Chapter 014
[Chapter 014]
< Out-of-Spec Clear (2) >
14
The community bulletin board used by all South Korean Hunters, Hunter-Net, began to explode.
It was because of the comprehensive ranking list.
[General Board] Hey, something is strange with the comprehensive ranking right now?
Tower rankings are not simply determined by clear time.
Of course time matters, but the raid grade is determined by synthesizing all factors such as damage taken during the raid process, skill efficiency, and mana consumption.
And it was a principle where the final ranking was determined according to this grade.
This was the reason why even if a B-Rank cleared faster than an S-Rank, they were pushed back in the comprehensive ranking.
[Notice] ‘Muryong’ has achieved a new record (12 seconds) for the 1st Floor raid!
ㄴ New record for the 1st Floor?
ㄴ Do notices still pop up for 1st Floor records these days?
ㄴ The E-Class league is always flipping ranks among themselves.
ㄴ But who is Muryong? I don't think they were 1st in the E-Class ranking.
Just a rank change among E-Class Hunters.
Most Hunters considered it trivial and were about to close the window.
Right then, one comment posted by someone changed everything.
[Hey, this is crazy. You guys go check the comprehensive ranking quickly.]
Starting with that comment, the board began to seethe to the point it was about to crash.
[Tower 1st Floor Raid Comprehensive Ranking]
Rank ID (Rank) Raid Grade Clear Time
1st Muryong (E-Class) EX 12 seconds
2nd Yu Jin-hyuk (S-Rank) S 1 minute 12 seconds
3rd Kwon Mu-seong (S-Rank) S 1 minute 45 seconds
And people's gazes were fixed on something more shocking than the record of 12 seconds.
ㄴ EX Grade···? What is that? Was there a rank above SSS?
ㄴ In my 10 years of hunter life, it's the first time I see an EX grade. Isn't this photoshopped?
ㄴ Not even SSS-class but EX? Is that a possible rank?
ㄴ No, an E-Class... is above an S-Rank?
ㄴ Hahaha, is the administrator not working? There's a bug.
ㄴ It's not a bug, it's real. I'm looking at the Association network right now, and the record really is 12 seconds.
ㄴ Is this for real?! S-Rank Hunter Yu Jin-hyuk took over a minute, and an E-Class broke it in 12 seconds?
ㄴ It was shortened by over a minute? It can't be explained unless it's a hack?
ㄴ Who on earth is Muryong?
The confusion soon turned into a fierce debate.
Veteran analysts began to appear.
[Analysis] The reason why a 1st Floor clear of 12 seconds and EX grade is impossible.txt
No matter how much of a shortcut you take, the 1st floor map physically takes more than 30 seconds. Even the time to reach the Queen Ant room is about that long. In other words, the conclusion is that this E-Class Muryong used an area-of-effect instant death skill that affects the entire map. But such a skill has never been reported even among S-Ranks.
ㄴ Totally agree. Even if an SSS-class grandfather came instead of an E-Class, 12 seconds is impossible.
ㄴ But the Association hasn't said anything yet?
Conspiracy theorists did not miss the opportunity.
[Tch tch, you fools. Don't you know? Muryong is a code name. They're testing a new weapon-class hunter raised in a secret government lab.]
ㄴ Oh, that sounds plausible?
ㄴ 12 seconds is intercontinental ballistic missile-level power.
Over-invested fanboys also didn't miss out.
ㄴ Don't bash our Muryong ranker ㅠㅠ They are the hope of the E-Class!
ㄴ Muryong... even the name is cute. This is definitely a woman.
ㄴ ㅠㅠㅠ Creating a Muryong fan club. (1/100)
In an instant, the name Muryong became the hottest potato in the South Korean Hunter world.
An unidentified E-Class.
A new record that trampled S-Ranks with an overwhelming difference to take 1st place.
All kinds of speculations and controversies were seething.
The person himself was unaware of it while sitting on the veranda of a country house, cleaning a mushroom.
* * *
I carefully wiped the surface of the mushroom with a dry cloth.
Squeak, squeak-
“At this level, there's not even a speck of dust, right?”
When obtained from the Tower, it was clearly a shriveled and lifeless mushroom.
But I had only planted it in my field for a single day, and it had become a completely different entity.
Crunch, crunch!
In Muryong’s small front paws, the Rainbow Pebble bought from the Dimensional Shop was held preciously.
[Description: Very faintly, there is a pleasant sweet taste.]
As if satisfied with the gift, it was licking the pebble as if it were hard candy and then gnawing it with its small teeth, making a "gal-gal" sound.
-Hmyoot!
Muryong jumped up on my shoulder as if in agreement.
The power of the [Absolute's Herb Garden] pulled the potential of the mushroom to the extreme.
