Chapter 99
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 099
Chapter Title: Behemoth - [2]
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Jeong Jin-yeong bit his lip as his upper and lower jaws kept clattering together. He forced his jaw tight and thought.
'I should've pretended I couldn't win and retreated when Kim Geuk hyung yelled at me to go back.'
In reality, he was older than Kim Geuk, but he'd decided to think of it that way for now. And that he should've listened to his hyung sooner.
Jeong Jin-yeong looked at Behemoth. Kim Geuk had teleported the entire team to the rear, so even from this distant position, the monster's movements were crystal clear.
A 400-meter rock spirit that had turned into a giant manticore... Staring at the colossal beast, he thought.
'This guy's treated like a joke on HuntWeb?'
It really had been that way until recently.
During the Awakener bus protest incident, when Kang Jun-chi reached it, Behemoth had started to emerge from the gate only to backpedal and retreat. After that, HuntWeb had branded it a total coward.
Just yesterday, Behemoth was still being memed with pathetic cartoon characters and ridiculed.
That recent past now felt like ancient history, impossible to believe.
He couldn't even force a mocking laugh to psych himself up, like he used to while browsing HuntWeb.
Not because he was a coward—no one could in this situation.
Even from this far remove from Behemoth, the aftershocks reached them.
The ground shuddered relentlessly, while street trees and traffic lights trembled nonstop.
Even Seong Mun-yeong and Lee Jong-ho, who loved to show off the most, had fallen silent when Jang Byeong-gon shouted a warning.
"Up on the roof!"
Jeong Jin-yeong looked up to see a massive monster glaring down at them.
The moment he spotted it, he gripped his gun tighter in horror.
It was a Deathclaw. Easily seven meters long.
How had something bigger than an elephant climbed that high?
Probably like any ordinary Deathclaw, it'd scaled the building and leaped across several more. Giant monsters always moved with a nimbleness that belied their size...
Jeong Jin-yeong squeezed the trigger madly, but the bullets wouldn't land on its massive body.
The ground shook too violently to aim. And this was far from Behemoth.
Worse, the gunfire seemed to provoke it—the giant Deathclaw leaped straight at them.
Jeong Jin-yeong sensed his end and started to close his eyes.
"You fucking bastard—!"
Kim Geuk's roar, that familiar voice—Jeong Jin-yeong's eyes snapped open.
And widened further at the sight.
Kim Geuk had appeared out of nowhere, bare-handedly halting a Deathclaw far larger than himself.
More precisely, he'd grabbed its front paws, one in each hand. Those hooked claws could shred him with the slightest touch, yet somehow he'd clung on. What courage allowed that? It was beyond comprehension.
"While hyung holds it, we'll shoot—"
Lee Jong-ho yelled urgently, but it wasn't necessary.
In the midst of wrestling the Deathclaw, Kim Geuk's muscles bulged powerfully as he ripped off one front paw.
As the Deathclaw screamed, Kim Geuk wrenched off the other.
Jeong Jin-yeong stared, mesmerized.
Kim Geuk seized the beast's neck—now missing both front legs—and tore it clean off with a surge of strength.
He unloaded his hunter rifle into the twitching body, finally stilling its struggles.
Last time with that ogre, he'd bragged about getting stronger after catching it, but this level? Unreal.
After that absurd feat, Kim Geuk muttered casually.
"These crazy monster bastards should've just stuck to the roads. Keep pulling these 3D maneuvers..."
He glanced their way, scowled, and shouted.
"Not safe here either. Fall back further!"
With that, he grabbed everyone and teleported.
Thus relocated even farther back, the team watched as Kim Geuk set down his hunter rifle and picked up a spare one with a fresh magazine they'd prepped.
"Swap the mag on this hunter rifle too... If anything dangerous happens, radio me. Got it? Normally during hunts, I could sense crises through my mental web and rush over, but not this time. My head's completely occupied..."
He barked orders one-sidedly, then vanished in a teleport.
Listening to the radio afterward explained the warning.
"Kim Geuk's really swamped, huh? Everyone's calling for him left and right..."
Im Hyeong-taek muttered, and it was true.
From the radio chatter, calls for Kim Geuk poured in from everywhere, and each time, he teleported in to eliminate the threats.
Even from here, it was astonishing how swiftly he dispatched the monsters—only to zip to the next spot without rest.
It wasn't just one or two monsters rampaging in one or two places; every danger zone begged for his aid.
Of course. Excluding Kang Jun-chi, he was Korea's strongest Awakener. And with teleportation, he could respond instantly— the most convenient, reliable backup imaginable.
Even amid the chaotic summons from all directions, Kim Geuk rejected none, answering every call. It was mind-blowing.
Handling only the strongest, toughest monsters soldiers couldn't touch—and still keeping up? Lee Jong-ho muttered.
