Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: A Newly Born Catastrophe?
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"Shin-woo! Wait, you're graduated now, so Mr. Shin-woo? Anyway, good work!"
"Yes. You worked hard too, Team Leader."
A month had passed since I'd monsterized in Myeongdong.
In that time, I'd graduated school without a hitch and become a full-fledged Hunter Meister. Now I was working as a proper member of the workshop.
A Meister quietly repairing gear for hunters.
...That was the ordinary artisan life I'd imagined for myself.
But reality?
"Shin-woo! Good work."
"Mr. Shin-woo. Your girlfriend... er, little sister dropped by."
"Heh heh. Perfect timing~."
"This is the best part, right?"
I never dreamed it'd turn out like this.
It started right after I'd undone my monsterization and run into Sophia.
"Waaaaah! I'm sorry! I was wrong! I can't live without you! I'm sorry for calling you a liar!"
"S-Sophia. I'm fine, really..."
"Waaah! Hueeeeng!"
Maybe because she'd come so close to losing me for good, Sophia headbutted me the second she saw me.
No metaphor—she literally kowtowed at my feet and turned the ground into a tear-soaked ocean.
Thanks to that, our reconciliation wrapped up in record time.
And after that...
Sophia went home and apologized to Uncle Seok-gyu and Aunt Rolling too.
Our parents graciously accepted, letting us all sit around the dinner table together for the first time in two years.
A true happy ending.
I figured I'd live quietly as an extra from there on—keep my head down as a human, only monsterizing when disaster struck to make a splash then vanish.
But the moment I became an official Hunter Association employee and started crafting gear for real...
"Let's eat lunch together!"
Somehow, I'd become Sophia's personal Meister, handling mostly her gear.
Nine out of ten jobs that came in to keep my hands busy? That massive scythe of hers.
And now, my "ordinary" routine even included heading out to the field for cozy picnics atop the corpses of monsters she'd slain...
"Mmm! Must be 'cause it's a 10-meter-class beast. The view's amazing up here!"
"Can't argue with that!"
Was it really okay for a background character like me to hang out so openly with Sophia?
I worried, but her homemade lunches—made after studying cooking in the States—were so damn good that honestly, I wanted this to last forever.
Time to meet the main heroines soon... Please, let them all be okay...
I crunched into a homemade chicken nugget, the thought bringing back nightmares from my keyboard-and-mouse days in this world.
Sure, my days seemed ordinary now—work, eat, sleep—but deep down, I was always bracing myself.
Main Quest Chapter 1 was about to kick off.
The "Rampage Incident"—captured monsters breaking free en masse from the research wing beneath Hunter Association HQ.
Where I'd meet one of the original story's main heroines for the first time.
Lee Hee-jung.
Researcher whose parents died in Busan's Smiling Monster Incident. She lives with her grandfather, her sole surviving family.
And also...
"Hunter, sir. Thanks to you not sacrificing yourself, my grandfather died. Couldn't you have died in his place?"
She was the psycho who'd glare daggers and shank the protagonist in the back if you slipped up even a little.
In this world... there's probably no protagonist, right?
Back in the prologue, Cheol-ran had been operating solo.
In the original, she'd teamed up 2-man with the newbie hunter protagonist.
So my "deduction" was that this world had no protagonist.
"Hmm..."
"...? What's up, Shin-woo? Why the sigh all of a sudden?"
Sophia stared at me with big, sparkling eyes.
At times like this, it was hard to believe she was the hunter who cleaved monsters apart with that massive scythe.
"Huh? Oh, just... wondering if Cheol-ran's recovered okay."
"......"
Why the sudden mood swing?
Her eyes dulled instantly, confirming she was every bit the B-rank hunter.
"You two... close?"
"Eh? Well, I like to think so, but would she say the same?"
"I like to think so...?"
"Yeah. She's someone I personally feel attached to."
The one character in Hunters Blood you couldn't save no matter what you tried.
Knowing Yoo Cheol-ran was safe here? It made me smile without trying.
That was when it happened.
"Hya!"
Bam!
A sharp whoosh cut the air, and Sophia's fist whistled right over my shoulder.
It happened in a blink.
Had I done something wrong today?
If I'd tilted my head wrong, my skull would've exploded. Cold sweat poured as that sank in.
"Wh-Why didn't you dodge?!"
Why are you the one looking more terrified?!
Sophia's face crumpled worse than mine, fidgeting like she might froth at the mouth any second.
