Chapter 023
[Chapter 023]
< No Longer the Underdog (1) >
The Internal Energy (Naegong) flowing in my body.
It was Internal Energy (Naegong) of a different class than before.
The quality of the power itself changed.
If the Internal Energy (Naegong) I had until now was well-refined energy, the current Internal Energy (Naegong) was close to condensed energy.
A feeling that the total amount itself didn't increase, but the density of power contained in every drop of Internal Energy (Naegong) became far higher.
‘To think the polluted one is this much.’
But I could tell. That even this overwhelming power was not complete.
I couldn't even estimate what kind of power the complete Stalactite Petroleum would be.
Fortunately, there were no side effects on the body.
Rather, all five senses became much more sensitive than before, and my head became as clear as if washed with ice water.
The feeling of being filled with pure energy to the bone.
‘This power, just how much is it.’
An unknown territory different from the power I used so far.
I became curious.
It was then.
Wooooo-
From far away, near the village entrance, an ominous sound of space being distorted was heard.
At the same time, the familiar sensation of the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
“A Rift?”
It was a sound I had heard until my ears bled during my Bureau days.
The unique low frequency that occurs when the boundary between reality and the other world is torn.
An omen of disaster that one cannot even perceive unless they are a Hunter.
I didn't even have time to hesitate and threw my body toward where the sound came from.
Responding to my will, the compressed Internal Energy (Naegong) exploded my leg muscles.
Bang-!
My body shot forward at a speed close to the speed of sound.
“Wh-what?”
It was on the verge of being controlled. Every single cell of my body felt like it was cheering at the explosive power.
In the blink of an eye, I arrived in front of the Rift site.
“....”
It was a Rift seen after a long time indeed.
As if someone had torn space with a knife, the dark red gap repeated swelling and shrinking irregularly like a heart.
‘When was the last time I saw a Rift.’
Since I had no chance to see one since retiring, if I recall the memory.
‘Right, that day.’
It was exactly the day Team Leader Park Jin-soo forcibly pushed me into the C-Rank Rift.
That helpless moment when I felt the pain of my skin being torn by the mana wind leaking from the Rift even while hanging all sorts of equipment.
Trudge, trudge, I walked toward the Rift.
It's different now.
Above all, I became strong.
There is no longer a superior pushing me into the jaws of death, nor an organization not protecting me.
It was time to personally tear away the past.
Wooooong!
As I got closer, the low frequency worsened, meaning the situation was serious.
‘It's a B-Rank scale.’
It was a level that could barely be blocked by deploying two B-Rank attack teams and requesting cooperation from nearby guilds.
Kieeeeeee!
At the Rift entrance, hideous-looking monsters were persistently crawling out through the torn spatial gap.
Basilisk Hounds with a wolf's body and a snake's tail.
Blade 1st Goblins, B-Rank upper monsters, leaking unpleasant laughter while holding sharp two-handed swords.
“Gra-a-a-h!”
The monsters spotted the village lights and began to rush in while flashing greedy eyes.
Probably even if a report goes to the Bureau, it will take at least 30 minutes for a field team to arrive at this backwater.
By then, the village will have already become a wasteland.
“Kieee-ck!”
It was a very good opportunity to test the new power.
I ran toward the rushing 1st Goblin empty-handed.
“Ka-ka-ka-k!”
The 1st Goblin sneered at me and swung its two-handed swords crosswise toward my neck.
After dodging the attack by bending my waist, I snatched the wrist and lightly twisted it.
“Kieee-ck?!”
When one sword fell helplessly from the 1st Goblin's hand, I snatched that sword in mid-air.
It was a crude steel sword dirtied with monster bodily fluids.
But the moment it was held in my hand.
The sword became a different entity.
Flash-
As I loaded Internal Energy (Naegong) onto the blade, the old sword began to emit a Sword Qi (Geom-gi) of jet-black darkness.
Slice!
I lightly swung the sword toward the Basilisk Hound pack pouncing on me.
There was no sound, no resistance.
The bodies of dozens of monsters blocking my way were all cleanly severed and fell to the ground.
Splash!
I didn't stop.
I walked leisurely into the Rift.
‘The way to close a Rift is simple.’
Destroying the core inside.
However, the core doesn't even get a scratch with average power.
Rather, if handled carelessly, the Rift might go berserk, leading to a disaster of spitting out even more monsters.
Woooong-
The very center of the Rift.
I swung the sword toward the core that was irregularly fluctuating.
Crack!
With a spine-chilling sound of space itself being cut, the B-Rank Rift shattered like glass and vanished.
