Like a Dumping Coin

The hunters gathered around watched Jisu as he stood there, visibly rattled.

"You sure we don't need to help him?"

"I told you it's fine. Why are you so gutless? A few wyverns—if all of us are here, we can mop them up in thirty minutes. Right now I'm more curious about that guy's power. Aren't you?"

The one who'd stirred up this consensus was Woohyeok, who'd failed to finish his sparring match just moments earlier.

Wyverns were powerful monsters, true enough—but the hunters assembled here sat at the very peak of the pyramid. To them, these things were so easy that raising a siren over them felt like an embarrassing overreaction.

In truth, hunters of S-rank and above shared almost nothing in the way of camaraderie. And after that incident, whatever thin bond had existed among high-rankers had been smashed to pieces.

So even if it was Woohyeok talking, they could have ignored him and been done with it. But there was one thing every last one of them could agree on.

They wanted to see just how strong this new SS-rank hunter really was.

"Besides, if he dies here—or even just gets himself into a life-or-death situation—that just proves he was never worth that much to begin with. Then we won't have to bother worrying about him. Right?"

"He's got a point."

While the hunters were quietly colluding among themselves—

Why isn't anyone coming out? Son of a bitch. Are these bastards seriously trying to test the new guy?

Jisu glanced around, scanning the plaza in every direction.

S-ranks acting this petty. Unbelievable.

Well, it didn't matter. He'd already confirmed he was strong in that sparring match with Woohyeok. He wasn't afraid.

At last, the grotesque creature—the wyvern—turned its gaze toward him.

KRAAAAAAAAH!!!

"Ugh, that thing is so damn loud!"

The instant the words left his mouth, the wyvern launched itself at him in a screaming dive.

I can see it!

Jisu threw himself sideways. The thing was coming in at tremendous speed, and yet, strangely, he could read every twitch of its movement. He couldn't have explained why—but somehow, his eyes already knew which way the wyvern would come from.

KWAANG!

The charge missed. Even so, that low-altitude pass alone kicked up a violent wind across the earth, and several pebbles that had been rolling across the plaza floor came flying straight at Jisu.

Ah—!

They were too fast. He threw an arm across his face.

Tuk. A few stones struck his forearm.

They were just little rocks. He could've gathered five of them and played jacks. A bit pointy, maybe, but still.

Then the problem started.

"AAAAAGH!"

Jisu took the hit, staggered backward with a scream that was frankly a little over-the-top, and crumpled to the ground on the spot.

…?

"What?"

The hunters hiding here and there, secretly watching him, started murmuring among themselves. What had just happened? A few pebbles weren't even visible from this distance. And even if they had been—who would imagine an SS-rank hunter screaming in pain and collapsing backward because a couple of stones bounced off his arm?

But Jisu was feeling it with perfect, vivid clarity.

Agony. Blinding, staggering agony.

They were just little pebbles, and yet it felt like he'd been drilled by a massive iron ball thrown as a fastball—a deep, ringing numbness that lit up every nerve.

Wh-what the hell is this?!

It had happened so suddenly. Jisu scrambled back to his feet and dodged the wyvern's next attack. The stones had hurt, but even so, the wyvern's movements were still absurdly easy to read. After several more dodges, something flashed through his mind like a lightning strike.

This… no way…

In truth, he'd had a vague hunch from the very beginning. There were pieces that fit too well to ignore.

What had happened at the testing site. Out of nowhere, he'd registered as an SS++-rank hunter. A moment later, when they measured him again, he was SSS-rank. And after about an hour? When his abilities actually came back, he'd dropped to S++.

His power as a hunter was being dictated by the coin market. That market that rose and fell faster than any other financial product on earth.

Coins. Scraps of data that pumped and dumped, over and over and over.

No way—

KWAANG!

The wyvern spat something like a fireball from its jaws. The entire mechanism of the attack was so clearly visible that he slipped past it without effort—but now even the wind that grazed his skin as it roared by felt excessively, painfully searing.

Yes. He was certain. There was only one explanation.

It's dumping.

He wanted to check his stats this instant, but that wasn't possible like this. To check his stats, he needed Bitstorm. And the Bitstorm chat window he'd been so desperate to look at was in complete chaos.

The chat was a riot. And at the very top of the screen, where coin-related news always posted first, a single headline sat waiting.

A coin that had defined an era was crumbling away without a trace.

The important thing was this: Ethereum Classic was in freefall, and Jisu had no window to check it in real time or do a single thing about it—because of the monster currently trying to kill him.

KRAAAAAAAAH!!!

It's coming!

