Mom Deploys

Fourth in China: the Blood Slaughter Gang.

Third in Japan: Yamata no Orochi.

The two guilds had joined forces.

"Well, well. Looks like the Japanese government finally hardened its resolve. They even burned an Item Transfer Ticket?"

Zhao Qun, the Chinese hunter, sounded genuinely impressed. The reason was the weapon carried by the Japanese hunter they had agreed to work with.

"That bastard... he walked off with the Legendary-grade item our Japan had been waiting four years for. The government's furious."

Sakamoto answered, and just thinking back on that day set his own temper burning.

"Every single day I wondered what kind of Legendary item would drop. It wasn't even mine, but you don't often get the chance to check the options on something like that. And then..."

He had dreamed of it for four years. What kind of item would it be? He had never even gotten to see it. Damn it.

"Anyway, this place is cleaned out. The Korean hunters don't even look like they're thinking of coming in."

Whatever else was true, their results had been impressive. They had picked the floor utterly clean. Which meant—

"Let's move somewhere else. They won't be able to spot us from another phase, right?"

"Odds of running into them right away are probably slim. Don't work too hard."

"Yeah."

Fwip! Fwip!

The Chinese and Japanese groups escaped.

I caught the second Predator. And the item that came of it?

The second piece was a necklace. The equip effect was one extra entry. The use effect was an instant escape.

Every option on it has something to do with the Tower.

Instant escape, of all things. That alone was close to cheating. And an extra Tower entry on top of it?

And with the set effect, I can enter four times in total.

Well now. This was pretty good. Worth keeping the hunt going. Which meant I had to head back in.

Fwip!

I set out once more to find a Predator. The method? Simple. I only had to use the ring.

Vmmm—

A pillar of light shot straight up over the Predator. Oh—there.

Fwoooosh!

Tck! Tck! Tck! Tck! Tck! Tck!

I scraped together every last drop of mana and fired the skill. Fire rained down without end. The ground collapsed as if it meant to swallow everything whole. And the result?

Success again. Man, this was way too easy. Once the mana was handled, it was over.

Alright then. Time to check. What had dropped this time?

This time it was a bracelet. And the use effect was finding my own people.

......This really is specialized for Tower work.

The set effects were one thing. The use effects were simply too convenient. It wasn't called Tower Conqueror for nothing.

Then the three-set effect should activate as well.

Tower entries. Right now I could go in five times in total. Base count, ring, necklace, set effect, bracelet.

And on top of that, the three-set effect. Now I could choose the phase. Know the path, it said, and I could go anywhere.

So I looked closer at exactly what the effect did. What did "anywhere, so long as you have the path" actually mean?

"Oh. This is good."

So anywhere I had cleared once, I could go. Pretty useful.

Alright. Let's head out for now.

I used the necklace at once.

Fwip!

I was outside.

The message appeared all over the world. And it was a Predator clear notice, one after another.

"......What on earth is happening?"

"How does the message keep coming?"

"A notice already went out that the Predator was killed. Why does it keep appearing?"

"......How is it possible to keep killing them?"

The whole world fell into confusion. The notice had clearly gone out long ago that it was already dead. So why did the messages keep coming?

"Could that be an effect of the Legendary item obtained in the Trap Zone?"

"The power of a reward earned by solo-hunting a Predator?"

"No. Perhaps JUNE's ability is connected to this!"

"......Perhaps JUNE is someone tied to the Tower itself."

Every kind of guess spilled out. An effect of the reward was the baseline theory. The theory that JUNE was a god. The theory that JUNE had raised the Tower. Delusion after delusion unfolded.

"Do not make a fuss."

China and Japan, however, were different. Or rather—inside, they were sick over it, but...

"One way or another, nothing changes. The fact that we currently hold Korea in our grip has not changed."

That much was true. They had Korea in their grip. And what that could buy them—

If we can only keep this situation going, we can pressure Korea. We might use Korea to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠learn about JUNE. And even if not, we could bring Korea in under us.

What would one call this? Hmm. Right. Helping poor, struggling Korea. Just as in the past. While taking every last bit of authority for themselves, of course.

"......Prime Minister. Protests continue to arrive from Korea as well. They are pointing out that our cooperation with China poses a problem internationally."

Korea, of course, had not stayed quiet. And of course there was a prepared answer.

"What is the meaning of this? Cooperation, you say? Japan merely used an Item Transfer Ticket already in our possession, in order to support a promising talent by the name of Sakamoto. Is that a problem? I am afraid I do not follow what happens internally."

He played innocent. Join forces? All they had done was give someone a push. China took the very same line.

"Ahem. I can't say I follow. You claim we joined forces with Japan? What an absurd thing to say... Ah, of course, affairs inside the Tower are not something we would know. Still, I find myself rather displeased. We are hardly in a position where we must report every little matter to a minor nation, now are we?"

