Horizon View (Legendary)

I checked the item.

Insane. Recovery rate, fifty percent. Mana efficiency, fifty percent.

"That's no joke..."

Those two lines alone were enormous. It scratched exactly where I'd been itching. But what was a Legendary grade even for? The unique option was the real point. And yet—

A five thousand percent increase in range?!

Every skill's range, up by five thousand percent. So the Poison Zone hadn't been that vast for nothing. Was this the reason behind all of it?

That isn't what matters.

Whatever the reason, fine. What mattered was the reach of my skills. It had just grown wider still.

The itch crawled under my skin. I wanted to go back in that very second, but entry was limited to once a day. I'd already come out. There was nothing to be done.

"Hah."

Patience. Just hold it in. I'd put the thing to use first thing tomorrow.

That afternoon, my wife got off work.

"Long day."

"Yeah. Thanks."

Her face was off, though. Had something happened?

"What's with the look?"

"It's nothing, really. You know the daycare moms' group chat."

"Yeah. What about it?"

"You know Seorin's Mom, right? She posted that she'd bought the kids' winter clothes early. Of course everyone chimed in — so pretty, the kids are going to love them."

Seorin's Mom. I knew who she was. Whether her husband was simply capable or the family had always been well-off, theirs was a house that dressed its children in designer labels. I hadn't paid it any mind. What another family put on its kids was none of my business. Except—

"Then she just had to bring me up. Said the twins' mom and dad are both so busy they probably don't even have time to go buy the children clothes."

"Huh? Where did that come from?"

"That's what I said. There was absolutely no reason to drag us into it, and she did it anyway. And you want to hear what she wrote after that? Look."

She turned the screen toward me.

"......"

"Ridiculous, right?"

Yeah. Genuinely ridiculous.

"......So what did she actually buy them?"

"Just a parka. You know, the kind we used to wear like a school uniform when we were kids."

"Oh. That South Face thing?"

The outdoor brand. The one people used to call a school uniform. On a child?

"Yeah. Far as I know, those run well over a thousand dollars. She went on about how she wanted to dress them in something nicer, but nothing else was cute, so she bought these..."

"Isn't South Face the brand that isn't even that nice-looking?"

"That's what I'm saying. Ugh."

Showing off over every little thing. But why us?

"I heard it from another mom. That house wants a second child and can't have one. Maybe that's why they take so many shots at our family."

"......Ah. So that's what this is."

For crying out loud. It wasn't as if we had stopped them from having one.

"So, anyway. The clothes we already bought the kids are getting small, and we need to pick up new ones... Should we get them something expensive, too? One each?"

"Hm?"

Her reaction caught me off guard — not because she'd suggested buying something pricey. I knew exactly what kind of person my wife was. Luxury had never interested her. There'd been a time I got a bonus and all but ordered her to buy whatever she wanted, a bag, clothes, jewelry, anything, and she'd refused to the end and told me to buy clothes for myself instead.

She must really be angry.

For someone like that to say they should buy the kids expensive clothes... Dragging the children into it had gotten under my skin, too.

"Why not?"

And what was our situation now? We could afford a little luxury like this. In that case—

"Not a brand like that. Let's put them in the real thing. Actual luxury."

"......Luxury? No. It doesn't have to go that far. Even something in the same range — we've got two kids. There'd be no comparison!"

"No. If we're buying, we buy it properly."

I'd show them exactly what a flex looked like.

Chae-eun's Mom had landed the jab.

The next morning, I dropped the kids off at daycare and came back home. And the thing I had to do now?

Time to go back to Floor 11.

I needed to see what a Legendary item could actually do. I reentered the Tower at once.

The location was different from yesterday. Not the buried city this time, but the forest side, thick with overgrown grass and trees.

All right, then.

Just how far would it go? First, I tried Fire Rain.

A deep groan rolled through the sky, and then the rain came down — a roaring sheet, dumping across the whole heavens like a cloudburst with the tap ripped off. And the result—

"Whoa."

Kill messages unlike anything I'd ever seen. In a single instant, thousands of them scrolled up in a rush. And then—

All-Kill. And on Floor 11, no less. That wasn't all.

The material I'd been hunting for all this time. The very last ingredient for the hidden item. I'd gotten that, too!

A fresh piece of bait was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠making the rounds on Hunternet.

Satisfaction, of course — and on top of it, the question of whether he'd clear the other traps as well.

"I-It would be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠possible."

Hanako said it as she watched the Korean Hunternet.

"If it's JUNE, clearing the other traps would be p-possible too..."

Her voice was shaking. The cabinet watched her.

"Is that true? Well?"

Aneva, Minister of the Hunter Ministry, pressed her. Hanako only nodded, again and again, without a word.

"I-I saw it with my own eyes. JUNE's body was f-floating in the air, I tell you. What took me four years just to approach... he crossed in a flash. Not even one real minute."

"H-his body was floating in the air..."

"What, exactly, is that JUNE brat's ability!"

"I cannot endure the indignation. Stolen by Korea, of all nations! Are we to suffer a humiliation such as this!"

Japan went into convulsions. Japan's current ranking was third. And Korea?

"Must we endure this disgrace at the hands of a nation that has only just crawled inside the top twenty!"

As the Prime Minister said, they had only just entered the top twenty. Precisely speaking, eighteenth in the world.

"Hah."

The Prime Minister drew a long breath and composed himself.

"......Ought we not move as well?"

Aneva offered it carefully, watching his face. They could not simply let JUNE run wild like this. But the Prime Minister shook his head without a word.

"No. One misstep, and we may bring about a massacre of the sort that befell China. Even so, we cannot leave him as he is. Minister Aneva. There is a matter I must ask of you."

"Yes, Prime Minister. Anything you require."

"I shall arrange a meeting. You will conduct the discussion there."

"......A meeting, sir? What sort of meeting do you mean?"

The Japanese Prime Minister's eyes were sharp.

"......!"

"......!"

A remark that broke every convention. Japan and China, striking together. The ministers' eyes went wide.

"From what I can see, JUNE himself does not appear to be exerting any great power. He may have passed the Trap Zone, but the achievement messages have not appeared as they did before, have they?"

"Th-that is true."

"If we and China join hands at a moment like this and bring pressure to bear on JUNE, we may yet be able to pin him on the eleventh floor alone."

Prime Minister of Japan, Mitsushiba. A man famous for his persistence.

"The Prime Minister's set his mind on it again."

"Prime Minister Mitsushiba never forgets a slight. Not ever."

"They say once he fixes on a target, he'll wait ten years. Twenty."

The ministers murmured over his words. And that Prime Minister had begun to take aim at JUNE.

"Wh-what is this?"

"Floor 11? A Floor 11 record?"

"......N-no. On Floor 11, a n-number like this?"

The Japanese ministers' eyes went perfectly round.

"G-good heavens..."

"A-a single hunter... is ch-changing the rankings?"

"This can't be..."

Something impossible was happening.