Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Hug Me (1).
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Re's ashes scatter in the wind.
The hill that's now hardly worthy of being called a camp.
"Ehehe, ehe. The powder's scattering."
Jin Yu-han, reduced to an idiot, drooled endlessly while babbling nonsense.
Even after using the 'Highest Recovery Potion,' there was no sign of improvement.
No matter how potent a recovery potion was, it seemed incapable of repairing a shattered brain.
"Let's get organized. We need to prepare for the next wave."
I clapped my hands a couple of times to draw everyone's attention.
The 10th-floor dungeon was just getting started.
We couldn't halt the raid just because the camp had been reduced to rubble.
The hunters, who had been watching my every move, began stirring one by one, starting to clean up the wrecked camp.
They dismantled the skeletal remains of tents and inspected and repaired the fences.
The Training Team 4 members pitched in among them.
I'd expected hostility toward us, but the atmosphere was surprisingly relaxed.
Though it was filled with worries about what to do next.
Training Team 1 glared at me, radiating open hostility.
From their blatant stares, it felt like they might cause real trouble at any moment.
Monster waves arrived every six hours.
We needed countermeasures to fend them off.
I summoned the team leaders.
Since I'd seized Jin Yu-han's position from Training Team 1 via coup, it was right for me to step in and fulfill that role.
I wished they'd call me the temporary raid leader.
The team leaders gathered before me.
Ten in total, including me—even Training Team 1 showed up without fail.
"What if we consolidate all the points into one?"
The Milky Way Guild's current plan was to divide the uninhabited island into ten points and defend them separately.
It was less a plan and more the standard raid strategy.
The basic approach widely known to D-rank hunters.
There was no need to stick to it rigidly.
If there was a better way, we could adopt a new plan.
The reason hunters stuck to established strategies instead of devising new ones was simple.
No more efficient method existed.
From a hunter's perspective, there was no point in introducing unnecessary negative variables.
'But I'm different.'
This wouldn't be a negative variable—it could bring positive change.
Through the 「Taming App」.
The 「Taming App」 had people living inside it.
Or at least, I wanted to believe so.
Because its intuition was remarkably sharp.
The 「Taming App」 delivered exactly what I needed, right where I needed it.
Oil, torches, even 'Wide Provocation.'
Rewards from sequentially achieved accomplishments.
When I first got them, I puzzled over their uses.
They seemed random and pointless at a glance.
'Except for the skills.'
But now on the 10th floor, their utility was endless.
It gave me faith that the other items would prove useful someday too.
"Consolidate the points into one? How?"
Team 3's leader asked me.
She was an ordinary woman wearing glasses.
Her eyes were narrow, her face etched with constant dissatisfaction.
"Everyone, just use your heads."
Maybe because I'd been constantly dismissed by Choi Da-eun, I'd always wanted to say something like that.
The corners of my mouth twitched uncontrollably.
"The 10th floor monsters are two types: 'Blue Lobsters' and 'Green Crabs.' We can ignore the occasional 'Red Octopus' for now."
During waves, they crawled up slowly from the shoreline.
For 30 minutes, an enormous horde surged toward the human hunters.
"Why did hunters divide the 10th floor into ten zones in the first place? Each zone has convenient terrain features. That's how they split it."
In the first wave, Training Team 1 had defended the western ravine.
They'd hunted the monsters like Spartan warriors from the ravine's base.
The other zones were similar.
Slight differences in difficulty, but several offered easy defensive terrain.
Except for the north that Training Team 4 had held.
That was just an open beach leading straight to the camp like a runway.
"We use the camp as our base, resupply here repeatedly, and fend off the waves. But think about it."
I'd realized this while enjoying a campfire at the camp.
"Why split into ten teams? Wouldn't it be much easier to gather everyone in one spot?"
The hunters who'd entered this 10th floor had stopped thinking for themselves.
They mechanically followed the guild's prescribed methods.
Not just the Milky Way Guild—other hunters too.
Since standardized strategies cleared it sufficiently, they stuck to them.
It was a flaw of the Korean education system.
The ills of an education that neglected even a fingernail's worth of creativity!
As a result, hunters unconsciously believed they had to defend the camp.
They were no different from robots executing programmed commands.
"I propose a new method."
There was no need to protect the camp.
No separate monsters to handle either.
The hunters' goal was simply survival.
Just stay alive for ten days.
"Everyone gathers at the camp. No need to split into teams. Abandon the other points."
"...Then the monsters will all climb up here. The camp will be wrecked again..."
At Team 3 leader's words, the other leaders glanced around.
The already devastated camp turning into a total mess again.
Sighs leaked out here and there.
"Never thought the camp was too spacious?"
We pitched ten tents for ten people each.
Not just placing them—we had to space them out to respect each team's privacy.
Naturally, the required area doubled.
The leaders fell silent.
A quick look around revealed just how vast the camp space was.
"Shrink the camp in half. Then erect walls. Fortify it into a stronghold."
There was only one path up to the camp.
A single, well-maintained trail wide enough for people, like a hiking path.
Did that mean the monsters stuck to it too?
No.
These bastards crawled up however they damn well pleased.
The neat path was meaningless.
"Today, we build the fortress. Starting tomorrow, we block monster paths—turn the entire uninhabited island into a defense map."
"...And we become the life-saving turrets?"
Unexpectedly, Team 3's leader grasped my idea first.
And perfectly, at that.
"Exactly."
"But there's a problem, right?"