Unlike its limp appearance of yesterday, it wasn't mushy at all.
It was reborn with a hard yet smooth touch, like a well-polished glass marble.
[Item: Sun Bird (Phoenix) Tear Mushroom]
[Rank: Rare+]
[Description: The Vitality-Losing Fairy Mushroom evolved by absorbing the essence of life in the field. It contains pure life force like the warmth of the sun and possesses a powerful efficacy to purify all types of mana-related diseases and curses.]
Only one thing was important to me now.
How to feed this mushroom to So-ye.
‘Is it right to just boil it and give it to her?’
Due to the power of the garden, it was now several times more powerful than before.
Could So-ye’s body, which was more sensitive than others, even endure this medicinal potency?
The sight of So-ye having seizures all night after eating the herb Mom gave her came back to me like trauma.
‘Is there a way to make the effect as gentle as possible and have it absorbed perfectly?’
As I was groaning and examining the mushroom here and there.
“Young man, why are you so serious alone?”
The old lady from next door was entering the yard carrying a colander filled with freshly steamed corn.
“Ah, old lady. Welcome.”
“What is this again? The mushroom looks quite pretty.”
The old lady stared curiously at the small mushroom faintly glowing in my hand.
“It's for my sister. But I’m worried it might cause trouble.”
“Is the child young?”
“Yes, her body is a bit weak.”
I didn't speak in detail about So-ye’s disease.
But the old lady seemed to guess everything just by my expression, and looked at me with sympathetic eyes.
“A young man knowing how to care for his sister. It’s a good sight.”
The old lady set the corn colander down toughly and sat on the veranda.
“Then try this. Even my grandkids are terrified of mushrooms, but they eat them ravenously if I do this for them.”
“How?”
“It’s porridge, porridge. Put the mushrooms in rice water and boil it for a long time until the rice grains are completely soft. Then the good energy of the mushroom seeps into the entire porridge, so even young kids can swallow it without trouble.”
“Porridge! That's good!”
As expected, the years of experience the old lady had raising several grandkids could not be ignored.
It was wisdom that solved my worry with a single word.
“Here, give it to me. I’ll help you.”
“No. I can do it.”
“When an adult says they’ll help, you just accept it.”
The old lady snatched the mushroom from my hand and headed to the kitchen.
I quickly followed her.
Tack, tack, tack-
She washed the rice to produce white rice water and finely chopped the fairy mushroom until it was smaller than a pinky nail.
She poured the rice and rice water into an old cauldron and lit the fire.
As the porridge began to boil, the finely chopped mushrooms were added.
Swish-
The moment the mushroom touched the porridge, a brilliant golden light burst from inside the cauldron and a fragrant smell filled the kitchen.
“What on earth is this mushroom? It’s truly miraculous.”
A mysterious scent that seemed like a faint sunlight smell or freshly bloomed flower fragrance rose from the porridge.
It was a feeling as if my mind cleared and my body became light just by smelling it.
“You’ll have to adjust the firewood for several hours and stir it so it doesn't burn, will you be able to?”
“Of course. That kind of thing is nothing.”
For the next few hours, I guarded the cauldron in silence.
Around the time the porridge was almost finished, the old lady who came back suddenly spoke.
“Right, some gentlemen visited when you weren't here, young man.”
“Pardon? Who?”
“Don't know. Said they were from the Hunter Management Bureau. They were poking around the village elders with some machine.”
Time in the Tower flows differently from reality.
I spent an hour inside the Tower, but it's equivalent to half a day in reality.
Even if the clear time was short, there was time spent in the shop, so in the meantime, the Bureau?
“They said it was a safety check for residents because of the Rift. But since you weren't home, they couldn't check you and said to tell you they’d come back next time.”
“Such a thing happened.”
Check?
I tilted my head.
Based on my experience from the Bureau days, it was extremely rare for them to come to such a rural backwater for an exhaustive survey.
Because they were already short-staffed, the administrative waste was too great.
Unless at least a large B-Rank or higher Rift occurred, there was no reason to move like this.
‘Did something happen in this area?’
A glimpse of the Rock Lizard's corpse I processed a few days ago came to mind.
But I soon shook my head.
There was no way an entire mission headquarters team would move because of one C-Rank monster.
‘Eh, don't worry about it.’
Anyway, I am no longer a Bureau person.
Whatever they do has nothing to do with me.
Now was the time to focus only on this mushroom porridge before my eyes.
* * *
Hunter Management Bureau, Operations Headquarters Team 2 Office.
“Team Leader, so you mean you couldn't find anything in the end?”
At the sharp question of the Support Division Chief, Team Leader Kang Dong-cheol's face hardened.
