Hao Jun's Gift

Hao Jun emerged.

People rushed him from every side at once. The Minister of the Hunter Bureau, Jin Kang, approached at a more measured pace.

"Did you handle it?"

Jin Kang asked it lightly, already sure of the answer. Of course he had handled it. Even if the man in question was JUNE.

"I failed."

Not the answer anyone had expected. Jin Kang's face darkened.

"...Then have the bastard's skills been identified, at least?"

At the question, Hao Jun nodded. And nodded again. Jin Kang's expression eased, if only a fraction.

"Hah. Not what I expected, but we have a read on him all the same. Good. From here we analyze his power and decide how best to deal with—"

"With respect, Minister. That won't do any good."

Hao Jun cut him off.

"This isn't the sort of thing that gets solved just because you know about it."

"...What are you saying?"

"You should have seen it yourself. A massive hole just tore open in the ground—fine. That one, I got clear of by using my ability."

"...And then?"

Jin Kang's face said he wasn't following. So the man's second skill was an enormous hole opening underfoot? But Hao Jun had escaped it, hadn't he?

"Didn't matter. I'd barely climbed back out when fire started raining out of the sky, and then some black hole appeared out of nowhere and shoved every hunter it hadn't already swallowed straight down into the pit."

"...H-huh?"

"After that, even I don't remember. Give it up. There is absolutely no getting out of that. I've already resigned myself. You only pick a fight worth picking, and that bastard JUNE is on a different level. A different level."

Hao Jun is saying this?

Jin Kang's eyes blinked, wordless. What kind of man was Hao Jun? Self-regard through the roof, and pride just as fierce. With reason. His precognition let him read every attack before it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠landed, and as if that weren't enough, his speed became something monstrous. Jin Kang had been certain that if anyone could catch JUNE, it was Hao Jun.

Hao Jun. This has gone past fear. He's closed the book on it entirely.

This was the Hao Jun who had always declared that the number one rank in America was his goal. That same Hao Jun had simply quit.

"You... you're serious about this..."

That was when it happened. The message announcing a clear. The subject, of course, was JUNE. And yet—

"H-how many kills? He took down over n-nine thousand?"

Jin Kang's eyes went wide. He rubbed them. Rubbed them again. The number didn't change. And that wasn't just anywhere. That was the tenth floor.

"See for yourself. How am I supposed to handle something like that?"

He was right. This was not that kind of opponent. Even Jin Kang admitted it.

"But you. What happened to all your equipment?"

"...Pardon?"

"Your gear. Why did you leave all of it... behind?"

Hao Jun froze. He looked himself over, and then his eyes met Jin Kang's, shaking hard.

"I— I think th-the bastard... t-took it from me..."

He'd been cleaned out.

I stepped out of the tenth floor. The only one who had swept it clean. One person who wasn't human at all—an alien. That would be me.

Even I hadn't thought it would go this far.

I thought back over the fight on the tenth floor. The arena was circular, and the space itself was fairly wide. There just hadn't been anywhere to run. So I triggered the skill at once, and the first collapse took out half of them.

The problem was that I couldn't bring the entire space down. One wrong move and I would have fallen in with them. I collapsed only part of it, and a good number survived. I also got a look at something you don't see every day.

Was that one Hao Jun?

Some bastard shot straight up out of the spot where he'd fallen, and it happened in the blink of an eye. The speed of it... The one small mercy was that the second and third attacks came right on its heels.

Chain Collapse opened three more pits. The effect of Skill Rune: Black Hole sucked in everything around them, and the cloak cast Fire Rain on top of that. The first attack had been nothing but the opening move.

And I didn't finish the event on schedule, either.

I had left the event unfinished ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on purpose. By all rights I should have cleared out the hunters, then picked the rest of the space clean while the event ran. I deliberately didn't. The reason was simple. The tenth floor was the end of the line.

If an event isn't fully completed, the difficulty climbs.

Events have a deadline. Fail to finish one in time, and the difficulty rises as a kind of penalty. But it isn't only the difficulty that rises. The format of the event changes with it, and so does the caliber of the rewards. The upgraded reward—that was what I was after.

For now, I'll wait for the event deadline to run out.

What kind of event it would become. What kind of reward would come of it. I would just have to wait and see.

"All right, then."

Either way, that wrapped the tenth floor. Time to check the achievement reward. Nothing less than a Random Skill Acquisition Ticket. Was there any reason to hesitate? I used it on the spot.

"Huh?"

Out came a skill with a strange name. Flight?

A passive skill. Flight, in the most literal sense. And there were bonuses on top of it?

So if I climb as high as I can before I use it, the range and the power both go up?