Team 3's leader stayed true to expectations.
I'd thought she'd be prickly, and she was spot on.
To realize this near-fantastical strategy, we had to solve one crucial issue.
And she raised it.
"To build a fortress, we need materials that can withstand 'Blue Lobster' or 'Green Crab' attacks. If we gather in one place only for the walls to crumble during a wave? It's over. Everyone dies."
"Right. That's why I've prepared."
I pulled an item from my pocket.
Taming App forever, forever, forever!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Training Team 4 leader Park Sun-woo had staged a coup.
I wasn't sure if it was right, but the Milky Way Guild's 12th intake silently watched the spectacle.
It had seemed absurd and infuriating at first, but upon hearing it, it made sense.
The justification lay with Park Sun-woo.
The strongest hunter should defend the toughest spot.
That's why he'd taken the north.
But the monsters were stronger than expected, forcing a retreat.
In the process, the camp had inevitably been destroyed.
What had Training Team 1—the most supported team in the Milky Way Guild—done while Park Sun-woo made his sacrificial stand?
Hunted at the easiest point, playing around idly while others struggled.
"Ehehe, ehehe."
Everyone pretended otherwise, but most hunters inwardly thought the idiot Jin Yu-han had it coming.
How much had he strutted around after reaching D-rank?
It had been truly pathetic and annoying.
Anyone from the Milky Way Guild would sympathize.
That was why Park Sun-woo could quickly sway public opinion.
Jin Yu-han had accumulated far too much bad karma.
'And he'd thrown his weight around thanks to his daddy's pull.'
He crushed weaker hunters with his own skill and threatened stronger ones with his father's power.
The Milky Way Guild trainees had no reason to view such a Jin Yu-han favorably.
'Fucking bastards, I'll gouge out your...'
Unlike the other teams acknowledging Park Sun-woo, Training Team 1 still glared at him.
Having abused their peers under Jin Yu-han's protection, they hated the current mood that elevated the idiot Park Sun-woo.
'If we survive and get out... you're all finished.'
Jin Kwon-cheol's son—the first son of the association's headquarters chief—had become a brainless idiot in the dungeon.
Jin Kwon-cheol wouldn't let it slide.
Park Sun-woo, who ended Jin Yu-han, would face horrific punishment.
For attacking a team inside the 'Tower,' he'd rot in prison for life.
As Training Team 1 harbored such thoughts, camp reinforcement began under Park Sun-woo's lead.
Hunters mobilized with the grand goal of fortification.
They felled surrounding trees, shaped them, and drove them into the ground.
They drastically reduced the camp size, dividing it only by gender.
They used every tree on the island hill.
Thanks to that, the camp gained an open view.
From the hilltop, the horizon was visible.
"Is that item really going to work, Sun-woo?"
Training Team 4 supporter Lee Eun-seo approached Park Sun-woo and asked.
Park Sun-woo replied with a confident face.
"Yes, it will. More than enough."
The other teams fell for his brimming confidence.
He'd proven his skill, and there were no other options, so they entrusted it to him.
But not Training Team 4.
They'd reached the point of filtering everything Park Sun-woo said.
'How many times has he stepped up boldly only to flop?'
Lee Eun-seo stared intently at Park Sun-woo's back.
His shoulders heaved, his arms busy pointing and gesturing.
"Not there! Drive it in properly!"
Watching Park Sun-woo boss everyone around only heightened her anxiety.
With less than four hours until the next wave, would it really work...?
'Team leader, I miss you.'
He was hard to approach with his fiery, tiger-like temper, but today of all days, she longed for Choi Da-eun.
It felt like she might appear any second.
If only she'd come quickly and rein in Park Sun-woo.
Unfortunately, Choi Da-eun was outside the 'Tower.'
Pacing anxiously, waiting for results.
"Hey, hey! Hey!"
With his leash—Choi Da-eun—removed, Park Sun-woo was like a mad dog no one could stop.
No idea what he was saying, but he shrieked and rampaged.
"Ehehe, ehe. Where am I? Who am I?"
"Kieeeek! Not there!"
Jin Yu-han, turned idiot from brain damage, and Park Sun-woo, who'd always been that way.
Hard to say who was more normal, who superior.
Still, work progressed smoothly.
Using the materials Park Sun-woo procured, they quickly completed the camp fortification.
"Good. Perfect. One more hour! Finish fast!"
Park Sun-woo issued his final command.
Grabbing a shovel, he jumped in with the burly workers, digging earth.
They dug a massive trench before the multi-layered wooden barricade.
With hunters overflowing in strength and stamina, construction was lightning-fast.
"Who'd think an excavator dug this."
Supporters and ranged dealers marveled at the tanks' stamina.
Sweat trickled down bronze skin, rough muscles pulsing fiercely.
Female hunters' gazes swept over the male tanks.
An hour passed—not long, but enough.
The second monster wave approached.
"Ranged dealers and supporters! All atop the walls! Tanks, buff up outside the walls! If you can't hold, use this!"
Park Sun-woo distributed 'that item.'
The tanks received the yellowish potion and checked their gear.
From afar, 'Blue Lobsters' and 'Green Crabs' swarmed.
Five minutes.
That's how long until the nearest northern monsters reached the camp.
The moment a monster placed its foreleg on the hilltop, Park Sun-woo activated 'Wide Provocation.'
"Kieeeek!"
Then he set himself ablaze and charged at them.
Leading by example—a true madman.