“Yes. We conducted a precision mana scan targeting all thirty village residents, but there were absolutely no special reactions. Far from a hidden master, there wasn't even one D-Rank Awakener.”
“Then are you saying a ghost caught that Rock Lizard?”
“...I have no excuse.”
Whispers of murmuring flowed in the office.
Is it true that there's nothing.
Has that hidden master completely vanished.
“But besides that, this is even more of a mess right now.”
One team member put a terminal screen on the conference room screen.
The screen displayed the Tower 1st Floor raid comprehensive ranking of Muryong, which was flooding all the communities.
“...The raid grade is EX?”
Kang Dong-cheol muttered as if he couldn't believe it.
He had heard rumors that there was a rank above S, but it was the first time he had actually seen it.
And on the 1st floor, of all places.
“Muryong... I wonder what the identity is? Some say it's a system error, others say it's a secret government weapon.”
“The important thing is that the system judged that hunter as E-Class.”
Kim Min-su pointed out the core.
“E-Class? Does it make sense for an E-Class to break through the 1st floor in 12 seconds?”
“It doesn't make sense. But the system does not lie. Unless an unprecedented error has occurred in the rank determination system itself.”
Team Leader Kang Dong-cheol continued.
“A hunter's rank is simply assigned automatically by the Bureau's central system after measuring the mana core potential during initial awakening. It means that if one's rank rose through a re-awakening afterwards but they did not re-register with the Association, the system rank can remain as E-Class.”
“If so, is it that someone became incredibly strong through a re-awakening but is intentionally active as an E-Class to hide their identity?”
“But there's no reason to hide if you're such a high rank, and it's not like it's hidden just because you try to hide it.”
Everyone nodded at those words.
Powerful strength meant wealth and fame.
There was no reason to go through the trouble of lowering one's rank to be active.
Even if they tried to hide, the mana wave emitted by a Hunter of A-Rank or higher could never be hidden with ordinary stealth techniques.
No matter where they went, the surrounding mana detectors would ring loudly.
“In the end, it means neither side makes sense.”
Team Leader Kang Dong-cheol concluded.
Either a system error, or a being that defies the laws.
Either way, an unpredictable and dangerous variable that had escaped the Bureau's common sense had appeared.
The air in the conference room subsided heavily.
“First, identify the identity of the hunter named Muryong. Request cooperation from the Association with the highest rank. We must find them, by any means necessary.”
The Division Chief's order fell.
* * *
Shin Seung-ah’s appearance reflected in the high-rise glass window.
Today, too, there was not a single trace of disarray.
Sharp short hair, sharp eyes behind thin titanium glasses, and the vivid red lipstick that finished it all.
They were like Shin Seung-ah’s trademarks.
While the world was in a mess over the new 1st floor record of the Tower, Shin Seung-ah was also keeping an eye on this situation.
Shin Seung-ah raised the corners of her mouth as if interested while looking at Muryong's ranking record.
“Hmm.”
The whole world was in a stir because of this unidentified E-Class Hunter.
After being lost in thought for a moment, she recalled the report Manager Kim Min-jun had submitted recently.
‘Countryside. Hasuo. A sister who received grace.’
The report Kim Min-jun submitted was long, but only these three words entered her eyes.
Lee Seok-ju's miraculous recovery.
And the unidentified E-Class new record holder who suddenly appeared.
“How can I find out?”
Shin Seung-ah had only one goal.
To make MK Sphere the number 1 guild in South Korea.
“...Maybe.”
Shin Seung-ah accessed the unofficial information network she had established on her private server.
There, unofficial information on all South Korean hunters and guilds, and even the Bureau, gathered over the last few years was meticulously organized.
And in the search box, she entered one term.
[Mass layoff incident of D, E-Class Hunters]
Dozens of related articles and internal reports filled the screen.
Shin Seung-ah quickly scanned through the list of laid-off hunters with sharp eyes.
‘Could it be that they are among them?’
The two incidents seemed completely unrelated.
But her intuition and animalistic senses were shouting.
Because it was always Shin Seung-ah who profited from what others couldn't see or feel.
“Pen, my pen.”
Shin Seung-ah picked up the antique quill pen placed on her desk.
[Artifact: Quill of Positivity]
Swish-
The tip of the quill pen held in her hand began to sparkle with a faint but clear, brilliant gold light.
And she checked her terminal.
[Positive Probability: 64.23%]
‘Good.’
This was enough to be certain.
That at the center of these two incidents, there is surely the same person.
To achieve Shin Seung-ah’s goal, she must make the stalled S-Rank hero Yu Jin-hyuk move again.
Once again, she firmed her resolve.
If only Yu Jin-hyuk’s injury could be cured, she intended to treat that person with extreme care, whoever they were and whatever price was paid.
< Out-of-Spec Clear (2) > END