"'Cause I didn't see it coming...?"
"N-No way! You totally subdued me without even trying back then..."
"Subdued you?"
"Back in Myeongdong a month ago..."
"Wh-What are you talking about?!"
A month ago—when I'd monsterized and first clashed with her.
I snapped my gaping mouth shut.
I'd thought she'd brushed it off, but she still suspected I was a humanoid monster.
Shouldn't have patted her head back then...!
Small mercy: I hadn't reacted to her punch at all.
Dodging it just now would've been game over—no excuses.
Don't tell me that's why she's been lurking outside my room with a dog collar sometimes?
Gave me chills.
Sophia was tearing up and apologizing again now, but I couldn't let my guard down.
Who knew when the next "test" would come.
Hunter Association underground research wing.
Scale varied by nation, but Korea's—as a developed country—boasted top-tier global research capabilities.
The wing's purpose was simple.
Capture periodically spawning monsters, study them, develop faster countermeasures and strategies.
Most hunter gear and armaments came from here too.
Oh, and personal projects for researchers with downtime.
Anyway, buried deep under the nuke-proof Hunter Association building, nowhere was safer.
Yeah—like the safest spot on earth.
Meaning external threats couldn't touch the inside.
Internal slaughter? Not so much.
"Eek...! Hic!"
Monster specimen tanks lay shattered, green fluid spilling everywhere.
Colleagues she'd chatted with yesterday sprawled across the floor.
In the blood-drenched research wing, the sole conscious human survivor—one of the original main heroines, researcher Lee Hee-jung—huddled under a desk, holding her breath.
"Wh-What do I do...? What...?!"
If it'd been the original—captured monsters busting out of shoddy cages bought via corruption scandals, the so-called Research Wing Rampage—things might've been fine.
The lobby full of hunters was right above; they'd swarm and fix it quick.
But this? Different league.
How the hell did this happen...!
Lee Hee-jung peeked out from under the desk.
Beyond the butchered researchers and captured monster corpses...
She gulped, staring at the massive central tank that'd shattered first—and what lay beneath.
Korea's first National Disaster-class monster, Angel—headless, body slumped—with a white girl connected by an "umbilical cord."
Correction.
A single humanoid monster in the form of a white child sat there now.
And she was behind this mess.
A corpse 'giving birth'...? What the hell!
Ten minutes ago.
She'd been checking Angel's corpse as usual.
At first, she thought the tank fluid had bloated its belly.
Then it shuddered... and the dead Angel birthed a single white offspring, umbilical cord and all.
The whole wing erupted in chaos.
Monster births were rare as hell.
A humanoid one's offspring? Unprecedented.
World's first major discovery.
The ultimate "specimen"!
"Female?"
"If female... jackpot, right?!"
"Once she grows a bit, breeding experiments could multiply 'em fast."
"Let's use this one for breeding, then. Call a hunter to neutralize her."
They drained the tank for quick limb removal—still just a newborn, after all.
Summoned a speedy D-rank from the first-floor lobby.
That's when it all went south. Fast.
The "newborn" casually caught the D-rank's dagger slash aimed at her wrist.
Then snapped his neck and devoured the corpse, crunching bones.
Her body rocketed from infant to child size in seconds.
And right then—coincidence?—the caged monsters broke free and charged.
She slaughtered and ate her own kind like it was nothing.
A monster among monsters.
Human-scale? About 10? No, 11 years old now?
Even teetering on death's edge, true researcher(?) that she was, Lee Hee-jung kept scribbling notes.
Glancing sweatily at the thing feasting amid monster corpses...
Swish.
"Huh?!"
The child monster stopped mid-chew and bolted upright.
Ripped out her own umbilical cord, then turned—plastered in monster gore.
"......"
Newborn eyes still milky gray.
Why the sudden move?
Food no good?
Wait—could a humanoid monster even taste stuff?
Her researcher curiosity bubbling despite everything...
"Situation's a total shitshow..."
"What, all the eggheads croaked?"
"H-Hunters?!"
"Oh. One's still kicking."
Three hunters strode from the elevator the child stared at.
Lee Hee-jung knew them by sight—solid B-ranks, respected in the Association.
"We just gotta take that thing out, right?"
"Humanoid monster... Even a kid one's gotta mean promotion."
"Then let's end it quick."
An ice crystal slammed into the puzzled child's chest.
"Kyak?!"