They didn't know a thing. So why was Korea carrying on? As if either of them owed a report.

Shameless, through and through. China and Japan went on the attack.

KRAAANG—!

"These bastards, I swear."

The only one left furious was Korea. South Korea's Minister of Hunter Affairs, Kim Myeongjin, most of all.

"Now, Minister, please calm down."

"These bastards are lying with a straight face. Every word they're saying is the exact same attitude that Japanese minister bastard showed me back then!"

For a moment he remembered. Right before JUNE claimed the reward from the Trap Zone. The Japanese Minister of Hunter Affairs who had come to Korea in person.

"Back then too, he went on about Hunter JUNE this and Hunter JUNE that, half a threat. And now they've gone and pulled this. They can't lay a hand on JUNE, so they're harassing the other hunters instead!"

Petty to the bone. Filthy and cheap, plain and simple. And China had joined in.

"......What will you do?"

"Hah."

Right now there was only one way to answer. Use an Item Transfer Ticket.

But unlike China and Japan, who hold several, we have exactly one. If we spend it, we may have no way to respond when a real crisis hits...

That was how important an Item Transfer Ticket was. It could raise a promising talent.

"......This is driving me insane. We can't leave it like this either."

Korea could only stamp its feet.

Vroooom—

"Whoa, it really flies!"

"What is this seat? Why is it so comfortable?"

"Whoa, and these options? This is actually a thing? Oh my, this is amazing!"

I picked up my wife on her way home from work. Sure enough, her eyes went round the moment she saw it, and once she was in the car the marveling never stopped.

"This is our car? Really?"

"Of course it is. It's ours now."

"Even sitting right next to you, I can't believe it. I never thought we'd be riding around in a car like this!"

"Hahaha."

The laugh came out on its own. I felt the same way. Me, driving a car like this.

"Since you came to get me, we'll make it in time to pick up the kids. We'll show them right away, won't we?"

"Yeah. We should."

And so we reached the daycare. I parked nearby and went in to get the children.

"Oh! It's Mom!"

"Dad, Mom came with you!! Kyaaaa!"

Their eyes went round as rabbits, and then it was chaos. Bragging to the teacher—that's our mom and dad!—and grabbing every teacher who passed to brag all over again.

"Aigoo, look how happy they are."

"Teacher, you can let go now. Put your shoes on, Ayoon!"

I brought the excited children out, straight to my new car where I had parked it.

"Doyoon, Ayoon, is walking hard?"

"It's hard. Buuut we have to walk. Mom said, what car, when it's close, and told us to walk."

"That's right. She said walking is good!"

"Yeah. She's right. Short distances are better on foot. But today Dad specially brought the car. And the car's right here!"

At that, Doyoon tilted his head.

"But Dad doesn't have a car. That one's a Sonata! That one's a Grandeur! That one's a Benz! And that one's a Genesis! Dad doesn't have a car."

Had he memorized every single name?

"Want to walk over to that Genesis?"

"Here? Why?"

Beep!

"Dad! The Genesis opened its eyes!"

"Yeah. And if its eyes are open, what does that mean? I said we could get in the car, remember? Let's get in."

"Why are we getting in this?"

"Because from now on, this is our family car. The one Doyoon and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ayoon are going to ride in!"

"......!!"

"......!!"

Pat-pat-pat-pat!

"This is my seat!"

"No! It's my seat!"

A war for the seats broke out.

We came home. The whole way there, the children were happy.

"Dad! The seats are sooooo wide!"

"Ayoon can stretch her legs alllll the way out!"

Heh heh heh. So I had been the kind of dad who didn't even let them stretch their legs.

Good thing the kids like it too.

Was this what a father's heart felt like? Them being happy made it better. My wife being happy was the same. I wanted to keep making them happy from here on.

Anyway, once we were home I went into my room. Running Floor 11 over and over had piled the materials up, and there was also the gear of the hunters who had died to Sinkhole.

With this, I should be able to upgrade the crafting bench too.

Other people struggled to escape even once. I had already run it several extra times in a single day. Of course the materials were overflowing.

That aside, the mood on Hunternet is not normal.

Something felt off, so I skimmed the whole board. Turned out China and Japan had cooperated. And with that power, they had been tormenting Korea.

I can enter one more time right now, actually.

I had stopped because it was time for my wife to get off work. And now I could go anywhere, too.

Real time, huh.

I posted the comment. Just what kind of situation was this?

All kinds of reactions followed. Mom? Well. They weren't far off.

Okay. So that was the path. Then let's try it.

"Enter Floor 12."

"1032,222."

It actually worked? Good. In that case—

Who's been picking on our Korea.

Just you wait.