Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: The National Disaster Monster That Unified Germany
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When you're grinding through a tough game, those annoying bosses always get under your skin.
Bosses with unavoidable attacks.
Bosses that constantly pull away, forcing you to chase them down one by one.
Bosses you think you've beaten, only to discover they have a phase two.
But if someone asked me for the absolute most infuriating boss type, I'd say without a doubt it's the breed staring me down right now: them.
A two-man boss team.
One excels in speed, the other in power. The little one squares off with me directly, then the big one slams me with a devastating blow.
And when the big guy's guard drops, the little one darts in for a cheap 2-on-1 pummeling.
Any game that throws a boss like this at you makes me want to hit refund immediately.
Except now, it's not a game. It's real life.
Clang. Clang. Clang!
"Hmph!"
"Grrr..."
The blue knight lunged with bizarre footwork, slipping behind my back in a flash every time.
Its rapier lacked the force to pierce my skin deeply—if I just blocked steadily and landed one solid counter, I could take it down easy.
But.
"Hee hee hee!"
Every time I parried the incoming blade and balled my fist, an enormous shadow loomed overhead.
The chicken-masked brute was moments from flattening me, forcing me to leap back and squander attack windows.
Boom!
It was just a simple high jump and body slam, but the ground across Gangnam quaked.
Several skyscrapers ringing the district tilted visibly, and the knight's slash I'd dodged had neatly bisected a handful of smaller buildings.
A duo straight out of national disaster nightmares.
Are these bastards planning to shave Gangnam bald like an eagle's perch?
Samsung Electronics was in Gangnam—that could be a real hassle.
Worse, my house there might get wiped out too.
I shot a glare at Lee Jin-ah, skulking behind the pair of national disaster monsters.
"If three national disaster monsters clash and only Gangnam gets leveled, isn't that a blessing in disguise?"
Was she seriously bragging that the Hunter Association where she lived was in Yeongdeungpo!
Lee Jin-ah wore an expression that said she'd be fine as long as she nabbed me, Gangnam be damned.
What a headache...
Taken individually, both monsters clocked in around the level of the angel I'd faced at Busan Port ten years back... no, the pre-evolution version—maybe a hair weaker, or equal.
The real issue was their synergy.
They patched each other's gaps with machine-like precision, hemming me in relentlessly.
Not a mere 10 + 10. More like 10 × 10.
"Hmph!"
"Gruk!"
Clang!
Then the saber clutched in the blue knight's off-hand connected squarely with my chest.
A ringing metallic thud echoed as I was shoved back. I'd figured it was just a scrape.
Drip. Drip.
Never thought it'd actually draw blood—not much, just a couple drops from my monsterized chest for the first time ever.
Staring down at the spot, it clicked.
That saber's no ordinary blade.
Monster gear? Some kind of Demon Armament?
But those usually needed a summoning gesture, like with the Twin Head...
Branch Chief Lee Jin-ah... you equipped a monster with human Armament?
The chicken brute, maybe—but the blue knight was packing some seriously pesky kit too.
Meanwhile.
Up against two national disasters and one national powerhouse, and he's holding his own this well...
She held the edge for now, so she kept smiling outwardly. But like Shin-woo gaping at his first real wound, Lee Jin-ah hid her own shock.
The Jamsil Monster.
She'd pegged it as Korea's designated national disaster—world hunter power rank 18 at best.
So her aces: national disasters equivalent to Germany's rank 9 and the UK's rank 6. Should wrap it up quick.
That was the plan.
Until.
"Lee Hee-jung, you monitoring this?"
Something about him piqued her interest.
So Lee Jin-ah called out to Lee Hee-jung, planted in the Branch Chief's office atop Hunter Association HQ—her lens feed shared directly to the computer there.
"Pull up the Jamsil Monster's stats right in front of me. You can do that, right?"
The Branch Chief's office boasted cutting-edge gear for instant monster scans.
As expected, Lee Hee-jung delivered the results pronto.
"Hmm... 13. Way stronger than he looks."
That explained how he was holding out.
Lee Jin-ah nodded, satisfied with the logic.
Inwardly, though, she savored the thought that it could soon be hers.
But then.
"...? What's wrong?"
"......What did you say?"
Human or monster, any stat hitting double digits marked it as beyond normal.
All stats at 13?
Is that even possible?
No, how...?
How could something like that exist in this world?
Machine error?
If not, this thing rated national disaster even by U.S. standards.
...And it could be hers today, with luck.
That realization.
"Lee Hee-jung."
"Nail the support on this op, and I'll rethink that transfer to the U.S. HQ research wing you mentioned."
"Yes. Really."
She reeled in the eager mark with a grin.
Snag that prize, and U.S. HQ director was no pipe dream.
Her timeline? Slashed from ten—no, twenty years.
All-stats 13... but even that won't stop this.
Lee Jin-ah flashed a smirk at the pitch-black beast ahead.