Two sword strikes.
With that, the entire situation ended.
A disaster that I once had to tremble in fear just by looking at.
The Rift that became the trigger to end my 6-year work life.
But now I had become strong enough to lightly cut it with my own hands.
“Whew....”
Standing in the empty space, I let out a panting breath.
And only then did I begin to realize what I had done.
‘I processed a B-Rank Rift by myself?’
And in less than 5 minutes.
During my Bureau days, a B-Rank Rift was a disaster that an entire department had to stick to for several hours to barely block.
But I processed that disaster as if I were removing a spiderweb before my eyes.
I looked down at the crude steel sword that belonged to the monster until a moment ago.
To think I could produce this much power with even such a piece of scrap metal.
And suddenly.
“Gorani!”
What I had forgotten came to mind.
* * *
Next morning.
South Korea was in a stir with new news.
It was because of an unprecedented incident where a B-Rank Rift vanished without a trace only 5 minutes after it occurred.
[Hunter Specialized Channel HBN, Breaking News!]
On the screen, a woman who seemed to be an anchor was sitting in the studio with an urgent expression.
“...Yes, I tell you once more. It has been confirmed that the B-Rank Rift that occurred in Sansu-ri, on the outskirts of Gyeonggi-do last night, completely vanished even before the Bureau field team arrived.”
The field photo that followed.
It was just a peaceful rural landscape, no different from usual.
“Since not even a trace of combat remains at the scene, the Hunter Association was speculating it as an exceptional natural 소멸 (vanishing) phenomenon. However, a unique witness who witnessed this unbelievable phenomenon right next to them has appeared! We connect with Reporter Kim Yu-jin who is out in the field!”
The screen changed to the next, and the reporter appeared.
“Yes, this is Kim Yu-jin! I am currently at the scene of the incident. What you see behind me is exactly where the Rift occurred last night. As you can see, it is a very peaceful appearance. Our coverage team was able to talk with difficulty with the only witness who witnessed this unbelievable phenomenon right next to them, a truck driver who was passing nearby.”
A truck driver?
I moved my gaze, which I had fixed elsewhere, to the TV.
The truck driver, whose face was mosaiced, was receiving the microphone.
“Ah, yes... I was passing by here last night with a load, and suddenly over there the sky was torn and red things were crawling out persistently. It was a monster, a monster. I was hiding behind the truck because I was so scared....”
“At that time, you mean someone appeared?”
“Yes! Someone like a jet-black shadow just walked straight into that torn gap. I thought they were crazy. Then from inside... ugh, it's still terrible thinking about it. A terrifying sound, like space was being torn or metal being scraped, was heard exactly twice.”
“Twice?”
“Yes, and then it just became quiet.”
“How long did it take?”
“It didn't even take 5 minutes. And then the person from earlier walked out perfectly fine as if nothing happened. It was so dark I really couldn't see the face at all.”
At the words that the face wasn't seen, a sigh that couldn't be hidden escaped the reporter's mouth.
“...But, I heard what they said.”
“What did that person say?”
“Yes! I heard exactly one word. I heard it clearly. It sounded like they were talking to themselves....”
“What was it?”
“I think they said... Gorani.”
“...Pardon?”
Click!
“Ahem.”
After turning off the news on the terminal hurriedly, I coughed as if it went down the wrong way.
It seemed the driver heard what I muttered.
‘I knew they were nearby already.’
I didn't think much of it and brushed the fur of the Gorani, who was lying with its head on my lap.
I was concerned that I couldn't take care of the Gorani while running out frantically, but fortunately it had returned home safely.
“Gorani, you’re on the news too.”
“Kking?”
The Gorani wagged its tail as if it felt good.
Since it was the first time I had brushed its fur for so long, the Gorani was wagging its tail in an ecstatic expression.
“Hey, I told you not to hit me with your tail.”
The vigorously shaking tail hit my hand "tuk".
“Uh, uh?”
In the moment the old wooden comb slipped from my hand and was about to hit the floor after falling below the veranda.
Without even looking at the comb, I inadvertently reached out my left hand.
Grab!
And too naturally, I snatched the falling comb in mid-air.
“....”
The comb landed safely in my hand.
It wasn't a result of moving after thinking one by one.
The moment I perceived it was falling, my body moved like a reflex.
‘All movements in the world look like a slow-motion video.’
The flapping of a flying fly, the angle of a leaf shaking in the wind, the trajectory of a falling object.
It was a feeling that I knew everything perfectly without even being conscious of it.