Well, damn. This was pretty good. Sinkhole had always been limited as it was. If I was floating in the air, that stopped being a problem, didn't it?

"Ah—the gear!"

Right as I finished checking the skill, I remembered the equipment I'd taken off him. Hao Jun. The one who had slipped my attack. I pulled it up at once.

"Hold on. What is this? Is this how he dodged?"

Looking through it, one piece stood out. The effect was insane.

The slot was boots. The options were nothing to write home about. The special ability was not.

This. Right here. Spatial Leap. Teleportation, in other words.

The distance isn't all that long, and it's capped at three uses. Still, those three can be chained.

Burn all three charges and the cooldown became a minute. Not a long cooldown, and three uses before it hit. This was flat-out broken.

So him climbing back out of Sinkhole hadn't been absurd after all. With this, it was more than plausible.

The tenth floor really was the tenth floor. Most of them had gone down without a chance, but a few had started to weather my attacks. They went down in the end, of course.

Even so, I can't afford to dismiss them. From the eleventh floor on, the difficulty spikes hard.

The eleventh floor. A place only those who had cleared the tenth could reach. One survivor out of ten thousand. Not ordinary hunters, in other words.

Luckily I picked up a passive, and Hao Jun's gear along with it.

Call it preparation, if you liked. It still wasn't enough. The higher I climbed, the harder it would get.

No getting careless.

High-level hunters had a line they liked to repeat.

Which meant I had just finished the tutorial. What would the eleventh floor and everything above it actually be like? And yet, strangely enough...

Thump. Thump. Thump.

My heart was racing. Because somehow, it sounded like it was going to be fun.

News the world over was in an uproar. A new Legendary-grade item had appeared.

Legendary grade meant an item of which only a single copy existed anywhere in the world. A unique option was bound to it, and that option existed on no other item. A grade, in short, defined by an option that belonged to it alone.

There was one further reason this particular discovery had been pushed to the front.

"The Legendary item found this time is famous for having been obtained by clearing a Trap Zone. What exactly is a Trap Zone?"

"Ah, well. From the eleventh floor on, there are places in certain zones where traps have been installed. A floor carpeted entirely in poison, for instance. Traps where you've no idea what might spring out, or from where. Or a maze you have to pass through. That sort of thing."

"Traps, just as the name says. But why do people say this is such a big deal?"

At the host's prompting, the panelist pushed his glasses up and answered.

"Because they are traps, plain and simple. A trap hides ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a gimmick, and a way to break it does exist... The problem is that the power behind them is tremendous. Enough that even a fairly capable hunter dies from nothing more than a graze."

"Wow. That's incredible."

"But no one challenges a place like that for nothing. Break through a trap of this kind, and at the end of it a Legendary-grade item can drop—just like the one the New Zealand hunter obtained."

The host pretended to be surprised, right on cue with the script.

"Wow, that really is amazing. At that level, it seems worth challenging again and again even if you fail. A Legendary-grade item, no less!"

"Hahaha. But it isn't an easy thing. Get caught during the attempt, and you're expelled from the Tower. Do you know what the problem is?"

"...What is it?"

"If a hunter who was expelled while challenging a Trap Zone enters again, they restart from the very section where they failed. Once you go in, even turning back isn't easy."

"...You mean?"

"Yes. Exactly that. Once you start, until you see it through to the end, you can do nothing but the Trap Zone. In fact, they say the New Zealand hunter spent five years attempting it."

The process was grueling. The reward, in a Trap Zone, was certain. Everyone wanted one. Not everyone could.

"...There is one more point drawing attention this time."

Then the panelist let something weighted into the air.

"The eleventh floor, where Hunter JUNE will be going. There's a Trap Zone there as well, one discovered long ago."

"Oh, really? What kind of trap is it?"

"The so-called Poison-Rimed Floor. A poison field of tremendous size is spread across it, with the reward set at the very center. According to the experts, it's all but confirmed to be Legendary grade."

"Wow—a zone carpeted in poison, and a Legendary-grade prize dead center! That would be a hard temptation to resist."

"Wouldn't it. And this time, Hunter JUNE is the one going there. Other people are expecting him to pull something off, but I think differently."

"Why differently? Looking at Hunter JUNE's unprecedented run, I can't help getting my hopes up too."

The host smiled, drawing the panelist on.

"That place is nowhere near so easy. I've researched it myself for twenty years, and a simple trap is often the harder kind. You think a trap sitting on a low floor like the eleventh has gone unbroken for decades for no reason?"

The panelist was certain of himself. That no matter who it was—even JUNE—he wouldn't be able to do it.