Jisu was barely slipping past the wyvern as it dove and struck without rest. Of course, that was how it looked from the outside. To Jisu's eyes, the thing was strangely, unnaturally easy to see.

KWAANG!

The hunters around the plaza felt a flicker of puzzlement watching him do nothing but dodge, but they still didn't intervene. The wyvern was focusing its attacks on Jisu, so the damage wasn't spreading, and they were confident they could clean it up in a hurry if they had to.

Come to think of it… could I always see this clearly?

The longer he kept dodging, the more the realization settled in. This wyvern's speed looked considerable—and yet to Jisu's eyes, it moved in slow motion. During the virtual sparring earlier, he'd been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠able to read Woohyeok's movements well enough, but not to this degree. He'd heard that this kind of kinetic vision was usually tied to agility—

Should I try hitting it?

Only then did Jisu clench his fist and shift into an attacking stance.

Piiiiiiing—

Through Jisu's eyes, he could see all of it: where the wyvern was coming from (of course, at this point Jisu himself still hadn't realized that this flying beast was a wyvern), and exactly where it would strike once it arrived.

This way!

This time, he didn't dodge. Instead of slipping aside, he drove a punch into the oncoming wyvern like a thrusting straight.

PUHHHHHHHHHHHHHK!

In that instant, Jisu fell into the illusion that he had stepped inside a video game. The very moment the wyvern collided with his fist, it felt as if the world itself had stopped.

The sound of the wind. The strange noise the wyvern made as it glided. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠All of it vanished, as if he were standing in a room where every white tone of sound had been sealed away. Nothing could be heard. The only sound left was Jisu's own breathing.

An eternity. True nothingness. That fleeting yet endless instant when time and space bled together and even the boundary between them grew indistinct.

Inhale. Exhale.

Just once—exactly once—Jisu drew a very careful breath. As if the entire world would shatter if that breath were disturbed.

And the moment the breath ended—

GRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The wyvern that had taken Jisu's fist flew backward, farther and farther, and then—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

It shot away at tremendous speed and, without even leaving a shape behind, exploded in midair.

The monster… exploded. Like fireworks. Like a trash altcoin dumping and bursting apart.

"Ghk— gahk!"

Jisu, who'd thrown the punch, wasn't unharmed either. Whether it was the crushing pressure, or his stats that had been warped past all recognition—

"Gueeek! Kek!"

—he coughed blood right there onto ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ground. Jisu's red blood splattered vividly across the floor of Gwanghwamun Square.

At the same time, fragments of the exploded wyvern and spatters of red liquid rained down in pieces across the wide plaza, and above that, extremely bright orbs poured down like rain, centered on Jisu.

Meanwhile, the other hunters watching that spectacle fell into genuine, speechless shock.

"Wh-what? What just… huh?"

"The wyvern just exploded? In midair? From one punch?"

A wyvern was a monster that about ten A-rank hunters could handle without any real threat to their lives, though it would take a fair amount of time. Compared to the difficulty of hunting one, the rewards were quite decent, and they didn't appear often—so some hunters were actually happy when they showed up.

And if it were an S-rank? Even more so. Today, various coincidences had brought them all here, but even in a densely packed Gwanghwamun Square, a few wyverns were something an S-rank could handle alone. It would just take some time.

Of course, no current S-rank—no, even if that person, Korea's greatest hunter, the SSS-rank who wasn't even here, showed up—they clearly wouldn't be able to explode a wyvern with a single punch like that.

That man… is he really SS-rank?

In that instant, most of the S-rank hunters present thought the same thing at the same time.

They had to make that man their ally.

Their instincts as the strong had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sensed it: this man was someone who would rewrite the history of hunters in this world.

But the shock lasted only a moment. There were two more wyverns behind him. Apparently three had appeared. For reasons they couldn't fathom, Jisu had coughed up blood the instant the attack ended—so it looked, to them, as if he might have burned through his power.

"Mina, it looks like you'll need to clean this up."

"Understood."

Heeyeon, who'd been watching all of this from a distance, spoke, and Mina—standing beside her—walked out into the central plaza and revealed herself. Taking that as a signal, several of the hunters who'd been hiding nearby stepped into the square and began dealing with the remaining two wyverns.

That level of power… does it even matter whether his stats are changing or not right now?

Seeing Jisu actually fight, thoughts about exploiting weaknesses and the like didn't even occur to her. If he could become that strong, then regardless of what the trigger was, the nation had to lock him down.

What if Jisu signed a contract with another country?

Just thinking about it painted a horrific scene before her eyes. The moment they became enemies with a hunter who had the monstrous strength to explode a wyvern—

Heeyeon felt a cold sweat run down her spine, and was seized by a sudden chill.