The China Killer

The event reward's grade had gone up.

What in the world was it about to hand me?

......Huh.

What did I just get?

A skill rune?

A skill rune. A rune carrying a special effect, meant to be applied directly to a skill.

You can graft these onto any skill you want. That's why they're supposed to be absurdly rare...

And look at the effect. It drags everything around it inward.

......The effect was ridiculous too?

So where did I put it? On Sinkhole, obviously.

It was on the skill now. An Advanced option, and a skill rune on top of that. It had already been strong. This was getting dangerously close to a cheat skill.

"Just you wait."

Wait for me, China. I'll be there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tomorrow morning.

Four in the afternoon that day.

"I'm here to pick up Ayun and Doyun!"

"Oh? Are you their father, by any chance?"

"Yes. I'm the one picking them up today!"

"One moment, please."

They called the kids from the daycare entrance. Even the teacher looked thrown that I was the one standing there. Fair enough—I'd never once come to get them.

"Kyaaaa! It's Dad! Dad!"

"Teacher! That's our dad! Heehee!"

I could see the kids coming out through the front door. The moment they spotted me waiting, they erupted. Ayun bounced in place, delighted, while Doyun went "Whaaat?" and immediately started bragging to the teacher.

Do they really like me that much?

The smile came on its own. To be loved this openly... it was only natural, and still the feeling sat strangely in my chest.

"Dad! Dad! Dad! Kyaaa!"

"Daaaad! You scared us! Heehee!"

Patter-patter—thump!

The second they were out, both of them crashed into me and clung on.

"Aigoo, if Mom sees this she's going to feel left out. You like it that much just because Dad came?"

"Yeees! Heehee!"

"So, so much!"

"Haha. All right, we'll be heading out! Doyun, Ayun. Say goodbye to your teacher."

After the goodbyes, we headed home. It was about a five-minute walk, one small hand in each of mine.

"Dad! You're supposed to be at work!"

"Yeah. I do have to work."

"Then why'd you come today?"

"I came to see Doyun and Ayun. Starting tomorrow, I'll walk you to daycare too, and when it's over, Dad'll be the one who comes to get you."

"Wooooow!"

"Kyaaa! Yay! Yay!"

Boing, boing!

They bounced because they were excited. ......Were they really that happy? It didn't last.

"Huh? Dad, Dad! Over there! We gotta go there!"

"It's the playground!!!!!"

Patter-patter-patter!

Patter-patter-patter!

"..."

They shook off my hands and took off running. Ah. So this was that playground of dread.

That day, I played with them at the playground until it got dark.

Ding!

Right then. A Hunter Account alert. The materials money had come in.

The next morning.

"You're really fine with me just going to work?"

"Yeah. I'll take the kids. And you should start wrapping up your job, too. With what I'm making now, one income ought to be more than enough."

"......Huh?"

"I told you yesterday how much came in. There's more on the way. A lot more."

It was true. There was still the money from selling the Heroic-grade stuff, and I had no idea how big that number would be.

"......S-still. I'm not sure I should quit too. Of course it'd be nice to take a break. I could pay more attention to the kids. But it just makes me anxious for no reason..."

"Don't. There's nothing to worry about. What we've already made is enough that we're not in trouble. And all of it comes in through the Hunter Account."

"But if the money jumps like that all of a sudden, won't somebody notice?"

The Hunter Account. A dedicated ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠account the system creates for you. If you're a hunter, you use one. You have to.

"Anything that lands in there isn't assessed for tax. Obviously nobody can tell how much I've made, either. And if you spend it through a hunter-only account, there's no way for anyone to trace that either."

What kind of world were we living in these ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠days? Hunters had been around for decades. Of course there was a transaction method built just for them.

Sellers liked dealing with hunters who threw around huge sums, and the hunters doing the buying liked a clean trade that never tangled them up in outside problems.

So lately, people mostly used Hunter Account transfers. Either you hired a hunter to run the account transaction, or a hunter set something up themselves.

"Anyway. Our life is about to get a lot easier, so you rest too, and let's both focus on the kids. We've both felt guilty this whole time, working and leaving them."

"..."

"Think about it. Of course, if you want to keep working, you can."

She shook her head so fast it blurred.

At my words, my wife whipped her head back and forth like she was trying to unscrew it.

"Absolutely not! You have no idea how hard it was, working and looking after the kids... Anyway, let me think it over. Take care of them today, okay?"

My wife left for work. I sent the kids straight off to their little shift at daycare.

Then I came home alone. All right, then.

"Shall we?"

Time to farm some items.

Out, and back in. Over and over. Why was I doing this?

"Found it."

There was only one thing I was hunting for. A place crawling with Chinese hunters. This was exactly that.

Whew. They are killing a lot of people.

One of China's defining traits. Their population is no joke, and their hunters are good on top of it.

Which is why places like this always exist. Spots where they pack in and massacre everyone else.

And look at this. Korean hunters had been taking a real beating.

National buff or not, once the Chinese decide to swarm and focus-fire you, there isn't an answer...

It was practically a twenty-to-one fight. Maybe worse. They clumped well, and their teamwork was excellent.

The real problem was something else. They kept the slaughter going. Fresh Chinese hunters kept arriving. And if that continued, the phase belonged to China.

Looks like that's already the case.

Out of the flood of kill messages, ninety percent were people dying to Chinese hunters. This place was probably already occupied.

A new hunter comes in Chinese, they fold them into the group. Any other country, and it's focus fire.

It wasn't evil, looked at a certain way. There was no rule saying you couldn't. This was just another strategy.

Of course, I'm a strategy too.

All right. Let's do this. The ground should be paved with Chinese hunters...

Rrrrrumble!

I fired it anywhere.

KRA-KOOOOM—!!

The ground began to collapse, and the kill messages shot up like they'd lost their minds. And that wasn't all.

Whoooom—.

Whoooom—.

Whoooom—.

A black hole bloomed over the collapsed ground, shuddering hard as it activated.

"G-ghhk—!"

"Gyaaaaah!"

"Kyaaaaaak!"

......Just how far did the range go? Hunters floating far off in the empty air were dragged in, then slammed straight down into the floor.

And the Mana Recovery (Advanced) option kicked in with it. One percent back for every body that dropped. One cast of mine killed them by the thousand.

In other words...

I used it once, and my mana was already full again?

Rrrrrumble!

KRA-KOOOOOM—!!

Rrrrrrumble!

KRA-KOOOOOOM—!!

I cast it, and cast it, and cast it again. How many times was that?

Okay. This place was done. I'd run it again tomorrow.

Hunternet was in an uproar. And how had it been until now?

Step into the wrong phase and that was it. The Chinese lunatics came running like they'd been waiting for you.

The situation had changed. This wasn't a slaughter. It was a massacre. And that wasn't even all of it.

Items hit the market in a flood. He'd dumped everything he'd piled up, all at once. And the result...

Money started pouring in like it had lost its mind.