hiker, he probably didn't know his exact position and had only given a rough location. But that didn't matter.

I spread out my mental net from the approximate spot he'd described, locked onto him, and teleported.

"Kang Jun-chi?"

And there he was. Korea's one and only S-rank Hunter, Kang Jun-chi.

He spotted me and his eyes widened.

"Oh, you came? Good thing you're not late. Thanks so mu—"

The moment our eyes met, I felt myself being sucked into somewhere.

The hallucination began.

I see a mushroom cloud rising in the distance.

It's my doing.

To be precise, the tactical nuke I detonated.

Regret over the irreversible act mixes with the grim pleasure of finally raising a mushroom cloud over Korean soil.

No ant could have survived that blast. Cockroaches might survive nukes, but those in the radius wouldn't have left even a trace...

Yet a large mammal—neither cockroach nor crustacean—emerges from the space where the cloud dissipates.

It's a human. An Awakener, too.

Ignoring the nuclear devastation behind him, he approaches step by step.

At a glance, he's an ordinary guy. Not drop-dead handsome, but not ugly enough to get turned away at a club. Height around 176 cm—not remarkably tall or short.

This average-looking Korean guy, just a notch above the norm, is Korea's sole S-rank.

'This crazy bastard.'

Kang Jun-chi. I'd detonated a nuke right in his bedroom while he slept, yet not a hair on his head is singed.

Suddenly, I recall that video and its comments.

"A Man Stronger Than a Hydrogen Bomb." People debated if he could survive a nuke. Most figured even a superhuman was just one body and couldn't.

They were all wrong.

He's completely fine. No cracks in the force field enveloping him. No scorched lungs from the heat, no cellular breakdown from radiation.

Force field exoskeleton users often have filters that purify harmful elements, and apparently Kang's did too—blocking heat and radiation entirely.

A chill runs through me. It's almost moving. Humanity's pinnacle of science, tech, and intellect—the fearsome nuke—couldn't harm this one ordinary-looking man.

It's a superhuman's victory over human civilization, one individual's triumph over the species.

And a moment of despair. He's a natural disaster standing before me.

"Just to be sure, that was you, right?"

Kang asks, but I don't answer. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠try to teleport. It fails.

"You targeting me specifically?"

Another failure. Why?

Teleportation is hard if your body's pinned somewhere solid. Seems like that's the case.

His doing? But Awakener abilities can't be used directly on each other. How?

Looking down, the concrete floor has swallowed my ankles. I didn't even feel it happen—it must've been instantaneous.

"I've never wronged you... Never even met you. What grudge could make you do this?"

Finally, I speak.

"Because of you, Behemoth can't even come to Seoul if it wants to."

Kang's face twists. He seems about to unleash a torrent of words, lips twitching for a while before he bites them and says curtly,

"You motherfucking terrorist. You're done."

His average height, looks, voice—even his threats sound ordinary.

But nothing he does is ordinary.

Not even a casual glance.

He glances at a building. A high-rise that looks abandoned.

The structure, which would require tons of explosives to demolish, floats lightly into the air.

Truly "lightly." Lighter than pulling weeds. Easier than lifting pre-tied cornstalks...

And what's easy to lift is easy to throw.

The rooftop aims at me, and the building hurtles toward me like an arrow... No, not quite. My mental net gauges its speed—near supersonic.

Kang doesn't even seem to strain, yet that's the result.

As the building fills my vision, my enhanced nerves let my final thoughts linger unusually long.

Wonderful last sight before death. That building looks more dangerous than a meteor strike, and the aftermath will be massive...

Finally, rage at failing to achieve my goal, despair at accepting death, sorrow that my life ends in the worst way possible fill my mind.

Then faces of my little sister, Baek Dam-bi, Councilor Park Mi-hyeong, and other loved ones flash by.

That's it.

No pain.

Not even time for a single tear. My life ends, and I'm expelled from the hallucination.

I gasped for breath. I'd felt that rage and sorrow before—it was familiar.

The recurring dream I'd had lately... Waking from it always left me with this bitter anger, despair, and grief.

So the hallucination was the end of that dream. It always ended with the nuke, so I'd assumed I died in it too. Turns out there was more.

I wiped away a stray tear and looked at Kang Jun-chi. After such a shocking scene, it was hard to see him as ordinary.

That's why I didn't notice the anomaly right away.

Only then did I take in his state, and my eyes widened.

"Kang Jun-chi? You're bleeding..."

He was covered in blood. His T-shirt was soaked red, and the dirt below bore clear stains. How?

Next to him lay a Deathclaw corpse, mangled beyond recognition.

Kang nodded at it and said,

"That bastard... Got slashed by the Deathclaw."

I doubted my ears. What was this guy saying?

"Pardon? A Deathclaw?"

"No, fuck—I definitely broke all its limbs! No idea how, but the damn thing suddenly leaped up and slashed me..."

He rambled on with curses for a while. I listened in bewilderment until he seemed to finish.

He sighed and said gravely,

"At this rate, I'm gonna die."

"You're bleeding a lot, but not life-threateningly so..."

"No. Feels ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like it cut deep inside."

"You're exaggerating..."

"Not exaggerating. I look fine 'cause I'm holding the split organs together with my force field! First time trying it, but I'm barely clinging to life. If it fails, I'm dead, okay?"

He babbled more: apparently a vital organ like his lung or heart was badly severed. The force field kept it together for now, but if his focus slipped, it'd vanish and he'd die.

I tried to grasp the situation.

"How'd you end up alone in the mountains tangling with a Deathclaw? Not here on an extermination request, surely..."

"Sounds insane, but... I pick on things to relieve stress...?"

"I know. I watched all your videos."

My words made him blink.

"Really? Oh, I checked out all your HuntWeb posts too. Hilarious seeing a musclebound hunk like you talk like that. The recent one about teddy bear panties was tough to stomach, but anyway..."

"I wanted to de-stress and shoot new content. But I'm too famous now, or today's just bad luck—no one to mess with. Saw some street smokers, thought about punishing them..."

"Didn't you already post your eleventh smoker smackdown video? Viewers seem bored—recent ones have way fewer comments."

"Yeah, you really watched them all... True, lots of my viewers smoke, so those vids flop."

"So..."

"Decided to switch it up—punish something non-human. An animal. But bullying hamsters or pigeons pricks my conscience. Stray dogs or cats might have demand, but I like dogs and cats..."

So he'd settled on abusing animals that wouldn't bother his conscience, especially infamous monsters like Deathclaws. An S-rank toying with a beast that terrified regular hunters seemed fun, he said.

Subduing the Deathclaw wasn't hard. Direct force fields on bodies didn't matter—he could use them indirectly with ease.

He'd immobilized the charging Deathclaw in a fraction of a second and spent tens of minutes wrecking its body through torture when the incident happened.

The supposedly helpless Deathclaw suddenly sprang up. Its hook claws tore through even his force field, slicing into his organs.

Speculating now about latent force field exoskeleton traits or stress-induced awakening was pointless.

Kang said weakly,

"Anyway, take me to a doctor, yeah? If I stay like this, I'll die..."

I nodded, but couldn't shake the bewilderment and stared blankly.

I couldn't make sense of this.

Minutes ago, I'd shuddered seeing him unscathed in a nuclear blast. Now this same man was whining about dying to a single Deathclaw. How was I supposed to process that?