She snapped her fingers—uncharacteristically pulling back the blue knight and shoving the chicken-masked brute front and center.
"Grrr?"
What the hell's she up to?
I cocked my head at their odd phase shift.
Lead with that lumbering brute? It'd be my personal punching bag.
I hung back to see her play.
"This beast is Beatbox. A humanoid monster that appeared in West Germany back in 1989, when the country was still split east and west."
She launched into explanation beside the brute—Beatbox—who'd seized his liquor bottle in both meaty hands and started chugging.
"Slaughtered fifty 3rd-gen tanks and twelve thousand infantry in the West. Then it didn't stop—smashed the Berlin Wall, rolled into the East, and wiped out twenty-nine more tanks and twenty-one thousand troops."
Alternate history, huh.
Hunters Blood was a modern-fantasy mashup.
Monsters often hijacked real history like this.
First I'd heard of Germany's tale, though—ears perked.
"East and West set aside differences, staring down annihilation, and miraculously united to take it down."
"Grrrrr..."
"Like if one monster forced South and North Korea to team up. Get why it's called national disaster now?"
Nod. Nod.
One hell of a beast.
True to the original game—no sane ones among national disasters.
But why the history lesson now?
"You're wondering why the sudden expo."
Nod again at her words.
"This is why."
"BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP-!!"
While I'd chatted with Lee Jin-ah, Beatbox drained the bottle dry.
It unleashed a belch of epic scale—the sheer sound shattered every high-rise window nearby, raining glass like a storm.
"Stall tactic."
Now blackout drunk, Beatbox flopped to the pavement.
Its already massive frame ballooned further into a perfect sphere.
Then it started rolling—building speed right in place.
"You'd better watch out, Jamsil Monster."
"...!"
"Beatbox in this state rolls two thousand kilometers straight. No hunter or weapon in history ever stopped it."
Beatbox.
Double-digit peaks in Strength and Endurance, brushing 12.
But this form cranked those to 13 temporarily.
Matching the Jamsil Monster's until the two thousand klicks ran out.
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
"Gruk?!"
The jet-black monster sidestepped the colossal roller.
Beatbox gouged tunnels through Gangnam high-rises before ricocheting back.
Pristine circles scarred its path—anything touched simply ceased to exist.
Deprived of foundations, the towers began crumpling earthward.
Whatever.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble.
While Shin-woo fretted over the city, Beatbox barreled endlessly—until it finally smashed into the jet-black beast.
"Lance... Knight. Get ready."
"Hmph..."
Lee Jin-ah's scheme was straightforward.
Couldn't kill it outright, but equal-stat grind for two thousand km?
When the roll fizzled and Jamsil tired, blue knight severs the neck clean.
Perfect specimen secured.
"Two thousand km... Gangnam's toast and bald."
Half of Seoul back to the Stone Age, maybe?
Tragic.
But her win was locked in.
A blissful smile bloomed on Lee Jin-ah's lips.
Until.
"Awooooooooooooooooooooooo-!!"
"Huh?"
A familiar monster howl echoed from somewhere.
...Hold up.
The 'baby monster.'
Where'd my original target vanish to in this district?
Too fixated on the Jamsil Monster?
Finally recalling the fledgling already gone from sight, Lee Jin-ah swallowed hard against creeping dread.
Boom!
Suddenly, something hurtled toward a rear building's window.
She clocked it halting its spin, puking blood—her Beatbox.
Her smile drained away slow.
"Huh? ...Why's it flying off like that?"
Close-quarters keys: Strength and Endurance were dead even.
Agility edge just meant dodging—no striking power.
"W-Waaaaaaaaaah!!"
"...! Beatbox! Halt!"
Something was wrong.
The tide was turning weird.
Desperate to rein it in, but the national disaster brute—furious beyond death once after its 'charge' stalled.
It spun up again, hurtling at the jet-black monster that'd launched it.
"Whew..."
This spot's about to get dicey.
Told it to signal outside Gangnam, but a howl? Smart kid.
Now I can cut loose proper.
"What? What's that mean all of a sudden, Lee Hee-jung?"
Sanchin stance locked: feet angled inward against the incoming foe, center of gravity firm.
Fists hugged waist-side, primed for the thrust—neither rushed nor sluggish.
The moment arrives; awaiting it is patience perfected.
"All... of them?"
"Wha..."
At best.
Just.
Settling into a single 'punch' form.
Kyokushin Karate - Basic Straight Punch.
All stats jumped two points, her subordinate reported.
And simultaneously.
Splat!
The national disaster monster etched in history—one that drove divided Germany to the brink of ruin.
Beatbox's body burst apart in a shapeless mess.
Witnessing it firsthand, Lee Jin-ah muttered.
"The tax evasion just to snag that one topped ten billion..."
Dollars, even.
Dawn breaking on what she'd poked, her face twisted in raw despair.