The feeling of the brain and every cell in the body directly receiving and processing all information of the world, not eyes and ears.
It was a new world I could never have known before.
‘Is this what is called the state of transcendence.’
But this was only the power of the polluted Stalactite Petroleum.
It wasn't complete power.
Beyond this, there would be endless boundaries left that I still do not know.
I turned on the terminal again.
Hun-Tube (Hunter-Net) was still burning.
[Breaking News] Strong possibility that the identity of Gorani Man is the retired S-Rank beast Park Tae-san!
[Analysis] The emergence of a dark hero born from the Bureau's incompetence?
It was a lie if I said I didn't care.
“I didn't exactly not expect such a thing.”
From the moment I set foot in the Rift, this was a share I had to handle.
But would it really be right to pretend not to know the village people in danger just because my identity would be bothersome if revealed?
‘If I’m caught, I’m caught.’
I smirked and turned off the terminal.
Just doing what I want to do in my own way.
Looking at others' reactions in that process was something I would now decline.
“...The problem is.”
I took out the spoils obtained from the Rift last night from my chest.
Several mana stones of B-Rank monsters and one mysterious fragment that came into my hand when I finally cut the Rift core.
[Item: Dimensional Fragment]
[Rank: Heroic]
[Description: Condensed remains of a torn dimensional core. It contains unstable time-space power and is used as a core material for high-level artifact crafting.]
It was a strategic item without need for words.
Usually, there are no cases where an individual holds it because they don't clear a Rift alone.
‘This, the market price will be at least 300 million won.’
It was one of the core materials used for crafting high-level artifacts.
Exactly that, the Dimensional Sword that cuts barriers.
Only seven such swords have been crafted worldwide.
And this dimensional fragment was one of the core materials used when making the handle of that masterwork sword.
Of course, you can't make it just because you have one fragment.
It's a process of gathering thousands of such appropriately sized fragments, removing impurities, and picking only the remaining high-purity fragments to make the handle.
Viewed from the material as a whole, this single piece was nothing more than a tiny fraction.
According to market logic, it was an absurdly low price, but since the state officially fixed it that way, it was no different from the market price for a Hunter.
‘The problem is....’
According to the current Hunter Act, all spoils generated from a Rift must be reported and returned to the Bureau mandatorily.
In particular, individual possession itself of an item with high strategic value like a dimensional fragment was illegal.
“If I hold onto it, it will only become a problem.”
The solution is simple.
Possessing it and voluntarily paying it to the Bureau.
‘Originally, that would be it.’
Probably the old me would have handed all of this over to the Bureau without hesitation.
Since I always turned such opportunities over to the Bureau's possession during my Bureau days.
But now there was no reason for that.
I immediately called Old Man No.
“Old Man No, do you want to work on something with me?”
-Suddenly? I’m anxious but also expectant when Manager Jang is like this?
“Please request an urgent purchase.”
-...You bit something, didn't you?
Old Man No reacted as if he understood.
“Can you request an urgent purchase?”
-What's the item?
“It's a high-risk material with unclear management subjects.”
Urgent purchase request.
It was the only window through which low-rank employees suffering from low wages could receive a just price for spoils obtained by chance without being snatched by the Bureau.
“But this case is a bit big.”
-How big?
“The market price will be roughly 300 million won.”
-W-what? 300 million?!
“According to the Association regulations, after the commission is taken, you’ll be able to receive 210 million, which is 70%.”
The 30% commission goes into the Bureau.
Though it's said to be an unavoidable thing, I was thinking it's something to be tolerated since the amount is large.
-Haha, 300 million... it's enormous. Okay, I can process it right now.
“Right now? It's late, you haven't clocked out yet?”
-It's because of that Team Leader Park fellow, it's common after you left, Manager Jang.
Listening to it, he said the equipment failure accidents occurring every time had now grown to a level threatening the safety of B-Rank Hunters.
Someone had to take responsibility, and that fall guy was always Old Man No’s share.
“...So, you’re writing a disciplinary statement, Old Man No?”
-A disciplinary statement is cheap. I don't know how many months the pay cut has been.
A deep sense of fatigue and resignation felt from the calm voice.
It was the first time I saw a person who never makes a sound of weakness looking this exhausted.
To think that responsibility shifting is what returns to a veteran who was devoted for 20 years.
“....”
Just then, a thought flashed through my head.
“Old Man No, I changed my mind.”
-Hmm?
“There's no need to give this to the Bureau. Not even a single cent. No, I can't give it.”
< No Longer the Underdog (1) > END