"Hyung's pulling off the work of a hundred other Awakeners single-handedly. He's always like this, but especially now..."
And the horrific part? Even with one hero performing superhuman feats, countless deaths were surely piling up everywhere.
Look at the sky—explosions kept blooming like fireworks.
To shoot down the helicopters and fighters swarming overhead, Behemoth's heat rays relentlessly sliced the heavens red.
Jeong Jin-yeong thought in a daze.
How many had died in these brief moments?
Had those souls gone freely to heaven? Or, as Awakeners slew monsters and absorbed their essence, had the dead lost freedom even in death, sucked into that colossal beast?
It looked like the latter. Most souls dying here seemed to merge into its massive form.
Soon, signs appeared.
A cry echoed directly in his mind.
"The building's dangerous! It'll collapse soon!"
The mental cries kept ringing. Warnings of peril. Desperate voices seeking family.
"This is emergency services! Stay inside and you'll die! Everyone, get out!"
"Mom! Help! Mom? Mom! I'm outside!"
As if grasping the situation, Im Hyeong-taek cried out frantically.
"Don't respond! It's Behemoth talking. Trying to lure out anyone hiding in the buildings..."
They'd experienced it with the first rock spirit. Direct telepathic waves into the mind.
He still vividly remembered that spirit devouring a middle-aged woman, then spouting bizarre Korean promises of free hugs and no harm.
And Behemoth, this massive spirit, had devoured far more Koreans, using their memories with eerie intelligence.
"If you're sheltering underground, it's dangerous. Rescue transports are waiting—everyone come to the surface!"
"Dad, it's Young-soon. Where are you? I can't see you! I'm walking through the shops and you're nowhere..."
Ignoring those voices was impossible. They rang directly in his head. Amid the deafening roars, they came through with unnatural clarity.
And as if responding to Behemoth's voices, entranced people emerged from buildings.
"Get back inside! It's all Behemoth...!"
But did the distant thunderous booms drown them out?
No one heeded their shouts, just milling about with terrified glances. Jeong Jin-yeong's heart pounded.
Frustrating. He wanted to help, but couldn't.
Im Hyeong-taek bellowed nonstop.
"Everyone stay put! Stay put! Don't yell too loud either! It'll give away your positions to the monsters!"
Staying still as advised felt stifling, terrifying, utterly nightmarish.
To fend off despair, he desperately clung to hopeful thoughts.
This was still better than the horrors in Australia's footage.
True enough. Unlike Australia, caught off-guard by Behemoth's approach and its monster horde, Korea had detected it early and prepared—allowing this resistance.
'Kim Geuk hyung took out that phoenix or fire hawk or whatever crazy bird too...'
Neutralizing that fiery bird had improved the air situation vastly over Australia's videos. There, the air force had been wiped out in one flyby as planes exploded en masse. Not here—Korean aircraft kept striking the giant relentlessly, even as heat rays claimed their toll.
But Korea's plight was worse in one way: the monsters surging into Seoul were the same ones that had fattened on Australia's flesh and blood, now vastly empowered.
Convinced humans were prime prey, they flowed in unison, sweeping all before them without infighting.
That monster wave filled the streets, surging one way.
Jeong Jin-yeong thought blankly. Was there a shelter that direction?
"Anyone with spare capacity! Head to the shelter for backup—"
Kim Geuk answered that call too.
Before the monster wave, he teleported atop a utility pole.
From there, he unleashed his hunter rifle. One of his lesser-known traits: superhuman marksmanship. Thanks to his mental web, perhaps?
It looked like wild spraying, but no—every shell struck true.
From afar, they could see the barrage thinning the horde, slowing its momentum.
"We got kinda used to him tagging along, but watching from here... he's a real monster. Zipping east to west solo, mowing them down..."
Seong Mun-yeong muttered, and Jeong Jin-yeong felt his shriveled heart swell again.
Maybe because the crisis felt so immediate, that superhuman presence reassured more than ever. Even more than usual.
But that hope deflated anew—Jeong Jin-yeong instinctively glanced at Behemoth, then squeezed his eyes shut and open.
After relentless bombing, its body had visibly shrunk. From 400 meters at emergence to about 300 now—the military wasn't helpless.
Yet the number of helicopters and fighters overhead had plummeted, while Behemoth's shattered rock shell visibly regenerated.
Crumbled concrete from ruined buildings, dislodged chunks of its rocky hide, all levitated from streets to rejoin its colossal frame.
Jeong Jin-yeong knew zilch about military science, but it was obvious: human power couldn't destroy that thing.
Kang Jun-chi would have to return, or Behemoth would glut on enough human souls to sate itself and leave Seoul.
Staring longer, Jeong Jin-yeong recoiled in horror.
Behemoth turned its massive bulk with unbelievable flexibility.
Heading a new direction now. Toward the shelter...